Saturday, June 15, 2024

ACW Skirmish Using Warpaint

Just wrapped up an ACW skirmish game using Warpaint at my buddy's place down the road. Had a great time, but as I mentioned in the earlier post, I have no real interest in the period. This lack of interest may be due to being of Japanese decent (third generation), and growing up in Hawaii, and having no direct relations involved in it. Also, we were taught more about whaling in Hawaii, missionaries, and sugar barons than ACW history, from what I recall. Anyway, as far as the game whent, we probably played about 50 percent of the game correctly. As the rules were a first for all of the players, and the owner of the sole copy of the rules had only read through it a few times before and never played it himself, this might explain our lack of familiarity of it. The scenario had the Union troops trying to locate more horses for ones they had lost in a previous engagment. The Confederate troops, of which I commanded several mounted units, were to scout around and gather intel from civilians at homesteads. The game devolved into several smaller battles of attrition before we called it and evaluated the game - and how much we might have deviated from the rules-proper. It was all in all a fun game, but we plan to use Sharp Practice 2 the next time for ACW. I'm looking forward to that game, although the last time I played Sharp Practice was with the first version many years ago. Here are some pictures from today's game.

The Confederate side looking towards the advancing Union forces.
My cavalry units gathering intel at homesteads. This became a moot point once all the Union forces came onto board.
Union cavalry dismounting and advancing on my units.
Other Confederate troops moving into the woodline after dismounting their horses.
Union and Confederate forces exchanging fire in the middle of the battlefield.
My troops charging into the Union skirmishers. Here's where we likely got a lot of stuff wrong. After successfully testing to charge, movement distance determined by die rolls, the enemy was allowed to fire as a reaction to the charge. They didn't score any hits, and my guys made several hits, but only caused one wounded casualty. One of the results for a hit on a Union soldier ended up having my figure losing his attacking weapon (a revolver), and also not causing any wound to the enemy! Again, we might've got this wrong.
Action on the opposite side of the table. The horses at the barn was the prize for the Union troops, but they never were able to make it across the road due to strong resistance by the Confederates there.
Again, it was a fun game with great company, but not likely getting more into this period other than joining in games my buddies put on.

10 comments:

  1. Lovely figures and table! It is interesting how education varies from state to state in the US, with history being a particularly notable example, even before the current days of hyper-partisanship. One of my friends moved to Texas back in the 1960's, and I flew there to visit him when I was about 15. They had 2 YEARS of Texas history... mandatory. By contrast, in Connecticut, one of the original 13 colonies (and the 1639 Fundamental Orders of Connecticut is arguably the first written constitution in the Western World), it's... about a week! Indeed, the town where my hospital is located was the birthplace of Roger Sherman, the only man to sign the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, and also the author of the Connecticut Compromise, which is why our federal legislature has one house with representation by population and the other by state. (Almost) every town in New England has a Civil War Memorial, and usually a statue of Lincoln (both were mass produced after the ACW).

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    1. Thanks, Peter. Yes, quite varied educational emphasis by where one grew up at. Another thing we had in junior high, was Hawaiian studies. Also, when I was in the Boy Scouts, we worked to earn a "Hawaiiana" badge. We camped in valley on Molokai, wore malo (loincloth), and attempted to live off the land. I made a wooden spear and hardened the point in coals, and tried to spear fish in a stream. Unsuccessful, but had fun nonetheless.

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  2. Nice report Dean. One of the great things about wargaming is having the opportunity to play those games that you are not quite interested enough in to buy into yourself!

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    1. Thanks, Aaron. Yes, I love hosting games but jumping in games with rules and periods I have no prior experience with is also fun. Warmest regards, Dean

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    1. Thanks, Michal. My buddy always puts in a lot of effort into his tables. Kind regards, Dean

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  4. Very nice looking terrain and figures Dean. SP should work quite well for this kind of lage scale skirmish engagement....your explanation for your lack of interest in the ACW seems to match up with what I posited in my comments on your previous post!

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    1. Thanks, Keith. Yes, your assessment was spot on about historical gaming interests I have. Kindest regards, Dean

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  5. Another possibility is the set called Brother against Brother, which focuses on ACW and skirmishers. Warpaint was a non starter here.

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    1. Thanks, Joe. Interestingly, the buddy who supplied the copy of Warpaint actually plays Brother Against Brother all the time. He said he only got Warpaint because he was going to do some Indian Wars stuff, but never got around to it. Warmest regards, Dean

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