This last weekend I ran a game of John Hill's new rules "Across A Deadly Field" at Nashcon. The cool thing was that I ran the game with John Hill! Well, actually we both ran the game, but we also had support from Patrick Lebeau and Dean West. It was truly a team effort!
The historical situation involved the Rebel brigades of Chalmer, Jackson, Bowen and Statham slamming into the weak, and extremely strung out Federal extreme left flank at Shiloh held by the brigades of Stuart, McArthur, and Williams. The game was played in 28mm using 15mm buildings for ground scale.
John had a terrain mat printed, which is a great idea and a quick way to set up a game! Thanks John! He mailed it to me and I spent a hurried couple of weeks painting a few last units, making fences (about 1,000 toothpicks) and sanding down an insulation board to lay underneath the terrain mat to make 3D ravines.
The rules played fast and furious and we were able to play to a conclusion in a few hours. I really enjoy these new rules and they are definitely my new favorite rules for the ACW. They will be published by Osprey in July for release at Historicon. Here are a few pictures of the game:
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| Here is the table with all of the terrain ready, but no figures. |
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| The Rebs advance through the woods. Picture by John Hill. |
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| One of the Federal players (Kermitt H.) studies his options. |
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| The Rebs advance towards the Union position. ACWGamer.com gave us some rulers to use for the game. Thanks! |
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| The terrain mat had the names of key geographical features printed in it. It was great for observers and the players to use as reference points to explain the battle. |
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| Dean West (with chart) explains the rules to some of the players. |
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| The Rebs were able to drive the Yanks back to their base line and were declared the winner! |
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| John Hill (left) looks over the battlefield. |
