Massive Antietam Wargame

Holy hell its refreshing to watch a wargame where the players discuss and enact strategy. Unlike so many war games wherein the forces literally just charge across the table into each other and the players roll ridiculous amounts of dice until one set of minis is gone.

the single coolest thing about Antietam is the continued presence of the Witness Tree by the bridge...a living thing that actually saw part of the fight

If you ever had walk 12 miles or more you know had hard it is to attack after wards those men on all side were very hearty men.

I adore the Fog Of War management of this game - keep this sort of production up

Sort of stumbled across this whilst browsing American Civil War here on YouTube. As a Brit I find the ACM fascinating, more so than our own English Civil War, and although not into wargaming, I found your recreations interesting. I was also impressed to see a picture of Britain's, officially, greatest General on the war where this game was played. General William 'Uncle Bill' Slim who commanded Britain's XIVth 'Forgotten Army' during the Burma Campaign of WWII. An uncle fought and died during that campaign, so that is also another particular area of military interest. Thank you for the history lesson.

Gentleman's Foul, drink on the table! 13:59

Great memories of a teacher robert trout who gave me a life long love of history

Could you guys do Chickamauga?

Hasn't anyone heard of scouts, or pickets? :) One of the things about the battle that struck me was that they spent half the day trying to cross Burnside bridge and the creek just isn't that big. They could've easily crossed it with infantry and put pressure on the whole line of the confederates. Talking about tunnel vision!

Great stuff! Good humor and well narrated. Perhaps add in some commentary on how a critical dice roll affected an attack or how the players used the game mechanics to their advantage, it would go a long way to bringing the excitement of wargaming to the audience.

The Union non-coms that found the Special Order maybe got the cigars but paid for them with their lives-if I remember correctly 3 of the 4 got killed at Antietam. McClellan loved his creation, the Army of the Potomac, too much to a fault which in my opinion was why he was a backseat driver during battles instead getting his ass where it belonged on near the front lines. Another issue was McClellan was a War Democrat that wanted to fight a limited war to keep the potential damage down. This Democratic faction basically wanted to welcome the seceded states back into the Union with slavery still intact for a return to the antebellum days like nothing had happened. Impossible of course-and it would take a general that realized this with the application of total war. A largely unknown Union general, Israel Richardson aka 'Greasy Dick' or 'Fighting Dick' made one of the numerous breaks in Lee's line that day. He led the attack, succeeded, took a breather to dress his lines for the killing blow but went down wounded. Same thing happened with Francis Barlow nearby. (Too bad Phil Kearny wasn't there where he would have been instrumental in leading a breakthrough attack. I've read that before he died at Chantilly there were rumors Lincoln and Stanton were considering him for command of the Army of the Potomac.)

I also just discovered your channel took me back to my miniatures days of about 45 years ago. You guys are an absolute blast! Thank you so much I haven't enjoyed anything so much for ages!

Discovered your channel today. What a great video, comes with battlefield takes... Aah :-) Thx guys

Wow, I didn’t think I was that into the ACW but this was such an awesome video. The narration was particularly good. I’m new to the channel but subscribed immediately. Keep up the great work!

Greg, thanks for working for NPS. Love our parks, monuments, and battlefields

The Irish Brigade at the cornfield....Burnside’s Bridge...Bloody Lane...The Dunker Church....you guys are awesome!

Ah, this is a great hobby.

A great all round video, well done. The short history at the start was plenty to set the scene, the look at the terrain was very insightful. You have encouraged me to dig out Altar of Freedom again and reread it, but also you showed the great benefits of having an umpire controlling the initial deployment and hidden approach moves adding to the 'confused' build up and unknowns. Will be checking out all your vids. Thanks for the time and effort in producing this, shows what a great game is all about.

Fantastic. I really got caught up in the excitement of the game and learned something about the battle. Thank you

Absolutely loved this video. The production values are outstanding and you guys seemed to be having so much fun, it's great.