Sitrep (Longstreet Intro game): The battle of Greywalls

The battle of Grey walls

Finally my Union and Confederate forces are at a stage for running intro/demo games to get a feel for the rules.

Thorsten volunteered to play in the first intro game using the Union while I opted for the Rebs.  I used the forces from a scenario in Wargames soldiers and strategy (WSS66) themed around the american civil war. The original scenario was the battle for Herbst woods written by Mike Evans and Don Effinger.  I took the forces and adapt the setting to the terrain I had available and came up with the battle of Grey Walls.

Confederate advance

Union defenders of the town of Greywalls

Town of Greywalls

Work in progress feild (we treated it as difficult terrain

Union reinforcement marching to help the defenders

The battle sees the Union’s 2nd Wisconsin regiment holding the line against a Confederate attack by a brigade consisting of the 1st, 14th, 17th Tennessee and the 13th Alabama. Union reinforcements are on the way in the  form of the 7th Wisconsin, 19th Indiana, 24th Michigan. The Union has the number for the Rebs have local superiority and were still higher for skill.

First turn of the Rebs was bit of disaster the 13th Alabama got confused and cut across the advance of the other regiments blocking their advance and walked into difficult terrain to make thing worse.

2nd turn was not mush better. With the 13th Albama, now, very confused and heading off the table. In hindsight we got this event wrong the Confusion event can only be played once. But we did not remove and it seemed glued to Torsten hand for most of the game.

The 2nd Michigan advance and they digs in to block the Reb advance.

There was only one charge in the whole game with the 14th and 7 Tennesse trying to break the 7th Michigan. The Northerners held and repulsed the attack but the fighting created heroes on both sides .

24th Michigan arrives and marches to help the defenders.

Highpoint of the Reb attack sees the 7th Tennessee slip between the Union lines.

So close, the Reb attack breaks due to losses before the 7th can win the game

We also did post game phase which for me is the main appeal of the game.  During the battle two regiments acquired heros giving them bonuses in future games and in the post game phases.

The Union suffered from attrition, losing several companies, with the 24th Michigan taking heavy losses (40%). On the positive side it was joined by three new batteries of artillery and fresh cavalry regiment. In addition it acquired some information giving it a bonus for deployment in the next game. The Confederates suffered far less from attrition with minimum losses. Even more positive it was joined by a veteran infantry regiment, accompanied by two new artillery batteries and a fresh cavalry regiment.  Neither commander were promoted as a result of the battle

Overall a good intro, with both side looking forward to going again. I think the next scenario will be cavalry Vs artillery so we can feel out the rules for both. The charge of the Light Brigade was five years before the outbreak of the American civil war so that seems like a good scenario.

There a more Confederate reinforcements on the way in the form of dismounted cavalry and Louisiana tigers.One of the unwritten rules of historical wargaming is that within a few weeks of you finishing a unit another manufacturer will release another version of the unit which will look much more appealing than what you have finished.  In my case I have just finished my Dismounted cavalry from Pendragon and Magister Militum.  I searched high and low for dismounted cavalry command and could not find any. So I went without, then last week Cracker line miniatures released some rather tasty dismounted cavalry including command

Dismounted Reb cavalry

They do not count as finished until they get a flag

Louisiana tigers (Wheats special battalion). I just like the uniforms but pinstriped trousers in 10mm is kind of crazy 

That is all for now thanks for stopping by