Chancellorsville and Glory II

If there's one thing I love about boardgames, it's setting them up. I may not get through a whole game, but I do like to get the maps on the table, weight them down for a couple of days to sit flat, leisurely put the counters in place (in consultation with appropriate reference works), and then admire the scene. 

I got Richard Berg's Glory II: Across the Rappahannock about ten years ago, I would guess, when I was in Japan. I set up a couple of one-mapper scenarios, but the whole battle of Chancellorsville is a three-mapper, and I didn't have the dedicated space over there to tackle it. 

The first thing you appreciate is that three maps do the terrain justice. Here we are looking from the west towards Fredericksburg, with the Union forces in the foreground converging on Chancellorsville itself.

Moving east, we see Anderson and company digging in around Zoar Zion Church and waiting for support to come up.

On the heights overlooking Fredericksburg, McLaws stays in prepared positions (for the moment, at least).  

Further south, Early observes Sedgwick and his command across the river. 

It is 7:15am on May 1st, 1863: Hooker is at Chancellorsville, the Federals are massing, and the action is about to commence. Shelby Foote provides commentary and atmosphere; we are all set.

With the prospect of playing this out solo in front of me, I re-read the Foote account and traced it out on the map. I planned to come downstairs the next night and start the game.

But I didn't. 

And that is all we got to.

A week later, I still have not started. Back into its box it goes.

It was a nice project to a certain extent, but I'm a touch concerned, looking at the vast numbers of boardgames on my shelves, how little I actually play them. I wonder if this is what my relationship to the meatier boardgames has come to: are they now just a tool to visualise action, rather than to play it out? 

Or maybe I just need to start pulling chits and rolling dice rather than opening my phone!

Bruce Catton

I was browsing thebookdepository.com the other day looking to see if they had the new Gettysburg Solitaire book from Worthington Games. It turns out they didn't, but somehow or other (as one does) I ended up going down an internet rabbit hole. This time it led to Bruce Catton. I'd owned one of his books and loved it (I forget which one - A Stillness at Appomattox, perhaps?) but had lent it to someone and not got it back.

Since that first reading I've always checked secondhand book shops just in case they have any Catton on the shelves but I've not had any luck so far. I imagine it would be a bit different if you were shopping in the US, however!

Anyway, by roundabout means, I came across the website of a secondhand book store in Wellington called Haven Books which had a copy of the Army of the Potomac trilogy. I ordered it and it arrived today, well-thumbed, yellowed, and obviously much-read. Just how a book should be.

But my search also turned up another gem - a C-Span video of a lecture on Bruce Catton given at Gettysburg by David Blight.  I won't spoil it with an inadequate introduction, but if you have an hour and fifteen minutes to spare, you might find it worth your time.   

To close, the Gettysburg movie, Catton, Foote, and Burns have no doubt been the catalysts for many a Civil War obsession. Do readers have any other particular books, videos or lectures that got them interested in the ACW? 

Gettysburg, the first day.

Heth roars down the pike and deploys to assault Buford and his cavalry. I Corps arrives on Buford's right to offer support.

Heth moves to the left; Pender comes up on the right. The artillery commands the centre. The cavalry pull back to shorten the line and protect flanks while the rest of I Corps marches to the scene.

Pender assaults. Buford is quickly under immense pressure, but is unable to find the right time to pull back.

Heth continues to advance against I Corps. There are minor casualties on both sides.

Casualties may be light, but the Union position is being squeezed like a ripe cucumber.

Reynolds commences bringing up troops in force. Heth loses two brigades in the fight. Does Buford take this chance to pull back, or does he hold? 

He cannot safely pull back without exposing Reynold's flank, so he waits.

Rodes appears to heap more pressure on the Union line. 

XI Corps marches into Gettysburg. I Corps is readying itself to retreat to Seminary Ridge. 

The scene in the vicinity of the town. Rodes' flank is exposed. He will shortly move back to less dangerous ground.

It is time for Buford to pull out...

But he has left it too late. Waves of attack from Pender and Heth destroy his command.

Early advances onto Rodes's flank.

The Union position is imperilled. Rodes and Early have fixed XI Corps in position. Heth and Pender can choose where to strike on Seminary Ridge, while Early can move to outflank Howard's XI Corps if he wishes.

Heth and Pender attack the left of the Union line, with some success. Once again, the men wearing blue are being squeezed into a dangerously narrow area. 

Early extends his line to threaten the right of Howard's position in Gettysburg.

XII Corps marches onto the battlefield, up the Baltimore Pike towards Cemetery Hill. 

Heth crosses Seminary Ridge and drives in on Gettysburg itself. It is Union I Corps now in danger of being crushed. Casualties in this area are heavy.

But the lesson of Buford's destruction has been learned, and Reynolds pulls his men back as soon as opportunity allows. It is now Heth who risks being outflanked. 

The situation in the town is precarious. A determined push from Early would see the troops there trapped in the town but his troops are exhausted.

Anderson arrives too late to have any affect on the day's fighting.

Night falls with Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill safe for the Union, but only just.

*****************

This playthrough for the first day turned out to be a draw, but the board tells us that if the battle were to continue again tomorrow with the troops in their current positions, the Union would be at risk of catastrophic defeat.  As it was, the Confederates took 5700 casualties (19 strength points lost), mostly from Heth's division, while the Union took 7800 casualties (26 strength points lost), mainly from Buford's cavalry and I Corps.

The game was a lively affair. The chit pull activation was by turns cruel and kind to both sides.

There was one lovely moment in Early's activation late in the day when, knowing he needed to attack, I looked at the Union line, thought I don't like the look of that, and found all kinds of ways to appear as if he was preparing for a charge in against them while ensuring one didn't actually happen... 

It wasn't until later that the import of that sunk in!

So, a fun game of Battle for Gettysburg: the First Day. I'm glad I found my copy again, and am pleased I got to play it before getting the newly-arrived Battle Hymn to the table. 

Bits and pieces, and a wargame.

As must be fairly obvious from the lack of postings on this blog, there hasn't been a lot of recent action on the wargaming front for the relocated Prufrock. But there has been plenty going on in other areas of life.

On the not-so-good side, we lost our much loved patriarch at the end of September after he finally succumbed to that insidious disease which picks people off from families everywhere. He was brave to the last and it was a privilege and a blessing to have had him in our lives.

Similarly, it was a mournful evening last week when the mighty English blasted our noble All Blacks to smithereens in Yokohama.

More positively, South Africa then crushed the English in turn to win a well-deserved third World Cup title. To be honest, I would have been almost as happy had England won - so good was their performance the previous week - but for the South Africans to triumph after having looked a shadow of their former selves not so long ago is great for rugby and for their country. It also gives nice bragging rights to the host country - the only game they lost was to the eventual champions!

The job is going well, house hunting is about to begin, and my wife and kids are moving over at the end of November, so this drawn-out process is now starting to look like it is producing results. It's been a long few months since February, but video phones are a wonderful thing!

Despite everything else that's been going on, there has been some gaming: I introduced a friend to Commands & Colors: Ancients not so long ago; while an epic night of rum and chess at an old school mate's place in Rarangi will live in the memory.

To close, here are a few pics of the last miniatures game I participated in, this one being a huge ACW battle in 28mm at Roundie's. It was a fine contest with plenty of blood and thunder, and even a crossroads.

The battlefield looking from the Union left.

The Union right centre catches a Confederate force in their tents.

The Union centre.

"Here they come, boys!"

And here we come on the left...

The fighting on the Union right was grim right from the beginning.

We race to defeat the Confederate left.

"Push on, gentlement!"

"Come and get us!"

We deployed quite craftily as defenders and I thought we'd done enough to beat those damnable Secessionists, but it was not to be. They held on their left, but we (mostly...) controlled the centre and pushed them on their right to take the advantage in victory dice scored. Unlike with victory points, however, victory dice still have to be rolled - and we rolled miserably, giving the staunch men in grey and butternut a famous victory.

As you can see, Roundie's table and figures are really something.

So there we are. Hope all readers are well and in fine fettle.

A good morning for a spray

And it was: an excellent morning. Day off, good weather, and a batch of figures that has been sitting and waiting for a spray for some months.

They are a real mixed bag of 1/72 figures. Italeri, Esci, Revell, Imex plastics with some RSM metals. Not showcase quality, but once the bases and flags are done they'll be fit for purpose.

Thunder at the Crossroads

Although I'm mainly an ancients gamer, Gettysburg is probably my favourite battle, and with some time off for Golden Week in Japan I decided to set up my copy of Thunder at the Crossroads from the Gamers for a little run through of the first day's events.

It's funny, but whenever I play a Gettysburg game I get a few butterflies in the stomach. I guess it being such an iconic battle and cultural marker there's a sense of reverence when approaching it. Books, films, Ken Burns's masterpiece, a certain address by Abraham Lincoln; they all go into making it something that generates a certain amount of awe.

Anyway, here are a few shots of the morning, from 8:30 until 10:30.