Wednesday 19 January 2022

ACW Game

Last Sunday we had a large ACW game, involving seven of us. 

I fought on the Union side and we had five infantry and two cavalry brigades, supported by ten batteries. The Confederates has six brigades of infantry, one of cavalry and I think six batteries.

Dominating the centre of the table was a large hill that we planned to occupy early in the game and thus my cavalry brigade of five units plus a horse battery, was placed opposite it with the objective of taking it quickly then holding it with a dismounted force until the infantry could come up in support. To my left would be two infantry brigades, to my right three brigades and on the extreme right the other and much smaller cavalry brigade.

The right of our line

My cavalry brigade ready to advance

Our left, the Iron and Irish Brigades

When the balloon went up the my cavalry was off like a rocket, up onto the hill and three of the five regiments dismounted, with two mounted to the rear. To my right two infantry brigades pushed forward at the double and caught the Rebels by surprise.

The cavalry taking position and skirmishing with the Rebels

The brigades on my right driving forward

Thanks to some artillery support the cavalry was able to hold its position with some ease against the Rebel infantry and the position on the hill was never really threatened.

To my right the action developed into a hard fight., but our lines held.


On my left it was a harder fight and the Rebels pushed hard, overlapping the left flank.


But in the centre two Rebel regiments gave way under the relentless fire of the Union batteries. This gave the cavalry an opportunity and they remounted and set out to exploit a large hole that had opened up.

Two Rebel batteries were ridden down and the brigade formed to flank the infantry threatening our left.

On the extreme right the cavalry brigade found itself on the wrong side of the river and was forced to redeploy.

While Berdan’s Sharpshooters held their own in the woods.

Here the game was called. Oddly I don’t recall what the umpire’s decision was, but the game could easily have run for another couple of turns and if it had I think the battle of the left would have come to a decisive outcome as both of the infantry forces were in danger of collapse. The cavalry too could have had a field day against the rear of the Rebels there...but it wasn’t to be.

All that said I was pleased with the way in which the dismounted cavalry rules worked, although the cavalry were not pressed hard in the fight due to the heavy artillery support.

To close out here a few more shots from the game













18 comments:

  1. Impressive armies! Good tactics by you Yank generals, the real Union needed more of that.
    You really can't recall who won??? You just played it. That's funny.

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    1. I can recall the umpire making a judgement, but I admit I was engrossed in another conversation and never hear the critical statement! However, win or lose it didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the day.

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    2. I am pretty sure I heard the union won....and that was from a Confederate player!

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  2. Great looking game, channelling 1st day of Gettysburg vibes with the union cavalry.

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    1. If it hadn’t been for the supporting artillery (and five batteries were able to saturate that area) the cavalry would have been brushed aside I am sure.

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  3. Some beautiful photography of some great brushwork. Game read very to and fro, the good ones always run out of time...

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    1. I can’t take credit for the last eight images…provided by another player…I don’t know why it was called so early as we probably had another hour’s play available to us and we sat around yaking for a while after we’re had packed away.

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    2. Ah, the ancient art of post game tale spinning.

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  4. That's a lovely looking game Mark and great to see the cavalry in action, both mounted and dismounted. Thankfully they had a good amount of artillery support to keep them on the hill and then mount up to exploit the opportunity that presented itself:)

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    1. Thanks Steve. It was a good game and the cavalry action was an unexpected success. I really did expect them to be rolled over, but also expected them to hold long enough for the infantry and guns to get into position.

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  5. Mark, your large, group games are true wargaming spectacles. Great photos from the battle. Marvelous stuff!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan. We do have rather large games! One of the reasons is, of course, with six players if each player has command of a couple of brigades the game size escalates pretty quickly.

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  6. That looked like a fun game and seemed like a fairly decisive win to Union side to me. I can understand the horse artillery on the hill keeping the Confederates at bay, but wonder what might have happened if they had made more of a concerted effort to dislodge the dismounted cavalry there.

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    1. If the Confederates had managed to push the Yankees from the hill it would have made a big difference. The Union Left would probably have collapsed and the big attack to my right would have been constrained.

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  7. A lovely looking game Mark…
    There was certainly a fine selection of toys on the table…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly, and a broad range of figure manufacturers too - Perry, Foundry, Redoubt, Hinchliffe and some of my own designs.

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  8. Looks great Mark, shame I could not make it along I the end, but I did enjoy lunch and then another afternoon of gin tasting, so can't complain. I heard from Chris an Julian that your cavalry brigade did sterling work holding the centre, although Chris did mention the disparity in artillery!

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    1. I will miss the next game - planning on a getaway for the Anniversary Weekend break…where there will be a good amount of wine tasting.

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