We played a 15mm ACW game of "Across A Deadly Field" yesterday. It was a refight of the same scenario I ran at Nashcon, but this time we used three stand 15mm figure units instead of two stand 25mm figure units. The scenario was written by John Hill and portrays Albert Sideney Johnston's vicious mid-morning attack on the Federal brigades of Stuart, Williams and McArthur. I believe this scenario will be included in the ADF - Western Scenario book from Osprey next year.
This is a small scenario for ADF which is perfect for two players. Dean took the Feds and I played the Rebs. Turn one saw a general CSA advance (although it was slooooowwww through the woods and ravines) and almost no firing, with the Feds reacting to some of the Rebel movements.
Each turn in ADF has a lot of "play" in it since one side has an "action" and then the other side may "react", and then the active side takes another "action". Once the active side has completed all of its actions, the opposing side now becomes the active side. It's a great game mechanic that really causes the player to plan out and prioritize his actions carefully.
Turn two opened with some CSA and USA artillery fire and and a Rebel charge that got stopped and thrown back, but another massed CSA brigade charge broke the Union line near the peach orchard and caused one unit to rout and a couple other units to shake. We paused the game at that point to fire up grill for some lunch. By that time a couple other gamers had showed up and we just kept grilling and talking gaming into the evening and it was too late to return to the game before everyone had to go home. It was a great day of ACW gaming, friends and BBQ and we all planned to do it again soon!
The mat was commissioned by John Hill and I think it really looks fantastic! These might be available commercially later this year.
Here are some pics from the game:
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| Some of McArthur's brigade moving up to support the Union line near Larkin Bell's field. |
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| Dean West moving his troops. |
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| The Union Brig Gen Stephen Hurlburt surveying the grim situation. |
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| My friend Chris photo-bombing me (in black shirt) and Dean in my gaming room. |
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| The big rebel charge that broke the Union line. I think if we would have played a few more turns, Dean could have easily stabilized the situation. |
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| The Union gun line of four batteries holds the center. These guns were firing through the camps keeping the Rebs at bay. |
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| An overview of the game during turn two. The Rebs have punched through the center of the USA line, although they are now exposed themselves! I think Dean would have cleaned this up quickly had the game continued. This is about the point where we stopped to BBQ. |
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| After the battle.... |
Good Gaming - Cory
