Wednesday, June 29, 2011

28mm ACW Miniatures

American Civil War Miniatures

Here are some pictures of units from my 25mm / 28mm ACW collection. I have a fairly large 15mm ACW collection, but recently I have had the urge to do the ACW in a grander scale (28mm). Has this ever happened to you? Same period....multiple scales! My 28mm ACW figs are mostly based around Hood's 1864 middle Tennessee campaign (Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville), and based for the "Johnny Reb" rules. I still have a ton of unpainted lead, but I'm hoping to get some serious painting done this summer. The majority of my unpainted figures are 28mm Dixon figures.

28mm Wargames Foundry (Perry sculpts) Confederates. I painted this unit
not too long ago. I really like the pose and the proportions on Perry figures. These
are painted as the 1st & 3rd FL infantry.

First Corps 28mm figures defending a stone wall. These are
painted as the 54th GA.

Mostly Dixon 28mm Union figures. These are painted as
the 50th Ohio. This unit was heavily engaged in the fighting
at Franklin, TN.

Old Glory 25mm ACW artillery and crews. These are painted
as Ferguson's S.C. battery and Phillip's TN battery.

Another shot of the FL boys. I was experimenting with some
natual lighting here.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Wargamer's Digest November 1978 - "Johnnie Reb"

Wargamer's Digest

I was digging through some of my old magazines and came across this gem. It is a copy of Wargamer's Digest from Nov. 1878 (Vol. 6, #1). The magazine contains a scenario of  Seven Pines, written by Dean West. It's interesting in that "Johnnie Reb" wasn't yet published at that time, and was still a few years away. It is a battle report from a game run at GenCon XI " as a demonstration of "Johnnie Reb", the new ACW rules designed by John Hill and soon be released by Heritage Models".


The cover of Wargamer's Digest.

The first two pages of the article. Dean did a great job writing this article
and I would consider it quite ahead of it's time for wargaming in 1978. John and Dean really
stress realistic terrain  (you should see some of the other pics in the magazine), limited intelligence,
accurate OOB's and sceanrio design.

"Johnny Reb" ..continued

We are still having fun playing the Chickamauga scenario. Here are some more shots from our 15mm ACW game in progress. The CSA attack on  their left has failed and they are now sending troops through the gap in the middle. It looks like it's going to end up being a big fire-fight in the woods.

This shows the Union line holding the crossroads
and the CSA advance in the middle. The Yanks
have managed to pull back in order and they will
be a tough nut to crack. The good news for the CSA is that
they have some artilley moving up!

Close-up shot of the Unon rear line. So far these troops
haven't fired a shot!

The toughest unit in the US army today! They have held all day
against furious CSA assualts and have just launched a counter-attack! This was
the unit on the extreme USA right flank. They have just about destroyed an
entire CSA brigade!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

15mm "Johnny Reb" Chickamauga scenario - part 2

A CSA 6# gun at Stone's River Battlefield a few
weekend's ago.

The CSA breakthrough in the center! Will they be able to take advantage of this?

Beatty's brigade marching towards the cross-roads. These troops are
badly needed by the Union and will be in thick of it in a few turns.

The Rebel artillery has finally come into action!

An overview of the battle so far. The CSA breakthrough has
occured by the white farm house. Some routed Yanks can
be seen running down the road!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

28mm Gladiators!

These are some lovely 28mm Wargames Foundry Gladiators that I painted a few years ago. I had been planning on buying every blister in the range and painting up a bunch of these guys. I was also going to design a set of quick play, hex based rules to fight matches in the arena. Well.....this was one of those wargaming projects that didn't get any further than what you see here! It never got off the ground and I decided to sell off these figures on ebay a while back. Have you ever started a project / period and then abandoned it?
I know that I've done it several times: Pirates, Spanish-American War, Gladiators and Seven Years War (28mm). Ha!

28mm Wargames Foundry Gladiators!

From a different perspective...

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Chickamauga, GA, Sept. 19, 1863 - Johnny Reb 15mm ACW Scenario

This is a classic "what if" scenario included in the old "Johnny Reb" boxed set. Historically CSA Gen.
Breckinridge was recalled by Bragg and not allowed to develop his massed flank attack on Gen. Negley's USA division. This scenario allows gamers to see what might have happened if he had been allowed to develop his attack. I really enjoy hypothetical scenarios, since the gamers don't have the benefit of hindsight. I took these pictures before the game started, and they show the starting positions of the troops. I will post some pictures of the game in action soon!

The starting CSA postions in this scenario.

Stirwell's brigade holding the line! Beatty's brigade
can be seen marching off in the distance.

The last Union unit on their right flank. In the many times
we have played this scenario, this is always a key unit!

Stanley's artillery holding the road on the right flank.

Helm's CSA brigade advances! These are old 15mm
(more like 18mm) Vulcan Forge figures.

The "hot corner" of the table - turn 1.




Wednesday, June 8, 2011

25mm War of the Roses

War of the Roses - I have been painting WOR figures for a few years now. This has really been a "back seat" project and I have just been squeezing in painting units when I can. My army consists mainly of 25mm Wargames Foundry, Old Glory and Front Rank figures (and a few Dixon Flodden figures). We are using slightly modified Medieval Tactica rules by Artly Conliffe. These rules are easy to play and work very well. I can definitely recommend them!The main modifications are that we are little more flexible in the way units can maneuver on the table-top, and we field slightly larger units. Our average foot unit size is 32 figures (4 stands of 8 figs per stand) and the average mounted unit is 18 figures.

We have been using the "Flower of Chivalry" booklet by the Canadian Wargamers Group (by Bruce McFarlane) as a guide for our OOB and unit organizations. This is really a great book and resource if you are interested in the Medieval period. I have been mainly painting units for the Lancastrian army under the Duke of Sommerset at the battle of Tewksbury, May 4th, 1471. My friend, Titch, has been painting the Yorkists. We are about done with this project and we each only need to paint a few units of longbowmen. I still have two boxes of plastic Perry Miniatures units I need to get from Titch and I am looking forward to painting these! Here are some pictures of a recent game in action:




25mm War of the Roses action taking place on my gaming table!

Two armies deployed for battle. This is really my Lancastrian army and a friend
of mine has the Yorkists. We have been planning a big convention Tewkesbury game soon! On occasion
I like to get out my Lancastrians and have them fight amongst themselves!

A unit of Front Rank knights. These are really nice figures, but slightly
larger than the Old Glory and Wargames Foundry figs.

The skirmish for the farm! Some shire archers and mecenary handgunners
fight for control of the field and farm.

Front Rank Burgundian pikemen on a bridge.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Nashcon 2011 - Pictures

Nashcon 2011 - Nashcon was held over Memorial Day weekend in Franklin, TN. It is my local con, and even though I had to work most of the weekend, I was able to swing by and take some pictures of the Friday and Saturday night sessions. I wasn't able to take pictures of all the games, but this gives you an idea
of what kind of games were being played.

The Battle of El Al - October 7th, 1973. A great looking 15mm modern game run by Jamie Gentry, James Rogers and Eric Walther using "Modern Test of Battle" rules.

The Battle of Waterloo - GM'd by Ken Lewis in 25mm using "Napoleon's Eagles". A classic
scenario with masses of good looking 25mm figs!

Chickamauga - The fight for Brock Field. Mike Randles always puts on a
great looking game and this was no exception! 15mm ACW using Regimental Fire & Fury.

More F&F ACW action in 15mm! Great terrain and figs!

Aerodrome 2.0 - WWII Aerial Combat
This is always a popular game system and everyone looked like they wre having
a blast! GM - Stan Kubiak

Aerodrome - a plane goes down in flames!

All the King's Men - they ran a great looking 54mm AWI game. The game was run by
Ken Cliffe and Mike Lee. Their vendor booth can be seen behined the table.

A 54mm unit of American AWI troops marches into battle! Great looking figs!

The Battle of Marengo - 15mm game using "Napoleon's Battles III". A nice looking game run
by Jim Cacy.

"Iron on the River" - 1:600 ACW naval game run by Bryant Williams using his own set of rules. Nice!

 Flames of War - a picture of some of the FOW terrain in the FOW tournament room.

25mm ACW using "Volley and Bayonet" - this was a great looking game!

Afghanistan 2008 - Neel Woodall's modern Marines vs Taliban game using "Force on Force: rules.

The Battle of Kings Mountain - 25mm AWI using "Brother Against Brother" rules. The terrain and figs were very nice!
This picture shows the terrain at the start of the game before the figs were placed on the table. GM'd by Michael Coggins.

An shot of the main gaming room. The games were set up in the middle of the room and the vendors
around the perimeter. There were several smaller rooms in use: FOW room, Warhammer room, DBA room, and Flea Market room.