Longstreet Campaign 1861 Meeting Engagement Union v Confederate

After a while playing 02:00 Hours and Test of Honour I felt like a change from skirmish games so arranged with Dave to play Longstreet, potentially as part of the campaign in the rule book.

Dave opted for the Rebels so I took the Union. My brigade consisted of three ten base infantry battalions, an 8 base cavalry regiment and two bases of 6pdr artillery. Of course it had to be commanded by my favourite Union general 'Fighting Joe' Hooker!

The first game, set in 1861 and so perhaps part of the Bull Run battle, was an encounter. The Brigade quickly deployed to face the enemy:

The Rebels are quickly moving up in march column:

They waste no time pressing forward while the Union occupy a field:

Union cavalry dismount. Perhaps the Rebels can be caught still in march formation?

The Rebels are too smart to be caught though and deploy just in time. They send some men around the Union right flank to threaten the artillery:

Rebel infantry prepare to assault the dismounted cavalry:

The Rebels charge home with a Yell:

The dismounted cavalry are pushed back but this exposes the Rebel infantry to a potential flank attack. On the Union right the Rebel cavalry have charged the Union artillery and captured some of the battery:

The Rebel infantry fall back from their exposed position but take fire from the Union line:

The Union forces charge home clearing the wood of Rebels. At this point things are looking good for General Hooker (who lived up to his nickname by leading the charge!):

In the centre the situation is less promising for the Union with the Rebels putting heavy pressure on the Union line:

The Union left has driven off the Rebels facing it. The battle will be decided by their ability to save the Union centre before it breaks. It is going to be close!

The Union centre is badly mauled and holding on desperately:

With the Union left menacing the rear of the Rebels they decide their only option is to charge forwards:

The Union centre breaks after almost hanging on and the Rebels are triumphant in a close game. Fighting Joe will have to retire and fight again but at least his force has now 'Seen the elephant' and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy:

A really close game that could easily have gone the other way and where fortunes changed several times. Dave's flanking move on my right initially looked like it would be too slow to affect the battle but, in the end, was decisive after the Union centre had been worn down.

Having played a couple of games of Longstreet I'm revising my opinion of it really, when I tried it a long time ago I wasn't impressed (but then I really like Fire and Fury so any other set of ACW rules is starting from a difficult position!) but, like Sam Mustafa's other rules, there is more to them than appears initially and the campaign system is certainly a nice addition.

Dave really enjoyed the game as well so we will be continuing the campaign for now at least!

 

Strength and Honour Battle of Chaeronea (86 BC) Mithridatic v Roman

A first outing for a newly painted 2mm Mithridatic army against Pete's Romans in the 'Battle of Chaeronea' scenario from the Strength and Honour rules (with a couple of small changes to the Mithridatic list as I'd not finished painting everything yet!).

The Mithridatic force is more numerous but lower quality. The plan is to overwhelm the Roman wings while the centre delays the powerful Legions:

The first action sees the the Mithridatic scythed chariots quickly defeated by Roman cavalry as is traditional for scythed chariots in most wargame rules:

However, the chariots have done a job in that they allowed the Mithridatic cavalry and Cataphracts to gang up on the exposed Roman cavalry:

In the centre the Phalanx attempts to crush a Legion that has advanced further than it's support:

On the left the cavalry and cataphracts disappointingly only manage to drive the Roman cavalry across the front of their lines: 

On the right however the Mithridatic cavalry have combined well to make serious inroads into the Romans facing them:

The Mithridatics call for a VP count (you don't know how close the enemy or even your own army is to breaking as you pick up 'setback' and 'disaster' cards and only reveal them on a challenge!). The Romans narrowly fall to defeat with the Mithridatics close to their own break point:

The 2mm armies really give you an impression of a battle taking place even though they are so small. They are also surprisingly heavy, especially the phalanx and cataphracts. The rules are unusual in that firstly you seem to lose very few actual units (I lost one I think, Pete lost maybe three) with most of the damage being inflicted by setbacks. 

One positive though is that they can easily represent other armies/troop types with just a change of label!

Dead Man's Hand Redux The Law v Outlaws

Having tried What a Cowboy and feeling that it was not especially interesting I snapped up a set of the second edition of Dead Man's Hand at Salute.

On reading through it not much seems to have changed other than new rules for mounted figures, stampedes and stagecoaches etc. This is probably good as the original rules didn't seem to have any great flaws in them. 

The first run through saw my Lawmen take on Dave's outlaws in a small town somewhere in Arizona.

The Law close in on the Outlaws who are heading for the Bank:

Bullets quickly start flying:

The view from above:

The Law resolutely advancer on the miscreants:

Both sides blast away with little effect!

Disaster strikes for the Law as the Sheriff, Marshall, Deputy and the Preacher are all cut down. It's a bad day for the Law:

Great fun and reminded me of why I used to play DMH a lot. The gangs are different to each other and the scenarios and campaign really bring it alive.

As Dave hadn't played before we kept it fairly simple with limited weapons and a simple scenario, perhaps in the future we will start off a campaign.

Nimitz Kriegsmarine v Royal Navy

Another one-off game of Nimitz with my Kriegsmarine taking on Andy's Royal Navy, this time with some limitations on what we could choose after our last game (basically no just picking Battleships for me!).

The Gneisenau, Blucher and an escorting destroyer:

The Tirpitz, Graf Spee and another destroyer make up the rest of the German force:

The RN have two main groups, one of a number of Cruisers and Destroyers and the other of two old slow battleships:

Tirpitz and Graf Spee move quickly to engage the British Cruisers before their supporting Battleships arrive:

Guns blaze away at close quarters:

Gneisenau and Blucher exchange long range fire with the British Battleships:

German gunnery is abysmal while the RN manage to cripple the Graf Spee which turns away from the action:

The Gneisenau joins the fight but German gunnery does not improve and little damage is caused to the British:

The Graf Spee is sunk:

Meanwhile the Blucher has also taken a pounding and is crippled:

The Blucher is finished off:

With the Gniesenau badly damaged and the RN having only lost a single Cruiser the Germans conceded the action and would attempt to escape together with the largely undamaged Tirpitz.

This was pretty much a complete reversal of the last game we played where, if I remember rightly, the big German ships sank the RN Battleships quickly and then were largely immune to the remaining RN Cruisers and Destroyers!

The much more vulnerable Graf Spee and Blucher didn't last long and the fire from the Germans was largely ineffective. 

Andy also played a smart tactical game, his old and slow (but well armed and armoured) Battleships led to me attempting to close to short range with his Cruiser group where their more numerous and lighter guns were more effective before Andy could bring his big ships into action. 

On reflection I should probably have stuck to the plan from last time which was to deal with the big ships first then, once they were out of action, take on the rest of the enemy fleet.

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Test of Honour Rogues and Ruffians v Samurai

The first game of ToH saw my Rogues and Ruffians take on Simon's Samurai in a small scenario as we were learning the rules.

The opponents move forward by the Tori gate:

The Widow runs forward and in a whirl of blades cuts down the Samurai hero!

Barely pausing for breath she finishes off another Samurai:

The Brute is assailed by Ashigaru:

The rabble take the Brute out:

The Widow, Traveller and Paymaster move up to punish the upstart Ashigaru:

The fight rages on:

The Widow faces up to the last Samurai standing:

Initially she gets the better of the fight:

The Samurai rallies however and cuts her down:

With only a couple of wounded men left the Rogues conceded (the Archer, Drunkard and Witch had been taken out by fire from the Samurai Ashigaru).

Great fun, fairly easy to learn the basics but I suspect with hidden depths especially as we didn't use the honour/dishonour or quest cards and probably didn't make full use of the skills cards.

Next time we play Simon should have his own Samurai painted up and we will probably start a campaign off.

Test of Honour Factions

The first lot of figures I bought for Test of Honour were from Perry Miniatures. I thought they looked nice and painted up a standard Samurai faction.

Hero, Companions and Ashigaru Spearmen:

Ashigaru Archers and Musketeers:

I must admit to being a bit disappointed with these, they don't look great I think and in the end I just quickly finished them off to use them.

Next I got some of the actual ToH miniatures, the 'Rogues and Ruffians' box. Considerably more expensive than the Perry figures but given that you don't need that many figures not that bad (I'd certainly not build an army out of them!).

The 'Widow', the 'Wanderer', the 'Witch' and the 'Bruiser':

The 'Drunkard', the 'Archer', the 'Paymaster' and the 'Signaller':

These are great figures and unlike the Perry ones I'm very pleased with them, they have a lot of character and some fun specific rules for each one. Definitely worth the extra cost!

Finally a few villagers to populate the table, these are from Perry as well:

Enough for a game completed now. I have the ToH Sohei Monks and a generic Samurai box to paint, again while expensive they are really nice figures and should look good when finished.