ACW: representing brigade on table top?

Started by Daryl, 04 October 2012, 03:50:12 PM

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Daryl

Think ive fallen in love with the new ACW range.. really like the Zouave and so painting up a bunch to represent the Louisiana Tigers... think im going to settle on the Battle of Fredericksburg and will thus follow its OOB (cos it can have tigers and army of Virginia)

As an example the 53rd Virginia was part of Armistead's Brigade .. but I dont want to represent the 53rd as just one bunch of figs on the table..  what is the next unit down and how many would there be and would each of those have a battle flag.. im guessing their was only one regiment flag?

Daryl

posted this question on TMP.. as I cant delete it now I thought id mention it lol

Hertsblue

Depends what figure scale and (largely) what rules you're using, Daryl. Normally a brigade would consist of anything from three to six regiments - a regiment being anything from 300 - 700 men. Each regiment would consist of a number of companies, ten being the usual number. One of these, usually A Company, would carry the regimental standard(s). All the companies in a regiment were usually lettered from A to J.

Hope this helps. 
When you realise we're all mad, life makes a lot more sense.

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Daryl

Thx Hertsblue.... currently getting replies on TMP so dont want to appear rude on either...thx for the info.  not really that interested in rules at the moment I just didnt want only one body of figs to represent a regiment..   more of a table top visual thing rather than for historical purposes.. but if a regiment only has one battle flag as implied on TMP maybe one unit wont be so bad.

Genom

I'm in the midst of making up an ACW army atm and what I've found from looking at the various rules systems is that a regiment tends to be the smallest Unit that you field with anywhere from 4 to 9 stands of 3-5 figures depending on what ruleset you're using. With 3+ regiments per Brigade, you'll probably find that most go with history rather than points for which regiments should be in each Brigade.

I've primarily been looking at Blackpowder and Johnny Reb so I'm not sure how it changes with other sets. I'm using some old 15mm models I've had in a box for over a decade, (before I discovered 10mm) basing them up 3 to a 40x20mm base with 6 bases per regiment because that's what I have loads of.  Most rules however tend to use squareish bases with 4 figures a base.

Bart of the North

I'm in the midst of changing to 10's from my 20 year old 15mm ACW because the figures are so nice as well and pondering the same thing.  I did Brigade F&F (which are still a great set of rules IMHO) with the 15's and did my brigades to look like the regiment I liked the best. I want to do things on a regimental scale with the 10's.  I've ordered the F&F Regimental rules.  Those seem to be 1 stand for 40 men while the brigade3 rules are on the 1 stand per 150 or 200 men.  hhat would give you a nice 10-12 stand unit of zouaves but doing Fredicksburg at the scale would be daunting.

I'm gonna work up the armies for Sharpsburg, which is why I started spending money on lead in the 90's but never got there. Again Regimental F&F seems just too small of a scale as it would be with Fredricksburg.  We've gone to Black Powder for War of Spanish Succession.  Although the jury is still out for me I do basically like them.  The rules are really more of a kit of sorts to me and scale is mine to choose as are any number of period specific rules included in the rules or any I might want to make up.  So I'm leaning in that direction with 75-100 men per stand as my scale.  That means 3 stand regiments will be classified as small units, 4-5 as standard size and 6 up as large for me.  Those zouaves your talking about would be 5 stands with 25-30 figures in the unit.

Tim

mollinary

But you can think of doing RFF at 80 men per stand and fifty yards to the inch.  Even Rich Hasenauer recommends it for the FPW/APW.  Why not try it?

Mollinary
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Bart of the North

Thanks for the info, that is entirely possible.  Haven't received the rules yet so I haven't seen them yet.  I DO like his rules.  Not many rules in my collection that I still like 20 years into playing them and his Brigade rules certainly have passed the test of time for me.

Bart of the North

BTW Daryl.  Are you in Eugene, OR?  I think I use to game with you at EWEB about a decade ago.

Daryl

Hi.. Im in WestWales..originally Norfolk  :)

I was actually thinking about using about 60-80figs to represent a regiment.. thats why I wanted to split the regiment into smaller units, as I mentioned previously its all visual for me rather than rules..

I had hoped each company would have battle flags etc but that doesnt seem to be the case so will have a re-think.

Bart of the North

Hi Daryl,

The reason I asked was there was a Daryl Grant doing 10mm ACW I knew around 2000.  I remember thinking those are cool but damn I couldn't paint those things........now at over 5,000 10's and going strong I'm gonna paint some 10mm ACW of my own.

Your key words seem to be similar to my sentiments.  It's all about looks.  By December of 1862 the 1st La Special Battalion had been through many a fight and the way they looked at 1st Manassas wasn't the case anymore.  They got pretty chewed up in the Valley, on the Peninsula and in Maryland.  By the end of 1862 they had merged with at least one other battalion and by Fredricksburg the whole bloody brigade which their remnants were part of took on the name. They were hardly what would be comsidered "uniformed" at all by then.  I read somewhere that those who still clung to the earlier garb were more tan and pink than blue and red due to rain and sun fading.  Some manged to get the pantaloons most didn't and their hose was varied as the rainbow a while the fez was a cap worn primarily in camp if the boy even managed to find one.

Me, I'm gonna paint them like Wheat's original 1st Special Battalion. Even though by Sharpsburg in Sept 1862 they didn't look anything close to that.  Why?  Because they're going to look cool and I'm going to absolutely curse like the dickens trying to put stripes on them. :D

With that said, I pick rules that by and large "feel" good to me.  If I decide to stick with F&F Brigade level, I'll have a Brigade of Tiger Zouaves with badly painted stripes.  To me that is no less accurate than having a battalion or regiment that is painted the same way. 

Cheers,

Tim