The American Civil War, and back in Britain.

When TheCyprusWargamer was recalled to Britain for a (hopefully) short period, I had to leave the Wargaming collection at home.  Very annoying.  I have had to put my games on hold and been forced to examine other opportunities.  One of these is the resurgence of my American Civil War project.

When Sharp Practice 2 was published I was keen to try the system out with a couple of boxes of Perry ACW figures.  It's quite a low cost solution.  I even bought and painted two packs of Em4 miniatures plastics, £5 each.  Great figures but I lacked the Army Painter dip to finish them properly.  I never did get those Perrys, and moved on to a Peninsular War plan. Having returned to the cold North for a while I discovered an actual model shop, somehow surviving in this bleak economic, isolated and freezing landscape.  It must have been serendipity, it was within walking distance, and it had a 20% sale on, and it sold dip!

I was more surprised still when I discovered that there were metres of shelving dedicated to model soldiery.  Warlord, Perry, Conquest. .. loads of options.  Since I was feeling downhearted at being away from home and army-less, I reached for the wallet.  A couple of boxes of ACW Infantry, and the Perry “American Farmhouse” tucked under my arm, and I went back out into the bitter chill of a British summer.

I had the bones of a plan, devised back when ACW was the front runner for SP2.  This also came with some provisos.  Both sides have to fit in a single A4 box file, terrain included, and this is to be a limited game, no cavalry, no guns. 

Forces will be:

Confederate with 5 groups of 8 regulars, 1 group of 6 skirmishers.
1 x Major, 1 x Lieutenant, 1 x Sergeant.

Union with 4 groups of 10 Militia, 1 group of 6 skirmishers.
1 x Captain, 1 x Lieutenant, 1 x Sergeant.

The Perry figures come nicely together, with minimum use of the poly glue.   I found the kepis far more fiddly than the hats.  So far then I've completed Lieutenant Status I  Winfield Armstrong Fluster, a former school teacher, and stutterer, nominally second in command of the company, as well as Sergeant Major Status II “Grievous” McSinister, an old Soldier of the  Fighting First, commanded by Colonel Zachary Taylor in the Seminole  wars, and McSinister was at one time the Sergeant of 2nd Lt Jefferson Davis, now President of the Confederate States. 

I intend to use the Terrible Swift Sword SP Supplement as the basis for a campaign, with 1st Bull Run as my opening battle for 1861.  The campaign will be recorded by the Fredericksburg Monitor, a newspaper that swaps sides as the fortunes of war vary. 

The undipped Parson

These games will follow the company of Captain Floyd “Parson” Farthingdale of the 11th Massachusetts, abolitionist, part time taxidermist and Preacher.  The 11th have been raised from the Massachusetts Militia, and I intend to play their side against a much higher quality Confederate force.  This is a departure from gaming both sides impartially and thus represents something of an experiment.  Using a slightly smaller and poorer quality force will give me a real challenge. 

I expect Floyd to be defeated regularly, but then perhaps begin to win as his company becomes more experienced in battle. Some hope! 

Floyd carries what he claims to be abolitionist pamphlets, but his troopers believe these to be Antebellum lithographic pornography.  He carries a .44 Navy Colt, the same gun he once used to shoot a serving Congressman from Massachusetts, with whom he had a disagreement over Jesus and a plate of excellent creamed onions.  My character figure for Floyd is clearly unfinished, and worse, it's still in Cyprus!

I shall follow the Parson's progress as well as that of his Texan arch enemy, on the blog.