"ACW 15s on round bases" Topic

Guys,
I've become a fan of round bases in the past couple of years while doing lots of skirmish-style gaming, and recently have been working on an ACW conversion of the Muskets & Tomahawks rules to play [test] to this period, and with a small collection of 15mm figures I've had for years.

For the effort, I wanted to transition my 15s to round bases (each stand equaling companies now – at a 20 to 1 figure ratio) for this "large skirmish" setup.

Looking forward to trying this out soon, but wondering if there's others here who like the look of round bases for multi-figure basing too?

Funnily enough I was looking at exactly the same setup for using 15mm dark ages figures on bases for Saga -- so each round base is a little mini diorama!

Nick, that's a cool idea.

I would love to get into 28s for periods I already have 15s for, but keep asking myself why I can't "repurpose" instead my collections for playing these types of rule systems I now favor (with a mix of skirmish wedded to this look of more mass).

I hope you make progress on your project!

Interesting.
I would advise against round bases, as it is harder to align round bases for the M&T "volley" rule, and for road column.

Two questions:
1. How will you keep track of casualties (I'm assuming you are doing multiple figs per base)?
2. Can you provide a link to your adaptation to ACW?

We can mostly track the forward 180 by frontal formation alignment, or from off a figure or stand's weapon facing (and as gentlemen gamers, we don't have this issue much – and if during a public presentation – I make the call).

Each multi-stand is just considered a "figure". The mass is for show, and nothing changes with the rules by transitioning to multiple castings per base. Still, I've scaled the "bodies" to equate to an actual figure scale per, and the various weapon ranges have been scaled to match the figure and ground scale. For this conversion I've chosen 1" equals 20 yards actual distance. For example, a smoothbore muskets fires [effectively] out to 6" now, a rifle-musket out to 18", carbine – 9". These are my scale choices – the conversion is decidedly at a level above skirmish – perhaps somewhere near "grand tactical".

I'm about to launch the playtest, so the rules are immature at the moment. Btw, made custom ACW unit cards too – M&T is such a robust rule system that it just begs for more breadth…..

Looks just fine to me! to each their own. All of my 15mm ACW stuff is on rectangle bases but I was thinking of using some circle ones to denote skirmishers.

good luck with the conversion!

I agree with the assessment of M&T as being "robust".
hence my interest in your conversion to ACW.

My hesitation has been how the set has a multitude of troop "types" with differing traits for FIW and AIW, whereas ACW troops tended to be very much the same (no lights, no militia, no indians). How do you handle this?

Interesting concept.

Thank you Guys! I'll take pictures during the play-test next week and post them here.

Pan Marek is asking a question which I had to consider when transitioning this to the ACW period, with its fewer unit types, and to still allow for a fair amount of differentiation in the flow of the game action when corresponding unit cards are generating the opportunities to act, but these being randomly pulled from a common deck.

First improvement in the random card pull mechanic was to consider going to the game's 3-card per player [per side] hand-playing technique that's listed as an option in the rules.

Next, was to determine unit designations that made sense for the ACW, which could be used within the existing framework of the rules (importantly to make sense under the Reaction table's categories too).

Here's what I've come up with (and there were militia units and Indians in the ACW, and lights too – Lt. Infantry "sorta", but now determined by tactical formation). Anyway, I wanted the rules to be playable for the western plains conflicts, or at least not to exclude this possibility, so Indians are still in. "Lights" are in also, again sorta – as skirmishers. I had toyed around with creating some rule mechanism for allowing skirmishing stands to be deployed out, and then back into their parent formations, but this would be taking M&T into being "my" rules, and I'm trying to keep it as familiar to the stock rules as possible (atm). So skirmish units are never formed infantry – they're on larger bases in the photo above to show this role, and stands can be separated between themselves.

The unit types I've come up with are shown below (of course all subject to change), but one can see the possibility for larger green regiments, being brigaded along with smaller experienced regiments (the Regulars), possibly supported by artillery, and with dedicated skirmish companies deployed for screening duties [even as sharpshooter Bn.s]. Cavalry might be included in a contingent, and these can be deployed dismounted also.

Recognizing the importance of building a diversified unit activation deck for good gameplay sake, a mix of green and experienced infantry, along with skirmishers is probably going to be a minimum mix for a game's good action flow (for the corresponding action cards included in the pull deck) – and no reason arty can't be assigned either for a typical encounter.

Part of the test QRS – with unit types and their corresponding card numbers and allowed actions per:

And these "rounders" in action -

Opening move (an artillery action card I played on my opponent [Bill] – he choose not to pass on it, and used it instead entering the battlefield area).

The Reb skirmishers out front (terrain tiles are 12" X 12" cork squares, with all terrain permanently attached, except for the buildings and trees). This is my "travel battle" setup for 10-12-15mm size minis.

Figures are mostly Old Glory 15s, and I like the minimalist look of the round bases in action. For formed infantry, they're mounted to mimic a fluid "2-rank" appearance, while enabling a narrow depth-to-frontage ratio.

The plastic reload markers are efficient, but I'll likely make up some sections of cotton balls instead, for better looks.

Looks good so far.

Fly, it you want to publish your modifications with my magazine as an "official modifications," please contact me.