Casey Jones, a steamin' and a rollin'... 6mm ACW train

 Blimey, I've actually done some painting. Well I never. 

I'm sure readers of a certain vintage will recall the steam powered adventures of Casey Jones and the Cannonball Express in the Wild West. Never a week went by without some form of calamity, a dam collapsing, rampaging 'savages', and in one highly improbable episode some saboteurs putting dynamite inside the fuel logs of the train!

Anyway, I digress. Recently Nigel D noticed my renewed interest in the ACW and gifted me this magnificent 6mm 3D printed train, and immediately Casey and the Cannonball sprang to mind.

It is a single piece resin print, pre mounted on a section of railway atop a low embankment. I've no idea if it is a commercial model or just printed from an STL. Engine, tender, two passenger carriages and a caboose.

And as usual with modern 3D prints, the detail is just....stunning. A bit blurry but you can see daylight through the carriage windows as they are printed hollow.

Similarly the cab and even the spokes on the main drive wheels. Just amazing and beyond the dreams of metal manufacturers, and possibly even stretching some injection moulded plastic. Bear in mind this is a 1/300th scale model.

And much to my delight, it is actually 1/300th and not 1/240th like so much Baccus stuff. Here it is with my venerable Irregular 6mm (European) train which has attended many battles and even graces the cover of one of John Curry's republished wargaming books. You can see that they are virtually identical in dimensions, so the ideal opportunity for a bit of mix and match...

First job was to get the train off its huge plinth so it will stand at a similar height to my other rolling stock. My first attempt was to cut the train off the track, but the resin is too hard and brittle, so instead I cut, sawed and snapped the railway embankment off, which came away OK. The train is left balancing on a bit of track, but that is fine as my Irregular train and wagons are also on card bases as they fall over if put directly on the track. 

The only downside of this is that the interior of the embankment hadn't cured properly, so there is some stinky slightly sticky resin on the bottom. I'll sort that out later.

After that I chopped the train into sections. The overall model is over 5" long which is far too long for my hexon hexes. I separated the train and tender from the pair of carriages, which made two sections about 2" long, and split off the caboose which is such a distinctive bit of American kit.

I did this very carefully using a razor saw as there were very finely printed bumpers between each carriage.

My Irregular train is also based in similar groupings, engine/tender and pairs of good wagons of various types in 2" sections. So now I can use the passenger carriages with my European train and the goods wagons with my US train. Result!

OK, on to painting.

What a delightful modelling rabbit hole '1860s era American trains' was. Evidently a popular subject for colour postcards of the time, and of course well provided with actual railway models. I ended up basing my 'Cannonball Express' on a mixture of contemporary postcard images and some very neat modern model railway engines.

The engine is based on one actually used by the US Army military railroad and seems remarkably colourful with its blue boiler, red wheels, red cow catcher and white lining and polished brass. The real one had 'Clark' written in white letters between the lines on the cab, but I couldn't manage that in 6mm.

The tender is based on a commercial railroad, I cant recall which one. Red with a yellow rectangle, and obviously a big pile of logs in the middle.

Carriages seemed to come in a range of colours but I went with this yellowish tone which featured on a few of the postcards. I gather the caboose was always painted red (presumably as a marker of sorts) and I did all the roofs in a mid grey to blend them in together.

The red was a pig to get to cover the undercoat, as usual, three coats minimum. I should have undercoated the red bits brown first. The yellow is actually a GW ochre shade which covers well, unusually for a yellow.

The black parts on the engine and running gear got a wash of Nuln Oil and everything else got a wash of Agrax Earthshade (still experimenting with those). There was a  bit of staining, particularly on the caboose, the roofs and the lower sides of the carriages so I went over those again when the shade had dried. Finally I just did some gunmetal highlights on some of the metal bits, although in reality they would probably all have been painted black. I also drybrushed some dark earth on the remaining bits of track under the wheels so they will look the same as my existing 6mm train.

The Irregular flat car and goods wagon fits in nicely.

Equally my Irregular engine and tender can pull the carriages in Europe.

I'm very pleased with that, many thanks Nigel. I just need to run some more ACW games with railway lines in them! Naturally my thoughts are now turning to armoured trains....

Chancellorsville with Dominion of Blue and Grey

 As I seem to be on a bit of an ACW kick at the moment I thought I'd have a look at Dominion of the Blue and Grey. I've got a ton of Dominion sets of rules which I haven't even looked at yet, but you have to start somewhere. Having read through the rules I picked the Chancellorsville scenario as it didn't have any cavalry (to keep things simple) and we'd played it fairly recently with Neil Thomas ACW.  

Battlefield from the north. This scenario focusses on Lees attack in the north rather than including Fredericksberg too. So we have the Rapahannoc on the left (east), Chancellorsville itself nearest the camera (north) and around it The Wilderness.

Hookers Union army is nearest the camera and defending. They have three infantry units in the front line, the two on the left are 'elite' which gives a combat bonus, presumably to reflect their vastly superior numbers and the one on the right is a normal one. There are two more in reserve. I added a skirmisher base to the Elite units to remind me. irl Hooker outnumbered Lee about 2:1 so I should probably have put more bases out for the Union units. In later games I put the CSA on a shorter frontage instead.

Lee's army has two ordinary infantry units, then Stonewall Jacksons flanking force which is both Elite and Disciplined (Jacksons outflanking manouvre caught Hooker off guard). I added both a skirmisher base and a leader figure to remind me. In reserve are another infantry unit and some artillery. Guns are treated very differently in this set to the others and I'll cover that later.

Both armies also have a pair of leaders - in this set each side can have a General intervene twice during the game to modify a a dice roll by plus or minus one. I'll use the leader figures to remind me and take them off when they are used up. They also have a pair of wagons as each side can attempt to rally two units during the game. Unlike the other sets, rally succeeds on a 4+ but any special attributes are removed. You can only attempt to rally a unit once and units which failed their reliability roll cant be rallied. I rather like that, and I'll use to wagons to keep track of rally attempts and which units have been rallied.

Finally, unlike the other sets, armies are defeated if they only have TWO units remaining and the enemy has more, so they will break faster. Steven argues that in the ACW armies seemed very willing to break off the action to reorganise and fight again another day, possibly due to the space involved. 

There is no preliminary bombardment in these rules, and it uses a dice driven sector activation like the  Blitzkrieg set. 1-3 is left, centre, right and 4+ is attacker choose. The restriction here is that you cant choose a sector in which a battle has already been fought (to represent some of the C2 difficulties in the conflict). Lee rolls a 4 and chooses Jackson to attack as it is the only sector with a CSA advantage.

Like many of the other sets, units fight in sequence, artillery, the infantry etc. Infantry hit on 5+ but Jackson gets +1 for being elite and the Union are on -1 for Jackson being disciplined. So a 3:1 advantage to Jackson. Jackson duly routs the Union right, and unit moves up from reserve immediately. This happens at once before any rally attempts.

The Union also get to choose a sector to fight and pick the centre, they also use of their Generals to take -1 off the the CSA dice. This then becomes a very one sided fight.

The CSA centre is routed and their guns move up from reserve. Artillery are most effective if deployed from reserve with another infantry unit in reserve (support), which they are in this case. Steven argues that they were far more effective defensively than offensively. You can deploy artillery in the front line if you wish, but they are less effective, and unsupported artillery can be overrun very easily by infantry or cavalry. It is these nuances which add flavour to each set but equally mean you need to read them very carefully when switching rules. 

Lee attacks on the right again. They have the biggest advantage here and just to make sure they send one of the Generals to help out.

And routs another Union infantry unit. Unless Hooker does something clever, the Union have lost at this point.

Hooker rallies one of his routed units (shown by the wagon) which moves up into the gap. Now I've just realised I should have done this at the end of the turn prior to victory determination. Oh well, put it down to learning the rules.

The dice decree another combat on the right (rolled a 3) and naturally Jackson is routed! irl he was killed in battle.

That isn't so great for Lee. He has to pull out his last reserve, which of course leaves the guns in the centre unsupported.

The Union also roll a 3 for activation so fighting continues on the right. but neither side gets a hit. They are both saving their Generals for last ditch rally attempts.

At the end of the turn, Lee tries to rebuild his infantry reserve by rallying both routed units. Both attempts fail, despite Lee's personal intervention (he rolled a 1!). These units are now permanently lost and no more rallies can be attempted.

On the next round the dice decree combat in the centre. This has the potential for catastrophe. The artillery needs a 5+ to hit and fires first, but if it misses, the Union infantry will destroy it on anything but a 1 (normally a 3+ but they were elite troops) as it is unsupported. If the guns were still supported they would need a 5 (plus 1) to destroy them. 

Fortunate smiles upon the Confederacy and cannister from the Napoleons sends the Union into confusion  and routs them. Is it game over?

No! Hooker manages to rally his other routed unit and it fills the gap in the centre. It must be those superior Union numbers. That is the last Union leader and wagon used up though.

The Union are forced to fight on the left, despite them having the advantage (being Elite troops), both sides miss.

Straight onto the next turn as there are no more rallies left. The CSA fight in the centre and both sides miss.

The Union roll a 2 and the fighting in the centre continues. This time the Confederate guns hit home and the Union infantry are routed. With no more reserves, Hooker packs up and heads for home. A very, very hard fought Confederate win and surprisingly close to real life.

That was a bit slow as I was getting used to it and I made one obvious mistake, but once again it is quite a different feel to the other period games. Having set it up I ran it for a few more iterations to get the hang of it more. It is difficult choosing when to commit your Generals, it adds a whole extra layer of decision making.

This run was a complete Confederate wipeout! Hooker has all his units left, although one did rally during the battle. Once again Lee failed to rally a single unit.

This one was more of a scrap. Jackson routed in the first exchange of fire and very rapidly the CSA were down to a single line with the Union completely unscathed.

Lee did actually manage to rally one of his units, which was able to support the guns on the right.

But it didn't last and the Confederate left collapsed.

And as the reserves moved up to plug the gap, the unsupported guns were overrun by the Union right. Another Union win.

This run was very bloody from the outset with the Confederate right and Union centre both being routed. Once again the CSA gunners ended up in the front line.

Lee managed to successfully use both rallies which kept the fight going, whereas the Union only managed one and soon the Union were outnumbered.

And finally the Union line collapsed.

In all I ran it half a dozen times with two Confederate and four Union wins, so pretty balanced, and I felt much more on top of it by the end. Like all these period specific sets, there are some very specific aspects to the unit characteristics and turn sequence which you need to get your head around, even if the basic mechanisms are similar. I found this one easier to get to grips with then the Blitzkrieg set, although I deliberately avoided cavalry as they have their own special rules depending on whether they are operating mounted or not. Helpfully the play example in the rules is Gettysburg, which uses both artillery and cavalry units, so gives an indication of how they are supposed to work.

That was good fun and I'm looking forward to fighting some more of these.

Chancellorsville 1-3 May 1863

 Another trip to the American Civil War and the last in the current series of 250th Independence Anniversary US battles. This one is Chancellorsville, another huge multi day battle, which tbh I'm a bit anxious about running with players because there is a fair bit going on. However I have a scenario so we may as well give it a go, as usual with my heavily modified version of Neil Thomas's ACW rules.

Chancellorsville was fought over three days in May 1863 after 'Fighting Joe' Hooker took over the Union Army of the Potomac to try and wrest control of Fredericksberg on the Rappahanoc from Robert E Lees Army of Northern Virginia.  Repeated union assaults had previously failed, but Hooker settled on a wide flanking manouvre to unhinge the defence.

Battlefield from the south, the Potomac winds north-south and Fredericksberg is in the foreground, now largely destroyed after months of siege. Further up the road leading north from Fredericksberg is the Tabernacle Church and finally at the top of the map is Chancellorsville in 'The Wilderness'. The area marked with pine tress is dense forest, left untended after earlier forestry work and now heavily overgrown and very bad going. The woods indicated with deciduous trees further south are more open in the better tended farmland and just block LOS.

This is based on the old Volley and Bayonet scenario and victory is determined by the control of critical communication points in the north, not Fredericksberg itself. The objectives are the two roads leading off the west edge of the map, Chancellorsville, Tabernacle Church, and the ford in the northeast corner. The game last for three days with two overnight turns.

Here it is with the troops deployed. Most of the CSA army is around Fredricksberg, but Hooker has sent half his Army north to try and catch Lee in an encirclement. The Rappahanoc provides protection for that road on the right right which allows for rapid north-south Union movement.

For this game the CSA were played by John B (Lee and JEB Stuart), Tim (Jackson) and Simon (Longstreet). The Union were John A (Hooker and Slocum), Mark (Reynolds and Couch), Jim (Sedgewick), Russell (Meade) and Jerry (Sickles and Howard). The CSA units were generally divisions, while the Union units were generally Corps although the bigger Corps had two divisions. I will italicise the Confederate division titles to try and reduce some of the confusion as to which  units are on which sides. 

Hooker had immense problems commanding his dispersed army, so all units more than three hexes from him are treated as having 'poor staff', so harder to activate. The Union outnumber the CSA about 2:1, hence my trepidation about playing this with the very attrition focussed Neil Thomas rules.

Around Fredricksberg the Union have three Corps, Reynolds I, Sedgewick VI and Couch II, largely dug into siege works.One of Sedgewicks divisions (Brooks) has a bridgehead over the Potomac. Most of these units are Seasoned, but Howes division (2/VI Corps) is green.

Both of Lee's Corps are here, McClaws from Longstreets I Corps is on the hill, while Jackons II Corps is concentrated west of the Union bridgehead. Lee himself is up on the hill (Marys Hill I believe) with McClaws division and Jackson is with AP Hills large five base division. All the CSA units are veterans to even the odds a bit. 

Further north, Hooker has concentrated Meades V Corps and Slocums XXI Corps around Chancellorsville. Sykes division (2/V Corps) is veteran but the other two are green.

The other division of Longstreets Corps, Anderson, is dug in at the Tabernacle Church, and JEB Stuarts cavalry division is over in the top left. Stuart had shadowed Hookers flanking move, so it wasn't the surprise Hooker was hoping.  These units are both veteran.

Finally straggling up from the siege of Fredricksberg are Sickles III Corps and Howards XI Corps, just crossing the river. Both these units are green but if they arrive in a timely fashion at Chancellorsville, they will give Hooker a crushing local numerical advantage. What can Lee do about that? Well, we shall see.

OK, enough background, off to battle.

May 1st opened much as you would expect when the artillery around Fredricksberg sprang into life. Both both sides were largely in serious entrenchments so the smoke was impressive but casualties were light.

In the north however Brooks and Couch advanced on Anderson at the Tabernacle Church, while Sykes moved southeast and engaged Stuarts cavalry in the woods. Typically both Sickles and Howard failed their command rolls and were stuck around US Ford in the northeast. Having sent his forward divisions into battle, Hooker rode off the see what the holdup was at US Ford.

Jackson led Hill and Rhodes north and the shook out into line southwest of Anderson. So far all so historical.

There was heavy fighting in the north, Sykes managed to push back Stuarts cavalry with loss, who retired to the Spotsylvania Road exit to reorganise. Anderson and Hill inflicted enough losses on Slocum to force his Corps back into the Wilderness once more, while Rhodes advanced to the road between Stuart and Anderson. 

Back at Fredricksberg the guns continued to roar, enough to inflict some actual losses by now, but units in siegeworks can rally adjacent to the enemy, so damaged units paused to reorder their stragglers. The two CSA divisions here were comfortably holding off the Union troops.

Hooker had however lost confidence in the original plan and instead led Sickles and Howard back down the Potomac, where they are dimly visible in the northeast corner.

Suddenly there were an awful lot of Union troops around Fredricksberg as night fell on 1st May. Reynolds I Corps had left its siegeworks and moved opposite the crossing to Fredricksberg. Overnight units rallied and there was some shuffling around. The units in the open dug hasty fieldworks.

In the north, JEB Stuart reoccupied the ground he'd held earlier and Griffin moved back to the front as well having rallied. The other units dig rifle pits along the line. The CSA had numerical and qualitative superiority here, so what would the next day bring?

Dawn on the 2nd May saw the Union attempt to overrun Tabernacle Church! The charge failed in a hail of musketry and Griffin fell back once more, leaving dead and wounded behind him.

The guns roared out at Fredricksberg with losses on both sides, but McClaws (on the hill with Lee) lost a base but didn't feel able to make a rally attempt as Sickles crossed the Potomac via Banks Ford right next to him.

Lee indicated to Jackson that help was needed further south so Hill broke off and headed back down the road. There was now a parity of forces in the north. Hmm, well that is an interesting development. The CSA have pretty much got the objectives locked down here, but have just given up any real hope of taking Chancellorsville. Perhaps more worrying, is that overall losses (in bases) are now equal, whereas earlier in the battle, the CSA had a clear lead.

We broke for the evening at that point as the game moved into the afternoon of 2nd May.

The ring around Fredricksberg tightened, Sickles declined to charge(!) Mary Hill but Reynolds moved across the river into Fredericksberg while everyone else covered them with fire.

In the north Sykes drove Stuarts cavalry back again, but Griffin fell back with heavy losses into the wiilderness to join Slocum. Both these units were finding it hard to rally.

As night fell on the 2nd, Sickles charged up Mary Hill covered by the rest of the Union army, but was bloodily repulsed, many routers drowning in the river as they fled. AP Hills division had meanwhile moved into position northeast of Mary Hill to shore up McClaws position on the hilltop.

Stuarts cavalry infiltrated back into the woods as Sykes didn't show any great inclination to follow them, but Griffin and Slocum dithered in the forest although Griffin finally rallied a base back. The Confederates were probably a bit over committed here, but with three objectives in close proximity there was little choice.

As night fell the Confederates dug in (both Anderson and Rhodes had now improved their positions to fieldworks). Sykes also extended his entrenchments, but under cover of darkness Griffin moved back up the threaten the Tabernacle Chapel while Slocum marched west to join Sykes, hoping to overwhelm Stuarts cavalry the next day.

Around Fredericksberg there was mainly the sound of pickaxes and shovels overnight as most people dug in where appropriate. Howards Corps moved down to the Fredericksberg crossing ready to follow up after Reynolds however. Couch and Sickles exchanged places at the ford east of Fredericksberg as Couch's Corps was still fresh. The Confederates sneakily moved the Corps artillery from the Tabernacle Chapel and placed it on top of Mary Hill instead.

Dawn of the 3rd opened with Couch charging McClaws on top of Mary Hill. They were cut down in droves as Lee himself encouraged the defenders, and like Sickles, they found their retreat route blocked by the river so losses were catastrophic.

Reynolds Corps slipped northwest of of Fredericksberg, impeded by ZOC while Howards marched into the town. Suddenly that big gap between the two CSA trench systems was looking to be a problem (of course the Union could have done this manouvre days ago with the units already over the river, but it didn't seem to occur to them).

The CSA responded with fire. Hill routed and destroyed Couch, blocked in by the river. Combined fire from McClaws and Early inflicted 50% losses on Reynolds, and in the north Griffin was flung back once again with losses while JEB Stuart hung on grimly against two Union divisions. Slocum attempted a frontal charge but failed his morale test. If units want to charge in the ACW, they need to find an open flank, and Stuarts flank has been wide open all game. Union losses have skyrocketed in the last couple of turns while the rate of CSA loss has remained steady, mainly among the poor unfortunates on top of Marys Hill under attack by six Corps(!).

Reynolds sets off west towards the objective on row F, but Rhodes simply abandons his fieldworks and moves south the block the move. Having destroyed the threat at the ford, AP Hill starts to move back around Mary Hill. Reynolds needs to try and break through the CSA fire to move further west but has already taken heavy losses. The rest of the Union troops batter McClaws who is reduced to 50% strength, despite his siege trenches.

The tide turns on the afternoon of the 3rd. Reynolds takes enough losses to be forced to retreat, reduced to one active base., and hard up against Hills division, it is hard to see him surviving another turn. McClaws inflicts enough losses on Howard to force him back out of Fredericksberg and the Union position around the town is starting to look a bit dicey.

Catastrophe in the north, Stuart weathers heavy fire from Sykes and in turn puts enough hits on Slocum to force a retreat, but with their back the table edge there is nowhere to retreat to, so losing another base is enough to destroy them completely. With the losses this turn the Union army is well past its exhaustion point and is now coming close to its rout point.

With the army exhausted it is unable to take offensive action any more and Hookers attack grinds to a halt late on 3rd May. Lee still holds all his starting objectives and has managed to shatter the Union army as well, so a great Confederate victory! The CSA are well off their break point, despite heavy losses on Mary Hill and being outnumbered almost 2:1.

Gosh, that was a slogging match and quite hard to run, with more moving parts than I was happy with for two short evening sessions. We did reach a conclusion however with ten minutes to spare no less. A very interesting result as Hooker basically gave up on the Chancellorsville encirclement on turn 2 and decided to refight the battle of Ferdericksberg instead, but with the units in the north pinning the CSA (which they did very successfully until 3rd May). 

Sadly Fredericksberg is a horrible position to attack and not worth any VPs at all. Lee could use his interior lines to reinforce threatened positions and the Union suffered disastrous losses trying to attack the fortified heights across the river, just as they had in 1862. It was a brave effort and pressed home with vigour however, and the Confederates had some agonising command decisions to make about how many troops to commit to each sector.

Many thanks to the players for taking part in such good spirit. Following the requests to run Gettysberg, I am working on a scenario which may appear in due course....