"New to civil war gaming" Topic

Hello everyone,
I am in need of some guidance.
Having known to be related to chamberlain and been to Gettysburg and stood there at little round top if always thought it would fun to do that scenerio on table top.
With that said I am familiar having to be a hobbyists and I am involved with ww2 and having a blast.
Anyway, I have been so lucky to have some 1/72 scale painted civil war figs dropped into my lap with no rules.
So. Looking for a fairly easy set of rules, any suggestion.
And what size stands should they be on? how many per stand?
how many stands equal a regiment? And if possible does anyone have this scentric? Thanks in advance.

How to base your figures depends on the rules you use.

Here are descriptions of most of the rules sets on the market right now:

link

Some general 19th century rules also work for ACW games:

link

Two more recent sets of rules that are not on the above list are Fire and Fury Regimental Level and Longstreet. Both are fun and worth looking at. There are reviews and AAR's on the ACW threads.

Regimental Fire and Fury is a great set. Three figures per base. The number of bases per regiment varies with the size of the regiment.

The basic rule book has a Little Round Top scenario included.

The rules are about mid level in complexity. Maybe a little less than mid level. Looking at them, they seem more complicated than they are. That is because they are so thoroughly explained and have many examples with excellent drawings. That increases the page count.

The rules really give an historically accurate depiction of Civil War combat on the regimental level. As you want to do the 20th Maine, I think you need a game that is on the regimental level, not brigade. By that I mean the maneuver element is the regiment, not the brigade.

Here is a link to the rules:
link

Buttons at the top of the page link to the great forums with questions answered. Also there is an errata page which has a correction to the OOB for Little Round Top.

Tom

Thank you so much.

If you're interested have a copy of Longstreet I'd let go for a good discount (book + cards). PM me here or mark@scalecreep.com

How many figures do you have? Are they already mounted? If so, how are they mounted? If the figures are plastic, it may not be possible to dismount/remount them without damaging the paint. You may need to stick with their existing basing.

How big a game table do you have available?

You say you particularly want to wargame Chamberlain's defense of Little Round Top at the battle of Gettysburg. That action involved only a few regiments, and requires a fairly low-level tactical set of rules where individual units are regiments or battalions. The detail of the action would be lost in a brigade level game like "Fire and Fury" or "On to Richmond". You could model it with a company level set of rules like "Forty Dead Men", but it would require 400 to 1000 figures over all and a lot of table space.

Many ACW rules are engineered to use 15mm or 25mm figures, most don't specifically cater to 20mm (1/72) figures. Your 1/72 scale figures probably won't fit on stands sized for 15mm. They will fit on the 25mm stands, but shifting up from 15mm (usually the default) to 25mm increases the size of the playing area you need for your game. For a small action like Little Round Top this probably isn't a problem, but double-check your scenario map vs. your game table size.

Without knowing answers to the questions I originally asked, I'm guessing. But, of the rules I'm familiar with, I think "Johnny Reb II" or "III", or "Regimental Fire & Fury" played at 25mm scale, will best meet your needs. I'm sure that Little Round Top scenarios have been written for all these rule sets – it's a famous and popular scenario.

Good gaming.

On to Richmond is a fun, not too complicated rule set as well. It was originally designed for 1/72nd figures.

Dave
wargamingminiatures.com

@zippy. I have already mounted on 1" x 2" stands. 4 men each. 144 men (that's 36 stands) and 2 cannons per side.

And a 6'x4' table space

Call To the Colors is free, if you join their Yahoo group, here: link The basing is pretty much the same as Johnny Reb, if you decide to move in that direction.

Grelber

It is easy to modify the Battle Cry board game, especially the victory conditions, to produce a fast and fun set of miniature rules. If you do not have a hex map, you can convert the hexes to inches without much of a problem.

Here's a suggestion. Pick up a copy of On To Richmond from Extra Crispy's store, Scale Creep (his email is in an earlier post). Use it as one unit being a regiment rather than a brigade, with one stand of 4 figures being 60 men, and 1" on the table being 10 yards (one stand of artillery would be a gun section of two guns). Use the small arms fire charts as they are and double all the artillery ranges that are past 10". Use the same movement. You can easily play Little Roundtop with your forces and organize them for small brigade sized battles for later games.

Here's the breakdown for Vincent's Brigade (3/1/V): 20th Maine = 6 stands, 16th Michigan = 4 Stands, 44th New york = stands, & 83rd Pennsylvania = 5 stands. They are supported by a 4 gun battery of Rifled guns.

Here's the breakdown for Law's Brigade: 4th Alabama = 6 stands, 15th Alabama = 8 stands, 44th Alabama = 6 stands, 47th Alabama = 6 stands, & 48th Alabama = 6 stands. There's no supporting on board artillery. And to reflect Hood's wounding and Law having to take over the Division, there is no overall commander for the Confederates.

Enjoy!

@gamerTom, brilliant! Thank you all for all of input. Muchly appreciated.

gamertom's suggestions sound good to me, too.

The way you have your figs mounted won't work well with the Johnny Reb rules, not without a lot of contortions. It will work perfectly for On To Richmond. OTR is designed as a brigade level game, but gamerton's suggested mods to give a regimental level game sound reasonable to me.

By the way, there's no reason you couldn't use your figures to play two different sets of rules, such as OTR at regiment level for some games and at brigade level for others.

I have no experience with Regimental Fire & Fury, but it looks like your mounting should work for those rules too.

Check out 6mmacw.com for Altar of Freedom rules. Greg has even put out a free Vicksburg campaign game.
John

Heh---I see I missed a number in my post. The 44th NY should have 6 stands. Also, the Union should use the Confederate morale chart for this scenario.

On To Richmond is also available as a PDF at FlagshipGames.com

If you want to do Little Round Top then I recommend a regimental scale set of rules instead of brigade level.

Some regimental rules:

"Johnny Reb 3rd Edition" (I like the second edition better.)

"Mr.Lincoln's War" – Needed to tweak the rules a bit, but is now my clubs preferred ACW set.

"Brother Against Brother"

"Regimental Fire and Fury"

Base sizes are determine by the rules you use. Base sizes for JR are a little chaotic.