This article comes by way of a dare from Dave Reynolds. With my resubscription to The Zouave, I included a minor complaint about the absence of articles dealing with scenarios for rules sets such as the Society's own rules, Advance the Colors, and my TSATF variant, Strike for God and Country. Dave's basic response was, in essence, "Why don't you write one?"

Well, after doing some background research, I feel prepared to give it a go. In truth, though, this article will probably not be the first in a series of small unit scenarios, but rather ideas on how to create games for regimental level and under. In both ATC and SFGAC, the player might find himself in a battlefield role ranging from regimental colonel, down to a lieutenant in charge of a platoon-sized group.

One primary difference between the two rules sets is that ATC recommends troops be mounted four to a base, while SFGAC is designed to use individually mounted figures. Obviously, the type of tasks assigned to individual elements of regimentalal size and smaller, will not be the same as those assigned to brigades, divisions, and similar formations. Having been involved with ACW gaming at this level for about three years now, and having twenty plus years of experience with games at this level in general, I hope that I can offer some useful suggestions.

Fog of War

To begin with, an important part of creating small unit scenarios, especially when a full regiment is involved, is accepting a certain very dense "fog of war" to exist on the battlefield, that will allow troops under your command to function more or less in a vacuum. Reading detailed accounts of battles, will often uncover specific incidents that would be suitable for a "detached" game scenario.

Two that spring to mind, are the defense of Little Round Top, and Antietam. While the epic scale of a battle such as Gettysburg is such that it is certainly out of the scope of a small unit game, the individual actions that made up the great battle are not. The heroic stand of the 20th Maine is ideal for recreation on the table top, since being the end of the Union line, you need only to set up the terrain properly, and the fog mentioned earlier is then created. Antietam is another example of a large battle made up of a number of smaller incidents.

A game that makes your force the first troops out of the cornfield, or a Confederate unit defending a portion of the yard of Dunker Church, would work well. Another game-worthy idea would be the house-to-house fighting in Fredericksburg. In this case, such a game could be done at a very low level. This in fact was done at one of the recent HMGS conventions, and used 54mm figures.

Keep in mind, that when dealing with a one-to-one level game, you may find yourself handling rather large numbers of figures, sometimes over 200 individual pieces, truly experiencing the confusion of the battlefield. At the small unit level, it is also good to keep something else in mind. Jim Webster, a leading figure in modern period gaming, is fond of saying that at the small unit level, a tank is a tank, a gun is a gun, and the only thing that matters is the man himself.

In essence, this belief, which I tend to share, would allow one to borrow scenarios from other periods, and recast them with ACW units. Particularly suited to this type of transfer, would be games based on incidents in the Great Boer War, where an army not unlike the forces of the Confederacy in spirit, faced a technologically superior foe in the British Victorian army, and gave it several very bloody noses before the British learned how to deal with them properly.

Suggestions

All of the above being said by way of explanation, I will now list a series of suggestions, around which gamers can construct games for similar units. These scenario ideas assume that both sides will consist of purely infantry units, or infantry vs. mounted guerrillas. An element of chance or surprise can be introduced, whereby one side may have a field gun or two, or even if you feel daring, an experimental Gatling gun.

1. At the siege of a fort or some other defensive position, your regiment is assigned the task of capturing an artillery battery, whose flanking fire is galling the besiegers. Odds should be at least two to one in your favor to make the assault possible.
2. A supply train carrying a vital shipment of ammunition must get through country that is infested with Confederate guerrilla bands. Your troops must guarantee its safety. The size of this game depends on how much Confederate cavalry you can field for guerrillas, and how large your gaming area is for maneuver.
3. A Union gunboat is patrolling a narrow, muddy tributary of the Mississippi. Your partisan force would love to able to display its wheel as a trophy around the town. There should be 18 to 24 crew members on the gunboat, and a couple dozen guerrillas on the river banks.
4. A train depot is expecting a shipment of supplies on the noon train. The depot garrison consists of a green unit. The train due to arrive may or may not include a couple of boxcars full of troops. This could be a full regiment scenario, or just a raid.
5. Seize the farmhouse: a classic small unit scenario. A farmhouse has been targeted as a strategic point, and as an ideal spot for a bivouac. Patrols from both sides have been sent to claim the site for their side, and a clash results. This is one that can start out as a small patrol, and gradually escalate as the fight heats up.
6. A chance encounter is always good. Similar to the above, this works well in a heavily wooded area, where the two sides could sort of stumble toward each other, overlapping the lines, etc., until a full-scale battle has developed.
7. Consider a true skirmish game, involving an attempt to capture prisoners for information or trade. This might truly involve only a section or two under cover of darkness. A further idea might be to have the objective for a Confederate force to capture a couple of Colt repeating rifles, to prove that they exist!
8. An elaboration of the supply train scenario: how about a train carrying gold or a large payroll? The guard for this force could be deceptively small or green-looking; as the force of Confederate guerrillas might discover, the guard has been armed with repeating rifles.
9. Follow a regiment through a campaign. This would allow for many of the scenarios that have been described above to be used, as well as other scouting, picket, and foraging duties. This would be a good way to introduce a certain degree of role-playing, as the lives and fortunes of the soldiers would have real meaning. Take time to create a roster of the regiment and give the troops, at least the officers, some degree of personality. Troops and officers might be promoted or demoted, some may desert, and some may distinguish themselves. Morale levels could go up or down from engagement to engagement, depending on who commands the unit, or even other factors, such as disease or disaffection.
10. Throughout the war, there continued to be minor confrontations with the Native American tribes of the Southwest, all perfect for smaller scale games. The size of these scenarios again will depend on the number of Native American figures you have available. In SFGAC, there should be a two to one ratio of Native Americans to U.S. or Confederate troops.
11. The Mexican option, or as I like to call it, the "Major Dundee" scenario. This is a major "what if?", but it is not stretching the realities of the time too far to create Mexican intervention on the part of the Confederacy, especially in light of Federal expeditions in the Southwest and in California. This could range from small patrols clashing on either side of the Rio Grande, to larger battles involving a regiment or better.

    To "push the envelope" even further, British intervention from Canada was not out of the question, either, especially after the "Trent Affair." If any of these possibilities had become a reality, the Union would have been faced with a very different and very dangerous situation.

12. A good scenario for a true man-to-man skirmish might be a situation where a patrol from one side has deployed to get rid of a dangerous sniper, who has been making things hot for gunners and general officers.

Food for Thought

I hope that I have given you some "food for thought." The above examples can be modified and detailed to provide many a night's pleasant gaming. The best source for games at this level is probably the many regimental histories available today, as they would provide the most detailed views of the battles. Historical novels are ideal for small scale game scenarios, generally focusing as they do on the exploits of a particular individual or units.

Bernard Cornwall's "Rebel" series, as well as his "Sharpe" series, will provide numerous examples for games, even though the latter take place during the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars.

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