Is there any sort of pre-research I could be doing to prepare for this event? I've never been involved in a miniatures war game before.

Look at this, Bill--a full house!

If you have never been to Bill's house before, his street name ia on the stone walls flanking the street. I was looking for a street sign the first time and totally missed it!

And the Confederacy changes history!

Ok, it was a technical win with most of my troops wiped out...but still a win!

I don't know, Chris. I imagine that if you look at the casualties suffered by both sides (but yours in particular!) that the war would have been brought to an end shortly after the massive slaughter... thousands of men cut down over a scrubby hill. Your army was seriously brought to the very brink of collapse in a few short hours.

Glad to hear the event turned out well. I noticed a few differences between our two battles in that the Union sent everything against the Confederate extreme left and hit the Confederate right, but not much action in the center.

@Rick Yeah, Bill said you charged your forces right across the river and up the hill right into the massed infantry and artillery. He also said the results were as I predicted.

Yeah, I went for a three pronged attack. One division hitting the Confederate extreme left, one division going up the road going for the fort at the crossroads, and one hitting Bowen's division in the center. I figured if I could keep Bill spread out, I would eventually achieve a breakthrough and do some serious damage to his forces. The plan worked out well. I cleared the forests and took the crossroads before Lee intervened.

I lucked out in that Lee arrived ealy in the day. His division helped hold the left flank and then reinforced the center.

Ouch, yeah Lee didn't arrive to take part until Turn 5. By that point, I had blasted my way through on the left and the Confederate center was almost cut to pieces. Talk about the horns of a dilemma.

Thanks for the information, Bill. That will help us in our next game. Any idea what our next battle will be?

Let me know if you need any help. I think a campaign focused on the Western Theater: Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, or Mississippi would be great. Tons of battles and time periods to choose from with important consequences for future encounters.