Battle of Olustee 1864 : ACW

This weekend saw us return to the ACW. Having discussed with George his latest game I thought we would try converting it to 28mm and using Valour and Fortitude.

The details of the scenario and published and available in these Potomac Publications

Historically the Confederate force had were looking to throw back the invading Union force, having built entrenchments the Rebels sent out a small force to entice the Union force into attacking. Not taking the bite both sides ended up feeding addition troops until they were fully engaged. Although the terrain is quite open it is constructed by swamps and a small pond.

A nice picture of the battle but inaccurate as this shows the attack at the entrenchments. The battle was also famous as it involved a number of Black American troops including the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment made famous by the film Glory.

I squeezed the battlefield onto the L shaped battlefield in the dungeon the Confederates on the left.

The battle kicks off with a skirmish between light troops, the main challenge for the Union force is where to stand and can they hold before they are overrun ? V&F does give a bit of an advantage here with the ability to ‘at the double’.

Union reserves rush to the sound of the guns.

In the distance the bulk of the confederate force arrives and the Federals still have a lot of ground to cover

The Rebels push forward but fail a critical early activation before their commanding general has arrived this delays the advance of their largest brigade for one turn, this could prove critical later

The rebels get moving while the Federals try to build a coherent defence line

Inevitably the two lines draw closer together the Rebels taking the initiative 

The rebels chose to focus their attack on the Union right where they have the advantage of numbers

But the rebels on the left are already fairly exhausted, the red counter mark units which are shaken, but somehow the brigade manages to hold its position 

Locked in brutal hand to hand combat, both sides now close to breaking, somehow the rebels continue to hold

And eventually break the Union right

They continue to advance taking out the final Union artillery. But as you can see the Rebels are pretty exhausted.

On the right the remaining rebel cavalry having been bolstered by late arrivals and having rallied from the initial skirmish battles charges in against the 54th Massachusetts Rgt. In an unlikely result (the dice gods favouring the rebels) the 54th flee and are cut down.

At this point we called the battle to an end with night falling, both sides and generals exhausted. It was a very tight battle, we played a couple of extra combats through just to see if one side could get an advantage but no, neither side would break. In the end it was probably a tactical draw, but after some discussion given the context of the battle we gave it to the Rebels as they had achieved their objective of holding back the Union force, they had captured all of their cannon and given them a serious bloody nose. A tough but enjoyable battle for both sides.

A bit more completed painting…

Here are the two Half tracks I picked up at York, they are very rough casts so I’m happy with the way they came out, ultimately they are only going to be used as transports

 And I mentioned a parade of my french cavalry ! Next on the list might be some Polish lancers ?

Thanks as always for checking in on the blog 

Matt ❤️

 

Battle of Paoli September 1777 : plus lots of other stuff

I seem to be busy on other stuff so posting less often which means a bumper catch-up this week.

First up the next instalment of our AWI campaign, after the battle of the clouds General Wayne has pulled back his force. They are encamped in a wooded area close to the Warren Tavern in Chester county. The British under General Grey carry out a night attack. Historically this was a chaotic engagement in which the British were accused of carrying out some brutal murders of surrendering troops, giving rise to the name of the battle the Massacre of Paoli.

This map gives the overall position of the British advance

A more fun period map of the engagement

Our scenario once again for R&P starts at the point when the British have driven off the Northern pickets, so the alarm has been raised and the Americans have formed up to escape. The American still have three pickets to the south as shown. The Americans must try and get 50% or more of their army off the table to the left. All ranges reduced to 12” as it is dark. Part form their skirmishers and light troops the British, will have to stop and load as they went into the combat with unloaded muskets to avoid alarming the Americans. The British are veterans and aggressive as they have their bayonets already fixed . The cannon blocking the exit in the fence must be activated on a reducing D6 to open the gap (this blockage occurred historically causing some of the American confusion). To give some variety the British will arrive randomly from the three location shown rather than all in the centre.

The alarm raised in the camp as the meridians prepare to exit left ?

The British flood on and their light infantry chose to open fire, other infantry moves forward to assault the stragglers in the camp

Some of the american pickets are brought back to try and hold the British advance, the cannon is starting to move after turn 3, but some of the Americans in the rear are now isolated

Three units of american infantry find themselves separated in the camp, they are brutally dealt with in hand to hand combat.

The camp now nearly clear but the rest of the Americans are being chased out of the camp.

Unfortunately for the British their commander General Grey advances from the Tavern and makes slow progress, with his troops unable to shoot he advances only for them to be surprised by and temporarily thrown back by some American pickets.

Having despatched the last units in the camp the chase continues but now the Americans have the advantage as the British don’t have time to load their muskets

Hot foot the Americans make their escape

The final British shots ring out into the darkness but the Americans have managed to escape with about 2/3 of their force. So ultimately a win for the Americans given the victory conditions we had set. A fun battle and As always the battle felt close and tense right up to the last couple of turns and there was certainly no guarantee the American would get enough troops off the table. The British failed a couple of key activations and it didn’t help with two units coming on around the tavern which was too far away to impact the battle. 

I have been painting and prepping lots of stuff but the only finished unit is the last ! Of my french Curassiers, these were a slightly mixed group left over, some of which needed repainting but the unit has come out ok, I think I need a French cavalry parade ?

Other games in the last week or so, I met anther wargamer through George who invited me down for an ECW game, a beautiful collection. Using his house rules we played through the Battle of Adwalton Moor.

Beautiful collection of ECW in 28mm but. Tough battle for the Parliamentarians who are heavily outnumbered.

We did make a good fist of it though and nearly chased off the Royalist infantry, we’re just planning a return trip up to the dungeon, and I have a few possible ideas to adapt our KoW rules?

Last weekend we had our annual shopping trip to York wargame show ‘Vapnartak’, actually I didn’t want to buy much as I have a lot in the various lead and plastic piles already but the bring and buy is always fun. The show was noticeable reduced in terms of traders with quite a few spaces and a further reduction in games on display. But there were plenty of punters and it was busy right up to when we left around 14:00

What looks like random stuff but all super bargains from the B&B. Yes I now have a Tirpitz to make in 1/350 scale it is over twice the length of the destroyer I blogged a couple of months ago !!!! The only disappointment was the green American truck which I thought was a WW2 artillery transporter, but on closer inspection when I got it home it turns out it is probably an M8 artillery tractor from around 1950, so too much of a stretch to squeeze it into Sicily. If anyone can think of a use let me know. It came with the two halftracks for next to nothing anyway. The packets contain 1/3000 WW1 ships and I have been putting together a small force for. Few games later in the year.

Finally for this post this morning I was down to George’s to continue (finish) or early war French campaign. Once again a beautiful table setup, one of the most complex battlefields in the campaign book. Germans on the attack again, loads of cover. George I’m sure will cover the battle in more detail.

The Germans took their time deploying in cover in the woods and moving up to take the station, after some exchange of fire on the German left the french started to pull back.

But Gaston a local Nazi sympathiser was behind them and started taking pot shots with his shotgun ! Whilst the french tried to deal with him.

The German panzer IV got lucky hitting the french tank as it rumbled down the road. The tanks actually exchanged several shots but it was the Germans who rolled lucky and got the decisive hit. Actually I was pretty lucky the whole battle with multiple double turns and loads of 5/6’s when I needed them. At this point the french decide the battle was up and the Germans would inevitably break through to win the campaign.

A great campaign with several difficult battles for both sides, perhaps the Germans have the edge but then they are attacking most of the time which is generally harder, looking forward to our next campaign ?

So certainly keeping busy and likely an ACW battle on Saturday, and I now have the Tirpitz to make 😂

Thanks as always for taking the time to check what I’ve been upto.

Matt ❤️

The Battle of Lansdown Hill : 5th July 1643 ECW

Monday saw a return to the table for my ECW collection for the Battle of Lansdown July 1643, spelt a couple of different ways. Sir Ralph Hopton leading his Cornish Royalist army is seeking to move towards Oxford, they are shadowed and harried by Sir William Waller who is holding ground in and around Bath. After several smaller skirmish and some manoeuvring the two army bumped into each other at Lansdown Hill. The Parliamentary army of around 5000 men had taken up a strong defensive position on the hill. Foolishly or not the Royalists were drawn into a frontal assault, different sources give them a numerical advantage in men but it’s not clear if these were all actually in the battle. Hard in any period but particularly rare in the ECW a frontal assault up hill against a defended position.  Anyway after much cavalry skirmishing the robust Cornish infantry eventually took the plateau forcing Waller to initially retreat behind a stone wall and then in the night to slip away. An unlikely win for the Royalist cause !

Plenty of maps of the battle on the internet but none of them are the same, I found this one perhaps the most useful and the main balance for the two armies came from my Asquith scenario book.

Lansdown Hill with Parliamentry army dug in. We gave the Royalist Cornish infantry some suitable bonuses to reflect their elite status. And so onto the battle…….

A local Shepard hurries away from the hill with his freshly painted flock !

The Royalists have little choice other than to go for it, the Parliamentary cavalry is more cagey choosing to exchange pistol shots rather than charge in knowing they have the advantage of the high ground

With the sheep out of the way cavalry on both flanks, supported by dismounted dragoons begin to skirmish for advantage, both sides are trying to breakthrough knowing this will threaten the rear of the enemy infantry

Just a shot of lots of ECW cavalry fighting it out 🙂

After trading a couple of volleys the Cornishmen drive up to the earthworks, it is going to be a slogging match but the Parliamentary forces have the advantage of defences and the hill on their side

After several turns the Parliamentry cavalry break through on the left

The cavalry fight on the right is more balanced, in the foreground dragoons can be seen skirmishing with each other.

On the left the Parliamentry cavalry are getting the better of the fight

And the left most unit of infantry starts to move to the centre to block the oncoming Cornish regiment

With Parliamentry cavalry now in their rear the Cornishmen are forced to take up a defensive hedgehog formation

But it is going better for the royalists on the hill. With a couple of failed morale checks and some shaky regiments the Royalists have managed to push into the defenses.

Both sides are getting tired and the numbers are still about balanced

The Parliamentry infantry needs to hold for a little longer to allow their advantage in cavalry to count.

But the Cornish infantry prove just too resilient their elite status giving them victory in two of the three key combats for the plateau, despite some late charges by the remaining Parliamentry cavalry they too have to flee and the battle is up for Waller who must concede the field to the Royalists.

History somehow managed to repeat itself against the odds. This was a really fun battle and tremendously close right to the end. Bravo to those Cornishmen taking the battle up the slope. The collection, setup and rules worked really well providing exactly the type of ECW game we were hoping for….definitely more to come in the future.

After what seems like a very long time it stopped raining today and with my health, the weather and other commitments coinciding a beautiful fews hours walking in the Northern Fells of the Lake District. Just a dusting of snow left from the bad weather a week or so ago.

Thanks as always for passing by the blog. I am finding the technical problems with the blog are giving me some headaches whereas before I had no problems now I am struggling to upload photos, we’ll see if it gets better soon ? I don’t have a lot of patience for technology 🤬

Matt❤️