Mad Lemmey's Painting Blog

Nick and William brought over the ACW scenario for Big Bloody Battles - Battle of Pea Ridge . March 7–8, 1862. Nick has a great collection of 6mm ACW, and it was nice to see them out on the table. This being a Western Theatre battle, it could be roughly described as 'Two armies blundering through woods into each other!' I asked for the Union, as I never play Confederates by choice, leaving William (political views here) the Rebels. The Confederates had to hold three objectives by the end of day 2. The Union idea was to stop them. My self-imposed aim was to secure the camp, the two left hand villages and the right hand village/crossroads, or at least cause as much damage to the Rebels as possible. Before you ask, and I know you will, the dark green bits represent open terrain, EVERYTHING else is the woods! Dark paths = roads, light roads = tracks. Steep hills = steep. Union entry point is lower left, with a large bulk of their kit on table. The Rebels come in top right and top...

David and I met up at Leighton Buzzard Wargames for another run out of Hammerin' Iron, Peter Pig 's awfully fun ACW riverine rules. We used the same fleets as last time, see the link to see them. The scenario was I (as Union) had to sink all but one of David's boats, he had to sink half of mine.  It took me until at least turn three before my any of my fleet arrived! A Miami class ship was positioned to stop the Confederates leaving the table. Next turn, while all bar one of David's fleet approached, my second ship, USS Planter, appeared. It only has front and rear guns, so position has to be careful! My two started picking on CSS Selma. A few turns later, and my boats arrived en masse! On the left, in the far distance, Miami (I) is fighting off CSS Tuscaloosa, but CSS Selma is surrounded by USS Planter, USS Miami (II), USS Sassacus, and the mighty, tiny USS Fuscia. They all proceeded to smash into the Confederate ship. To the left, you can just see USS Essex arriving ...

 A few years back, my friend David sold me his beautiful Hammerin' Iron Fleets. This month, I finally got a mat for it, and David (different one) wanted a game. He had bought Confederates after seeing my box full of both sides, so we got the rules and had a bash! My Union vs his Confederate fleet - He was using his starter set , so we were a little over 6000 points a side. I was using (all descriptions from Peter Pig site ): USS Fuschia 'Common small wooden screw boats'. USS Miami (I) 'Well armed side wheeled wooden ship' USS Miami (II) as above! USS Essex 'Slab sided union ironclad' USS Planter (If you do nothing else with these links, go and read this one, it is jaw dropping!!) 'Fairly innocuous side paddler'. USS Sassacus 'Very big double ended steamship/sidewheeler looks powerful.' David's ships were: CSS Arkansas 'Powerful casemate ironclad'. CSS Tuscaloosa 'Good Casemate ironclad'. CSS Governor Moore 'Cot...

Lee contacted me to ask me to do some more for his ACW collection. Everything shown here is Pendraken , even the banners Lee asked me to do another batch of Union. "To finish this lot off" and to add an extra few stands to his Confederates. Then he showed me the AWI order he's just put into Leon! I'm going to be busy for quite a while!!! The whole batch Union infantry stands Suitably grim Off they go to war At the quick Named infantry command stands 18th Mass., 18th Indiana, 42nd Indiana, 1st Batt, 11th US Infantry Never take photos as 6 am! You will notice the flag edging improves throughout this set! Great sculpts Away they go Off they pop Generic command stands Advance Yes, one commander is facing the other way Supply wagon for the Union "Three wheels on my wagon..." Clip-clop Confederates, featuring command stands for 49th Georgia, 34th Alabama, 37th Virginia If you notice two flags on two standsm, that's because I did ...