A bit of wargaming nostalgia. It is fifty years this year since I started wargaming and joined a club at my school, run by the Biology master, Mr. Powell (nicknamed as you can imagine "Cosy"). He had an extensive 1/72nd WW2 collection, although we only ever saw a tiny portion of it in the lunch hours when we had small tank-hunting games on the desks pushed together and textbooks randomly scattered around to represent hills and buildings! We also managed a few Napoleonic skirmish games with Airfix figures. However the few attempts at boardgames were a failure as by the time we had set up the game, we could only manage one or two moves before the lunch hour was over!

Anyway, I thought I would try and revisit some old memories during the year. In this regard, I dug out the first two books on wargaming I ever bought:

I had already found D. Featherstone's book, Wargames, in my local library, but these two small volumes I bought in 1975. They are falling apart now! I decided to play some small ACW games using the rules for old time's sake and to see how well they worked. Here are some photographs of the first game using A. Taylor's rules. I was playing under artificial light, so the images are not so bright as usual.

The table - I went for nearly symmetrical to make it even for both sides. Four feet by three feet table. The objective was to capture the crossroads.

The two sides - six regiments and a battery, plus one general.

I decided that the Union would go for a slightly defensive approach, with the Confederates being more aggressive, so the Union were the first to open fire.

One of my new casualty markers I acquired for my 1670s games, but they looked okay for ACW too. The original rules assumed individual figures, not multi-based, so I use the markers for convenience and then removed a base at the appropriate time.

Firing is pretty bloody for the recipients if they were out of cover and not shooting back and not in open order! Plus a charging unit automatically received fire from the defenders before closing to contact!

It was pretty much fight to the last man under these rules if the unit's morale was any good. There were five levels of morale 1 to 5, pre-allocated to each unit. Anything 4 or 5 was impossible to make retreat even with over 50% losses, especially if it had a general nearby!

The Confederate first attacks having been annihilated, they went over to a firing as well, with the rest of the game being a prolonged exchange of musketry, except over by the farmhouse, where the fight along the fence line swung too and fro.

Mêlée casualties were also high. Defenders behind a fence or similar got an automatic plus 2 hits on the attackers. The unit with better morale got another plus 1 hit automatically.

The artillery banged away from Turn Two, knocking off casualties with every shot. The key thing about these rules is - no dice throws! Firing and mêlée is all based on a fixed casualty number, adjusted by pluses or minuses according to circumstances.

The Union finally managed to capture the fence, but with a unit in reserve,

the Confederates soon got it back!

The Union right wing goes forward, their opponents having pulled back.

The last turn. Two Union units have retired, but they have the advantage of numbers as the remaining Confederate units in the centre have almost been destroyed. I called the game for the Union, since the last decent Confederate unit by the farmhouse was not going to stop them taking the crossroads.

I really enjoyed the game and it took no time at all to pick up the rules. Everything is simultaneous, so orders have to be written out. I used a gridded sheet with symbols: in a small game, it took no time at all. Here is the Confederate one:

The base morale for a unit is normally determined by its previous battlefield performance, but I allocated them randomly by a die roll, ignoring 6. I ended up with two 5 and two 4 units on each side, and that meant they pretty much fought to destruction! Once opposing units got into a firefight from behind cover and in open order, the casualty levels came down a lot, but losses were always predictable because they were fixed. It meant the one who chose to fire first would eventually come out on top. I also decided that only front ranks would fire, otherwise the firepower would have been overwhelming! For the first round of mêlée, I also decided front ranks only, but in subsequent rounds of close combat all figures would be fighting.

I really enjoyed the game and it brought back memories of very old encounters! A lot is "unsaid" in the rules, they are pretty much the basics. I remember a huge row with a friend about overhead artillery fire once - he thought a gun could fire over anything in front, regardless of level; I thought only if it was on a hill. I went home early in high dudgeon!

I thought, for a set of basic ACW rules, they did give something of the feel of the war. Firefights long and bloody; charges desperate and bloody. But they fell down a lot on morale. However, they sow a lot of seeds for thought!

Next time, the John Tunstill rules.