ACW Practice Battle (Fire & Fury)

Pics of Thursdays American Civil War clash. Union troops trying to push Confederate defenders out of a rail head.

 Union forces shift to the right to take the entrenchments head on. One of the Union generals wrongly identifies that a yellow unit strength marker is a crack unit (its not, its actually a please don't shoot us, we will run away marker). RED-CRACK BLUE-VETERAN  GREEN-GREEN YELLOW-IRREGULARS (Militia etc)

 Its support having failed an order to move forward a Union brigade finds itself isolated and within canister range on the banks of the small stream

 41 Fire Points later the brigade is annihilated

 A full Union corps (minus a dead brigade) form up in front of the rebel entrenchments. In the woods beyond a solitary understrength division pushes through the undergrowth.

 Meanwhile Confederate reserves begin to arrive and the Union corps falls back under artillery fire

It was his plan, honest Guv

 As the Union division appears on its flank the Confederate general no longer threatened to his front is able to shift his brigades to meet the new attack.

The Union corps shift back to the left to try its luck through the woods and its artillery combined with the other battery on the road finally start to cause casualties among the entrenched Rebels

 But its too late. The wind has gone out of the UNION sails.

With hindsight this battle proved to be a good learning experience for me as an umpire. My plan for larger scenarios has always been to make them Victory Point driven and I was going to make this based purely on casualties and victory locations. For large historical scenarios with lots of stands (we are talking hundreds) that would work as either side can afford to make a mistake and still be able to recover from it. For smaller scenarios of the kind we have been playing on a Thursday however that's not the case and having reviewed this scenario, had I placed VPs on locations on the board and then given the Union an option to call up Army level artillery support at a VP cost, that would have given the Union generals the option of trying their luck with the forces they had available on the table or calling up reinforcements. Having done that however they would have to employ them positively to ensure a victory or lose on VPs. It guarantees both sides get a game and the scenario might play out differently each time. Had I given the Confederate player the option of instead of rolling for reinforcements,  paying VPs for them instead, that again may have created a different outcome if the Confederate player decided he could hold out with the forces he already had at his disposal. This method works for Sid Meiers Gettysburg so I can't see why I cant make it work for us.  This scenario did prove one thing, dug in troops ,no matter what the era are an absolute bugger to shift!

6mm ACW Earth Works (Improved Defences)

A lot of the scenarios I have for Fire and Fury require what is referred to as improved defences. Having shopped around a bit from various 6mm websites I decided that since I'm creating my own earth fort I might as well use the same materials to make my own improved defences. Making my own will allow me to create any shape to suite any scenario. Unlike my earth fort I don't think I will be casting these as I rather like the random shapes that the DAS clay and building sand have created with each length.

1/300 6mm scale Gettysburg Seminary (American Civil War)

There can be few more iconic buildings in American history than the Gettysburg Seminary, backdrop to the 1st day stand at the Battle of Gettysburg, of Brigadier General Buford'.s Cavalry and the Union I Corps.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, also known as the Gettysburg Seminary, is located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and is one of the eight seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is one of the three seminaries in the Eastern Cluster of Lutheran Seminaries, and a member institution of the Washington Theological Consortium. Founded in 1826, it is the oldest continuing Lutheran seminary in the United States.
During the battle of Gettysburg, the seminary, on a ridge west of the town, became a focal point of action on the first day of battle, 1 July 1863. The seminary gave its name to 'Seminary Ridge,' where the line of battle of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was formed on 2 and 3 July 1863.

 As part of my continued project to recreate the battle of Gettysburg in 6mm scale I painted up the Gettysburg Seminary model from Total Battle Miniatures. Pictured below with one of my Union brigades it will be a focal point on the battlefield.

Each of the infantry stands of 8figues is 20mm wide X 20mm deep giving you an idea of the size of the building

Baccus Union Infantry formed up in front of the Seminary

 Shortly after I purchased and painted this model Leven miniatures also released their product as well as the Cemetery Gatehouse from Cemetery Ridge. The Leven miniatures offering is pictured below from their website. The picture of the Gatehouse is taken of the model I purchased from them.

Picture taken from the Leven website

The detail on both the Total Battle Miniatures and Leven models highlights the huge improvements in the quality of scenery that s now on offer to the 6mm gamer. I have purchased extensively from both manufacturers as well as other 6mm scenery providers and will be blogging those in the near future

Baccus 6mm ACW General Lee command stand

Painted by Jono

Fire and Fury C-in-C stand Confederate General Robert E Lee on his horse Traveller plus associated aides and escort.

Figures are mainly Baccus 6mm range, flags are from Stone Mountain miniatures, warflag website and home made.

Flags represent Lees personal HQ flag , Virginia state flag and Confederate national flag. They are slightly bigger as I like to use 10 MM scale flags in my 6mm ACW to make the flags pop a little more and the units more recognisable from a distance

1/300 ILYA MOUROMETZ V russian bomber 1916 Heroics and Ross

Painted by Jono

Russian WWI bomber in 1/300 scale (6mm)

Ilya Mourometz V circa 1916

E-Boat: A Nice Distraction

As part of our club activities we are currently recreating the British 3rd Divisions landings on sword beach. As part of that I have just finished a 1/300 E boat for the battle in Oustrieham. Its from the Heroics and Ross range. The Mast did not come with the model so i have fashioned one together and it had no crew or MG42 position on the bow so I have added that to. Its based on a clear 5" by 1 1/4" base so that it will match any blue sea terrain mat that it is placed on. 

6mm British Royal Marines + Paras

Some of the guys at the war games club to which I belong will be recreating the landings at Sword Beach using 6mm figures sometime in the next month. The rule set will be Spearhead and somehow I have found myself painting the Royal Marine battalions and the Parachute battalion that held the Pegasus bridge and took the small port of Ouistreham (apologies if that isn't spelt right).

Anyway here are some pics.