Earlier this year i decided rather than trying to play lots of different game i would move to doing more historical periods but stick to one or two rule sets so that i wouldn't have to spend a lot of time learning different rule sets.
Black Power (and Pike and Shot) will be my main set of choice. There are better rule sets out their but Black power is an easy to learn and fun to play game that gives good battle results. It doesn't have points and is very much a gentleman's war game. Its been reviewed in numerous places so i wont go into anymore detail other than to say it can cover anything from the English civil war threw to the American civil war and the Crimean war.
Now as the title of this post suggests this year ive decided that i will focus on some civil wars. Mainly the English civil war and the American civil war. I'm not sure what it is about these two wars that fascinates me so much. Coming from a country like New Zealand we haven't had a civil war so its a hard concept to fully understand that people from the same country could be so split politically or religiously (Both in the case of the ECW) that they would be driven to war within their own country.
In the ECW villages and towns could be split between King or Parliament and between one religious view or another. The thought of getting up one morning and looking out your door to see your neighbors coming to blows (sometimes lethal) over what we now cast votes over. as i said its hard to imagine... this however has truly sparked something inside of me and i have been watching and reading everything i can about these two wars. From a painting point of view i have started with ECW as Rob and many of the other South Auckland lads have armies. In fact with me getting an army we have a perfect split between Royalist and Parliamentary forces. I chose to take a Royalist force as we needed one more Royalist and someone was selling a starter box cheep. At this point (about a month back) i have no idea about this war. It had seemed interesting but i was concentrating on Bolt Action and SAGA at the time when the lads had got into the period.
I have nothing finished so far as im waiting for bases to turn up but i have been doing some painting.
Below are a few pics of what ive done over the last 3 weeks. As i said nothing finished but the force is slowly forming.
I'm not planning to do a large force - i don't have the time right now. I'm looking at a command stand and then a couple of regiments of horse some cannons and 3 Battalions of infantry. It will be enough to join in with the other lads.
I do want to get it finished reasonably quickly as i really want to get onto the next project ACW. I've always loved the imagery of the Blues vs the Greys. Movies such as Glory and Gettysburg and Gods and Generals are personal favorites. The war is also extreamly rich in political and moral views - which still cause much pain in America. Visually (always important as a painter) the period just looks great on the table - exciting bright flags some interesting units such as Zouaves and a massive mix of uniform colours in the confederate army make it interesting to paint.
I've decided to go on the Confederate side as I feel they were the underdog in the war and although i don't agree with the slavery aspect that is hard to ignore i do think they are the more interesting painting subject. Excited as i am about that project it must wait until the ECW force is finished.
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