An ACW game to test a scenario

In my last post, I wrote a generic One-Hour Wargame (OHW) scenario which was based on an English Civil War Battle of Nantwich scenario. Now, it’s time to test the scenario out using an American Civil War game.

For the scenario I made the strategic town a rail junction.

The scenario setting has half of Blue Army (Federal) defending a strategic town which I decided was an important railway junction, while the other half is trying to rejoin them from the opposite side of the river. Intelligence reports indicate that the Red Army (Confederate) is concentrating its forces from the north and the east to attack the town.

A tabletop view of the deployed troops and entry points for the off-table reserves.

The tabletop is setup with town buildings around the railway junction and a river on the east edge that runs through some rocky and impassible terrain. There are two bridges across the river, one north and one south of the rocky terrain.

Both armies consist of 6 units and were generated using the army composition tables from OHW.

Federal:

• 4 Infantry units
• 1 Artillery unit
• 1 Cavalry unit

Confederate:

• 1 Zouave unit
• 3 Infantry units
• 2 Cavalry units

The Federal player must select 3 of their units to be in reserve which will be arriving on turn 2 from the north-eastern edge of the tabletop. The remaining 3 units must be deployed in zone 2.

The Confederate player must select 1 of their units to be in reserve arriving on turn 4 from the south-eastern edge of the tabletop. The remaining 5 units must be deployed in zone 1.

Original scenario drawing. The marshland has been replaced by impassible rocky terrain for this ACW game.

A view of the tabletop from the east.

The rules used for this game are the OHW American Civil War rules. However, there is a modification to have units retreating. The approach used for unit retreats was inspired from some rules found in Solo Wargaming by Donald Featherstone (page 71) which are extracts from a War Games Digest article. The rules have units retreating where on a 6 is rolled (see photograph).

Recently been flicking through the pages for ideas and found the following rule mechanism for retirements.

There a number of tables, but the idea of a 6 causes a retreat as the idea for the OHW modification below.

The Retreat Rule Modification

• When shooting at 12 inches or less and a natural 6 is rolled, then the target unit must retreat directly away to just beyond 12 inches from the shooting unit.
• With any enfilade fire, then a 5 or 6 will case the target unit to retreat.
• This retreat rule does not apply to units in cover, unless they have acquired more than 50 percent hits (apply the current shooting when determining this).
• Note, that artillery firing at a range greater than 12 inches do not cause retreats.
• Any retreating unit will push back any friendly units in the way. 
• If a unit is unable to retreat due to impassible terrain, rivers, or enemy units, then the unit is eliminated.
• Artillery units cannot retreat, they are eliminated.
• A unit that retreated can still move during its turn.

The game report…

Knowing reinforcements are on their way, the Confederate units are quickly pushed forward towards the town. The Zouave unit is positioned to block and delay any Federal reinforcements.

The Federal reinforcements can be seen arriving by the north-eastern bridge. Meanwhile, the main Confederate force has advanced within range of the town’s defenders.

The town defenders are putting up a good fight and have caused one infantry unit to retreat, but they are concerned with the recent arrival on their flank of a Confederate cavalry unit.

The Federal reinforcements after an initial set back, due to retreats, were able to finally force the Zouave blocking unit to retreat. This will allow them to better deploy their units.

The assault on the town was making progress despite losses. One infantry unit has been diverted from the assault to help contain the Federal reinforcement’s progress. 

With losses mounting the town defenders retire to the town itself and hope to hold out until support arrives.

The assault on the town continues. The town defenders hang on and can see their reinforcement in the distance.

A Federal cavalry unit has broken through the Confederate blocking line.

The Confederate units break off the attack on the town as Federal reinforcements approach. With no hope of renewing the attack this is a victory to Federal forces. 

Summary

The scenario seems well-balanced, with neither side making any obvious mistakes and the game remaining in the balance until turn eleven. I did think the Confederate army might have succeeded if it had had one more infantry or artillery unit instead of one of its cavalry units. I'll be re-rolling the army compositions and playing again soon. This is one area of the OHW scenario approach I like, you don’t necessarily get the army composition you want.

One change I may make to the scenario is to not have deployment zone 2. Instead, just state that Blue on-table forces must be within 12 inches of the town.

The retreat rules worked providing a bit of back and forth movement to the army lines of battle, and I will be keeping them for the next game.

ACW game report and rules

This game report is of an attempt to recreate the American Civil War "Action in the Plattville Valley" from Donald Featherston's book "War Games" on a hex grid. A couple of months back I added an 8 inch hex grid to my gaming cloth (click here for more information). To go with the hexed tabletop I have updated a variation of the ACW One Hour Wargaming rules by Neil Thomas. A link to these "D3 ACW" rules can be found at the top of the blog page.

Scenario map (Google Slides was used to create the map)

The first challenge I had setting up the game was with the number of hills required. I have a number of existing hills, these are more suited to a square grid and as such they do not fit nicely to a hex grid. Fortunately, I still have some insulating foam board in the shed and I was able to quickly create the necessary hills which get placed under the cloth.

Insulating foam board from the hardware store is easily cut to shape and sanded.

The second terrain issue was to get the river to weave its way through the terrain along the edges of the hexes. To overcome this some blue felt was cut up into small lengths so it could, for the most part, follow the hex edges.

The tabletop all setup and ready for a game with hills and river.

The game objective is for both Union and Confederate forces is to control Plattville valley, consisting of the bridge and Plattville township.

For the first 3 turns both sides have only an infantry unit on the tabletop marching along Pike Road. The figures I am using are my old 15mm MiniFig ACW figures which have been with me now for some 35 years. For most of that time they were packed away and only in the last few years have reemerged and appeared on the tabletop.

Opening moves as units move along the Pike Road.

On turn 3 the remaining units arrived and both forces had their full complement of units on the tabletop:

• 4 infantry units
• 1 cavalry unit
• 1 artillery unit

The union commander has an interesting decision as to where on their base edge to bring on their troops on. The river divides their base edge, but they do have an advantage that their artillery can move forward with minimal risk and hold a good central hilltop position. 

One thing I do notice about using the hex grid is the units are well spaced out and not crowded together. I have a tendency to bunch units when using a free movement approach.

Looking from the Union left flank.

Looking from the Union right flank.

Both sides decided to hold and defend their left flanks, while attacking on their right flanks. The artillery on both sides took up positions on the available hills to support their own attacks.

Union forces advance upon Church Hill. I lack a church so a standard building is a substitute.

Looking at the Confederate right flank. This picture shows how the hills fit under the hexed cloth quite nicely. The cloth is curtain material and had a good weight and thickness to it.

The Confederate attack progressed well with a successful assault across the bridge. Their artillery had done a good job softening up the defenders.

The first attacks begin with a Confederate assault on the bridge.

Confederate forces make it across the bridge, but a single Union infantry unit holds them at bay.

The Union attack on the other flank was a slightly larger affair and there was no immediate result as both sides closed and engaged. The Confederate commander held one infantry unit back in reserve.

Union pressure on Plattville township and church mounts.

The Union attack successfully stormed the Church Hill. The attack was costly for both sides with Confederate reserves quickly being thrown into the action. They also moved their artillery unit from supporting their attack across the bridge and repositioned the unit to help support the defenders of Plattville town.

Church Hill is taken by Union forces.

Union forces maintained their momentum and after some heavy fighting surged forward to occupy both Church Hill and Plattville town. Confederate forces took the prudent step to retire and regroup. Union cavalry took the opportunity to push forward to support the very weak forces holding the town and church.

Union forces try and shore up their positions around Plattville.

A couple of good solid volleys, helped by an event card, routed the Union cavalry and the Confederate left flank was stabilised. Union units still held the township but were in no fit state to continue any attack, and with no artillery support themselves tenuously held on to the position. Confederate artillery on the hill overlooking the town began to bombard Union positions in and around the town.

Union forces are forced to retire from Plattville.

Finally Confederate forces were able to secure the bridge, the objective of their right flank attack, and continued to bombard Union positions. Late in the afternoon Union forces retired from Plattville leaving Confederate forces to control the valley.

After the game there were a few more modifications to the D3 ACW rules. These were mainly changes to the event cards used which provide uncertainty to a solo game and to introduce a level of period feel. Since this game a couple more games have been played using slightly less busy tabletops.

Livening up some old ACW bases and rules

My old ACW figures were based some 30 years ago. Over the years they have lost their green colouring and become quite dark, and needed some livening up. I did consider removing the figures from their bases and creating new bases, but they do seem to be very well stuck on with the risk a breakages during the removal process.

After a little bit a trial and error I have ended up painting the bases with a heavy dry brush of green following by a lighter dry brush a brown. While not perfect is good enough for my eye when deployed on the tabletop.

Original bases are looking drab and tired and look too dark on the tabletop

Over the last week I have been testing out a One Hours Wargaming ACW variant using D3 dice, having units retire and rally with random command events, and commanders to improve unit performance. These can be found on a tab at the top.

Bases livened up with dry brushed paint

I will be doing a game write up of one of these games next, and hope to finish all the bases this weekend. However, this week seems to be slipping away with work and the lead up to the end of year.

ACW Rules

This week I have continued testing and modifying my house ACW rules inspired by One-Hour Wargaming rules. These rules can be found on the page tab above. They include:

• The use of commanders to issue orders and increase infantry shooting capabilities with a risk of getting killed.
• Cover halves shooting ranges rather than adjusting to hit chances.
• Dicing for commanders to issue orders.

As with many of my attempts at house rules these are grid-based rules which use a 6" square grid.

My gaming table is 6' by 4' so I have a playing area of 12 squares by 8 squares. This is fairly close to Battlecry's gaming board 13 hex by 9 hex and most interestingly the large range of scenarios/maps freely available here.

So I am now going to slowly work my way through these ready made scenarios having started with Second Bull Run, Virginia Brawner's Farm, August 28th 1862.

Second Bull Run scenario converted to a square grid

I started with a quick drawing of the Battlecry map converted to squares to assist with setting up the game table and placement of units. Fortunately I had just enough figures to field the required number of units. The game played quickly over about an hour.

Opening moves

Confederate start to get the upper hand with support from their artillery positioned on the hill

The final moves as Union forces retire from the field