Return to ACW

Chris re-joined us after a few weeks off  so we decided a nice little ACW game was in order.

I had the Federals, 2 Brigades of 4 and 3 regiments supported by a  3 gun Battery.

Chris has the Rebs with 3 brigades each of 3 regiments supported by a 2 gun battery

Chris starts with a brigade left of centre facing my Brigade of 4 regiments, His next brigade comes on left of centre and heads for the hill being occupied by my second brigade.

I manage to get my artillery into the centre of the line with a couple of casualties and open up with 9 firing dice on the lead regiment of the third brigades of rebs coming straight up the middle at it.

My veteran Zouaves pass through the trained line in front of them and open fire into the front of the advancing brigade whilst two more regiments start to advance to envelope their left flank.

As the next set of Rebs advance out of the woods they are hit by another volley and disordered.

Meanwhile the centre brigade has lined out in front of the guns and foot and with a further volley is broken forcing a morale check with everything within 12 inches.

The next battalion in line lines out ready to charge the guns. My artillery fire is effective but they pass their morale.

The Brigadier marches to the front to lead his men in person.

With a rebel yell the Rebs charge recklessly at the guns and despite heroic resistance the gun crew are broken.

The charging unit has lost another base and is disordered so my flanking trained unit fires with half its strength inflicting more casualties.

On my left the Rebel veteran brigade closes with my trained and green troops, despite some effective firing they are closing fast and charge my extreme left hand unit which is forced to retire..

The Rebs are now formed up on my flank but despite the precarious situation I still outnumber them here so hopeful of holding them.

In the centre I get another volley into the Regiment that broke my guns and they eventually break.

We then hit the last regiment of the centre brigade lined out and leave them disordered by fire.

A further volley from my right hand three regiments decimates the two remaining Reb regiments on their left and they break, the remaining centre regiment is forced to test and also breaks.

With only their right hand veteran brigade intact to face my 7 regiments Chris concedes and we pack up.

Another fun game, bit smaller meaning we could get a result to the game and still paly through the rules.

I think these are pretty much done now. Only the Cavalry remain to eb tested once Steve has painted  a few.

Thanks for stopping by.

First Maximillian Adventure Game

As I have enough figures painted we can have a first run out with the Mexican Adventure figures, Chris already has a bunch of Republicans so we only really needed Imperial and French troops from me.

For our game a village sits off centre of the table held by an Imperial force, the Republicans have a force attacking the village and the French have sent a relief column

Steve has two groups of Imperial Mexicans with a level 2 leader in the village supported by a 6 man unit of Belgian Skirmishers and their level 1 leader.

Attacking the Village Chris has a 24 man formation Republican Line infantry with a level 2 and level 1 leader, two groups of National Guard with their level 1 leaders, a unit of Town Militia led by their Alcalde and his dog, also level 1,  2 units of dismounted cavalry skirmishers and a light gun.

Coming to rescue the Imperials are a unit of Chasseurs D'Afrique, a formation of 24 Legionnaires with their level 2 and level 1 leaders and a skirmish unit of Legionnaires led by Sergeant Knocker.

First on are the dismounted cavalry skirmishers who currently have no target.

The first objective for both sides are the chocolate biscuits which have already nearly gone (I finish

these off to avoid any conflict)

  

The Republican Rurales deploy and fire an ineffective volley at the Belgians, as three command cards come out next one after the other this triggers a response, Chris rolls 9 and charges 3 moves towards the Belgians leaving the Rurales dangerously exposed.

The Republican gun deploys in effective range and fires, it causes little damage initially but it has the range.

As the rest of the Republicans deploy Steve starts to wonder if we have lost the cards for the French, tiffin is drawn before any French manage to deploy on table.

The Belgians however do get to fire at the Rurales causing two casualties and 4 shock.

Next the Imperial foot fire at the Rurales, another casualty and 4 more shock cause them to break and Chris loses 1 force morale as the Rurales leg it to the table edge.

Finally the French relief starts to appear with Sgt Knocker leading his Legion skirmishers followed by the Chasseurs D'Afrique.

The Republican regulars open their first volley onto the village and the Imperials start to take casualties.

The Belgians have now taken 4 casualties and have 3 shock forcing them to fall back.

However the French get 4 command cards and this allows the Chasseurs to get two consecutive moves sweeping around the flank of the Republicans. 

The regulars unleash another 25 dice volley.

One unit of Imperial Mexicans takes 3 casualties and multiple shock forcing it to retreat from the village along with its commander.

Meanwhile the Cavalry card is out again and they charge the Republicans, by bad luck (or good if your French) the troops in their way are the poorest on table, Militia led by the Alcalde and his dog.

Net result is 5 Mexican Militia and their commander casualties and a broken unit with another 2 force morale removed for Chris, they do ok though and take two Chasseurs D'Afrique with them.

The Republican left is not looking too good with the cavalry poised, however if the Republican guns card comes out first all may yet be saved.

To slow the cavalry down Chris pushed a unit of dismounted cavalry skirmishers through the long grass and volleys them, unfortunately the firing is ineffective and you have to wonder if they can run away in time.

The Legion formation at last turns up, perhaps someone found some Tequila on the march and they stopped to finish it off?

The Chasseurs card is drawn first and they charge the dismounted cavalry. f

The Cavalry take another casualty but the skirmishers lose 5 troopers and their leader. This leads to three tests for loss of leader, loss of melee and breaking, Chris rolls badly and loses 5 more force morale reducing him to just one and losing all the red command cards from the deck.

Not surprising next turn the Cavalry come out first and they bounce on to the gun and wipe them out removing the last force morale. Its a French/Imperial win but we play through the deck.

The Legion advance again, two turns with no red cards coming out at all.

Knockers Legion skirmishers get their first shot away at the Republican regulars with minimal effect.

The triumphant cavalry pull back to regroup.

The Legion formation volley the Republican regulars inflicting the first casualties of the game on them.

The last card sees the National Guard step from behind the regulars and volley the Imperials, the casualties and shock rack up forcing them out of the village, unfortunately too little too late for the Liberals.

A resounding victory for the French in the end, the Chasseurs D'Afrique earning their soubriquet of the Blue Butchers. As often happens the French managing to snatch victory from the Jaws of defeat as the second half of the game turned on its head despite the Imperial Garrison almost being wiped out.

Fun game and great to get the beginnings of the collection on table for a first time.

Thanks Chris and Steve and as always thank you for stopping by.

WW2 Late War Eastern Front Test Game

Steve has been trialling some rules which have been fun, with card activation . We discussed the possibility to use them in a new scenario book he plans. 

So to facilitate this we needed something slightly cut down from the rules we have been playing but still with enough for players to get their teeth into and less card focused so these didnt need to be printed to allow gamers to play. Todays game left me feeling we are well on the way.

I was defending a built up area with two weak German battalions supported by off table artillery, an 88M fun, a Hetzer heavy tank and a PAK40 anti tank gun.

Meanwhile the Russians had 3 Guards infantry battalions supported by heavy mortars 2 ISU 152 heavy tanks and 3 lighter SU 76's with one battalion of the Guards initially off table.

My Pak40 is dug in on the edge of the village, a good spot but also vulnerable to return fire once its opened up.

The Hetzer shoots and scoots, unfortunately its long range and its  amiss.

The PAK 40 opens fire on the second ISU152 , a hit!

And the tanks is taken out.

My MG now opens fire on the advancing Russian infantry, they are however  a bit exposed to return mortar fire.

The 88mm opens fire on the IUS152.

A hit but the tank is not taken out, Steve decides discretion is the better part of valour and pulls the tanks back.

The Hetzer moves position to cover any advance from the the other tank.

On my left the Russian advance is hampered by mortar and MG fire but they press on.

The second ISU rounds the end building and straight into a cross fire with the newly redeployed Hetzer and PAK40, the second ISU is destroyed in turn.

The Russian infantry push on without support and are hammered by a cross fire from 2 MG's, mortar and off table artillery support. They continue to push through the heavy casualties as the German troops in the wood start to take casualties themselves from the Russian mortars.

On my left the Russian push forward and clear the wood with a company taking the village on my extreme left.

They now occupy the wood and are in a good position to assault the village next to it. Steve opens fire on the first module and clears it of German defenders then moves in. Steve then charges forward with his 3 SU76's.

Fortunately for me the 88 has reserve fire, it hits with its first shot and rolls high enough to enable a second shot which also hits, the first two are knocked out before they can fire. The return shot misses the Hetzer!

In my own turn I drop the 88 on the buildings Steve has just occupied, coupled with infantry fire the company holding this are wiped.

Steve then close Assaults my remaining house, two rounds of close assault and some poor dice and he is driven off with casualties for both sides.

The remaining SU76 has closed to short range to try take the Hetzer but my infantry fire their hand held anti tanks weapons and add two damage points.

The Hetzer fires, I dont need much but I definately need to hit.

A hit and the last armoured vehicle for the Russians is knocked out.

Great fun and played really well.

The Russian Armour being wiped out and the infantry taking a bit of a pasting meant they would not be able to take the objectives, so a hard fought German victory, A great run out for the rules which handled the forces really well and gave a good game.

Thanks for stopping by.