Sunday saw the periodic gathering of our local wargame group minus the majority due to vacations and other commitments.
We played a non historical ACW battle. Sort of a modified version of Burnside's bridge.
Federal troops were largely off the board at the start. Some interesting variations were the use of Berdan's sharpshooters. This had a telling effect on Confederate leadership throughout the battle.
We were also using John M. Priest (our GM's) home rules and testing this scenario for Fall-in.
The battlefield was organized from left to right as the Bridge and 2 fords bordered by stone walls. Once across the bridge was a valley which led up to a red barn. Two small houses occupied the right flank of the Confederate position in that valley leading to the barn. Behind the barn was another ridge line which a church and additional Confederate reinforcements.
Federal objectives were to penetrate that rear Confederate ridge line, but give that it was a 3 hour game the goal was to capture the red Barn in the center of the battlefield.
2 of the 3 parts of the first Federal brigade deploy along with 12 Berdan's SS. Derick deploys his regiments on the left of the screen in line while I deploy on the left in column.
Derick advances towards the ford in line. I try to provide covering support using Berdan's men. Initially I knocked out 3 mounted officers and killed the skirmishers along the fords. The Confederates had sharpshooters in the houses facing Derick. I deployed Berdan's men along the road to fire into the house. After several turns we cleared out the sharpshooters.
Derick stalls a bit at the ford. I deploy my first column into line a the base of my the ford (left of picture) and provide covering fire as my other two columns to cross. Skirmish fire slowed us down a little but we made good progress. Derick mean while attempted to push a column across the bridge which was quickly stalled and provided a blockage. This really wasn't a problem as we had three points of access and there were not enough Confederates in position to stop us. What it did create as a diversion for the other locations to be forded or crossed. We also brought up the rest of our Federal brigade, some artillery and the last of Berdan's sharpshooters.
Derick finally crosses the ford with the destruction of the Confederate sharpshooters. Derick crossing at the left ford distracted the Confederate reinforcements while my right hand column advanced and brought up artillery support. I also used Berdan's sharpshooters to kill as many enemy gunners as possible. It got to a point where one battery lost 7 leaders (one per turn) and as it withdrew I kept hammering a way at its crew. Eventually these cannon were knocked totally out of action which spared my troops. There Confederate artillery on the second ridge line firing at Derick were too far for the sharpshooters to silence and counter battery fire is always a waste of time so Derick's men just had to endure it for a while.
View from the Confederate position's second line. Confederate reinforcements on the road (left) were subjected to major Federal artillery fire which slowed and crippled their advance.
Derick's fording force was badly mauled by Confederate artillery by the Confederate troops brought down to slow him down. However, the Berdan Sharpshooters kept dropping Confederate leaders so that those Confederate troops eventually had to withdraw because they lacked sufficient leadership to maintain their confidence and direction. As they withdrew the Federals controlled by Derick advanced behind them. My columns on the Federal right began to suffer from a few Confederate artillery strikes, but I quickly moved my troops out of their line of sight using the Barn as a block.
We concentrated the Federal artillery on hammering the barn instead of counter battery fire in order to silence the Confederate sharpshooters located in the top of the building, and to hammer its garrison in stationed there. Derick kept pressure on the Confederate right and I was fortunate that a lucky roll of the dice saw our reinforcements arrive at the road my original troops had just occupied. Reinforced this way allowed us to quickly deploy in force up the road which seriously threatened the Confederate left.
While I set up troops to assault the barn (1 in line to hammer the enemy troops, 1 in column to provide the assault force and 1 in column as the reserve - the light blue winter jacketed troops) I sent the rest up the road.
Three hours into this and we were about near our objective. The Confederates, having only 1 player who served also as GM, were very slow to bring up reinforcements and also forgot about some additional sharpshooters which would have really hampered Federal efforts. It was a good game which at a convention (testing for this also that day) could be started and continued by others with some minor replacement of troops, etc. This could certainly turn into a 9 hour plus game.
Had Confederate reinforcements been able to deploy sooner this would have posed a problem for the Federals. Even with the Federal advance near the end of our game, the second ridge line provided the Confederates with ample troops and terrain to slow the Federals or even stop the Federal advance.
All around good game. Next up in July will be an AWI Sharp Practice game. It'll be our first time using the rules but it is set up to use the same terrain board with a few modifications.
