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.