Chantilly or Ox Hill from 1862

 The first tabletop game(s) have now been played out at my home table.  Not a really new table though.

I was able to set up the game, play two turns in one evening, with my new house-mate Peter.  Then do a full six turns the next day, after a full day of phone activity and research working.  Then finish up the game on Friday afternoon. 

My middle son requested a game on Saturday, during the day, and that put me behind in the editing process for the first game (that game AAR will be coming in a few days).

 Chantilly was chosen because a posting from the American Battlefields Trust for September 1st came to my attention, so I thought it might be fun to run that as the game.  I had set Peter the option of what tabletop game to run, and he chose American Civil War.

more fun with Clip2Comic for this title card
(yes I know it was Jackson in command)

 I did not have the exact tags for the forces here, and simply chose to pull what could be found in my collection, that would mostly match to the forces:

So that you might track the actions:

Confederates:
Jackson is replaced by Longstreet

AP Hill (I have this one)
  - Branch (Armistead)
  - Brockenbrough (Avery)
  - Gregg (Garnet)
  - Pender (Perry)
  - Archer (Wofford)

Lawton (Early)
  - Thomas (Anderson)
  - Early (Smith)
  - Strong (Wright)

Starke (Rodes)
  - Grigsby (Iverson)
  - Taliaferro (O'Neal)
  - Stafford (Doles)
  - Brown (Ramseur)
  - Douglass (Daniel)
Rodes also commands the King William Battery (replacing Pelham)

 Union:
Reno is replaced by Robinson
commands D Battery of 5th US Artillery

Kearny (Schurtz)
  - Birney (Schimelfennig)
  - Ferro (Carol)
  - Poe (Tilton)
commands 2nd and 5th Maine batteries

Stevens (von Steinwehr)
  - Morrison (Brooke)
  - Christ (Cross)
  - Leasure (Burbank)   
commands 1st and D batteries of New York Artillery

These are all the stands on the field.

I worked up a simple doodle
from the American Battlefield Trust map

Laid out the map and we got in two turns.  Mostly movement and positioning.  The grey line you see near the Union troops is an unfinished railway cut.

 

table as it appeared at the end of turn 2

Union troops had mostly entered the railway cut

Confederates were pushing hard along the road

a smaller Division had moved into
the woods to see if quick attack was possible
(not really a stream and a fence as well as the woods
made movement really slow)

Army Command Jackson
(as represented by Longstreet tag)
had arrived to asses the situation

big d20 was out again as turn counter

Then we went off to bed. Leaving the game set up. I really appreciate being able to do this at a slower pace.

Turns 3 & 4 were more maneuvers

 

Turn 5 saw the final unit arrive for the Confederacy

Meanwhile the leading Division was pushing
to get far to the flank of the Union troops in the
railway cut

not always getting full speed

the third division to arrive had now pushed
through the woods, crossed the stream and fence line

Union gunners were taking pot shots at the woods
assembly points

I took this photo totally in the blind, as the table end
is close to the window

Union troops did not fully fill the railway cut
as they did not have enough men to do this

the line was impressive non the less

The end point of the woods seen on the left
and the railway cut going from bottom to mid right
this is the eastern edge of the battlefield
mostly depicting the area that is now
protected by the Battlefield Trust 

By turn 7 all Union troops had arrived
here can be seen the unfinished railway cut
from the Confederate point of view

Confederate troops were taking casualties
in the approach march

turn 8 was to mark the end of the second
session of game play

overview of the field

the east

railway cut

wider view

at this moment, the railway cut was not also
occupied by Confederate troops
though only the flank unit lost the cut's advantage

while in the west of the field, two Union brigades
were facing down five Confederate ones

they held for some time

the massive Union artillery barrage told on the Confederate troops

a panorama shot I made while viewing it upside down
as again the camera was almost on the window

 

Again we retired for the day, did I mention I like being able to do this?

Confederate assault was finally in range

Union command had been scrambling to keep
things active

the flank force in the east was getting hammered

Confederates were in the woods line to the far east
of the battlefield

while there were two lines of brigades behind them
and artillery

the Confederates in the cut were now dealing out deadly
blows

while the main line traded shots with
those in the rest of the railway cut

so long as the Union flank held, so would these men

 

the flank did not hold
this was the last moments before destruction
in turn 10

still the rest of the cut did keep up the fire

eastern flank retreated

there was a moment of close combat
then the furthest east brigade also fell back

This was 10 turns, we decided that a dice-off was to determine if an 11th turn would happen or not.

Union (blue) 2 :: Confederate (red) 3
there would be an 11th turn

Field overview (top) N is the turnpike
(bottom) S is the railway cut
(right) East is the woods now filled with
Confederates 

the railway cut was overrun and Union troops just hold on at the board edge

two lines of Confederates dominate the east

Stark (Rodes) commands the east half of the field

casualties

the last stand in the railway cut

Confederate 'disorder' markers
we nick-name them "chicken-dancers"

front closeup

other casualties
my entire game-set is designed with
one casualty per stand appearing where
they were lost in the field

a good day for Jackson (Longstreet), yet not the
strategic victory of history
as the Union this time did not lose two generals

I shall leave you with the final view of the table, after turn 11.

About an hour after this, Rob arrived with the tricorne armies of Jeff - for Peter's safe keeping and future gaming.  More about this in the future.