ACW: The Battle of the Great Berries

Yesterday we played a game with our homebrewn ACW rules. I based the scenario on the battle of Grossbeeren (inspired by an article in Miniature Wargames 473).

I set up the scenario as a 4 player game (with me being the umpire), but Bart had to cancel at the last minute. So I took over as plumpire (player umpire). 4 people also meant my dedicated wargames room would be a bit cramped, so I managed to get permission from the Commander in Chief to host the game in the kitchen at our large dining table...

Here are the pictures, with some commentary.

The lay out of the battlefield. Troops have to enter the tables at various entry points as marching columns.

The players (Jean-Pierre, Eddy, Wim), engaged in some pre-battle socializing. Yes, we are all middle-aged men and it shows ;-)

The opening shots. A Confederate column is marching towards a Union camp, which has trouble waking up. The prepared artillery position is still unmanned.

Napoleon (a small statuette I bought in the gift shop of the real battlefield) is our lucky general token. If you have it, you can reroll any composite die roll, but then the lucky general switches to the other side.

An overview of the Union left flank.

Another overview of the Union left flank.

Wim and Eddy discussing tactics.

The Confederacy left flank, commanded by Wim, is advancing rapidly.

The Union right flank fails to make progress. Really unlucky command rolls ...

Eddy has possession of the luck general. Surely victory must be ours! NOT!!!

Fierce battles on the Union left flank.

General overview.

The control board. We sort of decided in the post-game briefing that the weather conditions (drove by drawing a card each turn) were too harsh.

Jean-Pierre pondering his next move.

General overview.

Centre of the battlefield.

Wim looking at his marching columns.

The Union left flank again. I was commanding this position, so plenty of pictures from this side of the table.

The Union left flank again.

General overview near the end of the game.

Overall, a fun game, but as always, there was some discussion about the scenario setup and the luck (or absence of luck) of good die rolls. But the important part was that we had game among friends, some chatting, some beers. That's what wargaming is all about, after all.