Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames

American Civil War

Bubbas in the Mist

This is another old favourite, although its only recently that I switched from 15mm to 25mm figures. When I went off to work in the States I was a card-carrying Union player, and wouldn't touch the Rebs with a barge pole. Nowadays I'm the other way round, and when it comes to the War of Yankee Aggression you'll find me on the Confederate side. As I've visited just about every major battlefield in the East and several in the West, I'm always keen to get the terrain looking right. Too many ACW games I've seen don't have enough trees on the table, or else they clutter the place up with buildings. 

Now, I've tried both the major rule sets  - Fire & Fury and Johnny Reb, and I have to admit I'm not that keen on either of them. I like the flow of F&F, but as you roll D10's all the time the outcome of any scrap is completely dependent on luck. I suppose it averages out, but not at the crucial moments! I used to play JR, but in my old age I find them too complicated. Its fine if you play nothing else, but there are so many good periods out there to game that I can't do that! Some people in my club play Warhammer ACW, which seems to have nothing to do with the period and everything to do with the weird fantasy-based rules system. I also tried a variant of Chris Peers' Ever Victorious Armies - the main variant being that while he calls for figures to fire individually, we fire per four-figure base. Strangely enough it turns the game from a bloodbath into something approaching the real thing. the rest of the rules are largely unchanged. The beauty of this is that the system is so simple even the most beer befuddled gamer can pick up the rules in a turn or two!

However, a new rules set recently hit the streets - Guns of Gettysburg, a Civil War adaptation of Dave Brown's General de Brigade Napoleonic rules. I already use the General de Brigade system for other periods (Napoleonic, Seven Years War and American Revolution), so it rather makes sense to opt for rules from the same stable.

They're a regimental set (1:20 figure scale), and they're well worth checking out. I'll post a review of them before too long.

My figures are all 1st Corps and Sash & Saber figures (the latter sold in the UK by Old Glory)  a mixture of a bought army (painted by the guys from B&B Miniatures), or else once I've done myself. As I wrote a couple of Osprey Campaign books on the Seven Days Campaign, I originally based my army around A.P. Hill's Division during the Seven Days BAttles, but I've recently been informed that my Yankee opponent (Dougie Trail) is opting for a later time frame - the Chancellorsville campaign of early 1863. By the way all the pictures apart from the top two are of 15mm figures - from a refight of Antietam. Like the original it was a blood-soaked draw!

We're actively painting up troops, so I expect to turn this from a largely dormant period into an active one early in 2008.

For an example of an American Civil War game see Journal 10

_______________________________________________________

    Seven Years War    American War of Independence        Age of Bonaparte      American Civil War  

 back to Early Periods, on to Modern periods  ... or   Home