Shiloh - A stubborn East Flank

We played a 15mm ACW game of "Across A Deadly Field" yesterday. It was a refight of the same scenario I ran at Nashcon, but this time we used three stand 15mm figure units instead of two stand  25mm figure units. The scenario was written by John Hill and portrays Albert Sideney Johnston's vicious mid-morning attack on the Federal brigades of Stuart, Williams and McArthur. I believe this scenario will be included in the ADF - Western Scenario book from Osprey next year.

This is a small scenario for ADF which is perfect for two players.  Dean took the Feds and I played the Rebs. Turn one saw a general CSA advance (although it was slooooowwww through the woods and ravines) and almost no firing, with the Feds reacting to some of the Rebel movements.

Each turn in ADF has a lot of "play" in it  since one side has an "action" and then the other side may "react", and then the active side takes another "action". Once the active side has completed all of its actions, the opposing side now becomes the active side. It's a great game mechanic that really causes the player to plan out and prioritize his actions carefully.

Turn two opened with some CSA and USA artillery fire and and a Rebel charge that got stopped and thrown back, but another massed  CSA brigade charge broke the Union line near the peach orchard and caused one unit to rout and a couple other units to shake. We paused the game at that point to fire up grill for some lunch. By that time a couple other gamers had showed up and we just kept grilling and talking gaming into the evening and it was too late to return to the game before everyone had to go home. It was a great day of ACW gaming, friends and BBQ and we all planned to do it again soon!

The mat was commissioned by John Hill and I think it really looks fantastic! These might be available commercially later this year.

Here are some pics from the game:

Some of McArthur's brigade moving up to support the Union line near Larkin Bell's field.

Dean West moving his troops.

The Union  Brig Gen Stephen Hurlburt surveying the grim situation.

My friend Chris photo-bombing me (in black shirt) and Dean in my gaming room.

The big rebel charge that broke the Union line. I think if we would have played a few more turns, Dean could have easily stabilized the situation.

The Union gun line of four batteries holds the center. These guns were firing through the camps keeping the Rebs at bay.

An overview of the game during turn two. The Rebs have punched through the center of the USA line, although they are now exposed themselves! I think Dean would have cleaned this up quickly had the game continued. This is about the point where we stopped to BBQ.

After the battle....

Good Gaming - Cory

Remarks on Scale and Terrain Design - part 1

Remarks on Scale and Terrain Design

 

by Dean West

 

 

A Miniatures war game table based on a ground scale vast enough to accommodate large battles of the Horse and Musket period on an average sized tabletop ought to convey the feel of wide open spaces. The visual impression should evoke a sense of spacious, uncluttered and rolling countryside that bears a strong resemblance to real farm and wood lands when observed from an airplane soaring 3000 scale feet above it. If we are interested in creating this harmonious, aesthetically pleasing panoramic effect, the buildings and other scenery and effects we use to create out tabletop scenery must be as compatible with the ground scale as possible.

 

 



Dean West running one of his 15mm "Final Argument of Kings" games.
Thanks to Jeff Knudsen at www.warartisan.com for the SYW Convention pictures.

 

 

Ground Scale vs Figure Scale

To explain, the ground scale of the grand-tactical American Civil War game Johnny Reb III (JRIII) is 1 inch equals 50 yards. A 6'x9' JRIII war game table represents an area of terrain measuring approximately three miles by two miles - enough ground on which to fight most historical ACW battles. To envision the scope of this large scale, consider that a modern football field would occupy an area measuring only 1-inch by 2-inches on the game table. The footprint of a scale model ACW period farmhouse should measure about 1/4-inch square by 3/32-inch high. Yet, I doubt any of us would consider using Monopoly houses with 15mm figures. On the other hand, that same farmhouse modeled in the exact scale as the 15mm figures we use occupies a space measuring at least 3 1/2 inch square on the tabletop - 175 yards according to the ground scale! That can't be too much smaller than the area occupied by Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Even more detrimental to the overall visual impression than the 15mm farmhouse's large footprint is that it approaches the height of a twelve story building. This means it is even taller than the museum according to ground scale.

 

The resulting visual effect of the 15mm farmhouse is as incongruous to grand-tactical scale scenery as is using those tiny monopoly buildings with 15mm figures. Consider that if we were to use one 15mm figure to represent one historical soldier in 15mm scale, in the same way that we use one 15mm model building to represent a single farm house, then a battalion of just 200 figures formed in 2-rank line of battle would have a frontage of more than four feet on the tabletop! To say it another way, if we based ground scale on the actual size of 15mm figures, the scale would be 1 inch equals 2 yards. A 6'x9' tabletop, therefore, represents a patch of ground measuring just 144 yards x 216 yards. This would be a pretty good ground scale for a western gunfight skirmish game.

 

 

An old picture of the terrain from  Dean's "Piedmont" scenario.

 

Issues and Solutions

It does not require a genius to conclude that the sensible way to solve this problem of incompatible ground to figure scale is to use either 5mm or 6mm (I hate the giant heads) or 10mm figures to fight grand-tactical battles. Obviously, the smaller the figure scale, the easier it is to reconcile both figures and buildings to grand tactical ground scale.

 

My problem with using a smaller figure scale is that designing scenarios representing historical battles and painting 15mm figures are my two favorite aspects of the hobby. 15mm is absolutely the smallest scale that satisfies my desire to paint detailed figures and I have no intention of giving up either. So over the years I've been compelled to develop a number of scenery techniques to mitigate the scale disparity as much as possible while satisfying both of my favorite war gaming interests. Some of my ideas follow:

 

15mm Figures

I'm pleased to report that 15mm figures are just small enough to look pretty good on an average size grand-tactical tabletop. To form my battalions, I mount them shoulder to shoulder, in two ranks, and I think they look great. The frontage of each unit is from three inches, to somewhat over four inches, depending on whether a unit contains 12, 16 or 20 figures. Based on the JRIII ground scale, this is the proper frontage of historical battalions of similar strength (JRIII figure scale is one figure equals 30 actual soldiers).

 

One of Dean's SYW
games at the SYW convention.

 

 

Buildings

Sadly, unlike the figures, 15mm buildings, fences, and even most trees cannot be reconciled to the grand-tactical ground scale. The height of one of these buildings is even more offending to the eye than is the footprint of its base. One can justify the footprint by imagining that just one 15mm building represents the ground occupied by all the buildings and other farm stuff located within proximity to the farmer's house. Truly, it is the soaring height of the 15mm building that is the true enemy of proportionality and the same applies to 15mm fences or stone walls that are around one inch high, and trees that are five or six inches tall. I hasten to clarify that there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these 15mm scenery items, but I argue that they will look and feel more at home on a tactical or skirmish war game table that uses a smaller ground scale, say 1 inch equals 10 yards.

 

To reconcile these grand-tactical scale issues, close to twenty years ago I began to use 10mm buildings and fences with my 15mm figures (some N Gauge model railroad buildings also work). 10mm ACW buildings have a very small footprint, usually about one third that of a 15mm model of the same building, if not less. Even better, most are about half the height of an average 15mm building. Sure, this is till out of scale compared to the ground scale; however, like the 15mm buildings, 10mm buildings are just small enough not to appear conspicuously out of scale. The eye of the observer seems to adjust so as to view the tabletop scene as a whole, with the surface of the ground and/or woods taking center stage, visually. A few strategically placed 10mm farmsteads placed here and there actually enhances that sense of vast distance we're trying to convey. Moreover, a couple of small buildings gives a farmstead a more interesting and realistic appearance than is the case if representing it using one towering, incongruous edifice.

 

A 15mm building vs a grouping of 10mm buildings.

 

 

I have one tip to consider when painting buildings. Buildings probably should appear lighter than you think they should be. Buildings should never appear dark, not be painted in bright, solid colors. Sunlight washes out all building colors, whether they are made of stone, brick or wood. So when you think you've completed a paint job on a building, mix in a little more white (or sometimes yellow) to the color you used on the building and dry brush the building again a few times.

 

A 15mm wagon next to some of Dean's 10mm buildings and fences.

 

 

Fences and Trees

I used to build my own 10mm fences and stone walls to use with my 15mm figures. Building a sufficient number of these was a painfully tedious process, but then I was saved when GHQ came out with its 10mm figure line. In addition to producing exceptionally fine ACW figures that are so well sculpted that I was tempted to change scales, GHQ also offered two types of fencing, plus stone walls. These fences and stone walls are only a bit over 1/4 inch high, yet they blend in perfectly with 15mm figures. When these came on the market, it was if I had been released from bondage!

 

As for trees, just search for small ones made by Woodland Scenics, or forget about trees altogether and use gobs of Woodland Scenics foliage (we call it "munge") for forest, or a combination of both. I strongly recommend mounting your trees on flocked 1 1/4 fender washers to give them a low center of gravity, so they don't fall over quite so easily.

 

Another "airplane view" picture of Dean's
ACW Piedmont scenario.

 

 

 

 

Part 2 - of Dean's article will be coming in Jan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Interview with Dean West - part 2

Question 2: What can you share with Cigar Box Heroes about the early days of Johnny Reb rules development with John Hill?

During the 1960s I did not play miniatures games. However, the military board game industry emerged during the sixties and I was the first one on my block to purchase Tactics II, designed by Charles Roberts and published in 1962 by the legendary Avalon Hill Game Company. Tactics II was the first military board war game ever published. This game was too theoretical and stark for my taste, but in quick succession AH published Gettysburg, Afrika Korps, D-Day and Waterloo. I played these games extensively (learned Waterloo when on my Honeymoon in 1966).

In college, my interest in Horse & Musket warfare was far greater than my interest in studying for my classes. I read every book in the Ball State University library on the Napoleonic or French Revolutionary wars, and bought many others besides. I hoped to someday design a Napoleonic miniatures game that was heavy on tactics but still fun to play and challenging.

A Polaroid picture of a  Johnny Reb campaign game in Dean's basement 20+ years ago.

After marrying, becoming the father of twin boys, landing a job as an adjustor at State Farm Insurance Company, and graduating from college–in that order–I became interested in trains and scale model railroading. My problem was that there were no good hobby shops in the area. Late in 1969, I heard about a hobby shop only sixty miles away, in Lafayette, IN that was rumored to be a scale modeler’s dream. I took off work and hurried over there, to find that “The Scale Model Shop” was everything it was rumored to be. The proprietors of that special place were John Hill and Norris Darrell.

“The Scale” was a terrific hobby shop where a “serious” scale modeler could find about anything needed to build model railroads or war game terrain. I visited the shop often. Initially, my friendship with John and Norris was founded on mutual interest in modeling Colorado Narrow Gauge railroads. But as the months rolled by, it became apparent that we also harbored a mutual interest in war games. Soon, we were talking more about military history and less about trains. I learned that John owned his own board game company, Conflict Games. Conflict Games publications included Verdun: The Game of Attrition, Kasserine Pass, Overlord and Bar-Lev. All were designed by John (Several of these games have recently been reissued by other companies). Over the course of a year or so, war gaming, modeling, and historical research replaced model railroading as our primary mutual interest. However, our interest in very detailed model railroad scenery has been a major factor in our insistence on very realistic wargame miniatures boards. John has even taken this penchant for detailed wargame boards into his latest board and miniature game design - "Shiloh Dawn" for Pacific Rim Publishing.

A preview of the map from John Hill's latest project "Shiloh Dawn". 

Squad Leader and Johnny Reb were invented almost simultaneously in John’s basement roughly between the years 1971 and 1978. Both were developed and play-tested under John’s leadership by a dedicated group of war gamers who were also amateur historians. We even had one professional historian in the group, Professor Gunther Rothenberg (Gunther eventually wrote several well-received books on Napoleonic warfare). Squad Leader was already under design when I joined John’s gaming group sometime in 1972. We played the earliest versions of the game on John’s basement floor using Micro-Armor tanks and vehicles. Terrain was cardboard cutouts or chalked in. As the design developed, unit counters representing infantry, heavy weapons squads, and officers were introduced. The use of counters to represent infantry formations made the battles seem more realistic and interesting. An Allied player soon learned to fear the arrival on the battlefield of a column of Micro-Armor SdKf 251s with Feldgrau unit counters stacked on them.

Another 20+ year old Polaroid picture of a Johnny Reb
scenario played in Dean's basement.

 Occasionally, we needed a break from WWII play-testing, and as the Horse & Musket guy on the team, I volunteered to bring my Napoleonic figure collection to John’s basement and to host a game using my homegrown rules. By 1973, I had amassed respectable forces of French and Prussian 25 mm figures manufactured by “Der Kriegspieler”, and had hobbled together a half-assed set of Napoleonic miniature rules based loosely on the Napoleonique rules written by Jim Getz (Empire) and Duke Seifried - "Uncle Duke". Just like any war gamer past or present, I’m incapable of playing anyone else’s rules without first modifying them to suit me. John’s the same way, and so every time we played my game we made changes and found problems until finally John decided that we could do better and so John and I embarked on the design of a horse & musket miniatures game. Thus the Johnny Reb project was born. After some discussion, we decided to base our rules on the American Civil War (ACW). We decided on the ACW because we had access to tons of research material, all in English, and we could also visit the battlefields. Another reason is that it would be somewhat easier to design a game based on our Civil War because the troops and tactics were more generic. Unlike the Napoleonic Period, we would not have to struggle with the complicated problems inherent to depicting “national differences” in tactical doctrine, maneuverability, or temperament of the many European belligerents.

A picture of John Hill's "Battle of Resaca"
scenario from Historicon 1997.

Both Squad Leader and Johnny Reb were considered at the time of their publication to represent major advancements in recreational military game design. Squad Leader was published by Avalon Hill in 1977, and quickly became the best-selling military board game in history up to that time. For his achievement, in 1978 John Hill was awarded the "Charles Roberts Award" for "Best Tactical - Operational Game" at the Origins II convention. In 1980, the subscribers of Campaign Magazine selected "Squad Leader" as "the Best Game of All Time". Johnny Reb was finally published in 1983 by Adventure Games, and quickly gained great popularity among Civil War miniatures players and in 1984, John received the H.G. Well's award for Johnny Reb as "The Best Miniatures Rules of 1983".  

Play testing for the Johnny Reb tournament at Origins 1986.

If you guys are still interested, in my next submission I’ll try to describe some of the Johnny Reb mechanics that were considered innovative when the game was published twenty-nine years ago.