Longstreet (at last)

On Tuesday evening James, Lee and myself had a game of Longstreet. I must admit that I have had the rules since they were released about a year ago and apart from a cursory glance have not opened the rule book since.

However, James is currently smitten by the American Civil War - hence my lack of opportunity for Spanish Civil War games of late - and has spent his hard earned on two matched Confederate and Union forces ideal for Longstreet, Fire and Fury, Black Powder, etc.

We decided to play the river crossing scenario set in 1863. I would play the Union and Lee the Confederates with my troops attacking. Lee had to leave after about an hour so James would then jump in.

Both sides had a General, four ten-stand Infantry units, a ten-stand Cavalry unit and a battery of two Napoleons and a Howitzer.

Lee deployed his troops on a broad front, my deployment area had a large wooded area in the centre so I would have to go either left or right. so I went left. My four infantry units rushed towards the ford while my artillery and cavalry attempted to prevent the Confederates from re-deploying.

My cavalry got pretty shot up in the process, as was to be expected, but my Infantry made it to the river crossing with little ill effect and were soon trading musketry with the sole Confederate infantry unit and cavalry unit deployed there.

The blood was up and one of my units tried to force a crossing, here I found out that attacking across difficult terrain against a large unit is not really a good idea! My troops were soon reeling back across the ford.

By now more Confederate infantry were joining the fight at the ford so my troops deployed in extended line and started blazing away at the Rebs. The Union certainly had the upper hand in this fight.

James tried to bring his guns into the fight, bust as he limbered the, the Union cavalry mounted up, crossed the bridge and soon had despatched them.

It was now a chance to see if the Confederates had been broken, unfortunately, I rolled a one - same old story - and they were still in the fight.

Next turn, my cavalry were destroyed and it was James' time to check my army status, he rolled a lot better than I had and the Union forces were broken.

It's my first game of Longstreet, but I think we will certainly be trying them out again.