Historicon 2013: More Sink the Tennessee Pictures

 I've received several requests for more pictures from the Friday ACW skirmish game Mike and I ran at Historicon: "Sink the Tennessee!"  The game used the newish ACW skirmish rules from Architects of War and depicted a Union raid to sink or capture the ironclad CSS Tennessee.  Uncivil War works great in a convention center as they are simple but allow a lot of tactical flexibility.  The first picture is the initial setup.  There were four union players - 2 calvary troops of 18 troopers armed with spencer repeating rifles.  1 infantry regiment of 24 figs and an amphibious unit of 18 Marines and 6 Engineers.

 I was surprised that one of the convention speakers, Paul Westermeyer, and his young son played - they commanded the northern most Union calvary regiment.  Paul is a historian with the US marine Corps and a bit of an expert on civil war marines - I was very relieved that he choose not to point out the many historical inaccuracies with my confederate marines!  There were four confederate players, one commanding the ironclad and her crew, another for the town watch , a calvary detachment and a large encamped regiment.  The confederates would also receive reinforcements as the game went on which means time was not a friend to the union.

 The Westermeyer clan proved to be very aggressive calvary commanders and managed to get about 2/3rds of their command shot up tangling with  the confederate infantry.  Things would improve for them a bit later...

 The Union Infantry made a series of very quick forced marches and made a run to overwhelm the confederate marines guarding the dock.

 The second Union calvary troop took up a position along a stone wall that allowed them to contest both the town militia and the calvary patrol.

 Desperate fighting at the water's edge where three confederate marines attempt to hold off the union infantry.  The Amphibious force made a surprise move and rather than attempt to board the  ironclad directly they landed on the far shore and had to march to the dock.

 More desperate fighting as confederate marines spill out of the ironclad to hold back the union swarm.

 The Union calvary along the wall decimate the confederate cav and town militia but are ground down by the reinforcing confederate infantry - the dread Louisiana Tigers!  At the top of the hill you can see the other confederate infantry regiment advancing on the town.  In the Lower right is the remnants of the Westermeyer command - glory awaits them...

 Give those Yankees a whiff of the grape!!!!!  Despite several rounds of canister the Union manages to clamber on top of the Tennessee and begin to fire on the command deck.

 Booommmm!!!!

 Against all military logic and parental advice, young Lt Westermeyer charges the larger Confederate infantry regiment and succeeds in holding the massed rebs off for three critical turns

 That delay is not without cost

 A view from the northern edge of the battlefield.  One of the very innovative features of the Uncivil war rules is that the presence of fallen troops negatively impacts morale so casualties are left on the battlefield.

 The LA Tigers try desperately to re-board the Tennessee

The Union engineers manage to blast open the top hatches and the Union infantry poor into the interior - we had three turns of see-saw fighting between the confederate crew and Union infantry and victory went down to the very last dice throw when the final confederate crewmen fell.

Victory and possession of the Tennessee went to the Union!

This game was a lot of fun to put on and we had great prize support from Ernie and the Architects of War crew.  Mike and I were also very surprised at Paul Westermeyer's generosity as he gave each of three of his books on Marine history, including one about confederate marines in the civil war.  I am very grateful to his generosity and now understand  I have a bit re-painting to do!.