Hybrid Index Card and Paper Soldier Armies

As a second phase to the ACW project, I extended my idea of using index cards for units by enhancing them with reduced 18mm Peter's Paperboys soldiers - basically mounting the soldiers to the "handle" or fold of the index cards.

I was able to complete the armies for the Union and the Confederacy for use with the One-Hour Wargames ACW rules. But I did not complete them in time to have a go at a game with my dad while he visited for Thanksgiving. It was a rush job towards the end, and afterwards, since it was clear there would be no FtF game with the new units, it became tedious work to complete. So I took some shortcuts...

There are some issues with the approach to be sure. One thing that turned out to be a lot of work was the all the gluing (I used Pritt Stick) to the cards. Secondly, the amount of effort to cut around the soldiers is greater because the card adds thickness and makes it awkward and more difficult to cut than it would be for just folded paper.

I really rushed the final units because I wasn't all too crazy about the results and knew I was not going to settle for these units for the ACW project. And I wanted to get a solo game going after all the effort I put in. Some of the shortcuts include not bothering to cut around all the units to make them more "miniature-like". Other shortcuts were due to the fact that my printer was running out of ink and things that should be green were coming out yellow, and I had to use a green marker to fill in "ground" for the bases.

Both sides have entered on turn #1.

I finally did get a game going with OHW Scenario #3 "Control the River". It had been a minute since I had played a game and I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Therefore there will not be much of an ARR for it. I've included some pics from the game nonetheless as they give a good "3-foot" impression of the units in use.

I hastily made the river fords from more of Peter's
 offerings, and reused the "road" from Scenario #2 as the river.

Having seen others using dice to keep track of hits on units, I tried that instead of using a roster in the notebook. One of the "mistakes" I made in the game was using mismatched dice colors for the USA and CSA units. Part of the problem was that it was easy for me to get confused about which side was which since the color cues are muted with this design.

With the exception of the unit in the woods (tan cloth), the
fight became an open slug-fest early on.

Another result of having not played a game in a while was my tactics on both sides of the table were poor. I did add a house rule to the mix that seemed to be missing: "a unit cannot fire thru or over another unit, except Artillery." This rule may have contributed to the broad line combat early on. 

The difference in completion from an early
unit (still needs some scissoring) to one
 completed later is visible.

Artillery on both sides had low rolls throughout the game but did have a cumulative effect that impacted the game. The one Cavalry unit (USA) was misused and had to retreat early. I'll have to admit that on all accounts, the game had a better "feel" to it with the new units in play. 

The Union developed a strong advantage but there were
not enough turns remaining to control both fords.

So ultimately these units will gradually be replaced by conventionally based units (still of paper). While the index card based units still work well with the OHW rules, there are some other rules I would like to try out, and these 5" wide units might prove problematic. I have some new 28 lb. paper to print on and new ink to boot. 

I broke my ancient ruler during the game - a shame
since it works well for the OHW rules. 

My conclusion then is that this intermediate step was not worth the effort really, but now I know for sure. The plain index card units suffice for all of the rules in the OHW book and don't really need embellishment. I'll probably continue cutting/refining on the existing units to "pretty them up", but I've also bought myself some time to put in some good effort on the next units (and maybe even try some painting of plastic figures too).

Cheers,