The whole Confederate Army so far...

As promised some photographs of the whole Rebel force laid out on the table. I completed the final four units late yesterday afternoon and managed to take two or three photos in the failing light, so today hopefully, I have done them justice.

A low level shot of the whole force.

The whole force from higher up. Generals at the front, artillery and limbers, cavalry on the wings and of course the infantry at the rear.

Looking across the massed ranks of infantry.

From a little lower down for a close up of the troops.

Dismounted and mounted cavalry troopers on the flank.

Six artillery pieces and their limbers.

A unit of red coated Zouves in the infantry ranks.

More cavalry on the other flank.

Looking down the table at the massed ranks.

Finally, a shot of the whole force.

Although I am looking to fight the battles using the 'Altar of Freedom' rules, I decided to invest in a copy of the 'Black Powder' rules. I do already have a copy of 'Pike & Shotte' by the same company and quite like the mechanics of the game. I will of course need to scale down movement and ranges, also work out a command system, as this game is really designed for 28mm. It looks at divisional sized battles, whereas of course, I will be fighting Corps or even Army sized battles.

To experiment with the rules, I particularly like this encounter at the back of the book, it looks an interesting scenario to play and a perfect way to introduce myself to the rules.

I can recreate the map on my war gaming table and of course have enough troops to fight the battle. My bases are of course different to those recommended but I will find a way around that.

As you can see it comprises of a division for each side, broken down into three brigades and should prove very interesting to play.

Black Powder Challenge 2015 - Half the Rebel Infantry complete.

Still beavering away on the challenge, which of course has two benefits, not only am I enjoying the challenge but also completing lots of units for future use on the table. Here we have 12 of the 25 Confederate infantry units completed. Not quite half, but near enough. I am expecting to finish all 25 this month and then will move onto more artillery, generals and baggage train items.

All three brigades of four regiments lined up.

A brigade in butternut uniforms.

Another brigade in grey.

Finally one in mixed uniforms.

Looking across the whole division.

A side view from lower down.

Black Powder Challenge 2015 - Update

I have been working away at the 25 Union Infantry regiments, half of my challenge project. I now will begin work on the same number of Confederate Infantry. Batch painting can be a little tedious but it is helped by the Paint & Chat sessions held on Google+ in the Table Top Commanders page.

All the units in their storage box, a neat way to store all the little guys.

In the following photographs you can see them all laid out on the table.