JULY GAME NIGHT

 

Things getting under way during the July Game Night. 

Greetings, dear reader(s). This won't be much more than a snapshot post, but hopefully still worth a visit.  Our club recently convened for our monthly game night (July).  Despite it being the middle of the summer, when attendance can be light given that a portion of regulars are away on holiday/vacation and other seasonal engagements, the turn out was quite robust: 23 in attendance.  Our game nights consist of 3 games, normally understood to be designed for 6 players with the flexibility to go up or down by 2.  We also generally have a "overflow" game in the wings--ready-made and quick to set up in case turnout exceeds seats. In this case, we had 3 fully supported games and no need to pull out the contingency game. Here is what was on offer:

Battle of Groveton, 1862 

AJ (end of table in black t-shirt) briefing players on his 15mm ACW Battle of Groveton game using his popular Electronic Brigadier system, which he's successfully expanded in the last year from its origins in 28mm American Rev. to 15mm ACW.  AJ 3D printed the extensive linear fences seen in this layout.

Battle of Cape Matapan, 1941

Phil (standing, white beard, black t-shirt and Boston Red Sox baseball cap) briefing players on his Axis and Allies War at Sea game.

   

Battle of Luneville, 1944

Rob (yellow cap) briefing players at the start of his 28mm Iron Cross WWII game. Rob is one of the group's 3D printing pioneers, and his games feature custom buildings and other features that he has researched and produced (like a V2 launching site, complete with rocket, for a previous game). 

  

I arrived early, visited with everyone, then when I saw that nobody needed me to fill a seat to float their game, I helped to facilitate AJ's game until the players were in the swing things and then did a few turns around the room watching the other games before heading home at around 9 pm --which was just right for my Friday night.  

Exclesior!
 

SEPTEMBER GAME NIGHT

 

The buzz in the room as things get underway during the September Game Night.

Our club recently (well, a bit over two weeks ago...) held its September Game Night. A blast of extreme weather came through the region and caused a few folks to not hazard the trip, so attendance was a bit down.  Even with the lower turnout, there were still a few guests in the mix and enough players to support all three games (our club standard is to have three games to choose from on each game night).  This particular game night had an unplanned theme, Civil Wars in America, with two ACW games (one naval and one land), and an AWI game. 

George ran an ACW Ironclads game using Bob Cordery's Portable Naval Wargame system.  The game ran smoothly and they were able to reset it and run it twice.

Charlie ran a robust Regimental Fire and Fury game (a club favorite): with plenty of troops and shooting to get stuck into!

AJ ran AWI game based on the Battle of Freeman's Farm using his innovative Electronic Brigadier  system. For those not familiar with it, I would encourage you to follow the link to AJ's Electronic Brigadier Youtube channel. This is where I plopped myself down, so a brief game report follows...

The situation: British on the right, Americans on the left. The game was originally designed for six players, but we had four at the table, so AJ adjusted by pulling two of the commands. Each player had a brigade, each shown with a box (red for British, Blue for Americans). Randy (top left) and I took up the American cause and Kevin (top right) and Earl , took up the British. Kevin commanded a mostly British force while Earl pushed Hessians. The British objective (in yellow) was to both clear a corridor and establish a unit on the hill. The Americans had to block them from doing so. Given the challenge, the Crown's forces were of higher quality with a slight advantage in numbers. 

(Left) The starting view from behind Randy's brigade on the American left: Morgan's Rifles and Dearborn's lights deployed followed by two battalions of militia and a light artillery section marching up. (Right) The starting view from behind my brigade on the American right: all marching in column: three continental battalions (of mid to low quality) and one battalion of militia. 

Opposite me would be the British Left: Earl's Hessian brigade, seen at start.

I sent my best unit (the 2nd New Hampshire) on a march across the front of Earl's fast approaching Hessians in order to harry Kevin's advance against Randy on our left, where we were under the most direct threat.  They took some lumps from fire as they went past, but arrived in good order. To delay Earl, I sent one of my NY continentals to the right to pull attention in that direction, and defended in depth in front of the his Hessian main thrust, putting my militia out front and my other NY continentals holding a position in some light woods behind them. With the 2nd NH engaged in the center, I would be both outnumbered and outclassed by Earl's Hessians--not enough to defeat them, but the idea was it would be enough to hold on. 

Things get under way... 

...and the Americans, Randy and I (in black shirt), watch the British/Hessian steamroller advance straight at us (Earl not being hindered in the least by my best evil eye). 

The 2nd New Hampshire would lock horns with the 34th Foot, exchanging fire toe to toe, for the bulk of the game. Eventually, the 2nd NH would retire but rally back behind the NY continentals. 

Randy's position on the American left: Kevin's British are pushing hard, and the American line is stretched one deep to cover the zone and block the British end run. 

Mid battle, and the entire American line is engaged, with the British/Hessians pushing hard. A hard pounding!

...End game.  Randy looks on with a sense of relief (shared by me, out of the picture), as the attrition finally catches up with the British/Hessians and several of their units fall back in disorder. The American line, battered and wavering at times, held in the end.  A good game, indeed, and a near run thing! Another excellent game delivered by AJ and his Electronic Brigadier system!

An integral part of any game night, visiting with friends around the table afterwards: and looking forward to more games to come!

Excelsior!

RICHMOND IS A HARD ROAD TO TRAVEL: FEBRUARY CLUB GAME DAY

Players gather at the start of the day.  The table as seen from the Confederate side: Richmond is in the foreground and Yorktow/Bethel (the Union entry) is at the top of the photo. River operations were on the left (as you look at the picture): a big table for a big game (picture courtesy of Mark Nichipor)

Last Saturday, our club gathered for one of its game days, which are large Saturday games held once or twice per year.  This February, the game was a replay of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, which included both naval and land operations. The Confederates (other than those starting on the Bethel/Yorktown table) would be hidden (represented by markers, some of them dummies).  Before I go too far, let me add that I got caught up in my role (as Union Commander) and wound up (once again) taking no pictures, so all images in this report are courtesy of AJ (of AJ's Wargaming Blog) and Mark Nichipor (of Come on My Brave Fusiliers Blog).  Both of these excellent blogs have game reports as well that I highly recommend.  All further photos courtesy of AJ.

(Left) The architect of the scenario, Charlie (also this year's club president) briefs the players on the situation. (Right) Ralph, author of the rules (Steady Boys!), briefs players on the finer points of play. Most of the superb terrain and about 2/3 of the figures were Ralph's (Charlie provided the remainder). Bob, in the background behind Ralph, was also one of the referees and provided the balloon (Balloonist Bob?). I was McClellan (Union Commander for the day), and AJ was Johnston (the Confederate Commander).

You may clix pix for BIG PIX to see the map better (and all other images). The situation and the Union plan.  The game boiled down to the Union needing to threaten Richmond, ostensibly by pushing its siege train to the Outer Richmond area (a day-of-game change flipped the Richmond table to the other side of the outskirts, in case you notice a difference between the map and the photos).  My plan was to have the main effort be an attack down the axis of the rail line, concentrating two union corps (II and VI) reinforced by the siege train, with a supporting operation by a single corps (IV) plus the Cavalry reserve division across the remainder of the table. We had one division starting on transports, which would land at pier #1, but also remain open to other options as they arose.  The reserve artillery was broken out and assigned to reinforce main effort commands (II, VI, V Corps). The second transport (we had two) was left empty as a decoy.  We retained our best Corps (V) in reserve, plus one division of III Corps, which we would release once we had broken out of the Bethel/Yorktown table to supercharge the attack. In terms of game management, I had a group of players who had volunteered to act as corps commanders and be well versed in the rules and the plan ahead of time. They would assimilate and guide walk-in players who came the day of.  For people with entirely too much time on their hands, you can peruse the orders (plus the Union OOB) I issued to the core union players  (US Army veterans will recognize the bastardized operations order format).   Here is how the day went...

Translating the plan to the actual table: the initial deployment.  We had no way of knowing how the Confederates would be distributed. It turned out that they were defending forward in force, so we were faced with multiple solid lines of Confederates that we would need to break through. 

The attack grinds forward led by the Union Artillery followed by assaults on weakened Confederate units. After stubborn resistance, the first lines of Confederates are overcome, and II Corps is breaking through to the Malvern Hill table towards the rail station, but another Confederate line is waiting. The balloon was able to provide deep spotting of enemy forces (a neat touch), double what could be done by ground units (who could spot 24").

The situation as we near the end of the day...II Corps, which had been leading the attack, is starting to wear down.  It expands the break out into the Malvern Hill table to hold the left edge, while VI corps, in better shape, continues to push down the main axis of advance. IV Corps, having worn down another line, is about to make a push for the bend in the river (the corner of the table to the right). Although it has been more of a slog than anticipated, the operation is still going according to plan. Losses have been particularly heavy in artillery, but the attack is moving into Phase II (the main effort to break through on the Malvern Hill table). Accordingly, the lead division of V corps (with six fresh batteries) is committed to continue the attack. The union still has two more fresh divisions in depot to bring out (with six more artillery batteries between them). We would run out of time before we could get to these stages of the game--thanks to the stubborness of the Confederate defense. As an aside, you will note the little red box and arrow above...

...one last magnificent effort by the Confederates here achieved a local success, one of those dramatic high water marks. A counter attack by two Confederate regiments punched through the advancing union line next to the rail station and came within sight of the Union siege battery, which would have been obliged to displace in the next turn while local forces responded to the threat. Appropriately enough, the game ended on this moment, though, with the Confederates punching back in the midst of the Union advance. AJ was an active and worthy generalissimo, as were the players on the Confederate side!

 ...Meahwhile, on the river, the transport operation moved into full swing after Union gunboats finally managed to take care of the Confederate Ironclad (Mark's blog has some good pictures of the boats).  Ross, pictured above, the Union Commodore, came up with the ingenious idea of using the empty transport as a ram.  Given his cold dice in ship-to-ship firing, it was needed  (even though the transport went down, too). 

Based on Mark D's recommendation (III Corps Commander and fellow bloggist), our active transport (above) that was ferrying troops adjusted to the situation and made its way deep down the river to the Outskirts of Richmond...

...where it landed the division of III Corps (minus artillery since we did not have a pier),  ably supported by the gunfire of the gunboats. This drew off confederate forces from the main effort on the Malvern Hill front--two confederate divisions (one infantry and the cavalry division)--which achieved the intent of the landing (and it got more players involved in the game: always a plus!).

A few shots of players during the day.  

Hard tack and coffee during the mid-game break.

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At the end of the day, we ran out of time (as I mentioned).  But there had been plenty of dice rolling and action in the heavy slogging that was done.  Given that eliminated divisions were respawned and put back into play in order to keep players in the game (the ultimate point of the day), it was hard to judge the game conventionally in terms of the distance the Union advanced given that there was no room for maneuver.  The Union was given the edge as far as victory conditions given the losses the Confederates had taken, but I could equally have seen it called a draw or even a Confederate decision based on the limited progress of the Union advance, even under these conditions.  But it's all good.  I was informed that there were something like 25 players in the room at one point. A good outing, indeed!  Again, thanks to Charlie, Ralph, and Bob for putting the day together, to the Confederate players who made the day a challenge, and to the Union corps commanders and players who worked so well together keep the plan on track (sort of).

 Excelsior!