American Civil War (3/4)


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The land of the free had some arguments about that - freedom.  Some wore blue, he wore gray.  Why didn't Bogart ever make a Civil War movie?  Or did he?

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Well, here we have - or had - a well created and painted collection.  Right up until I decided to reorganize and rebase to meet current thinking (mine) on how the game should look and flow.  So, another place where photos may come sooner than later.  But, for now, this is one period further back in the list of "things to do."

December 14, 2012

Maybe this is a result of having spent so much time with those bloody pirates that I've taken a whole in my hull and now I'm listing.  barump-ba-dum-pumb!  (did you here the drummer's rim shot, did ya, unh?)  Anywhose, I'm going to attempt to list my ACW collection here today.  I say attempt because this might be in a bit of a flux.  Perhaps seeing it in print here will help me make some decisions.

For the Victorious Union:

I have 50 regiments of infantry, 13 regiments of cavalry, and 18 artillery batteries.

(The extra 4 infantry regiments and the 1 extra cavalry regiment are for a Colored Legion.)

For the Lost Cause:

I have 46 regiments of infantry, 12 regiments of cavalry, and 18 artillery batteries.

All infantry regiments will be 24 foot figures (and one more foot figure and a mounted officer).
All cavalry regiments will be 18 mounted figures, 12 dismounts, 2 horse holders with four horses.
All artillery batteries are 3 guns and 12 gunners.

All told, that gives a fighting strength to this collection of figures of 3,378.  Ouch, that's a lot.  Fortunately about 1,600 (or is it 1,800?) are already painted.  There is a nice mix in there, too, of things like zouaves and marines and sailors and sharpshooters, some painted, some not.

That total does not include the command figures but I have 172 mounted officers (maybe a few on foot)

Without regard to which side they are assigned to, I also have 36 limbers and caissons with 88 men and 106 horses (union always get four, some of the confederate only get 2 horses).  There are 20 wagons with 20 men to drive them and 66 horses to pull them (and six pontoons for the pontoon wagons).  There are also 42 naval and siege guns - without any dedicated crew figures.  There are a total of 36 band figures.  And I have about 24 "contraband" figures.  And then there are the specials, the troops locked in melee, the engineers, the rival president's and their entourages (even a few ladies), some signal troops, and what have you that adds up to 148 men, 18 women and children (and two signal towers).

One of my other quirks is liking to litter the battlefield so there are 178 men as casualties or doctors and orderlies and strethcer bearers, 48 horse casualties (some cast with riders, the riders in the preceding total), and 38 damaged bits of equipment - cannons, limbers, wagons, etc.  Besides the foregoing, I also have 108 loose weapons for scattering about and another 87 bits and pieces like buckets, drums, backpacks, bag piles, crate piles, etc. to enliven the field.

I've lost track whether or not this is my largest collection of figures - it's possible the wild west exceeds it in totals now.  Doesn't matter.   And it is possible some of those numbers might be off here or there.  You ever try to count that many figures?  All in all, though, it's pretty close to what I have.

May 25, 2014

Stopping in for a visit and thought I'd get a tally of horses and dismounts to add to the total above.  I counted them up.  So, excluding the casualty horses, there are 990 horses.  And then there are the dismounted men, 300 fighting men and 50 horse holders.  That's 1,040 to add to the 3,378 for a new sub-total of 4, 418.  And since were tallying, let's go ahead and add the other 857 sundry bits for enhancing the table and that gives an approximate grand total of 5,275 pieces - including all guns and bits and wagon drivers and dead horses, etc.  I guess that makes this my largest collection of figures for a single period.  Oh, the figure is approximate for two reasons, I may have pulled out a few of the contraband figures for other uses (pretty certain) and there may be items that didn't get into the count, most because they are 'spare' figures against the above organizational 'structure' and others because they might have just got missed out of the counting - is rather a large number to keep track of, isn't it?

March 7, 2020

Nearly six years since last posting for what over the years has been my busiest collection with the most painted - but not much new for a long time.  And not really much new now except for the whole collection has been undergoing a rebasing for different rules.  Instead of my long-time rules of Johnny Reb II, I have fully converted over to Rank and File as my mainstay rules for most periods and that meant doing some rebasing (not strictly necessary but aligns with my desires to have a minimum of six stand regiments).

So, a few photographs of a rebased cavalry regiment with freshly textured bases:
This is the unit dismounted, four foot stands and one horse holder stand.  The householder stand gets to fire - and might be turned sideways.  Well, that is the current plan.
 In column from the side.
 In column from the front.
In line - six bases with figures three abreast per base.

Still missing - because not yet painted, though primed and ready to paint - is the casualty stand which for cavalry will be one dead horse and one dead man.  Probably use the dead stand to denote a unit has reached 50% or more losses which impacts morale recovery in Rank and File.

If the cavalry horses look a bit glossy it is because I coat them with acrylic gloss medium and then hit them with dull cote - the goal is to get a bit of a sheen to the horses.  But the dull cote hasn't been sprayed on yet.

Over twenty infantry regiments got reworked and rebased last year, eight foot bases plus one colonel base (with a foot soldier) per regiment.  Trying to get some more infantry regiments ready for a convention game two weeks from today.  We'll see how it goes.

March 8, 2020

Early the next morning and I took some time to reread those earlier posts.  The ACW collection has grown a bit since those postings prior to yesterday so the numbers of figures is somewhat larger.  The Union is now at 60 foot regiments, 15 cavalry regiments, and 22 artillery batteries (22 limbers, 8 caissons), wagon count may be lower (?).  For the Confederates collection is now at 48 foot regiments, 12 cavalry regiments, and 18 artillery batteries (18 limbers, 6 caissons).  There are now more generals and more casualty figures (may actually need a few more?) including more medical staff including several more stretcher bearer teams.  I have not done any sort of count for new totals, just know they are larger.  And, of course, a good portion is yet to get painted though the painted portion is pretty substantial.


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