NSW has established a small supply depot in a small village on the railway line.
Guarding the supply depot is a small detachment of NSW militia consisting of 1 Medium Artillery Piece, 1 Gatling gun, 2 Infantry Companies and a Squadron of Cavalry in reserve.
The Victorians plan to take the station and its treasure of military supplies for themselves. To do this they allocate 3 Infantry Companies, 1 Cavalry Squadron, 2 Medium Artillery pieces and 2 Gatling Guns.
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| Who is who and where is that. |
Turn 1
At the end of the first turn the Victorians have advanced to start their assault. NSW has responded by bringing all their infantry to fighting positions in the buildings. Their Cavalry is racing around the right flank to reinforce their most exposed position.
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| End of first turn |
Turn 2
At the end of turn 2 the Victorian assault on the NSW position in the farm outside of the town has been repelled with significant casualties on both sides. Will the Victorians be able to renew their assault? And if so, will the NSW forces be able to stop it again?
The Victorian artillery has opened up a barrage on the NSW artillery and destroyed it. NSW got in a few shots but were quickly outgunned by the superior Victorian artillery.
The third Victorian Infantry company and the Victorian cavalry move closer to the main town.
At the top the NSW cavalry moves over the railway line to assist their comrades.
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| End of second turn |
Turn 3
The Victorian Army Commander moves to rally his two infantry companies and gets one to assault the farm again. This time the NSW defence crumbles and retreats. The other Victorian infantry company advances forward to occupy the farm.
The Victorian artillery opens up on the NSW Gatling Gun and it too is destroyed.
The rest of the Victorian forces move up for the final assault on the NSW town. The Infantry in the town blast the advancing Victorian infantry and decimate them leaving only a few survivors who flee backward.
The NSW Cavalry moves to counter attack at the farm. Maybe this can save the day for NSW but things are looking grim.
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| End of third turn |
Turn 4
The Victorians advance for the kill but NSW is not finished yet. The Victorian cavalry see what happened to the infantry and retreat out of close range so that the town can be softened up by the supporting artillery.
The NSW cavalry lines up and prepares to charge the Victorian infantry occupying the farmhouse.
The Victorian general sends one of his diminished companies towards the town to grab the supplies and arranges his Gatling guns to support the farm house defenders.
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| End of fourth turn |
Turn 5
The Victorians continue their advance on the Supply depot. The artillery have hit the defending infantry hard and the Victorian cavalry advances again.
On the other side the NSW cavalry moves forward to close assault the farm house.
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| End of fifth turn |
Turn 6
The NSW defenders in the town loose another base from the cavalry’s fire. The Victorian infantry approach the supply depot and nothing seems likely to stop them.
But the NSW cavalry have routed the Victorian infantry in the farmhouse and now fully occupy it. But in response the Victorian general is pivoting his artillery to target them.
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| End of sixth turn |
Turn 7
The NSW Cavalry still hold the farmhouse but the Victorians have got their artillery aimed at them. The Victorian infantry have entered the town and started to capture the supply depot. The Victorian cavalry continue blasting the remaining NSW infantry defenders who are pretty helpless as their effectiveness has been reduced by significant losses.
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| End of seventh turn |
Turn 8
Game over. NSW has only the cavalry squadron as a viable force and the Victorian infantry have captured both supply depots – with victory in sight they rolled a double activation and were able to move twice. A win for Victoria as NSW sounds a general retreat. Still there were a lot of casualties for the Victorian attackers and the victory is hard won.
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| Last turn and somewhat blurry photo. |
All in all not to bad and the result I expected. The more numerous and better trained Victorians won the day but not without some significant losses. Could have been different if NSW had concentrated all their troops in the town and had more time to fire at the advancing infantry.
Good looking action!
ReplyDeleteNot knowing the rules I'll make the following hopefully constructive comments;
Artillery as it should be at this period is dangerous.
Even forces in protection/cover seem to take heavy casualties I wouldn't want to get caught in the open :-).
It is interesting a mounted forces given the point of time can defeat infantry with breech loaders defending a built up areas, or are you using mounted figures to represent dismounted forces (I didn't see that mentioned).
Keep up the good work, will you post your rules when they are developed?
Thanks Captain.
ReplyDeleteThe rules are fairly "bloody" although in later versions I have made the infantry less fragile in how they take casualties.
The cavalry are assumed (I am too lazy to write the rules) to jump off their horses to fire.
Against the infantry they were fine as the infantry had already been badly degraded by the artillery. When a unit's reliability reaches red it does not do much.
I will post the rules in a few weeks. Two more test games and then I start the whole campaign.