Battle of Green Wood Fields

Catching up on some of my back log. A couple weeks back Tim and I had a trial run of the Regimental Fire&Fury system. I've long been a huge fan of Brigade Fire&Fury and so I was very keen to try out the regimental version of which I was not disappointed. I like many of the new changes with the best being a casualty inflicted if a second disorder result is rolled.  My friends that was a much needed improvement! Before it could get quite frustrating with disordering a unit repeatedly with no additional effect. I also like the additions of a the high casualty status for an army which has the effect of reducing the effectiveness of your overall army and I also like an actual ammo pick up point marker instead of just withdrawing one move back to re-supply. Some have complained the new version plays slower then the original and it does a little bit, but I think it's worth it as I like the extra bit of detail as it adds more flavour without overly bogging the game down. As a matter of fact, I don't think it plays that slow at all and after a few turns of accustoming ourselves to the rules we were playing at pretty darn good pace.

Now.. virtually all ACW games have a high figure count which is fine by me as I like my ACW games that way and RF&F is no exception. At the moment we do not have enough figures yet to play any of the scenario's in the books, but this is not a problem as you only need a few units per side to get started. So, with this in mind we created a fictitious battle with 2 union brigades of 4 and 3 regiments supported by 3 guns attacking a confederate brigade of 4 regiments and 1 gun dug in defending a redoubt and some stone walls.

Staying on the subject of a high figure count we decided at 28mm we would need to make some adjustments in basing to accommodate this. We felt 4 figures per base is impracticable to both build an army and play games on our tables to the size of engagements we eventually want to do. Also we determined if we did 3 figures per base then figure count would still be very high and would cause us to re-base a lot of figures already done. So, we opted in the end for 2 per base on 40mmx20mm. This effectively doubled our unit sizes without any re-basing needed or additional space taken. So, in the future units already based on 40mmx40mm will remain so as making adjustments isn't all too hard, but all new units will be on 40mmx20mm bases. We also used the 15mm scale for movement and ranges, because the suggested 28mm ranges would have just been too enormous!

So.....how did the 28mm figures on 20mmx40mm bases and 15mm ranges work you may ask....... just wonderful would be my reply!:-)

Looking at my table it still needs quite a bit of work yet to give a proper ACW feel that I want as most of my collection is geared towards European Dark Ages and AWI/F&IW, but I do have some buildings and fencing in mind to hopefully give a more convincing look that I'm after. The figures are a mix of both mine and Tim's collections.

As to the game Tim commanded the two union brigades and I commanded the confederate brigade with the union needing to throw the confederates out of their defences. In the opening rounds Tim brought his first brigade on line and began to engage my rebels in a fire fight, but soon learned this was not to his advantage and withdrew his brigade out of musketry range to form up with his other brigade to support each other in order to launch a full assault on my defences which would be his only real chance at victory. Wisely, he launched a strong attack on my regiments defending the right stone wall and a diversionary attack on the redoubt to keep me from supporting my right flank. Not surprisingly his attack on the redoubt didn't work at all, but the attack on the stone wall did and with great success and allowed him to outflank my troops in the redoubt which pretty much collapsed my army and routed them!

I did think he would have real problems overcoming my dug in troops, but a combination of good tactics and a few key rolls for Tim broke my lines. Tim played a very good game and deserved the win and I tip my hat to him.

I'm really looking forward to another game! Also, with the release of Longstreet plus Fire and Fury should see quite a bit ACW action here at Bunker Hill in future months!

Some pics of the game in no particular order.

Saxon Duguth Warriors #1

Now that I've finished the characters for my Dux Britanniarum army it's on to the units themselves starting with some Duguth warriors which are standard warrior class for a Saxon army/raider force. I'll need three units of these before moving on to some skirmishers and elite household guard.

The figures are once again from the superb early Saxon Musketeer range and paint up very nicely.
The shields are a mix of re-painted Foundry transfers and some LBM transfers with some Mig pigments for dirt effect.

I've based them on 25mm metal washers that I then set into a 9 slot 2p movement tray from Warbases with magnets placed in the slots to help hold the figures. I choose 2p as this is slightly larger then 25mm and so allows for easy placement and removal without damaging the basing. I don't really care for the skirmish movement tray and prefer a standard one. The reason for a 9 slot movement tray is during the course of campaign a unit can be upgraded by two men and the last slot is if I wish to set a character, casualty or something else in the tray. When no figures are occupying a slot I then insert a blank terrain textured 2p piece in to keep the look of a fully textured base.

Oh, I had another fantastic game vs Nick's Romano British yesterday and I'll post some pictures of it  as soon as I can as I have a backlog.

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company-Musketeer Miniatures

 

Blank 2p piece that's inserted when a figure is not in place.

Wolfhad

Mute since birth and unlike our other heroes Wolfhad is Wodenborn and the son of a minor lord. However, since he cannot speak he was considered less then useful as making any marriage  possibilities and a chance at leadership difficult. So his father sent(sold) him off to learn wood carving to be a ship builder. This wasn't to Wolfhad's liking as he wasn't much for working wood, but he really didn't have much of a choice.

Things changed when Hamarolf visiting the progress of his ship being built noticed a very large craftsman knocking huge chunks out of the plank wood for his ship with strong easy blows which looked very good for warrior cuts, but terrible for a craftsman. Hamarolf nonplussed and close to striking Wolfhad questioned  him as to why he wasn't properly cutting the wood and it was here that he noticed he could not speak. Sensing Wolfhad's frustration and impressed with his size and strength Hamarolf recognized this man's potential wasn't being put to proper use and bought  out Wolfhad's contract.

Hamarolf trained Wolfhad in the art fighting and not surprisingly he has proved to be a real natural warrior and a quick learner not to mention thanks to his conditioning he is able to endure punishment that would crush lesser men. Grateful to Hamarolf for his new life Wolfhad has never left Hamarolf side and is now the personal champion of Hamarolf.

The superb miniature is from Musketeer and for me an auto pick as I had to have one of my characters with the famous Sutton Hoo helmet that is virtually synonymous with early Saxons and frankly is just flat out cool and what better then to wear it then the champion who is supposed to be the personification of a Saxon warrior. Shield design is from LBM's excellent transfer range with a bit of MIG pigments added for some weathering on the shield and stones. I also did a small conversion on the miniature and gave him a sword instead of a spear which I prefer for this dynamic pose.

Thanks for viewing!
Miniature Company-Musketeer  Miniatures

The 47th Alabama Infantry Regiment

Continuing on with Law's Alabama Brigade with the 47th Alabama infantry regiment. The figures are from the excellent Redoubt range and the flag from GMB Designs. Redoubt packs a lot of character in their figures which enables one to experiment with unit composition which is really fun and something I enjoy doing.

The hard fighting 47th Alabama was mustered into service in Loachapoka Alabama on 22 May 1862 under Col. James McCarthy Oliver consisting of 10 companies like the Tallapoosa Light Infantry, Chambers infantry etc. and assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia.

 The 47th Alabama served first in Jackson's division for the battles of Chantilly, Second Manasses, Harper's Ferry, Sharpesburg(Antietam) where it was virtually decimated losing 98 killed , wounded or missing out of 115 and could only muster a sergeant and 18 men the following day. Reconstituted it then fought in Fredricksburg before moving on to Hoods division in Laws Alabama Brigade further fighting in the Suffolk campaign, Gettysburg,  Chickamauga, Look out Valley, Siege of Knoxville, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Petersburg, Finally laying down their well used arms at Appomattox with only 17 officers and 188 men left.  Let's just say they not only saw the elephant, but the whole darn herd!!

I've also restarted basing my 28mm ACW figures 2 figures on 40mm x 20mm bases to cope with all the stands needed for Regimental Fire and Fury and what looks to be a high requirement for Longstreet too. Let's face it folks just about every ACW rule set has a very high base count and I feel I need to be practical and my gaming group agrees(for this period at least). I've tried it on RF&F and it worked out just great! 

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company-Redoubt Miniatures