American Civil War forces for Sharp Practice - Pt 2

So, following on from the last post, here are the remainder of the Union troops I've painted up for Sharp Practice.

First off, you have to have skirmishers. I wanted some Zouaves and thought that I'd use them as one unit of skirmishers, but also have two spare figures so that I could also make them up as a standard group of eight line infantry. Happily, buying from Peter Pig gives me eight figures per pack, so that worked out fine. I also decided to do a unit of Berdan's Sharpshooters, basically because I wanted some troops in green. Again, I have a couple of spares left over.

Next, I painted up a single group of Union infantry with repeating rifles. These should add a considerable amount of fire power to the Union. I'll treat their repeating rifles as breech-loading carbines under the SP rules. Although they will be formidable troops when firing, they will be at a disadvantage in close combat (Fisticuffs, in SP parlance) because they aren't equipped with bayonets.

The Union side can look a bit monochrome in their plain dark blue, so I added a second group of Zouaves, representing a different unit to the skirmishing Zouaves;

Finally, all armies need leaders, so here are mine. I decided that I would make them look distinctive by adding drummers, buglers and standard bearers to their bases, to make them stand out, and also give the two more senior mounted leaders an ADC or galloper figure. This will help them stand out more easily on the table and make the whole army look a bit more personalised and characterful.

Of course, leaders are personalities and in SP they are important ones. The rules allow you to personalise them in various ways and they need names too. Your leaders are the chaps who make a difference on the table.

My leaders are;

Mounted;

Maj. Gardiner Haskins (hat, ADC, foot standard bearer)
Maj. Randolph Carter (kepi, ADC)
Capt. Bradley Stoke (hat, foot standard bearer, bugler)
Lt. Travis Perkins (light blue kepi)

Foot;

Capt. Decimus Dewey (hat, drummer, standard bearer), unfortunately a bit hidden in the photo
Lt. Jacob Van Klomp (kepi, bugler)
Lt. Wingate Peaslee (hat, standard bearer)
Lt. Hans Niersteiner (kepi, drummer)



I am sure that people might recognise the origins of some of the names I've used.

Of course, I won't be using all of these every time, and I also need to give my NCOs names and characters too, but the idea is that, over time, they will all be able to play their part in campaigns and linked scenarios and hopefully I'll have the chance to develop their personalities a bit.

So, that is where the Union side is at present. I have a few more standard bearer and bugler figures to paint up, to be specific support options, unlike the ones here who are purely decorative.

Next, I need to look at getting some artillery and various types of carts (an ammunition cart, a water cart and an engineer's one) and maybe a fire and brimstone preacher (a Holy Man in the rules) and a Physic (the SP name for a medical orderly or doctor). I might also look at some more cavalry for raiding party-type scenarios.