Skirmish at Pleasant Valley Church : ACW

Having seen somebody else using Rebels and Patriots (and forgotten which blog) thought it would give a good opportunity to run a small virtual game. The main benefit being I could get my ACW skirmishers out who rarely get much of a look in during bigger battles. I set up a small (non historical) scenario, although there is a Pleasant Valley in the Shenandoah. Two small forces have been sent to probe the whereabouts of the enemy and have met close to the Pleasant Valley Church.

The Rebel forces rush forward under the command of Major Corona, he has already dispatched his unit of fast moving cavalry who have dismounted undercover of the church itself

Lt Harrison advances forward behind a solid skirmish screen

Covering his right flank by a screen of sharpshooters. We kept things simple not having played these rules for a while. In essence their are three troop types on the table, line infantry, skirmishers, the sharpshooters who are skirmishers but with longer and more effective shooting skills and the cavalry, who when dismounted are also skirmishers. The rules do give the option for much greater variety.

The 2nd Virginia boys form into close order which allows more effective firing and the skirmishers exchange fire around the church

A second unit of rebel skirmishers look to out flank the sharpshooters

Hot change of fire around Pleasant Valley Church

All is fairly equal at this stage but the Union forces are going to need to advance to take the centre ground (the battle would continue unit one side had only one unit remaining)

The 1st New York hold the Pleasant valley Road, the 2nd NY advance to the left of the church accompanied by Lt Harrison

Finally the skirmishers have chased off the sharpshooters

Time to advance Major Corona leads the way

..but his eye is off the ball and the 2nd NY supported by a company of skirmishers has surprised the rebels at the church. Suddenly things are not looking good for the Confederates and the boys from Virginia retreat back up the hill. The rebel skirmishers out of shot to the right have been beaten back as well.

But then a single failed morale check by the 2nd NY and everything changes (I should say here that like many rulesets R&P you take a test when you take casualties taking a single casualty and with their commanding officers it is hard to fail ! Unless you roll 3 on 2xD6 and have an already shaken unit)

And then the skirmishers in the church yard flee when they see their commanding officer gallop past.....well you would wouldn't you and then next turn after another volley into the 1st NY they fail their test as well another double 1 !

Haha seem them off boys ..........Billy Yank is sent fleeing the field and Lt Harrison has snatched defeat from victory

A fun game and good to use these rules again, we will definately play with them again in a slightly larger battle in the near future.

That time for the scenic cycling shots 

With some time off last week i headed up into the Pennines

Bleak but beautiful and very quiet

This is  Border Reiver country....

On sunday i also got down by Ullswater 35 miles and only saw a handful of cars, normally this is a pretty busy run down along the lake road.