Sunday 4 August 2013

Neil goes to the ACW again

Army lists for the ACW (2)


I have put together two army lists, not surprisingly these are for CSA and USA forces.


CSA circa 1863
 
Infantry
Elite, Rifled Musket, Loose Order
 
Skirmishers
 
Fanatic, Rifled Musket
Cavalry
 
Average, Dragoons, Muzzle Loading Carbines
Artillery
Smoothbore
 
Special rules:
 
1.     Command level: Good
 
2.     Conditional charges: If the charge is defined as “conditional” as per the rules (paragraph 2a), roll one D6 and score 4-6 to successfully charge. Add +1 to die roll for elite units.
 
3.     Dismounted cavalry: Use the dragoons rules but with the following modification:
 
a.     I don’t think that cavalry should be able to move and fire. Not because I think that these evolutions were not rapid, but to give the players additional decisions to make that will have an impact. My rule modification therefore is that cavalry can either be mounted or dismounted in a turn but not both.
b.     At the start of the player turn, mount or dismount cavalry units in the Changes of Formation phase. Use a marker to denote dismounted cavalry.
c.     If mounted, cavalry may charge and move as per the dragoons rule, but may not engage in fire combat.
d.     If dismounted, cavalry may not move or charge into combat. They may conduct fire combat.
 
Commentary:
 
This army represents the core of tough and reliable volunteers from the start of the war before casualties whittled them down in 1864 and 1865.
 
Charging into contact in this war was not always successful and depended primarily on the morale of the attacking troops (or their naiveté in the case of US levy troops) hence the changes to the conditional charge rule. However, the charging unit does not have to outnumber the target, they just need to have the required level of self-belief!
 


USA circa 1863
 
Infantry
Average, Rifled Musket, Loose Order
 
Skirmishers
 
Elite, Rifled Musket
Cavalry
 
Average, Dragoons, Early Breech Loading Carbines
Artillery
Smoothbore or Steel Rifled
 
Special rules:
 
1.     Command level: Average.
 
2.     Conditional charges: : If the charge is defined as “conditional” as per the rules (paragraph 2a), roll one D6 and score 4-6 to successfully charge. Add +1 to die roll for levy units.
 
3.     Dismounted cavalry: As CSA list.
 
4.     New levies: Roll one D6 before the start of the game:
 
1-2: Add 1 levy unit
3-4: Add 2 levy units
4-5: Add 3 levy units (if force pool allows).
 
Commentary:
 
The US continued to create new units throughout the war resulting in the presence of levy troops even in 1865 such as the infantry units converted from heavy artillery troops.
 
This is the US army before the development of their cavalry arm into first class mounted infantry with repeating rifles.
 
Note that the rifled artillery was iron (wrought or cast) so not strictly steel but let’s treat as such for the game.
 

The next job is to convert the rules to hexes, I see that Norman has already had a go at doing this for Neil's Napoleonic Rules so I wonder if I'll come up with something similar? En Avant!

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