The Wargame Shed

The Union’s Tullahoma Campaign began on 24 June 1863 with William Rosecrans moving south-east from Murfreesboro, his Army of the Cumberland constantly outmanoeuvring Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee.  Within ten days, Bragg had been forced to withdraw through central Tennessee to Chattanooga close to the border with Georgia. The campaign ended on 3 July, in a week that saw the Union victory at Gettysburg and the Confederate surrender of Vicksburg.  

In mid-August, after resting and re-supplying his army, Rosecrans moved on Chattanooga.  Capturing the city would provide a vital rail hub, opening the way to Atlanta. Beginning on 21 August, and over the next two weeks, Union artillery sporadically bombarded the north-east of the city.  This kept Bragg's attention whilst the bulk of Rosecrans's army crossed the Tennessee River south-west of Chattanooga. When Bragg learned of this on 8 September, he abandoned Chattanooga and withdrew the Army of Tennessee into Georgia.   

Rosecrans pursued Bragg, but his Corps became scattered traversing the difficult rocky, wooded terrain.  Bragg, having now received reinforcements, planned to attack and overwhelm these isolated elements of the Union army. His plans were poorly executed, but alerted Rosecrans to the threat and he began to concentrate his corps.  Bragg resolved not to lose the initiative, forming up the Army of Tennessee near to the Chickamauga Creek by 18 September. He wants to strike the Union left before Rosecrans can fully concentrate his army, additionally cutting them off from Chattanooga.  Rosecrans foresees this, ordering forced marches to reinforce his left.  

Shortly after dawn on 19 September, Bragg launches the first in a series of assaults against the Union lines, opening up the Battle of Chickamauga. Some of the fiercest fighting in the entire battle taking place in and around Viniard Field. 

On 13 August 1708 the allied army of Marlborough and Eugene began to besiege Lille. Eugene conducted the siege while Marlborough commanded a covering force. The French King Louis XIV ordered his armies under Vendôme, Burgundy and Berwick to link up and break the siege. Can Marlborough hold-off the French assault until Prince Eugene arrives with reinforcements or will the French lift the siege?

Here are a couple of photos from the game:

As it has been a while since I played and neither of the other two players had played before we got off to a bit of a slow start (not helped by some appalling dice rolls by the French).  In hindsight, given the lack of previous experience, I should probably have started with the forces deploying a little closer.  But everyone had a fun game even if we didn't fight the battle to a final conclusion.

I found a scenario for the Battle Ramillies (the only one of Marlborough’s famous battles scaled for two players as opposed to four players - using the optional ‘Doubles’ rules).

The game was as fun as remember; however, whilst I had explained the rules I didn’t give my friend enough pointers on tactics as he was playing Marlborough and so needed to be pretty aggressive to win.

Here are a few photos from the game:

The scenario was based on a what-if engagement between B Company of 2/Glosters (with some supports) defending the North West part of Cassel, from an assault by Kamfgruppe von Esebeck - a combined armoured and infantry force.

Here are a few pictures from the game:

As my 15mm WW2 collection is all early war I also picked up the 1940 Fall of France & the Low Countries supplement which had a scenario that was ideal for my collection based on the counter-attack at Arras.  Albeit that I still had to paint up a few additional pieces - mostly vehicles.

Unfortunately I was too busy umpiring (often a challenge with a first game) to take too many photos and so some of the following were taken by others.

For this first outing I decided to use the Zouave II rules by Bob Jones (the original author of Piquet) which incorporate a rondel mechanism (which is something I have seen in boardgames before but not in miniatures wargame rules).

Having carted almost everything up to the club I realised I had managed to leave my hills at home - and given they are are crucial element of the game some improvisation was needed (hence the slightly unusual shapes!).

Here are the briefs:

French Briefing