A War on Three Fronts - week 1

Background

This week we began our ACW campaign - its a fictional scenario based in Maryland's Patuxent Valley as both sides battle for control of the of the valley. We're using Osprey's Rebels and Patriots.

 The campaign depicts action across three “fronts” with players fighting battles each turn to advance their cause in the Upper, Middle and Lower zones. Each sides status in each zone is tracked with success in a zone influencing the battles fought in future and the forces available. Each front has three characteristics; who’s in control, its stability, and its supply status. These are used to track the course of the war.

A narrative element will be added to the campaign based on past events and player inputs such as newspaper reports or dispatches. This will mostly provide background for each game but may also be applied to scenario details.

Ultimate victory is achieved if either side can cause all three fronts to collapse.

Week 1

This week both sides advanced across all three fronts and so we had meeting engagements across the board. On all three tables the aim was to capture a strategic hill and hold it for the most turns. On two tables we played 28mm games (24 points and 32 points) and the final table was in 20mm at 24 points. 

On the 20mm table the Union forces got into position early and were able to shoot down the approaching Confederates, assisted greatly by a rash of Double-1s from the Rebs on the activation dice. This was a 6 to -1 result due to some dishonourable conduct by the Confederate officer.

Victorious Union troops on the hill 

The larger 28mm game was a close fought affair with some too'ing and fro-ing around the objective and limited casualties on both sides. It ended as a tight 3-2 win for the Rebs.

Rebs take the hill

32 point game

The smaller 28mm involved some fairly bloody action intense action around the objective and some lusty bayonet charges. This was a 6-3 win for the Rebs.

Natives in the service of the Rebs

Campaign Situation

After the first week the Rebs have a small lead having won two of the games but there is good spread of honour across the various officers. The Rebs use of lots of Green troops proved double edged with more troops available but activation harder.

          

Znaim 1809 - A Shadow of the Eagles game

This past weekend I hosted a large game of SOTE and were joined by the author (Keith Flint), which helped us keep straight on the rules. A couple of the players have large Austrian collections so that pushed us towards the campaigns of 1809. I went for Znaim as unusually it featured a good quality Austrian force. 

Background - Following defeat at Wagram, Charles withdrew into Bohemia. Marmont was in pursuit and attacked what he thought was Charles' rear guard, only to find himself facing a larger force than expected.  We fought day 1 were the French had the initial advantage and so were on the attack.  

We followed a historical deployment with Murray's brigade well forward and under attack from the Bavarian's. 

French Leger ready to attack 

Bavarians ready to attack Tesswitz

Austrians holding Tesswitz 

As the main French force advanced the Bavarians launched a series of attacks into Tesswitz but were beaten back with one of their two brigades badly damaged. The Austrian Grenadiers launched their own attacks into  Zuckerhandel but were unable to dislodge the Leger who had garrisoned the village. 

Struggle for Tesswitz 

With their assault on Tesswitz not going well, the French launched a major cavalry attack through the centre of the field. An impressive sight as they ran straight into the Austrian Cuirassiers.

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Grand cavalry melee in the centre

After a bitter struggle the French again failed to break through the lines. With the light fading and Austrian reinforcements arriving they pulled back to lick their wounds. The result on VPs was a 3-1 win to the Austrians. Tesswitz was still in Austrian hands and the baggage was safe but the French had captured Zuckerhandel and badly mauled  Steyrer's Grenadier division. 

Zuckerhadel still in French hands

We've not played SOTE in a while but the simultaneous movement, and streamlined rules, meant we got through plenty of turns despite not having played the rules in a while. Both sides made some mistakes but perhaps the divisive ones were the Bavarians initial attack being a bit piecemeal and the French charging into fresh Austrian squares in the west of the field. 

A nice fun game though and we'll be returning to SOTE for a future Peninsula campaign.         

   

  

Kings and Rebels

 A few games this week to provide highlights for. 

We had our second practice game of ACW in preparation for the campaign starting next week. People have been busy painting so we've lots of figures to go around. We did a simple attack vs defence game based on the Battle of Kettle Run, mirrored on two tables.

I also took a trip into the Forest of Dean for game of Beneath the Lilly Banners. It was a continuation of our narrative campaign based on the events after the Battle of Poltava. In this episode the Swedish king is trying to escape across a river guarded by Russian troops. Both sides have additional units rushing to the scene.

Swedish foot

Russian foot

The Swedes were able to punch through the Russian lines and create a gap for the King to begin moving through whilst holding off Russian reinforcements.

Militia defending a wagon lager 

Thinking he had more time than he did the King dallied on the threshold of escape to direct operations. The game ended with him half way across the bridge to a losing draw for the Swedes?    

Swedes holding off the Russian reinforcements 

Swedish assault goes in

American War - Three Ways

A few photos from various games over the last two weeks. All happen to be from the American theatre with an AWI game and brace of ACW games using very different systems.

AWI - Loose Files and American Scramble

This was very much a try-out as couple of folks have figures they rarely use and fancied trying out the Loose Files and American Scramble rules. This is a free set previously published in Wargames Illustrated and now available from Wyre Forest Gamers website.    

Hessians advance on US regulars

More Hessians

The game has three core systems:

• Movement rates are variable so manoeuvres can get broken up
• Units accumulate Disorders Points (DP) from moving, casualties and fighting. This degrades you and eventually you start to loose casualties. They can be rallied off by better troops.
• Command Points (CP) are used to issue orders and help rally off DPs. 

US Militia defending some heights

It was ok and for a free set you have to make allowances. We liked the variable movement but found the order system and CP use confusing. We'll try some other sets and may return in future if we dont find anything better.  

ACW - Rebels and Patriots

The second game was a first practise for our new campaign. We've played R&P a few times so this was mostly a reminder. We played a single large game with everyone having a couple of units. As with other Dam Mersey games you dice for activation and throw dice to shoot/fight against a target score. All very simple with all the complexity going into the scenario design.

A battered Union unit

Rebs advance on an objective

Lots of people have chipped-in figures for this campaign with Perry accounting for most of the units. Their newer plastic figures are excellent and respond well to washes for added depth to the colours. 

My Union lurking at the back

It was a simple game of capturing two objectives. The Confederates won in 1-0, partly thanks to my Union troops failing to move for most of the game.  

Confederates from Perry

ACW - Blucher

Blucher is best know as a grand scale Napoleonic system but I felt it would convert well to ACW. Partly I was spurred on by having a large collection of 15mm and being gifted my brothers. After a few weeks of rebasing this was the first outing. For scale each of the bases is 150mm x 100mm.

Union attack in their centre

Long shot of Kettle Run setup

Blucher has a big following and there is already a popular conversion set for ACW called Chamberlain. I've taken quite a lot from these in terms of weapons stats and unit trait changes. Chamberlain proposes a new command system but I've stuck with the Blucher one as it's really the core of the game for me.     

We played a simple attack vs defence scenario (Battle of Kettle Run) to conclusion over 20 turns with about 20 units a side. The game worked well and the unit base sizes seemed absolutely fine. Lots of little tweaks around unit stats/traits emerged for next time but the game progressed well. 

Union advance through the woods

In the battle the Confederates were on the defensive when a unit force arrived to push them back. Fearful of the Union shooting the Rebs decided to attack and had good success in the centre, where they broke through and were able to turn outwards to attack the remaining Union formations in the flanks. 

Confederate counter attack