Wednesday, March 23, 2011

My ACW project.

Hitting the ground running with my blog, I'll start with the topmost project I have in the works right now. A couple of years ago, I bought a set of 6mm acw figures from http://www.baccus6mm.com as well as the set of rules offered on the site to play with them. The ruleset didn't satisfy my needs but I did paint a good amount of them, about 500 figures for both the union and the confederacy. I've been aching to get them on the table, but haven't found rules which suit the figure scale well.

Well, now I have a copy of Fire&Fury (the brigade version) and after playtesting the rules with cardboard pieces I think I have my set. The scale is appropriate for 6mm and most importantly, the rules are fun to play. The activation rolls create a bit of a realistic difficulty in syncronizing attacks as some brigades might move at half speed or not at all at a crucial moment (warhammer players might be reminded of stupidity/animosity and chuckle). The fire combat and melee modifiers are appropriately abstract for the scale. If you try to recreate entire ACW battles, do you really want to have differing ranges and combat modifiers for different kinds of musket? Nope. F&F differentiates only muskets and carbines which is appropriate. The two sides of the war are separated with the Union having more powerful artillery and the confererates being more effective in close quarters. Simple and quick to play. I like it.

So, what to do with the rules now that I have them? Well, it is the 150th anniversary of the war and the anniversary for the Battle of Bull Run or First Manassas is this summer. Since the battle has a manageable number of engaged and is the first large encounter of the American Civil War, I decided that I'll try and recreate the engagement in Fire and Fury.

I have until late July to rebase my already painted figures for F&F, paint a batch of new ones, create suitable terrain and design a scenario. Should be no problem, right?

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