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

The Iron Brigade - Complete!

Brigadier General Solomon Meredith and the color bearer for the 1st (Iron) Brigade, 1st Division, 1st Corps. 

Just a few more days until we get to see everything on the tabletop. Very exciting!

2nd Wisconsin 

6th Wisconsin 

 7th Wisconsin 

 19th Indiana 

 24th Michigan 

 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry - mounted 

 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry - dismounted (and yes, the fence does travel with them)

The Iron Brigade on the march, supported by the men of the 6th Penn. Cavalry. 

Building a slice of Gettysburg

Just before Christmas last year, Rob Chandler and I brought our Salamanca table (form our 2012 game) from the Battlefront Miniatures office in North East, MD, down to Dropzone Games (in Glen Burnie, MD) so we could build a few new ridges and add a bunch more flock to the table. Mid-summer Pennsylvania is a little bit greener than mid-summer Spain ; )

Anyway, on Thursday we had the chance to finally put flock on everything, and it turned out to be a LOT of flock! We used the contents of three of the GW Scenery kits (all supplied by the awesome guys at Dropzone), plus about half a shaker of some dark green turf from Woodland Scenics.

Rob and I were pretty excited about the look of the table, so we just had to put all of our painted models on the table. To be honest, we started with just one regiment, but couldn't help ourselves. You know how it is...

Here's a shot of my dismounted cavalry troopers crouched behind their picket fence, horse holder in the background.

Two regiments face off at almost point blank range. Not particularly "realistic", but good for photos.

And a final shot with Rob looking over it all.

More photos next week once we have everything else in place. We hope you like it so far.

Cheers
Dave

First Glimpse of the Iron Brigade

In order to keep me motivated when I'm so close, but yet so far, I decided to take a couple of shots of the assembled Iron Brigade thus far.

Here are all the boys, two regiments in firing line, three regiments in march, one squadron of cavalry (both mounted and dismounted), plus my command base and a few casualty markers. 173 models in all.

And here's a closer look at the last regiment to be finished, sandwiched in between the only two completed units ; )

Only a month to go!

Cheers
Dave

The 7th Wisconsin in firing line.

Well, I have finally finished off the boys from the 7th Wisconsin, and have thereby rounded out my contribution from the state of Wisconsin. Only my Solomon Meredith command stand, one horse holder stand, and the men from the 19th Indiana to go (along with a few markers and so forth).

Much like the rest of my regiments, the 7th Wisconsin are primarily plastics with a handful of metals sprinkled throughout, including some casualty models, sergeants, and command group.

At the time of posting we have roughly 45 days until Adepticon. I hope everyone is cracking on with their painting requirements ; )

You can check out the rest of my boys here:
• 2nd Wisconsin
• 6th Wisconsin
• 24th Michigan
• 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry

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

The 24th Michigan, ready for basing.

Another unit bites the dust, so to speak. I'm another 30 models closer to completing the Iron Brigade, and feeling better for getting past this "hump" unit (this was the middle infantry unit of five).

I know I'm going to be swamped with other painting tasks and so on during January, so I'm looking towards February to convert and paint the 7th Wisconsin, and then March for the 19th Indiana. If that goes smoothly, I'll be able to finish off my command, artillery, and assorted markers in April, all ready for their big debut on the tabletop at Adepticon.

I hope you like them, and I hope we'll see some more Union regiments march onto these pages soon.

Cheers

Dave

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.