Inducting a potential new recruit

My friend and neighbour (well, up the hill) expressed an interest a few weeks ago in having a go at wargaming. So this week I set up a small ACW game (one brigade a side plus a few extras) to let him see what its all about. I used Black Powder (my ruleset of choice) as they're pretty straightforward and easy to pick up.

My Confederates were tasked with attacking a small town held by the Federals which was known to have a large amount of much-needed supplies. I made the Confederates better than the slightly more numerous Federals in terms of command but in the end it made little difference as I managed to throw my usual run of rubbish command scores which meant that my incredibly excellent plan to isolate and destroy the enemy battalion by battalion didn't work! It also didn't help that Peter picked the rules up really quickly and managed to hold me off and disrupt my troops enough to turn my attack into a shambolic and bloody failure. One battalion was caught in march column and badly shot up, another was pinned and the third managed to at least hide in the woods and drive off a Federal attack. My cavalry were also isolated and as the federals had a spare unit of infantry and their cavalry covering their flank it had nothing worthwhile to do. It did however manage to throw double '6' and blunder, resulting in a charge towards the Federal cavalry. In the melee that followed the Federals were broken but the Confederates were shaken and unable to exploit this minor success.

In the centre, the Federal artillery destroyed the lone Confederate artillery battery. On the left the unit caught in column managed to shake out into line but was broken by the weight of fire the federals managed  to pour onto it.  The battalion hiding in the wood charged the Federal zouaves facing it and managed to get into hand to hand combat but were broken in the melee. The Federals had successfully beaten off the Confederate attack and the game came to a close. Beginners luck!

Well, I didn't put Peter off which is great and he'll be back for another game soon. I'll remember to take photos next time!