Battle at Mad Mann's Creek (ACW)

[vtsaogames]

Yeah, my gaming group doesn't like "equal points" games, either.  In fact, we don't do points-based games at all.  We like scenario -based games...

Yes, scenarios. One thing I liked about One Hour Wargames scenarios is you didn't pick your forces, dice informed what they were.

[has.been]

If you don't already, you should play AK47 (I prefer the original/ simpler version).
In that you (carefully ? ) choose all your forces & what is the best order for them
to enter the table, only to have the dice bugger it all up!  Great fun.

[vtsaogames]

If you don't already, you should play AK47 (I prefer the original/ simpler version).
In that you (carefully ? ) choose all your forces & what is the best order for them
to enter the table, only to have the dice bugger it all up!  Great fun.

If I introduce another period and set of rules, the Fencibles will likely mass with pitchforks and torches. I like my old hide the way it is now.

[has.been]

If I introduce another period and set of rules, the Fencibles will likely mass with pitchforks and torches. I like my old hide the way it is now.

I hear you my friend. 

[remmelt55]

Dear Sir,

Can  you tell something more about the booklet, Colonels in command by Iain Dickie.
How does it work, is it still available?
It looks to me that it is some older book.

Greetings

Remmelt , Netherlands

[has.been]

Not a booklet, just a leaflet really.
I doubt it is still available.
Each commander has the same introduction to the scenario.
Confederate is on a low ridge with a fence.
Union is 500 yards away on the edge of a wood.
Each move player calls out to the umpire what they want do do that move.
N.B. this is from a list of options. The player calls out the number/letter (each side is different)
for the option they have chosen. (e.g. one might call out '3' & the umpire sees on his copy that
is 'shoot!' & would tell the other player, 'Shots are whistling passed you' The other player might
respond with, 'D' & gets his troops to lie down.
If you would like the 'full' version I'll track it down & try to scan it.

[Donkeymilkman]

Peter's done a good recap so far. So I'll recount the first battle now with a few pictures. It's been approximatley three years since I last played Rebel's and Patriot's, so my knowledge of the game was a little rusty but it was good to have a go at it again. I got first pick of forces as I arrived before James, so sat in my usual place and ended up confederate. To my joy I ended up with some lovely painted cavalry, to play around with. The basic introduction to the scenario was both the Confederate and Union sides had accidentally ran into one another causing a bust-up. Due to the Confederate's having cavalry they were allowed to place them first, without needing to role them on I believe, then it went union and confederate untill everything that achieved its activation role was on the table.



First picture shows one of the placements of cavalry (10th Virginia) on the two hills.



Second picture shows the 9th Virginia cavalry on the other hill, supported by an infantry unit.



Third picture shows the middle forces led by O'Leary.



Fourth pictures highlights my far right flank with a unit of infantry following the rode.







There three pictures highlight the areas of Union deployment I was most worried about, plus they looked cool. 

[Donkeymilkman]

Now with figures starting to make their intent clear on the field, movement of forces began. Originally I was quite worried about the infantry line following the road from the wood, as it was the closest unit to my forces. I decided to gallop the 9th Virginia Cavalry to the wall next to the wood in attempt to pick them off, however noticing how exposed James' artillery piece seemed I thought I'd risk rushing it, hopefully pushing it off the table. However, as Peter stated, this did not go to plan.





The river was quite the difficult one to forward, halfing all movement, which isnt particulary great in R&P to begin with. However due to James' failure to activate his troops it was no great issue.





In the centre and right flank, I pushed all units forward, fording the river as a slow and steady pace.



The beginning of the cavalry charge, all looking good at the moment.



Disaster! Opening fire head on, and infantry fire from both the cavalry left and right side had left it disordered. Not a great place to be but I still had confidence that the 9th Virginia may be able to take the gun out still.



The 9th hit the gun but are repulsed and eventually route the table. Not a brilliant start to the game.



It is not looking good for the Confederates. The Yanks on the Left Flank have now marched through the wood and are going to charge at the Rebels at the stone wall. However the Yanks don't roll another to actually hit the Confederate unit. As it had formed up in closed order the turn before, the Yanks are shreded and flee back into the woods.

At that point it become a fight over the centre main wall, which thanks to the Confederate infantry forming close order smashes the Union forces up. Except for the other cavalry unit, which seems to get 'lost' in the woods, not long after the other unit had been decimated.    At this point I run out of pictures, obviously trying to pull the forces into more serious action.

Lovely game, thank you Peter for hosting the game and giving us good grub. I will put up part two with the second game tomorrow.

[vodkafan]

 Great report! I have been having trouble loading up my pics to the hosting site (bad weather affecting the internet maybe) but I will try to get my pics up soon

[Donkeymilkman]

Battle of Mad Man's Creek Part Two!

After the first game we took a fay off to think of better leader names and military tactics. The reasons I think James failed to fend off the Confederates were as followed.

1) Moving units through the woods, it slowed them down for large amounts of the game and largely made them uneffective. This also happened to my second calvary unit.
2) Not rushing to get behind the second stone walls. If one side took both stone wall sides, it would lead to a strong defence position without the opposition having such. James had tried for this but had been hampered by failed activation roles.
3) Not making use of the light infantry's benefit of always being considered in soft cover. In my view the light infantry was better in the open being able to challenge the confederates infantry flanks.
4) I felt his positioning of the artillery was not brilliant, as it was fairly easy to avoid. (in the end neither was mine)

These were the four main things I thought I'd try differently. Hopefully when James writes his AAR, he'll pick out some of the points he thought he'd change of my stratergy.

These following three pictures show my union deployment.



As the Confederates got first placement of their cavalry units, James amassed them on his left flank (my right). Seeing both units on the road, and after the first game where the artillery held itself quite well I thought I'd attempt to check them with the union artillery. Right flank artillery piece coming up the road.



A picture of my centre forces, three units of infantry, the best on the left, the two naff green units in the middle and right. The square pen felt the easiest to hold and also meant I could, hopefully, get all three of these infantry units to the second stone wall, opposite the woods.



A picture of the deployment of my right flank. This was the light infantry, my aim was to push it forward to hold the bend in the road, once the infantry was against the second stone wall in the centre.



To begin with everything is going well, the artillery moves into position but refuse to fire at the cavalry regiments charging it. I rolled a double one but this was negated as the result wasn't possible by an artillery piece.



Instead my better infantry unit, after making it to the first stone wall, fired upon the first calvary unit, causing two casulaties and a disorded. It retreated! Huzzah!



Disaster strikes! Another double one which results in friendly fire, right into the unit with my officer. This caused a casualty and a disorder, effectively the main factor in the collapse of the union side.



The second cavalry regiment decends on the artillery piece. Both the artillery and infantry unit fired at the cavalry but failed to do any harm. The 10th Virginias shrugged it off.



They hit the artillery piece, this spells disaster for the poor men. The artillery boys put up a tough fight but kept getiing pushed back and taking casulaties from the cavalry. THis left my left flank pretty exposed as the 10th Virginian Cavalry were now able to flank my centre infantry units.



At the same time my light infantry successfully starts picking away at one of the centre Confederate infantry units before it can cross the creek. This meant only two infantry units had been able to cross into the centre wood, helping releave pressure on the centre three units. I was not worried about the confederate infantry unit on my right flank as James had sent it into the woods on my right flank. My belief was it would be slowed down I could beat off the first infatry unit and redeploy my light infantry before it could be a threat. This in my opinion was quite successful.

[Donkeymilkman]

At this point James tries to push up his second cavalry unit, which has already taken two casualties.



FIRE!!! After failing to dismount, the ninth has a poor time.



The good old union wiping out the 9th Virginia.



While all this action occured on my left flank, I had to decide what to do about my disordered unit with my officer. Because of the trait I pulled at the beginning of the game - Furious - I was worried about taking the second wall as, as soon as the Confederates came out the wood, I'd have to charge them. Already with a disorder marker it seemed risky to attempt to take the second stone wall. I decided to try and get rid of the disorder of the unit with the officer. But Calamity!!! The unit failed and ran. This put me in a desperate situation as now I had lost the middle unit of my centre and my +1 to command which neggated the green of some of my union units, without such it would be hard to see them act. With that in mind I attempted too fire at the Confederates coming out of the wood, rather than rush to take the second wall. Sadly this had no avail and the poor unit pictured became disordered from returning fire.



With my other remaining centre unit I attempted to push the Virginia cavalry back. This worked, but with negative consequences, the cavalry moved to the centre between the two walls and, using the skirmish action, cause my unit pictured above to take casualties and become disordered.



With this disaster of two out of my three effective units being disordered and no officer I decided all hope was lost. Therefore, I conceded. I leave this AAR with a picture of the beautifully painted light infantry still keeping that confederate unit pinned down.

Lots of post discussion talk about what we could of done differently. Re-evaluating my four points I made at the beginning:

1) I think I achieved this, once again I feel like it hampered James more than it benefited him going through the wood, though he still won. Dodging the woods does keeps your maneuverability open. However Peter pointed out you could of maybe held a better defensive/concentrated position using the road, the wood and the v shaped stone walls to your advantage. An interesting point Peter made was sometime wargamers have a tendancy to think they need to hold every area of the table, negating the potential benefit of keeping forces concentrated. That's something I'll think about next time I play a game.

2) Didn't manage it, largely because of that damned double one. I do believe the game could have gone very differently if I hadn't run that double one. D'oh! But that's what makes the game interesting and unpredictable. I did find it funny that both games had two doubel one rolls, both by the union players.

3) I think I achieved this, though Peter pointed out I'd wasted a four point unit pinning a unit that was only worth two. An interesting point but I still think I was right !

4) Hands down no, should of put it in the centre I think. I really didn't think enough about the rage of fire it had.

Overall, an interesting pair of games as it is rare to be able to play the same game twice from different sides. Good fun all round. Thank you James for a good game and Peter for hosting. I hope people find this AAR intersting and helpful. It is always interesting to process your thought-process when playing after the game.

Samuel

[has.been]

Brilliant AAR there Sam.
I must point out (day two) James massed the Confederate Cavalry on HIS right flank, i.e.
YOUR left flank.
Loved your analysis of the games, also should thank you for not mentioning my chickening out
of your offer to, 'Show us then' when I was pontificating from the sidelines about what you two
should have done.

[Donkeymilkman]

Brilliant AAR there Sam.
I must point out (day two) James massed the Confederate Cavalry on HIS right flank, i.e.
YOUR left flank.
Loved your analysis of the games, also should thank you for not mentioning my chickening out
of your offer to, 'Show us then' when I was pontificating from the sidelines about what you two
should have done.

My mistake. Maybe that's why I struggled to beat off his cavalry.  It was nice to do a game from two sides. I'll have to sort out some R&Ps forces myself now.

[has.been]

I am bound to have some ACW spare if you are interested?
You won't need many figures as I know your aversion to (cheap) Green troops.