The Battle of Salem Cemetary (2)

The summer holidays are always a mixed blessing. You think you can spend some time on gaming, but with all the things to do in the house and garden, gaming time is a scarce resource.

But anyway, I did manage the first turn in my solo ACW game set up on the wargaming table.

I gave the Confederates the initiative, so they got to move first. The have 3 brigades, each with a commander, and ouse rules say you can keep on activating units in each brigade till the commander fails his command roll.

Here's the dyployment as seen from the Confederate side. Salem cemetary is visible in the distance, and the artillery has to be positioned on the small hill to be able to maim the Union infantry lines.

 

I opted to start with the centre brigade, trying to move the artillery in position. The command roll went ok, and the movement roll was a "4", allowing the artillery to deploy in a firing position on the small hill . The other units didn't move as far.

On the right flank, the infantry started moving forwards. The plan is to move them within firing range, start firing at the troops on the hill, and force them to make morale checks every turn. The cavalry is kept on the far right.

Then we have the left flank. DIfficult terain to manoeuvre, but we expect not to do mucht there, except to keep the enemy busy. Although I moved the cavalry on the farm grounds.

Now it's the Union's turn. Their troops all started at a strength of 7 (as opposed to 10 for the Confederates), and their best plan is to stay put and fire at the approaching enemy, while keeping the cavalry ready to hit some juicy target if the opportunity presents itself.

A couple of succesfull firing orders from the centre onto the deployed artillery unit ...

 

Shuffling the cavalry around on the right flank ...

The left flank didn;t do much due to a failed command roll ... But then the Union played one of its three chance cards to further diminish the artillery in the Confederate centre. The red marker indicates it should take a morale test at the start of the next turn due to casualties.

To be continued ...