Shiloh Revisited

Having fought Shiloh with Jonathan (see my report here), the Rejects wanted a return match with the sides swapped.  So, with me and Lee leading the Confederate attack, Steve and Ray assumed the Federal defence.

The opening dispositions.

Lee had command of the forward Confederate brigades (Pond and Cleburne), and quickly advanced to the creek.  In response the Union right moved to the creek to oppose any crossing and arranged their batteries on the ridge.  So far, the Rebels were able to get their reserves onto the table.

Cleburne had tried to cross the creek but was repelled by a stubborn Union defence.  Little else moved in what was a very quick turn shortened by the dice.  Pond was unable to enter the creek.

With the Feds doing an inspired job of defending the banks of the creek and inflicting rifle and artillery damage on Cleburne, it was slow going for the attackers.  However, Pond's brigade was now in the creek in force.  All Rebel reserves were now on the table and edging towards the creek and bridge.

Cleburne and Pond force the issue on the left by pushing the Union brigade of McDowell back.  However, it has taken time and now the Federal's can activate Raith's brigade.  They start their move to reinforce the ridge.  Meanwhile, The first of the Rebel reserves close in on the bridge.

Pond begins to turn the Union right flank by destroying by McDowell and his brigade.  However, Raith has now deployed.  The ridge is looking like a tough nut to crack.

Pond continued his sweep on the Union right.  However, the Union commanders were putting up a tenacious and dogged defence - making the Rebels fight hard for every inch of ground and successfully denying the bridge to the Confederate reserves.

Pond was keeping up the pressure on the left and the reserves were preparing to cross the creek.  Slowly but surely casualties were being chipped off the Union troops.  But despite their incredible and determined defence, Buckland's brigade was annihilated.

With Pond continuing to turn the Union flank and the Rebel artillery beginning to be a bit more effective, Hildebrand's brigade is wiped out and the commander killed.  With that the battle is won for the Confederates.

That was an incredibly hard fought and close game.  The Rebels won on the last guaranteed turn of the game.  The Union defence was inspired in their tactics, and aided somewhat by chance.  However, they needed to be good enough players to take advantage of that.

The Rebels got their reserves on and even managed to get a unit across the creek before the end.  Lee played a really good game with Pond and Cleburne.  He must be given full credit for the Rebel victory.

That this scenario was so close and that either side could have been victorious is a testament to the excellent planning, organisation and preparation by Jonathan.

A memorable evening.

A Painted Whimsy - A Medieval Tent

 At the Broadside show earlier this year I engaged in what can only be called impulse buying.  I was at the stand of Debris of War admiring some of their wares when my eye was caught by 28mm tents.  Yes tents!

There were a couple that took my eye.  They only had one in stock.  So, one is all I bought.  Why?  I just fancied a change and something that had nothing to do with any of my projects or collections.  This medieval tent fitted the bill. You can find this here.

One of the models that drew my attention.
Image courtesy of Debris of War

Having bought it, I then painted it.

And here it is.  Enjoy.

I decided to keep the paintwork simple and go for something French.  Hence the blue with fleurs de lis.

It painted up really nicely.  My original thinking was the paint the tent cords a golden yellow.  However, I decided that painted cords would make the finish too "fussy" and left them.

Having long ago sold on my 28mm 100 Years War collection, I have no period figures to place with the tent.  However, a handy Lego knight just about fits the bill.

The knight looks unreasonably happy.  One can only wonder at what he is guarding in the tent.

A thoroughly enjoyable distraction that I will probably never have on a wargaming table.

The Battle of Shiloh 6th April 1862 - an AAR

Jonathan of Palouse Wargaming Journal graciously hosted his Battle of Shiloh for the Rejects.

Ray and Steve commanded the Confederate attackers while Lee and I controlled the surprised Union troops.

For the background to his excellent and challenging scenario follow the link to the post "my-god-we-are-attacked".

What follows is a quick round up... probably largely representing the Federal view of events.

The starting positions.

I took command of the two brigades on the right of the line - Buckland and McDowell.  Lee had command of the left of the road with Hildebrand and Raith's brigade which were unable to activate until either turn 5 or in sight of the enemy.

The rebels started by occupying the creek facing the Federal right and destroying Hildebrand's 53rd Ohio that were taken by surprise on the wrong side of the creek on the left.

As the Confederates begin to mass against the Yankee right, McDowell and Buckland push units off the hill to contest any free movement out of the creek.  The aim being to delay and then have the space to give up and trade for time.

The Confederates continue to mass their troops on the right, whilst slow movement is occurring on their right.  They seemed to be struggling to bring on all their reinforcements in a speedy and effective manner.

The Rebels with a yell launched themselves out of the creek...

... McDowell's lead units on the Union far right are beaten back from the creek with heavy losses.

Keeping up the pressure, the Confederates hurl Buckland's boys in blue back to the hill. 

The Rebels have a foot hold on the Union side of the creek.  The blue line is starting to look thin as Buckland pulls a regiment away from Shiloh Church to reinforce the right.

With the Rebs swarming over the creek, McDowell's and Buckland's brigades takes a pounding.  Even McDowell is killed in the thick of the action.

The pressure is relentless on the Union right.  Meanwhile Raith's brigade stands unable to activate.  On the left the Confederates are slowly getting their forces together, though their progress there and in bringing forward their reserves is slower than they might wish.

The Federal right is all but broken.  McDowell is dead and only one skeleton regiment is left of that brigade.  Buckland survives, but only one regiment holds.  It's not looking good!!! Which is a gross understatement.

The odd Rebel unit stops to pillage and loot the Union camps... but not nearly enough of them.  However, Raith is now alert to the danger and moves forward on the Federal left to counter the Confederate troops now massing to cross.

The Rebels surge across.  However, they break against Raith's stubborn defence.

Meanwhile on the right, the Rebels complete the annihilation of McDowell's and Buckland's brigades.

With the Union right completely open and the plodding Rebel reinforcements now in a position to move over the bridge, the Union concede and leave the field of battle to the Confederates.

Conclusion

What a great and challenging game.  Confederate numbers really told.  But the most devastating was Steve's dice rolling.  The Union right scored plenty of hits against the attackers only to see the vast majority of them being saved.

I think that moving to the creek to impede their easy crossing was the right thing to do.  This was always going to be a fighting withdrawal.  My view was that I needed to move into the space in order to make every hex a contested hex.  I will now ponder on the wisdom of this decision.  Lee did well on the left.  Thankfully the Confederates struggled to bring all their troops to bear in a speedy manner.  Nonetheless, they had enough.

A really enjoyable game.  Thanks to Jon and the players.

Tally-Ho Over The Channel

After being given some trainee pilot homework to do in the week preceding, a number of Rejects donned their goggles, gloves and parachutes to fly their Spitfires and Bf109s in the shed of war.

Dan, David and Stuart manned their Spitfire Mark 1a for RAF Fighter Command.

Lee, Steve and Surjit, still fresh from their victories over France, climbed into their 109Es to further the glory of the Luftwaffe.

The models were 1/285 scale from Heroics and Ros.

The rules used were my own.

The aim of the day was to establish a national winner, but more importantly the Ace in the pack.  To do this a number of scenarios were played out.  All pilots started as "officer" (from lowest to highest: sprog, officer, veteran and ace) and had to achieve kills, cause critical damage, earn points from a pilot test and improve their rank.

The first scenario saw an RAF section scrambled to intercept a formation over the Channel.  Each player had one aircraft to pilot.

To start the 109s are closest and to the right.  The Spitfires are furthest away and to the top left.

The 109s with their pilot cards at the start of the game.

The dials on the plane stands turn and show the aircrafts' current altitude.

There is one pilot card for each plane.  These hold vital information such as top speed (in hex), pilot skill (officers have a value of 1, veteran 2 etc.), minimum turning circle, climb and dive information.

On the Spitfire below the starting speed is 4, and the dial is at an altitude level of twelve.

The Spitfires and their pilot cards.

Both sides initially jockeyed for height and position.  They quickly realised that they had to find a balance between speed and manoeuvrability.  Pilots can tighten their turning circles by reducing speed, but can sacrifice height for speed.

Once engaged, my camera work reduced as the need for game flow and umpiring became the imperative... so pictures become few and far between.

The RAF soon let rip with their guns.  However, they seemed unable to do anything more than pepper wings and fuselage with holes.  Meanwhile, Dan found himself suffering engine damage that forced him to turn for home.  Anyone who gets shot down "respawns" as a sprog pilot.  

Dan's crippled plane.  He managed to limp home.  Fortunately, he had sufficient altitude to burn in order to build speed and escape.

With other critical damage suffered, the RAF were deemed to have lost this engagement.  However, no kills could be credited.

Between games all pilots had to take a test based on the homework they were given. This consisted of distance and aim of fire for pilots.  The Luftwaffe scored better than the RAF and Steve achieved the best individual total.

After lunch was scenario two.  Some cotton wool was laid down to represent clouds.  Altitude was assigned to them.  No spotted planes were on the table.  Each players' aircraft was represented by two blinds with the real one needed to be spotted before action could be taken towards it.

Most planes were quickly spotted.  Stuart, flying over a cloud, quickly come unstuck when targeted by Steve's 109.  Accurate and prolonged bursts damaged the fuel tank and set the Spitfire alight.  Stuart successfully bailed out to fly another day.

Stuart's plane ablaze and going down!

The aircraft were more scattered than in the first game.

This proved to be a very different game from the first.  The pilots played a cagey game of cat and mouse using the clouds to get out of trouble when threatened.

Lee taking his camera out for the action.  He has just found himself being tailed.

Throughout the day, the RAF enjoyed accurate firing but were unable to draw critical damage.

Lee's 109 being tailed by Dan's Spitfire.  Lee is desperately diving into the nearest cloud to get out of trouble as tracers flash past his cockpit.  Lee enjoyed incredible luck in surviving a number of encounters... he should be called "the cat" for all the lives he's used up.

Poor Dan then got into trouble himself as a bandit bounced his Spitfire, causing the tank to rupture.  Fortunately, he managed to bail out before being engulfed in the flames.

Dan's Spitfire ablaze.

Lee, then found himself the victim of Stuart's Spitfire, whose accuracy produced an explosive end to Lee's 109.  I have no photo of this as Lee rapidly removed the evidence, and the game ended at that point.

I had fun putting on and umpiring the games.  The clouds made the second game very different and more tactical.  It was pleasing to see how quickly all players used the tactics of the day - like dashing for safety in the clouds, seeking height for advantage, burning height to quickly build speed.

There was plenty of action.  Action Cards were used to spice up the game.  This enhanced the drama and led to some exciting exchanges as player sought to out do player in gaining or neutralising advantage.

The tally for the day was that the Luftwaffe had the best of both encounters.  It was not that they scored more hits it was that with good use of cards and some luck caused more critical damage and two kills.  The Ace of the day went to Steve with one kill, the most damage caused and points from the test.  Well done Steve.

I had a splendid day.  So much thinking, fun and decision making with so few models.