Mike Lambo's "Battles of the American Civil War June 1861-July 1862

     One of my last posts I mentioned about painting some 10mm ACW figures for skirmish wargames.  Since that time Mike Lambo came out with another solitare wargame book, "Battles of the American  Civil War June 1861- July 1862 A Solitaire Wargame". As I had commented on a couple of his sites that I hoped he would come out with an ACW game, I felt I had to buy this book.

   Last night I tried a game out. It was an enjoyable  game (maybe because I actually  beat general AI for once!). Of course most of his games are fun to play. It helped that I have played Avalon Hill's Battle Cry in the past. I am not saying it's  a rip off of Battle Cry. The units used are the same size and line of sight works the same, but the rules are different and the AI makes the game a whole different game. 

     The game itself has different rules from his other games, so you are not playing the same game as his other books. It also gave me an opportunity to use my newly painted 10mm ACW figures with this game.

One other plus with this book; Mr.Lambo is coming out with a second volume of ACW Battle scenarios. I was hoping he would do this with his Napoleonic wargame book. Perhaps if the second ACW is successful he will do the same for the Napoleonic game.

Once again my pictures show up in reverse order. This is the last move, where my cavalry close combat the last Union infantry and eliminate them, giving me the victory.

The Union AI army advancing on my right flank. In this game you roll three dice to activate three sections out of 6 sections. The Union couldn't  get the rolls needed to activate  their left until later in the game.

The beginning set up. The Confederates are grouped in the center of the game board.

Castle Duel Game

    I was cleaning my basement (again) after remodeling our bathroom. I also bought a card table to use in my wargame room, so it was set up to see how much room it used. Next thing one of my Elastolin castles was brought down and a quick duel game was played out using the Les Higgins duelists and Donald Featherstone's dueling rules. For the rules instead of cards, I used dice.

The duelists fight it out in the castles courtyard.

The dragoon has pushed Vincent Price to the tower top. I broke the castle down into different zones. As they suffered a wound, they would retreat one zone. Vincent is down to his last wound.

Vincent suffers his last wound, and falls over the parapet to the cobblestones below!

The start of the game, where Vincent tried to hold the dragoon from the open courtyard.

Les Higgins Dueling Wargame

 I found on my Kindle a set of rules that were downloaded years ago, " Simple Rules for Two Dueling  Figures" by Michael Barlow. I believe they were from Lone Warrior magazine. They were a simple set of rules to use with the Les Higgins duelists.

Early Morning Painting

 I recently bought some 10mm ACW figures to use with skirmish games. I  based some of them on craft sticks and primed them with black paint. 

Last night they were divided into Confederate and Union units, and I started painting the uniforms.

This morning I woke up at 5:00am with a bad headache, caused by neck problems. At 6:00 I gave up trying to sleep. I got up and took something  for the headache, got a cup of coffee, and checked the usual websites. Slowly the headache went away, and looking at my painting station, got the sudden urge to do some painting. I actually got the figures just about completed, along with doing some more work on the Les Higgins duelists. I was happy with the results, doing more detail work on the 10mm figures than originally planned. I also believe that it might just be good therapy for my essential tremors.

Some of the painted figures, along with clip on magnifying glasses.

A strip of figures in the clamp, freeing up my hands so I can use both hands to steady  the paint brush.

A clip on work light with a good LED bulb gives good lighting without straining the eyes.

The finished figures. They just have to be taken off the sticks and mounted on individual bases.

GIF Wargame Map

    Inspired by " Projects and Procrastination" GIF map in his last post, it got me thinking of how a battle report could be shown in motion. I decided to play a Napoleonic game to try a couple of ideas. To illustrate troop movements, RISK army arrows would show movements; blue for French, red for Brunswick, and yellow arrows showing retreats.  I rolled for initiative, then rolled an average dice for the number of units moved.

A photo of the battlefield. I added a regular still photo to act as a break on label photos.

With my first gif the pictures change every second. I downloaded an app to edit gifs. I slowed the action down to about 3 seconds per frame. I think maybe slowing it to 4 seconds would have been better. In the end the Brunswickers lost; I should have illustrated their retreat off the table.  It was a fun exercise, however, one I probably won't pursue.

"Doninion of the Spear" Armies using Different Rules

   I decided to try using " Dominion of the Spear" armies with different rules. The first game was played using "The Portable Wargame" anicents rules.  Then I used "Lionheart" dice to fight a game, with modified movement. Finally, I used "Battlelore" rules. I can see using the "Dominion of the Spear" army lists for quick games, using any of the rules tested.

"The Portable Wargame" battle played out. After reading the most recent  "Projects and Procrastination" blog, where he mentioned using GIF to illustrate the battle played, I decided to give it a try myself. As he mentioned, trying to slow down the action is an issue. Still, it might prove a little distraction worth pursuing. It has me thinking of the "Callan" episode "An Act of Kindness" where they show a wargame in stop action.

"Dominion of the Spear" Playthrough

   I played a game of "Dominion of the Spear" to show how quickly the game plays out. I will not be giving a description of the rules; as mentioned, I think the price is low enough that most gamers could buy a set if they really want to play. By the way, to took less time to play the game as it is taking me to type out this posting. 

The Picts (on top) attack the Saxon army.

At the end of turn one: a unit of ferocious Saxons have eliminated the Pict archers on the left. A unit of Pict spearmen eliminated a Saxon Spear unit on the right.

The Picts move a spear unit to replace the archers; the Saxons move up a Spear unit on their right.

Turn 2: On the Saxon left the ferocious Saxon Spearmen are broken, but not before eliminating the Spearmen in front of them. In the center the ferocious Saxon spearmen break the Picts in front of them.

End of turn 2: the Picts put their last spearmen to face the Saxon left; the Pict horsemen attack the center. The Saxons feed in their last reserves to the left.

Once again on the Saxon left both Spear units fight, and both units are demoralized and break. In the center, the ferocious Saxon spearmen eliminate the Pict horsemen, and the last Pict Spear unit is eliminated. The Saxon win a hard fought battle!

  

"Dominion of the Spear" Game

     I mainly use Facebook to follow my hobby interests. Of course one I follow is " The Portable Wargame". One posting mentioned using  "Dominion of the Spear" rules. It's a set of rules I never heard of before. What interested me is it is a solo game that you can just use a paper and pen to play. The rules make for a quick game; the two games I played lasted three turns, and took about ten minutes. Each army has between 3 to 6 units. 

    The rules are available on Wargame Vault for around $5.50. Besides the rules you get 196 army lists, which, to me, is worth the price alone. Each army is made up of units that cost at least 2 points. However, units can be armored, elite, or ferocious that add points to the unit cost.

 This started me thinking of using my Peter Laing ancients to form different armies. Below is a photo of a Peter Laing Pict army that I made. I can see using the army lists for The Portable Wargame Ancients game.

"Dominion  of the Spear" rules, by Ork Publishing.

The Peter  Laing  Pict  army.

Dueling Les Higgins Figures

   In one of my earlier posts I gave a couple of my thoughts on the recent discussion on "wargames in a matchbox". One idea I mentioned was using Peter Laing figures for a game on dueling.

  Ian Dury in the comments mentioned some dueling figures from the old line of Les Higgins. I did look and found some pictures of Les Higgins figures.  They are very nice figures and after a quick search, couldn't find any so I decided not to get distracted from other projects.

 Fast forward to a couple of days ago. After walking the dog, I checked the mail and there was a small package from Ian Dury.

   Every year Ian sends me a Christmas card. To be honest the "Black Dog" starts nipping at my heels around the holidays. Ian's cards always brightens the day for me. Besides his usual Christmas card, he sent me 3 of the Les Higgins dueling figures. They are beautiful figures. What's more, when I first saw them I thought of the old Vincent Price movie " Mathew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General" , as one figures has a "lobster" helmet and another has a Capotain hat (looks like a top hat) and cape, like Vincent Price wore in the movie. I  woke up in the middle of the night and started thinking of possible rules to use with the figures. Last night I based the figures for painting. Perhaps this project will get me gaming again.

The backs of the Les Higgins figures. I have been using my phone to do my posting. I still haven't figured how to put the photographs in the order I want them in.

The "Vincent Price" figure.

The front of the figures.

The "Hero" ww2dragoon figure.

The third figure. If I use "The Witchfinder General" for these figures, I see him as Hopkins evil henchman.

New Wagon for 30mm Semi flats

 I found yet another wagon for my semi flat armies.  It is painted red, like the last caisson I bought.