Civil War Commander

I can't help myself.  I just tinker with rules.  Just can't leave 'em alone.

So here comes Civil War Commander.  It is a set of rules that merges the good, but "not quite right" Battle Cry rules, John O'Haver's variant of Battle Cry, Glenn Drover's civil war variant of C&C:Ancients, and my own regimental civil war miniature rules (Hayfoot Strawfoot).  I have picked my favorite features of each and voila!

So far I have the rules, cards, and two reference sheets printed out.  The game uses the dice from Battle Cry.  I have reset the scenario of Hooker's attack at Antietam and will commence playing with my new rule set.

Tabula Rasa

Last night I had some friends over to play boardgames.  We played Galaxy Trucker and Ark of the Covenant.  Both are excellent games and much fun was had.  In order to play these games I cleared Antietam off of the table.  So now my game table sits empty - a blank canvas waiting for inspiration to strike.  What will it be?  More boardgames?  miniatures?  and if so, what time period?  ACW?  WWII?  2nd Punic Wars?  French & Indian War?  Wait and see...

Cold Steel

We played several more turns of the Antietam game last night.  The fight in the East Woods was bitter.  Seymour's and Gordon's brigade combined for a glorious charge against Walker's brigade, resulting in bloody hand to hand fighting.  Down to their last figure, the rebel unit was rallied by General Lawton.  Then the yankees charged into them again.  Seymour's brigade was decimated, and more than a few men of Gordon's green brigade also fell.  But Walker's men are still, just barely, holding on to their piece of the East Woods.

Hand to hand combat in the East Woods.

On the other side of the field, Hampton's cavalry charged into Patrick's brigade, but the infantry held off the cavalry charge.  The fighting in the West woods started off grim for the south as Gibbon's brigade pushed on and routed Brockenbrough's battery after having dispatched both Grigsby's and Johnson's brigades.  However, Early's brigade caused enough damage to Gibbon's Iron Brigade for them to fall back and regroup north of the Miller farm.  In fact, the union really enjoyed using the "Fall Back" card to pull worn troops out of action and back to the base line where they get to add a figure back into the unit.

The Union army regroups for renewed action.

Unlike real history, the Miller Corn Field was an eye of calm in the center of the storm.  Starke's and Warren's brigades held the corn field unopposed, and eventually moved to the north edge of the field where they started a fire fight with the yankee artillery in the North Woods.

The corn field and the west woods are held by the rebels.

For those keeping score, the count is US 2, CS 0.  However, I may in future games assign VP's to certain geographic features like the west woods, corn field, and east woods.  More to come, stay tuned.  I am also trying to figure out how to take better photos more consistently.  Please be patient.

Map of Antietam: I Corps Attack

Scenario Map

Yeah, it's huge.  Commanders have a gold colored name plate, and they are deployed in their HQ.  The dotted brown lines are fences.  The dotted red lines separate the right, center and left areas.

First turns

JR Jones' confederates take the Corn Field.

Gibbon's brigade rout some of Jackson's men out of the West Woods.

Dice and Cards

My 8yr old son and I played the first few turns yesterday.  He caught on right away and we played for about 30 minutes.  He started by pushing Gibbon's brigade into the West woods, with support from a battery of 12lb Napoleons.  Gibbon's Iron Brigade destroyed Grigsby's and Johnson's brigades.  Stonewall Jackson quickly called up Early and Hood to reinforce the Wesr Woods.  In the center, the rest of JR Jones' division took control of the Miller corn field with little resistance.  The East Woods was occupied on the north end by Rickett's union division and from the south by two brigades from Lawton's division.  A big fight will erupt there soon.

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A quick post

From left to right, the West Woods, Miller Corn Field, East Woods.  The Dunker Church is in the lower center of the picture.

I am posting this from a Wendy's in MD. This picture is a slight re-arrangement of the Antietam battle field.  My intention was to widen the center of the battlefield and thus push more of the action onto the flanks.  That way, the "right" and "left" cards in the deck would be more useful.

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Antietam: I Corps Attack (Order of Battle)

Antietam: Hooker's I Corps Attack

US Army:        Command Value:4   Corps Rating:3
Gen Hooker        Vet Corps Commander
  Gen Doubleday     Reg Divison Commander
    Phelps' Brigade    2 vet Inf
    Hoffman's Brigade    4 Reg Inf (reserve)
    Patrick's Brigade    4 Reg Inf
    Gibbon's Brigade    5 Vet Inf
    4th US Arty        1 Vet 12# Napoleon (3 crew)
    1st NY L Arty    1 Reg 3" Ordnance (3 crew)
  Gen Ricketts        Reg Division Commander
    Duryea's Brigade    5 Reg Inf
    Christian's Brigade    5 Reg Inf
    Hartsuff's Brigade    6 Reg Inf
    1st PA L Arty    1 Reg 3" Ordnance (2 crew)
    Ind PA L Arty    1 Reg 3" Ordnance (2 crew)
  Gen Meade        Vet Division Commander
    Seymour's Brigade    6 Vet Inf
    Magilton's Brigade    5 Vet Inf
    Anderson's Brigade    4 Vet Inf
Gen Mansfield*
  Gen Williams*
    Crawford's Brigade    6 Grn Inf (reserve*)
    Gordon's Brigade    6 Grn Inf (reserve*)
  Gen Pleasanton**
    Farnsworth's Cav    3 Reg Cav (reserve**)

* these brigades are William's Division of Mansfield's XII Corps
  neither Williams nor Mansfield are included in this scenario

** this cavalry is included as a hypothetical what-if.  Pleasanton
  is not included in this scenario.


CS Army:        Command Value:5   Corps Rating:5
Gen Jackson        Vet Corps Commander
  Gen Lawton        Reg Division Commander
    Douglass' Brigade    6 Vet Inf
    Walker's Brigade    4 Vet Inf
    Hays' Brigade    3 Vet Inf
    Early's Brigade    6 Vet Inf (reserve)
    Johnson's Battery    1 6lb Smoothbore (2 crew)
  Gen JR Jones        Grn Division Commander
    Grigsby's Brigade    2 Vet Inf
    Warren's Brigade    3 Vet Inf
    Johnson's Brigade    2 Vet Inf
    Starke's Brigade    4 Vet Inf
    Raine's Battery    1 Vet 3" Ordnance (2 crew)
    Brockenbrough's Bty 1 Vet 10lb Parrott (2 crew)
    Poague's Battery     1 Vet 10lb Parrott (2 crew)
  Gen DH Hill*
    Ripley's Brigade    6 Vet Inf
  Gen Hood**        Vet Division Commander (reserve)
    Wofford's Brigade    4 Vet Inf (reserve)
    Law's Brigade    6 Vet Inf (reserve)
  Gen Stuart***
    Hampton's Cavalry    3 Vet Cav (reserve)

* Gen DH Hill was stationed in the center of the CSA line and
  is therefore not included in this scenario.  One of his brigades
  played a significant part in the fighting on the northern flank.

** Gen Hood was organized under Longsteet's corps, but during
  the battle of Antietam was temporarily subordinated to
  Jackson.

*** Gen Stuart is not included in the scenario but one of his
  cavalry brigades is included.

I Corps Attack at Antietam

Welcome to my miniature wargaming blog.  My primary periods of interest are the Second Punic War, the American Civil War, and World War II.  Right now I am painting a unit of Spanish scutarii (Crusader sculpts) and playing an ACW scenario of Hooker's I Corps attack at Antietam.  Some photos of the Antietam game setup are below.

The northern part of the field at Antietam

Stonewall Jackson surveys a Parrott gun

General Lawton (as portrayed by Longstreet) with infantry

Confederate Artillery

Rickett's Division as portrayed by Gen. Buford

Gen Hooker in the foreground, Meade in the background

I'm happy with the battlefield placement, but I want to add some nicer pieces for corn fields and I also want to paint the buildings.  The order of battle seems pretty good to me as well.  Next I will have to play this through and see how I like the deployments and the rule systems.  I'm going to play a slightly modified version of a set of rules, which are themselves an adaptation of C&C:Ancients for the Civil War.  I've added in the Battle Cry dice instead of the C&C:A dice, and I have also added more fidelity to the artillery units.  The units with poker chips are reinforcements, if you play the proper card you can activate them.  I'll post more as I play through the battle.