"Champion's Hill AAR with photos" Topic

We test-drove the grand tactical rules "Altar of Freedom" last night, using the Champion's Hill scenario. I chose that because it was the simplest of the 4 scenarios included in the rules. Rick was feeling under the weather so I decided to play instead of umpiring. Tom and Ken played the Union while I played John Pemberton.

Our first shot at the game was a mess. I hadn't explained the scenario clearly. After four turns I found that Tom didn't realize he should have been dicing to see if McClernand showed up. That combined with misunderstandings about the priority point system led to the Union army doing almost nothing. We canned the game and broke for dinner.

After dining we started again, same sides as before. The Union goal is to break the Confederates or grab the bridge west of Champion's Hill, cutting the rebel retreat back to Vicksburg. Pemberton is on the bridge in this photo.

This time the Union sent Logan's and Hovey's divisions up Champion Hill and a close range brawl broke out on the third turn.

McClernand arrived then too. It was getting exciting, a bit too exciting for me.

A Confederate counter-attack briefly recaptured the summit of the hill. Units that win close combat have to advance. This can lead to deep runs into enemy lines.

Stevenson's division was under heavy pressure and I moved Loring's division towards my left to help out.

Up on Champions' Hill Hovey's division pushed my left flank back.

Meanwhile Loring broke one of Osterhaus' brigades by rolling a 6 to the Yankee 1. This revealed 5 battalions of Yankee guns who were looking for a target. A hail of shot sped Loring on his way back towards the bridge.

Hovey plunged on, with McGuiness advancing beyond support. About this time I realized that Pemberton could remove fatigue from units near the enemy. I duly sent him forward to do just that.

I used 7 priority points to ensure that Stevenson's division would activate first on the next turn and hit McGuiness' brigade front and flank. It broke. I was taking pictures at the end of each turn and so missed taking one of this counter-attack. Union troops poured up Champion's Hill.

I managed to hold on to the western slopes of Champion's Hill, earning a victory in game terms. I had done better than Pemberton. My entire force could withdraw into Vicksburg and most likely all be captured there by July 4th.

The combat is fairly simple, but the priority points take some getting used to. I also could have labeled the units more clearly. The Confederate labels were easier since there were only three divisions, but the Union was a bit more complex. We will play this some more.

I have one idea for a house rule but will wait for a while. The idea is to add one modifier to the fire combat chart; +1 for each additional artillery unit firing at the same target. That would have punished Loring's division more.

The great artillery barrage from behind the Union position.

url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/29483647@N00/12679040295/]

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ACW game battle of Champion Hill 1863 in 15mm by Tom

Good pics….and that last pic of the troops moving straight towards the guns….I can almost hear the grapeshot now….

Very well done!

Nice layout. What do you all think about the rule system compared to other rules. I play Volley & Bayonet RtG but have bought these rules and are about to test them to. But what did you all think about it?

Yes, great report and very nice-looking miniatures, BTW.

Thank you, gents.

I like the rules so far but we need to play some more and get the rules down better. A couple members weren't present and they need to weigh in on this.

So far I prefer these to V&B. I have two beefs with V&B. One is the rudimentary command & control. The other is every now and then a run of dice will really bug me. I set up a Stones River game once and made Cleburne's division elite. On their first charge the CSA player rolled 6's for morale and then rolled low for melee. The entire division routed. It made the rest of the game anti-climactic. This game is the same basic scale, which pleases me.

Figures are 15mm Battle Honors painted by Fernando. I did some touch-up, like making some USCT.

I'm intrigued, but I confess I've never warmed up to the idea that a single size base could represent a wide variation in actual troop numbers. It's not the idea that a single base could represent a brigade, but that the brigades were such different strengths.

My understanding is that these rules use fairly simple combat modifiers to reflect the differences in strengths? If so … do you think that simply using bases that represented the same number of troops, thus splitting apart large brigades or combining smaller ones, would work? Or how about using different sized brigades to reflect the various sizes?

Cheers,

Christopher

Your collection looks great. The Battle Honors figures are some of the nicest 15mm ACW figures out there, in my humble opinion.

Thanks. They do call for a bit of repair work on thin flag staffs.

Chris, having different size base for various brigades just seems like to much work. Also, every now and then a unit gets +1 for being tough rather than large.

One thing the variety does is give a small fog of war. Oh, you have a +2 unit? Ouch.

My understanding is that these rules use fairly simple combat modifiers to reflect the differences in strengths?

Permanent brigade modifiers (of strength, etc) are noted on the brigade's base and range from -2 to +2.

We've played the Seven Pines (2 times), Champion Hill (2 times), and Shiloh (1 time) scenarios for Altar of Freedom, and have enjoyed the games. The guts of the game is how you allocate the priority points to do what you need to do, and the variable turn lengths. Overall, been an enjoyable game, and the strength modifiers are intended to be a reflection of variable unit strengths.

By the way, it took a little over two hours to play the second game.

Oh one more pic – the end of battle from Union side, Yanks surge up the hill.

url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/29483647@N00/12679609804/]

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End of game Yanks taking hill but Rebs win by Tom Loback, on Flickr