Altar of Freedom - 1st Bull Run

[ilkley Old School]

I have had Altar of Freedom (AoF) for nearly 4 years. I finally got my first game played last week and played the first battle of Bull Run or as the Confederates call it 1st Manassas.





I used my 10mm figures which are based for DBACW with Infantry on 40 by 20mm and artillery on 40 by 40mm and played on 4.5ft by 3ft table. AoF uses Infantry on 60 by 30mm and a 6 by 4ft table. Each unit is a brigade.



In the game the Federals decided to defend Centreville. This allowed Beareguard to take the initiative and once he had got across Bull Run to launch attacks on the defending Union troops particulary on the flanks.





By move 7 not only had the rebels taken Centreville they had destroyed 5 union units.



On reflection the Union should have defended the Bull Run crossings and been more aggressive although McDowells personality traits do not help him coordinate only allowing 1 division to activate per priority level. This is a tough one for the Union to win and needs   the Union player to try and isolate and pick off any isolated Confederate units before they can consolidate and use their better brigades to gain the advantage.

A fun game with an interesting bidding system and use of priority points.

[SJWi]

Lovely looking game. My mates and I play AoF in 6mm, and recently played the Peachtree Creek scenario from the "Atlanta is Ours" scenario book.  I think we are now getting the hang of them, especially how to use the turn clock to ones's best advantage. We just don't play ACW enough !