MORE NAPOLEONICS

Here are some photos of recent additions to my Black Powder Napoleonic collection.  I bought a collection of French generals and staff on Ebay which I tidied up, matt varnished and rebased.  I based them in 4 senior officer pairs and 4 single ADC figures.  They are intended to be reserve generals for The Great Game of Waterloo in Glasgow.

All Foundry Figures

Foundry figures and possibly on the right a couple of Redoubts

 

PARTIZAN 2019

This Sunday I went to Partizan at Newark with the Gothenburg Gamers.

Dave O’Brien produced our game for Partizan this year.   It was a 28mm Franco Prussian War game of the Battle of Villepion 1^st December 1870.   This time the game was a display and not one of our usual PP games.   We used a variant of Warhammer Ancient Battles that Dave developed many years ago.

Ray Neal, Tim Watson, Dave Paterson, Colin Jack and I supported Dave at the display.  We went to Newark by train from Edinburgh so Dave had to develop a lightweight game for us to take down.  I think this was our largest group outing to any show.

Lots of great games at the show at its venue in the Newark Showground.  In my view this year’s show far outshone Salute in the number of good quality displays.  The exhibition hall is big bright and airy with lots of space and OK catering.
Below are some of my photos and here is the link to all 69 on Flickr.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmDCWSij

Our Villepion 1870 starting position with French about to advance onto the table

Perry Brothers Bonaparte in Egypt

League of Augsburg - Barry's wonderful Cossack camp - yes it's a mortar firing

Oosterbeeke 1944

British in India

Excellent 100 Years War game

Blood and Plunder

CARRONADE 2019

This Saturday I went to Carronade 2019 at Falkirk.

I finally got to put on my 75mm Playmobil Wild West PP game at Carronade with the Gothenburg Gamers.  We used the classic Legends of the Old West rules.  Lots of interest from children and parents.  Every child wins a prize. The new terrain items for this version of the game are the windmill and the G scale train.

It was a good show – it was busy, enjoyable and I met lots of acquaintances.  I bought nothing at all at the show – too busy with the game.  I was supported at the display by Colin Jack, Tim Watson, Ray Neal, Dave O’Brien and Dave Paterson. We were runners up for the best PP game award. I was so pleased with the way the game went that when I got home I ordered a Water Tower from Playmobil.

Below are some of my photos.  Next weekend we are at Partizan at Newark displaying something completely different.

Link to all my 44 photos from the show

https://flic.kr/s/aHskResqbz

Colin, Dave and Ray alert and ready for action

Caboose and Plains Indian posse

Yes Ranger you can go on the roof

Th best PP from Bathgate - the balloons have not appeared yet

Sea monster from the amazing pirate game

Rorke's Drift with equipment

Leuchar's Last Samurai fortress

BP2 28mm LEIPZIG 16 OCTOBER 1813 Update 4

I was away at the weekend in Methil in Fife for a 2 day large scale 28mm Napoleonic game.  It was played by 10 gamers from our AB1 group plus myself umpiring and was a refight of Leipzig 16^th October 1813.  The game covered the action on the Southern front where the Allied Army of Bohemia faced Napoleon himself.

The rules used were Black Powder 2.  The House Rules employed were basically those being used for The Great Game Waterloo but using our revised turn sequence.  It was fun with lots of troops on the table.  The game was still in the balance at the end but it was certainly going the way of the French.  The allies had lost 5 broken brigades (historic divisions) and the French only 1.

The Allies were played as follows West table John Perkin (Kleist), Centre 1 table Ian Carter (Wittgensein) and Jim Conquer (Eugen of Wurtemburg), Centre 2 table Angus Konstam (Gorchakov), East table Ken Pearce (Klenau).  The French were played by West table Bart Zynda (Poniatowski)), Centre 1 Table Jack Glanville (Victor), Centre 2 table Donald Adamson (Lauriston) and Campbell Hardie (Augerau), East table Chris Stone (McDonald).

Thanks to everyone who provided figures and John Perkin who produced all the unit and commander cards and reviewed my other paperwork.

We fielded 170 infantry battalions of 24 figures, 100 cavalry regiments of 12 figures and 81 batteries each of 2 guns - a total of 5,600 figures and 162 guns.  In all 4,700 figures got onto the table with 900 still in reserve.  You will see that the Allies had quite a numerical advantage at the outset but the French reserves arrived faster.

The battlefield we used consisted of 4 6ft by 12ft tables.  Below there is a layout drawing of the 4 tables showing the numbers of the initial on table units and their immediate reserves. The game was played lengthwise and there was a 5ft gap between each table. The tables did not interact except that units within 2ft of the respective baselines could move to adjoining tables.  Not shown are the roads that ran south to north linking the villages on each table. We learned some lessons on the BP2 rules to be applied to TGG in June.

Drawing of the 4 tables with initial troop deployment.

I have added the Order of Battle with starting positions, Unit Stats and House Rules to my Blog pages on the right of the screen.

Now some photos from the game - the first photos I took made the dustsheets look very white but the colours improved when I moved to a low light setting.  Here is the link to all my photos with descriptions on Flickr:
https://flic.kr/s/aHskQdgPRM

Russian and Prussian allies close on the defenders of Wachau commanded by the wily Jack (Victor)

Donald (Lauriston )organising the French counterattack south of the Galgenburg

Carabiniers and Cuirassiers engage the Prussians

Klenau's forces massing for another attack

MORE NAPOLEONIC ARTILLERY AND BASING

Here are some photos of the latest addition to my Black Powder Napoleonic collection.  It is a 4 gun Prussian 12pdr battery from Elite Miniatures and were painted by Kevan Bowman then based by me.  I really like the Elite gun models and they make up the bulk of my Prussian, Russian and French artillery.

They will be taking the field first at the AB1 Leipzig refight in Fife at the end of March and later at the massive Waterloo Uncovered game in Glasgow in June.

I have put in photos showing some stages in my basing technique.

The completed unit - 3 12pdrs and a howitzer - without the 2 gun movement trays

Basic  level - model railway ballast with main coat and dry brushed highlights

Javis static grass added

Last stage - 2 sizes of grass tufts added

BP2 28MM PENISULAR GAME

Last Wednesday I put on a 28mm BP2 Napoleonic game at home.  There were 4 players myself and John Perkin played the British commanders and Colin Jack and Donald Adamson commanded the French forces.  The game was a fictional one set during the retreat of Wellington’s army from Burgos. 

The British were a rear-guard force holding a ridge line covering the retreat.  They had 2 infantry brigades each of 3 line battalions, a skirmishing detachment and a field battery.  They also had a brigade of 2 dragoon regiments and a brigade of 2 light dragoon regiments plus a horse battery.   The French had 2 brigades each of 4 line battalions and a foot battery.  They also had a light brigade of 2 light battalions and a skirmishing detachment.  Their cavalry consisted of a brigade of 2 dragoon regiments and a light brigade of a chasseur regiment and a lancer regiment plus horse battery.  One British infantry brigade and 1 French infantry brigade consisted of veteran units.

It proved to be a good game with the dragoons rushing to engage each other on the British left.  This was the highlight of the game.  The British dragoons swept both French units from the field and then fell onto the flank of the French infantry engaging the British line along the ridge line.  They broke a battalion and a sweeping advance destroyed a French battery.  The French light cavalry counter attacked and their lancers drove the dragoons back away from the French infantry.

A good game – overall a draw.  It was the first game using my newly painted Warbases mdf movement trays.

British lines await the French columns

Polish grenadiers surge into a doomed British foot battery

Highland receives the Polish attack

Action along the ridge as the Dragoons prepare to engage on the left wing

VAPNARTAK 2019

Last weekend I went down on the Falkirk District Wargames Club coach trip to the Vapnartak wargames show held at York Race Course in York.  Once again it was an enjoyable outing to my first show of the year.  Here are some photos of the display and PP games at the show.  I only made one purchase at the show - a load of movement trays for my BP Napoleonic troops from Martin at Warbases.
Overall the show seemed quieter than last year.

Competition table - good looking terrain

Competition table - more good looking terrain

Wings of War Vs Martian tripods

The Beagle of the Ninth!

Palestine 1917/18

Indiana Jones - love the bomber!

ECW the Queen returns to Bridlington

ECW the Queen returns to Bridlington

Happy Trader

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