Reviewing Older Projects - Looking forward to Midgard

With the upcoming launch of Midgard Heroic Battles, it made me break out my miniatures from both Dux Britaniarum and Infamy, Infamy. Both projects I really loved but didn't get enough chances to play.

For Dux, I have three armies. A Romano-British, Early Saxon and a Pict force. The Picts are not even a complete base army. I have a base force for both the Romano-British and the Early Saxons. Most figures for all of these are Splintered Light. I have a few reinforcements that are needed still. The Romano-British do not have any heavy cavalry. I could use a few additional sections of warriors and levy to flesh them out as well. i will be fleshing these out with Splintered Light minis.

My understanding is that Midgard forces are larger than those for Dux and Infamy. So, i don't quite have enough to pull it off yet for the Dark Ages.

My Romans for Infamy are closer to being ready. I have five full groups of 8 Auxiliary Infantry ready to go. I started to work on some movement trays for them as well. I have 6 of 8 of a sixth Auxilia infantry group painted up. I have a group of archers as well. What I do have is additional Auxilia infantry that I bought off of eBay. These are based 4 to a base and are not the same as my other minis. I have enough for three and a half more groups. There is another lot that I bought that are based 3 to a base for a total of 48 more figures. They would need to be rebased. I can separate these and build out six more groups of Auxilia. I would want to repaint the shields on these to match my existing miniatures. Mostly as i was modeling a unit based on the Saalburg Cohort fort in Germany.

What I am lacking is Auxilia Cavalry to complete out the unit. I really don't want to paint up cavalry. I am too slow of a painter and horses take a long time for me. I am looking through the offerings on eBay and am thinking that I may end up just painting my own. Most have spagetti spears that look like they could break at any minute. I really like Rebel Minis figures. However, their command figures are not great. They have no cavalry command to speak of. Peter Pig is an option. Old Glory 15s and Khurasan are also options to look at. I will likely make Roman Auxilia Cavalry my next hobby purchase.

My Infamy Celts are another story. I have loads of figures. I purchased a few years ago a lot of celts that were painted. However, most are only partially painted. I rebased many of them. I am trying to get them sorted on movement trays. I have enough for a base force. I play on using them for both Gauls and Britons. The Chariots are in rough shape. Most have either broken or come apart. With some TLC, I should have a huge Celt army. I am missing some figures to complete out cavalry. Mostly a command element. I have tons of chariots that i could have enough for two groups of 10 chariots. If i can get the broken ones repaired. I did have some fun finishing a Celt light horseman last night. It was good to paint something other than a ship again.

So, what I know is, my armies are too small for Midgard. With painting time, I have a large enough Celt Army. I lack minis for all of my forces. I had purchased a set of armed Dark Age peasants for use with Dux but lacked stats with the rules to use them. I was planning on working on some anyway just beacause I think it would be fun to have some really bad troops on the field to defend a village or the like. I figure I can try to use them for Midgard.

Squirrels Rampant

Like many people I have been looking at the new Reisswitz Press game Midgard Heroic Battles. I am looking to see if this will help dust off some projects. I would love to get my Dark Ages back out and get in some games. And Romans and Gauls for that matter. But this is a distraction from the ACW Naval games I am working on. But since focusing on any one thing is not possible, I managed to get some paint on a 1/700th Schooner for the AWI.

I can make some claim that the schooner would still be useful for the ACW as they were still around. But the next step away from this is I am searching for STL files for some ACW infantry to match my 1/600th scale ships. The thought would be to model some naval landings. I found some Thingiverse items from Simon Mann that look possible. The first one to look at is the battle of the Hatteras Inlet batteries.

Since my ACW Naval rules of the moment are Dawn of Iron, I saw that the author had started work on some land rules but as far as I can tell, they are unpublished. This leaves me to wonder if I could use something like Sharp Practice and twist it. The landings are much larger than what Sharp Practice was designed for but that never stopped me before.

The Confederate Forces for the battle are rather small. There are two forts (Clark and Hatteras)and a masked battery on Cape Hatteras. These were manned by the 17th North Carolina infantry Regiment, the Hatteras island garrison and some Naval volunteers. The total was around 900 men.

Besides the much larger Warships, the Union force contained elements of two regiments: the 9th New York infantry (220 men) and the 20th New York Infantry (500 men). There were other detachments including the 99th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiments (100 men), 2nd US Artillery Regiment (60 men) and some sailors and marines from the fleet.This would mean printing out some landing craft and some infantry. I have looked at Henry Turner's 6mm miniatures for this as well as Pico Armor. I may go with the Project Wargaming miniatures in the end. I am unsure if I would scale them up to 3mm figures or leave them at 2mm.

I went so far as to download the figures from Thingiverse that Simon Mann made and purchased the Project Wargaming ones. Just looking at the Project Wargaming minis, I will likely leave them at 2mm. Some test prints are in order. The Project Wargaming are set up to look like a company in formation.

Anyway, I am balancing a few things in my head and trying to figure out how to accomplish them.

Union Fleet off North Carolina 1861 to 1862

I did the Confederate fleet (NC Mosquito Fleet) already. I started on the Union as well. I have the fleet divided into three sections. The first is before the Burnside Expedition through 1861. Mostly they are vessels featured in actions. The second is the vessels participating on the Battle of Hatteras Inlet batteries. Then the next section covers the battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City in 1862. A number of these vessels were also part of the Battle of Hampton Roads.

1861

Ship Name	Image	Model	Notes
USS Perry		Saturnalia Studios Brig	Sail Brig.
CSS Savannah		Hagen miniatures schooner	Sail Schooner
USS Albatross		ECIC	Custom miniature
USS Fanny		ECIC Tug boat	Same as the CSS Fanny. Captured Union ship.

Hatteras Inlet Batteries

Ship Name	Image	Model	Notes
Monticello
Harriet Lane		LFG Harriet Lane
Wabash			Use the Minnesota upscaled to 115%.
Minnesota		ECIC Minnesota
Susquehanna
Cumberland		ECIC Cumberland
Pawnee

This is still a work in progress. I will still need to update this as I go and will revisit this. I am interested in seeing if I can make this a combined arms game and include the infantry landings.

Battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City

Ship Name	Image	Model	Notes
US Army Gunboats
Pickett			Smallest ship in the fleet. Flagship of Burnside's Expedition.
Vidette
Hussar
Lancer
Ranger
Chasseur
Pioneer
Sentinel
Zouave
US Navy Fleet
Philadelphia			Flagship
Southfield
Delaware *
Stars and Stripes
Louisiana *
Hetzel *
Underwriter *
Commodore Perry *		LFG Commodore Perry
Hunchback
Morse *
Valley City *
Commodore Barney
Whitehead *
John L Lockwood *
Henry Brinker *
Isaac N Seymour *
Ceres *
General Putnam
Shawsheen *
Granite

* - Vessels in the fleet for Battle of Elizabeth City.

North Carolina Mosquito Fleet of 1862

I am looking to make some scenarios featuring the North Carolina Mosquito fleet and their actions from June 1861 till their destruction in February of 1862. The actions tick several boxes on things I enjoy. They are largely erzatz vessels rather than purpose built warships and it is very early in the conflict before the tactics and technology truely caught up to one another. The Union fleets will be very large. But the nice thing is, many of the vessels match up with vessels that may already be in people's collections since they were involved in the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862. Two of the smaller vessels of the Confederate Fleet at Hampton Roads are survivors of the Mosquito Fleet - the only two survivors.

I started on the Confederate Fleet first. In total, there are eleven vessels in the Mosuito Fleet. Their job was to protect the North Carolina Sounds and supply the forts on the barrier islands. In order to get this done, i have been searching Wargames Vault and Wargaming3D for suitable models. I think I have much of it figured out. Maybe.....

Ship Name	Image	Possible Model	Notes
Sea Bird	None	LFG CSS Toscarora	Flagship
Beaufort	None	ECIC Generic Tugboat Set	Also part of Hampton Roads set.
Fanny		ECIC Generic Tugboat Set
Appomattox		TRM Union or Confederate Transport Modified	Original model is a stern wheeler while this is a screw steamer.
Ellis		ECIC Generic Tugboat Set (Modified)
Black Warrior	None	Hagen Miniatures Schooner
Forrest	None	????	Described as a former canal steamer.
Junaluska		ECIC Generic Tugboat Set
Curlew		LFG CSS Samson	A decent match but the main deck under the bridge needs to be closed in.
Raliegh		ECIC Generic Tugboat Set	Also part of Hampton Roads set.
Winslow	None	LFG Samson	Described as a sidewheeler tug.

Acronymns:
ECIC = East Coast Ironclads, they sell on Wargaming3D.
LFG = Long Face Games, They sell on Wargames Vault.
TRM = The Raft Miniatures, They sell on Wargaming3D.

The images above are taken from the Wikipedia articles for the vessel or from https://underbothflags.ncdcr.gov/ for the Appomattox.

Several models need modification in order to match the vessel more closely. The Ellis needs a cut down supertructure to match. These modifications may be what I go with to model the Forrest. The Black Warrior is a sailing schooner and the only vessel that is not a steam ship of the fleet. The Hagen Miniatures model is the only physical model in the above list. The rest are all STL files.At this point, I have built and painted only the Beaufort and the Raliegh. I have purchased the miniatures for the Sea Bird, Fanny, Appomattox, Junaluska, Curlew, and Winslow. I will buy the Schooner from Hagen at somepoint as I really like their miniatures. I have several for my Age of Sail games.

I will update based on any new findings. I did pick up a great book on the Curlew by Christopher Olson. He has drawings of the Curlew that makes the Sampson a good match for a model. The differences are minor enough that I should be able to modify it in TinkerCad, provided the model creator gives me permission.

A Big shout out to Thomas at The Raft Miniatures who did give permission to modify his model to make the Appomattox. I have purchased the model and now need to play with it in Tinkercad. Thank You!

I have a big thank you to give to East Coast Ironclads when it comes time to work on the Union Order of Battle.

Scenario Sale - Postponed Birthday Sale

I was pushing to get my AWI supplement completed to do my annual birthday sale. I didn't finish it in time. While that was disapointing, it is now done. So I will be running a birthday sale a month late.

On my PayHip store, please use coupon code Birthday2024 to get 50% off anything on the site.

This will include all of the scenario books. The sale will run from now (10/28/2024) till November 28th, 2024.

Thank you for taking a look.

USS Albatross - East Coast Iron Clads

I am working on some ACW naval scenarios that take place before the Battle of Hampton Roads. This includes several vessels that fought in Hampton Roads and focuses on the North Carolina coast. Once action was an interesting one between the USS Albatross and the CSS Beaufort. While not a conclusive fight, it took place on either side of one of the North Carolina barrier islands. Both vessels lobbed shells at one another across the island until breaking off contact.

The Albatross did not have an existing model available to purchase that I could find. Wikipedia offers some basic information about the vessel and includes the following image drawn by a crew member.

While looking for something similar, I reached out to East Coast Ironclads who sell on Wargeming3d. They replied back and sent me the STL file! I was so excited. I managed to get the file printed. I need to replace the FEP on the printer and had some issues. The masts that came with the vessel failed to print. I made some out of small dowels and added them to the vessel. I am not a very good painter but I really like how this came out.

The model makers for 3D printing ships have proved over and over to be very approachable and helpful. I can't thank East Coast Ironclads enough. This was quite a treat.

Two if by Sea has launched

I have released Two if by Sea on my PayHip store. Two if by Sea is a set of scenarios to be used with the TwoFatLardies rules Kiss Me Hardy using the changes for ships under the rate from To Covet Glory. The book contains ship stats for a large number of vessels from large Ship Sloops to the smallest cutters and Bermuda Sloops used by the Royal Navy and the American Continental Navy and State Navies (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia).

The scenarios include twelve scenario sets. Each scenario set is one or more unique historical or fictional scenario from the American Revolution. The first scenario details the British Schooner Halifax in 1769 in an incident before the war started. The scenarios continue through July of 1781. There is also a guide on setting up convoy escorts or raids on the Atlantic, Caribbean, or Far East trade routes.

There are 59 pages of scenarios and 121 pages of ship lists. There is also a section noting the types of merchant vessels that were likely to be encountered on the waters of the Americas during the war. Lastly, there are notes on the available models in both 1/300 scale and 1/700th including links to the manufactures.

I will be releasing this on Wargame Vault as well and including it in the To Covet Glory bundle as well. I hope you will take a look.

New Product

I have uploaded some 1/700th flat boats to my PayHip store. https://payhip.com/b/c4jzL Flatboats were a common sight from the founding of the United States through the ACW. There are four variants. One is armed. Two have cargo loads and another has a tent. This represents many of the types that could be encountered from the South Carolina rivers in 1780 or along the Mississippi in 1862.

These were made to support a scenario for the Two if by Sea supplement for the AWI that I am getting ready to release. The scenario features the last vestiges of the Georgia State Navy coming across some loyalist shore batteries supported by an armed flat boat.

The other ones could be useful scatter terain in any naval game taking place close to the shore.

Finished! Well Mostly

The AWi Supplement is finally done. There are eleven battles, some with multiple scenarios, and a scenario generator for convoy raids across North American, Carribean and Far East Waters. Also included are 121 pages of ship stats for Ship sloops to cutters of the Royal Navy and the Continental and State Navies of the American Revolution. The book spans most of the war where small vessels made their presence known. The commerce raiding, attacks against Nova Scotia fisheries and privateers are represented within.

I am hoping to have a final review completed this week and publish it. I also included some notes on where to get some miniatures for the game. With the wide variety of 3D printed items available, the oportunities of some unique vessels for your table are nearly limitless.

Below is the current cover that I am working with. This still could change.

Progress At Last: ACW and AWI Naval

It was a good weekend for getting stuff done. I managed to paint a few ships for the ACW. I am only missing two vessels for the Battle of Hampton Roads. I need to print and paint the Jamestown for the Confederacy and the St Lawrence for the Union. As has been my norm lately, I had a painted version of the Jamestown and managed to completely smash it to bits by setting the cover of my 3d printer down on it accidentallty. Anyway, I did get a number of models painted up.

I still have to paint the shore batteries. I started on this task but the primer started coming off the models as I tried to paint them. I did something wrong with priming them. I will have to readdress this.

AWI Supplement

As to my To Covet Glory supplement, it made significant progress over the weekend. I was able to get in a number of games. I played with both 1/300th and 1/700th miniatures. They both worked well. There are eight more scenarios to work through. I am really happy with the progress that was made this weekend. If I can get any more time to work on it, I should be able to wrap it up in November. As soon as it is complete, I will be getting it uploaded to the PayHip site first and then to Wargame Vault. It will become part of the To Covet Glory bundle on both.