Thursday, October 13, 2011

Battle for Miller's farm, Guns at Gettysburg report

Or better known to me now as The day I could not throw more than three.

 A week ago saturday the group came together for our second game of GaG. Rob created a the scenario and had built a great table for us to play on. Since it was our second game we decided to take it easy and focus on getting a bit of practice on maneuvering, charging and some melee.
 The maneuvering worked out pretty easy and it took me and Rob, who also played Rebs,  quite some turns to get the rebels in Brigade attack column to deliver some heroic charges. In the meantime our Union player Jake had a great time practicing dice rolling while shooting our approaching troops.

With some damage done on our side it was now time for some serious bashing. The first one in were my skirmishers. Looked pretty easy and in my mind the blue skirmishers were already stored back in Jake's boxes. But that's where my first great dice roll happened. The skirmishers decided to let me down and went to the ground instead. I was considering a repaint for them as traitors at that time. But OK, we could handle that as I had now two Attack columns in charge distance and Rob one. Next turn it would all be decided and I could drink a cold beer on a glorious victory.
Full of positive energy I started with the first Brigade, I moved them halfway and threw for morale... A three. Looking at all the modifiers the result was they halted and volleyed. No charge. Slightly dissapointed I moved to the second Brigade so they could secure the center...Another three. No charge again. I sat down in frustration to watch Rob charge his Brigade. Since Rob never misses a charge roll he went all in for his. Under heavy fire he hit the Blue wall. Minutes later he was pushed back  with his leading regiment reduced to only a couple of stands. At that stage we ran out of time so no time for a second chance. Bad luck, but that is part the fun I guess and in my case it better should be as I carry the curse of the dice with me on many occasions.

















 The next day made the matter even worse. As it is still fresh in the memory I always reread parts of the rules and FAQ's the day after to see what we did wrong. First thing I ran into was an errata from the author on the forum. Brigade attach columns neglect the Halt and Volley result to represents the fact they were an "all or nothing" formation. Thank you, they should have charged! and I should have known...
These rules have a lot to it and we just need to take a bit of extra attention to learn how to use them. So far, we are having good fun with them. Maybe I need to read the rules before the game as well?

A few pictures:
Lots more can be found on Photobucket
















13 comments:

  1. Nice scenery layout, battle action shots and report. I especially like the over the shoulder picture of the Blue artillery troops looking across the fields at the oncoming Grays. Thanks!

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  2. Brilliant looking game, particularly like the 2nd to last photo through the trees. Nice touch.
    Cheers
    Paul

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  3. Great post Mike, some lovely scenery, figures & photos too! lets hope you stop keep throwing 3's!

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  4. Great pic's the through the trees one is my fav. The pain of bad dice, oh I know it well..........

    Ian

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  5. Great looking game Mike. Very nice photos. Your dice luck sounds like mine!

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  6. Great table and figures but the dice gods can be bastards.

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  7. Great looking figures and terrain!

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  8. Great looking game, the table looks fantastic. Not a period I game, but inspiring none the less.

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  9. Oh the pain! Everything set up and the dice fail you! (Also, reading the rules helps too!) ;-)

    Lovely table as usual and the photos are great too; the gunners' eye view was a favourite.

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  10. Fantastic looking game and figures.

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  11. Sorry about your luck, but the table sure looks great!!

    Christopher

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  12. Lovely, lovely table and minis!

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