Black Powder ACW Test

Game Setup

View from Union Commander's pov

End of turn 2 or 3

Played through the Black Powder rules for the first time as a test to understand them and to come up with a game to play with the local group. Used a set of mods to come up with some of the rules. The mods are by The Contemptible Little Wargames Club and they can be found here. They're very comprehensive. In fact, they suggest you play the normal BP way first and then try them out. I, of course, ignore their wisdom and dove in.

Definitely need to understand the rules better though. I feel as though I was missing something. I enjoyed them, just some things weren't feeling right.

Dave Makes the Gordan & Hague Newsletter

Dave, who's sent some content in for the blog is a wonder at converting board/mini games to more detailed miniature games. Because of this he made the Gordon and Hague Newsletter for his Battlecry adaptation using G&H minis.

Good work Dave.

Also, looks like G&H is coming out with some AWI figures.

Also, also, I really like how G&H is featuring his customers' work. That is good marketing to tie in with you customer base.

Also, also, also, he appears to have abandoned selling single stands and instead selling Battalion packs (which I believe are 3-5 stands for a battalion.) Good idea and it must be cheaper for him to do it this way as well.

His second edition of the rulebook is out and he's added some nice play aids. 

This is a fledgling company that I hope does well going forward.

Published Pics in Charge!

 First time I've seen this small magazine that comes out called, "Charge!". It's the journal of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society. Jerry who hosts the Command Decision games and Johny Reb III wrote up an AAR after the Oldtown Creek game we played and had me send some photos to the editor of the magazine. Very cool, they chose to use 4 of the pictures I took. You can see two of them above.

Also, I'm up to 40 members! Thank you all for following.

Gordon and Hague ACW Miniatures Arrive

The troop shipment arrived today from Gordon and Hague. So far I've only opened the Union troops.

Approx $69 worth of Union Troops

I'm happy with my purchase. So far, I've only discovered two figures separated from the stands during shipping. I'm curious about the ACW flag sheet for $3.50, meaning the value of it. I'll wait til I attempt to raise them to make final judgement.

I can see adding a couple touches of drybrush, flocking, and magnets to the bottom.

This is a great chance to get into a new period while still keeping time freed up to paint my main focus, WWII.

I will buy more and look forward to the Gordon and Hague future releases. 

See the first and less good youtube video here: http://youtu.be/sKp6JF8wdBE

See the second, somewhat better video here: http://youtu.be/bIPIZFsUYUQ

And here is the Picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/itineranthobbyist/GordonAndHagueACWMiniatures?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Great use of lights and minis

I was just checking out the blogs of those who've recently started following me and I saw these great pics at "Captain Richard's Miniature Civil War" - very cool stuff - completely used without permission - though I will go ask him now.
Go check out his site.

Xmas just kills hobby time

A huge work project, kid stuff, wife's new business, xmas travels and festivities, etc, etc, etc, all put a damper into any kind of hobby time. Go to any hobby blog and you'll see a similar kind of note. Not any different here.

When I came back to work on this post I realized that this first paragraph and blog title are quite negative. Not meant to be, just explaining why the large gap. In fact, despite the fact that I posted a long list of hobby to dos on the 6mm Yahoo group, 2012 is shaping up to be a fairly thin year. After posting the list and going over non-hobby related priorities, I realized that I will be hard pressed to do as much as I did this year. Though I would still like to get more games in.

However, for Xmas I did get a couple of gaming related gifts:

1. Black Powder rules - I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about and to see if I could adapt them for the ACW and Samurai time periods I want to try. I know they're designed for big battles. But being that I'm a miniature gamer, I won't stand by and let the rules as written stop me from changing a few things.  Actually, I'm going to use two supplements I've found written by fans for both time periods.  Gleaming Katanas (battle report/AAR can be found here and the rules can be found here).

From Blenheim to Berlin Blog

The ACW adaptation can be found here from the Contemptible Little Wargames Club.

From TCLWC

2. I used some Xmas money to buy some ACW troops from Gordon and Hague. He's having a special to move out his blisters to make way for the new sculpts and paints he wants to sell. So, it's a better deal than buying his army packs. (Except you can't get all the units on special that are included in the army packs as blisters.)

From Gordon & Hague Site

My armies will consist of the following (both armies will be the same exact OOB):
1 General Stand
2 Artillery Stands
6 Cavalry Packs
4 Infantry Command Packs
12 Infantry Packs
4 Militia Packs

Not sure this will do much in BP, but I've got to start somewhere. I'm not too concerned with paint quality etc. I want the miniatures to be worth it, but at 2.19 a base, I'm saving a lot of time and money not having to experiment, base, etc. I will lose some that satisfaction that I did it on my own. Obviously, at this point, I'm willing to suffer through that loss.

Hobby room update: I cut the raised table wood, legs, metal shelf support and moved it all downstairs. Slow progress, but progress.  - refer to the first paragraph of this post.