So my friend Chris and I have started a campaign of Longstreet. This is a great brigade/divisional level American Civil War (ACW) game by Sam Mustafa. It has a wonderful campaign system as well. This is the second campaign I have had using this system. I’m again playing the rebels/confederates in this. I did ok last time, so we shall see on this one. Note, you can see the blog posts for the first one done nearly 10 years ago here. You can also see moire details about Longstreet there which is a carddriven system which adds some real twists into games. We are both using all my 10mm figs so the pictures and basing will look quite similar in the photo’s.
We started with the standard 1861 forces and took a random and one chosen personality trails. I have a veteran of the Indian wars (so good at scouting) who is also a fire and brimstone preacher… It felt very fitting to call him Nathanial Battersall, so he became my commander. Chris has an abolitionist Mexican war veteran – whose name is still to be decided by him. The first game was a meeting engagement along a road. That is a very fitting first game so we got to it.
Note the campaign is not necessarily won by winning battles – although that helps of course. But EP’s (Epic Points) decide that and those are gained by not only winning battles but also by massive charges (which are not always the most effective battle tactics – but were seen as very heroic and noble at the time) and also successful defenses against charges (which again were highly praised at the time). So it’s really the personal commanders reputation which is important. There is no way for the Rebels to win the war and although they start strong by the end of the war they are struggling in the specific battles.
As we start in different corners of the table the first 6 or more turns were all about movement and position. I decided to use the rough ground to the side of the road on my table edge as a support and spin a round that – trying to make the battle more left to right vs. straight up/down the table. My guns got in front as did my cavalry while the infantry in lines marched to the center of the table.
The Federal troops had something of a similar view and sent their cavalry advancing in a similar manner. They passed the hill on their side of the table and equally seemed ok to have this left to right fight.
Soon though my cavalry had got around the central standing crops and were looking to get into the Federal rear. So their cavalry and guns did an about face and moved back to counter the rebel cavalry. That would put my cavalry at risk when they deployed but for now meant I was in control on that side. I had plans to dismount the rebel cavalry and try to outflank the federal infantry units if I could.
Meanwhile my infantry continued to advance. Even though one unit got a but ahead I decided to try to keep them fairly close together for mutual support.
As the Federal cavalry moved closer I decided caution was the better part of valor and retired my cavalry somewhat and then dismounted them. They were still somewhat ahead of the now wheeling infantry. Meanwhile the federals also moved into line formation extending their lines but also giving them more musket fire. However, this did allow me to have a concentration of units in one area.
The rebels made the first move and started to close into musket range. This is always a big deal in Longstreet as your opponent gets to fire after you move and before you can react, So the units moving into musket range can get them damaged before they do anything unless you are lucky.
Good use of cards by Chris meant that the rebel actions faltered at this point allowing the Federals to gain the initiative. So, the Federals were the first to charge and after first doing some damage with musket fire they charged which gained them 1 EP. This was on the second rank of my rebel infantry units and so broke up the rebel advance a bit. This charge was successful as well cause some damage on the rebel unit. It also forced lithe rebels to fall back – removing the multiple line of troops threat I had been hoping for.
The only rebel success at this stage was against the Federal cavalry. They had got confused inside musket range of my dismounted rebels and my cavalry managed to move up and get several good volleys off at them without any return fire. Soon the Federal cavalry were down to half their original strength. Rather than dismount (or charge when mounted) and face the bad odds they stayed on their horses and retired back. So the rebel cavalry had driven off their opposition!
But soon enough, I had a the great ‘rebel yell’ card and so the whole of my infantry when into combat. The counter charge on the Federal unit when charged first did not go as well as planned and that bounced off. But further up the line I had 2 units against 1. That went much better for the rebels and destroyed half the original unit in a single fight!
The other Federal infantry regiment had moved too far to be involved in these fights though. It started the march towards the Rebel artillery but so far had not been hurt by that.
The Federal guns and muskets though had started to impact all along the rebel lines. This was not yet enough to have a morale impact but casualties had started in the rebel ranks. In the center the Federals again charged several times but this time without enough men to get any EP’s or to get a deciding victory. In fact the one of these attacks was beaten off so well as to give the rebels another EP.
I also turned my central unit in the center towards the remaining 2 federal troops towards my edge of the table. But that takes time, these are big units. To do a full 90 turn takes a couple of turns to change to a good fighting formation. But when done my hope was that it would be enough for a flank attacks when they moved up.
But it was not needed. Soon though another mass charge occurred by the Rebels who-still faced the original union forces. That was after a quick set of shooting to weaken the union forces before hand. This gained my rebels another EP’s and also the victory, as the casualties from all this aggression was enough to make the rest of the Union forces to run.
It was late when the game finished. So we will start the next session with the campaign update for our forces but so far I am winning the EP battle with a score of 6 to 3. But, it is still the early days of the war and these forces have a lot more fighting to so before it ends. Also, the Federals do start a little slower than the Rebels in the campaign.
I hope to continue the game write ups so we all shall see how the campaign turns out!