A Battle Report

I am currently fighting a fictitious battle on my table. It is using my 6mm American Civil War troops. I have used the Order Of Battle (OOB) or Salem Church obtained and cross referenced from a number of internet sources. I am using the ACW version of the Blucher rules, though I am taking it down to regimental level as opposed to brigade level. Hence the need for the OOB, as all the units on the table actually represent units that actually fought at Salem Church for my fictitious battle.

I have played the first eight of 30 turns, and what follows is part one of a battle report of the proceedings. I am also posting a turn by turn report on You Tube and links are available on the Tabletop Commanders Facebook page.

The Battle of Paytes County, Virginia.

April 12^th 1863.

The battle of Paytes County was among a number of actions fought in early April of 1863. We shall be looking at a small part of the battle which involved two divisions from each side. They fought over two farms, a hill and a ridge line.

Order of Battle – Confederate Army.

Overall Commander: Major General Lafayette McLaws

McLaws Division

Brigadier General William Wofford's Brigade

16^th Georgia

18^th Georgia

24^th Georgia

Cobb's Georgia Legion

Phillips' Georgia Legion

Brigadier General Paul Semmel's Brigade

10^th Georgia

50^th Georgia

51^st Georgia

53^rd Georgia

Brigadier General Joseph Kershaw's Brigade

2^nd South Carolina

3^rd South Carolina

7^th South Carolina

8^th South Carolina

15^th South Carolina

Anderson's Division – Major General Richard Anderson

Brigadier General Cadmus Wilcox's Brigade

8^th Alabama

9^th Alabama

10^th Alabama

11^th Alabama

14^th Alabama

Brigadier General William Mahone's Brigade

6^th Virginia

12^th Virginia

16^th Virginia

41^st Virginia

61^st Virginia

Artillery

Manly's North Carolina Battery

Read's Georgia Battery

Georgia Artillery Battery 'Coulton's'

Norfolk (Virginia) Light Artillery

Lewis' (Virginia) Light Artillery

Huger's (Virginia) Light Artillery

Cavalry

Fitzhugh Lee's Brigade

1^st Virginia

2^nd Virginia

3^rd Virginia

4^th Virginia

Order of battle – Union Army

VI Corps Army of the Potomac.

Overall Commander – Major General John Sedgewick

1^st Division – Brigadier General William Brooks

1^st Brigade – Colonel Henry Brown

1^st New Jersey

2^nd New Jersey

3^rd New Jersey

15^th New Jersey

23^rd New Jersey

2^nd Brigade – Brigadier General Joseph Bartlett

5^th Maine

16^th New York

27^th New York

121^st New York

96^th Pennsylvania

3^rd Brigade – Brigadier General David Russell

18^th New York

32^nd New York

49^th Pennsylvania

95^th Pennsylvania

119^th Pennsylvania

3^rd Division – Major General John Newton

1^st Brigade – Colonel Alexander Shaler

65^th New York

67^th New York

122^nd New York

23^rd Pennsylvania

82^nd Pennsylvania

2^nd Brigade – Colonel William Browne

7^th Massachusetts

10^th Massachusetts

37^th Massachusetts

36^th New York

2^nd Rhode Island

3^rd Brigade – Brigadier General Frank Wheaton

62^nd New York

93^rd Pennsylvania

98^th Pennsylvania

102^nd Pennsylvania

139^th Pennsylvania

Artillery

Massachusetts Light Artillery

New Jersey Light Artillery

Maryland Light Artillery

2^nd U.S. Artillery Battery 'F'

2^nd U.S. Artillery Battery 'G'

1^st Pennsylvania Light Artillery

Cavalry

3^rd Indiana

8^th Illinois

The first indication of the close proximity of forces occurred the evening before the battle. Just as daylight was about to give way to dusk a Confederate cavalry regiment, the 2^nd Virginia and a single Union cavalry regiment, the 8^th Illinois, met and exchanged fire on the road close to Von Ketteringham's Farm. The firing drew the attention of a second Union cavalry regiment from the same brigade, the 3^rd Indiana, who were on a parallel road at the other side of Palmer's Ridge. They quickly crossed the ridge to investigate the sound of shooting.

The rest of the Confederate cavalry brigade under the command of Fitzhugh Lee and consisting of the 1^st, 3^rd and 4^th Virginia, had also been travelling along the same parallel road and they too crossed the ridge to investigate.

It soon became apparent to the two union regiments that they were outnumbered and both made off the way they had come, hotly pursued by the rebels. The light was by now fast failing, but not before Fitzhugh Lee was able to see the tents and wagons of what was at least two divisions of Union troops. He had actually stumbled upon the camp of the Union VI Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He quickly made good his escape and relayed this information to Major General Lafayett McLaws, commander of two Confederate divisions, camped just seven or eight miles from the Union Corps.

McLaws ordered Lee to take his brigade and occupy Von Ketteringham's Farm, Clay's Farm and Payne's Hill and to hold them until he could bring up his two divisions at first light. This was done, and the troopers not on sentry duty tried to get some sleep in their tents.

The following morning, the troopers were up before dawn and prepared to take up positions to engage the enemy should he appear. However, before the troopers at the two farms could actually occupy the hedge lines, they were beaten to it by the same two Union cavalry regiments from the evening before. At Von Ketteringham's Farm the situation was not too bad as the 3^rd Indiana had dismounted behind bushes to the South of the farm. However, at Clay's Farm the 8^th Illinois had dismounted and quickly moved up to the hedge line surrounding the field only yards from the 3^rd Virginia. These latter two regiments would be engaged in a firefight among the hedges for most of the morning.

As daylight arrived, so did the first of the Confederate forces. Wilcox's Brigade moved up to Von Ketteringham's Farm and took up positions behind the northerly hedge line, whilst at the same time Wofford's Brigade advanced to the summit of Payne's Hill with their two batteries of artillery. Semmes' Brigade, was delayed starting their march and so the Clay Farm was not occupied and it was left to the two battling cavalry regiments to contest the ground.

If Semmes' Brigade had caused the Confederate command some concern, it was nothing to what the Union command was facing. Only the 3^rd Brigade of the 1^st Division under Brigadier General Russell had actually made it to their allotted starting point on time. The rest of the brigades from the two divisions were still slogging along to the rear, late leaving their camps. Brigadier Russell could only look on in dismay as first Semmes' Brigade moved up to the Clay Farm and Mahone's Brigade occupied Palmer's Ridge. Every good defensive position was now occupied by the rebels, only a sole cavalry regiment still fought its duel with a Rebel cavalry regiment at the southern end of the Clay Farm.

Finally, 1^st Brigade of 1^st Division appeared on the field, but that was all, too late to contest any of the good ground before it. In the rebel lines, Mahone had plenty of time to leisurely adjust the disposition of his regiments to give excellent fire arcs against the Union Army, should it eventually appear in numbers.

It would be almost 11am before the whole of the Union Corps had arrived on the field and began to push forward. 1^st Brigade, 1^st Division advanced toward Payne's Hill. 3^rd Brigade, 1^st Division headed for Palmer's Ridge whilst 1^st Brigade, 3^rd Division headed for Von Ketteringham's Farm. The regimental fire fight between the dismounted cavalry continued in the hedges surrounding the field of Clay's Farm.

Eventually, the Confederate cavalry brigade was ordered to mount up at all three locations. As this was occurring, the Rebel artillery opened up with devastating results. Carlton's Georgia Artillery caused casualties to the 23^rd New Jersey, as did Read's Georgia Artillery, also perched on Payne's Hill, hitting the 15^th New Jersey. Huger's Virginia Artillery on Palmer's Ridge caused casualties to the 36^th New York, whilst at Von Ketteringham's Farm, Manly's North Carolina Artillery engaged the 122^nd New York, reducing that regiments elan by one.

                                                 To be continued.

Live battle (hopefully) Intro

It's here, the first live battle from my table. I hope I have solved the sound issues of my tests, once the two participants are free to play, the game will get underway. There is a YT video to accompany this post on the Tabletop Commanders You Tube page which is included here, giving all the details. I have laid out some troops on the table, however, the two commanders may well choose a different combination of forces.

The goodly Sir Steve Le Clay's forces on the road heading North, 

A valuable cargo of carpets for the poor folk up in colder Northern climates.

Some troops to guard the valuable cargo.

The bridge over the river, which is not fordable.

The dastardly Sir Kurtus Brown, keen to use the carpets for the new wing of his castle, will be lying in wait.

With a welcoming party.

Sir Gavin Booth, will be waiting in the wings to help out Sir Kurtus if needed.

Looking North along the table.

Here is the video of the battle set-up. Looks like is going to be a good one :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on figure basing in Lion Rampant and Le Art

I was messing around with some figures in anticipation of an upcoming live, online battle and thought I may as well take some photos. I plan to do a Lion Rampant battle with my Wars of the Roses figures first, followed by a 100 point a side Le Art battle, so wanted to gauge the table size would would best suit the different systems.

First up is the 100 point, or just under in fact, army for one side. As you can see it is made up of nine units with a cart representing the camp and a single commander figure.

A little blurred, but the frontage in one long line is about 30 inches or 76cm. Two units of mounted knights each costing 12 points.

A unit each of spear men and bill men, the dice show the points cost of each unit, so spears cost 7 points whilst bills cost 11.

A unit of elite foot knights, I added an extra rank to show elite status, costing 14 points.

Two units of elite archers.

Two units of light cavalry.

The cart which represents the camp and the leader figure.

Switching to Lion Rampant, I have left the figures on the bases, but in actual fact, the bases would not be used with this game system. They would be in groups of six or twelve figures with no front or flanks. As you can see, a much smaller force is needed for this skirmish game. This retinue represents a standard 24 point force, though I have only used 23 points.

A much more compact force for a smaller table.

The leader of this retinue is one of the six mounted men at arms, so a leader figure is not needed, we will call the guy on the left with the impressive green and white plume the leader.

A unit of six foot knight at 6 points.

Archers at 4 points.

Bill men at 4 points also.

Finally, a unit of spear men for 3 points.

Of course you can mix and match the force to your own liking, or make it more suitable for the battle ahead, be it defensive or an attack force.

I am currently uploading a short video of this on my You Tube channel if you want to see and hear more.

Playing Miniatures Battles Online

This weekend I will be hosting yet another game of Blucher for the community. This will be an epic fight set within the 1812 invasion of Russia. My good friends Ian and Neil - whom you may recognize from many TtC PAINT & CHAT sessions - will be Russian and French commanders respectively. Also, we will have some special guests to lend some advice and support to our two glorious commanders.

Preceding the battle, we will also be having a session of Scharnhorst to set up the armies for the coming carnage. This should be taking place the day before the actual battle itself. Although I haven't played only but once using these "mini-campaign" rules, I do so love them. They really would work quite well with any period really. Anyway, this amounts to even more fun over the weekend.

If you are curious about playing miniatures-based games online look no further than this blog! It's one of the reasons we started this whole community! Needless to say, playing online is really pretty easy. Just have a watch at some of the LIVE Plays we have done already over on the TtC YouTube channel. It really is as simple as choosing a player to host the battle - the guy who supplies all the minis, terrain, and table space. As long as this person also has a webcam and a mic all is well. Everyone just joins the Hangout on G+ and the game can start.

Playing RPG's is also a blast on Hangouts! In fact I have a campaign of
Dragon Age starting in a couple weeks using G+ Hangouts with some
of my friends from the TtC community.

I really do highly recommend trying online gaming with G+ Hangouts. I know quite a few people who use Skype to do this, although this is seldom public - it would require videoing the session with an additional webcam and uploading it to YouTube. G+ Hangouts are a blast really, and they have all kinds of useful game-related apps too. One example is Dice Stream, which is a dice rolling program that works pretty darn good. Still, I prefer to pick up a hand-full of dice and throw them myself. I mean would anyone really cheat with their rolls? I wouldn't.

G+ Hangouts are a good way to try out different rules too!

Anyway, feel free to watch our battle on Friday at noon EST. The actual fight will be on Sat. at the same time. You can watch later too if you want, since the video will be uploaded to the TtC YouTube channel :)

And with that, we are off! See you all soon.

~K

The weight of command.

After an interesting discussion on last night's paint and chat regarding an upcoming battle we have planned, I penned the following.

Mikhail Kutuzov left the warming glow of the campfire and his Corps Commanders. He needed to be alone to think. He carefully walked to the edge of the bluff on which his headquarters were situated and looked down on a myriad of twinkling campfires that stretched in both directions as far as the eye could see. Smoke, cooking food and snatches of men's voices could be heard as they mingled together and drifted up to his position.

How many of those men would still be alive to eat an evening meal tomorrow?

His raised his eyes to the distant hills, they too were blanketed by twinkling campfires, that looked for all the world like the stars in the sky. The enemy too, would no doubt be cooking food, the men talking and laughing, living for the moment and not thinking about what the dawn will bring.

Was the enemy commander looking across to this very position at this moment? Was he also alone and struggling under the weight of his command.? Had he too tried to allow for every possibility that may occur in the battle that would be fought in the morning?

Mikhail Kutuzov had hammered home to his Corps commanders the importance of communication, they could carry out their orders as they saw fit, they were all competent men. But he needed to be kept informed at all times, being blind on the battlefield had always been his greatest fear.

He turned back to the campfire, he would sleep little tonight, the fate of this army and perhaps his nation, would depend on how he and his men performed in the heat of battle...

It will be interesting how much information he actually does receive.

Multi-scale battles?

After a very interesting and thought provoking exchange of ideas between Kurtus and myself, last night on Tabletop Commanders Paint and Chat (28th April, go watch it). We discussed ways of improving our experience of the battles we recreate on the table top.

Even playing solo, you have a god's eye view of the battlefield and can instantly see what is happening all over the table. A battle I fought recently was First Bull Run/Manassas, it was in 6mm on a 6 x 4 feet table. I used a modified version of the Napoleonic rules Blucher, which worked perfectly well, but I could have used a grand tactical rule set specifically designed for the American Civil War, such as Altar of Freedom or similar.

The God's eye view of most of the table for First Bull Run/Manassas. 

But what if you only had a view of a small part of the table and instead of commanding whole armies you switched to the tactical level of commanding a brigade or a division, and could only see the part of the battlefield in which your troops were actually fighting. You would have little knowledge of what was happening on your flanks, other than hastily written notes from fellow officers or the general commanding.

As the divisional or brigade commander this is your view of the battlefield!

Or if you are lucky to have an elevated position you may get this view.

So in the course of our conversation, we both agreed that it is equally enjoyable to fight battles at a lower level of command, such as in General de Brigade or its ACW equivalent, Guns at Gettysburg. The only problem is, you are fighting just a small part of the battle with little knowledge of how the whole battle is going all around you.

This led to the idea of multi-scale, multi-table, multi-rules! Not easy to say.

So in the above example, the whole battle could be fought, turn by turn, on a map with counters or on a table with 6mm, 10mm or even 15mm figures, using a grand tactical set of rules. Though not quite the whole battle! as one part of the battle is being fought on a separate table in 28mm using a tactical set of rules. The results of this part of the battle being transposed onto the main table.

Why bother doing that? Well lots of reasons, the most important being you get to fight a smaller scale battle with beautiful 28mm figures, but it is only part of the battle as we have already said. As the commander of your division, the battle may be going wonderfully well, with the enemy being pushed back.

But what is happening elsewhere? 

That of course is being decided on the map/table of the whole battle. The division on your left may have been routed and is in full retreat, leaving your flank wide open, at this very minute enemy troops are taking up attack positions on that very flank, you thought was occupied by a friendly unit.

It would be a way of enjoying being part of a bigger battle and still get to use larger scale figures, for the smaller part of the overall battle being fought by yourself. You can have thousands of 6mm troops but 28mm? not unless you are incredibly well off and have a barn to set up a table in! This way you get the best of both worlds, with the added suspense of not being exactly sure what is happening outside your view of the battlefield.

Food for thought I think.

Review: ACW Gamer #11

It's been a while since we made a post as of late so I thought I would put up a short review on issue #11 of ACW Gamer - the E-zine.

***

 

For starters this is a pretty slick production - lots and lots of eye candy! But not only that, for the price of $12 USD one gets a lot of useful information! In this case, issue #11 comes in at a hefty 37 full color pages. When I say "hefty" I mean content!

 

For one we have an excellent short article by ACW author Scott Mingus, discussing a few rules ideas for representing supply wagons and such in our tabletop battles. He includes a number of inspiring examples for the popular set of rules,  Fireball in the Night. I know it is not only fun to have rules for these little wagons, but it gives us a great reason to include these models on our tabletop too.

 

This is followed up by a useful review by Arthur van der Ster on Warlord Games new release, Glory Hallelujah.  no surprise here as this Black Powder supplement has been on the minds of many an ACW wargamer. The review itself is quite inclusive and covers everything from background, layout, special rules for the ACW, artwork and even its price. All in all a pretty good review I must say. If you are on the fence about this supplement, or just want to have a good idea of what to expect, this article is spot on!

 

Next we have an article by Bill Moreno, owner of Good Ground Miniatures, where he details his ideas on collecting and putting together 1:600 scale iron clads! I know I have been very tempted to go for this scale myself. In my mind, 1:600 is the equivalent of 28mm models for land battles - 1:1200 more like the common 15mm scale. You just can't beat the detail on these awesome ships. Bill goes on in the article to discuss just that. Chalk full of useful ideas and useful painting and converting techniques.

 

Some of you might recognize the author of the next piece - especially if you are a fan of the Cigar Box Battle Mats. Cory Ring concludes the E-zine with a guide to touring the Franklin battlefield - all with an eye towards the wargamer. Located in Tennessee, the Franklin battlefield offers the wargamer many inspiring locations. Ever wonder what to keep your eye on when touring the battlefield? How about some little known spot that would make a good scenario? That is what this article is all about. Full of descriptions of important areas of the battlefield, as well as a good suggested reading list. Of course, lots of inspiring pictures of the battlefield locations accompany the article.

 

Of course, the E-zine is also full of useful other bits for the ACW gamer - including adverts from leading miniatures distributers, as well as a listing of ACW clubs around the globe. In addition, there is a section at the beginning that covers the news and goings in the ACW wargaming community. In this case detailing the recent HMGS Cold Wars convention held this last March, including plenty of pictures of ACW games in action. In addition, there is a short write up about the upcoming NashCon and Johnny Con conventions to be held in May.

 

Considering the content of this E-zine, and at a price of only $12 for a four issue per year subscription, it is a great value to the ACW wargamer. As a pdf, it is well organized and laid out, easy to navigate. Well worth it if you ask me.

 

Final verdict: A+; the amount of quality content here considering the price is well worth it. If you are interested in ACW miniatures wargaming, I can't recommend this E-zine enough. Well worth it!

 

Check out the E-zine home page here at ACW Gamer.

 

***

SO there you go folks. I hope you found that little review worth it. I hope to do more of these in the future her on the TtC blog. Was fun.

Till next time...

~K