The Universe of Battle - Prologue

This week we said goodbye to my dad. He’d suffered with ill health for a long time, but this most recent hospital admission was one too many. He passed peacefully surrounded by the people he loved.

Without my dad I do not believe I would be the gamer I am today. Growing up surrounded by Tolkien books, Star Wars films, boardgames and the Atari 2600; fantasy worlds and gaming was always part of my life. And I’m thankful for that more than I can express.

However, I have a regret. For a while I had planned to put together two small skirmish forces to play a game with my dad once they had operated on his cataracts. Unfortunately, due to one health issue or another, they were never able to operate, so my plan never came to pass.

So instead, I am going to honour my dad by doing this whole project from start to finish and playing a game with my mom.

I have vivid memories of my dad watching The Civil War documentary series (the Ken Burns one) back in the day so had planned to put together an ACW game – so that’s what I’m going to do. I’ve taken the name that I’ll use for posts relating to this project from that series as a little nod to the source.

I’ve settled on Rebels and Patriots for the ruleset as it won’t need too many minis. I’d considered using the Perry Miniatures Battle in a Box for the miniatures, but, having read some reviews of the contents (as awesome as they are), they didn’t fit my vision for the forces I wanted so wouldn’t work.

Instead I’ll be picking individual packs from the Perry Miniatures metal ACW line. I love Perry metals and have used them across a few other systems already, they are one of my go to providers for historical skirmish games.

So, first up the Union side:

Line Infantry (Veteran) – 6 points
Line Infantry (Veteran) – 6 points
Skirmishers (Sharpshooters) – 6 points
Medium Artillery – 6 points
24 points total

Then the Confederates:

Line Infantry – 4 points
Shock Infantry (Aggressive) – 7 points
Light Cavalry (Aggressive) – 5 points
Skirmishers (Good Shooters) – 4 points
Skirmishers (Good Shooters) – 4 points
24 points total

I’m planning to get the standards for the units that have them from Flags of War, which should set them off nicely!

I’ll also pick up a couple of scenery elements for the project – that Perry farmhouse kit looks rather nice...

Watch this space!