Sharp Practice 2 - at last I get my plans together

In the last month or so I've been reading Sharp Practice 2 and participating on the Too Fat Lardies Yahoo Group and Forums about the rules, but not got very far with actually getting figures ready. A few purchases on e-Bay and a bit of sorting in my lead pile has given me the following plan to play a few 1861 set games.

1. finish off the 15mm Confederate infantry I have on the painting table which will get me to 3 groups of infantry and some command figures, namely 1 officer, a standard bearer and a drummer.
2. Clean up and undercoat the other 22 Confederate infantry and some more command figures - this will be 2 more officers and a sergeant.
3. Clean up and undercoat the 24 Zouaves in Kepis that I have acquired, though I will probably paint them as the 14th Brooklyn Chasseurs. These will also have a couple of officers, a drummer and colour party.
4. Sort out another 22 Union Infantry, 1 more officer and a sergeant to add to the force and paint up.
5. Make some snake rail fences and put together some card buildings to add to the table.
6. Put together some more woods markers and other terrain pieces.
7. Sort out some figures for my cavalry to paint up some command figures and a couple of individually based ones to allow my existing ACW cavalry to be used.
8. Finish painting the ACW artillery I have on the painting table to add to the fun.

So no shortage of work to do, as well as this I will be rebasing most of my ACW collection to use it with They Couldn't Hit An Elephant for mass battles. 

Sharp Practice 2 - First Impressions

First impressions from a pre release demonstration game hosted by the Peterborough wargames club. Thanks to Mike Whitaker and the club for being welcoming and Rich Clarke for coming up and running a game after getting the game off to the printers which implies he probably had minimal sleep. 

It has been quite a while since I last played Sharp Practice as the last time I played was at the SELWG show in 2012 with the Terrible Sharp Sword supplement. That was also a demonstration game run by Richard Clarke.

There are a few noticeable changes like the replacement of blinds with jump off points deployment points, making random events occur based on the cards coming out of the deck and the Force Morale for the overall morale of each side. The system plays smoothly as last nights game had a lot of novice players but still gave an exciting and close game where the final result really came down to the order of the cards out of the deck as either side could have won. 

I am definitely signing up for this as soon as the pre-orders are available at the Too Fat Lardies website in the next couple of days. 

Worst thing is the amount of possible projects that this has got running through my head now, but my first thing will be 15mm ACW for SP2 as that ties in with my current painting project. 

Pictures follow

The terrain largely from Rich Clarke but some items like trees and roads from the Peterborough club collection.

The first rebel skirmishers deploy

The continentals and militia arrive. 

The British regulars march up the road towards the bridge

Loyalist cavalry advance

The cavalry charge and drive off the American skirmishers.

The US forces form up to receive the British regulars and Hessians.

The Hessian grenadiers finally arrive.

British redcoats advance into the attack.

Near the climax of the game Rich Clarke makes a point.