Tring Wargames Club: 10mm ACW Bash

At a recent club night I ran an ACW game using Black Powder. The scenario was a fight over a bridge, the Union were attempting to outflank the Rebs and had sent a supported division to secure a vital river crossing. The Confederates has rushed troops up to try and block the Yankees and deny them the bridge that they would need to resupply their advance. The river was fordable to infantry, artillery could only cross at the bridge.

The Confederates had 3 infantry brigades and 4 batteries. One brigade was all standard infantry, one classed as Reliable (+1 to Command) and one had ferocious Charge (re-roll all missed attacks if they charged that combat round).

The Union had 4 infantry brigades and 6 batteries. They also had a brigade classed as Reliable, plus 2 units of Sharpshooters (re-roll 1 missed shot) and 4 units of Tough Fighters (re-roll 1 missed attack in combat), split between 2 brigades.

Each side started with 2 brigades on the table, with the rest arriving in turn 2 and 3. The reinforcements could either enter the table in march column, or delay one turn to deploy into lines.

The Confederates reached the bridge first, as they started closer, and formed a firing line along the river bank. The Union advanced was slow at first (the artillery were very tardy) and allowed the Confederates to secure the river along the whole length of the table. The Union high command (me!)
planned to hold the flanks and pound the centre with the leading brigade and the bulk of their artillery, then throw the reserve brigade in to sweep away the weakened Rebs.

The plan never really took effect, because of the delayed arrival of the artillery. By the time the guns were in position my plan was obvious the the Confederate commander (Mark) and he launched all out assaults on both flanks.

One his left flank, the Ferocious brigade should have easy broken through but my troops put up a good fight (lucky dice) and after the Confederate attack we both had 1 unit routed and 1 unit retreating. My counter attack however, was devastating , throwing back 2 more Reb units. Now, out of 6 Confederate units, 1 had routed and 3 were Shaken and Disordered, the brigade was Broken and forced to retreat.

The attack on the other flank fared very similarly, I held the initial assault then broke the brigade with my counter attack. With two thirds of his army, Mark conceded a Union victory!

It was a busy night at the club.....