Sigur goes South - The American Civil War

[DintheDin]

Very nice shirt colors and the shading is perfect! Congrats!

[OSHIROmodels]

Great thread mate 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

 @Flashman14: Nononononono, actually the first pic of the guys was taken Friday night, after I had received the models earlier that night and after having cleaned them. So no worries.

@DintheDin: Thanks very much!

@OSHIROmodels: Many thanks, Sir. For some reason ACWhas probably become my mainly played (and probably painted too) of periods I play.


Last night I forced myself to put as many dudes as possible in their final positions and glue them down. Surely a good move, because I can't really spend much more time playing around with highlights and shading and whatnot. Possibly. Let's see



The goal of course was to get away from two neat rows with these guys, and get the impression that they advance in a cloudy formation. After all they're depicted charging, many of them rebel-a-yellin'.

[DintheDin]

 ...many of them rebel-a-yellin'...

I almost hear them!
You have done something with your color palette, I can't take my eyes off of them! Cheers!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@DintheDin: Thanks very much! The cellphone camera keeps on messing with colours. The following shots represent the figures much better:


Heyhey, the 22nd Louisiana is done now:







I really couldn't dedicate any more time to them right now, and also didn't want to put them aside for a while until I have some more time again, because I know I wouldn't have done that. So I just finished details, put them on the bases (as seen above) and added flags. Yup, flagS. Two. That's OK, but technically it's not. From 1862 on rebel units usually only carried the Battle Flag of the Confederacy.



Union troops, as you can see in the battle reports, carried these huge, elaborate US flags as well as state flags in all kinds of variants or their very own ones. Confederate units did the same initially, but after a year or two only carrying the smaller Battle Flag was adapted to by most of the formations. Before that they carried a vast array of different flags. Early on of course most of the fighting units consisted of volunteer militias with colourful names, colourful uniforms and colourful flags. Of course that's confusing, especially as many states carried their white-sybols/lettering-on-blue-background flags; the same colours as all the other Union states carried as well.

Louisiana officials were very aware of this fact. They also didn't like to have the pelican on their war flags (in an official statement the bird was called out for his perceived cowardice and simple-mindedness), so when Louisiana seceded they also got themselves a new state flag.

The old (and current) state flag...


...and the new one:



The Many Flags that flew over Louisiana

Louisiana, ever since Spanish expeditions landed, had a whole host of flags over the centuries. First a Spanish one, but only set up in passing as they explored up the Mississippi. The French set up the first proper colony in Louisiana (hence the name, after king Louis. Most city names in the state still carry french names, such as Baton Rouge, New Orleans, etc.), and hence flew the French flag. After the French and Indian War the parts West to the Mississippi (and New Orleans) were ceded to Spain, the parts East of the river fell to Britain (controlled by a fort in the Baton Rouge vicinity). During the American War of Independence a Spanish force took the fort and thus the rest of the state from the British. Apart from that not much happened on Louisiana soil at all during the AWI.

In the first years of the 19th century Napoleon got the Spanish crown to give Louisiana to him, which wasn't only handy when bargaining with the US, it also helped having a base for his endeavors to get Haiti back from the slaves who had taken it in the Haitiian Revolution. That failed, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the US, and from that time on the US flag flew over Louisiana. By the way, this was the size of "Louisiana" when sold to the US in 1803:


Biggest trade of real estate in human history.

That's quite a lot of flags. The new Louisiana state flag from 1861 included parts of pretty much all of them.



There's the red, white and blue of course reminding us of the French, British and US flags. Okay, British influence on the state had always been less significant, even though governmental stuff and some law had been gotten from the British during their reign there. The French always had been a huge influence on Louisiana, with most of the oldest families of settlers having been French, the names all being French, and so on.

The 13 stripes were taken from the US flag and of course remind us of the 13 British colonies who declared independence. The red and yellow in the top left is a call-back to the Spanish flag, the star being a symbol of West Florida (which was a thing for a while, first state to fly the Lone Star for its flag, and then got incorporated into Louisiana).


Stars and Bars

ANYWAY, back to ACW flags in the field. Of course the official flag of the Confederacy (at least 1861 to 1863) was the Stars and Bars:



The stars of course symbolizing the states of the Confederation. First 7, then 9, then 11, and in the end 13. The last two being ...wobbly in their justification. Here's why:

The last two stars added stood for Missouri and Kentucky, both border states between North and South, both slave states. Neither of which ever officially joined the Confederacy. While Kentucky officially was neutral, Missouri officially belonged to both sides. It's complicated.

Missouri's population was generally in favour of the union and abolition of slavery. The number of inhabitants had recently grown a LOT since mostly German immigrants had come in after the revolutionary year of 1848, many of them catholic. To them the concept of slavery was just alien, especially so as they usually were people who had fought for more individual freedom in their own countries. A constitutional convention was called in, they decided (98 to 1) to remain with the Union, but to stay neutral in the case of war.

However, the governor of Missouri was a friend of the secession and had, officially due to security concerns (Yeah, sounds familiar, right?), state militias trained. Those were pro-South. The Union got concerned and feared for these militias to seize the huge St.Louis  arsenal. US army troops, backed up by quickly set up pro-Union militias (~80% of them of German descent) were sent, encircled the camp where the state militia trained and took them prisoners. These prisoners were then led throught the streets of St.Louis, which in hindsight possibly wasn't a great idea. Pro-Southern civilians were not happy and hurled insults and rocks especially at the German-American troops (because they were immigrants, many catholic AND on The Other Side). At some point a shot was fired and things went pear-shaped. Union troops opened fire at the civilians, 28 were killed outright, more than 75 wounded. Following this all hell broke loose in St.Louis and order was only restored after state of war was declared over the city.



The governor and his pro-Southern friends fled the capital Jefferson City and set up a formal Confederate government which didn't hold any real power. So in the end Missouri officially got a star in the Southern and Northern flags each, but technically can be counted as a Union state, sending ca.110,000 men to union regiments, but also ca. 30,000 men to the Confederate army (plus a number of irregular partisans fighting on Missouri territory).

Kentucky was a similar case, in which, despite the general population's sentiments, a majority of delegates voted to secede to the South, so two separate governments were set up.

A whole chaotic mess, this (civil) war. Especially in the border states this whole "brother versus brother" thing doesn't seem to be far off the literal truth.

ANYWAY, the whole Stars and Bars flag wasn't very popular, as it a.) was viewed as a simplified version of the US flag, which itself (for obvious reasons) wasn't popular in the South altogether and b.) when carried into battle it looked a LOT like the US flag and led to all kinds of oopies and hooplahs. So the confederate army pretty quickly introduced the Battle Flag of the Confederacy with the characteristic St.Andrew's cross and the stars.



This one also proved much more popular with the general population and in 1863 it was incorporated into the Confederacy's official flag (battle flag in the top left on a white field). In the 1865 version a red stripe was added to the far right. This version got known as the "blood stained banner".

...and now to return to the figures pictured above: I found a photo of the remains of the 22nd Louisiana's flag, so I printed a generic battle flag as usual, and then added the required little lettering stuffs by hand.




...and that's it for now. Hope you like the figures!

[arktos]

What an inspiring and joyfull thread ! Excellent thematick work, very focused !
My hat's off for you sir ! 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Arktos: Thanks very much for the comment!





Right, last night it was time for our third Longstreet Campaign Game!



After a month off we met again for our third game; battle #2 in 1862. The scenario's The Crossroads from the Longstreet rulebook. It's rather simple: there's an important crossroads to take for the attacker, the objective is sitting right off the middle.



I played the Confederates (Herbert P.Soup's brigade) and virago took on the role of Brig.Gen.O'Goedel once more on the Union side.

Despite the shabby state of my cavalry I won the Scouting roll to determine who'd choose to be attacker or defender. Luckily I had drawn the Code Breaker card last campaign phase, so I had a bonus on that roll. I chose to be attacker this time.

The mission objective was to secure a few very important people whose cart had broken down and they were stranded.



Deployment



My right flank and centre:


Opposite to them the Union had deployed the two Irish New York regiments (69th and 63rd) as well as a large new regiment, the 114th Illinois.

At my left my opponent had deployed his Zouaves, the Garibaldi Guard, a small battery of artillery from Rhode Island and, at the forefront, but cosily in the cover right in front of a small forest, the 55th New York infantry regiment with their red trousers and kepis.



My own forces on my left consisted of the veteran Mechanics Guard Volunteers and the remains of the 8th Louisiana infantry.



I start the game by having my right flank advance...


...towards the enemy regiments behind the woods/corn fields:


My rebel guns (Moody's Lt. Artillery) are brought into position on the hill and open fire to cover the advance.


At my left my regiments sit while at the other side of the road there's a lot of enemy activity. Enemy cavalry mount up and gallop to the left, followed by the Garibaldi Guard and the Zouaves in column. The 55th NY leave their position and cross the road, while the artillery battery is ordered back to the centre.



Seems like Union troops' approach to defending the crossroads takes a very proactive turn.


Arriving at the far left, the Union infantry columns deploy in line. 55th NY advances even further into firing range of my units. Thus they cover the cavalry who now take a sharp turn on the road and move to the centre/right of the battlefield.




In the mean time the Rhodes Island Artillery moves to the centre:



The 55th NY infantry on the one side and the Mechanics Guard and 8th Louisiana infantry on the other start exchanging fire, as the Union cavalry advances even further, exploiting a gap between my troops...


...and approaching my artillery fast. This is not good. My artillery is ordered to limber up and get out of there before the enemy charges. Meanwhile the 3rd Louisiana infantry regiment is sent to fend of the horsemen.




A little overview of the movement so far:


...and from the other side:

The long, winding arrow of course being the Union cavalry.

The Louisiana Tiger Zouaves, with the help of a company sharpshooters, combat the Irish regiments through the woods, albeit with terribly little success. In the mean time the "Polish Brigade" (14th Louisiana) dash on to hit enemy lines. The new-ish recruits of the 22nd Louisiana, who already had suffered badly from enemy artillery, had a similar plan, but once they're in the tall cornfields they get startled, fire a volley, and get completely confused by limited visibility, shellshock and heat.
 
When they finally get out of this huge maze of maize they find themselves not only in front of the Union artillery who had battered them before (to their luck the artillery at this point has limbered up), but also with the huge regiment from Illinois to their flank. Yikes.



Ironically they're really close to the mission objective at this point. The situation's all but nice though. In the following minutes the 22nd Louisiana is broken and the remnants flee the scene.


The Polish Brigade, lonely spearhead of my brigade, manage a minor breakthrough in the mean time, despite being pestered by enemy artillery.



However, there's nobody to support them, and their state quickly changes from "breakthrough" to "sitting in the open in an enemy crossfire", as the Illinois regiment turns around.


On the left flank the firefight between the Mechanics Guard and 8th Louisiana and the 55th New York goes on. Unfortunately the Garibaldi Guard and Union Zouaves got close enough to help their comrades now, and the Mechanics Guard are starting to feel the damage.

At this point the rebels start two desperate charges, which either end with little success...



...or disaster.



Another Victory for the Union.

Time to clean up.




We quickly proceeded to the Campaign Phase, the administrative part.

My opponent's birgadier general was promoted thank to him being so well connected, my brigadier general got no promotion (surprisingly ).

Then each of us drew their campaign cards. Virago drew this:



All nice things, actually. Especially See The Elephant and Transfer. That'll get the Union Veteran regiments they sorely missed so far. Brig.Gen. (or what ever he is now after the promotion) also gets another Biography Card, which is basically useful character traits for small bonuses. In addition to him being a political powerhouse, an outspoken abolitionist and a capable cavalry commander, he also got Artillery Commander on top of that. That'll be useful for him.


My campaign cards:


Also nice things, and I'm rather sure most of them will be discarded in favour of replenishing my units.

The usual unit shrinkage due to sickness and desertion hit us both roughly equally this time.

So yeah, that's that. So much for our third campaign game. So far the war didn't go all too well for me, but who cares about two ruddy years? It's 1863 now, and things will turn around for sure!


Hope you liked the battle report! See you soon!
 

[DintheDin]

Beautiful! Just so beautiful!!! 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@DintheDin: Thanks very much!

Hullo.

The past Friday I had a game of Over Malvern Hill by Stand To Games.



Stand To Games are a relatively new wargames rules publishing company (I think since 2016?). They're the guys behind the Albion Triumphant supplements for Black Powder, Forager, Rise again and Fight and Over the Hills. As far as I know this is their first tour into the ACW.

The rules (A4 format, ring bound, full colour) aim to depict battles of 2-3 brigades or more per side.

Once more LAF's own Cpt.Shandy (of The Raft fame: https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/) had prepared a very nice scenario and provided his 15mm collection to play with. We play a game based on the battle of Blackburn's Ford which took place on 18th July 1861, three days before the first battle at Bull Run / of Manassas.



The green Unionist troops were looking for a way across Bull Run river to meet the equally green army of the secessionist states. Blackburns Ford was identified as one of the possible ways across the river. Scouts had spotted a rebel artillery battery, but no infantry. Brigade commander Israel B. Richardson was sent out with his infantry brigade, a battery of cannon and a squadron of cavalry to cross the river.


Israel B. Richardson

The Confederate side was well aware of the importance to keep the enemy from doing just that, so every single possible river crossing was being guarded by at least one brigade. Blackburn's Ford was under the command of a certain James Longstreet. The sloped banks of the river were (and still are) heavily vegetated, so his brigade was well hidden from Union scouts.


James Longstreet

On our gaming table all of that looks like this:


At the centre you can see Bull Run river, the bridge in the right is Blackburn's Ford, behind it you can see the Confederate artillery battery. The ford in the left is another possible river crossing. The rebel brigade under Longstreet (2 infantry regiments from Virginia, 1 artillery battery of good old Washington Artillery in a fortified position), to be deployed anywhere on their side of the river. I play the defenders in this scenario.

Richardson's Union brigade (3 infantry regiments, 1 artillery battery [typically a bit stronger than the rebel artillery], 1 cavalry squadron) enters the table on turn 1 via the  road in the North. Cpt.Shandy plays the union force.



To complicate things, the river banks are heavily overgrown with bushes, small trees, etc.


Mid-green fields depict LOS-blocking, difficult terrain (1" of viewing distance in and out), the dark green fields (essentially everything with a dark brown base) depict thick forests, which are even more difficult to maneuver in. Neither can be traversed by artillery.

From turn 3 we roll for reinforcements. If they don't show up in turn 3 they automatically arrive at turn 4. The Union force wins if they either force the rebel force to retire or if by the end of the game they hold a position (without any immediate danger) on the other side of the river. The rebels win if they prevent the opposition from doing either by the end of the game.

Cpt.Shandy sends the cavalry down the road to scout ahead. His infantry follows in open column, as well as the limbered artillery. The annoying thing of course is that his columns are open to being fired upon by my artillery as they pass Blackburn's Ford.



After a turn of such fire Cpt.Shandy orders the cavalry back and dismount to act as a screen to his infantry columns. A wise move, unfortunately this led to a.) the dismounted cavalry sitting a bit too close to the cannons and b.) the dismounted cavalry getting out of Richardson's command radius, and thus they were pretty much unable to do anything. The cavalry takes a battering and falls back in a safer distance.



After these initial shots immediately another Union brigade arrives. Another 3 infantry regiments and 1 artillery battery. The brigade is led by a young officer named William T. Sherman.

Richardson's Brigade marches further down the road and seems to aim to simultaneously attack the ford to my left as Sherman's brigade attacks Blackburn's Ford. Luckily for me rebel reinforcements arrive shortly thereafter in the shape of Jubal A. Early's brigade: 3 infantry regiments (among them the good men of the 7th Louisiana) and an artillery battery. This one set up right next to their comrades of the Washington Artillery to set up a big battery. However, Richardson's brigade splendidly marching to their left looked so scary that they limber up again to set up to protect the left river crossing.



Not a second too early, as a first Yankee regiment crosses the ford and changes formation to line. To their left the sole Union regiment with fancy new rifled muskets take position to give covering fire. However, they got nobody to shoot at as I have my regiment opposite to them retire into the woodland to meet anybody crossing the river without exposing themselves.



The Union regiment who has made it axcross the river now sits in an unfortunate situation: enemies to their left and right, another enemy regiment to their front, as well as enemy artillery. The latter two can't see them at the moment, but still, they're there. And the woodland prevents any friendly support fire from across the river.

Richardson is well aware of the importance of the next moments, so he personally whips another regiment across the river to support the spearhead.



Unfortunately the inexperienced soldiers hesitate to charge bayonet. The union line stays put, returning fire at the rebel regiments at short range. 2 out of 3 of my regiments are able to fire at them, because space is a little tight.

In the mean time Sherman has brought up his cannon to fire at my artillery across the river at Blackburn's Ford. Counter-battery (and counter-counter battery) fire ensues. I roll a bit better (and got the advantage of fortifications), so my artillery performs well in this duel. In the mean time the other two regiments of Early's rebel brigade (the strong 7th Louisiana and a smaller Virginian regiment in the far right) take position to the left and right of the ford. With his brigade stretched out like that, Early has a bit of a hard time keeping an overview.



On the left river crossing the Union regiment takes a lot of fire. Ultimately they have to retreat back across the river, through the ranks of their comrades following up.



The attack at the left ford seems to be repulsed for now. Still, I keep my regiments back and hidden in the overgrowth.

After a cunning attempt at setting up my infantry guarding the left to be enfiladed (which only failed because the Yankee troops on the left folded a moment too early) Sherman, after a short skirmish across the river, aims to force a decision in a frontal attack across Blackburn's Ford.



At this point the gun battery of Early's brigade has moved back to line up with the Washington artillery again and the attack crumbles under the combined canister fire of the two batteries. The brave men of the Union regiment storming on breaks, flee, and lead to some confusion among the ranks of the following infantry.

The Yankee attack on Blackburn's Ford is repulsed, it's a victory for the Confederacy.




Nice set of rules, that Malvern Hill. There's no gimmick to them, but they work. Including explanation of the basic rules and a little consultation of the rulebook here and there we managed to play the game in about 2.5 hours.

The turn sequence is clever (and if I remember not unlike the General de Brigade family of rules): The turn starts with player Blue's movement phase (followed by a rally phase), then player Red fires, player Red moves (and rallys) and then play Blue gets to fire. Firing first and moving later I think is a pretty good mode for games set between the 17th and 20th century. Units who fire in their fire phase may not move during the following movement phase (which is why we use cotton wool to mark units who fired).

Each unit has a number of Fatigue points on which their combat value/strength is based. These aren't only being tracked for the unit individually, but also for the whole brigade (= the sum of fatigue points of all units in the brigade).

Loss of Fatigue points depicts a mix of disorder, fatigue, dead/wounded and morale and reduces the unit's strength in combat (and base of morale rolls). The clever thing is that by Rallying commanders may replenish units' fatigue points, however the fatigue damage on the overall brigade Fatigue score 'sticks'. This means that the overall brigade morale and coherency will wane over time. If a brigade has taken so and so many % of Fatigue damage they start to falter.



What also added to the game was something Cpt.Shandy had already used in his Over Malvern Hill solo test game: A deck of friction cards. You can read more about this here in the report of his first game: https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/first-game-of-over-malvern-hill/

Put shortly: card drawing mechanics rock. You can do as much and as little as you like, you can tailor make them to fit a scenario, and you can introduce them to pretty much any game.

I recommend having a look at these rules. Works really well for ACW battles. Many thanks to Cpt.Shandy for another fun game, and I hope that you enjoyed this little battle report!

[DintheDin]

A thrilling game! Thank you for sharing!

I also mention your words:
...card drawing mechanics rock. You can do as much and as little as you like, you can tailor make them to fit a scenario, and you can introduce them to pretty much any game...

Yes, indeed! We have played many exciting games like that! Especially if you tailor them, they can produce a fantastic game! Cheers!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@DintheDin: Thanks for the comment (and a happy new year!).

Right, last night I had my first game of 2019!

Following the trend of last year it was another game of Sharp Practice with Cpt.Shandy's great 15mm ACW collection.

We used an Ambush scenario based on suggestions from Wargames Illustrated #365:



Ambushes are one of the very basics of warfare on a tactial level, but a bit problematic to depict on the tabletop. The worst case being that a player knows that at turn 3 exactly from the middle of the long table edge over there

• units of type [y] will show up and attack me. This is quite contrary to every single principle of an ambush. The suggestions from the WI magazine come in very handy and are pretty cleverly thought out.

Basically the idea is that in this scenario neither of the players know WHO gets ambushed. Our forces start with the mission to secure and hold a crossroads in the middle of a small hamlet of buildings. For this each of us has 3 groups of line infantry and a group of Native American troops as irregular skirmishers.

At a certain point in time the additional forces lying in ambush  spring into action. On whose side they fight will only be decided at this point, so until the very moment the ambush springs you don't know if you're the one getting ambushed of it it's the other guy. Either way, at this point the objective of the ambushed side changes to "get your troops off the table as safely and quickly as possible". OR of course try to be a hero and still fulfill the original mission. Which of course is tough.

Cpt.Shandy, my opponent in this game, has played such a scenario before. Here's his battle report: https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2018/04/08/ambush-a-sharp-practice-aar/


Another thing to me of course was the premier of indian troops in a game of Sharp Practice:


For more information on how the models were converted and about the role of native american troops in the Civil War, have a look at Cpt.Shandy's excellent article here: https://wargamingraft.wordpress.com/2018/07/21/native-americans-in-the-acw/

[size=18]
The Game[/size]

This is what the game looks like:


Once more I took the role of the Confederate commander, Cpt.Shandy played the Yankee troops. In the beginning each side has a Level 3 Leader, 3 groups of infantry and a group of Cherokee / Union Indian Brigade (classed as irregular skirmishers), each with a Level 1 leader. My infantry had the Rebel Yell special characteristic. I think the Union troops had the usual Stubborn characteristic. My Cherokee got Prominent Leader, Buck&Ball, Aggressive and something else. The Union Indian Brigade were less aggresssive and went out without a Prominent Leader. Instead they go rifled muskets whereas my native americans only had smoothbore muskets.

Controlling the objective provides a bonus to Force Morale, to give a bit of an incentive to players to take the objective.

I start the game by leading my infantry and skirmishers onto the table, line infantry in open column.




My opponent follows suit, albeit his troops seem to be able to advance much, much faster. His Indian Brigade group advances across a field and immediately opens fire at my skirmishers.



An overview of what happens during the first few turns:

The Yankee column svivels to the right and marches around the built up area. Union skirmishers take cover behind a fence and keep firing at my approaching force. Seeing as how the chaps in blue advances very quickly and my dudes being very slow thus far I have to act defensively. The plan is to have my commander take two groups, form line in front of the Union skirmishers and blast them to hell. Then I hop over the fence and take the crossroads while the Union line troops are being harassed and delayed by my own skirmishers and a single group of infantry. Once the crossroads is secure, the commander can rush over to help with that. IF I was to be ambushed I can still retreat along the road I came onto the table relatively unharmed, seeing as to my left  there'd be forests and to my right LOS-blocking, high-standing crops. Perfect plan, what could go wrong?



Unfortunately my guys refuse to advance swiftly. At all. Appearantly they heard rumours of beastly Natives sitting behind every rock.
So my guys act all 'sticky' and time passes. Possibly sitting back is even to my advantage, as groups of figures appear on the hill across the table.



Two more groups of Native Americans in blue jackets enter the table, carrying all-new rifled muskets. Oh my.



In the photo above you can see what happens next: I proceed with my plan on the right flank. Present, Fire, Bang!, the Union skirmishers across the field take a fair amount of damage.

On my left I send my infantry into the cornfield. In the last game I've had good exeriences with single groups of infantry using the cover of cornfields to delay larger formations.

My Cherokee moved to the right to fill the gap in the centre. Their Prominent Leader, using dramatic gestures to encounrage his men, steps into Something Horrible. This effectively reduces his status (from 1 to 0), because his best mokassins are all messed up and his men are well amused. The leader would have to find a source of water to wash off the Horrifying Substance, otherwise it would be very, very hard to get the Cherokee to do anything at all. He considers the usual options: Church, stoup - impossible; the enemy's swarming all over the church.
Trough in the pig pen - uuuuurgh. Not if this can't be avoided at all. Also, in direct line of fire of the slight decimated Union skirmishers. Then he gazes to his left and the problem is solved:



Through a coincidence only possible in Sharp Practice the whole affair took place right in front of a shoe store! The Cherokee decide to do a shopping tour.

At my left other remarkable things happen: The Union line troops are mighty unimpressed by the random shots my guys take at their column. They form up in close column (or rather attack column), lower bayonets and charge my line infantry!



My guys get beat up bad and retreat.

In the mean time the Cherokee shop for shoes and hats. Here and there one of them takes a shot at the union column, but due to lack of volume of fire the results are minimal.

At this point I decide to retire off the table. My officer has his line on the right turn around and - true to their form - they sloooooooooooowly start making their way back down the road. While doing so the rampaging Union infantry had made it through the cornfield to meet my infantry. During the whole chaos my officer accidently gets pitchforked into a ditch by the road. Lateron some men would claim (outside earshot) that he had dove there to take cover.

In this second bayonet charge carried out by the Union within a short timeframe they again prevail with minimal casualties. my infantry group gets routed off the table. My commander, once he looks up from his ditch screams at the remaining group of infantry to leg it and follows suit.

Now all I have left on the table is the Cherokee still sitting in the shoe store, but they realize that it's time to take off too. Again, very slowly. In war it is said that complicated things become very simple, but the simple things become very complicated. Like crossing a road in new, and not yet broken in pumps.

My stalking skirmishers get fired at from both sides (first time the union infantry fire this game, before that they've only used their bayonets), and THEN they get charged by Union Native troops and break. Bad, bad things.

To make their victory total the remaining union troops take out my deployment point and caputure the crossroads.


It's a [size=18] Victory for the Union[/size]!




Debriefing

Another fun game. The ambush scenario is very, very interesting. We changed it a little, so it makes more sense (like making the ambushing force a fair bit larger). Of course adding another Sergeant (lvl1 leader) to each side would have made things easier. But you have to make do with what the scenario provides. Irregular skirmishers are fun to use. The rules never cease to provide a fun game with memorable moments and a good narrative. The shoe store I think made its debut in this game and already became somewhat of an MVP.

The subtle conversion work done by Cpt.Shandy on the native american troops are something behold; i strongly suggest looking at his article on his blog (link above). As always, fun was had and a good start into the gaming year 2019!

[DintheDin]

Fun and exciting game, spiced by your humorous narration!
The Wargames Illustrated ambush idea is excellent and I may borrow it in one of my next scenarios!
Really great!

I like also your tabletop terrain it is uncluttered and one can very easily understand what the troops are doing.

This thread of yours is always a must-read for me, thank you for posting!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Cheers, it's all Cpt.Shandy's terrain and figures. I only do ACW in 28mm. But I greatly enjoy playing it in 15mm, be it skirmishes or battles.

[Gargobot]

The urge to write ... something, something... will rise again... MUST! RESIST!

Very nice read. Is that shoe shop owner somehow related to you btw?

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Gargobot: :O He hath returned! Yeah, the name's based on one of my alter egos set in the ACW from that Kriegsspiel-esque play-by-email acw scenario umpired by Cpt.Shandy.