The Jackson Gamers gathered at Jay's house today, Labor Day, to test a new variant of The Sword and the Flame rules which Jay calls The Sword and Secession. From the title you would be correct in presuming that it is an American Civil War variant.
As Jay states, "This is an adaptation…for use in gaming the smaller actions and raids during the War of the Rebellion." And he further states, "But for every great Bull Run or Wilderness, there were a hundred small cavalry actions, naval landings, and foraging expeditions."
The scenario was very basic – a Union raiding force of cavalry and infantry is sent out from Memphis to try to capture and burn a Confederate supply area somewhere in northwest Mississippi in early 1864. The Confederates, of course, are trying to prevent that from happening.
We had seven players. Phil, Bill, Jay, and I (Col Campbell) were the Union commanders. John, Ed, and Sean were the Confederate commanders. We used a combination of "real" Union infantry and Western Indian Wars cavalry for the Union side and various Boers and Victorian Colonial mounted yeomanry for the Confederate side. The Union force had three white cavalry units and two black cavalry units (the 3rd Cavalry, USCT, formerly known as the 1st Miss. Cavalry (African descent)) and four white infantry units (including the 1st Miss. Mounted Rifles). The Confederates had three cavalry units and four infantry units.
Commanded by Col Campbell, the 3rd Cavalry, USCT, advances on the Union left flank. In the left background is the 1st Miss. Mounted Rifles (dismounted), one of the units commanded by Jay.
One of Ed's Confederate infantry units deploys in a patch of woods, awaiting the Union advance. Behind the woods another of Ed's units advances
The 1st Miss. Mounted Rifles (dismounted) [actually an assorted collection of Western Indian Wars cavalry figures] under Jay's command takes one hit from Confederate fire. The red (and other colored) rings on various figures denote the leaders – 2 per infantry or cavalry unit and 1 senior leader per player.
The Union right wing with cavalry under Phil's and Bill's command and infantry under Bill's and Jay's command advances on the Confederate positions.
Part of Jim's 3rd Cavalry, USCT, dismounts and takes a firing line against one of Sean's Confederate infantry units. The Union cavalry was all armed with rifled, breechloading carbines which could fire twice per turn. It didn't help the USCT much as I don't think I ever got over 3 hits with 18 to 20 shots per turn!
The other half of the 3rd Cavalry, USCT, has dismounted to face off against Sean's second infantry unit.
One of Ed's Confederate and Bill's Union infantry units begin to shoot at each other. In the background, John's Confederate cavalry has begun to advance against Phil's Union cavalry.
Suddenly Sean sends a cavalry unit of Miss. State Troops around the left flank of my USCT cavalry. Needless to say I was a little worried here!
Meanwhile on the other end of the battlefield a huge cavalry melee develops. Both of John's Confederate cavalry units have charged both of Phil's counter-charging Union cavalry units. The firing line in the foreground is Bill's dismounted Union cavalry unit.
The big cavalry melee resulted in one of John's units beating one of Phil's and the other of Phil's beating the other of John's. (Did you follow that?) After the melees were over, both winners got bonus moves and immediately turned on each other.
Back on my end of the battlefield, Sean's MST cavalry was too far around my flank to attack my USCT troops. (Whew!) But he could see Jay's 1st Miss. Mounted Rifles (dismounted) so he attacked them.
In the middle of the battlefield, Ed's two Confederate infantry units are now trading shots with Jay's other Union infantry unit (foreground) and with Bill's Union infantry unit (background). In the far right background, Bill's Union cavalry unit has remounted and is advancing. He wants to break through the Confederate lines so he can pillage and burn their supply area (which is located off the Confederate rear table edge).
Having beaten off Sean's MST cavalry, Jay moves the 1st Miss. Mounted Rifles (dismounted) against Ed's Confederate infantry in the woods while also charging them with his other infantry unit. In the background, Ed's Confederate infantry has charged Bill's Union infantry. In the far background, tape measures are being flourished as John Phil, and Bill maneuver their cavalry.
At my end of the battlefield, one of my USCT cavalry units has broken around Sean's Confederate infantry, trying to reach the Confederate supply area. The other USCT cavalry unit has remounted and is following in their path. Sean's Confederate infantry will be shooting at my cavalry to prevent them from escaping into the supply area.
In the center, Ed's defending Confederate infantry (foreground) has repulsed Jay's Union attackers. In the background, Ed's Confederate and Bill's Union infantry are in a fight.
Ed's Confederate infantry eventually loses and falls back, pinned and "prone." They remained like that for the rest of the game, not being able to rally enough to stand up and do anything.
One of my USCT cavalry units has broken through into the Confederate rear (as has Bill's Union cavalry unit on the other flank). But my other unit, which is leaderless, is trapped. Sean's infantry has just gotten one hit on it and what's left of his MST cavalry is charging my troops from the rear. Surprisingly my troops stand and fight, but lose the melee. All but one of them is able to cut through the surrounding Confederates and escape back toward Memphis.
The game ends at this point with two Union cavalry units in the Confederate supply area, soon to be joined by a third. The Confederate cavalry is reduced to just Sean's six and a few of John's. Both of Sean's Confederate infantry units are intact but they won't be able to interfere with the Union cavalry's pillaging and burning of the Confederate supplies. It was a fun little game although there were some hiccups, as might be expected from a new rule set, even one based on the venerable The Sword and the Flame.
We plan on testing these rules again on September 15 at Jay's in lieu of the Seven Years War game that was originally planned. Jay wants to unveil this variant at the Colonial Barracks convention in early November so we need to test them again.