"One Hour Wargames" - Scenario 7 - "Flank Attack (2)" - The Game

April and only just getting round to the write up of the first game - outrageous...!  DG and I were supposed to play this between Christmas and New Year but ended up playing it last month (eventually!  technical issues with Skype and a poorly timed Windows 10 update lead to a "3rd time lucky" situation), but it's taken me until now to actually write it up..  mea culpa, and all that  - too many other irons in the fire, and simply just not enough hours in the day...

So by way of a brief recap [full briefing here] this was a return to the truly excellent "One Hour Wargames" book, and the next scenario in our leisurely run through each of the scenario's in the back of the book. The game was played out on a 4' square table and we decided to make this an American Civil war outing as well using modified rules from the book. Forces were random - 6 units each side and all start on table, and after rolling I ended up as (Union) defender with 5 Infantry regiments, and a regiment of Zouaves, DG as (Confederate) attacker had 5 infantry regiments and a battery of artillery. The winning objectives are that I have "exclusive occupation" of the large hill at the end of the game, any other result and it is DG's win.

In the following - the large hill where I will deploy is obvious, the Confederate flank deployment area is marked by the white pins (it has a wood in the bottom left corner of it)...   two further Confederate units deploy at the bottom facing north (ie. the top of the table).. 

So on to the game - which I played twice, once against DG (which he won convincingly), and once solo as I wanted to test some alternative tactics to see if I could alter the outcome..I fundamentally neglected to get any photo's of the game against DG (to engaged with the game, so forgot to take any!) - the pictures following are largely from the solo re-fight...

Initial dispositions:

I used the same deployment for the re-fight as we used in the actual game - two Confederate regiments on the small hill, then in the flank area the artillery on the corner of the wood, with a flank regiment, and then DG put two regiments right on the base board facing the area behind the hill. All the Union troops were deployed on the hill as per the scenario - I put my Zouaves in the rear though as I wanted to move them first, and also protect them from the gun

On with the game:

This will be end of move two or three, and by now I have cleared the hill of all Union regiments - depriving the artillery of a target. This was the fundamental difference in tactics between the original game against DG and the solo re-fight. Against DG I had left two units on the hill and they just got shot to pieces...

The two Confederate flank regiments have advanced and are exchanging fire with the first Union regiment to deploy facing them. The Union zouaves are moving up, but the two Confederate regiments on the small hill are now free to make a frontal assault, as is the regiment that was providing support to the artillery...

The Confederates assault the hill (next) - the Union regiments counter attack; just one this move, but more to be fed in. The Confederate artillery has limbered up and moved so as to be able to fire at Union troops sheltered by the hill..

Feed them in boys, feed them in...

First Union casualties - one regiment down, but reinforcements take their place..  this is about move 9 or 10, I have 5 moves to hold out...  even solo it was nerve wracking stuff!

Casualties on both sides - the Confederate regiment that was supporting the artillery has been destroyed, and another Union regiment has also been removed - just the zouaves holding now..   the Union reinforcement I moved back to shelter from the artillery - to be honest I was playing for a draw at this point!

Honours even - the zouaves deal out death and slaughter, and the same on the top of the hill..  "could it be", I wondered....

.."it might bloody well be" I thought, as another Reb regiment is destroyed...

End of game but the last Confederate infantry regiment has a foothold on the hill - a Confederate win as per the first game then!

Post match analysis:


Casualties:

• US 3 regiments lost, and of the survivors:
1. Duryee (the zouaves) 1 point left (out of 15)
2. 67th 8 points left
3. 14th 11 points left

• Confederate 4 regiments lost, and of the survivors:
1. 5th 9 points left
2. Artillery full strength

• The game clincher (with this particular set of randomised forces) is the artillery - only one gun, but able to fire further, and with less negative modifiers..  I knew why I had originally chosen to deploy on the hill as defender, but I think my reasoning was faulty and I might actually have been better off attacking - the gun couldn't fire at everyone at the same time!
• DG's rules modifications worked well - I particularly liked the mechanism for deciding who moved/fired when - it really came into it's own when I played the game solo...

Herewith DG's modified rules from the book, as is our want there was a bit of back and forth, but most of the following is down to DG, and these are version 3...  

Modified One Hour Wargame Rules 
Local suggestions 13/11/15 

I’m falling back on an old war gaming principle of the “rule of 3” Source: Advanced Wargames 1969 Donald Featherstone – The Tims War-games “Computer” Essentially every situation has one of three possibilities 

Sequence of Play: 

• Each Turn both Players roll a number of D6 equal the number of units they have 
• One D6 is allocated to each unit to show the order in which the Player wishes activate them [EG: D=1 Units activate first; D=6 Units activate last] 
• Both Players then active their units individually according to their sequence order 
• When there are ties then each unit is rolled for [Highest D6 activates] until the activation sequence for that number is resolved [NB: This resolution occurs when it is time for those tied units to activate] 

Unit Activation: 

• The unit chooses 1 of 3 options 
        o Movement 
        o Firing 
        o Do nothing 

• Movement 

        o A Unit may move up to the distances listed below during their activation 

Unit Type	Line	March Column
Infantry	6”	9”
Zouaves	9”	12"
Cavalry – mounted	12"	18"
Cavalry - dismounted	6"	9"
Artillery – limbered	n/a	12"
Artillery - deployed	0"	n/a

    
        o Change Formation and/or Facing: During the units activation only, and counts as movement

                Unit Type                                 Cost 
                Infantry                                  2” 
                Zouaves                                  2” 
                Cavalry - mounted                 4”
                Cavalry - dismounted            2” 
                Artillery                                 4” 


Note. I had actually misunderstood this rule, and in the game DG advised that a change of formation/facing actually covered off all changes of facing, even wheels (which I had been measuring in the traditional manner) - I think I prefer my interpretation, but DG begs to differ because the rule as he intends it is more sympathetic to the original rules in the book..

Terrain effects on movement:

        o Woods          Only Infantry, Zouaves and dismounted cavalry 1/3 cost 
        o Towns          Only Infantry, Zouaves and dismounted cavalry 1/3 cost 
        o Marshland    Impassable 
        o Lakes            Impassable 
        o Rivers           Crossed via Bridges and Fords only and March column only 
        o Roads            Add 3” to distance if entire move is spent on a road and March column only 

Interpenetration: 

        o Units may pass through each other for the same cost as the change of formation above 
        o The penalty applies to both units 

If one of the units has no movement left, no interpenetrations may occur 

Firing

        o March columns: [IE: 2-4 files wide] cannot fire 

        o Field of Fire: 
                o Units may only fire at a single target within their frontal 90° Field of Fire 
                   Except for Units in towns. These have a 360° Field of Fire and may therefore engage a                    single target in any direction o Units must be on the edge of cover to fire out of it 
                o Units firing within cover have a range of 3” 

        o Range: 
                o Infantry and Dismounted Cavalry have a range of 12” [04/08/12] 
                o Deployed Artillery has a range of 48” [16/32/48]

         o Casualties: 
                o Each Unit rolls D6 and modifies as per the Condition table below 
                o The target suffers the final result in hits 
                o When 15 hits have been achieved the target is removed 

                        Condition                                         DRM 
                        Infantry                                               +0 
                        Zouaves                                               +1 
                        Dismounted Cavalry                           - 1 
                        Deployed Artillery                             +0 
                        Range <= 1/3 [04/16]                         +0 
                        Range <= 2/3 [08/32]                         - 1 
                        Range <= 3/3 [12/48]                         - 2 
                        Unit <= 1/3 [05]                                 - 2 
                        Unit <= 2/3 [10]                                 - 1 
                        Unit <= 3/3 [15]                                 +0 
                        Target In Towns and Woods                 ½ result