Stripped Down for Parts: Fire on the Mountain (Legion Wargames catch-up order, Part 2)

 

I recently blew a windfall of PayPal credit on some games I’ve wanted to try for varying lengths of time. One is still on its way from another publisher, but the other three I was able to order directly from Legion Wargames. I’m looking at these in order of release; the first one I looked at was The Battle of Blenheim, 1704 (Legion Wargames, 2018). You can check out that unboxing here. The second game in the order is John Poniske’s Fire on the Mountain: The Battle of South Mountain September 14, 1862 (Legion Wargames, 2022). I’ve had a lot of fun with Mr Poniske’s Ball’s Bluff (Legion Wargames, 2015), and I’ve heard that this, Fire on the Mountain, and Belmont: Grant's Baptism of Command, November 7th, 1861 (Compass Games, 2017) are variations on a theme, essentially the same system, but with something extra to fit the individual battle situations.

The Battle of South Mountain is an interesting battle to game, and is or has been available in several American Civil War game systems. It is also significant in one respect of ACW lore. As mentioned in an anniversary post by the Wisconsin Veterans’ Museum;

This battle also is the most-commonly accepted origin for the famous name “Iron Brigade.” Late in the day an infantry brigade consisting of the 2d, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin and 19th Indiana attacked in the Union center along the National Road. “What troops are those fighting along the Pike?” asked General McClellan as he looked on. “They must be made of iron.”

Fire on the Mountain’s box cover features and extract from a painting by H. Charles McBarron Jr (1902-1992), a noted illustrator for US military publications and a founding member of the Company of Military Historians, as well as a consultant to the Smithsonian. This painting, known alternatively as “The American Soldier, 1862”, “The Citizens Corps of Wisconsin at South Mountain, Maryland,” and “6th Wisconsin at Turner’s Gap, South Mountain,” was originally prepared as part of a series of fifty illustrations released in five sets of ten by the US Government Printing Office, called The American Soldier: 1775 to the Present (released around 1974).

Lookout Mountain. This photo was taken quite soon after the Union attack 
on the Confederate forces. One of the rigid ladders used in the assault
is just visible (here's a better view (Courtesy of WIkipedia)).

McBarron worked very quickly, was an early adopter of photographic media, often working off existing photographs of his own polaroids to more accurately portray the landscape’s details in his subjects. In this case, McBarron worked from a photograph taken after the battle, but misattributed. Paul McKee, a friend of a friend on Facebook, has conclusively established the photograph from which Barron worked was actually of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee (site of the Battle Above the Clouds), rather than South Mountain, Maryland.* Nonetheless, the painting is beautifully executed and quite compelling. And popular; it graces at least one other wargame box cover – Grant Wylie’s South Mountain 1862 (Worthington Publishing, 2025), from Worthington’s Brigade Battle series.

Box back. I forgot to mention in the post, Fire on the Mountain is recommended
for grognards fourteen years and older.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, Legion box-backs are, in my opinion, a benchmark for how game information should be presented, The box-back of Fire on the Mountain offers a two-paragraph historical precis of the battle for context, and a much shorter statement of he parameters of the game at hand. This would be my only point of criticism in the presentation of the game; The black print on the muddy brown background made me work a little harder at reading than I’d otherwise like. It’s a small thing, but a slightly lighter shade for the background (or white print, as used in the game details inset near the bottom) would be appreciated.

The box-back also features a representation of the map (which looks great, even in miniature, but we’ll get to that), a sample of the game’s unit counters and markers at their actual size, and the relevant game details. These tell us the game’s scale – 300 yards to a hex, brigade-sized units, and one-hour to a turn – a truncated component list, and the game credits, which we’ll return to soon. The Fire on the Mountain has a complexity rating of Medium-Low and, while designed as a two-player game, is rated Medium-High for solitaire suitability.

The Rules of Play.

The rulebook for Fire on the Mountain is printed on a matte-finish paper-stock of roughly 100gsm, lending the booklet a satisfying heft for its size. The booklet runs to sixteen pages, but the first two pages are occupied with an introductory note *as seen in the above photograph) and thorough Table of Contents, and the back cover features the Confederate and Union Orders of Battle, so the rules take up a mere thirteen pages. There is an addendum to this count, which we will come back to in due course.

Sample pages.

I keep harping on this, but I can’t say often enough how much I appreciate the rules layout in Legion games; Fire on the Mountain is no exception. The rules here are set in a nice, easily readable sans-serif font and presented in two columns with coloured bars marking the beginning of each new section (these follow the numbering convention familiar to anyone who grew up on SPI games. Examples are set in text boxes, and the whole thing has colour illustrations when necessary (pictures appear sparingly, but not frugally).

Rules Revision sheet and Errata note. Seriously, if the errata fit on just a half-sheet
of paper, somebody deserves a commendation..

Fire on the Mountain, as it is presented, is not a wholly historical representation of the battle; the Confederate Order of Battle includes R.H. Anderson’s Division, which did not participate in the historical battle. The designer has included a rules revision to accommodate this shortening of the Confederate forces to equate any loss of balance caused by playing the historical Order of Battle (making Confederate defences a little more resilient in the face of Union assaults), and a second to use Anderson’s Division, but with an uncertain arrival time across four game turns.

Two small items in the rulebook remained uncorrected at the time of printing, and these are addressed by a half-page Errata note, also included in the game, one involving Movement Costs and the other a reference mis-naming a brigade’s commander. In the latter case the counters and Orders of Battle contain the correct information. No harm, no foul.

The map-sheet. Even with some encouragement, the folds didn't want
to give up completely.

The game map was prepared by Edmund Hudson. If that name sounds familiar, I’ve noted Mr Hudson’s excellent work previously on the map for All Are Brothers, Solferino, 1859 (Legion Wargames, 2025). He is also responsible for the game-maps for several of Revolution Games’ Blind Swords series games, including the recent Gettysburg: the First Day (Revolution Games, 2025). This map is simply stunning.

A map extract highlighting Frosttown and its environs. The terrain details
are clear, but subtle and unobtrusive.

The game focusses on the action in the vicinity of Fox’s Gap and Turner’ Gap, and is topographically challenging, both in play and in its representation. Changes in elevation are noted by a shift from darker hues of green though near-grey to yellows and browns (the Altitude key runs in 100’ increments from 400’ to a dizzying 1,600’). Features on the map – farmsteads, roads, trails, woods, and escarpments – are clearly defined without being jarring, and the hexes are large enough to comfortably accommodate the elongated (1.2”) unit counters.

The map-sheet incorporates a terrain legend and Turn Track along the Right-hand short edge (the Confederate left). Also built into this column are Casualty boxes for the two sides.

The game's two counter-sheets.  

The game comes with two counter-sheets, each printed on a medium weight white-core cardstock and each consisting of a mix of square 0.6” and the aforementioned 1.2” by 0.6” counters. The double-width counters are brigade-sized units representing the two sides’ complements of infantry, cavalry, and artillery units. The square counters represent the two side’s divisional and corps Commanders and also provide an assortment of administrative counters.

The unit counters are a study in usability and at-a-glance identification. Each unit has a silhouette of an unmounted or mounted soldier or a cannon to identify it as an Infantry, Cavalry or Artillery unit respectively. Each infantry counter also exhibits a white silhouette of the brigade’s home state. At the right-side end of the units is a big, easily read number (two numbers for Artillery units) indicating the unit’s current battle strength in Strength Points (SP). This number represents the number of dice that unit will roll in combat (attack or defence), with an overall ceiling on ten dice per roll. Many units are represented by two or more counters, which are flipped or replaced as the unit suffers losses in combat and loses SP. Finally, each brigade is identified by their brigade commander’s name, which appears on the bottom edge of the counter, superimposed over a colour-bar that identifies their divisional affiliation (this is something reflected in the layout of the Confederate and Union Order of Battle cards, which we’ll see coming up). The regiments that make up the brigade are also listed on each counter, which has no game value, but adds to the historical depth of the game and is a nice, respectful touch.

The orientation of the unit counters is crucial in the game; the top long edge of the counter represents the front facing side of the unit, and the unit is paces in the hex side to side, to that edge is acing two hexes. These represent the front. The two hexes below the counter are the units rear, and the remaining hexes meeting the side edges of the unit are its flank. This configuration will, of course, impact on movement and combat. Up to three brigades may stack together in a hex (as well as up to two leaders), but only two of these may be infantry brigades. That's all I'm going to say about brigade units at this point. I'm no expert yet - wait for the AAR.

The Players' Aid Card. Only one is provided, but by the end of the second game,
you'll probably remember most of the regular tables.

Fire on the Mountain comes with a single Player Aid Card, a Set-Up and Reinforcements schedule, and two Order of Battle cards, one each for the Confederate and Union players. All of these are single-sided and printed on a sturdy weight of card-stock.

The PAC offers a quick reference Sequence of Play and charts for the Burnside Roll (reflecting Burnside’s order to all Union formations on his arrival at the battle to disengage with the enemy until he had taken stock of the situation), and charts for Rallying and Regrouping units, checking Morale, and a set of guidelines for Commander behaviours (various Commanders may be subject to different conditional rules in certain circumstances).

The Union Order of Battle;

...and the Confederate Order of Battle. Note how provision has been made
for the multiple-step units.

The Orders of Battle cards allow for the setting out of each side’s units in a coherent and organised fashion. Each Brigade has a corresponding template of each of its step-counters on the Order of Battle (one, to or three counters), and these are grouped by division. This is unusual in this kind of set-up, but it removes the need to stack and swap out units' step-counters on the fly.  Personally, I think this is a great approach; it should speed up solo play especially.

The game should exhibit a low counter-density. This is partly due to staggered arrival of the reinforcements for both sides over the course of eight turns, but also because, even if every unit from both sides were to be deployed at exactly the same time, this would still only come to twenty-nine units for the Confederate player and thirty-five for the Union.

The Set up and Reinforcement Schedule (as I like to call it).

The Set Up and Reinforcements schedule is just that, a card that lists the set-up locations for the initial forces, and breaks down the reinforcements list turn by turn to make it easier to track. Each unit that starts on the map is represented by its divisional commander and a reference to its position or on the board’s numbered hex-grid. The reinforcements are presented as a list of Confederate or Union divisions, with a map entry hex for those units.

Some games build the reinforcement schedule into the Order of Battle, but given both the size of the unit counters and the relatively low density on the board – there are only about sixty units among the two sides combined – I think this is a more sensible approach.

As always, the good folks at Legion Wargames have provided zip-loc bags in sufficient quantities to house the game’s loose components. I’m old enough to remember when coins still came in paper rolls and the best way to store game counters was in empty matchboxes or, if you were lucky enough to have a supplier, typewriter ribbon cases, so I always appreciate it when these are provided, even when they don’t get used. Fire on the Mountain also comes with ten dice, five each in red and black. Ten in all, which (as mentioned earlier) is the total highest number of dice to be used in a single roll, so that makes sense. I’m not sure if there is any significance to the two colours of dice as I haven’t finished going through the rules yet, but for what it’s worth, they do look like nice dice.

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So, that covers the components of Fire on the Mountain. Everything looks functional and really quite nice. The counters should really stand out on the map, and the housekeeping should be a breeze with the Orders of Battle cards and the reinforcement schedule. I should point out that the Set Up and Reinforcement Schedule isn’t actually called that, but that’s how I thought about it and now I can’t stop calling it that. The word “schedule” never appears on the card or – so far as I’m aware – in the rules. Don’t get uptight when your copy just has “19.0) GAME SET UP” at the top.

This has been the second part of my exploration of my three-game Legion catch-up order. I don’t think I’m going to get to part three, A Glorious Chance (Legion Wargames, 2023) for a couple of weeks, given family commitments over the holidays, but I may surprise myself. In the meantime, thanks for reading this far, and hope the season is good to you and yours.

 

* This is not meant to be an indictment against the misuse or wrongful allocation of the picture; Barron no doubt did his best with the resources he had to hand. The US Army Center of Military History still represents the painting on their website as being Turner’s Pass. These things when left this long tend to take on a life of their own, and while everyone else appreciates the fine work or the stirring narrative, only pedants and curmudgeons mutter their disapproval.