Longstreet at the club

​Last Friday we played a game of Kernstown, Stonewall Jackson’s first battle in the 1862 Shenandoah campaign, using Sam Mustafa’s Longstreet rules. It is a smallish game and perfectly playable by two people but we had two players a side, each with their own card deck: Dan and Nigel were the Federal Generals Kimball and Tyler, while Ian and Nick were Confederates Garnet and Fulkerston (who also commanded the two regiments from Burke’s brigade). The scenario can be found on the American Civil War scenarios page.
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The Rebels went first, closing on the stone wall that cuts across Sandy Ridge as they did in the battle. However, Tyler’s brigade reached the wall first and much of the game involved Ian/Fulkerston  trying to dislodge Nigel/Tyler from the wall. At one point Nigel’s right hand regiment swung around the western end of the wall and threatened to outflank Ian’s line but Nigel hesitated and Ian was able to move one of Burke’ reinforcing regiments up to extend his left. Meanwhile in the East, Nick marched due north, close under Dan’s guns, and took serious losses as Dan brought Kimball’s brigade out to challenge him. At one point it seemed that Dan would sweep Nick away but in a crucial combat phase, Dan’s two front regiments bounced off Nick’s depleted line and  the fighting on this flank settled into musketry.

​Confederate losses had been heavy in the opening turns but once the two sides were in combat range, Federal losses started to catch up. As ever with Longstreet, the cards created some exciting moments, including wounded generals, misunderstood orders and stalled advances. Perhaps the most useful to the Confederates was the thick smoke that took the sting out of a potentially devastating Federal Fire phase in what turned out to be the latter’s last turn. While Confederate losses were still a little greater than Federal, Ian captured his objective so rolled 2 dice in the victory step of the next Rebel turn, taking the Federals over their break point. Game (just) to the Confederacy.

The game was fast and fun, with both sides convinced they were losing at different points. Of course, the real battle was lost by Jackson, who found himself facing many more Federals than he had expected. On reflection, it might have been interesting to add a DIY card to the Federal deck at their first reshuffle, stating that a rebel brigade had run out of ammunition, as actually happened on the day.
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In our game, the Federals still had a numerical advantage at the end and would very likely have sent the rebels packing eventually. But as both sides have the same break point, based on the smaller starting army, the Rebels won this Longstreet scenario by inflicting enough losses and holding their victory objective. I do appreciate the fact that all of Sam Mustafa’s games aim to provide a clear result: too many wargames fizzle out with no victor and a series of muttered “might have beens” from frustrated players.

(Photos courtesy of Dan, hence the Federal viewpoint.)