The Action at Shiloh Church, 6th April 1862

[Jemima Fawr]

Here’s the first part of a Brigade Fire & Fury (2nd Edition) game we’re currently playing at club. We hope to finish it off this weekend:

The Action at Shiloh Church, 6th April 1862 (Part 1)

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Jemima Fawr]

Here’s Part 2 of our game:

The Action at Shiloh Church, 6th April 1862 (Part 2)

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Autodidact-O-Saurus]

Very cool. Are those 15mm or 10mm figures?

Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

[Jemima Fawr]

Autodidact-O-Saurus wrote:

Very cool. Are those 15mm or 10mm figures?

Cheers!  They’re Pendraken 10mm.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Cerdic]

Now, THAT is a good looking game!

I like the brown rivers. Are they home-made or bought from somewhere?

http://28mmreview.blogspot.co.uk

[Jemima Fawr]

Cerdic wrote:

Now, THAT is a good looking game! I like the brown rivers. Are they home-made or bought from somewhere?

Cheers matey!  They’re ‘rubber’ items (some sort of transparent, flexible plasticky-stuff).  I bought them from QRF years ago, along with the roads.  I’m not sure if they still do them or if they were split off with the TSS (Total System Scenic) side of the business a year or so back.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Darkest Star Games]

That is indeed a great looking game.  I sometimes have difficulty following who is on which side if I am not familiar with the particular battle, much like with Napoleonics, but this report was much more easy to follow than most.

Question:  would you say the ACW is a popular conflict to game over yonder there in the UK and Europe?

(I am a bit interested because I have a friend here in the US that is from Kenya and is fascinated by the ECW but has a hard time finding people in the US with the same interest, and of course ACW is very popular here…)

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Jemima Fawr]

Darkest Star Games wrote:

That is indeed a great looking game. I sometimes have difficulty following who is on which side if I am not familiar with the particular battle, much like with Napoleonics, but this report was much more easy to follow than most. Question: would you say the ACW is a popular conflict to game over yonder there in the UK and Europe? (I am a bit interested because I have a friend here in the US that is from Kenya and is fascinated by the ECW but has a hard time finding people in the US with the same interest, and of course ACW is very popular here…)

Cheers!  I do try to keep them followable (if long… 😉 ).  I’d normally stick up an order of battle, but that’s taken from Rich Hasenauer’s scenario book, so I don’t want to damage his sales! 🙂

ACW has always seemed moderately popular in the UK and certainly seems more popular as a wargame period than the ECW.  I think the enormous wealth of easily-accessible information helps, added to which it doesn’t have to be read ‘in the original German’ (barring the US XI Corps, obviously…).  I thought I was the only one, but when I first took it to my local clubs I discovered that three other people also did it in 10mm (all with different bases-sizes, obviously) and one did it in 6mm… They’d never mentioned it before… 🙁

While it’s our ‘local war’ and I can visit half a dozen important siege and battle sites within 20 minutes of my home (my mum grew up on a farm that had been a Parliamentarian camp and I drive through the site of the pivotal battle in Wales – Colby Moor – every day going to and from work), the ECW seems very remote and even the language is very different to the modern form.  Civic records also don’t go back far enough in most cases to establish a direct familial link to the war, so we don’t have that same emotional link like US citizens do to their ancestors’ war.  It’s far easier to discover ancestors who went across the sea to fight in the ACW than those who fought in the ECW.  I’d also suggest that a lot of us grew up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s on a diet of Hollywood ACW and Western films, which then led to Airfix bringing out ACW troops as one of their very early sets of toy soldiers – I’m sure that’s got a lot to do with explaining its popularity in the UK.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Darkest Star Games]

Jemima Fawr wrote:

It’s far easier to discover ancestors who went across the sea to fight in the ACW than those who fought in the ECW

  I really hadn’t thought of that!  I do know a fella whose great-great-g-pa joined the Union Navy in 1862 and at war’s end was granted US citizenship for service, which was apparently somewhat common back then.

Jemima Fawr wrote:

I’d also suggest that a lot of us grew up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s on a diet of Hollywood ACW and Western films, which then led to Airfix bringing out ACW troops as one of their very early sets of toy soldiers – I’m sure that’s got a lot to do with explaining its popularity in the UK.

  Hadn’t thought of that either!  Makes a lot of sense.  Over here, interest in various periods seems to wax with whatever new movie/series pops out.  Master & Commander and the Sharpes series suddenly put Napoleonics to the fore, as The Pacific brought that theater to more gaming tables, as did 3:15 To Yuma, Vikings, etc…  I for some reason figured that most folk would be more interested in periods in which they have a shared social/familial/cultural history or framework from which to view and sympathize with the events.  On this end I know for sure that such things as The War Of The Roses or the 100 Years War are more romanticised as there is no direct connection to them and them or their social terrain, unlike the ACW.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Jemima Fawr]

Darkest Star Games wrote:

Jemima Fawr wrote:

It’s far easier to discover ancestors who went across the sea to fight in the ACW than those who fought in the ECW

I really hadn’t thought of that! I do know a fella whose great-great-g-pa joined the Union Navy in 1862 and at war’s end was granted US citizenship for service, which was apparently somewhat common back then.

Jemima Fawr wrote:

I’d also suggest that a lot of us grew up in the 1950s, 60s and 70s on a diet of Hollywood ACW and Western films, which then led to Airfix bringing out ACW troops as one of their very early sets of toy soldiers – I’m sure that’s got a lot to do with explaining its popularity in the UK.

Hadn’t thought of that either! Makes a lot of sense. Over here, interest in various periods seems to wax with whatever new movie/series pops out. Master & Commander and the Sharpes series suddenly put Napoleonics to the fore, as The Pacific brought that theater to more gaming tables, as did 3:15 To Yuma, Vikings, etc… I for some reason figured that most folk would be more interested in periods in which they have a shared social/familial/cultural history or framework from which to view and sympathize with the events. On this end I know for sure that such things as The War Of The Roses or the 100 Years War are more romanticised as there is no direct connection to them and them or their social terrain, unlike the ACW.

Yeah, while I know that relatives of mine included Jesse James (yes really) and some bloke called Daniels who went off to make whisky when the Temperance movement drove him out of Wales (I wonder what happened to him…?), I’ve no idea what my family were doing during our Civil War, except that a few of them were kicking off the Baptist Chapel movement at the time – that I do know.

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

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