Club Night - Black Powder Napoleonic battle between French and British - the rematch

Smarting from his defeat last week, Adie was keen to get in a re-match so we arranged to fight again this evening at Maelstrom Games.

I would be using the same list as last time, Adie was using a revised list as Daz had wanted to borrow some of his British for a game against Quint.

My list was:

• Divisional Commander - CV7
• Brigade Commander - CV8
• 1 Line Infantry (elite 5+)
• 4 Line Infantry
• 1 Foot Battery
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 3 Line Infantry
• Brigade Commander - CV8
• 1 Veteran Hussars (Reliable, +1 Attack)
• 1 Dragoons
• 1 Horse Battery

Adie used a British/Hanoverian list which this time was:

• Divisional Commander - CV8
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 2 Line Infantry
• 1 Highland Infantry
• 1 Foot Battery
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 1 Light Infantry
• 2 Line Infantry
• 1 Foot Battery
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 2 Hanoverian Landwehr (Unreliable)
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 2 Dragoons

The initial Allied deployment

Adie won the first turn, but as he fluffed his first couple of orders elected to pass on the rest so they would not be unsupported. I countered by advancing my horse gun up to a hedge line before his troops, making an advance in the center and moving the troops on my left flank towards the center.

The French advance

Dragoons and Hussars support the left flank.

A few turns of desultory fire and failed charges ensued, I noted on the third turn that we had not had any casualties yet, on turn four it started to change.

Adies troops advanced to close range of mine on his fourth turn, he disordered my horse battery that was defending the hedge line and inflicted a few casualties on my infantry in the center.

I countered by charging one of his units with my Dragoons, they were forced into square and then battered by artillery and infantry in line.

Poor British square

Poor Adie

Adie was soon back in the fight though, he launched his cavalry at mine, and in a reprise of last week exactly the same happened, by the end of his turn we both had a broken cavalry brigade. I must squeeze in another unit of Hussars to take advantage of these moments.

Union Brigade

French 6th Hussars & 2nd Dragoons

On my right, the brigade that had been coming up to support the rear of my center was moved back around the woods to engage a British brigade that was threatening my center.

An almighty fight ensued in the center, I got stuck into Adie, destroying his Highlanders. But, in a strange twist on last weeks game, the Hanoverians not only acted under orders but also when charged in the flank by a French battalion in column one of the Hanoverian Landwehr units also had the cheek to win the round of combat.

Hanoverian Landwehr to the fore

By the end of the game though we had both broken each others armies, indeed, all four of Adies were broken as were all three of mine. We did a tot-up of the losses and victory conditions and it was declared a 35.5 to 25 point win to the French.

Some more images from the game:

The British slowly advance

That is the square sorted, let's start on the rest of the Rosbifs

Mopping up

Next week at Maelstrom Games Quint and I are going to give I Ain't Been Shot Mum a go - it's his first game of it - and hopefully we can rope Steve Meth in for a game too.

Club Night - I Ain't Been Shot Mum, the refight

Yesterday evening, at the White Hart, Mark, James and I again fought the first scenario from I Ain't Been Shot Mum; "North of Caen". We had all been painting figures and terrain, so this time we played in Normandy - if you remember the last report we played it in the desert .

Mark had painted a platoon of Germans, I had painted a company and James had painted two platoons of British, as we were a platoon of British down, we substituted a platoon of US Airborne from my 82nd Airborne collection. The terrain was from the collection of myself and James.

Again, Mark and I played the Germans while James played the British.

Initial German deployment.

As well as the blinds we drew a map and placed a lot of our section in buildings and behind hedgerows. They do not get a chance to move, but can be very useful.

The initial British Stonk did very well. One section had one dead and two shock, one section had 3 shock, one section had 2 dead and 5 shock and a MG section we were hiding had 2 dead and 6 shock, that was effectively out of the game as they only had a Lvl1 Big Man with them.

No.3 platoon occupies the orchard

James started with a swift advance up the center, his third platoon was soon occupying an orchard in the center but was stopped in it's tracks by a rifle section in another orchard, one in a building and a MG34 positioned out on the flank. This platoon was badly shot up, losing two sections, and made no other progress in the game.

Flanking MG34 fire

One of Marks Grenadier sections

On their right, the British did much better, dazed by the concentration of the stonk on that side, the two rifle sections and MG section were not able to effectively counter the Allies.

Thin line of Field Grey

The concentrated light mortar fire and mutually supporting infantry platoons advanced at good speed up that flank and were eventually able to clear the hedgerow with a bayonet charge.

Fix Bayonets

The defending Germans were scattered to the winds and Tommy Atkins was able to occupy his first building.

Tommy clears out the Germans and now has somewhere for a good brew-up

By the end of the game, the advance up the right was locked in a fire-fight with my remaining Grenadier section occupying one building getting the upper hand of the exchange, but the British did have more troops on that side.

The British had lost two rifle sections and occupied one building, the Germans had lost two rifle sections and a MG34 section but still occupied three buildings despite being thin on the ground now. Another three or four turns would likely have seen the British getting the upper hand, but it was time to wrap up.

Club Night - Black Powder Napoleonic battle between French and British

On Tuesday night Adie and myself played a game of Black Powder at Maelstrom Games, we had not played for in while and Adie had recently won the club in-house Black Powder event which I had not been able to attend.

We decided that we would use a 500pt list each. I made up the following French force:

• Divisional Commander - CV7
• Brigade Commander - CV8
• 1 Line Infantry (elite 5+)
• 4 Line Infantry
• 1 Foot Battery
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 3 Line Infantry
• Brigade Commander - CV8
• 1 Veteran Hussars (Reliable, +1 Attack)
• 1 Dragoons
• 1 Horse Battery

Adie used a British/Hanoverian list which was IIRC:

• Divisional Commander - CV8
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 2 Line Infantry
• 1 small Rifles
• 1 Foot Battery
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 1 large Light Infantry
• 1 small Infantry
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 1 large Highlanders
• 1 Highlanders
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 2 Hanoverian Landwehr (Unreliable)
• Brigade Commander - CV7
• 2 Dragoons

I deployed from right to left: Horse Battery, cavalry, smaller infantry Brigade, Foot Artillery, larger infantry brigade with their flank secured against a field. Adie deployed left to right: Cavalry, Highlanders, Light infantry, Line infantry, Hanoverians.

Adie took the first move and attempted to play in character and immediately attempted to have his Dragoons into my horse, but they drew up short. The remainder of his troops did very little, maintaining their line.

I deployed both my Horse and Foot batteries against the exposed Dragoons causing two casualties on one regiment and one on the other and positioned my own horse in front of his. I tried to support my horse with the small infantry brigade but unfortunately failed the test to move.

As expected, Adie stayed in character and rather than withdrawing to rally and reform his Dragoons piled into my cavalry and after a brief fight both of my units and both of his were shattered and we both fell back. We were both a brigade down already.

As neither of our cavalry were disordered I immediately ordered my shattered cavalry to follow up his - meaning that in his turn his would have to withdraw due to the proximity rule, I used this to effect over several turns to force his horse off the table.

My infantry started their advance, but the responding British had some poor sets of orders given so I was able to close the ground. My smaller brigade shook and pushed back the first Highland regiment but got engaged in a fire-fight with the large one which was always going to go badly and I eventually had a unit shaken and was unable to rally as he disordered it in every subsequent turn. I was though able to keep up the fire on the large Highland unit until that was shaken and failed its break test.

On my left the large brigade first cleared out the Light infantry battalion shaking it  and then fell upon the line brigade.

After eight turns, my cavalry brigade was shaken and I had lost the horse battery and I had lost one battalion from the small infantry brigade and had one battalion shaken in the other brigade. Adie had had both units of cavalry retreat off table shaken, so they counted as lost, the large Highland unit and had had the small Highland unit shaken. He had also lost one unit of Line and had the other one shaken. A good victory for the French.

Some highlights from the game:

1. The Hanoverian Landwehr never moved at all during the game, failing every command roll even when the British CinC went over to get them motivated.
2. In four consecutive rounds of shooting, the large Highlander unit caused a disorder every time.
3. Even though shaken, my cavalry brigade was able to push Adies shaken cavalry brigade entirely off the table. 

Here are some photo's from the action, unfortunately, I forgot to start snapping until very late in the game.

My large brigade engages the 'Rosbifs' at very close range

i

Despite flanking fire from the Rifles, the French overwhelm the Redcoats 

Nothing much stands between the French and the British baggage 

Vive l' France

Present..... Fire

For Sale: 28mm Landsknechts

THESE ARE NOW SOLD

I've decided that having not been out of the box for at least these past five years I am going to sell my Landsknechts off at mates rates of £2.50 per figure. There are 138 figures so that would be £345.00 for the lot plus postage, which will be at cost.

There are:

two units of 32 Landsknecht Pikemen
one unit of 32 Landsknechts Doppleswordsmen
one unit of 11 and two units of 10 Landsknecht Arquebusiers
one unit of 11 Landsknecht Crossbowmen

Group shot

First Pike unit

Second Pike unit

Doppleswords

Crossbowmen

Arquebusiers

As it is free listing on eBay this weekend, I'll post these on there at £3.00 per figure (£414.00 for the lot) tomorrow evening if I don't get any offers from this.

15mm Plastic Soldier Company German Infantry.

We had our first game of I Aint't Been Shot Mum a couple of weeks ago, and I must admit that I was very impressed.

We tried out the first scenario from the book using my Afrika Korps and Indians to play the game. It's all well and good but James and Mark are looking to play some later games set in Western Europe. Mark is painting some Germans and James is painting some British, but I thought I had better chip in with some troops too.

We played the Gazala Campaign a few weeks ago at Triple Helix and I picked up a box of the Plastic Soldier Company 15mm WW2 Late War German Infantry to paint up for myself.

The sculpts are very nice, but some of the detail is a bit difficult to distinguish. The mix of troops is quite good, in the box you get 5 sprues of figures, enough to make:

• 10 Junior Officers and NCOs with MP40
• 90 Grenadiers with MP40 and Kar98
• 15 two-man light machine-gun teams with MG34/MG42

My criticism of the mix is that it would be nice to get some troops armed with PanzerFausts, PanzerSchreks, 50mm mortars or tripod mounted MG34/MG42 but at 130 figures for less than £15.00 you cannot complain too much.

Last Sunday, I cleaned up the first 40 figures and stuck them onto 'tongue-depressors' with PVA glue. A light blast of Halfords grey primer and a wash black paint later they were ready to paint.

I opted for a really basic scheme as follows:

1. Paint pretty much overall with Vallejo German Uniform
2. Paint the helmets, ponchos and gas capes in Vallejo Green Ochre
3. Add camouflage to the helmets and ponchos with Vallejo Flat Green and Saddle Brown
4. Paint the rifle butts, entrenching tool handles and Water Bottles with Vallejo Saddle Brown
5. Paint the gaiters, bread bags and MP40 magazine holders with Vallejo German Camo Beige
6. Paint some helmets and MG34/42 ammo boxes in Vallejo German Grey
7. Paint the gaiters and MG34/42 ammo belts with Vallejo Khaki
8. Paint the flesh Vallejo Basic Flesh Tone
9. Paint the boots, MP40, MG42 and Kar98 barrels, webbing, etc. with Vallejo Black
10. Give the whole thing a light dry-brush with Vallejo Pale Sand
11. When dry was with Windsor and Newton Peat Brown ink.

The first batch of 40 was really quickly done so I cleaned up the rest of the troops to complete the company* and got on with painting them.

When they were all done, I stuck them onto bases. Each rifle section was based on one Warbases  medium mdf Flames of War base and two Warbases small mdf Flames of War bases. The Big Guys were based on 20mm or 25mm round mdf bases, again from Warbases .

Once stuck down, the bases are coated in a mix of Vallejo Pumice Gel and Vallejo US Field Drab, one pot of US Field Drab stirred into a pot of Pumice Gel is enough to do hundreds of bases. When this mix is dried I give it a light drybrush with Vallejo Pale Sand and then give the base a liberal coat of Vallejo Sepia Wash.

Once dry the bases are decorated with Silfor tufts and the whole lot sprayed with a couple of coats of Testors Dullcote - which sadly now seems to be unavailable in the UK.

The bottom of the bases are magnetised with 0.4mm Self Adhesive A4 magnetic sheet from Abel Magnets which is a bargain at £4.99 for three sheets including postage.

I reckon that I spent less than eight hours doing these, so, all in all, about 90 figures done at about five minutes per figure. Not my best work, but a quick set of quickly deployed reinforcements for our I Ain't Been Shot Mum games.

Enough waffle, on to the pictures of the troops:

Full company of Grenadiers.

Company HQ with two big guys and two MG34/MG42 medium machine-gun teams

First Grenadier Platoon

Second Grenadier Platoon

Third Grenadier Platoon

Spare Big Guys

Big Guy close-up

Another Big Guy close-up

Grenadier section close-up

four man Grenadier half section close up

MG34/MG42 MMG team close up

* eagle eyed readers will note from the first picture that I did not actually paint enough troops for a full company and am actually a two figures short. Bugger!

Well there were 130 figures in the box so I still have about 40 spare so not too much of a hassle.

Age of Arthur Day - Event Pack

Welcome to the Age of Arthur Campaign Day
We are pleased to welcome you to a one day WAB 2.0 Campaign day at Maelstrom Games on Sunday 1st April 2012. The cost of the day is £12.00 and includes a buffet lunch, breakfast is not included, but is available from Maelstrom Games.
Over the course of the day you will play three games, and if time allows a fourth game. Dependent on the results of the game you will either gain or lose territories. In addition to the territories gained or lost, your player will also compete for fame and honour. The winners of the campaign will be the players who control the most territories, as a side event, the player who’s general picks up the most fame and honour will be declared as the source of the Legend of Arthur.
If you are staying over on the Saturday night, please let me know and we can arrange to go out for a curry.

Your Army
Players will pick a 1500 point list from the Age of Arthur supplement. In addition to this list, players also purchase an addition 250 point contingent, the contingent can be made up of troops available from your standard list or can be an allied contingent usually available to your force. You cannot purchase a comitatus unit (Teulu, Gedricht, etc.) in your bonus force, but you can spend up to 100 of your available 250 points on characters. This bonus force is not required for every game.
Irish Players: Chariots were not used on the British mainland, only in Ireland. You can pick two lists, one with chariots and one without. You may only use your chariot list if playing against other Irish armies, or armies with territories in Ireland. Your bonus force may not include any chariots.

Army List Submission
Please submit your lists by Thursday 29th March 2012 to smith.paul18@sky.com

Games
During the day you will play in a mixture of singles and doubles game. If you would like to forge an alliance with any specific player for the event, please let me know and I’ll accommodate you. Else, you will be associated with an ally commensurate with your location and situation on the campaign map.
Depending on your game result you will lose or gain up to two of your territories.

Special Rules for the Campaign Day
• With the release of WAB 2.0, units that are fleeing may not use the leadership of any character in the unit. Having spoken with James Morris, the author of the Age of Arthur, this is not intended and the leadership of any character in the unit may be used.
• Light infantry who start the game deployed in skirmish formation may elect not to field a standard bearer, replace the model with a normal trooper.

Maelstrom Games
The event will be held at Maelstrom games in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.
Maelstrom Games, Matlock Hill, Hamilton Way, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, NG18 5BU.
Please arrive for 09:00 so we can get an early start.

Saxons on commission

I've recently painted a few Saxons for Tony. I don't normally do commissions, I've got plenty enough of my own troops to paint. But Tony asked if I could do him a few more Saxons for his Dark Ages army.

All but one of the figures are Gripping Beast  apart from the Warfare 2010 show figure which was done by Bill Thornhill of Musketeer Miniatures.

Warfare 2010 figure

The complete set

Now back to my own lead mountain.

I've listed the Cape Matapan fleets on eBay

I have listed the Battle of Cape Matapan fleets on eBay: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190651093028

More details and pictures can be found in my earlier article here: http://scrivsland.blogspot.com/2012/02/for-sale-13000-battle-of-matapan-fleet.html

Warring States Game to Hail Caesar

I've had my Warring States Hann painted for over a year now and although they are now the veterans of many games of WAB they have never fought against an historical opponent.

I'm really enjoying Hail Caesar at the moment, so I challenged John Grant to bring down his own Chinese to the White Hart last night so that we could have some proper Warring States action.

John has never played Hail Caesar before so I thought it best if we set up with a pair of identical armies and played a simple game.

Each of us had the following forces:

• General: Command 8
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Crossbow - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Swordsmen - Small Unit

• Commander: Command 8
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Heavy Infantry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Bow - Standard Unit
• Light Infantry with Swordsmen - Small Unit

• Commander: Command 8
• Heavy Chariots with Crossbow - Standard Unit
• Medium Cavalry with Spears - Standard Unit
• Light Cavalry with Bow - Small Unit

Both armies advance cautiously towards each other exchanging desultory missile fire., then John got the first charge in with his chariots against mine on my right flank, I duly counter charged and won the combat, Johns chariots retreated in good order. This continued for several turns with John losing each round of combat, but throwing enough to only fall back. Even though his chariots were eventually shattered, I did not dispose of them until they had fallen back shaken off the table.

Some chariot on chariot action

On my left flank, John launched a unit of swordsmen into my archers, I lost the combat and fell back, time to counter with my spearmen - whoops a double six blunder followed by a '1' my spearmen decide to leave the table!!!

Things start to get worse for me, some nifty shooting followed by poor armour saves and a terrible set of break test dice and I'm removing a unit of swordsmen.

And a unit of swordsmen are removed.

I set up a killer charge in my center, one unit of spears, supported by another unit of spears, a unit of crossbowmen and a unit of swordsmen crash into a unit of Johns spearmen only supported by another unit of spears. Things are looking up.

Not really manage to I lose the combat by 2! I throw my break test and roll a 4 - that is my unit removed. Now I know this sounds like a 'Rimmer Risk story', but then I threw for my supporting units, 4, 3 and 4, so they were are retreating in disorder.

Despite the mild mannered visage John Grant is the Hail Caesar equivalent of Rommel

Things go from bad to worse, his light horse charge mine and I'm soon removing them from the table.

Bye bye Xiong Nu

With his troops free on my left flank he his soon engaging my center in the flank. My swordsmen receive the full force of his division, but, they manage to hold for a few turns before eventually succumbing.

My general looks on as things start to fall apart.

In a coup-de-grace his medium cavalry destroy mine and it is all over, my army is broken and John has not lost a unit.

Here are a few more shots from the game:

Johns cavalry prepare to get stuck in

Things are not going well for my Hann

I reckon I have a chance here, maybe not though