Sickles' salient, Gettysburg day 2. Rematch

 Our rematch of this game was played out at one of the player's homes, with him leaving his co command of the confederate forces to umpire. The previous umpire joined me in commanding the union troops.

We extended the table slightly to include the Round Tops and added troops accordingly.

The confederate commander on this occasion decided to completely ignore the peach orchard and instead swung his whole force on a wide sweeping advance to his right to fall upon the Devils Den and then the Round Tops. His left flank turned to form a holding line along the Plum Run stream to hold back my troops now having to reorientate to apply pressure out of the left flanks of the Peach Orchard and Wheat Field.

Opening positions

Left flank of my command in the Peach Orchard and Wheat field

My command area.

My right flank along the Emmitsburg road

I'm forced to redeploy as the confederates swing right.

Confederates rear turn to block me whilst their main attack goes in.

More redeployment of my troops.

Confederate attack on the Union left begins.

View from behind Devils Den.

Rebels close in.

Devils Den falls to the Confederates

Union centre turns to form a new defensive front.

Union left under intense pressure.

Union reinforcements arrive to try and shore up the left flank.

Union troops on Little Round Top

Stand-off across Plum Run stream.

Attacking the confederate rear guard.

Corner of the Wheat field

Confederates swarm up the slopes of Round Top

Confederates push on to Little Round Top

With Round Top in rebel hands Little Round Top comes under intense pressure.

What can I say about this game? The confederate player did something we weren't expecting and then had such a run with his dice rolls that both sides checked them for "issues". No matter what my co commander on our left flank, and to a slightly lesser extent myself, tried to do he always got the better of us and rolled up the union flank with seeming ease.

Despite this it was a great day's gaming with a very nice lunch thrown in by our host's very understanding wife.

Sickles' salient, Gettysburg day 2. Game at NBHW

On Friday the 15th July after approximately a three year gap the 15/18mm ACW figures were out again at New Buckenham for a return to Fire & Fury gaming. The scenario was based on day two of Gettysburg when Union General Sickles decided unilaterally to advance his division into the peach orchard, wheat field and Devils Den just to the north of Little Round Top breaking the cohesiveness of the Union defensive line, resulting in Longstreet launching an assault in this area.

As mentioned earlier the figures were 15/18mm and the rules Fire & Fury, specifically a house amended version of the original rules, with some features of Brigade Fire & Fury added in. After the aforementioned three year break we were very rusty with the rules, but by the end of the night they had started coming back to us.

I was given Sickles' command with a colleague hopefully bringing up Sykes' and Barnes' reserves soon?

Starting positions with Hood and McLaws' rebels advancing

Sykes awaiting his turn to "arrive" along with my new 3d printed fences.

Hood on my left flank advanced towards Devils Den before swinging two of his brigades with supporting artillery across the Plum Run stream towards the wheat field. McLaw's brigades charged out of the treeline to attack my troops lining the Emmitsburg road by the Peach Orchard.

This initial assault was thrown back with the confederate brigade commander, Barksdale, killed. This would turn out to be one of my few successes of the night as my cursed dice rolling from Waterloo continued to haunt me.

Zouaves turn to face Hoods approaching troops

My zouaves turned to face the threat from Hood but were thrown back by the determined charge of the confederate troops. Undaunted they gathered themselves to counter attack and launched a charge of their own, with the obvious result given my dice rolling ability.

Zouaves charge in to try and retake the wheat field.

The remaining zouaves fell back to the Wheatfield Road and commenced harassing musket fire.

Preparing to defend the Peach Orchard from McLaws

McLaws' southernmost brigades now pressed forward towards the Peach Orchard where my troops awaited, hoping for better dice rolls.

Watching Hood's troops across from Devils Den.

Over by Devils Den I pushed my brigade forward slightly but Hood's troops refrained from pushing forward too far and this area just saw some desultory artillery and long distance musketry fire for the rest of the encounter.

Syke's reserves begin to arrive...but too late.

To nobodies surprise McLaw's push on the Peach Orchard and then along the Wheatfield Road was swift with my troops defensive rolls failing miserably and Sykes' forces not able to get into position in time.

Mclaw's forces push all before them.

With time getting on the game was called here as a Confederate win, but the main objective of the evening namely getting reacquainted with the rules after a long hiatus was achieved.

Now where can I buy some new dice :)

As usual a few more pictures can be found in the clubs Facebook album

Tony.

15/18mm American Civil War: Update 7, Another infantry brigade and fences.

So a quick update this time. The Union infantry won over the British napoleonic heavy dragoons in the next to get painted competition.

Again these are Blue Moon miniatures and this time there are eight bases, so in Brigade Fire & Fury either 1200 or 1600 men.

A slight change to the colours used this time. For a bit of variety I used Vallejo 965 Prussian Blue for the jackets instead of my usual Dark Prussian Blue, and the blanket rolls were painted in a mix of Vallejo 875 Beige Brown and 990 Light Grey. The varnish, supposedly a satin, went a bit too glossy on these so they will get hit with a matt one once I buy some more.

Additionally I painted up six casualties from Old Glory 15s to act as disorder markers.

Another thing that slowed down the work on these was the manufacture of my first snake fencing. I used matchsticks based on tongue depressors. Slightly oversized for the figures, hence only three rails high. But I think they look OK for a first attempt.

Tony.

15/18mm American Civil War: Update 6, More troops plus some Terrain.

Another update on the ACW project.

Finished another seven base unit of Union troops, so another brigade for Fire & Fury. This time the figures are all Blue Moon ( US here, UK here ).

Figures by Blue Moon

Seven bases so either 1050 or 1400 men depending on scale being used in Brigade F&F

Also completed are the hasty fieldworks from TimeCast. These resin castings were primed with Vallejo Grey Surface Primer before base coating with a Crown Paints tester pot from their Period collection called Gramophone. This colour is the same as I used on my riverbanks and bridges as the closest match I could find to my Hotz mud tracks. The logs were painted Vallejo 872 Chocolate Brown with the cut surfaces Vallejo 929 Light Brown, before everything was washed with Vallejo Sepia Wash. Any rocks were painted Vallejo 992 Neutral Grey then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil. A bit of flock and they were finished.

TimeCast Hasty fieldworks.

With some figures for scale.

Next the fences from Ironclad Miniatures. Once again these are resin casts and were primed with Vallejo Grey Surface Primer. The woodwork was painted with Vallejo 929 Light Brown and the earth with Crown Period Gramophone. An overall wash with Vallejo Sepia Wash was applied before the earth was dry brushed with the original colour and the fences with Vallejo 886 Grey Green. Two sizes of flock was applied and almost an afterthought the gate hinges painted in Vallejo 863 Gunmetal Grey.

Ironcast Miniatures' fences.

With figures for scale.

So with these completed my Union force now looks like this.

I have a few casualty figures primed for using as disorder markers and then comes the decision, more infantry or swap periods and get my British Napoleonic Heavy Dragoon regiment painted....?

Tony.

15/18mm American Civil War: Update 4, Infantry units.

A quick update on progress with the ACW collection. Things slowed down a bit as I have been busy with some non wargaming projects but here are the latest completed units.

This unit is made up of AB figures and featured in my Painting 18mm American Civil War Union post.

These are also AB figures except for the regimental standard bearer who is Blue Moon.

Next up are another seven bases of Blue Moon infantry and some more terrain, this time field works, rivers and bridges from TimeCast and fences from Ironclad Miniatures

More terrain

Tony.

Painting 18mm American Civil War Union Infantry.

So after the reception to my post on Painting a 28mm British Napoleonic Battalion here's a very rough guide on how I've started painting my 18mm ACW Union infantry.

A quick comment on how I paint my 18mm figures. I block paint colours and  apply washes. I don't use shading or highlighting etc, I think the finished figures look fine for wargaming, which is what they are for after all.

With that said here is how I do paint them, all paints are Vallejo Model Colour unless otherwise stated.

Main paint colours used

Primer, washes, flock mix and varnish

The figures are attached, four to a wooden tongue depressor using Pritt Stick glue and brush primed using Vallejo Ultramarine Surface Primer (625).

Based on painting sticks and primed

First I paint the uniforms:

• Trousers: Either Grey Blue (943) or Andrea Blue (841)
• Jackets: Dark Prussian Blue (899)
• Kepis and Forage Caps: Dark Prussian Blue (899)

These areas are then washed with Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade.

Next the flesh areas are painted in Basic Skin Tone (815). I've used a paler colour for the flesh than I use for my 28mm figures due to the reduction in figure size.

Jackets, trousers (Grey Blue in this case) and flesh done

The areas of hair are next to get painted in a variety of browns or even grey before both this and the flesh areas are washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.

Equipment comes next:

• Blanket rolls: Neutral Grey (992)
• Hats (kepi peaks), cartridge box, haversack, knapsack, boots, scabbards & straps: Black (950)
• Officers sashes: Red (926)
• Water bottle covers: Grey Blue (943)
• Water bottle straps: Off White (820)
• Musket woodwork, drumsticks and flagpoles: Flat Brown (984)

Metallics next:

• Musket metalwork: Gun Metal Grey (863)
• Bayonets and swords: Oily Steel (865)
• Sword hilts: Gold (996) Officers, Brass (801) Others
• Scabbard tips and other ranks' buttons, hat badges and buckles: Brass (801)
• Officers' buttons, badges and buckles: Gold (996)
• Flag pole tops: Brass (801)

Then finishing trim etc:

• Sgt's stripes: Prussian Blue (965)
• Hat cords: Prussian Blue (965)
• Drummer jacket lace: Prussian Blue (965)
• Drum bands: Vermillion (909)
• Drum cords: Off White (820)
• Drum face: Dark Prussian Blue (899)
• Drum skin: Flat flesh (955) washed with Citadel Agrax Earthshade

Finally on to the basing:

This is slightly different to how I do my 28mm figures, mostly due to the different rule requirements, but also tweaked due to figure size.

First the figures are based four to a base using super glue. Bases are 25mm square, 1.5mm thick plywood from Warbases with magnetic strip attached to the bottom. Next dried play sand, a finer grain than I use for 28mm, is glued down with PVA before being washed with Vallejo Game Colour Wash Sepia Shade. After this has dried the base edges are painted with Cam Olive Green (894) before they are flocked with a mixture of Woodland Scenics flocks, 50/50 mix of Blended Turf T50 Earth Blend and Fine Turf T45 Green Grass.

After all this is completed a final check is carried out for chipped paint or omissions before the whole assembled infantry stands are varnished with The Army Painter's Anti Shine Matt Varnish. Once this has dried the flags are permanently attached and they are finished. 

Completed unit, a small brigade of 1050 to 1400 men depending on game scale being used,

Time to start the next batch!

More AB figures

Tony.