13th Mississippi Infantry

Another unit if American Civil War figures completed and ready for battle.  This time we have the Confederate 13th Mississippi Infantry of Barksdale's Brigade.  These figures are metal miniatures from Sash and Saber.  I love the character of these figures and he does a great job on the accuracy of the various pieces of equipment.

I painted this unit in the Richmond Depot jacket in grey with blue cuffs and collars.  They have mixed head gear with most in slouch hats and a few wearing M1861 caps.  I tried to do these with the Confederate version of the light blue trouser.  Overall these have a very pleasing blue-grey look to them.

Black Powder ACW on a Sunday Afternoon

Last Sunday Tim and I got in a small ACW Black Powder game.  We had a few goals in mind for this game the main one being reacquainting ourselves with the rules.  It has been nearly a year since our last game.  We also wanted to try some more of the Glory, Hallelujah! modifications.  Finally we wanted to test the concept of getting in a fun game on a relatively small table. See Tim's write-up of the game on his blog for more cool pictures and a distorted Confederate view of the action.

We decided to keep this battle rather simple.  Each side had two brigades each of four standard size units and one gun.  We each had one division commander.  All units were basic stats straight from the Black Powder rule book with no special rules.  All units had rifled muskets and we used the modified ranges from the GH supplement.

The table was setup with a river and some roads that formed the main features.  We wanted to try the cornfield and orchard rules from GH so we had some of those as well.  We also had some light woods and wheat fields.  We did not have a specific scenario so this was basically a pitched battle.  I had selected the river crossings and the crossroads as my objectives.

The Union plan was to split the right brigade (brigade 1) in half with two regiments and the gun holding the center and two regiments and the brigadier pressing the Confederate left flank.  It all went well the Confederate left and center would be rolled up and quickly destroyed.

The Confederates were deployed in force in the center and had a numeric superiority on this part of the battlefield.  This fight would prove to be the heart of the fight.

Two Union regiments quickly cross the river and move to the edge of the fields and near the road.  So far the plan was moving well.

Things are about to get bloody...

On the Union left both sides quickly advanced to either side of the road and obscured by the fields.  A single Union regiment attempted to press across the road but was quickly pushed back.

Two Union regiments take up a defensive position in the woods near the crossroads.  The Confederates move three regiments up to the road.  The fire along this road would soon be hot and heavy.

The Union right flank force is bogged down in the fields and engaged in a heavy fire-fight with a single Confederate regiment.  The fresh Union regiment behind would repeatedly fail to pass through and continue the attack.

Back on the Union left the Confederates have three regiments on line as well as one gun and effectively face two Union regiments with one gun in very ineffective support.  The bridge is solidly in rebel hands.

In the center the rebels have broken on Union regiment and pushed the second out of the woods.  The position of the Union regiment has fouled the line of fire of the Union gun taking it out of the fight.  The division commanders has been pressed to rally the remaining Union regiment.

The battle by the bridge has stalled into a bloody slugging match.  Neither side has an edge and both sides are starting to show signs of stress.

Confederates moving in for the kill in the center.

The combination of fire to the front and enfilading fire from the left would be too much for the lone Union regiment to bear.  They would end up braking and that, in turn, would brake the brigade.

Flank attack stopped and the brigade was broken.  The Union attack is over.

The slaughter on the Union left was huge but all for nothing.

This game was a blast.  In all the battle took about 2 1/2 hours and had a definite resolution.  I think we managed 7-8 turns in that time.  We had movement and lots of shooting.  We both had several rallies as units went Shaken.  Neither of us had or attempted a charge.  The game worked just fine on this size table with these size forces.

As for the rules most everything went well.  We did make some mistakes with how Shaken units behave but nothing that would have changed the outcome of the battle.  We intended to use the GH restriction on units shooting after 2 ore more moves so we will try that out in the next game.  I think all the GH terrain rules worked well and we will likely keep using those.  I think the charge restrictions from GH are just to much.  I think we will use the requirement for a specific charge order to each regiment but will not use the -2 command modifier for charging the front.

For our next game I would like to try out the army list functions from GH.  The idea of building a point matched force for use in more casual games is very appealing to me and will help get this game on the table much more often.

5th New York Volunteer Infantry

Yet another unit for my American Civil War collection is ready for battle.  This time we have some Perry Miniatures plastic Zuoave figures.  These are painted up as the 5th New York Volunteer Infantry regiment.  This is probably the most famous Union Zouave unit though they really weren't much of an elite unit.

Bolt Action Churchill AVRE

Another lingering project is complete and off the paint table!  This is a 1/56th scale Churchill AVRE tank for Bolt Action.  This is the plastic Warlord kit.  This model belongs to my friend Tom and I built and painted it in trade for another model.  As usual it has taken me WAY too long to get this done.  I have had this in my possession for more than a year.

The kit is pretty good but a little complicated.  There are lots of different version of this tank in the kit and I think this is the Mk V.  I am not a big fan of the tracks.  They did not really fit right in my opinion.  The end result is a nice tank that should really kill those Germans dead.

21st Mississippi Infantry

My second Confederate unit completed this year!  I have already reached 25% of my painting total for all of last year, wow!

OK, this time we have my take on the 21st Mississippi regiment.  I have no idea if this unit ever looked like this but the unit names are just place holders anyway.  For this unit I decided to go with Columbus shell jackets in Butternut with blue collars and cuffs.  This is a well documented jacket from this depot.  I also went with M1862 caps.  These have blue bands and crowns, also in Butternut.  This cap was not very common but did show up from time to time it seems.  The trousers are black British imports.

Again, I have no idea if this unit was ever equipped in this particular fashion, or in fact, if any unit was.  This is, however, a very plausible combination of equipment.  This unit was a blast to paint and I really like getting away from the stereo-typical gray of Confederate troops.

28mm ACW Union Army Additions

A couple of years ago my friend Tom decided to liquidate his extensive 28mm ACW collection.  This worried me greatly as we used a large part of this collection anytime we put on an ACW Black Powder game.  Even more troubling was that I did not have any money at the time to buy even a portion of the collection.  The good news is that much of this collection went to local gamers so we have been able to keep using much of it for our games.

Today I purchased a large chunk of the Union from a friend who had bought it from Tom.  He had not been able to participate in games and the stuff had just been sitting so he decided to make it available.  I am very happy to add these figures to my collection as this nearly doubles my Union forces and means that I am just about done collecting Union ACW.

Union Corps Commander.  I believe the banner is for III Corps but I will use it for any senior commander required for a game.  I think these are Old Glory figures.

Union Division Commander.  This will be used for any senior commander needed for a game.  The banner is actually a Pennsylvania regimental banner but it looks cool.  The figures are Old Glory.

Union Brigade Commanders.  Each of these will command a brigade.  Old Glory figures.

Union Brigade Commanders on foot.  These will be used as needed for foot commanders.  A couple will likely be painted as artillery commanders.  These are Sash and Saber figures.

Three batteries of 12lb Napoleons.  These are Sash and Saber figures.

Three batteries of 3in rifles.  More Sash and Saber.

1st New Jersey. A larger 36 model unit.  All Sash and Saber figures with unit correct flags.

2nd New Hampshire. A standard size 24 figure unit of Sash and Saber figures.  The flags are correct for the unit.

3rd Maine.  Another standard size unit of 24 figures.  All Sash and Saber with correct flags.

57th Pennsylvania.  Another large, 36 figure, unit.  All Sash and Saber figures with correct flags.

63rd Pennsylvania.  Stand size unit like the others.  

68th Pennsylvania. Standard size unit of Sash and Saber.  This is actually the second unit in my collection flagged as the 68th Pennsylvania.  Looks like I need more flags to fix this.

This is a really nice collection.  I rarely purchase painted figures but for the size games we typically play it is unlikely I would ever have added this much with my own brush.  These, I think, were painted by Fernando Enterprises and work perfectly on a table full of troops.  You see, when there are 1000+ figures on the table no one is really looking at the paint on a specific figure.

17th Mississippi

The first painted figures of 2018.  I am pretty stoked about getting off to a good start.

Here we have the 17th Mississippi regiment for Black Powder.  The figures are Perry plastic Confederates.