American Civil War campaign: The Battle of Triangle!

This is a report of the first battle of the American Civil War campaign that Professor Gary Sheffield and I are fighting.

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Report to the Confederate C-in-C from the commander of the 8th Cavalry Brigade, Triangle.

Sir, I beg to report an engagement with enemy forces at Triangle.

My brigade advanced to the settlement as ordered, and prepared field defences. An enemy force of cavalry, of greater strength than I had at my disposal, advanced south along the road from Unitedville.

Deploying a mix of dismounted and mounted troops, we succeeded in holding off the enemy for an entire day.

The enemy attempted to turn my right flank, thus cutting my line of retreat to Akragas City. Outnumbered, and with dusk approaching, I pulled back from Triangle village and cut my way out.

During this movement, we destroyed three Yankee mounted units. Such was the damage we inflicted on the enemy that they did not attempt to pursue us.

My force is falling back on Akragas City in good order

My losses are fairly light with all my units remaining intact.

I await your orders.

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The situation after the Battle of Triangle.

So, the Confederate cavalry has been forced to withdraw, but they seem to have given the Union cavalry a bloody nose!

American Civil War campaign: The first real clash!

The American Civil War campaign that I am currently 'fighting' with Professor Gary Sheffield has generated its first real battle!

Both sides had advanced somewhat warily towards the centre of Sicily, and scouting forces had skirmished at Unitedville (9). Now cavalry from both sides have met at Triangle (11), and this time the opposing forces intend to fight.

Please click on the map to enlarge it.

My (Confederate) cavalry brigade has been in Triangle for long enough to fortify the town and expect that they will be able to see off the Union attackers ... who are thought to be a cavalry brigade.

Due to my current circumstances, Gary is going to fight this battle solo ... and I will share the result with my regular blog readers as soon as I can.

American Civil War campaign: The opening moves

I am playing the Confederate side in the campaign. and my troops occupy the western end of the island.

I have organised my force into a number of brigades and I located them in various nodal points on the western end of the map.

My orders were as follow:

• A brigade to advance from 03 (Selinatown) to 06 (on the coastal road between Selinatown and St Gela)
• A brigade to advance from 04 (Panorama Gulch) to 07 (Solastine)
• A brigade to advance from 06 (On the coastal road between Selinatown and St Gela) to 12 (On the coastal road between Seliantown and St Gela)
• A brigade to advance from 07 (Solastine) to 08 (Himeran)

Intelligence then reached me that the Union forces were reported to be at 15 (On the road from Zeke's Mill to Unitedville), 16 (On the road from Zeke's Mill to Unitedville), and 14 (Bank's Mill).

I response, I issued the following orders:

• A brigade to advance from 06 (on the coastal road between Selinatown and St Gela) to 12 (On the coastal road between Seliantown and St Gela)
• A brigade to advance from 07 (Solastine) to 08 (Himeran)
• A brigade to advance from 12 (On the coastal road between Seliantown and St Gela) to 11 (Triangle)
• A brigade to advance from 08 (Himeran) to 09 (Unitedville)

The Union response was to move troops along the northern road to Unitedville (and thus into contact with my brigade) and along the southern road to 13. In addition, reports have reached my HQ that a local, private militia organised by Mr Nathan T Banks to protect Banks's Mill has been fighting what he identifies as General Rosenkrantz's Central Brigade. He claims to have inflicted serious casualties on the Union troops ... but as he is an untrained militia commander, his assessment of the situation must be treated with caution.

The brigade that I had pushed forward towards Unitedville came into contact with a Union Cavalry Brigade that was supported by an Infantry Brigade (believed to be the Northern Infantry Brigade) and after briefly skirmishing with the Union force, withdrew to 08 (Himeran).

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This is the situation after the first two turns of the campaign ... and I am currently writing my orders for the next turn.

I am taking part in an online American Civil War campaign

My old friend Professor Gary Sheffield has invited me to take part in an online American Civil War campaign ... and I have just issued my first commands to my Confederate troops!

The campaign is taking place on an island off the coast of the Carolinas that bears a remarkable resemblance to Sicily. Indeed, some of the place names do appear to be similar – if not the same – to some of the places on that Italian island!

Both sides have similar-sized forces:

• 27 x Infantry Regiments (6 x Elite infantry regiments, and 15 Regular infantry regiments, and 6 x Militia infantry regiments)
• 9 x Cavalry Regiments
• 4 x Artillery Batteries

The infantry regiments are organised into infantry brigades. Each infantry brigade comprises two to six infantry regiments, and each infantry regiment must be of the same status. A cavalry regiment and/or artillery battery may be attached to the infantry brigade.

The cavalry regiments can be organised into cavalry brigades or attached to infantry brigades. Each cavalry brigade comprises two to six cavalry regiments.

I hope to write blog posts about how this campaign unfolds, but in the meantime, I'm keeping my ORBAT and initial moves to myself!

The paperback edition of Dominion of the Blue and the Grey has been published

He's done it yet again! Only a month after he published DOMINION OF OTTO VON BISMARCK, Steve Parker has published yet another book in the 'Dominion of ...' series. This latest book is aimed at the American Civil War, and is entitled DOMINION OF THE BLUE AND GREY.

It follows the same format as the previous books in the series, so I will not repeat myself other than to state that is has American Civil War-appropriate rule changes. These are:

• Revised rally rules.
• Amended activation rules.
• Rules for generals influencing the battle.

As in previous books, there are scenarios for 24 historical battles. These include a brief background to the battle, relevant army lists, deployment details, and brief account of the actual battle. The battles covered are:

• First Bull Run (First Manassas) (1861)
• Wilson’s Creek (Oak Hills) (1861)
• Fort Donelson (1862)
• Pea Ridge (Elkhorn Tavern) (1862)
• Shiloh (1862)
• Seven Pines (Fair Oaks) (1862)
• Gaines’s Mill (1862)
• Second Bull Run (Manassas) (1862)
• Antietam (Sharpsburg) (1862)
• Perryville (1862)
• Fredericksburg (1862)
• Stones River (Murfreesboro) (1863)
• Chancellorsville (1863)
• Vicksburg (1863)
• Brandy Station (1863)
• Gettysburg (1863)
• Chickamauga (1863)
• Missionary Ridge (Chattanooga) (1863)
• The Wilderness (1864)
• Kennesaw Mountain (1864)
• Atlanta (1864)
• Franklin (1864)
• Nashville (1864)
• Bentonville (1865).

I have already ordered my copy of the paperback from Lulu and hope to receive it within the next ten days.

Even more experiments with ChatGPT

There were several very interesting comments made about my very recent blog post entitled 'More experiments with ChatGPT' ... and they set me thinking about what other experiments I could try using ChatGPT.

To date, I have asked ChatGPT to:

• Create images of people (including myself) in various historical garb
• Create maps for several of my imagi-nations
• Design ironclads and early pre-dreadnought battleships
• Write portable Wargame rules for Colonial & early 20th Century Warfare and the Chaco War
• Create Victorian-style line drawings based on photographs of people and wargames

My latest experiment was to take a Victorian-era illustration and ask ChatGPT to create photographs of wargame figures based on them. The results were as follows:

A line drawing of the Union American Civil War unit, the Garibaldi Guard.

A ChatGPT generated photograph of the Garibaldi Guard as a unit of wargame figures.

I was impressed by the results produced by ChatGPT and decided to repeat the experiment using the image that was on the cover of the latest issue of the Victorian Military Society's publication, SOLDIERS OF THE QUEEN.

The original coloured illustration used on the cover of latest issue of SOLDIERS OF THE QUEEN.

ChatGPT's rendition of the above cover illustration as wargame figures.

Frankly, I think that the final illustration is extremely good ... and I also think that many people would not be able to tell the difference between it and a real photograph of a group of painted wargame figures.

These recent experiments have certainly given me pause for thought ... and show just how sophisticated AI software that anyone can use has become.

Sheer genius!: An American Civil War ironclads naval wargame in a matchbox!

As my regular blog readers will know, I have mentioned the unofficial 'wargame in matchbox' challenge set by Tradgardmastare (whose blog is known as The Duchy of Tradgardland) and that had been accepted by Mark, who writes the Man of Tin blog.

Since then, others have taken up the challenge, including Peter, who writes the Grid Based Wargaming – but not always blog. Peter's game – which is an American Civil War ironclads naval wargame – is truly outstanding and really does meet the criteria hands down.

I won't steal his well-deserved thunder by writing too much about his game as I hope that my regular blog readers will follow the links to Peter's blog and see what he has devised. Suffice it to say, I think that he gives other wargamers pretty well all the information – including rules – that they would need to replicate his game.

The following photographs give a flavour of his design:

The complete wargame in a matchbox.

The contents of the matchbox.

A battle in progress!

I am of the opinion that Peter's design has commercial possibilities, and if he was to create complete 'wargames in a matchbox' and sell them online, I for one would buy a one.

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Please note that the photographs shown above are © Peter of the Grid Based Wargaming – but not always blog.

The Third Portable Wargame Compendium: An update

Work has been continuing on the next Portable Wargame Compendium. I am awaiting two more articles (another about the Napoleonic Wars and one about re-fighting the Battle of Gettysburg), and once those have arrived, been added to the existing draft, and proofread, I will be beginning the publication process.

The Third Compendium currently includes the following articles:

• Modifications to the Ancients rules in Developing the Portable Wargame for fighting medieval battles
• Constantinople Beleaguered ... a PW3x3RW campaign idea
• A simple English Civil War campaign system for Portable Pike and Shot
• Simple English Civil War 8 x 8 Campaign Rules
• Some suggested improvements to the Brigade-level Portable Napoleonic Wargame Rules
• Ideas for developing the Portable Napoleonic Big Battle or FP3x3PW Rules
• Wargaming the Flagstaff War – New Zealand 1845 – 1846
• Sham-Battle and the Portable Wargame: Melding two concepts to produce a set of mini-campaign rules
• Some well-known scenarios revisited
• Big Battles, Small Armies
• A simple framework for narrative campaigns
• 6 x 6 Portable Wargames

This looks as if it is going to be the biggest compendium to date ... and I hope to publish it by the end of August.

The Third Portable Wargame Compendium: Another progress report

The current draft has been proofread by the incomparable Arthur Harman, and it is already ninety-three pages long. It is worth noting that the First Compendium had 108 pages and the Second Compendium had 132 pages.

At present, the Contents looks like this:

I know that there are at least two more contributions in the pipeline, and I hope that the Compendium will be ready for publication somewhat earlier than I expected.

The Third Portable Wargame Compendium: A further progress report

Since last Friday I have been working on the next issue of the PORTABLE WARGAME COMPENDIUM, and its draft is already ninety pages long ... and I know of at least two more articles that are being written for inclusion in this issue.

To date, Mark Cordone has contributed articles about:

• Adapting the PORTABLE ANCIENT WARGAME rules from DEVELOPING THE PORTABLE WARGAME for use in the Medieval period.
• His BIG BATTLES, SMALL ARMIES rules.
• A framework for narrative campaigns.
• Developing the 6 x 6 PORTABLE WARGAME.

Archduke Piccolo's contribution relates the story of his BYZANTIAD campaign and includes an excellent campaign map and campaign system as well as two well-illustrated campaign reports.

I will write further progress reports as and when I can.

The Third Portable Wargame Compendium: A progress report

I spent quite a lot of Saturday working on the Third Portable Wargame Compendium, and to date it now has three articles.

One of these was written by me and re-examines six wargame scenarios that were included in three of the first wargame books that bought ... H G Wells’s LITTLE WARS, Brigadier Peter Young and Lieutenant Colonel James P Lawford’s CHARGE! OR HOW TO PLAY WAR GAMES, and Donald Featherstone’s WAR GAMES. I have drawn suitable square and hex gridded maps for each scenario and included both the original Orders of Battle and suitable PORTABLE WARGAME Orders of Battle.

The other two articles were written by Arthur Harman and are entitled:

• Ideas for developing the Portable Napoleonic Big Battle or Fast Play 3 x 3 Portable Wargame Rules
• A simple English Civil War campaign system for Portable Pike and Shot

I have several other articles in the pipeline and hope to publish the latest Compendium by September.

First Bull Run: Today’s Military History Plus podcast

Later this morning Professor Gary Sheffield and Dr Spencer Jones will be discussing the First Battle of Bull Run in Episode 7 of the Military History Plus podcast.

Last week’s podcast looked at the late Dr Paddy Griffith’s book RALLY ONCE AGAIN, ...

... which was published in 1986 and revised and republished as BATTLE TACTICS OF THE CIVIL WAR in 1989, ...

... so today’s podcast will hopefully be a nice follow up to that podcast.

More solitaire wargame books

Back in February, my old friend and fellow member of Wargame Developments, Tony Hawkins, gave me BISMARCK SOLITAIRE by Mike Wylie, Sean Cooke, and Grant Wylie III as a birthday present.

This proved to be very useful when I went into hospital in March, as Sue was able to get my copy bring it in to me and was able to play some of the scenarios.

Since then I have acquired two more book in this series. They are WATERLOO SOLITAIRE ...

... and GETTYSBURG SOLITAIRE.

I took my copy of WATERLOO SOLITAIRE into hospital with me when I underwent my prostate operation, but I was unable to use it very much as the person I shared a ward bay with objected to the sound of the dice being thrown!

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These books were written by Mike Wylie, Sean Cooke, and Grant Wylie III, and published by Worthington Publishing.

• BISMARCK SOLITAIRE (published in 2021; ISBN 979 87565 4806 8)
• WATERLOO SOLITAIRE (published in 2021; ISBN 979 87749 4492 7)
• GETTYSBURG SOLITAIE (published in 2022; ISBN 979 84360 0269 9)

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Please note that the images featured above are © Worthington Publishing and are included solely for the purposes of this review.

Mark Cordone's generic Portable Napoleonic Wargame setup and Martin Smith's ongoing ACW campaign

I was very interested to see that Mark Cordone has created a set of generic PORTABLE NAPOLEONIC WARGAME armies using the figures from the game RISK.

He has kept the original colours of the figures but toned them down somewhat by using a simple drybrush and wash technique. The effect is interesting and makes them look a lot less stark.

In addition, he has put together a selection of terrain tiles made from 4"/10cms squares of wood, and the whole lot can easily be stored together in an easy-to-transport box.

In the meantime, Martin Smith has fought yet another battle in his ongoing American Civil War Snakes & Ladders campaign.

The work that these players have done to turn my ideas into a truly portable wargame is magnificent, and I salute their continued efforts.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Mark Cordone and Martin Smith.

Other people’s Portable Wargame battle reports: Ancients, English Civil War, and American Civil War

The last few days have seen a flurry of battle reports on the PORTABLE WARGAME Facebook page.

Ancients by Barry Carter

Barry fought a tough little battle that saw his Romans just about see off an attack by a combined force of Frank’s and Huns.

English Civil War by Russell King

Russell is new to wargaming the English Civil War and began his journey with a refight of the Battle of Tippermuir (1644).

American Civil War by Martin Smith

Martin is fighting an American Civil War Snakes & Ladders campaign and managed to fight the latest battle whilst away from home using his 2mm American Civil War armies and his simple but very effective cloth terrain. A truly portable wargame!

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Please note that photographs featured above are © Barry Carter, Russell King, and Martin Smith.

Other people's Portable Wargame battle reports ... and some house rules

Over the past week or so there have been some very interesting battle reports on the PORTABLE WARGAME Facebook page.

Paul David Leeson concluded his Battle of Fuentes de Onoro by refighting the second day of the battle ...

... and Jesus Cortes fought a fantasy battle set in 1500 in a plague-ridden Europe with his son.

At the same time, Martin Smith continued to fight the latest battle in his Snake Valley ACW campaign (which uses the Snakes & Ladders Campaign system) ...

... and Spencer CF staged a huge Ancients battle!

At the same time, Alan Stewart shared his Retreating house rule on his Donjondo webpage.

All in all, it has been a very interesting and inspiring time for users of the PORTABLE WARGAME.

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Please note that the photographs featured above are © Paul David Leeson, Jesus Cortes, Martin Smith, and Spencer CF.

Volley & Bayonet

I bought a copy of Frank Chawick and Greg Novak's VOLLEY & BAYONET Grand Tactical wargame rules soon after it was published in 1994 ...

... and purchased their BATTLES OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR source and scenario book in 1995.

I remember reading them with considerable interest, but as at the time my wargaming was going in a somewhat different direction, they were added to my bookshelves and - until recently - almost completely forgotten about. In fact, I was convinced that I had put them into a storage crate that was pretty inaccessible until I found them whilst looking for something else.

My old friend David Crook has recently been blogging about VOLLEY & BAYONET and finding my copies has led me to read them again. I particularly enjoyed reading the designer’s notes in the rule book as they give a valuable insight into the thinking behind the rules. As I am currently jotting down ideas for my own grand tactical/army-level version of the PORTABLE WARGAME, such design notes give me something to compare my own thinking with.

Battle in Africa (2nd Edition)

Back in the mid 1980s, Paddy Griffith conceived the idea of publishing a number of well-illustrated sourcebooks that would be of use to wargamers and amateur military historians. They were published by Fieldbooks and the first (and only) two titles in the projected series were BATTLE IN THE CIVIL WAR: GENERALSHIP AND TACTICS IN AMERICA 1861-65, which was written by Paddy Griffith, ...

... and BATTLE IN AFRICA 1879-1914, which was written by Howard Whitehouse. Both were extensively illustrated by Peter Dennis.

Both books have been out of print for some considerable time, and until very recently they could only be found on sale from second-hand booksellers. That situation has now changed as Howard Whitehouse's book has been republished in a new edition by John Curry's 'History of Wargaming' Project.

BATTLE IN AFRICA: THE OPERATIONAL AND TACTICAL ART OF WAR IN AFRICA 1879-1914 is not a reprint. The book has been re-typeset and reorganised so that rather than being an illustrated book, it is a book with illustrations. As a result, I found it easier to read, although it has lost a little bit of the original's almost comic book style.

It is great that this book is now available again and will appeal to those wargamers who have only recently discovered Colonial wargaming as a genre. In particular, I can see it appealing to wargamers who enjoy using A GENTLEMAN'S WAR (by Howard Whitehouse!), THE MEN WHO WOULD BE KINGS (by Daniel Mersey) and (of course!), THE PORTABLE COLONIAL WARGAME.

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BATTLE IN AFRICA: THE OPERATIONAL AND TACTICAL ART OF WAR IN AFRICA 1879-1914 was written by Howard Whitehouse, illustrated by Peter Dennis, and published in 2021 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN 979 8 5030 7043 9). It is currently on sale at Amazon in both Kindle and paperback editions.

The Portable American Civil War Wargame book: A short progress report

Over the past couple of days, I have been making slow but steady progress on the book. David Crook’s naval wargame rules are in the final stages of their first proof reading, and I have been doing the book’s layout as I have been adding the text to the book’s template.

I have sketched out a plan for the book’s content, although this may well change as the book develops. At present my plan looks like this:

• Introduction and acknowledgements
• Military innovations of the mid nineteenth century
• Brigade-level wargame rules + battle report
• Divisional-level wargame rules + battle report
• Corps-level wargame rules + battle report
• Naval wargame rules + battle report
• Chronology of the American Civil War
• Bibliography

The Portable American Civil Wargame book: Work has begun!

Some time ago, I mentioned that I hope to publish a PORTABLE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR book in the not too distant future. It will be a cooperative effort, with David Crook providing the naval wargame rules, Gary Sheffield the land warfare rules, and me acting as editor and compiler of the background information that the book will contain.

I had already prepared to template for the book's manuscript, and very recently David provided me with the draft of his rules. I am currently proof reading them as I add them to the manuscript, and this will take me a couple of days to do as I don't want to rush this. Once this is complete, the manuscript will be passed back to David for him to check.

I hope that I will receive Gary's contribution in the not too distant future, and once that has bee added to the manuscript, I will be able to add my bits.

The plan is to publish the book sometime around August or September this year, but the timescale is not fixed and may well stretch by a month or two. In the meantime, I will keep regular blog readers up to date with the progress I am making.