Ancient Campaign: Battle #2

 After trhe battle last week Ventidus' broken cavalry escaped off the field down the road they had came from.  His infantry which had done nothing in the battle retired to their camp.  Next Ventidus's infantry was on the move at dawn marching down the road after their cavalry nefore the enemy could getup & stop them.  The cavaly halted in one of their overnight camps built on their advance & reoganised waiting Ventisus' arrival.  On rejoininghis cavalry Ventidus mdrew up for battle to face Labienus' pusuit.

Ventidus is on the left deployed for battle when Labienus arrives on the field between mountains & sea.

As Lanienus deploys, Ventidus advances with his whole army.

On the far flank the cataphracts deply in massed formations along the road.  Ventidus' infnatry stop their advance & bunch up to the right to form a more solid line to face the cataphracts.right flank  On the neasr flank Ventidus' cavlry rushes forward to meet Labienus' Roman cavalry.

On the far flank the cataphacts charge Ventidus' infantry which has so far held their ground.
On the near flank Ventidus' cavalry has pushed the enemycavalry back. 

The cataphracts are now fuly engaged along the line, but teh infnatry ares till holding on.

On the near flank Labienus' infantry are now suporting their remaining Roman cavalry.

On the far flank, the catphracts have finally made a breakthough.
On the near flank Ventidus's cavary have run out of decent dice & are falling back, now trying to save enough cavalry to cover a retreat.

After holding on well for a long time, Ventidus' line has suddnly broken up as the cataphacts make 2 more breakthroughs.  Ventidus sounds the sauve qui peut bugle.  He can outrun the cataphracts & has saved just enough cavalry to hold off Labienus' lighter horse. 

Again we had a good turnout with a different set of visitors Steve & Dale Daniels from Canberra.

SteveJ, Mark, SteveD, Dale, Renfrey, Chris, Jim.

In this battle the commanders were:
For Ventidus: Jim (cav), SteveD (centre), Dale (right).
For Labienus: Chris (right flank cav), Renfrey (inf), SteveJ (cataphracts). 

 

Ancient Campaign 65BC: Battle of Solo

PeterC is running an ancient campaigns set in a Roman civil war fought in Asia Minor. This was the first battle. 

Ventidus' army is all Roman troops & is deployed on a hill side in front of his camp.
Labienus with a smaller Roaman force plus his Parthian ally Pacorus I have deplyed to attack.

Pics from now on taken from Pacorus's end of the table.
Pacorus' cavalry force is advancing on Ventidus' much smaller cavalry while Labienus has moved up, but not closed with Ventidus' infantry.

Ventidus' cavalry are outnumbered & only have the slope to help them against Pacorus' mix of horse archers & cataphracts.  Ventidus has declined r=to advance his infnatry fearing attacks on hsi flanks from Labienus on hsi left & Pacorus' 2nd line on his eright.  He turns his right flank to face left to guard against loss by his cavalry.  The only ation on the far flank & centrre is a bit of skirmishing.

Ventidius' cavalry has been broken, but the allies decline to attack his foot.

There are steep wooded hils behind Ventidius' pisiton so his routed cavalry escape to their right (near side of the table).  The other troops retire to theor camps for the night.

We had quite a crowd here for this with several veterans of the group from the 70's that now live elsewhere visiting Hobart at the same time.

 

Campaign in the Shenadoah Day 4: Battle at Dinasaur Junction

Over night after the battle at the North Fork bridge, the Rebs reorgansied on the field while the 2 Union forces retreated.on their lines of supply.
At dawn the Rebs found the  Union forces had gone & immediatelty set off in pursuit down the Winchester road.  

Aroiund midday they found that the Union force had been reinforced & was deployed to meet them at the Dinosaur road junction.
 

The Rebs sent their cavalry forward to probe around the Union left flank as their infnatry depolyed.

More Union troops were revealed as the Rebs advanced & discovered troops in the woods on their elft & that the Union left was hooked back to rest on the edge of the woods.

The Union pulled back their left as the Rebs advanced.

The Rebs launched a mass cavalry change against the Union left.  On the far flank the Union troosp in the foot were giving the Rebs a hard time with accurate shooting. 

On the near flank the cavalry charge pushed the enemy back .
In the centre the Union fell back to the treeline.
On the far flank the Unionfollowed up theri hot shooting with a bayoinet charge & broke the Reb's front line.

The Rebs are keeping up thre pressure all along the line.

In the centre the Union have lost their artillery to musket & counterbattry fire, but the Rebs have had enough & stopped the attack.  In the centre & left the Reb advance has halted as fresh Union troops appear on the Newtown road.  But it is too late in the day for the fresh troops to make an impact & the fighting peters out as the sun goes down.

The Union have had 8 inf, 2 cav & 3 art broken  & 4 inf shaken & 12 other cas on .
The rebs have 4 inf broken, 3 inf & 1 cav shaken & 27 other cas. 

The Union have 24 units left on the field fit to fight, 12 of them in the late arriving  reinforecments.

The Rebs have 34 units left fit to fit to fight.  

The battle wasn't decisive, so both sides have the options of either fighting on tomorrow, or retiring overnight.  

  
  

Campaign in the Shenandoah Day 3

The second battle of the campaign occured late on day 3 at the bridge over North Fork near Front Royal.
Ewel's CSA Corps was advancing on the Luray to Vinchester Road behinfd an advance guard of cavalry.  At Front Royal the CSA cavalry ran into a smaller force of US cavalry,  The US cavalry retreated accross the bridges over the South Fork & North Fork.  The retreat halted mid afternoon when the US cavalry joined up with infantry across the North Fork bridge.
Ewell atacked across the bridge as soon as his infantry caught up with his cavalry at the bridge.

The rivers are un-fordable, so the rebs can only attack across the bridge.

The rebs spend some time crossing the South Fork bridge & deploying between the rivers while their artillery took out a Union battery.

The rebs charge across the bridge into a ring of Union fire.

The lead regiment is blown away, but not before some lucky shooting took out the 2nd Union battery.

Just before dark another Union Corps appeared on the north bank of North Fork (off to left of pic).
At nightfall the Rebs have gained a foothold across the river, but have 4 regimernts broken, 2 shaken & 3 with casualties..  The Union have 1 battery broken, 4 regiments & 1 battery shaken.& 3 regimants with casualties.
This day;s battle was a draw.
Overnight, both sides have the option of reorganising within their front lines, or withdrawal.

  

   

Campaign in the Shenandoah 1862

We have started a small campaign in the Shenandoah valley.  It is not an historical scxenario but the Shenadoah geography makes it a great place for campaign scenarios with smallish forces.  The plot is that the Union have been building up supplies at the rail heads in preparation for an offensive.  Jackson has been ordered to destroy enough of the supplies, the railways & blue bellies as necessary to prevent the offensive.
Mike & SteveJ are the Confederates.  Mark & Chris are the Union.

The first major contact  occured late on day 2 when Jackson's Corps arrived on the south side of the bridge over South Fork near Mt Jackson.  Mt Jackson is one of the railheads & supply depots that are Confederate objectives.  General Fremont has orders to defend the town.   TheSouth Fork banks are heavily wooded & the ground is flat so neither side has much intel. Fremont's intel is that the Rebs have superior but not overwhealming numbers.  General Jackson's intel is that Fremont's forcxe is smaller than his. 

The campaign map is from the Australian Army Jourrnal No. 56, Jan 1954.  For battles additional detail is gleaned for Google Maps.

At dawn on day 3, the Confederates attack.

The rivers are only crossable at fords.  The umpire diced to determine the status of each 100mm section, 6 = ford.  The Union map showed the fords, the Reb's didn't - they have to search for them.
At the start only units visible to the enemy are on the table.  The Union has improvised defenses where it has deployed in & around woods & farms where materials are available.

The Rebs have sent 10 units thru the woods on their left.  They find 4 Union regiments there.
In the centre the Rebs find 2 defended between the bridge & the confluence, none to the left of the bridge.  They engage the defenders with musker fire.  Gyns exchange fire accross the bridge.  
On the far side, the Rebs had found fords of table & infantry have appeared there.  Artillery cannot cross the fords until the engineers have cleared a path thru the scrub.

The armies are now deployed on the table. The union have 20 inf, 2 cav & 3 batteries.  The Rebs have 30m inf, 4 cav & 2 batteries visible near the bridge.
The Union are still holding the line on their left & centre.
The Rev cavalry has broken the outnumbered Union cavalry on the far flank. 

The Union line is starting to crack on their left & centre.

4 Reb batteries have appeared behind their left flank.  The Rebs have gained footholds accrss the river ninthe centre & weight of numbers has finally firced the Union to retreat in the woods.
Fremont decided he'd done enough to keep his job & has ordered a general retreat & had the supply dump set alight.

The union make a retreat up the turnpike leaving Mt Jackson in flames as the Rebd try to put the fires out & salvage as many boots a possible.

The Union  has lost 9 unkits broken & has 2 units with heavy casualties, but can claim to have made an honourable fighting retreat against superior numbers of slightly tougher troops.
The Rebs have lost 4 units broken & 9 with heavy casualties & gained acampaign VP for taking Mt Jackson.

ACW: Battle of Bristoe Station 1863

CSA: Mike & Steve.
Union: Jim & Chris.
The Rebs are retreating from Gettysburg & the Union are making  ahash of pursuing them.  Warren was retreating his Corps but was bumped into by A.P.Hill's CSA Corps at Bristoe Station. Hill lauched an impetuouis attack agaisnt the Union force deployed behind a railway embankemnt & was repulsed.  But the Rebs had more troops coming up & Warren retreated.

The Union has 2 divisions deployed on the railweay line with more coming up on their left.  The Rebs have 2 divisions deployed & more coming up from the far RH corner of the table.

The Union reinforcementt s have deployed along the railway line on the left of their advanbce guard.
The Rebs have shifted their advance guad's advance to the left in the woods.  Their reinforement are attacking the far end of the Union line.  

The Union left has been outflanked & the remants have fallen back.
In the centre, the Rebs have stopped their advance to engage ina fire fight.

The Union line is being rolled up from the left.  They have sent a division from their right to support their left.

The transfer of troops from right to left happened too late.  The Union left is broken without serious loss to the Rebs.  The Union concede & order a general retreat.

The scenario was probably unbalanced against the Union because it followed the listed OOBs & standard ACW troop types with considering that the CSA troops were retreating from Gettysburg & were almost certainly way under strength & lacked their usual advantages over Union troops. 

English Civil War: New Model v. Scots

English: Jim & Mark
Scots: MIke & ChrisThe Scots are on the far side of the table.

The Scots attack with their cavalry on the near flank while forming a defensive line with their foot.
The English advance their foot in the centre with cavalry covering both flanks.  Initially thay had 4 cavalry regs on each flank, but moved 2 from the right to the left where the Scots had all their horse.  

The English cavalry was better quality than the Scots, but bad English dice evened up the fight.

On the far flank the English cavalry neutralised the Scot's left flank. 
In the centre the Scots attacked the exposed left end of the English infantry line with artillery support.
The cavalry fight on the left was still indecisive, both sides losing heavy casualties.

On the left the Scots cavalry is giving ground & the Englsih cavalry are following up.
In the centre the Scots foot has broken an English pike & shot unit & attacked their supports. 

On the far flank both sides are content to look at each other from a safe distance.
Left of centre, the Scots attack is petering against the English second line.
On the left, the English cavalry has pushed forward, but the cavalry fight is turning into MAD.

In the centre, the English pulled back their left end of the line after beating off the Scot's attack as a fresh P&S unit moved up from the Scots right flank.
On the left the cavalry have virtually destroyed each other.

The Scots have lost half their units broken.  The English have lost fewer units broken, but have fewer units left unshaken than the Scots.  It was decided that both sides could declare victory to their own people, but in fact, as neither side was in a fit state to attack further it was a draw. 

ACW with 15mm fig again

We used much the ame forces as last week, but made a few tweaks to the terrain & modifed the starting positions.

Chris' Union Corps I is coming on far side left.
Mark's Union Corps II is coming on near side right.
SteveJ's Union cavalry is coming on from the left.
Jim's Southern 1st Corps are in the foreground.
Mike's Southern 2nd Corps are on the far side right.

The Union Corps I moved directly towards Soiuth's 1st Corps while the Union cavalry dismounted to skirmish againt their left & par tof Union Corps II attacked their right.  South's 1st Corps had advanced down the road the junction , but fell back to defensive U witht eh centtre on the small hill.
The South's 2nd Corps moved on Union II which mostly deployed to face them.

South's 1st Corps used interior lines to plug the gaps as they desperately held on against converging Union attacks, falling abck from the Union cavalry & partly beating off the attack on their right.
South's 2nd Corps took some of the pressure on 1st Corps by threatening the Union Corps I's left flank. 

The attack by the Unions's Corps I on South's 1st Corps was beaten off, but with heavy casualties.

The Union Corps I attack has inflicted heavy casulaties, but has failed & the Corps is broken.  Their cavalry was kept at bay by the fighting retreat of the South's left flank.  The fight between Union II & South 2nd was indecisive, but with the Union losing more casualties.  The Union conceded defeat.