Alexandria, a city scoured.

My most humble apologies for not posting this sooner, but life has a way of being hectic when you least need it to be. But anyway, on to THE blog post about our Guns of April game at AdeptiCon 2014.

As we infrequently posted before the event, we chose to tackle a skirmish project for this year. Something that I feel was a double-edged sword. By electing to have everyone only paint 10-12 models (after our 120-150 model efforts the last few years) we could cut everyone's preparation time considerably, but this also meant that there wasn't that big rush of excitement as massive armies neared completion. Additionally, when you zoom in on skirmish action you must dial up the detail of the terrain. Our previous efforts (Salamanca 1812 and Gettysburg 1863) were relatively sparse on terrain, but I had a vision for Alexandria 1801 that I really wanted to see come to life. This meant that Alex Landing, Rob Chandler, and I had loads of work to do to pull it off successfully. When this crunch time  arrived, we were simply too busy doing that we had no time to take photos and actively promote a sense of excitement amongst the rest of the team. That's all really a time management issue that we need to keep an eye on for future projects.

The end result, however, looks absolutely spectacular and completely fits with what I had in mind. I only wish I had taken as much time and care over the gaming preparations as I did the terrain.

Here are some photos from the night, captioned as appropriate.

Two French Hussars duel across the rooftops of Alexandria.

Ottoman Turks (painted by Tim Kulinski) head into a bazaar to combat the French.

Ottoman Turks (painted by Jamie Welling) advance through the "rug district".

More Ottoman Turks (painted by Tim Kulinski) cautiously advance..

Men of the French Dromedary Corps (painted by me) prepare for a firefight.

The French Dromedary Corps (painted by me) lope forward in front of the mansion of a wealthy merchant.

Crewman from the Royal Navy (painted by Rob Chandler) are in place to defend their building.

His Majesty's Marines stand atop another mansion (painted by Rob Chandler) waiting for the French to approach.

Leaping from balcony to balcony, these French Dragoons (painted by Merle Delinger) rush into combat with the British.

Everyone takes a break for some well-earned Chicago deep dish pizza.

A French Cavalry force of Dragoons, painted by Merle Delinger.

A French Infantry force (from the 22me Demi-Brigade de Legere), painted by me.

Crewman from the French Navy, painted by Alex Akers.

Crewman from the Royal Navy and His Majesty's Marines, painted by Rob Chandler. 

Ottoman Turks, painted by Jamie Welling.

Obviously I'd like to thank everyone involved in this game: the members of the Guns of April, Lon Weiss from Brigade Games (for sponsoring the event), Beth Landing (Alex's wife) for creating the rugs and 40+ throw pillows that were scattered around the table (each hand-stitched and filled with sand), and Alex Landing of Ironheart Artisans for all his great work designing the buildings that were the standout feature of the table.

Alex plans on having laser-cut MDF kits of these buildings available from his website in early May. I'll be sure to let you know when they are available.

Cheers
Dave

Coming down to the wire...

I've been terrible about posting photos of all the terrain we've been working on. I know how to shoot miniatures, but never quite get around to shooting the scenery I've painted. I'm expecting to spend quite a bit of time at the show rectifying that problem. In less than a week, the Guns of April group will have played a whole host of games over the spectacular terrain created by Rob Chandler and Alex Landing.

Additionally, some lucky gamer will go home with their very own Rosetta Stone vignette : )

Cheers
Dave

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

Paint on the 6th Wisconsin

It has been great to see a nice little surge from the Guns of April team members of late, post pics of their WIP and finished units. I'm sure as things get closer to April we'll see an even bigger increase in the quantity of posts!

Anyway, on the Union front I've finished putting paint to model for my 6th Wisconsin unit (pictured above) and painting up a firing line was a nice change from the marching pose of the 2nd Wisconsin. I'll be doing all the basing once I've completed the two units pictured below.

Here is the first shot of the 24th Michigan regiment. For this unit I used a mix of Perry miniatures, almost all of them wearing frock coats (so there was no need to sculpt them). The models were lacking, however, the Hardee hat made famous by the Iron Brigade (aka the Black Hat Brigade), so a solid number of this unit are now wearing them. I decided these boys would be the 24th Michigan as I think the mixture of heads and the variety of equipment gives them the feel of a rough and ready unit a bit late to the game, fitting the regiment from the wilds of the hand-shaped state that was the last to join the brigade.

And here are my 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry unit dismounted. I've modeled them so they will be behind a white, picket fence (from the Perry/Renedra sprue), but I've left it off for ease of painting.

Hopefully my fellow Union players are cranking out their models and will have something to show us very soon.

Cheers

Dave

And with that, the game was over...

So, after all this planning, painting, travelling, building, and a bit of drinking, the first project of our little group has come to fruition. The 2012 200th Anniversary "What if?" Salamanca battle went off very smoothly, and to a very appreciative group of onlookers and passers by. Here are a quick(ish) batch of photos from the game. More detail will follow once we get some sleep and take some better photos.

From the start, the British column was up against it as we struggled with our command rolls. From failures to complete blunders, our initial strategy was in tatters from the start.

Not wanting to gloat too early, the French commanders attempt to hide their mirth at our plight.

By the time we were able to form a credible defensive line, the French second brigade was racing across the northern portion of the table.

Had this been a straight forward, stand up fight, our Guards battalions would have certainly held the center.

More action at the northern end of the line as the 42nd hastily form square in the face of French Hussars.

The battle for the chapel was a complete bunfight! All manner of units were trying to unseat the 95th from their loopholes.

With a few jammy rolls towards the end of the game, the French were able to bring three cannon into close range of the 3rd Foot Guards, with another at medium range in enfilade. After 13 shots from artillery, and another three from the Legere to the Guards front. This powerhouse unit was forced to retire 12".

After four hours of hard fighting, and incredibly enthusiastic piss-taking, the game fell to the French. It was determined as "A minor French victory, with no allowance for future French bragging, and no-one owed anyone any beers."

Above are the crew, from left to right: Joe Krone, Chris Ferich, Jamie Welling, Alex Akers, Brien Dulaney, myself, and Dave Pauwels,

There was quite a bit of spirited discussion following the game, and the results were:
a) This event had been a roaring success, despite never setting indicators for success, and
b) We'll be tackling some part of the Gettysburg battle for our 2013 project (another anniversary game of course)!

Cheers
Dave

And your Objective is...

During our playtest at the beginning of February, we determined that three different objectives would be the way to go. As our gallant forces will both start the game marching south to link up with the rest of the French and British armies, we designated the road exit on the southern table edge as objective number one. The second objective will be the small chapel on the southern table, and important defensible position. The third was originally "the high ground", the ridgelines on both long edges of the table. Despite us being "gentleman wargamers", Joe and I both recognized that the vague term "high ground" could cause some concerns later on.

To rectify this problem, we decided we would create smaller objectives that were easier to capture or defend. Enter a wonderful post by Mr Awdry on his blog 28mm Victorian Warfare. In this post he built a water cart for his Colonial adventures from some great model pieces from Trent Miniatures (which is owned by Duncan Macfarane, former owner and editor of Wargames Illustrated). As Michael also points out in his post, this idea originally came from the Arcane Scenery and Models blog, where Duncan's friend (known only to me as Captain Splendid) had built one last September.

So, I sent off the request for two of the Gribeauval Limbers and a pack of Large Sherry Casks. Once they arrived I constructed the water carts as described in the two linked posts above. Unfortunately my sherry casks were suffering from a small casting issue on the ends so I went to work with a bit of putty and all was set right.

Rather than have the water carts lying around, I needed them to be mobile, trudging along with the rest of the thirsty and weary soldiers. After taking a look through the Perry Miniatures website for other ideas, I stumbled on their Oxen Teams. A quick order later and they were on there way to me from the UK. The day they arrived I quickly cleaned up the pieces, stuck them on my painting sticks, and primed them white (uncharacteristic of me, I know). A wash with Gryphonne Sepia and some quick highlights with Vallejo Pale Sand and they were ready for their patches of reddish brown.

Initially I had planned to paint one water cart in grey and the other in green (to match the artillery carriages of each army), and I was going to have the ox teams lead by a rifleman (for the British) and a voltiguer (for the French). In the end I settled for a different grey for both (with several washes on the lower edges of the new Citadel Agrax Earthshade wash), and left off any "handlers", reasoning it would mean I could then comfortably use them in any army at a later date, and realizing it would be MUCH easier to complete ; )

I hope you like them, now let's see if we Brits can't wrest that water cart on the left away from the Frenchies!

Cheers
Dave