Longstreet ACW game.

Longstreet, the latest game in the Honour series by Sam Mustafa, has finally arrived in sunny Devon.  Gus' hosted the first game of a campaign last week, but I stupidly forgot my camera.  Net result of that game was a Union victory, but that was due to a final gasp all out attack that broke the Confederate army.  Nathan commands Johnny Reb while I lead Billy Yank.

Monday saw us gather again at Gus' for round 2, with the Rebs attacking a Union position.  The aftermath of the first game saw Nathan gain a big veteran cavalry unit and an extra gun, giving him a force of 3 infantry units(19 stands), 2 cavalry units(13 stands) and 2 batteries of artillery(4 guns).  I had 4 infantry units(28 stands), 1 cavalry unit(5 stands) and 1 battery(2 guns).  As I was defending I had my newest unit(8 stands of infantry) off table until turn 6!  

Initial setup

 The initial set up had Nathan massing on the left and a single cavalry unit on the right.

CONFUSION!

The first move was nothing special as Nathan advanced towards the Union lines.  Turn 2 saw me spring a confusion card on the Rebs, with their 3 gun battery suddenly deciding it needed to be on the other side of the advance and cutting across in front of 2 units of infantry.  This slowed the advance of the centre, but sadly I wasn't quite able to get in a flank volley on the limbered guns.

Turn 4 and the Rebs close in

 Turn 3 and 4 was spent on moving again, with Nathan moving his troops into position to charge and me moving my 3rd infantry unit into a position to cover the line in case they broke through.

the gathering storm

 Turn 5 and the Rebs charged, with all his infantry and both cavalry units making contact with the valiant blueclad defenders.  Luckily I had a sneaky "Fresh Fish" card in hand, which turned out to be crucial.  It makes all recruits on the other side hit at -1 and, as all but one unit of Nathans were recruits, it saved the day.

Fight 1.  TWO-ONE to the blues

 Fight 1, one unit of cavalry and one of infantry against a solitary Union infantry.  The two dice show the respective "score" of hits in the fight.  Purple for Union and green for Confederate.  Win for the defenders of truth, justice and Mom's apple pie.

Fight 2.  5 to 1!

Fight 2, two Reb infantry against another Union unit.  Same dice as before, but a much bigger swing this time. 

Fight 3.  The cavalry clash

Fight 3, dismounted Union cavalry against a Confederate veteran cavalry unit.  This was a much closer fight, but I just managed to swing it 2-1 again.

Rebs bounce back

So that saw off the initial Reb charge, with Nathan losing 1 stand from each unit and me holding the line as the Rebs fell back.

Sneaky flankers

Nathan then got sneaky and moved his cavalry around the flanks, doing his best to isolate my units and potentially get in a flank charge.  Luckily I had an ace in the hand as my reinforcements arrived and pushed back one of his cavalry units.

Reinforcements

Unfortunately his other cavalry got around my dismounted cavalry and I was forced to fall them back.  Nathan then sprang confusion and marched them forward again, into open sight of his guns, who all missed!

Its all going wrong on the right

As I fell them back and turned to face his cavalry, he managed a single hit with his artillery, reducing my cavalry to a single stand which was removed and counted as broken.  Bah.  Then his cavalry charged my guns, winning the fight and destroying a gun.  Sadly I then ran out of cards, ending the game with a Confederate victory.  I had broken more of Nathans troops than he had of mine, but he still won the game and gained a promotion for himself.

Nathan the Reb

Despite losing, I got myself in the papers, two more units became veterans and I also gained another unit of infantry and one of cavalry.  Nathan also got some units become veterans and gained another infantry unit.  The biggest problem I have now is that I only have 1 gun, while he has 4!

Gus the host

The game was thoroughly enjoyable and I will be buying my own set of rules and cards very soon.  The command mechanism is very good, with the Confederates having a bonus in the early years of the war, but losing their edge as the years progress.  We have 1 more battle where the Rebs have the advantage in cards, then we get to 1863 and the playing field gets even.

I can recommend these rules to anybody who likes ACW games, but it is the campaign system that really sets them apart.  You get points for charging with 10 stands or more, so Nathans big charge with all his troops gained him lots of epic points.  It makes you play aggressively as epic points are what determines the victor, not the battles.  This may seem strange, but it is all about you as the commander, not your troops.

Thanks to Gus for putting on the games and to Nathan for playing them.

Off now to try and paint something.  The mojo is definitely lacking in the painting department at the moment. Keep rolling those dice.

Display Cabinet type thing

A while ago, after my eldest son moved out, I gained the second bedroom as my painting/computer/stay out of her way room.  This meant the dining room was returned to the family.  Yes, my new room is smaller, but its much better for painting, is out of the way and stops any earache about using the dining table.  I still have stuff in the dining room, but its all in cupboards so I am allowed that.  I did manage to get a glass fronted display cabinet (cheap from a local 2nd hand store) so that some of my wargames collection would be on display, so here it is.

Top Shelf - 15mm WW2 

Italians, enough for a full platoon with supporting HMGs, 20mm AT rifles, 47mm AT guns, L6 light tanks and Semovente 47 SPAT.  I do need to add some Semovente 75s to give them a decent(ish) vehicle.  Peter Pig figures and Battlefront vehicles and guns.

15mm US Armour.  Plastic Soldier Company M5A1s, a Battlefront M10 and Forged in Battle M8 and M16, to support my US Infantry.  At least it makes a change from Shermans.

US Infantry and M3 halftracks.  Enough for two full platoons, but only enough halftracks for one of them.  The figures are a mixture of Peter Pig and Battlefront, while the halftracks are Plastic Soldier Company. 

2nd Shelf - 15mm AWI

British Army for Maurice or Washington's Army.  These you have seen before.

American Army for Maurice or Washington's Army, also seen before.

3rd Shelf - 15mm WW2

US Airborne and plenty of them.  Loads of Paras with BARs, LMGs, 50cal AA MGs and 57mm AT guns in support. 

British Armour, German Grenadiers and German Armour.  Battlefront Cromwells and Firefly, the Battlefront plastic Grenadier Platoon, which needs some support options, such as HMGs or Pak guns, to be added.  Then there is a motley collection of German vehicles with a Panther, two each of Marder III, Stug III and Hetzer and a single Sd10 with 2cm flak, supported by a 3.7cm flak gun.

German Fallschirmjagers.  Battlefront figures with additional support from 2cm flak guns.  I need HMGs and AT guns to add to these as well.

Bottom Shelf - 25mm Assortment

Assorted Lord of the Rings figures that I painted for my son.  There are more (lots more) in boxes upstairs, but here is a small assortment of some of the nicer figures.

25mm War of the Roses and Greek Hoplites.

The Perry WotR figures were painted for a Devon Wargames club game and have sat in the cabinet ever since.  Hopefully they will get added to and used at some point soon.  The Greeks are my first (and so far only) unit of Hoplites for the 25mm Persian army I have upstairs in its unpainted glory.  One day.........

Well, there it is.  I did take a picture of the cabinet but, for some reason, Blogger won't let me show it to you vertically only horizontally.  Ah well, at least you can see what is in it.  Now I am off to start these Napoleonic French infantry because I love them so, I really do. 

Apologies and what I have bought.

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, but I have had a pretty bad month.  Despite the best efforts of my wife and various doctors I am still feeling like crap, so crap in fact that I even missed several opportunities to do any gaming.  After having a stern word with myself (and a bit of earache from Tina), I am doing my best to stay positive.  No matter how bad your day/week/month is, there is always someone worse off than you are.

Painting has taken a hit as I just lacked any form of motivation to do anything.  I have turned over a new leaf today though and am about to start another unit of CGM Napoleonic French for my brother-in-law's ever expanding army.  Nice enough figures, but I still find Napoleonics a chore to do.  I have managed to paint up some 15mm WW2 vehicles, but they are just green.  I have 8 British Shermans for ebay and an assortment of US armour for my Chain of Command/Battlegroup Overlord force.  Pictures in the next post.

Speaking of Chain of Command, the countdown has commenced and money has been spent.  Release day is fast approaching(3 days to go) and I should hopefully have the new rulebook in my hot little hand by the end of next week.  If you like WW2 skirmish games and fancy something different then I can recommend Chain of Command, even if you have to do it in 25mm instead of the correct 15mm.

I also splashed out a bit of cash and bought The Wargaming Compendium by Henry Hyde.  I have been most impressed with it and recommend it to you as a good book to add to your collection.  No figures were bought, but I did buy a couple of boxes of 15mm US vehicles from the Plastic Soldier Company to give my US infantry some armoured support.  Again, pictures in the next post.

Right, that's it, I will be posting occasionally again and I can only apologise for the lay off period.

Keep rolling those dice, eventually you will hit something!