AWI/ACW Buildings and Bases

 

I had these lovely buildings made for me a while back by Oshiro Models. I asked for them to be unbased to cut down on the footprint if I needed to squeeze them in somewhere. Unlike Napoleonics for example, where a couple of buildings might represent a small hamlet, individual buildings on an AWI/ACW battlefield usually represent just that - individual buildings. House to house fighting was fairly rare in these conflicts, so it is quite important to prevent them from dominating the table space too much. That said, they can look a bit "bald" on their own and the bases set them off nicely I think.

The small yard bases is simply placed adjacent to the church; although it isn't too clear in the photo, there is room at the front to enter. Nice and easy to make and the tree adds a little something too I think. 

And here it is in its natural state.

Here is one of two barns that James made for me; A nice natural wood effect.

This time the base is designed so that the barn can rest on top of it with a little post and rail fencing, stones, flock and tufts to finish it off.

All in all, worth the effort I think and I will do the same with some of the other buildings as I try and make my battlefields a bit more attractive and interesting. I am also working on a load of fencing; post and rail and worm and am looking at adding some very attractive stone fences cast by Battle Honours. I have also recently picked up some very nice "short haired" teddy bear fur on EBAY which should make great looking wheatfields. Hopefully I can do an ACW battle report soon to show it all off. 

Terrain of course is just as time consuming as painting figures but really worth it if, like me, you are really into the aesthetic side of the hobby.

Another Partizan Show - Will I Never Learn

 

Three years ago, as I documented on my 12 June 2023 post, I went to Partizan and spent quite a while watching and drooling over David Imrie and Dave Andrews' lovely ACW demo game. So impressed was I that I started, or rather re-started a collection for myself. In the intervening time I have built up a reasonable force of around a dozen regiments a side plus supports and done a quick play home brew set of rules as well. Since then it has become a firm favourite with the Monday Night Gamers and we have had quite a few really enjoyable encounters. Whilst the collection was by no means finished, other projects had taken the spotlight and I hadn't done much with it recently. Until Partizan.

This year David, Dave and the other Bodkins put on another beautiful looking game based on the early clashes on the first day of Gettysburg. Buford's cavalry, supported by a couple of infantry brigades were trying to hold back a growing tide of  advancing Confederate infantry and a great scrap it was. The game and the supporting information, which was also very nicely done, looked great. The very friendly Bodkins were only too happy to stop and chat not only about the game but how they had done the figures, terrain and so on. A great advert for the hobby.

The unintended consequence unfortunately was that I had another rush of blood to the head; a rush that seemed to bypass my brain, and I ended up somehow with an armful of Perry plastics boxes and dismounted Union cavalry and horseholders to add to the alpine pile of shame in my wargames room. Will I never learn! 

Never mind. Below is the evidence I offer in mitigation for my actions m'lud. 

 

Case dismissed on the grounds of intolerable provocation! 

Back to WWII next after this little diversion. See you next time.

Some ACW Union Regiments

As I mentioned in an earlier post on painting my first Confederate brigade, the Perry plastic ACW figures are both very nice and fairly easy to paint. Union troops if anything are even simpler, with a comforting degree of uniformity, unlike the rebs. I also give them 2 flags rather than a single battle flag, which also helps. Decided to go with right shoulder shift again, as I think it really suits the period and protects the muskets and bayonets a bit more. With 5 figures to a base, rather than the more traditional 6 in 2 ranks of 3, you can jumble up the ranks a little to give that slight sense of disorder in a regiment moving briskly to the front. You also get 6 bases for the price of 5 with 30 figures - a considerable saving. 

I am working on and playtesting a home brew set of rules with my regular wargaming mates which use a scale of 1 base to 60 men. A "typical" regiment is therefore between 4 and 6 bases, although they can be larger. Smaller regiments are a bit flimsy in action and best avoided. 

As before the rank and file are plastic, the command figures from the Perry metal range - I use a complete metal pack with each regiment in order to get the two standard bearers that I need; my Confederate regiments can get by with half a pack (3 figures) each.

The exception is the Zouave regiment, in this case the 114th Pennsylvania, which is all plastic. They really do add a splash of colour to an otherwise fairly sombre army, although I do find that long lines of blue and grey can still look very appealing on the table.

I try to have a couple of batches of ACW figures on the go in various stages of completion as often as I can; it is one of those periods that, for me, is really do-able through the "little and often" method.  When painting more "formal" units, I usually prefer to do all 24/32/40 at once to maintain uniformity. With an ACW collection a dozen figures a week, before you know where you are, you have a couple of brigades a side and a game in the offing.

Am aiming for 16-20 infantry regiments a side, so still a way to go, but Gettysburg wasn't built in a day! Add 3 or 4 batteries and a selection of command bases and you are done. Cavalry is something I am still mulling over; not very prominent on most battlefields but would add a real degree of variation in our games. Couple of brigades a side - what do you think?

A Second ACW Confederate Brigade

Here are the fruits of a few months of "little and often" painting that I find really works for this period. The units aren't really "organised" in the usual sense in that I have a number of command bases as you can see below to which are added as many infantry bases as I need to make up the unit sizes for the game. In the rules we are using this can vary from 4 to 8 bases (occasionally a little more, but rarely less). This batch is 4 regiments of 6 bases each (representing 360 real men); it could equally be made up into a regiment of 4 bases, 2 more of 5 bases and a large regiment of 10 bases. This is the advantage of ACW, where the uniforms for the vast majority of troop types are indistinguishable, all you need is a command base and take it from there - very flexible.

As usual, the rank and file are Perry plastics and the command are mainly metal figures from the same source with a few plastics from the box thrown in. Overall, they look nice, even with a fairly routine paint job. Flags are GMB.

 

My First Completed Confederate Brigade

 

Following on from my 12 June post and my seduction into yet another project, I thought I would show you where I have got to so far. The first brigade has four regiments each of five bases with (usually) five figures on each base, so around 100 figures in total. This is comprised of a couple of boxes of Perry plastics and two metal command packs, which coincidentally comes to 100 figures! Each command pack has two standard bearers, officers and drummers, providing one of each for two of the four regiments. No wastage.

As a previous plastic-sceptic, I must admit that I am very impressed with these figures. They assemble easily, are in a nice mix of right shoulder shift poses and are more robust than I would have thought. Price wise they are, as you might expect, very competitive.

As I have lots of other projects on the go for 2024, I have decided to use the softly softly approach with this one going forward. I have assembled and undercoated another couple of hundred figures or so and about half of these are already block painted - something I was still able to do during the early days of convalescence. I have divided them into batches of 10 with the same basic colour scheme and started working through them alongside other painting jobs. The uniforms are fairly undemanding and I am finding that for little extra effort I can get through them fairly quickly - so far three batches done in a few weeks. Another seven batches to go and that will be the second brigade done - stay tuned to see if I can keep it up!!

I Blame Bloody Partizan!!

 

Like many wargamers I am sure, concentrating on one or two projects at a time and bringing them successfully to conclusion is easier said than done. Having several periods competing for painting time and a load of terrain boards and drop on features to make, the last thing I needed was another "bright idea" to complicate my wargaming life even further. Unfortunately I made my usual (and indispensable) visit to the Partizan wargames show, held on 21 May.

As usual, it was a great day out, packed full of excellent games and a chance to chat with lots of people I don't see at any other time. The high point was a superb ACW game put on by Dave Andrews, David Imrie and friends (the bayonets) and that is where the trouble began. I spent much of the day coming back to watch the game unfold and had a great chat with the guys putting it on. One of them gave me a copy of their handout, which included a link to a free set of  ACW rules, written by a chap in the US

Jay's Wargaming Madness (jayswargamingmadness.blogspot.com)

If you are not familiar with this guys blog, it is well worth a look.

Anyway as a Yorkshireman anything that is free gets my attention and when I got home I ran off a copy of the rules - big mistake! I had watched them in use during the game and they looked to be a lot of fun and quite fast moving. When I read them through I couldn't resist doing the one thing I really shouldn't have - I ordered a couple of boxes of Perry Plastic Confederates and two metal command packs (enough figures for a brigade of 4 regiments) and set to work on yet another fairly large project. 

I am trying to get AWI, Napoleonic and WW2 on the move and already have longer term plans for the Italian and Seven Years Wars and the prospect of buying and painting another 800+ figures for something entirely different is just too silly - what can I say! 

In my defence, here are a few photos of the game that started it all - hopefully it offers some mitigation. If I can also get my arse in gear and start posting on my own blog a bit more regularly, that would also be a good step forward. Anyway, here they are - enjoy:

When I get a unit or two done, I will post a few pics. I hope this isn't another stillborn project that seemed a good idea at the time!