Battle of Oeversee, February 6, 1864

I played a game of this 1864 battle over Zoom with the designer of the scenario, Konstantinos Travlos, Saturday afternoon. He has been designing scenarios for Bloody Big Battles with a small table (3x3), a few units per side, short length and intended to play in an hour or so. Our game took under 90 minutes, including the photo phase of each turn. The scenario is here. His website is here.

 

It features the Danes (with dismounted ACW Union cavalry standing in) fighting a rearguard action against the Austrians during the Schleswig-Holstein fracas. Dice determined I played the Danes, the easier role. The table and both sides are below. Austrian units will be in italics in this report, but not in the photos. My bad. 

On the first turn, the Austrians held fast and shelled my lines. I then advanced and scattered the Austrian hussars, before their pretty outfits were photographed.

Then the Jaegers entered in road column and began moving around my left. Our fire silenced an artillery battery, which limbered and retired.

 

The 17^th Infantry and the Jaegers would continue to fight their own private battle with bullet and bayonet for the rest of the game.

 

The Austrian 14^th Regiment arrived and disrupted the 1^st Infantry.

 

They advanced to threaten the flank of the 11^th Infantry but exposed their own flank to the Danish artillery on the hill. They took heavy losses and became spent. If they managed to charge and win, they could take an objective and get a tie.

 

It was not to be. Austrian losses were 5 infantry and one cavalry base, another cavalry base called it quits. The Danes escaped without losses. My dice were pretty hot early in the game, silencing guns and hurting the 27^th Regiment. They went cold on the fifth turn, with units failing to rally or move and few hits being dealt, but woke up again on the last turn to decimate the 14^th Regiment.

 

It was a fun, fast and furious game. Konstantinos came on boldly, in the best KuK Stosstaktik style. He was met with early dice rolling that made it seem like the Danes were armed with Needle guns. Better luck next time, and perhaps a smidgen more restraint. The game was good. Now I have to figure out how to navigate Discord so we don’t have to refresh the session every 40 minutes.

Next time I play this I'll use French 1870 Naval Infantry for the Danes. Yes, wrong uniforms but they are on white bases since they fought in the winter battles of that war. And they look very nice on the white felt table.

Bull Run, one mo time

We played First Bull Run one more time. Bill was in town and up for commanding his Confederates. All Confederate units will be in italics. Rules  = Bloody Big Battles. Yellow discs = disrupted units, yellow counters = silenced artillery, blue counters = spent units, .22 shells = low ammo. Fences have no effect except prettying up the table, likewise the artillery explosions. This report was almost ready Monday evening, but Valentine's Day intervened. Here it is.

 

I took the Union again, hoping to at least get a tie and maybe a win. Right. Burnside failed to move on the first turn. Franklin got only half a move so I sent him to back Burnside and not block the road towards Bald Hill. You can follow the rest on the photos below. Click any to enlarge them.

Union losses were 7 infantry bases, one ran away. The Confederates lost 6 infantry bases, two ran away. That's it with Bull Run for a while. So far a game is slated for late February. I'm looking at running a short 1864 Danes vs. Austrians game in Schleswig. Konstantinos Travlos is designing some short, fast scenarios for Bloody Big Battles. 

First Bull Run, Again

We played a game of First Bull Run last Saturday, the first face-to-face game in a while. We haven’t had a Bloody Big Battles game since well before the lockdown. Jay was the Union CO, Carl had the Confederates and I umpired. Carl hasn’t played these rules before and that’s why he got the Confederates, since this scenario heavily favors them. While our past games have always had a chance of Union victory, the secesh have won every time.

 

First, we had lunch and conversation. We haven’t gotten together in a while. Then off to the game, Carl learning the rules as we went.  All Confederate units will be in italics. The fences have no effect. They are just there to dress up the table. Evans put up a heroic struggle on Matthews Hill, before being swamped on turn 4 by Sherman and Burnside.

Legend: yellow discs = disrupted units, blue counters = spent units, yellow counters = silenced artillery and .22 shells = units low on ammunition.

We had played 5 turns slowly, getting off to a slow start. Beer with lunch may have been a factor. And Carl was learning the rules as we played. After 5 turns, Jay had to head home so I morphed from umpire to commander of the Union forces. I had 4 remaining turns to secure three objectives. It was time for bayonets. Jay had launched a charge that abolished Evans earlier, and a charge on the fifth turn that saw him roll a 1. Fortunately the enemy rolled a 3 and he escaped with a mere repulse. Now I ordered bayonet attacks everywhere an intact unit got a decent movement roll. Howard charged Bee and carnage ensued. It was a tie: each lost a base (making both raw units spent) and immediately rolled again. Another tie! Both lost another stand and the third roll saw Howard’s survivors break contact and fall back. I tried to get Porter’s large 6 base brigade to charge Bee, figuring that 2-1 odds against a disrupted and spent enemy had a good chance of winning and exploiting onto Henry House Hill. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

 

Howard managed to exit the woods he was in but not quickly enough to charge. He failed again later. On the last turn, as more enemy found their way to the hill, he finally charged but was stopped short by musket fire. The grand charge was not to be. Well, he still founded a good university after the war. As the photos will show, the attempt to control Bald Hill on my right came up short. I did manage to get Burnside’s battered troops onto the Stone Bridge. Schenck and supporting artillery managed to stop a Confederate threat by Cocke to the northern end of the bridge.

 

My long shot hope was Franklin would defeat the flanked artillery by a big enough margin to exploit into and possibly beat Early and Kershaw. But the assault ended in a tie, overrunning the guns and leaving Franklin spent. Disputing control of the hill wasn’t good enough. Excuse the spelling errors on the following photo.

By game’s end, both Sherman and Cocke retreated in panic, each losing a base of stragglers. The final losses were 7 Union infantry bases eliminated and one run away. Unusually, Confederate losses were higher:  10 infantry bases, 1 artillery and 1 cavalry base eliminated, and one infantry base run away.

 

It’s a hard task for the Union. I will consider optional ways to even it up a bit. As always, the game provided movement, combat and excitement. There was an outside shot at Union victory or at least a tie even at the end.