Another battle in my ongoing campaign with Mick took place last weekend up at his place, this time Mick had choice of the field of battle and he went for Resaca. This was the third battle in our sequence of encounters this time using our 3rd corps.
To recap, using a points system we chose three corps, each one consisting of three divisions usually with about three or four infantry brigades plus artillery batteries and cavalry brigades the latter could be added to the brigades or remain separate as you wish. The quality of brigades naturally varied depending on how many points you were prepared to spend but at the beginning of the campaign consisted of ten (Fire and Fury) stands to each brigade. Victory points accrued in each battle would be spent later bringing brigades back up to strength ready to fight again.
Up to this point we had fought three battles
(Check further down this part of the blog)
Score in Battle of Oberglau Junction was 57 to 36 in my favour
Score in battle of Atlanta was 36 to 32 in Mick's favour (a close fought game)
So now on to Resaca, this posed my Confederate 3rd corp against Mick's 3rd Union corp. This was my best army as I had spent points raising the quality of my men, many were 'crack', most were 'veteren' with only two 'green' brigades. I didn't know the quality of Mick's units but he had picked the battlefield and his side of entry so potentially that could balance things out.
The encounter would be fought length ways along the table (see map below), my troops would enter from the north (right hand side) while Mick's would come on from the south (left) the object being to control as much of the battlefield as possible, points were awarded for holding Resaca, dominating the Western & Atlantic railroad which dissected the table and generally beating up as many opposition units as possible.
I saw that the town of Resaca (plum in the centre of the map) was the choke point, occupying that would block all movement along the road and making it very difficult to cross Camp Creek which ran in front of it. Trouble was there was no way I was going to get there first! Mick's Union cavalry brigades would race along the road from the left table edge, get there first and dismount in the town awaiting reinforcements while my cavalry could at best just get over the ford at Camp Creek. This called for a plan, not something I'm noted for!
The plan.
If I couldn't occupy Reseca then the occupying wooded ridge (grayish hexes bottom centre of the map) between Camp Creek and Dalton road would be a good second best. artillery could then be placed on it's slopes to bombard troops in the town and hopefully Mick would then be forced to attack me in a good defensive position. I still needed time to get my troops onto that ridge and the terrain wasn't great so I would send both my cavalry brigades to the Camp Creek ford, by pass the town of Reseca and sit them on Mick's right flank around about the railway line. Hopefully this would force him to deploy his brigades to meet the threat allowing me time to get my troops onto the ridge.
As expected both the union cavalry brigades race along the road dismount and occupy Resaca and the steep hills surrounding it. My cavalry brigades can be seen having bypassed the town and are sitting across the Western & Atlantic railroad.
Two confederate infantry brigades arrive in support, but do not attack yet, wait till the ridge to their left is secured.
This is where plans need to be flexible, these union zouarves are the lead brigade of three committed by Mick to prevent my troops crossing Camp Creek (blue sawdust line). They succeeded in checking my advance but were pushed back as my reinforcements arrived, the union Division was then taken in the flank by (it has to be said) fantastic cavalry charge seen below. Crap photo but what the hey!
This cavalry brigade (Colonel Kemper's) wrecked two full union infantry brigades during the battle while the other cavalry brigade tied up three union brigades on their right flank. I think this was the deciding factor as it allowed me to occupy the ridge tying down Mick's forces there while as will be seen below breaking his slightly weaker left with the rest of my forces.
The pressure starts to grow on the dismounted union cavalry in Reseca
Don't count your chickens. Now this was supposed to be the coup de gra, attacked front and flank these union brigades should be mince meat but as can be seen from the bottom picture it didn't happen - bloody dice!
The pressure pays off and Reseca is taken, Mick's left flank is in trouble.
A counter attack is beaten off east of the town.
While the remaining union cavalry retreat to 'them thare hills'.
A final charge by the union cavalry comes to nought as they are surrounded and destroyed be the confederates.
A final picture, the ridge is about to be taken, and Reseca is secured. Mick had strong forces to the left of this photograph but as his left wing (top of the picture in the distance) has ceased to exist he was outflanked. Evening had come and we agreed to call it a day. The union right would have retreated under the cover of darkness leaving the field to the rebs.
Points wise I had captured the town and about half of the battlefield but neither force dominated the line of the Western & Atlantic railroad so nothing for that. In terms of casualties however it was pretty one sided with the union forces suffering badly.
Score at Resaca was 35 to 13 in the confederates favour.
As said previously this was the third battle of this campaign using an adaption of Fire and Fury rules for Mick's hex table system. Discussing the game afterwards we both have come to the conclusion that for games of this size that they are rather slow and clunky. I mean no disrespect to the rule writers or anyone who likes them, after all we have been using them for many years but they need a good seeing to as the actress said to the bishop! When compared to the new Picketts Charge rules by David Brown Fire and Fury seem a bit old hat calculating for this, calculating for that etc etc. Mick is going to have a look at thoroughly overhauling these rules and sickening them up over xmas so we'll see what he comes up with, he's a cleaver bugger and knows his stuff.
Anyway a good win for the rebs, on to Washington boys!
Dave.
