Action/Reaction in Miniature Wargaming (Part 4)

The preceding entries provide the background to Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties. This blog and the following are the rough draft of the rules as I have organized them. On a cautionary note, as a teacher, I had an horrible time trying to construct lesson plans as prescribed, making sure I placed every "dot and tittle" in its prescribed location. It drove me nuts. I could not teach by a prescribed, rote plan and inevitably, I had to rewrite my plans over and over again because I did not format the plan the way the administration wanted it.  I failed First Grade because I could not handle flash cards and knuckle head math.

I am going to err in this construction. That is just the way it is. I never specialized in perfection. Should this ever get published, a very patient editor will have to diligently guide me to work the kinks out of this ball of twine. That being said, I know that this system works and plays better than I thought it would. Early playtesting and continual feedback have brought its development to this point.

The opening statements are going to be repetitive. Skip them if you need to do so. I would but I had to include them in this draft.

Chaos, Confusion and Casualties

by 

John Michael Priest
November 2019

I.                   Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties represents years of developing home grown rules in an attempt to simulate the actual combat conditions on a Civil War battlefield, or almost any black powder engagement, on the battalion and regimental level. Scaled to 54mm, it can easily be converted to other scales. In many games, the generals are almost omniscient. They issue orders which the men actually heard. The skies are clear and lingering smoke seldom creates a problem.  A lot of games are based upon traditional, ”You move. I move.”  Having been raised around World War II combat veterans, I grew up on their stories of what really happened down on the ground. Their stories wove tapestries of battles which did not appear in the textbooks. Erich Maria Remarque, Bill Mauldin, Arthur Guy Empey, John Hersey, Ernie Pyle brought the war home and made it more personal than afteraction reports.

II.                Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties actually dissects the various actions which can and do occur simultaneously upon the field. It also removes 54mm wargaming from skirmishing to battalion, regimental and battery level where the players have to deal with unexpected circumstances over which they have no control. Officers have to control their own men and their unanticipated reactions to combat. The turns are based upon a relatively simple concept of action/reaction /counter reaction. Every action could result in disproportionate and/or unexpected reactions or no reaction at all. It requires the players employ actual tactics to protect themselves from surprises.

III.             What I want to do is introduce a game system where, players, regardless of scale, can implement a basic system not only to table top gaming but possibly to board gaming also. The most important part to miniature gaming is to make the game fun, fast, and unpredictable. The scale of the game depends upon the player as does the number of pieces upon a stand. The number of hits a piece can sustain before being removed is at the player’s discretion.

IV.             These rules deal more with the mechanics of the game to facilitate play and the elimination of  charts. This game is designed for 54mm pieces on a regimental and battalion level but not restricted to that scale.

V.                Scale

A.                Infantry: 1/48 (12 hits).    Cavalry: 1/24 (6 hits).     Artillery: Crew 1/4 -   3 man crew  (4 hits/ crew piece).  Artillery pieces:1/1 (1 hit by dud or solid shot. Roll off to decide if disabled or not).      Skirmishers: 1/4 (4 hits).   All officers: 1/1 ( 4 hits).

B.                 50 feet/1 inch. 

VI.             Bases

A.                Rectangular base: Both pieces facing the long side are in line of battle. Pieces facing the narrow side are in column of 4’s.

VII.          Playing Pieces

A.                The number of soldiers needed depends upon what the individual players have available. The strength of forces literally depended upon the number of men present for duty.

B.                 The number of infantry officers is very important. The ideal situation is to have 3 officers per infantry regiment, which enables the player to divide the unit into several segments, each with its own officer. No officer on the line stalls the unit, making only able to react if attacked.

C.                 Officers

1.                  rally troops.

2.                  stop undesirable reactions.

3.                  downed officers.

4.                  constantly troop the line to maintain order.

a)                  When the line suffers a hit, all of the officers are susceptible to getting injured.

(1)               The player rolls 1D10 for each officer.

(2)               Odd means the officer was missed.

(3)               Even means the officer will probably get wounded or eliminated.

(a)                The player rolls 1 D10 with the “zero” representing a “10.”

(i)                 10, 9, 8 indicates an incapacitating “nick.”

(ii)               7 - 6 is 1 hit noted by placing a red chip under the officer.

(iii)             5 - 4 means 2 hits, using a white chip.

(iv)             3 - 2 indicates 3 hits, a blue chip.

(v)              1 removes the officer from the field.

(vi)             The hits are cumulative.

(b)               This applies to all officers, artillery crew pieces, and skirmishers.

5.                  When an infantry unit loses a piece (suffers 12 hits), the officers on the line must all roll for hits.

6.                  Artillery officers consist of 1 lieutenant for 2 guns (a section) and 1 captain for each battery (4-6 guns).

7.                  Regimental line officers consist of a colonel (mounted), plus a lieutenant colonel and major dismounted.

8.                  Staff officers should be mounted. They include a brigadier general and 2 aides per brigade (5-7 regiments), and a major general with 3 aides and commands a division (2-3 brigades).

9.                  Skirmishers are pulled from the regimental line, which inflicts one hit on the regiment per skirmisher. They may return to the line and remove that hit.

VIII.       Skirmishers

A.                Skirmishers represent 4 men in two ranks, acting as “comrades in battle.”

B.                 They literally are the eyes and ears of the regiment/brigade/Division.

1.                  They go onto the field to cover the front and flanks of the units behind them.

2.                  They initiate fire, to alert the units of impending trouble.

a)                  They fire on other skirmishers.

b)                  They pick off enemy officers too.

(1)               After measuring the distance and taking the deductions, the player rolls 1 D10.

(2)               If it is equal to or lower than the adjusted range number he rolls

(3)               1 D10 and follows the results from VII, C., (a), (i) – (vi).

c)                  It takes 4 hits to remove a skirmisher, just like the officers.

IX.             Dice

A.                As many D10s and D6s as the players can get.

B.                 At least 10 D10s and 6D6s to accommodate artillery firing, small arms firing, and hand-to-hand combat.  An individual can always roll multiple times to accommodate a large number of participants.

C.                 Metric rulers for smaller scales. Standard Rulers for larger scales.

D.                Red, white and blue chits, numbered chits (labeled 1-11) or casualty counters numbered 1-12.

X.                Measuring Sticks

A.                Rifles and Canister

1.                  27 inches long, divided into 9 sections (3 inches each), numbered “1” – “9”.

2.                  (With smaller scales this could be shortened to accommodate centimeters).

3.                  Place the “9” at the target and the opposite end at the shooter.

a)                  The number at the shooter is the range to the target without deductions.

b)                  Take the deductions for smoke, fog, and intervening cover between the shooter and the target and subtract that number from the original range.

c)                  The resulting number (the adjusted range) or lower are the numbers which each the firing line mu must roll on D10s to score hits.           

(1)               For instance: The target is at number “5”.

(a)                The target is behind a rail fence which has a deduction of “1”. The shooter deducts that”1” from the “5” and therefore must roll a “4” or lower to score a hit.

(b)               The shooter has 5 pieces on line and rolls 5 D10s. Each die with a 4 or lower scores a hit.

(c)                10s are misses.

B.                 Muskets

1.                  12 inch stick.

a)                  Mark it in 1 inch sections in descending order from 6-1.

b)                  Leave the remaining 6 inches unmarked.

c)                  Number the sections in descending order from 6-1.

2.                  When firing, the “6” is at the target and the lower number at the shooter.

3.                  From the section marker “1” everything up to 12 inches away could get hit with a roll of “1”.

4.                  When firing each shooting piece rolls a D10.

5.                  7s – 10s are misses because muskets could miss at close ranges and, sometimes, the balls did not fit the bore and rolled out the barrel when firing.

Action/Reaction in Miniature Wargaming (Part 3)

Playing Pieces

Rifle/Canister Range Stick

For the 54mm game the stick is 27 inches long and is divided into nine 3 inch sections, each representing 150 feet. For smaller scales the player could reduce this further but still needs  

to have 9 equally sized segments. 

For rifles and canister, the numbers indicate the number or lower which the player has to roll to score hits on the target. For infantry, skirmishers, and mounted infantry the player rolls 1 D10 for each piece on the firing line. For canister, the player rolls 9 D10s. 10s are treated as zeros.

Musket Range Stick

Troops, armed with notoriously inaccurate muskets, had to get close to the enemy to effectively engage them. Therefore, their range stick reflects that. The 1 inch segments from 6  - 1 are the effective ranges at 50 feet to 100 yards. Beyond the qoo yards up to 200 yards (the remaining 6 inches), they have to roll 1's to hit anything.

Casualty counters come in all kinds of shapes and designs. I have used Scrabble tiles with numbers written on the back and Sudoku tiles. I decided to make my own casualty counters Start with copyright free clock faces off the internet. Reduce or enlarge them to the size of a wooden poker chip. (The chips shown here came from a game I bought at a yard sale.) 

Print the clock face on label paper. 

Cut out two of the clock faces. 

Place one on the bottom piece of the counter. 

Put the other on a spare top piece, which will be the pattern to center the real top piece. 

Using a push pin (a thumb tack with a big head on it) to work a hole through the center of the clock face on the spare top piece until it comes through the bottom of the poker chip.

Remove the pin and put the spare poker chip on top of a blank chip, making sure the  chips align.

With the two aligned pieces together put the push pin through the original template into the bottom chip to mark the center of what will become the top part of the counter.

Cut a "V" shaped notch in the  chip without the clock face.

Place it on top of the poker chip with the other clock face on it and align the two.

Take a regular thumb tack and push it through the marked center of the top plate into the bottom piece to complete the construction of your new casualty counter.

Understand, some of the counters are not going to perfectly align but they do work, which it what really matters.

Smoke and fog markers. Since I do not have the means to create heavy card board numbered chits to use as markers, I again resorted to the pieces from yardsale games and manipulatives which I purchased at a used book store which also sells second hand school supplies for teachers.

I have used Sudoku tiles, preschool plastic numbers, the backs of Scrabble Junior tiles, and finally settled on miniature poker decks because they are moderate in size, and very visible on the game table. 

It required the acquisition of about four decks of cards from which I extracted all of the cards from Ace through "6." 

From there. I divided the cards evenly into two equally numbered decks. 

I labeled the one "Smoke."

"Fog" became the unlabeled deck.

The numbers indicate the thickness of the smoke and the fog, with the highest number being the densest obstruction and the Ace being the thinnest veil.

The both limit visibility and regular movement, and the extra die used in charges by the number on the card. For instance, the "3" reduces a movement of "9" to "6." When firing, The adjusted range on the rangs stick is reduced by "3."

It the visibility is higher than the allotted movement the piece moves only 1 inch because visibility is zero.

The difference between smoke and fog in the game is that smoke accumulates with each firing and fog dissipates over time. At the beginning of the game the player determines the fog's thickness,  should the scenario call for, by roll 1 D6 for each of the low spots on the field. The resulting number is the thickness of the fog. That is the number the player places on the field. At the beginning of each turn, the player rolls a D6 to determine if the fog thickness reduces by 1.

Everytime a regiment fires smoke accumulates, starting with and Ace. With each firing, it increases by 1 until it maxes out at 6. At the beginning of each turn, the player rolls a die to see if the smoke bank reduces by 1 or not.

The reduction of the fog and smoke indicates thinning out cause by breezes dissipating the smoke and the sun burning the fog off.

Dice

In previous versions of this game I utilized D20s, D12s, D10s, and D6s. Weile supervising the game at FAll-In I realized that having so many varieties of dice on the table complicated and actually slowed play. Consequently, I simplified the the playing system. The actual playing of the dice are detailed in the game  rules.

The dice reflect the uncertainty of reaction and response to combat situations.

The two colors of 6Ds are used in hand-to-hand resolution, reduction in movement for crossing fences, going up and down hills, destroying fences, and determining fog density.

They also determine reaction to artillery fire on targets and reaction to small arms fire on columns.

D10s resolve small arms and artillery fire, officer hits, rallies, stall marker and reaction marker removals, officer replacement, officers being able to see a problem and move to solve it, and reaction to incoming fire.

As a rules of thumb with this game. If there is a question about what can or cannot be done on the field, have a roll off instead of an argument.

Litko produces an excellent range of economical plastic markers like these, for miniature wargaming. Place these on thew field to announce a charge or to indicate that a unit is routed and either running or withdrawing.

Thes home made rout markers represent a unit in panic mode: Retreat, Withdraw, Prone. They are removed when the unit rallies.

These plastic poker chip sized markers came from a yard sale game which I looted for the parts. They are hit markers for officer, skirmishers, and artillery crews. Red: 1 hit. White: 2 hits.  Blue: 3 hits. the 4th hit removes the piece. Red, Whit, and Blue is easy for an American to remember.

These small sized markers, also yard sale salvaged, represent a stalled regiment (red) and a regiment in reaction (blue). They need to be removed by and officer at the beginning of the turn or the unit can only defend itself if attacked and that at a reduced status.

In hand-to-hand the attacker gets an extra die.

When firing, they have to roll a D6 halved to reduce their effectiveness.

Many of these items are available commercially but gamers, as a rule, often craft their own markers. It kind of is a hall mark of the hobby.

Again, thank you for reading this.  I always look forward to cordial, and informative comments and observations.

Action/Reaction in Miniature Wargaming (Part 2)

Officers have an important role in this system. The rank and file needs them to direct ordered firing, need them to prevent routs, withdrawals, and undesirable reactions to charges and collisions with other units. They are needed to provide a source of command (provided they see the situation) with a unit which has lost all of its officers. They may be mounted or dismounted. Mounted officers can cover a greater distance to get a unit under control than an officer on foot.

Being mounted, however deprived the officer of the cover afforded by stonewalls, fences, boulders, and tree stumps, because his body, from about the waist up would be above them. A lot of “gentlemen” receives nasty groin wounds because of shoulder height incoming rounds. Winfield Scott Hancock and James Kemper, at Gettysburg, in particular, come to mind.    Contrary to popular history sharpshooters did not selectively eliminate a lot of mounted commanders as did stray shot arching over the line. Civil War small arms projectile did not travel in flat trajectories.  They tended to climb the farther they got away from the weapons’ muzzles and then drop. Smoke could and did reduce the line of sight to zero. As a point of reference, I recommend watching the 1951 Red Badge of Courage with Audie Murphy and Bill Mauldin to get an excellent portrayal of a smokey field.

For this system every regiment should have at least three officers and no less than one. They represent the colonel, the lieutenant colonel, and the major. Once they are gone the player has to replace the last officer with the senior captain, which is accomplished by an even/odd die roll. If that fails, the “brigadier” (player) checks to see if there is another officer within distance who might have seen the last officer go down. That is resolved by an Even/Odd die roll. If the officer sees it, he goes to the regiment and takes over. His presence on the line will keep the regiment from being stalled and leaderless.

When a line comes under fire and suffer hits, all of the regimental;  officers with it are susceptible to injury because bullets do not have brains. They could hit whoever is in their paths. An Even/Odd roll determines whether the player has to roll to determine of the officer(s) gets injured. Officers can sustain four “hits” before being eliminated from play.

Besides rallying units, officers also make it possible to break a regiment into separate sections such as battalions/wings (1/2 of a regiment) or by divisions (two stands). Dividing a regiment makes maneuvering easier in crowded spaces or to keep a unit functional when divided by a fence or stonewall.

Infantry pieces consist of 48 rank and file. (The officers and file closers are assumed to be with them.) They can sustain 12 hits before getting removed from play. Therefore, each hit represents four casualties. A lot of Civil War shooting because of improper training, smoke, and other factors did not hit the targets. A lot of that depended upon how close the troops were in an unobstructed field. A regiment generates smoke every time it fires and that smoke often did not dissipate as quickly as it does in the movies.

Once a regiment loses a piece, it has to determine of it routs or not. If it fails the results of the die roll, the officer(s) will attempt to rally it. A die roll also resolves this issue.

Artillery crews consist of three crew pieces, each representing 12 enlisted men on the crew. If the player wants to introduce limbers, that is fine. One of the pieces will stay with the limber. Each field piece stands for one gun. At this stage of the games development I do not distinguish between rifles and smoothbores. As it evolves, I could differentiate between the two, but at this point I think it would interfere with playability. Once a crew loses a piece, it has to roll for a rout and the officer of the section of the battery captain can attempt to rally it.

Infantry and cavalry regiments must roll for rout when they incur casualties from by artillery, independent of small arms fire.

If the crew abandons the gun, they may attempt to spike it by an Even/Odd die roll.

Skirmisher serves as the eyes and ears of an advancing force in hostile territory. Each piece represents 4 “comrades in battle."Their job is to find the enemy before the line does and to snipe at officers. Unlike regular infantry, they get a deduction for cover in addition to any other cover on the field. Because they came from a unit, the regiment of origin suffers a “hit” for each skirmisher it dispatches.  They can return to the line and remove the “hits” as well. Often in a game, the players forget to recall them and they show up inconveniently behind an enemy formation.

Without skirmishers, a unit can accidentally walk into an unexpected confrontation much like what happened in the Cornfield at Antietam and at McPherson’s Woods at Gettysburg.

I have not dealt with cavalry in this game system yet, however that is pending.

As the title indicates, this is an Action/Reaction system. I do not stress over whether they were green or elite troops. Troops think on their feet, veteran and “green” alike. Civil War accounts are filled with men lying down without orders, like William French’s line at Antietam in the action along the Bloody Lane, or the lines battling it out in the Wilderness. Erich Maria Remarque in All Quiet on the Western Front, eloquently describes how the soldier developed a sixth sense – one that could detect the change in air pressure from an incoming shell, trained the eye to detect cover behind a mole hill, and deflate the body to make it mold into the earth. Generally, given the chance to take cover, men avoided standing up in the open to blaze away at one another. If there was cover, they took advantage of it with or without orders.  Fences had holes in them and men kneeling down behind them would also have them.

The next part of this series will include a preliminary description of the playing pieces, beyond the miniatures, needed to play this game to record casualties, place smoke and fog, announce charges, record deductions for movement, and reducing the effectiveness of fire, and other aspects of the game..

As always, I really appreciate constructive comments and suggestions. Thank you.

Action/Reaction in Miniature Wargaming (Part 1)

My grandson and I had a great time at Fall-In and anticipate running games next year. Alas, the photos did not turn out well, therefore they are not in this entry. Since then I have been rewriting, tweaking and testing the rules for Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties, my Civil War  rules set.

While the rules are designed for 54mm, they can be scaled down to other sizes. Scale and basing are up to the individual. I play with 54mm because that is the scale I prefer. I used that scale in my history high school classes because they were economical, and easier to see, and handle. I used then to teach tactics and command and control, in which the students had to write afteraction reports.

What I intend to do in the next several blogs is to introduce the rules, solicit suggestions on refining them and explain the logic behind why I adopted the rules to encourage others to generate their own systems.

I am a detail oriented individual, a firm believer that For want of a nail, a shoe was lost/ for want of a shoe, a horse was lost/ for want of a horse a battle was lost/ all for the want of a nail.” Ignoring the small stuff can create larger than life problems. For want of socks, blistered feet disabled men as much as bullets. I study battles from the ground up. I interpret battlefields the same way. Fog, smoke, rapidly undulating terrain, high humidity, and very faint breezes transformed bucolic farm fields into separate fields over which no general had control. That is what I wanted to simulate in a game. I believe to a degree, I have achieved that objective.

I also wanted to get minimize charts and make the outcomes of engagements far less predictable. Why is it, that in popular history, Confederates never deserted the field? That the Civil War was civil? That elite troops never reached a breaking point? That artillery projectiles always exploded? That generals really knew what was going on within their zones of control? I attribute Murphy’s Law (anything that can go wrong will at the most inconvenient time) as the basis of the concept behind this system.

Isaac Newton’s Third Law says that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” With physics that is true but not so much for human interactions. There was a great cartoon from Carl Rose in 1942 picturing two GIs on a forward observation post in the Pacific. The first frame shows the one guy on the berm of the trench snapping off a round toward the unseen Japanese followed immediately by the second frame which depicts 13 artillery rounds passing low and horizontally over their trench. The fellow who started the mess calmly tells his mate, “Touchy, aren’t they?” How many big firefights started by a loose round on the perimeter? How many high school brawls from one remark? How many arguments over a trivial remark?

That is how this system operates. Action/reaction, unless an officer sees it and succeeds in stopping it. It also makes the players use the terrain, ground cover, smoke and/or fog to their advantage.

Basic Linear Tactics

Diagram 1 illustrates 5 stands (representing 500 men in two ranks) in line of battle. Their normal movement is 9 inches less any deductions for terrain, fog, and smoke.

 Diagram 1

Diagram 2 shows 4 stands (400 men in column of 4's) facing by the narrow end of the rectangle. Their normal rate of speed is 12 inches less deductions.

Changing from column into line can occur by turning the pieces 90 degrees to face right or left by the deduction of 1 movement point.

Going from column into line or line into column other than by changing facing takes all of the movement points because they require more intricate manoeuvres to execute and more exertion by the men into line. while the illustrations below have specific commands, the important thing to note it where the point of pivot company (the anchor) in the line changes and gives the commander flexibility in handling his/her regiment.

Note how the left of the line becomes the tail of the column and places the head of the column closest to the opponent's line.

Here the line faces to the rear and forms column in the opposite direction.

Column to the Right (or Left) Into Line allows the commander to quickly move his regiment to either flank to protect his front.

Column Forward Into Line allows the officer to reduce his front for regiments on his flanks to come one line.

     Column Front to Rear Into Line allows the commander to face a threat from the rear. Note the center stand (the front of the column) about faces and the other companies go on line to both flanks.

Front to Rear on the Left (or Right) Company is a left wheel to the rear. This changes front by 90 degrees. (For some reason I missed placing the 3rd Company in the new line.) It is the reverse of a Left (orRight) Wheel into Line. 

     Into Column on the Center Company. This places the front company closer to the enemy.

There are no movement points used in this maneuver when in column of fours.

A Right (or Left) Quarter Wheel takes hale of the line's movement points (5 inches) with no deductions.

In the game the player does not have to issue those specific commands but has to know how to change the formations to his/her advantage.

Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties: Resolving Hand-to-Hand

With Fall-In coming up in a few days I will not be able to complete this series yet. Therefore I decided to devote this entry to resolving Hand-to- Hand combat on battalion level of infantry to infantry. 

Scenario 1

1. The Confederates during the turn segment have announced a charge as indicated by the marker. The confederate player has rolled 2 D6s - one white (to indicate how much farther than 9 inches he can advance) and the other a black D6. (The even number indicates that the Rebs had delivered the Rebel Yell.

2. The Union troops have heard it, and there being no noise on the field to make it hard to discern, have decided to react to it  by rolling the special D12 and placing the blue marker behind the line. (The blue marker indicates the regiment has reacted and the officer has not tried to stop it.) The regiment, as indicated by the "W" will withdraw 3 inches as the Confederates advance.

3. The charge has fallen short and the Confederate officer has placed a red chit by the line to indicate that the line is disorganized and may only return fire if fired upon and then only half of the hits will count.

4. The movement phase has ended and the Union commander has ordered his regiment to fire. The disorganized Confederate regiment is returning fire. The range is "8" and the Federal officer has rolled one D10 for each of his men on line. "0" and any roll higher than "8" is a miss. Five of the dice indicate hits with one miss.

The Confederate officer rolls one D20 and one D6 to determine if the officer was hit during the fighting. The even number on the D6 means he has been hit but the "2" on the D20 indicates that it was too minor to count as a wound. His men have not returned fire.

Scenario 2

1. The Confederates are preparing to charge. The odd number on the black D6 means they are not giving the Rebel Yell. The red D6 means they will charge 11 inches and halt at the white D6.

The Federals know they are going to be charged because there is no intervening obstacle like smoke to block the Rebels from view. Therefore they roll the special D12 which results the regiment will fire in reaction.

2. The Union player has placed a blue marker behind the line indicating a reaction and has rolled a red D3 to show how much he will deduct from the range marker. The range is "6" less "3." The dice roll has only two numbers "3" or lower. The Confederates suffer two hits. (The deduction reflects snap shooting.)

The Confederate commander rolls a D6 and a D20. The even D6 notes he is hit. The "12" on the D20 means he has been hit twice and may only take one more hit before he is removed. The White poker chip indicates two hits.  

3. The Union commander rolls one blue D6 for each piece involved and arranges them in a line from highest to lowest. The Confederate rolls one white die for each piece and lines them up highest to lowest as shown above. 

W5/B3 = 1 Union hit. B3/W2 = 1 Confederate hit. W2/B2 = no hits. W2/3B1 = 3 Union hits.

4. This shows the actual contact. The Confederate Officer has gotten hit (RD6, even). D20 "10" means he has gotten hit once.
That is his third hit and he is removed.

5. The Union player, having suffered hits rolls three D6s. Two are even therefore he rolls 2 D20s - "16" and "17" which results in two officers getting hit three times and are removed. 

6. Both sides are disrupted by the assault. The Confederates for having reached their maximum distance and the Federals for losing more men and having to withdraw 3 inches. 

Thank you for reading this entry. It takes longer to explain how the action works than to actually play it on a game. As always, I encourage you to respond with questions, comments, and observations.

The next entry will include photographs from the Fall-In games.