"The Battle of Un-Tietam" Topic

While my students were preparing for their final exams, I offered the following distraction to teach them the Black Powder rules and to introduce them to ACW gaming. We used the 10mm Pendraken figures I have been painting up over the past few months.

The scenario is a scaled down version of Antietam. The basic table setup can be found here: link and here: link

The after-action report can be found here: link

It was a bloody mess. Naturally, my students loved it!

Wow, wish I had been able to play in that while in school! Too cool. How long did the game last? Any potential converts?

Thanks,

John

It took two days for the scenario to play out (during exam week, they take exams in the morning and have the afternoon for review. Some are taking their American History test today, so I tell them it's all good). The first session was about three hours, and the wrapup just a little more than an hour. Black Powder plays pretty fast, even with noobs.

These were kids who had been part of my gaming club throughout the year. We run a recruiting drive every fall, and I do a tabletop simulation as part of my military history class that usually picks up a gamer or two. We usually get four to six kids for every game. It's hard in that we have to run games at lunch, which means two or three turns a week at most.

Well hats off to you for providing this opportunity to the kids. That's really great. The closest I ever came was doing a small layout of the Battle of Bull Run for a history project in High School.

A younger gamer buddy of mine was going to Wake Forest back in the late 80's and was able to get in a class of wargaming various battles through history. Study them then fight the battle. I would have loved that!

Thanks,

John

MadDrMark:
If you ever are teaching WW2 history, you might consider the Battle Off Samar, or "the Death-Ride of Taffy 3".

Or in the American Revolution, the Battle of Valcour Island/Lake Champlain, where a brave, industrious, brilliant, and innovative American general's naval construction on rhe lake and combat efforts delayed a British invasion from Canada long enough to have to wait until the next year, which meant never in the long run.
Oh, the heroic general of the home-grown Rebel flotilla? Benedict Arnold.

BTW, the city of Harrisburg, PA, just auctioned off a lot of historical items that had been purchased with the intent of having them displayed in a now-cancelled museum. The former mayor commented that one of the item not sold was the remains of one of Arnold's Valcour Island ships, the schooner Royal Savage.