ACW2 Fire in the Valley campaign. Game one.

[Skrapwelder]

Sacramento, California - July 9th. This was the first game of our Second American Civil War campaign. The factions fighting for the Constitutionalist side were the town of Locke's Japanese Militia, the local chapter of Minutemen and a group of Marxists who found it more convenient to fight with the Constitutionalists than the Nationalists. On the Nationalist side were reconnaissance elements of the 11th Cavalry Regiment and the local Citizen's Vigilance Committee. Reports of a Communist sponsored car theft ring and child labor camp operating outside of Monticello, California brought Nationalist forces to investigate. Their orders were to break up the ring by any means necessary and confiscate any stolen vehicles. The Constitutionalists put up a fierce fight but were eventually routed off the field. A small group of young boys that were obviously being held there against their will were rescued and turned over to the local Boys Home. Several of the stolen vehicles were recovered as well.

Setup for the game:

The Constitutionalist forces started with all their units in and around three buildings. The main objective for both forces was the securing of the vehicles. Additional victory points were to be awarded for every vehicle either captured or retained.

The Nationalist forces approached in force from one side of the table. Elements of the 11th Cavalry Regiment consisted of one armored car, a light tank and three units of infantry supported by a light machine gun. The Local Vigilance committee had several large groups of armed civilians, many veterans of the Great War as well as a pair of light howitzers positioned off-table.

 

The Minutemen fielded several rifle squads, a heavy machine gun and an assault element made up of newsboys trained to throw grenades. The Locke Militia had a rifle squad, supported by a light machine gun and a Crossley armored car.The Marxists had a rifle squad, a heavy machine gun and an armored car.

Photos of the battle:


The Constitutionalist Southern flank. The Minutemen have taken a position in the center.


The Communist force occupying the brewery on the West end of the little town. Nothing brewing here but trouble.


The stolen vehicles.


Communist infantry on the Northern flank.


Here you can see the pitiful conditions the young newsboys were forced to endure. Ten boys were packed into this abandoned outhouse. Packed in so tight they had to sleep standing on one another's shoulders.


The 11th's tank approaches from the West. The Locke militia had taken up a defensive position in the corral by the stable.


The Silver Legion troops advance under fire from the stable.


This was claimed to be a civilian gathering in the brewery. If so it surely must be the cast party for the local stage production of Dr. Zhivago. The Minutemen's Rolls Royce AC can be seen in the background.


Here is the Rolls making a loop around the town to try and flank the 11th's troops. They did quite well too, forcing one of the infantry squads back to the edge of the table before it rallied and inflicting several casualties in the other infantry units on the flank.


Hmm. Something's not right in the stable. This is the Locke Militia's Crosseley AC.


The troops of the 11th push forward supported but machine gun fire from the armored car.


They pushed the Locke militia out of the corral and into the stable. Several rounds of fire were exchanged. At this time the Vigilance Committee's artillery began to fall on the emplaced Constitutionalists.


The tank fires on the brewery building, damaging it a little but not enough to bring it down. The Communists did decide it was probably a good idea to get out of such a large pile of potential slivers.


The Vigilance Committee scores a palpable hit, destroying the shack and killing one of the defenders.


A view of the carnage from the North.


The Locke Militia defending the barn.


The Minutemen's heavy machine gun team performed admirably. Under constant shelling and sniper fire from the Vigilance Committee they continued to keep up a steady barrage of fire at the incoming troops. The toll was high however and out of a crew of six only one escaped unscathed. They also receive the award for most suppression markers held by a unit. This picture was taken just before they received ten more suppression markers from the machine guns firing on them from the armored car. This caused them to make a quick withdrawal. The eldritch idol represents that they are pinned as well.


The tank come abreast of the stable door and fires its machine gun into the Locke Militia.


A the same time the Crosseley was making good its escape. Also here you can see the Newsboy squad of the Minutemen looping around the back of the barn and into the corral to launch a grenade assault on the 11th's rifle squad at the South end of the corral. They were really good boys at heart. They just fell in with the wrong crowd.


Between the Daily Explosive landing right on their front porch and the Rolls' machine it was just too much for a good man to stand and the rifle squad made for the safety of the woods to the South. They didn't rally until they were almost off the table.


The final line of defense. The Communists rake the Nationalists with machine gun fire. Unfortunately for them the Silver Legion troops of the 11th routed the Locke militia out of the stable and started shooting at the Russians from behind with a BAR. The Russians beat a hasty retreat.

 

This was a good first game and a pretty decisive Nationalist victory. As always we found a few things in the rules we need to tune up to satisfy the way we like to play but all in all I think every one had a good time. Big thanks to Leadfool, Black Cavalier, Alfrik and Mike B. for making a campaign at all possible with their support. We hope that as the campaign advances we'll pull in some fresh faces to the group.

[joroas]

Nice game.  Thanks for sharing. 

[The Gray Ghost]

>>A small group of young boys that were obviously being held there against their will were rescued and turned over to the local Boys Home. Several of the stolen vehicles were recovered as well<<
That's just Fascist propaganda   

[Cory]

That looks great. I take it the tile dividers are supression markers and not fallen crosses.

[Alfrik]

White crosses were indeed the suppression markers. It might be noted that the Nationalist's had provided all proper forms and documents for the use of such markers, whereas the Constitutionalists had taken an over the time mark to submit their paperwork, most of it filled out wrongly, illegibly and or missing out right, which in turn lead to some of the Mopery and Doper charges leveled against them!!!!

I feel I must point out the lack of any photo's of the timely flank turning arrival of the Dockworkers Local 86's forces!  This daredevil collection of impressed fighters were rousted out of the Sacramento jail and railed to the cause, hangovers not withstanding!!

[Black Cavalier]

Really Alfrik?  " timely flank turning arrival of the Dockworkers Local 86's forces"

More like "hide in the woods until we decided to strategically withdraw & then shoot us in the back" forces.


One interesting thing about the campaign rules is only 1 battle is played with all players & their factions, but the sides can be completely shifting each week.  Based on a die roll, & an antagonism factor between the factions, the Nationalists & Communists will usually end up on opposite sides of the table, with the Constitutionalists balancing out the total forces.  But if the rolls go the right way, both a Nationalist & Communist faction could be together on 1 side, fighting against Nationalist & Constutionalist on the other side (or any combination).  Which of course makes for a fun & interesting storyline.

[Alfrik]

The Dockworkers arrived a bit delayed from stumbling along with their hangovers. They are the ones that were between the woodpile and the forest, blasting the Locke Militia. The Ranchers Co-op Brotherhood were the fellows,who having dealt with rustlers, horse thieves and hooligans, lay in wait in the woods till the opportune time, then opened up with a vengeance against the law breakers!! (or something like that, I'm sure the Co-ops Newsletter press will report it better!)

Who knows, next battle may see you and I watching each others flank. Think when the final sifting of the questions that arose during the game settle out, play speed per turn will pick up. Especially if the action of one player does not involve shooting and the other side is doing something on the opposite board side, they can both take their action at the same time and save time.

Have to say, the casualty rate from fire suffered all around from really bad dice rolling, what for all the MGs and rifle fire that went on. The 12 rounds of artillery fire killed 3 and wounded 2 for the total damage, other than blasting one small building to flinders.  Interesting the psychological effects it generated though

[leadfool]

The psyche effect is from an inability to respond.  With off board artillery and no appearent limit on ammo, The artillery could just keep falling until every building was smashed.  We could not respond to the tank nor to the artillery. I had 3 killed and  3 wounded plus countless suppression markers,  My fire managed to cause 1 suppression marker.  And I was on the defensive with hard cover.  Of course we ran, it was that or go another 5 or 6 turns and lose all of our figures. 

I think the only attackers killed were the silver legion.

[Doomhippie]

This is certainly a very nice report. Great setup and a nice story to be told. I'm much impressed.

[Alfrik]

2 items about artillery. A missed skill roll by the Forward Observation Team means the round lands a turn later rather than immediately. With my typical dice rolling for each check meant that it typically landed a turn later.  I left it at that rather than have a fall pattern for example of:

FO arrives near terrain, stops move
FO enters Terrain, sets up
FO calls first shot, fails skill roll
Turn 4 first shots land, On turn 4 makes skill roll, 2 more shots should land for total of 4 hitting.
Turn 5 fail skill roll, no shots land
Turn 6 2 shots land
etc.

With out a FO that can see its targets the artillery cannot fire as I understand it, an AC might have been sent out to locate and kill them?

Limit number of rounds per ammo marker the gun has?
Smoke rounds that last 2 turns?
Targets called must be a feature, building, crossroad etc for regular skill check, open field makes first check -2 pts harder and if failed, shells delayed and 3D6+regular scatter dice inacurate.
The normal fall is 1 turn dealyed? Failed is 2turns dealyed?

Against a mobile moving target artillery will be fairly useless if players zig and zag, assuming we made it a 2nd turn falls, unless the targets are well led?

Dont know that they did counterbattery fire at this juncture in history, A steep but decreasing skill check to fire from off board to off board artillery duel?


Lastly I had to transport the FO team and their very heavy radio onto the board in a vehicle, deploy, in this game there was a building that they occupied. Then one of the team moved the vehicle a short distance away to draw attention away from the building........

On defense I could probably only use 1 gun rather than 2 due to haveing to hold ground with troops. gun, heavy truck and crew total in around 180to 200 pts depending on personal side arms and training levels.

[leadfool]

Looking forward to the next installment!