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Sunday 18 February 2018

A (small) Railway Incident

Introduction

In my imaginary state of New Wiltshire, the American Civil War is being fought primarily between General Gilder (CSA) and General Wise (USA). General Gilder's army marching towards Washington is constantly short of supplies. On hearing of a large depot full of food and ammunition on the edge of Scrubyville (County Featherstone), the General hits upon a bold plan and despatches 2 regiments of infantry and a squad of his favourite cavalry to capture the 10:00 train to Scrubyville Junction...
This battle drew inspiration from the Railway Incident Tabletop Teaser by C.S.Grant published in Military Modelling in March 1979. PW rules were used with the following variations. Infantry Regiments had 10 SPs, the cavalry squad 4 SPs and the Junction box guard unit had 2 SPs. Cavalry took 1 grid square move to dismount and fight as infantry (and vice versa). After the enemy was sighted from the Junction box the guard would roll a dice each turn to see if they got a telegraph through to the town. The captured train would arrive on turn 6. It would take 4 unhindered turns for a regiment to load the supplies onto the train. It took 1 turn to disembark a regiment from the train during which they could take hits but not return fire. Exhaustion Point was set at 50% hits.

Game

Scrubyville Jnc.
Junction box guard
Town garrison
Confederate cavalry race up the line
Dismounting they attack the guards
End of turn 2, the cavalry have taken hits and the town has been alerted
End of turn 5, CSA cavalry have captured and changed the points
Turn 6 the train arrives and 1 regiment disembarks
Union forces in position start firing on the disembarking troops
The train rattles on into the station and the second regiment climb down into the face of the Zouaves 
The remounted cavalry head for town
The Zouaves have fallen back from fierce CSA melee and meet the bold cavalry!
Turn 12 - the Zouaves are still fighting the remaining cavalry and the train is nearly loaded!!
The train, now full of supplies moves out leaving the soldiers to fight their way out
The Zouaves have finally killed off the cavalry
With what can only be described as a rebel yell, the CSA regiment forces back the Zouaves
The remnants of the other CSA regiment fall back under fire and eventually leave the field
The Zouaves continued to fall back and at turn 16 the battle was over
The Union Colonel wonders if he'll have a commission tomorrow morning



8 comments:

  1. All depends on who his father or patron is.

    Nice little action. Good idea upping the Sp's to give depth to an action with few units and to distinguish the detachment. Its been a lonnngggggg time since I've played this one.

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    1. Ha ha, you're right Ross.
      It's a great old scenario.

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  2. Great scenario jack. It made for a wonderful narrative game. Best use of a train set in a wargame for a while too.

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  3. Nice, very nice! Un grand moment dans l'état de New Wiltshire!

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  4. Vintage Trains, vintage Airfix ... perfection!

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    1. Thanks Mark - the little Tank Engine was kept out of shot as it has "British Railways" printed on the boiler!

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