JB's Blog of Ages: Cavalry Action, Civil War, "Across a Deadly Field" rules...

We played a brigade vs brigade cavalry action Friday night. We wanted to see how cavalry worked out.

The Union had five battalions of eight figure cavalry. 4 regular and one veteran. And an elite 3 section battery of 3" ordinance rifles.

The Confederates had four regiments of cavalry. 2 veteran and one elite. Each regiment had 12 figures. There was a two section veteran 10pd parrot battery too.

Well it was a meeting engagement with each brigade coming in on an opposite side of the table. The Rebs got the initiative and moved on and deployed their guns at the crossroads. With a straight shot all the way down the road up to the ford crossing the creek. The parrots were in effective range of the crossing point!!

The Yanks came on at full tilt.... the front cavalry battalion got blasted by effective artillery fire from the Rebs!! The battalion suffered 2 hits (one stand) and became "shaken" right at the worst place possible!!! On the road over the crossing.. All the follow up battalions had to meld through them and check for disorder!! By turn 3 the Union cavalry was deployed across the creek and was ready to do some damage the the Rebs. The Union and Reb batteries had been shooting at each other all the whole time. To little effect just some moral checks.

There was several more turns of artillery dueling and maneuver when finally the Union cavalry was in position to charge the Rebs artillery!!! The veteran Union battalion went at the Reb battery and overran it!!! But as they continued their charge they ran into a surprised Reb regiment of cavalry that faced them and counter charged in disorder!!

The cavalry melee was quick and deadly.. The Union cavalry was shot up and shaken as it engaged the Reb cavalry... That was telling, because the Rebs broke them and overran them back into the open fields from which they Yanks had come!!! The Union cavalry battalion was done!!!

However it was now the Rebel cavalries turn to be counter charged by a fresh Union cav unit just in place waiting for a good opportunity to take the fight to the Rebs!! It did not look too good for the victorious Reb Cavalry. They were about to suffer the same fate as their Yankee adversaries... Unless the dice gods came to their rescue!!

At that point of decision we had to call the game... It was late....

Anyways, the game went very well. Cavalry is fun to use and artillery can be a very useful battlefield tool for dictating deployments and plans!!! Overall, another great game and fun time with "Across a Deadly Field" rules...

Note; Figures were mostly Old Glory 15mm with a few Essex etc..