Malvern Hill 1862

 

For Thursday evening 'Horse 'n Musket' games in Epic scale I like to come up with a scenario that is both grand but can conclude reasonably quickly:

As much as possible I deployed forces historically...

But to make a balanced game of it limited the initial Union rearguard to just Porter's V Corps - and the Union reserve artillery, which so dominated this battle:

The Confederates were split into two armies under Lee's overall command: the Army of Northern Virginia coming down the Carter's Mill Road:

And the Army of the Valley, coming down Wills Church Road:

The table was set up to reflect the constricted nature of the battlefield between Turkey Run and Western Run.

 

And indeed Caesar with the Army of the Valley and I with the ANV did find ourselves getting in each other's way in our haste to charge the guns!

We closed the beaten zone to the guns...Federal die rolling was pitiful!

Although a kill zone was appearing directly in front of the Union heavy batteries!

Finally we closed with the guns...

Most of the ensuing melees went our way. Where things did go badly for the Rebels, our die rolling on our Valour tests was amazing - I think I rolled three sets of straight sixes!

This time the gap was appearing in the Union line, with most of the federal batteries routed or withdrawn!

But by this time their reserves were coming on table...

We didn't have long to seize that near objective, so pressed on recklessly!

We took the near objective, but between us Confederates and the far objective was a sea of dark blue!

Even though we had only played four of six turns, we called it a draw - the Union lost their reserve artillery, but the rest of the army was able to evacuate the Peninsula.

Once again Valour & Fortitude delivered a large battle quickly with authentic results. A good game in great company!