"1863 Black Powder AAR "Wendt's Wheat Field" round 2 " Topic

Last night the M'ville skirmisher played another Black Powered ACW game based on the Wendt's Wheat field scenario designed last week. (Wendt's field is "roughly" based on 1863 G'burg Wheat Field) The same units were used (3 BDE on each side) as last weeks and again the players rolled for Generals and troop ratings (House rule). The Union did nowhere as good as last week (only 2 vet units in whole DIV) and the Reb's did much better (only a few green units but did have a Poor BDE CO)

This time the Confederates were holding the Wheat Field and the Union was on the offensive….MG Rob was the overall Yankee Commander (Corps) and MG Zachy was the Rebel DIV Cmdr.

The battle started off real bad for the Confederates when 2 Regt's of Veteran Confederates under Zach BDE Co "Blundered" and charged in march column 24 inches (max move) down the road and almost into the Yankee lines. Leaving the Rebels out in the open and in march column. BG Charles tried to rush his BIG North Carolinian BDE forward to help cover Zach's flank but his poor leadership rating proved to much as only one Regt advanced. BG JD seeing a disaster in the making ordered 2 Regt's of Alabamans and Miss troops to go into skirmish formation and cover Zach troops with skirmishers and blocking artillery fire.

MG Rob ordered and all out assault on Zach's BDE but BG Bing despite having a Regulars and Vets in his BDE only rolled for one move and halted his charge 2" away from the exposed Reb's in march column.

COL "Lord" Malcolm recently of His Majesty Army and a veteran of Crimea quickly rushed his BDE forward to hit the Rebel flank…things were still looking bad for the Rebels!!!

On turn 3 it looked like the Rebels were about to collapse after BG Charles also rolled bad again when he ordered his troops to move twice and form line…he rolled for only two moves and found himself now in march column facing Lord Malcolm Yankees!

The next turn Malcolm ordered a BDE charge but rolled very-very bad and was force to stop his advance 1" from the exposed enemies flank…and due to a charge order could NOT fire into the enemy! BG Bing next hit Zach's with force but both Regt went into disorder crossing a fence (house rule…if you move through terrain rolled 1d6. On a 6 unit becomes disordered by the terrain) The Rebels "veteran status" allowed them to pass their first break test automatically and they held on for another two rounds of HtoH!

Turn 5….BG Charles (the Poor general) is able to manage is line into order (rolled 3 moves) and attack Malcolm lead Regt on his flank…supported by two batteries of artillery the rebels send two of Malcolm's Regt into route via cannon fire and HtoH and two others become shaken by musketry fire! Lord Malcolm is also captured in the assault!!! His BDE is now Broken and must start retreating off the field. (House rule a huger level general can rally a broken BDE…but alas those two Yank generals are far away!)

A turn later over in the center BG Bing two Regt's also are beaten in hand to hand and route…Bing ordered a counter attack with his green Regt and slows the rebel advance…

By turn 6 what should have been a easy Yankee victory has turned in a MAJOR defeat….With Bing's Broken, MG Rob sends over the DIV Commander BG Eubanks to help stiffen Bing's BDE. The next turn after it falls back one move is rallied. The next turn MG Eubanks orders a green Regt to "follow me" and charges into the 16th Tex led by MG Zachy…and what becomes to only bright spot the Green Pennsylvanian Regt defeats the Texans after two rounds of HtoH and kills MG Zachy…MG Eubanks was seen riding in front on the keystone troops slapping high fives!

After 11 turns the Yankees were able to stabilize the line (but over 10" from the nearest part of their objective, the wheat field) MG Rob orders the Union troops to retreat off the field….

MAJOR CONFEDERATE VICTORY!!! (1 Union BDE Co was lost and 1BDE ad 1 DIV Rebel Co's were lost. Over 8 Union Regt's were lost to only 3 rebels)

MG Rob later that night wrote a letter to MG Meade blaming the defeat on that "limey" lord Malcolm! BUT the Union BDE Commanders know better! MG Rob was soon posted to command very-very small fort in North Dakota!

LTG Longstreet made a battlefield promotion to Major General for BG Charles despite him being a "poor" general! Charles wrote uncle Jeff Davis thanking him for being allowed to wear all that gold braid!

A awesome Black Powder game. 11 truns in 2 hours 45 min…

BG Bing
Commander 2nd BDE
2nd Div
3rd Corps
Army of the Potomac

I do not see the attraction of these rules from the AAR and other AARs.
There seem to be no tactics ployed by players since it was essentially created by the dice rolling.
I understand friction in battle and the need of mechanics to simulate. Even Empire V ( Napoleonic rules) had some of this to frustrate the player commanders and generate a good story.
The player as the CO (brigade Co in this case) seems handcuffed to making/taking action on the luck for dice rolling. These rules seem to make this the "out of sorts" results the norm and not the exception. Seems way too depend on dice rolling. Evens were not this random.
A green army with green commanders, perhaps some, but this is 1863 with CO's with 2 solid years of experience.

I would guess this why these rules have been slow in their introduction in the states. I am feeling better now that I did not purchase a copy at Historicon.

my 2 cents
MG

Ops Sorry!
Brilliant AAR report BTW!

MG

Good thoughts MG…we enjoy the BP rules here in Mechanicville. They are easy and best of all very fast play (we have a 3 hour time limit on Tues nights)

Yes you sometimes are limited by the luck of the die for command checks (built in fog of war) Average commander in our ACW is a 8… Poor are 7 or 6. Heroes are 9 & "Military Geniu" are 10s'(we have a house rule for rolling these. So you have a 4 out 6 chance to average)

A commander has to declare his orders before making the command roll. If you do not feel so "lucky" with your commanders rating do not be so bold in your orders before you roll? There are ways for "poor" commanders (rated 7 or even 6) to move. Such as using column which gives you a +1 or stay in "road march" column +2. Get within 8" of enemy (12" for 25mm figs) and you get a "free" move and no need for rolling. I had a Union Military Genius rated 10 in a past game who refused to move two turns in a row and then "Blundered" away from the battle on the 3rd try! When he finally got into battle he was killed off in the first round of HtoH! OUCH!!!!

The "lesser ability" Commanders are not really green think of them as poor 7 (Dan Sickles) or a political appointee 6 (Dan Butler) Please no replies from Sickles and Butler fans..they were just random examples. Besides my ACW 15mm Union Corps is Sickles 3rd Corps circa 1863 :)

We roll for Unit ratings as a house rules to have fun…it is a laugh when a guy rolls for 3 out 6 units as green "1" on a 1d6 or horror when 3 Veteran units out of 5 are rolled "6" on d6. BG Zach had 3 Veteran units in his 5 Regt Rebel BDE last night. Thier equivalent would be the Stonewall BDE?

We have played historical scenarios too where we use the scenario ratings ex: old JRIII or RF&F. Again we like to mix it up for the fun…

I played these rules (well the Pike and Shotte version) last weekend, my second go-round with them (first time was Black Powder). They are very dicey to be sure. I think if you're experienced with the rules you wouldn't take a risk like trying to move twice in march column followed by shaking out into line at the end. It sounds risky and it is. You're much better to play it rather conservative just in case things don't work out as planned.

I'm still on the fence about them, with one of my big beefs being that a typical commander has about a 40% chance of not being able to move his units at all unless they are in charge distance. I think the addition of an overall commander would help give them a second chance, but I'm not sure about that part. Maybe someone with more experience can comment.

Steve

I have to chime in regarding tactics in particular. I am the MG Eubanks mentioned in the AAR, btw. Our battle plan called for my 4-regiment brigade plus two batteries of rifled guns to hold the hill on our right, while the other two brigades of 6 regiments each attacked strongly in the center and on the left flank. The Confederate right flank was "in the wind" as General Wendt was in road column attempting to emerge from a wooded road onto the wheat field in question. Our left-most brigade rolled extremely poorly (yep, luck of the dice screwed us) and thus began the unfolding of our battle plan as Gen. Wendt was able to emerge and shake his brigade out into line before the impending attack.

General JD made what was probably the tactic of the game…upon seeing Zach's regiments plunge into the Union center due to the blunder, JD deployed a regiment of infantry into skirmish order between the CSA columns and the Union artillery. One of the rules in BP is that you must fire at the closest unit, so his skirmishers soaked up cannon fire until the columns could deploy into line.

So really, you can use tactics but you have to accept that the dice represent the vagaries of issuing orders before the days of radio, so you might have a runner go astray, lose orders, be over-excited and insinuate the unit is to charge the enemy immediately (the blunder roll)…or whatever you want to attribute the chances of the dice to.

I've been a gamer for many years, and have played rules where you have no fear of the dice ruining your plan to rules where the dice kill you…but I (and our group) really enjoy the middle road rules, such as Black Powder and Regimental Fire and Fury, where the dice can reward you or hinder you…as long as you accept that in the spirit of the game.

Anyway, my point is that you really can use tactics. It's not just a blind stumble into contact.

My tactic, after seeing the destruction of my fellow brigades, of holding my ground on the hill and the road to safety actually worked out quite well…haha!

Black powder does not seem middle of the road from the reports here.
The results seem too ahistorical(way too random/dice result affected).
There needs to be some more normal distribution. RnR and RFF seem to have some of that ND in their probabilities of events happening. I would consider them middle of the road.
You do not have to march too close to the enemy in march column and hope to shake out, just to move in those two rules.
My interest or lack of in B/P still stands.

Thanks for the respectable replies though!

MG

MG…come play with us on Tues night (no idea where ya live) we may not change your mind on BP but I know you would have loads of fun…we laugh almost as much as we throw dice! :)

SFC Retired

Wait a minute…are you the Wendt who was born at Ft Fisher, the famous Confederate Fortress?