12 Confederate Regiments rebased

And then there were 12.

Plus 4x stands of skirmishers. I've another 4 battalions worth to redo but they may wait a wee while longer.

All going well I'll be popping round to Kent's for a game of ACW Black Powder this Wednesday night

Craig

...then there were 8.

Another 4 regiments rebased- which means only 8 more (or thereabouts) to go :). To re-base 4 regiments is a good 4+ hours work.

Flags
I originally used flags I'd managed to locate on the internet but Tim D had the flags out of the Perry ACW boxed sets at the Gettysburg game and I thought they looked good so changed all the flags as well. Rather than use the flags as is, I photocopied them and used paper versions as they are a bit easier to work with.

Craig

More ACW

The game at the weekend was absolutely stunnig- great terrain, great opponents (and allies) and wesome loking armies. I got isnpired by some of te other armies I saw and decided I need to improve my own Rebs. First stop the basing!

I like Roger's 5cm x 4cm bases- same frontage, just less deadspace on the stand. So I have already rebased 3x (Black Powder) regiments (12 stands) and added a 4th.

Next stop tonight is to highlight some of the darker colours to make them pop a bit more- love the different painting techniques on display at the weekend- of only I could have grabbed a stand of each style for future reference.

4 newly based regiments ready for action.

 A comparison between the new and old base depths.

 And the first of my rebased artillery and limber :)

 Here is a good comparison between the depth of units- same frontage when deployed into line, just less depth when marching.

 

 Craig

Gettysburg 2013

About 20 gamers congragated in Christchruch for our 150th anniversery game using Fire & Fury Brigade rules. I missed the  morning moves of day one as I had sporting commitments with my son's soccer team then drove up to CHCh (2 hours) for the action, arriving just after lunchtime.

We used a rather large L shaped table (about 23 ft long x 20 ft?)

A view from my end of the table. Most of the following shots will concentrate on the action at my end of the table as that's where I was focused (surprise/surprise).

 The central front before Tim & Justin Driver's division (Picket's Div).

 A view towards Big Round Top. Dave & my division (we took 2 brigades each) marched all day to the summit capturing it unfortunately due to tardy rolls and the slow turn times I only actually get to roll one combat die all day- the last throw of the dice on day 1! We didn't get within cooee of the enemy!

 Some yankees in the central region.

 And the action on our far left front.

At last! 5:30 pm (in real time), Adam had retreated Ward's Brigade from the Devil's Den to save it fro the threat of rebel artillery. This allowed my brigade to march in unopposed and settle down to some warm soup on their fires. All was going well when the yankees charged back up the hill catching us by surprise. Contact at last- bout bloody time!

 We both lost a stand then the yankee attack faltered and they were driven off!

And so at the end of the first day. McLaw's division to my immediate left (run by Roger of the Rebel Barracks fame) had been decimated but my own division had captured 2 of the important victory point features for almost no losses- or action too for that matter. So overnight both sides got to regroup and reposition their defences. In the morning there was a slight miscommunication between the rebel commanders. Dave and I thought we were still to try to take Little Round Top (an major VP if we did) so put our elite brigades on our far right hoping to turn the union line.   Unfortunately we then realised we were meant to actually hold what we'd captured-oops!

The thick blue line- at least 8 brigades faced us on Little Round Top- gulp!

 Rogers fantastic buildings!

 The yankees await the attack of Law's and Robertson's brigades.

 In the centre Pickett's troops (Tim Driver) snuck up to the fence overnight as a jumping off point for their famous charge- though they did a practice one on day one as well!

 Charge! Dave launches our assault on Little Round Top-driving back three of the other Dave's brigades. This is starting to look promising.

 Action on the other flank.

 In their turn Ward's brigade (Adam charged) driving my brigade back out of the Devil's Den. Roger "McLaw" wasn't going to put up with that and charged! He routed a brigade then swept over the Den in his breakthrough move, driving Ward's brigade back. 

The high water mark. My brigade managed to get just beneath the summit of Little Round Top and was then sent packing by a huge union counter charge of 3 brigades. All Hood's brigades were now worn so we went back onto the defensive and held on to what we had gained.

 Some of Russell B's rebels.

And so the game ended. Time was called with Dave and I holding on to Big Round Top and Roger in charge of the Devil's Den. I was a bit surprised when the game ended thinking it was still in the balance. We Rebs were taking a pounding but had managed to captured more of the key terrain features and once losses were taken into account had a marginal (by rather Phyrric) victory- 116 pts to 108.

Thoughts
The Southern  Strategists put on a great spectacle but I'm not sure I liked the rules- not decisive enough for my liking- I think maybe 3 brigades were destroyed overall. Unfortunately Martin had spent several weeks getting his army ready and did not even get to deploy on day one so flagged day 2! Dave and myself didn't get any units into contact until the very end of day one- though had 3 hours of bloody assaults this morning. Kent found himself in a similar situation on the far end of the table. Action hotted up for us on day 2 but the game still played a bit slow for my liking- not much that could be done about that though.

 It was an enjoyable game and everyone seemed to have fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed the banter between Roger/myself and Dave B  on the Rebel side vs Adam, Nick (Dan Sickles) and the other Dave on the Union side. Lots of fun at the expense of die rolls, but the rules themselves? Not sure they were ideal for the size of the game especially as we used the 1:200 scale so had very large brigades making it difficult to get enough decisive results or bleed units white and make any real headway. Still the game looked spectacular and there were many, many moments of anguish and triumph up and down the table as the fickle dice gods made their mark. At the end of the day that's what it is all about.

Thanks to Geoff for umpring, Roger & the Strategists for putting the game on, and all the guys for showing up and getting into the spirit of the game.

Craig

Gettysburg: The Battle draws closer...

Tomorrow all the preparation will finally be over, figures painted, terrain built and gamers gathered. I finished off my last few odds and sods last night- some casualty figures for disordered markers and  couple of horses to act as limbers.
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I will be commanding Hoods Division. No doubt my troops will be tasked with taking Little Round Top from the dastardly Nick Garden acting as Dan Sickles. It should be a great weekend

Here is a report on Hood from the NY times.

Craig

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