As any hobby develops over time, participants who have been involved with it for a long time have a natural tendency to look back at earlier, perhaps more simplistic days with a certain amount of fondness and yearning. It is, I am sure, the same with miniatures wargaming. Anyone who has read any of the early works of Donald Featherstone, Charles Grant, and Peter Young (CHARGE) Can attest to the entertaining and appealing feelings their writing$ emote from the reader. Armies of figures, mounted one to a stand,' being moved about a wargames table with the game itself being played via very simple, playable rules as mounds of dice are thrown in a highly friendly, noncompetitive manner. In the U.S. of A., thanks to the efforts of Bill Protz of the SEVEN YEARS WAR ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER, there exists a resurrection of interest in using the above described format for the Seven Years War which has spilled over to the French-Indian War period via the CHARGE project based on Peter Young's book and rules set. Battalions of fifty or sixty-some figures are mounted on individual stands and a most enjoyable time is encountered by all though I must admit that I am beginning to see individual wargamer& devising means to transport their figures around the wargaming (i.e. large movement trays) table due to the fact that the games are getting quite large and they wish to save time in troop movement. I suspect that the next step will be someone 'inventing' the idea of mounting the figures four to a stand and we shall continue making 'progress' in our wonder,hobby. I own nearly all of Donald Featherstone's books as well as those authored by Charles Grant and Peter Young and have, over the years, when I wished to have some highly entertaining reading, referred to them on many an afternoon or evening while stretched out on the living room couch. I usually came away. from them with an increased yearning for building such armies (single ',, stands) but never really took the initiative to do so as I was involved in building 'large' armies which allowed me to refight the really large battles of history encompassing thousands of castings. This I have enjoyed in the past and will probably continue to do so in the future, however, I have finally made the move toward building some periods of interest based upon the single figure stand concept. My wargaming opponent, Richard Black, has been quietly building SYW armiea,in 25/30mm for the CHARGE project and I plan on joining him in this effort as mentioned in last issue's editorial. 1 was, however, looking for an additional period to expend my efforts towards and thought o4 the American Civil War (ACW). My  first complete wargames army was a 5600 figure 15mm ACW army and I eventually sold it as f became more interested in 25mm. I always had planned --n rebuilding .t in 25mm and over the last few years made a point of licking up new and second hand 25mm ACW figures. I sat down and jotted down what I recalled of ACW organization: ten companies per regiment for infantry and 10-12 companies for cavalry with four or six gun batteries. Like Charles Grant and Peter Young, I've always felt that the "look of the thing" had a lot to do with my enjoyment of wargaming and thus, I decided to stay with large units ala the CHARGE approacb, Listed below is my organization which I plan to utilize for this project: INFANTRY REGIMENT 5 companies, each composed of: 1 foot office, 11 enlisted men Regimental command figures of: 1 mounted officer 2 flag bearers 1 drummer 1 foot officer CAVALRY REGIMENT 5 companies, each composed of: 1 mtd officer 11 mounted enlisted men Regimental command figures of: 1 mounted officer 2 flag bearers 1 bugler Dismounts: 1 dismtd horseholder/company 1 dismtd officer/company 10 dismtd EM/company BATTERY Each battery will have: 3 guns with limbers, two horse teams, limber rider, limber horse rider I caisson with limber 1 battery wagon with limber 1 officer and four enlisted men per gun as crews 1 mounted officer 1 flag bearer I plan on having three regiments per brigade for infantry with two brigades per division and at this time, I do not intend upon going beyond the divisional level. For cavalry, I plan on having only one regiment per side with two batteries for each side. As mentioned before, all figures will be mounted individually and I am using 3/4's" washers to mount figures on. These have been found at a local hardware store for two cents apiece and work very well! My totals work out to 780 infantry, 248 cavalry (including dismounts), and 108 artillerymen. In addition, I will have two mounted officers per brigade and three mounted officers per division (total of 14). This totals out to 1,150 figures. The rules will be very simple and based, more than likely, on the CHARGE rules to one degree or another. I've already started painting :his period and finished every figure I have on hand (just over 300) within the last 15 days of the project - it's been that exciting. The figures look very good mounted on washers and I am going to terrain the bases by painting them green and then immediately dipping the whole base into a cigar box filled with several different shades of Faller grass. Mounted figures will hive two washers glued (Elmer's White Glue) to the horse. The 300 and some figures already painted and mounted have been set on the wargamiug table in regimental formations and I am most impressed with the manner in which they look. Imagine, I will be able to move out a regiment with one company in skirmish order, three in line with another behind the main line as they really did in the ACW period. Casualties will be removed individually and when a regiment goes into a firing line, each figure will find the most logical place for themselves tc take cover behindl Not only am I excited about the figures themselves, but about the terrain as well. I already have 90 inches of stonewalls which were hand carved in plaster by Richard Black and then I made a mold for them And cast them. myself (although I burned out the mold!), painted them and then glued each to a wooden base and terrained it with grass. Other items in mind include buildings. with removable roofs to allow individual figures to enter them; each side being provided with a supply train consisting of several wagons; split rail fences to be constructed out of railroad ties and glue; haystacks; other types of rock walls; railroad tracks and a choo-choo for the period; a pontoon wagon for scenarios requiring such; and much more!!! For games at my house, each player will control perhaps a brigade of infantry (3 regiments) while convention games will feature each player controlling a single regiment" I will not allow players to use large movement stands as it seems to me that this takes away from the reason for using individual stands. I mean, one has to do this right, don't you think? I am already thinking of other periods to try this approach in,. I'd he interested in hearing from other readers who have tried it in other periods besides the SYW. Will let you know how things go! Back to MWAN # 38 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1989 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com