American Civil Paw- Battle Report- Battle of Miller's Creek

In 1862, the state of Kenteddy had declared themselves neutral, but Tederalist and Contederates had both moved into the region.  Contederate sympathizers established an alternate capital at the city of Bowling Green.  However, their numbers were inferior to that of the Tederalists in the region. 

Luckily for the Contederates, the command in the west was fragmented between several competing commanders for the Tederalists.  This led to confusion and an inability to unify their efforts.  Tederalist Brig. Gen James Bear Garfield  attempted moved to drive Contederate Brig General Humphrey Bearshall from the area as they had been using it to recruit new bears to their cause. 

After maneuvering, the two, roughly equal forces met not far from the fork in Miller’s Creek.  They fought over a small field and swampy region between the woods and rocky ridge line that was the border of the creek.  This battle would help decide who would control Kenteddy.       

The Forces

The American Civil Paw: Battle of Teddysburgh is an interesting version of the American Civil War since is being fought by teddy bears.  

Tederalists

-          Brig Gen. James Bear Garfield- Brigade Officer

-          3 Infantry

-          1 cavalry

-          1 Battery of cannons

Contederates

-          Brig Gen. Humphrey Bearshall- Brigade Officer

-          3 Infantry

-          1 Cavalry

-          1 Battery of cannons

I purposely chose identical armies for this battle so that I can test out the rules fully and highlight how they work.  I am interested to see what I find out. 

Set-up

The board is 6 x4.  It is flanked by difficult terrain with woods on the west side and rocky ridges on the east.  On the north side is a couple of small fields that the Tederalists are deployed in.  The field will be difficult terrain, but also offer some light cover.  A small pond and swamp are off-center.  On the South side, the Contederates are deployed in the open. 

The Contederates deploy with the cavalry on the left, then two regiments of Infantry in line, their cannons, the General, and a column of infantry in the ridgeline.

The Tederalists have two lines of infantry backed up by the third line with cannons on the left of them.  On the far left behind the pond is the cavalry.

 Mission

This will be a straight forward battle where each side is trying to run the other side off the field and out of the state of Kenteddy.  No fancy mission objectives here just knock the stuffing out of the other side. 

Turn 1:

The two sides close in on each other, they are still too far away to fire, but anticipation is in the air. 

Tederalists on the left and Contederates on the right. 

Turn 2:

The Blue Jacket cannons ring out and the balls find their mark in the advancing Grey cavalry.  This is followed by Union infantry firing into the Contederate hobby horsemen, and a charge by Union Teddy’s own cavalry.  The Contederates are sent reeling backwards with 4 hits and panicked! 

The Contederate infantry advances and manages to injure some of the opposing infantry in a brisk exchange of musket fire.  On the Western flank, musket fire through the crops does not go the Contederates way. 

Turn 3:

Tederalist troops move up and pour fire into the 1st Contederate infantry regiment.  The Contederates respond with a charge, but are sent reeling back in a panic.  The two cavalry units clash again, and the Contederates are forced back reeling. 

The third Tederalist troops form column and charge into the second Contederate infantry.  However, these Contederates are made of sterner stuff and force them back panicked.  The Contederates must have a spine of steel as they counter-charge and smash back the Tederalist cavalry and beat the remnants of the Tederalist infantry again, forcing them back in a further panic! 

This gives general Bearshall some breathing room and he is able to call in his reserve infantry units.  They dash forward in column and then change to line to back up the 2^nd Contederate infantry regiment.  He also manages to rally his panicked cavalry.

Tederalist General Garfield is not as lucky and fails to rally any of his panicked units.  This could be the decisive moment of the battle!

Turn 4:

Contederate cannons find the Tederalist cavalry with a barrage, but fail to break them.  The fierce Contederate 2^nd infantry switches into an assault column and charges into the Tederalist 2^nd Infantry in line, who has been untouched by fire.  However, the thin blue line holds and pushes back the Contederates in a panic! 

The 1^st Tederalist infantry unit tries to Volley fire, but is too unorganized.  However, their shooting is still effective, and the 1^st Contederates are near the breaking point!  Sensing that the 1^st is about to scatter, General Bearshall shuffles his 3^rd infantry into place to back them up.  This re-shuffling was just in time as the 2^nd Tederalist’s fire breaks the 1^st Contederate infantry and they scatter and rout to the rear!  They are first unit broken in the game.  General Bearshall rallies the pancked Cavalry and orders them to fill the game in his line by the pond.  Ineffectual fire from the rallied unit fails to tell on the 3^rd Tederalist forces. 

General Garfield fails to rally the panicked 3^rd infantry and they stay in their panicked columns.  The Tederalist cavalry charges home on the Contederate brothers.  However, they are again repulsed and sent panicking backward.  The third infantry manages to pull themselves together enough to change formation and set-up to backstop the Union lines.  With the flight of the Tederalist cavalry, the artillery fires at the Grey cavalry but fails to cause significant injury. 

Things look bad for the Contederates.

Turn 5

General Bearshall rallies the 3^rd Infantry of the Contederates and they shake out of column and into a firing line.  The 1^st and 2^nd Tederalist infantry fire on the reformed Contederates with volley fire, but failed to do more than scratch them! 

Gen Garfield rallies his cavalry, but they let eh artillery do the dirty work.  The Union battery blasts the Contederate cavalry from the field with a precision barrage.  With the Contederate cavalry fleeing, their batteries try to return the favor on the bluebellies, but fail to get the range.  This allows the Tederalist cavalry to hit the flank of the Contederate 2^nd Infantry, but the Contederates repulse them easily! 

Turn 6

The Contederates try to reform their lines, but an exchange of fire between the 3^rd Tederalist and 2^nd Contederates leaves the Grey bears routing the field.  They had had enough.  The Contederate artillery battery manages to rout the 3^rd Tederalist infantry unit.

Gen. Garfield managed to rally the panicked cavalry, who rushed forward and opened fire on the last Contederate unit.  However, their fire was mostly ineffective. 

Conclusion

Gen. Bearshall surveyed the field and decided discretion was the better part of valor.  He ordered a withdrawal, and his last remaining units retired under artillery fire.  His troops withdrew to Teddessee and left Kenteddy to the Tederalists.  The secessionist legislature fled, following after Gen, Bearshall and his troops. 

Gen. Garfield was unable to follow-up and pursue as he became caught up in the bearocracy of the Tederalist War Department.  The chain of command was unclear.  Despite freeing Kenteddy from Contederate forces, further follow-up would not come to later. 

Final Thoughts

Interestingly enough, shooting was much more effective in this game that a first read through would indicate.  The long charge range seems to indicate that charging is a preferred attack.  However, I had almost zero positive results from charging.  Assault columns were rebuffed by line formations, cavalry was repulsed by infantry, and even a flank charge failed!  My reading of the ACW would seem to indicate that this is accurate to the warfare of the time and that charging was a last desperate strategy.  However, I was really disappointed by the result of the flank cavalry charge. 

We were also late to learning the amazing firepower of artillery in this game.  I should have been using it more effectively, but my own troops often screened their firepower.  It will take careful planning to make the best use of it next time. 

On game mechanics I think some work still needs to be done on flanking, LOS, and partial LOS/cover firing.  I enjoyed the initiative system immensely but once a unit was destroyed mid-turn there needs to be a way to remove a counter.  I am unsure how that would work.  However, it was a quick game and ran smoothly.            

Review: American Civil Paw: The Battle of Teddysburg- Slave2Gaming

As you know, I play a lot of All Quiet on the Martian Front, and am relatively active in their online community.  Through this connection, I connected with Slave2Gaming.  They are an online miniature maker from Australia, who made a range of Dark World War 18mm figures that were useful during the gap between Alien Dungeon closing and Ironclad picking up the AQMF product line.  Their cavalry is very cool.  The models themselves are sculpted by Mike Broadbent and he is the primary sculptor for Slave2Gaming.  Drew from Slave2Gaming reached out and asked me to take a look at and review one of their upcoming releases and I agreed. 

The game is called: AmericanCivil Paw: The Battle of Teddysburg.  It is a set of American Civil War rules with a bit of a twist.  The combatants are all teddy bears re-enacting the “War between the States”.  Therefore, some of the conventions of that era are adhered to, but it is a bit more whimsical take on the subject.  The objectives were to create a relatively quick, streamlined set of rules less than 25 pages that would allow the Teddy’s to take to the table top.  The rules were intended to be a “Mass Battle” game using 18mm figures formed into multi-based regiments.  At the moment, the rules are in PDF download format only, with a more official book potentially being released with the range.

Before printing the booklet, the designer would like to get feedback and make changes.  Therefore, the PDF version of the rules is currently in BETA.  Hopefully, some of you with a lot of experience in ACW games will be able to give them some insight before they pay to print the book.  He is especially interested in adding more unique Fantasy traits to the game but still keep the ACW theme.    

Of course, besides the rules they are releasing an adorable range of miniatures that Mike sculpted.  They are up to his usually standards of high quality and they should be great for Horse and Musket players looking for something a bit different, gamers who play other generic fantasy settings such as Dragon Rampant or Kings of War, and also gamers introducing the concept of wargaming to the next generation.  The range by Mike will be a great bridge between fantasy and historical gamers and also act as a gateway for newer gamers.  Teddy Bears don’t need to worry about their uniforms as much as real ACW toy soldiers! 

Too cute!  They also have other hat variants.  Wargamers love fancy hats!.  

You can find the BETA rules here at the moment: American Civil Paw: The Battle of Teddysburg

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/201441/Battle-of-Teddysburg--Beta-test-rules?src=newest_recent

Once more into the fluffy breach then?

Things I Liked

The game follows many standard staples of a Horse and Musket ruleset.  You have different formations such as line and column.  You have forward 180 degree fire arc.  You have movement based on a leader base.  You have firepower based on the number of bases that can shoot/combat.  So, if you have played Horse and Musket games many of the core mechanics are there for you.  It will be easy to pick-up and play. 

There is no casualty removal.  All bases are left on the table until the unit flees off the board or is completely wiped out.  That way, all those nice Teddy Bear figures you spent time painting will be in the thick of it for most of the battle.  No one likes to buy and paint troops to have them removed before they even do anything.  Instead, it uses a “hit Point” style system where each Base in the unit provides a “hit”.  Infantry units are a bit more resilient with 10, while cavalry has 8, and Artillery only 2.   

Units can always move and Shoot/charge without any test so your lads will always have something to do.  More complicated actions require command tests.  Units that have taken a certain level of injury MUST have commands to act.   

The system uses a Target Number system on a d10.  All units pretty much use the same target numbers, and there are very few modifiers.  This is good as it reduces the memorization needed to play.  Most modifiers are relatively intuitive for the period.  The game tends to avoid a lot of the “If This/Then That” type rules you can find in this periods games. 

The stick horses for cavalry.... too cute!

Things I Did Not Like

The game uses the Bolt Action Grab Bag approach to activation.  This is a solid and tried and true mechanic however I tend to prefer to play games with less passive activation systems.  When a unit has its chit pulled from the bag it is placed by the unit as a reminder that it has activated. 

Perhaps due to the streamlined nature of the rules, the game did not have any rules about flank attacks or enfilading fire.  I think such rules would help increase the desire to maneuver before engaging and add more tactical choices/depth to the game.  There are also no rules to cover if more than one unit engages another in combat/assault or the ability to support an assault.  Again, I feel these elements would help add to the tactical possibilities of the rules.       

The game is intended to be played on a standard wargames table that is trying to represent forests, creeks, small towns, etc.  I actually see this as a missed opportunity and a chance to differentiate the rules form standard Horse and Musket games.  Considering this is a game about Teddy Bear warfare, I feel it should use 1:1 scale terrain of household items so you could actually walk into any room and start a game on the floor with whatever is on it.  Carpets are your flat, open terrain with rugs acting as fields, and mismatched slippers as impassable terrain.  Now you have a unique and interesting gaming experience not found in most other wargames.  There are a lot of American Civil War games out there and I think this is the “gimmick” to help differentiate the game as opposed relying only on Mike Broadbent’s miniature line. 

Meh and Other Uncertainties

The game play is pretty straight forward and easy.

It would be kind of fun to add some variable leadership qualities to the rules as well.  The personalities of the American Civil War commanders played a large role in the outcomes on the battlefields.  This might expand the scope greater than what Slave2Gaming  were trying to achieve, but it would allow them to add more to the Teddy Bear theme and some silly puns.  Everyone loves silly puns…. well…. everyone who wants to play Teddy Bear ACW anyway.  Okay, maybe just me then….   

Rocking horses for officers.... too cute!

For morale, it is interesting that panicked units are very hard to use with a base Target Number of 9 to activate on an order.  Some of the modifiers would make it impossible to steady/rally them.  However I maybe misreading the rules on this segment, since being in Open Ground adds a +1 to the Target Number, making it a 10 required.  I am unsure how I feel about this as it makes sense in the context of the American Civil War game where units would sometimes just stop, but not completely break.  However, maybe it would just be easier to remove them?    

The rules have a few diagrams and illustrations to help demonstrate the rules.  This is a good thing.  I feel some examples of play would also help but the rules are clean and simple enough that it may not be needed.  Some fun pictures of Mike’s painted Teddy Bears in the field would be cool too.   

Army creation is straight forward and basic.  They have a couple of unique traits for each side, but I know they want to expand this part of the rules.   

Final Thoughts

The rules are a solid, simple way to get into the period and they are the right price at less than $5.  They will do the job of supporting the miniature range.  Plus, they will be a good base to build on for future additions to the game.       

The game itself has an interesting hook or gimmick; cute and cuddly Teddy Bears re-fighting the Civil War.  However, the rules themselves do not have that same hook or gimmick.  They are perfectly solid and serviceable set of rules that will allow you to play Teddy Bear Civil War battles but there just isn’t enough here to really differentiate them from a game like Blackpowder or Longstreet.  To me, there are a lot of ACW rulesets out there and it takes a little something special to make them stand-out rule wise.  I am not sure Slave2Gaming’s American Civil Paw: The Battle of Teddysburg currently has that something to stand out as a rules system.