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Post by robh on Jun 12, 2019 23:58:46 GMT
We have been playtesting the 2-3mm ACW Regiment level rules I am writing and have finished a playthrough of a Blackburn's Ford scenario. Couple of pictures showing my approach to gaming with FMS figures.  I am after a traditional figure game look rather than a pseudo boardgame but simple enough that it enhances, rather than hides the tiny figure strips. I am "downscaling" my collection of redundant TSS terrain tiles as the clean smooth flocked surface is perfect for the light weight and small base size of the figures. Means carving a lot more road and stream detail into the tiles and raising the 15mm deep rivers to a 2-3mm figure suitable height and narrowing the roads to a suitable width.  This is a Brigade of Confederate troops guarding a ford (Mitchell's) over Bull Run River. I use the first released 40mm 3 rank strip cut down to 2 ranks and base it on 1cm thin plastic card strips. In the game each base represents a regiment. In reality the regiment frontage would be 175 yards so a 40mm strip gives me a 1" to 150 yard ground scale, the rest of the terrain and scenarios are constructed to this base. Given the huge variation in regiment size this can vary from a 1 to 8 figure-man scale to a 1 to 1 or 2 in the small regiments. For variety/aesthetics I trim the length of some strips so not everything is an exact uniform 40mm. My aim eventually is to fight Gettysburg with every regiment individually represented. |
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Post by Zach on Jun 13, 2019 3:40:19 GMT
Hi Rob, great job! This is really some excellent, excellent looking terrain. And well photographed! Great lighting and framing. I normally use white to clean up pictures but that black looks good, too.
What are you using for forests? Obviously some sort of lichen or moss, but it seems particularly well suited to the scale.
Are you modifying the TSS tiles yourself? The look great!
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Post by robh on Jun 13, 2019 11:19:40 GMT
Thanks Zach. Yes I modify the tiles, removing flock to add tracks, fields and streams is not too bad if you go carefully and avoid ripping the polystyrene surface. Only difficult task is raising the water level in the rivers. My old TSS tiles are a mix of 12mm and 15mm inset rivers (so about a 40ft chasm in scale).
The woods are rubberised horsehair. I tear the blocks into pieces leaving 1 side flat and squeezed them in dark green latex paint like sponges. Trimmed with scissors when dried, drybrushed with a dull yellow latex paint and then roughly flocked with static grass. When I get a chance I will add tufts of home made clump foliage over some areas of the surface to give more variety and colour and then paint the lower edges with a dark colour to better show a canopy.
My unit bases, green labels printed off the PC to blend in with the table colour as far as possible. I hate seeing figures and scenery ruined by high vis labelling (Sam Mustafa's "Blucher" etc)
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Post by Zach on Jun 13, 2019 18:30:51 GMT
I was not expecting that to be horsehair, haha! The look is great.
Good idea on the green labels. They really do blend in. I've experimented with clear labels printed on acetate, but this looks better. I hardly noticed them until you pointed them out. A very good idea!
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Post by nikharwood on Jun 14, 2019 16:43:32 GMT
That's a great-looking set-up  |
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Post by nikharwood on Aug 5, 2019 13:04:50 GMT
How are the rules coming along, Rob?
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Post by robh on Aug 5, 2019 22:33:26 GMT
How are the rules coming along, Rob? After several iterations each cutting out a lot of complexity (nice ideas but no real benefit to the game) we have arrived at a point where we are playing an only slightly modified version of 1st ed Fire & Fury/Mit Blut und Eisern. We now have a Brigade level game where the Brigade is comprised of individual regimental bases (FMS 2 rank 40mm frontage), rather than being a single base as per V&B or Altar of Freedom, but with the regiment bases having no purpose other than denoting current facing and formation. All combat and morale is dealt with by rosters based on the actual units OOB strength. It is working well for 2 player , I am hoping we will get a chance to try it as a multiplayer after the summer holidays. We have played a few more games, last one was a "Prarie Grove" scenario:  Not many troops involved! |
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Post by robh on Oct 18, 2020 15:44:38 GMT
Finally managed to get back to some ACW gaming (well.....any gaming really) and had another go with my 3mm "Fire and Fury" set. Very happy with the rules now. At heart they are virtually unchanged 1990 F&F. Very few of my own ideas survived the rounds of playtesting as, while they achieved what was intended, they complicated or slowed down the flow of the game for marginal benefit. I now use the "Spearhead" moving clock to determine game time, have a token draw, semi random initiative to determine the order commanders act and have amended Fire points and unit strengths to account for fewer bases (FMS strips) per unit and a vastly reduced ground scale. This recent game was a recreation of the 1865 Battle of Bentonville NC. The last battle before Appomattox. A much greater figure density than previous outings for which the FMS figures worked well. 4 Corps (all under strength) on a 3ft x 2ft table.  |
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Post by 6mmfan on Oct 20, 2020 4:34:33 GMT
I saw this on the 2mm yahoo group. Your table looks amazing
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Post by robh on Oct 20, 2020 22:06:56 GMT
Thank you.
I just have to find an in scale way of creating the "silenced battery", "low ammo" and "breakthrough attack" markers needed for F&F. Disorders are fine with the routing bases but need something identifiable for the others that is in keeping with the rest of the pieces.
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Post by Zach on Oct 21, 2020 5:47:51 GMT
I saw this on the 2mm yahoo group. Your table looks amazing From the alert I just got that’ll soon be impossible. Apparently Yahoo groups is shutting down in the near future. That said these are beautiful tables. And very well photographed. The soft lighting really works with the colors. |
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Post by robh on Oct 21, 2020 9:43:33 GMT
My Yahoo account died a while ago (long before the shutdown started) but thankfully most of the active members of the various gaming groups have made the move over to iO. groups.io/g/2mm/topicsThe colour differences in the pictures are due to location. The first 2 games shown here were in a friends game room with all florescent tube lights inset into the ceiling, the latter one is in my kitchen with just natural light. Same phone camera and same clueless photographer! I have just finished painting the final regiments for the 1st Manassas OOB, just a couple more terrain tiles to do and hopefully I can get that battle out soon. "Big" table; 5ft x 5ft at my groundscale so fairly low troop density. |
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Post by 6mmfan on Oct 27, 2020 8:11:50 GMT
Oops. I meant io groups not yahoo.  |
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