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Always appreciated.
Right, now for something different for a bit. Yesterday I had my first game in our Longstreet Campaign!
Here's Col.Herbert P.Soup's Brigade. Before deploying to the front lines a pastor preaches sermon and reads from The Good Book.
Then it's off to the front. First we drew Biography Cards for our brigade commanders. These depict character traits of our commanders in the shape of special rules. Virago and I each drew three such cards and were free to discard one and keep the other two.
Virago, in this campaign to take the role of Union Col. Hiram O'Goedel, chose the following:
O'Goedel plays the long game. From 1863 on things would get very interesting indeed.
Whereas I, in my role of Confederate Col. Herbert P.Soup, chose these:
I chose a personal physician (never a bad thing), and for Col.Soup to be a veteran of the Mexican War, giving an option for additional dice in close combat (along with the danger of getting wounded, but that's what a physician is for).
The campaign itself is rather simple. We play the full length of the way. One game for 1861, two games for 1862, three in 1863, two in 1864, and one final game in 1865. The winner isn't necessarily determined by winning games, but by building legacy. A brigade (which is the force each of us commands) won't change the course of the war. It's about accumulating Epic Points (EP). These are gained from:
.) Participating in a battle
.) Winning a battle
.) Achieving Mission Objectives during a battle
.) Grand bayonet charges or repelling bayonet charges without taking any causalties
.) Spezial scenario specific situations
.) EP may also be granted via special situations if both players agree on it.
The first scenario:
The middle of the table is full of high-standing crops which reduce sight and firing effectiveness to just a few inches. After terrain setup and deploying the figures the table looked as such:
...and here with a ton of explanatory text:
Col.Hiram O'Goedel's Union Brigade (defenders):69th New York Infantry (10 Bases, Eager Recruits)
39th New York Infantry, the Garibaldi Guard (10 Bases, Eager Recruits)
63th New York Infantry (10 Bases, Eager Recruits)
7th Pennsilvania Cavalry (8 Bases, Eager Recruits)
Battery G, 3rd New York Light Artillery (2x 6pdr Smoothbore Guns, 1x Howitzer)
Col.Herbert P.Soup's Confederate Brigade (attackers):9th Louisiana Infantry / 1st Louisiana Special Battalion "Tiger Zouaves" (10 Bases, Eager Recruits)
3rd Louisiana Infantry (10 Bases, Eager Recruits)
8th Louisiana Infantry (10 Bases, Eager Recruits)
2nd Louisiana Cavalry, "Partisan Rangers" (8 Bases, Eager Recruits)
Moody's Company, Madison Light Artillery (2x 6pdr Smoothbore Guns, 1x Howitzer)
Each side has an objective in their deployment zone as well. Controlling those by the end of the game grants extra Epic Points.
My rebels deployed in marching column, the artillery was limbered.
The union brigade was deployed in line and with guns deployed:
Garibaldi Guard in their snazzy uniformsBelow you will find an overview of what happened during the first few phases of the game: Union cavalry, screened by infantry to their side, advances swiftly at my right flank and threatens my artillery. At the centre the Garibaldi Guard advances steadily to meet the 3rd Louisiana infantry. My cavalry stays at the left flank while 8th Louisiana turns face and marches towards the centre.
As a result 3rd Louisiana charges Garibaldi Guard who under light losses fall back. After this the Louisiana boys sit right in front of the Garibaldi Guard infantry and Union artillery.
At my left flank Union soldiers (mostly Irish actually) advance in a wide line. My Cavalry can do little to stop them, so they slowly give way. At my right flank my Tiger Zouaves fanned out i line to cover the limbered artillery from the Union cavalry. 8th Louisiana hangs back for reserve.
The Zouaves start an attack against the 63th New York to stop their advance. At the other flank my cavalry charges the Union regiment to their front head on. This generally never is a good idea, but it's 1861, we're rebels / Southern Chivalry, Eager Recruits and I had a slightly helpful card to play. Of course I forgot about making use of my Mexican War Veteran trait which would have given me extra dice to roll. Shame. Either way, the whole operation didn't go too well. The Tiger Zouaves did minimal damage and the cavalry even had to take losses and retreat.
In the mean time 3rd Louisiana is still stuck at the centre and tied up by fire, starting to take losses.
Now the Union mount a counter attack.
Infantry and cavalry attack my Zouaves at once. I had gambled away a potentially very helpful card at that point. On top of that the dice rolled very well for my opponent. Green dice are my successes, red and white are successes of the Union player. Ouch. The Tigers were completely broken.
At this point orderly retreat became a viable option. Not possible though, as the 3rd Louisiana was still stuck in their predicament. The game went on a tiny bit longer until my brigade reached the break point and the game ended.
Campaign Phase
In the end both of us had gained 5 Epic Points. We immediately did the post-game campaign stuff. From experience we know that if we don't do it immediately after the game it will never happen. We started with the most important thing - promotions. Longstreet makes use of an abstract ranking system for brigade commanders (1, 2 and 3 Eagles). Those can be equalled to historical ranks or not. As both of us started as Colonels and got our promotions both our characters now are Brigadier Generals (= 2 Eagles rank).
Then we went on to recovering wounded and fled troops. The Tiger Zouaves of course had taken bad, bad casualties, the rest was kinda OK. But then Cholera and camp fever struck the rebels. This cost me quite a lot of bases. Those additional losses were lighter on the Union side. The Elan rating of my Zouaves and the 3rd Louisiana got reduced from Eager to Seasoned. On the Union's side all troops stayed Eager.
The next step was drawing campaign event cards and replacements. The union brigade regained a few bases lost to cholera. On top of that raiding cavalry had gotten my brigade's marching orders in hands, which would be of help to my opponent for the next game. I got a few nice cards, allowing me to advance the 3rd Louisiana to Veterans and from the next game on the veteran 14th Louisiana (also known as the "Polish Brigade" of New Orleans) would be part of my brigade.
The 5th New York Infantry would joint my opponent's brigade from the next game on. Apart from that us both got the Sabotage card, which would also come into play at the start of our next game.
Post-Game MusingsWell, this didn't go that well. I don't play Longstreet often enough. Must be that, right? No, of course I made mistakes. At one point I made a bad decision, and the Union counter attack was pretty ghastly. Never mind, now I got veterans on my side and there's always another battle (well, for most). Apart from that I got that promotion and that's what it's all about, right?
For our next game the brigades look as such:
Brig.Gen. Hiram O'Goedel's Union Brigade:69th New York Infantry (8 Bases, Eager Recruits)
39th New York Infantry, the Garibaldi Guard (8 Bases, Eager Recruits)
63th New York Infantry (8 Bases, Eager Recruits)
5th New York Infantry (6 Bases, Eager Recruits)
7th Pennsilvania Cavalry (8 Bases, Eager Recruits)
Battery G, 3rd New York Light Artillery (2x 6pdr Smoothbore Guns, 1x Howitzer)
Total: 41 Bases
Brig.Gen. Herbert P.Soup's Confederate Brigade: 9th Louisiana Infantry / 1st Louisiana Special Battalion "Tiger Zouaves" (6 Bases, Seasoned Recruits)
3rd Louisiana Infantry (7 Bases, Seasoned Veterans)
8th Louisiana Infantry (6 Bases, Eager Recruits)
14th Louisiana Infantry, "Polish Brigade" (6 Bases, Seasoned Veterans)
2nd Louisiana Cavalry, "Partisan Rangers" (4 Bases, Eager Recruits)
Moody's Company, Madison Light Artillery (2x 6pdr Smoothbore Guns, 1x Howitzer)
Total: 32 Bases
Well, let's see how that'll go. Longstreet is a solid, solid set of rules and the campaigh rules included are real good fun. Hope you liked this first campaign report!