Monday 21 November 2022

Black Powder Epic ACW: A slice of Gettysburg?

 

In the throes of moving house, I only had a 4 foot square table, but I simply had to have a short game for sanity's sake!

I used the challenge to model a small section of the Gettysburg battlefield, roughly 1/4 mile square around General Meade's HQ. 


No particular scenario in mind; the Union are ensconced along Cemetery Ridge. 


The Confederates are going to push them off it or die trying!


To achieve this, the Rebel arty is going to have to silence the Union guns...


Unfortunately of their two batteries, only one is of six guns!


Given the Union batteries are sheltered by the Cemetery Ridge crest, the Reb redlegs need sixes each time...


The Rebel artillery bombardment continues to be underwhelming - at this rate the Yankee guns won't be silenced until dark....


 The Confederate infantry decide to advance anyway...they make a bit of a hash of their deployment...


But the left hand division makes good progress in to light cover...


Too light - the US artillery disorders the lead brigade!


The Corps advance will now make contact in fits and starts...


By the time the rebs are climbing up Cemetery Ridge, one Regiment has already fallen out...


The remainder press on, tensing to recieve yankee small arms fire as well as canister...


An entire regiment is broken by this close range fire...


Nonetheless, the survivors charge forward with a Rebel Yell!


The first round of combat is a draw!


Buoyed up by their more numerous supports, the Union brigade wins the second round of hand to hand combat.


Flayed by canister and musketry, unable to continue with anything other than piecemeal attacks from the disordered advance, the Rebels fall back...

A small and quick game, but sufficient to test my 'ground scale' - a grandiose term for my fudging - that 1/4 mile to 4 foot seems about right for Epic...

7 comments:

  1. Your Epic armies are coming along very nicely. A handy game that as you say to get the measure of your scaling, but for many, seeing so many troops within the sort of 4’ x 4’ space that is their typical gaming area will inspire.

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    1. Thanks Norm! Yes it was great to be able to deploy a small Corps (2 Divisions ea of 2 Bdes, ea of 4 Regiments) on such a small area in this scale.

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  2. Always fun to see troops in action. Quite nice for a 'small ' game.

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  3. With these smaller scales you can certainly get quite decent game in on a 4' x 4' table, which is a great benefit of 6mm or 10mm figures.

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    1. Absolutely! Large armies on a small table, but with each figure large enough to be relatable.

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  4. Thanks Ben! Yes looking forward to attempting Anitetam in March then Gettysburg in June!

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