Gettysburg; Picketts Charge in 10mm

For the second day at Gauntlet, Will and I were debating whether to carry on with the Korsun Pocket game or try an ACW scenario from the new Glory Hallelujah! Black Powder book, which Will has recently acquired.  On hearing this, Steve mentioned he had a 10mm ACW collection with 30+ regiments per side.  This was too good an opportunity for Will to organise a refight of the Gettysburg - It can't be long now scenario.  Terrain was a simple ridge along one long table edge, lined by Union infantry and artillery, with the Rebs arrayed up to 1ft on from the opposite table edge.  For the Union, Gary took the let wing with II (part) and III corps, Jamie the centre with II corps 2nd Division and I corps 3rd Division, and Richard the right wing II corps 3rd Division and I corps 2nd Division in reserve.  Opposite them on the Rebel right was Steve with Pickett's Division and on the left was me with Pettigrew's Division with Gary and Trimble's Division behind me.

So, it's July 3rd 1863.  After 2 days of heavy fighting around the Pennsylvanian town of Gettysburg, the armies of the Union and Confederacy face off against each other, the Union occupying Cemetery Ridge and the Confederacy occupying Seminary Ridge.  Lee appears to have reached a decision and ordered Pickett, Pettigrew and Trimble to assault the Union lines.  The scenario starts with the Rebs approaching the Emmitsburg Road and about to have a very bad day.

Trimble's Division in the foreground with Pettigrew's Division beyond.

Pickett's Division nearest the camera.

The Union defence in depth on the ridge.

Looking from Cemetery Ridge towards the Emmitsburg Road.

The first turn sees Pettigrew get all 3 of his brigades moving forwards, while Trimble gets one brigade to advance, the other deciding to wait a bit to see what happens.

On the right, Pickett's men are positively jogging.  However, rather than focussing on the same point in the Union lines as Trimble and Pettigrew, they are veering off towards the Union left wing.

The view at ground level.

Pettigrew's troops with Pickett charging in the distance.

Pettigrew starts to shake his columns out into 2 regiment deep lines ready to charge home on the Union lines.

Pickett continues to advance, but not quickly enough.

Pickett is now within charging distance of the Union line.

Pickett's other brigade picks up the pace.

Pettigrew stalls momentarily.

Trimble gets a rush of blood and moves up on Pettigrew's flank.

One of Pettigrew's brigades seems to have developed a death wish.  Union commanders look on expectantly.

Lunchtime, and I had to take some photos of the excellent Team Yankee game organised by Dennis and Pete.  The crashed cars in the town centre look great.

Love the American SPG models.

Apache gunships move in on a company of T-72s.

After lunch, back to Gettysburg.  Pettigrew's Division charges the Union line.  Despite withering closing fire, they manage to wipe out 2 Union batteries and melees embroil the length of 6 regiments.

The view from the ground.

Trimble's brigades move up and the foremost brigade gets within musket range of the Union flank.

Ongoing melees sap the strength of attackers and defenders.

Confederate ranks are thinning faster than the Union at Pickett's end of the table.

Union numbers on their left flank told in  the final analysis and 2 of Pickett's Brigades broke and fled the battle.  We played out another turn at Pettigrew's and Trimble's end of the table as there were a number of ongoing melees, which were often going the Reb way, although fresh reserves were being fed along the line, so it was only a matter of time.  Trimble's Division was able to retire largely unharmed, while Pettigrew's Division was badly mauled and Pickett was down to one effective brigade.  I think this is one of those scenarios where the Rebs can only win by not turning up.  The High Water Mark of the Confederacy was a little further north of the actual historical spot, but about the same distance in, which suggested an honourable draw, albeit a very bloody one for the Rebs.

Thanks to Steve for providing the troops and terrain and for Will for organising the scenario with very little lead time.  Thanks also to Gary, Jamie, Richard C, Steve and Gary for providing a fun game with the right level of commitment to the scenario tasks, the history of the period and, above all, having fun with toy soldier.

Thanks for looking.

1/200 Revell Apache

I picked this little model up on an impulse buy for £2 in Tesco's.  It's snap together and took about 2 minutes to build, so would make a great little introduction kit for a youngster.  However, I was a bit disappointed in the fit.  All the parts do snap together, but the tail fins plug into a slot at the rear of the model which is formed by the two halves of the fuselage when clipped together.  Unfortunately, when clipping the tail in, mine pushed the fuselage parts apart, more or less exploding the model, so I had to superglue the fuselage halves together and then glue the plug in place to keep the tail fins in place.  Similarly, the underslung gun pod dropped out and had to be glued in place. Overall simple to put together, but glue was needed for mine.

The final version, not a bad rendition of the helicopter in 1:200.

Model and box it comes in.

Thanks for looking.

10mm Early/Mid-Imperial Romans

I recently dug out a Warmaster Imperial Roman army that I bought from Pendraken at a show, along with an Ancient British army, about 10 years ago.  In a rush of enthusiasm, I painted up the entire army, but ran out of steam when it came to the Ancient British, so never got a game in.  At Deeside Defenders, Black Powder  and the various related rules Pike and Shotte and Hail Ceasar are all enthusiastically played.  So, after discussing with Ian whether he had a suitable opposing army (which he did having Sassanids in 10mm), we scheduled a game for this coming Thursday using Hail Ceasar.

The entire force, at the back two stands of Scorpion bolt throwers, five legionnary cohorts (a veteran legion in the centre representing the Praetorian Guard), three cohorts of auxilia, one ala of cavalry, one unit of archers and three German javelin-armed skirmisher units, plus a tribune and a legate.

 The Germanic tribes skirmisher units

 The unit of Archers

 The three cohorts of auxilia.

 Two cohorts of legionaries

 One veteran legionary cohort - the Praetorian Guard

 Two more legionary cohorts

 The small unit of Scorpion bolt throwers

 The whole army on parade.

 
The shields could do with some detail either painted on or as decals - not sure which way I'll go yet.  In any case, they should be able to put up a decent show on Thursday night.  All depends how quickly I can pick up the rules as I've not played HC before and my rules haven't yet turned up from Amazon.

Thanks for looking

English Civil War in 10mm

This last couple of weeks I have been mostly painting part of a Pendraken 10mm ECW Parliamentarian starter pack that I picked up at WMMS back in February.  I needed a change from all the browns, greens and black of the cold war gear.  I've decided to set them up for Pike and Shotte, as I really like Black Powder.  Initially I based them 8 infantry to a 40x20mm base, with two bases of shotte and one base of pike.  On reflection and after discussions at the club with Ian and Rick, I'm going to add another stand of pike to each unit to give the impression of bulk that the pike deserve.  The horse are based three to a 40x20mm base and initially I thought two stands per unit, but I'm leaning towards three stands per unit.

The whole group painted so far, three units of infantry (2 stands each of shotte and one of pike) and 2 units of horse(each 2 stands).

 Detail of the three units of infantry.

 Old Pendraken "Ironsides" horse, orange sashes.

 As above, blue sashes.

 Detail of command pike stand with commander and drummer plus standard bearer and pikeman.

 The "redcoats".

"

 The "greencoats"

 The "bluecoats".

 The units of horse.

In the starter pack, for £25 (as of April 2013), you get enough infantry for seven units of two shotte and one pike stand, plus some spares, and seven units of two stands of two horse, plus a single piece of artillery.  Good value in my opinion.  For an additional £8, I should be able to add enough pikemen to base up the extra 7 stands of pike.  With some commanders, that should be enough to field a couple of "brigades" of 3 or 4 battalia of infantry, plus a couple of battalia of horse and an artillery piece.  Enough for a medium sized engagement!

Thanks for looking!