At last, a taste of winter, so I stole a few hours to finish the game, or a game, the multi-hex Brigade thing didn't survive past the three turns I played the other day so I quietly shuffled the ttoops back into 1 regiment per hex, adjusted the rules and carried on.
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| After an indecisive clash, the cavalry pulled back to the flank and let the infantry take over. |
The scenario was an impromptu meeting engagement. The dice decided that both sides were marching along over two converging roads which cross over around the big red building. Controlling a road across the board and off one enemy side while denying the enemy both roads on your side seemed like a reasonable objective. I then diced for a battle plan for each side, a simple matter of dicing for where each brigade would appear then listing three viable plans and dicing to choose one.
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| Gratuitous close up of the Southern army deploying. |
I really liked some of the aspects of the 2 or 3 contiguous hex Brigades but by the time I had resolved the Yankee attack on the mill, I discovered that I hadn't thought things through well enough. For example, what happens when part of a Brigade is in close combat and wins and goes to occupy the ground when the other half is still trading fire because its not in close combat range or worse, simultaneously loses a melee against a different enemy?
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| Equally gratuitous view of the Northern artillery opening fire. |
Well, it was suppertime so I left it there and thought about it over night. It would have been possible to come up with answers but I decided that it was too much work and anyway, I missed my regiments, some of which have a 40 year history. So, I separated the units back into their regiments, tweaked the rules, again, and again and resumed the fight with half the turns left to go.
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| After a sharp fight, the Union seized the Red Mill which dominated the crossroad. |
Tomorrow I will post the remainder of the battle including the nail biting climax where victory turned on one last throw of the dice.
Great figures, looking forward to seeing how it ends.
ReplyDeleteOops, I was supposed to write that up today!
DeleteRoss Mac,
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many of us have done what you have done and stopped halfway through a battle and tweaked the rules because they were not quite working the way we wanted? I know that I have ... but those battles have rarely made it onto my blog.
I like the new terrain cloth, and the figures look magnificent.
All the best,
Bob
Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the hexes but its not a cloth, thats paint on plywood.
DeleteTinkering is probably a marmite sort of thing.
The rules maybe fluid but it all looks great anyway Ross
ReplyDeleteSometimes thats enough, esp if the game is enjoyable.
Deletelast throw ... always a good contest when it comes to that 'last throw'
ReplyDeleteThat last photo is a great Panorama of the Action- looks great- just the thing to enjoy 1/72nd or is it OO/HO. Cheers. KEV.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's because I lived in or near Philadelphia half of my life, but the AWI always eclipsed the ACW in terms of my interest. However, the photos of your game has me reconsidering. Maybe just a bag or two of soldiers and artillery to scratch the itch is in order...
ReplyDeleteIt's always impressive to see how you consider and reconfigure your rules and figures in games (even during them), even if I'm not quite sure I grasp all the concepts. It's sort of like coming into a conversation that has been ongoing. Nevertheless, very inspiring to see the reports. Keep them coming!
ReplyDelete