Battle of Oak Hill.

OK, just a few photo's of our ongoing battle of Oak Hill. I believe it is also know as Bloody Hill.
The troops are mainly Militia or Green with a few better units thrown into the mix. The battle field was covered in a lot of scrub oak which is hard to model but is reflected in the movement and view rules.
All the figures are 15mm, mainly by Peter Pig I think.
Next week I'll write a report of the battle.

Just a nice view of my right flank cavalry.

The thin line of Union dismounted cavalry.

My centre and left.

The Union right and centre.

The Union right on Oak Hill.

So as I said not a lot of scrub oak modelled on the battle field, but the game effects make you feel the effect. The road up the middle is actually a creek, but we didn't have a creek model.

Cheers.

Neil.

First Union base.

Just finished the first Union base. Wanted to finish it Monday but been feeling a bit crap so I wasn't able to paint. Well it's done now.
The next 3 figures are base coated and ready to start next week.

As with the Confederates these are Dixon figures.

Cheers.

Neil.

First Union figure.

First Union figure painted. Quite happy with how this came out. Again with dirty trousers after all the long marching to get to Gettysburg.

Cheers.

Neil.

Wargaming the ACW.

There can't be a more interesting or colourful period in history for the war gamer than the American Civil War. The shear quantity of research material available is staggering. From personnel journals, to regimental history through to the great all encompassing works the choice is endless.

So where to start you may ask? There are a few wargame titles to chose from. 1st would be Paddy Griffiths illustrated book.

  

In its covers you will find a wealth of information. As well as some stunning and atmospheric drawings. A real must for any wargamers collection.

Another good book is Wargaming in History, the american civil war, by Paul Stevenson. 

Another fine book. Filled with a wealth of information.

As for uniform information. Ospreys Man at Arms series is always a first call with its marvellous colour plates.

Now we have our reference material what figures shall our armies be made of?

The choice as any quick Google search will show is almost as limitless as the reading material.

What scale you chose is a matter of personnel taste. It depends on a few factors. Are you planning a skirmish or the entire battle of Gettysburg? Do you enjoy painting every detail or is the mass effect what you are after?

The scale or size ranges from 3mm up to 54mm. Most gamers normally game with either 15mm or 28mm. 6mm is a good scale for the really big battles where the overall spectacle is the end result. Also 10mm is gaining support over 15mm for the cost savings with little detail loss.

At the end of the day it all comes down to what you want from your hobby.

As for myself, I have both figures in 15mm and 28mm. You will find that most wargamers can not stick to one.

Dixon 28mm figures.

A Dixon 28mm figure.

Next we need to consider the rules we will use.

As with the figures the choice is endless. This is an important decision as it effects how many figures you need, and how they will be based. Again this is down to what you are looking to do (skirmish or battle) and how much detail you want.

Looking through different forums and Blogs will hopefully give you some ideas. As a start you might want to look at the Fire and Fury sets. There is a large battle set and a regimental sized set. I have played the large battle set and had a lot of fun.

The set I am using for my personnel games will be Johnny Reb 2. It's an older set of rules, but I enjoy the level of detail and command being a regimental set.  

So look forward to all that the American civil war has to offer and happy wargaming.

Cheers.

Neil.