This week I almost bid on a lot of semi flat ACW figures. As the bids went up, I asked myself did I really need another scale of Civil War figures (they were 45mm)? In the end I didn't get them. But it also raised the question; should I narrow down my collection of Civil War figures? At persent I have figures in at least 8 scales.
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| An example of the diffent scale Civil war figures, going left to right: 2mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, 30mm, 40mm, 54mm. Missing is 13.5mm of Epic Civil War Battles. |
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| I bought some new artillery for my 2mm armies. They are cannons being towed by caissons. I find handling them easier than deployed models. I haven't decided wither to paint the soldiers on the stands, or just leave them brown and keep them "generic". |
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| I have been wanting some Mignot Civil War figures after seeing them in a children's book on Gettysburg. This lot came up on Ebay for a very reasonable price. Now that I have them they will probably join other figures on the shelf that only come out when I think of buying more. Although I could see them being used in a garden skirmish wargame. |
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| For a long time I have wanted to get supply wagons for my 2mm Irregular Miniatures blocks. The idea is to use them in some way in a campaign game. I finally got some of them. In the above photo, a line of the wagons are passing through a town. I really like the looks of them. Now to figure out how to use them in a game. |
It was one of those morning where I couldn't sleep. I have been busy painting some 2mm Irregular Miniatures blocks. While waiting for them to dry, I decided to play a quick game using my cigar box armies.
The board was set up with random landscape. Both armies had 4 infantry and 2 cavalry units. For rules I used "See the Elephant" rules.
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| As usual, my pictures came up jumbled. This picture shows the end of the game, where the red army finally defeated the blue army. |
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| In this shot, at the upper right a blue regiment has been surrounded by the red army. I wasn't sure how to handle this situation. At this point I was going to have them surrender, but they fought on, and were wiped out. |
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| Early in the battle. It looked like the blue army was going to break the red's center. |
While still not doing much with the hobby, I did manage to paint some Peter Laing Highlanders, with the idea of using them with "The Portable Wargame" and using "the Battle of Hook's Farm" as the scenario.
To paint the figures, I used Vallejo "Model Color" acrylic paints. I wanted a gloss coat to give them a toy soldier look. The only gloss I had at the time was Tamiya lacquer gloss clear coat. Unfortunately it started washing the acrylic paint off the figure.
I put the figures aside, as my wife and I took a trip to Pennsylvania with our new camper. When we came home I saw the figures sitting on the table and found Vallejo gloss coat, which was quickly ordered. The Highlanders finally got their shiny uniforms, which came out as I was hoping.
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| The Highlanders, finally completed. |
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| I finally was able to download a few pictures of the Combined Wargame. |
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| The start of the game. I used the rules in the book to deploy both armies. |
I am a big fan of Mike Lambo's solitaire wargame books. They are completes games with rules, maps, and even counters. All you need is a couple of dice and you're ready to play.
Mr. Lambo has produced two books on the American Civil War. I have played several games and enjoyed them. However, I started to think, what if I used different rulesets with the maps?
Today I decided to use Mike Lambo's map of the Battle of Big Bethel. The armies would be deployed and activated using the rules in the book. However, movement and combat would use Stronghold Rebuilt's "See the Elephant" rules. I enjoy the StE rules and they can make for an unpredictable game. I did use Battle Cry dice, ignoring the crossed swords, unless a general was targeted.
As I thought, it was a fun game. About half way through I realized; what are the victory conditions? The rulebook said that a Union unit must hold the Church hex. I suddenly realized that the church was unoccupied and exposed to a Union attack! I must admit that suddenly the Confederate strategy changed rapidly, and a couple of units had to retreat to protect the church.
In the end a Union unit did capture the church, but the Confederates drove the Union troops out of the church, and back across the river. At that point I called the gamea Confederate victory.
A number of weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night. As I laid there trying to go back to sleep, my thoughts turned to some Heritage ACW figures I was working on, and how to use them in games. In my mind I figured to use them in units of 4 with one figures carrying a flag, as in Battle Cry. However, in rolling dice each figure would roll 1 dice. If there was any retreats rolled, only a figure would retreat, instead of the entire unit. To retreat the standard, the unit would not be able to advance until the standard returned to the unit.
The game was a mishmash of several rulesets. I got up, scribbled some notes down, did a little painting and based the figures, and later in the evening tried a quick game with the rules.
I suppose that they could be made into a workable game, especially with the addition of artillery and cavalry, but I don't think they would be better than using Battle Cry, See the Elephant, or Horse and Musket 2.0. They did provide a couple days of working on wargames, which was much needed.
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| The armies in action. It was good to get a game in, however, I don't think the rules would offer anything exciting or new that can't be found in other existing games. |
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| The 2 armies lined up at the beginning of the game. |
Steve Parker of Orc Publishing has released his newest set of Dominion rules; " Dominion of Marlborough and Peter the Great". It is familiar setup of rules and 24 historical battles.
To be honest I was not sure if I was going to buy this set of rules. I have bought the entire set of rules, with the exception of the Ancients battles book (I couldn't get it to let me buy it). I really like these rules, but do I need all for the sets?
In the end I chose to buy them. When I first started gaming, one of my first books was Peter Young's "Charge!". So my first armies were 18th century armies, including Edition Brokow Marlborough figures.
With this newest addition, I bought heavy card stock and a stapler that could go through all the pages. I am happy with the result, and have decided to put new covers on all my different "Doninion of" rules.
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| The new cardstock covers. |
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