Sunday 12 January 2020

An American Civil War Project

For some time now I have been thinking about reworking my American Civil War armies.

Many of my figures are getting old now and many have lost their bayonets, swords and standards and I have been really taken by the increase of quality that has come about with the plastic figures in the last few years. I also I want to look at trying to simplify play.

For nearly three decades now as a group we have used a standard units of five stands, each of four figures on bases 40mm x 40mm. I have never been a fan of the standardised unit size for American Civil War where unit sizes varied so radically, but it suited a purpose at the time. However, things have moved on and  some players in the group prefer different stand sizes and numbers of figures on the stand and this causes problems when calculating combat based on the number of stands engaged. So I have decided to adapt a concept from Black Powder whereby it is the number of figures in the unit rather than base size (within reason) to define the unit size.

I have decided on four unit sizes for infantry:

Large units:  More than 18 figures
Standard Units: 15-18 figures
Small units: 10-14 figures
Tiny Units: less 10 than figures

I also want to play around with having a unit as a single diorama type base. This stems from my youth when I saw this image of the Battle of Gettysburg in the July 1963 issue of the National Geographic and, as I have mentioned before on this blog, that is how I have always wanted to present wargames units. 


This has the potential for problems because units will largely be presented in line and what if that line is too big to fit in a piece of terrain, etc, but I will cross that bridge later. The trick is to base the figures in such a way that they are more or less compatible with the units that other players already have.

For now I have decided on four base sizes for the units:

Tiny: 80mm frontage
Small: 110mm frontage
Standard: 140mm frontage
Large: 180mm frontage.

And so to the trial… During the recent Black Friday deals I purchased a box each of the Perry plastic Union and Confederate infantry and then a few additional command sprues with a regular Perry’s order. The result is that I have been able to put together seven units, three Union and four Confederate. Here they are on their temporary bases.

Tiny
Small
Standard

Now, I hear you ask, what about when troops are marching in column of route? Well I am thinking about being extravagant and creating half a dozen units for each side in marching columns that can be swapped out, rather like the way we swap put limbered for deployed artillery, and might look like this:



I will do a few more units in the next month or two and experiment with some cavalry before I decide if this is the right thing to do. If the answer is negative, I can rebase these to the old style.

14 comments:

  1. I like this idea quite a lot! I would be ok with maintaining a standard, diorama-sized base and simply denoting each as either tiny/small/standard/large. For several rules, I do exactly that. Having a separate stand showing March column is a luxury to which I highly approve.

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    1. I have bit between the teeth now and have ordered another bunch of plastic figures...watch this space.

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  2. To show march column, you could put one or two blank bases behind the unit, perhaps with the odd straggler on it and to the front have a single figure ( a bit like a leader), mounted or whatever that denotes march mode.

    The biggest problem I find with big bases is that they are less inclined to sit on hills nicely, one or both ends end up 'hanging' in the air.

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    1. Good points Norm. Mind you I had a problem in today's game with individual stands sliding down steep slopes!

      This will be an interesting series of experiments.

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  3. Interesting idea Mark, it would certainly make moving the figures easier. Are you planning on using Black Powder or another rule set?
    Cheers
    Stu

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    1. While I can see a few pitfalls I am going to press on with the experiment. I will use my homegrown rules...it is not actually a big change.

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  4. Oh Mark.....ANOTHER change in unit/base size.....I reckon it's just a way of justifying to yourself buying yet more ACW troops when you already have a huge collection! Look forward to reading all about it 😄

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    1. I was surprised the last time I had the ACW figures out of their trays of the condition of many figures weapons (not just bayonets) damaged beyond repair and some broken at their base. Plus the bulk of the figures are Old Glory and while the initial purchase were fine the subsequent purchases were by a new designer who had a weird understanding of the human form - most of the figures are in poses that would challenge a yoga master and most are looking skyward as though expecting an airborne invasion at any second. So it is time for a refresh and maybe I will sell off the older figures that are in better condition.

      The basing is something I have been working on for a while now since some in the group have collections with larger or smaller bases with differing numbers of figures on each stand - I want to find a way in which all those collections can be used without worrying too much about bases sizes (within reason). It may not work which is why they are only loosely tacked to a plain cardboard base.

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  5. I like what you are doing there Mark...
    I imagine it would work really well with smaller scale figures...

    All the best. Aly

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    1. I did it years ago with 15mm figures and it wasn’t a huge success, but our playing has matured a bit since those heady days.

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  6. Nice looking civil war troops, I'll be interested to see how the diorama basing works out, I've done it for warlords pike and shot and am contemplating breaking them up but if you have the luxury of separate march units it'll probably work!
    Best Iain

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    1. I figured that for a little more than £20 I can make a few generic marching units.

      I think the idea suits the smaller units better. Not sure how it will work on a really broad frontage.

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  7. The diorama style looks very effective. I imagine that plastic figures are perfect for this approach as you can vary the poses significantly within the same unit. We are venturing into 15mm renaissance this year and I have four unpainted minifigs armies so am grappling with whether to purchase them all again or just do the best I can with painting dozens of the same poses.

    Would you sell off the old figures, or look at rebasing them and keeping them as “vanilla” units alongside the newer more dynamic additions?

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    1. There is sufficient variance in the plastic sets to get many unique units. Not sure about selling the old figures...I haven't sold any for probably 25 years and it would feel a bit like selling one’s children...if I had any...

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