Fighting a battle with miniatures - Part Two

With the battlefield set up, we move onto the next stage.

The Army of the Potomac is withdrawing down the Peninsular after the aborted attempt to capture Richmond. The whole army is on the south bank of the rising Chickahominy River, except for V Corps, commanded by Brigadier General Fitz John Porter, His Corps is large, comprising five divisions with a total of fourteen infantry brigades, seven batteries and a brigade of cavalry. but it is isolated on the north bank.

Not one to miss an opportunity, Robert E. Lee formulates a daring plan to destroy V Corps. He splits his Army of Northern Virginia into two wings, the right wing, led by himself is composed of Longstreet's and A.P. Hills Divisions. A total of eleven infantry brigades supported by two batteries of artillery. The other, and larger wing is  commanded by Major General Jackson with no less than four divisions, giving a total of fourteen infantry brigades and four batteries of guns.

Lee's plan is to crush V Corps between the two wings...

Sound familiar, well it is the opening moves and OOB of the Battle of  Gaines Mill, however the forces quoted are far too large for my tiny table, hence my fictitious piece of the peninsular, located in the area of St. Mark's Church. Even with each stand representing a brigade, I have had to cut down the size of the forces involved.


Union V Corps in all its glory, though truncated to three divisions of infantry, one of cavalry and five batteries of artillery.

The three infantry divisions of General's McCall, Sykes and Morell. With Porter out in front.

His five batteries of guns and a couple of supply wagons to represent his supply chain.

The two wings of the Confederate army have also been pruned to fit. The right wing now comprises of just Longstreet's Division and one battery of artillery. Jackson has two divisions of infantry and two batteries of guns in the left wing.

Longstreet's division of six brigades and artillery. General Lee is also with this wing.

Jackson's force of two infantry divisions and two batteries of artillery.

The two red arrows show the entry point of the Confederate forces, Longstreet on the lower right, and Jackson lower left.

Morell's division leads V Corps onto the table.

The Union column snakes along covered on its right flank by a brigade of cavalry. Gen Porter also takes in the scene.

Longstreet's division also begins to enter the field on the road next to St. Mark's Church.

The columns converge.

Where is General Jackson?

A good question General Lee, he has had problems reaching the area and may be delayed for some time.

So the scene is now complete with troops moving onto the table. A vastly superior Union Corps faces just a sole division of Confederates blocking their line of advance, When will Jackson arrive?

The dice will decide...

That concludes this part, I hope it has whetted your appetite for the coming battle and you will return to witness the Battle of St. Mark's Church.

Fighting a battle with miniatures. Part One

I am taking a short break from painting now that my 6 mm ACW project is complete. It is at times like this that being able to throw a few troops down on the table, make all that painting worthwhile. We often select, buy and then begin painting figures for a dream scenario we can picture in our head, rows of painted minis advancing to the enemy lines, cannon roaring etc.

But often, maybe after just a few weeks, with just a few units painted and a huge pile of lead still awaiting their turn, that initial enthusiasm begins to wane somewhat. That battle of Waterloo, Gettysburg, or whatever, seems just as far away as it always was, and that pile of lead just doesn't appear to be getting any smaller.

The project withers and dies, the offending lead is boxed up and hidden in a cupboard as a new, shiny and probably just as elusive project takes its place. What you ask is the solution?

Well a number of suggestions spring to mind, scale down the project. Paint up enough units for each side to be able to fight at least a skirmish game. Three or four infantry, a cannon and a cavalry unit per side, will at least get the troops on the table and allow you to see the potential of what you started, and may even rekindle the project and drive you on to increase your forces by a few more units for a slightly larger battle.

There are rule sets out there, for the gamer with only a few units available. OK it is not the Gettysburg of your initial dream, but it is a damn good start and allows you to actually put those painted figures to doing what they were designed for, as well as being a lot of fun. Just playing and actually seeing your figures in action, should be motivation enough.

I have done exactly that over the course of the last year or so that this project has lasted. Used a small amount of bases to fight on the tabletop. as a break from painting and to have a bit of fun. So as mentioned at the beginning of this article, I am about to set up and play a battle. I thought I would let you look into my thought processes and ideas.

First of all it the question of where to play, If you don't have a dedicated games room or table set aside, then like me you have to make do with what is available. For me it is this rather small dining table.

Total length.

Breadth.

Next is the layout of the table. I have a scenario in my mind, which calls for a road running between two quite steep ridges, there are gaps in the ridges where roads will branch off. My ridges, as can be seen, are a couple of tea towels and face flannels.

The gap in the ridge for the road at the Western end of the table. The face cloth will probably be a hill to break up the monotony of the ridge.

There is also a gap in the ridge line to the South side of the table.

Finally, a road will also enter at this Northern point at the East end of the table.

Cover with the Cigar Box Battle Mat, and we have some terrain going on.

Some soldiers eye level shots to get a feel for the terrain.

Next up is to place the roads, the main turnpike running the length of the table, with roads radiating off to pass through the gaps in the ridges.

Doesn't look too bad and pretty much what I had in mind.

Add a farm, walled church, split log fencing and trees, and a battlefield is born.

Looking down the table from East to West.

Perfect setting for the local church.

Looking down a couple of lanes from low level.

Finally, the table looking from East to West

The table is now ready, though I may well put down a couple of crop fields, just to create some difficult ground.

Next up is the location of this small piece of countryside, back story and the troops that will be involved. But I shall leave that for part two of this article.

Planning a table top battle - Antietam

Back in March of this year, I fought the First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas on a 6 x 4 feet table, I photographed and did a running commentary over a number of posts, These can be found on my blog.

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I am currently in the early stages of fighting another major battle, this time the aim is Antietam, so I thought some may find it interesting on how I go about the research and actually recreating a real historical battlefield on a table.

On this occasion I found a marvelous article in issue 253 of Wargames Illustrated from November 2008, the author, R. Neil Smith has done the hard work and created simple maps of the battlefield as well as the OOB of the forces involved.

Due to the piecemeal way the Union attack went in, it is possible to fight the battle in three distinct phases, allowing the table to be reconfigured for each phase of the battle. Events that happen in a previous phase, can and will, affect what happens in the following phase.

Taken from the magazine, the text is not too clear, but the maps are fine.

These maps and OOB will form the basis of my re-fight on the table top. I will be using a base to represent a brigade, this will stop my small table from becoming too congested. I normally try to represent each regiment of each brigade, that would be doable on a 6 x 4 feet board but not on a 43 x 28 inches table I currently have to use. But hey, who said big battles cannot be fought on small tables?

As in the earlier battle, mentioned above, I will photograph and write a commentary of events unfolding on the tabletop, and just like last time, extracts of letters and dispatches will also be included. So watch out, your name may appear as a Johnny Reb or a Billy Yank, writing down his experiences of the battle.