Rebel Raiders Replay  (Turn 7, Continued)

Designer Mark McLaughlin as CSA; Naval Historian Brandon Musler as USA

When we were last here, the North had just retreated from its abortive naval attack on Nashville…a battle in which three Rebel and two Union cards were played.  Brandon, however, pulled back the remnants of one fleet only to come on again with a fresh force…

Turn 7  (Part II)  The Second Battle of Nashville:  – Gunboats vs. Batteries

Brandon may have retreated from his first attack, but he is not done with Nashville.    He has a SECOND fleet on the river - with one Ironclad and five Gunboats….and in they come to fight the two remaining Rebel batteries.

The battle opens with a mighty cannonade of rolling dice and….

Every shot by every ship and battery in round one MISSES!

Round Two:  One Union Gunboat is sunk.  Yankees miss.

Round Three:  Three Gunboats go down.   No Batteries are hit.

The much-reduced Union fleet retires.

A lesser man (say, a Halleck or a McClellan) would call it a day – especially after losing two battles and two-thirds of the fleet in that second battle, but Brandon is made of sterner stuff.  Even if he can not weaken the city sufficiently by water, he will try by land….

Third Nashville  -  On Comes Grant and his Big Guns

The Union always gets two attacks a turn but Brandon, however, as is good practice for the Union from 1863 on has bought a third attack (the North can buy enough to make four attacks per turn).  He comes at Nashville by land, with Siege Train (Card 48) and Grant (Card 8).  He uses Union Tactics (which is a rule, not a card, giving up one of his dice to gain a +1 to the highest die he rolls).   Mark rolls higher…but Brandon throws down “Willing to Fight”  (Card 5) which allows the North to re-roll..and comes back in again – and Nashville FALLS!

It took five of the six cards in Brandon’s hand to take Nashville … but he got Siege Train back into his hand (a property of the card if victorious and with a decent die roll) and now Grant is out in the open, face up.

Having kicked open the door to the Confederate heartland (which is entirely undefended) presents the Union with many possibilities, and also allows for the declaration of the Emancipation Proclamation....the consequences of which, along with the mid-game strategic situation, will be discussed in the next posting....

To be continued….