Diversion at Glass Mill : Chickamauga 1863

A second game this week in the dungeon so a quick turn around. Looking for something we could play in an evening I dipped into Brad Butkovich’s Chickamauga scenario book. This is a what if scenario as historically it was only an artillery duel before the Confederates chose to pull back. But what if Breckinridge had pushed into a full assault to try and drive away the Union 2nd Division under James S Negley. The scenario is a good size three brigades a piece with supporting artillery.

I shrunk the table down a bit so we would get into action quickly. The woods are light so give cover but don’t reduce visibility, I also ignored any movement penalty for crossing fences to get things moving. Helm’s brigade can be seen already across the Chickamauga Creek. For the Union Beatty is deployed around the farm and off in the distance Stanley’s Brigade. We would be using V&F which allows pretty quick and flexible movement.

We were straight into the action with Adam’s Brigade marching on immediately.

Beatty’s brigade around the farm house and orchard

The confederates have a numerical advantage on the table at the start so it is upto them to get stuck in before the Union reserves arrive. Their artillery opens up as well

The confederates quickly negotiate the fields and woods to get into range of the Union defenders.

Initial skirmishing as the two lines pull closer together

Unfortunately in the distance the Union 3rd Brigade under Sirwell has already arrived !

It’s now going to be a tough one but the Confederates have the numbers still, they ride their luck and charge in ?

Around the farm the battle is descending into a shooting contest, both sides firing volleys at full pace, both sides are taking casualties but not yet decisive

Across the road Stanley’s brigade is so close to breaking, but they manage to pull back behind their reserves just in time. This leaves the confederates facing a fresher Brigade and being hit from more than one direction…..the inevitable happens 

The Confederates break, Adam’s Brigade first who have taken the brunt of the fighting along the road. Helm’s brigade although technically still on the table is being cut to pieces by the Farm and only had two Regiments still fighting. The assault is over and Breckinridge concedes the day. A Union victory which will please some I’m sure. A fun battle it was close for a while but with hindsight…….The forces are too balanced for a frontal assault, should we play this again I will delay the Union reserves longer to put them under more pressure , just a bit too easy for them to sit back and wait.

No more holiday photos this time, although I have plenty !

Thanks as always for checking in on our dungeon activity.

I’m off to London next weekend so won’t be at the other Partizan. I’m sure it will be fun for those who do go…enjoy 👍

Matt ❤️

Skirmish for the Pitzer’s Wood 2nd July 1863 ACW

Two battles so far this week with another in the diary for Saturday. First up another trip down to George to continue our Chain of Command campaign. If not ready I’m sure George will post on this battle so really just a couple of photos from me and the broad outline.

The British must try and blow the two fuel dumps next to the road using engineer teams. The Germans must stop them, not a very promising scenario setup for the Germans as they only get 3 points of support more than the British defenders and the way the patrol phase is set up the British are guaranteed the majority of the cover.

Anyway the Germans get stuck in as best they can, both sides have a tank and after many misses the the British A4 goes up in flames

The British in the orchard as the German attempt (foolishly) to approach across the open ground

The British manage to blow one fuel dump, in fact it turns into a very close battle, ruthless German shooting targeting the British commander who mistakenly found himself isolated and out in the open brings their morale right down to 1 giving them only 2 command die. The Germans are clinging on with a morale of 3, but in the end the British turn the tables killing a German senior leader and the rest of the Germans are forced to retreat. The butchers bill was high though with the British taking very heavy casualties we’ll find out soon what this means for the campaign ?

Next up another remote game with Jon, to mix things up I set up an ACW scenario using R&P. This is broadly based on the fight for the Pitzer Woods early on 2nd July at Gettysburg. The main reason for choosing this of course was I thought it would be fun to get my Berdan Sharpshooters onto the table in a skirmish game and with R&P it is easy to give them the appropriate stats.

I found this map on the internet and used it for the basis of the skirmish

My terrain, the Staub Farm to the right.

The 3rd Maine advance quickly to support the Sharpshooters, their objective is to scout five markers before they are beaten back.

They are up against the 10th  and 8th Alabama support by a strong screen of skirmishers

Initially all seems to go well for the Rebels who advance to shooting range and try to close the distance to negate the longer range of the Berdan sharpshooters.

The fire fight kicks off across the table and especially in the open ground

Forces trade colleges across the Staub farmstead where one of the objectives is situated

Somehow things gradually started to go wrong for the Rebels, initially they fail a couple of morale checks and a couple of units become disordered. But with the Union forces keep rolling above a average and suddenly the Rebels start to fail all their tests.

Things quickly go sideways and the whole rebel forces breaks and flees back to their main line.

A fun game despite the disappointing result for the rebels, I had thought it would be a tough ask for the Federals but in the end with the complete collapse of the rebel morale it was almost a walk over, I think I failed at least 6 morale tests rolling less than 3 on two dice ! So there is no scenario design that can cope with that.

As seems the trend we have been busy over the last couple of weeks …..

Berwick upon Tweed the beautiful 16th century defences around the town.

Plenty of cycling out in the lakes

Dunbar where the restored 18th Century gun bastion over looks the two historic harbours and the very dilapidated  Dunbar castle, seen here in the distance where the flag is.

More hot weather encouraged me to spend a day walk a chunk of Hadrians wall, luckily there was a nice breeze.

The views really were stunning.

Well that’s it for now, unfortunately since I started this post it looks like my battle tomorrow has been postponed, but another game is planned for Monday anyway. Then in a weeks time I’m off on my travels again across Europe gorging on military history.

Thanks for checking by

Matt 🙂

Battle of Seven Pines ACW : May 1862

This weekend with the weather perfect for a bigger game outdoors Martin brought over his ACW collection for the battle of Seven Pines. Once again the scenario is based on one published by Brad Butkovich in one of his excellent ACW scenario books……..

…as usual I made a few tweaks mainly in the terrain. 

This official map is very useful, given the historical scale of the battle we would only be focussing on the fighting to the south of the railway.

Our setup with as many trees as I could find as much of the battlefield is wooded. Specifically the Union forces have some command issues  which is fairly easy to arrange with V&F by having the brigades spread out beyond the 12” command range. The confederates are outnumbered and on the attack. The scenario also has interesting ideas on the involvement of Hood’s Brigade. I managed this by allowing Abercrombie the option to send Regiments off the table to the North and these would reduce the number of regiment that would arrive with Hood. In the end the Union commanders didn’t take this option. The Union have significant reserves arriving from the East. Numbers wise the Confederates have 6 infantry Brigades and 1 artillery brigade. The Union have 9 infantry brigades and 2 artillery brigades.

The Union forces immediately start to reorganise their lines to a defensive position. Three Confederate brigades advance in the first couple of turns

The Confederates suffer some early failed activation rolls which means they are on the back foot

Anderson’s Brigade sweeps forward through the woods, whilst in the middle distance Garlands Brigade is advancing across the first set of abatis. The Union are pulling reinforcements into a second line. (Due to the action I didn’t seem to take that many photos early on) 

As after some delay we are now around turn 6 Hoods brigade advances across the railway line

All along the line the confederates are starting to struggle to break through not helped by some poor dice on occasions. In the middle distance the Union forces can be seen defending their rapidly dug entrenchments

Ouch…..Union reserves arrive

Peck’s Brigade has advanced through the woods to the south. Again delayed ! Rodes and Raines brigades arrive on the confederate right wing 

Fighting all down the line now…

and finally the confederates are breaking through the entrenchments

Rains Brigade charges into Pecks brigade in the woods, but despite winning the combat for several turns the Union forces keep passing their Valour tests

Jenkins brigade is now broken but Hoods brigade is ready to take up the fight

Still the Union left is holding against the odds

The Union reserves are being sent in three directions to block the confederate attacks

Some of the reserves run forward in column but also get delayed

After an epic battle the confederate forces are losing their impetus, the second Union artillery brigade opens up a devastating fire on confederates climbing into the Union defences 

Eventually the confederates win on the right flank but a second Union brigade is now blocking their path. In the centre the Confederates have almost no troops left.

On the confederate left Hoods brigade is now engaged but again the numbers are against them. A fun and fairly epic game, alThough the confederate attack ran out of steam in the end they had broken 3 Union brigades during the day. The cost of this was losing 4  brigades themselves. Given this we awarded the win to the Union Generals although a ‘fate card’ had (slightly tenuously) been used to keep Abercrombies Brigade on the battlefield, this would have levelled things up making only a minor win for the Union forces. Either way V&F worked well allowing a big game to be played to a reasonable conclusion during the day. Luckily I have a few days rest before my next battle 🙂 were I to change the scenario the Union reserves should be held back longer giving the confederates a bit more time to deal with the Union forces in front of them.

During my trip last week I also visited Egremont Castle on the west coast of Cumbria so I thought I would share a picture, an interesting Castle in the centre of the town. Although not so much left now…

Finally I also managed a ‘rare’ trip out Mountain biking on another hot sunny day, giving some nice views into the distance.

That’s it for now, many thanks for checking by on my blog. More to come with a Napoleonic battle planned for Thursday.

Matt ❤️