If You Go Down To The Woods....

 To wargame the American Civil War you need trees and lots of them. I organised a game for yesterday with club mates Fran, Simon, Matt and my son Stewart, I chose one of the original scenarios from the Johnny Reb scenario book called Dawn at Chickamauga, this involves a large Confederate assault on the unprepared Union left flank as the sun comes up.

The Rebs crash through the woods.

Shifty looking Reb commanders.

I had not read the scenario well and got the arrival times of the Union reinforcements wrong, very wrong, thankfully my son and Matt got to grips with this and we sorted it out before it could affect the game, it also came at the right time for the Federals. Stewart and I took the forces of good and found our initial two brigades out on a limb facing four Reb brigades bearing down on us, fight or flight was our only options, we decided to slowly retire facing the enemy. Our first reserves arrived and due to the fog of war (my mistake, see above) we sent them off down the road to hold a position near the Bretherton farm, leaving a very thin blue line facing the gray hordes.

Stewart's brigade disengages.

Reb reinforcements arrive.

Union reserves turn up.

As the first shots were fired we were taking more casualties than dishing them out, a quick meeting and we decided to disengage our whole line to put some distance between us and the Johnnies. This was unexpected by the enemy and we got away with it and managed a bit of breathing space, but quickly we were back slinging lead and my brigade in particular was taking heavy punishment. This was made worse by the 11th New York in their splendid red shirts skedaddling from the battle line, Stewart and I again disengaged to shorten our line, we were running out of men, especially mine. It was now as the pressure built up that we realised our mistake and rectified it, relief for the thin blue line was now arriving, but we had been pushed back almost to the Lafayette road which was the Rebel objective.

Desperate fighting on the Union right and centre.

Rebs, Rebs and more Rebs.

My shattered brigade.

Help arrives.

Both sides now stood very close to each other trading volleys, our initial brigades had suffered badly but the remnants still managed to hold a precarious line as our reserves started to filter forward. Most Rebel commanders were up front including Nathan Bedford Forrest urging their men forward, only one was to be a casualty, unlucky enough to get a minor scratch followed by a fatal wound. Running out of time we called a halt, the Confederates still had a slim chance to possibly defeat the Union right but it would have involved several hours more of bitter fighting which as we approached 1630 hrs was out of the question, besides Fran was anxious to see some kind of sports fixture.

The firemen run.

With hindsight it was a hard ask of the Confederates to capture three feet of the Lafayette road with their six brigades up against six Union brigades, maybe impossible. If Stewart and I had elected to stay rooted to our initial position we probably would have been overwhelmed leaving a clear path to the road for four Reb brigades, so retiring at speed was eventually the right decision. Having said that it was a close run thing as my brigade was chewed up and dealt very little pain to Fran's men, who just could not miss throughout. My thanks to everyone for coming along for a games day.

Previously on Tuesday night I had a game of Bolt Action against Michael, US Paratroopers vs Germans, I chose my list from the 116th Panzer Division so I got two tank slots, I took a 251/9 'Stummel' and a heavy armoured car 234/1 along with three small squads and a panzerschreck. Micheal wanted to use his own troops so brought two very large veteran squads and a Sherman tank, he is still building his forces and is newish to the game.

Up goes the Sherman.

Heavy armoured car.

Game winner.

PBI.

The Yanks entered the table and ran for cover in one of the buildings near to the centre of the table, I lined up my own squads and was happy to wait for my armour while keeping the panzerschreck hidden, Michael was unlucky and failed twice, maybe three times to bring on the Sherman. My armoured car wasn't much use but the Stummel began to lob HE into the building occupied by the paras, casualties mounted and soon this squad was routed. Micheal then moved his remaining squad towards the German lines and although it dealt our a few casualties on the infantry holding my left the Stummel moved and took them under fire, again the howitzer destroyed the enemy infantry. The Sherman did turn up eventually and moved against my right, I fired a panzerfaust which bounced off as did the first shot from the Panzerschreck, but the second was right on target and up went the last American unit. The game was over.

Houses if HE is around seem to be death traps in Bolt Action now, also the 116th Panzer list having two tank slots doesn't really make sense to me, I am not sure other panzer division lists have them or even if there is such a thing, but getting two fairly cheap pieces of armour for your money is a real boon, especially if you can keep them away from the enemy tank. I am sure Michael will take advantage of his Paras as they multiply and he plays more.

I have now completed my French army with the last unit of Gendarmes (TAG), I will need more cavalry at some point but can live with what I have for now. I have started and nearly finished my first Imperial Landsknechts, I went for Steel Fist figures for these, now I hate having to stick on anything other than weapons and was a bit disgruntled at the separate heads for these men. Now it may be no problem to you but I don't like it, also I found several of the heads quite hard to position, having moaned and huffed and puffed for an hour or so I have to say these guys are gorgeous and I am so happy I got them.

I also got some new RUB inserts from mate Colin at Charlie Foxtrot and reorganised several boxes, which left  me with spaces for maybe some more squads, just in case.

Chain of Command with Simon tomorrow at the club, this will finish my wargaming for February, coming up in March I hope to get the fourth campaign game against Matt Crump and Julian is coming for an Italian Wars bash on the 8th. Mate Billy from Scotland is wargaming near me and is popping in on the 24th enroute, looking forward to a chinwag with an old opponent.

And at last something to enjoy on the telly, Formula 1: Drive to Survive is back, I just love this programme despite knowing nothing nor caring about sport or motor racing, but it has me on the edge of my seat throughout.

I have just started the maps for the German Peasants Revolt, a big change from the Eastern Front and right up my alley at the moment.