Dawn Attack - End Game & Post Match Analysis

..with the imminent arrival of DG for a visit it was time to crack on and complete this game so that I could free the table up for another gargantuan tussle between our two giant intellects.. (yeah yeah.. ). One of the joys of having a permanent wargame table in a separate room is that I get to leave the game in situ, picking up a move every now and and again, whenever I have time - this one has been set up for about two weeks now though, and even my little one's had noticed I was being relaxed...!

So let's push on - you may remember that the last two moves were phenomenally "busy", the next two moves were not so..

In move 12 the the Confederate attack seemed to slow almost to a half as the dice that had definitely been flowing in their direction up until then, suddenly turned - the Confederates ended up with almost universal half turns and stand fasts.. the Union firing on the other hand had definitely picked up, and they caused the first casualties tot he 5th Vg. in this move. Unfortunately the Union couldn't capitalise on this as they also got slow movement rolls..!

End Move 12 - a lot of firing but nothing conclusive
On move 13 though, the Confederate juggernaut picked up. In their movement phase the 2nd Virginia (bottom right of the above picture) crashed home on the remnants of the 14th India and we had another massive dice difference that resulted in the 14th being removed from the field...

End Move 13 - End of Game
...and there I decided to end it - with only one effective unit remaining, the Union player had lost as the Confederates had pinned his only unit and were bringing round their two other regiments for further flank and rear attacks... On to Richmond? I think not.... on this occasion at least...

Post Match Analysis:

• Despite appearances, this game is quite balanced - what made it not seem that way was the push that the Confederates go from some quite phenomenal dice throws in turns 9 & 10 - but that's "war" for you, sometimes you get lucky...
• If you wanted to give the Union side more of a chance, then you might want to allow the outposts buglers/gunshots etc. to wake the camp earlier - if you do my suggestion would be to ensure they are not too far away from the camp.
• As an alternative to dicing for which move the outposts see the Confederate columns, you could allow sighting rules - just making it easier and easier to see the column as it gets closer.. use dice with plus modifiers as they get closer to the outpost...
• In the original scenario Charles indicates that dawn strikes the moment the first outpost sees a Confederate column - I played it that dawn was when the first Confederate unit reached the camp.. this effectively gives the Union player a small advantage, as the Confederates are moving at a slower rate for longer and he therefore has longer to deploy..
• In the original scenario Charles allowed the outposts to move though the camp alerting troops in a curve as they moved through the camp - I used alerting by grid - it was much easier to manage, and to work out who was and wasn't, alerted.. each outpost could move one grid within the camp per turn, and everything in the grid was alerted at the same time..
• Lastly, it wasn't my original intent, but at the end of the game I allowed the Union outposts to form and serve as a unit - dismounted cavalry in this case. Not that it made much of a difference!

Good fun - yet again an enjoyable tussle using the Regimental Fire and Fury rules..

Stay tuned for a review of the game DG & I played (more ACW I'm afraid, but as DG was visiting I gave him the choice of game and he wanted to see how the rules played on the tabletop), and also a trip report as it was/is the Colours wargame show this weekend - which was why DG was down..