A more fulfilling write up of the Battle of Chelsea Creek battle is forthcoming. Richard Claydon of the Boston Trained Bands (Chris was home ill) did a fantastic job as umpire and scenario creator. He ran the battle for the five of us and we had a blast! Below you can see numerous pictures. Adrian Benson of New England Grognard took the first group (20) of pictures and has given me permission to use them as I see fit. The rest of the photographs, mainly close ups, were taken by your’s truly.
They should give you a feel for the battle. The plan is to have another one of these events in December (yay my 30th birthday) at Battleground Games & Hobbies.
I have to give much thanks to Richard Claydon, Chris Bergonzi, and the entire Boston Trained Bands for creating this fantastic scenario and an extra thank you to Rich for coming down from the north shore to run the game. A huge thank you also goes out to Chase Laquidara and Derek Lloyd of Battleground Games & Hobbies for allowing the game to be held at their Abington location. Many thanks go to everyone who participated in the game. It was a great bunch of gamers and I think we all had a good time.
It was a great game. I really enjoyed. Tragically, I now have a new game to get minis for! It started out in such a promising way for me, and then I started to roll the way I always do. Fortunately, I wasn’t a commander during the American Revolution, otherwise history may have come out a bit differently.
I had a great time. As soon as I got home. I ordered Black Powder. Jonathan you finally got me to take the plunge.
As soon as my order comes in, I will start to paint. Hopefully, I can field two additional French battalions and some British/Tories. Must get more minis to fill that board. One of these game we may actually have a reserve.
Cort N
Good showing guys for more info join the Black Powder new England Yahoo group .
Sorry for making everyone tilt their heads. I rotated the image so they’re all facing the proper way.
The game really was a lot of fun.
@Drew I strongly suggest buying models first and waiting on the rulebook. Enough of us own it that you can look up what you need. Plus, the quick reference sheets coupled with playing the game a few times should give a decent foundation for how to play.
If you get curious about models to purchase please read Black Powder Fog of War. In particular read the e-mail Henry Hyde wrote me that I quote in the article.
Cort has great suggestions on where to get models on the cheap. One other thing to consider is there’s enough of us playing with a variety of forces that you can play with us using one of the forces until you decide what you want to get.
@Cort YAY! If only there was a way to tell the Perrys and the Warlord guys about this. I’m glad you’re getting the book. It is a nice resource to have on the shelf.
Playing on a single 4×6 is nice, with the amended rules of halving distances, but I think I like two 4×6 tables pushed together better. Doing that definitely yearns for more models to put onto the table.
I’m looking forward to the ACW scenario to use your extensive collection of those models.
@Gordon I’m glad you liked it. Am hoping to get a writeup of the battle for here. Will share a link with the listserv too when completed.
It felt weird playing as British. There must have been something unnatural with my being a loyalist because my rolling S-U-C-K-E-D. When did the Americans get jetpacks to race across the board and grab those cows?
It was a very enjoyable game. Slapping rebels senseless makes me happy, but it’s too bad we weren’t able to score a few more of the cows. Oh well, at least the officers will have steak!
Jon, I reread the rulebook last night and finally came up with an answer to the question that has come up twice so far: can a unit that is engaged in hand to hand through its flank or rear turn to face the enemy unit?
The answer is, if it survives the first round of combat, and is only engaged by ONE enemy unit, then yes, it can change facing to face the enemy unit if it has room to do so. If it is engaged by 2 or more enemy units, it is not allowed to change face.
I think the next game we should play if folks are interested is the “Daybreak at Hangman’s Creek” scenario in the back of the rulebook. Cort has enough 15mm ACW figures to support the scenario and we should be able to get enough terrain scraped up to do it.
I think I found what you are talking about. Page 73 section beginning with the black bold text “Units that Hold their Ground”
The fourth paragraph details how the changing of face works. Did you notice that by changing face the unit automatically becomes Disordered. So they suffer the -1 for attacks (YIKES only hitting on 5 and 6), can’t do the initiative or other types of moves, AND they get a -1 on Break Tests.
So if Unit A is charged in the flank by Unit Z. After combat is resolved both units are stuck in for another turn. Unit A reforms to face Unit Z. This round they end up sucking more cause they still only hit on 5 or 6 (same as when they were being attacked in the flank) but now they’re getting at least a -1 on the Break Test and if they’ve reached Excess Casualties things become nasty.
Imagine losing combat, being disordered, having 1 more than your stamina (plausible) and then taking a break test at -2. Hope you roll high cause that 6 you rolled now means you’re fleeing potentially taking any units that supported you with you.
Whereas if you don’t reform you’d only be at -1 to the break test (from the 1 excess casualty) and the 6 now changes into a 5 meaning you just back up 12 inches (or whatever the case may be). That’s not too terrible…even with being disordered after the move.
It is kind of 6 of one, half a dozen of the other but I almost would prefer not reforming because of the danger it inflicts with the break test. This is all moot anyone because the unit MUST reform (unless we house rule this or something) because the rules say it happens automatically.
Oh the psychological dangers of being attacked in the flank or rear.
I did notice all of that. Moral of the story: “Suck less as a commander and don’t get charged in the flank or rear.”
That is good to know and it makes sense too. If I was commanding a unit, for real…not on a tabletop, I’d totally change facing instead of allowing myself to get raped from the flank.
My question is, how is the term “engaged” being used. Is it being used to signify a unit in hand to hand combat or is it being used to include units that are supporting the hand to hand combat?
I would take it to mean a unit that is touching bases for hand to hand combat. That would mean the first time it came up my reformation was allowed. AND that in Sunday’s game the Americans should have reformed against me. May have made a difference but not sure how much of one.
At that point it really was a foregone conclusion. They should have withdrew from the field to preserve the unit’s integrity and strength.
My lobsterbacks…I mean redcoats…erm soldiers yeah that’s it my soldiers desired those cows. A shame they weren’t speedy enough to get them. Still, a minor victory is still a victory. Right?
Will look at the scenario in the back of the book. ACW sounds good to me. How do we need to alter the rules for 15mm? Is that a half distance thing? Want to play on two 4×6 like on Sunday?
Hopefully more people will join us. We could do 2v2 or 3v3 etc. Sounds like fun to me. Care to make a list of terrain we need?
“Engaged” meaning units in actual contact. Supports don’t count.
I’ll put together a list of what we’ll need and how many players the scenario will support before the weekend. I think there are 3 brigades per side, so we could theoretically have 6 people playing. Seven if you or I act as umpire, which I’d be willing to do if we actually have that many people.
I think given that the models are 15mm, we could do it on one 4×6 table, halving movement and shooting distances. But Cort has a lot of figures, so we could potentially use the 24-30 figure ‘normal’ sized units of the rule book, in which case we might want a bigger table. Will have to look at that.
Looking at the map it seems like needed terrain is:
2 Hills (1 with some woods)
1 Woods
2 Corn Fields
1 Town
1 Camp
1 Gun Foundry
River
Roads
Farm
I think Cort has some river sections he made that might be usable. I have felt in various colors/sizes that would make good corn fields, hills, and woods. BG should have woods and hills but the scale may be wrong.
That leaves 15mm buildings. Adrian you have some WWII buildings you use in FoW. Could those in for a town or a farm?
I do have some 15mm buildings as long as we don’t mind a Ukranian/Eastern European look to our Northern Virginia battlefield :)
John C has the FoW river set which he’d probably be willing to let us borrow. Roads might be a problem, but we can fake it. I have some pieces that will serve for the cornfields and we can use the fences Cort has even though the scale is off. No biggie really.
Let me know when this game is going down! It sounds like it will be fun!
We’ll make a historical gamer of you yet!
Gentlemen,
Inventory
Union
Infantry -79, 4 fig stands
Cavalry – 10, 2 fig stands
Artillery – 9 guns
Confederates
Infantry – 78, 4 fig stands
Cavalry – 10, 2 fig stands
Artillery – 9 guns
At 1 figure equaling 30 men, 16 figure regiments equal 480 men. Typical for 1863 Gettysburg period.
houses – 8 (Log Cabins, Houses, and a rail center)
Streams – about six feet(I will make more)
Fencing and rock walls
Woods I will look at this weekend. Mice may have moved in.
Do we need bridges?
Cort
Blimey that is:
Union
9,480 Infantry
600 Cavalry
1,080 Artillerymen
Rebels
9,360 Infantry
600 Cavalry
1,080 Artillerymen
That’s a LOT of people.
So, Cort does this mean you are our go to guy for 15mm?
Gentlemen,
Just mounted and based the 5 brigader generals and 1 divisional command stand for both sides.
We should get a division on each side with three brigades in each. 3 to 4 Regiments per brigade.
Just got the rules and am reading now.
Jonathan – 15mm is the way to go. Smaller foot print means cheaper prices, less space used, and bigger battles. I still have a pile of unpainted 15mm civil war. Just need an good nugde to start painting them again. Just do not want to upset Adrian by loosing focus on AWI.
Cort N
Guys,
I am working on the woods and will work on the streams tomorrow. I just do not have any time to make hills. There is a lot of drying steps to making the streams.
Cort