At the recent gaming evening at the BOD a new guy entered the scene. One of our guys met him at a show and he turned out to be working on two ACW armies in 28mm and was looking for more opponents to play against. A plan was quickly conceived.
As it turned out two of our guys – none other than the de Bree brothers – were also working on 28mm ACW and this brought the total of available units to a level for a great game. Both sides fielded roughly 3 brigades and plenty of artillery. With hindsight the amount of artillery might have been a bit on the high side and at some point the north had created a grand battery of 6 artillery units which, I think, may be even larger than the one used by Bonaparte at Waterloo.
After filling a 360cm x 180cm table with terrain a scenario was quickly “shaken out of our sleeves”, as we say in the Netherlands. It was a hot summer and the only well (= put in dutch) in miles around was located in the centre of a white fenced field next to a small village. We agreed that this fence did not have much defensive value and gave it only a +1 for combat resolution; in the end this piece of “cardboard” proved to be the stuff of legend. One brigade of the Union occupied this village and the Rebs were keen on quenching their thirst at this well. Lucky for the Union two additional brigades were nearby and racing to the rescue. We agreed that after deploying the single Union brigade at the table that the Rebs would enter the table as reserves and the additional Union brigades as delayed reserves (see FoW for the workings of these scenario rules).
In turn 2 the Rebs had two brigades arriving; one going over the right around the woods between them and the village, the other over the left and intending to take up a position in the stonewalled enclosure next to the church that was located just outside the village on a lovely hill top. Next turn the remaining Rebs arrived. On the Union side it was all quite at the western front. The single battery tried to hit some of the Rebs only to find out that the Rebs were 5mm out of range: BUMMER!
In the next move the Rebs pressed on. The rightwing brigade making a dash around the woods and deployed 4 battalions in line as a brigade column ready for the attack.
The leftwing brigade commander threw the much liked double 6 for orders, followed by a 6 on the blunder table and the brigade retreated off table, there was much seriously faced laughter on the Union side. A few turns later this brigade reentered the table, advanced, blundered again and fortunately this time they only threw a 5 on the blunder table. In the end these units worked their way into the stonewalled enclosure by the time it was time to call it a day.
By now the first Union brigade arrived and moved along the turnpike in march column towards their threatened comrades. This brigade also blundered and experienced a brief retreat.
In the mean time the Union troops defending the well calmly observed the Rebs advancing on them. One battalion was moved from the Union right through the white fenced field to face the advancing rebel brigade column. A brief firefight followed and then the Rebs charged in. The Union troops stood firm and used the move that victorious units are allowed to make to move to behind the white fence instead of defending in front of it. Over the ensuing turns we saw several times the Rebs charging in, supporting their charging units well, inflicting more hits, winning the combats only to see the Union troops making their break test with flying colors. Next turn again the Rebs inflicted more hits but the Union guys saved all and the Rebs none and… well, such is the life of a war-gamer! The Union brigade commander also managed to keep his brigade well in the game by several times giving priority to a “rally on me” order. In the end this brigade did break but since units are allowed to stay in defendable positions it didn’t help the Rebs as much as they perhaps liked. By now the Union reserves arrived at the village and were able to stabilize the situation to some extent.
The third Union brigade took its time and only arrived in turn 7. By that time the third rebel brigade had worked its way forward on the Rebs right wing, around the barn at the edge of the village and deployed on the hill next to this barn. The Union commander decided that the objective was the well and not the Rebs near the barn. So he order his units towards the turnpike and the Union right in order to support the combat raging around the white fenced field. In order to neutralize the Rebs around the farm the three batteries of both Union reserve brigades were all deployed facing the Rebs deployed around the barn so that any advance of these Rebs would equal suicide; the Rebs understood and only some long range shots were fired doing only little damage.
By now it was time to stop. The Union still held on to the well although the first units of Rebs had been able to press its way into the white fenced field. The brigade that this unit belonged to was, however, broken. Both sides still had enough fight into them and we decided it was impossible to predict how this would end. Still we ended with a game that had all the elements of a great game in it. There was joy, frustration, laughter, tense moments and honest mistakes. What is more is that although many reserve units, in particular on the Union side, did not do much fighting I noted that the fast pace of the game, and the many turns that we played as a result of this, resulted in a more tactical feel to it. In this game we also clearly witnessed two single and uniform sides playing against each other. What I mean with this is that multiplayer games can often end up being several one-on-one games literally one next to the other one a single table. Nobody wants to be in reserve because typically in these games by the time the reserves are needed the time is up. Black Powder does not seem to have this problem and even when a reserve brigade is not near to the real action its movement does have an influence and for a player this is also very satisfying.
P.S. The pictures are not mine but courtesy of Arthur van der Ster, AKA the new guy.
Jan-Willem Boots's Blog 