A Soldier's Letter

7 Score 10 Years Ago continues to have fascinating articles.  Here's one of them that tells a lot about life between the battles.

http://7score10years.com/index.php/north/82-north/1275-january-27-1864-a-soldiers-letter

Miniature Reenactment - The Battle of Gettysburg, Day 1, Morning

This is a miniature reenactemnt of the morning of the first day from the Battle of Gettysburg.  We use Command Combat: Civil War miniatures to tell the story.  This will be a series, and we'll go through the entire battle... eventually.

The Battle of Fort Donelson Game

Here's a battle report of the Battle of Fort Donelson from our Youtube channel Command Combat Battle Reports.  Our last one done a year or so ago was a battle re-enactment showing what really happened.  This is a play-through of our game.

The Battle of Gettysburg to be played at Orccon

We will be doing the entire battle of Gettysburg at Orccon on Saturday, February 15th starting at 9 am.  Orccon is at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport.  The website is at: http://www.strategicon.net/

What part of the Battle of Gettysburg, you ask?  The whole thing!  We have a long table that will have the entire battlefield stretched out from Little Round Top all the way to Herr Ridge.  We'll basically be doing the fighting from each day in one big battle royale.  So come take the role of your favorite general and play the whole thing to see what would have happened if Lee had attacked on all fronts at once.

Civil War Buildings

Even though I play Command Combat: Civil War in 15 mm, I've often been using 10 mm buildings by the company Buildings in Turmoil.  The reason is two-fold.  First, 15 mm buildings are sometimes too large.  Even though they're supposed to be appropriately scaled to 15 mm figures, the fact is that each figure isn't supposed to be representing 1 person; it represents dozens or even hundreds, so it's actually more appropriate to go one scale down for the buildings.

I met John from Buildings in Turmoil at Historicon, and he let me sell my rules at his table.  I was putting on Gettysburg that day, and was short an important house, the Bryan house, which was essentially the goal of Pickett's charge.  His buildings are all based on real buildings from the battle fields, (he lives at Gettysburg,) so I asked him to paint one up, and his son Jeff had it to me the next morning.  They're a great group of sculptors and painters, and I highly recommend them.

http://www.buildings-in-turmoil.com/

Old Glory Miniatures

My favorite miniatures for Civil War figures has always been Old Glory.  There are the obvious things to like about them, such as the quality and the various poses.  But what I like most about them are the pieces that seem like they're merely decorative, but they are so interesting that I had to make them into relevant pieces for the game.

For instance, the signal tower is a piece they constructed.  This has no game value for any other rules set, but I liked it so much that I added it to the 1862 rules.  Players are able to send orders over great distances using this piece.  I've also used the civilians in the Bull Run scenario, their photographer for Matthew Brady, their dead pieces for bodies, and several others.  Most impressive are their generals.  They have packs of figures molded to look like specific generals.  These are perfect for the generals you choose out of the Command Combat books for your armies.  If you have generals they haven't specifically sculpted, many of their non-named generals look close enough to whomever you want to field.

You can find their Civil War figures at:

http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=662

Command Combat Pictures from Kubla Con

Command Combat: Civil War played at Kubla Con earlier this year.  Craig Robertson hosted the Battle of Wilson's Creek.  It was an interesting fight as the Union cavalry went straight after the Confederate supplies right in the center and held there against relentless attacks.  The Confederates at last squeezed them on both sides and at the end, pressed them out.  They used paper minis from Billy Bones, which are available on Wargame Vault.  Below are pictures from the battle: