Introduction To Wargaming The American Civil War 

Hi Jim, you’re welcome and thank you for taking the time to watch our video. We’ve visited Gettysburg a number of times and many other Civil War battlefields. We are very impressed by how well maintained they are and the care and attention to detail they provide with their battlefield talks.

Thanks Michael, glad you enjoyed it. I too used to be an ACW re-enactor here in the UK, I was in the 1st Minnesota and yeah you’re right, 1-1 scale wargaming 🤣😂.

Hi Barry, thank you kindly for watching and glad you enjoyed our sit and chat. 😁

Thanks for watching Graham and your thoughts. The 5th New York and the Iron Brigade is parts of the Union Army I have researched for a number of years now. After visits many of the Eastern Battlefields standing in the place of those regiments means a lot to me and although being English, I felt a huge sense of pride knowing what those men did in those battles. We look forward to returning and doing more research when we can. Take care 😁👍

Thank You William for watching. Yes you are right “Battle in the Civil War” book is an excellent source, I have the original, but forgot to add it 😂. Tanks again for watching 😁👍

Hi, thank you for watching. As you could probably tell, it’s certainly a passion the three of us have for the period and as you say, it has a lot of depth to talk about. Thanks again and take care 😁👍

Hi Dan thanks for watching. Like we said in the piece, we never said it didn't happen, more that it was due to terrain or leadership on the whole that were reasons it didn't happen that often and is quite well documented. Historical topics are always of great debate as we all have our own interpretations form the many sources we read, that's what makes it interesting.

Hi Josh, thank you kindly for watching and the great feedback. I am really pleased that you found our video helpful and inspiring to start wargaming. The ACW is a big passion of mine as you have seen and I’ve visited many the Eastern battlefields for research. I have done a few more videos documenting a 28mm ACW project and also a video briefly talking about the Irish Brigade. You can find them in our video’s section. Once again, thank you 😁👍

Thanks Sean. Yeah, the Battlefield Trust is excellent at campaigning for the preservation of history and well worth following. 😁👍

Thank you for watching our video and for the very kind words and support. The American Civil War has always interested us as we were part of the 1st Minnesota reenactment group here in the U.K. We have also visited many of the Eastern battlefields and was very impressed with how they are looked after and it also gives a sense of atmosphere to how both sides fought those engagements. We look to revisiting when we can to help understand and research even further. It’s nice to hear from someone who has had family on both sides of that time period and thanks again, take care 😁👍

Thank you kindly for watching

Hi Thomas, thank you kindly glad you enjoyed it!

Glad you enjoyed the video Jim, thanks for watching mate 😁👍

Hi Nathan, hope your well mate. It was a great game and a laugh every minute. We are glad your enjoying these short talks and appreciate your continued support. Take care buddy 😁👍

Glad you enjoyed it mate, we are pleased you found it interesting. This series so far has been a lot of fun to make and who knows where the next episode will take us 😂. Take care buddy 😁👍

Thank you for watching. The American Civil War is a period that I’m very interested in and also how it was effecting us in Britain and Europe in that time.

Hi, thank you for watching and really pleased you enjoyed it. We had great intention to do it as a introduction, but we really enjoy the period as you could tell from listening 😂. I’ve been very lucky to have visited many of the Eastern battlefields and each time I learn something different, which leaves me wanting to know more. 😁

Glad you enjoyed it Justin, it’s a lot of fun filming these videos for you all. Take care 😁👍

Thank you for watching Jill and your kind words. Your right, the Ken Burns series is an excellent source for the period and something I really enjoy watching. Our talks we do is to try and help the newcomer to either the hobby or to the period and hopefully pass on some of our experiences we’ve had along the way. I too also have a very large 10mm Union and Confederate armies which we also enjoy gaming with. I quite often use an old computer moderated set of rules for them. for our 28mm I normally use Pickets Charge, although these are great with smaller scales. Take care and thanks again 😁👍

Hi, thank you for watching. Paddy Griffith has wrote some excellent books which are very interesting. 😁

Thank you for watching, we appreciate it 😁👍

Thank you kindly, we really appreciate your support and glad you like our discussion. Take care 😁👍

Glad you enjoyed the video Matt. Yeah, it’s a great little book full of interesting scenarios that I’d not seen before. Take care mate 😁👍

Thanks for watching and your feedback.

Thank you kindly, we are glad you enjoyed it and found it interesting. Take care 😁👍

Hi Gary, thank you for watching, we are glad you enjoyed our video 😁👍

Hi @MILITARY WARGAMING thank you for watching. I completely agree with you as it does give that extra tension and more importantly a reason for your game. Take care 😁👍

@@BattleBunkerHQ yes indeed and what we are working on extensively...most interesting especially when you apply military wargaming rubric and tenets. What we are currently working on ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hl8e9FZDwC8.html best wishes

Hi David, thanks for watching. That sounds like it would be great fun, a friend of mine has a large 6mm Adler French Napoleonic army, so doing Gettysburg on a 12’ by 6’ table will look spectacular.

Hi Ian, thank you for watching and pleased you found it informative. Your side of the hobby sounds really interesting and very rewarding. It’s a great book with lots of information, I think it’s available from Amazon at a reasonable price the last time looked. “The Horse Soldiers” yeah, not a bad John Wayne film, I childhood was spent watching his films.

Thanks for watching mate, our talks are based on brief discussions on a particular topic to allow the viewer to make up their own mind and do some research for themselves. We do not advocate anyone not doing what they want to and I know you build and play large games in 28mm. But, not everyone has that luxury of space, time and money as you said. As we said in the piece, a 6 x 4 table will not fit the whole of Gettysburg on it in 28mm. Tanks again for watching and take care 😁👍

No worries mate, its great to see these sorts of introductory videos and they are great for new people to the hobby or the period. I guess Im just very evangelical about the big game, I even started a Podcast about it 😆 I enjoyed Pete saying that he had a huge table for 28s after Toby said you cant do big battles in that scale 😁 Keep up the good work on the vids mate 👍

All good buddy, I followed your channel and your blog for a long time now 😂👍

Hi Iain and thank for watching. The book you refer to is “Civil War - Fort Sumpter to Appomattox” it’s on Amazon currently at £12.99. The book is on the right centre of the table as you view the video and is the first picture we show at the end of the video for useful resources. Hope that help Iain 😁👍

Think you kindly Jack Sarge. I don’t see any reason why not, I’ll certainly bring it up the next time we meet up. 😁👍

Thanks for your comments, glad you enjoyed the video and could see the vision of the video. Alter of Freedom are a great set of rules and Baccus are very nice minis, just not sure my eyesight is up to painting them 🤣. We are going to use the Epic ACW figures by Warlord to play Alter of Freedom.

@@BattleBunkerHQ it's certainly a stretch painting at the 1mm to 1 foot scale, but the advantage is that most people can't see them well enough to notice imperfections. 🤣 But, seriously, they are best seen en masse, and in 6mm that's what you gain...the ability to put multiple army corps on the table. And...yes...the ultimate aim IS to refight Gettysburg! 🤣 and I will get there! (but not for ages)

@@davidbenton8775 That sounds brilliant, please post pictures on our Facebook page of your progress when we put put up our biweekly community post. That way we can show off your work on our live streams. 😀

@@BattleBunkerHQ I'm on the FFF stage (flock, flag and finishing touches) of the first batch...that's about the equivalent of 17-18,000 men each side. So not long before I can put boots on the ground. I've posted a couple of WIP pics on Alex Sotheran's Storm of Steel page, so I can easily put them up on yours too.

@@davidbenton8775 Sounds great 👍

Thank you Frazer, thanks for watching 👍

Hi Leon, thank you for watching our basic introduction to the period. Yes, exactly, as we said the tactics and use changed during the war with all the arms, infantry, cavalry and artillery. I think it’s what makes this period very interesting. 😁

Hi Leon, yeah the Don Featherstone books are a great source of our hobbies history, I certainly have a few on the shelf. I’ve Wargames the ACW in many scales, using many different sets of rules over the years. More recently we’ve done a few videos on our 28mm project. The advice I always give to anyone new or experienced wargamers is to have fun and build and play however you like. When I used to wargame the ACW in 10 and 15mm back in the 90s, I used to use the first edition of Fire and Fury. These are brigade level rules that allow you build a large force to be able to play some of the larger battles in a reasonable amount of time. These have had a second edition in more recent times, but I’ve yet to try them. Most traditional sets of rules used to use figure, time and ground scale, but more recently most rules reflect this in an abstract sort of way. My 28mm collection is based roughly around the 1:30 ish, with a regiment size of 20 - 24 miniatures. Again, traditionally 15mm ground scales were sometimes in the region of 1mm = 1 metre or yard. I do think that miniatures today are getting bigger and that too makes it difficult at times to accurately represent a figure / ground scale. I hope that helps a little and I wish you well exploring this period 😁.

Thanks for watching and your thoughts.

Hi, thanks for watching and your question. Yes, in my opinion ACW and all wargaming can be played solo, there are many websites of people sharing their experiences of solo wargaming. I have also played a few ACW games solo using Pickets Charge rules. I write battle orders for each side and as the game unfolds I’ll roll a dice and see if they stick to their orders, or deviate from them. These orders can be as simple as attack X position and then hold once completed. Or, you could say, the army will attack and push the enemy force from the field, but will start with a spoiling attack on the left flank with 3rd brigade of 1st division. Hope that helps, take care 😁

@@BattleBunkerHQ thank you much my friend!

They certainly are a great source of information and well laid out.

Thank you for watching and your thoughts 😁

Hi, thanks for watching, we appreciate it. I completely agree with you, we started playing 10mm Johnny Reb II many years ago before moving on to playing the original Bridge Fire and Fury and had lots of fun with them. It was only in the past few years that we have gone back into the period after visiting many of the Eastern battles. Your right 28mm on standard sized tables does mean your not using a lot of your toys, but we are quite lucky that we can play on a large table. But I do think playing in the smaller scales does give a better feel and look for the period though 😁. I like the sound of you writing your own rules, I hope you can get them where you want them. Take care 😁👍

@@BattleBunkerHQ Thanks! Your video was very interesting, even if i'm not a beginner. 👍

@@jerrymail Thank you 👍

Thanks for watching and your thoughts, I’ve visited many of the Eastern Battlefields and like how well they are kept. Take care 😁