Alex of “Commission & Regiment” and “Up the Blue” blogs returned to finish our First Bull Run / First Manassas game yesterday and I can’t think of a better time to post about it than the birthday of the US Army. If you have not read the first installment, click on the link above and check it out. So far, the battle has progressed very historically, with the Rebels falling back and dishing out punishment onto the Union Regiments who are pursuing them.

Alex has a huge allotment of reinforcements but his lead brigades are badly chewed up (particularly Burnside’s Brigade and Keyes’ Brigade, who Alex pulls back onto Buck Hill to rally and slowly regain their combat power. We re-join the battle around noon when Sherman’s Brigade arrives onto the field and is attempting a crossing under fire of the Warrenton Turnpike by elements of Cocke’s Brigade, while in the woods below Henry House Hill, Wilcox and Porter’s Brigades supported by Franklin’s Brigade move aggressively against Stonewall Jackson’s Brigade who has deplolyed on the heights oriented towards the threat in the woods.

Alex skirmishes with these troops and moves his artillery around to the flank, expanding the battle to the furthest southern point on my table. Stonewall complies and moves a Regiment across the road into the woods, as well as into the orchard on the Union flank – moving units into the woods on the Confederate left, below Henry House Hill seems to be the best way to stall or blunt the Yankee attack.

By now, the Yanks have also occupied the Warrenton Turnpike. Alex has brought up his copious artillery and is inches from the first objective – the crossroads!

The fighting on the flanks is heating up now with vicious firefights erupting on both flanks. Sherman’s Brigade is under heavy fire as he gains a lodgement on the Confederate side of the turnpike and Porter masses along the road on the slope of Henry House Hill! Not much close combat yet – but that will change soon!

We proceed through the afternoon and Howard’s Brigade – the last reinforcements of the Republic – move down the road and onto the battlefield. Kershaw’s Brigade also occupies the battlefield and the Rebels move Kershaw straight towards Sherman’s attack in order to blunt it. The Confederate right is very strong.

Alex begins solidifying the Union line against Henry House Hill and can boast an almost uninterrupted line of troops from the Warrenton Turnpike exit all the way in front of and around to the right side of Henry House Hill! Kershaw’s troops are coming up but the fighting on the Confederate left – the Stonewall Brigade – is fighting for its life. Porter’s “fire zuoaves” and Sykes’ Regulars are getting the upper hand in a firefight against the tough Virginia regiments.

There are some noteworthy things that begin happening in the afternoon. Burnside is out of action (rolls a 1 during rallying) and is on timeout. Followed by Sherman. The same thing happens to Bartow and General Beauregard! Lots of officers become casualties while rallying. Units are also starting to get used up but I dont have alot of leftovers to plug the holes that are starting to develop in my line as stand losses force morale checks and fall-back actions.

The Union juggernaut slowly approaches Henry House Hill along the road as Bartow’s last remaining regiment is pushed back. Stonewall’s guns are red-hot and firing double-cannister from the hill as Union units swarm the treeline, preparing the launch their assaults against the hill!

Alex decides the time is right to begin assaulting the Stonewall Brigade, weakened from about 3 hours of continuous fighting with barely any rallying. After one more turn of shooting, Alex forces back 2 x Virginia regiments guarding the “grand battery” on Henry House Hill, leaving the redlegs to die by their guns.

Alex launches assaults up and down the road now against the remnants of the Stonewall Brigade. In these Civil War rules, much like Alex’s Franco-Prussian War rules, both sides exchange a volley at close-deadly range (hit on 3+s, 2D6 per base!). Any base losses result in an instant morale check for both sides. Assuming both sides pass, you then fight a melee. Alex has really beat up my forward infantry units. So while Jubal Early slowly marches to the sound of the fighting, Stonewall Jackson’s Brigade is being picked apart by determined Yankee assaults!

So that about wraps it up. With 2 of 5 Regiments pulled back involuntarily and the loss of the guns, Stonewall cannot defend his objective on Henry House Hill, giving a very different ending to First Bull Run! (and perhaps the war??)

I have a bunch of changes to make to the ACW rules now that we’ve played hours worth of fighting at Bull Run, but these rules give a very fun game with very little in the way of rules overhead. Once I’ve written them down, I want to recreate the fighting at Barlow’s Knoll at Gettysburg, which is roughly a division per side. That will be a nice capper on “Civil War Month” …which has actually lasted about TWO months 😀 !

So what did I learn?

First and foremost – I’ve learned it’s a mistake to think that the American commanders in the Civil War used “Napoleonic” tactics. Humbug. The tactics, from what I’ve read, are more akin to an undisciplined Seven Years War fight than a Napoleonic fight, the latter of which demonstrated more in the way of actual combined arms fighting. The close terrain, undisciplined and hastily raised soldiers, and the lack of a professional officer corps really mean that the men are fighting altogether differently from their European counterparts – which is a byproduct of America’s evolution as a nation to that point. For that matter, the previous wars in North America were fought in a similar way, too. Neil Thomas certainly agrees and his ACW rules in Wargaming: An Introduction speak to the unique characteristics of Americans fighting in our Civil War. “He who learns to run away, lives to fight another day“.

I really have enjoyed the growth of the rules I’m using, which I think give a very fun and very historical-feeling American Civil War game. Advancing is deadly work. Advancing against fresh troops is even deadlier and fresh troops introduced at the right time can swing the battle as evidenced above by the arrival of Howard’s Brigade at First Bull Run in this game. Scenario design should really feature interesting arrival of reinforcements as that makes the games so much more interesting and tense. Advancing against fresh, rifle-armed troops ends very predictably.

I also like ahving 3 distinct range-bands – Close/Deadly, Distance and Extreme, hitting on 3, 4 and 5 or better respectively. The artillery has the same named bands but with different ranges (and receive differing numbers of dice per range-band, all hitting on 4+.

So far we’ve found it’s been better to wait until the enemy has lost a base or 2 to launch an assault as the close-deadly firing is – well – deadly and units go down fast during close combat shooting. This is incredibly historical as units would rarely stand if they’ve been subject to long bouts of rifle-musket fire, are tired and low on ammo and are suddenly charged by fresh troops. More likely that they get off a volley (and in fact charging troops routinely stopped and volleyed – with Union and Confederate officers warning their troops NOT to volley during assaults as that would sap the momentum). It’s more likely they’ll run if you charge them (there are exceptions, though) and that certainly happened in the game above.

In fact, the only actual close assault that turned into a melee was Alex’s assault on Imboden’s Battery – in which the Battery stood and took the assault (artillery are only a single base, and so they get 1 die in close combat! the assaulting infantry were full strength and so they received 3 dice in close combat. You roll your quality to score a hit. The Yanks were ‘seasoned’ so needed a 4 or better. Imboden’s gunners were green and needed a ‘5’ to hit! Needless to say, the Yanks clobbered them and Imboden’s men died by their guns!

If you can mass fires and include artillery support, you can whittle an enemy down and assault him with a fresh regiment. This is hard to achieve, though, because the enemy gets a vote!

Recreating Bull Run was exhausting but arguably this was a roughly Corps-sized action with about 25 regiments per side. This stretched the boundaries of my 6×4 table and collection. Next battle, Barlow’s Knoll, will feature about 13 units per side on about a 4 x 4 area, and so I’m looking forward to that game giving a more sensible game in terms of time played and units. This game took quite a long time and multiple sessions to bring to a conclusion!

Wrapping Up ACW Month?

I think I can safely say ACW Month(s) was successful. I am wrapping up a home-brewed, fan produced rewrite of Neil Thomas’ ACW rules from Wargaming: An Introduction, played scores of ACW games with 15mm ACW troopers, and rebased all of the troops – in many cases repainting them as well. It’s been a busy 2 x months but all in all it was GREAT to get them onto the table as my ACW troops have been in garrison for way too long. My next step is to clean up the ACW rules and link to them here for anyone to peruse.

While I will still put on Barlow’s Knoll with the new rules this summer, I really need to get painting other units! We’re halfway through June and I’ve yet to play any D-Day themed games! Right now I’m painting up the rest of Andy’s 1/72 Italeri WWII US Paratroopers to play a Brecourt Manor game using Bolt Action and July is going to feature a good Kursk Battle – just not sure of the scale yet! (MicroArmor, 15mm or 20mm!)

The year is only half over and there is plenty of good wargaming action to come! WWII will be making a comeback on the Angry Dachshund’s wargame table as we re-create the “Day of Days” with my 9 year old Son and the Bolt Action rules in GLORIOUS 1/72 scale!

Stay tuned!