Fall Is Here!

Well here we are at the end of October. Fall is in full swing and with the new season upon us, my gaming has picked up as is my ability to paint etc. I have managed to get 4 units re-mounted and touched up for my ACW collection. They are flocked and all the need now is unit names. I re-mounted several batteries as well. They need names and some flocking. I have one more unit that needs some flocking and to be named. It seemed like forever, but once I see them as a unit, I am amazed at how quickly they all came together. I am down to one box cover for reamed paper full of figs to complete. I would have to admit that the tedious part is touching up and adding paint to the figs. But once that process is completed, the mounting is a snap!

Last weekend 3 of us from our local group went to Rock Con located in Rockford Illinois. The drive is close enough where we can go for the day and back. There appeared to be a sizable amount of gamers at the convention. My friend had put his name in to ref a game, but as luck would have it, it wasn't listed in the program handed out at the convention. It was listed on their web page, but that is of no use once at the con. The game was going to be 25mm Mexican Revolution. Very pretty figs and an interesting period in history.

I did play in 3 games again this year. The first was a WW2 naval game of Americans vs. Japanese. The scenario was based off a real battle fought in the Aleutian Islands. Both sides achieved a victory making the game an obvious draw. The rules were different from what we use in our naval games, but playable and a good time. If I ever used those rules for our group, I would tweak a couple things but overall, a decent set of rules.

The 2nd game I was in was a used the Warmaster rules for the 800-900AD period. The specifics escape me at this time, but it was a victory for our side. The game at first seemed like we were going to rout our opponents. But they made a courageous comeback making it a much narrower victory.

The last game I was in was a 10mm ACW game. The Union were attempting to march on Richmond as the Confederates were making a stand. The game was really a meeting engagement and we used a fast set of rules that were easy to learn. They are named A Terrible Discord. The game is fought on a brigade scale with suppression being a key component. You could kill whole stands by fire, but it was more by attrition. The game used a board game combat results table and it actually worked. Firing from both sides were figured into the results, so if you fired at 1-1 odds, there was a chance the attacker could suffer a negative result. I did enjoy the rules and actually may use a few things for my own set of rules. I had a few disagreements about the rules, but overall, they were a nice set and if I ever decided to game in 10mm ACW, I would seriously consider using them.

Well that is it for now. I am not gaming this week, but when I do game again, I will be sure to update. I am hoping to get a chance to game a lot in the near future and I am looking forward to posting my remarks! I am looking at doing another ACW game in November, but a date has not been set as my regular life takes precedence and I have a few irons in the fire.

Until next time, may the die rolls go your way!

Gaming

Well after a month hiatus, I again am back. In my last post way back in September, I mentioned an ACW game I had set up for our group. We gamed it and I actually enjoyed it, despite being a bit ill.

The game scenario was that the two main armies were each looking to flank one another. Both sides sent their cavalry out to look for an opening. The Union was an all cav group and the Rebs had one brigade of infantry in support. Both sides had artillery and the terrain was a varied mix of woods, fields and hills. It wasn't real cav or artillery friendly, but that was the nature of war.

The game began with the Reb cav moving northward along a road that crossed over a stream. Another force came from the southeast. The Union force came from the north and one group came from the northwest.

The Union group from the northwest actually made contact first. The Rebs coming from the south crested the bridge to see the Union column. The Reb commander in his haste, quickly charged the Union force. After the Union made his morale roll as well as the Rebel, both past and it was a pretty one sided affair. The Union cav unleashed a volley that emptied many Rebel saddles, causing them to depart as fast as they came on.

I must say, I almost figured the game was going to be over in a short time with a Union victory. But that was not to be.

Being that it was pretty much a cav battle, it forced the players to re-think their strategies. Fighting with dismounted cav wasn't as easy as fighting with brigades of infantry. Dismounted cav had shorter ranges to fire.

The battle moved forward. With low die rolls for movement representing the early part of the war when the Union cav weren't as good, they ended up fighting a pretty much defensive fight. The Rebs however had slightly better movement rolls and they methodically pressed the Union cav back. It should be mentioned that one of the smaller Union cav units (4 stands mounted) did represent itself with honors. While holding an area on the edge of town, the Union cav commander observed a Reb artillery battery in the open. With such flare for the dramatics, the commander ordered a charge of the gun. Both units made their morale's and in went the cav with a real good movement die roll. He engaged the battery which again was a one sided fight. The battery was dispatched in a hurry.

The battery had already fired for the turn. The Union cav unit needed a very high die roll to add to his normal movement and got it. What was real surprising, the player who was the cav commander isn't really known to be overly aggressive. It caught us all by surprise. In future games, I plan on making that unit elite for it's actions above and beyond.

When the game ended, the Union force had been driven back as Rebel dismounted cav moved methodically across the board.

Overall the game went better than anticipated for which I am happy. As usual, I plan on tweaking a few of the rules which to a gamer is nothing unusual IMO:) It was a real pleasure to watch how each player handled his units. Like I said earlier, smaller dismounted cav units are a bit of a change from the tradition army brigades. It wasn't real easy to fight this way and for the most part, each cav unit was independent and planning for massed fire wasn't easy. The artillery played a minor role in the game, but wasn't overwhelming.

From what I could tell, a good time was had by all.