"A truly insane idea" Topic

Fort Fisher in 15mm scale! What a convention game!
I've been rereading about the assault on Fort Fisher. It struck me that the size and shape of the fort, a large "L" shape could be made to fit on tables laid out similarly. Now sea face was around 6,000 feet and the land face about 2,000 feet. In 1/100 scale this would be 60 by 20, but still an "L" shape. The shape would allow players to access the table and move units. Fort Fisher is an earthwork and would be really easy to model with styrofoam sheeting. Since sheets are 2 inches thick and 4 feet by 8 feet a large number of them would be needed. Except for the size building the fort would otherwise be cheap and easy. The fort mounted around 50 guns, some very heavy seacoast ordnance, and some field guns and howitzers.

Now the ships would be harder to come by, but would look amazing and could be moved on small stands.

This would be crazy fun to build. It would also be a great game to play or just watch.

Folks could offer to build a section or two of the fort and bring them to a convention and others could bring troops or ships. If no one wants to take their parts of the fort home they could be part of a connection charity auction.

Just a thought

Doesn't seem insane at all

You could mix scales readily. 15mm figs usually work best with ground scenic compressed to about 10mm. You could also distort the ground scale to make the table(s) more manageable. If you kept the distance from ship to shore to 3 feet plus you could readily get away with 600 scale ship models. That distance would enable a fair degree of forced perspective.

Its not a crazy idea at all. The main problem is the scenario. The best games are very close battles that could readily go either way. An inconclusive bombardment fight along the coast, with a ground fight at one end is a lot of area for a modest amount of fighting. Just my 2 cents.

If you want to devote this much time and effort, and ultimately storage space, you'll want a scenario that will capture imaginations for many refights over many years.

Love the idea

One could also just focus on one side and simulate the rest of what is going on

Don't forget Battery Buchanan. She fired into the land face as the Federals captured it.

This is my kind of crazy.

Insane. I want to play.

Are you talking about Butler's failed attack or Terry's successful one? Or… both?

I have mused about doing this myself, but I hadn't thought about combining the shore bombardment with the landing and assault operations.

From the sizes you are mentioning it seems you are looking at a 1-to-1 figure scale. Perhaps go to 5-to-1 and shrink it down to a more manageable size? Still, it sounds very cool.

I was actually looking at a 1 to 1 figure scale and a ground scale that matches the figure scale. You could do it as a demonstration or participation game. Video the hell out of both the preparation (terrain building, ship building, research, figure painting and prep, transportation, working with the convention for the space, logistics, set up) and play. Put a time lapse camera on the area. Do some of the videos as tutorials.

If done well it would be good for the hobby.

Yes, very doable. Similarly, a few years back, I did the assault on Battery Wagner in 10mm. If anything, you will find your major hang-up will be the rules. You will likely need to modify them to figure out how to properly incorporate the combined arms aspect and the near 1 to 1 figure scale. In my case, I actually modified a set of naval rules rather than land ones as it made sure the player with the ships was kept busy and there was the strong possibility of a naval action as the Confederate ironclads were in the vicinity.

The fort is going to occupy an area 60 feet by 20 feet. Even cheating on scale you would need to allow additional room on your ocean side for the ships. On the land side you would need to allow additional room for the union troops to form up for their attack. If you also allow for one of the more interesting What Ifs, the intervention of the Confederate Wilmington garrison on the land front you'd need even more space. You are now pushing towards an area the size of a basketball court. Plus over 10,000 figures and over 50 ships that will need to be moved around during the game, which will require a fair number of players.

I think Scott has the right idea. Even if you went 2:1 on the ground and figure scale you could shrink your space and figure demands significantly without affecting the overall feel. Since the fate of the battle will be decided on the land face, you could also cut out much of the ocean facing part of the fort. Deal with the ships using off board bombardment rules and you cut your space demands further. Now you would be down to something a bit more reasonable in area: ten feet of fort front on the land side, maybe five feet for the approach and maybe five to ten feet inside the fort, on which you have 5,000 figures moving around. Still an awesome game.

I'd dso the fort in a group of tables in an L shape. The large area within the fort was open ground and so no action during the battle. I'd then do the ships on a separate line of tables with a space between them and the fort sea front. The ships mostly were anchored but did fire a lot of rounds and some were damged.

To even things up I'd give the Rebels full gun crews and more ammunition.

If you really want to get jiggy with it have the two Laird Rams show up!

That all sounds awesome. Including the documenting it as you go. I'd love to see it.

I can't see this happening before 2021's convention season. That would give about a year to get things lined up.

What convention would be willing to host this?

The 15mm figures would be the least difficult to come by, I think miniature gaming groups in the area of the convention could help find the miniatures.

If I can drive there (I live in St Louis, Missouri, USA) I'd be happy to build 2-4 of the sections in 1:1 ground scale, or maybe the whole thing in 1:10. I'd prefer the 1:10 because that would mean the guns and figures and earthworks are all in the same scale.

I would also be happy to donate the terrain I make to a charity.

I don't game ACW so not sure what rules system to use.

If other folks are making terrain we'll have to make sure we all are on the same page concerning paint colors and that each section lines up correctly.

Is there a gaming club/group that would be interested in managing this?

Battery Wagner would be another possibility, especially if Ft. Fisher is too large for you.

I do from time to time build ironclads from scratch… link

If you are serious I would be happy to lend a hand

contact me at daftrica89@yahoo.com

Historicon would love to make space for something this cool. They'd also make a spot on the website for videos that track the project over time as was suggested earlier.

Joby

I am serious! And I will need a lot of help. Historicon is a two-day drive for me. I've always wanted to go. This could be the reason.

But how could I run my huge Bug game and this at the same time? I guess I could just help with this and bring my bugs

I have also made the odd fort or two

I would love some day to game Fort Wagner.

So what rules would work?

Historydude, maybe I will bring my Wagner model out to the conventions again if we ever get out of this lockdown.

Nashcon. 2021. We have the space. I have the ships.

I can live with that!