Saturday 5 January 2013

Maps and Stuff

A nine piece foam tile set bought by Kat for me!

As Archduke Piccolo noted in his comment on my last post, the photos were indeed taken on a map of Gettysburg.

It works out at being around a metre square.
I have regretted not getting one since seeing it the Gettysburg visitors center in 2008.  I was worried that it would be too bulky to take back home, given the other stuff I was carrying back.

No scale is given however.
 I plan to run a very simple game of the Battle of Gettysburg on it, using a simplified version of Volley and Bayonet.

The township itself. Unfortunately the location of the best toy soldier shops are not marked.
To continue the theme from my last post of items I purchased and had waiting for me in PA, I purchased some more Star Wars Micro Machines figures, and two Forces of Valor German trucks.

In and out of the packaging.
 The trucks are very sturdy diecast models of German Bussing-Nag 4500As, and make a nice change for my German transport park that consists of a collection of Esci and Airfix Opel Blitzs. From memory these two trucks are rated as being medium trucks under CD.

Side by side. Each truck comes with a canvas tilt and two passengers.
 I also decided to grab some cheap Imperial Naval Troopers to bulk up my Galactic Navy forces.
Imperial Naval Troopers.

More recruits for the Galactic Navy.
The final picture shows some toy soldiers my Mother in law found for me. The big grey cowboy is around 80mm high, and is a hollow cast metal figure. Some time spent researching on the internet revealed that he is a Barclay cowboy - No: 752 Cowboy with Lasso.(This link gives more information, scroll halfway down the page for a picture, and return to the main page for detailed information)

New additions to my figure collection - a Barclay Cowboy and two Bonnie Bilt GIs.
The two semi round GIs appear to be figures from a US company called Bonnie Bilt. I managed to find a blog with some information on them, but apart from that I wasn't able to find much about them. The figures are hard plastic, and are quite visually pleasing. I am sure that they will look good on one of my bookshelves.

11 comments:

  1. You have done very well Brian! Really like the Gettysburg map.

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    1. Hi Rodger, I think I have done pretty well too! I plan on continuing acquiring stuff here over the rest of the month too!

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  2. Acquiring more?! You've scored pretty well already!
    I was wondering if a game could be developed using that Gettysburg map and 1:76 plastic figures. Did I ever show you the National Geographic battle diagrams in it July 1963 issue? You will recall my rendition of Shiloh, at any rate. I wonder if it would work?

    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Hi Ion, I have been thinking along those lines too. I have seen the issue you are talking about and the Shiloh work you did that was inspired by it - you work as always was brilliant! I think the hardest part would be figuring out what each figure represents, and it would be fairly straightforward from that point onwards.

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    2. You'd probably have small units representing brigades. I was thinking maybe 1:250 man scale (an 8-figure block or line represents 2000 men on a 2-inch frontage, say). However, if we suppose the CSA had 54,000 infantry in 36 Brigades; and the Union roughly 72000 men in maybe 54 Brigades (I'll check this) then 6-figure Brigades might be the go.

      Unfortunately, even that might not fit very well on a metre square map (call it 40 inches square). At 1.5 inches per Brigade, the whole CSA infantry force drawn up in a 2-rank line would come out at 54" long. That doesn't look so unlikely, but the Union's total of 81" is going to be a bit squashed curled around Culp's, Cemetery and the Round Tops.

      You might have to settle for Divisions as the tac unit for the map - the CSA had 9 averaging 6000 men apiece; the Union 19 Divisions (they would be awkward, wouldn't they?) at about 3800 men each (though the sizes seem to have been more variable).
      So: 18 figures per CSA Division and 11 (or possibly 12) in a Union Division might be quite a good fit.

      Incidentally, the infantry in my own ACW armies are allotted base-space a half-inch square. Most are in strips of 3 (1.5" x 0.5").

      What do you reckon?
      Cheers,
      Ion



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    3. Hi Ion, I was thinking along the lines of a single figure representing a brigade, but given your calculations I may go for a three to six figures representing a division. I am looking for nice, but visually pleasing way of representing units on the map. Of course first I have to figure out the ground scale used.....

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    4. Yep: I see where you're coming from. Some number crunching yields these sorts of numbers:

      UNION:
      I Corps: 7 Bde + 1 Arty Brigade
      II Corps: 10 Bdes + 1 Arty Bde
      III Corps: 6 Bdes + 1 Arty Bde
      V Corps: 8 Bdes + 1 Arty Bde
      VI Corps: 8 Bdes + 1 Arty Bde
      XI Corps: 6 Bdes + 1 Arty bde
      XII Corps: 6 Bdes + 1 Arty Bde
      Cav Corps: 7 Bdes + 2 'Flying' Arty Bdes
      Arty reserve: 5 Arty Bdes.

      CONFEDERATE:
      Longstreet's Corps: 11 Bdes + 5 Arty Battalions
      Ewell's Corps: 13 Bdes + 5 Arty Bns
      A.P. Hill's Corps: 13 Bdes + 5 Arty Bns
      J.E.B. Stuart's Cav Division: 6 Brigades
      (Note: Possibly a 7th Brigade [Beverley Robertson's] might be included as the force stuart left with Lee)

      At 1 figure per Brigade, there are our numbers: Union/ 51 Foot and 7 Horse; Confederate/37 foot and 6 or 7 Horse.

      Guns present a wee bit of a problem You don't want 16 guns on the Union side, I'm sure - and the CSA holdings would then be 12 or 13 guns.

      I suggest the following as a compromise. Union has 9 guns: 1 per corps, plus 1 in Reserve; Confederates get 7 - 2 per Corps, and Stuart gets 1.
      This ratio (9:7) is almost exactly to the total number of guns on each side according to my source (370:287).

      I don't know how you feel about having more guns than Cavalry figures on the board, but the numbers fall out so well that the alternative I was going to suggest (5 Union and 4 Confederate guns) seems clumsy by comparison.

      I wouldn't mind seeing how my 3-figure infantry strips would go on your map.

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    5. Hi Ion,
      This sounds pretty good - and would suit the size of the map much better! As to having more guns than horse on the table, I am quite comfortable about that, as it fits my view of the battle at this level. Thank you for all the heavy lifting with the number crunching, it certainly has saved me a job!

      And as for seeing how you guys would look on the map - I look forward to it too!

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    6. *you should be your - damn typos!

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  3. I like the truck. You'd probably class it a medium, but I'd be inclined to think of it as a heavy. What do you reckon?

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    1. You may well be right about it being a heavy as it is bigger than the Opel Blitz, but from memory the CD medium truck category is quite broad, so I will definitely be rereading the rules when I get back!

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