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.