THE BATTLE OF CHAP HILL


We have been having problems with completing Fire & Fury games, never getting to the point that the attacker could meet (or not) his win requirement. We are reluctant to extrapolate a probable outcome as that leaves a lousy taste in everyone, mouth. We do not have the luxury of leaving the game set up for the next week as our gaming venue is the treatment room of Jack Breen, Physical Therapist. One of the problems is the time it takes to brief the subordinate players, set up and determine a plan. We have tried to shortcut this by choosing two side commanders and having them do several map moves to contact, the gamemaster then sets up the terrain and troops based on the contact map.

Our first test of the system was successful. We used only one or two Rgts. per player to keep things simple, using Fire & Fury Regimental Rules.

The gamemaster, Jack Breen, chose the two sides and generated a map with the two opposing sides initial placement show. Before the start each side commander was allowed to change the location of their units, but could not change the formation of initial placement. I.e. one could place the artillery as the 2nd unit on the road rather than the lead unit, etc.. The Union (Dick Bryant) had first move , marked his map scanned it, and sent it to the gamemaster and to the Reb commander. The Reb commander then made his moves on the map, scanned it and returned it. This went on until both sides agreed that it was a good point to go to the game table.



FIRST MOVES ON THE MAP

 The Union advanced a unit toward the fork in the road and the guns toward Chap hill. The remaining units advanced in column toward the hill. Note: The objective that had to be held at game end was the copse of woods on top of Chap Hill. The Rebs (Dick White) responded by moving toward their right to advance to the hill. The next moves are easily seen in the 3 maps below:

SECOND MOVES



THIRD MOVES

 THE FINAL MOVES

The final moves showed up the Union Commander's (Dick Bryant) mistake of letting some of his units get "out of command". The Rebs moved one arty piece into the sield and completely outgunned the Union 3 gun battery on the hill, silencing two of them! Then the Reb GREEN unit attacked the Union GREEN unit in the wood and broke them(!) with help of musketry from15th Ga(Tr).  The 17th GA (Cr) ran into a stiff defense by Cory OConners's 95th PA (Gr) but pushed them back to the base of the hill.

The Rebs now had control of the copse of trees (the victory condition) and the Union was down 2 guns and 1 Rgt. Another Rgt which was green wa hunkering down in cover and another ws out of command and out of position. A definite Rebel victory.

The map marking reduced our table playing time to a very reasonable 2 hours - a bit of that looking ups some rules, a very successful first try. Next time a bigger game and try to finish in the 3 hours available.