Santa Clause Updates and More

I managed to get my Santa Clause package out in the mail last night. My wife was kind enough to gift wrap the miniatures. The only trouble I ran into was with a clerk at the post office who gave me a bucket full of bad attitude.

Hopefully that will be arriving in good order. I remembered to add the initials "SC" in the name. I have my fingers crossed that it will be well received.

So with both Secret Santa and Santa Clause taken care of, I can focus on my other random motivations.

I ended up committing to writing an ACW and an AWI scenario for a friend's magazine. I have begun work on it and I think it will lead me toward another supplement. One thing I was looking for was a historical campaign in a relatively small geographic area that I had enough miniatures to do. I would want actions that ranged from a small skirmish of a company or so per side to a battle of a brigade or so per side. I think I have found it with operations in the Kanawha Valley (1861) in what is now West Virginia.

There is much going for these battles. They feature some of the larger names that would dominate the war later on. Both McClellan and Lee operated in the area at various times. It has plenty of poor quality militia and many politically appointed commanders with no military experience. While doing some reading on the subject, it seemed that to be a Confederate Brigadier General, the requirement in Western Virginia must be that you had to be a former Governor of Virginia. Many of these men were at odds with one another throughout the war and made the situation much worse for the poor troops fighting it than it should have been.

I am still in the research phase but it looks like it should be some great fun to work on.

New ACW Journal has been released.

A few months ago, I was contacted by Steven Huckaby about submitting a scenario for a new ACW E-Zine journal that he was getting ready to publish. I Sent him a scenario that I had sitting around and gathering dust and did not think another thing about it. Well, the journal now exists.

The journal is ACW Gamer. Check out the website. The first issue was just released. The journal is quarterly. The cost is $12/year. Steven is taking orders for the journal through paypal at the following address: Ravenbannergames@yahoo.com.

I was given a copy of the first issue from my submission and I am very impressed. There is a wide variety of stuff in there. This is definitely a labor of love from Steven who is looking to help the hobby. The E-Zine is more than just scenarios. There are interviews with sculptors and other folks with in the hobby, information on battles, unit histories and ideas for adapting rule sets. In short, Steven has a wide range of articles that will be coming out.

More importantly, he is looking for articles. Break out the box of crayons boys and girls and support this effort. Steven has had a special miniature cast for the publication. It is a very nice diorama of a Confederate soldier giving water to a wounded soldier. As to scale of the mini, I will assume that it is 28mm by the look of it. It is a very nice one that I am looking forward to get my hands on even though I don't do 28mm. (No really, I don't!)

Please spread the word about the E-Zine. I think Steven is really on to something here. With the demise of Charge! (Scott Mingus' ACW publication devoted to the Johnny Reb rules), Steven is hoping to fill the niche left by this vacancy. If Steven can continue the pace and add to the content with each issue, he has a really nice magazine on his hands that will be well worth the price. That reminds me, I really should put something together for him.

If you want more information, give Steven a shout at: info@acwgamer.com.