Shiloh - A stubborn East Flank

We played a 15mm ACW game of "Across A Deadly Field" yesterday. It was a refight of the same scenario I ran at Nashcon, but this time we used three stand 15mm figure units instead of two stand  25mm figure units. The scenario was written by John Hill and portrays Albert Sideney Johnston's vicious mid-morning attack on the Federal brigades of Stuart, Williams and McArthur. I believe this scenario will be included in the ADF - Western Scenario book from Osprey next year.

This is a small scenario for ADF which is perfect for two players.  Dean took the Feds and I played the Rebs. Turn one saw a general CSA advance (although it was slooooowwww through the woods and ravines) and almost no firing, with the Feds reacting to some of the Rebel movements.

Each turn in ADF has a lot of "play" in it  since one side has an "action" and then the other side may "react", and then the active side takes another "action". Once the active side has completed all of its actions, the opposing side now becomes the active side. It's a great game mechanic that really causes the player to plan out and prioritize his actions carefully.

Turn two opened with some CSA and USA artillery fire and and a Rebel charge that got stopped and thrown back, but another massed  CSA brigade charge broke the Union line near the peach orchard and caused one unit to rout and a couple other units to shake. We paused the game at that point to fire up grill for some lunch. By that time a couple other gamers had showed up and we just kept grilling and talking gaming into the evening and it was too late to return to the game before everyone had to go home. It was a great day of ACW gaming, friends and BBQ and we all planned to do it again soon!

The mat was commissioned by John Hill and I think it really looks fantastic! These might be available commercially later this year.

Here are some pics from the game:

Some of McArthur's brigade moving up to support the Union line near Larkin Bell's field.

Dean West moving his troops.

The Union  Brig Gen Stephen Hurlburt surveying the grim situation.

My friend Chris photo-bombing me (in black shirt) and Dean in my gaming room.

The big rebel charge that broke the Union line. I think if we would have played a few more turns, Dean could have easily stabilized the situation.

The Union gun line of four batteries holds the center. These guns were firing through the camps keeping the Rebs at bay.

An overview of the game during turn two. The Rebs have punched through the center of the USA line, although they are now exposed themselves! I think Dean would have cleaned this up quickly had the game continued. This is about the point where we stopped to BBQ.

After the battle....

Good Gaming - Cory

The Battle of Shiloh - the Stubborn East Flank at Nashcon 2014

This last weekend I ran a game of John Hill's new rules "Across A Deadly Field" at Nashcon. The cool thing was that I ran the game with John Hill! Well, actually we both ran the game, but we also had support from Patrick Lebeau and Dean West. It was truly a team effort!

The historical situation involved the Rebel brigades of Chalmer, Jackson, Bowen and Statham slamming into the weak, and extremely strung out Federal extreme left flank at Shiloh held by the brigades of Stuart, McArthur, and Williams. The game was played in 28mm using 15mm buildings for ground scale.

John had a terrain mat printed, which is a great idea and a quick way to set up a game! Thanks John! He mailed it to me and I spent a hurried couple of weeks painting a few last units, making fences (about 1,000 toothpicks) and sanding down an insulation board to lay underneath the terrain mat to make 3D ravines.

The rules played fast and furious and we were able to play to a conclusion in a few hours. I really enjoy these new rules and they are definitely my new favorite rules for the ACW. They will be published by Osprey in July for release at Historicon. Here are a few pictures of the game:

Here is the table with all of the terrain ready, but no figures. 

The Rebs advance through the woods. Picture by John Hill.

One of the Federal players (Kermitt H.) studies his options.

The Rebs advance towards the Union position. ACWGamer.com  gave us some rulers to use for the game. Thanks!

The terrain mat had the names of key geographical features printed in it. It was great for observers and the players to use as reference points to explain the battle.

Dean West (with chart) explains the rules to some of the players.

The Rebs were able to drive the Yanks back to their base line and were declared the winner!

John Hill (left) looks over the battlefield.

25mm Frontier Miniatures ACW figures - 17th AL

I have a sweet spot for these old school Frontier Miniatures (80's) figures. I picked up a few on eBay recently and decided to paint some specifically for a game of "Across A Deadly Field" that I'm running at Nashcon in May. This is the 17th Alabama Infantry Regiment.

 The 17th were organized in Montgomery in August 1861. They fought at Shiloh in 1862, where they lost 125 killed and wounded. They have an impressive service record and later fought at Resaca, New Hope Church, Kennesaw, Peachtree Creek and Atlanta. They lost about 2/3 of their men at Franklin during the Nashville campaign.  A remnant later merged with other AL units and surrendered at Greensboro, N.C. in April 1865.

Being that they are recently painted and the convention game will be their first engagement.....I'm sure they will rout! Here are a few pictures:

25mm Frontier Figures - the 17th Alabama Infantry

The 17th AL advancing towards the Federal line at Shiloh - 1862

Another view of the 17th Al with the first CSA National flag

Side view

A sneak peek of the Shiloh scenario I'm working on for Nashcon. I still have to add lots of fences, orchards, camps, etc. I'm using 15mm buildings with 25mm fiures to keep the ground scale for the buildings correct. Thoughts?

Take care and Good Gaming! Cory

Some more ACW!

Well, my pots of grey and blue paint are running low! I've been painting ACW for a a while now and there is no end in sight.... well, actually maybe after Nashcon at the end of May I'll be able to take a break. At the moment I'm adding a few more units for a Shiloh game I'm running with John Hill to promote his new rules "Across A Deadly Field". I'm painting a 25mm Frontier Figures CSA infantry unit (17th AL) and I also ordered some Sash and Saber figures (mounted officers and the 14th Brooklyn). The castings are wonderful and I'll post some pics of those figures as soon as I'm finished. Here are some pics of the odds and ends I've been painting.

Confederate prisoners captured after the first days fighting at Shiloh. 28mm Dixon figures

Some Union engineers start on some entrenchments. Well, one man is working and the other is "supervising".

Some CSA engineers start on some works in front of an old farmhouse. 

A 10mm USA officer. I'm simultaneously working on a 10mm Shiloh project!

A few more 10mm ACW

I've been painting away on the 10mm figures! My plan is to paint the OOB for Shiloh (at least the east flank) using the upcoming, grand tactical "Across A Deadly Field" rules. A unit is only two stands consisting of typically 3-5 figures per stand so I should be able to build up quite a few units quickly. As I mentioned in my first 10mm ACW post, I enjoy painting these figures, and they definitely appeal to the "wargaming" side of the hobby for me, but I'm not going to give up painting my 28mm figures anytime soon. I still prefer the larger scale and they appeal to the painter/modeler side of the hobby that I really joy. Well anyway, here are some new iPhone pictures:

Two Federal units advance. These are my newest additions.

The Rebs!

The officer is a new addition.

This is what I have painted so far, with a few more units primed and ready to paint. 

My first foray into ACW 10mm

Well, I just jumped into the world of the little guys....10mm! This all came about when I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to build armies for the new, grand tactical ACW rules "Across A Deadly Field". These rules are for fighting the BIG battles, and my 15mm and 28mm armies on my table wouldn't give me the ground scale I was looking for. I had thought about 6mm or 10mm and in a conversation he told me that he had a bunch a 10mm figures just collecting dust that he would let me have. (Thanks John!) I have since picked up a few things off eBay.

I'm planning on painting the OOB for Shiloh, and I started with the 52nd TN under the leadership of Col. Benjamin Lea. Like many CSA units in 1862, this is a green unit going into battle with mixed flintlocks. Brave lads!

I like the look of the 10mm figures, but they appeal more to my "wargamer" side and less to my "painting and modeling" side. Lots of 10mm units will look great marching across the tabletop, but I'm not ready to give up painting 28mm yet!

Sorting the pile of lead that my friend sent me!

Getting ready to prime a few units and a Gen.

I thought I would go with a wash on these guys. I'll try a black prime and dry brush on the next batch and see which I like better.

The 52nd Tennessee. I like the early war CSA flags. I painted a first national CSA flag on this unit.

I believe these are GHQ figures.

Forward 52nd! At only 6-10 figures a unit I can have the armies ready for Shiloh pretty quick I think. As long as I can find some painting time!

ACW 28mm "Shiloh" game using Across A Deadly Field

We played a 28mm ACW game recently at my place. We used John Hill's soon to be published grand tactical rules "Across A Deadly Field". These should be available from Osprey in the Spring/Summer of 2014. I plan on writing a more detailed review and after action report soon, but I wanted to quickly share a few iPhone pics of the game. I've been super busy at work, so I probably won't have time for another post until the New Year, so if I don't see you until then..... Merry Christmas! Cory

The game set up and ready to go! Loosely based on Shiloh. Lot's or poorly armed Rebs attacking a few Yanks barely holding on!

28mm Dixon Federals.

The Federal line awaits the assault.

A local Federal counter-attack!

Giving the Rebs some double canister!

The Federals hold the sunken road.

ACW Casualty Markers

I have been wanting to eliminate the table-top clutter from my ACW games. I while ago I made some markers using miniatures for morale (shaken and routed), and low on ammo. I recently saw some great Napoleonic markers on the blog-o-sphere and wanted to try my hand at an ACW version.

I will use these for small games, with 12 or less units per side, and I think it will be a great way to eliminate the pipe cleaners I normally use to mark casualties. Let me know what you think! Here are some iPhone pictures:

A wooden base with a little putty to create a socket for the die.

Some paint, sand and dry brushing.

The finished product! A friend recommended I use black dice instead!

The 81st IL has taken two hits.

I have set up a playtest game of John Hill's new rules "Across a Deadly Field". I'll be posting an AAR soon.

An iPhone picture of my table. The scenario is based on Shiloh with the Rebs having to attack the Union position. You can see some of the Rebs massed in their starting areas at the back of the table.

 

New ACW Rules from John Hill?

New ACW Rules from John Hill?

This is how I imagine a brigade of Rebs, with a supporting battery, would look deployed on the tabletop.

** 9/25/2013 I've updated this post now that the rules have been announced! The rules will be called "Across a Deadly Field" and are being published by Osprey Publishing. This is exciting news for ACW gamers! They are available now for pre-order and will be available May 20th, 2014!

Click on this link below to have a look:

Across A Deadly Field

The rumors are true. John Hill is indeed working with a major military history publisher on a new set of hardbound, deluxe ACW miniatures rules that will enable gamers to recreate large battles while still using individual regiments and batteries. John has loosely referred to the rules as a grand tactical version of "Johnny Reb III", and the gaming scales do suggest that it is almost an exact "half-sized" version of JRIII. The ground scale will be one inch equals 100 yards and each figure represents about 60 men and most regiments will be two stands. The turn time scale may be bumped up to 30 minutes per turn to accommodate longer battles - but, that is still being thought about. According to John, a key design intent is that no figure remounting will be necessary - just grab half as many stands per regiment while the battery presentation will be the same - one gun figure per battery, with the number of gunners representing the number of gun sections. At present, the new title is still not fully finalized, but one thing is certain, it will not simply be called "Johnny Reb IV", as the new publisher feels that while JR roots will be obvious, it will be important for this game to establish its own identity and following.

With the ground scale exactly halved and the figure scale doubled, this means that a battle that would take a six foot by twelve foot table, could now be recreated in half that space. So, with a little tweaking around the edges, almost all of the main Gettysburg battlefield from just north of Barlow's Knoll to just south of Big Round Top would fit roughly on a 5 by 9 foot ping pong table. I was worried that since the scale was bumped up for larger battles, the game might simply be a simplified version of JR III and that much of the detail might be "dumbed down". Well, John assured me that would not be the case, as since JR was first published, miniature gamers have become much more sophisticated and in John's opinion they can easily handle a lot more detail and complexity than twenty years ago when "Johnny Reb" was first published by Adventure Games. In fact, the new game will have more regimental and battery detail than does JR III. For example, in JR III there are only four types of small arms and five types of guns listed on the Reference Chart - though more types are covered in the rules themselves. In the new game, however, the one page Reference Chart (which seems to be a John Hill trademark), will probably have seven or eight different types of small arms and about ten different types of field guns.

How a "Two Stand" Regiment might look for John's new ACW rules.

One of the unique characteristics of all three "Johnny Reb" rules was its use of hidden order markers that when revealed gave the game a lot of suspense along with a semi-simultaneous turn resolution - and John assured me that all of the mechanics of the new game will still work fine within the traditional JR "order-marking" system - which is still his preferred system. That being said, John has noted that many gamers do not like their game board cluttered with order markers, so the new rules will also have a smoothly integrated action/reaction sequence that accommodates much the same result without the orders chits. John feels that both systems will give the gamer a realistic and playable ACW game - so both options will be presented.

Of course, the obvious question was when will the game actually be published and will "play test" kits be made available like was done for "Johnny Reb III"? John responded that the publisher has a long standing tradition of making sure that everything is presented with a very high end finish, along with a penchant for getting all the details right and they fully intend to give themselves enough time to do that - so, his best estimate is sometime next year. While it would have been nice to have it out for the 150th Anniversary of Gettysburg - the publisher felt it was better to take the time to make it a really superb product. I obviously had a lot more questions about the game, but John concurs with the publisher's desire that they want to make sure everything works as intended, before they talk too much about the game. Okay, I guess we can wait....

I'll continue to pester John about his new rules and I'll post updates as soon as I have more news!

A brigade of Rebs with a battery in support. These are pics of some of my old 15mm Old Glory figs. I'm excited about the new rules, and am thinking about staring a new 10mm or 6mm ACW project specifically for the game.