Here they come! Action from 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm

And so the battle begins.  I’ve adjusted the terrain based on a map by Civil War Battlefield Trust.  Most of the positions of troops on the battlefield are based on the scenario layout in the original Fire and Fury miniatures game.

I’ve allowed the Confederate divisions an extra action (3 instead of 2) to represent the relative surprise of the attack for the first turn only.  The Union have their sharp shooters.  They cannot be represented by a physical body of troops because their were less than 500 on the battlefield in 2 regiments.  So at the end of a turn, the Union can place 2 “shots” on Confederate units.  The Union player rolls a die.  If the result is a 1, a stand is removed.  2-5 the unit in question takes a morale marker.  On a 6, the sharp shooter marker cannot be used for the rest of the game.  Sharp shooters are available for the first 4 turns.  I’ve reduced the penalty for a damaged battery from 2 to 1.  This is because a 12 gun battery has about the firepower of a single brigade.  When a brigade takes half damage, it is at a penalty of 1 for shooting.  Finally, I’ve allowed Sickles and Longstreet a couple of abilities other than just modifying the battle results.  First, they have the ability to make a single unit pass morale without rolling the die.  Units that receive the auto pass may not charge or move closer to the enemy that turn.  They may still shoot.  Second, when Sickles or Longstreet’s card comes up, instead of moving, they may order one of their divisions to move instead.  This is not an extra move for that division.  When the divisions card comes up, just ignore it.

Battlefield is adjusted and the troops are ready to go.

Rebels advance. Union gets a lucky shot in and Barksdale advances uncontrolled toward Trostle’s Farm.

Rebels come to grips with the Union troops. Heavy fighting up and down the line.

Rebels eject Birney’s division from Houke’s Ridge. However, casualties are mounting. Benning’s brigade gets hit by heavy ire from sharp shooters. McLaw’s division advance from the peach orchard but pays a heavy price.

Union troops arrive. Barnes division solidifies its position on Little Round Top uncontested.  Benning’s brigade manages to take Devil’s Den despite taking horrendous casualties.   Near Devil’s Den, Birney is mortally wounded while trying to rally Ward’s brigade.  The first officer casualty of the battle.  Ward’s and Carr’s brigade both were destroyed by this point.

Two brigades from Anderson’s division arrive to help bolster McLaw’s wavering attack. However, the last of the Union reinforcements arrive.

 

I think the sharp shooters were a good idea.  However, I think 1 attack per turn is plenty.  As it was, they destroyed 2 stands of infantry.  The other thing I did was make many of the Union troops have a 3 combat value.  Perhaps too many.  I wanted Sickles troops to fall back in disarray as they did historically.  That so far has not happened to the degree I would like.  Perhaps educing both of 3rd corps division to combat value 2 would do the trick.

To be continued….

A lighter shade of OTR

By request, here is a copy of On to Richmond D6.  It is not a faithful reproduction of the rules as the randomizer is a D6 instead of a D10.  The morale and melee system have both been reworked and streamlined.  Enjoy!

OHOTR D6 Conclusion

The last 10 turns took a little over an hour to play out.

Somewhere about turn 7 the Confederates press home the attack. A crack brigade swings around the Union flank.

The pressure mounts. Confederates inflict losses all across the Union line. The union rolled a steady stream of ‘6’s, missing wildly. This looked as though the Rebs were going to take the town before the last Union reinforcements showed.

Finally, Union forces arrive with another infantry brigade and a cavalry brigade. The Confederates were so close that the Union cavalry entered the field dismounted.

Towards the end of the day, Confederate troops failed to charge and sweep the union brigade from the field on the right. Another ill-fated charge from a rebel brigade in a bid to overrun the Union artillery resulted in heavy losses. The artillery actually won the melee and inflicted a stand of casualties from shooting.

I ended the game after turn 14.  The Confederates were in better shape but were clearly not going to take the town on Turn 15.  It was a fun little game and my suspicions were confirmed.  One Hour Wargames scenarios can work well for a good many games.  I’ve played it with Dux Bellorum, Throw me a 6 and now On to Richmond.

OTR played out well.  The new melee system needs more testing.  I did not get any overwhelming victories but mathematically, they should happen.  Even with a marginal victory, it is a good way to eject an enemy from their defenses.  My one messup was that I apparently did not scale down movement.  Movement rates were as per the original game but shooting ranges were essentially halved. I’ve been using a simple modification where each additional morale marker drives a unit back 1 move.  With the larger moves, that means that a unit would fall back more quickly than intended and might make it impossible for an enemy to march forward and give fire.  I’ll slow everything down by half.

One Hour On to Richmond D6

The title is a little clumsy but that is exactly what it is!.  I managed the first five turns of scenario 10 of One Hour Wargames.  The situation has the Yankees fighting a delaying action and protecting a town.  The Rebels have to advance through a narrow gap flanked by trees and an impassible mountain.  The game is moving along at a good clip.

Union forces consisted of 4 infantry brigades in 2 divisions, a rifled artillery battery and a cavalry brigade.

The Confederate forces consisted of 3 infantry brigades, 2 crack infantry brigades and a smooth bore artillery battery.

I made any crack unit (Zuoaves as they are called in OHW) have a combat value of 4.  The other brigades are either trained or veteran, randomly determined.  As it turns out, all regular infantry on the field are veterans.   I determine the combat value of a unit at the first time the unit grade is needed.  Seeing the elephant.

The situation after turn 1. Both forces would come to grips by turn 3.

The Union started the fight by inflicting some losses on one of the Confederate brigades.  The battle ebbed and flowed through turn 4 with the Union brigades grudgingly giving ground.  At one point, a Confederate brigade made an uncontrolled charge and got one a minor victory over a Union brigade in melee.   The gap was so narrow that the crack brigade formed a reinforced line and took its chances with the dice roll for shooting, as it could only bring 4 stands to bear.  Turned 5 went to the Confederates.  The picture below says it all.

Turn 5 was a mixed bag. The Yankees failed to inflict significant losses. However, the union artillery and part of the second division can be seen deploying around the town.

I will hopefully have a conclusion tomorrow.