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?

Austrian Roll-Call

I have the following Figures Ready and Painted Today:

1 - Austrian Mounted Officers (3 Figure Base)

5 - Austrian Mounted Officers (2 Figure Base)

8 - Austrian Mounted Officers (1 Figure Base)

48 - Austrian Grenadiers Stands

7 - Austrian Border Infantry Stands (Grenzer) - 1 Battalion plus command for a Second Batalion

7 - Jaeger Stands

7 - Hungarian Line Infantry Stands (1 Battalion)

40 - Austrian Line Infantry Stands (6 Battalions and 4 loose stands)

17 - Austrian Militia Infantry Stands (3 Battalions)

7 - Austrian Uhlans (2 Figure Stands)

8 - Austrian Chevauxleger (2 Figure Stands)

2 - Austrian 12-pound Artillery Stands

7 - Austrian 6-pound Artillery Stands

1 - Austrian Light Howitzer Stand

I really don't have a whole lot of unpainted Austrians left laying around. I have roughly (subject to change)

24 Austrian Militia Infantry Stands

24 Austrian Line Infantry Stands - pre-1809 Uniform

36 Austrian Artillery Stands (Short cannons)

20 Austrian Dragoons/Chevauxleger stands - short command figures (2 Figures)

Weekend Painting Projects

I spent the weekend at my in-laws which meant I had some quality time with figures and paint. My in-laws leave an hour from no-where and other than visiting family and friends there isn’t anything else to do, so to keep out of trouble yelling “Packers Suck” in the local bars I paint figures.

This weekend I worked on 25mm Napoleonic Figures, specifically Austrian Figures.

I finished up the Austrian 33rd Infantry Regiment, or Infantry Regiment Graf von Colloredo-Mannsfeld if you prefer, a Hungarian Infantry Regiment in Dark Blue cuffs. I don’t remember why I choose this regiment years ago to paint I am guessing because it routinely was attached to the Reserve Corps over the years. However I finished up the last few figures I own and will probably pick up a few more to truly complete both Battalions at 1:30.
The Figures turned out pretty well, other than the Dark Blue Cuffs look black from more than 6-inches away. I have historically chosen a lighter blue for situations like this but I just went with the more correct color this time.

The other figures to get paint were Austrian Artillery, I completed three batteries or six stands. This includes two stands of 12-pound Artillery, three stands of 6-pound artillery and one stand of a small howitzer.
I am not sure why the Artillery took so long to paint, I only had 18 figures but it took a lot of time on Saturday and I am not the most happy person in how they turned out. For such a well sculpted figures (Foundry) they detail was all lost in the painting. I blame the painter, what that’s me.

I really should focus on the Austrian Cavalry since that is what we are indeed short, but I have such a hard time getting excited about painting something so pointless on the tabletop as 25mm Cavalry. At 1:30 we just don’t have enough space to put out too much more cavalry than we already have and since people don’t want to play Napoleon’s Battles I can’t get excited about painting the Heavy Cavalry.
I have about 45 Austrian Dragoon’s half painted, I suppose about six to eight hours worth of work left to complete those figures with a game coming in April maybe that enough incentive.

25mm Napoleon's Battles

I have been asked to post some more commentary on my views on using 25mm Napoleon's Battles.

Number of Figures per player
In my opinion regardless of the game system most commands look alike or are at least incredibly similar.

Using 1:30 as a scale a typical French command will contain 4 to 6 battalions of Infantry and one Artillery Battery.
Using 1:120 a typical French Command in Napoleon’s Battles will contain 4 Infantry Brigades, a couple of artillery batteries, and some Cavalry.

“Well sounds like you need more figures for Napoleon’s Battles.” Yes your typical starting command needs 7 to 8 stands of cavalry and a couple extra mounted commanders. The difference is that with brigade level game players are going to want to add flavor, our first discussion with potential players has already asked “Where’s my cavalry?” And after a few games we see people pushing two brigades (aka a division) in our brigade level games. Typically we have three brigades of infantry and one brigade of cavalry pushed by two players.

Using Napoleon’s Battle in 25mm in my opinion should see players use “less” figures and it is more inline with what people want to push.

Table Space
When you play a game in most Brigade Level games depth and width of the table is important. Depth of the table is important because of the Range of Musket and Cannon Fire. In General de’Brigade for example artillery range is 36” to 48” inches. Thus giving 18” inches setup the table depth needs to be about 7 feet.
In Napoleon’s Battle depth is less important as Artillery range is 24”, thus a table depth of 5 feet is needed.
When you look at the tables we have to play on in regular basis it would be easier to play Napoleon Battles than say General de Brigade.

Regardless of the rules choose table width will be an issue. Players will need four feet of linear table space each regardless of the rules.

Figure Showcase
So you want to show case your obscure little unit in miniature. Using Napoleon Battles you get to show case more units but few figures per unit. Six of one, half a dozen of other….

Let the flaming begin.

Centurion's Schedule

March 21st - 15mm ACW using Rally Round the Flag. Tom Zwirn will be presenting this venerable game from the past.

April 4th - 15mm SYW using Koenig Krieg. Will FdA finally be able to bring the wiley Imperial commanders to battle? Rumors of Gallian troops approaching and a new subcommander for Milord Garfield abound…

April 18th - 25mm Napoleonics. Yes folks, it’s the 200th anniversary of Jeff J.’s favorite campaign. Come on down for an old-fashioned Austrian slugfest.

May 2nd - TBD

May 16th - 15mm SYW using Koenig Krieg at the Levee Cafe in Hastings.

Horse Musket and Gun - update

Sometimes all it takes is walking away from something for a short period of time to figure out how to correct something.

The New Turn Sequence
-Initiative Phase

Cycle A
-Bombardment
-Compulsory Movement Side A
-Compulsory Movement Side B
-Charging Movement Side A
-Charging Movement Side B
-Basic Movement Side A
-Basic Movement Side B
-Command and Control Side A
-Command and Control Side B

Reactions
-Stationary Infantry Fire
-Stationary Artillery Fire
-Moving Infantry Fire
-Moving Artillery Fire
-Close to Combat
--Emergency Formations
--Morale Defender
--Morale Attacker
--Move Defender*
--Move Attacker*
--Melee Combat
--Combat Morale

Cycle B
-Bombardment
-Compulsory Movement Side B
-Compulsory Movement Side A
-Charging Movement Side B
-Charging Movement Side A
-Basic Movement Side B
-Basic Movement Side A
-Command and Control Side B
-Command and Control Side A
End Cycle B

Reactions

Cycle C
-Bombardment
-Compulsory Movement Side A
-Compulsory Movement Side B
-Charging Movement Side A
-Charging Movement Side B
-Basic Movement Side A
-Basic Movement Side B
-Command and Control Side A
-Command and Control Side B
End Cycle C

Reactions

Yes the system looks a lot like the Seventh Edition version, however there is a small change.
The way Morale works.
In the previous versions Morale occured only in a single phase (the end of reactions) now Morale can occur can occur anywhere.

Units are limited to one Morale check per phase and check morale for two reasons. If you have four Fatigue Markers on your unit at the end of a phase or you have four Fatigue Markers and you wish to do some sort of movement with the unit.

Units that do not move during any of the three movement phases (Compulsory, Charging and Basic) may remove 1 Fatigue marker from the unit.