Looking to the Future

It is New Years Eve, a universal time to pause and look to the future. For me, 2019 will bring forth many new changes, particularly in my personal life. Those, however, are for a different blog and a different time. As for my hobby, I have some clear goals for the New Year.

First and foremost is to put the hoards of figures I have painted into action. I want to play some Sharp Practice II games in both 28mm and 15mm. I have a huge frontier fort in 15mm to use with my French and Indian War figures that should be very fun. I also have a large collection of 28mm figures for both the AWI and the Napoleonic Wars.

For Christmas I took advantage of Novus Design Studios' terrific holiday sale and purchased a ton of their 15mm road and river sections. I have added some details to all of the road sections and I am anxious to get them onto the gaming table.  These are a little larger than I would like for 15mm, but they are very nice pieces and will add a lot of realism to my games.

I am sure that much of my gaming in 2019 will by of a solo nature, but I would like to continue to host games for the students at my school.  This is a labor of love as it takes a lot of time and energy without any tangible paybacks. But my years of teaching are drawing to a close, and I know that I need to make the most of these last three semesters to pass on this wonderful hobby to the next generation.

I find it hard to justify the purchase of many more miniatures for my own personal use as I have far more than I can use reasonably. So, I hope that I will be able to pick up some significant commission work as I love to paint miniatures. I had some terrific patrons this past year; I hope to pick up a couple more in 2019.  If you need some figures painted up quickly and at a reasonable price, please keep me in mind.

I hope you have a great New Year. Thanks for following my blog.

God bless you and yours,

Duke

RFF Game Report

Six players eagerly gather in my classroom after school this afternoon for a game of Regimental Fire and Fury. Only two had ever played this set of rules before, so there was a bit of a learning curve to overcome, but the students caught on very quickly.

The rebel players started out aggressively attacking the Union brigades defending the ground in front of Cemetery Ridge. Perry's brigade on the right was able to turn the Union left flank and Mahone's Virginians were able to do the same on the left. In the center, Wight and Posey's brigades took heavy casualties and were unable to close with the enemy.

It was declared a Confederate victory. Our lone female commander leading Mahon's brigade was the player of the game. She rolled several tens when resolving melees. It was really uncanny how consistent she was in this. In the end, it resulted in her side winning the engagement.

Wright's brigade and Pegram's artillery battalion at the beginning of the game.

Wright's brigade attacking the Emitsburg Road.

A closer look at Wright's men.

Looking north down the Emitsburg Pike.

Mahone's brigade breaking through the Union right.

Posey's Mississippi brigade attempting to hit the center of the Union line.

Wright's brigade later in the game getting chewed up attacking the road.

At game's end, the Union right has been turned.

Here is a link to a video of the kids in action.

YouTube link

Upcoming RFF Game

This Friday I will be putting on a game using the Regimental Fire and Fury rules.

I have used these with students before with great success. We all like how stands are removed. I have lots of casualty stands that show where the losses take place as the battle progresses which adds a lot of realism.

We will be using a scenario from the Summer Storm scenario book. It covers the Battle of Gettysburg.

We will be using the scenario that is based on Anderson's attack on Cemetery Ridge towards the end of the second day of the battle.

There is a lot of artillery on each side. The Union has a slight numerical edge, but the rebels' troops are of higher quality in many cases. I anticipate 8 players showing up and that our game will last about four hours.  I plan to take pictures and post a report after the game.