Shiloh at COW 2022

My session at COW this year was my hex based variant of Neil Thomas's ACW rules. As regular readers know, I've been play testing these for a while and I used them to run an opposed remote game of Antietam recently. 

I picked Shiloh for this as it is an interesting battle with the Union forces dispersed and surprised against a weaker but more concentrated Confederate force, and also the terrain is relatively straightforward, which avoids over complexity. 

Battlefield from the east. I am so used to running small remote games that it seemed rather dwarfed in the enormous games hall. I also realised I was very apprehensive about running a face to face game, something I haven't done for over two years. 

The only major terrain features are the mighty Tennessee River across one corner and a marshy area adjoining Owl Creek across another corner. The entire area between the two rivers was wooded, as was common in the western theatre of the ACW, but the battle was fought in April and all the paintings I've seen show the trees to be devoid of leaves and not much undergrowth. I therefore just restricted visibility in the woods but otherwise there were no restrictions on movement. 

I had four players per side (they did just manage to squeeze around the table) and they each had at least two things to manouvre. The Confederates under Johnson had the option to make an early concentrated attack from the southwest, or to spend a couple of hours shaking out into line and making a broad fron attack from the South. 

U. S. Grant meanwhile was on the wrong side of the Tennessee River waiting for the Army of the Ohio to turn up. His own army was dispersed in camp around Pittsburgh Landing, and only Sherman and Prentis's Divisions were vaguely alert. 

Johnson elected to make a broad front attack, and the CSA advanced in two groups down each road towards Sherman and Prentiss. Their ultimate objective was the river crossing at Pitts Landing. 

Rather than standing, Sherman and Prentiss withdrew! This gave up space, but allowed Grant to cross the river and start sending troops up to front line, which was now much closer. This was a brilliant manouvre in fact, worthy of Grant himself. 

Sherman eventually stood and fought on the Ridge northwest of Shiloh, while Prentiss fell back to Stuart and 4 Div. 

The Confederates were a bit non-plussed by this and eventually set off in pursuit, albeit on divergent axes. Their troops were better, but now faced even numbers of Union units, whereas in the real battle, Sherman and and Prentiss were defeated in their initial positions. 

In the east, the CSA reserves under Breckenridge were directed to join the CSA attack. Unfortunately one of the lead divisions was forced back by Union fire and crashed into their supports, causing further disorganisation. The Confederate were dogged by traffic control issues throughout, which increased their losses. 

On this flank, three CSA divisions faced three Union, but already their efforts were becoming fragmented. The forward division was only a couple of miles from the objective though. 

Around Shiloh, Sherman managed to drive one CSA division back but the others hung on around the church.

While the Confederates reorganised in the west, they pushed again in the east driving back Prentiss once more, but once again became unstuck in a big traffic jam. Stuarts weak brigade was hanging on like a bunch of real heroes.

Meanwhile Grant pushed up his reserves and occupied Bloody Lane, a sunken Road in the middle of the battlefield. This included the rest of the Army reserve artillery. 

The Union fire was very effective indeed! Enough Union units were in line now that they could bring down concentrated fire could be brought down at any point along the front, even allowing for disorganised units reorganising in the rear. 

The CSA made another big effort along the whole line and drove Sherman back with significant losses. Prentiss and Stuart were also battered but held their ground.  The entire Union line erupted in a wall of fire, and General Beauregard was killed trying to rally his troops in the east. 

By now it was mid afternoon and the Confederate Army was in disarray despite the arrival of Forrests cavalry brigade. There wasn't time for the infantry to reorganise and mount another attack before nightfall, so we called it a day there. The Union line had solidified along and parallel too Bloody Lane and the Army of the Ohio was on the way, so Johnson had shot his bolt.

The game went well, and despite my apprehension, we managed to finish well within the allotted time. The Union tactical withdrawal was a gamble which really paid off, and the Confederates never really took advantage of their longer attack front to concentrate the bulk of their forces against one portion of the Union line while the rest were immobilised in camp.

It was interesting playing with physical players, the dice throwing didn't slow things down too much, but my tiny hit dice kept falling off the bases as people moved them around. I'll have to have a think about that.