• Blog
MYSTERIOUS BILL'S GAMING BLOG

ACW GASLIGHT AT HEROICON

5/23/2015

3 Comments

 
Picture
This weekend I ran an ACW GASLIGHT game at Heroicon. I had seven players out of six (one player brought his wife who helped run a couple units). Fortunately, a couple of my regular GASLIGHT players from the area showed up and helped the newbies. Since I had some newbies, I kept most of it simple (well as simple as it could be and still have some Steampunk flavor). It was that old standard of Wargaming, the meeting engagement, with the Union and Confederates fighting over possession of the road that bisected the board.
THE CONFEDERATE SETUP

The Confederates put their Artillery, Timberclad Landship, an Elite squad of Zouves, a regular Infantry Squad, two Armored Walkers, and Major jubilation T. Cornpone on the eastern section of the board. The western section contained three units of Infantry, three Mechanical Men, Captain Smith, Big John, and the Ornithopter.

I let each side set up their section of artillery and a squad of regular Infantry up to 12 inches from the road. While the Confederates set up their squad in some woods, they set up their artillery near the back of the table (where it was constantly firing at long range and was often blocked by intervening friendly units).

Picture
THE UNION SETUP

The Union forces put one of their squads in the woods on their left  (seen here leaving the woods, to fall back to them the next turn). Their section of guns was set up on a hill on their right. There it had a clear field of fire and kept the Confederates under constant fire (though they later took severe levels of causalities due to their open position. On their left they placed two squads of Infantry, two Ironmen, and the Heliostat. In the center they placed their strongest landship, the USLS Marion.   On their right the put their remaining landships and the rest of their Infantry. Note, Colonel "Popeye" Doyle on horseback near the front lines.
Picture
Colonel "Popeye" Doyle got his name from his one over sized bulging eye (the guy I had paint this up for me had to try to paint the eyes, with rather mixed results).
Picture
On the Confederate right two squads of Infantry, the Timberclad Landship and two Combat Walkers advanced ion cover behind the hill. The Confederates kept their cannons and Landship well away from their Mechanical men. Mechanical men in the ACW were notoriously simple-minded. They were set not to attack Infantry and Cavalry, because of a lack of ability to distinguish between friends, foes and civilians ( after the Potterville Massacre this limitation was made mandatory by both sides). Mechanical men were instructed (programmed in modern terms) to attack landships, wagons, artillery pieces (but not the crews) and other such items.
Picture
The Union forces had plenty of trouble with their landships. They'd fail their Sustains, take a couple turns to restart, then promptly fail their Sustain again. The USLS Marion (the big twin stack landship) spent most of the game right where it is now. The Ironmen have reached the stonewalls around the church. The Confederate Ornithopter overflew the Union forces looking for a place to drop it's bombs (being careful to stay out of range of ground fire).
Picture
The Ironmen with their steam-powered cannons.
Picture
Thwe First kill of the game. I think it was Gatling fire from a Landship that did it. Earlier one of the Armored Walkers hit a Union squad, but the hit landed on the Sergeant who saved with a 1. 
Picture
The Confederate Timberclad approached the road, followed by the two Armored Walkers, the Zouaves and a squad of Infantry. The Union Helostat soared safely through the air out of range of gunfire.
Picture
Major Jubilation T. Cornpone bravely road fort to steady the troops on the Confederate left.
Picture
On the Union right one of the Mechanical Men finally got close to the Union forces (the others were lagging behind do the breakdowns) when a good shot from the cannons knocked it on its ass. The Infantry was advancing well, while the Landships continued to have trouble with breakdowns. Most things had a 17 Sustain or better, and still things kept breaking down. The dice kept rolling high all game, why can't they do that when I'm using them when playing an RPG.
Picture
The aerial force finally got into the battle, with the Union Heliostat dropping down to lob grenades at the cannons.
Picture
While the Confederate Ornithopter bombed the immobile USLS Marion. The Ornithopter used up it's two bombs and damaged the steering on the landship, forcing the crew to take yet another turn to fix that damage.
Picture
While its initial attack did no damage the Confederates sent back their elite Zouave squad to deal with it.
Picture
The Confederate right flank (minus the Zouaves) reached the road, which was the objective of the game. Now they just had to hold it.
Picture
On the Confederate left flank things were a stalemate. Then Major Jubilation T, Cornpone died in a hail of gunfire.


Was this the end of the Confederate left flank? What could they do without Cornpone's leadership? Stay tuned for the next installment (this AAR is to damn long to do as one post).
3 Comments
www.essayhelp24.com link
6/17/2015 06:38:02 pm

When I was a student, it never crossed my mind, that I can let someone deal with my academic needs. Essayhelp24 writing service is really helpful.

Reply
uk-essay-reviews.com link
7/27/2015 09:30:31 pm

How great! I've ordered an essay about wat tactics used in Civil War in US. And uk essay reviews gave exactly what I needed!

Reply
ibcbet-bola.com/sbobet-online link
3/13/2016 12:06:32 am

The Confederates put their Artillery, Timberclad Landship, an Elite squad of Zouves, a regular Infantry Squad, two Armored Walkers, and Major jubilation T. Cornpone on the eastern section of the board.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Mysterious Bill

    I've been gaming since the 1970's and even wrote some RPG adventures in the 80's for the Judges Guild. It seems that I can only get in miniatures is gaming at cons, but I do regularly play boardgames and RPGs.

    Archives

    February 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010

    Categories

    All
    Airplanes
    Aliens
    American Civil War
    Betrayal At The House On The Hill
    Boardgames
    Books
    Cheapness
    Conventions
    Decatur Campaign
    Desperado
    Furniture
    Gaming At The Library
    Gamma World
    Gaslight
    Historical Wargames
    Horror
    Interwar
    Ironclads
    Movies
    Mutants
    Napoleonic
    Naval Wargames
    Pirates
    Pulp
    Pulp Alley
    Real History
    Robots
    Rpg
    Science Fiction
    Ships And Boats
    Skirmish
    Terrain
    The Shadow
    Very American Civil War
    Vsf
    Weird Vehicles
    Weird World War Ii
    Westerns
    Where Heroes Dare
    Wings Of War
    Zeppelins

    RSS Feed

    Links

    http://bunkermeister.blogspot.com/
    http://doctormerkury.blogspot.com/
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.