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.