Pickets Charge: Defending Henry Hill

 Friday Night John and I met to try out our system using the Longstreet Campaign with the.  We had hit on the idea of using historical scenarios with our ahistorical campaign forces.  It seemed right to have our test game be from Bull Run. My army consisted of two brigades the Texas Brigade of the 1st, 4th and 5th Texas with a Mixed battery of smoothboors and Rifles holding the hill.  They had a second brigade with Wheat's Tigers and the Hampton Legion (both Infantry and cavalry) in support to the left.

 John had two brigades of infantry one of two battalions and a battery and the other with 4 battalions. the sharp eyed might just see the confederate banners peaking over the hill.

 Interestingly we began the fight with Flank moves against each other's right flanks (this happened alot in the early days of the ACW)

 Well John was actually moving against both flanks at once my cavalry tried a charge but got disordered (unformed under the rules) and fell short of hitting the head of John's column of Zuoves.

Not surprisingly they got smashed the rifled-muskets of the Zouves and the union battery.  A few turns latter they would dispersed under continued pounding.

 My infantry tried to block the union attack on the right but despite landing a good volley the return fire sent us reeling back.

 With the attack developing to the right my guns turn to bring their fire to bear.

The Hampton Legion Infantry in skirmish order is doing a good job holding the Yankees in the woods.

 The Union Artillery preparation is fairly ineffective but two union battalions charge the 4th Texas.  The Texans and the supporting batteries hammer the lead battalion, scoring 8 hits on top of the two it had taken earlier. The Texans don't roll well on their melee test but John's boys have a -7 to over come as a result of the fire they have taken.

The Yankees have run out of time for a Confederate victory though neither side has taken much damage.  Both John and I have earned 3 epic points so our armies will grow by that number of units.

John got 4 See the Elephant cards so 4 of his green units will got the regular status.  I got on See the elephant card that I awarded tot he 4th Texas.  I also got a battery of new rifled artillery  and the CS Replacements card gives me new unit of regulars. So next battle my army will field 12 units.

Battle of Somewhere Pennsylvania

This entirely fictional battle is inspired by the first day of Gettysburg.  Longstreet's 1st Corps is the leading element of the confederate force.  Thanks to his Scouts/spies and his more generally judicious personality.  Longstreet's forces are better prepared when they bump into Union Cavalry and  begin the day with two of three division already on the field.  There opponent is Reynolds 1st Corps screened by Buford and his cavalry division. 

 Rich Wallace in the role of Longstreet advances with McLaws on the right and Hood on the left of the road.   The men advance steadily taking fire form the Yankee repeater armed cavalry.  One confederate Brigade is gets cut up by the fire but the others come on.

 Not wasting time with fire the Confederates advance with the bayonet

 Hood takes the hill to the left of the road but McLaws men are repulsed.  The Iron Brigade takes up a position behind the retreating Calvary men.

 Additional union troops are coming up the road(Commanded by Dana Rock)  and the left flank(Commanded by Kieth Howe) of their position...

 Pickets Virginia division(commanded by Jess Reardon)  has arrived on the Confederate left and is advancing to support Hood.  Union Troops from the first division try to get in position to hold that flank,

 Rich's next attack is brilliantly executed.  It crushes the union cavalry and sends it flying.  Union troops are moving into position on the Confederate flank but are no threat at the moment.

 The Iron brigade held off one attack but was unable to do enough damage with fire to cripple the Confederates... On the Union Right a battery of three heavy rifles helps keep picket at a respectful distance and gets some kills as the third division splits to suport both the flank and center.

 Hood Drives back the Iron brigade

 and a major fire fight erupts on the confederate left as the 2nd division infantry and artillery arrive

 3rd division troops arrive in support of the 1st Division and shore up the position on the town  decimated union Cavalry regroup in a ragged line.

 Confederate shooting on the union artillery is impressive but rolls to confirm don't pan out and only one heavy rifle is lost. The infantry lost a stand as well but Jess Playing the roll of Pickett is almost in position for a potentially devastating charge

 Union Fire on the confederate right rips into confederate units shredding that flank, Suddenly the Confederates hopes look grim.

 The union counter attacks, the results are inconclusive one win and won loss.  At this point I had to call the game because I needed to get to a wake before the visiting hours were done.

Final situation.  Jess/Pickett is in position to launch a major attack on the confederate left.  Her troops are eager and she has the Rebel Yell card so her odds of success are very good If successful she might turn the flank of the troops in the village and swing that fight in Hood/Rich's Favor.  On the flip side Dana and Bill have a good position in the village and if their flank isn't turned they can probably hold.  The Union 2nd Division and cavalry under Keith Howe only have a few stands of McLaw's division and some artillery  standing between them and the rear of Hoods division.  At this point its either a draw or a Union Victory though the Hood/McLaws attack on the dismounted cavalry is a feet any confederate can be proud of.

A Good Trade

A few weeks ago I saw my sometime opponent, fellow blogger and friend Jose had a page of items he wanted to trade for miniatures he could use. He happened to be looking for Soviet infantry and I happened to have a nice batch of Soviet Infantry I wasn't using so I got in touch with him.   I also offered him the Soviet AT guns and HMGs I had.

Jose had some very nice Pumas and as I had been looking for some more Pumas I jumped on them

Jose uses an airbrush so these look quite different from anything I have in my collection which is good so they can be used with my other Pumas and no one will confuse them.

I might add some additional decals at some point.  Now I know some of you are thinking this doesn't seem like a very equal trade....

and you would have been right but Jose has a laser cutter and he made me quite a number of movement stands for Longstreet (or other games) that will fit as many as five 1" square bases  to a s few as two 1" Square bases.  I think both of us got

Yankee Guns for Longstreet

A lot of new Yankee that will allow me to field a full Yankee force for Longstreet

Five Napoleons and five 3" Ordinance Rifles 

Not really much more to say other than I always find painting artillery of this sort something of a drag and these are not my best work but once they are on the table they will blend in and look just fine

 Yeah I know the whole red shirted artillery man thing has been pretty well debunked but I need the occasional change from blue.

Guns and men are both Blue moon excellent figures all around.  I'm now ready with both sides of a Longstreet campaign when that opportunity occurs again 

Longstreet at Relentless Dragon

Thursday Night I set up a game of Longstreet for the members of the New Hampshire Wargames Alliance.  I did not have enough decks of cards for every player so I did one deck per sided and let modifiers applied to both sides.   Some the pictures came out very badly for some reason.

There were three brigades per sided that got changed to two brigades as we have fewer people than expected show up. I did the Cross Roads scenario and put three battalions of Yankees on the cross road with two batteries in support.

 The rest of the Yankees had to make their way up across the river. I figured that would give the Confederates two to three turns to attack before the Yankees got into position.

The Rebels had a formidable force of Eager troops and made good use of cover on the right their units on the left especially 1st Texas were roughly handled by the Yankee artillery.

 Max the Confederate player on the right launched a series of charges using the Rebel Yell card to good effect.  Dave on the left got into position and opened up with muskets to good effect.

 The Yankees tried their own counter charge though they didn't roll well at all. At this point both sides were running out of cards and the Yankees were approaching their force shatter points (they had 21 casualties out of 30 not quite there but close)

 With time running out we declared it a draw or possibly a slight Yankee victory.  Everyone said they liked the game so I call it a successful night

Yankee Heroes for Longstreet

Two hero markers for Longstreet.  On the left is one form Old Glory the one the right is form Blue Moon's Iron Brigade set.  The Roman Eagle isn't really common to Union Regiments but it should work as a Hero marker.

Yankee Officers and Cavalry

Some more Essex Cavalry this time for the Union five more stands including one that can double as an officer(see the right)

Also 4 more officers to fill command slots in rule sets that will require one

I've seen images of Kepi's with a light blue band around them and in order to give these guys a little bit of a cool look I went with it.  It may not be historically accurate. 

I hand painted the flag it came out fairly well.

The officer who might also play with the regular troopers to fill them out.

Now for some brigadiers or senior colonels

the Kepi is a bit unusual for senior officers but some of them are eccentric

Some senior officers are a bit flamboyant like this fellow with his sweeping gesture and red plumage.