I live on the web elsewhere in blogs about gardening, birdwatching and growing vegetables. All my life though I have had a not so shameful secret. I play with Toy Soldiers. I don't do it very well though. Certainly not as well as I did when I was a small boy with a head full of Saturday Night at the Movies and a bag of 1 1/72 Airfix "little soldiers" (Yes this might be the short customary wargaming origin story for a blog of this nature - I will let myself have a couple more paragraphs but please do skip ahead those paragraphs).
Big and Little Soldiers on the carpet graduated during secondary school to D&D and some other cool Sci- Fi games with miniatures - Starhound and Dirtside (I think) in 6 mm. I went away to boarding school and all the time the "bug" was gnawing away at me. In the loft of one of the buildings was a giant wargames table complete with 1/300 Cold War tanks - but sadly no club and no playing partners. Geekdom was restricted to D & D and Traveller with a few fifth formers. A huge opportunity at college was ignored - girls, rugby and partying was more important in my life but a year at Law School in Chester after then saw me drift into a Games Workshop and very much settle at the Epic end of things. I found guys to play with - teeny tiny Space Marines were bussing and de-bussing from Rhinos on the dining room table. I got into discussions with a guy who had run a campaign at University over a number of years. I didn't know these things were possible. By this time I had also got into board wargames in a big way and of course home computers had made an appearance in the 80's but had massively improved by the 90's. Gary Grigsby games started to appear on my home computers and eventually I found my way to the Matrix site. Like many guys my age with ideas bigger than their time and tabletops I went digital and drifted away from our analogue life of imagination and craft.
Early boardgames purchases that kept me in the real world on a tabletop included Third Reich, RAF Lion and Eagle and Eventually Decision Games War Between the States 1861-65. More recently I have added tomes such as World in Flames and Pacific War to those. The release of the film Gettysburg and then Gods and Generals in the 90's had me obsessed by the "Myth of the Lost Cause" (and I understand it is a myth) and dreaming of barefoot rebel forces marching 20 miles overnight before destroying armies twice their size. A wife and family came along and apart from the odd board game set up and played for a few turns then taken down before dinner I didn't seek out a club or playing partners to scratch the itch.
When the boys came along I took care to lure them into a few soft tactical card games and at one stage had them playing Whizz Kids excellent Pirates on the tabletop with painted islands and miniature masted tall ships and an awful lot of Pokemon. There were attempts at getting Warhammer and 40 k off the ground. I would paint the miniatures and then try not to get annoyed when arms went missing. I went abroad to the Gulf for couple of years but then only came back fifteen years later - the boys grew up substantially. Large amounts of time on my own in the Gulf during the Summers (40 degrees plus) gave me time at the weekends to pour over books, board wargames and more computer games but I had little direction. I turned out odd bases for unfinished armies. I found a group of Board wargamers in Dubai for a while who were serious gentleman but in an afternoon we might be able to play a couple of turns from a scenario of a big game. Nothing was ever played to a conclusion.
The family in the meantime developed a healthy boardgame habit on the more generalist side but I kept persisting with the boys and games which had an element of military strategy including such gems as Eclipse, Second Dawn for the Galaxy, War for the Ring and Star Wars Rebellion. Family favourites though are generally Ticket to Ride, Wingspan, Feast of Oden and Settlers of Cattan. I did manage however to get going with finally painting up some armies for DBA and DBMM. A trip to Greece and a deep dive into Herodotus had me pointing at all things Persian Wars for a while. Returning from overseas I retired from my partnership and started a long sebattical earlier this year. I have found myself in recent weeks playing a lot of Gloomhaven with my younger son - thankfully while he is 6 foot 5 and plays rugby he still has a fondness for minis and Geekdom. He is a Brute in the real world and one on the tabletop.
Sound familiar - no direction, no completed projects - a kid a candy shop scattering money at games, media, figures and spending an awful lot of time dreaming of what could be.
I bit the bullet when as I was coming home and joined the excellent Wyre Forest Gamers. This has been transformatory. I have started to pull out old half finished collections of 15 mm ancients from drawers and to relocate rule books and so on. Odd boxes or bases of 15 mm AB ACW, odd bases of 15 mm Essex Napoleonics for "Napoleons War" - I was flirting with this stuff on my own fully twenty five years ago. I am so out of date with my gaming tastes and knowledge. The majority of people up at the club have long since moved away from DBX. I am still fond of all things DBA and DBMM which kept me company for solo games while I was on my own and stuck abroad during lockdown. I am off to the conference of the Society of Ancients this Autumn. In the last 6 months I have knocked up a half decent AK 47 army (a great set of rules) and I have had the opportunity to play an awful of lot of games across every scale with a large selection of rules sets. Fire and Fury seem to be a thing up at the club along with the usual Warlord (Black Powder and Bolt Action), Two fat Ladies and Peter Pig staples. The Author of the Twighlight series of rules Nick Dorrel is active in the leadership of the club and another chap Thomas Penn has penned the Principles of War series. As Nick will tell you there is no shortage of figures, scales, periods and rules at the club - the scarcer resources can be agreement on the same and time and sometimes players. Recently however attendance has been up and the Club has had a payment amnesty for sessions during June because the club coffers are full. It has been great to play some big games with dozens and dozens of bases on the table. A trip to Austria last year on my own as part of my travel sabbatical found me in the military area history museum in Vienna drooling over uniforms from 1600 through to the end of the second World War. My last but one trip up to the club I had a great 28 mm World War One skirmish Game. Other highlights have been large battles from the Wars of Succession and the Seven Year's War. This week a huge game of Hail Caesar between Romans and Sassanids with 1000's of 10 mm figures on each side saw my elephants running amuck to howls of laughter. More recently we have started a SYW campaign up the club on the map from Soldier Prince.
I am retired or at least semi-retired so I have the time to take on something quite big and I also have the resources in terms of space at home. I am very lucky in that respect. I have been painting a lot of different things in different scales. Plenty of ancients in 15mm with a view to getting some games on more modern rulesets up the Club and Napoleonics in 10 mm to join in with a drive to get Et Sand Resultant up and running with Volley and Bayonet as a clear target for me also in that period. "A lot" is an exaggeration. My last real push delivered a completed AK 47 army to the tabletop but very little else is finished. For the last few weeks though the call of the South and the volunteer regiments of the North has had me turning out Pendraken American Civil War figures in 10 mm. As much for the fun of it as anything else.
Slowly but surely little regiments started to appear on my workbench. Rebel at first. Rule sets started to be located from drawers - Johny Reb 3 which must have followed me around for 25 years and again Volley and Bayonet. Paint purchases have vey much drifted toward grey, butternut and Oxford blue. I am hooked on a look again.
The same as everyone else with a wargaming pulse I have been consuming an awful lot of Little Wars TV - hats off to that whole gang over there in Baltimore who have really ignited my desire to do something "big". Greg Wagman from that Group has written a decent set of ACW rules Altar of Freedom which comes complete with a campaign system to replay the run up to and battle of Gettysburg. I love the idea of campaigns - movement on maps, consequences from battles, supplies, weather, rail transport, generalship and fog of war. Literally the whole shooting match.
For the last twenty years at least I have been dreaming about somehow creating an all consuming big campaign at home. I have been devouring website after website by guys who do just this with their spare time. They Create huge stories or narratives of battle campaigns with whole armies and kingdoms - sometimes whole new worlds populated by characters from their imaginations. They often work solo but produce excellent records of their work which inspire and enthuse. I am amazed by the huge body of work out there and the resources in terms of campaigns ideas and free rules. There is a grand tradition for this type of solo endeavour stretching way back to Donald Featherstone and Tony Bath. Recently Henry Hyde has just published a huge tome on Campaigns which I crunched through in a few short sittings.Yes I could paint some soldiers and set up a beautiful table and get a result over a non-club Sunday. But what then ? Does the army go on to achieve a political result ? Does the battle result in the loss of a crucial resource such as a mine or a great source of horseflesh ? How many of the battered brigades, legions or war bands make it back to the capital to regroup and put up a last stand ? What happens as the sun sets and how will this affect the next battle on say Thursday evening. Where exactly is that battle and are their reinforcements nearby ?
Two particular potential periods or projects have caught my eye over the years as I have lived vicariously through other peoples work. It has been a toss up on which one to start first. I think as gamers we can be guilty of dreaming a lot, reading a lot and sometimes just not getting on with it. It's the same with gardening or cooking - many people who profess to love these spend more time watching lifestyle shows than they do actively pursuing their chosen life. For the moment and subject to the needs of my family, (especially elderly parents) property and garden I finally have time to put something in motion. The advice is to start small. I have always been the guy (we all do this) who opens the box and goes to the final scenario which is the whole shebang.
The first candidate or candidates for a campaign addresses my love of colonial war-games and figures. Not exactly "woke" pastimes but The Sword and the Flame, The Men Who Would be King and BlackPowder proudly sit on my book shelf. If you ever want to understand the appeal of colonial war-games I thoroughly recommend a visit to the Campaigns of General Pettigree. This is a gem of a site in the form of a comic in pictures. A giant and consistent, long lasting and passionate labour of love spanning decades in both its remit and life on the web. The sheer sweep of Bill's imagination can only inspire you to want to paint a gunboat and land a company of 15 mm Victorian Marines somewhere East of Bengal ! One of the ideas for a huge colonial foray I am looking is a recreation the 1880s/90s Anglo-Egyptian Sudan campaign using some excellent rules which are widely available for free online. Here is an example of a site playing out the campaign using the Sword in Sudan rules. The mechanics involve raising regiments to put down the Mahdis uprising in the upper Nile. A clever map system with a revolt index generates the uprising and then the solo player has a limited clock within which to lift any sieges and return peace to the lower Nile. A real treat for Mr Kipling. All very "Four Feathers" (the most recent production of which I sat up and watched last week - the dust choking my imagination).
But then I thought "Think Bigger" and located the original Sun Never Sets Rules. Bigger indeed - you literally game the British Empire and have to firefight across the entire world despatching guards regiments by paddle steamer and hiking into the North-West Frontier to put down the latest rebellion by the Pashtouns. Enthused I started painting and downloaded the rules. I have collected so many rules sets over the years in my search for "the one". A tiny lead mountain developed and I painted an example of some Zulus to see if my modelling and campaigning juices got going. Every little boy my age was literally brought up on the film as it seemed to be played endlessly on Boxing Day or Easter Sunday when you couldn't just "click" to see whatever you wanted on demand. Now we can watch Zulu whenever we want or the Longest Day - perfect.
Maybe it was the thought of having to paint a dozen different nations from Boers to Boxers to do battle with but I thought I should put this on hold for a while. In the meantime Southern Civil War regiments kept appearing. Glory got an eighth late night showing with Denzl Washington and Morgan Freeman and I downloaded a lecture series on the American Civil War on Audible by Professor Gary Gallagher who is an expert based out of the University of Virginia. In between painting barefooted rebels I started looking at You Tube videos on how to make snake rail fences. Before I knew it I was five Johny Reb 3 regiments to the good and was on lecture 8 out of forty of my marathon 24 hour long deep dive course.
My three volume copy of Shelby Footes Civil War, A Narrative came to my bedside and as I continued painting my laptop started an 11th or so repeat play of Ken Burns truly awesome Civil War documentary for the PBS channel. My head started ringing with Shelby and Gary Gallagher and civil war songs started playing around the house - John Brown's body and the Bonny Blue Flag.
I understand up front and central that there is a huge elephant in the room over the war. An elephant that will charge all over this website if I don't address that up front. The South was fighting front and centre to protect the instutution of slavery - its founding constitution in 1861 made it abundantly clear. Secession was the direct result of a fear that the institution of slavery would be isolated and then eventually wound up. I get all the arguments about States Rights but essentially they boil down to a right to have an economic and cultural system underpinned by slavery. The Confederate constitution is in essence the US constitution but with a new section making it perfectly clear that slavery was to be protected whereas the original US constitution makes no mention of slavery although in practice it was read as allowing it for close on a century.
Make no mistake though - at the outset the North was not fighting to emancipate the slaves. The main catalyst to the outbreak of the war was the election of Abraham Lincoln from the new Republican Party and then simply put secession. Lincoln stood on a ticket in 1861 upholding the institution of slavery within the existing Southern slave states while ending the spread of slavery in the new territories. The argument was over the extension of the institution to the new territories and joining states. Missouri and Kansas had been involved in bitter partisan violence over the issue since the 1850s. Whatever Abraham Lincoln's personal view on the institution many people both in the North and South of the whole continent had been compromising and balancing interests for decades but eventually the ability to do that just ran out. The fears of the Southern elites that their whole economic wellbeing was under threat from the election of the Republican Party with its large abolitionist contingent directly led to the secession of the lower belt of the Southern States and then things played out politically over that derivative issue - the integrity of the Union. The war would go on to eventually become a "crusade" in part for the abolition of slavery, but only in due course and that was never a war aim from the outset. If the South had thought again and rejoined the Union quickly slavery would still have been in place for some time. Doomed but in place. The war started as a fight to prevent 11 states (or possibly 13 at the outset) from leaving the union for good. It was caused though by Southern fears over the eventual abolition of slavery and end of the rail road on compromises on the new terratories but it was fought initially over secession.
I did need to address Southern society though or the elephant in the room from the outset. In the same way that when playing World War Two wargamers often have to move an SS tank division or roll a dice for a German unit on a map any recreation of a Civil War Battle will have Southern generals who are slave holders and ultimate victory for the Southern side in a tabletop simulation clearly has counter historical social consequences that are appalling. Every discussion or simulation of the Civil War sits in that place but there remains an industry around it. I am not one of those gamers who ignores the background and just moves on to cheer on the Army of the Northern Virginia when it gets a good roll. The difficulty is inescapable - but it does not mean that from a military history or gaming point of view that it is wrong to run a simulation. I have no real opinion on the removal of statues except that they are there. Robert E Lee cannot be airbrushed from history. I read his last letter to his remaining men at Appatomattox Court House the other night to his men wishing them a peaceful life and thanking them. This after his intercession to Grant for hard scrabble farmers to be allowed to keep their mules and horses to get through the planting season. The man was patrician yes but there is very good reason why he was followed and loved. That leadership of an army is no myth.
It's so easy to get caught up in that story. You only have to turn your eye to the West to find union leaders such as Grant and Sherman that you can cheer for and inept leadership on the part of the South. I don't expect that Bragg was much loved in the South. There were also appalling political generals on both sides and clearly on the side of the South. So to be clear Society as a whole in the 1860s both North and South was inherently racist. Billy Yank on average was no bleeding heart but equally the bulk of Johnny Rebs owned no slaves, were stick thin and lived on a poor diet of green corn. Both however were quite literate and were aware of the issues in general terms. Billy Yank was in the main part either fighting to preserve the union or just for money or citizenship. Johnny Reb who didn't particularly like people from the North was often fighting because "you are down here" but also because he had no choice and would be called out in his small town for not being "patriotic". The violation of "Southern soil" or "my country" (as Lee put it) was enough and the threatened compulsion by force to remain united with a North which was loathed. The issue of slavery was of course front and centre but really not the be all and end all for the North. When the Union general Fremont based in the West issued an emancipation declaration in Missouri in 1861 it was rapidly amended by Abraham Lincoln for fear of causing States like Kentucky and Missouri to secede to the South.
I have said enough - I can trip over my laces for pages but many people do not want to even wrestle with the problem or discuss it. The war is a total tragedy and I will its causes now to the academics. It results in the abolition of slavery to bring the United States as a whole up to speed with the United Kingdom and France. I am going to simulate the American Civil War on a grand scale and take the opportunity to read and learn more. It is about time I got past my staple reads such as Shelby Foote, John Keegan and Grant's memoirs. The history and causes are complex and I am fully aware of the major and sensitive context within which it sits - enough said. I am conscious that my Rebel regiments appear to have lept onto the table. Guilty as charged. This exercise will give me the opportunity to deep dive and start routing for the North as I divide my brain in two. I need to read more about the Northern armies. I will take no less care over my men of the union or their dispositions or movements. Northern Victories will be pressed home and strategic advantages followed up if my counters roll well.
Why do so many wargamers get caught up with the alleged fighting prowess of the South ? Simply put once the "awkward" causes and politics are placed on one side (a terrible turn of phrase), in terms of the military simulation everyone likes an underdog. This is the "myth of the lost cause" - that the heroic and "patriotic" South defending its sovereignty on principle fought on for five years and never stood a chance of success due to the material advantages of the North. Press play on Gone with the Wind and listen to the claptrap that gets narrated in the first couple of minutes. There was also a huge movement of the US media during my lifetime toward celebrating Southern military prowess, elan or perhaps resilience not balanced by far too few depictions of the North or descriptions of the issue of preservation of the Union. The United States really was the exemplar of a new and democratic society. Abraham Lincoln was a farm boy and rail splitter who took himself to the highest office of the land. Intellect and energy were all and not breeding or class. When there was a new horizon of opportunity and prosperity the protection of that fledgling democracy and its union was an end in itself for many thinking men who picked up a musket. A third of the Northern army were first generation immigrants fighting for citizenship and for many the difference between England, Germany, Ireland or Hungary and the US was readily apparent. At times that simple issue can be drowned out by the "Song of the South".
It is interesting then to challenge this "Myth of the Lost Cause" on the tabletop. Just how much of an underdog was the South ? I will tackle that once the map is set up and the rules laid down. The basic point is that once the South seceded all it really needed to do ("all") was to defend its territory and convince the North that victory would come at too high a price. The North had to win the war and conquer the South which is a vast area the size of Western Europe and to do that it had to go on the offensive which is inherently a disadvantaged position in the face of the rifled musket and canister shot. If the North did not take the war to the South at a huge scale then the South would simply win by default. Once the scale of the task is appreciated and the complexity of achieving Northern war aims from a military point of view the South's strategy seems the easier to fulfil. There are many other points to balance out and consider. Much of what is on my mind has been prompted by the excellent lecture series I am currently listening to.
I am overthinking my decision on choice of period and have apologised enough. There are hundreds of simulations of the Civil War on the market and tens of thousands of wargamers worldwide pushing counters on maps and figures on table. I am aware of the context and respectful of it. Going through this exercise should lead me to a better understanding and respect for the causes and results of the War.
A couple more resources reminded themselves to me as I drifted towards my decision. Firstly my old Decision Games War Between the States. This is not quite a Monster boardgame but if you were ever going to set up all three maps and play out the whole war you would need a serious investment of time. I expect it would take several months if you were managing to sit down a few times a week for a couple of hours. I love this game. I have had it set up and played the first couple of years a number of times. This simulation covers just about everything - manpower, supply, unit production and training, politics, commanders, blockades, ironclads. It just hits the sweet spot of the grand epic scale. The political and points system for testing the North's resolve to fight on has been developed and I think it is excellent. Simply put there is a balanced score card at the strategic level which means that if the North does not press home its advantage in material and convert it into gains it runs the risk of the South being recognised by the Great Powers (as they were then) and the blockades being lifted.
There is a real "thing" around fitting a miniatures rule set to operate within a campaign based on a board wargame. It isn't easy but it's possible. A great example is the hook up between A House Divided and Volley and Bayonet. I have read the campaign rules for the whole civil war many times. They start in 1861 with the historical set up and operate on month long turns on a box map based on the House Divided Boardgame. Each box is linked by road, river and rail links and there are rules for movement of Corps and transferring the resulting battles to the tabletop and rolling on the consequences to the subsequent months. As the South loses recruiting centres it loses the resources to replace its losses while the North just rumbles on. It is an excellent package. I haven't seen anyone as yet record online a whole campaign online to a conclusion, solo or otherwise. It must be a huge endeavour. Thinking logically if each monthly turn generated say 3 or 4 potential battles those would probably take an actual month to complete on a solo basis without a set of fast set rules to cheat on occasion to get a quick result. In conclusion the Civil War could take 5 years to complete - and you would be playing it out in real time ! I guess though it can conclude early.
What could be more ridiculous then ? Think even bigger. Somehow a madness has taken me and I have decided that what I want to do is to bootstrap either Brigade level Fire and Fury or Volley and Bayonet to the map for War between the States while perhaps simplifying the Boardgames mechanics a little bit ? Is that even doable ? The Map for War Between the States is incredibly detailed and takes up three giant double printed spreads. The turns in the game are weekly with a monthly strategic turn for raising new troops and ships which then appear after 4 or 5 months on a production spiral. The game has hundreds of counters and a table for the appearance of dozens of division to corps and army level commanders. Most of all it has the map ! This would allow realistic movement along turnpikes and by paddleboat along the Mississippi. Every road and every railway - the location of forts and recruitment centres. It's epic in scale - it would encompass, well the whole thing.
It is a ridiculous project in scope and complexity but thankfully if I am going to do this I am going to do this solo so I don't have take anyone along for the ride. I am happy though to blog it as I go and to see how far I get. I have twenty or thirty years left on my personal game clock and perhaps 250 weekly turns to get done. I would have miniatures to paint, scenery to create and a whole set of rules to create for telescoping the Campaign game onto the Boardgame. Keeping it Stupid Simple ("KISS") would have dictated that I just take the Volley and Bayonet system and play with the existing campaign rules. They are there on the site and the map is detailed enough. I have already bought A House Divided and the good as new box and board has arrived from the States courtesy of E-Bay. My fear is that I will lose the nuance of the story. The locations, the ability of armies to slip away - the manoeuvre of the South's limited invasions on the North. It looks as if the map would result in a gentle creep of the Union forces from box to box toward Richmond. I kept getting drawn back to the map in the big Decisions Games box.
I fancy a huge challenge and a huge endeavour. I want to tell a story and learn some new history. I want to model at a huge scale and follow each regiment/brigade and call up. It could be all consuming and really quite rewarding if I am patient and thoughtful about how I go about it.
It is ridiculous enough a project but I am not sure I will pull it off. Perhaps I will take detours to refight a Mahdist uprising or secure Burma. Perhaps I will take a turn or two back to Greece with my Hoplites. I have promised another big game of DBMM up the club in a few weeks so I am turning out another phalanx as well as my brigades of Union troops at the present.
Overall I think this is a chunky enough endeavour for anyone - I cannot think of one bigger and this should lend itself to a lot of discussion with myself along the way and a lot of reading and learning, painting and building of terrain.
So the website here will be "Hasty Works" - a reference to the logs and boulders manhandled and rolled to make a quick defence for an American Civil War regiment. Volley and Bayonet allows a few hasty works once both sides get stuck into the middle phase of the war. I'll start by blogging about my collection and creation of resources and the decision making process around the system itself. How I will base, what I need to paint and the development of the campaign rules themselves. I will beg borrow and steal and give credit where credit is due. This could take some time ! So maybe the title is also somewhat ironic. The state of play on painting is as you see below but I am a good painter and quite quick when I put my mid to it and I have nothing but time !
See you in hell Johny Reb. See you in hell Billy Yank.
