freewargamesrules blog

Last night myself and Garry playtested the new Crusader Rank and File rules.

The following battle report discusses the rules and 20mm ACW game we ran. For ease of learning the rules each side had the following troops:

2 x Generals
2 x Medium Smoothbore Artillery batteries
2 x Average Cavalry
1 x Veteran Infantry
1 x Raw Infantry
4 x Average Infantry

All infantry armed with smoothbore muskets.

The initial deployments are shown below I was The Rebs and Garry was the Yankies.

The turn sequence is Charge Phase, Rally Phase, Initiative, 1st Side Move, 2nd Side Move, All Firing, Morale, Melee, End Turn.

I won initiative on the 1st turn. The movement rules allow you to move a unit double distance providing you don’t start or end within 12 inches of the enemy. The unit may not change formation nor fire.

I pushed both cavalry units down the flanks.

Garry moved up his cavalry on his flanks. We were now a charge distance apart. On the next turn both Cavalry units charged each other on the flanks. Meanwhile in the middle I pushed the troops up to defend the wall by making a double move to take it.

On the left the infantry also defended the wall.

The two cavalry melees were a 50-50 chance for both sides as all units were in the same formation, they were in the same ranks and of the same quality.

The cavalry on the right flank took 2 hits to Garry’s one so I lost the melee, became unsteady and retired 13”. I too lost the melee on the left flank and retired unsteady on the left. More of concern was that Garry was still within charging distance of both his victorious units….

…more soon