May Painting Projects

Got a few projects painted this past month.  I am working my way through the unpainted figures.  Still have quite a ways to go.

216 Hellenistic Zystophoroi.   These are Baccus Prodomoi figures being used for the heavy cavaalry.  They are made with a strip of three different poses.   The middle pose is the same as their Companion figure

 288 Indian Infantry.  These are also from Baccus

 256 ACW Confederate infantry.   Figures are a mix of Baccus and Rapier.   Baccus has two poses in their skirmish pack.   Standing shooting and standing loading with no command figures.  Rapier makes standing shooting, kneeling shooting, standing loading, three different advancing poses, a march attack pose, and three different command packs.

256 ACW Union infantry.   The flags were made by reducing larger scale flags using Paintshop Pro.   Original flags were about 30mm tall at 72 dots per inch.  They were reduced to about 6mm and the dots per inch were increased to 360.  This kept the same level of detail as the originals.

Projects for 2018

Time to set some goals for the coming year.  In no particular order I hope to accomplish the following items for the coming year:

Finish painting and basing 18th century armies (Duchy of Clove-Hamhock and Principality of Turanschlag).  I will need to purchase some additional Hussars and maybe some grenadiers and heavy cavalry from Heroics and Ros.   Got some new figures from a friend.

Expand Franco-Prussian War armies.  Need quite a few additional figures from Heroics and Ros.  Fortunately they are easy to paint.

Finish painting and basing additions to American Civil War armies.   Also print flags for them.  Almost finished painting them.  One of six unfinished items from last year.

Finish painting and basing the Carthaginian figures I was given.

Finish painting and basing the barbarian infantry additions.

Finish painting and basing the early Byzantine cavalry,

Finish painting and basing the Sassanian cavalry.

Finish painting space ships.  About a dozen to paint.

Flock bases for Napoleonic armies along with any repairs that need to be done.  Most boring project.

Place a special order with GHQ for a couple of replacement tank gun barrels, a 5cm AT gun and crew, and a 7.5cm AT gun and crew for WW2 Germans.  WW2 done except for those items.

Add helicopters to the two fictitious modern countries (The Peoples Democratic Republic of La Cucaracha and the Federal Union of Buena Vista). Already ordered and on their way.

Choose a set of ancient naval rules for large fleet actions along with printing and basing ancient fleets.   Might be the most time consuming project when cutting and gluing them.

Gettysburg, the first day

On July 6th we re-fought the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg using From Manassas to Appomattox..    Bob Bergman, Alan Sissenwen, and Kent were the confederate commanders.   Dan Rygasewicz, John Riley, and Kirk Bollinger were the union commanders.  The composition of the armies was as follows:

Army of Northern Virginia – Lee

III Corps – A. P. Hill

Heth A 7 R

Heth B 6

Pender A 6 12H

Pender B 5

Anderson A 7 10P

Anderson B 7

Pegram R N

McIntosh R N

II Corps – Ewell

Early A 5 R

Early B 5

Rodes A 9 N

Rodes B7

Johnson A 6 10P

Johnson B 5

1^st Virginia R 20P

Nelson R N

Army of the Potomac – Meade

Left Wing – Reynolds                                                   

I Corps – Doubleday                                                    

Artillery 3”R, N                                                                    

1^st Division 7                                                                       

2^nd Division 5                                                                 

3^rd Division 7                                                                    

                                                                                        

XI Corps – Howard

Artillery 3”R, N           

1^st Division 6

2^nd Division 5

3^rd Division 7

XII Corps – Slocum

Artillery 10P, N           

1^st Division 10

2^nd Division 8

Buford 8 cav. ½ 3”R

III Corps

Artillery N 10P            

1^st Division 11

2^nd Division 9

The game scale was one inch = 100 yards, infantry =500, cavalry = 300, and artillery = 12 guns.  Ground scale is one inch = 100 yards..  All infantry were regulars armed with rifle muskets.   Buford's cavalry were also regulars armed with beach loading carbines.  Buford had one half of a stand of rifled artillery.  Due to the large size of the confederate divisions they were divided into two parts.  The store opened at 11 and the game started about 11:30 finishing at 4:30 with a 1/2 hour lunch break.

Units arrived at their historical times and locations.    The battle started on the 8:30am turn as the Union I Corps started arriving on the Emmitsburg road.    

 

The first part of Heth's division arrived at 10:00am, took an hour to get into position and then attacked Buford.  The attack failed to dislodge Buford, but on the next turn his cavalry failed its morale test and became shaken.   John elected to withdraw from Seminary Ridge and fell back towards Gettysburg as more Confederate infantry was arriving.  

 

 

Reynods leads part of I Corps towards the south edge of Seminary ridge in an attempt to outflank Heth.

Union cavalry rallies at Gettysburg. as part of I Corps marches through the town.

Buford's cavalry took a voluntary morale test in attempt to recover from shaken status and did so in spectacular fashion by rolling a one.   As the only modifier was the shaken status their morale was so good that they sought revenge for being driven from Seminary ridge and launched a charge on the Confederate infantry on top of the ridge.   As the cavalry came charging up the hill the Rebs let loose with a volley at close range, unseating a good number of union horsemen, causing their charge to falter before making contact.   The cavalry then withdrew again and headed for the east side of Gettysburg.

With Seminary Ridge firmly in Confederate control the Union army withdrew to Cemetary Ridge where it started to entrench.

 

Confederates take control of Seminary Ridge.

 

Union infantry takes up position on Cemetary Ridge.

At noon Rhodes' Division arrived north of Gettysburg and proceeded to advance towards the town.

 

 Rhodes arrives

 By 1:00 his division was in position to assault the union forces on the hill.   However, the confederate assault was halted by fire from the union forces position there and forced to fall back.   For the rest of the afternoon Heth's Corp held its positions along Seminary Ridge and exchanged artillery fire with the Union forces across from them serving as a pinning force to keep them in place while Rhodes and Early would make several assaults on the Union lines.   The fighting was intense and bloody as Bob's confederates and Kirks yankees fought for control of the hills.  Both put up a valiant fight as their forces made one charge after another in a desperate struggle.

The battle for the hills

Fearing a confederate breakthrough on their right flank Dan brought his division with the Iron Brigade over to regain control of the hill.   Their attack shattered two of the Confederate formations, but they were taken in the flank by a third and most were captured.  Seeing the division being withdrawn from the Union left flank Alan led Pender's division in an attack on the Union entrenchments, but was not able to break the Union line.   As the battle hung in balance the Union III Corps was arriving on the Baltimore Turnpike.   Before they could  get into position to regain control of the hills, the morale of the remaining Union troops on the hills collapsed as they saw two fresh Confederate division advancing through the town.   At 7:00pm the Union army was either routing or withdrawing leaving the battlefield in Confederate hands.

Union III Corps arrives in time to be caught in the general rout.

Historically Ewell's corps halted north of Gettysburg and did not attack the hills.   By pressing forward Bob was able to secure victory for the confederates.    Doing this is the best chance the Confederates have of achieving victory.

I would like to thank all who participated.   A special thanks to Kirk and Bob for taking pictures as the batteries in my camera went dead partway into the game.    Three of the above pictures are from Bob (pictures 4, 9, and 10) and five are from Kirk (pictures 3, 5, 8, 11, and 12).

150TH Anniversary Battle of Stones River

On February 9th the Battle of Stones River or Murfreesboro was fought at the South Bay Game Club.   This was fought using From Manassas to Appomatox.  The Confederates started the battle by attacking the Union right flank reforming their forces in the center and advancing Breckinridge's division on their right.

Historically both sides had planned to attack the opposing left flank, but the Confederates were able to launch their attack first and drove the Union army back.   The Union army eventually reformed and held its ground.    On the following day Bragg renewed the attack, but was not able to make any progress.   Bragg later withdrew leaving the Union in control of the battlefield.

The re-fight was a see-saw affair with both sides having bad luck when taking morale checks.  The Confederate left made some initial advances, but its morale failed causing it to lose several turns reforming for another assault.   In the center Polk's corps reformed and spent most of the battle throwing back Union attacks.

The Union forces had decided to be agressive.   They launched an attack against Cheatham's division in the center with two of their divisions, but were thrown back   The Union left wing then proceeded to cross Stones River in order to attack Breckinridges division.

After some heavy fighting Cheathams division retreated across Stones River and took up position near Murfreesboro after being rallied by Bragg..  Wither's division was able to redress the situation when it attacked out of the woods and hit the Union center in the flank.  Their attack caught Rosecrans in the melee resulting in his death. Whither's division then found itself in a difficult situation with forces facing it from the front and a Union division advancing on it from the rear.   Fortunately for the Rebs the morale of the division advancing on it from the rear cracked and it fell back.   The Rebs were able to reform near the bridges so they would not be flanked.

On the south end of the battle the Confederates facing Union troops had fallen back in disarray, but the Union troops refused to advance from their positions.  Had they done so they might have destroyed the two divisions of Hardee's corps.  By the end of the battle both the Union right wing and Hardee's corps on the south end had part of their forces exhausted and were not making much headway against each other.   The Confederate cavalry on the south end had made a couple of valiant charges against the Union infantry and though they had driven them back were not able to capitalize on their success as the Union infantry quickly reformed.

By the noon turn both sides received some cavalry re-enforcements

Meanwhile the Union left wing had begun to catch up with the Breckinridge's division which had fallen back quite a ways due to failing morale.    Bragg managed to halt their retreat just north of his headquarters.  The Union left wing finally caught up with Breckinridge and after some hard fighting almost destroyed his division.   The resulting route by Breckinridge also swept away Cheatham's division and left Whthers trapped on the west side of Stones River.

At this point the Confederates conceded the game.   We started about 10:30 and finished 14 turns by 3:30.  Losses were fairly heavy on both sides with at least two Union divisions exhausted and several others approaching that point.   The Confederates did take three stands of Union infantry prisoner, but the results of the battle would result in their rescue.

Infantry figures are a mixture of Heroics and Ros, Baccus and Rapier.  All cavalry and artillery are from Heroics and Ros.   Buildings are from PaperTerrain.  Trees are from an ebay dealer.

John Rigby was Rosecrans, Peter Michels was Thomas Crittenden, Bill McHugh was George Thomas, Alan Sissenwen was Alexander McCook, Gregg was Braxton Bragg, Manny Granillo was Polk. and Robert Packard was Hardee.

 View of the turnpike from Murfreesboro

 Initial starting positions

 View from the Union side

 early stages of the battle

 Initial Union attacks in the center have been thrown back.

Cheatham's division under heavy attack.

 South end of the battlefield.  Confederates are re-grouping for another advance against the Union lines

View from the north end of the battlefield near the end.  Union left wing advances on Breckinridge.  Murfreesboro was actually on the edge of the table but had been moved in to avoid damaging it by players leaning over the table

 Union left wing destroys Breckinridge's division.

South flank of the battlefield.  Union lines are still holding after being pushed by by Rebs.

 The order of battle is listed below.   Each stand represents 500 infantry, 300 cavalry, or 12 guns.  Ground scale is one inch = 100 yards.  The complete scenario file can be found at the FMTA yahoo group

 http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/FMTA/

Union

Army of the Cumberland – General William Rosecrans

          Pioneer Brigade

four stands of infantry – average, rifle musket

          Cavalry – General David Stanley (independent command)

                             4 stands of cavalry – average, muzzle loading carbine

                             3 stands of cavalry – breach loading carbine

                             6# rifles

Right Wing – General Alexander McCook

                   1^st Division – Brigadier General Jefferson Davis

                             9 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             6# smoothbore cannon

                             10# Parrot

                   2^nd Division – General Richard Johnson

                             12 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             6# rifle

                   3^rd Division – General Phillip Sheridan

                             10 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             12# Napoleon

          Center – General George Thomas

                   1^st Division – General Lovell Rousseu

                             12 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             10# Parrot

                   2^nd Division – General James Negley

                             11 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             12# Howitzer

                   Corps Troops

                             Part of 3^rd Division

                             5 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             6# smoothbore

          Left Wing – General Thomas Crittenden

                   1^st Division – General Thomas Wood

                             10 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             6# smoothbore

                   2^nd Division – General John Palmer

                             9 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             12# howitzer

                             6# rifle

                   3^rd Division – General Horatio Van Cleve

                             8 stands of infantry – average, rifle muskets

                             10# Parrot

Confederate

Army of Tennessee – General Braxton Bragg

          Cavalry – Brigadier General Joseph Wheeler (Independent command)

                   6 stands of cavalry – average, muzzle loading carbine

                   12# howitzer

          Wharton’s Cavalry – Brigadier General Wharton (Independent command)

                   5 stands of cavalry – average, shotgun

          Polk’s Corps – Lt. General Leonidas Polk

                   Cheatham’s Division – Major General Benjamin Cheatham

                             13 stands of infantry – average, rifle musket

                             12# howitzer

                   Wither’s Division – Major General Jones Wither

                             15 stands of infantry – average, rifle musket

                             6# smoothbore

                             12# Napoleon

Hardee’s Corps – Lt. General William Hardee

          Breckinridge’s Division – Major General John Breckinridge

                   15 stands of infantry – average, rifle musket

                   6# smoothbore

                   12# howitzer

          Cleburne’s Division – Major General Patrick Cleburne

                   12 stands of infantry – average, rifle musket

                   6# smoothbore

          McCown’s Division – Major General J. P. McCown

                   9 stands of infantry – average, rifle musket

                   12# Napoleon

                   3” rifle

Fictional Early War ACW game at GameKastle Fremont

Back in November I ran an ACW game at the GameKastle store in Fremont.   This was the same scenario as the previous fictional early war scenario that I ran at the South Bay Game Club.  The Confederates ended up with a traffic jam on the left center road and took a while to get their army in place.   Daniel's Union command ended up coming down the road on side of the table and took some time finding its way across the river.   Charlie Parker was commanding the Confederate cavalry opposing him and was able to use his cavalry to wreck havoc on the Union infantry.  The game ended in a minor victory for the Confederates.

 Dan surveying the battlefield

 Daniel preparing for battle

 Manny checking dispatches from Headquarters.

 Confederates advance on Eastern side of battlefield

 View of the battle from the southwest corner

 Confederates continue to attack Union left.

 Union left faces Confederate cavalry.

Confederate commanders survey battlefield.

 View of the western part of the battlefield from the north

 Union right continues to hold

 Union left has regained some ground.

September Game at South Bay Game Club

I had originally planned on running Brawner's Farm, which was the first contact at the Battle of Second Manassas.   However, more people than I could accommodate had signed up for the game.  Instead I ran a fictional early war scenario with balanced forces on both sides.  Both armies had 96 bases of infantry, 16 bases of cavalry, and 8 bases of artillery.   The Union army was organized as two separate corps of two, three brigade infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade.   The Union players elected to combine their artillery into a four stand battalion for each corps.  The Confederates had a single corp with one cavalry division, two three brigade infantry divisions, one two brigade infantry division, and one four brigade infantry division.  The Confederates assigned two stands of artillery to each division.  All infantry and cavalry brigades had 8 stands and all troops were green.

At the start of the game both sides plotted which road they would have their forces arrive on and then diced to see if they would arrive at that point or be shifted one entry point left or right.  Most of the Union army ended up shifting right while the Confederates had a more mixed result.  Cards were used to designate units until they were spotted and both sides had additional dummy/scout cards to help hide where their troops were.   The river in the southwest corner could only be crossed at the bridge and two unknown fords.

The initial contact of the battle was an engagement between two scouts at the small village/farm in the eastern half of the center of the table.  As the battle progressed, both sides suffered from traffic jams.   The Union initially gained the upper hand in the center, but was finally forced back and the Confederates were able to claim victory.

Highlights of the battle were a Union Cavalry brigade charging out of the woods on the east end of the battle and attempting to contact a Confederate infantry brigade on the far side of a road with fences on both sides.  In the center the Union had an infantry brigade make a bayonet attack, charging after the retreating Confederates.  This was countered by a Confederate brigade making a bayonet attack into it.

In order to avoid any confusion as to which command was which we left the cards with the units during the battle.  Additional photos and commentary on the battle can be found at
http://www.meetup.com/South-Bay-War-Games/photos/10899242/

 The battlefield

 Middle of game

 View from other end.

 High point of Union advance

 View from the east end.  Union army being forced back

.  End of the battle.  Confederates in control of the battlefield.