Longstreet - Cornfields - 1865 Final Battle

The Cornfields scenario was the final battle for the campaign with my son. It was one of those where I had to make scenery like mad all during the week before the battle. The corn stalks are model railroading material that led me all over town looking for packages. I am pretty happy with how they turned out and now I have plenty for future games.

The cornfield scenario stated that this battle was Sanguinary. I had to look that word up. It was appropriate for the last battle as the Confederates would fight on desperately past their normal army break point. John's Union forces were much larger than my Rebs. Also this scenario brought some relief from his artillery advantage. It was exactly the scenario I needed to flip the campaign in my favor.

The best overview of the table. Battle is already in progress.

I really like the Longstreet system. After playing all 9 battles I have an appreciation how this game simulates the historical dominance of the Union supply over a number of years. Command cards become precious to the Rebel commander. By 1865 the Rebel command deck is about two-thirds of the Union deck. I became concerned about spending cards to soak up casualties because of the limited deck.

Union troops closing on the cornfields

Rebels hunkering in the corn, hiding from artillery.

There is one card in the deck that can be truly diabolical when played against a commander. The "They Couldn't Hit An..." card forces the unlucky commander to roll a die and discard that number of cards from his current hand of 6. John used his to perfection and caught me precisely at the moment when I was ready to unleash the hounds. I rolled a 4 and my plans went up in smoke.

Georgia 5th Mud Dogs moving forward. Lots of Union out there!

The Diagonal that developed between cornfields on the Rebel right.

Meanwhile the Union moves up more troops to engage the Rebel left center.

A spirited battle on the left.

The Mud Dogs awaiting their doom.

In the end, the Rebels were defeated soundly. The war is over. The final epic point total was Pellets McKenney with 40 points and the rank of 4 Eagles. Eustace P Marmalade with 37 points and the rank of 2 Eagles. The campaign system was a complete pleasure and I had a blast competing against my son. I highly recommend the Longstreet rules. Next up for will be some Fast Play Grande Armee. Happy gaming everybody.

Longstreet - Hilltops - 1864 Battle #2

John and I are nearing the end of our first Longstreet campaign. We have had three more battles since my last post and they have all been a sheer pleasure to game. I have forgotten to take a lot of pictures during those games in the heat of the battle. The pictures are also limited for this battle. These few will serve as a battle report on our second battle of 1864. We rolled the Hilltop scenario in the Longstreet campaign system. I rolled well on the scouting roll and chose defense of the hills.

The Rebs watch some Yank activity out on their left flank.

A desperate battle is joined in the woods. The Reb infantry was winning this battlefield hot-spot.

Meanwhile out on the Reb far right flank, the Union troops run into some dismounted Reb cavalry. The Rebs had the cover and were able to inflict some casualties in a fire fight.

In a desperation move, the Union cavalry charges the guns in hope to gain an objective point.

During this entire campaign we have both experienced hot and cold dice to one extreme or another. On this last battle I had been rolling hot and John not so much. I had been already rolling for victory checks and missing them while John had not inflicted enough damage to check. However when he charged my guns he was able to drive off my infantry, capture a gun or two and most importantly capture an objective marker.

The calculated army break-point was 22. He had done 10 points of damage so far but that objective marker allowed him a second die to roll. He shook his dice for a long while and cast them onto the table. Boxcars! Victory!

This is exactly why I game. For moments like these. John was so excited to pull a victory out of thin air. It was a terrific moment for the two of us. Our next battle will decide the campaign. After eight games we are only two points apart in the standings with John leading. Our next scenario is the Cornfields. I will TRY to remember to take more pictures.

Longstreet - Crossroads - 1863 Battle #2

The Longstreet campaign with my son continued with a second battle in 1863. The objective being possession of an important intersection of two roads.  Here are pictures of the table setup from the Rebel and Union perspectives.

The brigade of E.P. Marmalade has been given orders to defend the crossroads until reinforcements come up later.  Precisely how long that may be is unknown. All Marmalade can see is one hot damn mess of Yanks and their artillery.

Marmalade orders his cavalry reserve forward to plug the gap on his right flank as Pellets McKenney deploys half of his artillery.

At this point, the Union center has been stalled with decent Rebel cannon fire. For this battle McKenney was not as fortunate with his cannonade.

Since the Reb cavalry was dismounted and committed to a position, McKenney ordered his cavalry to sweep around the other flank at an attempt of encirclement. 

Marmalade immediately countered the maneuver by about facing his rear guard battalion and drawing two guns off the front line to meet the threat.  It was a risk but the Union center had taken a large number of casualties so far.

Pellets McKenney unleashed the fury in a cavalry charge. This time the southern boys were ready.  A quick vicious brawl resulted in the loss of one of his Cavalry units and the retreat of the other.  (Sadly, I forgot to take a picture during the charge.) As they tried to retire to reform, another Rebel gun was turned in their direction.

Marmalade retracted his right flank to protect his artillery and dismounted cavalry.  As this was occurring, he continued to snipe at McKenney's troops on his left.  With a few lucky shots he was able to break the Union attack and the battle was over.

This was also the second time where the phrase "Need a six, rolled a six." has been used in our campaign. Marmalade has gotten lucky twice on the victory check.  Whew!  Here is the final position of the battle.

After the game, we went through the campaign post battle process. There were no promotions, but John gets more artillery!  He is at the maximum now for the year 1863. We also rolled for the next scenario which is "Meeting Engagement".  The scenario describes an unplanned meeting on a pike out in the middle of nowhere.  It will be interesting.  I will post a report after that battle.

Longstreet - Clear the Treeline - 1863 Battle #1

This entry is more accurately described as the Tuesday afternoon butt kicking.  My son was finally over the crud and we got a chance to play Longstreet again.  We randomly rolled the Clear the Treeline scenario and I won the scouting roll.  My first and most fatal decision for the Rebs was to choose, Attack.  It was a massacre as John played his forces extremely well. He had a 2 to 1 advantage in artillery and used it wisely.   The scenario created a really pretty battle table and we used all my deciduous trees.  I had to break out a few conifers to complete the layout.  Someday I must remember to finish basing the trees.  Oh well.

Here is the overview of the table:

 If one looks closely, the objective marker is placed behind the small copse of trees above the plowed ground.  The Confederate columns and artillery marched slowly forward under constant fire from the Union guns.  None of the Reb columns were unscathed.  Here is early in the action as the columns begin their push forward.

Obviously Eustace P Marmalade did not have a good scouting report before the battle, otherwise he may have been tempted to return to the plantation and pen his memoirs.  Here Pellets McKenney is gleefully orders his massed artillery to open fire on the Rebel columns.

The Rebs were getting pounded and attempted to charge the Union guns.  It was not a pretty sight as ball-shot and eventually canister tore through their ranks.

Meanwhile out on the Rebel left some of the columns were about to make contact with the Union troops in the woods.  The Yanks were ready for the fight and had several successful volleys.

At this point, McKenney saw that the Reb forces were fully committed and he ordered his cavalry to sweep around the flanks and encircle the rebel forces.  It was a nice maneuver and sealed the fate of the Rebel attack.  The picture below does not show both flanks, but the Yankee Cavalry was there hooting and hollering.

As the Rebel attack closed to contact, it was being overwhelmed by concentrated volleys, canister and the very real threat of the Yankee Cav coming up behind.  Here the attack falters:

In the next moment we see the Union Cav complete their encirclement and start to press forward into the Rebel rear.

Although the Rebel attack was being halted,  the Union was bringing up more reinforcements at the end.  Here is a picture from the Union perspective.

Mercifully during the phase for victory check, John rolled what he needed and the game was over.  Army break point was 20 stands. Total damage, the Yanks had killed 16 stands, including all but one stand of the Rebel artillery.  The Rebs had only managed two kills for the whole engagement.  The battle was as lop-sided as it sounds.  My son is an artillery assassin.  He has been this whole campaign.  I am having a blast battling a very wily opponent.  
 

Pea Ridge - Finally

A few weeks ago, I put together the Pea Ridge ACW game from Wargame Downloads. It just sat gathering dust for many days and nights. We have finally managed to play a couple of games. This is a report about the most recent one.

The scenario starts with the Union deployed south of an imaginary line through Leetown and Pratts Store. The cameras point of view is from the Confederate side looking south. This image shows Greg's initial deployment.

The Rebel enter the game on the two roads at the north side of the table. In the image above a gray counter marks one of the starting positions. The other is off camera to the extreme right. For the first turn, all the Rebel troops are considered in Command Control. The rule set in use is Brothers At Arms, it stresses the importance of command and control. The Union has a good set of commanders, the Rebels don't. This has proven to be the Achilles heel for the rebel side in both games. Their forces are split to the east and west of Pea Ridge, one force is inevitably out of command. Its movement then is severely curtailed.

For this game, I chose to put the Rebel overall commander in proximity with the force attacking Elkhorn Tavern. This left McCulloh's force on the west on their own resources. The next image shows the battle progressing after several turns. The Union realized that the western Rebels are having trouble moving and swept forward to capture the objective in the middle. At this point, the Union owns 4 of the 6 objective markers, but the battle in and around Elkhorn Tavern is heating up.

The battle on the west side of Pea Ridge is a non event. The Rebels grabbed the closest objective. However, there was always the problem with command to keep that force moving. That front basically just stalled with the occasionally exchange of cannon fire.

The action was on the east side of Pea Ridge. The rebs made some good progress, grabbing the objective to the southeast of Elkhorn Tavern. The Union was being pushed back.

And then that one union counter holding Clemon's Farm dug in like a tick. The rebs threw overwhelming firepower against that unit. It was not overwhelmed, it would not budge. The Rebel offensive stalled.

In the game, day light was running out, and we were running short of libations. The game ended in a draw just as the beer and scotch ran out. Here is the final position at sunset.

All in all a good game. I like the rule set, the mechanics are fairly clear. Command and Control is the heart of this game. If you are out of command, your units just sit. I am going to build the Wilson Creek game next. Same rules, but hopefully it will be a bit more even on C&C.

ACW - Finished Limbers

I just put the finishing touches on my 15MM ACW limber project for Longstreet. They came out pretty well, that is they will be okay for table top quality. Now I can get back to my Maurice / Hauverstover project. That is of course, if nothing else grabs my fancy.

Over the years, I have experimented with different mixes of static grass colors to arrive at something that looks good on the table top. But I have never been completely satisfied. This is another batch that is close, but still not exactly what I am working for. It is almost there, so I am recording the formula for later use. Maybe with just a couple more tweaks it will be what I want

• 2 TBSP - Medium Green Static Grass
• 1 TBSP - Harvest Gold Static Grass
• 1 TBSP - Green Grass Fine Turf
• 1 TBSP - Summer Lawn Blend Flock and Turf

The limbers from the front

The limbers from the back

Now, I think I had better get a new coat of wax on my car before winter sets in. Happy gaming!

ACW - Limber project

The ACW Union Artillery Limber project is almost complete for my Longstreet forces. These are in 15 MM using Old Glory castings. I have never found the need to paint limbers before. Simply turning an artillery base around indicated that it was limbered or not. I may resort to that same technique in the future. After this project is done, I will have two Union Artillery Limbers, the issue is the cost of an actual cannon model per limber. Seeing these two cannon effectively out of play drives a stake into my parsimonious personality.

An overall view of the pieces that will go into two limbers. The draft horses were painted very plainly. Most of the time was spent on the harness. A few of the horse models were given socks and blazes but I didn't go overboard.

This is a little closer view to the models that represent one limber. I am now to the point that I just want to get these done so I can go back to my Hauverstover project. Since these are limbers and will not be on the table top that often this level of quality is going to be good enough. By the way, nice focus on the shot. I was aiming for the horses in front. Auto-focus evidently decided to ignore me.

Finally, I looked all over the interweb and through the Osprey books to find the correct painting for a triangular pennant. Everything I could find stated that flags were either rectangular or swallow-tail. This is a compromise, that I found in one of the Osprey books. I am also showing this little guy because his mustache came out perfect.

Finally, on recommendations from some of the Basement Generals, I took a little road trip over the past weekend to Harrisburg, Missouri. A little town in the middle of the state about 15 miles north of I-70. The target was a BBQ joint named Lonnie Ray's. If barbeque is a favorite of yours, make this pilgrimage. The brisket was amazing. I will making this trip again soon!

ACW - Pea Ridge

I bought Pea Ridge, Wilson's Creek and First Manassas from Greg at Wargame Downloads. I was intrigued because the site said that one could build the battle board in 3D. Maybe I will get to that in the future, but that may end up being an unrealized project. Pea Ridge is the first of three that I assembled.

After the purchase, one receives a ZIP file download that has several PDF files included. These PDFs include the battle board, counters, rules, instructions for making the 3D board and a small history about the particular battle.

One of the first things I realized is that the battle board is on A4 metric paper. I have a B/W printer, so off to one of the big chains that does color laser printing. I found that printing Actual Size, centered on Legal size paper produced the correct results. Next was a visit to a Hobby and Craft store to get some Black Foam Core, Spray Adhesive and Mat paper.

Assembly was pretty easy since the map was kept to 2D. Note, when working with foam core, have several new #11 blades ready for your knife. When cutting with a dull blade, the foam will tear and look nasty. A razor sharp knife glides through the material effortlessly, but the foam core dulls a new one pretty quickly. I used three blades for this project. I wanted a nice clean look.

Battle Board

All the games in this series use the Brothers At Arms rules set. It looks to be a pretty straight forward rule set with some interesting rules for Command and Control and Zones of Control. I look forward to playing the initial Pea Ridge game this week. Are you ready Greg?

I do not understand why the authors of this game chose to create hex based unit counters. It meant just that much more cutting and trimming and doesn't really add anything of value. Square counters would have served just as well. On my next game, First Manassas, I will be converting the counters to squares. However this is a minor nit, all in all the assembly was easy and was a nice Saturday afternoon project.

Finally my OCD kicked in, since I was not able to find a box that I liked. I made one, and used the remaining Pea Ridge cover page as the box cover. I now understand why games are so flaming expensive. There is a lot of work to build the board, make the counters, create the rules and package the whole thing. All told, I have about 25$ into this one game for purchase, printing and craft supplies. That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

I need a SIgn

I saw this sign while out on an evening constitutional. I found it a quite refreshing slant on Children at Play. Now if only had a sign for when I am gaming or painting. It would be a scary one for when I am painting. Picture an aging, overweight, gray-haired man wearing opti-visors, listening to rock and roll, squinting to get the point of a brush on that last damn small detail. On second thought, maybe I don't really need a sign.

And that brings me to the point, under that signage, my Union artillery and dismounted cavalry project is complete. I can't wait to bring these boys out for Longstreet soon.

I have been using the same basing technique for a few years. That is, build up the basing using grey pumice gel media, then color it dark brown and dry brush successive colors toward a light tan. This gives me a dried mud looking base that I can then add static grass onto. I think they look pretty good. Something possessed me this time to try and finish a few of the dismounted cavalry bases by dry brushing different shades of green onto the pumice. I was not impressed and will stick to my old method from here on out. If one looks closely at the image below, notice two or three Dismounted Cavalry bases completely covered in static grass. These are the ones that have the failed experiment.

Also, Recruits Gaming convention is this coming weekend in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Hope to see you there. I just won't be wearing the Opti-Visors!