Song of Drums and Kepis AAR - Foraging Mission Scenario

Monday March 13 out come the Song of... Rules but this time using the ACW Supplement featured in 61 to 65 so time for some Song of Drums and Kepis! We picked the Foraging Mission Scenario, having read Flames Beyond Gettysburg (S L Mingus Sr) we placed our game in June 1863 as Ewells Corps pushed north to the Susquehanna River. Our force selections reflected this; the Northerners were mainly Conscripts and Militia (read lots of poor quality troops) whilst the Southerners were a few seasoned Veterans (uhoh!), would numbers or quality prevail!

Rebels 'Foraging'...

The Forces

USA

1 x NCO with Rifle and Revolver

1 x Veteran Marksman with Rifle

10 x Conscripts with Rifles

3 x Militiamen with Rifles

CSA

1 x Officer with Revolver and Sword

5 x Veterans with rifles

4x Veterans with Muskets

The Game

From a Northern Newspaper

...the gallant but desperate decision of Master Sergeant O’Higgins to throw himself into the front line turned the tide. Knowing that his command was not going to get out of their tents before the butternut wave of Secessionists swept through the camp he threw himself forward loosing off both his rifle and revolver. Singlehandedly he drove the Southerners back over the encampments fence. it was then he was struck to the ground by a lucky blow from a Rebel. Momentarily dazed he looked up to see one of his trusty men, Private Masters leap the fence and fell the the Confederate soldier who was about the skewer O’Higgins. after this Masters raced forward in a maddened rage bayoneting the Rebel's Leader. Mortified at the loss of their Officer the Confederates fled into the woods where only a sort while earlier they had emerged whooping in excitement!

Some Pictures

The Rebels entered the tabletop, quietly formed up at the tree line and prepared to launch themselves on the slumbering Yankees whose few sentries were oblivious of the danger...

Charge Boys! Get amongst them! Roared the Rebel Lieutenant...

Quickly the Rebels overcome the sentries and they found themselves inside the Union perimeter...

The last sentry crashes to the ground....

The drowsy Union troops manage to take out one of the attackers! At this point a few Conscripts fled seeing Private Parts suffer terribly from a head wound.

Ooops forgot to take pictures covering the rallying of the Yankees, Master Sergeant O'Higgins being knocked down and the Union resurgence... DOH!

Private Masters comes face to face with the Confederate Officer...

...and fells him in a brief tussle! A resounding Yankee 'Huzzah' is heard across the battlefield!

After Game Stuff

Well we had a lot of time for coffee and biscuits after this little game in hindsight I should have set the figures up again and we should have replayed the scenario. In this game both sides exposed their Leaders officers recklessly and pushed men forwarded unsupported a recipe for disaster! Either side could have won at one point the Rebs missed the opportunity to finish off the Yankee leader as he lay prone, given a similar chance the Southerners leapt at it taking out the Confederate Leader resulting in a victory!

Next fortnight we are playing Song of Drums and Kepis again!

Patton Heads East! Chain of Command AAR

We decided to trot out Chain of Command last Monday night! For something different we pitted Yanks against Reds in August 1945!

The scenario was played was the Take an Objective with the Yanks on the attack. Al commanded the forces of good and Dave the minions of evil, I umpired. The Americans objective was the east end of the bridge.

The force were straight from the original ruleset, the Americans had a 30 Cal and Sherman in support and the Soviets a T-34 76 and a Maxim, even though the Americans had a lot of firepower and a bit of cover it looked a tough task. The initial morale rules didn't favour the Allies with the Americans getting a moral rating of 8 and the Soviets 10!

We went through the Patrol phase which was pretty good for the Americans, the Soviets were brave placing a JOP on the 'wrong' side of the river!

The Americans watch anxiously late in the game as the Reds Tank advances for a final attack!

The Action!

The Americans started, their dice allowed them to place their 30 Cal in shell holes in the woods on their left, a Squad deployed into the shell holes on their right and a Sherman trundled onboard along the road. The Soviets rolled well, two Sections deployed in the ruins as well as their Maxim team and their tank arrived to support them immediately it looked like the Yanks were in for a hard time!

The American Captain stayed cool, his 30 Cal hosed the Maxim and two Squads advanced either side of the road leap frogging from cover to cover the Sherman advanced firing on the Maxim, the Infantry in the buildings and the the T-34 every time it poked its nose over the brow of the bridge, Soviet casualties climbed as their Maxim crew was wiped out and their other infantry were under continual fire, chances of Heroes of the Soviet Union being declared declined substantially!

late in the game the T-34 crew finally took on the Sherman both sides tanks scored hits but neither side got an advantage in the damage phase of shooting and twice the T-34 withdrew back over the bridge once almost crushing its supporting infantry!

At this point the night was late and Lieutenant Harrison threw his bazooka man forward in a heroic attempt to destroy the pesky T-34 and in a final throw of the dice Private Hanks evaded defensive fire successfully but was unable to hit the Red Beast!

We had to call proceeding before the game was resolved but with one of the Soviet JOP about to be captured and the Yanks firepower starting to tell we called it as an American victory!

The Pictures!

How the action developed, the green arrows follow American movement and the red the Soviet moves, the yellow bursts are where each side concentrated their firepower. The cover of the towns outskirts and shell holes helped the Americans in this instance...

The initial Yank deployment their 30 Cal set up to cover the advance under instruction from their Platoon 2IC.

View of action from the Soviet point of view!

Gallant Soviet infantry milling behind their tank, at one point it almost ran them over as it reversed away from the Western Imperialists!

Americans unload on the Reds, the advantage of an American Platoons Mad Minute Firepower was telling!

Private Hanks tries to single handedly destroy the Red Beast covering the bridge!

A final turn lunge by Soviet Tank Commander Ivan Neudegg failed to hit the Sherman!

Our battlefield from the Americans point of view this picture was taken at the end of the action...

Our thoughts!

Well as usual we enjoyed the CoC rules! Everyone was happy how the 'battle' developed both Dave and Al enjoying the night which is the main thing! Unfortunately at the end of the evening we as usual with CoC we had not completed the game but in this instance at least we could see where things were headed! CoC frustrates us (as usual) with infantry movement rates the Yanks infantry could just not move fast enough to cross the tabletop in a timely manner, given another hour or two they would barring a big change of events snagged a win but most of us needed to work in the morning! Is it just us plagued with Sections/Squads creeping forward at 3 inches a turn when rolling two dice or do others out there have the same issue? We are thinking of tweaking infantry movement next time!