Sharp Practice 2 - ACW Railhead Raid

 

Union forces had pushed a railtrack up from the coast, but their protective covering force have been decoyed away from their task of protecting the railhead. A Confederate raiding force moved toward the railhead, intent on destroying the buildings and the supplies accumulated there. The Union forces, realising they have been decoyed, were moving back up the rail line, to protect the railhead & the supplies there.

The Confederate forces would win by either driving the Union forces from the table, or by burning down two, of either; the railhead supplies, the station, or the Water Tower (each with a Task Roll of 11). The Union forces would win, by either driving the Confederate forces from the table, or by preventing the Confederates achieving their objective.

The river & marsh areas count as ‘Heavy Going’ and the supplies area counts as broken ground, but provides Light cover for foot troops within Supplies area.

The Confederate forces were led by Mal and the Union forces led by Dave.

The Union forces opened with a bold cavalry move, straight up the road, while their infantry moved up the road and rail track, to provide a covering force. The Confederates pushed their main infantry column up the road, while the cavalry, skirmishers and second infantry column moved along the river bank, directly toward the railhead.

The Union cavalry very quickly reached the supplies area and were feeling pretty pleased with themselves. However, the main Rebel column surprised them, by equally rapidly moving up the road and then smartly deploying into line! The Union cavalry promptly sheared off the road, trying to take shelter behind the cross-rail fence, to the North. However, the cavalry didn’t manage to get out of the Rebel volley firing arc, only managing to dismount and take cover behind the fence. However, this did them little good, as the massive volley from the Rebel line killed 4 of the Union cavalry.

Back at the railhead, the Rebel skirmishers and 2^nd column were closing-in on the station building. Sadly, the rapid movement of the main Rebel column, left the Rebel cavalry in a bit of a predicament, being blocked to their front by the main infantry line. Before they could unravel this mess, the Union skirmishers rather roughly handled the Rebel cavalry, shooting into their rear.

As the shocked Rebel cavalry retired behind the main Rebel line, one group of Rebel skirmishers moved up to the station building, to try to fire it. Sadly, it seemed rather unclear as to who had brought the matches!?

The other group of Rebel skirmishers started to exchange fire with the Union skirmishers, much to the annoyance of the commander of the 2^nd Rebel column, which by now was deployed in firing line, but their firing blocked by their own skirmishers!

After a bit of stumbling, eventually the Rebel skirmishers cleared the Rebel firing line and a couple of good volleys sent the Union skirmishers scurrying back behind their own infantry firing line. Both lines then started to blaze away each other, but it was the Rebels who were suffering most!

Back on the supplies side of the track, the Confederate main line was now trying to wheel around, to bring the Union infantry, located on the road, into their firing arc, but it was all happening too slowly. The Union line, supported by a flanking skirmish group, was plucking big holes in the main Rebel line.

Back at the station, the Rebel skirmishers, now aided by the second Rebel skirmish group, had fired the station, now they were moving into the supplies, to fire them too. This left a rather ‘target rich environment’ for the Union forces, into which they sent ball after ball!

The Rebel skirmishers, sheltered by the supply crates, were not faring too badly, but the main Rebel line was suffering. Realising that he could no longer win the fire-fight, as his left flank group was now retiring, the Rebel commander called for his troops to join the efforts to fire the supplies. These supplies were then quickly burning.

Having achieved their objective, the Rebel forces were now retiring, if not ‘in good order’, leaving 14 dead on the field, but they had won their victory, if at rather a high price!?

Sharp Practice 2 – ACW, Combahee River Raid 2

 Union Forces: Dave & Mal

• Level 3 Leader + 3x8 Regular Infantry (Level 1 Leader) {Chit added in Turn 3}
• Level 2 Leader + 2x8 Regular Infantry {Chit added in Turn 2}
• Level 1 Leader + 6 Sharp Shooters
• Level 1 Leader + 6 Sharp Shooters

Confederate Forces: Rob & Steve

• Level 3 Leader + 3x8 Regular Infantry (Chit added in Turn 3}
• Level 2 Leader + 2x8 Regular Infantry {Chit added in Turn 2}
• Level 1 Leader + 6 Sharp Shooters
• Level 1 Leader + 6 Sharp Shooters

The 2^nd South Carolina volunteers were landing from the boats. It looked like the Union forces had stolen a march on the Confederates, and they were able to push their skirmish screen well forward and land the first two groups of line infantry, before the rebels started to appear in force.

The Rebel skirmishers dashed into the field of the plantation nearest their entry road and hotly engaged the Union skirmishers. The Rebel shooting was good and soon three of the Union sharpshooters were down and one of the sergeants knocked-out!

More Rebel skirmishers poured into the field, moving up to the snake rail fence, overlooking the Union forces, while first two groups of Rebel infantry skirted around the side of the field.

This caused the Union sharpshooters to split, with the group with the wounded leader, falling back to another snake rail fence, in the field behind them. The other Union sharp shooter group bravely pressed on, toward the bridge, engaging the head of the Rebel infantry column as they went.

This fire caused the first Rebel column to falter and the rapidly moving second Rebel column quickly become entangled with their rear.

As the Rebel commander attempted to unravel the mess and sort out the dressing, the main Union column marched up from the boats, quickly deploying into line.

There then commenced an odd firefight, with the Union line pouring fire into the confused Rebel columns, while the Rebel skirmishers plucked chunks out of the Union ranks. Suddenly a rebel ball felled the Union Captain. Disaster! However, the junior ensign stepped up (knew there was a reason to bring him?!) and encouraged the Union troops to keep firing!

The first Rebel column fell back, to try to make room for the main Confederate line to deploy, but smoke and confusion prevented the Rebel Captain from restoring proper order. Soon the main Rebel line were falling back and the Rebel Captain ordered the formation to break-up, to try to be able to return fire. The Union skirmishers, by this time on the bridge, then delivered the killing blow, felling two of the Rebel Captain’s group and causing the rest, with the Captain to flee in panic!

This was my first experiment with ACW Sharp Practice 2. I was worried that the extra range of the Minie Rifled Musket, would turn the game into one long range firefight, but some objectives (The Union could either burn the plantation houses or the bridge and the Rebels needed to seize the Union boats), plus some restriction on the deployment space, resulted in a reasonably fluid game. Now to finish the cavalry!

Chattanooga, 1863

On Sunday myself, Dave, Greg and Phil spent an enjoyable 4 hours playing the 1863 battle of Chattanooga using the Altar of Freedom rules. For those not familiar with the rules, they are as set we found several years ago when we embarked on ACW and are specifically aimed at 6mm, where I base of figures represents a brigade. We use bases of circa 30 infantry or 9 cavalry as a Brigade, albeit in most games cavalry are fairly non-existent.

The rules themselves are quite short, running to just over 15 pages of the rulebook, and some of these pages contain illustrations and period quotes so the actual rules are even shorter. They are meant to be played using historical scenarios and are supported by two scenario books. These contain maps and full ORBATS for the battles, plus markers for all the units and generals involved listing the unit strengths and the character strengths or flaws of the Commanders. This is a great help to actually setting up a game plus it makes each game unique and challenging.

As well as the normal nuts and bolts of movement, firing and close combat the rules contain several innovative mechanisms which really set them apart from other rules. Commanders all have a number of “priority points” based on their historic battlefield effectiveness. These are allocated to their various Divisions and during a turn Divisions move according to the allocation of priority points. If you want to go first allocate a high number but then risk other units not going that turn. Linked to this is the “turn clock”, which dictates the pace of the battle. Each turn the “turn clock” is reduced as each “priority point number” is activated, and when the turn clock reaches zero the turn ends. Each side can adopt different strategies for the turn clock depending on their set battlefield objectives or simply the tactical situation during the turn.

We have now played the rules several times and are finally beginning to understand their subtleties. Playing the Union on Sunday Dave and I came onto the table from the North and West and had to either break the Confederate morale or take the Rossville in the south-east by the end or turn 9. We had a preponderance of troops but close terrain to fight through and seemingly never quite enough priority points, but that does force hard decisions to be made. By the end or turn 9 it was a close-run thing. We hadn’t managed to take Rossville but with a final attack we did manage to take a Divisional HQ and break the Confederate morale, winning by the skin of our teeth.

After our first run-out with Altar of Freedom where some people tried to micro-manage units, we have now pretty much got the hand of them and realise that although individual Brigades do fight the results are often fairly inconclusive at Brigade level with the overall strategy of Army and Divisional command being the battle-winning factor, just as it should be!

The models in the photos are all Baccus figures with Leven Miniatures buildings.

Simon

Altar of Freedom – 6mm ACW, Peachtree Creek

The Union forces started with a strong position on the ridge, overlooking Mount Zion Church, but were unable to spend any priority points on turn one. The Rebels used this surprise attack opportunity to storm the ridge in force. While the left flank of the Rebel attack faltered, on the right, a single brigade pushed all the way to bridge North of Colliers Mill, driving all before it!! While this audacious attack was in danger of being cut off, the Rebel left rallied and attacked the ridge again, dislodging the Union forces. Meanwhile another Rebel Corps had marched around the far left flank and were threatening both bridges over Peachtree Creek on the East flank.

Union forces were still not getting an Command Priority Points, not helped by having two Generals captured and one killed and to make matters worse, the Union counter attacks were finding themselves bottled-up in the narrow roads to the North of Peachtree Creek. A rebel win.

Battle of Plum Bend

After several months away from the front, our tame reporter reported for duty on the Mississippi river in May 1862. It had been suggested that I dust off my ACW naval collection and run a game of Peter Pig’s “Hammerin’ Iron”. Rather than use the Peter Pig game set-up system, I opted to write my own scenario and found an interesting historical setting of the battle of Plum Bend. The Federal Western Flotilla was pushing up the Mississippi as part of the so-called “Anaconda Strategy”, facing both shore forts and the Confederate River Defense Fleet (note American spelling of defence!). Early morning of May 10th saw the Federal flotilla in position to trying and bombard Fort Pillow into submission. Mortar rafts were in position together with the ironclad USS Cairo as guard-ship,

with the three other Federal ships at anchor upriver. The Confederate flotilla attacked out of the early morning mist. It was a fairly asymmetric game, with the Federals having more heavily armed and armoured ironclads, and the Confederates tin-clad rams but the benefit of surprise. The main problem for the Confederates was that their strategy relied on Chris and Tony’s close co-ordination. They were doomed from the outset.

The game initially proved pretty even. The Rebels managed to sink the USS Cairo through a combination of shore battery fire and a well-judged ram attack, and then Tony ran through the defenceless mortar rafts. The Union managed to sink the weakest Rebel vessel the General Sumter, and also immobilise Chris’ flagship the CSS General Bragg which continued to drift downriver gamely firing away whilst sinking lower and lower in the water.

However, by the end of the game Tony’s CSS General Sterling Price was high-tailing it back up-river leaving the burning CSS Little Rebel to face three large, powerful Union Ironclads.

Tony of course claimed victory for his massacre of the Union mortar rafts, but as with much of the Union juggernaut there were many more rafts to replace them, whilst the Rebels had effectively lost two precious ships and another was highly likely to succumb to overwhelming force.

I hope everyone enjoyed it. As we were re-learning the rules no doubt mistakes were made, and I’m still not sure about the “direction of ram” situation. Phil suggested a “house-rule” which I might adopt. Next up I need to add some sandbars plus I have found some unpainted packs of torpedo boats and strings of mines which will add some more tactical complexity to the game. I also see that Mr Pig has added some more ships to his collection. Could be expensive!

Simon

Altar of Freedom, Seven Pines

This was just a small re-orientation game for Altar of Freedom, ahead of running the Gibraltar of the West campaign. This game was straight out of All Quiet on the Pontiac, the Seven Pines scenario. 

Longstreet’s massively powerful Anderson’s Division barrelled through Seven Pines, sweeping Couch’s Division (Union IV Corps) before them. Keynes attempted to pivot Casey’s Division onto the left flank of Anderson’s Division, but Anderson merely split his Division, with one half chasing what was left of Couch’s Division back through their own HQ, while the other faced down the re-deploying Casey’s Division. 

However, Anderson’s Divisional artillery rolled up on the now exposed flank of Casey’s Division, causing them to fallback to the hill just North of Savage Station. Heintzelman (Union III Corps), on the Union right flank, was attempting to stabilise a front near Dr.Trent, awaiting Union reinforcements, but harassing fire from Hill’s Confederate Divisional artillery drove them back. This collapsed the Union bridgehead over the Chickahomany River to an unviable sized, so come nightfall, the Union army withdrew.

Dusting off Altar of Freedom

For the first time in many years our tireless reporter stayed on the same Continent even if he did move 84 years in time from the AWI to the ACW. Having checked through my e-mails we bought 6mm ACW back in 2018, and since then have played 2 games of “Altar of Freedom” (AoF) and one using modified “Blucher”. With many of us having bought and painted armies it seemed a shame to leave them unused in boxes, so I decided to dust-off AoF and give it another go.

The scenario chosen was “Cedar Creek”, a medium-sized scenario which appeared a little less terrain-heavy than many in the scenario books.

The game features an early morning Rebel attack on a widely distributed Yankee force. Chris and Tony tried to co-ordinate the Rebels, with Phil and Greg manfully resisting whilst marshalling the troops. The Yankees deployed first, with Divisions encamped all over the table and Major General Sheridan somewhere off-table, together with 8 vital Priority Points.

The Rebels deployed second into in a long line with their cavalry of the far side of Cedar Creek, threatening one of the Yankee Divisions flanks. The Rebels had effectively a free turn and raced towards the Yankee troops. 

Things didn’t go well for Jonny Reb. The Yankee centre managed to hold a frustratingly unified line, and even got lucky breaking several Confederate units with high dice rolls. 

Phil’s Cavalry Corps soon had the smaller Confederate cavalry command in trouble and as well as breaking a unit cleared the western bank of Cedar Creek of Rebels, leaving the infantry to take the fight to their Confederate counterparts.

Greg managed to form a solid defensive position on the outskirts of Middletown, and gradually the Yankee reinforcements started to enter the line.

When Phil Sheridan arrived on turn four the game turned decisively in the Yankee’s favour, as they now had more Priority Points to spend each turn plus better troops. The rebels tried a final “Rebel Yell” and charged, breaking several Yankee units but lost more of their own in the Northerner’s turn. By the end of turn five it was all over. The Rebel morale broke and Chris and Tony conceded defeat. Sheridan had defeated Early.

At the end everyone thought it had been a good game, and looked nice in 6mm. With two rookie players in the forms of Greg and Chris, and the rest of us not having played for five years it was always going to be a challenge as the core mechanisms of allocating Priority Points and the Turn clock are unique to the game. By the end of turn 3 I think everyone “got it”. Playing at the club all those years ago one of the main problems had been the lengthy set-up time. I could obviously negate this by setting up in advance including labelling everyone’s troops. This had taken me nearly two hours but hey, it’s what retirements is for! The biggest gripe is still the tendency for some “micro-management” of individual Brigades to try and manoeuvre into optimal positions, especially when ½ an inch can mean the difference between using devastating canister or not. A hex mat holds the possibility to improve matters but none of us have a mat with hexes that small. I have thought of some easy improvements. Colour coding the Divisions’ labels with marker pens to help identification, plus making up some small rulers marked with the various permutations of moving and firing, such as were common for DBA back in the day.

I’m pretty sure we will return to the ACW using Altar of Freedom sometime in the near future.

That’s it for this week

Simon