Promotions and Medals (2)

As I explained earlier, I maintain some continuity over our different ACW battles. In a sense it's somewhat old-school, but very effective in instilling a campaign feel over what otherwise would be a series of unlinked battles.

I use several mechanisms:

1. After each battle, the commanders who participated (they are drawn randomly from a stack of cards) roll for additional stats or something else that could have happened to them. I use a simple table for this:

Roll a die:
1-3: no pain nor gain
4-5: roll on the table below.
6: personal injury, roll on table below

1    Command Range increases by 1 (maximum 4). If already at 4, roll again.
2    Movement command bonus increases by 1
3    Fire command bonus increases by 1 (max +3)
4    Charge command bonus increases by 1(max +3)
5    Infantry command bonus increases by 1(max +3)
6    Cavalry command bonus increases by 1(max +3)
7    Artillery command bonus increases by 1(max +3)
8    Becomes older and less reactive ... Command range decreases by 1 (minimum 1). Roll again if CR already = 1.
9    Receives a nickname. Invent one.
10    Roll again.


1    Killed in action. Remove from campaign and replace by a new officer.
2    Loses an eye.
3    Loses an arm.
4    Loses a leg.
5    Scar in face.
6    Develops a drinking habit.
7    Horse shot and dead.
8    Deserts and switches sides.
9-10    Roll D10 + number of battles fight. If >=10 ==> retire. Remove from campaign and replace by a new officer.

2. Each player can name a unit that behaved exceptionally during the battle. Such units also roll on a table for some additional benefits:

    Inf  //  L Inf  //  Cav  //  Art
1    +1 fire act  //  +1 act roll   // +1 charge act //   + 1 fire act
2    +1 move act  //  +1 move act  //  +1 move act  //  +1 move act
3    Roll again. //   move roll “1” => 2 (subsequent 3 or 4)  //  move roll “1” => 2 //   Roll again.
4    +1 firing die  //  +1 firing die  //  +1 melee die  //  +1 firing die
5    Starts game +1 Str  //  Starts game +1 Str   // Starts game +1 Str  // Starts game +1 Str
6    Nickname //   Nickname  //  Nickname  //  Nickname

3. Units that were routed lose all accumulated bonuses, and start again but now with a regimental number one higher than before.

So, as an example after the Battle of Port Republic, we got the following for the Union:

• The Old Forester Fusiliers were routed, so in the next game they are named the 2nd Old Forester Fusiliers
• The Laphroaig Lancers were recommended by Phil for exceptional courage, the die roll said they will start the next game at +1 Unit Strength.
• The Basil Hayden's Big Guns were recommended by Eddy for bravery, and they deserve a nickname according to the rolled result. Since all unit names were generated by ChatGPT, as "imaginative names for American Civil War units inspired by whisky and bourbon brands", I did some googling, and it turned out Basil Hayden whisky originated as Old Granddad ... so the unit becomes "The Old Granddaddies".

 

I keep track of everything in an excel file, an equivalent to the old-school "wargaming journal".

The Battle of Port Republic

(note: Another report of this same game was posted by Eddy on Boardgamegeek. )

 Yesterday we played another ACW game, using our house rules.  Bart, Eddy and Koen showed up, so we had 4 players, which is the maximum limit I can host in my wargaming room.

The scenario I prepared was based on the Battle of Port Republic, an encounter that took place during the 1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign. When we say "based on ... ", we do mean "inspired by ... ". I'm not that fuzzy about recreating exact order of battles or recreate the terrain as exactly as possible, but I do look at the tactical challenges that were present in a given battle and try to translate them to the rules and table size we use.

More specifically, I started from the wargaming setup for the batle given in the excellent book "Wargaming in History: The Shenandoah Valley 1862".

The chapter on Port Republic gives a ready-to-use lay-out of the table. 

I added some terrain elements, such as an additional corn field that blocked visibility in the central open plain. But the main idea remained in place: the Confederates attacked the Union, with the aim of trying to secure the battlefield and more specifically the Coaling hill in the upper left corner, upon which the Union had placed a strong artillery battery overlooking the battlefield.

So, Eddy and I took the Union, and Koen and Bart would play with the attacking Confederates. We started by dealing out random commanders (we have a stack of cards for those), and players could attribute them to the different brigades.

Then we started the game proper. 

 

The initial strategizing. Eddy, Koen and Bart discussing the finer points of what strategy to follow.

A view from the Union side, looking towards the approaching Confederates.

Eddy is in awe of his artillery battery, sitting on the Coaling. Surely nothing can go wrong with such tremendous firing power.

The artillery battery took its first shots. Note we use imaginative names for our ACW units, inspired by whisky and bourbon brands (and with a little help from ChatGPT).

Koen is looking worried. Is the Confederate advance going as smoothly as planned?

A battle in the corn field in the centre of the battlefield is starting. Historically, the fields were open, but I decided it would be better for the game if the central plain was broken up by some visibility blocking elements.

Koen moving some his troops. Eddy is making sure no cheating is taking place.

Near the end of the game, the Coaling was stormed by the Confederate infantry, while a major cavalry battle was underway near the foot of the hill.

The Union is ready to admit defeat.

The end of the game.

 

Overall, it was a pretty good game and a good scenario. The Confederacy overran the Union position (as happened historically). But more importantly, we had plenty of fun and good laughs.

Here are a few more pictures taken the day after, but now with all the clutter such as dice and cards removed and the miniatures straightened out:

The end state of the game, looking from the Coaling over the battlefield.

The attack of the Confederacy on the Coaling, as seen from the attacking side.

The view from the Confederacy towards the Union lines in the open fields.

The battle in the corn field.

A view from the Union lines.

Another overview, with the Coaling in the far end.

New Recruits ... Belgian Toy soldiers

Yesterday, a package arrived in the post from The Tin Soldier (handmade toy soldiers from Antwerp), to join my ranks of WW1 Belgians.

These are the boxes. Looks promising.

First box, 4 Carabiniers in 1914 uniforms:

An Officer of the "Lansiers te Paard":

A Lancer trooper (I have to straighten his lance a bit, it got bent when I got him out of the box):

A Belgian Guide, 1914:

Nice additions for the decorative elements in the wargaming room!

A new campaign? (2)

After I constructed the map for my new imaginations campaign, I entered all the cities and their resource values in a spreadsheet to make a quick tally of the resource points per country.

These are the results:

red	20
green	25
yellow	12
cyan	26
magenta	22
blue	33
black	3

This provides a nice balance, with 4 middle-sized countries, 1 big country and 1 small country. 

Next up: finding some names for the countries and the campaign.

A new campaign?

I am currently thinking about starting a new narrative-style campaign, inspired by the famous Hyboria campaign. I am not sure about how I will run it though. Doing it old-school style, by having players giving orders for all units every so many weeks is doomed to fail in my opinion. So, I will probably do something where players can add to the story using story-game mechanics. Players can add to the developing story, without being linked to any country or side in particular. We'll see ...

But anyway, the first thing to do is to generate a map. I played around with some old maps I had lying around from an old boardgame (I did this before...), and assembled a large map.

Luckily, the scans of these maps are available on boardgamegeek, so I downloaded them and assembled them all in photoshop, and cleaned them up a bit.

Next, I imagined different countries and added some colored layers.

I even came up with a Casus Belli already! The uninhabited islands in the middle of the map contain a newly discovered valuable resource. So the various countries will start to scramble for them.

Now for the period. The obvious choice would be doing it in a Hyboria/Fantasy style, but I'm more thinking of doing it late 19th century / pre WW1, so I can use my glossy toy soldiers.