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.

Dark Elves v Orcs n Goblins 2500 pts

Our weekend game saw a return to the world of fantasy with a battle between my Dark elves and my dads orcs and goblins. With games workshop now operating on a different planet...and i don't mean 40k either :-)......and releasing more products books rules figures add ons expansions etc etc in a week than I have collected in over a life time we have somewhat fallen away in recent months from playing Warhammer which is a shame as we have a wonderful collection of models in our armies. So figures dusted down we set about having a good old set too. All terrain features at the end of the game if controlled by one of your units would add D3, 3 been 300 points bonus to your end victory total.

The set up, our main battle lines were pretty much lined up in front of each other, my Dark riders used their vanguard move to steal a move towards the Doom diver and giant. The monstrous spider ( its name I can't remember ) was deployed opposite my Knights along with a mangler Squig!  

The War hydra advances along with the rest of the Dark elves force protecting their flank, my cold one knights couldn't control the mounts as a result if of a -1 to my leadership for been near the charnel pit and stumbled forward stupid towards to monsters.

The Scourgerunner unleashes its bolt thrower at the unit of trolls inflicting a couple of wounds.

The Dark riders move to the flank of the giant but inflict no wounds with their shooting.

The result of the the first and last doom diver shot! A misfire result saw the doom diver snap a rope and send an unfortunate Goblin flying into a tree, the doom diver collapsed into a heap on the floor, I have a feeling a nearby unit of orcs may have tampered with the machine for a laugh before it fired, the Orc bully went to retrieve the unfortunate individual from the tree, probably to use in a stew later on! 

The rest of the Orc line behaved impeccably and moved forward as one battle line over coming the animosity phase with no problems, in there next turn animosity free again ( yep an Orc army following orders ) the entire line charged into my Dark elves apart from the savage orcs who failed to cover the distance, far to busy still applying there war paint to fight!

The Giant spider winning the combat by one thanks to charging and flank bonus after it inflicted 0 wounds and my high beast master and manticore replying with a wound ran down my General and Manticore after they failed there break test and fled, thanks again to that charnel pit and its dammed -1 to leadership. The goblin fanatics were released, one of them smashing through my Darkshards before the Night Goblins spears charged in. I won the combat over a couple of rounds but the Gobbo's held on thanks to the near by Grimgor Ironside and the fact I forgot I had a strength bonus because of a magic spell I had cast, which would have allowed the gobbles no saves! The Dark elf spears fought well and due to stead fast held their ground against the Trolls, however they had a rather large spider looming on their flank which did not bode well!

The Black orcs and Grimgor broke the sisters of slaughter after a couple of rounds of fighting and my Medusa was easily dispatched by the spider which crashed into the flank of the the poor Elf Spearmen still engaged with the trolls. Seen the destruction of Medusa my scrounge chariot turn tail and fled of the table, yep once again the minus 1 to leadership from that cursed charnel pit proved very costly!

  

The results of the mangler Squig crashing through my Knights, 7 dead leving only my command group left, things were not looking to good at this point.

The Spider crushes Medusa with a venomous tail strike.

My Executioners and Master preform a lot better and beat the orcs in the first round although the orcs hold their ground. My master fresh from dispatching the unit champion bellows out a challenge to the Orc War boss battle banner bearer and dispatches him in the challenge, the War hydra joins the fight in flank of the Orc boyz who are easily massacred in The pursing round of combat and ran down.

With the Spider joining the combat its thunder stomp proves the difference and the Spearmen are slain to the last along with the Sorceress.

 

After my hydra had flamed all but one savage Orc to death, who in turn was shot down by the near by dark riders the Giant bellowing charged into the hydra. The remaining executioners after been stomped from a foot of Gork braved themselves for the impact of the Monstrous Spider. After surviving the initial round of combat the master and remaining executioners great weapons slayed the giant beast, my dark elves were beginning to make a fist of it at long last.

The giant at first head butted my hydra stunning it so I couldn't strike back, but clearly not bothered to have to lay the nut onto the other 4 heads of the Hydra he decided to just thump it with its club inflicting 5 wounds killing the Hydra, no fuss!

The Mangler Squig now running wild moved uncontrollably  into the misty marsh were it failed its initiative test and was dragged below by what ever was lurking beneath.

With that the last turn saw the both of us claim the odd objective here and there with what little we had left and my executioners did the honourable thing and fled away from the giant charging into the flank and escaped out of its charge range. My remaining couple of Cold one knights chased the goblin spider riders from the table after the Gobbo's suffered abit of animosity and decided it was a good idea to charge into the knights, maybe they fancied their chances after the mangler Squig had weakened the knights so badly, but been Goblins they were wrong. 

 

Well that was a bloodbath, despite been battered in the first half the game, my Dark elves and especially my Executioners fought back well. Both armies had taken massive losses but my Force had almost been completely annihilated bar a few survives here and there. A quick tot up of all the victory points saw the orcs score 2260 to the Dark Elves 1577. With a difference of 683 points it wasn't double the victory points so the game ended with the orcs claiming a marginal victory.

ACW Head on clash

My Dad has been busy rebasing and reorganising his ACW armies as he has decided to use Fire and Fury rules again after not quite been won over from the last rules he had adapted. He was keen to get them on the table top so at the weekend we had a straight up battle using them. I can vaguely remember using Fire and Fury what seems a lot of years ago but not the game mechanics. 

I used the Unions for a change and my dad took control of the Rebs. We managed to get several turns in during the course of the evening without much reference to the rule book and I picked up the rules quickly during the game after a quick briefing from my dad.

When we called an end to the game my dads confederates were beginning to break through, my left flank had started to collapse and although I did have success on the left of the centre my right centre had taking abit of a pasting when the confederates got into melee. My right flank had repelled the confederate attacks and was holding reasonably well. We did a quick points tally gained for destroyed/spent/wavering units and killed generals and my dad held the advantage 15-7 taking the victory.

Here are some pictures of the action,

The two armies start to close to each other

Union troops ready themselves for the advancing cavalry 

The union troops first volley across the corn fields

The Iron brigade in attack column charge but despite the bonus to hand to hand combat from the random event chart at the beginning of the game they fail to make any impact and are repulsed easily.

Union troops advance up the hill in the face of deadly Rebel fire.

The Confederates attack the church yard.

Union cavalry reinforce the wavering union centre

The Rebs attack the union right flank defending the woods, their random roll on the chart had seen this division on a minus to shooting due to wet powder.

The Union left starts to break as the pursuing rebels come under close range cannon fire

The depleted Iron brigade break  and retreat further through the cornfield as the greater numbers of confederates over realms them in melee 

The Union dismounted cavarly are forced to withdraw from the woods

The confederates attack is repulsed on the Union right

The union centre rallies and readies itself for the confederate second charge.