Another fun game of Black Powder ACW and a similar result to last week.We added one more battalion of infantry, the Northerners added another artillery battery.
Our plans came unstuck when the commander on our left flank (me) decided to refuse the flank and march most of his brigade to support the centre- then failed to command my troops the next turn. Not only that but I forgot about units in column being allowed a single move anyway and so failed to march into a strategically significant barn.
My opponent, Mark ceased on the confusion in our ranks to steal the barn and his and and Kent's brigade (the Northern centre) then managed to concentrate their fire on Stephen's brigade and over several turns destroyed it.
So, a famous Northern victory, in large part due to my poor decision making and forgetting of an, as it turned out, important rule. Next time we will have them..
We decided to pretty the game up a bit this week- last week I didn't ant too much terrain as we ere just getting the hang of the rules again and this week the terrain looked right.
A view of the Northern line.
Very cool terrain made by Kent.
Turn 1. CHARGE!
Turn 2: Mark threw a regiment of infantry at my regimental screen that was supposed to avoid contact and slow down the advance.
All across the line on turn 2 the Yankees advance whereas we becme paralyzed with indecision (all failed command rolls!).
Finally Stephen's troops advance to the fence line but not enough of his regiments move forward.
My brigade is bottled up and unable to deploy into line.
While all this is going on Mark sends a regiment forward to occupy the barn!
A firefight develops but the Northerners can bring more regiments to bear.
Meanwhile on our right flank Dave and Simon are clashing in the woods- we allow all regular troops to adopt "open order" in such terrain.
Kent's troops look pretty impressive.
My regiment tries to pull back towards the main line.
Fighting rages in the woods on our right flank.
Disaster in the centre. Both Stephen and my regiments are driven back from the barn. Stephen's regiment breaks as does another at the the fenceline leaving him with 2 shaken regiments and one intact. His brigade breaks!
Kent's victorious troops advance.
As do Mark's.
A rather one sided battle. I think my decision to try to help out the centre backfired majorly and meant that Stephen had to face two brigades unsupported and his brigade was cut to pieces. Failure to occupy the barn was critical too as we were unable to recapture it and it should have been used to anchor our flank.
A fun game that left us wanting more-which is a good thing.
Great stuff Craig!
ReplyDeleteIt was very enjoyable Scott. I know some people say that Black Powder can lack a bit of flavour being a pretty generic ruleset but we found it to make for a game that felt very different to our BP Napoleonic games and are discussing "tweaks" to suit it to our tastes- which is another thing I like about the rules, its about playing the game, not gaming the rules.
ReplyDeleteCraig