Word went out that Rich Hasenauer was going to present a huge 'Second Day At Gettysburg'... lots of 15mm troops, lots of players, lots of terrain... an all-day affair (start at 10:00 AM and quit way after dark).
Normally, my patience factor, table-side, permits me to play a game lasting no longer than 3 hours, at which time I shout "Nuff!" The recent 'Fifth Day At Gettysburg' battles, written about in the REVIEW, didn't even last that long.
But Rich does put on a good game, is the perfect host, and, as the author of FIRE AND FURY (FAF), pays close attention to historic detail... how could I, historic gamer extraordinaire, not participate?
Bob Hurst and I arrived a wee bit late; counting us, there were 15 players at the table. Bob took command of the Union forces around Cemetery Ridge and Culps Hill, and I was given Anderson's Division in the Confederate III Corps under A. P. Hill.
I had 5 brigades and 2 batteries. Under the FAF scheme of things, a brigade consists of several stands... my smallest brigade had 4 stands, my largest had 9. A battery consisted of one gun model.
Brigade status is displayed in two ways:
- a. A 'disorder marker' is placed beside the unit when it is hit by fire or in melee. The next time the unit is called into action, you dice for the brigade's reaction... it may function normally, or may stand, or move forward at half speed, etc.
b. The current number of stands in the brigade, when referenced to its original number, is also an indicator of its status.
For example, for an 8-stand unit: The status is 'fresh' with 7 or 8 stands The status is 'spent' with 5 or 6 stands The status is 'worn' with 4 or less stands
Anderson's division was initially placed to the west of, and behind, Seminary Ridge, i.e., safe from the Union; only my 2 guns had proceeded forward. They set themselves up on Emmitsburg Road, and in the very first Union artillery barrage they faced, one was destroyed, and the other had to pull back.
General R. E. Lee, AKA General Fred Hubig, came around to greet me. "Can I charge the Union line?", I asked. This did not sit well with the general. His initial orders were simply to sit, to do nothing, to remain in position.
General Lee/Hubig then had second thoughts, for he reappeared a moment later; I was now assigned to support McLaws' attack.
McLaws's division was run by Mike Pierce; my units were on his left and, with me or without me, he was advancing toward the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge. Unfortunately, it was without me, for I first had to move south to get my brigades on his left flank, then to deploy and then to move forward. By the time all these good things were accomplished, Mike's units were shooting it out with the Yankees.
For the first 2 turns I moved forward as fast as I could, and then, just before Turn 3, Mike asked: "Have you been checking your response?"
Response? What response? 'Twas immediately explained that units do not maneuver, all the time, as you wish them to do. FAF requires that each brigade take a 'response test'... this is a function of whether the unit is fresh or worn or spent, how far it is from the Division commander, if it has a disorder marker, and so on.
And so, on Turn 3, I began checking my brigades' responses. Needless to say, just about every turn thereafter, at least one, and sometimes two, of my 5 brigades failed to move at all.
All during the battle, therefore, all I heard was: "Where is Anderson? Why isn't he supporting McLaws?" These remarks, of course, were accompanied by various insulting comments about my military prowess. I ignored them all.
It was just around Turn 3 that Rich Hasenauer elaborated on the victory conditions for both North and South. "To win the game," said Rich to General Robert E. Lee/Hubig, "You must attack and drive the Union off Cemetery Hill." Rich went on to say that the Round Tops counted for additional points, that the number of spent and worn units would count... but the key Confederate objective, he stressed, was to win Cemetery Hill.
Upon hearing this, General Lee/Hubig was galvanized into action. He actually got out of his chair, got a handful of pretzels, poured himself a soda, and sat down again. Never have I seen him so active. It was at this time, on his way to the pretzels, that he stopped to tell me to support McLaws.
Each half turn in FAF was defined as a half-hour, with the complete bound thus defined as an hour. Each side becomes the active side on its half o! the bound, and it may be seen from the sequence below that each side fires twice during the bound, once when it's active on offense, and once when it's inactive on defense. For example, on our, the Confederate's, half-bound:
- (i) Confederate move/maneuver/change formation
(ii) Union defensive lire
(iii) Confederate offensive fire
(iv) Confederates close, resolve melees
I noted that around Turn 3, Hood's Division to the south was successfully attacking Little Round Top, driving the Yankees back. The Union commander, Tony Figlia, AKA Meade, indicated that he had made a mistake in defending Little Round Top. Initially, his men had been placed in Devil's Den, but he had withdrawn them, and now they were being driven further back off Little Round Top.
Just to the north of Hood was McLaws, making very little headway, and just to the north of McLaws was me, Anderson, making no headway at all.
Fluid Game
FAF movement for infantry in the open makes for a fluid game; a unit, in line or column, moves 12 inches. This is halved when a brigade changes formation, hits rough terrain, etc. A 12-inch movement permitted we Confederates to charge and contact the defending Yankees in each of several successive bounds. What caused us great unhappiness, however, was that, in the alternate movement sequence, FAF permits a defending force 'pass-through' fire, i.e., defenders can fire at 'where you were', instead of having to fire at 'where you're at'.
I heard several moans and groans about the pass-through fire procedures. I should note that Simon rules never have pass-through fire provisions... but then I haven't published a best selling set of ACW rules, and my ACW rules are not played at any of the major wargaming conventions.
But pass-through fire aside, I must comment on FAF's fire tables. As with so many other rules sets, FAF has its own silly fire chart.
Here's a section of it:
The Fire Factors come about from a count of the number of stands firing, whether the unit is disordered or spent, if canister is being fired, etc. Note that, for the most part, there are 3 numbers in each column of the Fire Chart, i.e, there's a 30% probability that, in each row, you'll end up in a given column.
But note there's no rhyme nor reason as to the makeup of the above chart. Sometimes there are 2 numbers in a column, sometimes 3, sometimes only a single number.
I don't know who made up the numbers in the chart, but he certainly gets 100% for silliness.
Normally, one might structure a simple fire chart thusly, putting 3 numbers in each column:
- Modified Die Rolls:
No Effect: 1,2,3
Lose No Stands: 4,5,6
Lose 1 Stand: 7,8,9
Lose 2 Stands: 10,11,12
Lose 3 Stands: 13,14,15+
Then one would modify the die throw with, perhaps, something proportional to the number of stands firing (increasing the result), or put in a modifier for cover (decreasing the result), and so on. But the basic chart would remain unchanged as shown above. Which means that whenever you saw a modified die roll of 4, you'd know the target lost no stands and was disordered.
This is impossible to do with the FAF chart. Sometimes a die roll of 4 means no effect on the target, sometimes disorder, and if I expanded the cited section even more, the die roll of 4 would mean one or more stands were lost.
In short, the FAF chart, unlike the example I gave above, is impossible to memorize. The game can be played only with a chart in hand, ready for reference. I noticed that this constant need to refer to the chart meant that everyone at tableside was continually groping for the chart, for there are 4 fire phases each bound.
But again, who am I to criticize FAF?
As I so humbly said on the previous page: ...I haven't published a best selling set of ACW rules, and my ACW rules are not played at any of the major wargaming conventions.
Despite the groping, our battle moved along fairly swiftly. I timed one half-cycle, at the beginning of the game, and discovered:
- Union move...12 minutes
Confederate offensive fire...4 minutes
Union defensive fire...4 minutes
Resolve melee...6 minutes
Not a bad pace, 26 minutes per half-bound, considering there were some 7 players on each side, and many, many units. But I did notice that as more and more Confederate forces approached the Union lines, the turns slowed down... especially the melee phases, wherein Rich was called in to adjudicate the procedures.
Artillery played a major role throughout the battle. I counted 10 Union batteries in the front lines on Cemetery Hill, and around 11 Confederate batteries with the advancing Rebel troops. The area of the top of Cemetery Hill was only about one square foot, and as the main Confederate objective, it was packed absolutely solid with defending Union stands.
Brian Dewitt noted an interesting flow in the artillery units. One of the results of a hit on a one-stand battery requires that the battery retire for one turn. It may then return to its position in the line, fully recovered. Additionally, if the firing unit itself scores a hit tossing a "10" on its 10-sided die, this means that the unit is out of ammunition. Here, too, a one-turn retirement is required to replenish.
On Cemetery Hill, therefore, as a result of the procedures just described, there was a continual flow of Union guns out of the front line, then behind Cemetery Hill, and then back up the hill. In addition to the guns that were banging away at the enemy, General Figlia/Meade had a huge reserve artillery park; he parceled these guns out on request... grudgingly, of course. But he did note that, so crowded were the Union frontline troops in their shoulderto-shoulder formations ranging from Culps Hill all the way around to the Round Tops, he had some 16 batteries in reserve for which there was no room in the line. Shades of Borodino!
Rich indicated that the number of batteries came straight out of the history books. He cited a text called GUNS AT GETTYSBURG.
I must note that the terrain was exceptionally well done, as are all Hasenauer-hosted battles. All terrain features were easily recognizable, and Gettysburg itself was composed of 29 15mm scale buildings, filling an area about 18 inches by 18 inches.
Around Turn 5, I think, the Confederate attack on the Round Tops was successful. The Union was completely driven off both Tops. In the north... a different story, as assault after assault on Cemetery Hill was repulsed. Defending Union General Bob Hurst had the hottest dice at the table; backed up by tosses of "9's" and "10's", his men fought like devils.
And, in midfield, I was still getting catcalls: "Where is Anderson?" McLaws, whose left flank I was supposed to be supporting, was getting his head handed to him. But I was trying my best, continually frustrated by those awful response rolls.
And then finally... yes, finally... my boys made contact! Due to some lousy response dice rolling, I could never, throughout the entire battle, coordinate a 2-brigade attack... I had to be satisfied with only one unit closing with the enemy.
A note of interest is that when, on its movement phase, a unit is close enough to charge and make contact with an opposing unit, and gets hit during the charge by all sorts of thunderous defensive fire -- especially that horrible, horrible pass-through fire - the charging unit will always make contact.
FAF has no provisions for a pre-contact test of the advancing unit.
Defensive fire causes stands to disappear, and it causes a disordered marker to be placed on the unit, but there is no resultant morale check to see if the unit actually carried through to contact... contact is automatic as long as the unit is not totally wiped out during the charge.
And so my single brigade of 6-stands suffered, due to defensive fire, a loss of 3 stands as it ran forward. The remaining 3-stands, disordered, then totaled their points, added them to a die roll, while the Union defenders did the same. The result: my first brigade was wiped out! Not a man lived to tell the tale of the glorious charge!
Here, I must remark on the Union brigade with which I made contact. Over the course of 3 full turns, I fired on it 6 times (twice each bound), and charged it 3 times. That's 9 full opportunities, 9 tosses of the die, to cause an impact... any impact! I simply could not dent this unit. Talk about the impenetrable shield wall! These men were made of tungsten-carbide!
And my worthy opponent, he in charge of the Yankee unit, must have listened to those wargaming rules experts I have cited so frequently in the past: "If you use the tactics of the era, and thus do the right thing, the results will be historically accurate."
Here, my opponent employed all the correct tactics and consistently did the right thing... when I tossed a "7", he'd toss an "8", when I threw an "8", he'd throw a "9", and when I rolled "9", he'd roll a "10". There's no way to beat historical accuracy.
Melee
The FAF melee procedures are clearly laid out in terms of each unit in the fight receiving so many points, adding the points to a die roll, and comparing the results. What is not clear, however, is the initial determination of just which units will engage which units. In unit-on-unit combats, there's no problem; in multiple unit combats, however, there is room for reasonable men to disagree.
As I mentioned before, each time the melee phase occurred, Rich's presence was mandated to sort out and match up the engaged units. Rich was a busy man, come melee time, constantly running from Culps Hill to Cemetery Hill, and down to the Round Tops.
The FAF rules book anticipates this problem of matching unit on unit, and diagrams five specific examples (I've shown two on the next page) to help guide the players. But the decision is fairly subjective, and five examples do not cover all eventualities, and there's nothing like having the rules author himself to sort out the problem.
I mentioned that my first charge against the tungsten-carbide Yankee unit resulted in my entire brigade being wiped out. Mere flesh and blood can do only so much.
One of the reasons I ordered a charge was that the 8-stand Yankee brigade was in a field column formation, 2-stands wide by 4-stands deep. I thought that only the first 2 ranks of stands would engage, and that, at most, therefore, I'd face a total of 4 stands.
Uh! Uh! That's what I get for not reading the rules. Field column in FAF is such that all stands in the unit are engaged, and so the elements of the melee sequence were:
- a. My brigade charged for its 12 inch distance, and
b. Was placed in contact with the target unit, and
c. The target unit fired, and
d. It was assisted by other supporting units through passthrough fire, which
e. Knocked off 3-stands of my original 6-stands, and
f. Placed a disordered marker on my remaining 3-stands, and
g. My 3-stands, in disorder, faced off with 8 fresh tungsten-carbide Yankee stands, and
h. My opponent tossed high, and I tossed low, and
i. I put my brigade back in the box.
Never mind! At least I had made my presence felt, and the catcalls momentarily ceased.
At about this time, Hood's attack on Little Round Top was complete; he was rearranging his troops, preparing for a union counterattack. And to the north, we Confederates had finally successfully assaulted Cemetery Hill... Rebel troops had gained a foothold on the hilltop, but they were still facing a huge Yankee force which shared the hill.
Since I obviously couldn't dislodge the Yankee tungsten-carbide brigade, I looked around for an easier target... and found it! There, on Cemetery Ridge, in the front line, was a single-stand damaged battery. What easier target could there be in any set of rules than a damaged battery?
This was it! I was going to single-handedly break the Union line! I would show those scoffers! All other activities on the field paled into significance as I looked over my remaining brigades to select the most appropriate unit.
In my original 5-brigade force, the smallest was a dinky unit of 4-stands, commanded, according to the order of battle, by Colonel Lang. Colonel Lang, or Colonel Dinky, as he was affectionately known to his men, had already lost one stand... but he saluted smartly and stated that his remaining 3-stands were up to it. "Go, Colonel Dinky," I ordered, tears in my eyes, "For the glory of the Confederacy. Hit 'em hard, hit 'em low."
And across the open,* and up Cemetery Ridge, charged the Dinky brigade. I'm not sure why... evidently all the Union supporting units were looking the wrong way... but there was no pass-through fire, nor could the damaged battery itself fire defensively. Which meant that Colonel Dinky and his men arrived unhurt on the top of Cemetery Ridge.
A die toss later, and the Dinky brigade was victorious! They had battered the damaged battery into a pulp without losing a stand. This was undoubtedly the high water mark of the entire Confederate attack! Forget about the Round Tops. Forget about Cemetery Hill. How many victory points do we Confederates receive for smashing a damaged battery on Cemetery Ridge?
Helas! The Dinky brigade's victory was short lived. On the next half bound, 2 nearby Union brigades, 7- or 8-stands each, were called upon to repulse Colonel Dinky and his troops. Overwhelming odds. The valiant Dinkymen ran down the slopes, across the gap, and back to the Confederate lines. Two stands survived to tell the tale.
Shell Shocked
It was now almost 7:00 PM real time; several of the players had left, we were all rather shell shocked (the game had started around 11:00 in the morning), and Rich was asked to assess the final outcome.
Although the Rebels held the Round Tops, the key objective, Cemetery Hill, was still not entirely in our hands. A Union victory, said Rich, after totaling up losses.
For my part, I had had an excellent time, and I shook hands with Colonel Dinky and Rich (in that order) and went home.
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