Shilo-ish 6mm ACW

 

Background to the Game

I've always enjoyed re-fighting real battles.  There as always been an attraction is trying to understand the  challenges faced the real life troops and generals.  I have found Alter of Freedom and Bloody Big Battles to be vey good rules for recreating historic ACW battles.  For this game, I knew I was going to have between one and four friends playing with me, some experienced wargamers and some less so.  None of them were familiar with AoF or BBB but all had played the SKT rules and most had played the STK’s Flames in the South, ACW rules for the ACW.  One of the strengths of the SKT rules are that once you have played one period you will find you know 90% of the rules for any other period. I therefore decided to set up this game for the STK’s Flames in the South, ACW rules.

Scenario

As this wasn't going to be a full historical recreation I decided to form the game around the battle of Shilo but taking various liberties with the ground scale and forces.  I wrote the scenario and then asked my friend John to set up the terrain.  Splitting tasks between players helps prevent one player (me) having too much control over the battle.  

One mistake I made when setting up the scenario was not limiting the power of gunboat USS Tyler.   In the actual battle of Shilo the Union gunboats were of limited value and I should have toned it down for our battle.

The battle was fought in 6mm with ~1,800 Baccus figures.  The figures were mainly on the standard 60x30mm bases but with a few, skirmishers etc based on 30mmx30mm, as I can place two together to create a 60mmx30mm base.

The Scenario can be downloaded here...Shlio-ish

Hidden Forces

The other thing I did to prevent myself and the other players from knowing all the details of the forces opposing us was to create a number of "forces" for the players to pick between.  Some troops would be on the table at the start of the battle and others would join as the battle proceeded.  This approach meant that the players didn't know if they would be facing green troops or veterans, all infantry or also some cavalry. 

In the game the Confederate commanders left their inexperience troops in the rear as reserves, thinking that by the time the reserves came into play the union forces would be worn-down and easier to beat.  The Union general took the extra artillery and cavalry thinking that they could punish or pin the advancing confederate forces.

Dawn

The Union side of the battle field was very sparse with just a few pickets spread around the various camps.  The Confederate forces concentrated their attacks onto the ridgeline past the Shilo church and up the bank of the river towards Pittsburg Landing..

Heavy Fighting

The union forces reacted quickly and rushed to occupy defensive positions on the ridgeline .The Union forces around Pittsburg Landing held back.  Their plan was to deploy skirmishers in the woods near the advancing Confederates and bombard them from both the front and enfilade from the river. 

Confederate assaulting the ridgeline

Confederate Forces Assaulting towards Pittsburg Landing

Beginning of the End

The Confederate assault on the ridgeline failed.   It was well defended by Steve and John. It was my fight to loose and I lost.  In retrospect I should have pushed on harder but with bigger gaps between my ranks.  I allowed them to bunch up too close to one another and cascading moral failures stopped my attack.

The Confederate assault on Pittsburge Landing received huge casualties from the Union artillery, especial the Gunboat USS Tyler.  I can only apologise to my friend Paul for giving him the short end of  the stick, by giving him the task of having to lead his men into that bombardment.  In retrospect I should have greatly reduced the firepower of  the USS Tyler.  The Union skirmishers deployed in the wood  caused disproportionate chaos to the attacking Confederate and we should have deployed a couple of regiments into skirmish formation and swept them out of the woods before pressing on to Pittsburge landing but the need to advance out of the effective fire from the USS Tyler force the Confederates to by-pass the woods.

Reserves Arrive To Late

From a Confederate point of view the reserves arrived too late.  The Union troops were in good defensive positions and a fresh Confederate assault would have had a harder task that their morning assault.    It was time to use the reserves to cover the retreat while the cowardly yankees, did the sensible thing and sat in their defensive positions and watched...

Points to note

The left flank saw a full on cavalry change between Union and Confederate cavalry.  Rare in the ACW but impressive.  Odds were on the side of the Confederates ...but it keeping with the day the Union swept the Rebel cavalry from the field.

Depending on the rules you use, you should be carful not to allow the fire from the USS Tylor dominate the eastern edge of the battlefield.

|Conclusion

Despite it being a crushing victory by the Army of the USA over the CSA, it was a fun game.  Thanks to my three friends who were able to join me in the game, John, Steve & Paul. 

Age of Hannibal - Roman Legions v's Celts

 

This was the first battle I have fought using the AoH rules.  I've always been a fan of Little Wars TV and their simple rule systems.  My opponent Paul Smith has a long term interest in wargaming Ancients and was an ideal opponent with whom to try the rules.

Scenario

The Scenario was set around 1AD with an Imperial Rome force on a punitive expedition against Nervian celts.  As it was our first battle we used 1200pt armies.  Observation: Although the rules were written with 6mm figures in mind we used 15mm based on 40mmx30mm.  The difference in figure and base scale didn't seem to have any noticeable impact on the game.

Downloads: Scenario, Roman Army & Celtic Army

Battlefield

The battlefield was a lightly wooded valley with a stream running through the middle.  There was a  Roman marching camp on one side and the objective of the Roman Punitive raid was a Celtic village surrounded by fields. Observation: As I didn't want to take playing time from the battle, I generated the terrain as per the rules but set up for both sides.

The Romans set up with their legions in the centre with a strong auxiliary force on their right flank and cavalry on their left.  The Celts placed their warbands in the centre with circling chariots and light troops on their left flank.

The forces advanced with the Romans taking up defensive positions along the stream and on hills. Observation: The rules place limits on the number of separate forces that can be moved based on the Army's moral and command cohesion.  At this stage of the battle this was no a problem in any way. The movement distances and speed of getting through a turn were both good for a 6'x4' table.  Missile fire was an annoyance to advancing troops but not battle winning.  This felt right for the period.

The battle in the centre was a bloody melee.  The aggressive first charges of the Celts were powerful but the discipline of the Romans gave them the advantage in longer fights. Observation: Once formation became broken up in melee the command and control of units became much more challenging.  It was much more difficult to keep the battle lines in formation. 

As the light failed it became obvious that both armies had fought each other to a stop.  Given more time the Romans would probably have won but as they failed to capture the Celtic village, it was a minor victory to the Celts but at a huge price in tribesmen.  

Observation: As the armies became smaller and generals were only able to lead small numbers of troops into combat it became very hard to cause enough casualties to lower the opposing army's moral.  This may have been our inexperience or that we were fighting with small forces.

Overall

It was a fun game.  I enjoyed that  each base is a unit in it's own right.  The rules were easy to pickup and play.  The game was not super fast but neither was it slow, especially for a first game.  It was nice to play a game which as a strong roll for light troops as well as for the heavier troop types.  Although I'm a keen fan of To the Strongest, I'll play these rules again, especially for periods up to the early Roman Empire.