Union and Confederate fingering in the dungeon

The title of this post is at the request of our host McLean in his 'War Dungeon', where he hosted another ACW battle game, this time Shiloh.

the 'fingering' is used to calculate the bonus or penalty to opposed die rolls in melee combat

Nate gives a briefing of the deployments

Union troops muster near their cam locations as the battle drives other Union forces fleeing through their camps that morning

Fleeing Union troops (top) from Sherman's Division.  Sherman held ground at the cost of his own life and the entire division was eventually surrounded and defeated in detail, leaving no survivors

view of the center and left of the 'hornets nest' as some Union troops had been driven out from the sunken road, though they still held a small portion of the west side of the road

a view just to the right of the earlier one of the 'hornets nest' (as built by Rob) where the advancing Confederate forces could be seen

Confederate artillery was racing INTO the Hornets Nest, to give fire cover to the sunken road

last stand near Shiloh church as the Union lines were stretched, then shattered in close combat

Hornets Nest filled with troops of both sides as the Union desperately clung to the last tiny part of the sunken road (a critical game objective), already the Union were now loosing more troops than the Confederates and facing large movement penalties, which were causing divisions to retreat from contact.  With the sunken road lost there would be a permanent further penalty.

the lines closed in for one more close combat action

my phone managed to capture some great shots of these 15mm miniatures

Overall field at the end of action - approximately 2 pm in the 'day' but not the end of game time available

at this point there was a 'second line' in the Hornets Nest and it was filled with artillery to cover the sunken road, further artillery was moving to the right to secure the other end of the terrain feature

while the sunken road was not 100% in Confederate hands, only a worn Union brigade held on to a tiny portion of the road and three fresh Confederate brigades were closing in

Rob, Chris and my son Alex in the War Dungeon listening to more details from Nate.

We ended the battle action technically at a draw, however the loss of the sunken road was going to happen, whether the Union could take it back, or indeed hold off the Confederacy from pressing the Union off the table within charge range of their river landing site is a matter of conjecture.

Casualties were heavy on both sides, with AS Johnston being KIA, along with WT Sherman and at least two other Union and Confederate division commanders being shot (though one only lost his horse).

Not much 'movement' here it was all battle right from the start.