Battle of Iuka September 1862 ACW

Monday I travelled across to play an ACW battle at Martins. He had set up the Battle of Iuka not one I was aware of but a good sized battle with three brigades per side as he had enough figures the soldiers and terrain are all his.

I’m going to leave it to you to read the background. But essentially both sides have sent a smallish force of three or so brigades to push the enemy out of the way. The terrain is very wooded and they basically bumped into each other. Historically the Confederates took the lead and were the more aggressive, but as I was playing the Union forces we thought we would get stuck in ! Just a couple of shots to show the action.

Battle field setup, both sides have a brigade in reserve to be brought in on a D6 roll. As it happened the Union side were much more successful in bringing their reserves on 

The main assault is focussed in the centre/right. Whilst the left wing of the Union force simply looks to hold their ground

Hoorah Union reserves arrive almost immediately giving them the advantage of numbers

Tough fighting but the Union drive the confederate centre back, but their forces are close to breaking beyond the small road in the distance

Eventually the Confederates bring on their reserves, much of the leading Union units are close to breaking a red ‘ring’ means the unit is shaken and close to breaking 

The Union reserves stabilise the position

And despite their own fatigue they are able to drive the confederates back who start to break and run back to Iuka. Good fun and a good sized and balanced battle which I will look to play again sometime.

A bit more painting time this week and I have managed to finish up some stuff

These were a Christmas gift from last year so I was determined to get them finished before next week, warlord figures which come with alternate heads, I put them on square bases as I have an idea that I might squeeze them into Spanish units in the Peninsular when I’m short of a base ? Obviously they can also be baggage or simple eye candy vignettes.

Just before I picked up all the EVW stuff at Battleground I had ordered some 15mm tents off eBay so I made a couple more ‘camp’ bases for the ECW. I’m not sure what to do with the other tents as I have too many now ? I guess if I painted them green they could be WW2 command tents. Otherwise I don’t have any 15mm stuff. I might even put a couple on the railway somewhere ? If anybody wanted a couple let me know.

Finally a proper unit painted for the AWI these were the last metal figures picked up ages ago at the York wargame show as part of a big job lot. Hence the unit has three musicians, two standards and an unarmed officer. But they work (just) as a unit. I think I might have one more plastic American unit in the box although I’m not really looking to expand the collection too much as I have enough figures to fill the table. I might just get some French though at some point.

We have another battle planned for tomorrow Edgehill ECW and I have been playing with the stats to give some historical feel to the battle. After that one more remote game before Christmas hits, when I am hoping to get some Zombie games played ?

In the words of a famous cartoon, ‘thats all folks’ thanks for looking

Matt ❤️