ACW Encounter

I've had a week off work so we ran a afternoon ACW Fire and Fury game during mid week. The confederates started the game with one division on the table and three in reserve, the Union would start with all their 4 divisions entering from the table edge. All over the battlefield the major hills and buildings if controlled would be added to your final victory points, claiming objectives in your opponents half of the table would be higher in victory points. I took control of the Confederates and rolled on the events chart, rolling a 1 meant that my first division would be stuck in camp until I could roll a 9 or 10 (d10) meaning possibly they might not turn up at all. The Union roll saw them gain a captured gun for their force.

I deployed my first division across the center of the battlefield in the fields and across the hills of the valley, from turn 2 my second division entered from the right side of the table and my cavalry on the left as this was hampered with difficult terrain, so I planned to dismount in the rocky areas and at least slow the advance of the union right flank and maybe gain an objective. My final division of infantry who are delayed were supposed to enter in the center, so it was vitally important they entered sooner rather than later or the Union forces would overwealm my center in very little time.

Lucky for me my delayed division arrived on my very first roll and they wasted no time in running in column up the road to reinforce the thinned out Rebel center.

The Union troops advance in good order towards the rebel centre and the Valley.

 

Pickets division arrive on the right flank at the start of turn 2 pushing forward to meet he Union forces heading for the large hill.

The Unions start their main attack against the valley, committing 4 brigades against the Reb forces on the hill tops. A secondary attack goes against the field on the Rebel left centre.

The Union right flank under harassing Rebel artillery fire stumbles forward towards the farm houses.

My Dad also amasses a large amount of guns on the hill in support of the Union attack.

The first charge of the game sees the Union charge the hill, my Reb troops unleashed a deadly first volley but as a result they became low on ammo meaning my troops firing factors drop by half. The superior numbered union troops took full advantage of the situation and shook off their disorder and charged home.

Both Reb brigades were comprehensively beaten and forced to retreat well back from the hill, one brigade spent and the other worn. The Union troops took the ground just in front of the Rebel reserves at the church.

Seen the right hand side of the centre start to fall back I decided to launch a strong attack at my dads centre. Despite having a massive 17 factor because of the batteries on the hills behind supporting fire my dad rolled up a one so my elite Rebel brigades charged into combat unharmed.

The Rebels in the field had weathered the fire they had come under and with reinforcements now in support they advanced out the field to put more pressure on the Union centre.

The Union guns ready themselves as the rebels advance out the fields towards the union centre right.

A Union brigade breaks from combat in the centre and retreats back behind a hill, the over running rebel forces push towards the guns on the hill, staying out of canister range.

In the centre around the church both sides engage in a fierce fire fight

On my right centre to the right of the church one of my brigades somewhat surprisingly is broken and retreats away from the breaking through Union troops who's sweeping  advance takes them into my already battered brigade breaking them in the process to. The church was now held by only really one full strength brigade.

The Rebs charge out of the field into the union troops. The unions defending the wood hold their ground and repulse the Rebs, the second charge has better success as the union troops had already become low on ammo and are worn, the Rebs pushed the union back and took their ground.

On the union left flank my dad had managed to out flank Picketts division and had taken the high ground and had been unleashing fire down the Confederates flank with damaging effect until they became low on ammo. At this point I managed to rally the disorder from my supporting unit and charged through the disordered unit to get into combat with the iron brigade who had been taking heavy casualties during the game. I managed to push the iron brigade back and my brigades quickly took the ground and headed towards the buildings in the union deployment zone.

 

My sole brigade at the church takes the opportunity of charging a union brigade in the rear and breaking them, they followed this by sweeping advancing across the valley into a second union brigade but they ran out of steam and were repulsed, unable to reclaim the valley.

The union troops had taken control of the stone wall field to the Confederates left centre, in a final desperate charge the Rebs charged across the field but the union brigade fought well and with the defence of stone wall they pushed the Rebs back.

In the centre my conferate 2 nd division had taken full control and pushed the remaining union brigade back to their own base line. However they failed to reach with their final charge and only managed to contest the hill objective in the union centre.

Having repulsed the final confederate charge the Union brigades consolidate on top of the valley, the opposing confederate brigade worn and low on ammo retires back to the hold the church objective.

 

On the Union left Pickets division had stormed over the fields to take over the manor house objective as the Iron brigade retreated, the remaining Union brigade remained in control of the high hill objective on the left.

The final positions of the remaining troops. My Dad was in control of his right wing and held the farm house objectives, the Centre belonged to me as my division had broken through the Union troops and the Union left was a mixture of fortunes as both our forces had made ground and claimed objectives in each others deployment zone. It must be noted that at this point my Confederates had reached their army break point so my army was classed as worn and any future turns would have seen my command rolls at a minus one. Most of my brigades were now worn or spent and my dad although suffering heavy casualties to had a whole division still on the right wing basically at full strength. We totalled all our victory points for casualties/broken Divisions/KIA exceptional leaders and objectives and we found that we had both scored an equal mount of 26 points each.

Result draw...

I think this was a fair result in the end, up to the middle part of the game it really did look like my Dads Unions were going to turn me over, he had good success over the valley and my troops paid a high price, however a few strong charges in the centre helped swing the game back in the balance and despite some desperate last charges on both sides the game finished in a very enjoyable draw.