2mm ACW - The Army of the Potomac

I have hit another milestone in this project. The infantry for the AoP is completed. No more matchstick miniatures for me for a while! That's fifty-four Federal brigade bases completed, each with 4 blocks of figures on them (and those pesky pairs of flags). On top of which I have almost all of the generals for both sides completed as well. Which means I have come to the point where I have to get my wallet out (the moths will enjoy getting to see the light of day again!).  I have worked out what I need to order and I will probably make two orders to avoid clogging up the painting table and not has been suggested by some, so it doesn't shout 'Warning, Warning Elenderil is spending money' from the pages of the bank statement when the memsahib checks it.

I'm not going to bore you with a picture of the massed ranks of blue clad infantry  (BTW the groaning sound you are hearing in the distance is the shade of 'Little Mac' who loved to display the massed ranks of the Army of the Potomac) instead I will wait until I can do a shot with the artillery and cavalry present as well (exit 'Little Mac' feeling  somewhat mollified).

Well I say no more matchstick miniatures but somewhere in the back of my head I can faintly hear a murmur of 'Blucher, Blucher...you know you want to...go on, just a division of two....'.

Well I already made test bases.

I invested in yet another Really Useful Box to store the figures in.  This one is a 9 litre one as it takes four trays which, really usefully (ba dum...ting), are made up of fifteen 60mm x 60mm sections which is the ideal size for these bases.  So all my little matchstick warriors have new purpose built barracks to live in.

In other news Mrs Elenderil tested positive for the dreaded 'Rona this morning so it cannot be long until I too have the lurgy which will probably put a crimp on blogging (and walking, talking etc).  She is uncomfortable and has a racking cough but it doesn't seem to be as bad as we feared it might be.  I think she deserves a medal for testing the ailment out first before letting me have a go.

The Painting Table - June 2022

So what is the state of play this month?  Well there are still some 2mm ACW sat waiting for finishing touches, but not the same ones as last month.  Something like 60 bases of 2mm ACW stuff  has passed over the table in the last month.  In fact most of my out put has been 2mm ACW.  The number of 2mm buildings has also reduced significantly, although I did put some back into the lead pile as JBM had very kindly given me painted versions of the same buildings, so no point in duplicating until I need to.  

New to the table are the bulk of the generals I will need for Altar of Freedom (Those are the square bases) these just need the odd bit of work here and there to complete them so they will be gone by the end of the week.

The 6mm ancients are still sat there although a few additional licks of pain have been applied, so they are moving forwards now.  So all in all a productive month especially as I snuck in a long weekend away with Mrs E to see The Eagles at the BST Festival in Hyde Park and very good they were too.  Still a couple of days left in the month as well.

Still crowded but less than last month!

How - to make a light box for photographing miniatures

I have a been interested in photography for most of my life, ever since my Grandfather gave me an old box brownie when I was a child (no they had not just been invented, thank you very much!).  I worked my way up to shooting slides with an SLR camera before digital became a thing.  Mostly I use my phone now a days which is simply for convenience.  I do have an old Fujifilm digital SLR that does everything I need but I only use it for special events, or when I want to look like I know what I'm doing!  All the pictures to date on this blog have been taken on various mobile phone cameras.  Because I have an interest in photography and toy soldiers both, I tend to read about anything to do with taking shots of miniature subjects.   That's when I became aware of the idea of a light box.

A light box is exactly what it sounds like, a box that lets light in.  More accurately it controls the way light falls on the model by diffusing the light to give a more even light across the subject.  Studios do that with big lamps, reflectors and similar expensive kit.  We don't need that, all we need is a cardboard box, greaseproof paper and some sticky tape.  If you want to go high tech you can buy cheap(ish) LED daylight strips as a source of illumination.

I used a cardboard box I found at the supermarket that was roughly the size of a box of printer paper.  To start cut the front off the box (assuming it hasn’t already been done.  You will want to get a good clean cut flush to what will be the base so it doesn’t interfere with photographing the model sat inside.  Next cut windows in the sides and top but not the back, so that’s three in total.  Mine are roughly 7 inches by 4 inches which is around 80% of the area of the sides of my box.  Cover these with grease proof paper and secure with the sticky tape.  Last but not least use a sheet of printer or artists paper to create a monochrome back drop.  This should line the base and back of the box but not be pushed into the right angle between those two walls of the box.  You want a nice curve between the two surfaces so that light reflects evenly.  I currently use a sheet of white printer paper which is why I wanted a box about the size that printer paper comes in.  I have also seen black paper used which works really well.

The 'windows' are to the sides and top.

The front has two edges left as supports

The paper diffuses the light as you can see here.  The curve in the backdrop is also visible

The result is not exactly pretty (see above) but it does what it needs to do.

The monochrome background removes anything the camera might auto focus on so that it should latch onto the model as the thing to focus upon.  The box will give you even illumination with no harsh shadows the rest is down to you.

6mm figures taken from a distance by camera phone

Taken closer in with the same phone

To take your photos place a decent light source over the box.  I use my daylight painting lamp.  If you buy a set of LED daylight lamps place one shining into each window so the are all roughly the same distance from the model.  With a 'proper' camera try using a long lens from a distance so that the entire model is in the field of focus.  With a camera phone you might have to play around to get everything into focus.  Then crop the resulting photograph to get a good tight image with your model in pride of place.  You will find the right distance and light level with practice.  As you can see from the two shots above I'm still playing with distances to get the look I want.

Oh Bugger #1 - Flags error

 I'm sure we all have them, those moments in a project where you discover (usually after you are half way done) that you have made a basic error.  Yes folks welcome to the dreaded 'Oh bugger' moment!

In this case it's ACW regimental colours for my Federal infantry.  I researched the matter, entire seconds I took looking at google images.  Who knew images could be reversed on screen or that wargamers could get thing wrong.  I have happily placed the colours on 136/236ths of my Federal infantry blocks the wrong way round.  I should have realised, I understand seniority of units and files from ECW research and it should have carried over to this project.  The National Colour has seniority and is placed on the right in the position of honour and not on the left as I have done!  Oh the shame, the shame.

The offending  flag placement!  I'm appalled at my self (well not that appalled TBH)

Now lets be very clear here there is no way on God's green earth I am redoing 136 sets of colours!  I will be correct in the placements for the last 100 regiments and will redo the others if and when the flags fall off.  I blame ...er.....um...GOOGLE! yes that's it, Google made me do it, and they are American and should know these things, so it's really all their fault.  I'm incensed!  How dare they host inaccurate images etc etc.  Phew, well I think I got away with that one.

This is how I should have been doing it

Incidentally the last picture is the first taken using my new home made light box.  For a free cardboard box and a couple of pennies worth of greaseproof paper and tape I think it is OK.

Life with our Ukrainian guests

They say that the Chinese ideogram for strife is a stylised image of two women under one roof!  It’s not reached that stage but there has been a certain amount of feminine role realignment going on in Chez Elenderil, most of which I am staying well clear of until lines of demarcation are settled.

There are a few small cultural differences and a handful of larger ones that had to be ironed out in the first few days. Although Google translate helps it can only take us so far in clarifying these things and it has very clear disadvantages, every sentence has to be reviewed before hitting translate and the result usually isn’t idiomatically correct so misunderstandings do arise. Some translations are downright funny others just nonsensical. It doesn't help that you can’t take your eyes off the phone while having your end of a conversation in case the software misidentifies what has been said. Still if you had told me I could explain the rules of cricket to a Russian speaking Ukrainian woman (not a group renowned for a knowledge of the game) via a phone app translator a few years ago I wouldn’t have believed you and it’s easier than having to have a Babel Fish in your ear!

The key difference between Ukrainian and British lives revolve around children and soup.  Our guest has a nine year old son with her.  He doesn’t like to stay at the table to eat, and gets up and wanders off mid meal with phone in hand (this seems to be fairly standard as other hosts have had the same experience), he argues with his mother about everything and gets away with it.  Strangest is his liking for sitting in the (empty) bath for long periods of time playing on his phone.  I have wondered if this was classed as a safe place while still in Ukraine, you know the old use a cast iron bath as protection against shrapnel thing.  Mind you, ours is glass fibre so I don’t think it would be much help.  If he was a few years older I’d wonder about the type of phone apps he was viewing!  

As for food, soup seems to be a go to food stuff with large panful's being made and kept for a couple of meals eating.  We have had to buy a bigger soup pan!  It’s a bit like the housekeeper’s obsession with tea in Father Ted but with vegetables in.  Our guests also don't like to waste food so the fridge is crammed full of left overs, the problem is that they don't seem to eat these so we are actually wasting more than is saved.  Again this is something other hosts have commented on.

Borscht - but with beef in it, ours is mostly vegetables and is available wholesale

The other key difference is that they always change clothes after any trip out.  Separate clothes for indoors and outdoors, so a lot of time can be taken up changing between indoor and outdoor sets.  This makes setting times for meals a little 'interesting' as while changing they do other things as well, what these are I haven't ascertained yet but coming back down for dinner is almost optional.

Still, the important thing is that our guests are safe, warm, fed and that most of the initial admin is either done or in progress.  School has been started, Medical registrations and initial health reviews done, English language assessments booked, biometric visa meeting set and NI number application is in train.  We are now starting on second tier needs, a judo class, social interactions with other Ukrainian families and just general familiarisation with different ways of doing things.  All I need to do now is learn some Russian!  I'm sure that in a month or so it will all be running like clockwork.  But Oh that soup!

George Dog is unwell!

Sad to say he has a tumour under his tongue and bumps, lumps and sore patches elsewhere as well.  He seems OK in himself and the Vet is of the opinion that for the moment there is nothing to do other than keep an eye on how things develop.  Although it is quite a large tumour it isn't interfering with his ability to eat or breath so until it does we wait.  At that point it may be possible to remove it without too much trouble but we wouldn't know at that point if it was malignant or not, and if the latter if it has spread.  Bugger!

George last year, before he became ill

Still happy especially with a new toy

He is about nine years old now, I say about as he is a rescue from Spain so we can't be certain as to his exact age.  He has slowed down a bit in the last couple of years but still loves his walks, although of late he's struggled with the stairs and doesn't always want to come upstairs to sleep at night.

We knew that there would come a time when health issues would arise, we just didn't realise how quickly that was going to be upon us.

Barney on the other hand continues in the same old way, barking at every passing dog cat, squirrel or hedgehog and generally lording it around the house and garden.  No signs of slowing down with him.

Barney doing cute

2mm ACW - Pictures or it didn’t happen

There was one important photo missed from the last post,  an actual picture of the Army of Northern Virginia as it currently stands.  So here it is.

Bobby Lee's finest

The Confederate army currently consists of 39 brigades of infantry, two generals, one HQ and one battery of artillery.  That leaves me 13 batteries of artillery, seven cavalry brigades, two generals and three HQs to make.

The Army of the Potomac is also coming along nicely. I have 31 infantry brigades finished with a further eight in progress,  one cavalry brigade , one artillery battery, one general and three HQ's are also finished.  Billy Yank's infantry take slightly longer to make than Johnny Reb's as they have two flags per regiment rather than one and the flags are the slowest part of the process.  I have the models for two more batteries of artillery but these are 'unassigned' at the moment.  I think I'm gonna need a bigger storage solution!

2mm ACW - Army of Northern Virginia infantry

This post is one of pure self-congratulation as I have now made and based all the infantry required for the Army of Northern Virginia for Gettysburg. That OOB has the most Confederate infantry stands of any of the Altar of Freedom scenarios for Eastern or Western Theatres, a total of 39 brigade bases. My order from Warbases arrived on Saturday so I have all the bases I am going to need for the rest of the project and as a bonus Mrs E and our guests went out to a Jubilee tea party so I was able to get a coat spray paint on them (The bases not Mrs E and guests).

I am reorganising the artillery onto bigger bases so that they have a more accurate frontage.  Altar of Freedom has an optional rule which puts artillery onto 60 x 60 mm bases rather than the standard 30 x 30.  I have split the difference and put three guns and limbers onto a 60 x 30.  That is because I forgot to order 60 x 60 and got extra 60 x 30 instead...DOH!  Still as the standard base is only 30mm deep I can live with that and I have the optional frontage right!  It will not really make any difference as I am building both sides of this conflict.

The standard bases are 30 x 30mm this is 60 x 30 mm

The next thing to do is finish the Army of the Potomac's infantry, then buy the necessary extra artillery, generals and HQ tentage castings.  Those will be from Irregular Miniatures but i will probably not purchase these until later in the summer.  All in including bases I estimate the two full armies will cost no more than £65 and that gives me enough units to fight any action of the war, East or West.  Terrain items will increase that a bit, but those can be used for other periods as well so I'm not counting that cost.  If Mrs E asks I scratch made everything so it was all free!

When a real war lands on your doorstep

Mrs E and I picked up our Ukranian guests from the airport on Wednesday afternoon.  A lovely lady and her young son.  Her husband has stayed on in Ukraine.  While outwardly fairly settled and calm they have been through artillery barrages and air raids from day one.   She explained to Mrs E that the first time the air raid sirens sounded no one knew what to expect was it bombs, missiles a chemical attack or something worse.  People went out onto the streets as they were unsure if being outside was safer than being indoors.  To make matters worse she had broken her lower leg a week before the invasion and it was plated and pinned when she was trying to leave the country.  She had to go through the chaos of evacuation while still pinned and had to remove the external screws herself while in Bulgaria waiting for a UK visa.  She faces a further operation to remove internal plates and screws which must be done before the end of September.  I can't conceive of how worried she must be just about that aspect, but she also has the fear of what happens to her husband back in Ukraine and how her son is going to cope in a strange country, all while having no English (she is learning on the hoof as it were).  In fact we are learning on the hoof Mrs E and I are attempting some Russian and we are all learning the different ways we do things during the day.

That's how my tongue feels trying Russian

Here is the real killer.  The family primarily speak Russian because they are from a Russian speaking part of the country so they are considered as ethnic Russians by Putin as she was born in the old USSR (you know the ones he is 'rescuing' from Nazi oppression), but still she has been bombed and shelled by her Russian 'liberators'.   She cried to my wife while trying to explain how things are in her home town now and what they went through to escape.  All she wants is for the Russian army to go home and for things to be as they were before the invasion.  She doesn't now what her future will be, if she will be able to go home, if there will be a home to go back to even, or what she will do to support herself here.  She is well educated and had a thriving business before this all started and now all she has in the UK is a single case of clothes.  She has just said that she cannot understand how this can happen in the 21st Century or what will stop Russia from moving on to more countries.  Her view is that Putin wants everyone to be afraid of him and to do as he says, even Russian citizens.

Putin's definition of a Nazi is different from that of a Fascist (another term the Russians are fond of bandying about).  A Nazi to Putin is anyone who believes that  Ukraine exists as a separate state rather than as a break away region of Mother Russia!  If you self identify as Ukrainian then by definition you are a Nazi.   I'm so glad he has cleared that up.  Here was me thinking they were a bunch of rabid racists obsessed with purifying the world of non aryan peoples lead by a demented little man with a toothbrush moustache.  Clearly I have had it all wrong (hint for any AI algorithms checking this page - this is sarcasm).

Please spare a thought for those refugees who are still seeking a safe haven.  Our guests are safe and warm with a roof over their heads and food on the table, but others are not so lucky.  If you have read this far please can I ask that you consider a donation to any of the charities supporting Ukranian refugees or to the International Red Cross.

Rules ideas - when is enough 'enough'

Or to put it more clearly when do battlefield combat formations become unable to stand in the line of battle?  As wargamers knowing when a unit is done it is one of the central measures of whether we have won or lost a game.  Most modern analysis on how long a unit might continue in combat focus on the percentage of casualties suffered and the consensus is that other than in unusual circumstances most units are done somewhere between 20% - 30% casualties.  I suspect that this focus on casualties is because it is a measurable metric.  It is also accepted that a the specific level of casualties is masking the impact that other factors have on a unit's willingness to continue in combat.  Things like level of fatigue, hunger, weather conditions, terrain, unit cohesion and leadership.

Historically rule sets have often used figure removal as a marker of a unit's decline in effectiveness (WRG ancients for example).  In such rules a unit's effect on the enemy is based on a weapon factor multiplied by the number of figures able to fight.  So reducing figure counts makes a unit less effective.  When a unit gets to a set number of figures lost a reaction test is carried out, for example in WRG 4th Edition (pulled at random off the shelf) that trigger point is 50%.  The likelihood of a unit breaking is greater the lower the morale class of the unit is there is a reduction from the dice roll for each 20% of figures lost.  A nice simple trigger and easy to remember during a game BUT it can lead to units fighting on with possibly unrealistic casualties and other factors.  There are other triggers such as taking a high number of casualties in a single turn but the preset percentage is the one where a unit is almost certain to break.

The last stand at Gandamuck 1842; but how common were they?

Yet in reality history is littered with famous last stands, some of these are statistical outliers (although that's an insult to those brave souls who fought in them) others represent situations where a unit has no  choice but to fight on as surrender means death for them or for others.  This is a situation described by Sun Tzu who tells us to always leave a defeated enemy an avenue of escape so they will flee rather than fighting to the last man.  

So how do rules writers cover this situation?  The issue is that we are modelling the effect of combat on human beings and we are all individuals (a little voice should now be shouting "I'm not" from your memories of 'Life of Brian') and while we become more predictable in larger groups we are still not clones who will react the same way to the same circumstances every time.  To be honest I'm not even sure that clones would be so predictable but lets leave nature v nurture for another day.

If we want to model the factors which create the situation where a combat unit become 'combat ineffective' then what should we be looking at and how should we model it in rules?  This is probably a good time to admit that I don't really know the answer.  I have some thoughts but no certainties.  What I think impacts the outcome should be (and bear in mind I'm primarily considering periods before  1750AD or so) are:

• Units degrade in fighting ability over time.  I have read that 20 minutes is about the limit before individual soldiers are mentally and physically exhausted and need to be pulled out of a fight.
• The level of training, morale and combat experience have an impact on their ability to continue.
• Higher levels of casualties are going to reduce the time a unit has in combat.
• Good command and control will have some effect on keeping troops motivated to fight.
• Other environmental factors do play a part.

Trying to build all of those factors into some kind of test is going to be difficult and lead to lots of dice modifiers.  The question becomes do you want long detailed tests or a quick and easy result.  That in turn depends on the kind of game you want to play and the command level you are playing at.  Equally the level the player is handling in the chain of command and the nature of the figure basing is going to play a role.  A set of rules where one base is a regiment will need different mechanisms than one where each figure is one man and the 'army' represents a squad.

The options are endless!  For example I could see a viable solo game where the player is a company or platoon commander managing his unit, with the enemy and the environment being handled by a solo mechanism to create changes to the situation that the player has to deal with.  It wouldn't even need toy soldiers on a table it could be handled with markers on various morale tracks. Covering casualties, supply, hunger and thirst, fatigue, combat stress, belief in cause, support for commander, support for the rest of the combat team etc.  The player would have tools available like sending hot food forward, rotating squads or sections (or maniples or centuries), evacuating casualties, resupply of ammunition and similar things to bolster the will to stick with it.  On the other hand at a higher level of command you leave that stuff to the officers on the ground and concentrate on the big picture.  Which is perhaps where the US obsession with body counts in Viet Nam arose.

In my latest home brew rules I have chosen to ignore body counts altogether in favour of tracking the overall willingness to continue in combat.  Units have an initial combat effectiveness rating that degrades during combat due to a number of factors (and one does sort of measure the level of casualties) but the unit never gets any smaller.  In part this is based on the concept of the most of the killing being done by a very small percentage of the soldiers with the rest just going through the motions and not really trying to harm their fellow man.  I make shooting far less impactful on a unit's state than hand to hand combat where both sides can go to pieces very quickly, As I consider close combat is going to take a toll not only on the person being injured but also on the person doing that (unless they are a psychopath and they don't tend to make good soldiers).

So this has been a post on rules ideas without a hard and fast rules suggestions, rather I have a question for you.  How do you want rules to model this do you prefer detail or a more abstracted system?  Is there a  point in the size of the game where you preference changes?  do you see differences in treatment as vital for different historical periods?  Answers on a postcard to the comment section!