Regency Smart Set

Another small group of Napoleonic civilians from Front Rank to add some additional colour to our Sharpe Practice games.

The first pair are Mistress Abigail and her maid, Lucy. 

It was unintentional, but, he way I've positioned these with Lucy on the back edge of the base and not quite looking Mistress Abigail in the eye I think she may be getting a dressing down. She also seems to have quite a confrontational stand.

Maybe Lucy spent too long looking at Jack vigorously operating the village pump and spoiled Mistress Abigail's view.

The second pairing are a couple of dapper gents taking a stroll.

Sir Sidney Rodwell and the Honourable James Lawton are enjoying the fresh air while discussing the latest news of the day, their East India Company returns, or next sporting venture.

Dressed in the latest fashions and sporting brass tipped canes they are just the right sort. Sir Sidney's red trews are the talk of the town.

The final pairing are Captain Alexander Fotheringhay and his wife Mary Fotheringhay taking a stroll.

Captain Alexander is on shore leave and is enjoying some time with his wife before his next posting where he will take command one of His Majesties third rates on the Brest blockade.

All the figures are based in pairs on the newly released Objective bases from Warbases, I think that as they are never going to be in units it works quite well.

The village pump

This week I've been working on some vignettes for our Napoleonic games, Front Rank have some lovely stuff in their Napoleonic Civilians range.

The water pump set is a nice little kit with the pump, trough, a chap pumping away and a couple of ladies. I used one of them for this vignette, more on the other in a future post.

The guy operating the pump and the lady with the jug are from this set while the mounted chap is from one of the other packs, he gives the piece a nice bit of height.

Once it was painted, I built up the flow of water over a couple of days by adding PVA (Elmers) glue drop by drop, adding a new bit once the previous one had sufficiently dried, the water in the bottom of the trough is also PVA glue.

The base is a small vehicle base from Warbases, I quite like the irregular shape of these and plan to use more of these in the future for such things.

 This will make a nice addition to our Sharpe Practice games, there is always somebody who needs a drink or to clean off after a "Damned dog!" event. 

German Officers and NCO's

When James and I played some Chain of Command a couple of weeks ago it irked me that my German leaders were on the same sized bases as the rank and file while the French ones stood out more on the larger bases.

A quick order to Northstar I picked up a pack each of German Infantry Command and German Infantry in Greatcoats Command 

One of the benefits of keeping the blog is that I can easily find articles like this one I wrote five years ago with the paint recipes. 

The figures are based on Renedra 30mm round bases so that they stand out from the other troops in the force.

The first four will be used as senior leaders while this next four will make suitable junior leaders for our Chain of Command games.

 I may now do the same for some of my other forces.

Bundeswehr casualty markers

I'd painted everything I have for the Cold War project with the exception of the last few Bundeswehr casualty markers that were finished off this week. They are all from the Timecast range.

We really need to get a few more games in as it's a great system.

Basil and the Horn of the Minotaur

A couple of weeks ago we played another game of Midgard with James, this time our battle was set in Greek Mythology with hero Basil tasked with stealing the Horn of the Minotaur from the temple and getting back to his ships.

However, King Minossos and his minions were not going to let this act of cultural vandalism take place so easily so they massed their forces to block the passes back to the ships. 

Basils forces were mainly Greek Hoplites with a few Cretan archers while King Minossos fielded a host of beasties including the bronze giant Talos, two units of Cyclops, two units of Hoplites and many swarms of Harpies.

James and his boy took control of Basil and his forces while Martin and I were King Minossos and his host. Tom played mine host and kept us supplied with drinks and snacks and took a load of photos.

By the end of the game after many a heroic combat and the demise of Hercules, Typhus the Steersman, King Minossos, Tossus the Cyclops and Hagne the Harpy, Basil forced the passes and was able to return to his ships with the Minotaurs horn.

There are many better photos of the action and much improved commentary on the blogs of James, Martin and Tom.

Probing the Soviet lines

 

Thursday evening saw James (not that James, the other James) playing another game of Chain of Command.

James arrived and we started setting up to play after dinner, but after Victoria sliced off the tip of her thumb preparing dinner there was a swift bit of first aid and I took over dinner making duties.

Eventually the blood was staunched, dinner was eaten and we got down to the game!

The table was set up with some rolling hills and a rural road network with a couple of small farms and some tree lines and areas of woodland.

We randomised a scenario and would be playing "The Probe" James with a 1942 Panzer Grenadier platoon and myself with a Soviet Rifle Platoon, both from the Winter Storm PSC.

We both started with a whopping force moral of 11. The Patrol phase saw a heavy concentration of jump-off points on the left hand side of the table, I had two in the farm with one on a hill on the right while James had two in the woods on the left and one behind a small hill just outside the woods. I do like the cloth over hills terrain, but it's a bugger to see the hills in some of the photos.

The Soviets created a strong defensive line in the farmstead, protected by a lot of fire from the large hill in front of it, while the Germans created a strong base of fire in the edge of the woods.

We both jockeyed for positions that would allow two sections to fire on one enemy section but only get return fire from a single section, especially with how deadly those MG34 are.

Soon both a Soviet section and a Panzer Grenadier section had been broken and were running to the rear. The German Feldwebel turned up to bolster the line and was immediately shot in the throat.

With a Force Moral of 11 it was always going to be a bloodbath with the Germans having a dead Senior Leader, a wounded Junior Leader and a broken section while the Soviets had two wounded Junior leaders and two broken sections we were soon both on a Force Moral 4.

A moving section of Panzer Grenadiers had a long range shot at one of my broken sections, from ten shots needing fives he scored nine hits, I proceeded to roll five sixes, the section was gone, the junior leader dead and two poor Bad Things Happen rolls saw the game end. 

Not sure why we set up all that terrain, all the action took place in the left hand third of the table.

A brisk action on the Namur 1815

Saturday gave me the opportunity to get part of the ever growing Napoleonic collection out on the table and invite Tom and Martin over for a game of General d'Armee. 

I picked a couple of roughly equal forces each of four brigades, three infantry and a cavalry and laid out a table that was fairly open with a couple of rolling hills and some walled orchards. Victoria has painted me a backdrop so the rolling hills continue off into the distance.

The British had nine battalions of British/KGL line and four battalions of Hanoverian recruits backed up by a battery of KGL artillery and a brigade of three Light Dragoon regiments.

The French had twelve battalions of line, two batteries of guns, two regiments of Chasseurs and a regiment of Veteran Hussars.

Tom took the French, while Martin commanded the British, as it was their first game I played a GM roll, offering - hopefully good - advice to both players.

Some shots of the action.

British skirmishers with Hanoverians and KGL artillery in the back

French advance and deploy their guns on a low hill in support

Gratuitous magazine-like photo opportunity

British move up to engage, rifles adopt skirmish orders and push out on the flank

En avant!

The action develops, the KGL on the left, British on the right while Hanoverians hold the orchard.

The French opposite the Hanoverians start an infantry assault

The action closes along the line, the Lincolnshire's are ripped apart by the French guns so the Gordon Highlanders take their place in the line 

The French push hard against the KGL with columns driving them back on the right while the rest of the brigade engage in line.

With supporting fire from the KGL guns the Hanoverians are able to do much better than expected against the oncoming French.

The Somerset's benefit from some hesitancy on the part of the French and are able to keep them at bay. 

Deployed giving long range support these Frenchmen suffered more Fire casualties than they inflicted during the game.

In the end we ran out of time and called a winning draw to the French, their cavalry were about to make an impact on the British right that may have had a deciding effect on the battle.

Given it was Tom and Martins first game with the rules I think that the game ran well with some good friction at key moments. 

If he was not on his holidays James would have come along too, I think he would have enjoyed some of the "Charge them in the face!" action on display today, although future games may get a bit more tactical ;) 

Oh, and the newly painted KGL chaps seen at the back here, did not fire a shot nor did they take a casualty, so that's a result for them and they can get properly committed in the next battle.