The Road to Bull Run – 17 July 1861 – Near Dranesville, Northern Virginia

An advance party of the Colonel Ambrose Burnside Federal Column comprised of Colonel John Slocomb 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers has been order to take a crossing in preparation for the movement of the Union Army of Northeastern Virginia against the Rebel encampment at Manassas Junction.

The advance party, consisting of four squads of Company B and one Company H of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers moved in the early morning hours ahead of the main force. Shortly after sunrise near Dranesville, Virginia the advance party encountered the most northern detachment of Confederate Army of the Potomac, the First Louisiana Special Battalion at a small bridge crossing Difficult Creek. The First Louisiana Special Battalion under Major Roberdeau Wheat, consisting of three squads of Tiger Rifles and one squad from the Catahoula Guerrillas and one squad of Swedish Jagers (A Mercenary Unit Recruited on the Docks of New Orleans).

Deployed North and West of the old Arlington House, a European Style Villa, Captain Jimbo Fitzgerald, a cagy veteran with vast experience in all forms of miniature combat, deployed the Swedish Jagers in a wood line and the squad of Catahoula Guerrillas moved along the small track that served as the road for the locals. Captain Mark deployed his three sections of Tiger Rifles to the north and east of the Arlington House in parade ground formations.

The 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers were deployed in two divisions, the jolly Bavarian Captain Conan commanding the section of the Kent Guard and one section of the Company B on the west side of the road north of the White Farmstead. Captain Andy with three sections of the Company B faced off against Captain Mark on the east side of the road.

The terrain was almost evenly divided on the west side of the battlefield by a line of trees on the north side of Difficult Creek. On the east side of the road the White Farmstead dominated the center with solid stone fence along the east west road. A decent sized open field bordered on the south by heavy woods and the Arlington house and on the north by the stonewall filled the south eastern corner of the battlefield.

The Jolly Bavarian and Captain Jimbo had a race for the stonewall while Captain Andy and Captain Mark sprinted at a dead ahead slow speed for the wood line.

The section of Company B under Captain Conan made it easily to the stone wall leaving the mercenary Swedish Jagers caught out in the open. The Catahoula Guerrillas moved ahead to take the split rail fence along the intersection ahead of the slow moving Kent Guard.
On the west side neither Captain Andy or Mark could motivate their troops to do anything beside stand and look pretty.

A protracted firefight between the squad of Rhode Islanders behind the stonewall and Swedes continued for several minutes as the Kentish Guard got their dander up and charged the Catahoula Guerrillas who decided an all out retreat, I mean strategic redeployment to the south was in the best interest.

Captain Mark finally got his first squad of Tiger Rifles to march in parade ground perfection forward and Captain Andy also got his boys to move along in more of a gaggle than a block. The Tiger Rifles took the first volley and the first squad of Company B seemed to disappear. The second squad of Company B fired through the wood line into a squad of Tiger Rifles.

A squad from Captain Andy’s Company B moved up on the Catahoula Guerrillas and both the Kent Guard and the squad from Company B fired multiple volleys. In an unexpected moment the squad form Company B moved forward one additional turn pulling itself out of position as it fired one last volley into the already decimated Catahoula Guerrillas.

Captain Mark finally got his Tiger Rifles to move forward and fire multiple volleys into the remaining squad on the west side of the road. Outnumbered three to one the lone section of Company B on the west side of the road hit the road as the Rhode islanders Skedaddled, leaving what is left of the Kentish Guard, two heavily damaged sections of Company B against the basically untouched Tiger Rifles.
As the Tiger Rifles swung to the East it caught a squad of Company B on a small hill and several squads of Tigers fired volleys into Company B. The next squad of Company B disappeared in hail of musket balls, leaving two heavily damaged squads.
As the Tiger Rifles moved forward another volley fire was leveled at the last squad of Company B and they skedaddled quickly after the fire. The Kentish Guard attempted to with draw under fire.
Lacking orders to advance the First Louisiana Special Battalion looked to their wounded as they controlled the battlefield.

A couple notes on Gameplay:

I play tested this game several times and had virtually no problem moving squads around, of course Jim and Mark as well as Andy had an average move of what seemed like 2 inches for the first couple of turns. Is it a problem in scenario if one or both sides cannot role at least average dice.

During the play test we started with eight squads and a half section of artillery a side, each time we ran the scenario we scaled it back, I think however I took it one step to far with five squads a side, should have been six.

Players easily controlled three squads a piece and I think that is a nice number for players to control.

Will be working on adding three more squads for the Kentish Guard and four Squads for the First Louisana Special Battalion before starting new Companies. In addition I need to finish the Union Artillery even though I don't expect to use them very often.

Looking Ahead to 2012

As October 15th comes to a close I am looking ahead to next year. Gaming wise this year has been a disaster to say the least with a total lack of time and ability to push lead minimized by the personal issues that have haunted my footsteps. But the end of a number of issues is in sight, there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and it doesn't appear to be an oncoming train. So yes I have thought about my projects for next year.

I will be running two games at Con of the North and partcipating in a couple of others. The first game is a 25mm Brother against Brother Scenario for my 1861 (Early War) collection of figures I am painting up. The second game is a 25mm Horse Musket and Gun scenario featuring my French and Austrian Collection in one of the lesser know battles of the 100 Days Campaign, la Suffel. So I am busily painting up figures for both of those games. In addition I am working on adding enough terrain to make those an interesting as possible and still be playable. No Roman Hedges in my future.

My next project is my 1862 Battles on the Peninsula game I am looking to run, hopefully at a spring ReCon. I am working slowly on figures for that as well. My plan is to use the ACW variant of Rank and File, but if Horse Musket and Gun works I may just stick with that in effort to not teach people too many rule sets.

Speaking of Horse Musket and Gun I plan on doing far more work on that over the winter. Many discussions with Kelley and what's left of the group in Stuttgart really made me reconsider how some of the mechanics are working. The result of these email exchanges have lead me to consider making two rule sets rather than one. The First Rule Set is for Mass Battles the second is more of smaller skirmish (small action not 1 to 1) game. I have been trying to combine the two into one game and honestly I think that has been my problem.

With that in mind I am going to attempt and run what I hope will be a large 25mm Napoleonics game on Saturday June 16th. My goal is to have a table 30 to 40 feet long and 3 five foot wide sections as the field of battle. That is a lot of space, the question is do we have enough figures and more importantly enough players to make it worth while.

On the figure side of that question, I have just shy of a Corps of French Infantry, light Artillery, Command and Cavalry. I will be adding 6 more battalions of painted French from the Old Glory Painted, leaving me short six battalions of Legere for a French Corps and a Division from the Second Corps. Artillery well I am going to have to bite the bullet and buy some more figures, probably a mix of War Games Foundry and Old Glory 1st Edition. Legere however is a tough question, I wouldn't mine some of the Plastics, but man are the poses hideous. In the Vitrix I figure I would be throwing out 1/3 of the figures.

I also have a division of Minor and by Minor I mean minor, French Allied. You got to love the minor Confederation of the Rhine states. With them and the other figures I am planning on buying that should give me two full French Corps. Fitz has a Division of French, short Artillery. Keith and Violence both have a Brigade of Bavarians. Joel Gregory has a French Corps.

On the Allied Side I have a workable Austrian Corps. Fitz has a Russian Corps, short Artillery, Joel Gregory has two Prussian Brigades and a mix of Austrians.

Jim has informed me he has 300 to 400 unpainted Prussians, BJ and Ray have decided to paint Russians and I have way to much unpainted and half-painted lead.

So if we get everyone to show up it could be well worth while game. Especially as a couple of other players hem and haw about participating.

I am also painting up a good deal of Austrians and Swedes for the Era of the War of Austrian Succession. Yeah I know Swedes foe the Hat's War, I love punishment. I have a good Start on an Austrian Brigade and Swedish Battalion. I am hoping to try a game of BaR by the end of next year. As a continuation of this I have a French Brigade and a British Brigade technically for the F&IW but who's counting.

I am really taking a long hard look at my AWI collection and wondering what to do with it, as the Wilderness Wars Rule seem to be too fundamentally flawed to continue with and I have way to many figures painted. Maybe a BaR variant?

Well off to bed, after listing a small sample of what i will be working on for 2012, and I am already looking at 2013 with reverence and awe, as the 200, 150, and 70th anniversaries. I see Gettysburg, Leipzig and North Africa in my future.

Completed 2 Sections of Confederate Artillery for Brother Against Brother

While it isn't a huge under taking I completed two sections of Washington's Louisiana Light Artillery for Brother Against Brother. This includes 11 Artillerists (1 Officer and 2 NCOs and 8 Privates) and 2 Union 12# Napoleonic Guns.

I purchased a bag of Union 12# Napoleonic Guns and if the project gets large enough will pick up a confederate 12# Napoleonic Gun Bag I just can't justify $35 ($21) to get two guns and let the other four just sit there for now. Considering most people can't tell the guns and limbers apart I am okay with it for now.

Next on to completing the 20 Louisiana Tigers I have started plus some more terrain.

June 25th - ACW my place

My wife (future ex-wife) and Son will be out of town the weekend of June 25th and 26th, leaving me to my own devices. Seems like a perfect oppertunity to get in some extra, wait considering how little I game lately ANY, gaming in. I am really not in the mood to game in public, I might be a bit too high strung and ready to go ballastic on too many people to endure a ReCON!.

My Goal is to put on a smallish game of Brother Against Brother putting on about 6 squads a side plus some artillery.

I have been working on finishing up some 25mm Terrian, have a plan for some Corn Rows, and maybe break down and get some other road sections done. I hope to purchase a building from JR Miniatures and maybe a barn, however I am committing to get a lot of stuff painted between now and then.

If I can't get stuff painted will fall back on a 15mm Game either Rally, Fields of Honor, or Fire and Fury, there are enough of those figures floating around.

1862 Project Google Document

The following Google Spreadsheet is openly viewable for those people that want to follow this link.

Brother against Brother

Years ago I purchased a number of 25mm ACW figures for a couple of projects, the first was attempting to do 25mm Mass Combat (cough Gettysburg Campaign cough). I have/had a fairly substantial collection of 15mm figures, mostly Confederate Troops that were supposed to be for a number of failed campaigns. Right now I think I have at least 75% of the Army of Northern Virgina, short Artillery and some of the Specialized Figures at 1 stand = 100 men and 1 gun = 1/2 battery.

Lately I have been painting up the 25mm figures which have been in a box unpainted for at least eight years. The Union I Corps at 1 stand = 50 Men painted at paper strength is coming along, with four Regiments of thirteen Regiments completed. There are another two regiments in the works on the painting table. For the Confederates I have been working on Heth's Division of with two regiments painted and one more on the painting table. So now that I am getting to a point where I will be able to demonstrate the game and attempt to get other interested in painted time to look at some other figures.

I have 60 Zouaves with Straw Hat that I purchased for a Brother Against Brother (BAB) project that never went anywhere. Like so many other projects I got started in more than a decade ago my partners all disappeared when it came time for the rubber to hit the road.

I think I am going to try and get a some number of figures done for BAB as well. it really won't take many figures to make two playable forces and I have a good start at some terrian. Arguably to make two armies to allow 6 to 12 players a chance to push figures and roll dice I am talking 60 figures a side, give or take a couple.

In talking with Tom Zwirn, who has an interest in doing 1861, an idea sprung into my head over the weekend, 1861 for BAB. Units would be relativily small and there would be a wide variaty of uniform options available.

The Two Forces I plan on painting or Wheat's Tigers and 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment, being the two forces collided at the First Battle of Bull Run it is a fitting grouping.

What is interesting about the Two Units is the detail of the Uniforms that are available for the 1861 Campaign. I personally like the Kentish Guards for the 2nd Rhode Island.

To start with I will be painting 30 to 40 figures in two companies for both sides. Starting with the Tiger Rifles and the Kentish Guards, my goal is to have 40 figures in each of the Companies (four squads of 10) with one Squad being the Color/Guard and three Squads of Troopers. Both Sides will end up with Five Companies, that 200 figes a side, which I think is reasonable.

For the Wheat's Tigers:
Company A - Walker’s Guards – (WBS-41 – Zouaves with Fez)
Red Fex, Blue Tassle, Dark Brown Jacket Red Trim, White Pants with Stripes
Company B - Tiger Rifles – (WBS-42 – Zouaves with Straw Hats)
Straw Hat, Dark Blue Jacket, Red Trim, Grey Pants)
Company C - Catahoula Guerrillas – (WBS-39 – Zouaves with Kepi)
Blue Kepi, Dark Grey Top, Red Trim, White Pants
Company D - Delta Rangers
Red Fez, Red Tassle, Dark Blue Jacket with Red Trim, White Pants with Blue Stripes
Company E – Wheat’s Life Guard
Red Fez, Blue Tassle, Dark Blue Jacket with Red Trim, White Pants with Light Blue Stripes

I don't have all teh details yet on the 2nd Rhode Island, so stay tuned.

Company H - Kentish Guard

ACW 1862 in 2012

After talking with several people I am going to move forward with the plan for a game in summer of 2012 to commemorate a number of battles fought in 1862, which I am for now call 1862 in the East.   Due to the scale of the game I am considering trying to organize I think a year’s preparation time may be needed.
Tentatively I am basing the concept of the game around the Seven Days’ Battle which was the conclusion of the Peninsula Campaign using Rank and File in 25mm with 1 stand representing 50 men.   The game will be configured for approximately 20 players, 10 players on each side with each player pushing roughly a brigade of troops.  
The game is based upon the Peninsula Campaign I will be using troops from a number of Corps which are available so the Order of Battle is not exact.   My figures are organized for the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, Union I Corps and Confederate 2nd Division III Corps.
Union
4 Brigades (provided by Jeff J)
1 Brigade (provided by Fitz)
 
Confederate
4 Brigades (provided by Jeff J)
 
I know several people have figures for the period, both painted and unpainted and have ‘volunteered’ to provide figures, so I am asking people to commit now, even if it is just a Brigade.   
If we get beyond 10 brigades per side brigades will be added equally to both sides.
 
A generic Brigade will consist of 4 Regiments of 5 (or more) stands.   My figures are mounted 3 infantry figures to a 1 ½” square base.   It is not the figures that matter but the bases and as long as the bases are close in size than all is good.
At this Scale an Artillery Stand represents 2 guns, so 3 stands represent one Battery.
 
The game will be played on either four or five tables.   If only four tables two tables stacked in the center and two single table of each flank are a possibility (depending on location).
Prior to the Game the players will be assigning brigades to each of the tables.   Each Table will have a number of points available varying be sides and the strategic importance.   The idea is that players will be doing grand tactical movement and then each table will be fought independently. 

24th Michigan

This weekend I primed up 30 figures Old Glory "Iron Brigade" figures that will become the 24th Michigan Regiment of the Iron Brigade (1st Brigade, 1st Division, I Corps, Army of the Potomac).

I got about half the unit completed, painting 3 figures or 1 stand at a time. Currently my plan is to paint up 10 stands for each unit (unless like the Vermont Boys there were 15 stands) and a 1:2 ratio for Artillery. That ratio should allow me to drop down to 1:100 and 1:200 fairly easily if need be. However for now...

Once I complete the 24th Michigan that gives me the 2nd Wisconsin and the 24th Michigan out of the Iron Brigade and the 14th Brooklyn out of the second brigade complete. I have the figures short command for the 147th New York, and a third unit tbd out of the second brigade. That leaves 3 Regiments out ot the Iron Brigade and 2 Regiments of the 2nd Brigade. To complete the 1st Division. Man that is a lot of figures.

I have 30 of the 36 artillerists and I am pretty sure all the actually artillery pieces.

American Civil War – in 25mm

After years of debating what to do with all those 25mm American Civil War I picked up for better or worse I have finalized a plan.

I have decided to mount 3 figures on a 1 ½ inch square base with five bases to a typical battalion/regiment, thus one stand represents about 100 men. Putting 4 or 5 of these battalions together with a mounted colonel and a stand of artillery will than represent a brigade.

Due to the fact I have so many figures I gave Jim a bag of the Union's Irish Brigade (II Corps, 1^st Division, 2^nd Brigade), Keith a bag of VI Union Corps, and Joe Knight a bag with figures from the XI Corps. They will need to add a second bag to complete their brigades, but it should be fairly cheap ($30 to get everything they need). I then handed Tom Zwirn a pack of like 100 Confederate Figures and told him to paint up whatever he want and hand me back the rest of the figures, which is semi organized for Early's Division of Second Corps.

I personally have painted up the First Division (Both the Iron Brigade and Cutler's 2^nd Brigade) from 1^st Corps and a couple of Brigades of Heth's Division (Pettigrew and Brockenbrough) as my commands. Or rather I had them painted up.

The plan is to use Crusader Games "Rank and File" with their upcoming ACW Supplement. The decision to start out with "Rank and File" is more about getting nice easy simple rules (Beer and Pretzels) that minimizes the need of multiple people buying the rules and HOPEFULLY minimizes the need arguing over the intent of the rules vs. what they actually say. Of course with so many rules I wanted to avoid (cough Johnny Reb III cough) this was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated when I bought the figures. The fact that Crusaders rules aren't going to cost me big dollars and have a decent print quality to them didn't hurt either. I should add I don't think these rules are perfect, rather I think these rules will allow us to get started and really debate what we want to do as a group.

My goal is to get a couple of games run in 25mm later this summer and decide upon the level of interest and how much effort people want to put into the period. For me, since I already own the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in 15mm at 1 stand = 100 men I really um undecided upon how much effort I want to put into it. I am thinking about re-organizing the ANV as 1:150 per base for Fire and Fury and selling off the extras, IE Basic Fire and Fury using the proceeds to finish off the Union which I currently have about 1/3 of the Army of the Potomac. Since I am short Artillery for the ANV it actually might workout okay.

Future Gaming at Chez Johnson

After the success of our last game I have received my wife’s special permission to host a game about once every two months at our house. So in pulling out the calendar and check the busy social schedule for the rest of the year, I only wish I was kidding on the busy part, here are the dates and plans for the upcoming games.

Saturday September 26th: 25mm Napoleonic Gaming using Horse Musket and Gun
Friday November 27th: American Civil War using Fire and Fury

The goal for each of these games is to have about 8 players give or take a couple. The gaming table is 16’ long and if I can get off my ass 6’ wide. If we assume a deployment space of at least 4’ wide that gives us a space for about 4 players a side. That is on the tight side of course, where 6’ is a much better deployment zone but beggars can’t be choosers.
The biggest challenge faced is parking, a downfall of living in a Rental Community I guess. There are only about half-a-dozen parking spots nearby and another dozen within a couple blocks. I would love to see some carpooling action, make life a lot easier.

The Napoleonic Game will be open game and we will use any available 25mm Napoleonic figures that are mounted similarly to mine or are close enough that we can make do. Right now between myself and Fitz I think we can field the following:
Austrian: 2 Commands / -
British: - / 1 Command
French: 3 Commands / 1 Command
Russian: - / 1 Command

That gives us roughly four commands per side. We might be a little light here and there but it should be doable. Several others have indicated an interest in painting figures and bring theirs along which would greatly “increase” the size of commands back to regulation sizes.

For the American Civil War game I have just listed Fire and Fury and not a scale. I have about six regiments of 25mm Figures painted and another six somewhat ready but needing the final detail work. Of course I have no Dismounted Cavalry and no Artillery at the moment, but that is a something fairly easily added. So that being said I would love to do the game in 25mm, but I need to get more figures painted. There is some time yet to make a decision on the final plan for this game.

As a full back plan, I have more than enough 15mm Confederates Painted (Okay I can field most of the Army of Northern Virginia at 1:33) and a decent amount of Union so if worse come to worse the game will be in 15mm.

Weekend Projects

I plan on working on the following projects this weekend:

25mm French and Indian War - Canadian Militia

25mm French and Indian War - Langdoc Infantry Regiment

25mm French and Indian War - Guyenne Infantry Regiment

25mm American Civil War - 2nd Wisconsin

25mm American Civil War - 84th New York (20th New York Militia)

All figures just need to be based and seal coated.

I have decided to be a little more fancy with my basing technics for these figures. After mounting the figures I am going to attach some clumps of "Field Grass", glue a light brown ballast to the center of the base, and than use a burnt grass border around the figures. All this extra effort I hope will show off the detail of the figures.

ACW Figures in search of a Project - Follow Up

Over the past couple of days I have heard from a number of people on the subject of 25mm ACW.
On an aside I also learned why I get so much private email off my blogs and not as many comments as I’d like, so well I learned something it’s time to get back to gaming discussion.

I think after several discussions that a number of people are in a similar boat to me, they want to do something but you get so far into the project, stop and ask yourself what he frell am I doing.

Today I played in a game of 15mm ACW game “Rally Round the Flag” and confirmed why I hate the rules so, but that is another topic. But it did provide a good venue to have some discussions with others concerning 25mm gaming.

In 15mm I have the complete Army of Northern Virginia or damn close at a pretty low scale, 1:30, and for a period I find the battles so boring I don’t want to recreate that. Whether I play “Rally” or “Fields of Honor” or “Guns at Gettysburg” there is no reason to duplicate it.

So the question becomes what do I want to do?
The lowest scale is a skirmish game or some other game along those lines. This is actually the lowest number of figures needed and might be the quickest to get something started. In several games players might only need 20 to 30 figures or maybe as many as 60 in another game. The challenge here is how many players can you get involved and when does the game become unplayable. And I guess more importantly what rules would you use? I am not real happy with most of the rules as published and while many are okay none of them are great.
In talking with players here there really isn’t much interest for gaming at this level. I figure if you showed up with a game you could players to play and maybe a couple of players might paint figures.

The next level of gaming is small scale actions. Think about detachment and company level actions involving recon, supply, escape or dozens of other options. There are literally thousand of actions on this level during the course of the war and I suppose it holds the most interest to me. The problem here is the rules just don’t exist. Currently in the Twin Cities there are at least two groups attempting to play at this level, one group is playing up, using modified skirmish rules at a brigade level while the other group is playing down, using a modified version of a regimental game.
I know BJ will suggest TCHAEATD but after talking with other people and checking out the rules I will tell you I am not interested in them. I found a group that tried the rules and I would like to post a quote, anonymously since I haven’t asked if it was okay. “No doubt they [Too Fat Lardies] developed and play tested in 15mm but I doubt they played a game in 25mm with their basing and scales. The game just doesn’t work [in 25mm]. … We are left trying to figure out if we can salvage the game at 25mm.” I will say the rest of the note was not as kind to the rules. I have seen this issue before, my classic example is “Wilderness Wars” where the game works great in 15mm but seems to fall apart in 25mm.

When we move up the scale from here we really are left with things that we already have in 15mm. Regimental and Brigade Games; which I just don’t want to duplicate.

So I am left with 150 painted figures and another 600 or so unpainted figures, going what do I do with these.

Fitz knows where I have been going for the past couple of months, while he has been “supportive” I am not sure he agrees with what seems to be coming down the pike.

The idea I have bounced around is to take a game system with many of the same principals you find in the ACW from another period and adopt it for ACW. The game I am looking at is “Drums of War along the Mohawk” by Bill Protz.

Of course a couple people are going to start screaming hypocrite because of my stand against a BAR or similar level game in the Napoleonic period. But I think there is one huge change between the Napoleonic Period and the American Civil War; the size of the Battalion. In the Napoleonic period battalions regularly number 720 men or greater, while a typical regiment/battalion in the 1862/1864 you are looking at 300 to 350 men. Well under 50% strength of the Napoleonic strengths, thus reducing the number of figures by 50%.
Additionally another interesting sidebar for the period is in the ACW you have just a few formations, Column of Fours (March Column), Line Abreast, an open line and skirmish. The Napoleonic period I can name four formations for a cavalry defense (Square, Battalion Mass, prone, brigade square) without even thinking about it.
Of course those that want to call me a hypocrite I understand.

Well enough rambling for now.

ACW Figures in search of a Project

For those that know me it is no surprise that I own a hundred or so painted 25mm ACW figures and have another seven hundred or so unpainted figures.

Over the years I have listened to dozens of proposals on what to do with these figures. A couple of times I was excited enough to claim I was ready to roll. But alas the figures are still unmounted and no game system been chosen.

The problem started five years ago when I was offered a large number of Old Glory 25 ACW figures at a large discount. As the ACW is far from my favorite period and I already owned a large number of Confederates in 15mm I Should have said no, but I didn’t. A great deal and I bought 45lbs of unpainted lead.

To me the problem is more along the lines of I am not really sure what I want to do with these figures. I don’t want to duplicate what I have in 15mm, which is the most of the Army of Northern Virginia at 1:30 but there is little if anything that excites me.

There are at least four groups in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota playing variants of “Brother against Brother”, a pseudo skirmish level game. While I have a passing interest in BaB, as it is called in many circles, these variants really leave me cold and uninterested. I have thought about basing my figures up and just running a couple of games closer to the rules as published than the other groups but I am not sure I want to deal with that headache.

There are a couple of groups looking at the British Rules “Guns at Gettysburg” a variant of General de’Brigade. Again I have a passing interest but there are a couple of hurdles to get over: the game is set at 1:20 which creates a scale problem and also requires the game to use a non-traditional ACW base (four figures on base in a 2x2 formation). The game has a nice look but over the years the more I have played GdB and its variants the less impressed I am with the core rules. They just missed something in the core rules I can’t quite put my finger on making my gut rumble as I play.

There is a group interested in doing “Rally Round the Flag”, an old standby which got lots of playing in the late eighties in 15mm. The problem is the rules are greatly outdated, being written in mid 1970’s and modern research and writings indicate that a number of the rules mechanisms not necessarily as accurate as once thought. There is a new edition of the rules available but they were meet with a lot of no way in heck am I playing those attitude.

I have suggested playing “Fire and Fury” which when suggested received the least amount of negativity. Here the problem is more along the lines of I really hate the Napoleonic Version of “Fire and Fury” called “Age of Eagles” and suddenly I find myself putting that same dislike into the original game, even though the reasons for my dislike of AoE have nothing to do with BOFF (Basic Original Fire and Fury).

So I am left with a Hundred Painted Figures and really no clue what I should be doing with them.

A suggestion that unfortunately has gotten some traction with me lately is writing my own rules and pissing off all the commercially available rules.

What do you think?

Gettysburg - Day Three

Starting to do a lot of reading on the American Civil War, which is interesting from a foreigners perspective.
I think everyone can agree that Picketts Charge didn't stand any reasonable chance of success.
But what should he have done instead?
Whats the verdict on the battle?

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=153704&page=1

My Responses:

Short Answer: Lee made the right choice based upon what he knew.

I apologize for such a long reply but the OP is a difficult question to answer. I will try to be as brief as possible. Forgive me if I oversimplify a number of issues. We are gamers and don't necessarily put into prospective the problems of politics and logistics that concern those in command of Armies.

Long Answer:

Up to and including the "Gettysburg Campaign" the intelligence reports for the both the Union and Confederacy were extremely flawed. Due to how the intelligence was gathered and disseminated the Union greatly over-estimated the strength of the Confederate Army while the Confederacy greatly under-estimated the strength Union Army. It is hard for us to understand that fact now that we "know" the real troop strengths but both sides thought the Confederate Army was numerically superior. By the "Gettysburg Campaign" both side we in the final stages of realizing how far off their intelligence reports were.
Today Robert E. Lee is a universally adored and loved personality in the South, in spring 1863 out-side of the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia he was not well liked. In the Confederate Government he only had one ally, Jefferson Davis I guess he is the only one that matters; the rest of the executive branch of the Government, especially the cabinet, held him in disdain and were active in looking to replace Lee as the commander of the most important Confederate Army. In the spring of 1863 James Seddon, the Secretary of the War for the Confederacy, requested the Jefferson Davis replace Lee with Longstreet. Davis refused.
Prior to the Battle of Chancellorsville the Confederate Government was planning the campaigns of 1863. In the last eight months of 1862 there were fourteen major engagements in Virginia, if 1863 followed suit than the war was lost before the first snows. The "Battle on their own ground" strategy was problematic for the south; while it allowed their inferior numbers to cope with superior numbers of the Union (they didn't realize that was the case) it played havoc with the Confederate ability to grow crops. The Executive Branch drew up objectives that they felt needed to accomplish in 1863. After many meetings the Cabinet drew up a series of objectives.
The primary objective was to pull the Union Army out of Virginia for the summer and early fall months. This would allow the crops to grow and be harvested without threat of the Union Army destroying them in field. It is important to remember that Virginia was the "breadbasket of the Confederacy" and that at least 1/3 of agricultural crops were grown in such a small section of the country. They needed that year's crops to survive as a nation that winter.
The second objective was to force the Union Army to redeploy on a grand tactical scale. Remember that the Confederate Army was believed superior in numbers and that because of Confederate forces defending Mobile, Knoxville, Charleston, Little Rock and dozens of other minor outposts they were more spread out. This is a much longer topic but for this discussion I am just paraphrasing what takes whole books to discuss in any detail.
The third objective was to relieve the pressure along the Mississippi Corridor. The Armies of Mississippi, Missouri, Western Louisiana, as well as Gardner's and Ruggle's Commands (in Port Hudson and Corinth respectfully) were all threatened by Grant's position in Southern Arkansas.
Multiple plans were presented including two competing plans by Lee and Longstreet. Lee suggests what becomes the Gettysburg Campaign while Longstreet plan suggesting taking his Corps from the ANV and create an independent army to streak at what becomes Burnside Command in Lexington Kentucky than moving Southwest and pushing Rosencran's between himself and Bragg. Longstreet's is the plan approved by the Cabinet but over ruled by Davis and Lee's plan is approved.
Lee understands the pressure placed on his position. Of course Lee's plans fall apart on May 10, 1863 when General Jackson dies of his wounds. Lee is forced to rework his plans and organization. However he has little time to rethink and replan as he is forced to move by the first week in June.
While I will skip the tactical movements from June 3rd to July 3rd I will talk a little bit about supply. The ANV was used to moving light and had three days of supplies at all times. This includes both food and ammunition. Every day foraging parties would return with at least another days worth of supplies while on the move. The Union Army had large amounts of supplies available in depots but not necessarily enough on the actual man. As an example it took a week to issue three days worth of supplies in early June to allow the AOP to start the full pursuit. This difference was amplified by the actions of J.E.B. Stuart cavalry as it disrupted the Lines of Communication in southern Pennsylvania and Central Maryland. This slowed down the movement of the Union Army allowing the ANV to get a much larger head start and more space than anticipated.
Between June 26th and when Meade assumes command the AOP, Jun 28th, the AOP stole a march on ANV. This movement of an additional 20 miles may not seem like much in modern terms but it is all that it takes to take the initiative away from the ANV. On the 28th Meade doesn't realize how much the last 48 hours have changed the course of the campaign.
Somewhere between May 10th and June 28th a new tactical aim was added to Lee's laundry list. He had to wreck the Army of the Potomac. In this era of Napoleonic ideas wrecking the opposing Army meant a titanic Battle in the mold of Napoleon's victory at Marengo or Austerlitz. However a more appropriate battle to examine would be Hohenlinden (Dec 3, 1800) in which French General Moreau catches the Austrian Army of Archduke John and is able to surround and destroy the Austrian Army in a piecemeal fashion. Austria sues for piece shortly thereafter.
One the evening of the 28th Lee decides to assemble the Army near Cashtown PA, this movement moves all three corps from behind the Blue Ridge/South Mountain Ranges to the same side as Union Army thus removing his screen.
After Day 1 at Gettysburg, Ewell made a tactical mistake by note pushing the disordered Union defense at Culp's Hill. Any hope of regaining the initiative for the AVN is lost. Thus Lee must make a plan to attack on Day 2. Again it is important to remember Lee believe the Union to number to be at most equal to his own and maybe slightly less. If you ever play out the battle using Lee's estimates of Union Strength you understand why he had the grand attack on Day 2 and then the follow up on Day 3.
Another issue that is rarely brought up but is an important factor here, Lee was very solitary person and he rarely kept anyone fully in his confidence. On Day 2 Longstreet didn't know the exact plan for Ewell and vice versa. It can be argued that because he saw specters of failure and ultimately his replacement around every corner or if just didn't have the staff many of his orders were not recorded in the same fashion as that of the Union. We depend on the writings after the war by Generals like Longstreet to GUESS at what Lee was thinking. After the War Lee only wrote once on the conduct of the war and that was to defend Longstreet when southern writers were looking to blame someone militarily for the failure.
On Day 3 Lee had to make a choice. He was facing a force that he believed was his equal in numbers and had historically had short term supply issues. They were strung out over about 15 miles from Buford's command south of the Peach Orchard to Gregg's command five miles east of Gettysburg. His spies reported that the Union had reinforced the wings of the line. In the center he estimates the strength of not more than 5,000. 5,000 would have been the correct number had the AOP numbered only 75,000 not the 95,000 there really was.
All said if we had to make Lee's decision on the Third Day we probably would have made a similar choice because based on the information Lee had it is the best choice.
As a minor follow up:We don't know is exactly what Lee ordered Stuart to do when he issued his VERBAL orders on the morning of the 3rd. Stuart dies before the end of the War and there is no written record of the exact order. What we do know is that Stuart Cavalry which has had a running battle with the Gregg's Cavalry (Less Buford) since June 26th mounts up and moves against the extreme right of the Union. There are a number of books on the premise of what was supposed to happen, including "Lost Triumph" by Tom Carhart, the most recent that I am aware of. Whether it is by chance or fate or simply because the Confederate Cavalry hasn't slept more than a few minutes at a time in over a week, the attack doesn't achieve its objective. Whether it is supposed to be a break through or simply to force the Union to move reserves to the right flank or anything else that you can come up with; while we don't know exactly what the order was all we do know is it didn't work.
Thus as Sally Pickett tells us, Pickett's Division goes forward (along with two others) and the high-water mark of the confederacy is achieved.
Lee has a number of options on the fourth day of battle, one in which both sides stare down each other. Lee misses his last opportunity to regain the initiative as the AOP in the field has virtually no supplies. Many men were without ammunition, food was scarce and water was in short supply. Lee whose Army was still in good supply and was ready to take the fight to the Union again decided to withdraw. It takes the AOP two days to resupply and begin the pursuit.
When you move beyond the battle and beyond the Lee's retreat we are left to look at the objectives laid out by the Confederate Government.
1) Pull the Union Army out of Virginia. This was done with great success. It allowed the Confederate Crops in Virginia to harvest in the end of the summer stockpiling almost 16 months supply as estimated later in the year. It was a very prophetic answer since the Confederacy last only 16 more months in the east.2) Force the Union Army to redeploy. The union army was not forced to redeploy any units, not because the plan was wrong but because the intelligence used to generate the plan was faulty. By the end of 1863 both the Union and Confederacy remake their intelligence agency and reports and get more accurate numbers on their advisories.3) Relieve pressure in the Mississippi Corridor.The plan failed to remove any pressure from the Mississippi Corridor and Vicksburg surrenders on the same day that Lee decides to withdrawal from Gettysburg. This is of course is for a number of reasons, being too far east, too late and simply too little in terms of numbers.4) Wreck the Union Army. The AOP lost 25% of its strength hard not to call that wrecking, considering its noext major engagement is in May 1864 (The Wilderness).
However as the Army achieved the most important objective and Lee acknowledged his own mistake and accepted blame (as well as many of his contemporaries blamed Longstreet) Lee stays in command of the ANV until its surrender at Appomattox.
As Gamers' an interesting scenario would be to allow Lee to Attack on the Fourth Day (July the Fourth) and using some sort of supply rules to determine whether units in the AOP were supplied or not.

A number of people (both in this discussion and other works) have suggested that Lee move the ANP to the SW and attempt to get between the AOP and Washington.
The are at least two problems with that suggestion. There is no "north-south" movement. The road network is in a shape of an X and moves in a SW/NE or SE/NW pattern. Any movement by the ANV takes them further away from Washington and the AOP always will have a shorter route. Example: While it is about ten miles from Gettysburg to Emmitsburg and then another 10 miles to Tannytown it is only 8 miles from the Gettysburg to Tannytown. Unless you could steal a march (very tough to do in such close quarters) there is no way to out maneuver the AOP. The second problem is more problematic, after day one Buford's Cavalry is arrayed from the Emmetsburg road west cross country towards Fairfield. You'd have to fight your way and that blocks any chance of stealing a march.

Old Glory 15's

In a shared order with Fitz I picked up two bags of Union Infantry for the American Civil War and another Bag of French Light Cavalry.

I think all three are useful, so I guess I am being useful.

ACW Figures

Just what I need more 25mm ACW figures.

Last night while visiting the Source Comics and Games I ran into one of the Partners, Bob Bryndilson, and after chatting on a couple of subjects we talked about certain lines of figures on the wall including the Old Glory 25mm ACW figures which depending on the story from Joel and Russ are being phased out or only made available via special order. Anyways as Bob and I talked I made an offer to buy all the remaining bags at his usual discounted price, and he agreed.

So in the next few days Bob or his staff will be taking them down, bagging them up and shooting me a final price.

After that they will go into the box (or maybe I need another box) of other unpainted 25mm ACW figures until I work out a plan.

So I guess I now really have to by some artillerists and mounted command figures....

Additional Thoughts on Painted Figures

Yes of course somebody wound me up this afternoon. So forgive my crankyness. I realize I am speaking of a perfect world that no longer exists in gaming, hell I am not sure the utopia which some people speak of ever existed. But someone dropped a quarter in me and now it is time to for me to rant.

The Seven Years War (Or the four wars that make up the SYW Period) is a great period for miniature gamers almost a wargamers wet dream so to speak. With ten major powers (Austria, France, Great Britian, Hanover*, Portugal, Prussia, Russian, Saxony*, Spain* and Sweden*) and more minor powers than you can shake a stick at it is almost a perfect period to game. (I say the same thing about the Thirty Years War by the way)
*I’m not the one who labels these as major powers by the way.

The game of Koenig Krieg really moves full well into the ease of entry for players. First your average brigade is four battalions of troops, an artillery stand and a mounted commander. This is typical organization covers a good 75% of all forces engaged. The reason this organization plays so easily into gaming is that a bag of Old Glory 15’s for the period includes four battalions of troops and a mounted commander. Your cost of entry into the period this period is $15 and with a little help on the Artillery you are done if you want to be.

I suggest that players who consider themselves to be minor participants in this project, or any project, to paint Minor Allies, lesser Major Powers or even sub-groups of the major powers (France’s Swiss Contingent for example). This puts very little pressure on you a minor participant and makes the group as a whole less dependent on you.

I have listened to the cost argument for years and I do appreciate the fact that not everyone is going to paint figures for every project but there are certain projects where the cost and time is so little I just can’t take listening to the argument. We are not demanding that you spend $500 on a Warhammer Army, just a couple of bucks.

I have listened to the time argument on painting figures for years. Again it falls of deaf ears. I still paint over half my figures in two and three hour increments twice a week. Budget yourself a couple hours and you’ll be surprised how fast it goes.
If time is that much of an issue you can always commission to get your project done, Tom Zwirn, Jack L, or other members of SPI will paint figures for a nominal price or you can use a painting service like “Fernando Enterprises” in Sri Lanka.

My other favorite argument is “how poorly I paint”. I have horrid painting skills, I am a god awful painter, I think every one of my paint jobs is complete crap… Accept I seem to win a few awards along the way for painted figures. Considering how poorly I paint I am always shocked when I win. 15mm figures are easy to paint. My Swede’s take almost an hour per battalion to prepare and than two hours top to paint. The paint job is nothing special and under the magnifying glass looks crappy, but at 3 feet you couldn’t tell my figures from one taking five or six hours longer to paint to do highlights shading and all the rest.

And finally the last argument I need more figures than I can paint. This reason I really like to heckle as complete baloney. There is no reason other than visions of grandeur to need to push multiple brigades. Yes it nice to have something else to push but one brigade or two in Koenig Krieg and your are an active participant unlike other games. Yes in several periods I am a horrid person pushing the limits of reason in what I paint, but that is only in periods that I don’t expect people to paint figures. I like the AWI in 25mm so I don’t expect you to paint figures and because I have been collecting and painting figures for 20 years there is no reason for you to paint figures unless you want to. Yet in other periods like the SYW in 15mm, ACW in 15mm, or even Napoleonics there is no reason for you not to provide a few painted figures other than I am providing figures for another period.

Beyond the Seven Years War we have a number of periods and games where one “mover and shaker” moved away, left the hobby or became a ghost that now I have one side or an unplayable force. The scary part is we are talking about some big periods like the American Civil War. Another period where your cost of entry is like $20 so there is no reason that should ever happen.

25mm ACW basing

As I posted a while back I am seriousily considering how to base up my 25mm ACW figures. I have about 200 painted figures right now and not a one is based.

My initial basing plan was to follow the current defacto standard, 2 x 2 on a 1 1/2 inch square base, the problem is the only game that "needs" that mounting is "Guns at Gettysburg".

Let's be honest for a moment, even though Guns at Gettysburg sounds like an interesting rule set the likelyhood of me actually playing it is like next to none. I mean 1:20 in 25mm takes way to much space.

So if "Guns at Gettysburg" is out of the question why mount figures for it?

So I am back to what can I do that is useful with mounting. Three figures on a 1 1/2 wide base is of course the closest thing to a standard I can find. I guess I can live with that. Leaves the question how deep for the base.

Jim thinks 1 1/2" square but it has been suggest that a 1 1/4 deep base is more useful as it reduces the storage space by a 1/6th. On 200 bases that is a savings of 75 square inches in storage. My question 75 square inches all that much space?

25mm ACW

Over the years I have amassed a fairly large 25mm American Civil War collection which has been in need of a project. Well the collection is fairly large it has some gaping holes; notably no infantry command figures, no dismounted cavalry, and no artillerists; which make the collection fairly useless. I always figured once I found a project I wanted to do I would add the needed figures to my collection.

While I am not sure what the impetus is, must be a new movie or something that I don’t know about, whatever the cause a couple of groups in the Twin Cities are trying to get 25mm ACW gaming going.

Normally I think new projects and ideas are a good thing. I have unfortunately ended up in the crosshairs of the discussions since I have a few figures for the period. [insert joke about megalomania and the word few].

In times past I have listened to dozens of ideas on projects and none really have caught my fancy. So when two new plans were presented I listened. After listening I really don’t have much interest in what either group is doing, hell I normally don’t have much interest in the period. After listening to these two competing plans I think if one groups’ plans came to fruition it might set back 25mm ACW gaming for a while, considering there was almost no interest before. The other group well if they have a plan I am not sure whether Pinky or the Brain came up with it. So you might hear my name taken in vain more often than usual as I rebuffed both groups. Hell for once I tried to stay out of the middle.

At the same time the other two groups are planning to take over the world, unfortunately for me, Old Glory has decided to recast their ACW line (Napoleonics and AWI are next) so being I have some holes in my collection I have to defecate or get off the pot. Okay so I don’t own any Infantry Command Figures or Artillerists and being the new castings don’t match the old castings requiring that I have to buy the old castings while I still can. All said I had to come up with a plan for my figures.

So I pulled 120 Infantry and a couple other figures out to be my two BaB forces. Both choices were based on what figures I had that I can’t use for other projects; the union will be 2nd Wisconsin and the confederate the Louisiana Zouaves (with Straw hat). Like I said decision based upon what figures I had. As Jim Smiley, amongst others, already has a pretty good collection of BaB forces these aren’t high on my “to paint” priority list, maybe 198th and 199th respectfully. And I truly wish those numbers weren’t more than a slight exaggerations on the number of projects I got going.

I’m going to use the rest of the collection, plus what I need to buy, for a “Fire and Fury” project. I know not the most glamorous choice, but at least in comparison to “Rebel Yell” and “Rally Round the Flag v2” a far more playable choice and I already own a huge 15mm collections organized at 1:33 makes the choice a lot easier.

I realize of course this is not in exact harmony with a couple of other projects people are working on. The fact my decision isn’t in harmony with other projects was very much considered before it was made. I’ll be honest with my reasoning; I’m not very interested in a skirmish set of rules (yes I did pull out 120 figures for BaB because I know other people already have this painted up) and a Tactical Game would take way to much space to be playable if the game was playable at all.

25mm ACW Basing

Several of us discussed basing for 25mm American Civil War figures on
Saturday. After discussion on Saturday I will be mounting 25mm ACW
figures using what has become the de facto standard for the
Centurions. While not a primary project for me, I do seem to have a
few figures painted up for the period.

Infantry - mounted 2 x 2 on a 40mm wide by 40mm deep base. I would
like to add that if needed to you can use a 50mm deep base as well.

Cavalry - mounted 2 wide on a 40mm wide by 50 mm deep base.

Artillery - Singly mounted Artillerist (25mm square) with guns,
caissons, limbers mounted separately.

This basing, I think, will allow the figures to be used with most
rules for the period, inculding Fire and Fury, Guns at Gettysburg,
Fields of Honor and others. It goes without saying of course that
basing cannot be used with the Skirmish or pseudo Skirmish rules ;)