The Benedict Arnold Society having attempted to adapt CLS rules for fighting ACW battles and found that perhaps that conflict being so unique that adaptations ad nauseum were not the answer. So we decided to have a go at Dan Rakowski's favorite ACW rules ON TO RICHMOND (OTR). The Society had played them before but only with 15mm's (ah, remember Hal's massive wargames table almost the size of Virginia itself?) and for us to play them with 25mm's seem a novel idea even though the rules were originally written primarily for that scale. Dan and I play-tested OTR fighting and refighting the Battle of New Market over and over and were convinced that our CLS rulebooks were better suited for Napoleonics and the AWT. It was also at this time that we came upon the idea of fighting the land battles of the ACW in chronological order (as much as possible) to learn the rules and witness the development of tactics and technology as the conflict progressed. Our first and most natural choice, Bull Run/Manassas. What we are attempting to do is to recreate as much as possible the historic terrain, forces, commander capabilities, and tactical problems that faced the great captains of the ACW. Playability, romance and color are our top priorities so the emphasis is on fun, fun, fun till Grant takes Richmond away (Editor's Note: David, please don't do that again). First Bull Run/Manassas: Game length:(ten turns Scale: 25mm Rules: ON TO RICHMOND Players: Rob Davidson (Gen. McDowell), Dan Rakowski ("Shank" Evans, Johnston and others), David Corbett (Gen. Beauregard etc). The battle began with the uncommonly aggressive Union forces driving hard on the Confederate left threatening the Sudley Springs southern road exit. On the Confederate right, the Union poured across the stone bridge and for awhile, it appeared that the small command of Shank Evans would be massacred before it could be reinforced. Turn three saw the arrival of Joe Johnston entering from the south with Imboden's Staunton Artillery Battery and four Confederate Brigades among them, one commanded by "Soon to be Stonewall" Jackson. These troops bolstered the ravaged ranks of the Louisiana Tigers under Evans, but still the blue tide advanced. Wye Confederate forces arrived on the field including the Washington Artillery (good as any Yankee), and J.E.B. Stuart's Black Harse Viriginia Cavalry. A fortunate die roll even allowed Kirby Smith to debark his troops from the railroads to enter the battle but at the conclusion of the tenth turn, it was a Confederate victory according to the victory conditions (which we later amended) but both Confederate commanders agreed that the Union had actually won the battle having slaughtered the CSA and killed Joe Johnston. Our game design error made the road exits a bit inflated in point value so we gave the Union the victory. Beginning with this article, we will write battle reports for every game we play and invite any OTR fans to respond with ideas, questions, or whatever, We Will attempt to have the victor of each battle write the report so this is probably the last time any article of mine will be in MWAN! Dan Rakowski has written to rules author Paul Koch and received some pertinent information concerning these rules and our games and we'll be hearing from Dan when he writes his review of our refighting the Battle of Wilson's Creek. Terrain: Bull Run may be crossed only at bridge or ford. Young's Branch; No penalty Houses are for cosmetic purposes only. Hills & Woods as OTR CSA: 10 ten stand infantry brigades (Green) 1 cavalry brigade (green) of 8 stands 4 smoothbore arty btys (1 bty is Wash. Art and as US) Morale Passes or Spots: CIC Gen. Beauregard (2 spots) Corps Cmd Gen. J. Johnston (2 spots) Evans (4), Jackson (5), Stuart (3), K, Smith (3), Holmes (2). USA: 11 ten stand brigades (10 green, 1 regular) 1 cavalry brigade (green) of 8 stands 5 artillery btys (3 rifled, 2 smoothbore) Morale Passes or Spots M. Gen McDowe11 (2), Divisional Cmdrs Hunter, Heintzelman, Tyler Miles (2 each). Set On At start on board; on Warrenton Tpke or south and west of Bull Run; CSA forces of Evans. Turn three, forces of Jackson plus Gen. Johnston enter from south. Turn Five: forces of Holmes and Stuart enter from South with Beauregard. Turns 8,9, 10 or no arrivals forces of Kirby Smith. Beginning of Turn 8 Beauregard player cast one die 1,2,3 Smith enters turn 8. Turn 9 a 1,2,3,4 and turn 10 on 1,2,3,4,5. Any cast of 6 and Smith's train didn't arrive). U.S. forces may enter turn One or any turn from north or east. Victory Conditions: 1 point per every stand made a casualty. Five points for every arty baty captured or destroyed. Each south road exit worth 25 points. Highest number of points indicates winner. 1-10 points difference is a lopsided draw. 1-20 is minor victory; 21-30 maximum victory. 31-40 is rout of enemy with pursuit. 41 and over: If Confederates win by 4 or more points Cuba is annexed and Bill Cosby is never born; if US victory by 41 points or more, South is traded to Russia for Alaska and Jimmy Carter is never born. Note: Lower the point value of the road exits to 10 or 15 points. (Editor's Note, OTR is a highly playable, fast-moving, "realistic" set of rules for the ACW in which entire brigades are represented in much the same way regiments are in a usual game. For that reason, plus the fact that Paul Koch wrote a good set of rules that flow well, the game moves quickly. I would recommend this set to people who are looking for fast moving games and don't have a lot of troops as one doesn't need thousands of figures to have a very good, large game. They are available from THE COURIER. I look forward to further battle reports from Dave's group and would encourage them to submit them. I think that readers would also like to know how the rules act to allow certain events on the table top and would like to see this included in future articles. We look forward to hearing more on this interesting approach). Back to MWAN # 24 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1986 Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com