Our wargaming group, the North Phoenix Irregulars, sat down our first collective ACW game using John Hill's new set of rules Across a Deadly Field. John Hill designed the rules for Corps level battles using regiments as the maneuver groups (1" = 100 yards, 1 figure = 60 men). We prefer to game at the Johhny Reb III scale of 1"= about 45-50 yards and 1 figure = 30 men. John Hill provided some thoughts on this on the Cigar Box web site, suggesting using the Cavalry fire table and keeping the original 15mm movement rates. We decided to go with his earlier suggestion of using the 25/28mm table with our 15mm figures.
The battle, Hooker and Meade's dawn attack on the northern flank at Sharpsburg (known to us Union boys as the battle of Antietam) was chosen because the combat and results are well documented. If something out of live (outside normal probability) took place, it would be pretty obvious.
The battle was set up on a new battle map I designed and printed on suede cloth (5feet X 6 feet) covering the Sunken Road to above the North Woods and from Nicodemus Hill east almost to the Antietam in highly detailed 1"=45 yards. I'll get back to the battle map later as I don't want to hijack my own topic.
There were four of us playing, 2 Union and 2 Rebel. I consolidated some of the troops and ended up with Hooker having 2 Brigades, Meade 1, Hays a Brigade of Louisiana boys and I had Douglass with a Georgia Brigade. Union forces had 4 full batterys, mainly Napoleons while the Confederates had 4 lesser strength (3 of the 4 with 2 sections) mixed gun batterys.
Here is a link to the initial setup of the forces.
link
I have no idea how to embed a picture in this, so will need to settle for a link.
The battle opened with the Union Iron Brigade, led by the 19th Indiana, moving into the Cornfield. Hay's Louisiana Tigers reacted and opened up with an effective volley that cause a figure loss and a morale check. Tom, as Hooker, rolled a '3'. As the 19th Indiana was Elite, we assumed it was No Effect. WRONG!! Read the charts, Dummy. A natural '3' causes a unit to go Shaken. By the time we realized our mistake, it was too late and what could have been a great opportunity for the Rebels to put a crimp in Union plans, went by the wayside.
Tom's other Brigade (Patrick) moved by the right flank across the Hagerstown Pike. One of his batterys unlimbered on the Hagerstown Pike and then – with its second action – fired down the Pike into a partial flank on the the 5th Louisiana. Morale check…passed.
Meade's regiments under Seymour moved up to the edge of the East Woods. Poague's Battery reacted and caused a morale check which John failed and went into Disorder. John had set up his 2 batterys just south of the East Woods in the Mumma Farm area. He fired on Poague's Battery with a Designated Fire from both batterys together. Destroyed a section on Poague.
Now it was the Rebels active turn. One of the Louisiana regiments, the 6th Louisian, moved to intercept Magilton's Brigade with 2 regiments in the lead along the base of Nicodemus Hill. Being an Elite regiment with 20 figures, its fire was devastating. This was repeated in the next reaction phase. The 20th New York was wrecked. Hmmm…this required some looking into – was there a fault in the rules that led to this? I'll answer that below.
Without going into detail by detail, the battle ebbed back and forth with an excellent feel. Action/Reaction. Ultimately, Meade's batterys caused Poague to rout – Poague recovered later on the Hagerstown Pike and moved back toward the Mumma Farm area but the game ended before it could unlimber and fire again.
The Iron Brigade put enough fire into the 1st Louisiana Tigers that the casualties mounted until they retired Shaken. After routing Poague's Battery, Meade (John) redirected the combined fire of his two batterys onto the Georgians behind the fence on the edge of the Mumma Farm. Casualties mounted until they were reduced to an ineffective one stand which, taking additional casualties, dispersed as did the 1st Louisiana.
The game ended with the Union Iron Brigade, somewhat the worse for wear, firmly in control of Miller's Cornfield and starting to move out toward the Dunkard Church. Patrick's regiments were checked at the base of Nicodemus Hill. Meade's regiments under Seymour started to move out from the East Woods onto the flank of the 54th Georgia. We ended at this point. I would have liked to have gone longer and see what Hood's Texas Brigade smashing into the Iron Brigade might have accomplished, but that is for another evening.
To summarize, the battle proceeded and concluded in a very historical manner. The CSA got mauled and pushed back to the West Woods and around the Dunkard Church by Union regiments which were, for all intents and purposes, spent by the time they accomplished this. Union artillery was a telling difference in our battle, as it was in September, 1862.
How did the rules play? Great. Now, remember the issue that came up about the 20th New York getting savaged in just a couple actions. Well, here is the situation. The Fire Chart allow up to 16 Fire Points (basically 16 figures with Rifles) to combine fire. I, in all my wisdom, made a ruling that since it was one regiment, all 20 figures could fire. That was the mistake. If we had limited the fire to the max 16 figures and split the fire of the regiment into two separate fires (10 figures in each fire) as though it was two battalions, it would have been well in line with expected results. Lesson learned.
The only other change from the published rules was to allow the officer commanding a brigade to move anytime during the action of one of the regiments. Were the officer to attach to one of the regiments, he could only move with that regiment.
ADF worked very well. It was not fiddly and everything seemed logical and in proper Order, if that makes any sense. Another way to put it, it flowed well. Everyone involved wants to have another go with it as is and that says a lot. I cannot recommend ADF highly enough.
The battle map we played on was designed by me and printed on suede cloth, 5 feet by 6 feet. It was a pretty big hit among the players. Tree lines and hills are well defined, roads are correct, farms and buildings marked and named. It gave a real sense of atmosphere to the game. I ultimately hope to market these for many of the major battles of the Civil War.