Mill Springs book review

I have now read the book "The battle of Mill Springs Kentucky" written by Stuart W. Sanders. It was a good read were you got some information about some of the regiments that was involved. As a reader you get a background history about why it was a battle at all, always interesting to get to know why a battle took place. You get some information about armament and uniforms but I would have liked more of it. As a wargamer I always search for information of that sort so I can use it when I paint my miniatures. Sanders write well and it is easy to read the book. But I can't understand why he didn't include more maps were I could follow what was happening in his text. I am a sucker for maps and always have my index finger between the pages whit maps and then I flipp back and forth in the book to get a view of whats happening.

Over all a good book that would have been so much better with more maps. If you are interested in the American Civil War this is a nice book to have on the shelf and not that expensive. One thing the struck me when I read the book is how quarrelsome the generals are and how they try to manipulate so they get most of the glory.

Roll Sixes/

Conny

How to make a base...

I like to paint miniatures. The miniature mind you! Then comes the pain of making bases for the miniatures. In my time as a wargamer I don't think I have done a single base that I am satisfied with. If I could get away with not doing bases at all I would be a happier wargamer. But bases we have to our miniatures so bases we must do...

I have now done three bases in my Mill Springs project. I go with the classic darker brown base and add some grass on top. I don't like static grass, I use it but I do not like it! I tested another variant this time that was a bit easier to apply to the base. To my larger miniatures I have found the grass tuft from Army Painter and I LOVE them. Very easy to use to good effect but they are to large for 10mm. I will use them on 15mm miniatures thou. Well I will give you some pictures of the new bases. The miniatures are not yet matt varnished so they are a bit shiny. 

Please fell free to leave comments or suggestions on what you think. Cheerful yells of appreciation on the fine bases will also work ;).

Roll Sixes/

Conny

Battle at Kernstown

Today I was in Mölndal and played a game of Hardees Regimental Rules (HRR) with the authors of the rules and some friends to them. The scenario was set in the Shenandoah valley and Jackson had the orders to destroy a brigade of union troops near the town of Kernstown. Jackson had 3 brigades and some artillery at his disposal. I don't know the union orders since I played as confederate. It was a game were the authors was leading the game and units could be hidden and placed on the board when the enemy first saw them. This worked best for the union since they were defending.  It is really much more fun when you don't really know what you are facing and you need to adapt you plans by the knowledge you have of the field and what happens. My initial plan was to deploy my brigade at one place but ended up way of since union troops forced me to deploy earlier, loved it! My brigade tried to dislodge union troops on a hill and it was hard fighting for the hill. I sadly had to leave before the battle was done but I had a really great time while it lasted. I hope I can go up there again soon and have another go at it.

The rules needs getting used to since the standards like I go you go etc doesn't apply. But it is good rules that I think works really well for this scale. You can fairly easy command about 10 regiments and some artillery. The difficulty here is not to make it to rules heavy and I think that they are well on their way to that point.

Some pictures from the battle:

The battlefield.

The lead regiments of Jacksons command.

The confederates form a battle line in shelter of Kernstown.

The attack on the hill goes in with guns blazing!

Roll sixes/

Conny

Bloody lane or Memory lane?

If I may chose I will pick memory lane... I have always been interested of The American Civil War. I can't remember why but I think it have something to do with the tv show "How the west was won" and the tv show "North and South". Anyway, me and my best friend at the time ran in to some rules and miniatures set in the civil war during a convention in Borås. This was about 24 yeras ago... ;). The rules was at skirmish level and the scale 28mm. The name of the rules is "Bonnie Blue". At the time I did not really know were the name came from, but I do now. We played this game a lot in my friends basement and the armies grew larger. We lost our interest in the rules and moved on to more easy pickings like GW (Aaargghh). Many of us have done the journey down the GW highway at some point...

My fascination of the civil war never left me thou and I have tried some more rules, but more on that later. Here are some photos of the early miniatures. They are now part of my sons collection since he wanted some miniatures to. But they are painted by me for some 24 years ago.

The rules and some miniatures. You only needed about 10 miniatures per side.

This was more than enough for an evenings play!

I have rebased them a few times. The one at the top are based with the top of the art basing technics of the time. Paint green and drybrush with yellow ;).

Roll Sixes!

/Conny

Reinforcement coming up!

Well the second regiment is now done for Mill Springs. I streamlined the uniforms a bit this time to make it a little bit faster to paint. When you read painting guides almost every one says that you should start with the skin. This is a good point but I always make the skin last, except for the metal parts... Why I do this you ask? Well the miniature can look mediocre and not that good and then the skin colours comes on and POW you have miniature soldiers worth his paint!

 Here are a pictures with out skin tones.

And here they are with skin tones and starting to look the part...

I will also give you some pictures on the new regiment. The banner shall be applied tomorrow. They are very shiny since I gloss varnished them today. The matt varnish will be applied when the bases are done.

I give you the 19th Tennessee!

Here is a close up on one of the stands

Roll Sixes!

/Conny

Working 9 to 5...

Well work has taking its toll on the painting last week. I have not made it so far as I wanted but I can still finish the regiment this week. The decision to streamline a bit more gives the effect that it goes a bit faster to paint since I don't need to change colour as often as before. I still have the haversack, skin and metal to paint.

The planing of Corinth goes forward and I had all the miniatures I need in my stash so no need to order more. At least not yet... I have also read the rules "Altar of Freedom" that is a brigade level game as is Volley & Bayonet. The rules are for 6mm but I will test it with my 10mm and see how it plays. A few interesting ideas in there that should be fun to test. The major strength with the rules are the many scenarios that you can get. About 40 of them while Volley & Bayonet don't have that support, sadly, since I really like those rules.

 The troops that I need for the Union.

The battlefield for Corinth. The board is only 72x72cm so small and nice...

While I paint I like to listen to music or have a film or documentary in the background. This time I have a documentary about the Civil War, how appropriate! 

 It is an okey documentary and if anyone of you out there have a suggestion on a good documentary about the Civil War, please leave a comment below. 

Roll Sixes/

Conny

A toothpick to far...

It has not been as much painting this week as I would like. The next regiment are going to be a more streamlined regiment in regard to the uniform. More grey and butternut and not as many blue pants and kepis. I have started to think about some terrain for the battlefield and have had a go at a fence made of toothpicks. It was not that good but I learned from my mistakes and they will improve.

I have also made the ground boards for the Volley & Bayonet scenario and started to draw the map on these. But more on that later. 

Here is a picture of the fence anyway. The unit has got a flag now but I am not happy with it and will probably replace it later on.

Roll Sixes/

Conny

More projects on the horizon..

Well, like many out there I am a person that have difficulties to stay with only one project at a time. These days I am happy if I can keep the number of projects down to 4 or less… Anyway this new project are not so new and is in the same sphere as Mill Springs. For the last years I have arranged some demo games at a convention in Gothenburg called GothCon. This year I did a scenario set at Bull Run 1861 with the rules Volley & Bayonet RtG. Next year I will set up the scenario Second battle of Corinth 1862. It is in line with Mill Springs as it is on the same historical period, American Civil War. The difference between the rules are that Volley & Bayonet are at brigade level which means that a base of infantry are a brigade of infantry. The Mill Springs scenario are set at a regimental level which leaves me as a commander with other problems to solve.

The Corinth scenario will not take so much effort to complete since most of the troops already are painted and done. Some complements must be done thou. The big part is to make the battlefield.

Here are some pictures of some of the troops I will use in this scenario:

I have done the bases in a way that I can put labels on them so I can use them in different battles.

Well now I will go back to the bunker and continue to base coat the next regiment for Mill Springs and plan for how I will build the battlefield for Corinth.

Roll Sixes/

Conny

Rebel Yell!

The first regiment for Mill Springs is done, well the miniatures anyway ;). The bases need to be done but the plan is to do all the bases for a brigade as one big sweep. Now I will start on the 19th Tennessee that was the second regiment that lead the attack on the union troops along side the 15th Mississippi and was part of Zollicoffers brigade.

Here are some pictures of the regiment:

A command base

The Regiment. It was the largest regiment at the battle with about 850 men. Other sources state that the regiment only had around 500 men active at the battle but I have chosen to use the larger number at this time.

Roll sixes/

Conny