Weather and logistics at Kennesaw Mountain

There is a common theme to many of the battles of the latter part of the American Civil War. By 1864, much like the German armies of 1944, the generally outnumbered Confederate armies had become adept at withdrawing from one defensive position and digging in at another. The battles typically involved massed Union assaults on the Confederate earthworks, ending in bloody repulses, but with the Confederates subsequently obliged to withdraw as the Union forces outflanked or sidestepped them. This means that conventional wargames of these battles risk being dull frontal assaults.

Last month's Resaca game was an example of such a battle. To help to make that interesting, both sides had a pre-game decision about how many troops to commit to the off-table action at Lay's Ferry, whose results would only be revealed at game end. That succeeded in producing a tough and entertaining fight.

For the sequel to Resaca, Kennesaw Mountain, I took a different tack. The historical background is that in the month leading up to the battle, Johnston's Confederates briefly occupied several different lines and there were more or less significant preliminary actions at New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill, Dallas, Latimer's Farm and Kolb's Farm. Sherman had initially cut loose from the railroad that was his vital supply line, conducting another big right hook to bypass the strong Confederate position at Allatoona, only to find Johnston had shifted sideways to intercept him. After a few days of clashes, the weather broke and a fortnight of rain forced the Union army to rejoin the railroad, while Johnston fell back. When the rain stopped, the Union advance resumed, culminating in the actual battle - a typical bloody Union repulse by well dug-in Rebels on high ground.

I saw this as an opportunity for another of the zoomed-out ACW games that have proved so successful and illuminating where Night Intervals are used for strategic redeployment. These knit together the grand tactical and operational levels, producing major changes of situation during the game, hence generating many interesting decisions for the players. With a little geographical jiggery-pokery I managed to fit all the action into a 10x15-mile battlefield on a 6'x4' table and a 9-turn game (with up to four Night Intervals). Four of us - including a new recruit, Francis, who'd never played BBB before but picked it up very quickly - fought it to a conclusion in four hours. Those four hours have to rank this among the most consistently tense and exciting games I've played (and I've played a lot). Here's the story in pictures, with some Reflections at the end.

Looking east from the Union initial positions. The initial actions were fought around New Hope Church, Pickett's Mill and Dallas (which should all be about 18" further right, but it works). After the rains, Johnston fell back to the Mountain Line (Burnt, Pine and Lost Mountains), then gave up Lost Mountain but kept Gilgal Church, then gave that up to fall back behind Mud Creek, and finally shortened his line onto Kennesaw Mountain.

The four red stars are Objectives: (L to R) Kennesaw Mountain, Little Kennesaw Mountain, Pigeon Hill (all Level 2 hilltops); and Cheatham Hill (as it was defended by Cheatham's division). The white stars are Potential Objectives. If there is a US unit on them at game end, each can count as an Objective on a roll of 4+ on D6, representing how serious a flank threat Johnston considers them. 

The Union has 11 units, each of 8,000-12,000 men (2,000 per base), representing either a couple of divisions or an entire corps. The Confederates are outnumbered 2:1, having only six units of 8,000-10,000 men - not enough to cover the whole front - but three of these are rated Veteran, as against only one US Veteran unit. To represent the initial strategic surprise, Confederates deploy after the first US movement phase and may oblige US  units to assault. The three Confederate corps's historical positions are shown on the photo but players have some latitude over where to place them. We switched Polk and Hardee around.

The US can win either by taking Objectives or by rendering Confederate units Spent or Destroyed. For a draw, the US needs 2 Objectives or 3 units Spent/Destroyed; to win, 3+ Objectives or 4+ units Spent/Destroyed.

Initial collisions, seen from the Confederate point of view. Malcolm and Anton advanced boldly, so three of their units were ambushed. I commanded the Rebel left, advising our new man Francis on our right. Figures are Baccus 6mm, left to me by Nick when he emigrated, recently rebased by my. Terrain is mine.

Turn 2, from Union POV. After the initial surprise, the Union starts to bring its full weight to bear on our outnumbered Rebs. Left of pic, Hood has enough to hold them off. Centre of pic, the black smoke markers show that Hardee's ambush and ensuing counterattack has rendered two US units Spent already. However, Hardee has left his rifle pits and exposed his lead division to envelopment. Meanwhile, the Union hammer really falls right of pic, where two corps from the Army of the Tennessee hit our weakest unit: part of Polk's corps recently cobbled together from garrison troops and rated Fragile.

The result of that now viewed from behind the Confederate left. Polk's Fragiles have been pushed back but survive for now (bottom left). Hardee's division right of New Hope Church has been flanked by the US Veterans (represented as zouaves), while part of Howard's IV Corps slips through the gap that has opened up between Polk and Hardee (centre of pic).

At the end of Turn 2, we need 4+ on D6 for the rains to arrive, which would be most helpful as our line is fragmenting and we risk losing precious units. But no, the weather stays fine and the Union attack stays relentless.

Top centre, Hardee has pulled back his enveloped division, but not without grievous loss (black smoke = Spent). In the foreground, Howard's lead division overruns Polk's artillery, takes Lost Mountain, and chases off Johnston himself. It has also got behind Polk's Fragiles (left edge), whose days are now numbered unless the rain saves them ... 

... but it does not! Turn 4, we fight on. Our left wing is in tatters. The Fragiles are wiped out and a second US unit is pushing through to Lost Mountain. That sad 2-base item upper left is the remnant of Polk's veteran division, bayoneted out of its rifle pits. Further right, Hardee is hanging on, anchored on his entrenched guns at Pickett's Mill; similar story for Hood, who has made two US units Spent, but has lost his Trained division wiped out entirely. Surely the rain will come now??

Praise the Lord! The rain arrives after Turn 5 (I think) and gives us a chance to regroup our battered army. In this Night Interval (NI), all Confederate units must redeploy >36" from Allatoona Station (away above top right corner of pic), >6" from enemy - roughly the line indicated by the measuring sticks - but we get to dig new rifle pits and roll to recover lost bases. This we really need, as two of our units are wiped out and another 3 reduced to just 2 bases. We elect to hold the line with just two units and some guns (one top centre of pic; the other between the railroad and the large hill right of pic). The other two we put in column on Cheatham Hill and Little Kennesaw Mountain, with Johnston there to help rally them. This maximised their chances of recovering bases.

Meanwhile, the Union was forced to redeploy all its troops to within 24" of the railroad and >6" west or north of the nearest Confederate unit. Because our line was so threadbare, the US was able to mass two or three units in front of each of our frontline divisions, with a couple more to work around our right flank, and the Spent ones queued up along the railroad to rally back lost bases and/or move to occupy the Potential Objective hill (just visible right front edge of pic). The rains may have ceased but a fresh storm was gathering ...

I think I then took no photos for a turn because of intense action. Briefly, the US massed assault bounced off our lefthand outpost but forced the righthand one back. We immediately called another NI, doing a Johnston to pull the righthand outpost all the way back to Kennesaw Mountain, the lefthand one back to Mud Creek, and give ourselves another chance to recover bases.

(Turn 6 or 7, not sure.) Here they come, boys! Two Union corps slam into our division behind Mud Creek, while another comes round the left. The good news is that our division on Cheatham Hill has recovered a base.

So have our two divisions on Kennesaw Mountain and Little Kennesaw Mountain. Crucially, the one that was Spent is now all better. This is important, not only to fend off the impending assaults, but because it takes our losses below the 3 units Spent/Destroyed that the US needs for a Draw.

Still, the immediate problem is these multi-corps assaults.

Although Little Kennesaw Mountain holds, Kennesaw Mountain itself - the rightmost peak - falls! Hood's veterans are driven off! (That Confederate red Objective counter is about to flip to a blue Union-held one.) Everyone is wreathed in the white smoke of Disruption.

More bad news, as Blair crosses Olley's Creek to take the white Potential Objective counter, so may present an outflanking threat on our left -

- and Howard leads a small column to offer a similar threat on our right.

We call another NI, but not before Hood's men have counterattacked and ejected one Union corps from Kennesaw Mountain on our right. That's not enough to reclaim the Objective, but they dig in there. On our left, we pull back our outpost from Mud Creek onto Cheatham Hill. That frees up a division to go into reserve next to Marietta (bottom of pic) with a view to counterattacking to retake Kennesaw Mountain. The Union corps mass for a climactic triple assault.

It all goes wrong for the Union! Three corps are not enough to kick Hood off Kennesaw Mountain - the bluebellies reel back and yield the Objective! (Actually, one thing goes right for them: the Union assault on Little Kennesaw Mountain, out of shot further left, succeeds and drives the defenders back to Pigeon Hill.)

To add injury to more injury, our reserve division counterattacks and wipes out one of the newly repelled corps.

Final Union assaults on Turn 9 against Cheatham Hill, Pigeon Hill and Kennesaw Mountain. All of these are repelled. The last act was a Confederate counterattack from Pigeon Hill to try to retake Little Kennesaw Mountain. We drove back one Union corps but couldn't get the Exploit we needed to storm the Objective.

This shows the situation at game end: Confederates still holding the line in their ring of earthworks above Marietta, while the Union army is running out of steam. Confederate losses (2 units destroyed) are not enough for the US to claim a draw. The US only needs 2 Objectives for a draw or 3 for a win, but only holds 1 (the blue counter on Little Kennesaw Mountain, centre of pic). However, it does hold both the white Potential Objectives to our far left and right. That means all three results are still possible! Malcolm and Anton rolled a D6 each - and, of course, they got one, making the game a draw!

Reflections

Praying for Rain. As the early turns went by, Union numbers inevitably started to get through and around our thin grey line and threatened to swamp us, so Francis and I greeted the weather dice with increasingly desperate prayers for rain and immense relief when it finally arrived. It was an effective scenario mechanic that both reflected the history and built tension and excitement into the game.

Building the Tension. The tension didn't stop when the rain started. The three dimensions of troops, time and territory were all in play to keep it tense for both sides. On the Confederate side, we were hoping we could survive each Union assault, then use the night withdrawals and trade territory to regain troops. On the Union side, Malcolm and Anton were up against the clock and every turn mattered. The assaults on the final turns, with Kennesaw mountain itself changing hands twice, were tense and exciting. With everything coming down to the final two dice for the Potential Objectives, it could not have been better.

Reflecting the History. I was really happy with how the rules just naturally generated historical player behaviour and historical episodes within the game. There were combats on table that were recognisably equivalent to the historical actions at New Hope Church, Kolb's Farm, etc; the Confederate shortening of the line was much as per the history; the climactic assaults on the Kennesaw Mountain objectives were just what the script required.

Grand Tactical meets Operational. Using Night Intervals for strategic redeployment has established itself as such an effective mechanism. A conventional wargame of Kennesaw Mountain would have been just another boring frontal assault. Instead, we were able to draw the frame of the game wider in terms of both time and space, allowing/obliging both sides to manoeuvre and, accordingly, to make lots of important decisions along the way.

Endgame Jeopardy. In the Resaca game, the fact that the variable objectives off-table at Lay's Ferry were not resolved until the end of the game kept the outcome in doubt until then. In this Kennesaw Mountain game, the two Potential Objectives performed the same function. I used something similar but different (political impact) in my Balaclava scenario. In its way, I suppose this in-built uncertainty about whether taking some particular location(s) will be enough for victory is more realistic than the usual formula where everything is clearly cut and dried. I may use it more in designing future scenarios.

Resaca - an inverted Gettysburg

The basic outlines of Gettysburg are familiar to many wargamers: in a three-day battle, ~70,000 Confederates attack an eventual 90,00+ US troops defending the famous 'fishhook'; an important cavalry action is fought a few miles to the flank at East Field; the defenders win both actions and the attackers withdraw.

Resaca is a battle of similar shape and size but far less famous. In a three-day battle on 13-15 May 1864, ~100,000 US troops attack ~70,000 Confederates defending a 'fishhook'; an important action is fought a few miles to the flank at Lay's Ferry; the defenders hold their fishhook but are forced back from Lay's Ferry; because of the resulting threat to their line of retreat, the defenders withdraw. (Fun fact: the town of Resaca was itself named after an earlier battle, Resaca de la Palma, fought in 1846 during the Mexican-American War.)

Why is Resaca so obscure by comparison? Well, whereas Gettysburg was pivotal, Resaca was really just a speed bump. It is the first major battle of Sherman's march on Atlanta. Given Sherman's numerical advantage, his march was inexorable and he was generally able to outflank successive Confederate positions and oblige his opponent to withdraw. Even if Johnston had fully repelled Sherman at Resaca, that would only have delayed the inevitable. Also, the casualties were only a fraction of those at Gettysburg (<5,000 a side at Resaca, vs >20,000 at G'burg), as Sherman's attacks were more of a pinning nature than pressed to the hilt - he knew the outflanking moves would swing it eventually.

On the face of it, this doesn't look like the most inspiring situation for a game. A scenario could all too easily degenerate into a one-dimensional exercise in frontally assaulting entrenchments. (See my essay on the conundrum of "Can frontally assaulting redoubts make a good game?"). So I incorporated two ingredients to make it tastier.

The first was to include an Objective that plausibly encourages the Confederate side to do as they did historically and launch attacks by Hood's corps, rather than just sitting tight and shooting. The second was to give both sides a pre-game decision about how many troops to commit to the off-table action at Lay's Ferry. Their decisions would then modify a single die roll at game end to see how many Objectives they gain or lose there.

With that, let's betake ourselves to the scene of the action and see how it went. Photo-drama is followed by some Reflections as usual. There are quite a lot of pics this time - about 20+ - but hopefully each of them has something interesting to say. NB - click on a pic to enlarge it.

Overview of the Resaca battlefield. It's not huge, only 6km x 4km. Righthand edge is north.

Red stars are Objectives, representing either the Confederates' defensive line or their line of communications. The blue star is a kind of highwater mark - if the Confederates attack and ever take that bridge, they earn an Objective. They need a total of 6 for a draw or 7+ for a win. The star top left is the special off-table end-of-game Objective(s) at Lay's Ferry.

Confederate formations are divisions of varying strength but generally a bit smaller than the US Corps formations facing them. Arrows indicate our Union plan. Dave T and I (the US players) chose to go all in at Lay's Ferry, so XV and XVI Cps went there instead of on table. Our main effort was by "Fighting Joe" Hooker's XX Corps on our right, supported by Palmer's XIV Cps, while Schofield's XXIII Cps demonstrated against the main Confederate position. Howard's IV Cps has no option but to march on and try to withstand Stevenson and Stewart's divisions (Hood's corps) attacking around the bridge.

You can see the resemblance to Gettysburg. The Confederate line forms a fishhook with the IV Cps bridge being where Gettysburg would be; 4-gun Battery fort standing in for Cemetery Hill; Stevenson advancing from our cognate of Culp's Hill; Bate and Cleburne's position serving as Cemetery Ridge; and Cantey and Loring defending the round tops. Our plan of attack is like Longstreet's urging "to the right, suh!". XXIII Cps's advance is more like Pickett's Charge.

Initial deployment of our Union left. Dave T commanded here. His lead division of IV Cps is about to march on, under Sherman's personal supervision, and encounter Hood's Cps. The 'fort' was a complex of earthworks rather than the brick edifice depicted here, but it looks good. The model is the 1/600 Coastal Fort from Peter Pig's ACW Riverine range.

Figures are 10mm Pendraken. Union from Dave T's collection; Confederates from Dave W's collection. (Dave W commanded the Confederate right.)

Initial deployment in the centre. Schofield's XXIII Cps (also under Dave T) looks very small compared with the three well dug-in Confederate divisions opposite.

Our weight on our right: Palmer in the woods, Hooker on the hill. Imagine how even more impressive this would look if XV and XVI Cps were on Bald Hill, to the right, rather than at Lay's Ferry. But that was a strategic choice - would it pay off?

The comely womenfolk of Resaca are out in their finery to watch the display. Those zouaves from Walker's division aren't really there - the Confederates have likewise gone all in at Lay's Ferry, so these are just a dummy unit that will get removed when US troops come within 6".

Not the start we wanted. In a couple of bruising rounds of fire, the well-manned Confederate line wipes out half of XXIII Corps and its artillery, leaving just a cloud of smoke where they were. Brown smoke shows Rebs now low on ammo, having shot down so many bluebellies. So much for our demonstration in the centre. (Pretty historical - in the actual battle, both XXIII and XIV Cps were brusquely rebuffed here early on.)

As expected, Hood's attack hits Howard as he arrives at the bridge.

I command our right against Crispin. My men are frustratingly slow to move out and deploy for the assault. The 'zouaves' left of pic are our one veteran unit (actually US Army regulars).

On our left, Hood's first onslaught pushes some of Howard's men back but does not take the bridge.

On our right, my men trudge laggardly across Camp Creek. For some reason they do not seem keen to storm rebel entrenchments ...

... until they do! Butterfield's division carries a line of works, driving back Cantey's newly-formed unit of garrison troops (green counter indicates they are raw and fragile). We turn an Objective counter blue. This too is fairly historical.

Next turn, Butterfield presses his advantage and smashes Cantey back with heavy losses. We have gained a good position south of Resaca, outflanking the main rebel position there. The column on the road top of pic is the first of several as the Confederates desperately rush troops down from their centre.

In the north, though, Hood has surpassed history, finally broken through and taken the bridge, hurting Howard's corps badly (though not without some pain of his own).

So ended the five turns of Day 1. Both sides were allowed to redeploy some troops overnight and prepared to fight the remaining four turns. 

Having done his job at the bridge, Hood pulled back so that more Confederate reinforcements could head south. Meanwhile, Howard and Schofield combined the remnants of their battered corps and prepared to attack the Four-Gun Battery fort and/or the ridge behind it.

At my end of the pitch, although some of my men were briefly obliged to withdraw out of rifle range overnight, next morning we promptly reimposed a ring of blue steel around Resaca, backed up by a grand battery on Bald Hill (left foreground). Left of pic, part of XIV Cps threatens the central hill so as to pin a Confederate division there.

My grand battery did grand execution. Crispin fed more Confederate veterans into the mincer. He dished some damage out as well: black smoke shows that Williams's Div (centre of pic) is now spent. My red-fezzed veterans, upper left, contemplated storming the earthworks in front of them but opted instead to shift left, hoping to get up on the Objective ridge (top left corner).

Dave T demonstrates in front of the fort while working round it towards the currently undefended ridge behind it, as the Confederate line has been stripped of troops to defend Resaca.

Penultimate turn on our right. The murderous firefight around Resaca continues. Williams (centre of pic) makes a desperate assault to cover Johnson's veteran US regulars climbing towards the Objective ridge (top left). Butterfield audaciously storms across the bridges lower right, hoping to get lucky. Both assaults bounce off. Confederate counter-assaults have been similarly unsuccessful.

Penultimate turn on our left. Dave T is poised to storm up and take the heights.

Final turn on our right: my veterans fail to move; Confederates retain the Objective here.

Final turn on our left: Dave W has got a Reb brigade across in the nick of time; only one of Dave T's US divisions moves; his assault fails here too.

At game end, the Confederates held 8 on-table objectives. The Lay's Ferry Objectives remained to be resolved. Both sides had committed maximum effort here, so there was no die roll modifier, it was a simple opposed roll. If we won that by 4+, we would gain 2 Objectives and earn a draw. As it was, we gained one and narrowly missed out. Victory to the Confederacy - this time, as emphatic as the Union's victory at Gettysburg!

Reflections

Good game, good game. As Dave T said, "A really good game that had options until the last move and went down to the last die rolls". I achieved my aim of making it more than a dull frontal assault. Both sides got to attack, all four players got to do significant maneuver and conduct assaults. The Night Interval redeployment helped (as it so often does); the Permanent Objective at the bridge worked. The game balance was close enough that all three results were still possible on the last turn. I think the US needs a little help, but just a couple of minor tweaks - don't want to overcompensate. After all, our Confederate opponents played well and deserved their victory.

Off-table action. I was particularly pleased with my Lay's Ferry rule. This was simple to implement (always important). It gave both sides an interesting choice to make pre-game, and it meant the outcome was still in the balance right to the end. It also adds replay value: as both sides have three levels of troop commitment to choose from, that gives nine possible permutations of force balance on the table, each of which could play out a little differently.

Getting the toys on the table. It's been a long time since either Dave T or Dave W used their 10mm ACW armies, so it was nice to dust them off. Dave T said it has actually inspired him to paint up some more now. That's good, as we have quite a few more ACW battles in prospect, so he will have more chances to deploy them.

Update: after a second successful playtest (a draw this time), the scenario is now freely available from the BBB io group files here (you need to join the group to get access).

Join us and try it! To that fraction of readers who are (a) in range of Yorkshire, (b) interested and (c) free that day: come along to the BBB Bash Day convention in Sheffield on Saturday 27 June and join in one or two of the participation games then. ACW will be represented by the battle of Pea Ridge. Full details here.

Come to BBB Bash Day 2026!

Treat yourself to a wonderful wargaming weekend in Sheffield: come to the BBB Bash Day on Saturday 27 June, then go to the fabulous Joy of Six show on Sunday 28 June!

The Bloody Big Battles "Bash Day" convention has established itself as a very special annual event. (See reports of previous ones here.) It is entirely about entertaining and engaging participation games. Like-minded wargamers come together to share the love of recreating big historical 19th-century battles in their entirety and fighting them to an exciting conclusion.

Joy of Six showcases 6mm figures and highlights the value of smaller scales for fighting big battles. There is always superb craftsmanship on display. BBB participation games have become a regular feature of JoS as well.

If you're interested in coming along to Bash Day, here are the details. If you let us know in advance which games you'd like to play, that will help us schedule them to fit you in. Please tell our local organiser, Tom Davis, at: kingofchainmail@googlemail.com

Location:

Crookes Social Club, Mulehouse Road, S10 1TD, Crookes, Sheffield.

 

Timing:

Saturday 27 June 2026

GM access from ~08:30

Player access from 10:00

Kick-off ~10:30.

Endex ~17:00 (can go later if we want).

 

Travel:

Lots of local parking available.

Also on a main bus route.

 

Food:

Tom will lay on a picnic, accommodating various dietary needs.

CSC has a full bar that opens around midday.

Lots of cafes and eateries 5 minutes away on Crookes High St.

We will plan post-battle drinks/meal for those interested.

 

Games:

There will be a mix of classic favourite wars/battles and less well known ones, including:

- Napoleonic

- Hungarian War of Independence 1848

- First Schleswig-Holstein War (Isted)

- Crimean War

- American Civil War

- Franco-Prussian War

- WWI (Mons)

The larger games will be played once over a leisurely 6 hours or so (including lunchbreak);

smaller ones will be played twice, so some players will be able to get two different games in;

if you can only attend for part of the day, don't worry, come along anyway and we will include you.

 

Cost:

We will charge £10 to cover the venue and the picnic rations.

 

Sponsors:

Our good friends at Pendraken have generously offered to sponsor Bash Day by donating some figures or discount vouchers, which we will pass on to deserving participants. Pendraken 10mm is another excellent small scale for big battles. Start your new 10mm army today!

Eritrean escapade: Keren (1941)

Alongside the 19th century, WWII is my other favourite period to wargame. This is because, for reasons to do with technology and geometry, they generate more (and more interesting) tabletop decisions than other periods. I was therefore perfectly happy when, as a change from our usual C19 games, Crispin brought out his game of the battle of Keren.

In 1941, Keren was the scene of the decisive action in the British campaign to conquer the Italian colonial province of Eritrea. Keren was a formidable position on a mountain ridge, barring the pass that led to the port of Massawa. There were really two battles. The first lasted from 3-12 February 1941 and saw two brigades of 4th Indian Division fail to break through in the face of tough Italian defence and vigorous counterattacks. After a pause, 5th Indian Division was brought up as well. The new assault lasted from 15-27 March. After further hard fighting, the Italian line cracked. The Italians retreated to Massawa but lost many taken prisoner. Massawa held out for another week or so before surrendering.

This scenario only covers the first battle. No doubt Crispin will give us the second in due course. The rules we used are Crispin's own adaptation of BBB for WWII. We had a previous go with these when we fought the prequel to Keren, Gallabat-Metemma (see brief report here). I'll save my thoughts on rules for the Reflections at the end of this post. Meanwhile, here's the story in 15 photos.

This shows most of the battlefield from behind the British left. Those daunting mountains were custom carved by Crispin. They extend a little further left and right of pic. Blue and white lines are the road and river running through the pass. Pinkish line is the first contour level of the mountains. That's right, they're four levels high.

Troops in the foreground are three battalions of 11th Brigade, 4th Indian Division. Each base is 100 men. Figures are Baccus 6mm from Crispin's collection.

Italians defend the mountains, top of pic. White counters mark Objectives. Figures are Irregular 6mm from Crispin's collection.

The Italian defences are a tough nut to crack. Luckily, the British brought lots of 25 lb hammers. This is just half of our eventual 8-model gun line.

Italian askaris in their red fezzes defend Fort Dologorodoc, commanding the pass.

Outside the dusty town of Keren, the Italian mobile reserve waits for Dave W to give it orders to move. The CV3/33 tankette evidently expects to retreat when the cavalry advance.

Matt took command of 11th Bde. I provided fire support while I waited for my command to arrive on table. Matt's troops struggled up the steep hills in the teeth of deadly fire from Crispin's Italians. Not much progress was made on the first 'day'. (The scenario represents this 10-day battle in 9 game turns, with two 'Night Intervals' after turns 4 and 7.) Here you can see Matt's initial three battalions clinging to the lower slopes of the mountain, with a fourth in the foreground that has arrived overnight.

Day 2: the Indian right wing, my 5th Brigade, deploys in the foreground to try and seize those two Objectives top centre and right. Dave T brings more Italians marching onto the mountaintops to oppose me. 

Having learned from Matt's painful experience on our left, our right wing starts to scale the mountainside, trying to avoid massed enemy fire.

Back on our left, one battalion from Matt's 11th Brigade has reached the summit on the enemy's right flank (left edge of pic). Two others are still pushing up the hillside to join it. The Italians wait in their green-chalked trenches. Note the small 3-base column with the blue counter at the base of the hill: that was Matt's lead battalion, 2nd Cameron Highlanders, that had 4 bases blown away when it crested the narrow ridge in front of the Italian position. But it will rally and do great things later.

Mirroring Matt's outlanking move on our left, here my 5th Bde is doing the same on our right. My men have taken one Objective (lower right) and are eyeing the next (centre of pic). The 25-pounders have started to take their toll on the Askaris (yellow and blue counters show one unit Disrupted and Spent).

The Italians respond to Matt's left-flanking move by pulling back to refuse their flank. Their fire is pinning down the Rajputs.

Things are getting harder on our right as well. Italian reinforcements are being rushed up, including a couple of battalions of Savoia Grenadiers (the larger 5-base units in upper half of pic). My Indians are taking casualties and bogging down.

Desperate fighting on Matt's side. He has taken the Objective top left, but his Rajputs are now Disrupted, Spent, Low on Ammo, and heavily outnumbered (more Italians rushed up here too.) On the plus side, his Camerons have recovered some of their strength overnight and are getting ready to return to the fray (lower right).

Back to my end of the table. All Italian attention here has been drawn off towards the intense firefight at the righthand end, where we have taken a second Objective (the peak upper centre). Our final reinforcement therefore arrives at the perfect time: 5th Mahratta LI (lower left) sneaks up on Fort Dolgorodoc.

With fire support from the 25-lbers (now massing 80 guns), the Mahrattas' advance causes the Askaris to desert the Fort. The Italians have no reserves close enough to reoccupy it. The only question is whether the Mahrattas can get a good enough movement roll to capture it on the last turn ...

... and they do! The hapless tankettes can do nothing about it. Our right wing has therefore taken 3 Objectives.

Punjabis bolster the Rajputs. This Objective remains contested at nightfall. Out of shot to the right, the Camerons managed to seize another vacant ridge Objective (the one on the opposite side of the pass to Fort Dolgorodoc). That made a total of 4 Objectives, enough for the Indians to claim victory, somewhat to my surprise given how hard it was for us initially.

Reflections

A Different Vibe. As soon as I saw the arid, dusty-brown table with its towering mountains (by 6mm standards), I was already transported elsewhere. Eritrea? Askaris? Rajputs and Mahrattas? All very exotic and unusual (to me, anyway). Add in Crispin's rule tweaks to accommodate WWII weaponry and tactics, and I was definitely in a different place from my usual Monday night. Great stuff.

Eternal Verities. For all its exotic and esoteric and different features, the underlying principles remained: use cover, seek flanks, concentrate firepower, maintain a reserve ... and so too did the underlying BBB rule mechanisms that help to embody those principles on the tabletop.

Speaking of Rules. I admit I was a little sceptical about adapting BBB for WWII. I've seen several different approaches (including one of my own) and I'm not 100% sold on any of them. But I think for this scenario at least, Crispin's subtle tweaks produced the right effect: while it was hard for our Indians to attack up a mountain against automatic weapons, it was not impossible once we brought artillery and the right tactics to bear; and by the end the Indian troops' superior quality was starting to tell, as the fragile Italian numbers crumbled away. Well done, ref!

Crispin's scenario is available from the files of the BBB io group here (you have to join the group to get access).