Friday, January 10, 2025

The Battle of Brownsville - An ACW "What If" AAR

The Rejects assembled last weekend for our first game of the year in the shed.  Postie had arranged a fictional American Civil War engagement based in 1862.  In simple terms the Confederates were advancing and the Union troops were reacting and marching to meet the incursion.

Lee, Mark, Ray and Steve led the Rebel offensive.

Dan, Surjit and I commanded the Union defense.

The figures were a large variety of 15mm.

The rules were Fire and Fury amended to use 2d6 instead of d10.

The Deployment
Standing on the Union side of the table, looking left.  The central corps is marching off the heights. On the far flank by the river, Dan is marching on. He immediately faced approaching rebs already deployed in supported line.


Looking towards the Union right flank, the rest of the centre and Surjit's command march down to meet the threat.


A view from the Union right flank down the length of the battlefield.

All the confederates are on the right in the photo and mostly in march column.


The Battle
All along both lines the troops advance quickly.


With a few to the right starting to shake out into line.


On the Union right flank, Ray was quickly advancing his Rebel brigades while Surjit tried to deploy against the attack.


The Confederates moving quickly and aggressively occupy the woods nearby and within charge range.


Meanwhile, in the centre and on the Union left both sides are bracing themselves.  In the meantime, the Union have been able to use their superior artillery to disorder and reduce some of the Confederate elite units.


The Union centre is able to deploy along the road whilst Surjit moves to threaten the Confederates in the wood on the right flank.


After manoeuvring into position and having to take artillery casualties, the Rebels now seem poised to assault all along the line.


Steve takes two of his Confederate brigades and launches them at Dan's defending blue coats.  Dan's defensive fire causes some Rebel disorder.


Which is sufficient to help Dan win both melees and push the attackers back.


In the centre, Lee charges with elite brigades at the Union line.  The Rebels take casualties going in and are disordered.


The Confederate brigades, being depleted from artillery fire and defensive infantry fire, are overwhelmed.  One is entirely wiped out and the other retreats in disorder.


And on the Union right flank, Ray hurls his Confederate troops out of the woods and into Surjit's blue line.


However, the Union defence is too determined and stubborn.  The attackers falter with one retiring out of range and the other left exposed.


It was more or less at this point that the Confederate commanders had a meeting and agreed to cede the field to the Union.


So, a Union victory.

After Thoughts
The onus was on the Confederates to attack, which they did.  Although they had a qualitative edge, numerically the sides were even.  This made for an extremely difficult job for the Rebels.  This job was not helped by the amount of casualties and disorder they suffered on the approach and when charging.

On that last point, I think that an unintended result of moving from a d10 (which made for very random and sometimes extreme results) to 2d6 meant that the dice result was smoothed towards the more probable 6,7 and 8.  These results coming up more often had the effect of making a shot with artillery or small arms more likely to result in the target being disordered and often taking a casualty.  It made for a less random and entirely irritating experience, but the consequence was that it was very hard for the Confederates in good order.  I'm not saying that the 2d6 should be abandoned, just that attackers need a quantitative advantage over defenders, as just a qualitative advantage is not enough - especially if most of the quality is blown away before it can close.

We often end I game of Fire and Fury with some questions and dissatisfaction. It was the newest Reject, Dan, who made the clearest observation that perhaps what we need is a new set of rules for ACW.  I have my thoughts on the matter with Black Powder or Bloody Big Battles as high on my list.  Any suggestions?  Remember, the rules must cope with BIG games.

Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable game and the earlier than usual finish meant that us Rejects could sit with tea and cake and have a grand old new year catch up.


18 comments:

  1. Well that was a fine game to behold Richard and good to see a Union victory for once:)! Interesting to read about the rules and the effect that moving from D10 to 2D6 had on the game. Personally I favour the Bell curve for my games rather than the possible extremes of the D10, but others disagree. For future games, I can't see why BPII with the Glory Hallelujah! supplement wouldn't work for you chaps, as each player could pretty easily control a few Brigades. BBB works well too, but I've only ever played the historical scenarios, so no idea how it would work for a made up engagement.

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    1. Thanks for the helpful comment Steve. To be honest, whilst Fire and Fury has provided much entertainment it always seems to cause debate. BPII would work brilliantly for the size of multiplayer games that we have that's for sure.

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    1. It certainly was Michal. Postie always sets up a good looking game.

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  3. Great looking game, if a slightly underwhelming result, Richard...it was clear from the narrative that only a few turns were played before the Rebs threw the towel in.....
    I do feel attackers should generally have a decent advantage in numbers, to even things up and give them a fighting chance...that's true in real warfare just as much as in our games. I guess Posties scenario tried to balance things by having the Union marching on, rather than deployed, but it obviously wasn't enough.
    No thoughts on rules, sorry, we generally use a home brew set.....

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    1. Thanks Keith. Postie gave the Confederates elite units and leaders, but that didn't count for much against the defensive fire. And then the Union had numbers. In short, not the best of scenarios perhaps.

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  4. This looks like a very fast capitulation by the Rebs. How many turns were actually played before the towel was thrown in to stop the pain?

    My first question is why the switch from 1D10 opposed rolls to 2D6 opposed rolls? Did 1D10 seem to produce more extreme results than players liked? The move from 2D6 changes the nature of the probability distribution so that much more weight is in the center of the distribution. For example, about 60% of all opposed rolls (with no mods) are between -2 and +2 with 2D6 vs 47% with 1D10. Given that a defender is often in favorable terrain and defensive fire is likely to disorder the attacker coming in, the results table shifts decidedly toward the defender.

    As for rules suggestions, I think you know my answer...

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    1. I think it ended during turn 4.
      As for the other question, there were some in the group who had become increasingly unhappy about the potential for extreme results that could then penalise good play/generalship (eg charging with multiple advantages), especially if the attacker rolls 1 and the defender a 10. Postie made the change in the hope of evening the chance of results at the extremes. Of course this meant that all opposed rolls would be closer and shooting more likely to be effective.
      From my own perspective, I find that Fire and Fury runs very slowly once the lines become closely engaged.

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    2. I agree that F&F tends to bog down when you get into melee. So many modifiers to consider. I find the ManeuverTable slow too.

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    3. You are right. Rolling for every unit can be time consuming.

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  5. Great looking game Richard. F&F are still my go to ruleset for ACW and I actually enjoy the results from using D10s, where units can unexpectedly break or take a stunning victory.

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    1. Thanks Neil, the d10s always made for exciting and unpredictable moments... but isn't that the risk of melee.

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  6. A spectacular game and a nice AAR Richard. I have both Regimental and Brigade Fire and Fury as everyone seems to rave about them, but the other set that has piqued my interest is the Perry Valour and Fortitude set which I must get around to reading.

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    1. Postie always puts on a good looking game.
      I hadn't thought about Valour and Fortitude. I'll pass that on.

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  7. Impressive gaming with the gang!

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  8. As usual, a fabulous looking game from you fellas. It was particularly beaut seeing this one develop as the columns 'shook out' to battle lines.
    I am with those of your number who dislike a large weighting of the random factor. To me the effect of firing should be fairly predictable, the impact of that on a unit's morale, cohesion, performance less so. It is entirely in keeping with the period for the defenders to have a HUGE advantage and an attack should be a really costly affair. It was beginning to tell in the late Napoleonic era and by mid-century was in clear evidence. It could have been even worse had the top brass/staff 'trusted' the men to use repeaters and not consider that they would waste ammo! (Mind you, given the stats for American forces in 20th century wars, they were probably correct!) I always contend that if European commanders had studied the American Civil War more closely they would have been better prepared for the First World War...
    Enough of that from me, sorry. A top game and great report Richard, thanks!
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James. Sadly, I think that there were a series of wars from which the European commanders should have learned lessons in anticipation of WW1.

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