BLACK POWDER CIVIL WAR

Our first foray into Black Powder using our ACW miniatures. The confederate forces had three brigades of four infantry regiments and a brigade of two cavalry. The union had four brigades of infantry of various sizes and a brigade of two regiments of cavalry. The Union, have forgotten to deploy artillery, went without.

The shot below is from turn two. Some units on both sides got triple moves and advanced aggressively so on turn two, the confederates could charge under initiative.

The confederate cavalry commander is non-aggressive and the dice supported this notion.

Initial moves by the Confederate left were minimal and when they did get good moves with the rightmost brigade (Alabama) they were slowed by the woods to their front.

Testing the effectiveness of artillery, one Union regiment was routed in a  charge.

Troops are getting stuck in. Some fights end in an instant while others go on an on over several turns. At other than point-blank range, the artillery is all but useless.

Dismounted union cavalry make good time moving through the woods. Their day would be remarkably successful.

The Alabama brigade gets strung out through a combination of the forest and sweeping advances by successful troops winning melees.

Disaster strikes the rebel right. Technically, at this point both Confederate right flank brigades are permanently broken and thus the army is broken and the game is lost. We rule though that brigades of two units are only broken when both units are shaken or destroyed (not half). We continue to play though on the right, the rebels can only fight to prevent complete annihilation.

This is a fight where numbers told, with multiple flanking attacks on both sides and even rear charges. Still, it took three turns before it was over (two turns after it was decided).

Three Brigades of Union cavalry each rolled 2 dice each turn to hit and were hitting on 4+. Rebel infantry were rolling 4 and 3 dice but only hitting on 6s. Cavalry were saving on 2+ and Rebels were saving on 4+. Standing in the open against skirmish troops in cover will result in losing a firefight it seems. Still, at the end of the day, though the rebels would be shaken and disordered, the cavalry daren't risk attacking them in the open. Looking back on it, the Rebs should have fallen back into the cover of the fields behind them at least (but they were almost always disordered).

The confederate cavalry has no means to prevent the Union Brigade from advancing though it evades and fires where it can.

In a few moments, the commander of the Alabama brigade would call upon the central shaken unit to rally. His rhetoric would be misunderstood and in the resulting blunder, the shaken regiment would do a triple charge move to their doom. 

The blunder charge is against the line. Two regiments charging the nearest building would be handily repulsed due to all the support that the defenders would receive from nearby units.

Rebel artillery would manage to send another unit retiring to the rear when it got enfilade fire and this would remove a critical supporting unit to allow a last Confederate charge to succeed. The Union though knew that the day was their and they held the line.

At the top of the picture, a single regiment of Union cavalry mounted and double moved to threaten the rear of the remnants of the Alabama brigade. The impetus though of the Confederate army though is exhausted and they declare the battle lost.