"Destructive and Formidable, British Infantry Firepower 1642-1765" - here's the briefest of reviews:
Brilliant. Buy this book. Don't wait and let it go out of print if you are at all interested in the ECW and tricorne periods. This is a fabulous, detailed study of doctrinal development of British infantry firing systems over a century and a quarter. Buy this book!
I now have a clear vision in mind for modeling the ECW period for my Field of Battle "module" for the ECW.
Did I say that you should buy this book? What are you doing.....go buy this book!
A link to the book at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Destructive-Formidable-British-Infantry-Firepower/dp/1848327684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1430787343&sr=1-1&keywords=destructive+and+formidable
Monday, May 4, 2015
Saturday, March 28, 2015
ACW Campaign Battle 3: Battle of Munster Creek
We played battle 3 of our ACW campaign today. The Battle of Munster Creek was another crushing US victory. I have never seen a roll of crushing victories like the US has been on. Three battles to start the campaign, and 3 crushing US victories. Or is that 3 crushing CSA defeats??
Some photos from the battle:
Some photos from the battle:
The battlefield for Munster Creek
The tabletop battlefield for Munster Creek with troops waiting for battle
Solomon Meredith urges his troops forward
Cadmus Wilcox discusses what's for lunch
US Command eagerly prepares to pounce on the CSA army
CSA batteries on center hill....never fired a shot!
So - game 3 of the campaign is complete, with the campaign hanging in the balance for the CSA. I think Confederate paper money is likely at an all time low.....
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Battle of Bentley's Crossing - ACW Campaign Battle
About a week and a half ago, we played the first "official" game of our new ACW campaign. As in the first couple of practice games, the Confederates were once again crushed. The Federal army executed a heavy flank attack (Federal left, Confederate right) that chewed up the Confederate right and effectively won the battle. Some photos of the battle below. I apologize that I don't have more, but I neglected to take many photos - I was too distracted with the combination of watching the game and being pestered by our Jack Russell terrier (terror!), Toby.
I continue to refine "A Bold Enterprise", the Field of Battle campaign system. A few more tweaks as a result of this game/campaign process, and it has moved much closer to a finished, developed, game product.
Battlefield at the start of combat, after initial deployments. The large Federal flank force is at the bottom right of the photo.
Closer photo of the flanking US division.
When it rains it pours! More US forces cave in the CSA right flank.
This way! No - that way! US routers flow past an advancing unit in good order.
CSA right flank grimly faces the upcoming Federal assault.
Beep beep! Traffic jam on the CSA left flank.
Federal artillery in the center.
Federal infantry positioned in the center behind the river.
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Review: The Longest Afternoon
I just finished reading "The Longest Afternoon" by Brendan Simms. Amazon - The Longest Afternoon
This is a relatively short (approximately 130 pages), inexpensive ($24.99 retail; less through Amazon) history of the KGL's defence of La Haye Sainte at the Battle of Waterloo.
This would seem to be the first full length treatment of the defence of the farm of La Haye Sainte - Hougomont receiving far more of the "press". Simms provides great backgrounds of the KGL and individuals at the farm that fateful day, and follows them through the battle. While there are limited maps, that can be supplemented by the reader's other Waterloo books (or online resources). Simms has a pleasant and easy to read style, and the pages fly by.
I enjoyed the book, learned more about the KGL than I'd known before, and found myself wanting to learn even more.
What more can you ask for?
Recommended.
This is a relatively short (approximately 130 pages), inexpensive ($24.99 retail; less through Amazon) history of the KGL's defence of La Haye Sainte at the Battle of Waterloo.
This would seem to be the first full length treatment of the defence of the farm of La Haye Sainte - Hougomont receiving far more of the "press". Simms provides great backgrounds of the KGL and individuals at the farm that fateful day, and follows them through the battle. While there are limited maps, that can be supplemented by the reader's other Waterloo books (or online resources). Simms has a pleasant and easy to read style, and the pages fly by.
I enjoyed the book, learned more about the KGL than I'd known before, and found myself wanting to learn even more.
What more can you ask for?
Recommended.
Monday, March 2, 2015
These guys, Those Guys
I finished up my new set of unit label tags for my ACW armies for the game this past Saturday. An example of them is shown below:
Here we see Richard Ewell inspiring the 48th Mississippi.
Visually, they are significantly better than the usual black background with white numbers that I normally use. However, the unit ratings are a bit smaller to allow room for the unit and leader names. Since the primary purpose is to quickly and easily identify the unit's ratings and the leader's rating, this can sometimes be an issue.
The biggest problem I noted in the game is that players NEVER referred to the unit or officer name in the game. It was never "the 48th Mississippi is firing at...", or "Ewell moves to the 50th Georgia to attempt a rally....". Instead it was "these guys are going to move up and melee those guys" and "this guy is going to roll for movement".
That makes those hours of preparing, printing, mounting and trimming the labels look like a dubious investment in energy....
So - my question - in your experience do players ever refer to units by name? Or do they just ignore that in the heat of battle and just refer to "these guys" and "those guys"?
Here we see Richard Ewell inspiring the 48th Mississippi.
Visually, they are significantly better than the usual black background with white numbers that I normally use. However, the unit ratings are a bit smaller to allow room for the unit and leader names. Since the primary purpose is to quickly and easily identify the unit's ratings and the leader's rating, this can sometimes be an issue.
The biggest problem I noted in the game is that players NEVER referred to the unit or officer name in the game. It was never "the 48th Mississippi is firing at...", or "Ewell moves to the 50th Georgia to attempt a rally....". Instead it was "these guys are going to move up and melee those guys" and "this guy is going to roll for movement".
That makes those hours of preparing, printing, mounting and trimming the labels look like a dubious investment in energy....
So - my question - in your experience do players ever refer to units by name? Or do they just ignore that in the heat of battle and just refer to "these guys" and "those guys"?
Monday, February 2, 2015
ACW Game(s)
We played an ACW game Saturday, that turned into two games!
But first - Robert Kraft and Bill Belicheat disgust me. Proof again that NFL teams will continue to cheat if it means they ultimately can win the biggest prize, the Super Bowl. The arrogance of an owner of a cheating franchise that out and out demands the league provide an apology for having the temerity to question the ball inflation issue, plus the continued track record of a head coach that has clear contempt for league rules - you must be proud, Patriot nation. Someone needs to figure out that the more Robert Kraft speaks, the worse the Patriots appear.
As for the Seahawks.....what were you thinking???? Passing at the 1 yard line? Really????? Sheesh.
Anyway, on to our games. The first game (FoB2) had an Abysmal CSA deck vs. an Average USA deck. An even bigger factor was the D8 CiC die for the Confederates vs. the D12 (!) for the USA. It wasn't much of a competitive game, as the USA was aggressive in attacking the Confederates (meaning - the CSA couldn't ever seem to get Move cards!) they caused loss after loss. The game ended after 1 hour and 15 minutes with a crushing USA victory.
Game 2 was a bit better for the CSA. I adjusted the decks to make them both average, and we re-rolled the CiC's - both ended up D10s. This game ran about 1 1/2 hours, with the CSA pressing the attack. Alas, the end result was the same - a decisive (rather than crushing) victory for the US forces. A bad day to be Confederate!
I rated 90% or the troops as Raw, as this was a series of early war battles. I'll adjust those to be a spread around a Regular rating as we move forward in beginning the campaign. We ran through the campaign procedures (A Bold Enterprise) and set up the game for next month.
Photos follow below.
But first - Robert Kraft and Bill Belicheat disgust me. Proof again that NFL teams will continue to cheat if it means they ultimately can win the biggest prize, the Super Bowl. The arrogance of an owner of a cheating franchise that out and out demands the league provide an apology for having the temerity to question the ball inflation issue, plus the continued track record of a head coach that has clear contempt for league rules - you must be proud, Patriot nation. Someone needs to figure out that the more Robert Kraft speaks, the worse the Patriots appear.
As for the Seahawks.....what were you thinking???? Passing at the 1 yard line? Really????? Sheesh.
Anyway, on to our games. The first game (FoB2) had an Abysmal CSA deck vs. an Average USA deck. An even bigger factor was the D8 CiC die for the Confederates vs. the D12 (!) for the USA. It wasn't much of a competitive game, as the USA was aggressive in attacking the Confederates (meaning - the CSA couldn't ever seem to get Move cards!) they caused loss after loss. The game ended after 1 hour and 15 minutes with a crushing USA victory.
Game 2 was a bit better for the CSA. I adjusted the decks to make them both average, and we re-rolled the CiC's - both ended up D10s. This game ran about 1 1/2 hours, with the CSA pressing the attack. Alas, the end result was the same - a decisive (rather than crushing) victory for the US forces. A bad day to be Confederate!
I rated 90% or the troops as Raw, as this was a series of early war battles. I'll adjust those to be a spread around a Regular rating as we move forward in beginning the campaign. We ran through the campaign procedures (A Bold Enterprise) and set up the game for next month.
Photos follow below.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Photos from my ECW Collection
Thought I'd post some photos of one of the 10 ECW foot regiments that I've completed. The photo quality isn't great, but hey - it's Sunday night and tomorrow brings the first full week of work that I've had to do since my vacation started on Dec. 18!
The figures are Old Glory - a range I really like. I also have a couple of Redoubt regiments as well. The flag is homemade, with the basic layout done in Excel (I'm an engineer....what do you expect???).
The figures are Old Glory - a range I really like. I also have a couple of Redoubt regiments as well. The flag is homemade, with the basic layout done in Excel (I'm an engineer....what do you expect???).
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