1864 - Battle at Cowards Creek or Chicken Run

Last Thursday we opted for Peters 15mm ACW collection and Black Powder 2. Bart set up a re-cycled scenario witha river crossing bang in the middle that was at the same time the objective of forementioned uncrossable floods ... creek. Me playing the Union and the Rebels played by Peter.

As there were some fences that would give a tiny bit of protection, we aimed to "run" to them in a bid to then out shoot the opponent. Peter lost due to shitty command dice and one blunder. But then my strategy (our only two cavalry units were on opposing sides of the river) - to cross the bridge with the cavalry, ended up in my units being repulsed.

Then it was my turn to get the beating. Due to Peter almost super gently laying the dice on the floor (rolling that deserves the term, in my world, involves tumbling, i.e. turning their faces multiple times before the dice stop), but apparently being plagued by an accute onslaught of gamers gout,  still managed to fire the s*** out of my units.

I lost 2 units, and many others them badly mangled. My superior guns managed to blow off one unit of Peters Slave-economists, but in the end I conceded defeat. Still it was entertaining beyond belief, even more so as Bart most of the time managed to be impartial, haha!

The following technicolor photography may illustrate the ferocity of this vulgar display of close combat fatigue (another gamers disease) - enjoy! :)

1916 The Big Guns again!

It was time again for some splashes, so we decided to test my new WW1 naval rules (The Big Guns) against a bigger group of ships ... 4 Battle cruiser, 4 Battleships, 4 Pre-dreadnoughts and one tiny submarine - what could go wrong. I also designed a new matrix for a 6sided dice rolling only (only more, you start with a bucket of dice and hope in the end one will hit ...)

Bart and Peter took the Kaiser‘s side while me and Alidair took the Royal Navy for a ride. Bart took command of the U-boat and the 15 minute ships while Peter tried to concentrate all the good big guns in one line. Me and Alisdair had no other cunning plan than to attack as fast as possible and divided our forces as best as we could and gave coal so to speak. Bart tired just as myself a sneaky submarine attack, but under the revised rules, the wolf pack attack was a little underwhelming to say the least (a howling of ineptitude on both sides). Which is a good thing, as I just wanted this to be a gimmick and not to dominate.

Alisdair got heavily pummeled by Bart, but his saving throws were on part, so he did loose not a single boat. While Peter tried to attack my dreadnoughts (I just left my pre-dreads behind, who cares!), he didn‘t managed to sink a single one of them, haha! But I also lacked a bit of fire power and did not sink a pot of the Kaisers.

What saved our honour was that Barts one of his Not-so-15-minute-ships was sinking - it lasted a lot longer, but hey! Alisdair seems to be the Admiral to go to next time!
I am pleased that the rules work as fast even for bigger numbers and all participants enjoyed the game. Until next time, when you can see us rejoice in sinking some more metal, maybe even to the sound track of pantera or prong ...

1781 - The Hessian Comeback

Well I haven‘t posted for some time (I will put them in some time - 3 for one), but this Thursday we finally managed to play the second part of the 1st round of our AWI campaign. Remember Bart won vs Alisdair 3 to nil and gave the Rebels a 3VP advance. Today itwas Mike (as American) who fought vs Peter (as the Hessians). Previously we played shortly "Eve of Battle" and came to an interesting medium sized scenario. It seemed that the Americans were defending a large village against an approaching Hessian contingent. But that was a Guard one. Peter had a guard dragoon as well as two(!!) grenadier units, and 3 Line regiments. Mike fielded the obligatory 2 militia units and 4 Continentals and one gun!! The rebels had a flank attack (with one unit), but the Hessians trumped this with an surprise attack (1 unit as well) also.

To the chargrin of both players the first and deployment and the first turn ended in both armies in complete disarray, so the fighting and shooting had to wait, one would cautiously approach the village from each side. Then Mike with the rebels seem to get the advantage as he was first with his troops behind fences and stared to shoot. While Peter due to some blunders weren‘t in a particular charge friendly mood. Then Mike charged the Hessian unit and failed to break them, instead his unit of Continentals broke and lift off. That was his high water mark. From then on peter slowly tightened the noose around the American neck by moving and manouvering and shooting and waiting until the final deadly opportunity to strike would arrive. Mike had two chances to blow off 2 regiments but due to his insufficient dicing (or the regiments being better) he could not break them.

At the end the dragoons were in his flank and rode in to charge on an exhausted American Line. slaughtered them and rode through to another Militia and killed them off as well. That was at the end of the time and by then Peter had 4 units destroyed and was awarded 5 Victory points! The Crown forces are two points ahead! Next time the two winners will play against each other and the two loosers in the second round of the campaign!

Brigade-Gen. Mike Evans 

Brigadier Gen. Peter von Mearnsen

The Rebel Militia circumvent the town

The Hamlet at the beginning 2 forces approach

The Hessians get organised ... sort of

The rebels are stuck in the woods

and then stumble into the village centre

are the Hessians too near?

The outflanked Hessians retreat and enfilade the outflanker but traversing them in doing so

the first Continentals reach the building the village is in Congress hands now!

A perfect American defense line

slowly the Hessians advance

But the Rebels have a gun!

The dragoons are in position 

The hessians are beaten but not destroyed!

and they regroup!

and they can withstand fire

the Rebel gun in the centre of the web of houses ...

The outer Hessian Grenadiers are stuck

The American before the last charge of the dragoons

The Victory points after the first rounds ... Peter leads