Sherman Attacked!

Having umpired a four-player game in the first Shiloh outing (see Shiloh and the Attack on Sherman) with the Rebels call off their attack, I was curious to try my hand at the scenario.  Mark (Mud Steel and Blood) cheerily obliged.  Since Mark commanded the Federal Left in that first game, he opted to take command of the attacking Confederates.  Could I duplicate the impressive Federal victory from Game #1?  Against Mark, my chances were not good.

As a reminder, the table layout was,

Battlefield

Army dispositions

The battle opens with the Sherman's Division encamped on the high ground along the banks of Shiloh Creek. The Confederates advance upon his position in strong numbers. The Rebel goal is to destroy Sherman while pushing the Federal Army away from the Tennessee River situated farther to the east.

Rebels advance!

Sherman at Shiloh Church.

For the advancing Confederates, Pond's Brigade moves forward on the left. Cleburne's Brigade advances astride the Corinth Road with the remainder of the Confederate Army coming up in support as space permits.  The first game witnessed an attack-slowing traffic jam develop.  Will we see this again?

Cleburne moves up. 

As the Rebels advance, first contact with the enemy is at Rhea Field where the 53 OH is encamped.  Having complained of enemy activity to its front all morning, the 53rd takes it on the chin as the Rebels pour out of the underbrush lining Shiloh Creek.  In a quick and sharp fight, the 53rd falls back.

The isolated 53 OH.

53rd retires with heavy casualties.

When Confederate guns open from the high ground opposite, Sherman orders his men back from the ridge.  Pond presses forward on the far left with his brigade and begins negotiating the cumbersome crossing of Shiloh Creek.  McDowell, on the Federal Right, readies for the attack he expects to fall.  To consolidate his split command, Cleburne orders his brigade to Rhea Field to join his two, detached regiments.  Anderson moves up along the Corinth Road to take the position in the center.

Pond swings out on the left.

Anderson moves up in the center
while Cleburne redeploys to the right.

Lead elements of Pond's Brigade
 splash across the creek.

To this early point in the battle, fighting was light with maneuver more the order of the day.  That was about to change!

Emerging from Shiloh Creek, the 38 TN attacks!  McDowell quickly throws in a second regiment to shore up the defense but its arrival is too late to turn the tide.  The Federals are driven back.  Having suffered heavy casualties in the fighting the 38 TN cannot withstand a vicious counterattack.  The Rebels are destroyed.  In response, the bulk of Pond's Brigade falls upon the Thin Blue Line.  McDowell is overwhelmed.  One regiment is scattered and a battery is overrun.  In minutes, Sherman's Right is gone!      

McDowell attacked!

Counterattack!

Counter-counter attack!

McDowell and remnants of his brigade are beaten back. 

With the Federal Right seemingly turned, attention now turns to compromising the other Federal flank while applying pressure up in the center.  Cleburne pushes the remainder of his brigade across the creek and into Rhea Field while lead elements push across toward the Hamburg-Purdy Road.  Russell's Brigade arrives on the battlefield and is immediately ordered to support Cleburne on the Confederate Right near Rhea Field.  These movements are hampered by the Rebels regularly stopping to loot the enemy camp.

Cleburne moves out to the right...

with Russell coming up in support.

Rebels arrayed for an assault upon Hildebrand. 

Having driven back McDowell and turned the Federal Right, Pond pushes on.  Despite a friendly fire incident that caused not much harm, Pond wrecks McDowell's Brigade and McDowell, himself, falls.  Pond turns to drive into Buckland's flank.  Pinned by Pond's flanking maneuver, Anderson storms the high ground to hit Buckland head on.  Facing high odds against, Buckland does not stand.  His brigade is wrecked as well! 

McDowell destroyed...

with Buckland collapsing soon afterwards.

Seeing Sherman's dire situation, Raith finally orders his brigade forward into Lost Field.  The field is aptly named because one of Raith's regiments and a battery are quickly lost!  Cleburne and Russell push on.  With Anderson fighting down the length of the ridge, Johnson's Brigade joins the fight and attacks up the Corinth Road.  Attacked by Johnson from the west and by Russell from the south, Hildebrand gives ground from the incredible pressure.  In the heavy fighting, Hildebrand's Brigade is wrecked.    

Raith makes a stand...

but not for long!

Hildebrand Attacked! 

Sherman, having all three of his brigades now broken, is forced to retire to the north.  He has held out as long as practical but this clash tips in favor of the Confederates.  Sherman almost held out just long enough too.  The game was on Turn 8, the last guaranteed turn of the game.  Sherman needed to hold out just a wee bit longer...  

Sherman forced to retire.

Victory to the Confederates and Mark!

Very exciting game and a pleasure to get a chance to command troops on the battlefield.  I was outplayed by Mark but early on, I thought the Federals had a chance to see victory.  Mark's play was relentless and he never offered me a chance to catch my breath.  Sherman was under attack all along the line, always!  Poor Sherman never seemed to have enough troops to stem the Rebel tide.  Was falling back from the ridge at first opportunity the right move for Sherman?  Well, it did negate Rebel artillery advantage and may have saved a few lives early on. As it was, the battle result mirrored the historical action quite closely with Sherman falling back to the north after having suffered heavy casualties.  Can Sherman do better?  I believe he can and I would enjoy trying again.

Great fun, Mark!  Thank you for the tough challenge!

Hanover Von Sporcken

After being called away for familial duties for much of the week, I return not too much worse for the wear.  Well, I am a bit fatigued and have not seen action on the bike for a week.  I will change that later today once the temperatures rise and the bike and I hit the road for a meaningful workout.  With these trips south becoming more regular, the 800+ mile round trip drive is becoming a little less daunting.  Armed with a number of multi-episode lectures to listen to, the long hours spent confined in the car passed more easily.

On the hobby front, there is much to catch up on.  The same holds for the home front as well.  Besides two battle reports to tap out, several topical discussions have cropped up needing further explanation.    

To help come back up to speed, off the table today is one, 23-figure Hanoverian infantry regiment for the 18mm SYW project.  The regiment musters out as Von Sporcken.  Figures are Old Glory infantry led by a Eureka mounted colonel.  At the beginning of the month, I expected October would see a respectable number of figures mustering out.  With a week away from the painting desk, those expectations have been dashed to bits.  Hopefully, I will get back into the swing of things soon.

A Step into FPW

What if the armies used in the 15mm 1859 Franco-Austrian War project could be used for two additional wars with only the addition of Prussians and their allies?  Seems like a reasonable move in the direction of creating economies of force and getting more bang for the buck.  This decision makes even more sense if one already has many of the figures lingering and taking up space in The Lead Pile.  No new figures need to be purchased and no increase in the size of The Lead Pile.  Well, who could resist this temptation?  Not I!   

Prussian IR#26

While fielding a Prussian Army in a tabletop battle is still a faint, far away dream, the wheels of progress have been set into motion.  The first green shoots of the 1866/1870 expansion (no, not a new project!) appear.

Given the organization of the 1859 armies, the Prussian Army will field a Corps of two divisions, each having 12 infantry battalions in four regiments, four artillery batteries, and one cavalry regiment.  In addition to these, the Corps will field six more artillery batteries and a regiment of jaegers.  Gosh, this is a lot of artillery!

With current figure ratios, a Prussian infantry battalion (one stand) will muster 16 figures as seen in the photos above.  Across twelve such battalions, that totals a 192 infantry per division.  This is a lot of infantry too!  My immediate year-end goal is to see if I can produce one Prussian division before the calendar ticks over to 2025.  Possible?  Perhaps but I need to be a bit more focused than as of late.

On the gaming front, the Confederate attack on Sherman at Shiloh Church saw a second outing on Friday.  The fight produced a different result (and in much less time!) from the first game but another hotly contested action developed.  A third trial is on deck for Monday when four of The Rejects join in to try their hands at this scenario.  Those fellas opted for limited intel briefings so none of the players really know what lies ahead with certainty.  That reminds me.  I need to reset the table before tomorrow.  Hopefully, both battles will eventually see a write up in the battle chronicles.  Still, plenty to explore in this scenario so expect to see even more games at Shiloh.

French Raugrave Hussars

While prepping figures before temperatures plummet, I managed to muster out a dozen French hussars for the 18mm SYW/WAS project.  The French may not have had many hussar regiments under arms during the WAS but a handful of regiments was maintained.  One of those light cavalry regiments was the Raugrave Hussars with their sky-blue uniform, white mirliton, trimmed orange.  Figures are Eureka Miniatures.

With Tuesday's planned game scrubbed from the schedule due to last minute player cancelations, more figures were pushed through the cleaning and priming stage.  This sudden hole in the schedule also allowed for a longer (and warmer) bicycle ride.  This pre-winter ritual of priming enough figures to carry me throughout the dark days of winter requires some thought on what I want to focus on painting when priming outside is not possible.  This fall activity is no different this year.  From the figures under preparation thus far, the winter painting backlog looks to have an emphasis on two 15/18mm projects: SYW/WAS and FPW.  I see some Biblicals working into the queue as well.  Who knows if I will still see motivation to paint these when Old Man Winter arrives.  Better throw a few more choices into the prepping queue just in case.  

Having Tuesday's game plan aborted, another game was quickly added to this week's schedule.  Friday will see me take command of the Federal Army at Shiloh as I fight back a cunning and Wily Webel. 

Wish me luck!

Mixed Bag

Today's journal entry is a bit of a mixed bag with no clear direction.  Perhaps no direction at all!  

With no game on last week's schedule and visitors in and out throughout, hobby activities focused primarily on administration and preparation in short and irregular bursts.  I take that back, writing the Shiloh battle report in the previous post took a measurable block of time and concentration.  Some tasks saw completion or at least some good progress.  Others were left wanting.  Let's see what got checked off for the week.

Figure Priming.  With cold weather approaching quickly, time to jump start the figures "ready to paint" inventory before the really cold temperatures set in.  This annual fall ritual began this week.  Italian Wars, Franco-Prussian War Prussians, Sumerians, and SYW cavalry have all seen additions to the "ready to paint" pile.  Much more work to do.

Hex Terrain.  A box of wooden hexes arrived to augment both the four-inch and five-inch hex layouts.  The first batch of four-inch hexes have been painted and flocked.  With both scale hex layouts optimized for remote games, no hurry in adding to the already large stockpiles of painted and flocked hexes. Still, something to keep in work rotation. 

Flags.  With expectation that FPW Prussians will be mustering out from the painting desk, time to consider flags.  One flagsheet was created with Prussian flags along with a selection of Spanish WAS flags.  The Spanish flags are all from the talented hand of David at Not By Appointment. 

Storage Labels. While painted figures continue to fill boxes and new boxes are brought into service, I have been negligent in adding proper labels to these newly recruited storage boxes.  Fixed that this week by printing off a sheet of half dozen labels to give these unmarked boxes an identity and help in finding stuff quickly.  Well, more quickly.

Terrain.  Lastly, I tackled applying stain to the Gallia castle purchased a while back.  While it lacked a gatehouse, Vol (A Miniatures Hobby Room), scratch built a gatehouse for this massive castle.  Amazing what Vol created.  Superb effort!  The castle could use one more wall section.

OK. This week, Shiloh returns to the table in a second remote game.  Stay tuned for reports from the front on that one.

Shiloh and the Attack on Sherman

Wednesday last, Mark (Blood Mud and Steel), David (The Ragged Soldier), Chris (Horse and Musket Gaming), and Tony (Prometheus in Aspic) joined in to refight the opening stages of the Battle of Shiloh.  For a brief background on the battle, see my post My God! We are attacked!  Mark and Tony took on Sherman's command while David and Chris settled into the roles of the attacking CSA.  When the fighting opens, the general battle situation is illustrated in the map of the gaming table below.  The battle opens at 7:45am when the first wave of Confederate attacks against Sherman at Shiloh Church begins.

Situation at 7:45am.

Before battle is joined, the Federal Army is enjoying a quiet Sunday morning in camp.  Patrols are sending back reports of enemy activity in front of Shiloh Church but these early reports are dismissed.  The 53rd Ohio continues sending reports that the enemy is advancing in large numbers to its front.  Sherman dismisses these reports until he can no longer do so as enemy artillery disrupts morning breakfast and prayers.  The Confederates are attacking!

Quiet Sunday morning at Shiloh.

The Rebels are on the attack and bearing down on Sherman's position.  With high water in Shiloh Branch Creek, Cleburne's Brigade faces a tough time coming to grip with the enemy.  Having his command split by the marsh around the bridge over Shiloh Creek, Cleburne's attack is uncoordinated.  First to taste combat is the 53 OH as the 6 MS emerges from the cover of Shiloh Creek.  Both units take punishing losses as the 53rd falls back to the creek.  The 6 MS does likewise as it comes under Federal artillery fire.  The battle has begun!      

Rebels attack in waves of lines.

Shootout in Rhea Field!

Leading the attack, Cleburne's Brigade steps into the swollen Shiloh Creek in tight formation.  These dense formations attract enemy musketry and artillery fire.  Many are cut down before they can negotiate this obstacle.  Even with two Confederate batteries offering support from the high ground behind, by the time Cleburne emerges from the heavy cover lining the creek nearly half of his effectives are down.  This is going to be a tough fight!  Still, a combination of artillery and musketry forces one of Buckland's regiments to head deeper into the woods.  A gap has opened in the Federal line!  Seeing the difficulty Cleburne faces, Pond pushes his brigade out on the left in an effort to turn the Federal position on the ridge.  Despite Cleburne's heavy casualties, more Rebels are stacked up waiting to take up the fight. 

Cleburne steps into the morass of Shiloh Creek...

emerging with fewer fighting formations.

Pond sweeps out to the left to turn the Federal Right.

A gap opens in the Federal position!

Confederates attacking in depth.

Taking advantage of the opening in Sherman's line, Cleburne pushes the 2 TN forward. Reaching the Federal camp, the Tennesseans stop to loot the now abandoned camp. This is no way to win a battle! With enemy on its flank, Buckland swings a regiment around and Taylor does the same with one of his batteries. The 2 TN comes under tremendous fire.

Rebels gain a toehold on the ridge
but devolve to looting rather than fighting.

Looting Rebels come under close range enemy fire.

With both Pond and Anderson now in the fight, McDowell's Brigade on the Federal Right is under increased pressure to hold the line.  McDowell is forced back off the ridge as the Rebels gain a second toehold on Shiloh Ridge.  McDowell falls in the action.  Taking McDowell's ridgeline position was not without drama, however.  In the confusion, one of Pond's regiments is subjected to friendly fire by Anderson's Texans.  Luckily, no harm befell the Rebels.  Over on the Confederate Right, Cleburne's detached regiments make their way back into Rhea Field.  Hildebrand counters by bringing his Federal brigade down to the creek.        

Hildebrand counters Cleburne's push to the creek. 

McDowell driven back!

As the Federal Right gives way and McDowell disengages, the Federal Right is turned.  Cleburne's Brigade has been wrecked in the process.  With the Federal Right in jeopardy, Hildebrand takes the fight to the enemy as the blue bellies slip into the creek.  Buckland adds one regiment to this operation.  In a hammer and anvil move, Hildebrand catches a Rebel regiment in the creek and sends it scampering to the rear.   Hildebrand follows up.  Now, the Confederate Right has been turned! 

Federal Right is turned...

but Cleburne wrecked in the process.

Hildebrand moves to crush the Confederate Right.

Hammer falls upon the Rebs!

Confederate right is broken!

While the fighting remains hot around Shiloh Church, Raith's Brigade finally joins into the fray to shore up the Federal Center and stop the hemorrhaging.

Heavy fighting around Shiloh Church
but Federal reinforcements arrive just in time.

With the hour very late and few prospects of taking back the ground lost on the Confederate Right, the Rebels concede the battle.  They have had enough!  The Butcher's Bill was high but not uneven.  McDowell's Brigade was broken as was Cleburne's.  Both Hildebrand and Buckland were teetering on the breaking point, but the Confederates simply ran out of time and momentum.  

Butcher's Bill

While the Federal Right crumbled, Hildebrand's bold attack likely tipped the scale in balance to Sherman.  Fascinating game to watch develop.  Seeing the loss, both Confederate commanders wondered what might have been and how they would tackle this problem differently next time.  Next time?  Yes, a rematch might be in order.  First, though, two games are lined up for the next two weeks with two different groups of players.  Let's see if they tackle these challenges any differently.  Both of the upcoming games will feature limited intel for the players.  Will this reduced information set change the battle?  We will see!

Thanks again fellas for another fantastic game.  Very enjoyable.  Game time was about four and a half hours.