Shiak-Brookshire War: Ambush at Needmore

     General Gillingham and the Brookshire Army quickly regrouped after their defeat at Edgewood Crossing. The army reached Needmore. The town itself was too small to provide for the army. Gillingham kept three of the units with the least causalities and ordered the rest to press on to Grafton, the next town on the turnpike. Besides the three infantry units at Needmore, there was another artillery battery which was moving forward to join Gillinghams' command. With this force he would use them as an "Army of Observation" to watch the Shiak army.
    Gillingham was expecting the Shiak Army to retreat, as it had done in the past. He was sadly mistaken. After resting for a day, scouts reported that the Shiak Army was on the move and heading towards Needmore.  As the sun sat that day, the Shiak Army started forming before Needmore.  General Gillingham sent a courier to Grafton with the order for the rest of the army to return to Needmore. However, General Loring had his cavalry scouring the countryside, and captured the rider.   The Shiak Army, instead of attacking right away, went into encampment. General Loring wanted his troops fresh for the battle and now, with the captured rider, knew he wasn't facing the whole army.
     It became apparent to Gillingham that his messenger didn't get through that night. He decided to launch an attack before the Shiak army could launch theirs.

The Brookshire infantry worked their way through the woods on the Shiak left flank. The artillery stayed in Needmore to support the attack. Early the next morning as the Shiak Army was forming up for the assault on Needmore, the Brookshire Army attacked.

The attack went well at first, causing one unit to retreat and hitting one battery.

The assault continued roll up the Shiak left.

The leftmost Shiak unit was destroyed.

Things were looking good for the Brookshire army.

However, General Loring rallied his troops and managed to blunt the attack.

The Shiak army now formed a battle line, and started to cause heavy losses to the Brookshire forces.

The Shiak army now started to counter attack.

The Brookshire losses continued to mount. The tide of battle changed.

The Shiak attack won the day; Needmore fell to the Shiak army and General Gillingham almost became a prisoner.

This game I tried to use stay with Neil Thomas' scenario. The Shiak army couldn't respond until the third turn. The scenario was from ONE HOUR WARGAMES: Scenario 22: Ambush.