Units labels for Battle of Bald Hill scenario from Charge! issue #34 (Feb. 2012)

Midwestern wargamer and scenario designer Lowell Hamilton has contributed another well crafted regimental-level ACW scenario for Regimental Fire & Fury. This one covers the July 1864 Battle of Bald Hill (pictured above) from the Atlanta Campaign. The scenario appears in Issue #34 of the Charge! newsletter published each quarter by Debi and Scott Mingus of York, Pennsylvania, as a courtesy to the membership of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society.

Lowell has produced full-color labels for each unit in the battle. Note the labels in the photograph of the terrain table shown above. These labels help identify the regiment or battery, as well as key commanders and leaders, and provide information on strength, morale, etc. as a playing aid. They are color-coded to help easily identify which brigade each regiment belongs with on the table (for command and control, etc.).

Download the printable Excel file by clicking the link below.

Copy of Bald Hill OoB-1

Index of Charge! issues 1-30

Diorama of a dead Confederate sharpshooter in his rock nest at Devil’s Den during the Battle of Gettysburg. This Civil War diorama is at the Gettysburg Diorama Center (formerly Patriot Point) on Steinwehr Avenue.

Long-time Johnny Reb Gaming Society member Robert Sweeney has patiently indexed every issue of the hard copy Charge! quarterly newsletter from #1 to #30.

His searchable Microsoft Excel database can be found here:

Charge! index – Excel

Here is the same file as a .pdf version:

Charge! Magazine Scenario Listing

Charge! Magazine Article Listing-1

Thanks Bob!

When the smoke clears away

Watch for an exciting new article from Civil War rules author John Hill in the February hard copy issue of Charge!, the official newsletter of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society. John discusses the effect of smoke and dust on the battlefield, and how to simulate this for tabletop wargaming.

Battle of Honey Hill featured in Issue #29 of Charge newsletter

Honey Hill has always been one of my favorite Civil War battles to wargame. Years ago I gamemastered a Johnny Reb 3 scenario for this battle at a now-defunct comic book store in Madison, Ohio. My friend Doug Rogers and one of his sons opposed me and one of my boys. Honey Hill gives the gamer a chance to use a wide variety of figures that are not commonly seen on wargaming tables at the same time. The Union forces includes US Colored Troops, the famed 54th Massachusetts, US Marines, a Naval Brigade, and state volunteer troops, while the Rebels were a concentration of various units of Georgia militia. The entrenchments at Honey Hill had been designed and constructed by Robert E. Lee early in the war before he went back to Virginia before the Peninsula Campaign.

In the most recent issue of the hard copy Charge newsletter, we present an original Honey Hill scenario from long-time gamer Lowell Hamilton. While designed for Regimental Fire & Fury, it is an interesting scenario that is easily adapted to Johnny Reb 3 or other similar regimental rules sets.

The Scenario-2

Historical Commentary-2

For some reason, when Lowell’s Excel file for the unit labels was transferred into MS Word and formatted to match the typically layout of Charge, the sizing and format of the labels rendered them nonusable for RFF gamers. Please click on the link to call up the labels in their original Excel formatting.

Honey Hill OoB

Lowell will be submitting what promises to be a very good article on converting all those hundreds of JR scenarios out there to RFF. Watch for this in the next hard copy of Charge.

Back issues of CHARGE! newsletter now on-line for only $2.99 each!

YORK, PA — The Johnny Reb Gaming Society, a non-profit wargaming society based in York,  is pleased to announce a partnership with the Wargame Vault to offer back issues of CHARGE!, our official quarterly newsletter. Each issue features 2-5 regimental-level scenarios to recreate battles of the American Civil War using miniature wargaming rules systems such as Johnny Reb 3, Regimental Fire & Fury, Civil War Commander, Rally Round the Flag, Gettysburg Soldiers, and many others. Back issues #1 – #24 are now available on on-line at the Wargame Vault for only $2.99 per issue. All are downloadable and printable.

For an index of these scenarios and ordering information, please visit the website of the Wargame Vault.

More photos of the Battle of Pipe Creek

(Click each photo to enlarge it for better viewing of the details)

John Stoner was among the wargamers who played in the February 20, 2010 Battle of Pipe Creek at the game room of the Department of the Susquehanna Club in Harrisburg, PA. He shared a few of his photographs from that 15mm Johnny Reb 3 miniature wargame.

Enjoy!

CHARGE #23 is in the mail! On-time yet again!

Members of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society around the world should shortly be receiving the May 2009 issue of the CHARGE! fanzine, the officially sanctioned newsletter for Johnny Reb wargamers.

There are three scenarios in this issue – the battles of Averasboro, First Newtonia, and Honey Springs. John Mayer of Round Top Miniatures contributes a fascinating technique for “Making Flexible Tree Stands and Forests”. Larry Reber of gettysburgsoldiers.com reports on “Hidden Movement”. And, there are several interesting and unusual vignettes from “Gettysburg Glimpses.”

Membership to the JRGS is open to the public; annual dues are still $20 USD in the USA and a bit more overseas in and Canada because of increased postage. Each active membership includes four quarterly issues of the society’s newsletter.

Table of contents – Charge issue #21

Debi has finished printing the copies of issue #21 of the popular Charge! hard copy newsletter of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society. These will be mailed on time (for a 21st consecutive time!) in early November for delivery by the 15th as usual. This one is chock-full of scenarios.

Table of contents:

* Scenario for the Battle of Carthage

* Scenario for the Battle of Cross Keys

* Scenario for the Battle of Wild Cat Mountain

* After-action report: The West Woods at Antietam

* Scenario for the Battle of Munfordville

* Scenario for the Battle of Gettysburg (Sedgwick’s Charge)

* Historical article – the 7th West Virginia at Gettysburg

Enjoy!!!

Charge issue #21

Photo of Jim Kopchak‘s recent Civil War Commander 15mm game of the fight for the West Woods at the Battle of Antietam. For nine other photos of this battle, see the November issue of Charge! newsletter, which should be mailed to members of the Johnny Reb Gaming Society about the 10th of November. 

The newsletter will also include photos of Larry Reber‘s excellent conversion figures for 15mm Native American cavalry and their commander, Brig. Gen. Stand Watie. Cherokees in gray – these guys make an impressive addition to those Trans-Mississippi miniature armies.

We will also feature some interested new and original scenarios for Johnny Reb 3 wargaming, including the Battle of Wildcat Mountain (also known as the Battle of Camp Wildwat) which took place in Kentucky early in the war and the First Battle of Kernstown, which took place during the 1862 Valley Campaign.

Hard copy Charge #20 to be mailed early!!!

Because of our daughter’s upcoming August wedding (and thanks to many writers who submitted articles early enough), Debi and I will be mailing the planned August issue earlier than usual this time so that we can focus our energies and attention on the final planning for the big event. For a father, walking my little girl down the altar will be one of the biggest highlights of my life, and we are all so excited and counting down the days.

For your summer reading and miniature wargaming pleasure, here are some of the articles and scenarios you can look forward to in Issue #20 as the Johnny Reb Gaming Society closes out its 5th year as a non-profit organization, and our fanzine has become the leading current Civil War gaming periodical.