Civil War campaign start.

Yes we have at long last started an ACW campaign at the club. Foolishly I was appointed the Union General in charge while Tim is the Reb General. It is a fictitious campaign so don't go saying things which may or may not happen as time goes by. It is also a small campaign with both land and riverboat battles. And this is the story of how I loose the campaign.

The figures are Matts and Grahams and the terrain is also Graham who is the referee. We have set the campaign in a river valley in the "Eastern Theatre Mid war period. Using the Peter Pig "Civil War Battles" rules we went through the "pre-Game" and the Rebs were attacking the federal homeland. So the first game was a Union defence. Gulp!

 We, Peter, Matt and Myself had to set up first and as there were 3 objectives one of which was in the confederate starting area and the other two closer to our starting position we had to leave the right hand 1/3 of the board hanging open in the air. (Thems the rules). The Confederates took advantage of this and had half their force attacking that sector and cavalry attacking our left wing.

Above you can see the rocky outcrop which was one objective. Centre of the board .And our open right wing. Peter took the left wing and Matt the centre and guess who was on the right. Yeah me!

 Peters left had a lot of troops that did not arrive in time for the battle but would roll each turn to come on. The bad news is that due to the pre-game the confederates had cut the road and thus making the roll for reinforcements harder.

 I did have some troops to move into the open right flank. but I kept one unit in the farmstead as they had better cover there.

 Well that plan did not work, Scott and Gary sent three units against the one in the farm and then charged with a veteran Red Infantry unit. My troops thought better of it and ran away without much of a fight! They skidaddled so far and fast that they went of the table never to be seen again. (Maybe they will come back in the campaign and maybe they won't as I will have troops that don't run that need bolstering! Time will tell!)

 Peter on the left also had trouble. Because he had troops just arriving Tim was able to use his cavalry like paratroops and take an objective and try to hold it until his foot could arrive.

 I went marauding with my cavalry on the right. While the cavalry did take a bit of a beating they are only a raw unit I was able to tie up twoe of Scotts . infantry units and a gun battery in the process.

 Matt (my side) and Gary( the confounded Rebs) slogged it out in the centre trading blows in a tit for tat manner. This kept on all game with little give or take and it really was a slogging match.

 This is when my Cavalry broke and failed a morale check. They only had to retreat and not flee the table so I was quite content as they had kept Scott on the right flank busy for most of the game.

 Scotts Veteran Reb unit that had taken the farm were closing up behind my blue boys.

 My Federals were able to get one round of shooting into the rear of Scotts Infantry who had not recovered from seeing my cavalry retreat battered.

 Matt still slugs it out with Gary. Matt launches a charge and the charging unit is not able to push through. they get thrown back with lots of casualties.

 Scott gets another unit onto the rough hill objective but stalls just outside canister range. And they start to suffer because if I can't fire canister I will fire something else.

 Meanwhile on the left. Peter forces Tims cavalry to mount up and leave the church objective. Straight into Peters cannon which was able to fire canister! That dealt with half of Tims cavalry!

With a swift move along the road I was able to bring my union forces behind Scotts troops on the rough hillwhile I battered it with my guns and Matt brought a raw unit into the line (It had only arrived 2 turns before)!

And then the game ended. Victory points were awarded and the final score was Confederates 47 points Federals 46 Points.

Which means that I have lost the first territory in the campaign.

Next weekend at the club the campaign will continue as the rebs push further north!

Thanks for reading. I meant to post this yesterday but time just got away from me. Have a good couple of days and I will post again soon.

All the best Clint