Battle of Thomson's Farm

 I gave the club a miss last week but should be there tomorrow for that X-Wing game with Jimi, I seem to have a million things to do before then, sort out my forces, blog post, tidy wargame table and make my mind up about Wednesday's Italian Wars game with Julian along with getting on with maps, projects are building up with interuptions by Real Life.

I will park it all for now, we had our second ACW campaign game yesterday, a cracker as a certain Irish comedian used to say, perhaps not all would agree. General Bolton's Union division had slowly made its way along the  Forest Hill - Woodstock road and then stopped short of a junction heading south, meanwhile they had been spotted by the Confederates of Rawsthorne's division who just happened to have a spare brigade on loan from Johnson's division. Outnumbering the Yankees Rawsthorne decided to attack, being cautious Bolton had stopped on a hill and was luckily readying himself in case of just such a Reb attack.

Union forces, will be on left edge.

Confederate froces, deploy on left.

The Federal forces were aligned across a large hill, Gary took the bulk of his division and formed up to the right of the road with two brigades and a battery of guns, I took the third brigade to the left of the road with a rifle battery and two cavalry regiments which I flung out, dismounted, on the far left. The enemy massed their brigades in the centre of the battlefield with a few regiments thrown out on both flanks to pressure the Union line and keep it fixed in place. Sadly for them the two regiments on the left received heavy fire and both routed for the rear, the ones on the right slowly made their way through a wooded hill while the Union troopers waited.

Gary holds the hill.

Dan advances.

As the mass of gray approached the Union position Gary also stood waiting, I on the otherhand I marched my large regiments forward with the intention of bringing on a firefight which I thought I could win as Dan's command to my front looked weaker. I think Gary has the largest of the Union divisions in the campaign. James had bravely continued his advance against Gary's line and was recieving deadly fire from the defenders as he tried to force an opening, he did manage to force part of the line near the road to retreat slightly and get to the fence line strengthend by hasty works but continued to lose men in large numbers at close range, the Federals grimly held on.

Rebs still looking good.

 

The high water mark.

Dan bursts through but is isolated.

Meanwhile I had now a decent firing line set up but threw caution to the wind and charged my boys forward hoping to catch the Rebs on the hop, I managed this and my attack swept the first gray line back behind their supports. At the same time Dan caught me on the hop with his charge and I lost my guns and a regiment, two Confederate regiments were now behind my line, I looked to the right for support from Gary. Earlier in the game Gary had tried to fire my battery and I declared "Everything left of the road was mine Gary!" this was remembered with some hilarity as I now pleaded for help from the other side of the road. No matter I had managed to get my reserve regiment into a position to take on the confused Rebs to my rear, the same thing happened to my front as Dan wrestled with my succesful attack and at one point looked like stabilising his position only to have this snatched away by the dice gods as the 24th Michigan against all the odds stood their ground in some horrendous hand to hand combat. This whole desperate situation left both myself and Dan shattered and a huge hole between my command and Gary to my right, one Union regiment had been captured and the Rebs had two march into captivity. As the continuing firefight to my right had now weakened James' attack Gary moved his far right troops into a position to charge and roll up the Reb left.

Gary under pressure.

My troopers move forward.

James is shattered and orders a withdrawal.

 Looking at his shattered brigades James sounded the withdrawal, my own brigade was in a precarious position but had managed to blunt Dan's attack, it would not have stood much longer. Confederate casualties had been very heavy across the board while most of the Federal losses fell on one brigade, the loss of regiments captured added to the tally, the Rebels also lost a brigadier captured and one killed, while General Bolton died later of his wounds. And there you have it, the Battle off Thomson's Farm, I shall get all this sorted and we will move on with the campaign.

I have finished my second unit for the new army, a unit of light cavalry, Equites Mauri, obviously from Mauritania but always simply called Moors? There are no transfers to fit the small shields in the A&A section of Little Big Man Studios range, so I got some from Victrix and cut them to fit so that they looked more like Roman auxiliaries than having plain shields. Next up are the two bolt shooters then a vexillation from Legio IIII Flavia Felix, I have two more infantry units and a clibinari unit coming. While I work my way through 'Late Roman Combat Tactics' there are references to 'Clubmen' being used against heavily armoured cavalry units, now I know there are Palestinian Clubmen in the figure range but the ones mentioned in the book are Germans, now that might be interesting. 

As I said I have a game with Julian on Wednesday and then a return to Penrith the week after. Simon at the club is planning a WWII campaign and has asked for players, I have put my name in the hat, I believe it will involve Sicily.

Parthian Shot: What's in a name. Do you remember when the local surgery had receptionists, our local now has 'Patient Advisers' who really should be renamed 'Patient Blockers', I do wonder at the training involved as there seems to be a different one dragged in off the streets every time I go to the surgery. Anyway there is a surgery in Kendle which goes one better, they have 'Care Navigators'.