John Hill’s new rules “Across A Deadly Field” had their Southern debut at Nashcon 2014 this Memorial Day weekend. It was extra special too, since John was the Guest of Honor at Nashcon and was running ADF games and answering questions from gamers all weekend about his new ACW rules.

“Across A Deadly Field” will be published by Osprey this July. It is a grand tactical set of ACW rules, where brigades can be maneuvered across large battlefields, but where the basic maneuver element is still the regiment. The scale is 1:60 for infantry, 100 yards to the inch and each turn represents 30 minutes of time. ADF is similar to its predecessor  “Johnny Reb” in many ways, but it is definitely it’s own game, and in a radical departure has discarded the standard “Johnny Reb” order chit / simultaneous move system, for a turn based “active phase” system. This is a brilliant new direction which adds a lot of new tactical subtlety to the game.

Patrick Lebeau (left), John Hill (center) and Dean West (right) pose above Patrick’s 15mm Gettysburg game at Nashcon. All pictures by Chris Ward unless noted otherwise.

Many of the ADF playtesters  and design team members were able to make it to Nashcon to help run games. Patrick Lebeau drove down from Michigan. Patrick is the most knowledgeable of the group about the ADF rules and is an excellent game master, tactician and all around nice guy. He helped run all of the ADF games, and brought the ADF “main event” on Saturday morning with his massive 15mm Gettysburg – Day 1 game. Dean West, one of the original designers and playtesters of “Johnny Reb” drove down from Kentucky. Dean is an expert historian, terrain builder, referee and great guy as well. He ran his great looking 15mm “Battle of Piedmont”  game three times during Nashcon. It was the first ADF game played on Thursday night and the last game played on Sunday morning.  Cory Ring, local Nashville gamer, miniatures painter, blogger and ADF play tester ran a great looking 28mm ADF scenario “Shiloh – the stubborn east flank”. The author, John Hill, flew in from New Mexico and stayed busy all weekend by being involved in every ADF game that was run, and taking the time to answer every question that was Here are some pictures of each game and a high level recap:

Dean explaining how the game works. He created the terrain specifically for his “Hunter Takes Command – The Battle of Piedmont” scenario.

Piedmont: Dean West is a master of terrain making and uses his own layered terrain system where he customizes a flocked terrain mat to lay over hills to create very realistic terrain conditions, ground cover and rolling hills.

Dean’s scenario was small and allowed new players to try out the rules and to learn the game. Dean was very patient teaching the rules and many of the new players commented on how they really enjoyed the pace of his smaller game and the way Dean approached the rules with the heart of a teacher. Dean ran his scenario three times throughout the convention whenever there was some “down time” and gamers wanted to try out the rules. The last ADF game run at Nashcon was Dean’s scenario, which resulted in a Confederate minor tactical victory.  Thanks Dean! We unfortunately didn’t get a lot of pictures of Dean’s scenario, but here are a few that will give you a taste of the action!

The Army of the Shenandoah advances on Gen. William “Grumble” Jones’ entrenched Confederates.

The stoutly defended Rebel “rail pen” position.

An overview of Dean’s excellent 15mm terrain and figures.

The Federals advance! Picture by Dean West

The Federals assault the Confederate works. Picture by Dean West

After playing in Dean’s game, I spoke with several long time Johnny Reb players who told me that “Across A Deadly Field” might just dethrone “Johnny Reb” and become their new favorite set of ACW rules. That’s quite a testament to how good these rules are! They play with a historical “feel”, are intuitive, and play quickly with  decisive results.

Shiloh: The first game for Friday afternoon was Cory Ring’s 28mm “Shiloh – the stubborn East Flank” game. John Hill, Patrick Lebeau and Dean West all chipped in to help run the game and it was a great way to showcase how well the rules worked with 28mm figures and odd weapons and unit sizes. This scenario will be in the “Western Battles” ADF scenario book, which will be published by Osprey sometime next year. John Hill had the terrain mat professionally  printed  and then Cory  layered the mat with flocking, fences, buildings, camps, tress, figures, etc. A “Johnny Reb” tradition is to  use 15mm terrain with the 25mm figures to keep the ground scale for the buildings in proportion. We think it turned out very nice! What do you think?  Here are some pictures of the Shiloh game:

The Shiloh – East Flank scenario. From left to right – Cory, Dean, Patrick, Ken, John O., and John H.

The start of the game as the Rebs advance towards the Federal camps!

Patrick Lebeau and John Hill (both standing) ponder how much loot they can get if they plunder the Federal camps!

A lot of the battle was fought in these ravines. Cory placed the printed mat on top of carved foam to create 3D ravines with depth.

A close up of the figures and terrain. The yellow marker indicates a shaken unit.

Dean West moves up his CSA brigade.

The battle was a hard-fought affair with the Federals falling back after being hard pressed by the Rebs. A huge melee erupted in the eastern woods (rare in ADF) which essentially decimated a brigade of Rebs and a brigade of Federals. The Rebs were declared the winners after driving the Federal troops back to their baseline. It was a fun game that had mostly experienced “Johnny Reb” players in it. Special thanks to Norris Darrall and Kermit Hilles (who drove down from Indiana), and John Ohlin and Ken Jones (from Tallahassee) for playing in all of the ADF games at Nashcon.

Gettysburg: Patrick Lebeau ran the showcase ADF game at Nashcon on Saturday. It was a massive 15mm Gettysburg – Day 1 game. This scenario will be featured in the first ADF scenario book planned for release by Osprey entitled “Scenarios for the War in the East”. The game had at least 12 players pushing every unit that was at Gettysburg on the afternoon of the first day, and a few hypothetical formations that could (and should) have been there. The battle started with a big Confederate push on all fronts,  and then the Union started gradually falling back. The largest CSA success and breakthrough was in the vicinity of the Seminary Ridge. The game was called a minor tactical CSA victory and Gen. Lee (John Hill) was quite pleased! ADF plays quite quickly and we were able to play this massive game to a conclusion in 6 1/2 hours with new gamers. Look for Patrick to run this game again at Historicon in July. Dean will be also be taking his travel game of Piedmont to Historicon.

An overview of Patrick’s impressive 15mm Gettysburg Day 1 game. This was a massive game with over 250 maneuver elements. Note the absence of tabletop clutter!

Patrick’s game was awarded the CigarBoxBattle.com “Superior Game Presentation Award” for the Saturday morning / mid game period. Congrats!

Some of the dozen players that played in Patrick’s ADF game on Saturday. Everybody had a great time!

An overview of the game. Great looking terrain!

A close up of the Confederate advance.

Stephen Huckaby (left) – the owner/editor of ACWGamer.com discusses tactics with Patrick.

The battle rages on!

The CSA was judged to have won the battle and this is the area where they had the most success.

The Rebel assault on Seminary Ridge. This is where the Rebs won the game! Picture by Patrick Lebeau.

Nashcon was an excellent convention once  again this year! Here is what John Hill had to say about Nashcon, “My experience there has convinced me that this may be the best of the regional conventions out there”. The HMGS-Mid-South guys did an excellent job organizing another fun, well run and classy event. Thank you! “Across a Deadly Field” was the theme of Nashcon and was printed on the official convention T-shirts!

The back of the official Nashcon T-Shirt!

Thanks to Osprey Publishing  for supplying many of their books and rules as prizes. These were awarded to players in the “Bolt Action” tournament and other games.

The Cool Springs  Marriott did a phenomenal job serving all the gamers and offered two for one draft beers to the attendees! Yazoo “Dos Perros” became the unofficial “official beer” of Nashcon 2014! Who doesn’t love that! Thanks!

We are planning a lot of great games for Nashcon 2015, including more ADF, so make sure to attend! The convention has many fantastic games, nearby local historical attractions like the Carter House (Battle of Franklin), and plenty of shopping and dinning for the family. See you next year!

Nashcon was a blast! From left fron row – John Ohlin, Dean West and John Hill. Back row from left – Norris Darrall., Kermit Hilles, Patrick Lebeau and Cory Ring