Mini-Campaign Final Game (Solo Miniature Wargaming Part 8 Of 8)

For the final battle of my solo ACW mini-campaign I had originally intended to select six suitable meeting engagement scenarios from various sources and roll a die to choose which to fight. However, when the time came I decided I'd rather make one up based on the picture in my head of the campaign in progress. 

The Union cavalry attacks the Confederate cavalry holding the crucial hill as the main armies arrive.

Since the armies were manoeuvering, they must have been doing so for a purpose. The lost likely one was for the Yankees to seize an alternate road leading to a town or other feature that was their objective. The Confederates' goal would have been to block such a  move. That suggested another road running from North to South and the presence of an east/west road on the Federal side of the battlefield suggested to me that they had taken it to reach the road which would allow them to bypass the Confederate army. The absence of a similar route on the Rebel side of the table suggested that they had to fall back to pick up an alternate route and would thus have a longer way to go.  From there I just played around with a few hills and woods then laid out the three roads that figured in the plot line, and finally, some buildings for colour.   

The Federal cavalry has been repulsed  but the fighting intensifies across the field as Division after Division deploys and engages the enemy.

That done, I decided that there should be a blocking force to stop the Yanks from winning before the Rebs showed up. Cavalry seem the obvious choice of first units on table for both sides. From there, each turn I rolled a die for each side with a 1 being needed to a division to arrive on the first turn, 2 on the second and so on. To allow for the delay in reaching a crossroad to use, the Rebels did not begin dicing until turn 2. Once a division had arrived, I started back at 1 for the next one and so on.

Cesar's Zouaves have driven back the Reb cavalry but have suffered heavy losses in their assault.  The Union 1st Division have also been forced back and it is beginning to look like the Confederates will be able to hold.

Once the troops started arriving there was almost always an obvious need for them so I did very little dicing to choose where to commit troops as the battle ebbed back and forth. It was starting to look like the Rebs might hold on to force a campaign draw but suddenly, an advantageous counter attack by one of their  brigades went horribly wrong. The victorious Union brigade chose to follow up with a charge of their own, hoping that the Reb disorder would balance out their superior numbers. Fortune favours the brave and the Rebs retreated off table as the last Yankee division  crested the hill and secured the vital road.

The fighting sways too and fro as more brigades engage.

There was simply not enough time left in the day for the Confederate general to shift additional troops into position for a counter attack and even if there was there were ample Federal artillery and infantry moving up and closer than any counter attack force. It was time to save the army while it was still capable of fighting another day.

As more Union troops swarm up the hill, several Reb units break  and suddenly General Kinch is forced to order a general retreat along his line of communication while his army is still capable of further fighting. The campaign is lost but the war is not over.  

This completes this series of posts on my way of solo wargaming. To see them all, click the link called Solo, start with the oldest post then scroll forward. There's lots of other information out there including books, blogs and youtube videos and there is no better time to give it a try.  Feel free to ask questions in comments or email them to me at rmacfa@gmail.com.

On Saturday, Rob Dean and I will be trying another social distancing technique and fighting a Gentleman's Wargame via videochat.