ACW- Fire & Fury playtest

Tonight Dave, Kent and I got together to try and suss out the rules we'll be using at the weekend.  Dave and I used my Hood Division force (we will be sharing the command over the weekend) and Kent used a similarly sized Union force. We played through a few turns to get a feel of the rules and I must say I quite like them. As with all rules I felt that some tweaking might be in order (such as maybe taking a loss if disordered for a second time and I'v heard some groups don't allow rear rank to fire but it would be a few more games before I'd make my mind up for sure). Overall though the rules were pretty intuiative and gave a good feel. It will be interesting to see how they handle 20+ players over the weekend.

Sorry was a bit busy flicking through the rulebook to take many photos. 

 

Craig

Gettysburg- almost finished

Last bits and pieces for the Gettysburg game this weekend. I've painted up another 4 stands of infantry (giving me a total of 48 stands). Tonight I painted up and based a cavalry limber and made a few ammo markers, using Rendra barrels.

 

 Tomorrow night we are hoping to do a little playtest game to try to get our heads round the rules.

Craig

Hoods Division done

48 stands, approximately 230 figures, mostly Perry plastics but more than a few Steve Barber miniatures and some metal Perry’s as well.

 

·         Law’s Brigade (14 stands)

·         Anderson’s Brigade  (12 stands)

·         Robertson’s Brigade(12 stands)

·         Benning’s Brigade  (10 stands)

 Commanders Hood & Lee discussing the battle.

 2x batteries of artillery (one more to go).

 What’s next? I’d like to add another brigade (12 stands) using the new marching confederates for even more variety.

Bring on the Gettysburg anniversary game!

More ACW- the end is in sight

My final brigade is well under way- 8 of the 10 stands needed for Bennings Brigade. So the end is definitely in sight. I have to do 4 more stands of marching infantry to do (2 of these stands will be used to complete one of the other brigades). I've ordered some Perry metals in frock coats for more variety so won't be able to finish the last four stands until they arrive.

To speed up the process these guys are simply block painted and then a wash of the water based Army Painter soft tone- which I really enjoy using- then based. Done to a reasonable gaming standard in pretty good time. I've also decided to simplify the look of my Rebs- I am using 2-3 shades of grey and Vallejo tan for a butternut look now and then to break it up a bit- enough variety in colours to keep in interesting. Most of the figures are Perry plastics but a few are Steve Barber. Many of the Perry plastics have Barber head swaps. 

 To save painting up more stands I have decided to use my mounted Black Powder Brigade commanders to represent my brigadiers

And something a bit more random. The weekend saw us pass the shortest day here at the bottom of the world. I took this picture about 8am this morning as the sun was rising in the east the moon was setting over the Hunter Hills in the west, reflecting the light of the rising sun.

Craig

Progress sort of...

My painting & gaming apathy has continued. In fact the only "gaming" I've been doing has been playing Allied Corps, the allied version of Panzer Corps. It is now only a couple of weeks until the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg game and I had decided I wasn't going. I have a few other commitments such as sports teams I run, on the Saturday so had decided to flag it, giving Dave my troops to run. However yesterday I had a change of heart and decided I will try to make it- at least for the afternoon of Saturday (will leave straight after Finn's soccer game and so be in CHCh by 1-2pm. Che and I originally decided to go halves in Hoods Division but I now see I am slated to do the whole thing- a quick count up of figures yesterday left me quite a few stands short!

I have to provide:

Anderson’s Brigade- 14 strands

·        (8th, 9th, 11th and 9th Georgia) 

·        

Robertson's Brigade (The Texas Brigade)- 12 stands

(1st,  4^th & 5^th Texas,  3^rd Arkansa)  

Law's Brigade- 12 stands 

(4th, 15th, 44th, 47th and 48th Alabama)
 

Benning’s Brigade (Henry L Benning)- 10 stands

·         (2n, 15th, 17th & 20th Georgia)

So I found myself 13 stands short! Yesterday I painted up  3 more and have 10 more stands and a commander to go (basically Benning's Brigade), along with a battery of artillery. So this week I have to do some painting!

I thought I'd give the troops a quick roll call.

Armenian Reinforcements

After slacking round for the last few weeks I actually did some painting last night. My game the other day I needed some Turcopoles to use as lighter Armenian Cavalry so painted up a couple of stands last night and rebased 2 stands worth or Crusader Miniatures Norman crossbowmen as well.

Other things I'm looking forward to...

I have recently received my Ebob Mongols (they need to be made soon list) but am REALLY  looking forward to the new Mongols from Fire Fore games. The Mongols are one of my favourite armies and are somewhat under represented on the gaming table.
 
 Can't wait till they are released


Craig

Impetvs- 500 pts Armenians vs First Crusaders

It has been several weeks since Kent and I managed a game. Yesterday was Queens Birthday (a public holiday) here in NZ so we arranged a game of Impetvs with my Armeains vs his crusaders.

I took (split into two x even commands
4x heavy knights (VBU 7)
4x standard knights
4x foot light javelinmen
6x heavy foot
2x crossbows
2x shortbows

Kent ran:
4-5 knights
2x CM turkopoles
3-4 foot knights
3-4 foot sergeants
6x crossbows
2x shortbows

Having faced my Seljuks and Syrian armies Kent maxed out his crossbow options, obviously to keep my cavalry away from his troops. Kent put all his cavalry in one command and his infantry in the other.

My lighter cavalry are holding my flanks. 

 The armenian army advances to stop the Crusader incurision into their territory.

 Kent led with his crossbow units. We both manged to destroy a unit of crossbowmen in long range firefight but he has a lot more of them than I do.

 I refuse my centre and wait developments. Once the impetuous knights are released and start going forward they are hard to stop.

 The accursed crossbowmen taunt the Armenians

 I threw my javelinmen at the Franks skirmishers but lost one unit very quickly. The second unit was attacked in the flank by some foot sergeants and several rounds of combat resulted before either unit broke.

 In the centre my heavy (VBU 7) knights tried t charge home their advantage but having done some damage they were repulsed having taken heavy losses.

 On my far left flank my lighter knights tried to ride down Kent's coveing forces but again failed to drive home the charge.

 I was starting to take serious losses on my left flank so decided to advance the centre to try to claw things back.

 On the far right I managged to kill a unit of turcopoles but then the second unit and some knights decided to get involved and my light troops once again melted away.

 In the centre Kent finally decided too unleash his own knights who had been waiting on opportunity for the battle to unfold.

 Confused fighting rages in the centre as the two armies engage.

 My Armenian foot (my last reserve) advances to support my knights who have become bogged down.

 To little to late though. Both Armenian commands are broken in the same turn as is the Crusader knight command but the Crusader infantry division is barely scratched and holds the field.

Once again the knights claim the glory but it was Kent's foot troops that held their ground and at the end of engagement held the field.

A fun game, lots of topsy, turvy dice rolls. My heavy hitting knights (VBU 7) were not as effective as I'd hoped but even so they could still take a lot of damage before being destroyed. I was happy with the army overall. The only real change is going to be the balance between infantry and knights in each command. I might make a foot and a mounted command next time as that seemed to work really well for Kent.

Craig