In one word..Whipped!

As the title suggests I suffered a heavy loss in our latest Pickets charge game, taking command of rebels I was given a complete 'whipping" as my grand plan unraveled before my eyes. Tasked with taking the high ground right across the centre of the board (5 hills all been objectives) I decided to focus on the my right flank where I placed two brigades hoping to take the hill and be able to turn on the Union left flank while the centre engaged the Union forces and over on my left flank I just wanted to hold with the brigade and allow my dad to control the objectives on that side. Although my centre attack  started off bright as I cleared the hill of union troops with some solid shooting and charging that was about as good as it got. My flank attack just didn't get going due to been unable to get my orders through and my brigades spent much of the time hesitant. My dad reenforced the Union centre and a couple of truly devasting shooting turns and some bad morale throws left my central brigades spent and sent into a speedy retreat (basically they routed))

I was a little unlucky when rolling for the quality of our regiments at the beginning of the game with the result been much of it rated green troops. Although my dad had  a large presence of green troops too in the Union army he had a number of elite and Olag troops which with their extra shooting dice proved  a telling factor. My dad also managed to upgrade his general by rolling aD6 before the game started, rolling a 6 he gained a extra staff officer, I was unsuccessful with my roll.

The game was over when the centre collapsed although I did continue for another move but this just confirmed my thoughts. It was a tough defeat to take as not much went right for me with the dice rolling and my ideas of turning flank weren't executed particularly well TBH as I had little room to manoeuvre the way I deployed and when the right hand flank brigades weren't hesitant I could do little with them. My central brigades became out numbered 3-2 and this told after my initial sucessful attacks against the hills as my dads fresh reserve troops were to much for my weakened Rebs to withstand. 

Even so I still really enjoyed using the rules again, they really are excellent for wargaming ACW though once your army starts to faulter it is very hard to regain control of it, (as I found to my expense) especially if your order dice show 1's and 2's at an alarming rate. I also like in these rules how the different qualities of troops are represented, their is a really good balance on how the benefits for been elite troops don't make them to powerful as other rule sets have done but still puts them at an advantage against green troops who are also reflected very well in their capabilities, again this is another reason of how Pickets charge helps captures the feeling of this period very well.

I will leave you with some final pictures of the my grand evacuation of rebel troops from of battlefield 🤔

I will