ACW 54mm Game played on Sunday

My good friend John Michael Priest has a very nice collection of ACW in 54mm.  He has assembled an 1864 Wilderness / Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor style entrenchments.

Today we test played a game he plans to take to Cold Wars.  The game can easily accommodate 6 to 8 players.  With only 3 of us running it (2 Confederate - John and Chris) and myself taking the Federals, it took a while to get things going.

John (or Mike as I call him.  We used to work together) has his own set of rules which he has always been modifying.  These particular rules are probably some of the best he has come up with.

Infantry rules were still pretty similar, but with the addition of sharpshooters which was my favorite part.  I won't go into all the details of the rules, but the basic is that officers can sustain 3 his before they are out.  Lose an officer and any unit needing to be rallied can't be rallied.  You can roll to replace the officer with another officer / NCO....but these guys just die when you hammer away at them via sharpshooters.

My only tweeks on this would be to replace each officer with a enlisted man figure from the unit, and maybe to use the sharpshooters to be allowed to target individual combat soldiers but with some restrictions. 

View from Berdan's Sharpshooters.  From this vantage point we killed off 8 officers, causing the Confederate skirmishers to either be captured or driven off and helped reduce the leadership of those Confederates manning the earthworks facing a major Federal assault.

Another view from Berdan's sharpshooters positioned in trees.  Center is a Confederate earthwork with cannon.  During the game the sharpshooters decimated the officers of the Confederate artillery.

Another view of the sharpshooters.  I found it particularly useful to use them as a team to hit targets.  Each one could target a particular officer, but by triangulating their fire (3 sharpshooters vs one officer) we could ensure hits.  Once Confederate sharpshooters started targeting these guys we just ganged upon on each Confederate sharpshooter and wiped them out.  Then we could dominate the battlefield.

My charge by one Federal brigade.  The fences slowed us down but we eventually charged into the Confederate works.  By this point we had spend close to 2.5 hours just testing different parts of the system.  In a full game with 6 to 8 players this would have occurred much earlier on.

Close up shot from the above picture

The reserve troops of the division waiting to be committed.

The other side of the field.  Early in the fight I sent one battalion across the bridge to draw fire and test the artillery rules.  They held in there well, but we lost 2 officers, and one was left on the bridge.  I named him "Chris" for my buddy playing across from me who reenacts Confederate and had to have the pleasure of killing his namesake.  Another battalion is being sent in to retrieve the body as the main attack unleashes itself at the weak point seen top-center of the image.

Just another view of the flank attack from above.  Poor "Chris" left on the bridge.

Long view from the Federal right flank.  Mike did a great job on the entrenchment stuff.  He tried to suck me in there by starting me with my "official skirmishers" as pioneers.  Only after my mistake of not asking early on did I realize he was stopping me from my normal Napoleonic tactics of Skirmish Cloud followed by columns en-mass.  Strange as it may sound, when properly employed those tactics work and are my bread and butter with his games.

Another view of the Federal left.  Sharpshooters in the trees next to the artillery battery...see the smoke.  That poor battery of mine was beat to crap.  Lost 3 officers and everyone in the crew hurt.  Fortunately Mike stopped shooting my batteries with his sharpshooters even before the major infantry attack began...thanks for forgetting guys...but not possible with more players I'm sure. Mike's age must be catching up to him! Just kidding buddy.

Early in the battle.  Federal batteries and Berdan's men soften up the Confederate position.

"Chris" and his battalion test the bridge defenses.  Early on they take some series casualties, but classic "Chris" he plunges ahead.

I really like the trees Mike put together and how the guys just perched there.  They are based on poker chips.

Battle set up.  Note the skirmishers on the right side of the picture.  That lasted all of 4 turns and we were redeployed.

Another view of the initial layout.