Angus Konstam's Edinburgh Wargames

American Civil War

Bubbas in the Mist

I'm afraid this is another abandoned wargames period. I'm not saying I won't revisit it, but for the moment I've "opted out" of the War of Yankee Aggression, and sold my small Confederate Army. The trouble with selling any lead is that a month later you'll "re-discover" the period again!

Many years ago I gamed this using 15mm figures. In fact, I once had a 6mm army, complete with scratch-built buildings. My latest army was a 28mm one, and given the popularity of Perry plastic figures, this is obviously the way to go.

 When I went off to work in the States in the mid-1990's I was a politically correct Union player, and I wouldn't touch the Rebels with a barge pole. Nowadays its the other way round. When it comes to the War of Yankee Aggression you'll always find me backing the Confederates. the change came about through living in the Southern states - even though Florida isn't really part of the South - in fact, bits of it are knee-deep in retired Yankees from New York and New Jersey. However, many of my friends were real southerners-  from the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama or Virginia, and I started seeing things form a slightly different perspective. Nowadays, I'd fight for the right to keep slaves, eat grits and drive pick up trucks... just with someone else's army...

Over the years I've tried both of the major rule sets  - Fire & Fury and Johnny Reb - and I've got to admit that neither of them really work for me. Johnny Reb is far too complicated (unless this is your only wargame period),  while Fire & Fury has a nice flow to it, and produces enjoyable enough games, but for me it leaves far too much to chance. 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!

 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've tried Guns of Gettysburg Dave Brown's ACW version of General de Brigade, and I quite like them. If I did this again they'd probably be my rules set of choice.

However, in the Edinburgh club my fellow gamers have opted for an altogether simpler rules system - a variant of Chris Peers' Ever Victorious Armies. this has the advantage of being fast and easy to pick up - important factors in those large multi-player games these guys enjoy. The  biggest of the modifications the guys have made is that while the original rules call for figures to fire individually, they fire by base - a base of four figures. Strangely enough it works like a charm. The rest of the rules are largely unchanged - they remain simple, fairly slick, and reasonably fun to play. 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!

Another option is Regimental Fire & Fury , which is available as a free download. However, these have a strange figure ratio of 1:10, which means the average regiment is about 40 figures strong! That's just too big - you wouldn't get more than a brigade on the table at a time. While I don't like one base of figures representing a regiment, I do feel there's an optimal size of wargaming units - probably somewhere between 18-24 figures. We could simply change the figure ratio to 1:20, but the rules themselves have their faults - the possess all the wild variability of the original Fire & Fury brigade-level system, and they don't seem to offer a particularly fast-paced game.

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The following pictures are all form a 15mm refight of Antietam, fought using Guns of Gettysburg

Ever Victorious Armies Playsheet    (28mm ACW version - Word file)

For an example of an American Civil War game see Journal 10 or  Journal 27

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