Road Blocks Can Be A Problem

There is an old army saying "Fastest with the most-est" but  having studied military history, planning, and keeping a reserve, can also help a General to win.

For those who have just dropped in, the Northern and Southern armies were racing to seize a crossing over the Bloostream River, while preventing the enemy to do the same.  Each army had 4 brigades of infantry support by cavalry and artillery and both were hurrying along parallel roads heading south.    

An observer in a balloon made this illustration of the armies deploying.

Both armies grabbed their end of the 1st bridge while rushing cavalry and infantry to seize the bridge in the town to the South. General Porter, the Union commander, ordered his 2nd brigade to rush by the road to reinforce the town. The 3rd brigade was ordered to move by road to block the ford in the middle in case it was attacked and the last was to move to a central reserve position.

It was soon obvious that the Union cavalry had out ridden their Confederate enemies, crossed over the far bridge and seized the town. General Kinch, quickly ordered his 2nd brigade to cut directly across the fields to seize the ford, while the cavalry and the 3rd brigade were to try to beat the Yankees to the town or to throw them out if needed, His 4th brigade was ordered to follow the road and be ready to move towards the ford or the town as the situation dictated. 

The 2nd Rebel brigade marched hard, crossed the ford, and prepared to hold it.

The fighting was heavy along the line but the Yankee cavalry had reached the town first (by the turn of a card).  In the center, the 2nd Reb brigade had to halt their march to the town to face the Rebs coming over the ford. As the 3rd brigade moved up, there was a traffic jam. Porter decided that the quickest answer was to have the 2nd Brigade withdraw and resume their march while the 3rd Brigade deployed to push back the Rebs crossing the ford. 

A fierce firefight around the ford soon broke out and lasted much of the day.

The 4th Yankee brigade found themselves in a traffic jam, with the road blocked by artillery and the 3rd Brigade and 1st Brigades, all involved in a fire fight with the enemy. There was little for them to do but act as a reserve and prepare to advance over the bridge or ford as the situation developed. 

On the far end of the battle field, the fight was bloody on both sides even though much of the fighting was at long range.

The 4th Southern brigade had been marched up the road as a reserve. As they approached the fighting, they were in a good position from which they could move speedily to any of the three crossings.

It appears that the balloon corespondent was still hanging around.

At last the General made his decision. There was no room at the first bridge or the ford but the town was lightly held and it was wide open to a fresh brigade, The order was sent: "Storm the town and carry the Southern bridge."

The 4th Reb brigade veers off towards the south and marches .

No time was lost.  

The 4th Brigade stepped out, deployed with two regiments in the front and one in reserve, and then advanced on the town despite artillery fire and musket balls. The 2nd Brigade and cavalry, despite heavy losses, continued to press the rest of the Yankee Brigade and the dismounted cavalry. 

In moments, it was over.

All across the field, Union brigades, having taken heavy losses in the firefights, collapsed and ran. Only the reserve brigade was there to cover the retreat,

Now, this was supposed to have been a 16thC game, but an urge came over me....so.....that MIGHT be the next game. 

IMPORTANT NOTICE (maybe...for some...) Over the last decade I have had at least 4 gracious gifts of various plastic 20mm ACW figures, many painted in various styles, some still paint-less. I've been very appreciative of these donations and they have swelled my armies and broadened my options, BUT my table has shrunk from 6'x8' to 5'x6' to 4'x5'. As a consequence, I don't have much room for many more 1/72nd ACW figures. SO, if anyone wants SOME OR ALL of the reserves, drop me an email (rmacfa@gmail.com) with your address and I'll pass them on to be enlisted elsewhere. 

Are We There Yet?

Almost!  

The current game in progress

However! I can find a gazillion past versions of my ACW rules, but NOT the set that worked well for my rearguard game last year, or the river crossing game before that. 

Sighhhh.... This week, I've made several attempts to dig out various past versions of my ACW rules but none had a right feel for me at this time, or seemed capable of a 3-4 hour game with few hundred figures. The rules for last couple of games last year were good BUT....where the heck are they in the depths of my computers!!!!??. 

Rearguard Action

 2025 River Crossing game 

But, tomorrow is Saturday and there's a dog show on, so I'll be home alone (people wise) with only a handful of chores to be done. Its just a few adjustments to get the rules working the way I want again, so I'll dig back into the archives, and other sources, without many distractions, and get the game going again.

Now Where Were We?

Why is it that house and yard tasks usually seem more important to some people than me playing a game? Ah well, its a lovely, rainy day, I've dug out the last, untested, horrible, version of ACW rules and have fixed it and am finally ready to go!

Plastic Army of the Potomac, 2026, about to be tested with 8 stand infantry brigades.

  

70 years later, on another continent.......

a similar incident happened......

But how it turned out, is yet to be discovered.

Ahhh, Spring!

The time when my soldiers go into Spring quarters while I spend too much time on cleaning up Winter's debris and preparing for Summer.   In the meantime, here's a link to a game from last April:

Somewhere in Flanders, 1793 (click)  from last April

or...looking back a decade to 2016: 

1/72 ACW from April 24, 2016

"Regular service will resume soon."

Battle of Black Cherry Ridge Part1

The battle began with an impressive artillery barrage by six Rebel batteries, answered by three Northern batteries.  

The three Southern front rank brigades then marched forward with supports advancing to take their place.  

In short order, a bloody and prolonged firefight began.

On the Confederate right, the terrain broke up their approach and they soon found themselves fighting and even force with the cover of various orchards and a small river to cross under fire. 

With many of the Rebel batteries masked by their own infantry, one of the reserve brigades was ordered forward to silence and capture the Union guns.

To be continued.......

First Test

So far, so good!

All in all, my test game was well worth it. (Battle report to follow.)

The battle begins in earnest.
(The giant feline is just an illusion resembling a cat evading a young puppy.)

There's still lots of painting to do on the tabletop, and I hope to eventually trim at least a few of my hills to fit the grid better and have the grid marked on some of the free standing rounded off hills.

At Last!

The various rearrangements and reductions in "Stuff", etc. are coming along. In this case, though the table repaint, shelf rearrangements, preparations to reduce 'stuff' in general and so on, are not complete, I'm ready for a test game of the roughly marked squares.   

Since I was committed to an ACW game, that's where I've started. 

Not a reenactment of an historical action, just a fictional game based on one of the requests and
a scenario in the original Fire & Fury rules from the 1990's. The picture looks a little odd (I blame my phone's mucking) but its actually 5' wide (left and right) and 4'deep (from camera to wall). On all sides there is a little shelf to put off table reinforcements.

Each map square represents 9x4" squares on the tabletop.
( 180 grid squares if my computer is right. Oddly enough, each square is the width of those 3 stand units I rebased before I started thinking about grids again.) 

,If all goes well, I'll start rolling the dice Saturday morning.

"I have a clever plan....."

Thanks for all the feedback & requests.   Its been a ...few...years since I read up on any accounts of Gettysburg apart from various memoirs (from both sides), or based a game on some part of it, and have never gotten around to the Peach Orchard etc. So....I've just been making a brief review of that section of the battle and have decided that to design a scenario to fit my troops on hand, my table, and my one page rules, with at least a whiff of history it'll take a day or six before I can get the game on the table.       
(Luckily I'll be home alone next weekend! :)  ), 

 (see Kinch's Charge 1 July 2013 on my then 6'x8' table.)

Yeah, the armies have grown in numbers since then.

So, in the mean time time, I'll start with a simple scenario from one of the other requested periods and keep going until all requests have been tabled.

Rear Guard Action

Three weeks after the Confederate's defeat at Blue Creek the Union army pushed forward with several rearguard skirmishes. When their lead element came in sight of Red Mill crossroad, it was clear that the Rebs were prepared to stop the Union pursuit.

The Rebs were deployed with 1 brigade and a battery on their right flank with another brigade and 3 batteries on a low ridge south of the road. No reserves were visible but there was lots of dead ground and General Kinch could be seen on the long ridge and that, always meant a fight.

After a short conference, the orders were issued. The 1st Division of 2 brigades and 1 battery would make an immediate attack on the farm on the Union left front. The 2nd Division's brigades  would deploy as soon as they reached the field and would receive orders to support the 1st Division or to assault the ridge. The 2nd Division artillery was joined by the Corps artillery and began a prolonged bombardment on the Reb artillery on the ridge. 

The leading brigade deployed quickly and headed straight for the enemy but the hail of rifle and artillery fire caused severe casualties and they were forced to fallback. The division commanded rallied them in person and ordered them to form a reserve and await further orders. The 2nd brigade renewed the fight, supported by Ross's Brigade from the 2nd Division.

The fighting was fierce with heavy casualties on both sides but when Cesar's Zouaves and the Black Hats closed in with a loud cheer, the Rebs fell back hastily. 

For a short while, the battle became a static firefight while the Federal reserves deployed and some of the guns were moved forward.

While the Rebs couldn't risk leaving the Western and road completely unguarded, they had no choice but to shift as many troops to their right as they could manage to stop the advance of the Federal left wing. 

The close fighting was bloody but the Yanks had more men, supported by concentrated artillery firing on the ridge. One more charge by the best Union infantry, broke the Rebel right flank which was defending the stone walls by the Red Mill. The Union now had access to the main road and the eastern back road. 

General Kinch surveyed the wreck of his division, one Brigade broken, two more on the edge of breaking and half of his guns silenced. It was time to retreat. They'd rally and prepare for another fight, but not today.

Fierce Fighting On the Belmont Road

Our  photographer has forwarded this print. 

The fighting at mid afternoon.

      Our correspondent writes  that the fighting lasted all day, with heavy casualties on both sides. 
        

      Full story to follow. 

Now Its Getting Serious.

 I've been slipping a turn in now and then, in between chores, and the armies have engaged on the Northern flank.

I will have game time on Saturday, so a report should be up on Sunday.

And So It Begins

 As soon as the Yankees came within range of the Reb batteries, the guns opened fire.

The Federal brigades immediately began to shake out into line.

To be continued.....

Turning To Face The Enemy

 Welllll, I was going to just pack these little fellas away until next year, but I'm always open to requests 
 (especially if it saves me from making decisions...). So with 2 new regiments added, another battle looms.

So, here we find the Reb rearguard turning to face the Yankee pursuit in order
to give the supply train time to make a clear getaway.  

I expect to hear the thundering roar of dice tomorrow. 

Reinforcements Have Arrived

 These volunteer Zouaves (as in donated by a friend) have finally been painted and are ready to take the table.

Mostly Hat Zouaves + a  couple of officers from my bin of volunteer recruits.

I think I need a few more guns and gunners for both sides, and a few more cavalry units, and maybe some wagons, but THAT'S IT!  No more room in the barracks or on the table. 

If anyone is interested in a free bunch (haven't counted them) of volunteer 1/72nd ACW figures (free apart from postage) send me an email at rmacfa@gmail.com . 

Now to set up the table for the Union pursuit of the rearguard of the retreating Confederate army.

Distractions, Always Distractions

I was clearing up my increasingly cluttered table when I came upon this figure, mostly painted. The figure was (I think) meant to be either blocking or about to club someone. A pose I hadn't seen in an ACW set. (According to Plastic Soldier Review he's from an  Accurate set.)

I didn't have any room for another regiment, and I didn't feel like prying another figure off a base to replace it with this guy. So, I cut the musket away from his left hand and using a little soldering iron to coax the right arm to twist back, then finished painting him. 

He'll now be another casualty marker for when a stand is removed after receiving 6 hits.

General Standing's Brigade

After last week's ACW game, I decided to fill out the ranks.  I've settled on brigade units with 3 regiments/battalions (in case I want to do a smaller game, or if a scenario requires breaking down the brigade to individual regiments, etc).  Each side will have 2 Divisions of 3 brigades each and more guns than they should.  I haven't counted the available cavalry yet but certainly enough for each army to have two small cavalry brigades as well as having as more guns than brigades,

Each battalion has 3 stands including a colour, with 3 battalions in the brigade. (Any resemblance to the organization in Lawford&Young's Charge! is due to good memories.)  I had 6 stands of Yankees at attention but had to go scrabbling through various drawers and boxes but managed to get enough figures for the extra 3 stands, even if the new battalion consisted of more grey plastic figures then blue ones and has an extra officer. Once painted they work. I even managed to find 3 flags, all different sizes but..........

There is one last Union regiment on my painting table. Kinch's Zouave regiment, led by Irish Colonel. 

The real issue at the moment is whether I should play another ACW game before putting them away, or play whichever of my active collections has been longest on the shelf, or the period/collection that is most requested. (requests may be made in a comment on the blog or by email: rmacfa@gmail.com) 

Battle of Blue Creek

At last! The game has been played to a conclusion. The scenario was an encounter with both armies marching to cross the Blue Creek while preventing the enemy from doing the same. There was one bridge on the main road but also two fords on side roads. Each army wanted to force a crossing while preventing the enemy from doing the same.   

Artillery Duel, from the loser's POV. 

Being a recreational game rather than a recreation of an historical event, both sides had equal forces with 'standard' units. I use a deck of cards to determine by colour, who will act first that turn. The size of the deck controls the length of the game. I usual play 15 turns but I bumped it up to 20 for this game.

About 1/2 way through the game, the bridge is still contested but the Rebs have pushed infantry over the fords and on the far side, have also had a small cavalry brigade across the road. 

Fairly early in the battle, an aggressive Rebel Brigadier pushed a regiment over the Western ford. Due in part to the excellent shooting of Yankee artillery, reinforcements didn't manage to come up in time and a full brigade pushed the Rebs back over the creek. 

On the eastern flank, the Rebs managed to push back a screen of dismounted cavalry and seize the ford with cavalry backed by a brigade of infantry. Since there was little room in the bridgehead, the Brigadier had massed his artillery on the far side of the hill with orders to harass or stop reinforcements.
(see 1st picture) 

The battle raged late into the day. Neither side would gamble sending a narrow column over the bridge.
On the Western flank a Yankee counter attack forced the Reb bridgehead to be withdrawn. Firing continued late into the afternoon but neither side had the strength to carry the ford and reinforce it. 
However, the Rebs had a solid bridgehead on their right, though there were no reserves coming, and Yankee guns had nearly silenced the rebel artillery on that flank. 

With a fresh Yankee brigade backing them up as a reserve, and the sun sinking, the order was given to the weary Blue defenders to fix bayonets, fire one good volley and then drive the Rebels back over the river.  (Well, it worked for the 20th Maine...) The Rebs must have been weary themselves and shaken by their losses, because they broke and ran. As the Federal troops advanced, they were able to cross the ford unopposed, cavalry first and secured the road on the other side. With the Yankees reserve (the only remaining fresh brigade on the field) marching to cross over the ford, there was nothing for the Rebels to  do but to retreat before they got cut off.  

Well, it was one battle, not the end of the campaign and the rules need another test. The next ACW game will probably be next week, not next year. 

Behind The Scenes (updated)

Despite a mix of household duties, looking after my health, and taking time to write a new set of rules with a very different approach, I have managed to play about 1/2 the scenario. The reorganization and rules are feeling solid enough, and the play is satisfying my personal likes and goals well enough. In summary, so far its working and is giving me hope!

The battle is engaged across the table (and across the river in at least 2 spots.)

In the meantime, its been 15 years since I rescued the remains of an aborted solo 1/72nd ACW collection that I had started after getting my first paying job after resigning my commission (1981). A few months later I reconnected with some friends and 15mm and 25mm metal were the order of the day again and the little plastic guys retired to a spares bin. When we bought our retirement house in the country in 2005, I had a friend not too far away who was into 1/72nd plastic and was starting an ACW collection. Being a pack rat, I still had those 30yr old veterans and brought them back into service and started to add reinforcements. (see 1st ACW blog post here)

   

One of these is too little, one too big and one is jusssst right.
(picture from 2010 post) 

Anyway, when I got back to the game after a break of a day or so, the early approaches had been made and the armies were about to engage across the table. With movement done I commenced shooting, 1 die per stand. It only took a few minutes to soak in that now the armies were engaged, it would soon be my duty to roll 6 dice for each of the 6 infantry brigades on each side plus 2 dice for each gun and then the cavalry. Depending on the situation, I'd have to roll up to some 60-80 dice every turn once the fighting got serious. I'd have to pay myself to do that! As well, the game would last who knows how long? That's when I stopped and moved over to the drawing board (so to speak).

A 2012 ACW game with a friend.(see blogpost)
(hmm, I think most of the room is a bit tidier now...sort of...the 6'x8' table is now 5'x5' and I don't really miss the extra sq footage) 
The little white house on the table (on the viewers left,) represented my house, which had been built by then.The house by the river is where the stream flows into the Kennetcook river just before it flows into the Avon river. (The owner of that house and my 2nd closest neighbour, a km away, was a good person, a retired naval officer who had attended the same military college as me, but 20 years before me! How's that for a coincidence? 

Anyway, rather than trying to chase the latest glossy games, I went back to Lawford&Young and Featherstone for inspiration, along with other quick play sets including the One Hour Wargame which rules, I confess, I had initially poopooed at first sight (sorry) although the cut down scenarios have been useful. 

The result was retreating from 6 stand Brigade units to fall back on my old 3 stand regiments with 1d per regiment with the score on 1 die equaling the #of hits inflicted on the enemy (with 1/2 effect at  long range and cover etc). Again streamlining, I went back through the archives and resumed the practice of rolling to see how many formations the General can order each turn. (yes with recognition to wrg/dba) With that bit of 'friction' and the simpler rules, after 6 quick turns, the game is now playing smoothly but with tension and moments of triumph and disaster and some clear decisions to made by the "general" ("Only 2 orders this turn? hmmm who to activate"...).

Ant that brings this post to a close. The game will continue tomorrow....or the day after.....or..well soon!