The Battle of Middleton

A Note on Rules, OB,
and Organization

by Don Lowry

The rules used in the game above, are basically Pete Bennett's AUX ARMES Napoleonic rules (published in PF #61) highly modified to fit Civil War weapons and tactics, and the tastes of Pete Rice and myself. (We own the troops). We plan to gather together all this, plus the Napoleonic rules, and various modifications thereto, and publish them in booklet form in the fairly near future.

One of the major differences between our system and the basic A.A. rules is the matter of unit strengths. In preparing our units Pete and I are following the actual orders of battle for both sides at Gettysburg, 1 July 1863. This does not mean we are confined to continually refighting that battle, as this situation shows. But it gives our armies real historical frameworks, and curbs the tendency most miniatures-painters have of doing only the very best units. (The "Old Guard Syndrome"). Pete is working on the Union and Confederate First Corps, and I'm doing the Union Second Corps and Confederate Third Corps.

Anyway, since we are following an actual O.B. we are also using actual strength figures for our units. All infantry units still use the basic three-stand organization, but the number of men on a stand ranges from 3 to 7. All units whose real strength was less than 200 men have 3-man stands, or a total of 9 figures; 201-300=12 figures; 301-450=15 figures (the average size); 451-600=18 figures; and 601.up =21 figures. All cavalry units have 3-man squadron, and in the artillery one miniature gun represents an actual "section" of 2 guns and 4 caissons. Thus a Union 6-gun battery has three sections and a Confederate 4-gun battery has two. This also allows for the numerous Confederate mixed batteries.

Infantry and cavalry units are also rated as green, veteran, or elite, which affects their morale and melee ability. All infantry are armed with rifled muskets unless otherwise indicated. All Union cavalry are dismountable and have breechloading carbines unless otherwise indicated. None of the Confederate cavalry in this battle had carbines, though historically 1 or 2 squadrons in each regiment should. Confederate cavalry are faster and have a longer charge range, however.

USA and CSA Organization

More Middleton

Back to Table of Contents -- Panzerfaust #64
To Panzerfaust/Campaign List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1974 by Donald S. Lowry
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com