Battle of Jacobs Church - Fire and Frustration

Last Sunday Posties Rejects got together for an American Civil War game using the Fire and Fury rules system. Its been a while since these rules have seen action in the shed-o-war and for me its been nearly two years. However the rules are relatively straight forward to use and we all slipped easily into the game. We started the game remembering how frustrating these rules can be and by the end of the game - after profuse swearing and sympathetic laughter from both sides - I think we all agreed this may be the last time we play these rules (see Rays Batrep for another perspective on the game)

The Setup

Postie arranged our forces on opposite sides of the table as a meeting engagement. The two commanding officers (myself and Mark) were allowed 10 minutes to deploy our forces as we wished. However with the number of models in play this barely gave us time to change formation of our units, let alone shift divisions around to some grand strategy. Indeed Mark still had over a divisions worth of troops in their startup positions when the 10 minutes ended. I used some of my 10 minutes to shift two divisions around and was down to the last couple of brigades when the bell went and deployment was declared over.

The battle is a simple meeting engagement and pits a veteran Confederate army against numerically superior but greener Union troops.

Order of Battle
Union Forces c/o McClellan (Mark, Richard and Surjit)
1st Corp - Hooker - *
   1st Division - Doubleday
      1st Battalion - 1st Indiana
      2nd Battalion - 3rd Indiana *
      3rd Battalion - 4th Indiana
      4th Battalion - 2nd Indiana
      Gun Batteries x3
   2nd Division - Ricketts
      1st Battalion - 4th New York
      2nd Battalion - 3rd New York
      3rd Battalion - 2nd New York
      Gun Batteries x2
5th Corp - Porter
   1st Division - Morrell

      1st Battalion - 3rd Michigan *

      2nd Battalion - 1st Michigan
      3rd Battalion - 2nd Michigan
      Gun Batteries x2
   2nd Division - Sykes

      1st Battalion - 2nd Maine

      2nd Battalion - 3rd Maine *
      3rd Battalion - 4th Maine
      Gun Batteries x2

12th Corps- Mansfield
   1st Division - Williams
      1st Battalion - 3rd Pennsylvania *

      2nd Battalion - 4th Pennsylvania
      3rd Battalion - 2nd Pennsylvania
      4th Battalion - 1st Pennsylvania
      Gun Batteries x3

   2nd Division - Greene *
      1st Battalion - 2nd Ohio

      2nd Battalion - 1st Ohio
      3rd Battalion - 3rd Ohio
      Gun Batteries x2
   Cavalry Division - Pleasanton
      1st Battalion - Indiana
      2nd Battalion - New York

      Horse Artillery Batteries x1

Confederate Forces c/o Jackson (Lee and Ray)
2nd Corp - Jackson *
   1st Division - J.R.Jones
      1st Battalion - 1st South Carolina *
      2nd Battalion - 5th South Carolina
      Gun Batteries x2
   2nd Division - Lawton
      1st Battalion - 2nd Alabama *
      2nd Battalion - 6th Alabama *
      3rd Battalion - 1st Alabama
      4th Battalion - 4th Alabama
      Gun Batteries x3

   3rd Division - D.H.Hill *
      1st Battalion - 1st Tennessee
      2nd Battalion - 2nd Tennessee
      3rd Battalion - 5th Tennessee *
      4th Battalion - 3rd Tennessee
      5th Battalion - 4th Tennessee
      Gun Batteries x3
   4th Division - A.P.Hill *

      1st Battalion - 1st Virginia
      2nd Battalion - 2nd Virginia *
      3rd Battalion - 4th Virginia
      4th Battalion - 3rd Virginia *
      5th Battalion - 5th Virginia
      Gun Batteries x3
   5th Division - Hood *
      1st Battalion - 1st Texas *
      2nd Battalion - 2nd Texas *
      Gun Batteries x2
   Cavalry Division - J.E.B.Stuart *
      1st Battalion - Virginia *
      2nd Battalion - Texas
      3rd Battalion - North Carolina
      Horse Artillery Batteries x1


Action

I swapped the 5th and 3rd Divisions around in an attempt to group as much weight together, but all I managed to do was move a weak spot down the line towards our centre. I had hoped to fill some of that gap with some of the 2nd Division (Alabama) troops but successive low activation rolls limited the action I could take with the desired units (more on that later). 

View down the table during the opening Confederate move. 

Hood's 5th Division Texans advance (nearest camera) and Ray moves forward D.H.Hill's 3rd Division, Tennessee and the Virginians under A.P.Hill. 

Mark and Surjit advance towards the Confederate thrust. Mark is moving Sykes Maine Division while Surjit is moving his Cavalry (dismounted) under Pleasanton. 

The Confederate left flank (my troops). My Alabamans (2nd Division under Lawton) hold their position for now. I'm at a numerical disadvantage here so I want my gun batteries to soften up the Union troops. In particular I target everything against the end of the Union line, and the New York troops under Ricketts. I'm in a position her to flank the Union troops if I can see off the New Yorkers...however my first couple of turns of firing couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, let alone their target. 

In the centre my Texans have advanced on the left and begun to take casualties from much more accurate Union artillery fire. Ray has moved his Virginians and Tennessee infantry forward and the first rifle volleys begin to take a toll on both sides. 

On the right flank of the battlefield, across the river, Ray has moved his dismounted cavalry forward and begun exchanging rifle fire with Union troops from Indiana and New York. 

Looking down the table. From left to right is Ray, Postie, Richard, Mark and Surjit. We are only one turn into the game and we are already starting to curse the dice gods!

Neither side has made contact yet but both have exchanged rifle and artillery fire. The Confederates are loosing more men though because we are attacking more aggressively and suffering in the Defensive fire phase as a result.  

Contact at last. Rays Virginians an Tennessee boys charge into the Union troops from Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

More troops pile into a massive melee that covers a third of the battlefield. Both sides are mauled but neither land a knockout blow. Our frustration with the rules is starting to show as we try to pile as much support into a melee as possible, but int the end it comes down to a single dice. Roll poorly (or even just average) and all that effort and bloodshed is for nought. 

View from the Union side of the table. The lines have separated, reformed and prepare for another round of charge and counter charge. 

The 1st Tennessee charge in once again. They win their first Melee and get a breakthrough charge at another Union Brigade, only to be stopped and repulsed. 

Meanwhile, over on the quiet side of the battlefield.... I'm still waiting opposite the Union troops. My Artillery has thus far hit absolutely nothing. The only good thing I can say is that Richards troops are being held in position by the threat of my troops opposite them. But that frankly is clutching at straws and he has already started to edge units to his left. If I don't get any result from the artillery soon I'm going to have to send the infantry in. I need to strop Richard from shifting his units towards the centre. 

Another view down the line.In the foreground my Texans have been forced back. I have two weak and battered units covering a big area and unless I put pressure on the advancing Union troops (Maine troops under Sykes) they could threaten Rays Virginians attacking around the farmhouse. 

The Virginians clash with Morrells Michigan troops in the fields surrounding the Farmhouse. 

Hand to hand fighting is taking place along the whole length of the centre. Casualties are mounting on both sides but so far it is the Confederates who have suffered the most. Given they started the battle outnumbered, this isn't a good position to be in. Neither side seems able to land a decisive blow. 

The battle in the ploughed field ebbs and flows. The Virginians have soaked a lot of their blood into the soil here and aren't giving ground easily. 

Ray my be laughing but the Confederate situation is becoming critical. We have taken double the casualties of our opponents, brigades are disordered and a couple of key Brigades are now so badly mauled they are spent. 

Another Confederate charge against the blue line of the Pennsylvanians and Ohioans. 

Back in the Ploughed field the Virginians are fighting hard but they can't break the Union line.

Despite hours and several rounds of combat the front lines are pretty much in the same place they were from early on in the game. Little ground has been taken at a great cost in lives. 

The Tennessee boys (3rd Division) are looking very weak now, with every unit significantly reduced in numbers. 

Over on my side of the table I finally get into melee on the extreme left and as expected my South Carolina troops don't fare well. I failed to damage their target (the New Yorkers) with any artillery fire and the resultant combat see's my only chance to turn the enemy's flank repulsed. I should have attacked much earlier in the game and now its probably too late to make any significant contribution to the battle.  

In the centre my Texans have been mauled and have fallen back. They are still in the field but are next to useless now as an effective force. In a last insult from the dice I had earlier moved one of my Alabama Brigades into the Orchard at the bottom of this picture. I was ready to charge the advancing Indianan units but rolled so poorly for activation they wouldn't move at all! 

 

My advance with the South Carolinan and Alabama troops has stalled almost as soon as it began. All I have in return are casualties our side can ill afford. 

Our centre (well my bit of it) has effectively collapsed and Ray is unable to break the Union line opposing him. We could play this game out another couple of turns but the result in no longer in doubt. The confederates have lost the battle (and the will to fight on). 

Analysis

I think its fair to say that everyone enjoyed the game (we love this period) but not the way the rules worked. We have experienced this frustration before with this rule set, but this particular game really highlighted the 'weakness'of these rules for a group like ours. There is a lot of work for the umpire to do calculating modifiers and the outcomes of firing and melee. This slowed down play as we were often waiting for Postie to check outcomes, especially with things like unit activation's so we couldn't even get on with movement without his constant intervention. 

For the players I think the main thing with these rules is frustration at not being able to achieve results with our troops. Essentially I think it comes down to the d10 based system for all dice rolls which seems to produce an 'all or nothing' result, with the 'all' being virtually unattainable! Achieving a significant outcome in Melee for instance relies more on the dice roll than on what forces are committed to a given fight. So one side could pile in loads of regiments against a much smaller opponent but still lose massively if the opposing dice rolls are opposite ends of the spectrum. And achieving that elusive 10-1 dice roll is just pure luck, no generalship involved. As Ray said (and I agree), a player with the skill of a Mushroom could win this game if he's lucky with the dice. 

We have requested that our glorious leader Postie closet himself away and write some suitable rules for this period, as he has with nearly every other period we play. It would be fun to replay this same scenario with the same forces but a different rule set as a comparison with Fire and Fury.