Tyrolean rebellion

Had the chance to play a Sharpe Practice Tyrolean Rebellion scenario at the club with my regular opponent's beautifully painted figures.

Tyroleans had to stop the Bavarians destroying a bridge in South Tyrol.

Tyroleans take the bridge!

But they are forced to fall back after being hit by Bavarian musket fire.

And when the Bavarian dragoons thunder across the bridge, Tyrolean resistance collapses and the Bavarians take the bridge.

Bailey's Corners

We played another scenario from the Sharpe Practice supplement: The Coming Thunder.

This one is more or less the reverse from the previous one. Union forces are largely in reserve and are included in the deck after firing has started.

The encounter covers the Confederate attack on the 28th Michigan volunteers at Bailey's Corners between August 28-30, 1861.

Union pickets are deployed left of the road in the corn field.

Confederates deploy, trampling the vegetable garden!

At the other side of the table, a formation of Confederates moves a little too close to the edge of the field, where they can be seen by the Union pickets. The Yankees decide to forego their Controlled Volley bonus and fire anyway so reinforcements can arrive.

Union reinforcements enter the table, but the Confederates have lined up to deliver a blow to the Union pickets.

More Union troops are slowly moving through the corn fields to join the fight, but the Union picket is taking casualties.

They also inflict casualties however!

Now the Union picket is taking fire from both sides as the other Confederate formation turns towards them.

Finally Union reinforcements reach a position to fire from.

And they open up on the Confederates.

The Union commander withdraws the battered picket to prevent it being destroyed.

Their buddies are advancing across the road and blast the Confederates.

The other Confederate formation collapses under Union fire and a group breaks.

When both Confederate leaders from the formation that is still holding, are wounded, the Confederates retreat. Victory for the Yankees!

Ball's cross roads

The American Civil War series of games we've been playing continues with the Ball's cross roads scenario from the Sharpe Practice The Coming Thunder supplement by Chris Stoesen. This supplement was written for Sharpe Practice 1 but we did the lazy conversion to Sharpe Practice 2 by using the early war stats from the Sharpe Practice 2 rulebook and giving each side 3 points of support.

The scenario covers the encounter on August 27th, 1861 between D company of the 23rd New York volunteers and a Confederate force from Longstreet's brigade at Ball's cross roads, Virginia. It finally allowed me to use the corn fields I built last summer in a game 😃

The Confederate pickets are deployed south of the road (top of the picture). Their reinforcements can only arrive after the shooting has started.

Union forces advance through the orchard and onto the hill.

More Union groups arrive and open fire on the Confederate pickets.

A Confederate group moves to the right to cover the Union attempt to flank them.

Confederate reinforcements arrive to relieve the pressure on the pickets, who have lost their sergeant.

The Yankees have reached the road and are opening up on the reinforced Confederate flank.

The Confederate center breaks.

The Union force commander has exited the woods and joins the line of Yankees pounding the Confederate flank.

Volleys of Union fire strike the Confederates.

At this point the Confederates voluntarily withdraw from the table. Victory for the Yankees!

We added an extra flag to the card deck (per the rulebook) because of the extra troops. This increased the number of random events. Both force commanders managed to get excrement on their shoe, one (the Union commander) was accidentally shot by his own men and one (Confederate) formation couldn't keep their powder dry and were simultaneously slowed down by thirst.

If only we had spent our support points on a water cart....