Technically, Battery Wagner itself is done. Maybe I'll lengthen the southwestern corner, but it's pretty much ready and doesn't have to be perfect. The next step is populating it. I'm too late to run the game this week, but I might (given how little interest I've raised among the teens) try it next week. Today's task was to assemble and label the troops that will face off on the tabletop. I did it in YouMedia, hoping to draw attention from the teens who were mostly doing art on tablets. (I pointed out that making art is worthy of experience points in-game.)
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| While my DnD materials gathered dust on one table... |
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| I assembled some troops on the other. |
These are
Black Powder Epic figures. Heresy, I know, but under the circumstances I'm fine with just labeling regiments and allowing flags and base colors to tell them apart. I'm also using white glue to assemble them. After I played the charge scene from
Glory, one of the students helped; we got into a good rhythm and had an assembly line going as I added glue and she stuck them on the bases. I also cut out flags from the sheets provided in the
Black Powder box - annoyingly there was only one North Carolina flag, yet four Florida ones though the latter fielded far fewer troops!
As we worked, I regaled her with trivia about the Civil War and answered a few questions; she learned to identify regiments by their number and state abbreviation, the significance of the Juneteenth holiday, why the uniform colors were chosen, and why troops sickened and died in camps with bad hygiene. I also showed off my
Merrimac and
Monitor models and explained the basics of how ironclads worked. It kept us both interested.
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| Six regiments, including the 54th Massachusetts. |
Sometimes you just have to do what you can in this hobby; I'm not discouraged yet, and there's always the younger kids too (they had a craft project and a juggling act this afternoon, though). The hours I spent today were at least relaxing, and that's a good thing too. Enjoy your hobby.
I like the dense formations of your basing. Shouldn’t the Stars and Stripes be positioned on the right of the regimental colors?
ReplyDeleteEr, probably! The flagpoles on the bases are oddly positioned, with one lower due to its slant, so I thought the national flag would be more recognizable if raised high.
DeleteAs for the formations, the Junior General rules call for six bases per regiment, typically in a double line - though each base is more square and holds one or two figures. In home games I'll use three bases per unit, with each counting as two (thus in scale with Paperboys). On the other hand, this is more in scale with the Wagner model I built.
It all seems to be coming along nicely. Personally, I wouldn't know or care which flag was on what side. Just great to see a project progressing.
ReplyDeleteSometimes that's the only thing I get out of it - the feel of taking a step forward.
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