15mm ACW Army for Sale

My last attempt to sell an army through the blog did not work too well, so let's try again.

This is Union infantry, based for Fire and Fury. Most figures are based on 1" by 7/8" stands, with 3-5 figures per stand. A few are based on 3/4" stands, 2 figures per stand.

There are 616 figures here, and I am asking $1250 for the lot, including shipping to a US address.

If you're interested, email me at smacphee at frontier dot com.

23 Musket Miniatures Zouaves

30 Battle Honors Chasseurs (14th Brooklyn)

84 Old Glory Iron Brigade / U.S. Regulars

27 Battle Honors Iron Brigade / U.S. Regulars

12 Frontier Infantry

48 Peter Pig Infantry

391 Old Glory and Musket Miniatures Infantry

I went a little nuts with command stands a few years ago, planning to have specific regimental flags for different units.

Blue Moon 18mm Confederate Command

I had not even started these command figures when I posted the review of the Blue Moon rebel infantry. I primed these on Saturday, painted them yesterday, and finished basing this morning.

The command figures are just as good as the rankers. There are ten separate poses in each pack (officer, standard bearer, sergeant), so there's no need for any two command stands to look alike.

Although the command types are in various poses, they all work well with the marching rankers.

Blue Moon 18mm Confederates

When Old Glory announced that they would be releasing a 15mm Civil War range under their Blue Moon brand, I gave a mental shrug and moved on to more interesting things. There are already at least a dozen quality Civil War lines, and I doubted that anyone could improve on the AB / Battle Honors figures.

When Old Glory released the first pictures of the sculpts, I started to take more notice. These figures are very similar in style and overall look to the fantastic Sash and Saber 25mm figures. Old Glory had hooked me again. I renewed my army membership and ordered some samples. Of course, this being the Civil War, my favorite gaming period, my "sample" order consisted of over 400 figures.

I started in on pack 15ACW-18 "Confederate Infantry Marching / Blanket Roll." Each pack has 30 unique figures, and I started with four packs.

Civil War uniforms are not too interesting, at least when compared with Napoleonics or ancients. I usually put a basic block paint job on my 15mm Civil War figures, saving the detail work for their faces, hands, and muskets. I thought these Blue Moon figures called for some two tone work, so these took much longer to finish than usual.

Having spent the past two months with these figures, I am sold. They absolutely look the part. The men are almost in step, with most leading with their right feet. The poses are similar enough to work as a unit, but distinct enough that each man is an individual. This sculptor knows his business. Faces and hands have excellent relief, equipment is accurately rendered while still large enough to paint, and the uniforms have realistic folds.

Some talk on TMP expressed concern that these figures, at 18mm, would tower over 15mm figures. We have been pretty lucky with Civil War figures. Most of the ranges are perfectly compatible, although a few outliers are either giants or pygmies. So how do the Blue Moon figures compare?

Left: AB / Battle Honors Right: Blue Moon

Left: Minifigs Right: Blue Moon

Left: Stone Mountain Right: Blue Moon

Left: Peter Pig (on much shorter bases) Right: Blue Moon

Left: Old Glory (again, shorter bases) Right: Blue Moon

None of the other manufacturers look out of place next to the Blue Moon figures. The Blue Moon figures are slightly taller and bulkier, but I will have no problem mixing these units on the gaming table.

L-R: Stone Mountain, Blue Moon, Minifigs, Blue Moon, AB / Battle Honors

Mixing the figures within the same unit is another story. The Blue Moon figures are a little too big for that.

Glenn's "Little Wars" ACW Game

Some of you may remember that I painted a large collection for Glenn last summer. This past weekend, he put on a game at Little Wars in Chicago with those figures.

You can read Glenn's AAR on his blog. Der Alte Fritz also mentions the game on his blog.

28mm AWI British Artillery

Before Austin left us for sunny Arizona, he and I worked out a trade. I would paint his Field of Glory early Franks to wargaming standard, and he would give me all his painted and unpainted 28mm American Revolution figures.

Austin painted all his infantry himself, and you'll get to see some of them soon, but he farmed out his artillery to a buddy at work. These figures aren't painted in my style. The guns are a little too neon blue for me, and the drybrush got a little sloppy on these. But they'll do. These are all Perry Miniatures figures and guns.

I spent some time during the past week painting some Old Glory British guns and crews. While the Perry figures are in the modified uniforms British gunners probably wore on campaign, the Old Glory figures are in splendid full dress, perfect for my Bunker Hill army.

I painted one battery in the full dress white breeches, and the other in the brown service breeches that the 4th battalion probably wore in North America.

The Old Glory figures painted up well, and the guns were pretty good little models. I wish Old Glory would have included more poses. There were only five poses, and one was in such poor shape that I left him out of the crews.

Field of Glory Game

I had a game scheduled with the group today, but one fellow got sick, and the other remembered a nephew's birthday, so I was stuck gaming alone.

I broke out my 28mm Field of Glory armies and played my first game with them.

Both armies got a pretty standard deployment. Carthage started with cavalry on the extreme flanks, Gallic and Spanish infantry on the wings, and Libyan spearmen with elephants in the center. That unfinished wooden square behind the Carthaginian line is their fortified camp.

The Romans also started with a very conventional deployment: cavalry on the flanks, heavy infantry in a solid mass in the center.

As the two armies advanced toward each other, Carthage threw its cavalry out in advance of the infantry line, hoping to flank the Romans and force them to break their neat line. Both sides extended their light infantry into skirmish order.

Carthage definitely gets the better of the skirmish battle. They have two units of light horse and two large units of light foot. The Romans have only two small units of javelinmen.

The Roman cavalry on each flank charged the Numidians, who evaded on both flanks, leaving the Romans to strike the formed Spanish and Gallic cavalry. Meanwhile, the Carthaginian light foot chased off the velites, leaving the Roman main line uncovered.

Surprisingly, the Romans won the cavalry battles on both flanks, destroying the Gauls in two turns and the Spanish in four. Even with the Numidians nipping at their flanks, the Roman cavalry carried the day.

The Roman heavy foot charged the Carthaginian javelinmen and slingers, scattering them and uncovering Carthage's main line. The two opposing lines settled into the long grind that is infantry combat in this game. The big surprise was the complete failure of the elephants, which were destroyed in only two turns without causing the Romans to lose a single base.

Halfway through the infantry fight, the Roman consul attached himself to a wavering unit of hastati. The hastati lost the next round of combat, and Carthage made the roll to kill the consul!

Two Roman units broke and ran for the rear. One little unit of principes held up the Gallic infantry, but Carthage had spearmen headed for the Roman camp, with only velites in their path!

Carthage broke the Roman center, but a Roman wing commander rallied one unit of hastati and opposed the breakthrough. The Roman cavalry on the flanks destroyed the Numidian light horse and maneuvered to hit the Carthaginian infantry's flanks. And two Roman infantry units on the right managed to destroy a unit of Libyans and chase a Carthaginian general away from the fighting.

With six units destroyed or broken, and with their camp wide open to the victorious Roman infantry, the remnants of the Carthaginian army had to flee.

I enjoyed the game more than any other session of Field of Glory that I've played. I'm sure I am still doing some things wrong (the game is so complex!), but the rules made more sense to me this time than they ever have before.