Kenosha Civil War Museum & ACW War Gaming Days

 

My two game tables at the Kenosha Civil War Museum event.

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Friday I traveled 30 minutes north of Schloss Fritz to Kenosha, Wisconsin Civil War Museum link, where I set up a smaller version of my Pickett's Charge ACW 54mm wargame. It took me about three hours on Thursday to take down the Antietam game on the home pitch and repack everything for the game show. Then on Friday, it took another three hours to set up the Pickett's Charge game. Needless to say I was completely knackered by Friday night.

Due to the limited number of tables available and a smaller gaming area, I had to reduce the size of the Pickett's Charge game from three parallel tables to only two parallel tables. Both tables measured 16ft long by 5ft wide with a 3ft wide aisle between the tables. I am used to using 6ft wide tables so I wasn't sure how well this might work out. With a smaller table area, I had to reduce the Confederate army down from two divisions to one, using only Pickett's division of three brigades. So I lost one-third of my usual table area and reduced my gaming forces by 50%. There would be room for three players per side rather than five or six players per side.

The Confederate starting position on the Emmitsburg Road table. Cemetery Ridge 
is the table on the other side of the aisle.

The Cemetery Ridge table, where the Union army was deployed, looking
across the aisle to the Emmitsburg Road table.

The Emmitsburg Road with the Codori Farm at the far end of the table.
Pickett's Division of three brigades are deployed in their stepping off position.

To my surprise, the game almost looked better using the two tables and half the number of figures that I used when I ran Pickett's Charge at Little Wars and Historicon in 2024. One of the tables would have the Emmitsburg Road and the Confederates starting position about 20-24 inches from the road. The other table represented Cemetery Ridge and it comprised mostly the Copse of Trees, The Angle and the Bryan Farm. Each side would have three brigades with 3 regiments in the Union brigades and 4 regiments in the Confederate brigades. I increased the number of artillery pieces in the Union army to compensate for having fewer than normal regiments. As an after thought, I added two more regiments to the Union defenders giving them 11 regiments compared 12 regiments for the Confederates.

The game played faster with the elimination of the third Seminary Ridge table. The Confederates no longer had to cross six feet of table width just to get to the Emmitsburg Road table. One Confederate brigade (Kemper) reached the road on Turn 1 and the brigades of Armistead and Garnett reached the road on Turn 2. The Confederates came under Union artillery fire from the get-go and by Turn 3, with most of them crossing the post and rail fences of the road, they were within small arms range. So things were happening at a faster pace than in my previous games.

Corner of the table vignette showing a Union medical field station.

Meade's HQ. Meade, Hancock and Warren discussing the day's events.
Several Iron Brigade soldiers are on guard duty.

A Union artillery battery of two 3-inch ordnance rifles

114th Pennsylvania Zouaves deploy behind breastworks.

Alonzo Cushing's battery of 3-inch rifles deployed in The Angle.

The Codori Farmhouse and barn at the end of the Emmitsburg Road.

We had four players in the game. I assigned three of them to command the three brigades in Pickett's Division. The fourth player commanded half of the Union forces and I commanded the other half.

The players picked up the rules right away and one of them found all of nuances (and loop holes) in my rules. For example, I had been telling players that they are better off standing and firing at the Union soldiers rather than charging home because the defender gets to fire off a volley at the incoming chargers. One of the players brought it to my attention that this shouldn't matter because in the sequence of play, the Union soldiers get to fire at the Confederates before the Confederates get an opportunity to fire back, So they are going to get fired at first regardless of whether they charge or stand and fire. In another instance, one of the Confederate players was going to charge into the flank of my Union regiment. I was certain that I must have gigged the unit getting hit in the flank, but I couldn't find it on my rule sheet. The player found the exact rule which stated "units charged in the flank or rear do not get to fire at the charge."

One rule that I plan to change involves the melee system. The Union soldiers get a melee hit when they roll a 5 or 6 on a D6 whereas the Confederates inflict a hit on a roll of a 4-5-6. This gives the Rebels a clear advantage in melee. I had this rule because I wanted the Confederates to have a chance to maybe sort of win the game, but this difference has proven to be too biased in their favor. (It's probably why it seems that the Confederates have been winning more of these games than they should). Therefore I will change melee hits to a 5 or 6 for both sides to balance things out.

It was a good game. Those sneaky Confederates attacked the Union left flank with two brigades (Kemper and Armistead) and avoided the Copse of Trees sector in the middle. I was commanding the Union brigades on this part of the table and I failed to notice that Armistead's brigade shifted to the right and joined Kemper's brigade in overwhelming the Union left flank by sheer numbers. They managed to get a complete break through of the Union line and cut off the key Baltimore Pike road behind Cemetery Ridge. While the Union right flank fended off Garnett's brigade, and the center at the Copse of Trees was secure by virtue of it not being attacked, it seemed to me that the Confederates had achieved an overwhelming victory on Cemetery Ridge (of course, I had to advise the winning Confederate commanders that the entire Union VI Corps was waiting for them on the other side of the ridge).

I like the way that this game played out and I think that I will continue to use the two table setup instead the three table set up whenever I run Pickett's Charge at a convention. I will also change the melee rule.

I have one more game scheduled tomorrow (Sunday February 23rd) and hopefully enough visitors arrive  so that all six of the games have players to play the game. I had a good time talking to visitors and curiosity seekers all day. A number of people were visiting the museum and were not aware that there were going to be some war games going on. They asked me lots of questions about where the soldier figures came from (I had a list of 5 or 6 companies that sell these plastic figures), the size of the figures (1/32 scale or 54mm), how many figures did I paint and how long did it take me (over 1,000 figures and one year of painting time), did I make all of the terrain (pretty much yes) and where did I find such colorful game mats (Cigar Box Battle Mats). There were also lots of questions about the size of the historical war gaming community in the USA (I gave them some information about HMGS and its satellite regional organizations). Other topics included GI Joe/Action Man size figures and Airfix HO figures (you would be surprised at how many people played with the HO figures in their youth). So all in all, it was a great day for me.

There are plans to hold this show at the museum next year, probably at the same time (last weekend of February) and I will definitely be coming back to host a game. Someone told me that we had about 40 people playing in the games and there were six games available for anyone interested in rolling dice.

After my game was over and all of the figures were put back into place, I had some time to roam around the museum for a look-see. I was in a hurry so tomorrow I hope to spend more time looking at the exhibits in more detail.

NOTICE:

I have lots of pictures of my Antietam game that I solo played this week and I plan to offer up one or two blog posts about that game in the coming week.

Battle of Antietam Game: Hooker's Attack in the Cornfield

 

My tabletop setup for the Antietam war game.

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Yesterday I cleared the Ancients off of my game tables (that took about 2.5 hours) and set up the table (about 2 hours of set up time) for my ACW 54mm game featuring Hooker's attack through the Miller Cornfield.

I made a four minute video in which I take you for a tour around the battlefield tabletop. I have not included any video of the playing of the game, which could get rather boring to watch. Here is the You Tube link to the video, below:

My Antietam Game You Tube Link

I am using the infantry regiments that I painted for the Pickett's Charge game last year, but rather than using them as "regiments", they are representing "brigades" in both armies. For example, General Meade has three brigades in his division so there are three units of painted figures, each representing one of his brigades.

This set up gives me 9 brigades per side for the game. These can be divided into three brigades per side, each of which are commanded by a player. Thus there are three players per side in this game.

My plan is to play this as a solo game over the next two days and then I have to tear it all down and pack it away so that I can carry everything to Kenosha, Wisconsin  where I am hosting the game in a local Civil War museum. How cool is that!

Here is a picture of the game flyer for the convention. If you happen to be in the area on Saturday February 22nd or 23rd, the please feel free to stop in, see the museum and watch or play in some of the  Civil War games that will be hosted. I believe that there are six games scheduled. I will be hosting my game on both days.

I will be running my 54mm Pickett's Charge game that you may have seen at last year's Little Wars and Historicon conventions. It will be a smaller version of those games because there is only space for me to set up two 5ft by 18ft tables instead of the three 6ft by 20ft tables used at LW and Historicon. I will probably have only Pickett's division on the Confederate side versus a similar number of Union troops. I might be able to slip in an extra Confederate brigade if the table top area permits.

Here are several more pictures of the game table and terrain set up. I will play the game solo and probably post an after action report next week.

The Dunker Church lies at the intersection of the Hagerstown Pike (left) and the Smoketown Road (right).

The Dunker Church

Union artillery crew look down the Smoketown Road towards Dunker Church.

Union artillery battery positional view down the Hagerstown Pike. The Miller Cornfield is seen of the left.

The Smoketown Road leading up the the Dunker Church (white building) in the background.
The lefthand road is just a smaller local farmer's track.

The Miller Farm - the stepping off point for Hooker's attack.

I hope to see some of you in Kenosha this weekend.

I'm Back From Historicon 2024

 

Der Alte Fritz Himself (left center) gets schooled by young Master Charlie (right, on the table)
on the finer points of American Civil War tactics.

Well, it's Tuesday July 23rd and Historicon 2024 is in the rearview mirror and so I guess that it is time to step back from wargame matters and just rest, relax and recharge my batteries.

Naaaaaaaaahhhhh!

There is so much to talk about, so much to think about, that it is hard to figure out where to start. I had a fantastic time running my Pickett's Charge ACW game at Historicon (four times) and we accommodated 50 players over the four day period. Getting one's game slots filled with players and watching them have a good time is the most important part of running war games at conventions. Having a countless number of people walk up to your table and tell you how much they like the look of your game is gratifying beyond measure. I even had one player in my game tell me that this was the best Civil War game that he had ever played in. Ever! I am truly humbled when I get a compliment like that.

A war game at a convention is kind of like going to a rock concert in that the performance is so much better when the audience and the band are fully engaged with each other. In a sense, the audience becomes a part of the performance and they become one of the band.

Oh, and I won a PELA award ("Pour Encourager Les Autres") for my game:

The PELA trophy

The PELA Committee (in blue hats) award DAF with the award.

A judging committee makes the convention rounds and select a game that they deem has the characteristics of (1) the visual look of the game and (2) the enthusiasm of the people playing in the game. They hand out the award, I think, for four different times each day (e.g. morning, mid day, afternoon and evening sessions). Thus there are multiple winners each day over the course of the convention.

THE RULES

I think that the rules worked very well and a number of people wanted to take home a copy after the end of their game. The players understood the elements of the rules quickly and so they sort of took over the game themselves. I only had to stand around and announce the different phases of the game turn and make a few rules adjudications every now and then. The players were great! Friendly to the core and nary a cross word nor rules lawyer over the four games that I ran. 

The tabletop results seemed to be consistent with history, although I daresay that the Confederates "won" three out of the four games. The advancing Rebels sustained mounting casualties from artillery as they crossed the field of Pickett's Charge, but it was only when they crossed the Emmitsburg Road and came within rifle range that they began to fall in droves. A few units would almost make it up to the wall defended by the Union soldiers, but they had to fall back. However, it was the second wave of the attack that crossed over the walls and recorded victories for the Confederates.

I think that firing and morale mechanics of the rules worked well, but I think that the "victory points" system seemed to favor the Confederates. In the first three games, they merely had to have one of their regiments cross the walls in 3 of the 4 sectors of the field to win (one point either side for crossing the wall or preventing a crossing of the wall). In the final (fourth) game I dispensed of victory points altogether and just had the sides slug it out and let God decide.

THE GAMES

I am just going to post some of the pictures of the games, in no particular order, to give you a feel for the look of the game and the players. This first picture shows the layout of the game table, spread across three large 6ft wide by 20ft long tables. The aisles between the tables do not count for inches of movement or firing. When you move to the edge of the table, you simply hop over to the next table and continue your movement.

The table set up with the Union army on the lefthand table representing Cemetery Ridge,
the middle table representing the Emmitsburg Road, and the righthand table representing
the Confederate start line of Seminary Ridge

Union troops from Carroll's Brigade defend the wall atop Cemetery Ridge.

Union battery of 3-inch ordnance rifles helps to defend the Copse of Trees.

Fighting in the Emmitsburg Road on the center table. A veritable Daniel Sickles
player on the Union side decided to advance off of Cemetery Ridge and defend
the crossing of the road. Actually, it's not as weird as it sounds.

Kemper's Confederate brigade in Pickett's division press their attack in fine order.

Kemper's lads find it slow going through the orchard near the Codori Farm.

A big shout out and thanks go to Lind P. (red shirt) who helped me run the fourth game.
Lind had played in one of the earlier games and volunteered to help run the last game 
on Saturday afternoon. Lind, your help was most appreciated.

A Union battery deployed in front of the Emmitsburg Road to fend off the Confederate attack.

Confederate players move their troops from the back table to the center table
wherein lies the Emmitsburg Road.

Action on Cemetery Ridge

Union troops from Webb's Brigade defend the Copse of Trees in the center of their line.

North Carolina regiments made the final push over the walls.

A picture from the first game on Thursday night showing the Union defense of Cemetery Ridge.

The Rebs quickly figured out the sense of sending in one regiment to soak up the fire
and then having a second regiment follow up behind them to take the position.

The Confederates from Pickett's and Pettigrew's divisions approach the Emmitsburg Road.
The Rebs had to use one turn to climb into the road and then another turn to climb out of the road.

It was great to have some of the younger set participating in my games. They 
more than held their own with the adults.

Daisy the Cow. Some of you will know what this refers to. Wink wink.

Union supply wagons on the Taneytown Road just behind Cemetery Ridge

Confederate POWs

A few slackers in the rear behind Cemetery Ridge. Vignette City.

Union field hospital has no shortage of customers.

Confederate starting point on the back table.

The Codori Farm in a quieter moment.

The game tables (three of them) are set up and ready for the action to begin.

I even had a visit from Goober the Traveling Bear. Goober and Little Piglet
are catching up on things since their last meeting at Historicon 2023.

I will put up my photos of other games at Historicon in another post later this week.

THE REAL GETTYSBURG

I also stopped in at Gettysburg for several days with Ken Bunger and we took two three hour tours with a licensed battlefield guide on Monday and Tuesday before Historicon began. I highly recommend hiring a licensed battlefield guide when you visit Gettysburg. Our guide on both days, Jim Muskett, was terrific and guided us over East Cavalry Field (which I had never seen), Longstreet's Countermarch on Day 2, Barlow's Knoll and many other off the beaten path locales on the Gettysburg National Military Park.

Union battery deployed at The Angle on Cemetery Ridge

Artillery caissons behind Alonzo Cushing's US battery on Cemetery Ridge

The Codori Farm as viewed from Cemetery Ridge

I believe that this might be the Sherfy Farm on the Emmitsburg Road, as viewed from the Peach Orchard

What color is the terrain in July?

I think that I got the color right.

The newly restored Little Round Top which opened to the public just the week before we arrived.

The Rose Farm. You can see Little Round Top in the rear.

Coming Next: other games at Historicon and the Dealer Area pictures.