Latest Acqusition

A bit of an impulse buy, but these figures flashed up on Facebook and after a bit of hoop I got access to the Historical Wargames Exchange and claimed these lovely painted AB figures.  The detail achieved by Ian Hemmings is magnificent.

Sadly I will need to rebase them for Napoleon's Battles and I might do a bit of shading to give them the stamp of ownership.

These chaps - yet another yellow faced formation - will do fine as Hanoverians.

Even the piping on the collars!  Wow.

And a casualty maker to.

I could keep these for Songs of Drums and Shakos, but it might pay to make them into skirmish makers, not that I play with that advanced rule (brigade skirmish formation).

If that base is an inch square I don't need to rebase him.

Foot artillery and I need horse...

I'm short on commanders.

A lovely French unit.

And a sapper!

The regimental laundry attendant used Omo with these guys.

Foreman material to be sure.

And more Prussians - bound to come in handy.

Just love the detail.

Best of all I used money from my mum's estate - I am sure she would have approved.

A Busy Night

In a very busy night at the club we had a busy game of Wings of Glory.

My Camel arrives on the scene just as the Camel flown by Paul makes its first pass at two hun planes controlled by Stephan N.

Blasted rear gunners!  It's just not cricket.

But I clipped him and he went boom.

My smoking crate targets the yellow Fokker.

Looks like we might have him sandwiched.

Boom!  I got him.  When explaining the secret of my success to the new guy Paul, I said it was always to pick Stephen N as my opponent.

Two Stephen's this time.  Same game, just brought on reinforcements.

We've got Stephen B in a pincer.

Paul's Camel succeeded in setting him on fire and down he went.  His first kill.  Also one of the first games we played out for fifteen turns.  Stephen N in his third plane of the night was saved.

I had been lucky - dodging lots of bullets.

It is getting a tad embarrassing.

Prussians for Ligny

The ANF are looking at doing Ligny and I'm happy to offer any assistance from my meager collection of 1/72nd scale Prussians.

HAT Dragoons.

Airfix Landwher.  Nice, but without the charm of their other Napoleonic sets.

Prussian infantry converted from French Infantry by a young Brenton and saved by me.

One of the Reserve Regiments converted from British Infantry this time.

Some Hinchcliffe and Minifig artillery.

Minifig General.

A more recent painting (I stopped the folly of cutting figures off their bases) of Minifig grenadiers.

One of my first metal figures.  I had dreams of getting many more, but the cost was prohibitive at the time.

The assembled army, just missing the Landwher converts and HAT Uhlans that are currently part of the ANF Waterloo game.

ANF Waterloo - Part 2

Another five turns completed today.

This is where we left off last week, the French 2nd Division assaulting Picton's lads over on my right.

While I, as the Prince of Orange, lead the remains of Bijlandt's brigade to safety.

The French 3rd Division is staggering towards the Hanoverian Landwher which makes up the rest of Picton's command.

The French 2nd Division is repulsed!

The French 3rd Division is blasted by my Dutch-Belgian horse artillery.

The Household Cavalry go in to slaughter the remains of the French 2nd Division.

Ably assisted by the British infantry.

On go the Household Cavalry!

The few remaining French scurry for safety, while the British cavalry halt exhausted.

I inform von Muffling that the battle is won and that he should instruct Blucher to head to Paris.

The French 3rd Division meet the fate of the 2nd, this time at the hands of the Hanoverians.

Time to check on reality.

Meanwhile on the Anglo-Allied right things look a bit hairy.

As the French 3rd Division recoils and starts to retreat, the French 13th Cavalry Division approaches.

I get my men into square.  One of the British cavalry commanders points me out. 

The Prussians have arrived.  They look a bit tardy, but I'm informed they have a plan...

The unlucky French 13th Cavalry Division is being roughly handled by my artillery (and my ability to roll sixes).  My troops have all formed squares and are hidden behind the crest line (which is marked by an attractive display of shrubbery)

The massed artillery of the Guard is deployed, but has no targets.  Messengers can be seen hurrying across the front bearing new orders.

The thin red line, with a bit of green, holding on in the centre right.  The congestion and table edge is cramping our style.

Some more brave Dutch-Belgians moving up on the far right.

The French are sweeping round the Hougoumont, although perhaps not as quickly as they thought.

And here we leave it.  End of turn 9 which makes it around 4pm.  

Will my new orders arrive in time?  

Will we be able to link up with the Prussians?  

How will we deal with the massed Guard artillery?

Next installment in two weeks time.

On the Road to Waterloo - 40 Years Gone

Well, the road to Plancenoit really, but still, after being created 40 years ago before Airfix released their Prussian Landwher, I had the idea to convert their British Grenadiers to Prussian Landwher, and now, well tomorrow to be precise, they are actually going to be used for the purpose for which they were created.

Here they are ready to go, along with some Uhlans by Hat and a general by Minifigs (who is going to play the role of Muffling to my Prince of Orange).

One sleep to go!

I have previously posted on these guys here:
http://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/airfix-figures-converted-as-prussian_6.html

But today I finished rebasing them so they work better with Shako, while still having plenty of basing flexibility for other rules.  I also applied magnetic strip to the bases to ease their journey.

Scharnhorst meets Napoleon's Battles

One of my reasons for getting the Blucher rules was the promise of the Scharnhorst mini-campaign system to set up a battle.  Last night I got to try it out.

My figures are currently still labelled for Waterloo so I constructed the following scenario:

Waterloo didn't happen

After the battle of Ligny, Wellington has retreated to the coast.
Napoleon and the I Corps, III and IV Cavalry Corps and the Imperial Guard are in pursuit.
Ney, with 27,000 men of the II and VI Corps is stalking Blucher in Flanders.
While von Bulow with most of the IV and III Corps watching Grouchy.
Blucher is left with 25,000 men to match Ney and seize victory from the jaws of defeat.

Next I had to translate or interface Scharnhorst to Napoleon's Battles.  This was only really an issue with reinforcements.  It was also necessary to keep a tight leash on my creativity as I could see lots of embellishments and additions to make to the mini campaign.

Reconnaissance I kept as per the rules.  I really like this concept, but want to do more with it.

A 200 point in Blucher translates to about 400 points in Napoleon's Battles.  The actual Blucher points match Napoleon's Battles points fairly closely, although force structures are quiet different with Napoleon's Battles having far more commanders and variable sized units as well as paying points for artillery. 400 points in Napoleon's Battles provides a force of some 25,000 men, enough to make two Corps comprising 17 units in total (infantry, cavalry and artillery, but not counting commanders). Such a structure can easily be formed into four columns, with no more than eight units per column.

Here are the Order of Battles I used

					Points
Army of the Lower Rhine		Blucher/Gneisenau	20"E(10)+3	[ 17M ]	92
		Blucher	0"E(10)+3		0
		Gneisenau	20"G(10)+2D		0
I Army Corps	I	von Ziethen	9"G(6)+1	[2F]	28
First Brigade	1/I	von Steinmetz	4"A(7)+0		13
	1B/1/I	12PrLN		[ 6D ]	10
	2B/1/I	12PrLN		[ 6D ]	10
					0
	1/I	Pr6#			11
Corps Cavalry	C/I	von Roeder	4"G(6)+2		15
	1B/C/I	16PrLC		[ 8D ]	15
	C/I	Pr6#			11
II Army Corps	II	von Pirch I	9"G(6)+1	[ 4F]	28
Fifth Brigade	5/II	von Teppelskirch	3"A(4)+1		9
	1B/5/II	16PrLN		[ 8D ]	13
	2B/5/II	16PrLN		[ 8D ]	13
	3B/5/II	12PrLW		[ 7D ]	8
Sixth Brigade	6/II	von Krafft	4"G(6)+1D		12
	1B/6/II	12PrLN		[ 6D ]	10
	2B/6/II	12PrLN		[ 6D ]	10
	3B/6/II	12PrLW		[ 7D ]	8
Seventh Brigade	7/II	von Brause	4"A(5)+0		9
	1B/7/II	16PrLW		[ 10D ]	11
Corps Cavalry	C/II	von Sohr	3"A(5)+0		8
	1B/C/II	12PrLC		[ 6D ]	11
Corps Artillery	C/II	Pr6#			11
Fifteenth Brigade	15/IV	Losthin	3"G(6)+1	[2F]	13
	1B/15/IV	20PrLN		[ 10D ]	16
	2B/15/IV	16PrSLW		[ 10D ]	11
	3B/15/IV	16PrSLW		[ 10D ]	11
	17 units	25,000 men		Total Points	417

					Points
Armee du Nord		Ney	10"E(10)+3		49
II Corps	II	Reille	9"G(5)+1D	[ 6F ]	25
Fifth Division	5/II	Bachelu	3"G(7)+1		14
	1B/5/II	16FrLN		[ 8D ]	13
	2B/5/II	16FrLN		[ 8D ]	13
Sixth Division	6/II	Jerome	3"A(4)+0		7
	1L/6/II	16FrLT		[ 8D ]	14
	2L/6/II	20FrLT		[ 10D ]	18
	2B/6/II	28FrLN		[ 14D ]	23
Ninth Division	9/II	Foy	4"G(7)+2		16
	1B/9/II	20FrLN		[ 10D ]	17
	2B/9/II	20FrLT		[ 10D ]	18
VI Corps	VI	Lobau	9"G(6)+1	[ 5F ]	28
Nineteenth Division	19/VI	Simmer	3"A(5)+0		8
	1B/19/VI	16FrLN		[ 8D ]	13
	2B/19/VI	16FrLN		[ 8D ]	13
Twentieth Division	20/VI	Jeanin	4"G(6)+1		14
	1B/20/VI	16FrLN		[ 8D ]	10
	2B/20/VI	8FrLN		[ 4D ]	7
Third Cavalry Division	3C/VI	Domon	3"G(7)+1		14
	1B/3C/VI	12FrLC		[ 6D ]	10
	3C/VI	Fr6#			11
Fifth Cavalry Division	5C/VI	Subervie	3"G(5)+1		12
	1B/5C/VI	8FrLC		[ 4D ]	7
	2B/5C/VI	8FrLC		[ 4D ]	7
	5C/VI	Fr6#			11
Corps Artillery	VI	Fr6#			11
	17 units	27,000 men		Total Points	403

I helped the Prussian set up his columns with one being the I Corps, another the 15th Brigade, a small one being the 7th Brigade and a fourth column being the bulk of the II Corps.  Blucher and the recon cavalry would join the battle at commencement.

The French player determined his columns and from memory they were one for the 19th Division, one for the 9th Divison, with the remaining two the II Corps and VI Corps.  The 3rd Cavalry Division provided recon.

Unleashing the map movement on players who were totally unfamiliar with it (as well as not have a good feel for their troops and the Napoleon's Battles rules) was going to be interesting.   It worked well and was quick.  The things that took time were organising columns and subsequently the terrain.

In addition to the four columns per side there was one dummy each.  I had made up ten counters so thought they might as well all be used.  As it turned out the ones with the 4 and 6 dice on them were the dummies.  While the Prussians had intelligence, they weren't ready to declare battle, allowing Ney to seize his chance.  The three French columns in a line formed one half of the battlefield with their fourth column arriving on turn five in march columns on the road.

The Prussian column marked with the 1 would arrive on the first turn deployed.  The one marked with a 3 on the third turn in march column (as it was it deferred two turns so it could enter deployed).  It would be entering via the road on the Prussian's left flank.

This system of reinforcements is quiet different to Blucher and I based it simply on the number of Movement Points it would take the absent columns to get to the battlefield, with the benefit that those adjacent would be entering deployed.

The Prussians at the end of the first turn when their third column has entered.  It held the bulk of their forces and so was a very timely arrival.  The village of Duifel became the objective.  We went with minimal terrain, the hedges were just to show the road.

The French made for the bridge, but the stream was fordable.  The river however was not and effectively closed off one sixth of the battlefield.  The French had deployed cautiously on their right as they knew Prussians were coming.

The French started with their left flank on table but in march column.  This meant they quickly came to the centre of things, but needed time and space to deploy.

Everyone likes fighting in lines.  It is something I rarely do, providing the flexibility that you get with column movement.

Umpiring and rule explanation meant I missed taking more photos.  The Prussians got the better of the French right using Blucher to lead a number of attacks.  In the centre in the last turn Ney lead the French to victory in capturing the village.

The Scharnhorst system had set up an interesting battle that played out well.

Olivier lead the French assisted by Matthew, while Dave gained more experience as the Prussian, assisted by Stephen B as Ziethen and Gerry as Losthin.