Miniature gaming

Chuck Hammack, newly moved to West Richland, invited War Eagles over to christen his new game room. He gave us an American Civil War scenario with Regimental Fire and Fury as the rules. It's a beautiful table, with lots of eye candy, 15mm scale figures. Photos, as always are posted at full resolution, click to embiggen if you want a closer look.


The terrain represents a gap which the Union must take and clear of Confederate troops. A few Rebels are visible as the Union brigades deploy, but after completing their deployment, the remaining four regiments of the Rebel brigade appear on the far right of the Union forces.

The left brigade, four regiments of infantry under my command advanced without consideration of the sudden appearance. Shooting commenced.


The infantry fire on the left was inconclusive, but Union artillery shattered the Rebel arty's infantry supports:



(This is exaggerated, we miscalculated at first. Only three stands of the regiment rather than five of eight were destroyed by a single, well executed round of artillery fire, but still....)

In a move worthy of Phil Sheridan, the Rebel regiments (in open order!) charged the advancing Union lines. Successfully. The entire Union brigade was thrown back in some disarray.


While the Union brigade hauled itself back into order, the Rebels, playing only for time, fell back to their original positions. Meanwhile, the Union center brigade deployed to the right to face the ambush. The Rebels advanced into the woods, then fell back before the boys in blue, never intending to get into a fight there. The Union general (John Hayes) filtered the artillery's infantry support through the woods and pursued through the open fields with the center brigade. The artillery deployed forward after decimating the Confederate regiment manning the fence.

The rebels and the bluebellies had a lively time on the ridge line in the center above, while the Union batteries suppressed and destroyed the Confederate guns. That leftmost regiment surrendered some casualties to the rebel enfilade fire before the artillery could get into action, but were still a fighting unit when the Rebs took a stand.

Continuing the pattern of Rebel aggressiveness two regiments on the right charged the Union line with cold steel. In a flurry of die roll 10's, the furious charge was broken and then smashed to oblivion. I suspect that Gary expected (not unreasonably) the leftmost brigade (shown here only by their casualties} to last at least the turn. But, alas, the dice of death had other ideas today and by this time we had the calculations down....


Meanwhile, on the other flank, after a brief Rebel defense of the hillcrest, the Union brigade under my command has finally driven the rightmost regiment into headlong retreat while in another miraculous die roll, the single regiment facing the Confederate sharpshooters (off the picture to the left) has held their gap in the ridgeline....


The Union general has eleven game turns to clear the gap before dark. At the end of turn eight, the table looks like this:



(You may want to click on the photo to enlarge it to full size.) On the Union right, the gallant confederates are outnumbered and overlapped. In the center, the rebel artillery has been destroyed, a last section limping away. The regiment assigned to support it is hiding behind the terrain, spent in the first turn by massed artillery fire. On the left, one regiment is in headlong retreat, the other must either retreat or face Union troops from front and rear. The scattered Confederates can't consolidate and hold out and will inevitably be swept from the field. So I say. Y'all may think differently.... ;o)