Hold the Line! ACW Shenandoah Battle Report

Initially, I hadn`t had anything planned tonight at TSA, but I rolled into an ACW battle never the less.

Using the houserules written by Pat and Eddy, this would be a scenario based on the 3rd day of the Shenandoah campaign.  

The Union army, arriving piecemeal on the central road, must break through the Confederates.  While the south has a large, deployed artillery battery and it`s regiments guarded by high fences, the North is forced to move through the open field or crawl through the woods.  If one flank collapses before the other is out of the woods, the Union, who do have the numbers over their enemies, would crumble...

I commanded the Union right, which needed to cross the open field and hold up the southerners as good as possible, while Eddy would command the breakthrough force over our left.  Opposing us was Walfred and Pat, who needed to keep a sort of aggressive defence in play.

And so my first two units, including the Irish, moved off to certain doom over the open field. On the other flank, the advance regiments move towards the fenced line held by the Confederates.

One by one these regiments are shot to pieces, though they manage to inflict some casualties, but not enough to force morale tests.

On the road, the first reinforcements arrive, including my cannon.  Two turns of shooting resulted in decimating the Louisiana Tigers (aka, the Circus Pants Club) to below a decent fighting strength.

More Union regiments are piling in on the road now, while mild casualties are caused on the Confederates.

Their artillery dominates the battlefield though, and cause severe casualties in the Union lines.

A true blue tide is forming now at the base of the road, and starts flooding to the left with the elite units while the sharpshooters go right.  I wanted to assassinate Jackson, and truth to be told, at one point I came very close, had my cannon shot scattered two inch less.

I kept pouring in regiment after regiment, to dwindle down the opposing flank.

In the meantime, the other flank is nearing the position for the attack to break the confederate line.

And then the South made, for me, the crucial mistake.  Seeing the pressure on their left (my flank), Walfred moved two of his units away from the line to help support in decimating my units.  This meant their line was now split and we had the opportunity for Eddy to start the attack in earnest.
The opposing forces where now split and this would mean that we either would tie up and make that miraculous breakthrough to Jackson, or plan A where the now very small Confederate force on their right flank (our left) would become overwhelmed and we could turn the line.

Pat`s Cavalry scattered my first regiment of Sharpshooters, but the ensuing counter fire by a full regiment shot them all down.

My last regiment, another sharpshooter unit, took some cannon fire before advancing.  Stonewall was now out of reach as I had ran out of units to force the gap, and apart from some cannon fire, my role now came to an end in this battle.  The sharpshooters caused some casualties, before being overrun by a southern regiment.

The Black Hats now turned their attention to the small remainders of the Confederate flank, decimating his units.  The battle shifted to the other flank, as the Zouaves and a few regulars engaged in a fire duel with the confederates.

The Confederates where killed at the cost of the zouaves who broke off, but the south now only had their guns and we took them out 2 per turn with our cannon and Black Hats.

The Union had won, at a very high price, but the breakthrough was a succes!

It was a fun evening, and while I did give some suggestions for the rules, they did play smooth albeit bloody.  Thanks guys for the game, it was a nice one!