Adapting the Portable Napoleonic Wargame to the ACW part 2 - Divisional level

The second part is moving up to the divisional level where I think the necessity is on distinguishing more between the tactical choices rather than the technological changes, though I do think that reflecting the greater ranges of rifled weapons is necessary for dismounted cavalry and artillery.

I have been reading on this area to make sure that I am not just recycling cliches about the ACW and my own opinions.

The major changes seem to be that though square was a formation that was taught to the soldiers and in Casey's drill manual it was not often used on the battlefield as cavalry was used much less as charging than as scouts and dismounted firing. The formations for the brigade and division do not include anything that matches the Ordre Mixte or double square so those formations would be excluded. Attacking in columns seems to have been unpopular but definitely was taught and used on occasions.

ACW cavalry unlike Napoleonic cavalry would all really fall into the same class as neither side fielded anything like the curassiers or other heavy cavalry that remained in the European armies even as late as the Franco-Prussian war. Though cavalry charges are not completely unknown they were rarer than in European warfare and not all cavalry had sabres or pistols for close combat. The terrain, particularly in the Western theatre was not often supportive of charging units with woods, fences and ditches making rapid movement difficult. Therefore the manoeuvres for cavalry and mounted infantry needs to include dismounting or mounting as an action.

Unit	Strength Points	Movement	Range	Comments
Infantry (muskets)	4	Column 2 Line 1	2
Infantry (rifles)	4	Column 2 Line 1	3
Cavalry (mounted)	3	Column 3 Line 2	1	1 move to mount/dismount
Cavalry (dismounted)	3	Column 2 Line 1	2	1 move to mount/dismount
Cavalry (repeaters - dismounted)	3	Column 2 Line 1	3	1 move to mount/dismount
Artillery (rifled)	2	Limbered 1 Firing 0	Cannon 6
Artillery (smoothbore)	2	Limbered 1 Firing 0	Cannon 5 Howitzer 4 Light 3	Light are 6 pound guns.
Commander	6	Mounted 4 Foot 2	-	No combat value

Artillery firing modifiers

Rifled artillery

Increase D6 roll by 1 if firing at enemy unit at a range of 1 grid areas

Smoothbore artillery

Increase D6 roll by 1 if firing at enemy unit at a range of 1 or 2 grid areas

Small arms firing modifiers

Increase D6 roll by 1 if firing unit armed with repeaters.

Portable Napoleonic Wargame for the ACW - part 1 Brigade Level

As I want to experiment with the Portable Napoleonic Wargame for my American Civil War collection, I have decided to make some adjustments to the rules to fit my understanding of the differences between the periods.

In the Brigade Level I think that the technological differences will be most pronounced as at higher levels command and control will be more important. I have some ideas on how to represent these and aspects of generalship at the Divisional and Corps levels but will post those later.

This is my first draft waiting playtest for these changes.

Unit types

Unit	Strength Points	Movement	Range	Comments
Infantry (muskets)	4	Column 2 Line 1	3
Infantry (rifles)	4	Column 2 Line 1	4
Sharpshooters	3	Skirmish 3 Column 2 Line 1	5
Cavalry (mounted)	3	Column 4 Line 3	1	1 move to mount/dismount
Cavalry (dismounted)	3	Column 2 Line 1	3	1 move to mount/dismount
Cavalry (repeaters - dismounted)	3	Column 2 Line 1	3	1 move to mount/dismount
Artillery (rifled)	2	March 2 Unlimbered 1 Firing 0	Cannon 8
Artillery (smoothbore)	2	March 2 Unlimbered 1 Firing 0	Cannon 6 Howitzer 5 Light 4	Light are 6 pound guns.
Commander	6	Mounted 4 Foot 2	-	No combat value

Artillery firing modifiers

Rifled artillery

Increase D6 roll by 1 if firing at enemy unit at a range of 1 or 2 grid areas

Smoothbore artillery

Increase D6 roll by 2 if firing at enemy unit at a range of 1 or 2 grid areas

Small arms firing modifiers

Increase D6 roll by 1 if firing unit armed with repeaters.

An ACW Portable Wargame

A fight in the American Civil War using the Portable Wargame late 19th Century rules.

The Battle of Hooker's Farm, inspired by a scenario from a Mr Wells on a 12 x 12 grid with a tribute to General 'Fighting Joe' Hooker included.

Each infantry or cavalry regiment has been represented by two bases of figures, with 1 base for an artillery battery.

Union forces - all rated as average
Commander - 6 AP
2 Cavalry regiments with rifles - 3 AP each
1 Rifled field artillery battery - 2 AP
2 Smoothbore field artillery batteries - 2 AP
6 Infantry regiments with rifle - 4 AP each
1 Zouave regiment with rifles - 4 AP
Total 46 AP

Confederate forces - all rated as average
Commander - 6 AP
3 Cavalry regiments with rifles - 3 AP each
2 Smoothbore field artillery batteries - 2 AP
6 Infantry regiments with rifle - 4 AP each
Total 43 AP

The numbers are probably a little small for the size of table, but to keep the playing time down I wanted to keep them manageable. I used the optional playing card activation system for the game with both generals treated as average to keep it simpler.

This meant that it was not the usual turn by turn activation, but for time passing I count each card turn as a turn.

The battle

The Confederate general Graxton Cragg brought on one of his artillery and all his cavalry to start moving towards the hill with Firefly Church. Next activation was the Union with general Clifford Mountain bringing on a mixture of infantry, artillery and cavalry.

Table after the Confederates and Union have have their first moves.

The next few turns of the cards favoured the Confederates with their infantry entering to their left and pushing towards Hooker's farm, before the Union had a run of cards allowing them to deploy their first gun and start firing with little effect and deploy the rest of their forces. I used a yellow gem to denote the artillery in firing position. I ruled that artillery on the hills or firing at units on the hills could fire directly over their own units in between. 

The red tokens were used to note hits on a unit where strength points had been lost, a bloody battle ensured around Hooker's farm with the Union attempting to push out the Confederate occupiers. 

Around Firefly church there was extensive fighting between the Confederate artillery on the hill and their cavalry repelling a union thrust, while the bitter fighting continued at the farm and the woods to its side.

The Confederates were lucky with activations in the final deck but a stalemate resulted when both sides artillery produced enough damage for their opponents to reach the exhaustion point. I assumed that the withdrawal would leave both sides licking their wounds and thinking about how to approach this scenario better.

The rules were the standard late 19th Century rules from the first Portable Wargame book and at some point I will try again with my ACW adaptations for the Portable Napoleonic Wargame.