David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Thursday 2 May 2013

Disaster at Brecher's Bend

Earlier this week Jon and I finally managed to play the ACW game we had been forced to postpone on several occasions: how life can get in the way of gaming sometimes seems unreal! I present a photo montage of the game, played using my own "Bull Run to Gettysburg" rules {published by Wargames Foundry}. I took the role of the Union commander, Jon the Confederates. The Union side must exit the table on their extreme left flank with as many units as possible and seek to deny the Rebels Rawnsley Farm and the camp at Brecher's Bend. For the Confederate forces, occupying the farm, destroying Union units or preventing them crossing the ford, and even taking the enemy camp are all objectives. The game lasts nine turns, with the  Rebs entering the table by the road on the Union's right flank front. The Union forces begin as shown in the first picture ~

 





















General Jeremiah Bykleigh oversees the crossing of the river by his leading units ~


















Over on the right flank, the early morning mist has shielded the Rebs' advances { The Union measure the distance to the nearest enemy unit and then need to equal or exceed the distance score on a D x 20. It took me three turns, which meant the Rebs were right on me before any units could respond!}

















Which meant the Sharpshooters got a really close first shot off ~ a pity they missed!














Driven in by weight of numbers, the Sharpshooters exposed the battery to an oblique assault by the leading Reb units ~











The Union regiment occupying the gardens around Rawnsley Farm was ejected after a vicious fire fight and sent tumbling back in rout ~












Meanwhile, just across the river, the band played on ~
















And General Bykleigh and his staff planned their next move, oblivious it seemed to the disaster developing over the river ~














In the meantime, the Rebs had swung around and hit the artillery hard as they struggled to cross the ford in the river ~













Turn 9, and its all up for the Union. While they had scored 28 Victory points, the Rebs had scored 46 and so recorded a resounding though not total victory ~



















I think we both enjoyed the game, certainly Jon was smiling at the end! In the circumstances I felt I'd done well to extricate half my Infantry and most of my ammunition and supply train, although I did loose my guns and the second Infantry Brigade. Not seeing the Rebs through the morning mist until Turn 3 proved to be the decisive factor in the game at the end.

8 comments:

  1. Fantastic AAR, David. There's so much which is brilliant here. The figures, the terrain, the band(!), those Zouaves, the camp of General Byleigh, the sharpshooters...! Really very nice indeed. It looks like it was a pretty close game - must have been great fun. Thanks for posting!

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    1. Thank you for those sentiments, Sydney! It was a really good game and played out well. Result was not so easy to swallow though...

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  2. "Not seeing the Rebs through the morning mist until Turn 3 proved to be the decisive factor in the game at the end".

    I put it down to the half-time Lemon Drizzle cake myself!

    A most interesting scenario with several objectives & temptations. All whilst having to keep one eye on the running points tally.

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    1. It was fun wasn't it? Though the myopic Sharpshooters and dozy gunners rather let me down. Have to agree though that the cake was ace!

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  3. Must agree with Sidney, especially on the terrain ;-) Looks like you could have used the services of General Robinson, but then again pan and fire and all that.

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    1. Thought you might agree on the terrain! What game do you fancy next Friday?

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  4. Great report David, and second all comments on the Figs and Terrain. Hope the Yank band got away uninjured - I hear their brass section is second to none. Speaking of tubas, that geographical name rings familiar a bell I tried to put my finger on but could not quite grasp ;)

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    1. Thanks Joe! Glad you recognised the name!

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