Yankee Hurrah, Rebel Yell

My feet have still not grounded yet after the holiday, the beautiful weather is also not conducive to getting on with things, albeit there is a cold wind here which was not present up north. I am also catching up with several things which have been set aside, car repair (the wife's, my fault), doctor, dentist, hospital, army lists, painting, figures etc.

I also indulged this week at the club and asked Simon to take part in an ACW game although he has never played the game before, I just felt it was time to get the boys back on the table. I kept it simple as with any new game there is a lot of explaining to do and also not having played myself in over a year now, yes, my own memory may be hazy as well, heaven forbid.

Anyway, two brigades each and as Simon had the First Division of the First Corps I also gave him an extra officer, this division only contained two brigades at Gettysburg so he was entitled. I took two brigades from Hood's Division, Army of Northern Virginia so did not take John Bell Hood along, this gave me command problems as my regiments fragmented and my brigadiers ran around trying to get things done.

Texans.

Georgians.

The game was a simple meeting engagement and I didn't really have a plan apart from maybe holding on the right and attacking with the Texans on my left, a lot of time obviously was devoted to showing Simon how the game worked. Simon had the same idea. I had to advance skirmishers in the centre to stop his artillery shooting at the Texans as they advanced, these boys held the line for quite some time before succumbing to musketry and shell and did their job. I slowly got the 5th and 1st Texans into a firefight with the Iron Brigade and they seemed to be winning as the ground allowed me to have two regiments firing on one, the Yankees tried a sneaky outflanking manoeuvre with some skirmishers but I met it with mine.

The Iron Brigade.

I had a couple of regiments in the centre which I would have liked elsewhere but could not find enough spare orders to move them with everyone else in action. My artillery on the right was charged by a brave bunch of New Yorkers and I really did expect to knock them back, however the dreadful morale throw by the gunners ensured their destruction. This charge would have forced me to disengage my right and form a new line had we continued, but we ran out of time. You can never take anything for granted in Johnny Reb and the battle ebbs and flows and a lot of effort is normally required to win outright, very much like the real thing during this period, which of course is why I like the rules.

The fight.

The club was busy with a Renaissance game, what looked like a Sudan game with Rob's lovely figures but using new rules while Julian and Ryan had their first game of Runewars. I have several things stacked up for today and it is also Pub Wednesday at three, something which has not been regular for the past month or so but should now be back on track, my old mate does enjoy an hour or so at the bar. I am also heading south this time at the weekend for some War and Conquest games at Jenny's invitation so have army lists to sort out for that as I am using both my Roman armies and borrowing an Anglo-Saxon or should it be the more politically correct these days, Anglo-Danish, army to fight her Vikings, nope, Anglo-Saxon, come on Harold.