Historicon 2014: Thursday's Sink the Tennessee! Game

 This will be the first of several posts discussing Historicon 2014.  As usual, I had a blast and really enjoyed putting on several games with Mike.  Our first game was Thursday night and was a re-run of last year's game "Sink the Tennessee" using Architects of Wars "Uncivil Wars" ruleset.  The first picture shows the table at the start of the game.  The cards in the picture are the unit activation cards - put them in a deck and when pulled the named unit gets to do something.

The game was played on a 16 foot table and had four players per side.  The scenario was a Union raid to destroy the CSS Tennessee.  The Union had two repeater armed calvary forces that were intended to delay the massive confederate reinforcements which would enter the game at the bottom of the table (time was nat a Union ally).  They also had a land based infantry force and a seaborne Marine / Engineer force to take both the town and CSS TN.  Of course, the seaborne force arrived via an Ironclad.  The Confederates had the CSS TN's crewman and Marines, some town militia, a calvary patrol and a never ending amount of infantry regiments.  Unfortunately for the confederates the crew of the TN was in town on shore leave so they needed to get back to the ship before it could escape.

 A few turns into the game with the Union forces entering the town before the confederates could react (it was night so visibility was 12 inches).

 Contact!  The Yankees went for the CSS crewman first and this would prove decisive late on in the game.  The Confederates marines did manage to get on board without many casualties and prepared to "repel boarders".

The Town militia may not have been the best quality troops but they were brave lads and went down to the last man.  The gentlemen playing them was a hoot and did a very good impression of Slim Pickens from Blazing saddles (a hooping and a hollering!)  It was a lot of fun.  At the other end of the table the Union cav did a great job holding off the confederate infantry (and decimating the LA Tigers in the process)

 The decisive movement - The confederate marine manage to throw back the Union marines after their engineers blasted open the top hatch to the TN.  Unfortunately for the confederates, they just didn't have enough troops to hold back the Union infantry - their crewman shipmates  couldn't get on board to support them.  The Union carried the ship and won the game.  We all had a great time playing the game and I was very fortunate to have 8 players who were all in the frame of mind to have a good time.

One surprising aspect of the evening was our game won an award at the con - a "PELA" which I think is given out for the best game in a particular time slot.  I think the real reason we won was the quality of the players I had - they were a lot of fun and would have made playing checkers using unpainted 40k figs seem exciting!

I really enjoy putting games on at a con, but it is a lot of work.  Mike and I have started planning for next year but all we've settled is that it will be something other than ACW - more details to follow.  Our big debate will be do we do one or two games.

1 Week to Historicon and Sectional Terrain River Test Section

 Yikes - it's one week until Historicon and I'm still making terrain for my games.  At least it's better than my usual rush of painting figs for games the day before - all the miniatures I need are done and ready to be packed.  The final terrain section are some river banks that will merge Ernie's existing terrain sections with mine and form a river bank and small dock.  I've made the first pass with ground covering and I', letting that dry for an hour or so before going over it again.

 Here's a shot of the four foot section of river bank along with a dock I built in 10 minutes from scrap wood on-hand.  Unfortunately it looks like I spent 10 minutes on it so I'll need to figure a way to dress it up.

 The "10 minute dock".  I used an old model railroader trick to "age the wood" - a few drops of black india ink in rubbing alcohol.  The picture shows the results after a single pass.  Each successive pass darkens a bit more.

 The tail end of the river section has the start of a beach...

 Here's the final section (for 5 feet in total).  It boasts a beach (hmmm, I wonder where the Union waterborne force will need to land in my "Sink the Tennessee!" game).  The rocks will have some trees and maybe an Easter egg for visual detail and to add some height to the rivers edge.

Lastly, unrelated to Historicon is my rough build of a river section.  Work will have to stop on the sectional terrain project until I get on the other side of Historicon.  I am really excited about this project but have figured out some changes I need to make in my approach.

Historicon 2013: More Sink the Tennessee Pictures

 I've received several requests for more pictures from the Friday ACW skirmish game Mike and I ran at Historicon: "Sink the Tennessee!"  The game used the newish ACW skirmish rules from Architects of War and depicted a Union raid to sink or capture the ironclad CSS Tennessee.  Uncivil War works great in a convention center as they are simple but allow a lot of tactical flexibility.  The first picture is the initial setup.  There were four union players - 2 calvary troops of 18 troopers armed with spencer repeating rifles.  1 infantry regiment of 24 figs and an amphibious unit of 18 Marines and 6 Engineers.

 I was surprised that one of the convention speakers, Paul Westermeyer, and his young son played - they commanded the northern most Union calvary regiment.  Paul is a historian with the US marine Corps and a bit of an expert on civil war marines - I was very relieved that he choose not to point out the many historical inaccuracies with my confederate marines!  There were four confederate players, one commanding the ironclad and her crew, another for the town watch , a calvary detachment and a large encamped regiment.  The confederates would also receive reinforcements as the game went on which means time was not a friend to the union.

 The Westermeyer clan proved to be very aggressive calvary commanders and managed to get about 2/3rds of their command shot up tangling with  the confederate infantry.  Things would improve for them a bit later...

 The Union Infantry made a series of very quick forced marches and made a run to overwhelm the confederate marines guarding the dock.

 The second Union calvary troop took up a position along a stone wall that allowed them to contest both the town militia and the calvary patrol.

 Desperate fighting at the water's edge where three confederate marines attempt to hold off the union infantry.  The Amphibious force made a surprise move and rather than attempt to board the  ironclad directly they landed on the far shore and had to march to the dock.

 More desperate fighting as confederate marines spill out of the ironclad to hold back the union swarm.

 The Union calvary along the wall decimate the confederate cav and town militia but are ground down by the reinforcing confederate infantry - the dread Louisiana Tigers!  At the top of the hill you can see the other confederate infantry regiment advancing on the town.  In the Lower right is the remnants of the Westermeyer command - glory awaits them...

 Give those Yankees a whiff of the grape!!!!!  Despite several rounds of canister the Union manages to clamber on top of the Tennessee and begin to fire on the command deck.

 Booommmm!!!!

 Against all military logic and parental advice, young Lt Westermeyer charges the larger Confederate infantry regiment and succeeds in holding the massed rebs off for three critical turns

 That delay is not without cost

 A view from the northern edge of the battlefield.  One of the very innovative features of the Uncivil war rules is that the presence of fallen troops negatively impacts morale so casualties are left on the battlefield.

 The LA Tigers try desperately to re-board the Tennessee

The Union engineers manage to blast open the top hatches and the Union infantry poor into the interior - we had three turns of see-saw fighting between the confederate crew and Union infantry and victory went down to the very last dice throw when the final confederate crewmen fell.

Victory and possession of the Tennessee went to the Union!

This game was a lot of fun to put on and we had great prize support from Ernie and the Architects of War crew.  Mike and I were also very surprised at Paul Westermeyer's generosity as he gave each of three of his books on Marine history, including one about confederate marines in the civil war.  I am very grateful to his generosity and now understand  I have a bit re-painting to do!.

Historicon Report: Sink the Tennessee AAR

 Just a few pictures and a brief summary of the "Uncivil Wars" game Mike and I ran at Historicon last night.  The game's theme was a union raid to destroy or capture the Confederate ironclad Tennessee.   The first picture show the ironclad getting off a canister shot, trying to kill the Union engineers and there damn explosives.  Surprisingly, the engineers escaped harm.

 Another "whiff of the grape" at some Union Marines - they didn't fare so well.

The climatic battle involved the crew of the Tennessee vs a union infantry regiment that managed to force their way in - this fight went on for 3 turns until the crew was finally subdued and the ironclad seized.  While a Union victory it was by a very narrow margin as you can see the LA Tigers just about to try and board to re-take the ship!

We thought the game went very well - I'll post a more detailed battle report when I get back from the con!

Confederate Ironclad Crewman & Marines

One of the features of the upcoming games at Historicon will be a full model of an Confederate ironclad in 28mm - which means there need to be some crew figures.  Redoubt makes a pack of ACW ironclad crew which will fit the need.  I will say the guys at Redoubt need to work on there website as I found these under "other" and not within the ACW category.  These are 28mm metals and the pack comes with 12 crewman/gunners, 12 marines and 6 officers / attendants.  I've managed to paint up 6 crewman, 6 marines and one officer so far.

 The paint jobs need a little bit more work.  The figures are so-so - thy had a lot of flash and had some pits in them that needed a little bit of greenstuff.  On the positive side all the heads are cast separately and have a cast on pin which all fit without any real bother.

The marines came three poses, 4 standing firing, 4 kneeling firing and 4 in various stages of reloading.  I kinda made up the uniform colors, but I'm sure at some point during the ACW some confederate wore colors just like these if you squinted when looking at him.

I've got another 6 crewman and marines and probably 1 or 2 command figures to finish up.

Sorry for the picture quality

Confederate Regiment #8

 Some in-progress shots of Confederate Regiment #8 (sorry for the disorganized workbench in the background).  No surprises here as these are yet more 28mm Perry Plastic Confederates.  These figures have 5 of a planed 10 colors applied

I decided to paint this regiment wearing some captured Union pants (light blue) just to break up the color pattern of the Confederates.  I used the light blue that was in the painting stock so these aren't "accurate" from a button counting perspective but it will look fine on the tabletop.

Repetition does tend to increase efficiency and so it is with miniature painting.  The cycle time from sprue to finished 24 figure regiment is now down to about 9-10 hours over the course of a few days.

The timing consists of:
- 60 minutes to assemble and glue the figs on their metal bases
- 20 minutes to prime (with 1 hour to dry)
- 8 hours elapsed time to paint (roughly 20 minutes a fig using approximately 10 or so colors and scenic the base

I've done it quicker just to see if I could but the above is a enjoyable pace.

28MM ACW: Perry Plastic Confederate Infantry

A new project has been started over here in the Lair - 28mm American Civil War (ACW).  This project coincides with both the 150 year anniversary of the war and Architects of War's pending release of their new new skirmish level ACW game "Uncivil War".  For larger battles, I'm leaning towards "Regimental Fire & Fury".

The first mini's onto the workbench are the new Perry plastic Confederate Infantry.  Simply put, these are fantastic miniatures and they are a breeze to put together.  Each box has 44 miniatures consisting of 8, 5 figures sprues of infantry and 2, 2 figure command stands.

The infantry can be modeled either with rifles shouldered or with Rifles advancing.  I'm planning my confederate regiments to have the first rank advancing and the second rank with rifles shouldered.  You are also given a wide range of hat choices which is really helpful in modeling the varied composition of most confederate regiments.

The command sprue has an officer and a figure who can be modeled as a drummer of flag bearer.  My only gripe with the casting is that the flag bearers arms arm cast with the flag pole as one piece.  For plastic sets I typical switch out the plastic flag pole with some brass wire stock as they are easily broken.  Having the arms cast as a single piece makes this a bit more difficult but not impossible.

My first unit will be the 2nd Maryland regiment, which fought with the Army of Northern Virginia at Gettysburg.  I'm trying out 24 figure units rather then my usual 36-40 to see if this speeds up production.

Uncivil War Playtest: Prep for Historicon

 Tonight I was able to help out with play testing one of the "Uncivil War" games that Architects of War will be putting on at Historicon this year.  I will not go into a lot of details about the game so I don't spoil all the surprises.

 The game centers around a Yankee raid to gather supplies.  There are a lot of townsfolk for the Yankees to interact with and not all of them are happy to great their Northern invaders.  As the game goes on more Southern militia show up to drive the Yankees out of the town.

 The game table will feature great scenery that Ernie's games and company are well known for.  I think it will be a fun game.  There are still a few slots left for the demo game on Saturday, July 9th (games #'s 260 and 261).  The South won tonights game by shooting the horses of the supply wagon.

There are a lot of options with the rules and it's turning out to be a great structure for skirmish gaming.  I'm also making good progress on the Dacian army for my Hail Caesar game at HCON on Friday July 8th.

"Uncivil War" Playesting

Last night saw a break in painting up ancients and I was able to go over to Ernie's house and help with play testing his upcoming Uncivil War rules.  We played not not one, not two, but three of the included scenarios last night.  It was a blast and the rules are coming along very nicely.  Ernie (Architects of War) will be posting some more detailed AAR's on his blog, so I will not go into a lot of detail now.

 The game plays very quickly and definitely has a lot of period character to it.  The picture to the left shows some dashing rebel calvary trying the flank the raiding Union force.  The game pictured was a supply raid where the union has to search through the town looking for supplies (markers with hidden values).  Initially the Union far out numbers the confederates, but as the game goes on, more reb's join the fight.

Including my contribution to the evenings forces - a contingent of Confederate Zouaves - the Louisiana Tigers!  The figures are the Perry plastic Zouaves and they are very detailed uniforms to paint.  If any of you are going to Historicon this year, please consider playing in or checking out the Uncivil War demo games on Saturday, which start at 1:00pm (game numbers S-260 and S-261).

Progress on the Roman Cavalry & Uncivil War Play Tests

Just a quick post.  I just about finished my second unit of Roman Auxiliary cavalry.  The only steps left are some clean up, shading and applying the Little Big Man Studios Shield transfers.  This unit unit should be finished be next weekend.

I also made some progress on the USS Monogahala, which has been primed and had it's deck painted.  The replacement brass rod for masts seems to working very well and the model is very durable.

Next up will be some "uncivil war" figures from Architects of War and then I'll likely start the 24 Roman Marines from Warlord - think auxiliaries with capes.  The Marine models are metal with wire spears.

The next statement may sound like heresy to some, but I definitely favor modeling and painting 28mm hard plastic figures over their metal counterparts.  It's not the cost factor the drives this inclination, I just find painting the plastic figs a bit easier than metal.  I should probably feel ashamed...

:)

On the gaming front, I did help with some more play testing of Ernie's upcoming "Uncivil War" skirmish ruleset.  Ernie had us concentrate on some of the introductory scenarios which only have a handful of figures per side.  One game features a sherif's posse hunting deserters and it was a blast.  To be honest, I was a little dubious about how much fun a game could be with only 4-6 characters per side but I was proven wrong.  Here are some pictures of the games in progress.