Altar of Freedom "Antietam"

 

Our Big Game of the year in 2022 was "Altar of Freedom" Antietam. We invited some folks from around the community to join us.  We had a free breakfast and a good time.  I got to play as the Rebels for this game.  I am realizing that I never play as the US of A.  They are all my miniatures too...anyway.  As the rebels I decided to contest all the crossing points with the intent to delay not hold.  I chose to dig in around Sharpsburg and the woods to the north.

You will notice we are using houses from "Hannibal" LWTV set to create the town.  We also are using blind chips for the first time to disguise movement.  We also included many false blinds which I used on the flanks to try to funnel the Yankees into the center and the heart of my defense.

It was a back and forth across the Antietam Creek.  My artillery delayed the Yankee Infantry for hours.  While on the northern end of the battle field, My calvary and one small infantry brigade delayed the northern advance.  By the time the Yankees got organized to actually attack my line.  It was the last 2 turns of the game.  Due to game mechanics they were too many inches away from cutting off the line of retreat so instead they tried to reach the breaking point of the army in 2 turns.  I had 0 broken brigades at this point and the union only had 1.  

The fierce combat did result in a few minor casualties but the line held and Rebels won.  However as I told the Union players.  They gained the same ground that McClellan did in 1862 with a lot less casualties because they did play smart and tactically.  So I let them have the moral victory because they did earn it.  The Union only failure was to keep organized.