A House Divided... ... can make for a good game!

July 4, 2015 --- At the request of a few of the historical players at the Hamilton Road Games Group, an American Civil War game using our "home-brewed" variant of Iron Ivan's This Very Ground was set up. Bear (in his persona of Col. Beauregard Clemens Bayer) and Wayne (who had played Iron Ivan games before, just not this one) ran the Confederate side while Brian and I ran the Union troops. Andy set up the terrain and took over on the Rebel side when Wayne had to leave by mid-afternoon.
Each commander had three 12 man squads and a 12-pounder cannon (6 crew). The Federals also had a small (6 man) section of sharpshooters. In our variant, the usual personal weapon is the rifled musket with a range of 25", while the sharpshooters carried a sharpshooter's rifle with a 36" range. The cannons range was up to 60" so just about the entire board was in range. We chose the 12-pounder Napoleon cannon because it was the most common. Smaller calibre cannon were found but not often.

(Andy and I took all the photos.)

The game table at the onset of the whole thing. Anything 2 inches outside the rail fences was considered light woods.
Beauregard contemplates his strategy.

Wayne's troops line up to enter.

Good beans!
This is a piece of cloth Andy found somewhere which really looks good as a cultivate field for a game like this.
If you turn it over, it's a dark brown or black with some green lines, so it looks plowed and early in the season.

Brian and I won the initiative roll and moved first. I pushed on section in skirmish order into the woods on my right flank while I brought up the two other platoons in loose order. My gun stayed where it was, behind the rail fence and my sharpshooters moved up along the hedge line in skirmish order. Brian sent two sections into the woods and brought one up through the pig-sty to a stone wall. His gun faced Bear's along the outside of the fenced-in compound. Wayne and Bear pretty much mirrored our deployment and first move. No one was in musket range right off, although my cannon did some damage to one of Wayne's sections which stayed back at the rail fence at the start line. 

Both sides tried to come to grips as soon as possible. Wayne (and later, Andy) and I exchanged a lot of musket fire. Bear quickly brought up two sections to occupy the rail fence in the middle of the farmstead and the farm house. A third section came to the corner of the rail fence to oppose Brian's skirmishers in the woods. In the mean time, Brian's cannon took out four of Bear's gunners and soon after Bear's gun silenced the Union gun by wiping out the crew. Brian's skirmishers finally cut Bear's artillery crew down to one man - who could still fire the gun, but had a serious problem loading it and a bigger problem turning it. The Confederate section along the rail fence facing the woods went prone (an variant move for us.) which makes them harder to hit but really vulnerable in combat. Basically their opponent gets a free hit at the prone troops who could fire but can't realistically fight hand-to-hand from a prone position.

Beauregard positions his leading section in the bean field.
Each section was 10 muskets, one officer, and one drummer or standard bearer.
The musician/standard permits a quick reform of the unit after a voluntary retreat or "ski-daddle."

Zouaves of the 146th New York cross the pig sty to take position on the stone wall.
Their lead is the sergeant seen closest to the camera. The green bingo chip means the unit has been activated that turn.

Confederate standards making a quick advance... too quick for my camera to catch.

Bear's Virginians take cover at the rail fence.

Brian measures a movement as his skirmishers advance.

The 146th take the wall.
The yellow chips indicate that the unit has fired a "half volley." It will take two turns of doing nothing to be fully reloaded.
(Perry plastics)

On my side of the table, my cannon did pretty good service keeping the Rebs' heads down. Wayne's/Andy's eventually took out two of my six crewmen, the loss of whom didn't slow my rate of fire. My lead unit advanced to the rail fence in the centre of the field where they exchanged fire with the Confederate troops across the field. Their shooting was better and my unit was eventually reduced to the officer, the drummer, and one musketman. My second section shifted right and moved over the rail fence and into the woods to join my right-most section in opposing the gray-clad skirmishers there. In the centre, my squad of sharpshooters picked off one or two Confederates but were eventually wiped out as well.

My two centre sections advance. The rear-most continued to shift to its right until it moved over the fence.

The advance at ground level.

My troops have come over the fence and the Confederate skirmishers await their next move.

The sharpshooters skirmish across the field and hedge.
(Perry metals)

Wayne/Andy's troops move along the edge of the woods.

"Them's are the fellas what shot down the sharpshooter, they are!"

My cannon in the process of reloading.

Andy took control of the Confederate left when Wayne had to go, and he began a slow pull back. He decimated my one section but pulled his two sections in the woods back. His gun had taken casualties from some counter-battery fire but was still in action. The question soon came up: do we want to continue? Andy felt that it was time to pull back and leave the field to the Union, although the Union had lost a cannon, the sharpshooters, and the majority of one of my sections. I more or less controlled the centre of the one side of the farm, while Bear controlled the other side with troops in the farmhouse. Brian considered charging Bear's prone troops which would mean negotiating a rail fence while charging. He'd get a free hack at Bear's prone unit, but getting there was the problem. Then would come the troops in the farmhouse. The section of the 146th at the stone wall was more than one charge move away, so they'd most likely sustain heavy casualties before hitting the untouched unit in the farm house. 

That's where we left it. Probably a winning draw for the Union since it was time for the Southerners to withdraw and fight another day. We cleaned up and discussed next week's event (reenacting), politics, and other innocuous treason.

 

A view of the action in the woods from another perspective.

... and from closer to the ground.

In a final desperate attempt to defeat me and to confuse me,
Andy deployed the elite Alabama Ent Brigade.

Meanwhile at home, some of the beasties who share our yard help themselves to some extra bird seed.

On the way home from church today, we stopped at a hardware store for a tape measure.
I saw this beauty in the parking lot and brought it to Beth's attention. Now Beth loves Italian exotic cars,
so we had to take a few photos. She said he hadn't DRIVEN one of these in 35 years!
That's right; She said DRIVEN. My wife has had such adventures!
A Dethomaso Pantera ...so choice.

Next week, a "time-line" reenacting event. I'm looking forward to this.

The Devil To Pay... and a much needed revival!

Last week I missed the gaming at the Hamilton Road Games Group due to the remnants of the "flu." I had taken the flu shot but it appears that the vaccine was unable to do the job, because the wrong strain of the flu showed up! Such is life!

This week, I was able to be there. Martin, Kevin, Derrik, Bear, and Brian all showed up and a friend of Bear's stopped by for a time. Andy was "under the weather" and couldn't make it. We played our American Civil War variant of Iron Ivan's This Very Ground. Andy has more figures for this period than I do and has a large green ground cloth. Since I didn't know he was not coming, we scrounged up a green PVC sheet that Kevin had squirrelled away at the library for just such a situation. Martin and Bear brought their ACW figures which, added to mine, made a respectable force for each side.

We decided to do a small version of the first day at Gettysburg with Buford's dismounted Federal cavalry attempting to hold off the Confederate advance down the Chambersburg Pike. Derrik and Martin pushed Federal lead while Kevin and Bear captained the Confederate side. (No surprise there for Bear.) I served as referee and Brian kibitzed or served as war correspondent for Harper's Weekly.

The Federal cavalry (2 units of 15 troopers each with a cannon in support) set up to start the game. Each full turn, the Federals rolled for reinforcements. (a 7+ on a d10 was what was needed.) All of the Confederates were on the board at the start. 

Martin's company of dismounted Union cavalry

Derrik's company with the cannon and the colonel commanding

A ground level view of Martin's horse soldiers

Two of the Rebel artillery pieces

Kevin's troops with the Texas state flag.
Yes, the gun crew in the foreground is in Federal uniform.
Let's call it a "loan."

Some of Bear's force - some rather idiosyncratic Rebs here.

Bear wanted a different outfit so I painted these up as a Virginia company.

The Stonewall Brigade? Why not?

The Rebs advanced quickly - at a dead run, actually - and the dismounted cavalry, armed with carbines and revolvers could do very little to slow them up since their weapons were very short ranged. The Union artillery piece did some damage but the crew took fire from on of Kevin's companies, lost a man, failed morale and fell back to the cover of the backside of the small hill the gun was set on. I remember reminding Derrik and Martin that standing on the top of the hill made them the proverbial sitting ducks. They took my advice and dropped back to the hidden side of the crest.

May as well take cover while you can!

Some of Kevin's troops in the railroad cut which served as heavy cover
since it actually is a locomotive-sized trench.

The original gun in support of the cavalry in their fall-back position.

Derrik's dismounted cavalry behind the crest of the hill with a small wood to their left.
(I'm rather embarrassed to say that I forgot all my trees.)

One of the most interesting moves of the game came shortly after all this. (More will be said about this soon, but the incident needs to be reported BEFORE any judgement is given.) One of Bear's companies moved up to the crest of the hill and faced Martin's dismounted cavalry. Martin declared that he was going to fire a volley at the Rebs... with his pistols (rate of fire = 2 per turn) As referee, I allowed the volley but only one shot for each; I felt that the two shots would be devastating. The cap-and-ball pistol does have a rate of fire of twice per turn, with a rather short range and a reduced hitting power which means it's harder to wound a figure that's been hit. (Example: an infantry man with a rifled musket, like a Springfield or and Enfield, must roll a 5 or less to hit and wounds on an 8 or less on a d10. A pistol hits on a 5 or less but wounds on a 6 or less.)
Kevin proclaimed that Martin has broken the game and we all roared with laughter. I gave Martin a much-deserved award... which I'll say more about later. It made for a wild few minutes.
By this time, the union had received reinforcements - over three turns, two infantry companies and a cannon had arrived. One company reinforced Derrik's troops and hunkered down behind the hill along-side of the cavalry. The other company, from the 42nd Pennsylvania Reserves - the "Bucktails"- came up fast to help Martin and took up a position in the small woods on the hill that had been Martin's original set-up. The reserve cannon set up on the edge of the board and began to bombard Kevin's troop in the railroad cut.
Bear charged the Bucktails with his Virginians and a serious and desperate hand-to-hand battle started in the woods.

Martin's troopers facing the Southern onslaught just before hitting the back-slope. 

Bear's right flank unit is about to get the Remington treatment from the cavalry.

The Virginians advance toward the Bucktails.

More of Bear's troops with their colonel move toward the cavalry held hill.

Well, the Bucktails got the worst part of the melee - the Pennsylvania boys were wiped out!

Kevin's cannons actually took out the two Union guns on the board while his troops in the railroad cut pinned down both the cavalry and their reinforcement infantry company. Bear dispatched a half-company and set it under the command of a steady NCO to take the first Union gun on the small hillock. The remaining crewman and the Federal colonel retreated to a safe distance.

The Rebels capture the Union gun and make faces at the gunner and the colonel.

The rest of Bear's right flank and centre companies slug it out with the cavalry.

Kevin's companies hold the railroad cut.

A close-up of Bear's colours.

The colonel and his adjutant... who actually is holding a Bible.
Isn't there a line in a movie: "We Southerners like our men polite, religious, and a little crazy."

Finally in the last turn, after two fruitless rolls to bring in reinforcements, Martin and Derrik received a large boost with the 146th New York, a Zouave unit, arriving. They marched on, volleyed, and eviscerated one of Bear's companies. Since we had reached curfew (which I imposed since I had a wedding anniversary dinner planned with my wife. She still puts up with me nicely after 27 years!), we declared the game a "winning draw" for the Confederate side. Kevin had tied up Derrik's troops for the entire game while they were well protected in the railroad cut. Bear aggressively attacked Martin's positions, but paid the price, especially when the 146th arrived. Had the Zouaves not come on the board, the result would have been more of a real Confederate victory.

The 146th New York Volunteer Infantry, just after the volley.
The four blue bingo chips represent the smoke and the necessity of reloading.

The Virginians watch the Zouaves' advance from their hill vantage point,

This game allowed us to iron out some small wrinkles in the rule variant we play. It also helped us stay familiar with the flow of the Iron Ivan rules;.

Now, the most important part of the day. With Martin's "pistol volley" (something more appropriate for Thirty Years War trotting cavalry. Can you spell "caracole", Martin?), he was immediately inducted into the ranks of the holders of the coveted "Golden Mentula Mustalae" award. In my previous wargames group, we often awarded this geegaw to the player who pulled the most overtly-legal-but-of-dubious-morality-and-ethics move of the game. A small statue/figure of a badger in Highland kit (in either gold or silver depending on the seriousness/originality of the move) was awarded to that player. It is a high honour, accompanied with gales of laughter, awarded especially to the guy who can take a joke.

Imagine this in gold or silver.

So as of 7 February 2015, Martin is the FIRST (but surely not the last) Canadian recipient of the revived
MENTULA MUSTALAE AWARD in gold!

What does the Latin gobbledygook mean, I hear you say.  Well, "mustala" is the Latin word for ferret, marten, or... weasel. "Mentula" is an old Latin profanity for male genitalia.

"Mentula Mustalae" could be translated roughly as...

Oh, dare I write it?

... "weasel dick."

Luckily Martin can take a joke better than many.

Our plan for next week is Napoleonics! We're considering French vs. Ottoman Turks using the Shako rules. Should be quite a mess.