Fire & Fury: Cedar Mountain 1862

The main event for our group on this year's Kinkkucon was the Battle of Cedar Mountain played with my 6mm ACW collection. We used the brigade Fire & Fury rules which are well suited for a game of this size. It seems our previous experience (we've gamed 1st Bull Run, a part of Chickamauga, Port Republic, Gettysburg day 1 and Antietam afternoon as bigger games using these rules) has paid off as the game progressed quickly without much need to consult the rules or anything.

I'll leave it to you to read up on the battle in Wikipedia should you be interested in the historical events. The scenario starts on the moment Crawford's union brigade gets the drop on Garnett and the surprise attack threatens to cave in the Confederate line.

Initial dispositions. Winder is about to receive a Union assault, A.P.Hill will arrive to assist and Ewell waits for a practicable moment to attack.

Union side, looking south.

Winder and Jackson are discussing the merits of lemon eating towards eliminating harmful humors when the Union forces commence the proceedings.

Garnett is taken by surprise.

Taliaferro is killed leading his brigade in a futile defence. So is Winder.. and Jackson.

A single brigade is isolated on the Confederate left.

Hill's troops start arriving on the scene, but the Confederate center is in chaos and they have to deploy into line far away from the fighting.

Brigades belonging to A.P.Hill's and Ewell's divisions attack the Union center in hopes of capturing the valuable guns on the other side.

A.P.Hill's advance through the woods is painfully slow. The Union forces give ground in the woods and flank the Confederate brigades in the field.

Despite the enfilade, the Louisiana brigade sends the Union defenders running. A shortage of ammunition plagues the boys in blue!

The entire Union artillery train fixes their guns on the Louisianans. A whopping total of 44 fire points is poured onto the Confederate ranks. a Roll of two results in only one stand being removed. Later, the artillery get another shot during the Louisianans' charge. 50 fire points and a roll of one. Two batteries are added to the tally of Forno's brigade. They truly earned their hardtack that day.

A.P.Hill bolsters the Confederate center. Things seem to settle down.

As darkness sets in, both sides attempt final charges without much effect. Brigades are pushed to and fro a couple of inches.

Final positions looking south. The line has stabilized. Ewell didn't make it into the fight with a majority of his division, as they were held in reserve for most of the game.

The game ended as an overwhelming victory for the Union with a VP difference of 30 points or something thereabouts. The initial Union success with their charge and breakthrough charge really made a difference, especially when they killed all the opposing generals involved! It meant that the historical Confederate counter was stalled because A.P.Hill had to deploy way back in the rear, and the Union forces could hold onto victory locations for quite a while. Still, it was a very entertaining game.

Antietam 150th anniversary battle in 6mm

I was supposed to write my anniversary battle report for Antietam yesterday already but I had a chance to play some Musket & Pike instead. I'm sure you understand. Note that there are a lot of pictures in this entry, probably more than you care to see :)

We played our Antietam game last weekend using the brigade Fire and Fury rules. The scenario for the northern part of the battlefield was much, much too big for our combined collections, but the afternoon battle south of Sharpsburg was much more manageable and posed an interesting scenario. In the scenario, Burnside's corps, having been stuck at the soon-to-be-named Burnside's bridge for a good while have finally gotten across and are advancing towards Sharpsburg. It is late in the day, but the Confederate defences are weak there. If successful, Burnside would threaten Lee's line of retreat. They don't know however, that A.P Hill's light division is on it's way from Harper's Ferry to reinforce the defenders.

I won't bore you with a detailed story, but rather put some comments on the pictures. It's not like any of us actually read the text in long battle reports, right?

The historical evening battle [Wikipedia]

Opening setup. The Union forces greatly outnumber the Confederate defenders but a half of the brigades are restricted from moving until a Union brigade holds a portion of Sharpsburg.

Casualties from the fight to take Rohrbach bridge litter the ground.

The chances of the Confederate defenders to stop the Union assault seem remote.

The Union forces advance to take the guns at the Confederate left and receive the opening volleys of the battle.

Union forces advance on the left. The players know of A.P.Hill's imminent arrival and the Union commanders attempt to prevent Hill from having an uninterrupted march route to Sharpsburg. Holding the town at game end will give automatic victory to Union.

Union forces assault both flanks of the Confederates. On the Union right, one brigade rolls over two Confederate batteries silenced by the massed Union artillery. Another brigade reaches Sharpsburg, releasing the rest of the Union forces if not driven off on the Confederate turn.

On the Union left, the assault fails as a tiny Confederate brigade together with a battery of guns refuse to budge. We used the casualty markers as disorder markers and the wagons to indicate low on ammo.

A.P.Hill's light division arrives on the scene. He sends half of his division to Sharpsburg and reinforces the Confederate right with the rest.

Division general Wilcox dies leading the assault on Sharpsburg. The Confederates put up a fight and drive back one of the two enemy brigades there.

Alas, one Union brigade stays in Sharpsburg until the Union turn and releases the rest of the Union forces. The Union forces outnumber the Confederates two to one.

A majority of the released troops move to oppose Hill on the Union left.

A.P.Hill and Wilcox's replacement survey the situation.

The empty spot in the center was previously occupied by a large Union brigade. They routed upon miserably failing their rally.

A large Union brigade punches through the Confederate center, isolating the Confederate force into two parts.

A.P.Hill's brigades reach Sharpsburg and not a moment too soon. After repulsing several assaults, the Confederate defenders are getting worn.

Garnett's brigade (in the foreground) prove Jackson wrong by stubbornly not retreating before a greater enemy force.

The battle is now divided in two parts. In Sharpsburg, the Confederates still refuse to give ground, and on the Union right A.P.Hill's forces are pushing back Union brigades but are in danger of being surrounded.

A Union brigade assaults the Confederate batteries, driving them away. The Confederate brigades are successfully assaulting the Union forces on the right but are being surrounded by the much larger force.

The Confederates in Sharpsburg are also badly outnumbered, but well motivated.

All hell breaks loose in Sharpsburg as the 300 remaining men in Archer's brigade first assault and drive away a 1350 man brigade and then a 900 man brigade! Some medals were earned.

On the Union left the Confederates are enveloped...

...with horrific results.

Low on ammunition, disordered and spent, the Confederates continue their heroic resistance in Sharpsburg. The battle is nearly over as twilight sets in.

The Union forces send fresh troops to the Confederate rear in Sharpsburg.

The generals take stock of the situation as the scenario ends.

The overall situation at nighfall.

The Union forces did not win by default as they didn't have an unspent brigade in Sharpsburg at the end, but the Confederate losses were grave and they lost by victory points.

The scenario started very well for the Union. Their advance was so effortless in fact, that concern was raised over the fairness of the scenario. It wasn't difficult to silence the Confederate guns on the Union right and roll them over with infantry. This made reaching Sharpsburg much easier. Upon reaching Sharpsburg the rest of the Union brigades were released, giving the Union double the troops compared to the Confederates. Most of the Union brigades were green though, and were reduced form Fresh to Worn status by the first losses, a big thing in Fire and Fury. The Confederates fought like hell and I haven't seen quite so many 10's rolled before, but in the end the outnumber factor proved too much for the Confederates to handle. They held Sharpsburg in the end and both sides had suffered roughly equal losses, but the Confederate flank had been turned. Lee would have a hard time retreating unless the cautious McClellan would order Burnside to retreat back behind Antietam creek during the night, convinced there's 100 000 more rebels hiding in the bushes. If not, maybe McClellan's wife would really get something to brag about.

American revolution: battle of Guilford

The american revolution is not my pet period, but I find coming back because of the excellent Battles of the American Revolution series of games written by Mark Miklos and published by GMT. The rules are light, smooth and fast, and manage to be so without sacrificing much realism. Gameplay rarely bogs down and the system scales well to different engagements.

Last time I got thoroughly beaten at Brandywine so I was hungry to even out the score. Simo picked the battle of Guilford court house from his collection, which we haven't played yet. To be honest, between us we have so many unplayed hex & counter battles that there rarely comes a need to revisit an already played battle! We randomised sides, and I ended up with the continentals. Again. Trying to fend off elite english troops with poorly armed and motivated militia was something I was painfully familiar with from Brandywine, and this, as I've understood it, is THE militia centric battle of the American Revolutionary War. (Disclaimer: I know this period rather poorly so please excuse me for any mistakes and misconceptions. You can correct me in the comments section.)

Opening setup from Vassal.

 I forgot my camera home, so I had only my phone to take pictures. That's why they're even more crappy than your average handheld snapshots of plexiglass covered hexmaps in poor lighting. That's why I loaded up the Vassal setup for the scenario so that you could make out at least something. Comments are also embedded into the pictures. All photos are taken from my perspective, and I was sitting at the top of the map, so imagine the Vassal map upside down to orient to the photos.

In the scenario, about 2000 English troops march onto the area, where the 4000+ Continental troops have already taken position in three defensive lines. There are three victory locations but the main objective is to break the opposing army. The Continentals cannot start moving with their main forces before word of the English attack has reached them and are even then geographically restricted in their movements.

The English column was headed by none other than Banastre Tarleton, whose infamous acts had already earned him the nickname "the bloody". Continental cavalry was posted on both main roads leading towards Guilford court house and Tarleton picked the long route to see if he could lead some troops to threathen the Continental flank. He encountered Marquis De Bretigney, a hapless French nobleman and his dragoons, with expected results. The Marquis soon found himself captive to the English, and Tarleton lead his dragoons as well as some Hessians to the Continental left flank.

On the other road, Henry "light horse Harry" Lee was expecting trouble with some dragoons and riflemen. They got more than they bargained for as the main English column lead by Charles Cornwallis, the english commander! The man who would be the father of Robert E. Lee sent a courier to Nathaniel Greene at the court house, and prepared to stall the English column.

Robert E Lee's father leads a stalling action against he English column.

The English proved too powerful to stall much, and Lee's cavalry and the riflemen were scattered in disarray to the surrounding woods. However, when out of harms way, they regrouped and prepared to put pressure to the column's rear and eliminate any stragglers.

Greene got word of the attack and as his brain had been invaded by a Finnish wargamer from the 21st century, decided to order his well placed troops to assume a new defensive position to the front. I didn't want to just sit there and wait for my opponent to come, so I advanced to a stream ahead where I could at least get one terrain modifier point for defense (you don't get any for woods and fences).

The Continentals advance to meet the English column.

 Greene also heard of Tarleton's little flanking maneuver and decided to go and meet him with a couple of regiments of Continental regulars. He sent the best of the regulars to bolster the militia line against the English column. As Tarleton saw he would be facing more than just milita, his brave advance was halted. He took a defensive position at a stream and waited.

Tarleton hesitates.

The English arrive to the militia line in column.

 The English kept a quick pace and marched in road column almost to the Continental line. Their formation was vulnerable there for a moment but with a magnificent display of drill and discipline, the English deployed into a line before the Continentals could capitalize on the situation (the English got to move twice in a row because of an initiative shift). The English struck in two powerful groups across the stream to weak points in the Continental line. The defenders were no match 1:1 against the better quality English and retreated back.

The English did make a slight blunder. They brought their guns into their right flank without infantry support, and the Continental rifles were quick to exploit the situation. They flanked the battery in the cover of the woods and overran it.

The Continentals concentrate their attack.

 The Continental line was not going to survive against the two strong English concentrations so they converged on the weaker of them in an attempt to rout them piecemeal. The colonists halfway surrounded their enemy, attacked with twice as many men and spearheaded the attack with the best troops the Continental army fielded, but it was no use. The English held, recombined their forces and forced the Continental forces back. The defenders retreated across the clearing to form a second defensive line, this time bolstered with guns.

Meanwhile, Greene had been pressing Tarleton with everything he had. The redcoats were beaten back time and again, but time and again they regrouped without appreciable effect. They did lose ground and were in no position to threathen the lone victory location they were trying to get to.

Greene presses Tarleton.

Lee's dragoons and the accompanying riflemen had been fighting hard against a rearguard left by the English but the redcoats were just superior in a one-on-one fight and Lee's forces were eventually scattered.

The beginning of he last turn.

 Even though the English had only lost one battery and one small regiment during the battle, and the Continental militia was more or less shattered, the Continentals had the upper hand in army morale. The English had been moving up and down from high morale to fatigued for a while due to some small defeats which had disordered some of the redcoats. The Continentals had managed to retreat in good order into a new position with artillery support, and so Cornwallis decided not to push on. Instead he heard the noise of battle from his rear where sporadic fighting was going on between Lee's dragoons and English rearguard and disordered main line troops. Cornwallis ordered his troops to go and assist, scattering what was left of the Continentals in the rear.

As a last action, seeing the English retreat, the Continentals advanced to retake the victory location across the clearing. The battle ended as a draw with the English having a two point lead due to all the Continental casualties.