Bobby Lee Game 2

Lawrence and I played our second game of Bobby Lee, the Civil War in the east.

End of Turn 1

The early fighting goes pretty normally.  CSA holds to the west while the USA manuevers the CSA out of Manassas.  The CSA called for a draft which is why the VP space is on 2.

End of turn 2

The USA is kicked out of Mannassas but manuevers to take Aquia Station and the adjacent area.  The CSA was out of activations to take it back.

End of game on Turn 3 (Forgot to take a picture, reused the last turn one with notes added to show moves) .  The CSA took back the VP in the west but lost a general's pip in the battle (lucky USA roll, 2 hits out of 3 shots with a 1 in 6 chance for each shot to hit).  This runs the CSA units out of steam.  Near DC the CSA moved out of Mannassas to the spot where the USA army currently is (forgot to draw it in).  The USA retreated (routed) and moved units from the west in.  The CSA did not have enough activations left to take DC or the space next to it since they would have had to take the space next to THAT in order to get enough troops in the area since it was mud they could only get two units directly into the battle space and the USA had three, barring really bad luck the CSA would lose any battle for the space.  The USA naval assaults in Norfolk taking it and send a lone unit to take the VP space in the middle of the map.  The Emancipation Decleration is made and the Civil War ends in less then one year.

Made a couple of mistakes, combined a naval assualt with a land attack - NO NO.  Without that taking the space next to Fort Monroe would be much harder.  Only two units can go from Fort Monroe to the adjacent space by land and only two by sea and in order to win a skirmish you have to have more blocks in the space after one battle round - only hitting on a 1.  Second mistake is using units other than infantry to invade but that was minor, could have moved other units around.

We really wanted to like the game but the lack of chrome with regard to leaders is a problem for us.  McClellan can have up to 4 pips - in effect making him just as good as Grant when it comes to manuever  - add in that a unit in a port space can get 6 reinforcement points it means that McClellan can activate 3 times and still be back at full next turn where no CSA leader can do so.  As the USA commander I certainly had no qualms with having him on the board.  I think Grant has a longer command range which can certainly be handy and a better combat rating (I think) but putting a leader in the front line is a desperation move.  When it comes to operational Tempo the little Napoleon really IS the little Napoleon. 

After seeing the oops on the naval assault I'm thinking of playing it again, yesterday we had decided to give the first version a try (Lawrence owns both).  Units are not named in that version and perhaps that will make the early movement not seem strange.

Across Five Aprils: Bentonville

Having extra time after our game of Bobby Lee Lawrence and I setup and played the Bentonville scenario from Across Five Aprils.  A perfect game to fill in some time since the game is simple and the scenario a small on.  To win the CSA has to capture at least 1 stared space on the map or do better in casualty tracking at the end of the game.

Setup for the game.  The stars to the left are the VC locations.  Capturing at least one is a CSA victory.  The USA gets a number of reinforcements and the game lasts six turns.

The chit draws for the CSA go perfectly on turn 1.  At least I think they did, all of their forces got to move and then the combat chit came up, perhaps getting a bit of them to move, then combat, then moving some others would have been better since that could blow a whole in the line that could be exploited.  Besides the point at any rate, though the chit draws were perfect the combat rolls were abysmal for the CSA and near perfect for the USA.  I think in every case the USA got the better of the deal with both sides being forced to retreat from the battle or even just the CSA being forced to retreat.

At the end of turn 2 the chits did not go well for the CSA.  I don't remember the exact sequence but it appears that the USA attack chit came up before the CSA OR that the CSA got move chits and then the USA got move chits.  In either case the USA pulled back without losses and the CSA could not advance at all this turn.

Turn 3, the sun is setting and the CSA has to hurry (in other words sorry about the lighting...).  The CSA gets some good positioning for the attack this turn.  The CSA cavalry was in position to interdict the USA forces getting beat in battle which caused the USA cannon to lose a step in the retreat.  Or it could be the USA attack chit came up and I took the retreat (yes that was it).  The CSA attack blew the whole in the US line at the top allowing the CSA cavalry to get into interdiction position.

Turn 4 and the USA pulls back.  More reinforcements come on board and the line is solid - not much chance of another retreat through a ZOC but if the chits come up badly it could still happen.

Turn 5 and the chits came up favoring the USA.  Can't remember much else.  At this point the USA is slightly ahead in casualties.

End of turn 6 and the game.  It all boils down to chit draw this turn, if the CSA can get forces in position and then draw they could take a VP space and win or perhaps improve the casualty situation for a draw.  The chit draws come up with USA moves, and single CSA move, and then the CSA combat.  The combat forces the CSA unit to retreat but it can not so it loses a step instead.  Since the CSA can not get a VP space we call the game and count up points.  It appears the USA won but a minor victory but the VC are hard to interpret when we dug into them.  It is loss ratio based but the ratio we ended up at was not covered.  It was not at 1 to 1.5 for the union but it was not 1 to 1 either.  The table goes 1 to 1 is a draw, 1 to 1.5 is a union victory.  In no case does it say what to do between 1 and 1.5 

It is an easy to play fun game and we intend to give a larger scenario a try.