Flashbacks & Omens!

There can be no doubt that when it comes to wargames, the American Civil War has always been my first love. I got home from work after 10pm tonight, still contemplating a new replacement collection, still undecided.

I flicked over to Steve's site and came across his latest posting. Newline 20mm..as close as you can get to Airfix figures, without, well, Airfix!

Now, I was introduced to wargaming by an older lad at Southend High School For Boys in the late 1970's. I recognised Steve's scenario as probably the first "proper" wargame I ever played. We had cavalry however somewhere in the game. The rules were a Featherstone-type set, lovingly copied from a library book ! I was the Union player, commanding my own Airfix Union paint job...and I think I won!

The relevance of all this? I have decided. I cannot "do" 15mm. The ACW deserves to be done in "God's Own True Scale". Newline Designs have a sale on until Tuesday. I found some smashing looking Rebel flags tonight in 20mm. Doc in Australia has finished some great looking ACW figures (in 28mm BUT Rafa mentioned my boyhood favourite John Wayne/ACW film "The Horse Soldiers" in the comments section...nostalgia overload!).

They are all omens...I have just bought loads of Newline figures-because I am weak and believe in omens!

Decisions, Decisions.

It is amazing the stuff you can get done when you have a deadline. The atmosphere is like a house move or the last day at school at the moment. I have packed up at work and spent all day tidying up the garden and the shed at home-all the jobs I could have done while I had "spare" time!

I have also been looking at the "Space Time Continuum Problem" I mentioned before I went on holiday. Here is a shot of part of my old ACW collection-as I packed them off to their new home. Yes they are gone (I would like to say that the funds raised are intended for some future figure collection but I have blown the lot on new tyres and fixing the annoying creak my car made when I turned the steering wheel before I start commuting to my new office!).

This leaves me with a decision to make. I spent my holiday reading through "Regimental Fire & Fury". In my opinion F&F is the most playable, elegant rule system ever. Regimental reads just as well, with a number of subtle changes to cater for the smaller scale. I will not go any further, Steve-The-Wargamer has done a far better job of describing the rule mechanics than I can without a playtest. My decision centres around what replaces my old figures? I have a number of options:

28mm Perry plastics augmented with metal figures. I have a box of infantry and cavalry and could settle for smaller scenarios with less figures. But no, this does not seem like the way forward. Too much space and too little time.

Embarrassingly I have enough "large" 20mm (true 1/72nd scale) to start all over again (plus the old Wodensfeld ACW figures are becoming available thanks to the work of John Cunningham-more on Johns work soon). This just seems a bit pointless having just sold off my last lot.

The original plan-15mm. I had a number of buildings and Essex figures already and made a small order from Peter Pig-really lovely sculpts and the range has everything I need. This makes the most sense but I have no real experience/love with this scale.

Or the compromise. "Small" 20mm figures from Newline Designs. The footprint/base sizes could be closer to 15mm. Steve-The-Wargamers site shows how great the figures are. I could use the 15mm buildings and measurements. The range misses out on casualty figures/wagons etc I will need.

Decisions, decisions. No need to rush at the moment...I will have plenty of time to run through this all as I sit in my car commuting to the middle-of-blooming-nowhere from September.

Smaller Bases, A Show And Other Stuff

I start of with a four letter word. Work. The changes are worse than I imagined and start on 1st September. Without trying to sound bitter it will impact very adversely on family life and hence hobby time, so I am having a radical sort out of my existing stuff and future plans. Full details follow soon.

Which leads on to my next couple of points. As you can see my Danes have new, smaller bases. Eventually all my SH War figures will be redone this way, this is the only unit completed but I have a small production line running. The reason for all this is Salute 2011. Guess who is putting on the Continental Wars Society display game? No not the Perry's-it's me! Figures, scenery, the whole 9 yards! Full details to follow soon!

Back From France

Back home, tired, sun burnt knees (!) and back to work on Friday. Yep, the annual break to Parthenay is over.

I hope to pick up my paint brush soon and I should have some interesting news about Salute 2011.