"Cavalry Actions" Topic

I've been doing the New Years trawl through The Lead Pile (OK, some of it's Plastic) and found a whole bunch of Union Cavalry, both Mounted and Dismounted lurking within.

So my question is, how many of you play games where the Mounted Arm has a role?

A Raid scenario? Delaying Action? Clash of opposing cavalry with maybe a battery in support? That kind of thing.

As you may gather it doesn't feature high on my list so I was thinking 2023 might be a year to change that a bit.

How about you guys?

Three types of actions I use them with

Forces coming from off board on a later turn

Using to maneuver and then dismounting for action

or Cavalry on Cavalry actions

Dismounted Day GBurg.
Cavalry battles GBurg
Brandy Station
Some of the Western raids.
Make up some
Normally Cav vs Cav are the most fun and evenly matched

The first day at Chickamauga when the Lightning and Saber Brigades held off the initial Confederate infantry attacks long enough for Thomas to get reinforcements to them.

Jim

The Western theatre had a lot of cavalry action as well. One of my dream games is Mine Creek…I need a lot more wagons though.

I have 28mm cavalry mounted and dismounted for skirmish. An endless trove of scenarios at that level

+1 for Col. Campbell and cavcrazy. Western theater is just loaded with raids. Stones' River had a very important cavalry clash to control the Federal LOC. The cavalry skirmishing on the way to G burg has some good actions. Have at it. H

I mainly play historical battles, and cavalry was often present in small numbers, so yes, the cavalry get a chance to do their thing from time to time.

Thanks Guys, excellent suggestions!

Supplemental Question. What rules are you using, generally speaking?

We use Regimental Fire and Fury for the most part but have never fielded more than a token amount of Cavalry as eye candy. I've felt in the past not all ACW rules give decent coverage to mounted combat and things like a Buford style scenario see the cavalry unable to put up that level of resistance.

Obliviously, there's the matter of Confederate Players Hindsight but also the dismounted cavalry get treated like a bump in the road.

Traj, regimental fire, and fury. Cavalry really was pretty much that against formed infantry. But take for instance Buford at Gettysburg. Their purpose was to delay until infantry could come up. By being there, they forced the Confederates to deploy their March columns into battle lines and then go forward. That valuable time allowed the 1st Corp to move up. It was invaluable in the long run. So at best, they were a delay for infantry in battles, but that is one of their purposes in the Civil war. Occasionally they could take infantry on horseback, but that was not often. Scouting, screening and fighting other cavalry to keep them from doing the same.

Thanks 35th, I'm aware of the how and why. Its more that I'm sceptical of Rule sets to reproduce it.

Buford is a good example. Forcing or persuading Heth to deploy worked because there were actual distances and real time to play with. Not to mention Heth wasn't Old Joe from down the Club who can see no reason to do so and doesn't have real world delay to consider.

It may be a tad unfair to poke at Table Top rules but I fancy if you wanted to have a game that gave Buford a chance some kind of scenario based limitations would have to be imposed.

Maybe some starting point that assumed the deployment has/will happen. Cuts out the tedium of physically moving on the table from the road marching into line of battle while the Union player twiddles their thumbs?

The last two Regimental Fire & Fury games I played employing a Union cavalry brigade of four regiments and artillery battery against Confederate infantry forces. In both cases, I was an economy of force attempting to tie down enemy forces and had a fun time doing it. Playing with ACW cavalry, you have to be on your toes and very patient. I know I drove my opponent insane mounting, dismounting, remounting, maneuvering, dismounting, remounting, repeat… Unless a Confederate infantry unit was severely weakened or routing, I don't recommend charging either mounted or dismounted, and I avoid taking a charge. You have to carefully bide your time, avoid contact, use your mobility, and wait for an opportunity. Otherwise, the opposing infantry will slaughter you.

pjm

Yeah! That's What I'm Talking About!

The opportunity to have a different game, with different problems. I've played ACW for decades but sometimes the realistic but somewhat unimaginative tactic, of moving towards each other and rolling handfuls of dice can wear a bit thin!

Trajanus, might I suggest off board movement. I ran a campaign once. After a few sessions of fighting, one of them asked if they could move off the board. I said yes. They then moved in secret since the other side never asked that question. End of campaign. Things change when you have to be aware of your flanks and rears. Reserves become necessary. Troops protecting your flanks that you fear to commit. Just an idea to change things up. The world does not end at the boards edge.

I'm not sure how many rules are geared to handling cavalry-vs-cavalry actions. If you look at the historical battles, the one thing that usually sticks out is how LOW the casualties were in those actions, Usually around 5%. Granted, most rule sets are geared toward the combat effectiveness of the units in the game rather than the actual casualties taken, but still.

Many years ago, I ran an ACW game in which one rule was that the U.S. units had to set up X number of inches away from the nearest C.S. unit (which set up first). If the C.S. player had scattered a few cavalry units around as far out as allowed, he would have caused the U.S. to set up at a considerable distance from the objective (or his infantry/artillery), but that apparently did not occur to him.