Last summer I reported that I had started on putting together an MDF kit for Hougoumont. I finally managed to put together the last building.
Below you see the entire construction. The next phase would be to give the entire structure some colour and/or pimp it with some additional geometric elements (e.g. windowsills etc.)
For size comparisons, I also put some 42mm and 25/28mm figures next to the buildings. Good news is it could work for both scales.
This weekend I hosted an ACW game, in a new imagination-cycle of what could become a narrative campaign.
The scenario is based on the scenario "Kuhstall" for the 7YW, and published in the The Wargamer's Annual 2018, which itself is based on the Battle of Cowpens. It involves an attacker who has to cross a ridgeline, deal with some hidden troops, to finally take a 2nd ridge in order to control a bridge over a river. In our setup, the Union took the role of the defenders and the Confederacy the attackers. Rules are our own houserules (in continuous development ;-)), and unit names are completely imaginative.
I set up the table beforehand, this is how it looked before my wargaming friends arrived:
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| The table as seen from the Union (defender) side. The confederates will enter the table from the far side. |
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| The Union will have to defend the ridge on the left, and the Confederacy will enter from the right. Only 4 light units for the confederacy are already setup. |
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| The reinforcements for the Confederacy - they would come on the table in 2 "waves" with a 5 turn interval. |
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| The battlefield as seen from the Union side. |
Bart V, Bart D, and Wim arrived, and after the usual pre-game chatter and selecting drinks, we were ready to start the game. Bart V would play the Union (2 brigades), Bart D and Wim would each play a Confederate flank (2 brigades each). I would plumpire - although since 2 of us were not fully familiar with my house rules, plumpiring resolved to umpiring ;-)
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| Bart D and Wim pondering their initial setup, which meant selecting what units to put in the first line and 2nd line, as well as selecting their commanding generals from randomly selected cards. |
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| Bart V doing the same, deciding on his initial deployment. |
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| Bart V was commanding the Confederate right flank. The initial infantry regiments are marching forwards. |
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| Lots of the fun in miniature wargaming is manipulating the toys. |
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| Bart V trying to decipher the rules (all on a single A4!). |
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| We have progressed a few turns, the 2nd attacking line is setup. |
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| A view from the Union right flank. |
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| Another view from the union right flank. |
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| Yes, sometimes dice have to be recovered form the floor. |
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| The Confederate attacking line is forming, ready to cross Devil's Ridge. |
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| The game in full swing. |
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| Heavy fighting all across the front. |
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| Another view along the frontline. |
By this time, it was almost midnight, and we decided to stop the game. Some still had an hour of driving to do. The game hadn't progressed as far as I would have liked, but we decided to call it a draw.
Here are some more views of what the game looked like when we stopped playing (I took these pictures the next morning), but with all the clutter (dice, markers, ...) removed.
After the game, each player could also select a unit which did heroically well, and these units will receive a special ability for our next game. It's a nice way of introducing some continuity in a series of linked games, without worrying too much about heavier campaign mechanics. Bart V selected the Maker's Mark Militia, for stopping 2 cavalry units, Wim choose his Elijah Craig's Cavalry, and Bart D selected the Rebel Yell Rangers for charging opposing infantry in the woods and routing them without suffering a single loss themselves. The commanding officers which were selected from an iniaital draw of cards will also have a probability of receiving a stat or ability increase.
Overall, it was a fun game, although the scenario was perhaps a bit too ambitious in terms of number of units and game length.
I finally decided on the final list of my fictional ACW units - with a little help from Chat GPT. All based on whiskey and bourbon brands. Some purists might say that some brands rather reflect a name that is more appropriate for 'the other side', but as with all imaginations in wargaming, inventing names is part of the fun.
Union Infantry
Union Light Infantry
Union Cavalry
Union Artillery
Confederate Infantry
Confederate Light Infantry
Confederate Cavalry
Confederate Artillery
I'm running an ACW game this coming weekend, and I thought it would be a good idea to generate some fictitious names for units. Some fellow wargamers across the pond probably might consider this sacrilege, but why not? As a European, I don't have a strong emotional connection to the American Civil War, so some playful imagination-style names wouldn't harm our wargaming. After all, for other periods, scenarios are full of "Bratwurst Grenadiers" and "Kartoffel Cuirassiers" fighting for the bridge over the "Schnaps River".
That's all very well, but how to come up with invented names that sound plausible? Or to be more exact: that sound plausible for a European whose native language is not English ... It's a small pet-peeve of mine: lots of the pseudo-French, -German or -Dutch used by English-speaking wargamers doesn't sound at all plausible to me ;-)
This is exactly the sort of problem why ChatGPT was invented (yes, they had wargaming imaginations in mind!), so I decided to have some fun: