One of our local Clubs, Hutt Miniature Wargames Club is holding its annual convention on the weekend of April 27-28 2024. A group of 10 of us will be playing a Demonstration Game, another American Civil War Game. This time, we are replaying ‘The Battle of the Wilderness’, in particular Day 2 on 6th May 1864.
To get the ladz a feel for it, I staged a practice game based on the fighting around the ‘Orange Turnpike’. The Map is below.
We were practicing playing in woods…lots of thick woods…so movement was 6 inches, shooting in woods was 6 inches. There was no tinkering with the command ranges or artillery being in the woods…just to see how it went.
Looking from the Turnpike down the battlefield we have an open area known as Saunders Field and then woods…everywhere!
The Confederates left flank extended beyond the Union line and the Confederates had more troops on this flank.
The Union advance on the enemy who left a number of units behind….which they would pay for.
Back on the Turnpike the Union started with some of the best artillery fire I have seen in a while causing extensive damage to the Reb’s in the first couple of turns.
On Turn 2 a flanking Confederate brigade appears on the Union right flank. Sadly one of our players had to pull out and he was providing a Reb contingent. So I subbed in Franco Prussian War French!
The Union line awaits the Reb’s moving through the woods.
Sadly after moving to shooting range…the flanking French fluffed all their shots. It really was turning out not to be the Confederates day!!
View of Confederate left flank where they have turned the Union right flank, but sadly have suffered major casualties and their right flank is in real trouble.
End of game and a picture of a shaken Reb unit facing an onslaught of Blue Coats was an apt summary!
Final picture..I do like these games…troops are so pretty!
So that was that.
Following this game we have made changes for the game on the 27th April. Among them is reducing the amount of artillery and it cannot go into woods. Command ranges will be reduced, failed command rolls can result in troops suffering special rolls for getting lost etc in the woods. Should be a hoot.
Played another Franco-Prussian game with Alan and Goldie to carry on our journey of finding rules that work for us with Franco-Prussian War.
This time Goldie proposed scenario as below.
Scale:
Gravelotte-St Privat was the largest and decisive battle of the Franco-Prussian War.
The French army under Bazaine had adopted a position magnifique to defend from, sitting on a low ridge with wide open fields in front of them. Von Moltke’s plan was to pin the French army down with spoiling attacks in the south and centre but outflank the French to the north with the Guards and XII Saxon Korps. This would swing through the supposedly deserted village of Saint Privat.
Except St Privat was held in strength by Canrobert’s VI Corps, who were waiting for the advancing Prussian masses.
Fought on a 6’ by 9’ table. French deploy 30” in. Prussian Guards move on the right, Saxons on the left. The terrain is flat and open, with two sprawling villages and a few small woods.
Alan was the Prussian Guard, Goldie the Saxons and I was the Glorious French!
The map below was the terrain with the French setting up on the right extending from Roncourt south through Saint-Privat.
The Rules for the game are Black Powder with the following house rules.
So below we have the start of game on French right flank. I have placed 2 regts on the edge of board, 2 more in the town, the mitrailleuse is hiding behind village with the artillery in right rear of village. Goldies Saxons are moving on.
In French Centre right 4 regts are in the village, Mitrailleuse is hiding on road in village with a battery out back and another division to their left.
Otr on right Saxons have rushed up to shooting range….and they got shot up!
Prussian Guard Corps where several blunders occurred halting Alans attempts at a combined advance, which allowed the French to concentrate shooting on his units on table.
First blood to the French…the Mitrailleuse was shooting from behind village, out of sight of the Saxon artillery…which combined with the artillery and infantry shooting from the village and troops on the table edge, destroyed a unit. The Mitrailleuse had 2 rounds of superb firing…then…..fluffed it for rest of the game!
Mitrailleuse moved into open…managed to survive the incoming artillery fire…and combined with infantry fire destroyed another regiment, this time Guards.
With Alans blunder problems I moved 2 regts out to my left flank to take advantage of my 24 inch v 12 inch firing range…..accepting Alan might get some good results from his batteries…but needed to get some damage in before he could advance his troops.
Saxons advance on the village.
So much for tempting fate of the Guard artillery…disordered and 3 wounds.
First line of Saxons destroyed but am now taking hits.
Hmm……4 batteries and a couple rounds of shooting and unit in this part of village is no longer around….stamina is 3 so was 5 hits over and disordered….so -5 on dice roll…the survivors are heading for Spain.
Guard division with the rear 2 units having retired from shooting. However that means 2 fresh units in the front!
The 2 French regts I was holding in reserve behind the centre have moved across to vacated buildings in Roncourt.
Hmm 2 more of my units are shaken…..
Hmm…..both my right division and one of Goldie’s Saxon divisions have passed break stage and been removed.
Game end….we called it a draw….there were not many infantry units looking that healthy.
Same on other side of table…..
Well… that was an interesting game……we played Prussians artillery as 2 shots at long range……as opposed to Scenario plan…which I believe is correct way to do it. We will replay this but bring in ability of troops to lie done…its what they did…see how that works out. I did some amazing saves from incoming Prussian artillery hits at the start of game, which coupled with the blunders for them moving on, allowed the French to get some casualties in.
I am still not in favour of stipulating we follow the tactics employed by the armies at the time, after all.. the French LOST…so expect I will continue to disagree until I get my way.
We played a Montmirail 1814 refight at the Hutt Club which was designed for 6 players , however on the day sadly we had 2 no shows so we ended up with Goldie and I being Allied players and Rob and Russ the French.
The table was 15 foot x 6 foot with the Russians set up on the Western side of table and deployed on the Southern half of the table. The Prussians to arrive on turn 2 from the North.
The French would arrive from the East with locations/turns on their Orbat
Being 1 player down I took on playing the Russian force of 24 bttns, 6 cavalry regts and 4 batteries. I was going to be exhausted!! Goldie had the Prussians of 4 cavalry and 12 foot. Their artillery was bogged down back up the road.
The French Orbat is an impressive list of units! I never quite got my head around it totally…but Rob was Marmont, Rob also had the Division of the Middle Guard and also started with the Young Guard cavalry but as the game developed Russ took over. He also had Ney. Russ had the Old Guard Cavalry, Old Guard infantry and the artillery and absorbed the Young Guard cavalry as well plus Napoleon and Lefebrve!
Now having far more units than I normally command I was very much focused on my sector and neglected to get pictures of other parts o the battle so up front apologies for that.
The Russian cavalry was placed on the open left flank.
Beside the cavalry I had a strong defensive position with a wood, a gap and then a 3 defensive zone village.
Then on the other side of the village there was another open gap to swamp with a wood to my front. I figured I should be able to defend this!
French Guard cavalry advance onto the table.
The view of the arriving French. From the top to bottom they are: 2 divisions of Conscripts to the front, Middle Guard advancing up road, Old Guard to Northside of road, Garde d’Honner with the Conscripts, Young Guard cavalry then Old Guard cavalry with a horse battery. The 2 Guard batteries were off table.
In my turn I managed to move my Dragoons and Hussars out of charge targeting by the French except for the Cossacks who declined to move. Idiots. Thankfully the French were a bit confused and didn’t manage to contact them.
Rob threw his conscripts forward, I forced one into square by charging them with Dragoons, and then charging them with a column and moving the skirmishing Cossacks up as a support. It took a few combats but eventually the square popped.
So Goldie arrived from the North. He moved his 4 cavalry on….not any infantry. So 2 Dragoons and 2 Landwher cavalry marched on just so they could give Russ the pleasure of introducing his massed Guard cavalry to them.
Rob spent the day shooting up the village but without any artillery he had no show of kicking me out of 3 defensive zones. I plugged the gap with a battery supported by 3 columns and held 2 bttns Jager in reserve. My Hussars and Dragoons were behind them. From the wood to the table edge was another brigade of a battery..4 Musketeer bttns and 2 Jaeger bttns.
After several turns of a cavalry massacre for the French this was the situation. Notice the lack of Prussian cavalry.
Meanwhile in the centre the Middle Guard have entered the fray and I have tried the cavalry to front, form square and charge in a column combo again. Sadly, Middle Guard are tougher proposition.
After taking out the Prussian cavalry a unit of Guard lancers was flank on to my Hussars who managed to get a ‘Follow me’ into them. They destroyed the Lancers and carried on into the Horse Grenadiers but did not destroy them. I then rallied them back to face the Horse artillery that would now rock up and destroy them. I figured it was a worthy sacrifice in the scheme of things. Some Cossacks had wandered over to guard their flank and offer support. They would soon be destroyed.
Back in the centre another Dragoon charge has forced another Middle Guard into square so they could be charged by a column. Rob then started deploying the same tactic on me!
Prussian infantry march on face the Guard cavalry with the Old Guard infantry closing in.
My Cossack commander admiring the Guard Horse artillery, presume he is trying to locate his troops.
Hmmm… Old Guard v Prussian landwehr…surprisingly they actually did okay and shook some units according to Goldie.
Lovely paint job as ever Russ.
Sadly my camera played up…the light gets dodgy in the hall in the afternoon and the pictures from this flank were to blurry. But I had taken the flank wood…. put batteries either side of it and was moving 8 undamaged bttns forward supported by Dragoons. Below is final part of turn…Dragoons forced a square and 2 columns hit it…French survived!
So in the end the Prussians were destroyed but the Russians were largely untouched with only the Cossacks and 1bttn destroyed. So being as biased as ever…its a draw leaning towards an Allied victory!
Be nice to try it again but make the villages smaller as those huge buildings of Goldies really dominate the table. Rob was never going to take the village without any artillery but there was no room for him maneuver around it. Equally in the North send the Prussian infantry on first…..then the cavalry behind it so the infantry has opportunity to form firing lines supported by the cavalry…who knows …I might then venture out from cowering in my corner and attack the French!
So after the game I rushed home, showered and headed into the Central City for the night as the neighbors in hill above us had left a wee note in the letterbox advising a daughter was having an 18th birthday party and it would be loud(ouR other neighbor’s report it was VERY LOUD). So we evacuated to the Sofitel….had a lovely room….. they gave us an upgrade…we went and dined at a lovely restaurant while watching our local Football team on the screen and retired back to our room where I had a tasty whisky and was asleep….early!
The tasty whisky is the Oban 14 which I enjoy when staying at a Sofitel/Novotel Hotel.
Tasting notes are:
Palate Smoky, creamy palate with notes of marmalade, toffee apples and pear cider. A development of cloves comes late palate. Finish A long, malty finish with toasty oak and spice. Overall A true classic, Oban’s 14 year old is a great coastal dram for lovers of lightly smoked, fresh malts.
As ever I really don’t taste all that…all I know that after a tiring week…and a tiring game….it was the perfect way to end a good day. I will be buying a bottle soon.
Tuesday was our National holiday here in New Zealand so Goldie suggested a game at his place. So we played a Napoleonic Game using our Black Powder points system. It was set at 200 points which is what Goldie can field his Prussians as. I took along Russians.
Below is Goldies Prussian point list
Below is my Russian point list. I upgraded the Jager to Reliable for reasons that will explain in report(apart from having the points spare!)
Below is my Russian set up. My force was divided into 4 brigades. This was a standard Russian division of 3 brigades with 2 being of 4 Musketeers EACH and the 3rd of 4 Jager. I upgraded the Jager to Reliable/Elite 5+ so they could be ordered on CC9 instead of 8 and have a change of rallying from a Disorder before the order phase if disordered. The 2 Musketeer brigades each had an artillery battery. The last brigade was of 2 Hussar units which allowed me a free Cossack unit(under our army system rules).
Goldies Prussians had a brigade of 2 Dragoons, a brigade of 2 landwehr cavalry, a brigade of 2 Grenadiers, a Jager, horse battery and Leib Hussars then a brigade of 6 landwehr. A foot battery was in there somewhere as well!
Terrain was a village( 1 defensive zone) in center of table, woods either side of it and a farm on one table edge with a couple of small hills in the Russian side of table.
I managed to just beat the Prussians into the village.
Goldie takes a gamble and charged Landwehr cavalry into my right side of table battery. My battery gets 4 shots, hitting on 3s with hits having a -2 effect on saving throws. The cavalry save on 5+ so they have no saving throw. Any unsaved hits while charging artillery result in an automatic break test from closing fire. That plus the unsaved hits and a poor break test roll from Goldie meant the unit and its attached commanders were destroyed. Being marauders the remaining unit does not suffer any brigade morale test.
A good start for me!
As I beat Goldie to possession of the village he threw in Grenadiers with supports to try and take the village. I managed to disorder them by my closing fire which is great result as now they need 4s and not 3s to hit in combat. I manage to hold in the combat.
Goldie had placed his horse battery on his left flank….he then ordered it to move to the centre. Sadly, that move was only partially successful and they ended up flank on just past the woods. So I dutifully charged them with Hussars…..destroyed them and continued a ‘Sweeping Advance’ into a stationary Dragoon unit. I managed 3 wounds so they were now shaken. Goldie did 2 on me and I retired. Another good result.
Shaken Dragoons looking at Russians in distance.
On other flank I had managed to get a unit of skirmishing Jager around the farmhouse that Goldie had a Landwehr unit in and put 3 shots into the Leib Hussars who were now shaken.
I did this so they were not available to charge me when I moved my Jager’s in skirmish formation through the open terrain between the farmhouse and Village.
Poor dice rolling by Goldie meant the attacking Grenadiers lost the continuing Village combat and were destroyed when failed the break test. The other units did not care.
The undamaged Dragoon unit charged a column I had advanced to the edge of the woods who passed their test to form square and the Dragoons retired. With no artillery on this flank and infantry busy attacking the village…there was no risk to them….there were Prussian Jager in the wood…but they had been forced out.
Between the farmhouse and village I have moved up 2 skirmishing Jager units supported by columns. This was so I could move forward with a skirmishing line and shoot up and hopefully destroy the Prussian battery next turn with no fear of cavalry now interfering.
The Jager who shot up the Leib are retiring back towards their lines. The troops in the farmhouse were unable to inflict any damage on them.
Skirmishing Russian Jager have advanced on Prussian battery and shaken it from shooting. Hussars are now positioning for charge on Prussian landwehr column next turn…which will form square…the Hussars will retire and the Column with then charge the now formed square. If they don’t manage to get charges in…there is a battery positioned to damage the column and 2 Jager units will be positioned to shoot it.
I have moved a second unit up to block the gap between the wood and village.
On Prussian left the Prussian Jager have been pushed out of the wood, my artillery have disordered and put 2 wounds on the surviving landwehr cavalry and a unit of Cossacks are poised to charge them .
Goldie made another attempt to attack the village..it failed and we called that game as a Russian Victory.
Fun game…….Goldie had some poor dice rolls at critical times…..but charging into a village when your artillery has not caused any wounds or disordered the troops inside is always a risky task. Taking out his Horse artillery and stopping the turn 1 charge on one of my batteries was a great step in winning the game.
The Whisky of the day is the Aberlour 16.
This was another Xmas present.
I won’t bother with tasting notes….except to say it has won multi awards and deservedly so!
The comment I found online pretty much sums this one up.
‘A fruity and spicy release from Aberlour, this 16 year old has been matured in a combination of sherry butts and first-fill bourbon casks. Jim Murray scored it 94.5/100 in his 2015 Whisky Bible, describing it as ‘a malt of unbridled magnificence’.
The first game in February 2024 is an ACW game between Russ(Confederates) and Keith(Union) using the Borodino Game boards with Keith providing the fences.
Keith was defending with 3 brigades and Russ was attacking with 4 brigades. The woods were light woods, fences gave a -1 to hit from rifle fire advantage and the hills effected line of sight. The building also gave a -1 to hit advantage against rifle fire only.
Russ advanced 2 brigades across the open terrain largely protected by the hills until you crested them. Keith failed to get into the house before Russ made it in.
Typical ACW battle now occurred with rifle attrition determining outcomes.
The other 2 Confederate brigades moved up the road through the woods and prepared to attack. This was a bit tardy!
Further along in game and Russ has taken heavy casualties on his right.
Nice shot of Reb’s on the ridgeline. Whipped Union regt in the backgroud.
The terrain board has a nice gun emplacement in it which these Union troops were using to their advantage.
The game finished with the Confederates running out of steam…or rather troops on their right.
Go Goldie messages on a Friday, wanting a game Saturday at the Hutt club…..somehow 4 of us managed to make it……and Goldie was still messaging me at 11.48pm about the game…..me only being awake thanks to some noisy neighbor’s boys music!
So Goldies plan was for a meeting engagement where we played down the table…objective to control a crossroads in centre of table(I say centre…but it was a centre on the allied side!)
Goldie(Prussians) and Robert(Dutch/Hanoverians) were Allies and Rob and I were French. Below is Rob advancing onto table…up road with 2 brigade’s of foot and a 2 unit cavalry brigade. I advance on once they are on table. All arrive up the road.
Allied cavalry advances. They similarly advance up the road.
Very early on and French Lancers and Prussians Dragoons fight it out. Thankfully Prussians did not win…or some guns and infantry units would be in peril.
Roberts Hanoverians advance onto table…..I think this was their first battle…which we all know is often fated to be a disaster.
Bit further on Prussians are at crossroads….but some French Lancers are now fighting Prussian Landwehr cavalry…normally you would go ,’ We know who’s not going to win that!’. However, the French were shaken already and could not counter charge…..the perfect target for Landwehr cavalry!
French Legere take out the Prussian battery at crossroads.
So each player had 3 brigades… 2 foot and 1 cavalry…in the belief the table would get to crowded, I subbed in a brigade of Guard cavalry for my 2nd infantry brigade and also the cavalry brigade. Points wise about the same…and they are much prettier!
Robert checking how the advance of his Hanoverians is going…….my infantry were lining a hedgerow waiting the onslaught of 2 brigades!
Robs French advance on the crossroads and hold the wood as Goldies Prussians, who were a bit tardy…finally arrive.
Ahhh…tis a glorious sight……..Goldies Grenadiers had advanced to crossroads….but got themselves shaken…..and were still shaken in our turn…so I sent the Empress Dragoons in…..the 2 dice with ones are Goldie form square…they fail to form square and are disordered….it just gets better and better.
View from behind…..lots of Allied units are now on the field of battle.
Oopys..after combat dice rolls…..I had 8 hits on the Grenadiers…..Goldie needed 3’s to save them…below is the sad tale…..so that’s them gone.
The other Grenadier unit decided to high tail it home as well…and the Empress Dragoons retired on Rob’s French lines.
Goldie now threw his landwehr into the woods and charged square on the side of the wood…his cavalry had previously charged them and forced them into square. It often takes 2 or 3 turns for the attacking column to take out the square in this situation…and so it was again.
Roberts shooting has forced me to withdraw my damaged and outnumbered infantry back from the hedge line into the woods.
It took several turns before Goldie was able to push Rob out of the wood….but he had a strong line with artillery ready for Goldie.
View from behind Roberts advancing troops…Dutch on the left and the Hanoverians on the right…in distance Rob has a battery on the road…I have a Guard battery on hedge line and infantry in the woods with a unit of Guard D’Honner cavalry on the edge of woods.
Ahem….open flanks…I keep talking about open flanks…..I had attempted this charge my turn before…but was agreed I was not quite positioned for a flank charge…so I moved them so was. Robert attempted to move the Dutch up to cover the exposed flank, but..well…they are Dutch…they didn’t want to move that far…so the Hanoverian flank was still exposed….so I charged it with ‘The Gods’.
I destroyed the 5 units below.
I then carried on into these guys….managed 11 hits…but these lads were made of sterner stuff and held on!
So we called the game.. I think was a French victory. Lots of lessons…..exposed flanks….artillery are weak if in front line and exposed…etc
Fun game though…and its always a delight to use the French Guard cavalry…big, heavy metal Front Rank figures and Goldie did a wonderful paint job on them!
Onto the Whisky of the Week!
Now my favorite whisky of them all is a 500ml wee beauty from Edradour which is simply called ‘Straight from the Cask’ which sadly I currently do not have and am awaiting a resupply!. However, they do make a similar dram under another label, the ‘Ballechin SFTC’. So I treated myself to this for Xmas.
Tasting Notes are:
Nose Smoked meats and honey roasted nuts, with a hint of milk chocolate coming through later on.
Palate Juicy sultanas and raisins, with more meaty malt and smoke developing.
Finish Sea salt, chocolate mousse, and brown sugar.
I must admit to being a wee bit underwhelmed as was expecting a powerful hit of Sherry Goodness as well as the 58.0% alcohol…but this one is a more Peaty than Sherry dram. It is still quite tasty…but pales to the Edradour SFTC.
So its welcome to 2024 and the first game of the year.
Alan hosted a Franco Prussian Game at his place which 6 of us were available for. Both Alan and Goldie have collected Prussians while Goldie and I have collected French. While I continue to paint as slow as ever, the French are a bit short on units so again ACW units are subbed in.
Once again the rules used are ‘Black Powder’ plus the ACW ‘Hallelujah’ supplement. We are still tinkering with shooting and ranges so these were the adjustments used for this game:
Artillery shoots 48 inches
Prussian artillery have no long range penalty
French rifles/Mitrailleuse weapons shoot 24 inches
Prussian rifles shoot 12 inches
French are 3 base battalions and Prussians are 4 base battalions
From memory the number of battalions per side were evenish…but the Prussians were at least 2:1 in artillery(I am painting my 5 guns up now!).
Below is the centre of table where both sides are in possession of a building. Alan on one of his business trips to China spotted some display clothes in a shop , purchased 4 of them, has had them sewn together and now has quite a good terrain base cloth!
French firing line anchored on building…Prussian artillery in distance and troops in wood.
Prussian advance on their left flank……
The nasty Krupps.
French attack into flank of a Prussian line…..French fluffed attacks…took several turns but larger Prussian units attacking them on 2 sides eventually destroyed them.
French left flank…….avoiding the Krupp’s but giving up the longer rifle range.
Massed Prussians preparing to attack across the river.
Across they are….a mitrailleuse was hiding behind the building so artillery could not get it, and firing off against the Prussians advancing on the table edge…so a Prussian unit charged from other side and took it out….French commander has been taken away…….
French centre was quite well protected with 2 defensive zones and good firing zones.
The gap in Prussian lines is from a blown away battalion. It took A LOTOF SHOOTING TO DO THAT.
I tried using a twinkling light feature on phone camera…didn’t work that well.
French used old fashioned lines and swapped units to recover casualties…. as you should!
End of game…..Prussians take the building by charging in on 2 sides. French 2nd line was supporting but you need lots of hits to cause casualties…and artillery!
So that was first FP game for year. Was fun. We will need to work on the shooting as I still think its now quite right. Hopefully the Perrys will give us some more love in this period this year so we can flesh the armies out.
Now at Xmas I was given some love with 3 new bottles of Whisky!
The first to be reviewed is a gift from friend PW who was back from Vanuatu.
This is from Glenmorangie and it is ‘A tale of Winter’.
The bottling note for it is:
Following on from Glenmorangie’s A Tale of Cake, the magnificent distillery has gone and created Glenmorangie A Tale of Winter (we do like the idea that “cake” is in fact a season and that it precedes winter, but we don’t think that’s what they’re going for here)! Director of whisky creation Dr. Bill Lumsden wanted to evoke the feeling of winter, of sitting in front of a fireplace while the snow fall outside, and to do so, he finished a bourbon barrel-matured single malt in ex-Marsala wine casks. All those rich, comforting, chocolatey notes certainly put this one in the ‘winter warmer’ category.
Tasting notes are:
Nose Honeycomb, chocolate digestives, fragrant lavender, sultana, and cinnamon.
Palate Cocoa, Brazil nuts, vanilla tablet, jammy red berry sweetness developing, crystallised ginger.
Finish Spicy ginger remains, mellowed by vanilla and chocolate mousse.
Now I had a bottle of ‘ A Tale of Cake’ a year or 3 ago, and PW went a bought one as was so delicious. This one I have been enjoying almost as much.
So Saturday 18th November 2023 was the annual convention of one of the wargames Clubs here in Wellington NZ, the Warlords. We had been asked if we wanted to put one of our demo games on so we agreed and decided as we were on an ACW kick to play Antietam. I asked Alan seeing he works on a fancy graphics Mac to design a poster which is below. Its pretty cool.
Now as Goldie enjoys writing up scenarios and preparing Orbats etc, he designed the game.(Goldie and I as usual then debated it for several weeks) The game map is below. The table was 16 foot long and 6 foot wide. The Confederates would set up first and then the Union would march on(having written up orders of arrival). The entry points for the Union were the Hagerstown Pike, Smoketown Pike, Pry Ford, Boonsboro Pike and Rohrbach Rd. The Antietam Stream was only passable on the bridge on the Rohrbach Bridge Rd and at the Snavely Ford.
The Confederates set up from the edge of the West Wood, the hill in front of the Dunker Church, along the sunken road , then along the Bridge Rd to the bridge and then on the southern side of the stream.
There were 5 players aside with the Union being Goldie, Robert, Brian, SteveT and Keith. The Confederates were Terry(me!), Mike, Alan, Sheridan and StephenC. Scenario rules allowed both sides to not follow a historical set up.
The Union force was 56 regts, 5 small cavalry regts and 17 batteries. The batteries were assigned to Divisions.
The Confederate force was 42 regts, 2 small cavalry regts and 11 batteries. The batteries were in 5 bttns of 2 batteries and a horse artillery battery assigned to JEB Stuart.
The table set up before troop deployment is below. Brian., Robert and Goldie are in picture.
Mike played on the Confederate side as he is the descendent of a British Army Officer who served on the Staff of Henry Heth. He commanded the right flank. Alan commanded the forces to the front of Sharpsburg and the first section of the sunken road.
Sheridan commanded the rest of the sunken road and the area to the Dunker Church.
2 bttns of rifled guns on the hill. The Union artillery were all rifled with a range of 30 inches, the Confederates were meant to be 24 inch only(100% 6pounders apparently) but I nagged Goldie so much on this he relented and we were allowed 2 bttns of 30inch guns.
StephenC had the Confederate right flank on the Hagerstown/West Wood with our 2 largest brigades and a bttn of guns.
Turn 1 and on the Bridge Rd, one of Goldie batteries got his order wrong and decided to charge at the bridge(a Blunder which is roll 2 dice…get a 12, roll another dice…get a 6…roll another dice, and he rolled a 4 which means you charged 24 inches down the road) Personally I though it was a splendid start to a game. A limbered gun in front of 2 of our batteries…and if we moved a regt to the bridge edge…get another 3 shots at it…..one lost battery coming up!
The local media were so impressed, a cease fire was called while they took some photos.
Union troops pouring down the Boonsboro Pike….an impressive sight.
Brian managed to get most of his troops across the Pry Ford.
The Union guns while attached to brigades could not be ordered as part of the brigade move but must be ordered individually. Infantry fire had been reduced to 12inches for everyone except the Irish Brigade who were still using Smoothbores. They do get an extra shot at close range.
Now over on the Confederate left flank several turns have gone by. Robert had a Union battery blunder and ride into the cornfield all by its self. Then he had failed move orders for brigades moving on so StephenC decided to move out from his position and attack them. Sadly his scouts failed to report the approaching Union Force of George Greene who some fool had rated as a Command 9 for the battle!(Okay..it was me). What a juicy target.
Keith’s forces stream towards Sharpsburg. Thankfully they were facing the Stonewall brigade!!
Union troops queuing up the attack with a massed battery forming up to support them.
OMG! Another Union battery decided to blunder and charge!
Sadly the first Charging Artillery battery survived the inept shooting that went their way. I suspect no one could actually believe what they saw. Goldie has moved up supporting infantry and yet another battery.
Stonewall brigade are a thin gray line defending the way to Sharpsburg. Stuart has sent his artillery battery to assist.
Union 3rd Corps arrives!(Okay..Okay…they weren’t there…but my Command bases are for Gettysburg!!)
Brian’s troops facing off the sunken road…I do like the way he does his flags. Will need to pop up to Whanganui and get a lesson.
Union troops moving through the cornfield.
At last…..my troops arrive! This is A P Hills command moving through Sharpsburg….with Lee himself helping with dice re rolls to get them up the road.
Union right where the diminished Confederate force is in hold out mode.
On the Confederate right Mike lost his artillery bttn early on and has been forced back from the bridge. On the hill my dismounted cavalry are attempting to take out the battery that has been causing all the casualties. I felt it was a worthy sacrifice. They failed.
The battle at Snavely Ford played out all game. Mike had reinforced the initial 2 regts here with the 2 who had been defending the bridge(one actually blundered and headed over their by its self). Both forces and taking heavy casualties.
Having failed to take out the artillery my foot cavalry stayed to allow Mikes brigade time to defend the field behind. Goldie has more troops over the bridge and Keith has moved troops up to the trees lining the road.
On the union right Roberts tardy troops have finally arrived and are advancing up the Smoketown Dd.
The other side of the Smoketown Rd as Robert and Goldies troops tighten the noose on the Confederate force.
Yet another Blunder…this time a good one!(If you are Union that is) Getting infantry to attack other infantry frontally is not easy, unless of course you do as SteveT did…blunder and the result is a charge. So 3 regts went in. One succeeded in winning the combat…the Confederate die rolls for shooting had been appalling all game on this road fence.
Having arrived A P Hill prepares to replace Alans 2 damaged brigades in the front line
Mission achieved. Alan withdrew back through my line on initiative moves, which now allowed my units to step forward, still under initiative moves and take up their positions. Alan could now start to rally casualties back with Lees Command 9 rating helping him out.
A bit further along and the Confederates are retiring. The massed Union guns at medium range were dishing out to much damage. The target priority rules meant out guns could not take counter battery action but had to shoot at the nearest formed unit. I have discussed this with Goldie already and we will change that.
Over by the bridge Goldies troops advancing, Mikes Confederates in the field are retiring.
On the Sharpsburg Rd Keith is still pressing and with the massed batteries destroying anything on the Sunken Road a general retirement has been ordered.
Over on the Confederate left…..well their really isn’t one now…so Sheridan’s force will join A P Hills and act as rearguard and the Confederates retire.
A Union Victory.
I thought the game played quite well. It is a rather attractive period to game with the differing uniforms, flags etc plus the terrain was certainly attractive.. We had 2 practice games before the main event to work on the shooting changes Goldie wanted to use which helped with the flow of the game. We need to look at the rules around the artillery so far as being able to target them and also the scenario restrictions. I had argued for the batteries facing the Sunken Road to be restricted to long range fire( from my reading of the battle seemed appropriate) as was concerned about the mass firepower if they moved to medium or close range.
The next Convention is in April where will look to run a Gettysburg game. Just need to paint a few more Confederate Units!
This weeks Whisky of The Week s the Glenrothes 18.
When friend Weakley came back home in August he bought me one of these for my birthday.
Tasting notes are below.
Nose Decadent vanilla and orange, with hints of cherry and almond developing.
Palate Still packing plenty of dried fruit notes, alongside crisp pear and a spicy touch of stem ginger.
Finish Lasting sweetness of vanilla and pear, with peppery flourishes.
My comment would be its a mighty fine whisky and one I selfishly prefer not to share!!
Now one of our local Wargame Clubs, Warlords holds an annual convention which most years we attend and run a game or a small competition of some kind. This year we decided not to. Which was fortuitous as due a colossal CLUSTER****, the hall got double booked and on the Friday before the weekend involved, this was discovered. Not Good. So a new day has been set and we were asked if we wanted to come along and run one of our demo games on the new date of November 18th. So the ladz have chosen an ACW game, and Goldie has selected Antietam.
So a practice game was played to test some rule changes Goldie wants to use which are basically changes to shooting ranges where they are halved. Being the sceptic I can be, I was a wee bit doubtful. Comments at end of report!
The game will have 9 players, 5 Union and 4 Confederate. battle report after the actual game will provide Orbat/Map etc.
Turn 1 and Russ Advances his troops on Goldie’s blue bellies.
Goldies Blue bellies skulking in a field behind trees! Note the unit in column of march on the right.
View in the centre from Union lines.
Russ noticed the unit in column as well and managed to reach it.
Graeme’s Reb’s faced a lot of blue coats in the centre.
The Confederate left flank where Alan faced off with Keith.
Stephen’s Union facing Graeme. Graeme plays quite aggressively as a rule so close range shooting quickly occurred. Goldie had reduced rifle/musket range to 12 inches, Confederate guns to 24inches and Union to 30 inches. Real in your face action.
Now Sheridan is providing 19 Confederate regts for the game , however he games on weekends not mid week so I subbed in a brigade of newly completed Franco-Prussian French(why not!).
Russell’s early charge on the Union column has eventually resulted in a lot of Union units popping and stalling Union advance in this sector.
However, Robert had now arrived and was pushing forward towards Russ and Graeme lines. I had also arrived with the French brigade heading towards Confederate flank and a second brigade to support Graeme and Russ.
Union troops closing in on Alan with French marching up road in distance.
Confederate right where Russ troops taking a bit of damage with my fresh units moving up to allow them to retire through me and recover. Quit a blob of Union troops opposite!
The curse of newly painted troops in their first battle hits. Plan was to move them up and then change formation to line facing Union….howeverrrrr…even with Command 9 Corps commander for rerolls they failed successive orders…and sat there with flank facing Keith. But…I still felt they looked AWESOME. The others were to busy laughing to notice.
Thankfully photos did not come out well…but Keith charged….the flank…we lost…but retired only! Yeehaa. Photo below is after ordered actually were acted on(and I was wee bit naughty with distance moved, but hey…its my Garage! They do look good on the hill!!
So that was a practice game…was fun..was very noisy…rule changes seemed to work okay and we will try again in 2 weeks so we are fully prepped for the 18th of November.
Now the 1st Brigade of French is finished will do some work on my ACW armies for a couple of weeks. First up below are 2 more Corps commands for the Union. I want to run a large Gettysburg game so am generating Corp/Division/Brigade command stands with the correct flags… for effect!
We are lacking in Confederate cavalry so will slip in regular painting of 4 at a time until have a sizeable force.
There is a backlog of reports to be posted so will work through them as quick as I can.
Its been awhile but back to the ‘Whisky of the Week!’
Here we have a Caol Ila(pronounced Cull Ee-la) Distillers Edition 43% a single malt from the Isle of Islay.
This whisky from Caol Ila has first been matured in refill American oak and European oak casks. It has then had a second maturation in Moscatel – seasoned, re-charred American Oak casks. The nose has smokey and spicy notes, with a subtle fruity note. The palate has notes of smoke, sweetness and a gentle wood spice. The finish is long and spicy with big smoky notes.
It is very pleasant, not overly peaty and I strongly recommend it for newbies to peaty whisky who do not want to be over powered. It has been my go to for past month when want to relax of an evening, at the moment am spoiled for choices but this one I have really taken a liking to.
The ACW game this month was a small game with 4 players.
A Union command were holding a position unaware the Confederates were advancing to destroy them before they could be reinforced.
The Union had 3 brigades with 2 deployed on their left and one in the centre right. They had no Division commander, and one of the 3 brigades was a rating 7. A fourth would arrive if certain conditions were met. (they didn’t in time)
The Confederates had 4 brigades and had first move where they march onto the table.
I was on Union right. Rebs opposite me.
Goldie was on my left with a forward cavalry brigade supported by an infantry brigade. Russ is setting up his arriving infantry and cavalry brigade.
Dismounted cavalry doing their thing.
Russ quickly ganged up on a skirmishing Union cavalry unit.
This is me responding to the Confederates to my front….partial realignment so would not be outflanked. I was the Command Rating 7….so not many orders were obeyed.
What the……the Rebs were a mirage….they were there as were off table and actually arriving behind Russells troops…so my partial realignment has only taken me further away. Grrr. A small Reb brigade has taken residence in the farm to my front though. The backing off regt is because of the Reb cavalry unit in the woods on my left….proximity rule applied so cannot just turn towards them.
Stephen’s Rebel Guard march on!
Goldies infantry are taking a whipping.
Russell has got cavalry into Goldies rear.
Look…I actually got a unit to CHANGE FACING!
Charging cavalry in your rear….NEVER A GOOD THING!
And it wasn’t, Union regt is no more.
In turn Goldie hits the cavalry in the rear…who had dismounted.
End of game …..Goldie has gotten smacked badly.
Russ has now got his arriving artillery into action against my troops in centre.
I was sending 2 regts over to help Goldie… but as no one wanted to move had been a slow process…..and they never really got close.
They large 4th Union brigade never arrived……..trigger was me getting forced off my hill or Union losing a brigade….which would have been the cavalry if Goldie had sacrificed them quicker…..I kept reminding him about it!
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