2nd July 1863 : Little Round Top

Well the title gives it away rather. For our battle this weekend and seeing as we are pretty close to the start of July I dug out another Scenario for Gettysburg. Shout out again for Brad Butkovich’s Summer storm book which always provides great inspiration, and in fact this scenario is pretty much straight out of the book, I just had to squeeze the terrain a bit.

On site ‘research’ back in March from the top of Little round top

The artillery position on Houck’s Ridge

Looking from Devils Den back up to Round top, I’m pretty loose with translating real details on to the table but you do get a sense from visiting how this is quite a small area.of course there is much debate about timing of the attack etc which I won’t go into here.

Translated onto the tabletop, Historically and in the scenario it is a tough ask for the Confederates they appear to have left their artillery behind. They were of course really only trying to find the end of the Union line and turn it rather than the frontal assault which it turned into. From some of what I have read Hood pulled back at the end of the day as he felt they had achieved their objective ? But that is obviously not the case with hindsight. At the start the only Union troops in position are on Houck’s Ridge, General Warren has realised the danger and is pulling in troops to extend the line.

Law’s Alabamians advance towards Big round top. (Worth noting they had been marching pretty much for 12 hours or more before the attack !)

Robertson’s Texan brigade faces Devils den it pretty obviously not a good place to attack, rather they attempt to pin Wards troops while the rest of the Confederates outflank the Union line

Vincent brings his brigade on from the North including the 20th Maine, really I could have done with them failing to activate ….wishful thinking !

The Texans are now pinned against Devils den, and come under fire from the rocks

Law swings his troops through the trees on big round top, hoping to catch the Union forces un prepared

Confederate reserves Bennings Georgians arrive and push forward but their path is king of blocked by the Texans who are stuck in a fire fight at Devils den 

The Union reserves are being brought onto round top and Vincent prepares for the attack

The Alabamians surge through the woods on the right

The advance is definitely bogged down at Devils Den repeating history !

The confederates crash into the the end of the line

After fierce fighting the 20th Maine are wiped out ! History is rewritten, Chamberlain is killed. But the Confederates crash into the famous 16th Michigan ? Who hold the left flank of the Union line and thus win Gettysburg and save the Union and the war ?

The benefit of wargaming is the Union General can advance off Houcks ridge to start to outflank the Rebels, this couldn’t really have worked historically as there were more troops to the left and it would probably have exposed their flank too much, but it forces the confederates to fold back their line around the triangle field

The Texans at this stage have take a real beating, although they are holding their position all their regiments are pretty much exhausted and it is surprising to both sides that the Brigade hasn’t broken. Some good Valour tests by me and a card used to save a failed fortitude test !

Eventually the assault starts to stall as the regiments begin to take increasing casualties

The final nail in the coffin when the Alabamians eventually fail a fortitude test and the brigades disintegrates, the confederates only have one viable Brigade now fighting and the Union reserves are pretty fresh. An almost historical win for the Union.

A very fun if occasionally frustrating battle, tough for the confederates who had their noses in front for a while or at least until the Alabamians faltered in the woods. Given that we played with fairly historical troop numbers it perhaps isn’t surprising the Union can hold Round top. Historically of course Warren and Vincent didn’t know the size of the force attacking them and the trees would have provided more visual cover which doesn’t work on the table top. Any delay (which didn’t happen in our battle) to Vincent arriving or the other Union reserves and the line would have been rolled up fairly easily. If nothing else it shows how this was a very close run thing on the day.

Setting up today for a Napoleonic battle tomorrow but that’s it for now

Many thanks for checking in as always Matt ❤️

Sicily 1943 : the Italians get a run out

The relentless pressure of Holidays is getting to me now but I did squeeze in a game at the weekend, a chance to give the Italians a run out in Sicily. As my opponent is an infrequent gamer I set a simple scenario the Americans needed to break through. The challenge is giving the Italians a chance with out simply making them useless, plying bolt action on this occasion I gave them 1 point lower leadership but kept the rest of their stats as regular.

Half the Italians are on the table already, the Americans get a preliminary bombardment and assault from the left seeking to break through the Italians lines.

A closer shot of the Italian defenders, spread out but a greater concentration in the centre

The Americans advance along the two forks of the road

But also move onto the rocky hill to the south, American paratroopers lead the way towards the church but get badly mauled in cross fire

Both sides have some reserves the Italians have managed to find a Semovente assault gun which faces down the American Sherman

The American advance grinds forward, with the Italians taking the greater casualties

But they are still holding for now

The American concentrate at the fork in the road, but those attempting to cross the open field at cut down, and finally the Sherman is knocked out and burning seen to the right of this picture

As time and turns are running out the Americans make a dart for the finish line

The Italians through everything into the defence, even trying to block the road past the fork !

Leading from the front the American Commander is nearly killed but just survives, in a twist of fate both American infantry units within reach of the ‘end zone’ fail to activate 😀 but in an underhand and suitably  sneaky way the Americans run the antitank gun over the line. A great game and fun to play, the Italians held their own, with the leadership giving some challenges especially when reserves failed to arrive when ordered. Technically it was an American victory as too many Italians had given their lives defending a fairly worthless piece of Sicilian countryside, but only a minor win could be claimed.

We are back from our family holiday in Pembroke, Wales. Beautiful beaches nice beer and food and some history to boot

Tenby where we were staying has some impressive medieval walls around the old town centre

Tenby itself has a small castle on the hill

We also visited the much bigger Pembroke Castle , birthplace of HenryVII

We had a trip to Manorbier where a lovely castle overlooks a stunning beach

We also walked across to the 1870’s gun fort overlooking Tenby harbour and coastline, now fairly derelict inside but still an impressive location, not sure why we were building forts like this in 1870 ? But I believe it replaced an earlier Napoleonic structure which might have made a bit more sense.

For those that love them I have also been out in the lakes, a shot here of Sca Fell from the west

The van parked in Wasdale, for those unfamiliar with the Lake District this is one of the most famous views you will see

and finally to prove that the sun doesn’t always shine….in Cumbria, be prepared for the weather !

Thats it for now two more games in the diary over the next few days and hopefully some painting although I haven’t had much of a chance recently.

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt ❤️

Painting update…… and more

A quick update for the end of the week, first up some painting completed…

A small Peninsular vignette, direct from the Perry stable

A different view, the officer and the pioneer are added in from somewhere else

A dark age command figure, can’t remember where from but he is carrying a crow on his left arm ?

A priest not sure what I can use him for ?

I had some 15mm Germans left over in a bag so thought I would paint them up as basic Wehrmacht infantry as the majority of the rest are elite grenadiers. This gives me a few options for gaming in the future. They are a mix of figures left over, but work reasonably well as a group.

Another sunny day here in Cumbria so back out into the hills

If people get bored of the mountains let me know

I also travelled over to Martins this week where we played a battle loosely based on the battle of Ctesiphon 1915. Looking for something different we had a trench assault by the British. Hard to get this balanced but it worked out really well. With the British having a 2:1 advantage in numbers.

The Turks in their trenches

The British launch their advance across the worryingly open ground, not surprisingly the British take some heavy casualties

Eventually the residue of the attack make it to the trench where fierce hand to hand fighting breaks out

Both side have some artillery which targets the trench

By the end of the battle almost everybody is dead 🙁

The final fight sees the British capture the Turkish commanders.

A fun battle which worked out really well despite the obvious challenge of a trench assault across open ground.

That’s it for now and we are off to wales in a couple of days as the British weather hits up !

Thanks all

Matt ♥️