"Sharp Practice 2 First Play - ACW AAR" Topic

I recently finished up my first try at Sharp Practice 2 and I have to say…love it.

Here are a few pics from the game:

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You can find a brief write-up here and more pics:

thedivergentwargamer.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/first-sharp-practice-2-acw-in-15mmsubheadingPart time gamer

Man, those are some great pics.. troops look amazing. And the table was really something.

Well Done!

great looking game! it's nice to see SP2 being used for ACW too.

i'm now going to go through your blog and hope you have discussions on how you made your great games.

Hmm, might have to get my 1/72 ACW figures out of the closet.

Thanks for the comments! The overall experience was excellent. There was a lot to take in, but the systems make sense and the narrative really shines. I was able to get a friend to give it a go over the weekend and he seemed to like SP2 as well.

Goshawk, this is an excellent example of thinking outside the box – well, at least a BIG Bravo goes out to you for using your 15mm ACW figs. for a skirmish-style game system/scenario! I've been remounting a good number of my 15s on single stands lately, and plan on using them with a single fig. equaling 33 troops, so battalions and regiments might average 10 to 16+ miniatures each (along with a unit leader, musician, and standard bearer fig that grant one-time special actions (interrupts) – and for playing with a modified Sharp Practice [1] rules system.

I had originally attempted this at the company-level scale, with single figs mounted to enable for open order troops, and close-order companies on a two-rank stand each (the latter "legacy" mounted actually):

Now I'm shedding the multi-fig. stands altogether, so open and close order formation is merely signified by touching or separating the single stands of the unit (gone from company units of 8 figs, to the bat./regt. units of the 10 – 16+ figs. total – just scaled the ground scale up and adjusted the firing ranges appropriately).

Anyway, just juiced to see someone else using their ACW 15s this way, and in such a good-looking setup as displayed in your pics above, and thru your blog's AAR photos!

Hey Fly – great figures, terrain and pics! And – thanks for the compliments! We're really liking SP2, and I'm still jazzed about finally using my ACW minis for something other than benchwarmers. I had thoughts (delusions…) about having enough figures at some point to do Fire & Fury (the first real minis game that grabbed my attention a few years ago) but that overwhelmed me. The ebb and flow of this system, along with the scale helping ease my "believability," has me stoked again for ACW. I'm hosting a game of ACW SP2 at an upcoming local con here in the Charlotte, NC area in November. Hopefully, I can scare up some more interest.

Goshawk, best of luck with your upcoming con presentation! I believe gaming at this tactical level offers exactly that ebb and flow you have mentioned, and the resulting battle action contrast well against the "grind" which many game systems can sometimes generate. Muskets & Tomahawks produces a similar gameplay experience. One thing some gamers are modifying from the stock rule systems, is to use a different action-mechanism, and getting away from (or back to) a more regularized turn sequencing, which seems to function well when taking skirmish-level games to the next level up (the combat rule mechanics still work, but the random activation systems start to seem clunky when battle lines of troops is being envisioned, rather than "bands" of small units facing off in scrappy, small firefights.