Altar of Freedom: Seven Pines

On Saturday Antti, Samuli and I gathered at the club to play the battle of Seven Pines with the Altar of Freedom rules. This battle was fought for the control of the Confedereate capital Richmond, which was being threatened in May 1862 by a huge Federal army led by general McClellan.

Form up!

I managed to finish the movement trays for my 6mm American Civil War miniatures. The trays are laser-cut MDF from Sarissa Precision, which are great and save a lot of time. I'll use this as an excuse to show off my full CW collection, so enjoy.

The whole lot, 16 units of Confederate infantry, 2 cavalry, 10 artillery pieces, generals, HQ bases and 5 Union infantry units.

Confederate infantry

Union infantry

Confederate artillery

Confederate cavalry

Generals

Confederate HQs - a field hospital and a camp (which might get a flagpole at some point)

 

The movement trays are nice and easy to use

I also get a certain amount of perverse satisfaction from the way the units fit perfectly into their transport boxes

Altar of Freedom: First Manassas

Throughout the fall I've been gathering a force of 6mm American Civil War miniatures. At the club we've so far used these miniatures to play several games using Black Powder and Longstreet rules. Though both rule sets are excellent, I don't really want to use Black Powder for both Napoleonic and ACW gaming (that would be too repetitive). Longstreet is an excellent game, but I was also interested in playing the larger battles of the war, for which these rules aren't suitable. After some searching, I found the Altar of Freedom rules which have received some praise and seem to fit my gaming style really well (not too complex, fast playing and concentrating on the essential command and control problems rather than micromanagement).

Some of my Union troops based for Altar of Freedom

As our second test game of the rule set we chose to play the battle of First Manassas (First Bull Run). This was the first major battle of the war, which pitted two eager but inexperienced armies led by generals that had rapidly been promoted way above their capabilities.