ACW2: The Battle of La Grange, Kentucky. July 11th, 1934. (Kublacon, 2010)(NEW)

[Doc Twilight]

As promised, but often delayed, here are some photos of our multi-player ACW2 Game at Kublacon, 2010 in Burlingame, California on Memorial Day Weekend.

Part One -

The basic scenario:

The Nationalist "Ohio River Valley" Campaign is in full swing, with the objective of dividing Constitutionalists in the Midwest by taking control of the strategically vital Ohio River Valley, with the ultimate objective at St. Louis - the Constitutionalist capitol. Under George Patton, the combined force of pro-Washington US Military and Nationalist militias have moved swiftly through Southern Ohio. Only a week before, Nationalist forces defeated a coalition government in Cincinnati in the first major engagement in the Midwestern theater. Now, they are moving toward the capitol of the Kentucky Free State, Louisville.

So far, the Nationalists have encountered sporadic resistance, but they are rapidly approaching the strategically vital town of La Grange, Kentucky, where the main rail route leading directly to Louisville passes directly through the center of town. Here, they run into the pickets of a large KDF Force, supported by Indiana State Minutemen and the 14th US Cavalry. The first engagement in the Second American Civil War to feature Regular US Military forces on both sides is about to begin, and the war will be escalated irreparably...

A View of La Grange. Here, the town is seen, with the West end of town to the top of the photo. The main rail line can clearly be seen bisecting the town.



The Nationalist advance travelled directly along the East-West road. Meanwhile, the bulk of Constitutionalist forces were just off the map, moving south along the rail line. Although the Nationalists had encountered a handful of pickets, they were unsure, at the start of the battle, what precisely they were facing. The Kentucky Free State had already established small bodies of militia, which were deployed in hidden positions at the start of the game.

Here, the Silvershirts of Legio Kansas, 3rd Cohort, move up cautiously along the line of the road. The Nationalist Commander on scene, Colonel Robards, can be seen in his 'Lindy' jacket just behind the Silvershirts. The lead elements of the 4th "Itasca" Naval Infantry Brigade can be seen at the bottom of the  photo.



Meanwhile, the Constitutionalists were rushing into town, even as the sound of Nationalist vehicles could clearly be heard humming in the distance, and a cloud of dust a mile wide could be seen at the west end of town. At the same time, the left wing of the Nationalist forces, spearheaded by the 1st Kansas National Guard and the 3rd United States Cavalry ("Pattons Own") advance along the left flank of the road, taking shelter behind a series of high urban fences.

Here, the Cavalry and National Guard advance. To their left is a Lancia IZM, one of three donated by a sympathetic Mussolini.


Here is a closer view of the Lancia. Her wiley commander, an Italian "volunteer" has spotted possible movement amongst the buildings ahead, and has reversed his machine into an ideal firing position, covering the advance of the Kansans and Cavalrymen with his turret and rear mounted machine gun. (The Lancia could move at full speed in reverse. A handy tool for just such a scenario.) But in the distance, an old blue friend is rumbling to  life. Things are about to get very messy.



(More coming soon.)

[joroas]

Nice, and just shows that towns don't need to be packed full of scenery.

[commissarmoody]

About time 

[abhorsen950]

Really Cool!

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Looking forward to more photos!!

At the Kubla Con game the Kentucky boys handled the Nationalists quite roughly. The Nationalists didn't accomplish their objective in pushing through La Grange and suffered heavy casualties while trying to occupy the town. At game end they had only taken the southern third of La Grange -- probably suffered ~40+ figures in casualties. Their high water mark came with an assault on the local tavern, held by Kentucky Regulars -- an entire unit of Silver shirts died to the man against those Kentucky boys. The Kentuckians weren't unscathed, though, losing an armored car, their Schneider tank and about 15-20 casualties. The Militia took the worst beating, getting chewed up by the Nationalist navy gun and some MG fire.

Interesting how cautious the Nationalists were, despite the fact they had two actual tanks, a mobile artillery piece and more men. They got fixated on taking La Grange instead of pushing through, and they lost tons of guys. They tried pushing that entire Silver Shirt unit into the bar and got wiped out to the man (yes, I did roll pretty hot, but I got to shoot 'em as they charged and then outnumbered them in hand to hand)! They also kept running guys up onto the roofs to shoot at us, and we'd brush 'em off with concentrated rifle and machinegun fire. If they'd moved up the tanks early we'd have been in real trouble.

It was a really enjoyable game, and I'm looking forward to getting the supplement when it comes out later this year.

[leadfool]

Doc,
Thanks for the photos.  I am looking forward to more.

Especially my glorious (some would say stupid) charge with the blue Armored car.  Still it kept the attackers off balance enough to slow their advance.

Thanks again for running a great game.  We have started our campaign, check out our pictures as well.

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

"Especially my glorious (some would say stupid) charge with the blue Armored car."

I still think ya shoulda KEPT charging and run down that unit of Nationalists crammed up against the fence!! But it was a good ride anyways.

[leadfool]

The rest of the pics are up in the gallery

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Gallery located here:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=278;u=2121

[Doc Twilight]

The rest of the pics are up in the gallery

They are indeed. Just super busy this week (which is a good thing, I can't keep certain things in stock, plus I'm working on the ACW2 book and the new Book/Range). I will post the rest of the report soon.

-Doc

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

Hey, Alex -- let me know if you intend to do any ACW2 gaming at the South Bay Game Club. The ACW2 setting is interesting, but the group in Sacramento is simply too far away for me to game with.
-John-

[leadfool]

Doc,
You and Jen (well mostly Jen) are welcome up north again anytime.   For Kublacon, Pacificon or a regular Friday night game in Sacramento.

[Doc Twilight]

(I'll be sure to pass along the invite to Jen;) I appreciate the invitation. It can be difficult, as we're in Orange County, but we do at least try to get up for the cons.)

Cont.

Here, we see an overhead view of the Kansan advance. You can see an area where the Kansans have simply blasted a hole through the fenceline by the simple expediency of driving the Lancia right through it. Meanwhile, however,the Indiana Minutemen's own Ehrhardt, "General Lew Wallace", rushed ahead of the advancing Constitutionalist infantry in a bold move intended to stagger the Nationalist advance. You can see the "big blue lug" in this photo, as well. The Ehrhardt and the Lancia would spend the next few turns duking it out! The Ehrhardt, however, was slightly outclassed by the presence of another piece of Nationalist armor, an FT-17 ("Toto") which was creeping up near the Nationalist left flank.



The first shots to be fired actually came from various Kentucky Militiamen, given hidden deployment in the pre-game turn. They chose to occupy three buildings in the West end of town, roughly on the Constitutionalist Left/Nationalist Right. You can make out two of them in the overhead view on the first page: the two shop type buildings to the rear of the large work, just east of the railroad cut. (I honestly can't remember what the third building was, as some of my notes were lost when the computer had it's little accident.) The Militia commanders in this part were quite intelligent about how they handled things, instructing their men only to fire at best opportunity. There were very few "ranging" shots, and the main harassment was confined to the Nationalist columns as they emerged onto the roadways.

Meanwhile, however, as the Nationalist columns continued to gain in strength on the East end of town, the regular Constitutionalist forces rushed in in a long, intermixed column of infantry and armor. Some of the first troops to take up position were the 1st (Indianapolis) Indiana State Minutemen, who occupied the works on the northeast side of town, just west of the railroad cut, supported by the Kentuckian M1917 Char Schneider, "Louisville Slugger", which took up a good firing position near the works. The very distant green blur in the back of the image is the -only- photo of the Nationalist FT-17 "Toto" to survive from the game after the "great crash." It was one of the more aggressive Nationalist vehicles on the field at La Grange.



These were followed in short order by the men of the famous 9th Kentucky (later known as the "Kentucky State Guards" following their actions at Louisville.) In this view, you can see the Minutemen moving into position, flanked by a machine gun team of the 3rd Kentucky, which is advancing near the tenement building. If you look at the earlier photo, you can also see several of these infantry "hugging the wall of the soon to be infamous Speakeasy (a hardware store turned Speakeasy, now used as a recruitment office for the KDF) for cover.



MEANWHILE, on the West end of town, the Nationalists had apparently been given slight fits by the sudden appearance of Kentuckian gunfire, and the sound of rumbling engines, though to their credit they suspected that militia could literally be anywhere. This suspicion, when it turned out to be true, seems to have forced them to become overly cautious. Here's a good image of the 3rd Kansas, with a squad advancing in a "trench column" of men, edging their way up to the side of Chuck's Sasparilla Bar, the looming form of "General Lew Wallace" with its cross and bones graffiti grinning in the background. (A decent shot, here, which likely means I didn't take it.)



As the two sides jockeyed for position, it seems that inertia overcame the Nationalists. They played a very good game, and there were some genuine heroics. The 3rd Kansas, for example, held "Chucks" against thousands of Kentuckian rounds, waiting for an order to advance. One of the interesting side-shows was the developing battle between "Lew Wallace" and the Nationalist Lancia. This went on for several turns until a combination of lucky shots by the Lancia and an excellent round from "Toto" (the Nationalist FT-17) caused "Lew Wallace" to cease to be a threat. To its credit, Lew had held up a huge number of Nationalist troops, what with its bristling array of machine guns. To the commander's credit, it staggered the hell out of the Nationalists, who were already spooked by the Militia.



(To be continued.)

-Doc