Olustee Florida, February 20, 1864 via BBB

Konstantinos Travlos has designed some very small scenarios using Bloody Big Battles. We played his small battle scenario of the largest ACW battle fought in Florida Saturday. Twice. I didn’t have the proper high pine trees but decided to use my palm trees (requiring a major archaeological dig in my closet) for that Florida feeling. No gator for the pond. I resisted the urge to put down a contemporary strip mall. I visit in-laws there once a year.

 

A small battle fought using Bloody Big Battles rules. It works. Previously we played the 1864 Battle of Oeversee from the 2^nd Schleswig-Holstein War. It was also fun, and like this, unbalanced. But it plays in about an hour so you can switch sides and see how you do with the underdog. One thing I might do for future games of Olustee is use two bases for each one called for and treat each pair as one, just to put more figures on the table for looks. But cracking games they are. Confederate units are in italics on the photos.

 

The first game saw Bill commanding my Yankees and I leading his rebels. We were using our house rules for dismounted cavalry since we have horse holders and such painted up. I thought they should start mounted. Keep your eye on them. On the first turn the small Union cavalry brigade rode up to dismount. Before they could, I fired at them with two artillery batteries, to get the favorable column shift while they were still mounted. I rolled 10 on 2D6, a 1 in 6 chance. That knocked out one base and the remaining one fled. If I’d rolled higher, the artillery would have gone low on ammo, so the 10 was perfect. The rebels soon gained all three objectives. A late game attempt by the Union to gain one that the rebels had fallen back from failed when the move was curtailed by a hail of lead. The pictures below tell the story.

The first game saw the Union lose a base of cavalry (with the other run off) and a base of infantry against two Confederate infantry bases lost. The CSA victory took all of an hour and 20 minutes.

 

Andrew arrived mid-game and took command of the Yankees for the next game. Bill switched to the Confederate side of the table while I sat out and watched. Andrew’s cavalry started out in a forward position. Bill’s artillery fired and rolled a 10. Adios, cavalry brigade. So much for those Spencer carbines. Again, see below.

Andrew was able to see Montgomery’s brigade (54^th Mass and 1^st NC Colored Infantry) first cause heavy losses to Colquitt’s veteran Georgia brigade with fire and then defeat them with a bayonet charge, chasing them for a ways. It was glorious but moot since it didn’t capture an objective. The game clocked in at one hour, 2 minutes. Union losses were 1 cavalry (the other run off), 1 infantry and 1 artillery base. Confederate losses were 4 infantry bases and Colquitt himself. We have a house rule for officer casualties but since I couldn’t find my wounded officer vignette, we didn’t roll the dice to see his fate. Perhaps a roll for gator attack if he hid in a body of water?

The text and the photo differ on the title of the NC Colored regiment. The text is  correct. Errors on the photo are always found after hitting save.

 

I had a notion previously of using BBB rules and One Hour Wargame scenarios. Never more than 6 units per side and a randomized order of battle makes for some tasty short game possibilities. This sparked my interest again. Perhaps when we return from our coming sojourn in Maine…