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.