April Napoleonic Game: Better Late then Never!

The last year has been a very busy time for me.

Starting in November busy meant starting renovations.  We are selling our house and moving out west.  I've done msot of teh major renovations my self.  I refinished 2 bathrooms,  refinished the 3 season portch, put a new backs plash and counter top in the kitchen,  and sanded/filled several of the old plaster walls that were not well finished.  we also repainted every room in the house.  I also did a bunch of electrical work.

since last may I've not played many games.   between may and november there were almost none,  and between November and March there might have been 6 games.

anyway, while I was going through my camera SD card, i noticed about 3 or 4 sets of pictures. Over the next few days I'll be sorting tehm and posting pics.  There probably won't be much AAR as i don't have much memory of a few of these games. 

These pics were taken by Fellow gamer Mike at the end of April at a napoleonic game i put at at Martin's house.  the game was conspicuous because the allies(Austria and Russia) almost didn't get out of their deployment zone before the french made it to them.  but in the end, the allies almost came back to win. Almost.  Their army Morale didn't quite hold, and when it look liked the french army would shatter and run, the allies did instead.  it was a hell of a close and bloody battle though.

and now, the pics

this battle also featured some stellar closing fire by the Austrain and Russian lagers.  in no less tehn 2 cases, a unit was broken by their fire.  in one, a French heavy cavalry charge was leveled by a close range Austrian Jager rifle volley.  the Austrian jagers were definitely teh msot devastating unit in this game, the broke or routed 3 units with fire.

Muskets and Tomahawks: First Impressions

last Friday I was invited to Muskets and Tomahawks at a friends house.  So I packed up my Indians and rules and headed out.

initial setup of the board

We arrived just ahead of the crowd(there ended up being 8 of us), and Craig (the host) had set up a wonderful looking table.  He included a log cabin settlement at one end of the table, and a  Indian village(which you may recognize) at the other end.  Taking both the settlement and the Indian village were the french Main objectives.  the British had to keep them.

British regulars and grenadiers defending the settlement

No one had played the game yet, but several of us had the rules handy.  Dan and I had read them thoroughly. Fortunately the mechanics are fairly simple.

Jordan's Regulars and grenadiers stare down 2 units of
my Indians

Before we deployed our troops, we all rolled a side plot in secret. by pure coincidence, 2 of the french chose Dan's provincials as the target/source of their side plot.  then Dan deployed right in the middle of the table. as a result the game sort of revolved around Dan's provincials.

Mike's Regulars and My Indians Take potshots Dan's Provincials

 I had gleaned early on that my Indians had no chance crossing open ground against Jordan's grenadiers to get to my objective beyond, so I helped kill Dan faster so I could then get Mike's line units to help me. 

Dan's Provincial Line watches as him provincial lights get
wiped out by Canadian Militia.

However in a rather ironic turn of events, my Indians Charged and killed Dan's officer(Colonel Washington figure), not knowing that  doing so kept the other 2 players from completing their side plots.  which is fine because by the time we finished going after the provincials, neither of the remaining regular french infantry at hand  had enough strength left to oppose the British regulars in town.  so i didn't get my objective either.

My Indians Prepare to charge Dan's Provincials

 In the end 2 French players were wiped out along with 2 British players.  the remaining french converged on the Indian village and took it after some fierce fighting by the defenders. we called it a tie since both sides occupied one objective.


Overall the system was fun.  I did find that musket fire is ridiculously deadly. Especially when coming from a firing line. Two suggestions made were to drop the lethality of muskets, carbines and pistols to 4+ instead of 3+. Not a huge change, but potentially enough.  It would also have the side effect of making artillery slightly more potent. which might not be a bad thing because the general consensus from the net is that artillery looks pretty but is kind of useless most of the time.  We were also thinking, that for our games, we might remove the rolling for additional casualties on a recoil. For irregulars and Indians this would keep them from evaporating after a single volley most of the time.

Dan and I are going to try this set of rules out with our imaginations. So we'll see how that goes.

Moving Sale and Off to Cold Wars

As some may already know, I'm planning on moving to Alberta some time this summer.  the exact time depends on how long it takes to finish the renovations on my house, and for the house to sell.

These renovations are one of the reasons I've been so inactive on the Blog lately.

as such I've been looking at alot of my gaming stuff, and am getting rid of things i have not used in a long time.

I'll be taking the following items to cold wars this coming weekend, and then anything that does not sell there is going to hotlead with me later in March(along with a few things I won't be taking to cold wars)



first thing up is my Modern collection.  I'll be selling my iraqis and British, plus all my vehicles.

infantry: $32 per squad of 8(all squads of 8)
Vehicles:
Resin Vehicles $30 Each
landrovers/humvees 2 for $30  
Plastic tanks $10 each

anyone buying large lots can probably get a bit of a deal too.

i have 

TAG Iraqis. LSloppy Jalopy Vehicles. not everything pictured

3 squads of Iraqi Republican guard
3 squads Iraqi regulars
4 squads of Fedayeen
1 BMP1
2 BMP2
3 BTR60BP
1 BRDM-2
1 AML -90
3 Plastic T72

TAG British, Not everything pictured

4 squads of British Infantry
2 Mortar teams
1 GPMG team
2 British Para squads
1 SAS Squad
4 Warrior IFVs
7 Land rovers
1 FV432 Peak Turret

TAG Deltaforce and Humvees. Forces of Valour Blackhawks

Closeup on Delta Force

1 Plastic Challenger

24 USMC
2 Delta Force Squads
2 humvees
1 Stryker
1 plastic  M1A1 Abrams
2 Forces of Valour 1/48th Blackhawks
1 FOrces of Valour 1/48th Apache


All my Desert Terrain(pictured below)


Pinkish Foamcore buildings(4) $15 each
Small Buildings(4) - $15 each
Medium buildings(3) $25 each
Compounds(3) - $40 each
Parking Structure - $100
Palm trees(6, 3 built, 3 unbuilt) $10
Rock formations(2)  - $5 each

Forces of Valour 1/48th Helos

Picture of All terrain set up.

 

Larger of the 2 Compounds. both have removable roofs

Big Parking Structure - 16"x18"x9", 4 peices

 

32x Old Glory Romans.  looking for $3 per figure

Random box ofWarmachine  Cryx.   3 Privateer rulebooks. 
I'd sell the whole box for $50 OBO

Lot of old Ronin: Duels and Ronin: war rules and figures.
half a dozen large Ronin mecha, serveral small ones,  serveral sprues of
tanks and aircraft.  lots of extra weapon bits.   $20 for the lot.

 WINGS of War WW2:
Deluxe boxed set(complete rules, all expansions and 4 planes in one box) $30
A6M2 Reisen  $10
F4F Wildcat $10


Zvezda Ring of Rule Undead Romans (each legion box is 20 legionnaires plus 4 archers)

1 Cursed Legion box, unopened  $15
1 Cursed Legion box  assembled and painted(24 figures) $20
3 Cursed Legion Box, loose on sprues $10 each
1 Cursed Cavalry Box, opened partially assembled (8 figures)
1 Cursed Artillery box, assembled ( 1 CarroBalista and 1 Onager with undead crew & mantlets)

If you have any interest in reserving anything for pickup at Coldwars, let me know in before Wednesday night.  You can find me on facebook using the badge on the right isde of teh page,  or email me at

stephen(dot)thomson81(at)gmail(dot)com

We can arrange pickup some time during the weekend.

A Spanish Treat

this past Sunday  our gaming group got together and enjoyed some Carlist wars using Field of Battle(unmodified).

I Scratch build all the terrain over the last few years, and Dave Hoyt supplied the marvelous Miniatures. Perry and Blaze Away miniatures are the manufacturers.

Dave ran the Carlist forces solo, while Jon and I ran the Isabelinos.   Jon had the 2nd and 4rd(cavalry) brigades on the right flank, and I had the 1st and 4th(international) brigade on the left flank, in the town.

the international brigade(British expedition plus french foreign legion) reinforced by a battalion of the  1st brigade secured the bulk of the town early.  one of the British battalions hastily rushed down the main street into an artillery  barrage and was routed, but quickly recovered.  they cleared the way to the British rifles to pin down the artillery and ultimately were responsible for its demise.

Meanwhile the right flank started out good for the Isabelinos, but quickly started to spiral out of control.  the other half of my 1st brigade was badly mauled. and Jon lost 2 of the 3 battalions in his infantry brigade, with only the guard remaining.  only the cavalry held their own.

fortunately while that happened, the international brigade finally broke through in the town, flanking the crack Carlist brigade and routing them. although it took rather more flank engagements then I was expecting to do so. one of Dave's crack battalions took 3 flank attacks before routing.

All in all a good game was had by all.  the game wrapped up in about 2.5-3 hours.

I also had my Warbases delivered  as well as an extension of  the current commission i'm working on.  expect to see some Fife and drum militia on the blog in the not so distant future.

Commonwealth of Polhynov Guard Haiduks

Gwardia Hajduk Regiment with command in the fore.

Last night I finished off the Guard Haiduk regiment that has been sitting on my desk  for a few weeks.  these are for my imagination the Commonwealth of Polhynov(or Rzechczypospolita na Polhynow in Polish). the figures are, as with all my other eastern renaissance, TAG miniatures.

Gwardia Hajduk command close up.

The Guard Haiduks use heavy Bardische axes, and as such are treated as a pike unit in Maurice. we have not used any pike units yet, so it should be an interesting change.


TAG figures are always fun to paint. I made the flags my self, and here is a look at them unfurled:

Regimental standard on top, Hetman's Standard on the bottom.

the flags symbols are historical.  The golden eagle is from a standard from a 16th century 'Przemysl district" standard.  the white eagle is Jan Sobieski's crest (1680s) which I have co-opted as the Mielczewski Family/Commonwealth Crest.  the coloured fields are of my own concoction.

the Polhynov standard system is similar to the British napoleonic system, each regiment has a Hetnman's Standard(kings colours) and a regimental standard(regimental colours).

i do plan 2 regiments of 24 cavalry ultimately, for anyone wondering why a polish-based army is so cavalry-light.  the regiment of Husaria(heavy cavalry) will be Front Rank French WSS horse grenadiers, and the light cavalry regiment will use Eureka Polish Uhlans from the 28mm SYW Saxon

Now that these are done, the Polhynov forces can take to the field this Friday, when i get together with friends Martin, Dave, Dan and Jon to play a big game of imaginations Maurice.

Commission: Foundry Argonauts, Heracles, and Zetes

Last night and this morning I worked on a group of 10 figures as part of an ongoing commission. This group was comprised of 8 Argonauts, Heracles, and Zetes, made by Foundry.

4 Argonauts in helmets

4 Argonauts without helmets.
Maybe veterans or officers.

Heracles & Zetes

These figures were a lot of fun to paint. Aside form the fact that I have not painted ancients in years(and even then only Romans), they are lovely figures. Although with all the bronze trim on the armour, they can be time consuming.  The way I paint usually requires me to undercoat any metallic with white, so that it starts very bright. Since the rest of the armour is  medium/dark grey, highlighted then black washed,  I have to both edge in white, THEN the bronze colour, and then give it a wash. so in effect I have to do all the bronze edging twice.  Fortunately I enjoy the occasional fiddly work.  especailly when it's so very different from anything I'm currently painting. After all, Variety is the spice of life!


also, I'm about 22 hits away from having 100,000 hits in under 4 years since I started the blog(4 years on May 29th).  I'd celebrate by having some sort of contest or something, but I don't really have the funds to pull that off.  maybe by the time I hit 200,000 hits I'll have gotten a brake and be able to.

ACW Buildings for Martin

At out last game day Martin gave me a pair of buildings to base up for him. It seems I have convinced him that buildings look good with bases.

 The church was painted presumably by martin(or possibly bought painted). the clap board manor was painted by me earlier in the year. both buildings are made by Hovels.

The fences, gravestones and raven/crow are all Renedra plastic offerings. trees are Woodland Scenics.

I had wanted to make the buildings easily removable for storage, but hovels are cast in one piece, and are either solid castings or hollow with extremely irregular inside edges making it hard to do so.  i may revisit them at a later date to see what else i can do.