Raseiniai counter-attack, part 2

The game had reached the critical point with the Russian all on the table, their artillery fire still roughly blanketing the far end of the table and the Germans in position to met them. The prelude was over, enough of the under-card, time for the main event...

The lurking OT-133 came out of woods and lit-up the farm outbuilding, toasting a German rifle squad, who had already pinned themselves trying to launch an AT grenade attack on the KV-1 parked outside, and bottling it. That pause now cost them dear. The Russian infantry tried to rush the farm from the woods in support to meet a wall of MG-34 ambush fire, cutting them down to about half strength in short order. Arrgh!, our big charge had gone, well… rather so, so, no great damage caused.

As it stood... Russians tanks on the way.

I immediately launched my BTs on their charge, tank riders still aboard (but not for long when they came under fire). The tanks covered the ground swift as greyhounds (not the armoured cars), fanning out, but their suppressing HE and machine gun fire did very little. On the opposite side the T-26s continue to mill about, trying to hit Pz IIIs ahead of them and failing. The return fire set a couple of T-26s alight though, the attrition had begun.

This they did, racing to the edge of cornfield (after the timed barrage had landed to little effect, the Germans knew where they were landings and now avoiding it), and again the suppressing HE fire was ineffective, leaving the Pz IV and anti-gun unpinned. I would rue that, as between the 2 guns they destroyed 3 BTs at close range, and  another died to a flank shot by the Pz II (somebody kill it!), 5 BTs down already… but commanding Russian tanks isn’t for the feint-hearted, take the loses and roll on!

The fight for the farm was still going Germany’s way too, although the KVs scored a couple of kills (KV-2 direct hit was the first PzIII in orbit!), but the enemy infantry were immovable, and close range MG fire even pinned the flamethrower tank, which was later assaulted with AT grenades and blown up - messy.

KV-2 re-arming (a lot) whilst the T-26s arrive and begin to duel with the Pz IIIs, well, those that have more than just machine guns. 

OT-133 and infantry lurk in the woods, ready to assault the farm. 

Bit of extra fire support in place to help my tank attack (and usefully holding an objective)

Stal! Stal! Stal! The BTs begin their run past the first Russian armour to come this way (KV-1 and 2 BA-10s, all lost), tank riding infantry starting to pile off. 

BA-10s returning from the farm to find an ammo truck, back up this lane somewhere. 

The Germans had to respond, the 35(t)s swung right to engage the BTs across the table, scoring several hits but each glanced off (almost unheard of on BT-7s). One BT-7 was knocked out by 20mm Pz II cannon fire (these really are made of tin foil). Other tankovik squads jumped off as their tanks got hit, only for MG34 fire from 2 more machine guns to cut a swathe through them too… our infantry were getting pasted by waiting MG fire at short range - the wages of failing to pin those teams last turn. From the table's rear the German 105mm field guns took aim over open sights and pinned a couple of BTs with HE fire. My attack was taking heavy fire, but still rolling, the unscathed second wave of BTs wasn’t far behind and would take the lead next turn, racing past the pinned vehicles.

The T-26s close in (a bit), as the heavy fighting erupts around the farm. 

OT-133s handy work... burn baby burn... rude surprise for the Germans, not having clocked it wasn't another T-26. 

The Russians are coming... T-26s still closing... at walking speed.

It had become a desperate brawl, and then our orders gave out, rolling 9 on 6D6, no re-rolls either - ouch! My last BTs pushed on regardless, one scored a kill on a Pz 35(t), then another… but two more were lost to ambush fire, one to a direct 105mm HE shell hit (joining the Pz III in orbit). The tank riding infantry tried to assault German MG teams and usually failed their experience test, leaving them pinned to be gutted at point blank range next turn. Oh dear!

The Pz-IV and 37mm anti-tank gun dealing the damage in the cornfield.

BTs burn as they reach the cornfield, Pz II on ambush fire behind. 

 

More BTs added to the scrap yard.

Hmmm... carnage. German MGs team still fighting... and still cutting down my pinned infantry in a bit of a turkey shoot.

But we still had more to throw at them. Two more BA-10 armoured cars, having been back to re-arm with a supply truck, rejoined the fray and added some more 45mm shells to the fusillade, scoring another 35(t) kill. Both sides were taking punishment, but in the slugging match the Russians were coming off worse.

The last BT charge, with just 3 runners left, didn’t get any further that the same cornfield again, were the Pz IV awaited on ambush and knocked them out again… it never misses or fails to penetrate!! Its crew had racked up 4 kills quickly and then turned their MGs on my infantry as well. I got his Pz II though with a point blank shot. My repair truck reached my knocked out KV-1 and set-to trying to get it running again.

BA-10s, ammo'd up and on the way back into action.

Reserve motor rifles in the woods, not much help to the tanks.

My repair truck gets to the broken down KV-1, but 3 attempts to fix it all failed. 

Would have been nice and big help to the BTs, but I'm not that lucky.

My poor last BT-7 was forced to pull back, a few infantry fled back over the road to the cover of the woods again. The carnage had been swift… the German line had held out, my attack had been furious but futile.

At the farm, no better news, both KV-1s had been immobilised by breakdowns, whilst the KV-2 kept shelling away (on constant re-arms), but the T-26s had withered, a few MG-armed tanks and 37mm rounds was all that could be mustered. The Germans would not be moved from here.

Despite the losses, we weren’t broken yet, although it was only a matter of time. The battle sort of petered out. We fired off mortar shells at the farm, the last armoured cars fought on, they threw some mortar rounds back, and a Pz III rashly tried to take on the immobilised KV-1 at the farm and got itself KO’d at point blank range… but our offensive power had been blunted. It was almost 5 o’clock, and we agreed that even though it was the last turn both sides still had to take a chit to unpin…if they had any pinned units. That last unpinning chit broke us, taking us to a total of 103, 1 over our 102 total.

The Germans, well they had reached 67 from their 96. A solid victory in a cracking fight. They had scored 16 tank kills, with another 2 KVs immobilised. We had scored 9 tank kills. It hadn’t all been one sided, but my BTs lost 9 tanks from 10 in 3 hectic turns, and some people think the German can’t win (until they open fire obviously)!

The panzer phalanx engaged with the T-26s and KVs, whilst Pz 35(t)s behind turn to cover their right from the threat of the BTs coming around the farm. 

It's not going too well...

But it's not all one way traffic... mostly KV handy-work. 

A bold Pz-III tries to take out another immobilised KV-1 at point blank range... klang! 

Return fire got him. 

35(t)s unable to withstand even long range BT return fire in a furious exchange of fire. 

The 35(t)s hit a lot, and failed every penetration roll they made! Even on 5s.

Last gasp at the farm, under withering defensive MG fire. 

Petty revenge... the Pz IV that had caused so much damage, knocked out with a late minestrike chit. They drew it, rolled a 1, and we played it. Too little, too late. 

Top Sunday fun, always love our big-bashes. After packing up we retired for a post-match debrief and a well-earned feed and brew. For the Russian commanders the gulag was waiting. We had made a few bad mistakes, the right pincer of T-26s had taken just so long and never got close enough to the enemy… why we gave them the furthest distance to cover, cross-country, I don’t know, the speeding BTs should have gone that way and T-26s could have used the farm lane to get forwards faster. Bad planning, and nobody’s fault but mine. The artillery plan had also been flawed. The constant harassment was merely OK, but we left it too long in one place, after 5 turns or so we should have changed the targets, not letting the Germans avoid our barrages so easily. The farm should have been a target, as looking back, it was obvious the Germans would get there first (we had further to travel in slower tanks). The KVs had been excellent, as expected, we’d only lost 1 (to a breakdown), I think we can see why the Russian stuck with those. An initial good start had not been capitalised on. My tank riding infantry had been badly wasted. Perhaps delaying the tank charge a turn to get them off, rather than allowing them to be shot off their rides would have meant they did something, beyond being pinned then shredded by MGs.

Lessons to learn, but in end, all that matters is it was good fun for all.

The post-battle debrief inevitably turned to thoughts of the next one… whispers in the wind were for a big desert fight, maybe Tunisia, as we have Brits, Americans, Germans and some Italians… and maybe a few French in the works as well (full house). Not sure we’ll have a table big enough for all of them… but we’ll try.

BG: Babarossa. Raseiniai Counter-Attack, Part 1

This AAR is for our weekend big Battlegroup: Barbarossa multi-player game, for part of the Russian tank counter-attack around the town of Raseiniai, June 24th 1941, so just a few days into Operation Barbarossa.

It was to be played out as meeting engagement, on a patch of open(ish) farm land north-west of the town, where Kampfgruppe Raus ran into a serious armoured attack by the forces of the Soviet 3rd Mechanised Corps. So a big tank brawl… and it was big so I’ve split this AAR into two halves.

Our game was set at 1,500 points, with three German players with 500 points each (but selected as 1 army, so no duplicating unique units, etc) and 2 Russian players (Colonel Masonov and myself) with 750 points each. That should keep us busy all day.

The fields of Raseiniai... from the 'home-team' end


An early Sunday morning start for set-up… and by 10am we were ready to rock and roll. All scouts deployed, with 2D6 extra units already in support. A mere 3 for us (all KVs to give the Germans a problem from the get-go) and 10 for them, so pretty even in numbers actually - damn, I thought we’d win out here.

Our Soviet plan, concocted in the pre-battle discussion, was for the screen of scout infantry and armoured cars to advance aggressively, along with the KV heavy tanks to draw fire and scare the hell outta the Nazis. They would be the first wave, to harass, disrupt and seize some objectives and mean the Germans couldn’t react well to the forces building up behind as our reserves rolled in. The first wave would be quickly followed by a second wave, our first pincer of T-26s with a lot of tank riding infantry, striking on our right. A Stal!-driven attack with orders to press forwards as fast as they could and not stop to engage the enemy, get past their tanks and into the squishy rear of guns and soft-skins. The third part of the attack would be mine, a lightning BT-7 assault on the left, coming slightly later but at full speed, so it would catch-up with the first pincer, again with tank riders in support, and again with orders to go! go! go!, don’t stop, get close and cause mayhem and give them no quarter.

The artillery fire support plan was simple… to keep a constant barrage of timed 76mm divisional artillery in a blanket of harassing fire missions across their end of the table. We both had 10 timed barrages (so 20 in all!), with two strikes falling from turn 3 onwards (until turn 13 then!) avoid any communications breakdown and no orders required. That would be demoralising (in shear length) and cause constant pinning. We also had 7 counter battery fire missions to silence their expected off-table heavy guns (bit over done that). With them we aimed to win the artillery duel.


2 T-26 platoons (5 tanks of various marks).
3 KV-1s
1 KV-2
2 Motor rifle platoons
2 AT rifle teams
1 OT-133 flame thrower tank
2 BA-10 armoured cars
10 x Timed 76.2mm barrages
Forward observer
2 82mm mortars (on table)
Armoured supply truck (thing).

FHQ - 3 men in staff car       
Motor Rifle Platoon           
AT Rifle Team               
Inf Gun + Komsomoyets tow           
Maxim MG               
DshK AA MG               
Reserve Motor Rifle Platoon (on foot)       
2 BT-7 Platoons (5 tanks each)   
10 x Timed 76.2mm Barrages   
4 x Infantry Foot Patrols
2 BA-10 armoured cars       
Supply Truck               
Repair Truck               
37mm AA + truck tow           
7 x Counter Battery Fire Missions

In all 1498 pts, 102 BR, 8 scouts and 0 officers (command chaos replaces officers).

I don’t have the full German lists, but it was basically;

2 Schutzen platoons (with AT grenades)
1 Kradschutzen platoon
1 37mm AT gun + tow
various 50mm mortar and AT rifle teams
1 80mm mortar

8 Pz IIIs
5 Pz 35(t)s
1 Pz IV
1 Pz II
1 Pzjaeger I

FHQ in Pz I command tank
Radio van
1 20mm Flak38 AA gun + tow

Recce kradschutzen squad
Sniper

On table guns:
2 105mm lefH18 105mm guns (as big AT guns)
1 K18 100mm cannon + loader team (as big AT guns)

Off-table, etc
Battery of 2 105mm guns (off-table)
1 timed 150mm artillery strike
2 2nd priority artillery requests
1 PRTP
2 counter battery fire missions

All 1,500 pts, 10 officers, 96 BR and 2 Scouts

So, not much off-table arty stuff then… drat. They had gone for on-table guns, to use in direct fire, mostly against our feared heavy tanks.

We out scouted them (a lot), so first chit to the Germans and the Russian had the first turn. Fight…!

Russian attack plan... 1. Scouts, armoured cars and KV-1s attack. 2. T-26 swarm to farm, with extra KV-1 and KV-2 support. 3. BT-7 charge into the German rear to mop-up trucks and guns etc. 

German moves (from their end). 1. Infantry platoon holding woods. 2. Pz III attack. 3. Pz 35(t)s on flank protection. 4. Infantry to hold farm. 5. Blocking force, anti-tank gun, Pz IV etc, supported by 105mm artillery behind (rear table).

The Russians started well, we moved up our scout infantry to the road, armoured cars alongside and got the KV’s into firing positions. The KV-2 fired the first shot of game, winging a 152mm naval mortar shell at the distant K-18 gun, missing, before putting the farm’s barn between itself and the return fire. As we grabbed early objectives, they took 2 more chits.

The Germans first turn saw the Kradschurzen scouts race into the farm and disembark into the barn. Their off-table 105s were under counter-battery fire and couldn’t help (get used to that), and it was all rather quiet. They held 2 objectives, so we took our first two chits, to get an aircraft, which immediately showed up, a I-153 bi-plane fighter came buzzing over. Excellent!

A well-to-do Lithuanian farm, and an objective for both sides.

Motorcycles on the way there. behind is the K-18 beast-killer, under the tree. On which are timed barrage is centred. We smiled at that!

The beast of Raseiniai... he so wanted to flatten the farm. 

...and his (not so) little friends, well spread out, so one Stuka strike can't kill them all! Lesson learnt.

Armoured cars and scouts about to push into the woods on our left.

Turn 2, first reserves arrive and on came the first T-26s and their tank riding squads, to crawl away across the fields heading right, led by the last KV. Our scouts pushed forwards again, and began to skirmish in the woods with German infantry. The armoured cars open fire with suppressing HE into the farm’s barn… and the KV-2 missed again and needed reloading. Armoured resupply truck was already on the way, at just above walking speed! The I-153 strafed the K-18 cannon crew, killed 2 men from the loader team and pinned it - good work Bigglesov!

I-153 on this way to hep out by attacking those German guns at the rear.

Armoured cars pinned by mortar fire... but the KV will lead then.

Scouts and their armour encounter their first Germans, and overwhelm them in a brief firefight. Few bad dice rolls for the Germans here, makes a change!

First attacks on the farm, ineffective fire. The farm is made of very stern stuff.

The German’s turn 2, and their first reserves, 10 units, a lot (all) of Pz IIIs just rolled in on their extreme left, so we could see a big clash was coming (in about 3-4 turns) with the T-26s and KVs… my money was solidly on the Reds. Bit of 80mm mortar fire, and a few scouts were cut down by long range MG-34s… still building towards the clash to come.

Turn 3, and incomes the first impacts of our timed barrage, causing more pinning, but not much damage, except their dispatch rider was blown-up on his Zundapp - some debate, but it’s a chit for that too (yeah, 1 man, but he had a important job). The rest of clown cars (T-26s) arrived and followed the leader’s as they rambled on. I had not realised they would be so slow, it was painful… no lightning war here.

My scout infantry did some more good fascist-hunting in the woods on the left, blasting 2 rifle squads into bits at short range.

The circus arrives... various T-26s led by the last KV.

Scout squads hunt-down the Hun and clear the woods.

Moving at glacial speeds...

Coming the other way for a head on clash, the Pz IIIs, before all those men jumped off.

Send forward the armoured ammo carrier... the Beast is in need of resupply already.

German’s go… if they must! The Pz IIIs moved up en masse, they were concentrating for a strong push on our right, and behind them also came the 35(t)s, avoiding our timed strike artillery beaten zone. A lurking anti-tank fire picked off my BA-10 with a side shot… and then the first 1 chit was played as a breakdown chit… on my KV-1. On a rolled 6 it broke down and the crew, daze and confused, climbed out and ran-off.. argh! Lost a precious heavy tank to dumb bad luck. Hmmm, still we were well ahead on the early chits, but things hadn’t got hot yet.

That didn’t stop a few German comments about the unfairness of the Stal! rule and how Command Chaos wasn’t much of a drawback really, 10 German officers compared to an average 7 command chaos orders (over a 17 turn game that is 51 extra orders on average!). Intimidated by the quality and quantity of our armour… the Germans just can’t win in 1941! And their machine guns take up an extra order (that one was a ironic joke!, they know the great advantages of separate MGs). And how many tanks can 1,500 pts of Russians get? … err 25 in this case! How may timed artillery barrages? The Germans are just rubbish! That is morale cracking in the face of the enemy.

Next turn, and the unfairly ‘large and over-powered’ Red Army rolled on, no BTs yet, just useful stuff like our AA cover and supply trucks (and the less useful foot-slogging auxiliary motor rifle platoon) and the repair truck, making for that conked-out KV at top speed. The fight around the farm heated up, the KV-2 scoring a first hit, but the remarkable cover of the thatched barn saving the squad from destruction (5 cover saves all passed - must have a very good cellar). Having previous band attacking buildings to destroy them in favour of the basic rules in such a big game, we now regret this, that KV-2 should just level the farm. It was filling-up with Germans, men and machine guns that had dismounted from the Pz IIIs and taken up positions on ambush fire. They had got there first with more.

One KV-1 went onto ambush fire, awaiting a Pz III to emerge around the barn, and the OT-133 began to sneak off through the woods, just another innocent T-26 making their slow crawl forwards to the Germans - oh no, things would be getting very hot very soon.

Our harassing barrages fell, more scattered pinning and the K-18 cannon took a direct hit, destroying it… phew, big AT gun gone. The I-153 targeted their 20mm Flak, which had just been arrived in the rear cornfield but then forgot to open fire… their bad. The I-153’s machine guns raked the flak crew, and the last pinned man called it a day and headed for Berlin… free skies!

Explosion where the K-18 once was... nice!

Last Germans pullback from the woods, their radio van also had to scarper, the Russians were 1 move away and soon to fill it with holes.

Spreading out a bit, for the coming battle. One panzer broke down, German engineering isn't infallible either. 

 Russian reserve infantry arriving through the cornfield... utter garbage. Mortar spotter trying to get into a better place to get his tubes in the action.

The Germans, fighting their ‘hopeless’ battle against the might of the Red Hordes, moved up, fired a 105mm barrage that didn’t get cancelled and pinned some stuff, fell back as fast as they could through the woods before more scouts, fired MGs for pinning and moved up a Pz III into the waiting KV’s line of sight without realising it. Boom, side shot… hit - dead. Scratch their first panzer. Not noticing what the enemy had put on ambush fire would be a constant feature in this game… multi-player games throw up such confusion, because you don’t see what all the players are doing (not if you’re trying to move the game along fast and avoid to much discussion and debate - get on with it!).

By now all the Germans had arrived, and their cunning timed 150mm barrage missed everything and caused 1 pin - boo-hoo, more black dog glum faces.

The T-26 ramble continued and my first 6 BTs rolled on, along the farm track in single column, tank riders on the back. The on-going fight for the farm was, inconclusive, the Germans still passing way too many cover saves to avoid being pinned and the Pz IIIs came under suppressing HE fire, one pin was the entire result… although one did also break down on a chit and become immobilised… revenge.

The Germans fought back (they do that) and got a Stuka chit, which turned up (no air spotter by a 6 will do it). It targeted the centre of the T-26/KV swarm, sirens screaming, without seeing our waiting flak on ambush fire. Our DshK HMG opened up and rolled, double 6… 2 hits, pinned, and both did damage too… the Stuka was peppered and pulled out. Then the 37mm cannon scored another hit and more damage, 3 hits from 4 shots… and the morale test was a rolled 1… the Luftwaffe pilot though better of continuing in an aircraft so full of holes and returned to base. Man, we almost shot it down. Some debate followed now over if the Russians had to take a chit, as no bomb had been dropped. The Germans though yes - just the presence of an aircraft is enough. We, no, obviously. We ruled no, ‘under air attack’… and nothing attacked us, plus we should get the benefit of awesome AA covering fire, we’d spent the orders to be ready after-all. The game should reward you for doing the right thing.

Still, things were tight, we had the slight advantage, but the Germans had that farm (more like a fortress) in numbers. They also had their Kradschutzen platoon on the board rear, on reserve move as the mobile reserve, if the farm looked like falling, they’d be their in a flash to counter-attack. My last 4 BT-7s arrived and the Russian were also all-in. Everything was on the table, the twin tank attacks could get going… so far the T-26s had produced much threat.

But that is for next time. Part 2, Stal! I’ll get that posted soon (ish).

 The BT-7 column speeding by... about to launch their Stal! charge.

 He's in big trouble, hands up Fritz! My scouts did swift work with some good spotting checks and thankful the Germans blew their suppressing fire.

More to come in part2.

Bloodbath in Miller’s Cornfield, 28mm ACW

I’m a long time big fan (massive) of Sam Mustafa’s Longstreet rules and have played the campaign twice now… loved both (one win, one loss). It’s a set of rules that never fails to give a good, tight, dramatic battle that feels like it tells the story of an ACW battle.

I’ve never used for a straight historical re-fight though, and I wondered how it would fair at reproducing an actual battle, or in this case, part of battle. Having read ‘Landscape Turned Red’, a very good history of the battle of Antietam, blow-by-blow, I decided I had enough information and maps to recreate part of the battle (the entire thing would be far too large for these rules). So I set about writing an accurate scenario.

First things first, Longstreet is a brigade-level game, you command a brigade, with its 4-5 sub-regiments. That wasn’t going to work here. Real battles, being very large affairs, meant a single brigades action at Antietam would simple be a line of men marching across one field under artillery fire. Not much to-and-fro and not much to get your teeth into. Also, the game’s weapon ranges looked miles out for recreating a brigade action at 28mm (too short, a common wargaming short-cut, although I understand why and agree with it). Better, I felt, to recreate a Corps-level action. Here you’d have some more elements and a more varied battlefield to fight over, and the weapon ranges would start to feel about right too.

So, I wrote the scenario for 1st Corps’ first attack at Antietam (begin at the beginning) at 6am, until about 7.30am. This lead-off attack, the Union’s right against the Confederate left, see-sawed back and forth across the infamous Miller’s farm cornfield. It saw heroic actions by both sides and a complete slaughter for an hour and half in ferocious fighting, sometimes at close quarters. It left the Texas brigade (in)famously ‘dead on the field’ after their counter-attack. That sounds like a real game.

So, map drawn to centre my tabletop battlefield on the Miller’s cornfield, forces worked out (at roughly 50-1 in men I think - in which Longstreet is very generous in the size of regiments, because at Antietam they were far smaller). No cavalry, but hey, this is the ACW, horse and musket without the horse… I don’t feel they have a very realistic role in most ACW games anyway… too prominent and too often used in charges… that rarely happened against formed infantry with rifled muskets… the only result was a slaughter of men and horses.

Anyway, an all infantry (and cannon) fight suits me better and would feel more like the ACW anyway (and that’s how it was on the day). Cavalry played almost no part in the Antietam battle.

Here are some shots of an afternoon’s gaming, all over in 2.5 hours.

We deployed in the historical positions, with roughy correct force sizes over terrain that was pretty close to right. So, given what happened on the day, how did Longstreet stand-up to recreating that, or something like it?

I’d say… not bad, 3 out of 5 for a score… but not perfect either, here’s how and why.

The Union attack at dawn was a big one, hoping to turn the Confederate flank and thus defeat Lee’s position on the slightly higher ground around Sharpsburg quickly. The Rebs fought like hell, under Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, because he knew it was vital not to lose this ground, or the day would be lost all together. Lee committed his best reserves to the fight to shore-up the lines, including the Texan brigade.

Our game was close. Actually far closer that it looked. The Union force broke at its ‘Shatter Point’ just as I was starting to get the upper hand, but the game didn’t require the Reb reserves to arrive to save the line… the Texans were not required (although the Reb player could have called upon them, and was about to when my force broke).

On my right, it was as on the day, losses on both sides, skirmishing forces through the west woods, and the Union halted just south of Miller’s farm. I was getting the upper hand, but not fast and not decisively.

In the centre, again, a lot of Union dead in the cornfield, advancing under cannon fire, and a horrid slaughter when the Reb’s opened up their first volleys (7 stands lost in one turn hurt a lot). But my boys in blue caused serious loses back and their charge, aided by a ‘Cold Steel’ card, almost overwhelmed the Reb centre (behind its field fortifications). 1 more casualty scored would have seen the centre broken and the ad-hoc fieldworks overrun. Instead I lost the assault and my attacking units were hurled back, with severe losses, which broke me. Oh for a slightly better dice roll… all or nothing in those charges, and this time it was nothing - drat!

On the right, through the east woods, this was very hard fought contested ground on the day, but here the Rebs let me have the woods, didn’t counter-attack and dug-in instead, but my unit and their sharpshooters won the skirmish fire duel and whittled them away anyway, in a prolonged exchange of fire. Digging in seems to be a ‘no brainer’ for a defender, perhaps it happens too quickly in real time terms in the rules.

The Rebs were not as aggressive in defence as on the day, going pretty much static and digging in… but you have to command a battle the way you see fit (that’s part of the fun of playing). It was a good game and an interesting experiment, which inspired some prolonged post-match analysis… and revealed that 1 more hit (from my 10 attack dice) would have broken the Reb centre and meant he urgently needed those reinforcements or the blue-boys would have been swarming through towards his artillery and the Dunker’s Church (just off the tabletop).

It’s worthwhile trying again, but I think I’ll do it with a slightly different scenario… how about 12th Corps attack, across the same ground, about 1 hour later… to see if the Union can replicate their success against the now battle-weakened Reb line. After that, a scenario for the ‘Bloody Angle’ in the Reb centre in front of Sharpsburg… we could replay all of one day at Antietam in about 5 scenarios I think, as a mini-campaign.

The scenario sketch map an deployment, Union moving north (top) to south (bottom);

Anyway, without photos it didn't happen (so they say)... so some pictures of the action.

Union start lines around Miller's Farm

 Union guns start out front, and their impact was... minimal. 

 Reb start lines either sdie of the Hagarstown Turnpike

Crowded start lines as the regiments and guns squeeze in on the Poffenburger'd fields

 Into the Miller's cornfield

 Reaching the far side into a storm of fire. Pelhams battery (off-table) also taking its toll from the highground to the west (scenario special rule).

Union right at the Miller's farm house (and barn). Under incoming shelling. 

 Along the turnpike, still with incoming, about the face the lead storm. 

Union boys have the East Woods, sharpshooters harassing the Rebs (now dug-in)

The crux of the battle (as on the day), trying to fight forwards from the edge of the cornfield. 

Raking fire from both sides, but the blues come off worst. 

 Charge! Blue reserves move through the front firing line and press home with cold steel. 

Heavy losses on both sides, but the Rebs just (just) held, with 2 stands left (all others gone and that cannon overrun). Thrown-back, the blue-bellies had had enough for this attack.

PS: This game was fought out in December, before Xmas. I thought I'd posted it, but on reflection, it seems not. So, better late than never.