From: David Ferris Subject: Replay (ACW): Buckets o' Lead Sitting in my office, staring out the windows, realizing how dark it gets up here in the late afternoons, my thoughts are broken by a tapping upon my chamber door. "Moreover!" said the Chicken. "Shut up!" I shouted back and returned my thoughts (still broken, but at least sort of coherent) back to last weekend's game. John Holly has been tinkering with a set of miniatures rules for the American Civil War for a number of years now, and has gotten them to the point where he's almost ready to post them on the web for the world to see and consider. I've played John's system, tentatively entitled "Buckets o' Lead", six or seven times now and have enjoyed them each time. John has introduced new changes and improvements with each incarnation, but every version I've witnessed has worked, in my opinion at least. This past weekend we embarked on a moderately-sized battle, set hypothetically in the early/mid-war period. Six players faced off, with John concentrating on his referee duties. On the Union side, Mike and Marty each took a division of infantry and attached artillery, with Marty taking the role of army commander and having a sizable chunk of cavalry to boot. On the Confederate side, Ricardo took the cavalry brigades, newcomer Chris took the right flank with Hood's division on the right flank, my wife Nicole controlled the left flank with Pickett's division, and I took the center with McEwan (McLewan? McElwan? I dunno, ACW isn't my period) and his division. I was also volunteered to be the Confederate overall commander, Lightstreet. Something to do with me dozing off during the pre-game briefing. "Moreover!" spake the Chicken. "No! Go away!" I replied, attempting to continue the narrative. When giving my commanders their marching orders, I told them I expected the Union generals to play conservatively, that we could expect to throw them back in disarray if we acted aggressively. As usual I was wrong. Well, half-wrong; Mike advanced his division from his entrance area to a nice thick woodland, hunkered down at the treeline, and stayed there the rest of the game. He was across the board from his terrain objectives, but he didn't care, he had established Festung Mike. Meanwhile, Mike's ally Marty advanced boldly on the right flank, establishing an artillery grand battery on one board edge, and charged a couple of brigades into a hasty defense I had set up near the center between a church and a low-stone-walled graveyard. Chris' artillery and my infantry threw the advancing Union troops back with heavy casualties, causing the brigade behind them to withdraw a few hundred yards. Chris was doing quite well, despite this being his first wargame, and cleverly pulled his front brigades back behind a treeline and a stone wall, depriving Marty's grand battery of any targets. Marty limbered his batteries in disgust and started driving them towards what he hoped would be a most target-rich environment in the center, but in the meantime he decided on the better part of valour and pulled all his remaining infantry back into the woods, away from the crossfire between my artillery and Chris'. "Moreover!" quoth the Chicken, still perching upon my chamber door. "No! Not tonight!" I cautioned, turning to dip my keyboard in the inkwell yet again. Throughout all this, as the Confederate commander I couldn't pull enough impulse cards to save my life. Time and again the Union won initiative and we couldn't move to do anything about it. I figured this was simulating Lightstreet having to spend so much time adjusting his fake beard. Meanwhile, Nicole advanced her division to a low hill commanding the center and our left flank. She could now bring her guns to bear on Fortress Mike in the treeline, which meant that Mike would soon pull his troops back to safety. I was busy contemplating the Cuban cigar I was working on when I noticed to my shock and dismay that Rick had run his cavalry up to Mike's exposed right flank, dismounted, and was attempting to charge the position. This, of course, wasn't working and Rick's troops were stuck. Because of the tactical cards he was drawing, Rick couldn't retreat and he couldn't advance, he just sat there taking casualties without being able to return fire. (Note to self: never send small outfit of guys armed with light carbines to attack heavily fortified position held by lots of guys armed with big real guns.) So there it sits. The game continues this Saturday. With only one badly mauled Union brigade and a small band of really embarrassed cavalry with light losses to show for the battle so far, victory could easily go either way. Will the Union grand battery find a good killing field? Will Nicole drive Mike back from his beloved treeline? Will my troops in the graveyard hold their perimeter? Will we have Chicken soup for dinner tonight? Only time will tell. Or maybe not. DLF Last three cigars smoked: Cuban (stale, sub-par; "Cubiso" brand?) Excalibre (excellent) Maduro e maduro, a Mexican brand that escapes me at the moment (pretty good) _____________________________________________________________________ David Ferris Technical Account Manager dferris@research.att.com CGS Computer Associates/AT&T Labs Research Room B221, 973-360-8664 http://www.research.att.com/info/dferris