Battle Report: Black Powder - Battle of Shiloh April 1862

The other week we had another awesome game of Black Powder, it was again time for the Americans to see who was the greatest.

The battle we recreated was that of Shiloh. Four of us turned up for the battle, so with two generals on each side we took to the field.
As this entire battle was one of confusion and lack of communication only the Union side would have any troops on the field at the start and this only a part of their army, with the rest arriving in two later waves, if they got there at all... For the confederates it was more or less the same, with a first wave of troops ready to move in from the board edge, and a further two waves in line to come in during the battle.

For each wave we rolled 2D6 for each battalion and on a 10 or better that battalion arrived, and each turn that they did not arrive they got a +1 on the roll. And not until the whole second wave was in did you get to try to get in the third wave.

I got to take the roll of Major General Braxton Bragg, the fellow that ordered the confederates to attack in the first place, and a man who believed that you should attack, attack and then attack some more. This meant that I was the only general on the field at the start of the battle and also the CinC until my fellow reb arrived with General Albert Sidney Johnston that was with one of the units in the second wave.

A fun little rule we also had in this battle was that you could not discuss tactics with your fellow general unless you placed your figures in base to base or you could send a written note with a runner during the commander movement part in each turn.

So when it began you had to make your own decision and go with the plan.

The table as we set up, the union to the left and confederates will enter form the right and in the middle, the sunken road. Most of the table, was covered in forest, except the centre in front of the sunken road.

First wave of Union scum taking cover in the sunken road

Troops moving up as the battle commences

Some villagers that should keep out of the way

Bragg (me) arrives with his troops, ready to take on the Yanks

After movement in the second turn, reinforcement arrived from General Polks command and took the road to the left in this photo, and Braggs troops forms two lines and marches up the centre to pin down the union troops.

Overview of the second turn

The union marches up and reinforces the road, there will be much lead to wade though to get there

The fire is having effect as the cannons opens up and start chipping away at the confederates morale

The return fire was not quite as efficient as the road gave protection and, well my opponent had some amazing dice rolls, and made the first 15 odd moral saves. So some disordered marker was all that was left on the union

The casualties mounted as the union pounded away at my units

But some reinforcements had arrived and marched up the right side, now also Albert was on the field and he now assumed overall command of the army. Our flanking manoeuvre has begun.

But troops also started to dripp in on the Union side, so to try to force a break though more of my units moves up and begins to prepair for a assault. Also our flanking force is assembling but not in place yet and time is running out.

Fire is pouring into our troops, and units are beginning to be shaken and the disorder is ripe in our ranks, hindering our plans to assault.

I try to assault the lines, but as is shown here, my unit is not there, and well, the union is... Not the greatest showing.

The lines is also switched in the front, and my smaller units take up position in front of my badly battered units.

On the union side the reinforcements are pouring in far faster than we can get the old ones, and the fire they are giving us is hurting us for real. And our flanking force is having trouble getting anywhere as confusion is reigning supreme.

Finally a large portion of our reserves arrives, and get orders they actually follows and the pressure is really on

Assaults are launched on the flank and our fire is stopping any of the centre forces from getting over there to help them.

A unit is finally broken and we move up in the middle to pin them further. But the union has troops waiting and they deploy quickly to contain the break in their lines.

As the battle in the middle is REALLY heating up and casualties are mounting on both sides, two columns of confederates under General Breckinridge silently arrive on the extreme left flank.

Canister fire messes up the confederate break through really bad, and multiple units are outright destroyed.

Beckinridge arrives with all his infantry, only the guns are left off table, not only that, but he gets them all to move quickly along the roads and before the union has any chance to react, he is right at their flank.

On the right a new line of union troops are forming to contain the attack there. With plenty of reinforcements and a very short way to go, they can form if quickly. The only problem is that the front units are green and they don't react well to fire.

By now our artillery has finally arrived, and we can start giving back some of the hurt that we have received this entire battle.

But there is still plenty of fight remaining in the union troops, and we are both are danger close to breaking, I believe we are 3 units from breaking (of a total of 20) and they are 2 (of 17) and with the close ranges we are at now anything can happen in a moment.

The union is doing a good job of getting us to that break point as unit after unit is broken.

But then the left flanking force arrives, and devastates the leftmost union unit

And fire from the front pins the nearest units in place that could have come to the rescue, things are looking grim for the yanks.

The gun on the left moves up and puts the hurt on the front most unit of Beckinridges command and in the centre all manner of hurt is thrown into the confederates, but it is not enough to break the army.

This gives the time Beckinridge commands needs, and they destroy the last of the union troops that finally breaks the union army, and the yanks begins its retreat.

The end result was somewhat historical, we might have succeeded a little bit better than our historical counterparts, but not by much.

This was another excellent game and I still haven't painted a single miniature. This game took a bit longer than our last one, but there was also a bit more action, and we couldn't divide the table into to parts and play then at the same time. But still, we had 40-odd units on the table and with a lunch break we still didn't take more than about 6 hours to play. I really hope we can get another game like this in the not to distant future.