Battle of Fox’s Gap 1862 ACW

Another battle at the start of this week, myself and Martin have managed one a month so far this year,so we only just managed to squeeze this in following my long holiday in early September. This time back to ACW and a version of Fox’s Gap from 1862. Many of you will know the back ground to this battle which was all engagement preceding the much larger battle of Antietam. The confederate forces under Lee tried to block the movement of McClellans Federals across the mountains at both Fox’s Gap and Turner’s gap. Eventually although they were forced to retreat the Union army was too slow to capitalise on the Ada vantage and this allowed Lee to regroup and led to Antietam a few days later.

This scenario of which there are lots on the internet is based on a JReb scenario but I have adapted it for my collection, space and V&F. It gives a sense of the battle rather than a truly accurate refight.

The table setup. To make things fun Garlands brigade who are initially holding the high ground behind the  stone wall are in hidden deployment, the Union commander not knowing which or how many Regiments are on the table. Scammon’s brigade arrives for the Union turn one with the next brigades arriving on successive turns. The Confederate reserves are similarly phased but must all enter the battlefield from the North (this end of the table) the Union player also didn’t know this. We had a special rule where potentially Garland or Reno could be killed in action but I completely forgot about this during the battle and we didn’t roll for it ! To simplify the setup we made the stones wall as cover whilst the wooden fences aren’t they just slow movement.

Scammon’s Brigade advances towards the higher ground with the attached West Virginia cavalry occupying the farm buildings at the base of the hill. In the distance Crook’s brigade arrives and come under fire immediately from the angle of the stone wall on the hill. (The hidden deployment will end when trooos are within 12” or they start to fire)

Anderson’s brigade marches onto the table in column 

Garlands brigade is spread thin but they open up a ferocious fire  on the advancing Union troops knowing that any damage will help if it comes to melee

Crook’s brigade starts to deploy and seek to outflank the hill at this southern end of the battlefield the Union has significant numerical advantage 

Dayton’s Brigade arrives from the north as well ! But the Rebels are still outnumbered

The flanking move in the South

Rather than attempt to move right across the table Drayton deploys his troops into open formation and starts to move through the woods hoping to outflank the Union at this end of the battle

The Union make a first push for the gap but are driven back ….yeehaa

The confederate flanking movement seems to be working drawing Christ’s brigade from on the road to protect the Union flank

The battle was very tense here and could have gone either way, the Union prepare a second attack on the gap and again hand to hand fighting on the slopes

But eventually the rebels hold and drive the Union forces back, you can see by the gold rings which denote shaken units that the Union assault has been blunted at least for now.

Although it felt like a slight side show and I didn’t take many photo’s Garland’s brigade has continued to hold the angle against a much superior force, trading volleys at long range they plug away at each other but the Rebels hold on eventually driving the Federals back on this flank. The last photo show the Confederate horse artillery chasing the withdrawing Union forces into the woods to the south.

What a fun battle the scenario worked out really well, the hidden deployment working, with out this we might need to randomise the location of reserves or the Union forces would know the rebels are weak on their right flank ? One thing we noticed was the need to get troops into open order which or ACW is a real advantage especially when defending. A win for the Rebels as they held the ground against the superior Union force.

We has a trip out to Ulverston (south lakes) and came across a couple of nice books

I really only bought this as I was at the battlefield a few weeks ago and wanted to run through the battle again.

This is also a useful little book with a lot of smaller battles listed

 And a spot of painting…….before family stuff took over the second half of the week requiring me to cancel a planned battle for Friday 🙁

Another ECW infantry unit completed and ready to go.

I have several more on the go but may only get to them in a couple of days

As always thanks for popping by

Matt ♥️

Sicily 1943 the Americans Attack

Looking for an easy setup for our game this weekend I went for Sicily in a non-historical scenario although many similar actions took place. Really a chance to get the Italians back out and give the Americans a good challenge attacking rather than defending.

Some details for the scenario, three objectives as shown on the photo above. the Italians have a hidden unit in the church as well as a sniper in the Tower. The bulk of the Italians will come on turn one with a small German reserve group will arrive only if/when the Americans claim one of the three objectives. The US will arrive over the first two turns with a reserve arriving more randomly from turn 3 onwards. Neither side would have quite enough command dice for all their units.

The Italians push their support artillery towards the small road cutting. (I’ve noticed I forgot to put any grass on the artillery base which I will try and fix 🙂)

Italian infantry dig in on the rocky ground overlooking the road

US infantry push forward towards the high ground through the walled fields

The US move a Heavy machine gun up towards the village

Turn two and both sides bring their armour into the battle

The Americans are now digging in on the high ground

Supported by their armour

The US also advance on their right towards the road

The Italians currently have the numbers in the village but come under heavy fire

On the high ground with the Americans driving the Italians away the German reserves arrive determined to take the objective back, infantry supported by a Tiger !

The Tiger moves beyond the windmill, the smoke just beyond marks where the last Italian unit was wiped out by heavy artillery fire

Italian armour joust with the US Sherman

The Americans are now pushing into the village and holding the road as well

The Semoventte is now in flames, but the Germans are now starting to take back the high ground

The Sherman moves to the road cutting and somehow survives the Italian artillery fire

The M7 (priest) is now in flames, but so is the small Italian tank which has pushed up the hill

As the battle draws to a close the Americans have now convincingly taken the village having driven the Italians out of the church and surrounding buildings. The high ground is contested although the Germans have the advantage, the road cutting objective is also contested, so the Americans have done enough to claim the win.

Another fun game and great to get the Sicily collection on the table. The Italians are a fun force to play with, we reduce their leadership which seems appropriate but inevitably they lack a bit of punch. It is also fun to bring the Tiger out but it rarely lives up to expectations.

The weather has been mixed but I managed a walk out in the hills. This shot looking west towards the central fells.

Another game planned for Tuesday and some more ECW figures on the way.

Thanks as always for checking in on the blog 

Matt ❤️

Roundheads and a German win !

Wednesday saw me down at George’s to continue our early war 1940 CoC campaign

The first scenario is a tough one for the Germans and in the first running of the scenario the Germans did pretty dismally, each time you retry the scenario the attacking German get slightly more support points giving them an advantage.

In the last running my Germans focussed down the left but got horribly shot up, game for anything I pushed the jump off points down the right this time. With some good/lucky early dice rolling the Germans were able to throw back the French grenadiers. With an extra support points the Germans had been able to bring a 75mm infantry gun to try and handle any French armour ?

Again with some luck and after three attempts they managed to knock out the French R35 this was a real bonus for the Germans throwing the french onto the back foot.

Instead of the Stuka we tried an off table Mortar barrage which whilst dramatic wasn’t actually very effective, but it did hold the french down

The Germans were then able to concentrate their fire on the French left driving them back with surprisingly few loses to the Germans. A real turn around form the last playing and just shows who dice rolling and a bit of luck helps. Certainly the German deployment down the right using the buildings to break up the french helped.

With all this excitement I spent the evening finishing another unit of Roundheads for the ECW project. I’m stilling basing them as 15’s but can’t decide if 10’s would be better. I will try some more random cavalry in the next few days.

Hopefully a game at the weekend as yet undecided and ACW next week.

Thanks as always Matt ❤️

Some wee fighting men painted 🙂

After a week at home with quite a few family commitments things are settling down, and with lots of rain I have found some motivation to get painting again. Long overdue I’m going to focus on my ECW collection for a while, or at least till I get bored.

First up though I had these larger artillery pieces prepped for ages so I worked my way through them. Prussians and Austrians in equal measure.

Some Cavalier cavalry in red uniforms

A second unit of Scot’s for Montrose army?

 

I have prepped loads more ECW figures so we’ll see how I get on in the next few weeks. If I kept a record of figures painted this week would have been a bonus week 👍

That’s it for now some games coming up in the next few days so if I don’t get distracted some more reports soon.

Final question to fellow blogger I have seen a massive increase in ‘views’ over the last month I assume the blogger system if just failing to weed out the bots again. Unless there are 10,000 people in my Holiday snaps, which seems unlikely 

Thanks all Matt

My Grand European History/Battle Tour

Radio silence for the last few weeks as I travelled across Europe in the van, I was meeting my son in Vienna with my plan to see as much interesting history as I could as I travelled out and back. Not surprisingly with freedom to roam I picked up a lot of history, in fact by the end my head was pretty much ‘blown’ ! I did do some other stuff along the way but this rather long photomontage gives the highlights of the History stuff.

Quatre Bras the Gemioncourt Farm

Tomb of Ottomonde just outside Ramillies

La Haute Censee Farm in Ramillies

Amphitheatre in Trier

Porta Nigra in Trier

Igel Column 250AD south of Trier

Blindheim village in the distance looking from the west

Schwenninbach Church where Prince Eugene’s Cavalry formed up in 1704

Höchstädt Castle

Schellenberg Hill up which Marlboroughs grenadiers attacked

Dachau concentration camp

The very small museum at Aspern outside Vienna

Napoleons HQ position for Wagram

The plaque marks the unfortunate friendly fire incident involving the Saxon troops at Wagram 

Austerlitz

From Santon hill the flat ground where Lannes and Murats cavalry fought

The fort in Brno scene of the 1645 siege

A wonderful view of Brno looking out towards Austerlitz

The Schonbrunn Palace, Habsburg opulence in Vienna

View from the top of the Gloriette the green hills in the distance are where the Polish cavalry formed up in  1683.

St Stephen’s church Vienna sporting a snazzy roof and some Ottoman cannnon balls

One (possibly the only) remaining part of the old Vienna defensive wall

One of the remaining German flak towers in Vienna

Massive Russian memorial to soldiers lost taking Vienna WW2

The Car in which the archduke was assassinated sparking WW1, we need to return to Vienna sometime as parts of the Military museum were closed off for refurbishment 

Another flak tower in the Augarten

And another, Augarten is the oldest park in Vienna but nobody really knows what to do with the flak towers I guess one day in the future they will become dangerous and be removed ?

The Hofburg seat of the Habsburg dynasty started in 1300 but added to a lot over the years

The exceptional collection of Imperial armour in Vienna

The Austrian memorial at the battlefield of Kolin

The church in Krzeczhorz scene of fierce fighting at Kolin

The Battlefield at Lobositz from the top of the Lobosch volcano (it was a hot day and an uphill walk)

Hochkirch church with more cannon balls embedded in the walls

Close by Blutgasse (Blood street) in Hochkirch

Dresden War museum

The Black Duke of Brunswick’s uniform and kit he was killed at Quatre Bras

Lützen bones from the fairly recently excavated mass grave form the battlefield in the museum there together with a few of the musket balls recovered from the field

Lutzen battlefield the museum in the background the road to Leipzig runs along in the distance

The small but excellent Museum at Jena

Jena from Napoleons initial HQ the flat slightly raised ground behind in the middle distance is the Dornburg

The reconstructed windmill at Jena

The centre of Krippendorf

The coach house at Auerstedt where injured were treated

Auerstedt battlefield from the Prussian lines way in the distance, the Red roof behind me is the village of Gernstedt

Virus Museum in the Teutoburg forest

Reconstructed Germanic defences on what is now believed to be one of the key parts of the Battlefield, generally it is now thought the battle was over 2 or 3 days and quite spread out 

Reconstructed Roman fort at Aliso on the Lippe River an excellent Museum where there is strong evidence that the Ambushed legion stayed before marching NE

Glider memorial at Wolfheze for the ill fated Arnhem battles

Breendonk WW1 fort south of Brussels, now preserved due to its infamous use by the Nazis as a prison camp during their occupation of Belgium.

Yes I did cover quite a lot of ground, the weather was great as was the scenery and the food. Hopefully my trip might just inspire somebody else to take the time to visit some of these locations I’d be more than happy to provide more details.

We are already planning next year and some more adventures along the way.

Hopefully when I have settled back home I will get some gaming and painting done

Thanks for taking the time to check in

Matt ❤️