Monday, November 16, 2009

Battle of Hanover Court House


The Battle of Hanover Court House, 27th May 1862 - Scenario Book 3

The other week i played my first game of Guns at Gettysburg (GaG) in about a year. i had originally played about 2 games which had ironed out most of the gliches in learning a new ruleset, but as usual a layoff meant that had to virtually start from scratch again

The battle of hanover court house took place as Brig Gen Porters V corp extended north of Maj Gen McClellans army to allow the movement of reinforcements as part of the penisula campaign, at Peakes crossing (a railway station) confederate forces under Col Branch were defeated. However, the defeat of Maj Gen Nathaniel Banks in the Shendoah by Jackson required the reallocation of reinforcements that Porters movement was supposed to make possible

Porter initially pushed toward Hanover court house leaving a small body of troops at peakes crossing. Col Branch mistakenly thought these were the only Union troops in the area and rashly attacked achieving some initial success before Union reinforcements arrived and pushed the confederates from the field leaving over 200 rebel dead and 700 captured for a loss of 350 men

our refight involved me with the rebels and mike taking the Union forces. the scneraio requires a timescale of 8 turns for the confederates to rout or break the union forces, consisting of a single brigade with reinforcements. therefore i tried to be as aggresive as possible and kept my brigade on assault orders throughout the game. most infantry were deployed in line with a single large unit 12thNC in column hoping to punch a hole in the union centre. The union brigade remained on hold orders throughout
hanover court househanover court househanover court house

initally the confederate attack was sluggish as the large number of woods slowed movement until the troops were able to break into the second field opposite the union troops and engage in musketry fire. the main casualties at this point fell upon the 18th NC which i had rather rashly pushed into the battleline unsupported to face the fire of the 44th and 25th NY regts and a battery of parrots and on the union side by the loss of the 2nd maine which had also unwisely been pushed forward to occupy the Kinney house

further advances by the rebels succeeded in developing the battle line as the union reinforcements arrived on turn 4. the stalemate was broken by the assault of the 12th NC in column into the 25th NY which had since run out of ammo and which after 2 rounds of combat broke and fled to the rear on turn 7
Photobuckethanover court house
the final turn saw further losses and both sides taking a brigade morale check which both passed resulting in a Union victory

Overall this game was very enjoyable despite coming up against a few things in the rules that i must reread. the timescale was tight but with a bit of extra planning the reb advance could have been swifter. The union player in this scenario has an easier role as the course of the battle is dictated by the rebs battle plan. overall though it was an enjoyable game and a nice introduction to GaG also apart from lots of woods not too much scenery was required

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