I am all set with my rules and in theory I can lay out the map and kick off with the first moves for July 1861. As I will be converting some or all of the battles to the tabletop I will need to crack on now with the painting project. It is possible that a Manasses junction sized battle could occur within the first couple pf moves.
The distance between Washington and Richmond is 108 miles but on the map from the outset a fairly sizeable force of Confederates under Beauregard is protecting the approaches to Richmond just two hexes or 20 miles South of Washington. With reinforcement from Jo Johnston at Winchester that could create a battle with perhaps 30-35,000 men on either side (30-35 map counter points). A brigade stand represent up to around 2-3,000 men depending on the number of strength points assigned under my Volley and Bayonet transfer system from our counters. I will need probably 15 Volley Bayonet bases for either side as well a small amount of cavalry for the confederates in the East and both sides in the Kentucky/Missouri/Tennessee area at the outset of the war. So in terms of my actual 20 mm square bases populated with 4 figures around 50-60 for each side.
I am considering a system within my "trays" of depicting the strength points for infantry brigades by the number of bases at the outset. So a normal 6-4 or 6-5 brigade would have 6 bases in the tray at the outset and a 4-4 brigade base say 4. That will require me to paint and flock base blanks but that is a very quick process. I think it's a good way to reduce the burden at the outset and have a useful depiction for me from the start on the table and not on the roster sheets of brigade strength.
I currently have 4 full bases of confederates - or 24 stands. I am ashamed to say that after all this blog mileage I have barely begun with my union figures. In a good painting session of 2-3 hours I can usually create a full brigade base. Even if I can get in a painting session say 3 times a week then this is going to take me 5 weeks for the union army with perhaps another couple of weeks for ancillary units and terrain and about 3 weeks for the confederates and again a couple of weeks for ancillary units. So the quickest I could get Manassas on the table from where I am now is 3 months - so probably around Christmas realistically. I could put in a few monster sessions - I am retired and also I could try some real speed painting. Some of my stands I agonise over and paint straps, canteen bottles and so on. There is school of thought that 25 % of the bases could be pick up ogle level and the rest just painted to be good from a metre away. They say you paint the unit and not the figure at 10 mm - so flags -clear bright colours - perhaps nicely washed faces and hands and glistening bayonets. At 15 mm with my ancients (I have a sizeable DBMM army) I have very much realised that shields, faces and spearpoints are the key and a couple of highlights on forward thrusting limbs/knees or cloth details to get a "pop".
I think I need to order now perhaps 10 artillery bases worth of figures for each side with various types of smooth bore and rifled field and heavy pieces. I will aim for 3 or 4 brigades of cavalry for each side. These look best in mounted and dismounted formats with horse handlers.
I think probably for my first battle I will need to create the Manassas battlefield but I will leave over scenery for a future post. Ah Zoaves ! I will need some Zoaves to cradle Reynolds on day 1 of Gettysburg if we ever get there !
See you in hell Billy Yank ! See you in hell Johny Reb !
