The Short Road to Longstreet

Another diversion? Possibly…

Many years ago I picked up an large 15mm ACW Union army at the bring and buy at Claymore in Edinburgh. I then acquired a Confederate army from my mate Billy in Birmingham along with a copy of Fire and Fury. And then I did nothing with them! Eventually I sold them back to Billy who added a few figures to the Confederates  but again, did nothing with them. Roll forward 7-8 years and I have been quite taken with Sam Mustafa’s new ACW rules, Longstreet.

Now part of the problem with my gaming (or lack of it) is that I find a new period/rules and immediately want to do both sides, never complete them and hence never play…This happened with Maurice, as I’m still painting up 6mm for that! But I didn’t want it miss out on Longstreet so despite the temptation to buy 6mm or even 3mm armies I remembered the 15mm in Birmingham and when I went down for the Derby show I reclaimed them! This would at least give me a fighting chance of getting a game! So the last couple of evenings I’ve sorted them out to see what I have.

The Confederate army is a nice little force with a mix of manufacturers (most of which I don’t really recognise!).

Nine units of infantry, two regiments of cavalry and five guns (three with limbers), plus officers. These are all based for Fire and Fury, three to a base. Annoyingly there are only 8 stands to each cavalry unit so I may need to remedy that, along with a couple of limbers. Also, four of the units are based on slightly deeper (and unevenly cut) bases so these are going to get re-done.

As you can see, lots of variation in figure makes but they all fit together quite well. And the flags will need redoing at some point as well. Either way, enough to get me going.

The Union army is a little more problematic. There is more of it, it’s all quite neatly based and is entirely Minifigs. These also look like 2nd Generation? Definitely different from what is listed on the current site.

As you can see, there is quite a lot. Eleven or twelve infantry units, lots of markers, 8-10 guns.Most are based with three figures but there are quite a few with two to a base. And there are also a lot more flag bases than units. As most of these have unit names on I assume either Fire and Fury has lots more smaller units, or extras are for specific units in a campaign? I plan to use the spares and break down the two figure stands to make up full units for Longstreet.

There are also a few stands of sharpshooters which can be used as markers in Longstreet.

And plenty of officers and markers…

And what looks like the Iron Brigade…

The issue is the two Zouave units. There aren’t enough for a full unit so I’d be looking at adding to these and trying to paint to match.

The front unit are definitely Minifigs and I assume those behind too. But not sure if these figures are still available?There are also a fair few unpainted figures. Enough for another 3-4 units. There are no Union cavalry. There is not quite enough unpainted for a full unit and given these may not be the current Minifigs range it may be easier to buy a new unit or two – either Minifigs or I quite like the Lancashire Games regular cavalry. The Minifigs are also quite small figures so mixing with other ranges may not work too well.

I’m not sure why there are so many with only two figures to a base? Is this a Fire and Fury thing? Or just stretching figures to make more units?

So, a little rebasing and I’m good to go! Any comments/advice on the whole Minifigs generation thing and where I might get older castings would be a help and any comments from a Longstreet perspective on what else I might need would be appreciated.