Back from Carronade 😀

A very enjoyable day out at Carronade today. A long way for a day trip but I was visiting my Dad in Edinburgh anyway so stayed over. Second time I have been to the show and it is definately a friendly and worthwhile visit. The bring and buy wasn’t quite as productive as last year but I still got a couple of bargains. Plenty of excellent games on show and I talked to masses of people, what was nice was all the games I was interested in made a proper effort of talk to people. Here are my specific pick....but there were plenty more

A Berlin game by Kirriemuir Wargames club...particularly like the buildings

Splendid Macedonian/Greek Battle (sorry forgotten who)

Particularly interested in ACW of course and there were two lovely looking games

Blossom Hill by the Iron Brigade (above)

And Port Republic from Jackson’s Shenandoah campaign (Durham Wargamers I think)

Really nicely turned out game 🙂

WW2 by Dunfermline Wargame Club I think

Some of my shopping .....some Roman Archers

Arab spearmen

ACW dismounted Cavalry and a foolish last minute big gun 🤪

African shields

Some more 8 sided dice

And a fun tank..........for VSF again off the Bring and Buy.

All in all a fun day.........nice to talk to so many like minded people 😀

Terracotta Warriors and Carronade

Ok an odd title but it does what it says on the tin. Firstly my long suffering wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary with a day trip on the train to Liverpool yesterday. The principle rationale for this was to visit the Terracotta Warrior exhibition currently on in Liverpool and some retail therapy (her not me).

You need to book in advance easier on the phone than the online site as they don’t put all the tickets on the web. But if you like military stuff and are interested in history this is I guess a fairly unique opportunity to see something quite special. As I knew we were going I had watched some of the u tube videos on the subject which helped enormously with the background history. Here are just a couple of photos I took.

Collection of warriors a variety of different types, nearest an officer, heavy infantry, Light Infantry through to chariot driver and archers at the end.

Chariot made about half size

Stone armour

Stone helmet

Not all terracotta warriors are quite so large

These cavalry are about quarter size

Heavy infantry, like greek statues they were painted when built and most they believe had red armour

Chariot driver

Exhibition takes about an hour so is not massive but well worth it.

As for retail therapy I saved my money as I am planning on going to CARRONADE on Saturday in Falkirk, and as usual if anybody out there in the blogosphere is attending and want to say hello, catch up or discuss anything over a coffee I would be more than happy to say hello.😀

The Persians are coming : Midianite Camels

While the civil war rages on in the America’s (we played another game yesterday which I’ll get round to blogging this week) I have been determined to get the camel archers I bought at York back in February painted up. These Midianite Camel archers are to add variety to our Blood in the Sand Battles but also to bulk out my growing Persian Forces. They are Irregular minatures, so needs a bit of work ! The riders and camels actually aren’t matched but the camels they were designed for simply looked too small. So quite a bit of careful bending and glueing required. Initially I was going to put two on each mount, but it looked too busy, so I ordered some extra camels and they are now a mix.

I had a couple of spare random Egyptians archers so I’m placed them on a couple of bases to add a bit more variety as well. They will play as either two smaller units or a single mass. Obviously they will scare horses a lot 😀

Brawner’s Farm August 1862 : ACW

As the ACW project starts to come together I have just enough figures now to start looking at some historical battles and scenarios. So going forward mixed in with the ‘balanced’ pick up games I hope to play some with more historical context.....who knows where this will take me🤔 (I would be interested to know from anybody good sources of smaller scenarios?)

Anyway first up the Battle for Brawner’s Farm. Now I am not an expert on the ACW so don’t intend to give more than the briefest historical background.  The battle took place on the 28 August 1862 as the precursor to the much larger Second Battle of Manassas. Union Forces under Brigadier General King were marching along the Warrenton Turnpike to concentrate for the forthcoming battle. Unknown to them Stonewall Jackson was already in position and although late in the evening he ordered an attack by the Stonewall Brigade (Taliaferro’s Division) and elements of Ewell’s Division for my purposes Lawton’s Georgia Brigade.

Civil War Trust map of the battle as it took place.

Our set up, we gave the Rebels 6 turns to break the Union Line. Forces are broadly equal at the start but as units on the Rebel side are destroyed they can be brought back on the following turn to represent additional Georgia Regiments being brought up into the attack.

The StoneWall Brigade Virginia Regiments moving through the Brawner’s Orchard their challenge will be to deploy quickly enough

Lawton with his Georgia Brigade moving over ‘Stony Ridge’

The left flank of the Union line with the 19th Indiana under the eye of Brig.Gen Gibbon and 2nd Wisconsin in Brawner’s Wood

Union Artillery well placed on the right flank on high ground

The 6th Wisconsin advance on the right flank

All the union guns open fire but struggle to get the range

The first Regiments of Lawton’s Brigade are now up to the edge of the field the thin blue line of the union forces can be seen in the distance

The Stonewall Brigade have deployed but horror of horrors the 2nd Virginia have been badly mauled by the 19th Indiana and they run back in disorder (we have tweeked the rules just enough to get the sense of units faltering, running back but then being able to rally)

The Rebel Rockbridge artillery have limited targets but the 19th Indiana have foolishly been deployed in the open on high ground

A view down the Rebel line

Despite the dynamic leadership of Brig.Gen. Lawton some of the 38th Georgia Regiment is forced back, the Rebels are being held on the right flank

But on the left the 19th Indiana have finally had enough, they have taken a lot of punishment and are forced to withdraw, this leaves a big hole on the left flank and Gibbon rapidly orders the 76th New York to move across through the woods

Having rallied the Stonewall Brigades are now advancing ominously 

Additional Georgia Regiments are being fed in on the left ☹️

BGen. Gibbon is holding the woods but only just the New Yorker’s are rapidly deployed and pushed into the gap

More and more Rebels are being pushed forward and are breaking across the central field

In a desperate last ditch move the 56th Pennsylvania are ordered to wheel and fire on the flank of the advancing Rebels in the field, this has the desired shock effect and throws the leading unit back......

But then they are caught in the flank and are forced to flee, the 6th Wisconsin have seen less of the combat but are becoming isolated as the rest of the line crumbles

The union artillery wheels around to target the rebels in the field but are unable to hit anything (I literally rolled 1’s all evening !)

The Virgina Regiments are now flanked the remaining Federals in the Wood

...and the 76th New York are forced to pull back

This was the end of the sixth turn and with only two Union Regiments holding their position a clear Rebel victory. Hopefully darkness will slow the Rebel advance allowing the remaining union troops to withdraw and regroup.

An excellent battle, hard fought like its historical counterpart. We used my adapted bolt action rules again and I am happy they are developing well. I have managed I think to sort out the photo editing problem I had but it is very laborious to fix as I need to edit each photo separately 😫

Whitaker’s Farm : 1862

Managed to play another Battle with the ACW collection a week or so ago, introducing somebody else to my rules and the joy of the ACW. A simple set up with two small brigades attempting to capture Whitaker’s Farm. We reduced the resilience of the units in this game and low a behold everybody started running off, possibly too realistic. We have tweeted them ever so slightly back and will be playing another game soon.

Half of the Rebel brigade push forward in column towards the plantation supported by artillery

The union forces are already in line formation and move forward on their right flank

On the Union left the Union Brigade Commander waves forward two further regiments

Rebels in the plantation take a nasty volley from the Union Zouaves and are forced back

Rebel Zouaves then attempt to take the plantation but are also forced back after fearce hand to hand combat

Troops on the union left have deployed into line...things are looking good

But then a second wave of attack on the Rebel left pushes the union forces out of the plantation

Reluctant to come out from cover the rebels exchange fire from the wheat field

Suddenly on the union left the first regiment breaks....this was shortly followed by the second unit !

Union artillery attempts to support their line but are largely ineffective other than for keep the rebels heads down

In the end the Rebels have pushed the Union Forces back through the farm and are in possession of the plantation a good win 🙂

Another fun battle, rules genuinely seem to work quite well and I’m think we have the right tweet for morale. More to come but I do need to paint some more Rebels 😀