The Nexus Game Fair is an annual gaming convention held in Milwaukee, WI in late May. Heavy on fantasy/science fiction games but with a thin smattering of historical military miniatures and historical board games tossed in.
This year, Prof. Steve Fratt from Trinity College (IL) staged The Battle of Antietam over the four-day event using his soon-to-be-published rules (working title: "A Small Deadly Space"). Scale was 6mm metal figures mounted on magnetic bases. Each stand represented 100 men and each base held one brigade. Brigades have a cohesion rating (7 or 8 being well-disciplined veterans, 5 or 6 being average well-drilled troops and 4 or less being green recruits). Cohesion drops as you take losses, engage in close-combat, pass through friendly ranks, etc.
The map was printed from a period topographical survey done after the war and included ground elevations, farm field boundaries and the names of all pertinent geographical features. Tiny Wargames, a UK company, custom-printed the map.
We played out the first few hours of Hooker's attack and the arrival of Sumner's and Mansfield's corps with Prof. Fratt commanding the Rebs and the three players who showed up for Sunday's contest controlling the Yanks.
Although Sumner and Mansfield were both committed much earlier than historically (20% chance on a D10), the battle results were the same. We advanced as far as the Dunker Church and Sunken Lane but the attack petered out and Confederate reinforcements were rushing up to push us back when time ran out.
