"ACW virgins" Topic

My little group & I are no longer ACW virgins.

Yesterday's traditional Australia Day wargame was the ACW. The game was an outstanding success. We used, as always, 1/72 & 20mm figures.

The scenario came from a F&F scenario book (adapted) & involved the Rebs, who stood uncharacteristically on the defensive against the Yankees & managed to inflict quite a deal of damage on the blue coats, winning the game. Photos were taken which may be on view some time later.

The game used ‘Pickett's Charge' rules. These are virtually the same as our Napoleonic set ‘General d'Armee' so, not surprisingly, we were gaming with a degree of assurance virtually from the start. The heart of the game is brigade activation, ADC tasking & initiative. It combines luck with the need to forward plan. The rules are a winner IMO & my companions (ACW buffs) also proclaimed them suitable for the period.

We learned, musket/rifle & artillery fire can be quite devastating & long ranged. Cavalry is a fairly useless, big, fat target. Attacking both on the larger scale (divisional) & on the smaller (brigade) really needs the co-operation of as many of your units as possible. Sending a single regiment in a charge is fraught with danger as is exposing a single regiment to a charge. Support & co-ordination is vital.

The game was a lot larger than any of the Napoleonic versions we've played: 6-7 brigades per side. This used up every painted infantry & cavalry figure we had (I still had 4 batteries of artillery , unused), so if Antietam is going to be the subject of our annual Show game in 2020, we'll need re-enforcements. Lots of re-enforcements.

The ACW is now firmly in our repertoire.
I have to apologise as we haven't got ACW terrain right yet.

theminiaturespage.com

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theminiaturespage.com

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theminiaturespage.com

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theminiaturespage.com

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First of all congrats and second amazing minis and terrain – good on ya!

Love ACW, been gaming it for more than 30 years – and you are right about tactics, coordination is the key and cavalry exists to guard flanks, ride quickly to hot spots and dismount and if you are really, really lucky charge broken or shaken units, but that's about it for grand tactical games

Welcome to the ACW club!

Glad you enjoyed it! Great looking table and figs! Thanks for posting.

Nice looking game.

Are the lead 20mm Newline ?

Another great looking game! I think that's a standard for your group. I never have seen anything less. I am a fan of the Acw. Been using painted 1/72 and 20mm figs as well. I use my 10mm ones for multi corps games. I want to pick up a few packs of dismounted Union cavalry from Strelets. They have a VERY nice Acw range. I liked seeing some Airfix troops in there. Have some in mine too.

I always enjoy your battle reports. Guaranteed to make my day better!

Thanks

John

Thanks all. Our 'terrain guy' has big plans that include miles of fences & several more authentic looking buildings to be scratch built.

The metals on the table are Newline & Wodenfield but one of our number has literally thousands of unpainted plastic & metal figures from dozens of different manufacturers. He's starting to paint them up for our proposed mega game in 2020 (Antietam/Sharpsburg).

Hey Milhouse. There is a bunch more Kennington in the mix, than Newline. Mostly from one of the other members of our group. BTW, I am the infamous 'terrain guy' being referred to. Stay tuned for some table additions. Considering this is my period of choice you'd think I'd have painted units in this fight but sadly not. Have concentrated on other eras that these guys have got me into over the last several years but looking forward to finally changing that with our project date set.

nice looking table and game.

Welcome to the great battles of ACW.

Hey Neilad ! Great to see you chiming in. Lotta new Strelets with some Hat otw too

Yep. These are definitely eating a hole in my pocket. Shame we still can't get a decent artillery piece from a plastics manufacturer. The strelets crew look ok but I've limited my purchase to only a single box of each as one only really needs a few 30pdr Parrots and Whitworths.

And the barrels aren't great