Pickett's Charge - American Civil War

As a change of pace from mythical Greece Scrivs invited me over for a game of Pickett's Charge using his lovely ACW collection.

I took command of the "thin blue line" of Union troops defending a fence line while Scrivs was the grey confederate hordes. We each had three brigades but I only started with one on table and two in reserve whereas the Confederacy had the reverse. 

The Union boys line the fences

The Rebels form up

"Give 'em lead boys!"

Whoopin' and a hollerin' the Rebs come on at pace.

As the lines closed my fire discipline began to desert my men!

If you roll poorly your troops suffer penalties in future rounds unless you sort things out - we marked this with "smoke".

I had some success on my left, "whipping" a unit of Confederates and sending them scuttling back 

In response the Rebs limbered up their canon and pressed forward on my right. I was getting quite desperate for my reserves as the pressure grew.

One of my units was also "whipped" and fled to the rear

But reserves arrived and began to plug the gap

The rebels held off and a stiff exchange of fire began.

Some unlucky dice rolling by Cleetus Scrivens the Rebel commander saw his troops go "hesitant" which meant he couldn't charge home.

But the rebel cannon was now deployed on my right and began raining destruction.

More fire discipline problems for the Union!

But still the Rebels held back

The Union guns were taking a "battery-ing" but continued to blast the Rebels.

Finally on my left a charge was launched and the boys in blue retired!

More reserves were thrown in to shore things up

Fire discipline problems were not solely a Union problem.

The Union guns were finally rendered ineffective but by now the last of my reserves had arrived to plug the gap.

Still the rebel line could not force their way home

With time pressing on and the rebels on my left now broken we called the game. The Union forces had held - despite severe Rebel pressure.

Pickett's Charge gave a good game - it's a simple system (it helps when Scrivs knows *all* the rules) that seem, to my untutored eye, to give a passable impression of ACW action. March into position. Stiff exchange of fire. Occasional bloody but reluctant charging.

Scrivs was very lucky with some of his shooting rolls and I was under lots of pressure early on, however his dice discipline deserted him at crucial times meaning his Rebels wouldn't charge home. It was always a tough task for them to charge a defended fence line but delays meant I was always *just* able to shore up my defences.

Hallelujah!

Some ACW models

Whilst recovering from bionicing his leg Stephen has been cranking out a plethora of American Civil War models.

I started painting a few years ago (well, a decade, actually!), so decided to at least finish the box off and get a few 12 man units for Rebels and Patriots together.

When I originally painted some of these as Rebels I just dipped them and didn't do highlights. So I repeated that process albeit with Vallejo Sepia, not Woodstain. I did highlight the officer's coat a bit though.

The Union troops got some actual blue wash on the blue bits to match the originals. 

So I think that gives me two units of 12 Confederates and a unit of 12 Union.
Join me again in ten years' time for the next 12.

Perry ACW Confederates Dipped

I did worry that dipping one model would put me on a slippery slope....

Same recipe as the ECW fella in the previous post.
Fans of "proper" painting needn't worry, I've finshed some more Ogres and made good progress with some more Late Romans. Oh and some horses. And To-Me-Ku-Pa.

Brother Against Brother

A morning in early summer 1863 somewhere in the Blasthoff valley...
The Union army of General Abner Badday has been blundering around for some time trying to track down the Rebel army led by the hard-fighting Hiram P Fudpucker III. At last it seems the two armies may well finally get to grips with one another and both sides send forward scouting forces to probe the enemy defences. As the early morning mist clears Lieutenant Rufus Hudson leads a small force of men into lightly wooded  terrain on one flank of the Union army, little does he suspect that a small band of Texans has been sent to scout the same area...

I've been painting some Perry ACW Blue and Grey men recently and the boys wanted to play a game of soldiers after school last week, so I set up a simple fight for them. I thought I was going to have to play, but in the end they decided to take each other on in proper brother against brother tradition.
We used the Legends of the Old West rules, using the infantry list from Blood on the Plains but with equipment restricted to muskets and bayonets for the men and heavy pistols for the officers. To keep is simple I ignored all the Fate and Might (or whatever they're called in LotOW) and assumed that the officer just had an extra pip of leadership. Sadly I'd fallen behind with painting so the elder offspring had to make do with a mere seven of the grey men against his brothers nine including an officer. To try to off-set the difference in numbers I declared that the Rebel Yell meant he'd get +1 on his combat rolls as long as he charged.
With that, we were off.

Johnny Reb

Johnny Blue

View from behind Union lines

View from the Rebel side

On their right the Union advanced on the rock formation known as Webster's Knob 

To their left Hudson led them to the fence

The rebels made for a wood on their left

And hugged the treeline on their right

 Leading from the front Lieutenant Hudson advanced behind a large rocky outcrop

 And was shot at. A lot.

Meanwhile his men siezed the nearby hill known as Little Flat-Top

Fierce hand to hand broke out near Webster's Knob

After a sharp exchange of fire the Union forces charged from Little Flat-Top and got stuck in!

Repeated pot-shots kept Hudson pinned down behind the rock that now bears his name

In the end numbers told. The Rebs got lots of hits but few wounds. Hudson kept failing his pluck and hiding behind the rock but the Union men managed to pick off a couple of confederates with just a single loss themselves. When it came to hand to hand the rebels rolled so low that even +1 for charging didn't help, so they soon lost the four required to start testing and had to "head for the hills" not long after.
The rules were fun and the boys seemed to enjoy it, though eldest son (who took the rebels) has clearly inherited his dad's knack with dice.