Back to Manassas once more

For a replay of First Manassas 1861 to introduce a new gaming friend to Altar of Freedom.  The scenario is an interesting one as it uses a 6' x 4' table but with a low unit density.  The battlefield is dissected by Bull Run creek which can only be crossed at a handful of bridges and fords which focusses the initial action towards those points. 

The Federals under McDowell (played by Stephen the new guy) have the objective of breaking the Confederate Army.  To do that requires them to break five Confederate brigades. While the Confederates have to do the same to the Federals (also needing five Brigades destroyed)  or to be contending the settlement of Centreville.  Which means being within musket range of any part of the town.  This is because Centreville is on the road to Washington.  The Confederates (played by me) are under the overall command of Beauregard but also have Joe Johnson as second commander.  

Both sides Generals have a mix of good and bad traits just to make things interesting.  McDowell has an additional HQ (useful for rallying broken brigades, or at least trying to) but on the negative side is inept which means no two divisions can have the same priority point bids so attacks cannot be coordinated.  The Confederates have restrictions through Beauregard who has to withhold half his priority points until the turn end phase and has a random minus one or plus two priority point adjustment each turn.  Did I mention that five times out of six he will get the minus option.  Johnson at least is more positive he can reroll one shooting roll, for any of his brigades, each turn.

Last time out I played as the Federals and tried to follow McDowell's historical plan.  It didn't work! This time I was the Confederates and decided to push over Bull Run to threaten Centreville while holding the Stone Bridge and Fords until I saw what the Federal plan was.  I decided to ignore the Sudley Springs crossings based upon the time it would take for McDowell to get troops over them and around my flank.  The Confederates have to deploy first anywhere south of Bull Run.  The Federals deploy second but are restricted to a four square foot area around Centreville which then extends along the north table edge to a depth of one foot and ends two feet short of the corner where Sudley Springs is located.

Turn one initial deployments with Confederate lines of advance marked in Red

The Federals deployed defensively covering the Potential lines of attack over Bull Run and showed no intention of swinging wide around the Confederate left.  This allowed Stephen to off set McDowell's command issues by leaving one division in a static position in front of Centreville.  For most of the Game he also managed to gain control of the turn clock which allowed him to slow it down sufficiently to ensure that three divisions were always activated.  I Started by pushing Johnsons troops over Bull Run and moved a small portion of Beauregard's division to cover the crossings.  The Confederates don't have the same problem with activation as they are organised in what are for all intents and purposes two Grand Divisions.  What is a problem is the number of available priority points as there are not enough to gain the first activation and to control the turn clock and because of his traits Beauregard's division was usually slow to activate.

The situation at the end of the first turn (11.00am)

The Federal's hold around Centreville and prepare their line in the woods (top of the picture).  Their centre advances into the woods west of the ridge Centreville stands on which is a slow process as woods are rough terrain with a big move reduction (Shown by blue arrows) . On their left Stephen reenforces his line opposite the Stone Bridge.  Johnson has a toehold over Bull Run but hasn't deployed in a firing line and I totally forgot to move Stuart's Cavalry brigade at the far end of the table (DOH!).  The massing of troops opposite the bridge worried me enough to detach two infantry brigades and send them to support the defence there.  At least those Damn Yankees aren't heading for the Sudley Springs crossings!

The end of Turn 2 (12.00 Noon) Fighting has broken out in the woods

Turn two sees my infantry pushing into the woods on the North side of Bull Run and skirmishing with the Federals.  You can see fatigue markers starting to accumulate (the white and green discs).  I remembered to advance Stuart's cavalry brigade this turn !  The Federals have closed up on the Stone Bridge but the extra two brigades of infantry are helping hold the position.  Stephen is getting to grips with fighting an army level action now and has understood that fighting on the defensive is a better option for his green troops.  His experience with Napoleonics is also coming into play as he understands the importance of supporting his infantry with aggressive use of artillery.

As the day wears on the fighting in the central and eastern sectors really starts to heat up and the first brigades start to flee to the rear in rout.  By early afternoon neither side had made any progress at the Stone Bridge, over at the east end of the field, with artillery and musketry driving back any attempt to gain a foot hold over Bull Run.  However, in the centre the Federal defence had been driven back through the woods in the centre and more and more Confederate units were crossing over to add to the pressure.  South of Centreville Federal counter attacks were holding the Confederates off and there was an entire division in and around Centreville which hadn't been committed to the fighting.  This was mainly due to the way Stephen had marshalled his priority points to offset McDowell's negative command traits.  By keeping a reserve he could give more priority to the other three divisions, which was a clever move.

Things were heating up (both on the table and in my conservatory)  as the game entered its closing moves.  Faced with the possibility of having his army split by the Confederate push against his centre, Stephen elected to consolidate by pulling back from the Stone Bridge so he could reinforce the centre of the battle line.  Given that neither side was anywhere near breaking the Confederates needed to close on Centreville to achieve their secondary victory condition.  I was making slow progress to the south of Centreville but was having more success in building for a 'left hook' into the flank and rear of the Centreville defence.  Stephen basically closed the door on that idea by bringing troops west from the Stone Bridge area.

The end stage of the battle

Red arrows show the confederate advance over the Stone Bridge and the wavy red line the extent of their advance.  Blue arrows show the Federal retirement from the bridge and the advance of the reserve Division south of Centreville.  The Federals were slowly giving ground to the North East to protect the roads toward Washington and to refuse their right flank while the Confederates are slowly pushing forward onto that flank.  The delay is due to the need to get over the bridge and deploy into line again coupled with Beauregard's command problems.  This is pretty much where we were when the game ended.  Both sides had lost two brigades, but the Federals were carrying slightly more fatigue markers, although these were being rallied off as troops pulled out of the front lines and reorganised.  I'd call it a draw as neither side had managed to break the required five brigades and the Confederates didn't look like they were going to contest control of Centreville anytime soon.

It was a good game with a new opponent who picked up the rules and tactics really quickly.  Altar of Freedom gave their usual entertaining game with command and control issues to wrestle with throughout.  I only managed to gain control of the turn clock once in the entire game but it didn't really hamper me too much.  I hope Stephen enjoyed it as much as I did.

2mm ACW - Refighting 1st Manassas

Or Bull Run depending if you go by Confederate or Federal naming conventions. On Tuesday Paul Dawson came over from York for an ACW game using Altar of Freedom. The scenario for 1st Manassas runs to eight turns and we played to a conclusion in around four hours. If we had been used to the rules it would probably have taken a little less time as it was we had a few occasions of double checking the rules to be sure we were doing things correctly, but not many. I played the Federals as McDowell, Paul had to split his attention between Beauregard and Joe Johnson as the Confederates.

1. The map from the scenario book

Altar of Freedom has two scenario books one for the eastern theatre and one for the west.  These are well worth having as they provide the maps order of battle and most importantly the commander's traits for each of the major battles.  First Manassas is fought on a six foot by four foot table but with far fewer units than any of the other engagements in the books.  In fact Greg Wagman the author actually states that "Altar of Freedom was not designed to handle engagements with so few divisions".  However the lack of manoeuvre elements does pose the same questions faced by the two commanders of how to cover all the crossings while maintaining an adequate strike force. 

2. Overview of the game table looking South East

 

In the picture above Bull Run is running diagonally across the table from Sudley Springs (nearest to the camera) to Union Mills. The nearest long edge of the table is the north edge.  Centreville is on the ridge at the North East of the table.  South of Bull Run running right to left are an unnamed two level hill (lets call it Sudley Springs ridge), Matthew's Hill, Henry Hill south of which is Mt Pone none of the other hills appear to have names.  Oh, and the troop positions in picture 2 are not the initial deployments, just where I plonked them down pregame.

Historically the Confederates knew what McDowell's strategic plan was through their spy ring in Washington.  This gave them the chance to have Johnson move his army from the Shenandoah valley to join with Beauregard north of Richmond using the rail junction at Manassas  Junction.  Two days before the battle there was a clash between one of McDowell’s divisions and Beauregard’s covering force at the fords crossing Bull Run south of Centreville. The Federals were pushed back from the crossings.  On the day of the battle McDowell decided against repeating that attack.  Instead he covered the approaches to his supply lines back to Washington which ran via Centreville with Mile’s division and sent Hunter and Heinztelman’s divisions west to cross Bull Run at Sudley Springs to turn the Confederate left flank.  Tyler was to demonstrate before the Stone Bridge to distract the Rebels.  

Overall it wasn't a bad plan but it didn't take into account the poor levels of training and lack of experience in the Federal army (to be fair the Confederates were no better).  Despite that the flanking move was successful but Beauregard was warned that his flank was turned by an observation post to the south who was able to send a message by semaphore.  The main fighting took place on Beauregard’s left flank on Matthew’s and Henry Hill.  Although the Federal’s had the early advantage in the fight there, Confederate troops were quickly able to move to block their advance due to the semaphore warning.  Throughout the afternoon the fighting continued on Henry Hill until the Federals exhausted themselves and were forced to retreat.

In our refight the Federals started deployed around Centreville with Confederate forces able to deploy anywhere south of Bull Run.  My plan was to push Hunter’s Division south from Centreville to threaten the crossings north of Manassas Junction.  Heintzelman’s and Miles’ Divisions would advance towards the crossings around the Stone Bridge with Tyler’s moving towards the fords at Sudley Springs.  Paul covered the crossings from the Stone Bridge South-Eastwards towards Union Mills but only placed one brigade on Matthew’s Hill to cover the approaches from Sudley Springs.

3. The starting deployments.  Federals nearest the camera

Command and control in AoF is interesting.  Each general has a number of priority points to spend; these are split between gaining control of the turn clock, bidding to determine the order that divisions are activated and end of turn actions.  Although McDowell has more priority points than Beauregard and Johnson combined he has restraints on how he can use them.  He is not allowed to bid the same amount for any of his divisions which means that he cannot coordinate his divisions actions.  That also means that he needs the turn clock to allow at least four activations a turn if all of his divisions are to be activated.  On average the turn clock for this scenario would run out after three activations which gives the Federals problems.  If you want a fuller description of the mechanics of Altar of Freedom take a look at my earlier post which is here: Small but Perfectly Formed: Altar of freedom - I done seen the Elephant (elenderilsblog.blogspot.com) 

From the get go Tyler had problems firstly I didn’t deploy his troops as far to the West as I could have done (entirely my fault I misread the deployment locations). Secondly the approaches to his objectives are heavily wooded which slows his troops dramatically.  Lastly (and due to Paul's good generalship) McDowell struggled to allocate enough priority points to Tyler to keep his troops moving.  After the game ended I also realised the the scenario set up rules (even when read correctly) make it impossible to get troops around Beauregard’s left and ready to attack as quickly as happened historically!  

4. The end of the first hour

While Tyler was slogging through the woods, Hunter was moving his division south from Centreville. However, Johnson wasn’t sitting idly by.  Instead Paul had him cross Bull Run with his troops to threaten Centreville (which is a Confederate game objective).  He pushed Stuart’s cavalry brigade forward on the far left of Hunter’s division while the rest of of Johnson’s wing advanced frontally on them.  I had to respond to this and for the rest of the game I had to prioritise the action on my left more than I had intended and that of course meant that I had less points to bid for my flanking movement.  

I pushed Heintzelman’s brigades towards the Stone Bridge as fast as I could and the first fighting erupted there.  This was skirmishing across the Stone Bridge that fight see-sawed back and forth for two or three hours.  One reason for this was Paul’s siting of his artillery, he placed batteries on the hills overlooking the crossings around the Stone Bridge.  Two were sited on the North Edge of Henry Hill and a third on the rise to the west of there which placed any Federals advancing on the bridge in the centre of interlocking fields of fire.  Artillery has an ability to use interrupting fire against activated enemy divisions which can drive a brigade backwards stopping them completing their movement.  Paul made maximum use of this to prevent Federal troops from crossing Bull Run in this area.

5. Fighting around the Bridge

In photo five you can see how Paul's artillery dominates the approach to the Stone Bridge and Farm Ford.  The tokens denote fatigue blue for one, green for two etc.  Any unit accruing a fifth fatigue marker is broken!  We didn't get any units past two fatigue all day, clearly we were not pushing things hard enough.

Meanwhile to the east Johnson’s attempt to advance towards Centreville forced me to give high priority bids to Hunter’s Division to guarantee they could deploy into a defensive line before Johnson could launch an assault.  I also turned Miles’ Division back to support him.   I managed to block Stuart’s route with Palmer’s cavalry brigade and put a defence together and despite Confederate close attacks this stabilised the position on that flank.  The worst moment was when Burnside’s brigade broke leaving a hole in the line.  I was lucky though as McDowell had moved across to that flank and was able to rally them and get them back into the line.  I had to bid high for Hunter’s and Mile’s activations to stabilise that end of the battle field though, which left Tyler stalled in the woods northeast of Sudley Springs.

6.  Fighting south of Centreville as Johnson pushes through the woods

7. After the end of turn five

By turn five Paul had crossed Bull Run at two points and although Heintzelman had his division in a defensive line facing the Stone Bridge his left flank was under threat from Confederate brigades who has crossed down stream of the bridge.   Tyler by this point was as close as he was going to get to crossing Bull Run having been allocated zero priority points to allow Hunter to keep the initiative over Johnson.

8.  Paul surveys the field at the end of turn 6 *

9.  McDowell holds the line at Centreville (Turn 7)

The battle was drawing to a close by this point and Paul was looking for the win.  He silenced my artillery facing the Stone Bridge and pushed troops over the Bridge and also the fords either side.  In reply I formed a defensive line with Heintzelman’s Division.  Paul launched close assaults against the line and despite my best efforts was able to break an infantry brigade and push another back.

9. Confederates attacking around the Stone Bridge in turn 7

Those attacks opened a route through to McDowell’s second HQ unit which Paul pounced upon giving him a second destroyed unit.  This was at the end of the last turn.  Paul gained the win with two of his required five Destroyed Federal units achieved v none of his own destroyed.  He was also able to remove fatigue markers from his troops so only had three fatigue markers against his units compared to the Federals who had seven markers.  

10. Can McDowell hold the line until night?

17. At the day's end -red line shows the Confederate front line

The overall result clearly favoured the Confederacy and I would call it a tactical win for Beauregard and Johnson.  The Federals have not lost  as many brigades as they did historically which is probably because both Paul and I were a little tentative in pushing troops forward to close combat.

What did we learn?

Artillery interrupt fire is useful for breaking up attacks but can’t create fatigue on enemy units and they can’t use canister in interrupt fire.  Also interrupt fire is a special case of defensive fire, so if you use it you cannot also shoot after the enemy movement phase.  If artillery holds it’s fire until the defensive fire phase it can use canister at short range which gives a huge firing bonus and almost certainly creates fatigue in the target if not outright breaking them.  

It’s hard to get troops into close combat but when you do the results are devastating.  Attacks need to form up in depth so that if the leading brigade is pushed back by artillery fire the supporting brigade can continue the attack.  Oh and we learned that we didn’t know the rules as well as we should.

It was a great day's gaming and both of us enjoyed the rules.  We will be revisiting the ACW and Alter of Freedom again in the near future.

* You may notice that Paul commanding the grey clad Confederates is dressed in Blue, bizarrely I was commanding the blue coated Federals and was dressed in grey! 

The 2mm ACW project.

Has hit a snag!  Things were progressing nicely towards finishing this project.  Thanks to the '2mm and small scale wargaming' Facebook page I had an offer of all of the castings I needed from a fellow 2mm fan, the very generous David Blair.  Then I interacted with EVRI, or rather I didn't.  At the time of writing EVRI has managed to loose the parcel David sent.  It is somewhere between Sheffield and here the tracking app shows it reaching the delivery hub at Sheffield and being manifested for delivery and then the next tracking entry shows that the courier didn't receive the parcel!  You really couldn't make it it up, if EVRI tried to be useless they probably couldn't achieve the levels of uselessness they currently seem to be achieving.  It isn't an isolated case either the community Facebook page for Barton upon Humber is currently full of complaints about EVRI and they don't seem to be able to keep couriers in the job.  I suppose I will have to chalk it up to experience.

There should be a parcel but it is conspicuous by it's absence

In the meantime I ordered more bases from Warbases as when I checked I realised that I was short of a few of the 60 x 30mm ones needed for Altar of Freedom. Seeing that I was on that site I also ordered a couple of 28mm western buildings as well, it would have been rude not too and it spreads the postage cost out as well. As always with Warbases those came via the normal post with no problems at all, ordered on a Friday delivered the following Wednesday.

As for Altar of Freedom I have invited Paul Dawson across for a game, probably playing the 1st Manassas scenario, so I'm currently trying out different methods of making woodland.  American Civil War battles seem to need a lot of woods, forests and orchards and I'm also going to need about eight linear feet of river as well.

  

Bath mat forest (not really to my liking and over exposed)

So it looks like terrain building is the order of the day for the next week or so.  The bobbly bath mat technique for making woods looked promising but the mat I bought has the bobbles (i.e. the trees) in a grid which would be great for the Peach Orchard but doesn't really look right for wild woods.  So it's back to the drawing board again or alternatively I'm going to be making a lot of canopy woods.  In the worst case I can always mark them out on the cloth with chalk.

More rivers and woods are under construction

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.

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!

Moving on apace - 2mm ACW and a little rock music

 Or should that be moving on at the double quick time?

Rebasing from card to MDF is now completed (phew) with the exception of the artillery which is a minor task by comparison.  So I have moved onto adding new infantry brigade bases with the ultimate aim of having the right number of bases to field both sides for Gettysburg (Yes, I know that my megalomania is showing again!).  I have settled into a simple production line system working in batches.  This means I cut a lot of matchsticks to length, move onto assembling that batch, then basing them and last is adding the flags.

Tiny flags you don't have to be nuts but...

The trickiest part of the process is the last, the flags, one for each Confederate unit but two for each Federal one, so either four or eight on each base as I'm doing four regiments per brigade base. I have made them way over sized as I need to be able to handle them and after all the work printing cutting, shaping and gluing it's nice for them to be noticeable. It does make a real difference to the bases though as it makes them come 'alive'. So far so cheap (other than the cost of bases) but before long I will have to bite the bullet and spend money on extra bases and those items where I use Irregular Miniature castings! It's still not a huge outlay though compared to even 6mm projects.

The flags add some movement to the static lines of troops

To help with the tedium of multiple repeats of a single process I have fired up Spotify on the PC and have been working through the back catalogues of some bands I haven't listened to for a while (in some cases for a VERY long while) and catching up on stuff I missed first time around.  I was an early convert to 'art rock' in the1970's and that brought me to the band 'Deaf School'.  I was lucky enough to see them live in  back in 1976 touring their first album which incidentally is a real gem.  It's a quirky mix of rock, cabaret and glam rock stylings with some clever lyrics.  I am currently listening to some of their later albums that I missed out on when they reformed after a long break.  Coincidentally their original drummer was born in my home town a couple of years before I was.

This is the first album and its a cracking listen

I also have found my Father's wartime photo albums from his time on HMS Chaser (a US built escort carrier).  He served from 1942 to the end of the war in the Far East. So a new project is born scanning the prints to obtain digital versions that I can make available to anyone who is interested.  More on that in due course.

 

Rebasing...I hate rebasing!

The Altar of Freedom rebasing is progressing on some sort of schedule.  I'm taking it as a positive as it means that I like the rules enough to upgrade from the cardboard test bases.  The laser cut MDF is so much better than my ham fisted attempts to cut marine ply into 100% accurate bases on a consistent basis (Bases ....basis there must be a tongue twister in there somewhere).  It has quickly become my new go to solution since i started basing my 6mm DBA/ADLG forces that way.  I don't have that many units to do for AoF as I only made up the OOBs for 1st Manassas/Bull Run to start with.  In the next few days I will be expanding that to create the bases needed to be able to play Gettysburg as that is the scenario which needs the most troops in the Eastern Theatre.  If I can cover that battle I'm good for anything in the two scenario books.  Time to start cutting more match sticks.

Dragging the WW2 models out has also shown up the lack lustre basing (cardboard again) I used the first time of asking.  These will need bring up to my new standard in due course although I can live with them as they are for the time being.

In other news when I finished typing this post I went to the post setting screen to add the labels only to find Blogger has forgotten what they were in previous posts.  Which is an embuggerance!

Edit - after much cursing I have managed to get Blogger to relist past labels.  I have no idea what is going on (so no change there then).

2mm Altar of Freedom - recruiting the troops

 It's been a while since I posted anything about my dabblings in ACW gaming.   The interest hasn't waned but I had nothing significant to report.  Unlike the news, which must fill a certain amount of pages or a TV time slot even if there isn't any actual news, I felt no need to report that I had nothing to report!  Still here we are so there must be something to report now.  This being that I am rebasing the test figures onto 'proper' MDF bases and have a test unit of cavalry that is far superior to my home made attempts.  The bases are 60 x 30mm from Warbases.  AoF uses these as the standard for infantry, cavalry and HQs.  Generals and artillery are mounted on 30 x 30mm, although the rules do suggest that for base purists artillery should be on 60 x 60mm squares.

US dismounted cavalry ready for action

I have toned down the figure’s bases to something nearer the green of the MDF base since I took the photo above.  The figures are Irregular Miniatures from their 2mm horse and musket range.  Open order infantry to the front as dismounted troopers, horse holders behind and lastly a mounted reserve.

I have rebased the HQs as well.  Again these are from Irregular’s 2mm range.  Strips of small and large tents, Army command posts and some covered wagons.  I know the flags and flag poles are well over scale but it makes it easier to ID them on the table.  I thought about using some Sibley tents but I couldn't find a 2mm source and they were phased out from 1862 anyway so all my tents are ridge type dog tents or larger wall tents.

Various US and CSA HQs

I have also started rebasing the home made infantry blocks.  These are made with match sticks trimmed to 25mm in length glued together in pairs so each ‘rank’ of soldiers is one match stick deep.  I’ve been playing about with the printed paper skin I glue around the matches to create the look of ranks of troops. The version I’m using for the new units is slightly deeper so the two ranks appear a little wider apart.  The images aren't perfect but they are a huge amount better than the detail I could paint at this scale.

Basic Infantry bases (pre dry brush)

All the bases are textured in the same way using block paving sand which is glued to the MDF with PVA.  This is then dry brushed in olive green and for variety I add a sprinkle of Woodland Scenics' fine turf in ‘burnt grass’ colour.

How … making canopy woods

How is going to be the generic term for how I do things or make things. It may not be in the title but I will tag all of the how posts with that word going forward and in the next few days I will go back and add the tag to earlier posts.

I’m starting off with how I make canopy woods as a few people have commented positively on them and in some cases asked how I make mine.

First things first I suppose I should define what I mean by a canopy wood,  it’s a model of a wooded area where instead of using individual trees the entire wood is modelled as a single entity.  It works best for 6mm and smaller figures as the look is more in keeping with a view of an entire wood from above.  The top of the wood, the leafy canopy covering the branches and trunks is made as a single item so it can be lifted to hide troops moving through the wooded area.  Hence canopy woods.  Most of what follows is based on other people’s work and isn’t my own original ideas.  So I’m not taking credit for any great original concepts here.

To make these you will need:

Clump foliage (I use the smaller ‘bush’ sized stuff)

Felt

A flexible material to glue the foliage to

A glue similar to UHU or Bostick 

Some aluminium cooking foil (optional)

A sharp set of scissors

A Sharpie or similar fine permanent marker pen

An understanding wife or partner (construction could get messy)

I pick up materials from a number of places.  The felt and ‘flexible material’ are from craft stores (Hobbycraft here in the U.K.) the flexible material is a thin foam/rubber sheet available in Hobbycraft in a number of colours.  I use black as it creates a shadow effect if I miss small spots when applying the flock.  

Foam sheet - you can see it is flexible

This is the product data for the UK item

To start I cut two identical outlines; one in the foam sheet and one in the felt.  Using the Sharpie I draw on the felt creating the traditional map symbols for woodland (a sort of wavy curved line repeated to symbolise foliage) although that's not vital it’s just that I'm a bit anal like that.  This creates the ground foot print of the woods that the canopy part will sit on.  That’s the quick and easy part done.

Next turn to the foam sheet.  First make sure that you are going to work on the correct side of your cut out shape so the completed canopy will match the felt foot print.  Before you get really serious test the glue on an off cut of the foam to make sure it doesn’t melt it!

Felt location marker and foam canopy base with a start on the foliage gluing.

  If you wish you can now scrunch up some aluminium foil into a tightly packed shape.  Push it down hard onto a firm flat surface to create a flat base.  This will be glued to the foam to create some height for the clump foliage to be glued to to give the illusion of taller trees in parts.  It only needs a couple of small areas to create the effect.  Using this technique does have a downside as it stiffens the canopy and prevents it conforming to any hills you might like to drape it over.

Scrunched foil.  Note the flattened base

Next comes the messy part, gluing on the foliage.  Smear a layer of glue to an area of about one square inch and add foliage and press it into the glue quite firmly.  The idea is for some of the glue to be soaked into the foam foliage.  Don’t add glue to too large an area as it will go off before you have added the foliage.  I usually start somewhere in the middle and work towards the edges.  Once the top is covered and the glue dry flip it over and add a small strip of foliage all around the edge of the underside.  Let this dry and then fill in any parts around the edge where the foam shows through and any areas on the top where there are gaps.  Sounds easy but the glue will get stuck to your finger tips followed by foliage pieces, bits of foliage will get lifted out of place on your sticky fingers and other small items will probably get stuck to them too!

Top done no bald spots or unintended extras glued in!

The strip around the underside lifts the canopy off the table

Fill in any gaps on the edges and it's finished

You can see how the use of a foil 'core' lifts part of the flocked area to create an illusion of taller trees in the centre of the finished woods in the photo above.  I only tend to add between a couple of millimetres and a centimetre of additional height this way as trees don't vary in height too dramatically in the real world. 

Now set the completed canopy to one side and let it dry.  I mean really dry so overnight is good.  Next spray the canopy top and bottom with a sealer of your choice.  In the past I have used hairspray, matt varnish and watered down PVA.  The one thing I have never tried is the stuff woodland scenic makes specifically for the job!

You could call the job done now and for 2mm or 3mm figures the canopies will look fine.  Alternatively you can add more height by placing spacers between the felt and the base of the canopy.  Some people use things like cocktail sticks or flat headed roofing nails.  Personally, I think this risks making the wood look too 'leggy' so if I use anything at all I use small cubes of wood about 1cm a side.  If you look at real woodland from a distance the trunks of the trees are almost invisible.  The foliage comes down to within a few feet of the ground and often seems to meet the woodland undergrowth.  The only time where this isn’t the case is with some pines and spruces where the first 15 feet or so have no foliage and the pine resin dropping to the ground inhibit the growth of ground cover.  All my woods must be broadleaf deciduous ones, yours don't have to be though!

I don’t make my own clump foliage instead I buy it.  I use the summer foliage colour, a sort of mid olive green tone.  I don’t add different coloured clumps as I don’t like the effect.  I also don’t use autumn colours as it limits the usefulness of the models by restricting the time of year it applies to.  I know that it could argued that using green does the same but most battles are fought in periods where trees are in full leaf so summer green is my favoured colour.

I have said this before about painting but it is true for terrain builds too, the key skill is observation.  Really, really look at woods from a distance see what is actually there not what you expect to be there.  Then recreate that look in miniature.  Good aerial views will help with the look of canopies from our playing view point (you know, the 1,000 foot general viewpoint). A quick trip out to the country or use of Google Maps Street View feature will also help with the table level look.

Look at the woods here on the Yorkshire Wolds (Bing Images) 

So that’s how I make my canopy woods, hopefully it was useful.  If you don’t like the effect this gives don’t be afraid to experiment, after all it’s your table not mine they are going on.

If you want to make individual larger trees see my article on using the cones from Alder trees which is here Small but Perfectly Formed: From Tree to tree - making 6mm trees. (elenderilsblog.blogspot.com)  the same technique would work on other formers than alder cones and I have used scrunched up foil on a cocktail stick in the past.

So good luck with the miniature forestry I hope you like the results of your sticky fingered work.

Altar of Freedom - new unit labels designed

Just a quick update on one of the things I wanted to change about AoF, to whit the unit labels.  The labels as designed by the author are intended to sit upright from the rear of the unit base.  That works OK for 6mm figures but kind of dwarfs the 2mm blocks I'm using. but leaving them flat to the playing surface meant that the text was hard to read as it was the wrong way around!  I spent a couple of hours over the weekend redesigning the sheet provided in the down load section of the AoF site (Yes, I do know that I probably need to get out more, thank you for asking) so that the labels can be left flat but read the correct way round from behind the unit.  I also added two small boxes one to indicate the Division the Brigade belongs to and a second to designate the parent Corps   Not rocket science just making life a little easier for solo play.  You will be able to see them in use in the next game report I post.

After playing the first game I have decided that the bidding spreadsheet does need a couple of tweaks but that is a task for another day as it is a little more complicated.  Not impossible just complicated.  The actual formulas all work I just need to add a couple of lines and set a rule for allocating reserved points between end of turn actions and control of the time clock bids.  I fear it may be something I have to tinker with to suit each different scenario I play!

Altar of freedom - I done seen the Elephant

Or to put it into plain English I played my first game of Altar of Freedom over the last few days! There was a fair amount of cross checking the rules to make certain I was understanding things correctly but in the end there was only one rule I was unclear about and one potential house rule I might introduce.

To get things started I generated 13 separate random bids using the spreadsheet I concocted a while ago, one for each card in a suite of cards.  Each turn I drew a card at random from a full pack to see which bid would be used by the Federal side that turn.  I chose to operate the Federals that way as they had a very straight forward bidding set up for this scenario.  As each of the Federal divisions has to have a different activation bid all I had to do was have the spreadsheet calculate three bids and a reserve bid.  I simply allocated the priority of the four Federal divisions and allocated the highest down to lowest generated bids accordingly.  To prevent me having to much foresight I allocated the Reb's bids before the card draw.

I played the First Bull Run/Manassas scenario but used a different map to allow me to concentrate on the rules and not be blinded by knowing the true tactical situation.  You can see the table and initial deployment here: Small but Perfectly Formed: Altar of Freedom - Setting the scene (elenderilsblog.blogspot.com) .  Apologies in advance but I neglected to note which brigades took which action a lot of the time so it's mainly going to be a battle where the actions of divisions will be cklearer than those of individual brigades.

Turn 1

The first turn (each one is an hour in game time) mainly consisted of both sides advancing and shaking out their lines.  The Federals are able place artillery on the heights in the bend of the creek and get a cavalry brigade over the ford to cover their deployment around the town.  The Confederates occupy the ridge line on their side of the table.  The turn clock had an impact as it prevented the Federals activating Tyler's Division.  There was a single shooting event when a Federal battery opens up on Stuart's cavalry brigade and forces it to recoil.

1.  The overview at the end of the first turn

Each General of Corps or Army level has a set of points they can allocate to divisions under their command.  These are used to determine the order in which divisions are activated.  They can also be used to add to the di roll for control of the turn clock or for end of turn adjustment moves.  

Although McDowall has 13 points to use in this scenario his entire army is a single Corps of four Divisions. His traits mean that no two divisions can have the same activation points bid unless they are zero and zero means no activation.  If he wants all four Divisions to activate the lowest bids he can use are 4, 3, 2, and 1 a total of 10 of his 13.  On the other side Beauregard is in overall command with 6 points but one of his traits means that he has to dice before bidding and there is a 5 in 6 chance that he looses a point and a 1 in 6 that he gains 2 points!  Johnson has 5 points.  The two  Confederate Armies are treated as two grand Divisions of a single Corps so only two bids are needed to activate all their troops and as a result as often as not one of them will outbid McDowell!  This means that McDowell has little to spare to gain control of the turn clock.  

Control of the turn clock provides the means to influence how fast the clock runs down.  For this game the clock is set at 10.  After each set of activations both sides roll a di and whoever has control of the turn clock decides which score will be deducted from the turn clock.  An activation can be for more than one division and covers both sides so if McDowall and Johnson both bid 4 for an activation it is still only one activation round with one turn clock reduction.  Given that the average rolled value on a D6 is 3.5 then the turn clock would (again on average) run down after 3 activation rounds.  You begin to see McDowell's problem?

Turn 2

The second hour comes around and McDowell's bids only provide for three Divisions to move but I have allocated enough of his points to win control of the turn clock.  Mile's Division stays stationary while the first division to move is Tyler's  the Confederates bid the same amount for both Divisions and advance towards the Union men.  There is  more artillery action this turn with Federal guns inflicting recoils but no casualties.  The Confederates are able to offset the effect by using the end of turn adjustment to consolidate on their right where Beauregard is in command and to start to push forward with Johnson's division on their right.  It's clear that a Confederate attack is massing against Tyler and Miles' Divisions.  As Johnson pushes troops forwards Beauregard moves his command to close up on Johnson which opens up space on his right.

A number of things happen at the end of a move but priority points only apply to trigger reserve movement for any Brigade within 6 inches and line of sight of any general on their side.  One point allows a Brigade to make a full move but not to come within 2 inches of any enemy.

2. Both sides are starting to see skirmishers engaged

Turn three.  

Federals loose control of the turn clock but get to move Tyler’s Div . The division attempts to attack the far left of Johnson’s troops.  They are beaten back by a combination of firepower and close combat but not before a brigade on each side are broken.  Fatigue hits are starting to show up.Turn three

3. Tyler and Miles beat of the first assault

Miles division pulls back to avoid being outflanked.  In the centre sporadic fire fights are occurring with the Federals having the better of things.  The Confederates have started to move elements of Beauregard's command to their left to close up on Johnson.  This is leaving room to manoeuvre around the Confederate right.

Turn four

As the day wears on Confederate attacks intensify upon the federal right but again are repulsed by a combination of cold steel and fire power. Both Jackson’s and Bee’s brigades are heavily engaged and eventually have to retire from the battle line to reorganise.  Towards the centre of the Confederate line an attack on the hill in the bend of the river is repulsed but the Federal cavalry is pushed back across the ford by sustained artillery fire power.   On the Union right Confederate attempts to cross the creek are repulsed and Longstreet’s Brigade is left isolated in the open .  The Federals are not having things all their own way there though as Wilcox’s Brigade is similarly isolated.

4. Overview of the battlefield after four hours.

At the turn end phase both sides take the chance to withdraw brigades from the battle line and re-organise them.

If a brigade ends a turn more than 10 inches away from any enemy unit it is able to remove all the accrued fatigue markers.  This is a big deal as being fatigued inflicts a minus one in combat and accumulating four fatigue points breaks a brigade.

Turn five 

Five hours have elapsed it is now 1.00pm on a hot afternoon.   Confederate assaults brings further pressure against the Federals all along the line and the Federal artillery battery is driven off the heights commanding the ford outside the town.  The sustained fighting means many federal units are now carrying fatigue markers but they are still grimly hanging on all along the creek bank.  The intensity of the fighting is preventing McDowell from withdrawing units to recover from combat.  Two Brigades break and flee during this heavy fighting, Bartow's of Johnson's Division and on the Union side Blenker's Brigade of Mile's.  In the reserve movement phase the federals reoccupy the heights but it wasn't to last.

5.  Federal Artillery temporarily regain the heights but their left is giving ground.

Longstreet's Brigade is isolated as the supporting brigades have been driven back into the woods.

6. Mile's and Tyler's Divisions are still holding but are outnumbered.

Close combat is decisive in AoF with a chance of a unit being broken straight off.  Broken Brigades are placed alongside the relevant HQ unit and in the turn end phase roll a dice.  On a six they reform and can move back towards the front line on the next turn.  in all other cases they fail to rally and are removed from play.

Turns six and seven

For the first time the federals are able to activate all four divisions but at the cost of limited points being available for reserve movement but McDowell again wins control of the turn clock.  He uses the advantage to ensure all four divisions are able to act and prioritises Heintzelman's Division to attack over the creek on his left.  This blunts Beauregard's plans to assault on that wing.   In response both Beauregard and Johnson launch a series of coordinated attack all across the front inflicting more fatigue markers on the federals.  Johnson’s assault against Tyler and Miles‘s Division's push them back from the defensive line on the creek but at the cost of a second Confederate brigade breaking (Smith's) the federal army has very few units now which are not showing fatigue markers.  Richardson's Brigade of Tyler’s division threatens Stuarts cavalry who have spent most of the game hanging on the federal right unsuccessfully attempting a flanking manoeuvre.  The cavalry fails to evade and gains fatigue point but at the turn end is able to position the brigade so a recoil or evade to attempt to evade will not push them off the table.

7. Six hours in and McDowell's boys are still holding in the centre and the right

8.  An hour later things do not look so good with Confederate infantry in the town

Cavalry and Artillery can attempt to evade from close combat if successful they make move of three base depths to the rear as if recoiling.  In the turn end phase any unit may change it's facing for free.

Turn eight.

With dusk approaching there is little point in holding back points for reserve moves, although Beauregard is of course forced to do so.  The Union left launches a final assault against Johnson’s depleted Army of the Shenandoah.  Sherman's brigade forces Bee's brigade to recoil and follows up bringing them into contact with Johnson and his staff.  In the fight which follows Johnson is seriously wounded and rushed from the field.  As the day ends the Federals have been pushed out of town and their left flank driven back but at a high cost to the Confederates.

9. The Federal left has fallen back towards town which has fallen.

10. Close up of the situation around the town at the end of the game

The Federal left and centre  has been driven in and are mixed together around the town.  Only Mile's and Tyler's divisions still hold their ground from the morning.

Neither side reached break point but counting fatigue points and broken brigades the Federal side had a slight advantage.  I calculated this on the basis of 4 points per broken unit and one point per level of fatigue.  In the photos I used coloured counters green for one fatigue point, yellow for two and (if it had happened) red for three.  The Confederates have paid the price for making repeated assaults but have taken ground.  The Federals have lost less men but their army is more tired and would have been struggling to hold on much longer.  Over all I'd call this a draw.

The 'Butcher's Bill'. 

How do I like the rules?

I like these rules, I like them a lot.  They force players into a different decision making space.  To be honest they are not perfect as by default they are mimicking high level decisions not low level Regimental level issues.  That removes a lot of chrome, all shoulder arms have the same game effect profile for example.  I can live with that though, as at army level I don't care about how the enemy is being fought rather I should be concerned with the results of the fight.   To keep the fast play aspect brigades have a dice modifier of between minus three and plus three which tends to dwarf all the other factor adjustments given that the random element is either the result on a D6 (ranged shooting) or the difference between two D6s (close combat).  That said the effect could be reduced by adding a few additional factors although the counter argument is that the brigade base factor is already doing exactly that.

There are a couple of rules that caused me to stop and think 'how accurate is this?'.  The first is rallying a broken brigade.  It is difficult to do but if successful the Brigade is back to full strength.  I'd be tempted to reduce the rallied Brigade's base factor by one each time it rallies successfully so a plus three drops to plus two for example.  

The other niggle is moving into close combat.  If a unit closes to shooting range before they can shoot they have withstand defensive fire from the enemy.  That may cause the advancing unit to withdraw and never actually have the chance to fire.  However, if advancing to close combat there is no shooting before close combat (either defensive or attacking).  At one level it makes sense as close combat includes very close range fire fights but on the other the attacker has to cover the same ground as a shooting unit does yet there is no mechanism for a defender to send an attack to ground or make them retire.  Given Infantry can launch a close assault from way outside shooting range it makes close combat more likely to achieve contact and to trigger a fight.  That seems wrong to me.  I asked about this on the AoF Facebook forum and the response was that ranged shooting represents skirmishing.  The unspoken logic seems to be that a close assault drives skirmishers back to the main body before they can do enough damage to stop a brigade scale assault going in.  I'm wondering if allowing the charged Brigade a defensive fire turn but at a hefty negative adjustment of say minus two might be more realistic.

I also need to redesign the unit description tags to include a Brigade ID as I had to resort to coloured dots on the AoF provided ones midway through the game as my eyesight couldn't easily read the info from a distance.  Plus I want to use a more neutral colour as the white is  really stark.

These are minor points though, overall I do like the rules and they will be my first choice for Grand Tactical ACW actions going forwards.