Sunday, September 19, 2010

Two Questions

Ok, the first one is directly wargaming related.


Is it finnaly time to get into ACW again, now I tried ACW in 6mm, 15mm and 28mm, and if I start again, I'll go for 15mm, 6mm realy wasn't that much faster to paint, and while the Adler 6mm are realy nice, I just feel like 15mm is right for me in ACW.

But when doing ACW, a good 50% isn't the figures, but the terrrain, I have said before and I say it again, american countryside is the best wargaming terrain ever, be it AWI or ACW. it's so lush, prestine.

I got the wheat fields and corn fields, but to realy do ACW you need lots and lots of trees. Since I suck at arts and crafts I'll have to buy some, and trees are often either really nice looking but hard to wargame with, or ugly but easy to wargame with. So any help or links to what you feel is good looking american style trees that is still good when it comes to gaming, it would be apritiated.

Now I want to do part of Shiloh, Now I'm thinking of instead of my usual 1:20, I was thinking johnny reb III in 1:30, now it means that some unis will be a puny 12-13 figures, and even big 800 man regiments will only be about 25-27 figures, BUT it will let me field atleast 1 corps of the Confederate army, and two divisions of union army,(1 will ofcourse be the 5th under Sherman, my favorite ACW general) that's about 25 000 soldiers, or 857 figures at 1:30, which is easly fitet on my table, should have plenty of room for that.
So mabye I can live with the 13 figure regiments, from the looks of it, most regiments will be atleast 500 strong many over 600, it also means the regiments will be quick and easy to paint up, if they are so small, any unit under 20, I can do in a single day.

So should I start to get some ACW again, I love the period, and I should realy do acw wargaming, it's great period to reseach and live in.


The second is less wargame related, I've been thinking of starting a video series on Youtube, about military history, for starters Napoleoinc period I know most about, but also AWI and ACW.

I've been told I'm good at explaning history to people, so I might give it a try, what I plan on doing is first give the viewers the tools to understand the period, the first few videoes will will explane the political situation in the dawn of the Napoleoinc period, mostly dealing with the major powers, but also minor powers like Sweden, Spain(if you can call it minor) ect.
The explane how the weapons and amunition works, muskets, cannon, canister ect.
Then the tactics, strategies and doctrines. And finnaly make videoes about the campaigns and the period it self, not going to much into the details, because I know there are thousands of wargamers and historians out there, that know the period dozens of times better then me, and if I go into to much details, I will most likely make some mistakes and people will call me a hack, and miss educatior ect.
The Napoleoinc period is big and I'm guessing even just the intoduction videoes will be 3-5 10+ minute videoes, then mabye another 15 videoes about the wars them self, so this will take months or a year or more to do, but it might be fun.

So should I do it, it means I have to buy atleast a webcam, some audio stuff and video editor program.

7 comments:

James said...

I think selecting the best rule set for you level of interest is most important, whatever time period you decide to do. Figs and terrain can always be worked out later, but the rules are the driver. If there weren't good miniature rule sets, I never would've painted a single miniature.

Skip the YouTube thing and write a book for beginners, IMO. Actual books have more longevity than anything online and probably always will. The internet as far as information is concerned is sort of like an old fashioned chalk board. Some stuff might even be written on that board for a long time, but you never know when its going to get erased.

My two cents.

Gunfreak said...

Well Johnny reb, has always sounded good to me, but I never realy liked the 1:30 thing, but if I'm gonna do 25 000 soldiers 1:30 is the only way of doing it and still get big enough units.

Youtube is actualy a breeding ground of education, mostly science, but a science educator on youtube can get anywere from 5000 to 75 000 followers, that watch more or less every video they give out, you can ofourse brun the videoes on dvd and sell them or give them out for free to school ect. Sevral youtubers have done that.
Now I'm not dreaming of 75 000 followers, but if I even get 500 people that watch the videos, it's a success.

James said...

If your goal is to do 25,000 soldiers at 1:30, what difference does the rule set make ? Just paint 25,000 at 1:30 or 1:25 or 1:35.

DVD's are great until they come out with DWD's or DXD's and books don't need a power grid to operate. Charge 'em 99 cents a pop and you'll want 75,000 viewers. Sell it to schools at a discounted rate. Though the school system might think you're too cheap and will probably buy something from some overpriced education services conglomerate and then give the bill to the local tax payers.

My own thought is videos, clips, movies, what have you ought to be supplemental to reading and writing in education. If they're not learning to read and write then they're not learning to think for themselves.

Gunfreak said...

Well 25 000 soldiers are 834 figures at 1;30, but at 1:20 it's 1250, so there is a big diffrence

James said...

So, how do you plan on basing them ? Smaller regiments get fewer figs per stand, while larger regiments get more figs ? The four stand per regiment thingy seems written in stone for most as far as JR is concerned.

James said...

OK. Saw it at TMP. 4 figs per 20mm square. You could still do the 25% force loss check at 2, 3 and 4 figs removed, but you'll have to keep track of them.

Captain Richard's miniature Civil War said...

Trees, Trees, Trees...no need to buy trees.Every tree on my layout is actually a weed pulled from the ground. Better to wet the ground first, so you can pull the whole weed out of the ground. you'd be amazed how close it looks like a real tree.
Let it dry out and throw some foliage
on it. You can't buy a tree that looks
more real than a upside down weed.