Cabin with front porch

Now that I am getting the hang of this I tried a slightly more complicated kit.  I would recommend reading the instructions and just placing the pieces together before gluing.  Good thing I did this first!  Saved myself a lot of aggravation.  But what I got from it is a very nice addition to my growing list of houses for the table top.  Next I plan on tackling one of the bigger buildings.  The Grist Mill!

Stone house

  Another kit from Impudent Mortals.  As it looked simple I put this together next.  It was pretty simple.  Especially with the free instructions provided at the site.  Again, a cost of paint brings the house to life.

Covered Bridge

To learn about how to put these MDF kits together I started with the covered bridge.  I am not so sure how authentic it is for the time period I game in.   But it looks nice and reminds me of the one at Old Sturbridge Village here in Massachusetts.  Since they do a large Rev War weekend each year I could do a table top battle of the mock tactical they put on!

Instructions for the kit are available through Impudent Mortal site as a free down load.  It was very helpful.  The owner of the site who I bought these from at Cold Wars warned me about using a super glue since you cannot correct errors you make.  I used Annie's tacky glue from Michael's which worked excellent.  A sharpe hobby knife is recommended in case you need to trim parts.

The bridge went together in minutes! Very easy.  Next I sprayed it black and painted it with craft paints.  I have to say that painting it really improves the kit and brings it to life.

 Done, and a fine looking addition to my table top it us!  More to follow. BTW, river is from Battlefield Terrain Concepts.

Impudent Mortals MDF buildings

 Among the items I bought at Cold Wars this year were a number of MDF buildings. Most  of these were by a new (to me) company called Impudent Mortal (https://www.impudentmortal.com).  They make a wide variety of interesting items. These include paint racks and buildings.  The buildings include a number of North American 25mm type structures which fit in nicely for my Rev War and 1812 table tops.  The prices are very reasonable and they also bundle buildings in evan more reasonably priced packages.  I bought the bundle which included a really nice Georgian House (I want to get a couple more of these).   Perfect for my time periods. The company has on line instructions available directly to down load to assist in assembling the buildings.

  I am having great fun with these. They go together very well and paint up nicely.  I think they will give my table top a lift. And provide some structures to fight about in future games.  Perhaps the nefarious Canadian Volunteer will want to wreak havoc on a small village in a future game?  Stay tuned to see!

A visit with Scott Leach and his miniatures.

I visited with my friend Scott Leach recently.  Scott has been a mentor over the years in all things miniatures.  He has taught me more about painting and miniatures then I could remember.  And inspired me in all my miniature projects.

During our recent visit Scott was kind enough to show me some of his new 54mms figures.  Many of these are conversions from existing figures.  His latest work included figures from the court of Napoleon III, French Vivandiere's and Cantinere's, two Civil War regiments and a Santa for Christmas.

 Many visitors to my blog may have seen or visited Scott's blog here:
https://ilikethethingsilike.blogspot.com

Fife and Drum Miniature Rules for American Revolution

 As readers of this blog know I very much enjoy the wargame rules from Fife and Drum miniatures.  These are a simple one page set of rules.  A move, counter move set;  but with some interesting twists.  A side may move first and fire second or move second and fire first. Casualties are taken as they happen so there is A advantage to firing first.  But, you can charge into contact if you move first so there are advantages to that too.   A very interesting twist to the old move counter move system.  They are very morale driven which I like.  Casualties are moderate so regiments do not disappear too quickly.  And there are  a number of morale and trading grades so a regiment can be flexable.

   In addition to using these rules for my War of 1812 games I have also started using them for American Revolution.   These were the rules used in my recent Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign.

   The rules provide a fun and fast game and are easy to learn.  They are great for game nights as players quickly pick up the rules and can concentrate on play rather then looking up how to do things.  This makes for a much better gaming experience.

   As with anything we have made a few house rules and interpretations.  The rules can be here to be downloaded:
http://fifeanddrum-minis.com/rules--articles.html

In addition a rules tutorial with examples of play are here: http://altefritz.blogspot.com/2017/08/fife-drum-awi-rules-tutorial.html

These are my house rules and interpretations:

Move first, fire second, move second, fire first:  when it is your turn to fire remove all casualties from hits.  No, casualties removed do not get to return fire that was the advantage of firing first.

Retire facing or not facing enemy:  deduct 2" from move to retire with back towards enemy.  Half move to retire facing enemy or move sideways.

Charges or moving into melee:  during your move declare charge.  Defender tests morale, if pass they stand and can fire at charger (who tests morale if casulties), if fail retire column distance back shaken.  There is no charge move bonus. When defender turn to move they cannot counter charge or add regiments to melee. r

  Fight one round of melee then side with most casualties tests morale.  If pass then other side tests.  If both sides pass then attacker is considered to have failed to push back defender from their position.  The attacker retired one column move back towards their line facing the enemy. 

Routing or shaken units effect on other units:  ignore friendly shaken units retreat past if they are lower morale.  Otherwise check morale.    If regiment routes past test morale.

Multiple units in melee:  If two units vs one distribute casualties evenly to both units.

Wheeling regiments:   Wheels are made from the left, right, or center of the unit only. measure outside arc.

Fences, small streams:  Units move up to them and stop.  Next move you cross obstacles and continue your move. If both units are touching the same fence line and facing each other across it neither gets the benefit of the fence.

Artillery: Heavy guns one operation per turn.  Medium guns two operation per turn.  Light guns three operations per turn.

Operations are limber, unlimber, prolong and fire. 

Artillery cannot enter woods. They need infantry to knock hole in fences to cross.

Any friendly unit within a friendly artillery arc of fire, if the arc of fire goes through two opposite sides of that friendly unit the artillery can not fire.  Arch of fire is measured  from cannon barrell, with of stand forward like a bowling alley

Difficult Terrain: (fields, woods and  rocky ground or up hill): Cost 2" for each 1" moved.

Woods; units stop movement at edge of woods.  They enter next turn (similar to fences).  Once in woods  open order troops (skirmishes or Indians)  move their full movement, while formed troops move half their movement.  Small arm range is half.  Only skirmishes get cover modifiers. Yes, it sucks for regulars in the woods (please ask General Braddock).

Indians:  always unformed, in mass formation (I.e. in a bunch).  No penalty to change direction.  In woods move full movement.  Units fired at by Indians for first time check morale if second class or Militia.  In open clear terrain go one step down chart for firing and morale (if on line "C" use line "D").  Indians are not shock troops. They race about being obnoxious and scaring volunteers and militia who are not used to them.

Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign Refought: epilogue

  So, how did the campaign turn out?  Most excellent if I say so.  The campaign generated a number of interesting battles.  Due to the variable order of battle determined by dice roll fighting the same battle over could be very different.  In addition there were a number of actions that did not get fought which with a different roll could have.  So playing the campaign out again could provide very different results.

   Interestingly the campaign followed the historical one very closely up to the end.  The results of the fight between Morgan and Rawdon mirrored the Cowpens results.  And the Cowen's Ford action mirrored the historical one.  Although with that battle Davidson lived to fight another day which I am sure his wife appreciated.

  The only oddity was the final battle with Greene attacking Cornwallis.  The Crown forces had a superb army, including the units from Cowpens.  Yet the Americans destroyed them in a decisive victory.  This I feel was due to the unusual British set up and lack of aggression in the part of the British commander.  But  hats off to the three American commanders who fought a excellent battle.  I am sure they received the thanks of Congress and a sword.  Future generations will name numerous schools, ball fields and streets in their honour. 

War game rules used for the battles were the set from Fife and Drum miniatures.  These are a one page set of rules which  provide a fun and fast game.  I will post a more detail explanation about the rules and the interpretation and house additions we use with them. 

This has been a long goal of my mine to fight this campaign out since I first read Steve Haller's article in The Courier (vol. 1, no. 1).  It was great fun and I hope to do it again next year.