25 replies to this topic

[healey36]

Thanks for that, Bob; it answered/clarified a number of our questions, one of which being shouldn't the "winner" of a melee suffer some ill effect other than just casualties? Your answer is that it too becomes unformed (which we were omitting).

 

Together with your other points then, our understanding of the lousy effect of recoiling from a failed melee is (1) the unit becomes unformed, (2) the unit must retire, with retirement inducing one level of disorder, and (3) then a morale check which, dependent on the die roll, shifts the unit's morale level down by one or two levels if failed, with the corresponding immediate effects. This is what we were doing with the exception that we assigned a disorder level of five to the retiring loser (that from a misunderstanding of the disorder effect of performing a retirement). We will make note of this in future games.

 

I think that's everything, but we'll reread the rules again and make notes so we don't have issues when we move to the full-blown scenario.

 

Here's a shot from the other day, the moment 56th Virginia attempts to drive the 71st Pennsylvania from their position at The Angle:

 

 

Even making the clarifications noted, the result likely would have been the same. The 56th lost the melee and was thrown back from the wall, failed their morale check and broke, running headlong into the following 38th Virginia which was then itself disordered.

 

Bob, thanks again. Hopefully you remembered to defrost the turkey a few days ahead and all is as it should be for the Benge family Thanksgiving. Hope your holiday is a good one.

 

 

 

P. S. One last thing, we had two of Garnett's regiments (8 Virginia and 18 Virginia) assigned to Kemper's brigade on our OOB/position recap. We have made that correction and include the revised version here. 

Attached Files

•  The Angle OOB vers 3.xlsx   15.58KB   0 downloads

[healey36]

Here's a shot from the session a couple weeks back - the Union line as parts of Garnett's and Armistead's brigades begin their final approach:

 

 

Left to right along the stone fence, that's 59th NY, 69th PA, Cushing's artillery, and the 71st PA. The "Copse of Trees" in the immediate foreground, "The Angle" at the top right. The Emmitsburg Pike is seen in the distance. Although the tabletop is flat, the grade approaching the wall from the west would be a rise of roughly five-percent.

 

Apologies for the blurriness...just couldn't get the Nikon's mojo working that day.

[healey36]

Another shot of veterans at the stone wall just a few yards north of The Angle, this in 1938 (75th anniversary of the battle):

 

 

Theoretically, any Gettysburg veteran at the Blue and Gray Reunion of 1938 would likely be approaching 90-100 years of age, making this an even more remarkable photograph.

 

I received a note from one of our game group members saying our model stone walls look like a pile of rocks, when they should be a bit tidier. I've looked at some of the reconstructed stone fence-lines at Gettysburg recently, and those are quite a bit neater in their construction, but there are many examples where they are not. This photo (granted it's from 75 years after the battle) seems to validate the pile-of-stones format. I've also looked closely at actual untouched stone fence-lines in the New England area, and those resemble elongated piles of stones. I'm inclined to think ours are probably okay in their appearance.

 

Photo courtesy of the National Archives (NARA).

[Kenny Noe]

Stone walls are stone walls.  Manicured or tidy walls are a gated community feature.  Seems a tacky comment from someone whose focus is not on the objective.   My 0.02¢ 

[healey36]

In hindsight, I'm surprised the question of "correct" color didn't come up, lol.

 

Hoping to get some gaming/modelling in over the next few weeks. The game group took a couple of personnel hits recently, so the expanded replay of The Angle has been deferred. Maybe we'll try it solo...

[healey36]

I drove up to Carlisle the other day to visit the USAHEC for research on a project I've been helping some guys with; on the way home, I swung by Gettysburg for a quick visit. Now's a good time to walk the field as the place is pretty empty of visitors. It had rained on and off most of the afternoon, but I managed a shot of Cemetery Ridge from the foot of the Virginia Monument on Seminary Ridge. It is generally believed that this was the central location of Lee's gathering of forces for his assault late in the afternoon of the third day. It's a sobering view:

 

It's roughly three quarters of a mile from here to the "Copse of Trees", the focal point of the attack per Lee's directive. From this pic, one can get an appreciation for the uphill grade and the undulation of the ground that was crossed by the Confederates as they advanced under a gradually increasing volume of fire from the Federal position. Here, on a quiet Friday afternoon in mid-March 2024, it remains a terrifying panorama.