Demo Game Progress… The Battle of Murfreesboro at Warfare 2021 (Part 6)

It’s now just one month to go until Warfare 2021 and the terrain boards for my Battle of Murfreesboro demo-game are now finished, packed in bubble-wrap and ready for transport!

The last phase of the terrain-building was the addition of weeds and bushes to the riverbanks, for which I used more leftover scraps of Woodland Scenics ‘Foliage Clusters’ and ‘Undergrowth’.  You can compare the pictures below to the pictures in Part 5 to see the difference.

I’m now in the process of building the ‘stick-on’ terrain, starting with these fences from Pendraken.  This is three packs’-worth and another nine packs have just arrived in the post!  I’ve also got 20-odd telegraph poles for the railway line and then I have to stick hot needles into 114 tree-trunks! 🙁

With the Union troops finished, I’ve moved on to the last of the Confederate troops and in two weeks have painted over 100 infantry and 20 cavalry, plus the dismounted option for the cavalry.  In the past I’ve found that the Rebs take around twice as long to paint, compared to the Bluebellies, but these came together surprisingly quickly.  I did however, reduce my palette of greys and butternuts from around fifteen shades to eight or nine, so that probably speeded things up a bit.  As usual, these figures are all by Pendraken.

As mentioned before, I’m using the order of battle for Gettysburg as my painting ‘to do’ list, so this is actually Anderson’s Division from A.P. Hill’s III Corps and actually completes that corps.  I’ve now ‘just’ got one division left to do from Ewell’s II Corps and all of Longstreet’s I Corps. 

For Murfreesboro I’ll be ditching all the Confederate ‘Battle-Flag’ command stands as shown above, and will instead use specific command stands for the Western Theatre, with their distinctive formation-specific flag designs.  I’ve therefore got two corps commanders, five divisional commanders and twenty infantry command stands to paint, but they shouldn’t take too long to do (about four days’ work).  I have posted this before, but here’s the flag sheet I’ve knocked up for the job:

Using 10mm figures and an increased ground-scale has enabled me to expand the map by 20%, compared to Troy Turner’s original scenario map and I’m therefore able to include the small cavalry clash that took place on the battle’s western flank.  I’ve already got more than enough Union cavalry, but my only painted Confederate cavalry until now is the 1st Virginia Regiment, with their rather distinctive blue-grey uniforms, black hats, black facings and hussar-style lacing.  I need something a bit more ‘Rebellious’ for the Western Theatre…

I’ve therefore done these fellas in a variety of grey and ‘butternut’ shades, like the infantry, with a few sporting the regulation yellow cavalry facings.  I’ve mixed in a few Union cavalry figures, just for a bit of variety and for the colour provided by their forage caps, which are either painted plain grey with a yellow band or in the full regulation yellow with a dark blue band.  For the officer I’ve used the Pendraken J.E.B. Stuart personality figure, with his very fashionable feathered hat and buttoned-back yellow plastron lapels.  I do like these. 🙂

‘Dragoon Tactics’, i.e. dismounting to skirmish, became increasingly common during the Civil War, so painting the ‘dismounted option’ is somewhat essential.  However, Confederate cavalry, often armed with pre-war muzzle-loading carbines or simply shotguns, pistols and hunting rifles, were frequently out-gunned by their Union opponents who were increasingly being supplied with modern breech-loading rifles and even repeating rifles.  In game terms using Fire & Fury rules, every fourth cavalry stands becomes a horse-holder stand when cavalry dismount, so the ten-stand cavalry unit becomes eight dismounted cavalry stands and two horse-holder stands.

Anyway, I’m now off on holiday for a week, so my apologies if I’m a little slow in approving comments!  🙂  Phil and I have a SYW game lined up for when I return, so there should soon be something other than ACW on here!

This entry was posted in 10mm Figures, American Civil War, American Civil War Confederate Army, Fire & Fury (Brigade), Painted Units, Scenery, Warfare (Show). Bookmark the permalink.

6 Responses to Demo Game Progress… The Battle of Murfreesboro at Warfare 2021 (Part 6)

  1. Paul Smith says:

    Hi Mark

    The boards look stunning, can’t wait to see them for real in a few weeks time. It did get me wondering mind you; given the amount of effort you have put into them and practical things like their ‘bulk’, what will you do with them after the show?

    Cheers Paul

    • jemima_fawr says:

      Cheers Paul! I wish there was a sensible answer, but they generally clutter up the place for a few years before becoming landfill and contributing to environmental decline. Sometimes I’m able to recycle them and I once sold an entire Samurai game (including two amazing castles) to a punter at ‘Colours’. 🙂

  2. Keith says:

    Wow – scrolling back through your recent pots, you have certainly put in a great deal of work and effort in creating these terrain boards – I look forward to seeing how things go with your demo game!

  3. Joe Fish says:

    The game will be stunning. It is already well done.

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