Assault on Nor'East Ridge: The Wargame

I hadn't planned to play a game on Saturday but as we had a late outdoor lunch on a cool, overcast, day, a day with no shadows, conditions seemed just right. Anyway I needed another game to confirm the rules revision sparked by the last outside game. (The 5th impromptu test game in 4 days, I love retirement!)

Here they come! 

Naturally, by the time lunch was cleared away and the troops deployed, the skies had also cleared, a burning hot sun was shining from behind the redcoat defence line and I was starting to sizzle in turn. Still, duty called!

Dominion (Red) forces: General + 1 Brigadier with 4 companies of infantry manning rifle pits along the crest with 1 company in reserve, a Naval Gatling dug in on the extreme left of the line, a field gun and a hospital.

Rebel (Blue) forces: General + 3 Brigadiers with 12 companies of infantry and 2 field guns.

Rules:  Model Major General

Balloon's Eye view of the Rebel lines as the gunners judge the range before firing the first shot.

Oddly, while I had envisaged sweeping outdoor games, played over large areas with every man I could muster, that hasn't happened. What I've chosen each time has ended up as my usual sort of game that could as easily have been played on my table, if I had a terrain setup that allowed long, irregular slopes with hollows, swells, gullies and so on.  Another item for the "toodoo list" then.

The Dominion gun returns fire while the infantry hunkers down and waits for the enemy to emerge from previously unnoticed deadground mid-slope.

Might have been some side effect of being the 4th of July but the cards for Turn Initiative, and the dice, favoured the rebels rather markedly. None the less, there just may be grounds to criticize the Red General for not noticing two weaknesses in his position. 

The first is that the slope wasn't as even as it looked at first glance so that twice, parts of the attacking infantry dropped out of sight for  a turn due to dips and swells in the slope.

The second was that there was a sunken road within close rifle range from the riflemen and the Gatling gun on Dominion's left. To make things worse, the rebels only had to endure one round of fire in the open as they dashed from the crest of one of those dead zones, into the cover of the sunken road. Once there, a hot, close range, firefight erupted with Rebel numbers slowly gaining an edge.

The attack on the Rebel left stalled in a close range firefight with the attacking Rebels having more men but the Dominion troops having cover. As casualties mounted, General Lanigan knew he was going to have to risk all to win.

Still, despite all that has been said, the Rebels were losing men faster than the Dominion. The deadly accuracy of long range Rebel counterbattery fire helped as did the willingness of Rebel soldiers to rally to their commander's call, all helped, but the ridge couldn't be captured from dead ground.

It was time to go over the top.

On the Rebel right, their infantry has come under heavy fire from the Naval Gatling gun and a company of riflemen but has dashed from the crest down into a sunken road which will provide cover for a close range firefight.

Three months of good campaign weather ahead you say? Let's not waste it say I.

Bayonets!