Rules: A Clash of Arguments Figures: 25mm Dixon ACW (Beautifully painted by Anthony Ates) mounted individually as skirmishers Situation: Two small groups of foragers (12 Union vs. 12 Confederates) meet near Franklin, TN. The Confederates, led by Dan Smith and Kris Rectenwald, with higher morale values and a few odd weapons such as a short range double-barreled shotgun, vied against Union troops led by Alan McGahey and Carl Arseneault. Both parties of foragers had the mission of looting eight locations spread along the center of the gaming area; only four locations contained loot. Victory conditions: the side with possession of the most loot at the end of ten turns; if both sides capture the same amount, victory determined by the number of dead. Opening the Skirmish The opening turns showed both sides trying to gain a terrain advantage. On the Union left, Alan's troops occupied a stone building that dominated three of the loot locations. Kris's Rebs did the same at the other end of the board, also securing the dominant terrain. Alan's leftmost section scouted three locations, but came up empty-handed. In the center, Alan boldly advanced a single soldier into a barrrage of inaccurate Confederate fire and hauled away an item by crawling through a wheat field. On the Union right, Carl's men secured two items and tried to haul them off in the face of Kris's inaccurate fire. The Confederates also spent the opening turns maneuvering. They were actually able to get off the first shots of the action, but missed terribly and consistently throughout much of the game (Unfriendly dice gods!). Kris's troops recovered one item. About turn seven, the Confederates shifted their emphasis to the Union right, ganging up on Carl's troops. Dan won a hand-to-hand action in the right center, killing one of Carl's veterans. On turn eight, Kris's men shot down another of Carl's foragers, dropping the item he was carrying. On turn nine, two more of Carl's men fell in hand-to-hand combat with a pesky elite Reb that had flanked them. One of Kris's men recovered the item dropped by Carl's Yankee on turn nine, then lost it again on turn ten when the Reb was killed in hand-to-hand with one of Carl's survivors. Rebel gunfire on turn nine also killed one of Alan's looters, dropping his item just outside the wheat field. Alan raced another trooper over to claim the item on turn ten, giving the Union temporary control of three out of four looted items for a second time and a clear, but costly victory (Union: three items; Confederates: one item). The referee (Anthony Ates) called the game at this point. Dan protested amicably that he still had some shooting to do, and Anthony allowed Dan to take a final shot. In a complete surprise, Dan made up for a game of poor shooting and gunned down Alan's forager, dropping the Union loot total to two, and claiming victory in the confusion of cleaning up! Results: With only four items available on the table, play came down to possession, then kills. The Union investigated more locations (six out of eight) and recovered more items (three out of four until turn eight, then momentarily again three out of four on turn ten). On turn ten, the Union lost one item and technically recovered another, giving it possession of two items and a questionable victory. But in terms of the dead ... clearly a Confederate victory! Union fire wounded most of Dan's troops and several of Kris's, but Confederate fire--when it struck home-and hand-to-hand victories killed more Union troops. Half of the Union troops were dead by the end of the game. Analysis Union fire, though accurate most of the game, only killed a single Reb. Up until turn seven, Confederate fire hit nothing. Half of the Union casualties came from Union- instigated charges or hand-to- hand combats (three out of six casualties). Carl's last minute charge on turn ten killed one of Kris's foragers and recovered an item that Carl's men had previously lost. One could dispute that he needed another turn to pick up the item and run off with it (thus arguably reducing the Union take to one after Alan's man was killed). Alan's last minute move would have assured victory for the Union if his figure had gone prone behind the rail fence. Carl could have also secured Victory earlier for the Union if he had carried off both looted items, instead of standing and trying to shoot it out with the advancing Confederates; here more caution would have proved the better part of valor. Regardless of the final outcome, everyone had fun! We need more skirmishers for the next game! Back to Dispatch September 2002 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS Mid-South 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