Longstreet 4 Games Later

Having now played 4 games of Longstreet I thought it time to share my thoughts on the rules.  They were introduced to the Falkirk Club a few weeks ago pretty much as soon as they were published.  The Maurice rules by the same author had proved popular and a move to ACW seemed logical as a number of people had usable figures in 15mm.

Although not in the absolute first wave I jumped on the bandwagon fairly early on for two main reasons.  First off there was a good vibe about the rules in the club with a number of games being played and the participants obviously enjoying themselves.  Secondly it was an excellent opportunity to reorganise my ACW collection.  I am not a fan of rebasing but having 3 very different basing conventions did need to be sorted out.

There was soon demand for a Longstreet campaign and the original half dozen grew to a final tally of 14 players.  This has been an added bonus for me as of the 4 games to date 2 have been against club members that I had not previously played.

The rules mechanisms themselves are very simple and easy to pick up.  The differentiator here is the card system.  Each player maintains a set of 6 cards which as well as being used to initiate firing, movement and charges also enable additional effects to be introduced such as move further, deliver more intense fire etc.  One killer card is the ability to put a bit of disordering terrain on, just where your opponent does not want it to be.  There are a number of cards that effect only one side.  As a Confederate commander I particularly like the Rebel Yell card which makes charges more effective, although only for the early years of the war.  It is also possible to interrupt your opponents move.

The campaign system exploits the fact that the rules cover a single war and uses this to  mimic the changing face of the conflict.  Thus at the start both sides are made up of Eager Recruits who are more effective in attack than defence.  As the war progresses the troops become more war weary, the effect cards swing from being more supportive of the Confederacy and Union armies on average become larger. 

Another interesting feature is the personalities of the generals which can enable them to have certain battlefield advantages - an engineering officer is better at putting up battlefield defences for instance.  Other cards are important in the post battle phase.

A mechanism that I have not seen before which is used in the campaign is that of epic points.  This is based on the premise that the point of the campaign is the personal prestige of the general.  Heroic deeds are more important than actually winning the battle.  Thus in my last game where I was the attacker trying to take a hill, despite being thrown back and losing the battle itself successive waves of heroic charges resulted in me scoring 7 epic points to Bill's 4.   At the end of the campaign it is the general with the most epic points that wins.

The post battle phase allows the recovery of many of the battlefield losses but the effects of camp fever (all stands throw a dice and are eliminated on the throw of a 1) can be deadly. Campaign cards are then drawn which generally provide recruits to bolster units and new personality traits for commanders.  Armies are then brought up to a minimum strength for the next game by attaching new units.

A campaign lasts nine battles, one in 1861, two in 1862, three in 1863, two in 1864 and one in 1865.

Overall my impressions are positive.  Games are generally a little short for my liking (mine have been under 2 hours) and the rules a little simplistic.  They will never be  my rules of choice for a meaty refight of an actual battle where a set such Fire and Fury would be my rules of choice giving a more intense, thought provoking encounter.   That is not to say that the games are not fun, just perhaps a little shallow.

The campaign system is what stands out for me.  The fact that although results carry forward from one game to another each commander is always left with a usable army for the next game is a real strength.  Indeed early in the war an army can actually be improved by an influx of eager new recruits.   Making the standard campaign nine battles long is also a great idea. In Falkirk we have committed to a game a month for nine months which is (hopefully) eminently doable.

To summarise - a reasonable fun ruleset for playing ACW battles backed up by an excellent campaign system.  Over the next couple of years I hope to fight a couple of campaigns and after that possibly a game or two a year - that is a good result for a new set of rules.

Painting and basing in November 2013

OK - I am going to do an experiment and see if going public with my to do list for a month helps me focus and complete it

1 - Rebase 15mm confederates for Longstreet.  I actually did some of this last night and have a usable army for my game on Friday (edit: Monday).  All the infantry, cavalry and dismounted cavalry are now on 25mm square bases, which now need to be painted, flocked and magnatised.  The artillery are on bases that are far too big but I have some replacements on order from Warbases which I will hopefully pick up at Targe.

2 - Paint up my Mordhiem warband.  This will be the tough one.

3 - Finish off the bases of some 25mm figures that I varnished a while ago.  They have been sitting there waiting for flock and magnetisation for months.  Before the end of the year I want to see what I have ready and what I need to work on for both sides of a Bloody Battles game

4 - Base up my 15mm figures, acquired about a year ago for the Paraguayan war.  I think I may be able to pad them out with some of my ACW figures

Lets see if this works?

Nearly forgot - tidy up the warattic a bit as well

Whatever is going on?

I don't do campaigns - in 30 years + wargaming only one in total until this last 12 months.  That one consisted of 4 battles against one opponent and took over 5 years to complete.

Most campaigns that I have seen first hand have started with a lot of enthusiasm and then very quickly fizzled out, hence the lack of appeal.  What I have done in place of campaigns is to work out and play scenarios for historic battles with aim of doing all the battles in a war or campaign.  That gives me freedom with timing and being able to play different opponents and rules.

Now I am in five campaigns.  How did that happen?  The first was a Dux Brittaniarum campaign against Richard.  We get to play at his house usually 3 or 4 times a year.  He was keen and I thought why not?  It will help string some battles together and as Dux Brit campaigns generally don't have a fixed ending anyway it will run its natural course.

The one campaign that I have seen run recently which was a success was the Mordhiem campaign run last year at the Falkirk club.  It ran through its set number of games to completion and looked a lot of fun.  I have always enjoyed Mordhiem and when Rory said he wanted to run it again this year I thought why not?  Ten games over a year is doable.

The next two are once again Dux Brit campaigns, this time with members of the Falkirk club.  See above for why not?

The final campaign is ACW using the Longstreet rules.  As with Mordhiem this will run for a set number of games.  I have not played theses rules but 15mm ACW is something I have not done much of recently. I have a fair number of figures and this will also give me a chance to reorganise them into some consistent basing.  So I thought why not?

My main worry now is how I will fit in all the other games I want to play.