Civil war battle!

Regular readers will know that every other Sunday is a club day. Most of the club wanted to play Saga. I was not in a Saga Mood so I played a game of Civil War Battles (Peter Pig rules). Me and Rob were confederates and Graham and Peter were Union. All figures terrain and rules were supplied by Graham. Using Peter Pig rules you never ever get the force that you anticipate or the battle field you selected.  As such me an Rob set the battlefield up and Peter and Graham managed to move several of the key features to more favourable positions to them. It was a mid war eastern battle and the Confederates were defending. And that's where it started to go wrong!  The Picture to the right shows the Confederate battle line we had a rail track and a stream, they did us very little good. Pre game procedures meant that the whole left flank (Most of my troops to command either failed to appear at the start of the game (they would arrive later in the game) or Failed to appear altogether! As such the troops I actually did manage to field were a general, 2 stands of Cavalry a smoothbore  battery and a rifled artillery battery. Which means 5 stands of figures to hold the left flank. Rob managed to get loads more... he actually had some infantry.... 2 units on the board at the start of the game and 2 in reserve.

 As mentioned I had 2 artillery batteries, but the Union Cavalry pregame had managed to displace them from the hillock they had set up on. So it took a couple of turns to get them into a firing position. But not all was lost at this stage. I dismounted my cavalry into the tree line of one of the wooded areas. As skirmishers (carbine armed) they had a short (6") range but they managed to come out of the wood in skirmish line cross the stream and bring fire on the Union cavalry that were circling my flank about to enter my rear area. No one likes enemy cavalry in their rear. As a plan it worked for 2 turns but they were charged by 2 different Union Cavalry units and routed of the table. Rob was doing a lot better His of table troops had arrived and the right flank and part of the centre looked solid and secure. I had a unit of Veteran infantry in reserve and needed to roll 5+ on 2d6. You would hope that in the game I would manage to roll 5+ on 2d6 each turn. Yeah Hoped they would too. But I proved that I can roll consistently low at all the wrong times. My artillery batteries were doing sterling work. They managed to stall the Union Infantry units and slow their advance. I was only ale to slow one unit each turn by this tactic and facing 3 units it was just a matter of time before they inevitably were in danger. The Union Cavalry had re grouped and were no longer disrupted by forcing my good ol' boys from the table and as we ran out of time they were just in canister range of my rifled artillery battery, but unfortunately it was facing the wrong way. It was confederate turn next and If I had been lucky I might have been able to wheel into position and let rip with canister into the cavalry. I would have needed to roll 4+ on 1D6 in order to be able to attempt this.
Overall I was on the back foot from the start. I did manage to hold the Union forces of for long enough for Rob to push his flank into enemy territory despite being on the defensive. I did ask Rob to send me some of his troops to Bolster the left but he was more intent in killing Peters troops. I can't blame him for that, but it would have made a big difference to me as I had so few troops on the table. Still that is the joy of multiplayer games everyone has their own agenda.

Her Is a pic of the Saga multiplayer game mid flow. They managed to get 2-3 games in with different opponents on each side and a board game afterwards while we failed to complete a game! It was a good day and despite the fact that I did not want to go originally I am glad I did in the end. yes I lost dramatically but they guys are the kind of people that make loosing worthwhile!