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).
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).
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.
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.
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).
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.
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).
The Ironmen with their steam-powered cannons.
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.
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.
Major Jubilation T. Cornpone bravely road fort to steady the troops on the Confederate left.
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.
The aerial force finally got into the battle, with the Union Heliostat dropping down to lob grenades at the cannons.
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.
While its initial attack did no damage the Confederates sent back their elite Zouave squad to deal with it.
The Confederate right flank (minus the Zouaves) reached the road, which was the objective of the game. Now they just had to hold it.
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).
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).
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