The American Civil War using Fistful of Lead: Big Battles

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Had a chance to use the dining room table for a game this week. It was quite nice going from our usual 3 x 3 table to a 5 x 3 table. This afforded the chance to use the American Civil War (ACW) figures that I had painted up during lockdown and to have a go at using the Big Battles rule set.

Each side had four units and a commander, and we played Scenario 1 in the book. Scenario objectives were to capture and maintain control of the following:

  • The Barn
  • The Bridge
  • The Hill

One point would be awarded for maintaining control of an objective at the end of the turn. The scenario would last at least 8 turns, before we rolled for night fall.

The Battlefield.

The Union Army advances.

Confederates defend the barn and advance on the bridge.

The Union Centre takes casualties, but forces the Confederates off the bridge.

The Union storms the bridge!

The last Confederate unit tries to defend the barn.
In the end, a decisive victory for the Union, with all the Confederate units either withdrawing or destroyed. The game was brutal, especially when three units all fired their muskets at the same opponent (which happened at the end). The Union army played to their strengths. The Union units had the 'Steady' trait, which enabled the units to ignore any 'Shock' tokens when firing. The Confederates had traits for engaging in Close Combat, but never got close enough to the Union forces to use them.
 
As mentioned, this was our first game using Big Battles. The game ran for two hours, with frequent looking up rules in the rulebook. Already looking forward to the next game.
Location: Southampton, UK

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