1862: A Dark Year (Longstreet AAR)

Continuing on with our Longstreet Campaign, we entered 1862 where I was soundly beaten by my friend Phil at his house. We rolled for meeting engagement and, unfortunately, the dice were heavily against me that night. My troops took a licking and met their breaking point.

My force after the first defeat in 1862.

Afterward, I scheduled a game at my place with our resident Master of Horse, DJ. I expected him to have lots of cavalry and I was not disappointed. He came into the battle with plenty of mounted troops and when it came time to roll for a scenario we were given another meeting engagement style map with some crops obscuring my artillery.

My Rebels (bottom) move up to entrench along the corn.

My first move was to sent up my troops to entrench along the corn and create a solid defensive position. My artillery was positioned along two corridors where they would get some possible shots on his advancing yankees. His cavalry immediately moved toward my flanks in hopes of drawing off some of my units to guard them. The maneuver was a good one as I indeed fell for the feint. With my Zouaves and cavalry tied up on the wings, his Heavy Rifles absolutely ripped my exposed artillery and cavalry to shreds.

Attempting to secure the flank only to be chewed by shell.

DJ, never one to turn down the gift of cavalry combat, received my Confederate charge on his men well. I defeated him just barely and forced him to remove a base and take 3 steps back.

The 4th Louisiana takes a bite out of the damned yankee cavalry!

Things were looking okay for me as I began to pull in my artillery after they took some losses and consolidated my defense. My well entrenched men in the cornfields made some successful volleys on the enemy while one of DJ's cavalry units got mired down on the left flank, allowing my Zouaves to chip away at them up for 3 straight turns. But then DJ played the "Confusion" card and forced my 1st Tennessee "Memphis" Regiment to advance from their dug in position and into the midst of a 2 larger regiments of blue devils. The entire regiment was destroyed in a single turn. How I hate that damn card!

The center cornfield is where the 1st TN got confused and rushed headlong into the yanks.

The battle was all but over at that point. We traded a few more punches and with a lucky roll of 6 by DJ, the game was over as I reached the breaking point. While I earned another Epic Point for my cavalry's heroic charge, it will take a victory to ensure a total Confederate victory in the campaign.

Force Roster after the completed battle and campaign cards.

Post Battle: I was lucky to finally get some rifled artillery as well as a new cavalry unit and some replacement infantry on the card draw. I was forced to take a second personality which turned out to be a personal physician. The physician card gives me immunity from "They Couldn't Hit An..." as well as another benefit which escapes me at the moment. The last card, "See the Elephant," allowed me to make my Zouaves into Veterans.

As for DJ, he was the real unlucky one in post battle. His largest and best unit was struck heavily with typhoid and reduced in half (I believe it went from 8 bases to 4 and then up another one to 5 with replacements). 

I'm not completely happy with my roster as I despise cavalry but the replacement artillery was desperately needed. Here's to hoping 1863 is a better year and, in the words of my figures, the south shall rise again!

Longstreet Campaign AAR (1861 - 1st Battle)

At our last club meeting in September, we played a very fun game of Sam Mustafa's Longstreet and decided that we would all like to do a campaign game. Starting yesterday, we put our forces into action with the first battle in 1861 pitting myself, Lord Ashram, and Rob (who commanded 2 brigades) against 4 formidable Union foes. When we rolled for the scenario, it came to the River Crossing.

After the terrain was placed, we had reduced their 4 easy river fords down to only one with terrain obstructions (forests, rocks, and hills) which was my brigade's task to defend on the far right flank. The Union forgot that they were able to place a river crossing rather than other pieces of terrain and only remembered after they had already placed 2 pieces so they added another ford which we promptly obstructed.

My Force Roster at the start of the battle.

My forces and Ashram's cavalry on the right flank guarding the objective and open ford.

Ashram's forces in the center and Rob's 2 brigades on the far left.

The battle was mostly focused on Rob's side where our friend John's union forces quickly engaged him from across the river in an attempt to weaken the Confederates for a crossing. It was a 4 hour long slug fest for them that resulted in big casualties for each side. In the center and on the right, Lord Ashram and I mostly bombarded the Union approach and chewed their forces up a bit. Not a single Union regiment would ever even get onto a river ford.

Slug fest on the left flank.

Rob and John's forces battling it out.

Where my forces did see action was in a cavalry engagement that did not go my way at all. It was the original intention of myself and Ashram to get in the rear of our enemy and then dismount for a flanking attack. The Union CiC came to the rescue of that flank though and played a card that allowed them to throw a swamp in front of our maneuvers.

*POOF* God damn magical felt swamp!

We were able to maneuver around the magical swamp with my 5th Texas Rangers going left and Ashram's cavalry going right. After a little horse dancing show, I had just drawn a card that would have extended the reach of my cavalry for a charge. As soon as it was my turn I was going to throw that bad boy down, make contact and win the day....that is until it was my foe's turn first and he played the same card.

See explanation below.

(1) I was hemmed in against the river, beaten in combat and forced into position 2. (2) The Union opened fire with a volley and, thankfully, they were terrible shots and missed. I was then forced back into position 1 in an attempt to retreat but was again charged. There, I lost 6 out of my 8 bases of cavalry before I was able to pull away to position 3.

The game was extremely fun and ended with the left flank having seen the majority of the action but a major Confederate victory as they neither took our position nor did we suffer too many casualties in comparison. Longstreet remains one of my favorite games to play and I look forward to my next engagement against my friend Phil which will take place in 1862. At the end of the battle, we had to do the Post Battle Process. I was promoted to II Eagles (Longstreet uses Eagles in replacement for the Union/Confederate ranks) and awarded 3 Epic Points. Drawing campaign cards proved to be a major coup for me as I received a new unit of infantry, cavalry, and artillery!

My new units: 2nd Texas Partisans, 3rd Alabama Lt. Horse & Southern Guard Artillery

The typhoid outbreak did hit all of us though and even though I recovered some units through rolling, I only later lost them to typhus. As Sam explains in the rules, while Civil War casualties are staggering, the vast majority of losses were caused by disease. I look forward to engaging my next opponent in a 1 on 1 game and updating everyone on what happens in 1862.

Miniatures in Progress

I've always wanted to make a miniatures blog but only recently have I felt my painting has gotten decent enough (and I say that lightly) to even want to show off my work. I hope to do as many of my other favorite wargaming blogs do and make this site one with reviews, tips, and uniform discussion.

For now, here are some of the projects I currently have on my work bench. The first army I am currently painting is an early ACW Confederate army in 10mm based on 1x1 inch MDF for Sam Mustafa's fantastically written Longstreet rules. I've played many of Sam's games and there have been many I liked and only really one I did not (Maurice). But Longstreet has captured me like none of his other rules as I feel it has truly captured the feel of the Civil War in miniature. This is also my first time painting 10mm figures and while I have found it extremely frustrating at times on my eyes, it has also been a lot faster. For my figures, I went with Pendraken's ACW line which are, in my opinion, the best 10mm out there.

10mm Confederates by Pendraken

The second project I am working on is a 15mm Tudor Army of Henry VIII. Whereas I only just started the Confederates above, my Tudor Army is almost complete. I have only a single unit of Landsknechte to paint but I have just been trying to find a little more inspiration to finish those colorful fellows. I've based my figures for use in both DBA and Impetus but Impetus will likely end up being my primary rules. When I finish those Landsknechte, I'll be sure to post more pictures.

15mm Border Reivers by Freikorp15

I hope you enjoyed the preview of what is on my painting table and will hang around for more. Like most wargamers, I have a closet full of lead but little time to finish it all. My future projects include 28mm WW1 Belgians and a 15mm zombie horde.