Gettysburg, 1 July 1863. The Game Report

Finally, after a year of planning, modeling, painting, and cursing the size of the project, the 2013 Guns Of April Gettysburg game has been played out. Last Friday night at Adepticon, most of the GOA team gathered and threw down on our table that had traveled all the way from Maryland on the Battlefront Miniatures truck. As is always the way with big, collaborative projects, there were a few hiccups along the way. These hiccups included:

• One team member unable to deliver his four regiments of Confederates to Rob before he left for the show. Thankfully Merle had thought to bring some spares and after a frenzied hour of flocking, we had enough modes to cover the shortfall.

• Yours truly forgetting to bring his Guns Of April shirt. Not much that could be done about it, but rest assured I did not play sans shirt.

• The rental truck containing our tables and terrain leaked as it traveled through the wild storms that lashed the Midwest on their journey out to the show. The boards suffered the worst of it, with the surface buckling in a number of places, and the PVA glue being "reactivated" - creating large patches of white on the tables. Fortunately we were able to move a couple of tree bases around to cover the most glaring of these spots. As you can see in the table shot above, the overall effect wasn't diminished as the eye was drawn to the details, filling in "the gaps" as it were.

We had six team members playing: Dave P, Joe, Merle, and myself for the Union - Rob and Jamie for the Confederates. Fortunately Merle's buddies Chris and Jay volunteered to fill the command shoes for the Rebels, and we set off with four players aside.

The Confederates fielded four Infantry Brigades, two of them supported by attached artillery.
The Union fielded three Infantry Brigades, one Cavalry Brigade, and one Artillery Brigade.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention we had over 1,000 models on the table at one point, not too shabby ; )

Anyway, on to the photos!

Looking west along the Chambersburg Pike, the famous Seminary in the foreground (graciously supplied by Jim Ferich) and flanked by Buford's Cavalry Brigade (commanded by Dave P).

The view from the southeast, the Iron Brigade (commanded by me) in column advancing along McPherson's Ridge and Willoughby Run.

Archer's Confederate Infantry Brigade (commanded by Rob) appear from the west, ready to advance on Gettysburg. All other Confederate brigades were off table and would enter play randomly.

Rob (left), Chris (center), and Jay (right) begin to plan their assault.

A great command roll saw the Iron Brigade barrel down the pike towards Archer's Brigade (their historical counterparts in the battle).

At the start of the second turn, two of the Confederate Brigades appeared to the north. It was with no small amount of consternation that the Union realized, with some good rolling, that the rebels could break the back of the North early on. We also had plenty of onlookers for the game, anywhere from 5-25 at a time. Not too bad for a convention founded on sci-fi and fantasy gaming.

Here you can see the Confederates advancing onto the table, starting to close in on the Iron Brigade on the right, and traversing the Railway Cut on the left.

The Iron Brigade hunker down behind the fences on the Chambersburg Pike.

By now the Union Artillery Brigade had entered play but unfortunately, due to some miscalculations, found itself up against a fence, still limbered up. The following turn saw the gunners handily beaten in combat by the boys from the South. Without a single shot being fired, the Union's much-valued support was removed from the table.

Looking north we can see the Buford's Cavalry and a Union Infantry Brigade (commanded by Merele) building a solid defensive line across the Railway Cut, hoping to prevent a breakout by Jamie's Confederates.

About two thirds of the way through the battle, you can see (roughly) the state of affairs. The Union right is pretty solid, while it's left is seriously strung out and under attack from two sides. Also, most of the cookies have been eaten ; )

On the western end of the Union line the 2nd Wisconsin are under assault from rebels to the left and front. Thanks to some surprising dice rolling I was able to bust out a paraphrase of the quote that lead to the Iron Brigade's nickname (McClellan to Hooker: "What troops are those fighting in the Pike?" Hooker replied, "[Brigadier] General Gibbon's brigade of Western men." McClellan stated, "They must be made of iron."). After three combat phases, however, the 2nd Wisconsin finally failed their break test and were forced to retire.

And finally, Joe's Irish Brigade (after four turns of nothing but one move per turn) were able to create a new defensive line, just as the Iron Brigade were broken and started to fall back.

In the end, we all agreed that it had been an excellent game and that the result was a minor Union victory, but not so strong as to cause the Confederates to buy us beers. There was a little bit of backslapping and a few huzzahs, before we launched straight into discussions about next year's project. But more on that later...

Thanks to everyone who has been following this blog for your comments and support along the way : )

Cheers
Dave

Brig. Gen. Archer, 13th Alabama and Mass Graves....Oh my

“there are those damned black-hatted fellows again. ‘Taint no militia.  It’s the Army of the Potomac.”
 Brigadier General James J.Archer Battle of Gettysburg July 1st 1863.

Hello All. It's been a while since Ive posted anything. First off a big thanks to my good friend, Alex Landing from Ironheart Artisans, for the photo work of my Archers Brigade Project. This post and all upcoming will be chock full o' pictures. OKAY! Lets dive into the first set. Below are some angles of  " the little gamecock" himself Brigadier General James J. Archer and staff.

Again, I have chosen miniatures from Sash And Saber Castings to represent the brigade command stand. 

 I was shooting for a simple portrayal of Archer and a member of his staff in an exchange of what was happening on the field of battle in front them.

I really enjoy the simplicity of the two models eye contact and think it really pulls off the effect I was going for.

Next up are photos of the 13th Alabama Infantry. This time around, I decided to mix it up a bit and go with a battle line vs. marching column.  

 Again I have gone with Sash And Saber Casting for this unit. As I described in a prior post, this company offers regiment packs of 40 white metal minis without any duplicate sculpts. I find this really gives the unit a dynamic look with so many different actions of firing, loading, priming, etc.

 I also found with the few random casualties thrown in it really gives the unit a realistic middle of battle feel.

All in all I'm very happy with the way the 13th Alabama Infantry has turned out. The battle line was a welcoming change from painting right shoulder shift days on end :)

Last but not least, my unit casualty markers or mass grave markers as I'd like to call them.

 As you can see Ive decided to not use minis for my markers. I figured mass grave markers would be a little more appropriate for the brigade due to the heavy losses taken at Gettysburg.Well, the truth is, I took the easy way out and cut down the amount of minis I have to paint * cough cough I'm a wuss*.

 These were very fun to construct. It was challenging to find enough toothpick sized dead twigs to construct the cross grave markers. I think they came out as intended.

Well I hope you all have enjoyed the progress photo. Up next will be the 14th Tennessee Infantry. These are done and just awaiting photos so I hope to have them up soon! Until next time keep the paint flying and have a great day!

Big Rob

Heth's Brigade Forms

Although I'm late to the posting party going on here at The Guns of April blog, I have been watching the blog and working hard to get into the action.  The fun thing about a group project is the motivation and inspiration you get from your fellow hobbyists.  Over the past month, as I worked on my first regiment, I spent a lot of time looking at the various posts here to ensure my regiments were up to snuff with the great work already presented here.

So without further ado, here are the boys of the 40th Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment, proud soldiers of Heth's Brigade and the Army of Northern Virginia. 

 As you can see I'm not quite finished yet as the 40th still need their colours but other than this I can call this regiment done!  I chose Heth's Brigade as I thought it was a solid representation of the stereotypical soldiers of the Confederacy and especially the Army of Northern Virginia.  I'm often more interested in the historical flavor of a period then the gritty details so you'll have to excuse any historical inaccuracies in my Rebs.

So one regiment down, three to go.  That's only another 90 infantry figures not to mention the Cavalry, Cannon, Wound and Disruption Markers I need to paint.

1st NC Cav

Greetings,
         While over the holiday season I decided that it was high time I finished my Cav reg't for my Confederates and GOA brigade. I had these guys sitting on my TV stand primed, just staring me down to paint them so I decided it was high time to get those little buggers done. Now the fun thing about the Cavalry models is most of us are using the exact same ones, which are the Perry Plastics, and it just goes to show how similar uniforms were that with a little change in paint you can make a very distinct uniform.

As usual my Photography is not amazing, but it also doesn't help tha tone of my lights broke:( so I am left with one. Anyways as was seen on my infantry reg't they are still unbased as I plan to do them all in one go so as to not mess up and misshade the army. As is also the case I have no standard atm :( (big frowny face) as I can't seem to find any that match the reg't! I contacted Flag Dude and with no response I looked at GMB but they don't have the ones I need. Rumor mill has it though that they are about to add a bunch more for the ACW so here's to keep my fingers crossed as I think they have some of the best flags on the market.

A side view of a few of my riders, one of the reason I love the Confederate Uniforms is because of the versatility of them. They would brush up their clothes and that could be the dress uniform, also color wise you get to have a lot of fun because after 1861 their was really no standard as they didn't have the industrial abilities as the North.

I love this model with the black hat here as he screams classic reb, the downside was I dropped him while painting so he pistol broke so he is just mimicking his cohorts. Had I though about it I would have converted some of them with their rifles but I will save that for the rest of the brigade that I do after Adepticon.

Finally a close up of one of the faces. I used GW paints for the skin as I enjoy the end result and they don't come out too cartoony for my liking. I did eyes on everything(which I hate) and even did one highlight to all of the blacks. All in all I am happy with the result as I enjoy the look so far of the army as a whole. Everything has around 5-6 layers on it to achieve the effect minus say a few items as I didn't want to go to light. I am doing this so as to have a smoother contrast to the models...plus I all around enjoy the ACW period. If you are at Adepticon stop on by and check all of the guys armies out as I garuntee it will be a show unto itself:)! Finally next up is the brigade commander Gen. Pettigrew and the brigades artillery as well as limbers. Until then thanks for reading and keep painting..oh ya DAVID PAUWELS LETS SEE SOME UPDATES SLACKER!!!!
-Alex

Double canister!

                   Hello all! Here are some photos of my newly finished artillery units.

I have gone with 12lb Confederate Napoleons. If you look closely at the muzzle of the cannon it does not flair out like its Union counterpart. Both units are from Sash and Saber castings.

Well hope you all enjoy the photos. Up next will be the 22nd Alabama Inf. Until then enjoy the upcoming holidays and keep the paint flying.

7th tennessee 2.0

I could not let Mr.Taylor and those darn Billy Yanks say us Rebs can't base our minis or use flags ;). Below are some updated photos of my 7th Tennessee.

 I went with about the same basing color as Dave went with on his 2nd Wisconsin Infantry

 The flags I have chosen for all the units in this project will be from GMB designs. 

Well, I hope you all like the updated "complete" unit as Dave would say, and sorry for the short notes on the above pictures. Be on the lookout for some upcoming artillery units, as well as another infantry regiment. Thanks for looking.

Movember is Coming!

It has been a little quiet on the Guns Of April front, as some members switch jobs and move to other states, and some members forget they're supposed to be painting up 120+ models for next year's big game! Well, things are about to change. You'll see a lot more posts on the blog here, and some of them may even have toy soldiers in them. The rest will be about our fun-filled foray into the world of masculine facial hair.

That's right. A number of the Guns of April team have decided to sign up, grow a mustache, and raise funds to fight prostate cancer (and other assorted men's health issues). Here's a link to our team page on the Movember website, where you can find out all about this great (and mildly venerable) annual institution.

We currently have six of the GOA team participating and you can find links to their individual pages here:

Brien Dulaney - Confederate
Dave Taylor - Union
Jamie Welling - Confederate
Dave Pauwels - Union
Rob Chandler - Confederate
Alex Akers - Confederate

The basic idea is this: 

We all start clean shaven on Movember 1st, and then grow our mustaches over the following month. There are to be no beards, goatees, chinstraps, or mustaches linked up to sideburns allowed. We'll take photos of our progress, upload them to the pages above (and this blog, I guess) and you all help out by donating money and telling your friends to do the same : )  We will even have a poll at the end of the month to see which one of us you think has the best 'tache!

You can donate via our team page, or via our individual pages (all the donations go to the same place). Take note, however, that the side (Union or Confederate) that amasses the greatest combined total of it's participants will get to go first in the big game at Adepticon next April.

And to get you in the mustache mood, I leave you with two beauties from the film Gettysburg.

Buford, played by the excellent Sam Elliot, sporting a fairly reserved yet very full top lip caterpillar.

And Chamberlain, played by Jeff Daniels in his best role before Newsroom, sporting the mightiest walrus I have ever seen!

So, what are you waiting for? Get your wallets out and donate!

Cheers

Dave

7th Tennessee done!

Hello all! My name is Robert Chandler. I just want to start by saying I am very thankful and excited to be a part of the Guns Of April  project and hope I can contribute to this project with the energy and skill as the rest of the team. For my contribution, I have decided to go with Archers brigade from Heth's division which belonged to A.P Hill's Third Corp A.N.V

These are photos of the 7th Tennessee Vol. Inf. there were 5 regiments in Archers Brigade which were the 5th and 13th Alabama along with the 1st, 7th and 14th Tennessee volunteer infantry regiments.

I've decided to use miniatures from Sash and Saber castings. I was rather impressed that they offer 40 man units in white metal with each miniature in a different pose. I know most of us have gotten used to the fact that if we want to use white metal for historical projects we get 4-7 poses and have to deal with the repetition of sculpt in each unit. Having the option to chose from 40 miniatures to create the 30 man units was a welcoming option.

This is the first of five regiments. I must say that so far this project has renewed my passion for the hobby and I cannot wait to dive into next installment. Next up I'm going to start on both Alabama regiments and have decided to do both of these in firing/battle lines verses marching units. The regiments will be from Sash and Saber as well. Okay, until next time, keep the paint flying! - Rob