It is over… the Gettysburg reenacment (solo wargaming to a point) took me 63 “days” in real time… not continuosly OF COURSE!… there were real life intrusions on the project (trips, business, contracts… you name it!)… but the obvious bonus fact of having a permanent big table (green top if you like)… payed off. It has been a long life project… I wanted to do Gettysburg for years (even when I was napoleonic wargaming in 25MM).
Well, as the expected anticlimax I give you 3rd day PartII. I was satisfied with the result (you can not have it at regimental level… but you can wargame at regimental level parts of it).
Pics will show you “Pickett’s charge” (because Heth was inconscious) it has gone down in History with that name… but was a pell-mell of scraped brigades from Ist Corps and III Corps… and Pickett’s were the only “fresh” troops of the lot.
Lee gambled hard and lost… the conflict would last for nearly two years more but the men the South lost as casualties were not there anymore. Stonewall Jackson had already said that the South lacked the manpower to explote a victory…
A sad affair (as war always is)… you are deeply affected even wargaming it!
The third day of the battle General Lee after having attacked both flanks on previous days… designs a grand attack by 13 brigades (as much as a Corps but amalgamated from Ist and IInd)… Picket’s Division been the only fresh troops for the attack.
It would be preceded by an Artillery action of a massed guns battery. It would be effective to a less degree than hoped, much overshooting the target… (and quite defective ammo sometimes).
The Confederate Cavalry tries to join the main battlefield on the rear of the Union… but would be stopped in a draw fight (inconclusive)… and prevented by the Union Cavalry to complete that objective.
The second day at Gettysburg saw hard fighting, it has been said that General Lee intended an envelopping attack clockwise: first Longstreet, then Hill (Anderson Division) and then Ewell.
It went like that more or less in my tabletop.
The Peach Orchard, the Whratfield and the Valley of Death were a place of hard fighting… IIIrd Corps (Union) made a gallant defense but was spent and had to retreat. Luckily for General Meade reinforcements come on in the nick of time.
Little Round Top (truly enough) went like an History book… Vincent had very good dice throws.
Anderson also did a half hearted attack (not for the real men involved I guess).
And Ewell was not at his best but nearly one Brigade went through the Union defenses… but there no fresh troops available and the Union quickly plugged the gap.
It was hard work wargaming it (so to say) SOLO… but now Dusk has fallen and the Confederate Army has not broken the Union line.
At last Longstreet attacks with his two divisions. Ewell would delay his for two more hours.
As a reenactment, it proved quiet right about Hood he was wounded early in the fight… curiously the dice favoured Union III Corps and they offered an spirited fight.
The morning in Culp’s hill has been well employed entrenching the position.
As it is, with the current NAPOLEON movie creating a bit (or a lot) of disturbance in the pacific waters of History I have decided to refresh this Post from long time ago.
I went to see the movie in a theater, in fact I was invited by my eldest son&family… so I could not decline (I planned to go for the Blu-Ray extended version or director’s cut if it ever is commercialized…). You see… I am a fan of Ridley-Scott movies… since I saw THE DUELISTS!… Blade Runner… Gladiator…Black Hawk Down… are very good too. BUT: one thing is “MOVIES” and the other History (different from actual facts sometimes too often)… I think it is a mistake to judge NAPOLEON by its History standards (which are very much distorted or incomplete)… I am grateful for an epic movie even if it is a bit too dark for my aesthetic taste… Kubrick was not able to do it (to his credit)… and I think it is fairly impossible to resume Napoleon Bonaparte in a 2 or 3 hours film… the period is too long to condense… and if you loose precious footage decapitating Marie-Antoinette etc even worse…
From an strictly cinematic experience it was boring, full of cliches, too many flags and a lovely lass!… would not go to a theater to see it again. It is a pity in a way because it could have been so much better. Would I still buy the Director’s Cur?… of course matter of fact!… KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is much better in that format too!. Joaquim Phoenix can not represent a young Napoleon and a sick Napoleon 25 years later as hard as he tries… not a bad actor… a bad script!… as for the battle sequences any Napoleonic Wargamer will tell you ad nauseam all the mistakes… me included! (but we are a minority… a learned minority perhaps in the napoleonic period… but I confess I am not an expert neither in the Romans (well a bit) or The Crusades (only have read an interesting book about it!). It is the same with the Little Big Horn or Greasy Grass … I own (and have read more than a hundred books about it… I just hope Ridley-Scott does not a film about it!).
My recommendation?… go to see it and judge for yourself!… if not a moderate expert yo will probably enjoy.
More than 200 years… and still present in our collective memory for what it was… a genius (with faults and virtues) and I personally think quite ahead of its time. Nobody seriously studies Napoleon without noticing that it was not exclusively Napoleon fighting offensive wars (mainly) but defending France against old monarchies coalitions because of the ideas (seen as dangerous) of the French Revolution (which has also controversy attached). Of course having a military background (after all he was an Artillery Officer) and following the European tradition that Clausewitz will formulate a posteriori he went to war frequently enough (understatement) as it was the custom in Europe, nowadays he is still remembered for his Civil Code (nearly 200 years of life) and abolishing feudal privileges. He also reinstated slavery in the Caribbean Sea (to his shame). He was not perfect but had a great brain and “je ne sais quoi”.
This post has really a lot of pics!
Napoleonic wargaming was my passion for almost thirty years, in 25mm because I was stupid enough to do not choose 15mm in the first place (minis in the late seventies had no such vast offer and traders… even if MINIFIGS did 15mm too!) so MINIFIGS 25mm (after all I was coming down from plastic 54mm and up from AIRFIX 20MM) I went for… and no regrets, was quite happy with my collection who also extended to other periods and wars (I though it would be very difficult to paint such small figures in 15mm because of the lavish uniforms of the napoleonic wars!).
Was interested for many years (obsessed is a better description) with the battle of Waterloo, could the Emperor have won? In context and after years of reading about it, I arrived at the conclusion that it was a NO WIN – NO WIN situation, it would have been 1813 all over again… with Austrians and Russians and what not invading France which was exhausted… and that’s that.
Have some pics of my years indulging in that particular wargamers fetish. And remember the fact that I painted myself all the Waterloo minis!… LOL
After a deep crisis with 25mm wargaming I sold them all. After some years toying with Playmobil (75mm) conversions and quite classical 54mm toy soldier collecting I went back to wargaming but in 6mm this time! (see the other Posts). Cheers
I have been very lazy and tardly to show those 6MM Baccus proxies… they have been in the cabinet for months (or weeks)… and they deserved a Post. Probably the less mentioned action of Balaklava!
My collection of 6MM is slowly growing (under control I like to think… lol).
This action has always been a favourite of mine.
The Russians are in fact german cavalry from the Franco-Prussian war… used just to give a sense of perspective!
It has been a while since I first saw this pics from an awesome diorama.
I have been delaying getting into it and making a Post because in a way it is so much Military Modeling and sculpting that the term Toy Soldier did not seem to apply to it.
After much reflection I decided to make a Post… it deserves it in spades.
There are no comments on the five pics… they are self explanatory I guess.
November 2022… after a long reflection and no REPLICA in the works (yet)… I decided to contact Mr. Antony Spencer from Dorset Soldiers (Imperial Miniatures nowadays) about the possibility of completing some units as to have them organized in “dozens” – aka 12 minis each-).
No problem with “new” sets… you just order 12 minis units and the trick is done…
But it was different with the sets done by REPLICA a couple of years back… it was a task of finding the right hues of paint and the models themselves… mind, they are still in the Post… but have some pics to show you… so here they are!
Yesterday was the climax of the battle… Mansfield stabilized the right flank (Union)… Sumner was involved in a great firefight against the Confederates in the sunken road… Burnside did cross the bridge and went to the other side…
I expect to continue for a few more moves and see if DH HIll Division comes from Harper’s Ferry on time as in the real battle. I tend to allow that possibilitiy a high average of success because it did happen.
For those interested in the real thing instead of my ramblings read A LANDSCAPE TURNED RED by Sears… or even the Osprey would do.
For me it was like seeing a movie and understanding a lot of things… I would probably bore you till the end of it…