A hot day's fighting at Fredericksburg

[ChrisBBB]

Well, that was more fun than I thought a doomed bloody assault against entrenched defenders was likely to be!



Here’s an AAR with a few photos. If you’ve gamed Fredericksburg (as I’m sure many here have), I’d be interested to know how your games compared with this one.
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2022/07/a-hot-days-fighting-at-fredericksburg.html

[Stecal]

Not my favorite battle as i lost an ancestor there.

Were there any random scenario options for the Pontoon Bridges to be built earlier?

[ChrisBBB]

I originally said no, there weren't any such options - but actually I was wrong, I'd just overlooked them because I was working from my phone! Matt's scenario does indeed offer a couple of significantly different 'what-if' options that look interesting to try some time.

[CapnJim]

Great report, if not a great result (from the Union perspective, anyway...).  It was nice to see a frontal assault scenario where the attackers nearly pulled it off. 

I've run New Orleans from the War of 1812 a few times, and the BEST British result in those games was similar to the historical result,  Thus, I quit running it at cons...

[ChrisBBB]

Thanks, cap'n, glad you enjoyed it.

At least when you fight the whole battle of Fredericksburg there's a bit more to it than the frontal assault. The southern half of the battle was very mobile and a real cut-and-thrust fight.

Hard to see how you could make New Orleans interesting without taking it a level up and allowing strategic decisions that would produce a different battle entirely?

[CapnJim]

Hard to see how you could make New Orleans interesting without taking it a level up and allowing strategic decisions that would produce a different battle entirely?

Yep, But we tried...but it really didn't work.  The British advanced.  The British died.  No fun for the British players.  Thus our decision to scrap it...

[ChrisBBB]

What did you do instead? Pickett's Charge? Charge of the Light Brigade? 

[CapnJim]

Nope.  Gave up on futile frontal assault scenarios that left the attacker no real chance of winning.....