14th Virginia Infantry Regiment

Another regiment of infantry musters for the Confederates with the 14th Virginia Infantry Regiment advancing to the fore.

All the figures are from the Perry Miniatures American Civil War Confederate Infantry 1861-65 set, the troops this time assembled in right shoulder shift.

I also finished off the last few Confederate infantry figures I had creating a command stand that will be the foundation of a Mississippi regiment at a later date.  

69th New York, the Fighting 69th

It's the Union turn to get some attention, so a quick order to North Star and I've added a union of New York Irish to the collection.

All the figures are from the Fighting 69th. set from Crusader Miniatures and are lovely casts, although a bit thinner than the Perry Miniatures so look a bit more sparse on their bases, maybe I should have mounted these in fours rather than threes. 

Several of the figures are supplied bare-footed and they give a bit of flavour.

The standards are from Flags of War and are included in the set, having looked at the photos, the green seems a little fogged by the varnish, so I'll likely give that another coat of brush-on to sort it out.

Some close ups.

Hope to get these chaps out on the table soon.

Hold the line boys!

 

Sunday saw Tom and I playing a game of American Civil War using the Pickett's Charge rules from Too Fat Lardies.

I'd set out some terrain and had a simple scenario, the Confederates had twelve regiments of infantry and two small batteries of guns attacking against a Union force of ten regiments of infantry and a single (larger) battery of guns.

The Confederates started with two of their three brigades on table, while the Union held the fence line with only a single brigade. Could the Confederates repulse the Union troops before the line could be strengthened? Off table brigades only get an ADC on a 5 and it takes two ADC's to release off table reserves the Union could never be sure when they would see their reinforcements.

Tom took the Union and I took the Confederates, of course on the first turn he rolled well enough to see a brigade of reserves committed, but as at this stage the Confederate attack was undeveloped he wisely took an Artillery Assault instead.

The Confederates kept up a steady advance while the Union artillery attempted to disrupt the attack. Leaving the rifles in support the Napoleons were dragged up into close range of the Union line.

As the Confederate forces closed on the fence line a firefight started along the line, but both sides suffered terribly from fire discipline.

Eventually on my right the Confederates launched a bayonet charge, most of the Union troops held, but on my extreme right, we a-whooped and a-hollered to such an effect that the Union forces retreated and we held a section of the fence line. Unfortunately, by this stage the Union reinforcements were streaming in.

Despite gaining the fence line, my brigade on the right was subjected to withering fire and eventually collapsed, the troops in my third brigade were cautiously advancing, but needed to be in the right place at the right time, they wern't!

Along the line, all the Union forces that had originally held the fence were destroyed or forced back, but the fresh troops arrived to take their place, as the last Union brigade arrived on the Confederate left it was time for Johnny Reb to retreat from the field in some disarray.

Tom has also done a great report with loads more pictures over on his blog.

Sharpe and Harper

 

Victoria picked up for me the British Rifles Veterans Command set from Brigade Games as a present and I could not wait to get some paint on them.

Paul Hicks has done a brilliant job of capturing the likeness of Sean Bean and Daragh O'Malley.

These will be brilliant Big Men in our Sharp Practice games and will fill the ADC roles perfectly when we play General d'Armee

Longstreet Revisted

 

It's almost two years since I last played Longstreet when lockdown brought an abrupt end to Drew and my ongoing campaign but we are starting a new campaign at the club shortly so Mike and I thought we ought to have a refresher.

A small breakdown in communications meant I bought my 28mm stuff while Mike bought his 15mm collection, fortunately I had both sides with me.

We played with the campaign starter armies but used a 1863 deck for more balance in the game. Rolling on the scenarios we rolled up to play the Hill scenario, I would attack with the Confederates as I'd be using them in the campaign.

After Mike had deployed I stacked my deployment on the left just screening my right, with just one unit deployed behind a wall.

It was good to get a refresher and we did not have to refer back to the rules too much, which is testament to how well they are written. My hammer fell on the Union right while Mike waited a little too long to attack my own thinly held right flank.

My dice were also on fire so it was not too long before we had reached a conclusion with the Confederates holding the hill line on my left.

I'm now looking forwards to starting the campaign proper.

2021 Retrospective: The ongoing war against the lead mountain

Fighting the battle against the lead mountain - 2021

Happy New Year to my followers and readers.

Kicking off  the year with the usual retrospective of what was done the previous year, sees quite the loss in the ongoing campaign, I suppose moving house 3500 miles in April back to the Lead Belt was never going to see the painting backlog reduced!

The majority of the stuff I did get painted this year was adding to the Napoleonic Hundred Days campaign collection and those forces are now so sizeable that it's my largest collection by a factor of at least another half. 

I kicked off two new projects during the year, before I moved back from Wisconsin I'd discussed with Martin about starting off a 10mm Cold War project using Seven Days to the River Rhine and pretty much straight away as I got back soon had a Soviet force painted that was quickly followed by a Bundeswehr force. Alongside the two forces I also added a load of terrain as I only had 6mm and 28mm stuff in the collection. I've now had a few games and have really enjoyed them.

As to the other new project, back in October, Nick gave me a game of Gaslands and I became hooked and spent most of November chopping up and kitting out Hot Wheels for action, that's been a blast!

Other forces in the collection also got some attention, with troops being added to the Agincourt, France 1940 collections and the ACW collection has been completely rebased for large battles and new units are right now being added. Even the Han Chinese has some new reinforcements added.

As Covid restrictions are eased gaming has been back and I've met up with the crew for some splendid games, even taking part in a WAB event back in June and we put on an award winning game at Salute back in October.

So, on to the figures, the Gaslands and Cold War collections are not included, because 1) they are not 28mm and 2) every figure bought has been painted so they have not contributed in any way to the size of the mountain.

Despite the house move, I think I still got an impressive amount done, even though the mountain has grown it's mainly been through the generosity of others 

28mm Figures Painted and Based: 436 foot, 37 mounted, 6 guns, 1 boat, 1 tank, 6 sheep

• 24 Perry Miniatures Napoleonic French foot
• 93 Perry Miniatures Napoleonic British foot
• 4 Perry Miniatures Napoleonic French mounted
• 12 Perry Miniatures Hundred Years War English foot
• 15 Victrix Napoleonic French foot
• 3 Victrix Napoleonic French guns
• 15 Victrix British foot
• 3 Victrix British guns
• 40 Warlord Games Napoleonic Hanoverian foot
• 35 Front Rank Napoleonic Hanoverian foot
• 23 Front Rank Napoleonic Dutch-Belgian foot
• 1 Front Rank Napoleonic Dutch-Belgian mounted
• 11 Front Rank Napoleonic civilians
• 2 Front Rank Napoleonic mounted civilians
• 1 Brigade Games Napoleonic French foot
• 16 Brigade Games Napoleonic British foot
• 26 Brigade Games Napoleonic British horse
• 54 Brigade Games Napoleonic Kings German Legion foot
• 3 Brigade Games Napoleonic French foot
• 1 Brigade Games Napoleonic French horse
• 4 Brigade Games Napoleonic Scientists
• 3 Wargames Foundry Napoleonic British mounted.
• 3 Wargames Foundry Napoleonic British foot.
• 20 First Corps Han Chinese
• 18 Eureka Miniatures French Revolution foot
• 8 Crusader Miniatures WWII Germans
• 4 Crusader Miniatures WWII French
• 24 Perry Miniatures American Civil War Confederate foot
• 6 Warbases sheep
• Badger Games Mullah
• 1 random Paul Hicks sculpt
• 1 Reaper Bones Orc
• 3 Westwind Productions druids & stricken goat
• 6 3D printed droids for Star Wars: Legion
• JTFM R-35 tank

New Figures Purchased: 511 foot, 7 mounted, 5 guns, 6 sheep, 2 foxes, 4 horses

• 9 Brigade Games Napoleonic French foot
• 18 Brigade Games Napoleonic British foot
• 54 Brigade Games Napoleonic KGL foot
• 5 Brigade Games WW1 French foot
• 1 Brigade Games WW1 French gun
• 42 Perry Miniatures HYW foot
• 98 Perry Miniatures Napoleonic British foot
• 20 First Corps Han Chinese
• 12 Crusader Miniatures WWII
• 6 Warbases sheep
• 2 Warbases foxes
• 11 Front Rank Napoleonic civilians
• 2 Front Rank Napoleonic mounted civilians
• 36 Front Rank Hanoverian foot
• 28 Front Rank Dutch-Belgian foot
• 3 Front Rank Dutch-Belgian horse
• 22 Perry Miniatures Napoleonic Dutch-Belgian foot
• 4 Perry Miniatures Napoleonic Dutch-Belgian guns
• 24 Crusader Miniatures ACW foot
• 102 Perry Miniatures ACW foot
• 2 Perry Miniatures ACW mounted
• 4 Perry Miniatures ACW horses

Unpainted Figures Acquired: 174 foot, 40 mounted

• 12 Brigade Games Napoleonic British cavalry from Mum & dad
• 12 Brigade Games Napoleonic British cavalry from Jasmin
• 12 Brigade Games Napoleonic British cavalry from Marie
• 81 Front Rank War of the Roses from James.
• 8 Front Rank Dutch-Belgian foot from Victoria.
• 28 Front Rank Dutch-Belgian foot from Marie.
• 1 Front Rank Dutch-Belgian mounted from Marie.
• 40 Front Rank Hanoverian foot from Mum & Dad.
• 6 Front Rank Hanoverian foot from Phill.
• 3 Brigade Games mounted from Victoria

Victoria painted: 1 Vehicle

• 1 Star Wars: Legion AT-ST