ACW: Stones River (1862-1863)

This will have to be an even briefer report than the last, again without any substantial Reflections because of time pressure, but it was a game that deserves to be recorded.

Back in 2018 our good friend Vincent Tsao wrote a scenario for the battle of Stones River.  Now that we are focusing seriously on putting together a collection of American Civil War BBB scenarios for publication, Vincent has kindly agreed we can use his scenarios in it. We therefore gave this one a test run today. It produced a real ding-dong scrap and classic BBB finish.

Only three photos, so you're going to have to imagine a lot of the action.

The battlefield viewed from the Confederate side. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Crispin's collection. The custom battlemat is his work too. Figures on dark bases are Union, light bases Confederate.

We replaced Vincent's original victory conditions with a conventional BBB Objective location formula. White counters mark Objectives - key points along the US line, plus others on both sides' lines of communication. US needs to hold 6 at game end for a draw (roughly the top right quarter of the battlefield) or 7 for a win.

US centre is pinned on Turn 1, can move at a -1 on Turn 2, released on Turn 3. US left wing is pinned for a turn longer. This reflects US being surprised and preempted by the Confederate left-hook attack.

In our game, that left hook didn't go so well for a while, driven back initially with heavy casualties. The US swiftly formed a solid line there that held Phil's Rebs at bay for a long time. When he finally got the upper hand and forced the Union right wing back, it was too late for him to be able to reach the LOC objectives.

Meanwhile, in the centre, Sheridan (pink counter) was doing his historical thing and keeping superior numbers at bay for a long time. After repeated attacks and counterattacks, my Rebs did eventually drive Sheridan's spent command back into the woods and claim the junction Objective, but again too late to take any others beyond it.

For a while, things looked best for us on our right. Breckinridge got across, routed Wood's division, overran an artillery battalion, and inflicted further losses. The bridge Objective looked secure. However, on the last turn, Wood's men rallied and charged, enabling Stanley's newly-arrived cavalry to gallop round behind and retake it. A draw, snatched from the jaws of Union defeat!

It was a stonking good game and seems it will need minimal revision. The victory conditions need refining and it would be nice to add a way to fight the second day for those who want to (the original scenario doesn't cover that). But kudos to Vincent for such a good scenario and many thanks for the entertainment.

Peninsular battle at Warfare 2025: Sagunto

Had a fantastic day at the Warfare 2025 show, deserves a fuller write-up but this brief report will have to do. Met lots of good people, had great conversations, ran our participation game twice and entertained all the players who joined in. Big thank you to them, to W.A.R. for running the show, to my OWS comrades for running the game, and to everyone we spoke to.

The game was Sagunto (1811) (aka Saguntum), a Peninsular War battle in which a Spanish army under Blake is trying to relieve the besieged Sagunto castle north of Valencia. The French Marshal Suchet moves to meet him and an encounter battle results.

Looking west from the coast. Spanish (red labels) are advancing left to right = north. French arrive to meet them from the right. Most of both armies are on the coastal plain. However, the French have sent a force through the Sancti Espiritu pass (upper right) which will meet Spanish coming from top left, as well as more that arrive Turn 4 or 5 from top right corner. White counters are Objective locations. (This was a playtest; we since adjusted these, removing the ones behind the Spanish lines in Cartuja and El Puig and adding one to the French-held Convento del Val de Jesus.) Basically, if the Spanish hold their line, it is a draw; if either side makes a significant inroad into the enemy line, they win.

Close-up of the French emerging from the pass. All figures are Baccus 6mm from Mark's collection.

And a view of the initial French front line on the coastal plain. Note the purple label = the Poles of the Vistula Legion. On Turns 1 and 2 these will be joined by more French reinforcements, including aggressive high-quality Italian infantry and seriously good shock cavalry.

The bulk of the Spanish army: a very good veteran unit left foreground about to occupy Puzol, some decent line troops right of pic, otherwise a lot of raw stuff filling the ranks.

Arriving from the southwest is the Spanish Army of Murcia, which isn't very keen on attacking. (Rated Passive.)

Things went badly for the French in the pass. Disrupted by Spanish cannon fire, the lead brigade failed to rally. It was then charged and destroyed by overwhelming Spanish numbers. The Spanish then surged up the mountainside against the second French brigade, which repelled them with heavy losses. Still, the French threat on this wing was effectively over by Turn 3.

Boldly the French cross the Baranco del Arenal stream. They will proceed to launch a series of aggressive but poorly coordinated and desperately unlucky assaults. (Phil's dice played a significant part. As did passing player Bob, whose first roll when he joined in was 12.)

Turn 4, about halfway through the game. Assorted cubes show the effects. Yellow = Disrupted. Black = Low on ammo (the Spanish have met the French with some murderous volleys). The Vistula Legion is no longer with us. The French dragoons have been wiped out in a bloody charge (they took some Spaniards with them) and the shock cavalry, the cuirassiers, are in shock.

View from the Spanish side. There were a few more turns of hard pounding here but the French could not make any headway. A clear Spanish victory.

We reset and played it again. It was a quite different game second time round. The dice were less dramatic and the French more patient, setting up their attacks properly, preparing with fire, etc. They managed to take both the objectives in the above picture (the hillock of El Hostalet on the left and the village of Puzol on the right) and it was a more even fight around the pass as well. A French victory this time, I think.

No Reflections for you tonight, beyond saying that it's a good scenario. Both sides have to maneuver; both have to attack if they want to win; it revolves around two somewhat separate and different axes of attack and the players have choices to make about how much to commit on each axis and how. Also it offers French (and Polish and Italian) quality vs Spanish quantity, which is always a good asymmetry in a game.

Recommended!

Peninsular War: Valencia (1811)

Off to Iberia this week! (As a game setting, not an actual trip. Though I was there a few months ago when I visited the Vitoria battlefield.) In parallel with the mammoth task of writing and playtesting scenarios for all the major battles of the American Civil War, I've also been helping Mark, who's focusing on his set of Napoleonic scenarios for the Peninsular War. Yesterday's foray was the battle of Valencia (1811), which resulted in the siege of Valencia.

What a fine 18th-century army Spain has! Too bad we're into the 19th.

(Baccus 6mm figures from Mark's collection.)

Here's the history: having been defeated in the battle of Sagunto, the Spanish General Blake was now trying to hold the line of the River Turia, on which the city of Valencia lies. His army comprised 30,000+ troops of rather variable quality: some experienced regulars, but an awful lot of raw militia of various types. Marshal Suchet's French Army of Aragon was somewhat smaller but all veterans. On 25 December, Suchet sent Habert to feint against the coastal end of the Spanish lines, and Palombini to pin the Spanish centre, while Suchet himself led a big right hook to get behind the Spanish army and trap it in Valencia. Blake had anticipated this but had not anticipated just how quickly the French would move, nor how quickly his own army would crumble - his right collapsed and turned Habert's feint into a breakthrough. About 10,000 Spanish troops escaped but Blake and most of his men were trapped. Two weeks later, Valencia fell and he and 16,000 men surrendered.

I played this some months ago as the Spanish. It was amusingly (and not entirely unhistorically) disastrous but a little too much of a French walkover then. Mark had therefore amended the scenario somewhat. Here's how it went.

Let's get you oriented. This is a view from the French side, looking south across the Turia. The city of Valencia is lower left; the northeast corner is coastline (out of shot lower left). White Objective counters mark the city, assorted forts and villages along the Spanish fortified line, and the village of Torente in the Spanish rear (top centre). Note also the two wagons behind Valencia: these need to escape up the road to the south. The Spanish also earn points if a couple of their decent infantry units can escape off the table there or through Torente. They need some combo of these to add up to 4 for a draw or 5 for a win.

All the troops south of the river are Spanish. To reflect the fact that Blake had to at least put up a show of making a fight of it, they can't just all leg it on Turn 1, but must stay within 6" of the river for the first three turns.

Help is at hand for the Spanish in the form of the Royal Navy, which directed harassing fire against the French left flank for much of the game. Unflocked Warbases may work OK for dusty Spanish plains, not so good for the Mediterranean ...

Ben and I were the French. I took the right, he took our left and centre. Our plan was to avoid Valencia itself initially, shift our force from the centre to back up our left, and try to break through the raw fragile Spanish militia there (marked with pink cubes). To help with that, we agreed Ben should rumble his guns right up into cannister range. Here you see our left wing starting to move up to prepare to assault across the river against the Spanish right (commanded by Luke).

The best Spanish troops were in the centre (commanded by Crispin), supported by two artillery units. By moving our centre to the left, we avoided these and added punch where we wanted it.

Meanwhile, Dave T commanded the Spanish left. The next pic shows how much it was 'hanging in the air', hence this was my target for outflanking and enveloping. Note the handcrafted buildings by our talented friend Colin the Wargamer.

Consequently, Turn 1 saw me push up to the river by the western edge of the table. The infantry and cavalry can wade it but the artillery will need that pontoon bridge sitting by General Harispe. Musnier's division marches over the hills to cover the flank of my main push. Look top left and you will see one bold Spanish brigade has crossed the Turia, aiming to delay and disrupt our advance. A second will follow it. This will not go well for them circa Turn 4, after Severoli's Italians arrive to reinforce the French (one of the reckless Spanish units will be routed, the other forced to fall back behind the Turia again).

Over on the left: immediate breakthrough! Ben's men stormed across, routed one militia brigade and exploited to get behind another. With the impetuosity of youth, he also attempted an exploitation attack into the enemy fortification against poor odds, but was repulsed with loss back to the village at left edge. (These youngsters and their need for instant gratification, eh?) Developments around Valencia too, where our centre division's leftward shift has drawn Spanish troops in to defend the city against them - even though we had no real intention of attacking it directly yet.

Now we are looking downriver, east, as my right hook develops. Spanish cavalry (right edge) canter forward to try to pin my infantry but wisely don't dare to charge. My brigade by the bridge will scare them off again when it advances.

Two or three turns later, Ben is making progress. He has routed some more militia and got more troops across the river. However, a Spanish counterattack from around Valencia destroys a French brigade and boots another back across the Turia. See-saw action here for a while. Top left, the wagons make their getaway.

A more decisive breakthrough on our right. Backed up by two further divisions of reinforcements (pushing across the river left and lower left), we have smashed the Spanish off the hilltop at Manises (centre foreground) and gone on to storm the fort at San Onofre (centre of pic). The Poles (top right) have fended off the Spanish cavalry and are about to be backed up by my dragoons (out of pic) to threaten the Spanish escape route, while the bulk of my force will brush aside the couple of Spanish units left in front of it (top centre).

At that point, as some players needed to leave early (and not all the Spanish players were keen to play through the extermination phase), we stopped it with a couple of turns still to play. The Spanish still held four Objective locations, but were likely to lose one or two of these; on the other hand, one of their units had escaped and they were likely to get another one or two away. All three results were still possible but the probable one was a draw. Regardless - a fun game, two very different armies facing each other in an interesting scenario situation, and plenty of movement and action along the way. Bags of flavour!

Reflections

Grand tactical maneuver. This game definitely had the feel of maneuver on a grand scale. I could have told the story of the battle with some very large and clear arrows on a map. Our left and right hook combo, the centre's left shift, and the Spanish reaction to those; the decisive commitment of French reinforcements on Turns 2 & 3; the Spanish counterattack around Valencia, the spoiling attack by their left, and the Spanish withdrawal in the face of my right hook; all of these felt very bold-brush and emphatic. It was also nice that both sides had major maneuvers to execute. Somewhat unexpected for a game that was nominally about breaching and clearing a fortified defensive line!

How much fun is it to be crushed? This is a one-sided battle in that the French quality advantage is such that, given time, the Spanish army will almost inevitably be destroyed. It therefore becomes a question of how quickly and thoroughly the French can destroy it. Of course, the scenario design enables the Spanish to 'win' in game terms if they get crushed significantly less than they were historically. Some players enjoy being on the rough end of that equation more than others, e.g., Dave W revels in it; others less so. Maybe it merits another 'Reflections' essay to go with my one on Wargaming One-Sided Wars.

Try it yourself at Warfare 2025. OK, not the same battle, but the prequel to it: Mark and I will be running the Battle of Sagunto at the Warfare 2025 show in Farnborough on Sunday. Come along!

BBB Peninsular War book - not long now. We are now about four playtests away from finishing the whole set, say two or three months. Obviously there will then be some editing and polishing to do, but that will be a matter of a few more weeks rather than months. We should have a nice BBB Peninsular War book ready for you soon!

Can't beat 'em at Antietam

America's bloodiest day, the Battle of Antietam, got the BBB treatment this week. This was another of Matt's works of art in terms of both his scenario and his custom-made terrain.

"Here they come agin, boys!"

Most readers will know at least a little about this American Civil War battle from 1862 and recognise names from it such as Dunker Church, Bloody Lane and Burnside's Bridge. Famously, McClellan failed to exploit his substantial numerical superiority: not only was his Union army held off by Lee's Confederates on the battlefield, he then neglected to pursue when Lee withdrew. 

Matt's game kept six players entertained and produced a classic dramatic finish. I can do no better than show you 14 annotated photos, with a few provoked thoughts at the end.

The battlefield prior to deployment, viewed from the Confederate side. Most of the US force arrives from left of pic but some start top right. There are five Objectives: Dunker Church (center of pic), Bloody Lane (the rail fences above right of the church), Burnside's Bridge (top right), the town of Sharpsburg (lower right) and the road exit below it (Shepherdstown Pike). If either side holds four or more of these at game end, that's a win; otherwise, it is a draw.

Burnside's IX Corps, facing the Confederate right, has to sit still contemplating the bridge for the first three turns before being allowed to move. Note the little Confederate flag pin by the bridge indicating it is a Confederate-held objective.

Most of the Union army (I, II & XII Corps) arrives from the north to attack the Confederate left flank. Figures are 6mm from Matt's collection.

Close-up of the Confederate forces before they deploy ...

... and how Nick O and I chose to deploy them. Nick commanded our left (confusingly, this mostly comprised what was formally the Confederates' Right Wing formation); I commanded our right, namely the troops in Bloody Lane (right of pic) and at Burnside's Bridge (out of pic lower right).

The action kicks off on our left. A couple of US divisions immediately press against the Dunker Church, while others shake out (top left) to try and push through our extreme left flank. Sensibly, we have a few batteries guarding against that (lower left corner). Stuart's cavalry graze in reserve (right edge).

Turn 4 arrives, and with it the first US attempt to assault across Burnside's Bridge. Despite McLaws's men being disrupted by US preparatory fire, their volleys prevent Scammon from crossing.

However, the rest of Burnside's corps has crossed at Snavely's Ford, in the Confederate rear. Problem! The turn before, I had done the Duke of York thing. See that corner of a base, left centre edge? That's my other division that I have just sent north to help out Nick, who is now under a lot of pressure. I'm going to have to turn it round and bring it back. Luckily, I do have some artillery available, which I deploy lower left of pic. That plus US passivity might delay Wilcox & Sturgis just long enough.

Meanwhile, there has been intense fighting around the Dunker Church for several turns, with assault and counter-assault. At one point, Nick had to commit JEB's cavalry to a charge, which was repelled with loss by supporting Union artillery (out of shot on the hill top right). The Union hangs on to this objective.

Time to pan out for an overview late in the game. As it stands, since the US has only taken one Objective, we are heading for a Confederate victory. Lower left of pic, Mark is pressing hard against Nick's left, but is running out of steam and unlikely to reach Sharpsburg. Dave T has committed his last reserve to charge into the cornfield beyond the Dunker Church, but these are his worst troops and Nick will repel them easily. Union hopes therefore rely on taking Bloody Lane (top centre) where Dave W has arrived with VI Cps and Pleasonton's cavalry, and/or Burnside's bridge (where Will is pressing from both directions).

Burnside's men have made four unsuccessful attempts to storm across the bridge. McLaws's men are now depleted, so this fifth and final go is the Union's best chance yet - but my Rebs roll just high enough (9 on 2d6) to stop the assault yet again. Still, the threat is not over, as Wilcox and Sturgis charge up the hill behind the bridge. Can they smash Jones back and exploit into McLaws's rear? No!

Everything therefore rests on Bloody Lane. Smith's division valiantly charges the Confederate guns to distract them, while Slocum's is about to launch its assault on the Objective. This will succeed in expelling Ewell's Confederate division. The Union takes its second Objective, enough for a draw ...

... except that Ewell's men rally and counterattack, with Stuart's gallant cavalrymen charging alongside them. The Union players' firing dice let them down, both charges go in, and Slocum is driven out again. Victory goes to the Confederacy!

Reflections

A Game on a Knife-Edge. On the face of it, this looks like a comfortable Confederate win: the US only ever took two Objectives, the second not until the final turn, when it was retaken immediately. Well, it didn't feel comfortable to us Confederates at the time. Our gray line was stretched pretty thin and constantly felt as though it could give way at any moment. All it would have taken was a couple of unlucky dice at Burnside's Bridge and not only would that objective have fallen but Burnside would then also have threatened Sharpsburg and the Shepherdstown Pike beyond it. Similarly, the masses on the Union right could have overwhelmed Nick's left if he hadn't rolled some timely boxcars. The tension on our side was unremitting; it was balanced by the frustration on the Union side, which was suitably historically handicapped by being rated Passive and not having any Generals represented, so they had trouble coordinating massed assaults. To me, this contrast really seemed to capture the essence of the battle.

Form versus Function. Matt's terrain is beautifully realistic, his unit status markers are little works of art in keeping with it (mounted figures for Disrupted, ammo boxes for Low Ammo, casualty figures for Spent, etc). However, they all blend in so perfectly that it is sometimes hard to tell where woods start and finish, hence who is in cover; it is easy to overlook the fact that eg a unit is Disrupted; and his flags for objectives are tasteful but discreet. This is form prioritised over function. At the opposite extreme, Crispin favours plastic counters (as prescribed in the rulebook), which are almost impossible to overlook but less aesthetically pleasing; and his custom-made battlemats demarcate terrain features very clearly, but are more like maps than landscape models. Somewhere in the middle is my own set-up, using different-coloured wool roving 'puffs of smoke' for status markers (nicely visible, not too harsh) and a mix of felt and models for the terrain. Each has its merits and I am happy to play on all of them.

Scenario Balance. This is one of the most important and best-known ACW battles and a crucial one to get right. We debated appropriate objectives before the game, during it, and since. I'm inclined to think Matt's formula this time is good enough: probably it will usually end in a draw, but when either side does win, they will either have earned it or (as I think we were here) been very lucky!

An earlier version of Matt's scenario is available in the io group files here. (You need to join the group to gain access.)