Sunday 30 March 2014

Olustee At Gong-Con

This weekend saw the annual Gong-Con at the University of Wollongong. Once again we put on a game for it.

We decided to do an ACW game - originally using 'Longstreet', but then switching to 'Black Powder' for technical reasons - and chose the 1864 Battle of Olustee. We kept the scenario fairly simple so we could play it with minimum fuss on the day despite limited 'rehearsal' opportunities.

Here's the terrain set up. We had plenty of people to play the game, including a friend of my son's, Marco, who was invited to take part for a bit and stayed for the whole game.


The battle started with two brigades facing each other across a clearing. Both sides could roll to bring on their other brigades at various points along their board edge, with the roll being easier as they took more casualties, representing reinforcements being rushed to the battle.



With a wide table, and plenty of random reinforcements, the game developed into a complex series of flanking manuevers, especially as the Union centre collapsed early on.


Marco was certainly pleased with the performance of his troops.


My brigade became rather spread out, although it did see off some Confederates. Its failing was an inability to get its artillery into action.


Ralph showed a lack of ability with his artillery as well. To lose one limbered battery to charging Confederates is unfortunate. To lose two smacks of carelessness.


A Confederate general got lost behind the Union lines.


I got given some cavalry and, against expectations, dismounted it to form what turned out to be a robust firing line.


Ralph redeemed himself by capturing an unlimbered Confederate battery.


My line came under increasing pressure from Confederate reinforcements.


Marco finished off the Union troops on his side of the field and marched across the table to assist in the attack on my troops


At that point we called the game, as the Union position was untenable. Marco claimed the whole victory for himself and decided to run for president. He'll go far.

Meanwhile John and Peter flew the HOTT flag for the group, with a 24AP, then 48AP game using John's Middle Earth armies.



Afterwards I joined my daughter in the boardgames room for a couple of games of Fluxx and one of Uno. My fortunes were mixed.

I believe that some members of our group ran something on the Sunday as well. I was otherwise engaged (acting as a tour guide in Sydney), but if I can find a report I'll post a link to it.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks Alan great report. Whilst I can't really deny losing 2 artillery batteries before they even had a chance to unlimber, in my defence the first one was lost through orders failure so I will take the opportunity to blame that on my unfortunate staff officers...I'm still working on the excuse for the second one...

    I would also comment that the Union Centre didn't really "collapse", rather it sort of got bored and decided to march off to the flanks, expecting reinforcements to fill the gap. They didn't...

    Overall, I think Austin's idea to play the game across the table rather than up and down it payed huge dividends as I can't remember a game with so much flanking action and grand tactical decisions to be made for a long time....

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  2. This sounds like an exciting battle, hanging in the balance. Well done, Austin, with the wide table presenting plenty of tactical challenges. I'm glad you had enough players on the day; it's just a pity one of them wasn't me! Congratulations to Marco (and other anomimous Confederate commanders) for kicking those Blue Bellies out of Florida.

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  3. Hi!
    Looks like a good game.
    I like it when a game can develop with reinforcements coming onboard instead of just having two side already lined up on the battlefield.
    Your armies look great!
    Could I ask what the technical issues did you have trying to use the Longstreet rules were it's my favourite brigade (or two or three) set of rules.

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