news update

We have recently been experimenting with some new Morale rules which we think reflect what would/could happen when troops are called upon to test their Morale. The whole concept is that all troops start with a Morale Rating of 12 and this is "whittled" away by being shot at,charged,having insecure flanks etc.etc. at any time during the game either side can demand that a unit takes a Morale test,and by a list of positive and negative factors that unit must get back to its original number of 12 or follow a list of retires or routs. IT all sounds quite complicated but our recent "play test" games have shown that it is very fast,very simple , and most of all,very playable and realistic.

As far as the group goes,I am painting some Persian cavalry,bought from Warrior Miniature of Glasgow,who provide a cheap range of figures,give a fantastic mail order service and who will give you a good deal on bulk buy.
I have finished 12 extra heavy cav.12 light cav,12 horse archers,and have started a further 12 heavy cav. which should be finished by this weekend;this of course shows the main benefit of being retired!!

We are going down to "Smoggycon" at middlesbrough on Saturday and hope to get rid of our surplus cash,and ask the organisers if we can put on a demonstration game at next year's show.
Dave is having bother getting onto this blog,he has some photo's of our last "horse and musket" game,devised by Graham,this proved to be one of the most exciting and nail biting games we have had for a long time,congratulations to Graham for that.
Paul has had some bad news in that he is facing redundancy in the new year,we wish him luck and hope he gets another job very quickly.

Two of our "satelite" wargamers,Michael and Chris may be coming to the north east over Xmas and we will of course entertain them to as many games as they would like to play.

News update

As our thousanda of readers/followers will have noticed,we have not been updating our blog on a regular basis,this of course is all Paul's, Dave's and Graham's fault and has nothing to do with me whatsoever !!!

I was made redundant on the 13th.September, and took the opportunity to RETIRE,and concentrate my whole life to Wargames (nothing new there then) however my wife's idea of retirement and mine seem totally different!! Do we really need to decorate and clean cupboards out when i really need to plan a game for Sunday and paint the new Persians i got from Irregular Miniatures. Ho Hum..

Anyway,Dave is furiosly painting his Tipoo Sultan figs. and his Great Northern War figs.Graham is painting his WW11,Napoleonics,Franco Prussians and God knows what else! and Paul has stopped painting his Austria 7YW figs,however we are sure he'll get the bug again soon,won't you Paul??

Once i can figure out how to transfer photographs from my new digital camers onto the computer and the transfer them onto this blog,we will have some good battle reports with pictures,watch this space.

Ihave decided that the rivers we normally fight over are just too small,so i ahve painted a rather large version ontoo our board,very simple paint job,blue with green banks and islands,i think it looks very effective and the rest of the "boys" did too. We have had alot of games using the new river and it has proved to be quite an obstacle as well as providing a real challenge.The game you are lloking at was a colonial one based in the Sudan,with british and egyptian forces attacking a "Fuzzie Wuzzie" held town.

These shots are of the River being initially painted,and me trying out various trees etc on it to give different aspects

The river consists of a long bend and an island,and an even longer straight section with an island at the end,as I said before the paint job is very basic,but I'm sure that you'll agree,the finished effect is good.

ROMANI ITE DOMUM

The Roman commander,Paulus is expecting a relief column bringing supplies of food and much needed reinforcements,to his fort deep in gallic controlled
territory.

Paulus has noticed that the local tribes have become very agitated and threatening over the last few days,and he is worried in case they decide to ambush the relief column-AS IF !!!!!

As is the custom,as soon as the relief column is sighted,Paulus sends out an escort party to see the much needed reinforcements and food, back to the safety (??) of his fort.





Well what could go wrong ?





Over to you Paul(us)

Plancenoit 1815 Part 2

Here are a few more photos of our Plancenoit inspired game. In the above photo the light cavalry of Domon and Subervie clash with the Prussian cavalry. I commanded the Prussians on this flank and it included 8 regiments of cavalry. However I am not noted for my luck with cavalry! And so it would prove today. I launched my first two brigades against the French and lost in every melee! French Chasseurs driving back my West Prussian dragoons. I was forced to feed in another brigade of light cavalry just to stabilise my position.

In the meantime I advanced a brigade of infantry against Lobau's infantry and a firefight ensued.

On the left flank Paul had two brigades making successive attacks against the Young Guard in Plancenoit while he fed a third through the woods to the south looking to cut the Brussels highway (one of our 'victory conditions'). In this photo you can see the third brigade advancing towards the woods.

The next two photos show the French in square by La Belle Alliance and the Young Guard in the centre of Planenoit.

A shot of the Old Guard Grenadiers

Below is the fight for Plancenoit. In the background John has deployed the Old Guard to counter the Prussians who have advanced through the woods.

On the Northern end of the battlefield John has thrown in the Horse Grenadiers of the Guard, a big powerful unit of 18 figures, and my Silesian hussars can be seen as they are about to bounce off them! Luckily (or skillfully) I have the Brandenburg hussars poised to take them in the flank. Unluckily (or predictably?) these were also chewed up by 'The Gods'. However I had done enough here to nullify the French cavalry and the decision would be made in the centre and left.

Below: the Old Guard firefight with the Prussians in the woods. Our standard infantry units are 24 figures but the Old Guard are 32 figures which makes them stronger in terms of both firepower and morale.

Another view of the fight for Plancenoit and the woods.

The remnants of my cavalry fight on against the French cavalry.

The situation at the end of the game. The Prussians are almost in possession of Plancenoit and Lobau's corps in the centre has broken. Prussian dragoons have almost reached the Brussels road (these were not used against the French cavalry on my right flank). The Old Guard behind Plancenoit and in the woods is strong but will not be able to influence the outcome other than ensuring the road stays open long enough for Napoleon to escape.

All in all this was a very enjoyable game which worked really well. It was nice to get my Napoleonics out of the cabinet and on to the table and it has proved to me one thing . . . I need more Prussians! . . . I really do as we had to use 3 battalions of my Neopolitans who masqueraded as the Prussian 28th and 29th regiments (I believe these were still in their old Berg uniforms during the campaign), tenuous I know! So a brigade of Silesians would be nice, oh and some Schutzen, . . . and some Uhlans . . . . Hmmm.

Plancenoit 1815

On sunday 19th of June we played a game loosely based on the actions around Plancenoit in the afternoon and early evening of the 18th June 1815. The French forces roughly represented the 6th corps under Lobau, Domon and Subervies Light cavalry divisions, the Young Guard in Plancenoit and elements of the Old Guard. In the photo above you can see most of the french deployment area with La Belle Alliance in the foreground and Plancenoit in the distance. The 6th corps and light cavalry is deployed between La Belle Alliance and Plancenoit and the Old Guard elements are drawn up on either side of the Brussels highway, awaiting (in theory), the order to advance against Wellingtons forces to the North.

The second photo shows the table from the South and you can see the Young Guard occupying Plancenoit. Also, to the rear of the Old Guard deployment, some dragoons are seen in disorder trying to rally after the cavalry attacks against Wellingtons centre. On the eastern edge of the table the Prussians can be seen deploying to attack Plancenoit and futher north to attack Lobau.

The Prussian cavalry arrive at Papelotte, held by a token Nassau battalion.

Another view of the French deployment, this time from the north.

And another view showing Lobaus corps in two lines.

Old Vorwarts encourages his men to advance as a battery opens up on the French line.

La Belle Alliance. John mentioned on the phone to me that he had a paper model of this building which he was going to make for the proposed Waterloo game which he and Paul had been planning (more of this to come in the future hopefully). Hang on, I said, I think I have an old Hovels building in my cupboard which I bought years ago and never got round to painting. Well I had a look and I had two of them! I have no idea why I would need two La Belles. Anyway I passed one on to John and he has painted it up and very nice it looks too.

Prussian cavalry deployed for the attack.

The leading Prussian brigade launches the first of many attacks on Plancenoit. While, in the photo below, John (commanding the French) moves his second line in the opposite direction! Hopefully we can get some more photos of the game posted soon as it turned out to be an exciting action which ebbed and flowed from beginning to end. As I have mentioned John commanded the French, and Paul and I (Dave H), commanded the Prussians. Almost all the figures used are Elite Miniatures, apart from a few Connoisseur figures, and are from my collection.

Hail Caesar

Paul and I had a game last night taken straight from the publication Hail Caesar,Paul commanded a Roman legion complete with auxilliaries and light cavalry, his task was to cross a river ,march down a wooded valley and attack a Gallic village.







My task was simply to stop him.

The game started with Paul sending a tremendous force against a hill just on the other side of the river,with legionaries and aux.inf,the hill was defended by a large warband,our random movement dice was thrown for the barbarians and true to form they charged down at the hapless Romans.







Some unusual dice from me saw the Romans thrown back across the river although they had inflicted some fearsome casualties on the warband with their pila.




Paul had no choice but to reinforce the melee and eventually succeeded in destroying the gauls.







Paul must have thought so far so good,however an advance over the hill triggered two Gallic cavalry units to move out of the woods and begin a slow advance against the Roman invaders.

Paul wisely shoved his archers to the front and began to pepper the cavalry who took a dislike to this treatment and retired back into the woods.



On the other flank an advance by 5 cohorts triggered another little sortie by the biggest warband I had,they came down off a wooded hill,preceded by slingers and archers,straight into contact with the cohorts and some cunningly placed heavy cavalry,and bounced like a rubber ball!!














































Having now beaten all the forward units of the barbarians,Paul consolidated his lines and advanced on the village,the last of my troops who just happened to be elite,emerged from the village ,and by a miracle of good dice throws were onto the Legion before they knew what hit them,well that was for the first round of melee, the second and third round saw them beaten and surrounded by superior numbers,




I had to hold my hands up in surrender and graciously gave in.







This was an excellent and exciting game,Paul did take some photos,and i hope he has time to post
them soon,there's always a next time!!!!

Great Northern War WIP

I managed to get a few photos of the Uppland regiment which I finished painting last month. I am quite pleased with them and I think they are an acceptable wargame standard. The figures are Musketeer Miniatures and they are very easy to paint with nice raised detail and a clean finish.

I still have to add the pikes but Musketeer had none in stock, and still don't, so I will probably order some from Front Rank. I have the flags, which are by Little Big Men, and will fit them when I do the pikes.

Also I have been thinking about basing all my Great Northern War and Mahratta war figures on hard board bases, as John has been doing, so these bases are just temporary and mean I can store the figures safely.

The above figure was a spare one I had and I have painted him in the uniform of the Queen Dowagers Life Regiment. I will probably paint a couple of garrison regiments in the future and this regiment has a particularly nice combination of uniform colours and flags. I have another 24 figure regiment to paint in Karpus but at the moment I have been painting more of the Mahratta figures as I want to complete my first Brigade of Mahratta regulars.

Our ex pat Chris popped in on Sunday to say hi and presented me with a Tiger mortar and crew (thank you Chris!) so I will endeavour to paint this up in the coming week. The figures are by Redoubt and (hopefully) they will look the business when painted.

Talking of Sunday, we played a game based on the Prussian attacks on Napoleons right flank at Waterloo (well it was the anniversary on Saturday!) and Paul took loads of photos, so either myself or Paul will post an AAR soon. We used my Napoleonic figures which was nice as they have been sitting in their display cabinet at home for far too long. Hopefully it wont take us as long to post the pictures!

Winter Quarters.

This game was played on monday 30th May,and was basically an attack/defence scenario.A British army under Marlborough aka John,is fortifying a winter camp when a large Franco/Irish/Bavarian army arrives on the scene intent on capturing the camp and denying it to the British and their allies,the Austrians and Prussians.
The game started with Dave and his Austro/Prussians marching onto the board and Graham with his Bavarians attempting to cross the river and stop him from assisting John who was defending the camp from a massive attack from Paul who commanded the French and Irish.

The photographs show the initial positions of the troops and are intended to be "eye candy" only,the full battle report will be posted by Paul later on .

This photo showw the Austrians arriving.




















The hustle and bustle in the camp.

This shows the hotly contested river crossing and bridge.

Paul decided to arrange his guns into a "grand battery" to demolish the gabion walls of the camp,and they did!!

French right flank cavalry and infantry.

Another shot of the French contingent.

This photo shows the distance the Austrians were from the camp.The Prussians arrived much later from the same direction.This was a very exciting game which was a near run thing.The attacker had 16 foot, 5horse and 6 guns against the defenders 12 foot 4 horse and 5 guns,approx.800 figs. on the board and the game lasted 18 moves taking about 3 hours.