Who: The Old Guard gaming group North Riding Wargames Group
Where: Scruton, North Yorkshire
When: Sunday 28th April
Players: Dave and Roy
The Battle of Pea Ridge (ACW)
Friday, March 7, 1862
This would see me playing a one on one game for this first time in (possibly) twenty years; I think the last game I played, not as part of a team or against multiple opponents, would have been Warhammer 40,000 at Richmond Wargames Club (North Yorkshire) in the last of it's four incarnations, at Zetland Estate's community room - that was way back in 2004 or 2005!
The rules used were Altar of Freedom. The miniatures were all 10mm sized, and the rules' measurements altered to use these large sized figures (6mm is the assumed miniature size). The game scenario is Very Small.
I'd chosen to play as the Confederate forces which, although quite restricted due to scenario limitations to recreate historic problems, allowed me to concentrate on only a small command with only one set goal - move forward and defeat the Union troops. The main issue, however was, the possibility of becoming stalled by a small Union force blocking the road south and the fact that all Confederate troops couldn't recover fatigue in the game (to recreate the exhaustion and low supplies, the rampant straggling and desertion, that hampered the Confederate force historically).
Most of the CSA force started the game on table, using the eastern road around 'Big Mountain'; here, I deployed the large, though heavily fatigued Missouri State Guard to lead the advance against the small Union division that blocked the way. Followed up by a slightly less fatigued division of troops, in the hope they could make use of the planned Missouri State Guards gains and deploy to meet the main Union force marching towards the sound of the guns.
That was the plan... Unfortunately, the plan went out the window pretty much straight away.
My dice rolls weren't great for the Missouri State Guard, which they needed to have been to try and balance the negative modifiers that the large Confederate division was hampered with. The Union force stayed in place, was not pushed back from blocking the way south, and created a dark blue wall that the Rebel grey would have to meet head on.
This was to be the case throughout the game. I could not catch a break when it came to combat dice rolls, with the negative modifiers hindering any attempts to make a grand push against the smaller Union force.
At the end of the second turn, the troops of McCulloch's division arrived - which was a mix of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, who were blessed with +3 positive modifiers to combat - from the western side of 'Big Mountain', on completely the wrong side of the battlefield, and were met by another small Union force blocking the way. My plan for this small division had been to move rapidly towards the Union deployment zone, using the Confederate cavalry to capture the Union camps and win for me three easy victory points. But, as what was becoming the norm in the game, my combat dice rolls proved to be a severe problem for me.
Just to balance the scales of luck however, whereas I couldn't win a combat to save my life it seemed, I was rallying broken brigades 85% of the time and able to throw them straight back into the game. I have to admit that I found this very amusing! And kept vocally remarking "these Confederates aren't for giving up!" The Missouri State Guard in particular just kept rallying and going straight back into combat - It meant the game lasted two turns longer than I was expecting, in fact, as at one point it was looking like an early defeat for me. But I managed to push the game into a fine balance, that could have seen victory going to either side.
Amusing as it was, seeing my luck displayed in this 'never say die' attitude regarding the rallying of broken infantry brigades, the Confederates on the tabletop who were stuck in combat were still unable to make gains against the Union forces opposing them.
The units broken for both sides started to mount; both armies had a break point of four. Turn six (of eight) saw the Confederate's having suffered 3 losses, compared to the Union's 2 losses. And McCulloch's Confederate cavalry was beginning to see some luck with my dice rolls, getting the better of the Union troops opposing them, and slowly making their way closer to the Union's unguarded headquarters.
But it wasn't to be. Turn seven saw the Confederate's reach their army break point, with the loss of a battery of artillery. Game over.
But, just to see what could have happened, since I had another infantry brigade waiting to test for rallying, I rolled the dice and saw it come up a success. That would have been my fifth unit to have rallied, if I could have only survived turn seven and we'd played on into the last turn.
All in all, it was a good game.
The small size of the armies meant you had to really think about what you wanted to do, and, with the penalties hampering the 'exhausted' Confederates, along with some oddball personality traits for the Confederate army general, saw me really having to think just how to get the best out of my troops.
But it wasn't just me having to think about what to do. My successes with rallying and sticking in the fight saw my opponent having to think about things too, especially when it was looking like a Confederate victory could be more of a possibility than it had been looking a couple of turns previously.
The Battle of Pea Ridge is an interesting scenario for such a small game, I found.
Edit: I remembered, earlier today, that I have played a few one on one games after 2004 - 2005. I played a couple of games of Frostgrave in 2015, and played X-Wing three times in 2017.
