ACW 10mm NOT 6mm!

[getagrip]

I have one regular gaming buddy and we recently decided to get into ACW (having mainly been fantasy players).

I argued for 6mm (bigger battles etc. etc.) but he won the day and insisted on 10mm (I really didn't take too much convincing).

So:

I need two starter armies which could represent your "average" ACW battle (we aren't "history" boys who research every tiny detail).

If I had £50 for each army (and I do, get the burners ready Leon ), what should I buy for each force?

Thanks guys

[Last Hussar]

Lots of infantry.  Depending on rules/basing/Orbat will affect the ratio of guns, but starting with 9 bags of infantry (£40.50 - 270 men- inc 1-2 bags of command) some officers, with the rest in cannon, would be a good base.  Exact amount of command needed again varies with rules, but you can leave cavalry till later if you want- you need a good strong core of infantry.

Edit after thinking during making tea.

Inch base (F&F/TCHAE) - 6-7ish per base.  About 40 bases.  That will do a TCHAE scenario (regiments), but is small for F&F (brigades)

[Fenton]

Lots of infantry.  Depending on rules/basing/Orbat will affect the ratio of guns, but starting with 9 bags of infantry (£40.50 - 270 men- inc 1-2 bags of command) some officers, with the rest in cannon, would be a good base.  Exact amount of command needed again varies with rules, but you can leave cavalry till later if you want- you need a good strong core of infantry.

What he said

[getagrip]

Thanks guys,  how many cannon would I need for 270 infantry?

[Fenton]

Depends on rules and/or scenario Gareth

[cbr3d.com]

At £50 an army it would be worth starting with an Army Pack of each (£28) which will give 120 x mixed foot, 30 x command, 15 x cavalry and 3 guns with crew (7 packs that would normally cost you £31.50), then bulk out with another 4 packs of infantry (£18) and one of command (£2.30) plus a mounted staff Officers pack (£1.50) and a General (£0.70), this would bring the total to £50.50

Just my 2 pennyworth (but please note people normally ask me for change from that.    )

[Ithoriel]

In theory a Union battery consisted of 6 guns arranged as 3 sections each of two guns. 5 batteries formed a Union artillery brigade which would be attached to a corps. The Army of the Potomac, as an example, also had 5 artillery brigades as an army artillery reserve.

Confederate batteries were usually of 4 guns and brigades only had 4 batteries.

Confederate forces had fewer guns, of smaller calibre, than their Union equivalents by and large.

As much as 50% of Confederate artillery pieces may be captured Union guns.

It was said that an army of Union artillery and Confederate infantry would be a force no one could stand against!

Also, I agree with Fig.ht.

[petercooman]

As others have said, the army packs are a good start or each force!

I decided to make my forces 'mirrored' so i have a good equal choice of troops for each side.

HAve you already decide wich rules you will be using? I have spent about the same amount on my armies, and i use warmaster basing for them (40x20, 3 bases to a unit).

[getagrip]

Rules: undecided although Peter Pig are a front runner.

Aren't the army packs the "old " range?

[Ithoriel]

Union Army - New Range

Confederate Army - New Range

[petercooman]

An example of the army packs:

This is about half an army pack, when the pack is completed, i will have double the amount of infantry bases, 2 more bases of cavalry, and another cannon. only thing bought separately are the bases, the flags and the mounted officer on the hq stand and a pack of casualties to add on the bases where i want.
This is with 8 models per base. You could get more bases with 6 on a smaller base, but my original plan was to do ACWarmaster, so i got 8 on 40x20. I changed rules but kept the basing.

[Westmarcher]

Confederate batteries were usually of 4 guns and brigades only had 4 batteries.

Just to clarify. Do you mean artillery brigades, Ithoriel? I'm thinking off-hand it would be 4 batteries (16 guns) per Infantry Division?

Anyhoo, Grip. Somewhat belatedly, my take is as follows (new posts keep arriving while I type!). Basically, you need infantry and artillery. Forget cavalry initially (not a major contributor in most big ACW battles) and add them later. More smooth bore artillery than rifled pieces for the Rebs - Union about 50/50 guys? Yes, Union had loads of artillery but did not use it all at once and, as stated above, kept batteries in reserve (either committing later in the battle or rotating with units in action - I think). So no need to have too much more model guns than Rebs for wargaming purposes. For rules, although I have war specific rules (Fire & Fury and They Couldn't Hit An Elephant) but tend to use the wider era rules, Black Powder and Field of Battle.  Sorry, Grip, I've got 15mm minis for ACW (based for F&F). I have 1 inch square bases for my 10mm SYW (Foot figs arranged 4 x 2) so would guess same size would accommodate 6 Pendraken ACW minis easily.

[Ithoriel]

Just to clarify. Do you mean artillery brigades, Ithoriel? I'm thinking off-hand it would be 4 batteries (16 guns) per Infantry Division?

Yes, so a Union brigade has 30 guns per artillery brigade to the CSAs 16 guns per artillery brigade.

CSA forces were often outgunned in artillery but tended to have better infantry because of the way they handled reinforcements. The Union formed new units and let old ones dwindle while the CSA beefed up existing units so new recruits learned from the vets - good habits and bad no doubt!

Rock, paper, shotgun

[getagrip]

Okay,  so in my head I thought someone would say: buy this,  this and this.

How naive was that?

[cbr3d.com]

Okay,  so in my head I thought someone would say: buy this,  this and this.

How naive was that?

Well:

Union

1 x Union Army Pack (New)
1 x ACW13 Union Foot Command
1 x ACW36 Mounted Staff Officers (5 figures)
1 x Mounted General (of choice)

Any 4 packs from

ACW1, ACW2, ACW3, ACW4, ACW5, ACW6

Confederate

1 x Confederate Army Pack (New)
1 x ACW15 Confederate Foot Command
1 x ACW36 Mounted Staff Officers (5 figures)
1 x Mounted General (of choice)

Any 4 packs from

ACW7, ACW8, ACW9, ACW10, ACW11, ACW12

These will give an infantry heavy force with artillery and a small cavalry unit along with all command options including a General. 

Unlike some posters I think having the cavalry actually makes sense, these can be used as scouts, fast flanking manouveres, and of course can attack the guns with speed, but as said previously this is just my opinion, so probably not worth mush.

Choose the extra infantry packs from how you wish to display your forces, some packs are marching, some advancing, some firing.  The pictures can be found here:  http://pendraken.co.uk/19th-Century-c15/NEW-American-Civil-War-NEW-sc281/

Hope this helps.