*Warning: if you're offended by unpainted models, or empty bases representing companies of infantry or batteries of cannon, please don't read anymore!*
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| My first attempt at ACW! Charge! |
Friday night I set up a nice 'rural' farmland table for Rod and I, and he rolled up Hold the Line...the lengthwise battle. I became the defender, and was immediately placed on my backfoot by the requirement to deploy half of my Platoons in Delayed Reserve. With 4 Platoons, that left me just two to hold the line until help showed up. My force (sidenote: it's been so long since I've done an Infantry Aces I don't even remember what my original force was!) was a PanzerGrenadier Company of two full platoons, a Weapons Platoon with 2 MG42 HMGs, and a Platoon of 5 PzrIVs. Rodrigo was leading a Company of US Rangers, 4 big Platoons of Infantry, a battery of 4 Mortars, and a platoon of 3 "patrols" of Recce vehicles.
I took advantage of being able to place both my 'deployed' Platoons in Ambush, not-deploying one Platoon of MG Infantry, and the HMG section. The second Infantry Platoon and the Panzers went in to reserve. I figured I'd be able to Ambush from somewhere with juicy fields of fire and rip apart the infantry as it came across the stream, with the second Platoon and Panzers showing up to push the Rangers back. He had a LOT of guys, but no good AT support, so I thought I'd be ok with the Panzers out there.
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| All that stuff at bottom-right is in Reserve! |
Rod deployed his Platoons as far forward as he could, while my guys sat in the corner waiting to come on the table...then I began to worry.
See, I had in my head during deployment that the infantry would either come fast in the open, or slow through cover. If the former, I'd cut them down with the MGs; if the latter, I'd have time for the reserves to show up. But, I'd forgotten that not only do Rangers get Truscot Trot extra speed, but they can also go At The Double through terrain! To make things worse, his Recce vehicles got to close the distance with their Recce move...
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| The Recce Teams scout ahead! |
I put one platoon in two stacked lines near the left objective, and the HMGs went near the right, one of them hiding in a field behind a fence, the other in some ruins. I had a good first turn shooting at infantry in the open that had moved at the double, killing several stands.
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| The ambushes are revealed! |
I put one platoon in two stacked lines near the left objective, and the HMGs went near the right, one of them hiding in a field behind a fence, the other in some ruins. I had a good first turn shooting at infantry in the open that had moved at the double, killing several stands.
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| Hordes of Rangers stream out of the forest towards the waiting Grenadiers. |
Despite the weakening of one of his platoons, the rest pressed forward, ready to assault the Grenadiers dug-in the farming village. His artillery softened things up, killing the HMG Platoon HQ and pinning the Infantry.
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| Barrages of Mortar-fire pin down the Grenadiers! |
His Recce teams each had a mortar attached, so he was able to put down many templates to pin troops.
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| We must give our lives to defend..this...destroyed......tank?! Wait...what?! |
Unfortunately, having 2 shots each in defensive fire while pinned makes MG teams really hard to assault, as the platoon that tried to have a go at them was butchered!
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| Murderous defensive fire pushes back the first wave! |
The Rangers on the other side of the battlefield moved in to the HMG teams, who were holding their fire and hoping to not get pinned before the assault (that 3+ save is nice!)
Sadly for me, they were pinned anyway, and Rod cagily moved so that he minimized the defensive fire. One HMG was destroyed, and the Rangers moved in to the ruins near the second objective.
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| The HMG position is outflanked! |
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| Panzers to the rescue! |
Another platoon had a go against the Grenadiers dug in to the village, but they were decimated as well. Our time to play ran out, so I ordered the Panzers to assault the Ruins...Rod's last Platoon was about to make an attempt to reinforce that position, and I needed to fight these guys one at a time to defeat them in detail rather than all at once. Two of the Panzers were Bogged Down going in to the Ruins, but the remainder were able to defeat the Platoon and secure the area!
A very interesting battle...I'm still really perplexed on how to carry out an attack on a dug-in infantry unit, particularly MG teams. Being able to assault with only one Platoon at a time makes things really tricky! Getting past multiple defensive fires from the assaulted platoon and teams within 8" is hard!
So I finally got enough points to get a special power for my "Ace"...I'm giving him the Eyes and Ears ability, so he will basically be a Recce team for me! I don't know how handy that will be, but what the hell! With my upcoming trip to Korea, I doubt I'll get another Aces game in anyway :(
Then Saturday I brought all my Civil War toys, some of them freshly painted (yeah...4 whole models started!), and we got in another fun game!
I set us up a battle at a crossroads. We both came on from the long table edges, marching up a road that ran the whole length of the table, with a cross-roads mid-table at a small farmstead, with converging roads that ran across the table. We both had a brigade and a battery of guns start on the road, with reinforcements coming on randomly two turns after the first cannon were fired.
Sadly I didn't get any pictures of the early game, which went very fast and furious. We both marched right at each other up the road, seemingly playing Civil War Chicken. My lead regiment took up position behind a picket fence, squaring off with one of Rodrigo's regiments in a hayfield. My guns took up position behind the other field, with what I thought would be good field of fire down the road. I then promptly blocked the field of fire with my second regiment, that deployed to my lead regiment's left. Sadly, that unit was shot at to great effect by Rodrigo's Artillery...which he had wisely placed on a hill behind his lines, so was able to shoot over their heads...and his second Regiment put in a stout volley. In two short turns, my lead regiment was sent retreating while my second regiment dispersed! To make matters worse, I took a long range shot at his artillery with mine, only to run low on ammo already! Apparently they'd left the Caissons in Richmond!
Things intensified then as our reserves came up. I put one brigade in skirmish order and began pushing around the north end of the farmstead to threaten Rod's flank, while the second regiment of that brigade marched across the farm, behind my guns this time, to support that battery and try to sweep the crossroads clear. My original lead regiment (our lead regiments we both gave Veteran status to, so we could see the effects of different quality troops) rallied, and then manned the farmhouse and surrounding walls to hold off Rod's reinforcements.
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| My Veterans in the farmyard to the left, assaulted by Rod's fresh Regiment. |
Rod repositioned his artillery to push back my reinforcements, but the skirmish screen proved to be pretty tough to deal with, as they took very few casualties, especially after having gone to ground!
His reinforcements, with orders to assault the farm my battery was in, went straight at my veterans in the farm. On their first attempt to charge they were pushed back. At the same time Rod's Veterans were sent packing from some nice Cannon fire, despite the ammo shortage!
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| Rod's Veterans run across the bridge, as his artillery fires case-shot in to the skirmishers! |
My Veterans were taking a beating, but thanks to some great morale rolls at key times, stuck in there despite being below 50%. They chased off the attacking regiment a second time!
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| My Veterans withstand another attack! |
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| Despite damage from the Veteran troops in the farmhouse, my cannon find enough Canister to chase off Rod's attacking Regiment! |
Unfortunately for Rod, I got a really nice roll with my Artillery firing Canister, and that regiment Routed!
I sent the Skirmishers off to put some fire on his Artillery, while his regiment pushing in to my flank righted itself and came at my Veterans one more time.
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| Here they come again, lads! |
This time they were not going to be stopped, and the pushed the Veterans out, routing them and moving in to the farmyard. The rout of the troops on this flank caused my last regiment to retreat, and my artillery to falter!
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| Rod's troops storm the farmhouse, routing my army as the flank collapses. |
With that, my force was too disrupted to continue. I had my share of good dice to hold on as long as I did after the bitter losses of the first part of the engagement, but sadly it didn't work out. Rod maneuvered very well, chose the right spot to put his troops, and I left myself vulnerable to be concentrated on and defeat in detail early while ensuring my artillery did nothing early in the game :)
Thanks for the great game, Rod! I'm looking forward to the next one!
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