Artillery, the “King of Battle,” generally accounted for about 5% - 10% of
battlefield casualties during the Civil War, excepting Antietam, where some
estimated the losses ranged above 30%. For the sake of brevity, this entire
scenario centers around artillery in only one part of the field.
The next card in the deck activated the
Federal artillery as indicated by the King of Spades. During this activation
the artillerist may move his guns or fire them, provided they have a clear
target.
The battery
commander has decided to use his 6-gun battery across from the cornfield. Guns
1 and two, shown here, are firing, respectively, at the space between the
advancing Federal line in great coats and the first ruler, and the smaller
space between that ruler and the one to its immediate right. Gun 1 is firing
solid shot (cannon ball) and gun 2 is firing explosive shell (common shell).
The dice in front
of the field represent shot. Because smoke partially obscured the gunner’s line of sight, the gunner has to roll a die to indicate whether the round went long,
went short, or [if blank] actually hit the target. This one went long by 2
inches and therefore missed the line but could hit the major behind it. To
score 1 hit the D10s have to have 1 pair. If it had three of a kind it would
inflict two hits. In this case it hit nothing. If it had hit the officer, he
would have to roll 1 D6 for each hit and suffered the consequences.
Gun 2’s shell
burst and was a direct hit above and in front of the men. Again, shooting
through smoke, the blank red die indicates a direct hit. Therefore, the red “6”
does not count at all. Had it been 6 inches long or short, no one would have
been hit, because the blast radius is 4 inches forward. Note there are two
“2s.” With explosive rounds, every matching number counts as a hit. This line
suffered 2 casualties.
Guns 3 and 4 have
fired case shot through smoke at the two last sections of the cornfield. Case
shot consisted of an explosive round filled with musket balls and proved quite
deadly.
Gun 4’s case shot exploded
short but within the blast radius and scored 3 hits.
The Gun 4 nicked the
lieutenant colonel, as indicated by the “6” on the D6. The colonel, however,
having been wounded once earlier, suffered 3 wounds from Gun 3’s shell and has
been removed from the field with a total of 4 hits. The lieutenant colonel
rolled 2 D10s and because the blue die rolled the higher of the two, the
regiment did not react to the fire.
To the right, Gun
5 has decided to unload canister on the left flank of the Confederate regiment
to its front. For a rifled gun, it could contain around 60 musket balls packed
in sawdust (depending on the manufactured) and for a 12-pounder smoothbore it
could have around 27 lead, iron, or steel balls the size of golf balls, also
packed in sawdust (depending upon the manufacturer).
The measuring
stick has 6-inch intervals on it because of the extensive range of the canister
round (450 yards). The crew will have to take a deduction of 1 because it is
firing through smoke and it will have a second 1 space deduction because it is
firing downhill. Therefore the 8 on the measuring stick will become a “6.”
The gunner will
roll 9 D10s. All number “6” and lower will be hits. The round inflicted 4 hits.
However, because it is canister the player multiplies it by the number of
pieces on the crew. 4 X 3 = 12. The problem is that the round hit the regiment
on the flank which doubles the hits to 24 (96 casualties) which means the
Confederates lost 2 pieces (1 stand).
The Confederate
officers refused the two left companies and refused the line to the rear,
creating an “L” in response to the hit. (Not shown in this frame.)
The colonel took 2
hits from the round. The major, while not injured, failed to rally the men but
the colonel succeeded as noted by the “5” on the blue die.
The Number 6 gun
on the far right faced its gun to hit the regiment in the lower part of the
plowed field. (There are no deductions to face a gun up to 90 degrees in one
direction.) The gunner fired case shot through smoke at the target.
The round struck 1
inch short a panicked regiment. (The “P” indicates the regiment is prone.) The
roll produced 2 pairs which translates into 4 hits.
The lieutenant
colonel was killed instantly. (D6 – “4.”) The colonel got nicked. (“6” on the
D6). Since the lieutenant was eliminated, the colonel rolled to prevent more
panic and succeeded. (light blue “8” on the D10.)
This scenario was
repeated for the other brigade toward the middle of the board and ended this
activation.
As always, I
encourage you to send me courteous comments, suggestions, and observations
about this segment and any of the others I have penned. During this
cantankerous lockdown, I really look forward to speaking with someone else
other than myself.
Stay safe. Thank
you.
This entry will walk the reader through the process of
three activations. I intend to explain in detail how the action/reaction
process works in a gaming situation. I also intend to explain how officers take
casualties as well as how skirmishers, sharpshooters, and line regiments incur
them. I included the firing stick as well into this scenario.
The black Queen activates the Union side’s two
sharpshooters. Sharpshooters may move/fire or fire/move. Terrain deductions do
not infringe on their movement. However, terrain and smoke might block their
line of sight. Players are to resolve any controversy over that matter with a
die roll off, with the higher number winning. The idea is to have fun, not to
get into heated arguments, nor to resolve “discussions” with fisticuffs.
Note the smoke emanating from the steeple. The one
Yankee sharpshooter has just fired at a group of officers in the center of the
cornfield.
The ADC on horseback has gotten hit once before as
indicated by the red marker. The sniper
rolls a D6. 1 – 4 score that many hits on the target. 5 – 6 means he gotten “winged”
but not badly. The roll is a 1 meaning he now has been hit twice, therefore the
player places the white chip under him and removes the red one. Two more hits eliminates
that piece.
The second Union sniper stands on the hill overlooking
the brick farmhouse below. He has zeroed in on the artillery captain in front
pf the house.
The “6” indicates that he only nicked the Reb. That
ends the Union snipers’ activation.
The next card, a red Queen means the 2 Confederate
sharpshooters may move/fire.
In this instance, the Confederate sharpshooter on the
hill above the country road has moved into the loft of the barn and is firing
at the gaggle of officers on the lower hill below. Note the targets in the
foreground and the smoke from the loft at the top of the picture.
The sniper rolled a “1” which means he wounded the ADC
once, which is why the red chip goes under the stand.
The second Reb sniper is along a fence in a woodlot
firing at the mounted officer in the road behind the zouaves to his right
front. Being mounted, the officer shows above the stonewall and is a good
target.
The sharpshooter rolled a “2”. Therefore, he places a
white chip under the officer. Two more hits will remove the officer from the
game.
The “3” of Hearts activate the Confederates’ Third Brigade,
which occupies the cornfield in the hollow between the road and the church on
the hill. When playing solitaire, I move the regiments from the left flank of
the brigade to the right of the brigade.
This regiment, having been forced to do so, withdrew in
a panic, as signified by the “W” and therefore has to be rallied. It still has
all three staff officers. The colonel (mounted) was hid three times in that
action and is in bad shape. The lieutenant colonel, in his post on the left of
the line has suffered a severe wound as indicated by the “2 hit” white chip
under his stand. The perished in the attack against the road and is no longer
available. They have to rally the regiment or it will withdraw 6 inches to the
rear and possibly disrupt the regiment moving in column behind it.
To do so, the brigadier of that brigade will roll 2
D10s of different colors two times (one pair/officer), as needed to see if they rallied the
regiment. The light blue represents the officer and the other color the men. On
the first roll, the officer scored the higher number and thereby stopped the panic.
The brigadier removes the “W” and places a small red marker on the line,
indicating that it is disorganized.
If both officers had failed their roll the higher number, the regiment
would have kept the “W” and backed up 6 inches into the corn, destroying the
fence in the process. When the red 3 is again drawn the officers will roll to
the red marker to allow the regiment to activate. If not, it remains stalled on
the field and can only defend itself but at a disadvantage.
In this shot, the stalled regiment is still stalled
despite the fact that the red marker is not shown. The regiment behind it,
being in column of 4s advances 23 of its allotted 24 inches before expending 1
movement point to face by the right flank into line.
The regiment on its right, in the cornfield, rather
than expend its entire 19 inches in movement, advanced to the edge of the corn
and sheltered behind the fence.
The regiment in reserve (not shown) stayed put. The
one on the far right, moved by column and flanked right along the rail fence.
The left wing (4 stands) decided to react by firing
and the three staff officers decided to let it do so. Therefore, they did not
roll the 2 different colored D10s to stop them. [A regiment may move and fire by
sections as long as there is a staff officer to control each section.]
The stick is a wooden blind slat cut 27 inches long
and divided into 9 3-inch sections (3 inches/section.) The distance from the
Yankees to the rebs is “7.” Because the Confederates are behind a fence the
distance gets extended to a “6.” The little red dot indicates a reaction fire
which means the two stands will roll 1 D6 and divided the result in half and
deduct the result from the firing stick. 1 divided by 2 = .5, which rounds up
to 1. This means the “6” on the stick becomes a “5.” The brigadier rolls 4
D10s. All numbers “5” or lower score hits. The “2” equals 1 hit, the others
being misses.
The second part of the regiment, to the right, now fires, using the
same formula. It rolled a “5” on the D6 which turns into a -3 on the stick and add it to -1 for the rail fence. The regular effective range of “6” less the -4
now becomes a “2.” The left wing (half)
of the regiment did some pretty poor shooting. Two his converts into 8
casualties out of 400 rounds fired.
The results are mixed. A look as the D10s show that
both affected regiments did not react. When fired upon during a reaction fire
the units hit may respond once.
The lieutenant colonel in the upper left of the photo
got severely hit (blue chip) ass did the colonel of the regiment on the right
flank (blue chip.) The major on the left of the right regiment, was moderately
wounded (2 hits – white chip).
The Confederate 3rd Brigade had ended its
activation. It still may be subject to reaction from Federal regiments or
artillery in vicinity.
More will follow in other blogs of this series. The next one will focus on Artillery, and charges. I intend to add charts later.
As always, thank you for your patience. I genuinely appreciate constructive comment, observations, and suggestions.
During this period of lockdown I have resorted to taking notes for the next few chapters of my Gettysburg manuscript, mown the lawn twice, run errands, and started revising and fine tuning my wargame, Chaos, Confusion, and Casualties. I believe the mechanics allow an individual to play it solitaire or in groups, on on division, army, corps, and regimental level with any scale of figures. Like so many games the players can and will tweak it to their hearts' desire.
I game with 54mm because those are the toy soldiers I happen to own and at my age, I can see and handle them a lot easier, though it has not interfered with my ability to get lost in the game and fire on "friendlies" by accident.
I am presenting annotated photos of my current game to illustrate how it is played in my basement on as 6 foot X 15 foot area. What you are looking at are 3 brigades per side and several artillery batteries engaged in a large battle.
This is a card activated game. The card deck consists of Hearts (Confederate) and Spades (Union). I organized the two decks as follows: A, 2, and three for brigade numbers; Jack - skirmishers; Queen - Sharpshooters; King artillery. This shows that the second Union Brigade has activated, which means that the brigadier may introduce a new unit to the field, move a unit, or order a unit to fire. Only one of those actions is allowed per regiment.
Looking at the deck you can see that the Union artillery has fired as have the Union skirmishers and that the Confederate skirmishers have responded. The window blind slat in the picture is a firing stick for rifles divided into 3 inch segments,
This illustrates Union Brigade 3 deploying for action. Notes the zouaves in the road to the right and to the left taking shelter behind the stone wall along the road and the rail fence to the left of the artillery section. Just along the fence is a column from Union Brigade 1 heading through a gully below the guns. Near the card, the section lieutenant it tending to his right gun while a column of infantry passes by the brigadier general and his staff (note the color bearer). on its way to support he zouaves in the road. You will also note the mounted colonels and the dismounted lieutenant colonels and majors behind or alongside the respective regiments.
Union Brigade 1 is under attack from the front and both flanks. The brigadier general and his mounted ADCs are to the left. The Division commander and his three aides appear in the foreground.
Officers in this system stop routes, detect enemy movement, and determine whether or not units react to incoming fire or charges.
For a point of reference, note the Zouaves on the left. Out of sight, the Union artillery has hit two Confederate regiments with lethal case shot. The regiment in the center foreground took casualties as noted by the homemade casualty counter. Looking closer, you can also see that it still has all three officers.
The regiment to its right rear, however panicked, withdrew 6 inches and went prone because it failed a morale check by all three officers. The casualty counter behind the line shows that it took casualties and its one staff officer has been wounded twice as indicated by the white poker chip under the officer's stand. [I will explain the mechanics of taking casualties, routing, and rallying in a future blog.]
Union Brigade 2 is advancing on the Confederate brigade moving through the cornfield. The slight puff of smoke to the left of the steeple indicates that a sharpshooter has zeroed in on one of the mounted officers in the center of the cornfield. The Union brigadier and his staff are in the front of the church while two more regiments in column of fours advance to the support of the rest of their brigade. (Sharpshooters are particularly bothersome because they have scoped rifles and can hit any officer they can see from their perches.)
This close up shows the Confederate Brigade 3 coming under artillery fire from the front and infantry movement from the right flank. Its left flank is getting pestered by Union artillery fire from the left flank also. Since this is a reaction/reaction game, the Confederate officers have to determine whether their units will react to the pressure
On the far end of the field to the left of the cornfield two Confederate regiments are advancing up a hill to flank the Federal line. Down below another regiment has charged up the road in an unsuccessful attempt to flank the Federal line on the opposite side. (Charges can and do fall short of their marks.) The colonel at the head of the column is not on the field because two Union skirmishes (note the smoke) have eliminated him in response to the charge. (He took the 4 hits required to remove an individual officer, skirmisher, or sharpshooter from the game.)
In the center of the foreground, near the downed fence is a Rebel sharpshooter in buckskins. In the upper right, at the fence corner, a rebel skirmisher has fired and taken out the mounted captain of the battery.
This is another shot of the previous side showing a Union regiment trying to flank the Confederate flankers and a regiment down along the road which has not reacted yet to the Confederate charge.
Confederate Brigade 1 , moving around the house is preparing to charge the Union guns on the hill. The Division commander and his staff gather next to the house trying to avoid the Union sharpshooter nestled between the guns on the hill along their front.
In the sections which follow I will be discussing the sequence of play, firing charts, movement charts, and some of the more detailed aspects of the play.
Thank you for reading this long presentation. I would really appreciate questions and observations from those who read this to blog because I want to address them in future entries. As always, I look forward to receiving polite and constructive inquiries
Guns 3 and 4 have
fired case shot through smoke at the two last sections of the cornfield. Case
shot consisted of an explosive round filled with musket balls and proved quite
deadly.
