American Civil War campaign: The Battle of Triangle!

This is a report of the first battle of the American Civil War campaign that Professor Gary Sheffield and I are fighting.

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Report to the Confederate C-in-C from the commander of the 8th Cavalry Brigade, Triangle.

Sir, I beg to report an engagement with enemy forces at Triangle.

My brigade advanced to the settlement as ordered, and prepared field defences. An enemy force of cavalry, of greater strength than I had at my disposal, advanced south along the road from Unitedville.

Deploying a mix of dismounted and mounted troops, we succeeded in holding off the enemy for an entire day.

The enemy attempted to turn my right flank, thus cutting my line of retreat to Akragas City. Outnumbered, and with dusk approaching, I pulled back from Triangle village and cut my way out.

During this movement, we destroyed three Yankee mounted units. Such was the damage we inflicted on the enemy that they did not attempt to pursue us.

My force is falling back on Akragas City in good order

My losses are fairly light with all my units remaining intact.

I await your orders.

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The situation after the Battle of Triangle.

So, the Confederate cavalry has been forced to withdraw, but they seem to have given the Union cavalry a bloody nose!

The Battle of Scrobbesburh: Some more photographs

My opponent in my recent wargame – Richard Watson – also took some photographs and has shared them with me.

The Anglo-Saxons.

The Vikings.

The Viking skirmishers seize the hill.

The Anglo-Saxons archers capture the hill from the Viking skirmishers.

The Anglo-Saxon shieldwall is attacked by the Vikings.

The Anglo-Saxon right wing falls back.

The Anglo-Saxon shieldwall turns to counter a Viking attempt to outflank it.

The end of the battle ... and the Anglo-Saxons are the victors!

Please note that all the photographs featured above are © Richard Watson.

The Battle of Scrobbesburh

Last Wesdnesday my usual game at Dice on the Hill was cancelled and I was therefore able to fight a 'proper' wargame with Richard Warson, who is usually the duty manager at Shrewsbury House on Wednesday evenings.

Richard has a large collection of 28mm Anglo-Saxon and Viking figures and so we chose to fight a wargame using them. He provided the figures and the terrain and I provided the rules ... which were heavily based on the Ancient rules in Donald Featherstone's book WAR GAMES.

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The Battle of Scrobbesburh

The local Anglo-Saxons thane had revived news that a large band of Vikings had landed nearby and so he gathered together the troops available to him and set off to intercepts the invaders. His force included his own household troops, two bands of local militia or Fyrd, a small group of archers, and an even smaller group of lightly armed skirmishers.

The Anglo-Saxons.

The Vikings - who were led by Ragnar Shortbeard - comprised three groups of Bondi and a small band of skirmishers. They had already laid waste a couple of small farms and were on their way towards their next target when they saw the Anglo-Saxon force coming towards them. Both side formed battle lines and prepared to fight!

The Vikings.

The battlefield at Scrobbesburh. The Vikings were on the left and the Anglo-Saxons were on the right.

The Vikings sent their skirmishers forward to seize the right-hand hill before the Anglo-Saxons reached it. Whilst they were doing this, the remainder of their force advanced in line towards the oncoming line of Anglo-Saxon troops.

The Viking skirmishers reached the right-hand hill just before the Anglo-Saxons did ... but they were somewhat isolated and the Anglo-Saxons were already closer to it than the main body of the Vikings were.

Anglo-Saxon skirmishers and archers moved towards the hill and threatened the Viking skirmishers.

The Viking skirmishers came under very effective attack by the Anglo-Saxon archers. At the same time, the Vikings began to advance en echelon towards the main body of Anglo-Saxon troops.

Further very effective Anglo-Saxon archery caused the morale of the Viking skirmishers to break and they fled. At the same time, the Anglo-Saxons formed a shieldwall and the main body of the Viking force continued to advance en echelon towards the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall.

Anglo-Saxon archers moved onto the hill whilst the Vikings prepared to assault the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall.

The left-hand group of Vikings smashed into the Anglo-Saxon Fyrd opposite them, and smashed their way through the shieldwall, causing the Fyrd's morale to collapse. The Anglo-Saxon right was now gone!

However, before the Vikings could exploit this advantage, the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall pivoted so that their right flank was no longer threatened. At the same time, the Anglo-Saxon skirmishers advanced onto the hill and threatened the Viking right wing.

The Vikings attacked the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall ... and it proved too strong! The left- and right-hand groups of Viking suffer significant casualties and when their morale failed, they fled. Whilst this was happening, the central Viking group continued to fight the Anglo-Saxon thane's household troops.

With most of his force already fleeing, Ragnar Shortbeard urged his remaining troops to break through the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall ... but it proved too strong a nut to crack, and as casualties mounted, their morale cracked and they joined the other fleeing Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons had won the Battle of Scrobbesburh!

This was a thoroughly enjoyable wargame and Richard and I hope to fight another in the very near future.

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Note: The choice of the name Scrobbesburh is a nod to the venue where this wargame took place, Shrewsbury House. The Anglo-Saxon name for Shrewsbury was Scrobbesburh.

Other people’s Portable-style Wargames: The Battle of Néry

Recently, Professor Gary Sheffield re-fought the Battle of Néry with Stuart Davies using the latter’s PORTABLE WARGAME-style rules.

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Stuart’s rules (with some Optional rules suggested by Gary) are summarised below:

THE RULES

Units

• Infantry Company: 2 figures.
• Infantry Battalion: 4 Infantry Companies PLUS a Machine Gun battery.
• Cavalry Squadron: 1 figure.
• Cavalry Regiment: 4 Cavalry Squadrons PLUS a Machine Gun battery
• Machine Gun and Artillery Batteries: Strength indicated by the number of gun crew (i.e. a 4-gun battery will have 4 crew figures)
• (Optional rule:  Machine Gun batteries have a maximum of 2 crew figures but each figure throws 2D6 and hit on 3, 4, 5, or 6 in the open. However, the Machine Gun jams on a 1 on D6 (i.e. either 50% or 100% of guns cannot fire in that turn)).
• (Optional rule: Field Artillery has a range of 12 squares and throws 2D6 dice per gun per battery.)

Turn sequence

• The moves were card driven.
• At the beginning of each turn each unit on both sides is dealt a card from the same pack, and that determined the order of activation.
• Thus if a unit gets the King of Spades (the highest possible normal card) it will move first, but one with the Ace of Clubs (the lowest possible card) moves last.
• If a unit gets a Joker, that trumps all court cards, and that unit can decide to go first or last.
• (Optional rule: A Joker means a unit can decide when to move/fire, which can be at any point in turn except when another unit is moving/firing.)
• Units can choose to reserve their fire, i.e. not use open fire during their turn but wait until a target appears.

Movement

• Units move up to the following distances:
• Infantry: Move 2 squares.
• Cavalry: Move 4 squares.
• Horse artillery: Move as cavalry.
• All can make a half move and then fire.
• All movement is orthogonal.
• Deduct 1 square of movement to mount/dismount, limber and unlimber.
• It is therefore possible to do multiple actions in same turn.

Firing

• Weapon ranges:
• Rifles: 4 Squares.
• Carbines: 3 Squares.
• Horse Artillery: 8 Squares.
• Machine Guns: 6 Squares.
• Each figure in a unit throw a D6 die to fire. (See optional rules for Machine Guns and Field Artillery above.)
• Dice scores to hit:
• 6 to hit in hard cover.
• 6 or 5 to hit in soft cover.
• 4. 5, or 6 to hit to hit in the open.
• Add 1 to dice to hit if close range.
• Deduct 1 from dice to hit if firing carbine.
• Artillery and Machine Guns nominate primary target directly to front but can hit targets in squares either side of target square.

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BATTLE REPORT

The opening positions. The British are at the bottom of the photograph.

The Germans emerge from the wood and mist and come under a storm of British rifle and machine gun fire.

British Machine Gun destroys a German Machine Gun.

Heavy fighting on the outskirts of Nery.

The British reinforcements arrive in the shape of the 4th Cavalry Brigade!

The British advance and the Germans prepare to retreat.

1st Life Guards overrun a German Horse Artillery battery,

The situation at the end of the battle.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Professor Gary Sheffield.

The Battle of El Obeid (Shaykan) refought using Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet

I have been interested in this battle ever since I watched the opening scenes of the film KHARTOUM back in the 1960s. After a spoken introduction, the film depicts an Egyptian force, led by retired British Colonel William (Billy) Hicks, marching through the desert to find and confront the army led by the Mahdi. His army comprised about 8,000 Egyptian regulars, 1,000 bashi-bazouk cavalry, 100 tribal irregulars and 2,000 camp followers, accompanied by a baggage train with approximately 5,000 camels. They are ambushed at El Obeid/Shaykan and pretty well annihilated.

The film takes quite a few liberties when it comes to depicting the battle. For one thing, it didn't take place in a desert valley, but in an area of dense scrub and trees. For another, I have seen no evidence that the Mahdists were equipped with rifles, spears with bombs attached to them, or primitive hand grenades that were thrown by being whirled around the thrower's head on a piece of rope! That said, it was stirring stuff for a teenage me to watch, and left with an abiding interest in the battle.

Colonel Hicks (and his Chief-of-Staff, Colonel Farquhar) leading the Egyptian force to its inevitable doom.

The film depicted the Egyptian infantry as tired, thirsty, and on the point of collapse before the fighting started.

The film showed the Egyptians being overwhelmed very quickly ...

... but the reality is that they formed a defensive square as soon as the attack started, and the square did not collapse until it had been fighting off attacks for two days. In the end, about a one-third of the Egyptians surrendered and were later freed, although all the officers were killed. Only about 500 Egyptian troops eventually managed to escape and make it back to Khartoum.

In the DOMINION OF THE SWORD AND BAYONET SUPPLEMENT, the opposing armies are as follows:

Mahdists

• 1 x Cavalry
• 3 x Ambushers (armed mainly with spears and swords)
• 2 x Spearmen (armed with spears and swords)

Egyptians

• 1 x Cavalry
• 4 x Line Infantry
• 1 x Artillery

The starting positions were as follows:

Turn 1

The Mahdist Ambushers attacked the Egyptian Line Infantry in the centre sector. The Ambushers threw a 5 and destroyed the Line Infantry.

The Egyptians replaced the lost unit with one of the Line Infantry units from their reserve.

In reply, the Egyptian Line Infantry in the right sector attacked the Mahdist Ambushers opposite them. The Ambushers threw first and scored a 2 and the Line Infantry threw a 3. The result was therefore indecisive.

Turn 2

The Mahdist Ambushers in the right sector attacked the Egyptian Line Infantry opposite them. They threw a 3, and in reply, the Line Infantry also threw a 3. As a result, neither side prevailed.

The Egyptian Line Infantry in the right sector attacked the Mahdist Ambushers opposite them. The Ambushers threw first and scored 5, destroying the Line Infantry.

The Egyptians replaced the lost unit with the remaining Line Infantry from their reserve.

Turn 3

The Mahdist Ambushers in the left sector attacked the Egyptian Cavalry opposite them. The Ambushers threw a 2 and in reply, the Cavalry threw a 3. The result was therefore indecisive.

The Egyptian Line Infantry in the right sector attacked the Mahdist Ambushers opposite them. The Ambushers threw first and scored 3. The Egyptian Line Infantry threw a 4. As a result, neither side prevailed.

Turn 4

The Mahdist Ambushers in the centre sector attacked the Egyptian Line Infantry opposite them. The Ambushers threw first and scored a 6, destroying the Line Infantry unit.

The Egyptians replaced the lost unit with the Artillery unit from their reserve.

The Egyptian Cavalry in the left sector attacked the Mahdist Ambushers. The Ambushers threw first and scored a 3. In reply, the Cavalry threw a 5 and destroyed the Ambusher unit.

The Mahdist replaced the lost unit with a Spear-armed unit from their reserve.

Turn 5

The Mahdist Ambushers in the right sector attacked the Egyptian Line Infantry opposite them. The Ambushers threw first and scored a 5, destroying the Line Infantry unit.

The Egyptian Cavalry in the left sector attacked the Mahdist Spear-armed unit opposite them. They threw a 2 and in response, the Spear-armed unit threw a 3. The result was therefore indecisive.

Turn 6

The Mahdist Ambushers in the right sector outflanked the Egyptian Artillery in the centre sector. The Ambushers threw a 6 (+1 for outflanking the Egyptian unit) and the Artillery was destroyed.

The battle was over ... and the result of the refight was the same as the original result.

Comments

This was a very enjoyable battle to refight and took less than fifteen minutes to complete. This has convinced me that I could easily use these rules to fight a quick mini-campaign ... and I am already thinking about a suitable setting.

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Postscript

I hope to add a video about this wargame to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel later this week.