"ACW terrain" Topic

I am attempting to begin gathering terrain for my ACW forces. I was wondering, how "thick" do others have their tables for 15mm? LOTS of terrain, wide open spaces etc. It seems to me that many of the ACW battles occurred in dense terrain, but not cities. Is this everyone else' view as well? So I think I'm going to focus on building/purchasing woods and hills, a safe bet?

Pick a battle, find a map. Most of the larger battles have been well documented in regards to terrain.

You can see my 15mm Gettysburg table at link

Yep, you're on the right track. LOTS of woods (half the table or more just in case), lots of fences (several meters) of various types to line roads and fields, low hills, and a few houses to mark farmsteads or suburbs. Also, a few meters of streams/rivers, and ideally a matching road system with bridges and fords.

Cheers,

Christopher

Snake fences are characteristic of ACW battlefields.

For some battles, my default terrain is woods and I place fields to show the clearings.

Check what CATenWolde refers to at:

link

and

gemigabok.blogspot.fi

At the risk of being mauled for oversimplification: western battlefields seem to be more "wild" and wooded. Could be because Virginia had been settled over the course of 250 years by the time of the Civil War.

But, even at Gettysburg, which was a very cultivated area, Culp's hill and the round tops were wooded as were many other areas on the field.

There is a book on gaming the Civil War with a 'generic' Civil War battlefield in it, but the name escapes me. Perhaps someone else can help me – it was a smaller paperback with a sky blue cover and an illustration of a Union soldier on the cover.

I think there is a danger in assuming there was "typical" civil war terrain. Even woodlands could vary significantly from a well tended orchard to a woodlot with much of the undergrowth cleared to a second generation forest with large amounts of smaller trees and undergrowth to a primordial forest.

Much of Virginia was also heavily wooded, including the area around Petersburg. Even where there were farms there were often sizable wood lots, and, of course, streams were almost always lined with trees and brush. The Shenandoah Valley was more open, like the Gettysburg area (except of course the mountains).

There's an axiom about ACW terrain: You can never have enough woods or enough fences (snake and post-and-rail). I remember a game we played based on a part of Chickamauga. Lacking enough trees (we'd have to cover the ENTIRE 6' by 10' board), we declared everything in woods except for a scant few clearings represented by squares of felt.

Ghost6 was the book you mentioned called The American Civil War (Wargaming in History)by Paul Stevenson. This is a great little book with loads of great information, a used copy is available at Amazon UK for less than £1.00 GBP Hope this helps?

Further to last post book is available in US for less than $2. USD
Regards

Here is my idea of a typical Eastern Theater battlefield in 15mm.

link

Awesome, thanks guys.