Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Sharp Practice ACW


In my ongoing quest to continually start new projects while not completing old ones I got a bit of the American Civil War bug again. I've been having so much fun with club mate Jeff playing skirmish games that we thought why not give Sharp Practice a go?


We talked about some different ideas and what we would need to just play a small sided game and I came up with a quick table design - now if you want to see some real epic scale 28mm ACW gaming check out my brother from another mother Jay White's incredible ACW games here. It's jaw dropping stuff and this is just one of many museum quality games - do yourself a favor and hit his follow button, you won't be disappointed!


Despite much unpainted ACW lead filling quite a large box I still had a full force of Confederates ready to go - though some re-basing needs to be done as some movement trays are going to be in order for line troops.


I also had enough Union forces as well for the game but absent mindedly left that box at home the day we played our test game - so you will see some Old Glory Confederates standing in for some Union forces in some photos, doh! 


And speak of the devil, a unit of Confederates posing as Yankees. 


Jeff has been absolutely blasting through Union figures this past week though so you won't ever see that kind of thing in the future lol.


The Union forces coming in from behind the barn.


I've heard nothing but great things about Sharp Practice and the fact that it's random activation and really narrative driven immediately drove me to buy the rules set some time ago.


And they didn't disappoint! The activation sequence and the Tiffin card really make for an incredibly unique gaming experience. And honestly I'm having so much fun with games that have a unique activation I'm not sure I ever want to go back to a classic "you go I go" game again.


As mentioned above, due to the uniqueness of the activations my general and top leader (leader 1 in regards to the cards) didn't even make it out onto the table until turn 3. It was mad, but it really made the game even more fun and cinematic as I was asking the question of "what could be delaying General Laughton"?


Granted, this was our first go at the game and admittedly I didn't do my share on reading the rule book ahead of time (though I did watch several videos on YouTube) so mistakes were made and flipping through the book was necessary but honestly we both had an absolute blast playing.


This was a fun sequence as Jeff tried to get his unit of skirmishers around and into the barn, but my skirmishers had other ideas and just threw a ton of lead onto those poor fellas. 


The "shock" mechanic works really well in my opinion and adds a lot to the game - my skirmishers taking aim at the Union forces by the barn.


I'm going to start work soon on the 43rd Battalion Virginia cavalry, better known as Mosby's Rangers. I think this will be a really fun unit to play for ACW Sharp Practice as the mixed column list really suits my play style - plus I'll get to have some horses on the table.

I've always been fascinated by cavalry and despite JEB Stuart getting most of the notoriety I think Mosby and his unit were much more interesting. So we'll see what the future holds for actually getting Mosby on the tabletop.

Finally, thanks to new follower Matt Williamson. Really appreciate you hitting the follow button 😀

Until next time, which will probably be another Sharp Practice game, thanks for looking!

Ivor

18 comments:

  1. Great looking game Ivor, splendid figures and the terrain adds a lot to the atmosphere...Gorgeous pictures!

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    1. Cheers Phil! I rarely get good photos with my phone but there's a couple in there that even I was like, wow that actually looks really really good lol

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  2. Another absolutely amazing looking board. Keep them coming.

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    1. Much appreciated Mike! Should be another one soon, and I think will look better with the new and improved tree plates 😀

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  3. Great looking set up Ivor, and models. Very interesting feedback on the rules, and look forward to hearing more on your thoughts as you progress through

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    1. Thanks Dave! So far a fun rules set and you'll definitely hear more on them as we get more games under our belt - I probably should have mentioned it in the post but the one thing that I am struggling with is movement. You roll for how far you can move and that can just be brutal. In one activation I used my two actions to move twice and rolled a 1 and a 2 (one D6 equals how far you can move) for a soul crushing 3 inches of total movement 😐 Gunfighter's Ball utilizes movement like this as well and I struggled quite a bit lol

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  4. Very nice ACW action! SP2 is a nice game and good fun but has a lot of rules that require regular play to really memorize.

    And no one can compare to Jays ACW stuff. I know, bc one time at a con I had my riky dink ACW game placed right next to his amazing Gettysburg game. 😀😀

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    1. Cheers Stew! Mate, I couldn't imagine coming into a con, feeling confident and good about the game your about to put on and then looking over and seeing one of Jay's games 🤣🤣
      Good thing he's a great guy or that could be intimidating lol

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  5. ACW!!! Sweet!!! Great to see you are getting in some regular gaming and making me look bad ;-) lol Thanks for the call out!

    I really like those dirt roads you are using ... where did you get them?

    Keep it coming!

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    1. Thanks a lot Jay! Definitely getting some games in but still far from the stuff you put on the table 😀
      They are from Battlefield Terrain Concepts. They're like a rubber flexible resin, very versatile and easy to throw down on the table quickly.

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    2. Sweet! Thanks Ivor, gonna check them out.

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    3. No worries 👍
      They are always at the HMGS conventions so if Historicon does happen that's something to keep in mind too, they always have some great stuff on display.

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  6. Great movie Ivor, it might even out do Gone With The Wind in the Oscars 😉

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    1. Cheers Frank! Hmmm, maybe we'll have a building burn down next time with a random event 😀

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  7. Such a good looking game! Your tables are always a treat to see.

    SP2 is a system I've yet to play. I blame Stew cos he owns it and never offered to show it to me.

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    1. Thanks a lot Dai, much appreciated 😀
      He mentioned he gave it a go and didn't seem to care for it. We're still learning, and making lots of mistakes lol, but so far we're really liking it and once we get into creating our own leaders and units (and not just using generic ones) I really think we're going to like it even more.

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