Wargaming in 54mm (Part 1)

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