Out of Africa - ACW game

[nicknorthstar]

I ran a big ACW game this week at our local club.

Some of you will have seen my earlier threads where I shared my ACW army building projects, so this night was a chance to get them all out onto the tabletop.

I ran the game for 6 players, and used the North Star rule set 'Death in the Dark Continent'.
http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=13551

That may seem to have been an odd choice for ACW. Using both sides as European Soldiers, I hoped it would give a good feel for the period, but more important, a fun game for 6 players that'd be finished in an evening.

I think it achieved that. we fought a meeting engagement. Although it wasn't a decisive result, both the Confederate right and left Brigades were getting the upper hand while the central Brigade held it's own. It would have only been a matter of time before the Rebs won.

The only addition we made was giving all the units Rifled Muskets, effective 4" maximum 16".

Here's some pics.

[nicknorthstar]

This is only really of interest if you know DitDC.

Each player had 5 Regiments of 4 bases each. The regiments were classed as Regular Soldiers with Rifled Muskets. They also had an Artillery base classed as a Medium Rifled Gun and a 'chief base', classed as Light Horse and Disciplined.

The Reb left hand side Brigade had a lot of luck, 12 (or 16) 20s rolled, which destroys a base of course, one unit of 4 bases rolling 3x 20s in one firing phase.

There were 20s rolled elsewhere, the Rebs right hand brigade losing it's Artillery to a 20 rolled by an approaching Yank unit.

The Reb right flank also conducted the one successful charge of the game.

[t_c_inquisitor]

Really nice looking set up.  Is that a mat you're playing on?

[nicknorthstar]

Yes, it's Cigar Box Battle Mats 'Europe 1 & Europe 2', they were designed to line up.

[nicknorthstar]

Ran a 2nd game tonight. This time I based it on Bloody Lane Antietam. Yanks won, rolling a tremendous amount of 20s helped.