Henry Hill – Conclusion

In the centre of the field the 2nd Wisconsin and 5th Massachusetts were now side by side and able to trade volleys with Dave’s 2nd Virginia on equal terms. The 2nd Virginia had started out as the largest unit on the table with 14 stands and I would have to bring every available Union rifle to bear if the Rebels were going to be shifted from Henry Hill.

Still standing like a stone wall - Jackson with the 2nd Virginia by Henry House.

The two sides blazed away but it was my Federals who blinked first as the 5th Massachusetts failed their morale test at the end of turn 9 and headed for the rear. With my left and centre in disarray any hope of a victory now shifted to the outcome of events on the right.

 The 5th Massachusetts break under the fire of the Virginians.

Since the start of the game I had been painstakingly manoeuvring the 79th New York forward on the extreme right of my line. They had experienced more than their fair share of disorder, firstly as a result of crossing Young’s Branch, and then due to the steadily rising number of casualties inflicted on them by the Confederates (for each 5 casualties suffered a unit must test for possible disorder). Now at last they were in a position where they could start to exchange volleys with the 13th Mississippi near Chinn Ridge.

The 79th New York square up to the 13th Mississippi near Chinn Ridge.

It seemed that the battle would be decided in this final fire-fight between the New York ‘highlanders’ and the southern boys from the ‘Muddy Miss’. In the end it all hinged on the round of morale throws at the end of turn 10 and it was the Rebels who emerged victorious as the 79th took to their heels in the last skedaddle of the day.

Game over - the 79th join the great skedaddle!

"Hey boys, last one back to Willards Bar is buyin'!"

At the end of turn 10 Dave had amassed 13 VP’s to my 7 VP’s a convincing win for the Confederates. Almost half of my infantry were now in full rout and they didn’t look as if they were going to stop running until they reached Capitol Hill. It was starting to look as if this would be a very long war.

 As the sun sinks over the horizon the Union army is in full retreat - this will be a long war...

We both felt that the rules had delivered an excellent game in what was a very simple scenario - basically one brigade in line advancing against another. The tactical detail involved in manoeuvring units and trying to get to grips with the enemy offered us a completely different experience from the army level 1/300th games we are used to, which was the whole idea. The only down side was the amount of paperwork we found ourselves doing but we have already had ideas about how to streamline that. We intend to try another scenario with the revised rules soon but I will probably write it up as a single post as I’m aware that the slow pace of a game like this makes multiple posts less interesting to the reader!

The positions at the end of the game - turn 10 (click the image to zoom in).