The Battle of Morgans Crossroads

I set up another game of Black Powder American Civil War with Matt at the White Hart. James was also without a game so it gave me the opportunity to try out a fictitious scenario I had been mulling over.

James and Matt ready to go head to head.

The CV of the commanders and the attributes assigned to the troops are all randomly determined as are the arrival of the reinforcements.

A Confederate brigade holds the strategically important town of Morgans Crossroads. They are deployed expecting an attack from the west. and Union troops are visible along that road.

Confederate 1st Brigade - Commander CV7

Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Artillery	Smoothbore  Artillery	1	3-2-1	4+	2

A column of troops is rushing to support the brigade in the town up the road from the east.

Confederate 2nd Brigade - Commander CV7

Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Tough Fighters
Artillery	Rifled Artillery	1	2-2-2	4+	2

However a swift Union right-hook means that the town may become out-flanked. A brigade of Union troops have appeared from the south.

Union brigade approaching from the south.

Union 1st Brigade - Commander CV8

Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Marauders, Skirmish, Reliable, Sharpshooters
Artillery	Rifled Artillery	2	3-2-2	4+	3

The sneaky Union flanking manoeuvre from the south.

The Divisional Commander (CV8) is also supporting this right hook. A 2nd Union brigade is approaching from the West as expected.

Union 2nd Brigade Commander - CV7

Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3
Artillery	Smoothbore Artillery	2	4-2-1	4+	3

Both sides can expect another brigade of troops each to turn up some time.

The Confederates take the first turn and immediately the 2nd Brigade rushes up the road to support the troops in Morgans Crossroads. The 1st brigade commander issues the first of many failed order attempts, but the Confederate CinC is able at least to redeploy the artillery to face the threat from the south.

The Confederate 2nd Brigade advance on the town.

The Union troops approaching from the west stall, but the flanking force on their right moves to get into position. The artillery battery is deployed on a hill overlooking Morgans Crossroads and in conjunction with the sharp-shooters is soon exchanging fire with the rebels.

Dispositions at the end of the first turn

As the game progresses, the Union troops eventually arrive and deploy to the west of the town. The Confederates try to counter this by moving a unit out of the town and up to the stone walls, but given some poor order dice the unit is left in the open and cut down by concentrated fire. The Union right flank attack also succeeds in destroying the Confederate regiment holding the right flank of the town and that artillery battery. The Confederates now have a broken Brigade, but the two remaining units occupy the town so do not need to fall back. Their commander has issued a single successful order in about seven turns.

Once the Union troops to the west have deployed  the third Union brigade following them up the road is also able to start deploying onto the table on the right of the 2nd Brigade.

Union 3rd Brigade - Commander CV8

Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 6+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 6+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 6+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 6+
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 6+
Artillery	Rifled Artillery	2	3-2-2	4+	3

The head of the column of the Union 3rd Brigade as it moves onto the field of battle

However, the Union does not have it all their own way, rapidly marching to the sound of the regimental bands playing Dixie a Confederate relief column snakes down the road from the woodland in the north.

Confederate 3rd Brigade - Commander CV7

Type	Armament	HtH	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Infantry	Rifled Muskets	6	3	4+	3	Elite 5+ Tough Fighters
Artillery	Smoothbore  Artillery	1	3-2-1	4+	2

Despite some mix up with the order of match, these troops are soon deploying on the wood edge on the left flank of the Union second brigade and are also able to support the regiments from the broken brigade in the town. It looks very dicey for the Union second brigade as their first unit is shattered by flanking fire from the woods and poor command rolls mean that they are finding it very difficult to react to the flank attack.

Confederate reinforcements fall upon the Union left flank

However in the Union center and left the attack on the crossroads is pushed home and the second Confederate brigade is also broken by musket and cannon fire. Having lost two brigades out of three the Confederate force is shattered and must retreat from the field.

We had played at least ten turns and not had a single round of hand to hand combat.

All in all a very good game, at the start of the game I made the commanders roll for their CV, for the Confederates, on a 1-2 they would be CV7 and on a 3+ would be CV8, they ended up with three CV7! For the Union it would be a CV7 on a 1-4 and a CV8 on a 5+, they ended up with two CV8 and a CV7. I think this had a telling effect on the outcome. Also as the Union were more able to dictate the pace of the game, they were able to win the fire-fights and no hand to hand, where the Confederates had superiority took place.

Here are some more shots of the game. all the terrain and figures are from my collection. The miniatures are from Adler and are painted by myself. As we are using 6mm figures we play at half ranges and it seems to give a very good game on a 6ft x 4ft board.

We play a few modifications on the standard Black Powder rules to give what I think is a ACW feel.

1. A Brigade is broken when more than half of its units are shattered or lost.
2. Passage of lines takes a half move.
3. To represent the larger Union artillery batteries they get +1 dice at close range, +1 in HtH and +1 Stamina
4. To represent the difference between rifled and smooth-bore artillery, the rifled batteries are on 2 dice at all ranges.
5. Infantry may form in either:

• Supported line – two bases deep counting as line
• Mixed order Supported line – two bases deep counting as mixed order line
• Extended line – one base deep counting as skirmishers
• March column

The Union attack develops, but Confederates appear on the left flank

Position at the end of the game

 

Confederates advance through the woods to fall on the Union left.

The Union attack develops

Another shot from the center of the Union lines

 There were also a few other games going on at the club on Thursday, and this one in particular caught my eye. A game of DBR in 28m using the lovely 1672 range of figures from Northstar