No ordinary evening, WaT with The Wife!

So we were having a nice dinner when my wife says “I know I suggested we could play cards tonight but let’s play a wargame”

I sputtered, bits of food came out of the mouth, my jaw remained slack, my brain unable to compute. I just stared at her in numb confusion. 

“Yes, really” she merely confirmed.  “But something simple.  I don’t want to spend the entire night for you setting it up.”, she said with a grin.  

The rest of the meal, I was trying to think of simple rules, simple scenario, easy set up. After finally settling on the game and stating so, she says,”Perhaps What a Tanker?”  I had not even thought of THAT one!  Brilliant suggestion. I then had an inner voice debate on how the heck she came up with that.  I thought she never listened to me as I rambled on……

Dishes cleared, I put down my ashen snow mat and a couple of terrain pieces on the table.  “Dictatorial Fascist German or Dictatorial Communist Russian?”, I ask her.  So I brought out a nice Pzkw III for her, and a rather poorer T-26 for myself.  

To compensate for her confusion about which dice are for which action, her dice rolling was very good as each turn’s rolls usually had a good combination including the always useful ‘6’ Wild.   While a bit frustrated with the jargon (“Two d six? You just said I need a seven!”)  she began to be more tactically aggressive. “Yes, I want to shoot you from the flank.  Better yes?” she would state.  “But if you do not roll high enough to reach that position, you will need to turn your Wild to a Move dice thereby not able to change it into a Reload for another shot at me”, I dutifully explain. “I will do it anyway”, she firmly confirms as she then rolls 11 on the dice gaining the position easily; fires her two shots into my side causing my Command Dice to run out and thus my crew legs it, abandoning the shot ridden Russian hunk of junk.  

Earlier in the contest, my poor T-26 had a nice flank shot but....couldn't roll enough for it.  The Wife had no problems with the dice or Command.   

AWI action near Fort Anne

July 9th, 1777

 To his Excellency Lt. Gen Burgoyne

It is my pleasure to relate the clearing of the rebels near Fort Anne allowing Excellency's continued advance to Albany

Please indulge me to describe the actions of hie Excellency's Brunswick forces this day in service of the King.

The Grenadiers had the post of honour on the right of our front line with the Regiment of v.Sprecht to the left. The second line wascomposed of my regiment and that of Hesse-Hanau.  Due to the constriction of the field, the v.Rhetz formed column on the left while the Dragoons (dismounted) moved in the light woods to the right of the field. Our light cannon was in reserve.

My German force of primarily Brunswick units during the Saratoga Campaign of 1777.  Previously employed in the SYW, they have been recently "redeployed" and rebased.  

The American rebel militia at the far end of the field. 

a fence half-way along the field at appropriately musket shot to the rebels position within the forest had Specht’s regiment halt for a turn to cross [1] so that the column of v. Rhetz moving swifter took up the lead formation at while forming line of battle sustained fire from the hidden rebels but without pause continued their maneuvers [2].  The fire from the forest then ceased [3]
allowing the v Rhetz to move to the fence marking the end of the field. 

Von Rhetz's Regiment in column

now forming into line 

the Grenadiers (a combined unit from the grenadier companies of all the regiments) stand before the fence facing fire from the rebel "in the shadows" .

The Grenadiers meanwhile gainfully crossed the fence and advanced toward the tree-obscured rebel militia but halted before the final advance [4] which, with a huzza, cleared the final rebels from our path of advance [5] but at a heavy cost of 30% casualties and 6% of our total this day [6]. 

Your Obedient Servant,
Baron Riedesel 

Notes:
[1] I placed the fence at 20” from the militia position and for each inch the leading German unit came closer to the Americans, the harder for them to roll under d20 and thus ‘stay to their guns’ and continue the fight. I placed a disorder for failure which they needed to roll off (per the rules) before they were able to fire (their only activation action)
[2] I rather like the look of the formed line on which the figures are based rather than the proscribed ‘blob’ allowed of the rules, so I had this unit ‘go through the motions’. Most of the units are a healthy 18 figures strong. Rules ='large unit' which can take more casualties to get to the troublesome 50%.
[3] the Militia on the right failed their ‘morale test’ and retreated from the fence into the forest not allowing firing.
[4] they, of course, failed activation and stood there inches from the fence and the militia who passed their morale test and directed well placed shots into the Grenadiers.  Most of the Grenadier casualties occurred at his stage.
[5] the Grenadiers having passed their morale test (needing the +1 for elites to do so!) charged the fence line and the militia morale broke.  The Germans did not fire a shot during the engagement.
[6] The v.Rhetz regiment sustained one hit.  The rebel casualties are unknown but thought to be negligible.

celebrating the victory

Historical battle of Vitoria game

"hey wait for us!" Action from the game.  (Prussian artillery follows the advance of von Hill). 

I host an annual ‘Big Napoleonic Mystery Battle” each summer and invite the regular players of our developing rules of GdC for an all day affair.  I am always pleased that James and Ron from Oregon make the long 250km trek to join me along with DaveB from the Island (also a bit of a trek with the ferry and all) to come to Surrey BC, Canada to participate in my ‘mystery’ historical battle. Unfortunately SethT of Seattle had pressing work commitments and had to bow out shortly before the date.   I kept the scenario in the realm of Napoleonics this time with the Battle of Vitoria, Spain, 1813 but using my Prussians and Russian in lieu of the British, Portuguese and Spanish of Wellington’s army.

Couple of the locals, ChrisP and KevinA took Dalhousie/Picton’s command and D’Erlon’s French together with Joseph’s small “Royal” contingents ,respectively.   The French commands of Gazan and Reille would be DaveB’s.  He is experienced enough to handle these important forces.  James and Ron decided to stay on the same side (so able to trade the war stories on the ride home!) and thus took Colesky (the historical Gen. Cole but as we were using his own Russians….) and Ron, the Prussians under “von Hill” (obviously the British General Hill).  This left Graham and his Russians ‘Grahamsky’ under my usual dubious command.

Colesky moving across the bridge while to the left, von Hill's forces advance between the river and the heights near Subijana.  Gazan's French are doing rear guard action while the majority of that force is already turned about for the withdrawal at Arinez.

The deployments and numbers were kept as historical as possible.  Thus Cole and Hill came in from the east end of the table to try to pin the French while Dalhousie/Picton “von Pikton” came over the eastern most of the northern crossings of the Zadorra River.  Graham, “Grahamsky” , was to take the furthest of the crossings to trap the French in the valley from their escape route to the east.

Unlike the French command in 1813,  the French of the game, looked at the table and concluded the trap was on and proceeded to set up for an immediate general retreat eastward only restricted by my scenario deployments.

Ron and James contemplate the situation. The pressures of High Command!

The height of the battle with the French defence of the "central hill" collapsing.

Despite some initial set-backs, the Allies of James and Ron, aggressively pursued the French forcing them to make a concerted stand near Chrispijana.  ChrisP added his numbers to the attack on this position. The French needed to slow the Allied advance all the while retreating elements east before the door would close from Graham’s force.  Perhaps luckily for the French, I was commanding Graham and, like the historic commander, I could only slowly deploy my forces against the French LOC to Pamplona toward the north east corner of the battlefield. However with the French unable to do much than cover Graham with artillery from coming directly via the Gammara Mayor crossing,  Graham committed forces spread out to the further crossing at Durana but with that, completely cutting off that route to the French retreaters (as was done historically).

....meanwhile in the east, Grahamsky's forces are met with accurate artillery from across the river and Reille's forces crossing the river.  While the town fight for Gamorra Mayor did not occur in the game, DaveB did accomplish much like Reille did to delay Graham's "closing of the door" in the actual battle

While I did much the poor effort that Graham did in 1813, I did manage to block the main retreat road of the French which was enough. Photo of the lead Russian light cavalry.  Infantry and artillery support would follow.

The final turn had us play 20 turns (some 10 hours of battle which started late in the morning real time in 1813) The famous looting of Joseph’s wagons and treasures gathered from all of Spain was not completed however as the French (the wagons under the command of KevinA’s “Joseph’s Spainish Royal” contingent)  were driven away just in front of the pursuing Allies, thereby giving the French some small argument that it was only a minor Allied victory….
But despite the lack of the wagons capture, the battle went basically to historic form with the French to be shortly expelled from Spain.


James playing “Colesky” (the historical command of the British General Cole) provides the following AAR of the action:
“ I thought the Allies would be the aggressors to kick things off, with Colesky coming across the western bridge and von Hill having sneaked up on the dastardly French from the south end of the hills. We should have easily pushed through the French defense, even with Picton dallying around (waiting for double evens(*), which came the 2nd turn!). Colesky made the decision to forgo splitting his command and making use of the hidden ford(^) to maintain a firmer control of his troops as the PiP cost of moving some elements out of command would have impacted the command’s ability to move forward.

James' own Pavlograd Hussars leading the assault

 Gazan surprised us by going on the offensive. The French cavalry stymied our movement, forcing us to deal with them and allowing for a retreat behind the hills east of Ariñez and what looked to be a full-on withdrawal. Gazan was able to check the allied thrust for four turns, causing a loss of both horse artillery bases and making Colesky rethink things (by forcing a moral check which caused a fallback result). Picton was making his presence felt crossing the Zaddora. 

Having absorbed the initial French push, Colesky and von Pikton began their push. In a bit of combined arms, the Pavlograd Hussars forced a French infantry element into square which was subsequently assaulted and destroyed by some Russian infantry. Ariñez was taken the following turn and the race was on, as the three Allied commands began pushing eastward. Picton began taking substantial fire from d’Erlon. Von Pikton screened Chrispijana and advanced as well. Grahamsky decided to show up and began blocking the main retreat line of the French. 

Gazan and d’Erlon massed behind the central hill and at this point, it could have gone either way. The Allies amasses on the opposite side, but the loss of Colesky’s foot artillery (I’m sensing a theme...) caused another fallback. Von Pikton, after a whiff of grape removed the last of the French cavalry, pushed forward and forced Gazan to rout. Colesky finished off Gazan with another feat of combined arms. Grahamsky stubbornly denied the line of retreat. As night fell, the French were in retreat and the Allies the controllers the field. “

(*Note): This was the scenario trying to simulate Dalhousie’s cautious approach. Eventually the historical Picton would be so frustrated and take things into his own hands and order his division into the action (for which I committed the entire force).  ChrisP, being his usual lucky self, achieved the rather difficult dice in a very short time and so went to the attack quickly.
(^Note):  The ford, the location of which was not disclosed to the French, was the one Kempt and his Light Division used upon being advised by a local Spanish peasant. In future, Cole will be given the option to use some of his force for this purpose without hindrance of that distant command for his PiP amount for a historical scenario design.

James's own Russians...looking good in their attack

"Ney's Folly" Enfilade 2019

In my third hosted game the critical part of the Battle of Waterloo was reenacted having Marshal Ney order much of the French cavalry unsupported over the crest line of the ridge only to find themselves unable to break the Allies infantry squares and be met with the one coming squadrons of Allied horse to force them away.

Preface:  one year ago at the 2018 convention....in one of our suites after-hours drinking beer... we decided that "it would be cool" to combine the Lion Rampant medieval rules to the showy uniforms and dash of the Napoleonic era into a fun ruleset.  I was tasked with making it happen.  After many trials, some of which have been previously documented in this blog, the rules seem to have operated well especially after having undergone a major trial of a convention setting, having 14 players move around 28 units ..and my voice virtually at a whisper from speaking in the din for the entire day.  Nevertheless, it seemed to go along well for all the players many of which painted up their favourite Waterloo units specifically for this game.

  I cannot describe much/any of the action as I was involved clarifying to the many players the charging procedures (a bit tricky at first but with experience players seemed to have them understood) but I wanted interesting action and not your standard "you set up there and they set up opposite" deployment.  So I had each side dice for their position in a random method: French from the south and west, the Allies from north and east. THAT produced some interesting angles!  I also used random bases of casualty figures as "terrain pieces" to provide delays in movement and charging (horses don't like treading on dead things and so will cause problems for the riders!)

Walk in the woods..

With our penchant for ‘Rampanty” rules, the new “Rebels and Patriots” was exciting so JimF brought over his French and Indian Wars figures for a go.  I played the French while Peter took the ‘Injuns’ while Clayton commanded most of the British with Jim handling the single cannon (as he suggested he would be doing enough to consult the rules)

Now as with all Rampant rules, a poor die roll will most likely change things immensely.  Clayton found that out as his Provincials ran off very early in the game (and later, Jim’s cannoneers would but sit around failing many successive activations  (no more ammunition perhaps??) .

The French on the left, British Highlanders in the distance facing the natives (right)

Peter’s natives flittered about in the wood edge targeting the aggressive highlanders which Clayton could not seem to get into contact.  Meanwhile my French “marines” (regulars of the New France) performed light infantry duties against the Highlanders also while my Coureur de Bois (skirmishers) harassed the British light gun.

"the eagle's view"

The big units of natives did well, and the Highlanders finally gave way but not until one unit was totally eliminated!  The new way of testing for morale certainly can result in lots of loss before breaking….as long as you roll well, of course……

“Glutson’s Run”

Battle of Harmony Creek - A ‘War of 1812’ fictional game

The local New York State militia commander needed to help his flagging political career and what better way for an American politician than a good ‘ol military victory!  What excites the American voter more than the triumphant conquerer.

A decent orator, he was quick to enflame the local militiamen to quickly leave their jobs and loved ones and, still in their civilian dress, conduct a raid into Canada across Harmony Creek to capture the nearby farmhouse.

Singing patriotic songs the American militiamen were oblivious to the green-jacketed Glengarry Fencibles (a trained long-term Canadian militia unit) deployed along the creek.  The Glengarry commander had strict instructions not to engage the Americans unless fired upon or the creek was crossed, so was somewhat baffled as the noisy American column seemed not even to notice his unit but continued to the bridge upstream.

The Glengarries, uniformed in riflemen's green but armed with muskets wait along Harmony Creek.  The seemingly nearsighted officer checking his orders once again.  "What to do if they ignore you?"

Mrs. Secord informs the Canadian commander of the threat.  "Many thanks Madam".
 The uniformed militia await orders.  Many of the Canadian militia were provided British infantry uniforms but in green with a variety of red, yellow or blue facings along with blue coloured pantaloons and stovepipe shakos or top-hats. 

Mrs. Secord, escorting her cow, had warned the British commander of the threat and the local Canadian militia had formed at her farm to meet the threat.  The oblivious New Yorkers (the US commander’s second roll for ‘situational awareness’ was again a 1 ! ) continued his advance toward the farm only to have the Canadians emerge from the wheat field and along the side fence mere yards from his column.  The combat was rather one-sided routing the first NY unit who piled into the second.  Shocked by the sudden fighting, all the Americans started running for home.

The American column.

The combat near Harmony Creek

The Glengarries meanwhile had advanced across the stream to follow the American column and were reforming from the slight disorganization of this maneuver as the Americans came back in great confusion. While the greencoat’s musket fire caused little in way of casualties, their fire pushed the New Yorkers into the woods away from the blasts.  No hope for the Americans to reform.

The first militia unit collides into the column following.  Quickly both are in rout. The knapsack markers indicate disorder effects

The bird-eye's view near the end of the affair. The routing Americans in the middle with the Canadian militia to the left and the Glengarries in the upper portion of the photo.

The Canadians, now in US territory, did not pursue but quickly returned across the creek with no casualties.

With some dead and many wounded, the main casualty was the Senator Glutson’s election bid.  He lost by 6,200 votes.

The solo game was conducted with my rather simple rules of random rolls for unit’s orders and combat results.  The diced actions then form the narrative.
I started this game by randomly bringing out of the boxes an American civilian dress unit. During this era,  they are usually commanded by a local politician, thus the beginnings of my story…..

within the bigger battle....

….while the main infantry battle raged on the left flank, Napoleon sent a brigade of his cuirassiers together with some dragoons and hussars to capture the Russian redoubt of artillery playing havoc with his reserves….

So within the context of the main story, our playtest game of cavalry only Napoleonics using our version of Lion Rampant had French dragoons and hussars to take the redoubt while my cuirassiers were tasked to keep the masses of Russian horse from interfering.

I had the Russian divide up their larger number (but equal in point value to the French) between WillB, JimF and PeterM but roll for their starting positions.  This was to simulate, to a degree the Russians sending in troops from various spots of their reserves and some of the positions were made difficult to manoeuvre as a rules test.

WillB's Cossacks (Perry Miniatures)  Home built Russian village by me.  Wheat fields are a cut sisal foot mat.

WillB’s beloved Cossacks were first to move the attack rounding the village only to stop with numerous failed activations which he explained as the Cossacks suggesting they were not about to make any such charges having the enemy “having guns, sharp swords, and such!”

WillB's Cossacks, some still treading on winter ground!

Kevin with the dragoons and hussars surprised us by using carbine fire (!) to cause casualties upon the hapless asiatic horsemen.  The tactic worked well with him making most of the high activation rolls.  That could not be said of his dragoons who had a hard time getting around all the limbers and caissons (or so it would appear from his rather numerous failed attack activations!)  to attack the near defenceless Russian artillerymen who fought surprisingly well (we gave them a 6 on rolls to cause kills on the attackers)

French Dragoons slowly working their way through the Russian artillery

Meanwhile, Jim with all the Russian lancers charged and counter-charged with the French cuirassiers but found the additional stamina (armor) of the French horsemen hard to gain hits upon.  Of course much ‘discussion’ resulted from this   >)   In the end the talk turned to tactics and with the difference in movement, thus charge and counter-charge dynamics, the heavies were thought to be more vulnerable than it would first suggest.

The initial clash of my French cuirassiers (bottom) vs WillB's painted Russian lancers (top) commanded by JimF. Peter with his Russian cuirassiers can be seen in the top left.

Peter with only two units in the centre but those being the strong Russian cuirassiers, chose mostly not to use the ‘group move’ activation as that “put all into one basket’ but had each unit move independently to have “at least one available…on average” (he is our “Mathematician”).  He sat just out of the French heavies movement range content for the counter-charge if needed.  At that point the rules had the shot extend out to allow the standing Russians to put a shot into the French (this range would subsequently be reduced as all felt the range was ‘out of scale’ and tactically unfeasible). Well, I guess I could be continually be shot upon or charge, so as a good French cavalry commander, I charged…to rather mixed results.

Nevertheless the boys had fun and gave good discussion on the rules.

Jimasa has a burning desire….

Jim suggested he had individually mounted Japanese Samurai to add to my collection for a “Lion Rampant” rules game.

These rules, while designed for the European medieval period, work well for other conflicts and convert well for early Japanese warfare ( well for tabletop wargames anyway)
The introduction of the gunpowder handgun (‘teppo’) into Japan in the early 16th century adds a weapon not within the Lion Rampant rules arsenal.  Jim declared he would rather use a bunch of bows, but I like them as Samurai killers.  But each troop type has advantages and disadvantages…as long as you can activate them!  That is the key to LR, and outcome of games as usual, will depend upon them.

The scenario has the holders of the castle running out of the castle to prevent Jim and his contingent, along with the ambushers of Kevin arriving randomly later, to systematically burn each of the fields and village buildings thus burning the castle inhabitants food source.

Jim's ashigaru burning along.  One of the banner designs he used is the same as mine and the same Kingsford Miniatures.

Jim and Kevin were having the usual LR trouble with activating, while Will and Peter were doing better, shooting up opposing teppo units “before they can shoot back!” Even the rather weak firepower from the castle wall got a couple of important hits. As Peter points out:  “Every courage test required could be a disaster”.

a teppo unit about to be attacked by irate peasants 

The game swung slowly to the castle defenders favour despite my back up plan to have a reinforcements arrive after a (d6) number of units from one side or the other were eliminated and we had a few more hours to go. Kevin’s dice rolling had the extra unit depart rather quickly unfortunately.

Jim's ashigaru vs one of Takeda samurai commanded this game by WillB. More of the Samurai's friends are just off camera.

Fighting at the village gate

I had my Peasant favourites situated in the village to attack any unit trying to burn a building.  Peasants are rather poor fighters and did little, even against a teppo unit, so fell back to their station within the village. One of Kevin’s ashigaru infantry units ignored them while torching ( well, TRYING to alight the thatch of a village building…all that was needed to do so was the unit’s  ‘move’ activation, something he was unable to do for many turns! ).  My peasants, finally rallied, had enough of this burning and went into these elite fighters.  The results were not good. The peasants were slaughtered.  And their attack on the ashigaru?  I needed sixes.  I got 6 ones! Ugg. But as was agreed by all, it was “Doug’s usual rolling”.

my usual dice rolling....... sigh ......

Fun game with the usual unpredictability.

ground eye view of the action between my collection's clans (Kingsford Miniatures)

It's dry in a desert: a WW1 game.

"It's Dry in a Desert"

 Hmm, that could be the title of the my new rules I tried out with the help of KevinA at the club.
( IDIAD)?

After a beer or two at home while looking at new basing techniques for my small collection of 20mm Ottoman and ANZAC troops for the desert of Sinai 1917, a concept for the basis of a home-brew rule set popped into my head,  so I produced a VERY sketchy idea which needed some help filling out. Such as....umm, how far do they move...THAT sort of thing!
Luckily Kevin was game to help me out during the club night and by the end of the evening we had a simple, convention friendly game which we both stepped back from the table, with a grin on our faces and stating "That was a fun game!"

The rules are still very rough but seemed to flow.  Lots and lots of dice.  Only sixes do anything.  Kevin and I certainly have trouble rolling sixes (twice Kevin rolled 32 x d6 dice and did not score a single 6!)  The real slow part was carefully counting out the dice for each roll!

The figures are HaT 1:72 soft plastics with a very simple paint job and highlighting wash.  The trenches are made from cheap self-hardening clay with the 'sandbags' a mere impression in the clay (a very quickly done impression...obviously....). The tents are cut from a large Toblerone chocolate triangular box, painted and glued on card.  Very old school!
I have not finalized the basing still so went really simple but actually kinda works so might stay with it!

Turkish heavy machine gun company.  Lots of dice worth of firepower. 

Australian horse attack Turkish position

Needed only NOT to roll any six to activate on two die.  I couldn't do it for five turns in a row! Thus my poor disheartened Turks continued to mill about.

"but you are suppose to hold here!"

Yeah, probably 2nd Manassas but “The Battle of the Unfinished Railroad Cut” has a more folksy sound;  was an interesting game of DennisC’s 20mm ACW during the monthly Friday ClubNight in which I and KevinA as Confederates were tasked with defending the unfinished railway line from overwhelming Union forces from Colin and Nate’s disparate assaults, using the 2nd Edition Fire and Fury Brigade rules (which new charts really has it resembling the regimental version!) in this fictional what-if scenario.

The Confederates were well-outnumbered in this battle and indeed even had green units (gasp!) 

The grey strip is Dennis's representation of the unfinished railway cutting which I was suppose to defend.  I did, but not in the way poor Dennis would wish the battle to be conducted :)

Dang many bluecoats.  Fun to see the numerous figures I had painted being used on the table.

Dennis near had a apoplectic fit as I promptly advanced my meagre two units toward the four units facing me a hill away and followed that by moving my other two into the woods ahead.  “You are suppose to defend the line!” exclaimed Dennis at seeing my advances. And then he really shook his head when I then ‘vanished’ my crack cavalry unit.  “Where is it?!” asked Dennis. “It’s moving hidden from the enemy”, respond I.  “Well, I better not see it behind my troops!” added Colin (my Union opponent).  “No it will not ”, I answered, “but will be unseen as you still have four blank blocks  ( indicating more possible Union units unknown as of yet ). More than fair I am thinking”

Indeed my charging Rebs were short a couple of inches from the blocks but as the rules indicate visibility into the woods, Dennis as GM, laid them out.  Colin protested but I suggested “they could smell you d*nmed Yankees a mile away” in my best Southern accent.  Dennis placed yet more Union on the table.  Outnumbered 3 to 1 but not defending his beloved railway defensive positions,  Dennis suggested “this was not suppose to happen!”.

We know the Yankees were there as we could smell 'em......

But I was happy in the tactics.  Especially as my other two units had, again, advanced ( “You are suppose to defend!”) and started to attack Nate’s Union open right flank of their attack up hill against KevinA’s few Confederates holding our right part of the line.  The two Union player’s forces had separated, leaving a big gap in the middle for me to exploit so I came to aid Kevin with this flank attack from the middle.

The units of my attack in the center directed by Stonewall himself.  Lots of bonus command points for that!

All was going well but even early in the game, when the artillery was firing at very long ranges,      casualties seemed very severe.  But now as artillery was in effective ranges due to our advances, the artillery fire became absolutely devastating. Unfortunately Dennis had severely overestimated the amount of artillery which was historically deployed and so had perhaps 4X the number of models on the table which amounted to massive grand batteries of firepower.  Even low rolls were causing disorder and mayhem.  High rolls blew away whole units, including my previously hidden cavalry which I had moved around the hill to advance upon the guns which were unsupported and partially destroyed or silenced and alone in the Union empty middle.  But un-like the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade which, one might remember still did reach the guns, my elite boys were completely destroyed by a single volley by an average die roll by the guns. Sigh.  

a view of Kevin's defence's on our right flank.  Lots and lots of artillery in this fictional what-if battle made for huge casualties

Kevin was still holding his hill but weakening against the large numbers assaulting him.  My attack from the centre had a nice effect as the green (poor) Union unit at the end of their line routed (Nate had rolled an unfortunate 1 on the d10 dice employed by FnF - which ruleset use of the single d10 makes wide swings in one’s fortunes)
This rout would allow that attack would be effective but as often happens with wargames, real time will effect the battle and it was called.  Both sides claimed victory.