Black Powder Epic ACW: First Kernstown

On Thursday the Wollongong Wargamers played our inaugural Shenandoah Valley campaign with the battle of First Kernstown, March 23rd 1862. 

The Union are advancing boldly south from Winchester believing Gen. Jackson is retreating, and Jackson is determined to advance aggressively to tie down Union forces in the valley. So a meeting engagement then...

With General Shield's laid up in Winchester with an injured leg, command defaults upon Col. Nathan Kimball, harassed by a deluge of increasingly irrelevant orders from Shield's hospital bed. However to make a game of it, Kimball was given a SR of 8 as commander. Col. Carrol who stepped up to command the brigade, and the remaining Union Brigadiers, had SR of 7.

Kimball's and Sullivan's Brigades start the game marching south down the Valley Pike. Both sides have to declare which road their reinforcement brigades will come down: Valley Pike or Middle Road...

Given the audacity of the Rebel cavalry under Col. Turner Ashby, the Union team: Darren and John, had to declare first - they chose the Middle Road as being more central to the spread of the 4 objectives.

All three Union brigades consisted of 4 regiments and artillery battery.

The celebrated 'Stonewall Brigade', now under the command of the gallant General Garnett, started the game in Kernstown itself. A large bde. of 5 Regiments and a 6 gun battery, having not only the 'Rebel Yell' attribute but also Elite 5+.

The Confederate team; Caesar, Richard and Stuart; also had to decide down which road their second two brigades would arrive, the Pike or the Middle road. First on would be Burk's Bde of 4 regiments and a 4 gun battery, followed by Fulkerson's pair of regiments. They also opted to send them down the Middle Road, leaving the Stonewall Bde to hold Kernstown alone!

The stage was set, and I crossed my fingers that my amalgam of Black Powder Epic rules and Glory Hallelujah supplement option rules would stand the test of combat!

The Confederates won the first move and tried but failed to establish a forward defence of Kernstown at the nearby stone wall. Whereas the Union were luckier with their advance moves, concentrating on the more westerly two objectives.

Still the Stonewall Brigade failed to deploy behind the stone wall, and the Union opened up both on the Kernstown defenders and working around the flank of the Rebs climbing Pritchard's Hill.

Finally a couple of the Stonewall Regiments deployed and were able to return fire.  In the far distance, Burk's and Fulkerson's Brigades are marching hard for Sandy Ridge and the eponymous Stone Wall adjacent to the Glass Farm...

A fierce firefight developed on Pritchard's Hill:

For this campaign, and in test driving the rules for next years Gettysburg 160th mega-game, we retained '28mm Black Powder' artillery ranges, but halved all small arms fire. Command and support distances remained unchanged.

We have adopted the supplement's recommendation to make charging pretty hard - no longer possible on initiative, and requiring a -2 orders modifier, against solid infantry. However, the Stonewall Brigade led off with a charge, but were repulsed. Then it was the Union turn, who forced back a shaken Rebel regiment!

Coupled with receiving close range cannister from 2 Union batteries, this left the Stonewall brigade broken! 

However, by dint of hard marching, the Confederacy had seized 2 of the 4 objectives, 1 was disputed, and the last was held by the Union. True to history, with the Stonewall brigade in retreat, a tactical win for the Union, but a strategic victory for the Rebs as Union reinforcements are diverted from the Peninsular to the Valley!