The Imperial troops gather

I had one of those wakeful periods during the watches of the night last night, so rather than toss and turn, I arose and tended to some Zvezda WWI Russians that I had assembled and primed the day before. The assembly had been much easier than I feared. The only pose that gave me trouble was a 2nd figures of the pose that I had had trouble with the day the boxes came. Hard luck on a random draw for a sample figure to try.

A rough & ready paint job for these guys. I even skipped painting the barrel & breech on the rifle. I think that is a first for me, in any scale, even 6mm but I wanted these guys to look a bit as if they were factory painted toys. They are beautifully detailed figures though and would repay careful painting from someone who is "into it", Me,  I like these guys just the way they are. The 1st MG has already been assembled.

Still not sure where this is collection is going. WWI is more attractive to me than the RCW from a political/social etc side (not to mention the Zvezda Germans)  but I'm pretty much stuck with a civil war for now since additional troops are unlikely to be acquired soon. Truth be told, its not that I have a burning ambition to get "into" either war, I'm just drawn to the look and feel of wargames with cavalry, mg's, tanks and remote, wide open spaces. If I could get my head around it, a Ruritanian War of some  sort would be just the thing.

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Rebellion Rears Its Head (We interrupt this blog for a public service announcement)

"We're going to need more men"

While my Federal troops aren't finished, it looks like there will shortly be enough to face the combined Rebels of Jerry and myself and definitely too many for balanced games at home, so more Rebs won't go amiss. A ragged regiment in Grey is next along with a company or 2 of cavalry.

In the meantime, speaking of Federal Governments and rebellious citizens,

A short note of encouragement for my handful of Canadian readers.

GO VOTE!

I normally steer clear of mixing politics and  hobbies or politics and polite society but its starting to look interesting here with all the pundits and predictions turned on their heads over the last week. Its still possible that by tomorrow night we could be seeing the same old, same old, again, (with a slight twist) or it could be something of a Sea Change in Canadian Federal Politics.

So whether you support the status quo which some might describe as a system which favours big business, likes to hide as much information as possible  and helps make the rich richer, especially foreign multi-nationals but which is the route that some of the less rich think is the best way to go anyway, or whether you oppose it, 

(hmmm. did that sound a little biased?) 

GO VOTE!

Steaming to Belmont

BATTLE OF BELMONT, CHARGE OF THE TWENTY-SECOND ILLINOIS REGIMENT, UPON THE REBEL BATTERIES.—SKETCHED BY MR. BILL TRAVIS for Harper's Weekly. Illustration borrowed from http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/civil-war/1861/december/battle-belmont.htm which has the full article.


I got a chance to drop over and visit my friend Jerry on Saturday. Its getting close to a year now since out last game at which we decided that the ACW in HO/OO (well that's what the boxes used to say right?). A busy year full of distractions for both of us. He chose to work on all 100 Reb infantry at once and they are looking good as they near completion but not quite ready for the field yet. His new plan is to start sorting the nearly finished figures into regiments and finishing them one at a time while borrowing my Rebs to get a game oin the table before long.

Having the advantage of starting with two opposing forces already painted and just needing a bit of rescue and restoration to be table worthy (not to mention being what one might call obsessed with the hobby), I have an initial force of 3 Generals, 10 small Federal regiments (or 5 big ones), 2 batteries and a small regiment of cavalry ready for service.   Rather unusually, I started out without knowing exactly what I was putting together. Instinct said  20 man units and having a bin of mixed Reb & Federal figures from which to produce a Federal army, a Western army seemed to be called for since Yankees in slouch hats seem to have been more common there than in the East (as in the picture above).  

The Federal Army so far. A mix of figures painting in the early 80's and today, recently based to a common method. Largely Airfix but with a few interlopers including a British attache/observer.  I am considering an over spray of matte varnish to bring the various painting and finishing styles together. 

When I was painting 15mm Rebs in the mid 90's, I did some reading on the Army of Tennessee but very little on their opponent and most of my attention was focussed on the Valley and Gettysburg campaigns. So, something new to dig into. I did read Grant's memoir's last year and have dipped into the one unabridged volume of Battles and Leaders that I have (Much better than the abridged version that I originally read).
As a consequence, I have an obvious starting point at last.  Considering that I live on the Belmont Road, in the community of Belmont, West Hants County, Nova Scotia, and that Grant's 1st battle in the Civil War was the Battle of Belmont, this seems like an ideal starting point.  

Now, my army is actually going to be the Army of Kennetcook, defending  Hants County against those King's Count rebels, but that's no reason not to borrow historical US regiments. Grant's little army was composed of 4 Illinois (22nd, 27th, 30th, 31st) and 1 Iowa regiment of infantry (7th), 2 companies of cavalry (possibly fighting dismounted as they seem to have arrived by steamer like the rest but we can comfortably ignore that possibility)  and a light battery. I fully intended to organize my units into 3 stand regiments and 3 regiment wargame brigades with 1 flag per brigade but I have ended up at this point with 4 1/2 flags and 30 stands of infantry which sort them selves into five 6 stand regiments each with a flag, one marching, one charging and 3 firing (ok 1/2 of one those is standing at attention in reserve).   My 4 guns are possibly a bit of over kill as is 3 stands of cavalry but close enough, easier to have too many troops than not enough.

The newest addition, a rather rushed Italeri battery in cut-off great coats, a stray Accurate gunner and an even strayer metal barrel from who knows where, used to convert 1 gun to a rifle.

There is, however, the small matter of gunboats and steamers. Always tricky with boats when dealing with 15mm+ figures unless doing skirmish games. From a naval gaming POV, each boat deserves to be a unit in a small action but if done to scale with the figures, a gunboat like USS Lexington should be nearly 30" long if my calculations are right but that would be longer than a rifle shot from stem to bow. If done to ground scale, the whole fleet should fit into an area of  perhaps 8" or 10". Obviously some compromises and artistic licence is required. I will probably go for one representative toy gun boat and one representative toy transport or maybe two.