On to Richmond/Washington select your favourite option

Apologies for anyone waiting on this battle report, the whole game has been delayed , most of my spare time recently been taken up by irritating minor health issues, organising a Victory at Sea demo at Asgard Games using my collection GHQ ships , Quickly finishing Stargrave figures to play some actual games with people again at Asgard   and via that falling down the hole that is Infinity. I am hoping to have a go at this game at the end of August!

On laying the table out I decided the felt roads I had( they are about 20 years old) looked crap so decided to purchase ( the club will re-inburse me at some point) a bit more brook to stretch it across Table and a couple of road sets ready flocked from Kallistra to match the Hexon I had. I ordered it Thurs and it was in letter box on Mon. This did mean some changes to layout  as I no longer need to raise the level for the bridge as the roads are slightly raised and stopped it floating in the air  , but the hex nature meant hills had to be adjusted accordingly   but I think the overall layout looks way better  plus the roads now lead of table.

Above shows some of the dispositions as the Confederate Scouting force of the 1st Virginia Cavalry arrive on table, much to the suprise of the bivouac-ed Union Forces on the Justeen Turnpike( Justeen’s the name of this little hamlet which bestrides the turnpike) . You can now plainly see the Warrens Run Brook running Parallel to the road.

Slightly out of postion is a 14th U.S Artillery on the hill overlooking the Turnpike.

Rapidly trying to deploy into line on the East of the River, on a small Hill above the Gerrysburg to Freetown Road is the 6th Wisconsin of the Iron Brigade.

Finally the 7th Michigan Cavalry and 63rd Pensylvanian Infantry are marching towards the Bridge and Turnpike  on the Gerrysburg Road West of the Warrens Run.

Well I now have enough painted to attempt my 1st Battle with Black Powder. I have recently changed my painting schedule which was one Confederate to one Union Regiment  but as I want to finish Brigades has switched for a while to mainly Confederate so I can finish of the Stonewall Brigade and a Brigade of Confederate Cavalry  . This means that for the 1st Battle The Confederate s will have the advantage in numbers with 7 Battalions of Infantry , 2 Regiments of Cavalry and 6 guns  to 6 Union Battalions of Infantry  1 Regiment of Cavalry and 5 guns.

With this in mind the Union will start the game participants deployed on the table on the hills overlooking the road that crosses the small River known to the locals as Warrens Run.

The scenario is that a small Union Force is in camp at by Lloyd House on by the Warrens Run Bridge to defend the road leading from the Rail Junction at Johnasus to the small town of Gerrysburg to the West of the map.

Ignorat of this fact Confederate force under General Jubediah Cornpole is marching North to launch a mini raid Invasion of Northern territory and raise support in Maryland

A while back on Sundancers Unofficial Hobby Hangout, Gerry wondered if I would use any of Kallistra’s 12mm ACW range to bulk out my Army’s.

I actually did want to vary my Artillery types from the Napoleon guns depicted by the Warlord Plastic Guns. Figuring that I would be less likely to differentiate any difference in scale with Artillery. As it happens they are a match in height with the Kallistra being slightly bulkier.

The Kallistra gun sets give you a selection of barrels for Napoleon’s,  Rifles and Parrot Rifles   below is a Parrot with Warlord cannon.

For anyone wondering what the Difference is  Napoleon Guns were basically smootjbore cannon which had changed little since the Napoleonic Wars hence the name.

Parrotts  Rifled Cannons .were manufactured with a combination of cast and wrought iron. The cast iron made for an accurate gun, but was brittle enough to suffer fractures. Hence, a large wrought iron reinforcing band was overlaid on the breech to give it additional strength.^[3] There were prior cannons designed this way, but the method of securing this band was the innovation that allowed the Parrott to overcome the deficiencies of these earlier models. It was applied to the gun red-hot and then the gun was turned while pouring water down the muzzle, allowing the band to attach uniformly.^[3] By the end of the Civil War, both sides were using this type of gun extensively.

The 3-inch ordnance rifle, model 1861 was a wrought iron muzzle-loading rifled cannon that was adopted by the United States Army in 1861 and widely used in field artillery units during the American Civil War. It fired a 9.5 lb (4.3 kg) projectile to a distance of 1,830 yd (1,670 m) at an elevation of 5°. The 3-inch rifle was not as effective in firing canister shot as the heavier 12-pounder Napoleon, but it proved to be highly accurate at longer ranges when firing shell or shrapnel. There was only one reported case of a 3-inch ordnance rifle bursting in action. This was in stark contrast to the similarly-sized cast iron 10-pounder Parrott rifles which occasionally burst without warning, inflicting injury on the gun crews. The Confederate States of America lacked the technology to manufacture successful copies of the 3-inch ordnance rifle. However, the Confederate States Army respected the weapons and employed those captured from Federal forces.

On a whim I looked on Sarrisma site for ACW Terrain and saw they did 15mm Ironclad and…….

With the build and painting probably took little more than an hour. Whilst the base and framework painting dried, I sprayed the armour parts Leadbelcher.

All I did post build was coat all those same parts Agrax Earthhade.

To minds whether to darken the upper deck works and Bridge roof (letters on a post card).

Also need to put a hole at rear for Union/Confederate Flag.

For those who have no idea on the Naval Actions of the American Civil War, the model is a pretty Generic Ironclad, a general design used by both sides during the war.

For instance for the Union it is similar to the River Monitors such as the  ones used to force the forts along the Upper Mississippi.

The Confederates used similar designs for such ships as the C.S.S. Richmond  and C.S.S. Arkansas.

I actually have a large collection of ACW shops in 1/600th painted many years ago which I will show in a later update.

Nearly halfway through the Confederate Army, so here is a shot of progress so far.

Hoods 4 Texan Regiments are on the right and the 1st 2 Regiments of the Stonewall Brigade on the left.

My Hobbying on this project has slowed down a bit, mainly as its getting near the end of month and need to wait till payday to restock some essentials for painting.  Even so I have managed to even things up wit a Regiment of Union Cavalry.

The Techniques  and paints used are pretty much as previously described. For these I used all apart from officer figures with Kepi for a more Union Uniform look. Which leaves nearly all slouch hats for the final unit from the Brigade box which will be Stuarts 1st Virginia Cavalry for the Confederates.

To fit with the Update these are the  7th (Michigan) Cavalry.

Well if you were like me you know nothing about this Brigade.

I had heard of it, mainly because a friend used to have a Regiment of them in his 15mm Union Army  that he fielded against Dave Bickley (figure designer Matthew Bickley dad) back in the 80’s, plus the odd line in ACW ranges. With Warlord releasing a Brigade box I thought I ought to learn more so as part of my Background reading purchases brought:

Consisting of Five regiments:
2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment
6th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment
7th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment
19th Indiana Infantry Regiment
24th Michigan Infantry Regiment

Raised from Western States of the Union they had a distinctive Uniform of a longer Frock Coat and the Hardee hat as used by U.S Army Regulars Regiments.

They gained a reputation for hard fighting and heavy casualty rates down to just 800 effective post Gettysburg,  when Eastern Regiments were amalgamated with it diluting its uniqueness.

Again metal Figures but painted well using pretty much the same techniques as the plastic Union  , but they do add a little bit of variety.