Marching On Richmond: The Conclusion

Having broken from their 1864-1865 winter camps the armies headed further into Virginia, the mass of the Union forces always looking to outmanoeuvre the Confederates to expose Richmond and end the war. By late March a decisive battle emerged to conclude the Petersburg Siege, and my forces (General Ulysses P. Rickards) were dispatched to hold vital crossroads to the flank of Five Forks to prevent any last ditched effort to raise the siege by General Longman’s Confederate forces and the balance of General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia under General Pickett. Continue reading “Marching On Richmond: The Conclusion”

Marching On Richmond: Winter 1864-65

After the action at Virginia Farm both sides moved into winter quarters, setting up cantonments in Virginia. As Spring 1865 approached and we prepared for the new campaigning season my Division received new reinforcements, and smattering of new recruits. Meanwhile the 2nd New Hampshire, 4th “Magnificent” Maine, and 54th “Unstoppable” Massachusetts (Coloured) were all disbanded due to low numbers and the survivors used to reinforce other regiments – my force therefore was thus: Continue reading “Marching On Richmond: Winter 1864-65”

Getting My 28mm ACW Underway

With all this ACW Action Going On it’s finally motivated me to resume construction of my 28mm ACW forces – I’ll be building both Union & Confederate Forces to provide opposing armies, and as originally mentioned I was looking at building these forces initially for Fire & Fury (for both Brigade & Regimental level games). However now that Sam Mustafa has Longstreet due as the next game in the Honour series I’ll be looking to build them principally for that but still compatible for Fire & Fury as well (and obviously they will be usable for Black Powder and similar if needed). I started this project about 4-5 years ago and got a portion of the troops painted up but then ground to a halt – however I’ve now started basing the painted troops and have more under-way, so here’s some photos of the initial portion of my Union forces…

Continue reading “Getting My 28mm ACW Underway”

Black Powder ACW at the AWC

On Sunday a couple of the guys at the AWC played their first Black Powder game set in the ACW (American Civil War) – I was unable to attend, but Lee Heath has posted a brief report and a couple of photos on his blog Project Black Powder. I’ll be looking forward to hopefully getting in on the next game and maybe I should make a start on basing up my painted 28mm Union & Rebel troops (who have been actually waiting for the balance of the figs to get painted before I base them but perhaps I should forgo that and just get on with basing them)… Continue reading “Black Powder ACW at the AWC”

Empress 1840’s New Zealand Wars Māori and Colonial Figures

Roly over at “Dressing The Lines” has got his first batch of NZ Wars figures done, and I must say they are looking pretty smashing! He’s done a great job of them and also of giving the bases a New Zealand touch with ferns and tussock-like grass! Roly is planning to experiment with using a suitably modified “Sharp Practice” for his games, however this requires a reasonable number of figures (i.e. dozens to 100+), and Roly has the luxury of another gamer at hand doing the same period. I have been rather procrastinating over ordering some of the Empress Miniatures figures as I’ve been undecided about what rules to use – however I’ve pretty much decided on initially trying SDS (“Song of Drums & Shakos” – a variant of “Song of Blades & Heroes“), which will allow interesting games with just 6-30 figures a side… Needless to say Roly’s efforts are a much needed prompt to get organised and order some figures! The photo is a small lower resolution one of some of his figures – Make sure you check out the full set of photos at Roly’s Dressing The Lines blog… Continue reading “Empress 1840’s New Zealand Wars Māori and Colonial Figures”

Regimental Fire and Fury finally released!

At HistoriCon in late July Rich Hasenauer’s Regimental version of Fire & Fury was finally released! This is something many of us ACW Gamers have been waiting for for sometime and finally it’s here.

A Hardcover 96 page book with the same standard of colour photos & illustrations as was present in the original Brigade level rules. I’ll be looking to acquire a copy of these ASAP and see how they look – it’s also incentive to resume progress on my 28mm ACW armies! Continue reading “Regimental Fire and Fury finally released!”

Fire & Fury: The ACW in 28mm

This is an all new section – during 2009 I’ll hopefully be building brand new Armies in 28mm for use with the Fire & Fury (both Brigade & Regimental versions of the rules). Previously I played Fire & Fury extensively in 15mm, from when it was released in the early ’90s until about 2000, at which time I sold all my 15mm ACW forces & terrain. I am looking forward to getting back into it in 28mm. Continue reading “Fire & Fury: The ACW in 28mm”