Moving on to OHW Scenario #2

Moving on from On-Hour Wargames Scenario #1 Pitched Battle (1), it is time for Scenario #2 Pitched Battle (2). At least it looks and reads more interesting: it has two objectives and one side must hold both to win.

After having played Scenario #1 over a dozen times I began to get the feeling that OHW’s ACW rules were, well, boring… After gaining some experience with the mechanics of the rules, each game ended up in a slug-fest and basically whichever side moved within range of Zouave or Infantry fire first was pretty much doomed. Then again, I am certain my use of the various units was sub-par on both sides.

So it seemed prudent to just move on, since it is likely that it is the scenario that may be "boring" and not the rules necessarily.

The playing field consists of two objectives: a hill and a crossroads. Sticking with the cheapskate approach, the hill is some rags under the felt, but with an off color rag on top to give it some relief/contrast - this is easier on the eyes both in real life as well as in the photos for some reason. The road is a hastily cut-up cardboard envelope that contained some new ACW rules (yes, I’ve already started looking at other rules, but that will have to wait for a later post.)

Each side rolls for army composition. Each gets a Zouave; Yellow get an Artillery unit and Green get two Cavalry units.

The Artillery in the top middle should be a Cavalry unit.
 I corrected it before starting play.

Yellow tried to use the cannon early to get hits on Green Cav, but the die rolls resulted in no hits for the first few turns. The crossroads was of key interest to both sides as Yellow held back from moving on the hill until the inevitable action at the crossroads played out.

Early action Yellow claims the intersection
 and Green takes the hill with a Cavalry unit.

Green moves to battle for the crossroads. The Green
 Zouave at the front is being a bit too aggressive…

Green made a silly mistake by rushing headlong into the crossroads. The possibility of the Zouave taking out one Infantry and doing some damage to another early did not pan out - Green rolled low and Yellow rolled high with their three units.

Yellow Infantry made quick work of the

 Green Zouave with a series of high rolls.

Green tries to figure out where Yellow will push next.

Having wasted its Zouave unit, Green regrouped to decide whether or not to fully defend the hilltop or go for the crossroads again. Yellow cannon had remained ineffective, but that might change. Green decided to take the crossroads and then threaten the cannon.

Yellow felt great about how stupidly Green started out and decided to take the hill - those Cavalry units would surely whither quickly and/or run away.

 

Green in disarray, Yellow pushes forward
on the left to take the hill.

 

Green Infantry moves down the road to make another
run at the crossroads. What will the Cavalry
 units do with the hilltop?

Run away! 

Yellow will take the hill with one unit and

 give chase with another (Zouave).

Green performed some clever maneuvers that kept Yellow off-balance, but high rolls on both sides culled some units. Yellow ended up with a 2-1 advantage, but the cannon resumed missing on every turn and one Infantry stood firm on the hilltop. This made the battle for the crossroads a 1-1 affair effectively.

 

Bad rolls by Yellow and solid maneuvers by Green

 plus some 6's on the die clears out the

 Yellow Infantry on the crossroads. 

End in a draw on turn 15.

A draw was an interesting result compared to the Scenario #1 games, where the battles ended decisively before the 15th turn was reached (10-12 turns was typical.)

Conclusion: I am glad that I decided to move on to other scenarios from the book before giving up on the ACW rules. I was beginning to think that the lack of charging and hand-to-hand combat was dulling the ACW action, but this game turned out to be quite fun.

I will still start exploring the other rules from the OHW book, probably moving backwards in time towards Ancients. I realized I have some gaps in my Index Card unit set - need a couple of more "foot" and "horse" units to cover the possibilities of the earlier rules.

As for the ACW Project, I am going to create two new armies. I have an idea about how to combine my Index Card approach with some paper soldiers in order to move the ball towards my goal of being a "legit" miniature wargamer. But more about that in a later post.

Cheers!