Gettysburg Day 1 - McPherson's Ridge.

It has been a while since the last American Civil War game so I decided to get the two sides out for a bit of exercise. I usually prefer to replay historical battles to compare the historical result with the war game result and this was no exception. In this case the scenario was the Battle of McPherson's ridge which was part of the first day of Gettysburg. The scenario I found on the excellent Jay's Wargaming Madness page which is a great source of inspiration and adapted it a little.. Essentially the Confederates have numerical superiority to start with, they have to push the union troops off McPherson's ridge and then see if they can take Seminary Hill behind before Union reinforcements come up. In our game the Confederates got off to a bit of a slow start and the first wave took heavy casualties, especially the frontal infantry attacks on the artillery were disastrous. However, the weight of numbers eventually prevailed and the union troops that survived withdrew from McPherson's Ridge. By now Union reinforcements had arrived unformed a second line of defence on Seminary hill. The first impetuous confederate attack failed to put a dent in the blue line. However once the Confederates resited their two artillery batteries on McPherson's ridge the Union started to suffer. the second confederate attack went in with the bayonet and artillery support and was more successful, although on the left of the Confederate line a confederate regiment was thrown back by stout Union defence, on the right a union Regiment broke and fled at the mere sight of the oncoming southerners. The Union withdrew their artillery behind the hill or else lose it to superior confederate artillery fire, and the triumphant confederates secured a foothold on the Hill itself. Unfortunately the Union artillery now out of sight of the Confederate artillery behind the hill was well placed to vaporize the unlucky but triumphant confederate regiment which had taken the hill. Ka boom!!! At this point both armies were technically broken as the result of having suffered over 50% of their starting strength in casualties so we can concluded the game. It had been a very nail biting game and the rules had worked well. The rules were the Neil Thomas Napoleonic wargaming rules which I have adapted for the American Civil War, and usually produce a fast, brutal and decisive game.

The Union line on MacPherson's ridge

With the farm in the background

The first Confederate attack

But Union reinforcements are on their way!

Confederates move through the woods to attack the farm

Unwise frontal assault on Union battery...

Only the right flank remains of the Union line

But a new line has been formed on Seminary Ridge

Confederates charge towards the second Union line

Who are ready!

General view showing advancing Confederates and Union in defence

Target rich environment...

Hurrah for the Zouaves!

Confederates chase Union troops out of the woods!

Full scale attack on Seminary

The Confederates secure a foot hold on the ridge.

And more are coming!

Union battery vaporises the triumphant Confederates on the ridge.

 

54mm ACW battle report

 Having spent the last few months painting up my American Civil War collection I was keen to put them into action.

So for the test game we simply lined up two equal forces to see how they would get on. The battle was fought on a Table 6 foot by 12 foot.

The infantry regiments consist of four bases each of four figures so 16 figures in a regiment, eight figures in a cavalry unit, three guns and crew and an artillery battery.

So the battle started well for the union who for the first couple of turns seemed to have the advantage however the Confederates fought them to a stalemate on their left flank and their position was weakened when one of the regiments refused to face a confederate charge and ran only rally when it reached the edge of the table but too late to play any part in the rest of the battle.

In the centre the game developed into a battle of attrition between firing lines which the confederates won due to superior luck. Union brought their artillery to close range to try to give them an advantage but by the time it happened it was too late to change the course of the battle. Union right now collapsed in the face of superior confederate numbers.

The whole game using the Neil Thomas rules only took about 2 1/2 hours to play, the number of units on each side was 12 infantry regiments one cavalry unit and two artillery batteries.

The figures are a mix of manufacturers including BMC, IMEX, HAT, and a lot of Call to Arms. Cavalry are Britons.

Because we were trying out the rules for the first time I did not have a complex scenario it was simply a case of matching up two equal forces.

The rules used were adapted from the Neil Thomas Napoleonics rules and with the amendments they worked really well for American Civil War.

The amendments to the Neil Thomas rules for Acw including move distances and range actually worked really well.

I will post these in a later post as I'm going to make a few amendments to them.

The command rule worked well it gave just enough friction for the game too little be a little bit unpredictable without it being dominant.

My original idea was that a failed morale test would result in D4 casualties, but actually we played it as per the rules so a failed test meant loss of another base.

The inter penetration rule worked really well because it meant that we could bring forward fresh units to replace those that were degraded, though there is a risk that the interpenetrated unit would suffer more casualties as a result.

The exception was that if an interpenetrated unit failed a morale test as a result of being interpenetrated, then it threw a D4 to see how many hits it took. This works really well 'cause it means that sometimes an interpenetrated unit takes no casualties at all, or if you're unlucky you might lose a base, which I think reflects the loss of morale which could happen if a worn unit was replaced by a fresh one.

The test to charge and test receive rules also worked well and were just right for Acw. So we had cases when chargers refused to charge, and in one case a fresh charged unit refused to stand and ran off instead. They ran for two more moves and only rallied when they were just about to leave the table.

So most of the time the infantry stood and shot at each other, and then there were occasional charges when the opposing generals thought that they had the advantage, which I thought was very American Civil War.

Coming into range rule did not work, it's easy to forget which units have come into range that turn so it's a little bit of fiddling. What I am planning to do is to adopt the system from Rank and File. So in Rank and File players take turns to move but firing is simultaneous which I think is a better system.

Neither of us knew what to do with our cavalry so both of us ended up charging each others guns, which is probably not very American Civil War and also I forgot that the cavalry would need to test to charge.

However overall I was really pleased with the way that the rules worked and hope that you will be happy to give them a try at some point. It was also really good to get all of the figures on the table it is quite a spectacular sight.