Now one of our local Wargame Clubs, Warlords holds an annual convention which most years we attend and run a game or a small competition of some kind. This year we decided not to. Which was fortuitous as due a colossal CLUSTER****, the hall got double booked and on the Friday before the weekend involved, this was discovered. Not Good. So a new day has been set and we were asked if we wanted to come along and run one of our demo games on the new date of November 18th. So the ladz have chosen an ACW game, and Goldie has selected Antietam.

So a practice game was played to test some rule changes Goldie wants to use which are basically changes to shooting ranges where they are halved. Being the sceptic I can be, I was a wee bit doubtful. Comments at end of report!

The game will have 9 players, 5 Union and 4 Confederate. battle report after the actual game will provide Orbat/Map etc.

Turn 1 and Russ Advances his troops on Goldie’s blue bellies.

Goldies Blue bellies skulking in a field behind trees! Note the unit in column of march on the right.

View in the centre from Union lines.

Russ noticed the unit in column as well and managed to reach it.

Graeme’s Reb’s faced a lot of blue coats in the centre.

The Confederate left flank where Alan faced off with Keith.

Stephen’s Union facing Graeme. Graeme plays quite aggressively as a rule so close range shooting quickly occurred. Goldie had reduced rifle/musket range to 12 inches, Confederate guns to 24inches and Union to 30 inches. Real in your face action.

Now Sheridan is providing 19 Confederate regts for the game , however he games on weekends not mid week so I subbed in a brigade of newly completed Franco-Prussian French(why not!).

Russell’s early charge on the Union column has eventually resulted in a lot of Union units popping and stalling Union advance in this sector.

However, Robert had now arrived and was pushing forward towards Russ and Graeme lines. I had also arrived with the French brigade heading towards Confederate flank and a second brigade to support Graeme and Russ.

Union troops closing in on Alan with French marching up road in distance.

Confederate right where Russ troops taking a bit of damage with my fresh units moving up to allow them to retire through me and recover. Quit a blob of Union troops opposite!

The curse of newly painted troops in their first battle hits. Plan was to move them up and then change formation to line facing Union….howeverrrrr…even with Command 9 Corps commander for rerolls they failed successive orders…and sat there with flank facing Keith. But…I still felt they looked AWESOME. The others were to busy laughing to notice.

Thankfully photos did not come out well…but Keith charged….the flank…we lost…but retired only! Yeehaa. Photo below is after ordered actually were acted on(and I was wee bit naughty with distance moved, but hey…its my Garage! They do look good on the hill!!

So that was a practice game…was fun..was very noisy…rule changes seemed to work okay and we will try again in 2 weeks so we are fully prepped for the 18th of November.

Now the 1st Brigade of French is finished will do some work on my ACW armies for a couple of weeks. First up below are 2 more Corps commands for the Union. I want to run a large Gettysburg game so am generating Corp/Division/Brigade command stands with the correct flags… for effect!

We are lacking in Confederate cavalry so will slip in regular painting of 4 at a time until have a sizeable force.

There is a backlog of reports to be posted so will work through them as quick as I can.

Its been awhile but back to the ‘Whisky of the Week!’

Here we have a Caol Ila(pronounced Cull Ee-la) Distillers Edition 43% a single malt from the Isle of Islay.

This whisky from Caol Ila has first been matured in refill American oak and European oak casks. It has then had a second maturation in Moscatel – seasoned, re-charred American Oak casks. The nose has smokey and spicy notes, with a subtle fruity note. The palate has notes of smoke, sweetness and a gentle wood spice. The finish is long and spicy with big smoky notes.

It is very pleasant, not overly peaty and I strongly recommend it for newbies to peaty whisky who do not want to be over powered. It has been my go to for past month when want to relax of an evening, at the moment am spoiled for choices but this one I have really taken a liking to.

Until next time, Terry out.