Thursday, May 14, 2015

Hail Mr Lincoln

Confederacy: Mike Shevak & Mark
Union: Chris, Jim & James

An American Civil War scenario fought using our Hail Mr Lincoln adaption of Hail Caesar. 
The figures are Chris' 15mm (which are considerably older than James).
The objective of the battle is to control the village with its road junction & bridge at nightfall (5pm real time). 
The Union have a small infantry division and a small cavalry in the village.  3 more Union divisions each 4 infantry & 1 gun are on the road on the far right edge of the table. 
The Confedracy have 2 divisions of 4 inf + 1 gun deployed in the foreground and 3 more similar divisions coming up the road from the far left.
Mike, commanding the Reb's right has deployed some troops in front of the village and opened fire to soften them up (small arms range is 12").  The rest of his force is moving down the difficult ridge on the right (the ridge counts as difficult ground and light cover).
Chris' Union cavalry have dismounted in the village and have moved onto the far end of the hill in open order.
Mark is deploying the second Reb column to his left on the ridge & in the orchard and set a battery next to the cornfield to fire on the village.
James has sent the rear Union division through the wood towards Mark's left.  Jim has sent one division over a ford to support Chris and the other towards Mark to support James.
On the near flank Mike, unfamiliar with the HC command system split his divisions sending half of each forward down the ridge.  This had caused significant delays as has the stubborn defence of the dismounted cavalry.
On the far flank James attack has pushed the Reb left back, but has lost heavily.  In the centre Jim has reinforced the village defence on both sides of the river and put some pressure on Mark's centre.  The defenders of the village have lost heavily to Reb fire, but still hold on.  The defenders of the house over the river broke under artillery fire, but the Union replaced them before the Rebs could take the building.
The Reb line holds on their left, but the Union are content to be keeping 3 divisions occupied with 2.
The Union attack with their right has finally forced the Union cavalry to withdraw (they have remounted and retired behind the village shaken, but not broken).  But the Union have had plenty of time to forma reception committee.
As dusk approaches, the fight on the far flank peters out into an indecisive firefight. The Rebs make last chance charge at the field in the rear of the village, but it is repulsed.

The Union hold the village at pub o'clock so it's a Union win & off to Knoppies.

Although the rules differ little from our Hail Napoleon, the contrast with Napoleonics was striking.  The large proportion of cover & difficult ground and lack of real cavalry made for slow combat resolution and it was a typical ACW slog with not one division broken.  Still an interesting change.

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