Ride With The Devil

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imageRide with the Devil was released in 1999, and I frankly don’t know how I missed it. But I just finished watching it on the Starz movie channel and thought it one of the best Civil war movies I’ve seen

Directed by the celebrated Ang Lee, the movie is adapted from the Daniel Woodrell novel Woe to Live on. The story follows Daniel Rodell (Toby Maguire), a teen who joins a group of Kansas Irregulars in 1861. At its core, it’s a coming-of-age story, as Rodell fights his way through the war, losing family and friends until he finally ends the war on his own terms.

Sure, there’s a “love story” here, but it also offers a lot from a wargamers’ perspective. As it focuses on “irregular” cavalry operations, there are no set piece battles as in Glory or Gettysburg, but the skirmishes come across as quite authentic. And inspiring. I have this urge to go right out and buy some 28mm Civil war cavalry figures to do a skirmish game.

While I’m sure that the historical stickers among wargamers will (as usual) have a long laundry list of “errors” in the movie, there wasn’t anything that jumped out and ruined the movie for me (one critic I read pointed out that in that period, women didn’t’ have inseam pockets in their skirts — big deal). In particular, I loved the period language: formal and rather flowery by modern standards. While people may not have really spoken in that manner, it is right in keeping with the phrasing in period letters I have read.

If you haven’t seen it, I think you should seek this one out.

Battle of Ephesus Scenario

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The Othismos blog has a Warhammer Ancients scenario for the battle of Ephesus, fought in 499 BC between the Persians and an allied Greek force.

D3 French and Indian War Rules

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D3 French and Indian War is a set of free wargames rules designed for play on a 6 inch square grid.

Tanagra 457 BC Scenaro

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The Othismos ancient wargaming blog has a Warhammer Ancients scenario for the battle of Tanagra from 457 BC, in which the Spartans faced the Athenians.

Pulp Era Modifications for Rezolution Rules

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Beowulf The Hunter offers some modifications for using the Rezolution rules for playing your pulp-era miniature wargames. He writes:

First let me say, I love the Rez rules. I have been and always been luke warm on the figures/setting. My current love has been Pulp. Thus I have tried to blend the two into a fun quick paced playable game.

For those who are unfamiliar with Pulp, it is the genre of literature that takes place between the end of WWI and the start of WWII. If you have seen movies like the Rocketeer, or Indiana Jones, or Sky Captain you have seen Pulp.

The following modifications allow you to use the Rez rules to play a Strapping Hero and his Dangerous Dame against a sinister villian and his horde of mooks. There realy are no point value for characters and the creation rules are pretty free form so you could have a Villian who uses his mental powers to twart the heroes while sacrificing minions to prevent damage or a martail arts using hero with a heavy gun toting sidekick.

These rules allow for 3-10 models per player and you can have free for alls. All rules are as presented in the rulebook.