Take the High Ground

With retirement fast approaching I thought it would be a good idea to try a game of Neil Thomas One Hour Wargame rules solo as a possible set of rules for some light gaming.

This morning I played my first solo game using scenario 4 - Take the High Ground.   I used one of the alternate firing mechanisms with each unit having 5 strength and cavalry, artillery using one D6, infantry two D6 and Zoauves three D6 to fire. A four plus is needed to score a hit.

The union start the game holding the high ground and they have 3 infantry, 2 cavalry and one zoauve unit. They deploy  2 of the infantry units on the hill.

The Confederates have 3 infantry, 2 zoauves and 1 artillery unit.

I played the game with no sutility to the tactics and saw the Confederate and Union trade musket and loses in a stand up fight for the hill with the rebels gaining the advantage.

In the woods both sides had a zoauve unit and the fire fight lasted a number of turns  before the Confederates down to 1 hit managed to destroy their opposite number.

The other Confederate zoauve unit is able to emerge from the woods and take on a union cavalry brigade (represented by dismounted 7th Cavalry).

When they are joined by the 2nd zoauve unit.

The combined fire quickly destroys the union cavalry. The union have now lost 5 units to the confederate 2. A rebel victory.

I plan to run the game again later today and look to apply the lessons learnt from my first game.

I am wondering if 6" bases are a bit large as there was little room for manoeuvre particulary when using cavalry.  I am thinking of increasing the table size to 4ft 6" by 3ft or alternatively reducing the sabot base to 4".

54mm ACW ready for action

I have now assembled my two 54mm ACW armies for Neil Thomas OHW using my old childhood figures. 

The figures are a mixture of Britains Swoppet and Deetail together with a few  Herald ones. The union cavalry are Deetail 7th cavalry figures.  I have made the movement strays from artist board painted a suitable green and used white tack to hold the figures in place.

My son has unpainted Imex, Armies in Plastic, BMC and Italeri figures which I can always raid to paint up a few extra if needed.

I plan to play a game tomorrow. Take the High Ground looks a good scenario to start with.

54mm ACW for One Hour Wargames

As a kid I had 54mm ACW Britains and Herald figures and I still have them after over 50 years together with some later Britains Detail figures.  

Yesterday afternoon I spent a few hours putting as many figures together from the bits and pieces I have and realized I have enough for two ACW armies for Neil Thomas One Hour Wargame. Each army consists of 6 units and I will be using 6 infantry, 3 cavalry figures per unit.  I also have 3 Britains 12Lb Napoleons plus gun crew.

I have made a cardboard base 6 inches by 2 1/2 and painted it green to go with the old toy soldier style and put together my first unit.

I am missing a few muskets and will make some replacements from plasticard.  

My few old Herald figures date from the mid 60s and will need some re painting to make serviceable. The Britains Swoppits are in pretty good condition.

1/32 SYW and some re basing

For a while now I have been wanting to paint some 1/32 -54mm SYW figures up for some Old School gaming.  With HAT now having the command figures available I decided to pick up a couple of boxes of the figures.   

I have never painted figures this size before so I decided to have a trial go on 6 of the infantry marching figures.  I decided to base them on the Saxon army as they used Prussian style uniforms and  I wanted them in white. 

Here a few shots of the finished (unbased figures) posing in my front garden as the weather is good today.  

We have also starting using the excellent rules Maurice rules and are now embarked on a campaign (2nd game tonight) using my 28mm collection.  I built this collection some 12 years ago so I decided to give my Prussian Infantry a fresh coat of blue and revamped the bases.  The flags are home drawn using MS paint. They are here if you want some

http://ilkleyoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/flags-of-seven-years-war.html 

And finally I have been playing around with Magnetic basing with my OS Charge figures using penny washers and magnetic sheet. Show here are some Minden figures. One of the advantages of using washers is that if you different ranges (I have Minden, Spencer Smith , Minot, RSM95 and Jacdaw figures) is that the with washers you get a nice uniform base size. 

Battle of Dead Mans Creek

Tim come over the other day for some real Old School gaming to finish the year.  We used are collections of Britains and Timpo figures from when we were lads (which was a long time ago now) and some newer Imex and Armies on Plastic figures.  My son - Max - who is 5 soon - joined in for a while - until he got bored.

We used the free rules from All the Kings Men
http://www.allthekingsmentoysoldiers.com/documents/ATKMRules2ndEditionOnline.pdf

These rules are a fun set of toy soldier rules and we enjoyed the game. The Yankees won the battle but it was touch and go throughout.