American Civil War 28mm

It had to happen eventually.  A Warlords ACW army box at discount price was all it took to start an ACW recruitment drive.   A few 20/20 games & a Test Match get the box painted.  The Perry plastics are greta figs, some of the easiest kits to assemble & paint there are.  With some Fred that Mike had we had enough for battle (even if most of the Confederates look a tad like ECW musketeers).  For rules, we already had our Hail Caesar variant, Hail Mr Lincoln, pretty well sorted in our ACW campaign last year - which we fought with 15mm & 6mm figs.

Battle for Smallville Junction:
The Confederacy has a mixed infantry & cavalry division (4 inf & 2 cav) guarding an important railroad junction.  The Federals send a small Corps of 3 infantry divs (of 4 regs), a battery of 2 guns & a cavalry brigade of 4 regs) to take the junction.  The Cofederates get wind of the move and send two infantry divisions to reinforce the garrison (each 5 regs & 1 gun).

The Confederates (Mark, Chris & Dave) deploy their garrison first.
The Union (Jim & Mike) then deploy all their force within 12" of their long table edge.
The Confederates draw chits to determine which 2 of 3 possible roads their reinforcements arrive from on turn 2. They keep this secret from the Feds.

The Feds have taken their first move. Their cavalry is moving to the left to delay any Rebs coming down the road on the left.  The centre inf has advanced directly at the station. Their right inf has advanced slowly on the hill.  Their left inf has had poor command dice and not advanced far. Their guns are bombarding the station, so far with no effect.

Reb forces have showed up on the roads at each end of the table.  At the far end the Zouaves have turned right on the scrubby ridge to face Chris' div. On the near flank Jim's cav have dismounted and are deploying in the orchard.  The 2 Fed inf divs in the centre are trying to attack the station, but progress is slow.

 

View of the Fed right:  The initial Reb charge took out a Zouave reg, but Fed defence has stiffened.

 View of Fed left: The Rebs deploy & start a fire fight with the dismounted cav. 

The attack on the station has finally had some success with one Reb reg broken & the LH div finally getting moving.  One reg was broken by artillery fire from the Reb right, but the second line has broken the Reb dismounted cav behind the station.

The dismounted Fed cav is doing a good job tieing up the Reb left.

On the Fed right poor Reb command dice is keeping the pressure off.  But the station garrison stubbornly hangs on.

The attack around the left of the station petered out, and div attacking frontally has broken, but a renewed frontal push from the LH div finally broke the garrison and the station has been abandoned to the Feds.
The Reb artillery on their left flank finally managed to unlimber.  It opened fire on the victorious Feds in the station yard with instant success.  It's first shot broke the reg and with it the division.  That meant the Feds had lost 2 of 4 including 2 of their largest divs, so their army also broke.  The Rebs have only lost 1 div of 3 so have won. 

The part of the Fed plan of holding off the reinforcements with cavalry on one flank & an inf div on the other worked pretty well, but their attack on the station with 2 divs took too long to succeed - whether it was mismanagement of the attack, bad dice or brilliant Reb defence is a matter of opinion.  But it was a close and very enjoyable battle for all concerned which only increased everyone's enthusiasm for the period.  .I don't think we'll need to use the ECW subs for long.