First Bull Run, a BBB AAR

[Leman]

This proved to be a hilarious game owing to the brittleness of the two novice armies - raw troops, who go spent on one base loss and fragile when disrupted. Shot one is an overall view of the battlefield.



The Confederates had thrown Evans' brigade forward to a hill overlooking the Union approach. These Confederates were awarded the Jeff Davies Medal of Honor for their heroic derring do - more anon. Photo one also shows their initial position.
Meanwhile the Union attempted a) to get across the rivers, and b) take Evans' position. They were unsuccessful at first.



Evans' brigade gave an excellent account t of itself driving back one brigade, routing a second and then overrunning a gun battery before wisely falling back.





Meanwhile the Confederate centre crossed Young's Branch but met with strong opposition and was thrown back.



All to no avail for the Union as Confederate troops from the Valley began to arrive in numbers and reinforce the ford at Young's  Branch, ably abetted by the Confederate batteries on Bald Hill.







Meanwhile the remnants of Evans' brigade snuck round the wood and saw off another Union battery before finally being captured too far behind enemy lines.





At Ball's Ford the Confederates amassed enough troops to drive off the Union force with a spirited charge.



By the end of turn 8 it was all over for a weakened Union force, many of whom had fled the scene back towards Washington, leaving the Confederates holding four victory locations.

Conclusion - brittle troops on both sides give a fast and furious game of rapidly changing fortunes.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sounds like a corker!

[petercooman]

Looks great!

[Leman]

It really was a terrifically exciting game which had an historical outcome, whilst both winner and loser thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Steve J]

Sounds like a great game and one that echoed the one Dave and I played a few weeks ago .

[Techno]

 

Cheers - Phil

[Chris Pringle]

"hilarious", "terrifically exciting", "thoroughly enjoyed" - hard to beat that! Kudos to Vincent Tsao who wrote the scenario. I haven't played it myself but it definitely sounds like I need to!

Chris
Bloody Big BATTLES!
https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info
http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/

[Leman]

Give it a go Chris. There's nothing like throwing in a unit to defeat the enemy, but take a hit, finding  yourself victorious, disrupted and spent, with fresh enemy bearing down and you now know you'll be on a -3 if defending in melee. Some of the units also ran short of ammo as well! If you didn't laugh you'd have done a Sherman.

[Subedai]

Great looking game and sounds like you had a good time. What's not to like in a wargame?

[Westmarcher]

Agreed. Inspiring stuff!

Only issue I have is that I am now in somewhat of a quandary. You see, I had this cunning (i.e., mad) plan to take advantage of Leon"s mini-bits offer to buy a load of square bases to upgrade my 3 fig per base ACW infantry (based like your above - must be a F&F thing - otherwise spooky coz you base your SYW the same as me and we've never met) to 4 fig square bases. But as the 3 fig rectangular bases still look fine, maybe I'll just keep them as they are. Oh, decisions ..... 

[d_Guy]

A fun game Leman! Really enjoyed the close-up pics. Love playing with brittle or untrained troops - often gives results closer to reality.

[paulr]

 

[Leman]

Agreed. Inspiring stuff!

Only issue I have is that I am now in somewhat of a quandary. You see, I had this cunning (i.e., mad) plan to take advantage of Leon"s mini-bits offer to buy a load of square bases to upgrade my 3 fig per base ACW infantry (based like your above - must be a F&F thing - otherwise spooky coz you base your SYW the same as me and we've never met) to 4 fig square bases. But as the 3 fig rectangular bases still look fine, maybe I'll just keep them as they are. Oh, decisions ..... 

I think that F&F actually use square bases, but I thought 30x20 was a good compromise. My 6mm BBB stuff is 30x30, but for the 2mm Langensalza I'm going with 25x25. If I was starting from fresh I would probably go with the bases I now use for my European 10mm C19th stuff which is 25x20. I have found the club stuff, based 30x15 doesn't work for me because the bases fall over too easily. 25x25 is ideal for the 10mm C18th as it gives the impression of a close order line which also looks good when in march column. Must get up to a Scottish show in the next couple of years and combine it with some walking.