Brawner's Farm AAR- Confederate Turn 4

The Stonewall Brigade (less the 4th & 5th Virginia which have retreated to the swale in front of the Brawner house) supported by 20th Georgia leap forward to charge the 2nd Wisconsin, weathering the defensive fire, the attackers manage to close with cold steel.

Stonewall Brigade supported by 20th Ga charging (right side of photo)

To the left the 60th Georgia tries to charge the 7th Wisconsin closely supported by other regiments of Lawton's Brigade. The Wisconsin men unleash a withering fire!

Yes, another 10 rolled.

This checks the 60th Ga and drives it back through its supports.  This causes both the 60th Ga. and the supports to become disordered.

However, almost the entire Iron Brigade is now low on ammo.   Without the ability to resupply, the Union troops will be hard pressed to hold.

60th Ga and its supports in the foreground

In the meantime on the far left Trimbles brigade moves into position to outflank the Union forces in Brawner's field.

To be continued.

Brawner's Farm AAR- Turn 3

This is turn 3.  It is the first twilight turn making command radii 4" instead of 8" and targets more than 4" away are treated as if in cover.   This makes the Union guns, one battery of which is off board, and another on a knoll at the edge of the table, less effective.  Moreover, now that the Rebels are getting closer, friendly troops are too close for the Union guns to bear.

The Confederates continue to be reinforced.  More regiments from Lawton's brigade and Trimble's entire brigade make their appearance.

The remnants of the Stonewall brigade shake out into extended line to minimize the effect of Union musketry and screen the advance of reinforcements.

The Iron Brigade charges, hoping to sweep the Stonewall regiments back onto their advancing reinforcements.

Defensive Fire checks one of the Charges (oh look, I rolled another 10!)

7th Wisconsin Charge is checked.

19th Indiana charges and drives the 4 & 6th Virginia back on Brawner's farm house.

2nd Wisconsin charges home but is driven back by the remnants of the 33rd Va. and 27 Va. (in the middle).

To be continued.  

Brawner's Farm- Turn 2

"Second post in the aar.

The 2nd Wisconsin falls back slightly to form a line with the 19th Indiana and 7th Wis which have advanced from Brawner's woods.  Rebel fire is desultory as the units are disordered.  The Union regiments and batteries continue to pour heavy fire into the Confederates, further reducing their ranks.

Turn Two.  Georgia regiments moving up on the Rebel left.  

On the right the crack regiments of the Stonewall Brigade try to pin the Federals in place. 

Volleys exchanged on the Union right/Rebel leff.

 Poague's and Carpenter's batteries come on the field.  Carpenter's unlimbers and fires.  The 2nd Wis. suffers a withering fire and is disordered.  One section of Carpenter's battery goes low on ammunition.

In the Union half of the turn the 56th. Pa and 76th NY move on through Brawner's woods.

The Rebels are massing the Georgia Brigade to outflank the Union line on turn 3.  

To be continued....

Fire & Fury ACW-15mm Battle of Brawner's Farm

I'm playing through the Brawner's Farm scenario from the Regimental Fire and Fury scenario book, Volume I.  

By the way,  Volume II is due out in September.  I'm really looking forward to it.  The team behind the rules always put out top notch products.

I decided to play the Brawner's Farm scenario because the actual engagement- part of the Second Manasas campaign- took place on August 28, 1862.  So I'm only a few days off the anniversary.

I tried to recreate the terrain depicted in the map.  It's usually difficult because the RFF ( Regimental Fire &Fury) maps always include a lot of elevations that are difficult to produce on a wargames table.  These aren't the typical wargames hills that just erupt out of nowhere in the middle of flat terrain but rather large elevated areas. Anyway, I think I was able to create a reasonable facsimile even if every detail isn't correct.

  Some photos of the layout and initial dispositions:

Lllll

The mat is one I got from Cigarbox Battles (http://cigarboxbattlestore.bigcartel.com).  It's really nice.  If you're looking for a battle mat I highly recomend them.

This action involved an attack by the Stonewall Brigade against the Iron Brigade. The Rebels surprised the Union troops as they were marching down the Warrenton Turnpike to join the rest of the army.  It was the first major engagement for the Midwesterners (they hadn't been on the Peninsula with the Army of the Potomac) and they held their own, even though outnumbered.

Here are the initial troop dispositions.  The scenario starts with the 2nd Wisconsin in musket range of the enemy:

Three crack regiments from the Stonewall brigade start in the orchard next to the farm.  They immediately sprung to the attack. As the Rebels approached close range fire from the 2nd Wis and  long range fire from Reynold's battery of Rifles caused heavy casualties and disordered two of the Confederate regiments. ( I rolled two 10's for the Union fire- i always seem to roll a lot of 10's and 1's when playing RFF, far more than the odds would suggest)

The Stonewall brigade returned fire on the 2nd Wis, but as two of the firing regiments were disordered, it was ineffective (plus I rolled a "1" - like I said, i roll lots of 1's and 10's playing RFF).

To be continued.......

     

Teugen-Hausen

Steve W. and I have been experimenting with Napoleonic rules. We plan to play the same battle three times using three different rule sets.  The battle is Teugen-Hausen, a corps sized action that was a part of Napoleon's 1809 campaign against Austria. This was a meeting engagement.  Davout's III Corps had become isolated from the rest of the army and was withdrawing from Ratisbon to link up.  The Austrian III Armeekorps was tying to cut them off.

This game is being played using Age of Eagles.  We plan to play the same engagement using Le Feu Sacre III and Shako 2.  (this is easy since there are scenarios designed for this battle for each of these rules sets).

Here are the opening deployments:

 11:30 -12:00 pm.  The French move to the attack, Davout remaining near Teugen to direct the rest of the Corps which is expected to arrive shortly.

 The Austrian's, perhaps foolishly, descend from the wooded ridge to meet them.  The Austrian Hussar brigade is a bit tardy in its movement.

The battle is joined at 12:30 pm.   Destabenrath's Brigade trades skirmish fire with the Austrian Grenz Brigade while Lorencz moves into position to attack Liechtenstein.

Lorencz did attack (I didn't get a photo!) and in a sharp combat shattered the defending Austrians (Steve rolled a 9 on the die, I rolled a 3, and with all his combat bonuses he beat me by 10 or more. Shattered result!).

Liechtenstein's Brigade is sent reeling back having lost nearly 700 men in the combat and Lorencz's Brigade pursues.  

That was all we were able to get in for the day.  We'll continue next time pickup up with the Austrian 12:30 pm turn.  Reinforcements are on the way!

Battlegroup Overlord AAR

This is a report of a game Dan A., Phil D. and I played on November 3.   A 500 point match-up between a British Armored force and a German Panzer Division force.

(I apologize in advance for some blurry photos and the funkiness of blogger).

Dan brought his beautifully painted British models and I provided the Germans.  1/72 (20mm) models from various manufacturers.

Here's a sample of Dan's work:





The scenario was Recce Screen from the BGO book.  We used a 6 x 4 space.

The Germans fielded:

Senior Officer in Pz IVH
Panther Platoon (actually, 2 Panthers and a Pz IVH)
Panzer Grenadier Platoon, veterans, on foot
Panzerschreck Team
HMG Team
Sdkfz 234/2 Puma

The British force consisted of:

Senior Officer (in a Daimler Dingo?  Can't keep all those Brit armored vehicles straight!)
Infantry Platoon
Piat Team
Mortar Team
Vickers HMG Team
Sniper Team
Tank Troop (2 Cromwells and a Firefly)
Achilles
Supply Vehicle (Lloyd Carrier)

Here's a map of the battlefield shortly after the start of the game, with only the recon forces on the table.

And photos of the layout:

Germans entering the battle from their table edge:

Both sides rushed armor to the scene of the action and a tank duel developed in the center:

A Cromwell and the Achilles outflanked the Panther, side shots hitting, but only managing to pin (that Panther's crew would eventually abandon the tank when I rolled a 1 on a morale test):  

But the two British tanks are in turn  knocked out by the German Commander and another Panther trailing the lead German tank: 

A Pz IVH takes advantage of the confusion in the center by swinging onto the German left flank, bringing a Cromwell covering the British right under fire and knocking it out.  

This map shows the movements:

That German tank then flanked the Firefly in the center, the only British tank left, and unleashed a salvo into its side armor.  Two Misses!  (rolled snake eyes).   The Firefly made the most of its luck and avenged the Cromwell,  knocking out the Pz IVH in its turn:

This left only the Firefly and a Panther operational. The remaining Panther moved around the German right, trying to bring the Fireflly under fire.   But the German crew didn't count on a PIAT Team lurking in the woods.   One shot into the Panther's flank, one kill!

 Meanwhile, an infantry fight had been raging in the wooded hill in the center of the table to see who could control the central objective:

British mortar providing fire support:

This infantry fight turned into a real meat grinder with engagement ranges of 6" or less.   The British employed fire and maneuver tactics, with the Bren teams using area fire to try to pin the enemy after which the Rifle Team would Close Combat.  Using these methods the British eliminated one German MG34 team.   

The Germans opted for brute force, using direct fire instead and trusting to pass the observation rolls for obscured infantry.   The Germans luck held out and the British took heavy casualties.  One German Rifle Team (with an MG34) singlehandedly eliminated 3 British infantry units and passed two Beyond the Call of Duty tests in a row.   Iron Crosses for them!

I should also mention that luck also favored the Germans in the BR counter department. I pulled no fewer than 4 event counters meaning that four of the pulls not only did bad things to the British, but didn't deplete the German BR. 

Ultimately the losses were just too great for the British and they reached their BR first, giving the Germans a victory.

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