I set up the Antietam scenario, partially because it's a battle I'd just got to in my reread of Shelby Foote, but mostly because it's a favourite battle of mine. Many, many years ago I spent a ton of time reading up on it in order to put together a Fire & Fury scenario for it (this was before Great Eastern Battles was published), and I still find it one of the more fascinating larger battles.
The game sets it up as you'd expect, as three fights, one in each sector. The numbers of units are actually fairly similar, but this kind of gives the right effect; the Union have enough troops to push the Confederates facing them to the edge but maybe not quite enough oomph to finish them. The Union have fewer command cards than the Confederates. The Confederates start with terrain advantages too. It's a tough one for the Union.
Here's the start. As you can see I added a few bits of terrain.
Burnside got his troops together to cross the stone bridge. This is an odd part of the scenario, since Burnside acts as the same time as the rest of the Union army, but in fact this flank is so isolated from the rest of the fight that it's almost a game on its own, so could (in theory) be assumed to be happening later.
I set it up and played it again. The Union put in a pretty good attack on the cornfield this time, although Stuart's cavalry hit them hard.
I've played the Belmont scenario through a few times since I took these pictures as well, but didn't photograph it. It gives a surprisingly fun and frustrating game, featuring as it does infantry that retreat two spaces instead of one. The Confederates have numbers, but also have terrible command cards, so struggle to bring them to bear. Honours are about even so far.
I LOVE Battle Cry. I'm told it was inspired by DBA apparently Richard Borg disliked the tedious measuring. It's my favourite incarnation of the Borg Battle Cry/Memoir 44 mechanic. That said I've just Acquired Red Alert (Space fleets) which I suspect may be his finest work though the production (overlarge ships and playing loth) are an annoyance...
ReplyDeleteGood to see we still like the same games :)