Sunday, October 24, 2021

Gaines's Mill: ACW Brigade Fire & Fury

Was able to play our first "full fledge" ACW game using brigade Fire & Fury.  We decided to tackle the Gaines's Mill scenario from the version 1 Great Eastern Battles scenario book.  I updated the scenario for the 2nd edition of F&F.  This is easily accomplished with the handy tables in the back of the book.

I must admit I didn't really think this one through.  I looked at the map in the book and it looked very manageable.  I didn't consider the additional units that arrive as reinforcements and actually make this game rather larger than expected.  This took are fair portion of the ACW collection.

Below you can see an overview of the 8 foot by 6 foot table setup with initial unit deployments.


Longstreet's division arrives mid way along the right table edge, and remaining Confederate units arrive via the road on the bottom left.  Union reinforcements enter either behind the white building along the top table edge or later via the road to the upper left of the image.

Rather than list out the order of battle normally, I'll just included pictures of the forces involved via the unit tabs.



Both AP Hill's and Longstreet's assault on the Union breastworks - while daunting at first - was repelled by the Union forces.  By the time the initial Confederate assault was wrapping up, DH Hill's division with addition Confederate reinforcements where starting to put overwhelming pressure on the Union right flank.

This was a fun game and one I plan to run at DundraCon locally in February.  My fancy templates for the game arrived from Litko which aided our efforts significantly.

Lots of pictures are below.  Close up pictures using my SLR camera below.






























Mobile phone pictures below ...


































We still have a couple of turns to finish up which we'll be doing on Wednesday evening.  That being said, the tables are turning on the Union defenders quickly and I expect to see them getting to the point of withdrawal - the main question being who has more victory points when that happens.

19 comments:

  1. Spectacular pictures Jay, splendid terrain (love the river) and armies...

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  2. This looks fantastic. Fun time I’m sure!

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  3. I’m so used to seeing BFF in 15mm or smaller. Your 28mm certainly is stunning. How are you liking the rules?

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    1. Thanks Stew! Loving the rules. We are considering some very minor tweaks just to streamline play a bit. E.g. - worrying about infantry armaments per unit is a bit finicky IMO - and we are always forgetting to check. Isn't worth the effort.

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  4. Beautiful pictures Jay. We played this scenario using BF&F and the defenders eventually got pushed back and lost the hill. Interesting to see if the union can hold off both prongs of the attack in your game.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, the Union has certainly held the breastworks at this point. A couple of Confederate brigades got into the breastworks but got pushed back. The fight now really comes down to the other side and I think there isn't much the Union can do to stop that large force.

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  5. I like the new unit tabs ... both in the game, and in the website OOBs. :)

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    1. lol ... was being lazy! They are handy though!

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  6. This looks amazing old chum! Great work on both scenery & the soldiery - a fine collection.
    Best wishes,
    Jeremy

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  7. Just an amazing looking table- inspirational stuff!

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  8. Wow, great eye candy! Very cool table and painted minis.

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