# Sigur goes South - The American Civil War



## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Hi people, here's my first historical plog here on HO. Over the past one and a half years two rather remarkable things happened to me - first, I'started actually playing with models again, second, I've become a historical wargamer. Since then I did a ton of projects ranging from ancient Greece to the mid-1980s and I enjoy it oh so much. I even get to play almost every week which is amazing fun.

Anyway, here's my latest tale of getting into a new period.









_Codex: Confederaceh_​
So what's this all about then? Early this year I had an amazing game of 28mm scale American Civil War stuffs. Hundreds of figures per side, huge, beautiful table. A real shame I didn't have my camera with me. Anyways, this was the first time I got into touch with wargaming the ACW. I have to admit that it did look really good. However, to be honest it's a period that never really grasped my attention and I'm still trying to work up a real enthusiastic interest in the conflict. No all that dashing uniforms, no all that exotic formations, hardly any proper cavalry, one side seemingly overwhelmingly superior in morality, manpower, equipment and infrastructure. Have I mentioned that I'll collect a Confederate army? All that being said, I'm reading stuff, researching stuff and so on. Things are starting to get more interesting. 









_Throwing Rocks_​
Why did I start the whole project then? Well, a bunch of the local historical wargaming guys are getting something ACW set up in 28mm. There is an overabundance of Union troops around already so the rebels needed some support which is where I came into play. And it's not like I'd turn down an opportunity to buy new toys. 

The rules sets of choice will be Foundry's *Bull Run to Gettysburg* and the recently released *Longstreet *by Sam Mustafa. The first one we used with the one ACW game I had and it works rather well. Longstreet I haven't even glanced at so far but the rulebook is on the way. I haven't read any reviews yet so I can make up my own mind while reading the rules but as far as I know the ruleset has been hailed as being tip top. Very much looking forward to getting the book.

The arrival of the first slew of models also helped the enthusiasm for the whole project a fair amount:










Of course I'm going with the Perry plastics because if you get the option you got with Perrys. Unless it's Napoleonics, in that case Victrix are worth a look of course.  Anyway, I got two boxes of their generic ACW infantry and two boxes of their ACW cavalry, starting out slow for starters. I got those rather cheaply second-hand which is nice. That's also the reason why I went for the generic ACW infantry rather than the Confederate infantry box. Dismounted cavalry I'll look if I can convert from plastics or I'll just get the Perry metals for that. Speaking of metals, commanders and maybe some unit command figures I'll get from the perrys as well and hope for the plastic ACW artillery to be released soon. Last I know of that box is that it's in tooling but there is no release date yet. I'm hoping for "before Christmas".

So the models arrived yesterday and as a person I have NO restraint what so ever I immediately put together two units of infantry for Bull Run to Gettysburg. 

And here's the first unit finished:



















...well, mostly. They still need basing obviously. 40 by 40mm, four models per base, five bases per unit. The weird thing is that all these boxes came with bases that are essentially 40mm by 45mm. Kind of annoying but oh well. I guess I'll just cut them up. If I just use the slightly larger bases I KNOW I'll regret it.

...and the second unit:









I planned to use my initial impetus for painting very rag-tag looking regiment (every unit will represent a different regiment I thought) so that's the first unit I did. Hope you like them so far.  It's a bit problematic that I get a bit less than two units out of each box of generic ACW infantry so maybe from the second box I'll build one more unit, then get a box of Confederate infantry and mix and match three units out of that and the remaining figures from the generic boxes. I've been discouraged to go for mixing the ACW infantry box and Confederates infantry box models but I guess I can't resist getting one box of Confederate infantry, just for testing. Oh, and I'll need Zouaves.

On Monday fate seemed to have acknowledged that I've been a good boy and painted a lot of figures over the weekend so I found this in the mail:











Aaw yeah, Longstreet rules and cards. I hope too that I can get a game in some time soon but then I still need to do a lot of painting. Realistically, I wouldn't expect to play any time before Christmas/early next year. We only play with painted models of course. And I love it.

So yup, that's the plan. Let me know if there's a specific unit you'd like to see in this army or if you have any info on interesting formations or something in the Confederate army. Thanks and see you soon!


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Oh Lee Crap! Great work on those soldiers, Sigur! The cloths are just perfect!
And good luck on your project!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Thanks, neferhet. I wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait for replies because I'm not sure how popular historical stuff is with the HO crowds.  Anyway, it's great to work on a proper 28mm army once again, especially as it's for me, me, meee, and not for somebody else.  Hope to get some more work done the upcoming weekend. During the week it's strictly commission work for me.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Sigur said:


> Thanks, neferhet. I wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait for replies because I'm not sure how popular historical stuff is with the HO crowds.


Keep it coming mate! :so_happy:

I'm having a break from 40k for a while as it's becoming a bit of a grind. So at present I'm wandering off in the direction of 15mm ECW stuff. 


Anyway, great work on Johnny Reb!


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## Ddraig Cymry (Dec 30, 2012)

Great work, the blending is super nice


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

You got that done in a day? Jesus fecking christ. Your brushes on the juice or something? Really nice work!


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## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Really nice stuff Sig. I am realy into historicals, so a new plog is a relief form Marine after Marine after Chaos Marine.... I have been avoiding ACW only because Iknow once I am there I will be lost for years. Gotta do Gettysburg in 15mm... must resist....


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Nooo, why does everybody go 15mm?  I'm really starting to think that I'm one of three people in the world who play the Pike&Shot period in 10mm. Anyway, I'm really fascinated with that period. In my case it's the Thirty Years War and it's pretty much my very own pet project. Maybe I should start a plog about it as well....
@Ddraig Cymry: Thanks very much!
@Jacobite: Thank you but nah, it wasn't done in one day. Took me two, minus putting the fellas together. Still, it was quite a sit.
@KjellThorngaard: Cheers, For the past one and a half years 95% of my gaming was historical as well. It changed my whole view of wargaming and the one thing I blame for this is the Meeples&Miniatures podcast.  I really wasn't eager to get into ACW, let alone in 28mm but I've got my one project nobody plays so on this one I'll just go with what the other guys are doing. Still struggling to get myself really invested in the period or rather the conflict. I'd join in with anything Napoleonic at the drop of a hat but the local guys are struggling to find common ground in terms of scale and rules set and I think that we'll much rather see peace in the middle east before they manage to get a unified approach to Napoleonic wargaming.


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## KjellThorngaard (Oct 4, 2010)

Sigur said:


> and I think that we'll much rather see peace in the middle east before they manage to get a unified approach to Napoleonic wargaming.


harhar!! I think you might be right! well, at least you have a group to game with, and they have something that piques your interest, even a bit. ACW catches me, well, because I hail form this side of the pond, my great-great grandfather served two terms in the war, and I have been to several battlefields. Napoleanics scares me. Unis are a bit much for my abilities. Scale boggles my mind. And I have yet to truly delve into the history. And I avoid hatmostly because I think I would probably really dig it...


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Sigur said:


> @Tawa: Nooo, why does everybody go 15mm?  I'm really starting to think that I'm one of three people in the world who play the Pike&Shot period in 10mm. Anyway, I'm really fascinated with that period. In my case it's the Thirty Years War and it's pretty much my very own pet project. Maybe I should start a plog about it as well....


Space issues more than anything  And I've yet to find a decent range of 10mm figs


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@KjellThorngaard: Yeah, I think that Napoleonics are some kind of the height of wargaming. Sooner or later everyone tumbles into this period and never ever gets out again.  
@Tawa: Oh yes, 28mm leads to all kinds of problems with proper battle games. Me, I really love Pendraken's 10mm scale stuff and I happen to know that their ECW stuff is particularly pretty. Thirty Years War and ECW stuff is pretty much interchangable at that scale so I'm using a ton of ECW figures for my TYW armies. Pikemen from Old Glory, pretty much the rest from Pendraken. I really have to start a plog for my TYW stuff on here I think....

edit:
I put up a project log about my Thirty Years War armies up now. You can find it here if you're interested:
http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=130351


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Sigur said:


> Oh yes, 28mm leads to all kinds of problems with proper battle games. Me, I really love Pendraken's 10mm scale stuff and I happen to know that their ECW stuff is particularly pretty. Thirty Years War and ECW stuff is pretty much interchangable at that scale so I'm using a ton of ECW figures for my TYW armies. Pikemen from Old Glory, pretty much the rest from Pendraken. I really have to start a plog for my TYW stuff on here I think....
> 
> edit:
> I put up a project log about my Thirty Years War armies up now. You can find it here if you're interested:
> http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=130351


I shall certainly have a look at your TYW stuff :so_happy:
It's nice to know there is somebody else interested the same historical period as me!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Thanks. Indeed, always nice having a chat about a favourite period. 

Little update - one and a half regiments of infantry and a regiment of cavalry:



















I'll see that I can get them painted any time soon. I think for a proper longstreet campaign force I need three regiments of infantry and one cavalry.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

They look like some really nice minis.

How are they for building?


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Thanks very much! They're rather fast to build really. Heads and bodies are in one piece, glue on a hat and the second arm and you're good to go. Command figures come with some more options, parts and such but also aren't much of a problem.


Well, after waiting for a few months for everybody to catch up (mostly me  ), Here are some new pictures at last! In 2014 ACW is possibly my top priority project of my own. As I said before, the main objective is getting a brigade for Longstreet done, with unit sizes reduced from 10 to 5, each unit with an optional 6th base for playing Bull Run to Gettysburg.

So I finally got around to getting some command figures I still lacked (mostly colour bearers as each regiment should have two, one with the battle flag of the Confederacy, the other one waving the state flag). I got a bunch more miniatures making sure I won't have to order any ACW minis any time soon (you heard it here first, folks). So now I got two units, another reduced unit primed, a unit of Zouaves (about a third of them converted to wear straw hats) for Louisiana Tigers, two units of mounted cavalry, one unit of dismounted cavalry and horse holder, some commanders and of course the very recently released plastic ACW artillery box. All Perry miniatures. I ALSO got that North American Farmhouse 1750-1900 kit, only to realize that my regular gaming buddy has two of those already. Should have gone with the church I suppose. Oh well.

Anyway, on we go to picutures!

This is a WIP of my first unit of cavalry, painted this weekend: 









A picture of the based infantry units thus far:


















To emphasize the more "up to snuff"-ness of the regiment in picture #2 I based them in two straight ranks whereas the models in the first unit's second rank haven't really formed a straight line, first rank is firing a few shots in general directions and so on. Hope that you like them!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Behold, I managed to finish stuff!

14th Louisiana Regiment (a.k.a. "1st Polish Brigade". In fact it was a wild mix of all kinds of foreign types from around the New Orleans area. There were Polish, Italians, Germans, Russians and so on, many of them having been seamen or dock workers prior. They were an unruly bunch and Col. Victor Sulakowski kept morale somewhat intact with a heavy hand. I read episodes of some guys from his camp who, after drunken rioting, were on their way to a nearby jail, overpowered their guards, came after them to some hotel in which they were barricaded up. The men proceeded to pile up furniture and lumber in front of the locked door to set the hotel on fire. Just in time Sulakowski turned up, pistol in each of his hands, threatening to shoot every single one of them if they proceeded. Another situation had him hacking at drunk rioters [again] from his regiment with a sabre from horseback. Following such incidents an ad-hoc disciplinary commission was set up, including "the great woman spy, Miss Belle Boyd", looking into the number and circumstances of all those cases of executions and unruly behavior of the men. Sulakowski and some of his officers who were also on trial were found to have acted correctly and honourably and things went on from there):









3rd Louisiana Regiment (Col. Hebert's. Certainly less colourful than the above. As I plan to base my bunch loosely on Hay's Brigade these don't quite fit in but oh well. They got the right state flag and fight northern aggression so they'll be fine.  I'm also planning to have a fictional brigade commander too for campaigns and suchso things get a bit fantasy-ish anyhow):









So that's them, I hope you like the first two finished units of my army! C&C welcome as always!


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## CubanNecktie (Nov 2, 2012)

watch Ken Burns the Civil War doc series on netflix will get you pumped for this


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@CubanNecktie: Thanks for the suggestion! I've seen the documentary pop up on youtube a few times, I think I should give it a go. For now I'm rather happy with the pretty great podcast on the history of the Civil War. 


Okay, another unit finished, slightly after the end of the weekend (ehem):




























Until further notice (= until I find some really colourful regiment or something with a funnier name) they are the 2nd Louisiana Cavalry, depicted by company K "Alligator Rangers". 

Hope that you like them! Next on the list are the Zouaves I guess.


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## cole.mvb (Jul 6, 2011)

:shok:
''I don't always play the south, but when I do, I prefer to make them kick a$$.''
-your message to me lol


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## iamtheeviltwin (Nov 12, 2012)

@Sigur - I second the vote for Ken Burns' Civil War documentary (or pretty much any of his documentaries) if you like the period.

Great work on the minis.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@cole.mvb:  Thanks muchly!
@iamtheeviltwin: Yup, I really think I should give that a watch then. Thanks for the comment!



Okay, a bit of a late night insubstantial surprise update on the Zouaves:










Only the front rank is at the stage displayed, the second rank only have some base colours and some highlighting on the jackets done for now. On one of the guys you can see the half-hearted attempt at striped trousers. For now I thought I'd do everything else and just then proceed to the trousers. 

Not sure if I mentioned it before but these fellas are supposed to depict the Louisiana 'Tiger Rifles' (1st special brigade or what the official designation was) so the uniforms are supposed to look a little something like this:










...which sounds cool in theory but as soon as you actually are confronted with not only white trousers but also white trousers with a lot of blue stripes you go "aargh" in some form.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Update!

I changed the approach on the trousers (went for white stripes on blue instead of the other way around) and got them done. Not only those but also the socks which are striped blue and white as well but horizontally. I guess the main work on the models is done (just barely though. Rifles, hair, some more detiail on the skin, the 'pommels' on the fezzes and of course all the bags, canteens and so on, ...)


















There's a date for the first ACW game now - 24th of April. Until then I want to have a brigade of three infantry units, a cavalry unit and three bases of artillery done. Oh, and a commander of some kind would be a good idea. So once these Zouaves are done, there's still the artillery and the commander left to do.


And just in case you missed it, here's my report on the 4th Austrian Salute 2014. Not quite up to the scale of the original. Yet!












*http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2014/03/austrian-salute-2014.html*




Anyway, hope that you like them!


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## iamtheeviltwin (Nov 12, 2012)

The blue and white striped pants are stunning. Great work Sig


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## dragonkingofthestars (May 3, 2010)

(looks at the pants, laughs)

good lord, did they really go to war dressed like that?


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@iamtheeviltwin: Thanks!
@dragonkingofthestars: Oh yes, it was highly fashionable. At least it looks nice, as opposed to the rest of the regular ACW uniforms.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

dragonkingofthestars said:


> (looks at the pants, laughs)
> 
> good lord, did they really go to war dressed like that?


You want to see some of the pants the Germans wore during the Thirty Years War! :laugh:


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Well, glorious pants of course!




A first WIP of the brigade commander's base:








(interesting carrying device for the flagpole)


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Looking good so far! :good:


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Thanks, mate!


Alrighty a little update if you please.

The as of yet unnamed brigade commander:











Major Wheat's 1st Special Battalion, Louisiana Volunteer Infantry 'Louisiana Tiger Rifles':



















One of the if not the most famous and oft-depicted unitsof the Confederate army. Similar to the 14th Louisiana which I painted earlier, the men of the 1st Special Battalion (Wheat was always on the lookout for more volunteers to turn his formation into a full regiment but never quite made it so settled for the 'Special Battalion' designation) were mostly recruited around New Orleans' docks. More than half of the men were of Irish decent, Germans being the second largest group amongst the ranks. In total there were men from 17 nations to be found in Wheat's Battalion. The famous Tiger Rifles uniforms were only worn by one of the companies and were phased out in favour of Confederate regulation dress (if available) as the war progressed but they make for a great looker on the table and you can't really play a Confederate army without those guys. The Zouave style (after the French light infantry troops) uniforms were very fashionable and especially so in and around New Orleans (due to the great French influence on the city and the whole state of Louisiana) where several Zouave units were raised. The red fezzes were part of the uniform and probably were worn in camp while in the field straw hats (probably because they used to be seamen's usual headgear at the time) were worn. The miniatures (Perrys ACW Zouaves plastics) only come with a variety of fezzes and at that point I had run out of hats so only about a third of the models are converted to wear the hats. It also would have been a shame not to have them wear fezzes of course.









Major Roberdeau Chatham Wheat (looking a little like Paul Bearer)

Wheat's Special Battlaion were commended for their performance at the first battle of Bull Run and got a reputation for fearless shock troops. The name Louisiana Tigers was later applied to the whole Battalion and subsequently to all troops from Louisiana serving in the army of Northern Virginia.












Hope that you like them!. 



P.S.: I'm in the latest issue of Henry Hyde's Wargames Miniatures magazine, hooray! (me and a mini of Empress Maria Theresa I painted, we're both to be found in the feature about last year's VIVAT show in Austria)


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

More great work :good:


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

One of my mates is making rumblings about getting into 15mm ACW, but I have too many projects and not enough time for them at the moment. This might sway me though. Awesome work as usual.


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Astonishing! I like the history lessons too!


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

Awesome history lesson and my eyes bleed with sympathy just looking at those pants, I think they would mutiny if I tried to repeat it, amazing work.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Thanks very much!
@Khorne's Fist: Thanks for the comment. At least he's sensible enough to go with any scale but 28mm. 15mm is almost as bad but a little mode sensible at least.  The period has its fans and rightly so. I'm not hugely into it at this point but it's got its charm I suppose.
@neferhet: Thanks, glad you appreciate the historical info. I always try to find something interesting about the units I do. Gives the unit character and reading up on the background of what you put on the table is always important I think.
@Jacobite:  Yeah, over the years I tortured my poor old eyes into submission I guess. Glad you like the historical bits. Maybe I'm a bit boring but in my opinion history is a hundred times more interesting than any made up fantasy universe can be.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

The history is a nice addition to the Plog 

When I find my motivation and start painting again, all my ECW regiments names are made up


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: What I did with my TYW armies is that I took the OOB of a larger battle and base most of the regiments on that. I'm okay with making up names for characters when it comes to historical skirmishing because at that level things get weird when you go too much on a personal level but with battle games I prefer having actual historical names of regiments, commanders and such. Also because there's so much to find out about those people and regiments,










Slowly, slowly things proceed. Here we got two cannons and crew. Everyhting is about half-finished at this point.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Sigur said:


> @TawaI'm okay with making up names for characters when it comes to historical skirmishing because at that level things get weird when you go too much on a personal level but with battle games I prefer having actual historical names of regiments, commanders and such. Also because there's so much to find out about those people and regiments,


It's purely because I'll be fighting the ECW from start to finish as a long campaign  Historic regiments might make an appearance from time to time though


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

:good:Sounds cool. What rules set are you going to use?


Alrighty, people, here's quite the update!


Washington Artillery of New Orleans, including Sergeant T.Potter:













































Perry Miniatures plastics set, gun barrels are magnetized for pulling the old switcheroo.


...and here's the dismounted 2nd Louisiana Cavalry to go with their mounted version from the earlier page:



























Those are mostly Perrys metals. I smuggled in three plastic infantrymen (one of them converted to hold a shotgun), trying to hide the fact that most of the cavalrymen brought twin brothers to the unit because there are just six different sculpts in the Confederates cavalry on foot set. I also like the serene smile on the face of the horse holder. In case things go badly he knows he'll just take off with the horses and sell them on the way home.



Unfortunately this weekend's big ACW game was postponed as some unionist players had to cancel the appointment. Not highly gentleman-like but oh well. 

As the boys were all giddy to get out and the weather was nice I put them up to take a few shots of the whole brigade:























































Hope you like them.  

In the back you can see a little field and some fences (renedra) I did over the past two days between doing commission stuff.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Lovely work as ever, Sig! :good:




To answer your question, the ruleset of choice will be Pike & Shotte for the main. However, some homebrew stuff combined with relevant campaign bits from the old Warhammer: ECW will bulk it out a bit more.
Oh, did you get my PM btw? :wink:


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Thanks! Yup, did indeed get your PM and it will be considered once the guy actually gets a name.  Nothing wrong with Pike&Shotte. Quite on the contrary! Campaign stuff always sounds intriguing.


Hey guys. I can't believe I haven't posted my little report of the Bull Run to Gettysburg game here! Sorry about that, I shall remedy it immediately.

Last month saw my boys' baptism of fire in a test game of Bull Run to Gettysburg.

Both me and the Unionist players didn't know the rules, so the host offered to not only serve drinks and provide the location, table and most of the terrain but also to umpire the whole affair. 











It was basically just setting up our armies in a somewhat linear fashion and give it a go to learn if the rules are any good and to get a game going.










Early on the Union troops on their side of the table of course took the opportunity and got into an abandoned farm, I tried with my guys to charge it frontally, got shot up rather badly.










My Louisiana guys ...









...got some help from their friends of the South Carolina Zouaves and infantry and some artillery from North Carolina and Tennessee.




















On the right flank I had my cannon and a unit of cavalry who dismounted and took position in a small forest.









However, that didn't really scare the two Unionist cavalry squadrons off and in one of the most horseless but still fierce cavalry battles the 2nd Louisiana cavalry was kicked out of their cover and were shoo'd off the table. Whilst racing (still on foot) the union cavalry broke through the Confederate lines. One of the units ran by my artillery, but the cannon crews were fast enough to at least catch the second unit with a hailstorm of shrapnel and they had to withdraw.











In the meantime the first unionists cavalry unit had shoo'd my cavalry off the table and reformed for charging up the hill and at my artillery battery.

For the most times of the game my artillery battered the enemy artillery but only to little effect. First one of the southern batteries had a horse killed. In return my artillery killed two of their crewmen and one of the limbers.



















I really like that limber model by the way. Excellent minis on that one. :-D

Towards the end the Louisiana Tigers also made it into range of the enemy lines and fired a salvo. I rolled really well too but trying to hit infantry sitting in a building at long range and counting as loose formation still was rather ambitious. I'm sure the enemy was impressed with the trousers still.










Yeah, so it went on up until I had to leave due to having to appear at a friend's wedding early the next day. 









It was rather clear though that the day and the first Battle for Ramshackle's Barn was won by the Union.











Well, maybe next time...









More pictures can be found here:
http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/games/?nggpage=24

Hope you like the report.  The rules left us a little 'meh' in the end. They're definately playable and there are some really nice bits in there (units under fire firing less effectively themselves, the fact that troops are advancing or retreating playing a role in further morale checks and so on) but ultimately there was a bit of a 'meh' feeling to it. I have to point out that none of us were familiar with the rules though so we probably made some mistakes.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Now for the latest report!

Then, two weeks ago, regular gaming nemesis and I made a little road trip to meet with Constable, spent the weekend and played with toy soldiers a lot. The first night we had scheduled to play some Samurai skirmish-y stuff. The next day was dedicated to playing ACW things. We actually got two games in. First my rebels and I were up against constable's Unionist troops, then Mr.Nemesis had a go at comandeering the rebels against constable's Union troops. The advantage of doing this was that this way we always had an umpire to look up things for the players because it was the first game for all three of us with the Longstreet rules. That being said, after turn three or so we pretty much knew what we were doing.









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/northandsouth.jpg

This is less of a complete AAR of both the games, rather than that I'll just post some impressions.

Union lines:








http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/unionlines.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/unionlines3.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/zouavescharge.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/unionlines_0.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/unionlines2.jpg

Confederates:








http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/confederatelines.jpg

Column move:








http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/column.jpg

Some battle impressions:








http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/acw4.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/acw.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/acw3.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/cavcharge2.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/acw2.jpg
Look at that cavalry charge.  This is why we do what we do, right?









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/acw_0.jpg









http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/18/gallery/games/combat_0.jpg

Well, so much for the pictures. The first game was won by the Union, the second one by the rebels. The second game especially was interesting as the rebel general on his first move had most of his army face left and march off behind a hill in column. It worked really fiendishly well too, forcing the Union left flank to spend most of the game running after the rebel army. The second game, without being a very one-sided affair, i must add, took something like 100 minutes for the guys to play. It's amazing. And it was a full ACW battle. All of us were highly impressed with the Longstreet rules. Much more so than with Bull Run to Gettysburg. Next on the list to try out: That General de Brigade ACW game and of course Black Powder (but with a few Pike&Shotte games under our belts we know that this one will be a good one anyway). Hope you like the pictures!


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

The ACW has never really interested me as a period for gaming, but that actually looked like it was a real blast! :good:


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Thanks very much. I slipped into that project rather unwillingly myself.  But by now I kinda like the period.




Last Friday we had another ACW game. This time it was at Greymouse's. It was planned to be a 2on2 game, me of course playing on the rebels' side, the other Confederate commander was to turn up later but when he did he was too tired after a busy work week and taking the kids to the baths in the afternoon that he stuck to watching.

The rules played are Guns at Gettysburg which of course are from the General de Brigade family of rules. I had participated in two games of Die Kriegskunst (7 years war version of General de Brigade) and a GdB Napoleonics game before but never quite grasped the command and control aspect of the game.










None of us had played them before but we had an umpire to guide us through the game with a firm hand.

Here's the table setup and a nondescript number of my fingers:









You can see the border of my "deployment zone" by the units I deployed. The year is 1862, the Union army is on the attack and my two brigades were left behind with the job to keep the unionist troops who were advancing along the road from doing so for as long as possible. The Union's mission naturally was to break through.

The Union's division consisted of 3 infantry brigades, each with two bases of cannon, troops are of mixed quality (Green, Regulars, Veterans). They also brought a rather large cavalry brigade along. My boys were made up of two infantry brigades (four regiments of infantry and two bases of cannon each), also of mixed quality, and a small elite cavalry detachment. I Might have had more veteran troops than the Unionists but I'm not sure. In general the equipment was in reverse proportion to the quality of the troops - green and regular troops mostly had rifled muskets, veterans came with their older smooth-bores. 

Here's another picture of my deployment (the Union was to move onto the table). The centre and left:









Two units I had set up in and around the far left barn to secure the flank in case the enemy would make use of their superior numbers and attack on two sides.

The right, with veteran Louisiana Tiger Rifles at the front, the world's smallest cavalry brigade to support them and a smaller regiment having set up in the farm (probably searching the place for edibles or valuables):









My brigades were basically set up in two lines, the first line being the first brigade made up mostly of my Louisiana boys, supported by their pals from the South Carolina regiment. The second line was the less experienced second brigade. The cannons were concentrated in the middle with a slightly narrow but nice look down the road the enemy was approaching on.

The orders of both my infantry brigades were to hold their positions, the cavalry brigade's order was to support the right flank. Guns at Gettysburg uses a command and control system based on set orders given out to each brigade at the beginning of the game. Sometimes written down on little markers or just told to the umpire if one is present. The orders - Hold [terrain feature, position, etc.], engage [enemy unit, any enemy by terrain feature X, etc.], Retire, Assault [enemy unit, any enemy by terrain feature X, etc.], Move [terrain feature], Support [friendly brigade, flank, etc.] - only allow for specific behavior for a unit. If say a brigade has the order to hold a position they may not charge out of it to engage an enemy or advance to another position (or even leave their position voluntarily) unless the brigade order is changed at the beginning of the turn. Either the overall commander may change one order per turn (having to roll for it) or one brigadier per turn may attempt to change his brigade's orders. If the rolls are failed the order can not be changed. If the brigadier attempting to change the order himself and rolls badly though the men lose confidence in his plans and their order changes "one level down" in aggressiveness. So a "Hold" order is changed to "Retire", Attack is changed to Engage (I think) and so on. Good old double one will mean that the brigadier decides that all is lost and retreats, with devastating effects to his brigade. I'm not 100% sure on any of this but that's how I picked it up during the game. 

So the command and control aspect is pretty important (which I'm all for) and you get a feel for how maybe it's not that easy to make a division of dudes in a life or death situation do exactly what you tell them.










The cannons weren't my models but from other collections. Which of course must be the reason why on turn 2 and 4 respectively I rolled two ones for their shooting which meant that they were low on ammo and would only fire to half effect for the next four and five turns each. A highly unwelcome turn of events. The low ammo rule actually is rather fun. Each time you roll two 1s on your firing dice (almost everything is done via rolling 2d6, add/substract some modifiers and then look the results up on a table) your unit is low on ammo and will only fire to half effect. Each game you can have new ammo delivered to up to three units (according to the rules you then deploy an ammunition cart on the table which moves towards the unit and throws new ammo at them but we house-ruled that we roll 1d6 and that's the number of turns it takes for the ammo cart to arrive and do their job), after that the ammo will be low for your whole army or something for the rest of the game or the unit can't fire any more at all. Something bad at least.

On came the hordes in blue:









As was to be expected, the first Union brigade attempting to break through got badly pummelled but my opponents (in their devious ways) mostly sent their green troops into the meat grinder to soften the Confederate defences whilst the second brigade snuck up in the far right behind a hill. At this point my second brigade got the order to leave their positions on the left and all march over to support the right flank, including their cannons which were low on ammo anyway so wouldn't so much for the next few turns anyway.










At this point the Union's second brigade had reached the fences. My elite cavalry which I had placed to support the Tigers in their attempt to hold back the overwhelming force of northern aggression had gotten decimated badly and retired. Another horrible display of my tendency to burn elite units without any tactical merit.

To be fair though, the second Union brigade did scary things. They marched up as one nasty old block, unloaded a horrifying salvo the first time they fired by rolling double 6s. Which not only means a lot of casulties on the receiving end but also forces the unit that got hit to do a morale check AND (as any roll of double 6s) it allows the lucky player to roll on a special table for "special events" which rarely are bad but often will result in a "token" which the brigadier can use later during the game to enhance his brigades abilities for a turn. Which is also a neat little touch. Actually, I could see this being used in 40k or WHFB on double 1s on Leadership checks and such. 










In this case it didn't amount to much but the next turn the brigade's commander changed the order, rolled ANOTHER double 6, resulting in a token he could use on one salvo his brigade fires in the future to enhance the result.










The Tigers at this point had taken quite a beating, mostly lying down whilst being fired upon by one to two units and two bases of cannon firing canister in their faces for several turns. But reinforcements were on the way to patch the hole in the Confederate lines.










Above you can see an overview of the game when we decided to call it a night. 2nd brigade had arrived at the right flank, cannon deployed, the Union soldiers were still chewing away at the Tigers and their pals from 2nd brigade, ready to cross the fence. 

It was clear that the Union troops were about to break through on the right and they even deployed their cavalry to cross the river and start to get in my left flank. That said, the lines held at this point, a second line of defence was built up in the right so I'm sure my boys could have held the farm for a fair amount of time longer. Of course the numbers on the union side would have crushed my guys in the end but that was basically the mission. 

Good game though. I like Guns at Gettysburg's order system (and I'm glad that I finally played a full game of a rules set of the GdB family and finally somewhat 'got it'). The point that it's fitting for the SYW and Napoleonics but may too restrictive for the ACW was raised and it can be a little frustrating to see one of your units being in an excellent position to charge an enemy but not being able to because they got different orders but that's the game and it offers some very interesting challenges. The whole firing procedure may look a bit daunting at first but really is rather fast once you get the hang of it.










Once again I think we could call it a Union victory. After the game we did some more testing about how well enfilades work and such. Good times were had, thanks to the umpire and my opponents.

Oh well, it's off to working on commission stuff now! Hope you like the report!


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## scscofield (May 23, 2011)

Was just at a civil war museum this last Friday. Wish you had been doing the displays, beautiful work. Rep for you.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@scscofield: Thanks very much, good Sir. 




Good news, everyone! My review of the Perrys' ACW artillery boxed set went online!










*
http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2014/08/review-perry-miniatures-american-civil.html*


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

First unit of a new ACW commission.  Those are Wargames Foundry minis sculpted by the Perrys. They wear the Confederate regulation dress which never really got widely used, but each Confederates army usually features at least one units of these guys. Usually comprised of minis which march in perfect order.  

Unfortunately I won't base them which of course always adds a lot to any unit. I'll add flags though. Hope you like them!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

From the collection "sigur doesn't know what the heck he's doing, so the paintjob takes 40% longer" - ACW Confederates in the fabled "butternut" coloured uniforms:










I glued them onto those sticks just so I could take a WIP shot for you guys.  You'll notice a gap - that's the lieutenant, another flag waver and a drummer which aren't finished yet. The minis on the stick are pretty much done. Just some small touch-ups and highlights on the shoes left to do. Butternut is one of these things people can argue about forever on how to get them to "look right". Just like Dunkelgelb or Feldgrau. Or the RIGHT red for British redcoats. Pretty silly. But still, there is a certain look you want to achieve and I somehow couldn't get that look right. I ended up too yellow, highlighted it, had to tone it down which pretty much killed all the highlights, had to do some additional manual shading and highlighting again and so on. But now I like the boys. Hope you like them too so far.

After that I'll do General Lee, another officer on foot and a flag bearer on horse, then the project is finished for now. Client said I'd get the next units in early March at Austrian Salute.


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## alasdair (Jun 11, 2009)

Your cloth tones are stunning Sigur, keep it up man.
What's your opinion on Black Powder as a system out of interest?


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@alasdair: Thanks muchly, Sire. I do own the Black Powder rulebook, read it too, but never actually played it. However, I played a fair amount of Pike&Shotte, which shares the same core set of rules, just with a few tweaks to make it more period-appropriate. 

Black Powder is a very solid, fun set of rules. It keeps the general faff made about movement (in games such as Fields of Glory) to a minimum, meaning you get approximately the same results, but within half the time. The activation system at the same time introduces the required element of friction (or "fog of war") to the game. If you're the kind of gamer who thinks that he has to be in control of everything which happens all the time this game might not be for you. But that's how battle works - things don't work the way you want quite often, do they.  There are no "army lists" or points values in the rulebook because it wasn't written with that mindset. It's understood as a set of tools and rules are deliberately written as suggestions rather than The Unchangable Truth. The numerous supplement books released by Warlord Games contain points values though in case you feel like you need them. There's no ACW supplement out yet, but Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy (one of the more recent issues, some time within the past year) has a very good mini-supplement for playing ACW with Black Powder.

The writing style is often tongue in cheek with a very British bent to it. That may or may not be to your taste. Some people are put off by this whole philosophy of rules writing and mistake the rules for wonky or insubstantial which couldn't be farther from the truth. As I said, it's a solid, tight set of rules. 

Of course Black Powder aims to cover a huge times pan of 200 years within which time warfare changed a bit and unit drill certainly did. People who are intimately familiar with certain periods or conflicts critisize that Black Powder by design can't properly depict the specialities of each period it aims to cover and this is true to an extent. For some conflicts more so than for others. However, the way Black Powder handles period flavour (same rules mechanics throughout, period flavour added via unit special rules and units themselves) is surprisingly effective. Still, sometimes a few special rules might be required.

One word on the scale of things - Black Powder is written to depict battles in a period of massed armies. Units, especially cavalry, potentially move fast (up to 36" per turn IIRC). I would decidedly dissuade anybody from playing Black Powder with 28mm figures unless you're playing at a club or otherwise have a HUGE table to play on. Of course this depends on your ideas of what a battle should look like, but to me 12 or 16 dudes do NOT look like a battle formation. That's just a bunch of dudes carrying a flag around. I would strongly suggest looking into 10mm or 6mm scale figures. There are beautiful sculpts around, affordable, way easier to store and carry around too.

The sole reason I'm doing ACW in 28mm is because all the other guys already had collections in that scale and when we play a whole group comes together and we play on a large table. For Pike&Shotte though, for which I do both armies, I went with 10mm and never looked back. Sure, you'll run across people who say "I play Black Powder with 28mm figures on my 6' by 4' table and it's supergood!". Well... it's cool if they have fun, but I do not think that the game was written with such a setup in mind and I don't think that you get the full experience out of such a game. Smaller scales and replacing inches with centimetres works really well and gives you a great game. 15mm is also an option, but I think that between cost and "proper battle visuals" I think that smaller scales work much better. That's all a matter of taste of course.

Hope that helped.  What period did you consider playing Black Powder with?


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

The remaining three dudes from the second unit, flag bearer on horse and general Robert E. Lee:



















Hope you like them. I guess Lee's coat needs a bit more work. Meh.


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## Tha Tall One (Aug 16, 2008)

Really nice, I especially like what you did with the white horse's legs.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tha Tall One: Thanks very much, Sir!

Here's a picture of the last dude from that batch!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Hullo, I'm back.  I told you the South would 'rahse' again!


This Saturday I attended VIVAT2015. It, along with Austrian Salute near Salzburg, is one of the two events us Austrian wargamers get (not counting tournaments). So it's not unheard of that towards the end of the day of VIVAT questions of "what are we going to do for Austrian Salute?" arise. A very wise man had the idea to have a big American Civil War game. At this point it's barely more than an intangible vision, but given how much stuff we can put on the table already and given how we got all the required terrain really it's not hard to make this game become reality. All we need is a battle, some orders thereof and we'd need to check what else would be required in terms of special terrain and troops.

The promise of this happening alone made me grab a box of Perrys Confederate Infantry (review incoming soon!) and have at it:










As you can see, I'm doing the compulsory 'butternut' coloured uniform regiment. Of course the idea for Confederate units was to wear grey uniforms (at least from 1861 on IIRC, before that there was lots of blue involved which led to terrible confusion in battle with the Federal army). Depending on the kind of dye used to make grey fabric it often happened that after multiple washing and exposure to the elements on campaign the uniforms took on various shades of brown. This colour became known as 'butternut', and if you want to have an endless argument on the CORRECT look of a colour on miniatures you can add this one to Dunkelgelb, Feldgrau, pike grey and the right red for British uniforms. 

Not sure who these guys are to depict anyway. Following my very crude Louisiana theme it would be nice to stick with that. Maybe the 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th Louisiana Infantry would be an idea, so I could go for roughly a Hays' Brigade theme for my force.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Right, Austrian Salute is coming up 'hard and fast' (in fact there's just one week to go!) and I have the honour of contributing to the headliner table depicting the Battle of Perryville 1862.

Of course I'll help out the South's side with my units, and here's another one finished:































Hope you like them!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Heyhey, here's a bunch of rebel soldiers skirmishing:



















As always, these are fine, fine Perry miniatures.

A few side notes:
.) Earlier tonight I was shown some photos of the ACW table for next weekend's Austrian Salute. This is going to be good. 

.) A few days ago Warlord games announced that they (or to whom they outsource that thing. River Horse?) were about to release the ACW-supplement for Black Powder. Interesting. Maybe a reason to finally break out that BP rulebook. On the other hand, there are so many other really good ACW rules sets (Longstreet, mostly)... let's see.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Right, here's the last bit I'll finish in time for Austrian Salute (or at least half finish):




















It's a 6 horse powers limber for my Washington Artillery battery.


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