Sunday 28 December 2014

2014 Year end review

Well it's that time of year where People start to review their progress on the previous years projects. So what did I set t to achieve.

So on to projects for 2014.

15mm Napoleonics - I wanted to complete enough troops for both the Austrians and Westphalians to allow me to run some divisional level games at the club. This has been my mainstay interest this year. So much so that I have continued to add units to both sides with no end in sight

15mm FPW -  I was aiming to try and get the Bavarians up to corps strength. This has been an epic fail with not a paint brush dipped or purchase made. However I did obtain some Bavarian and Prussian cavalry from Mick and aim to paint them up for a large game sometime in May.

10mm Crimean War - I needed to complete 1 more Russian infantry division and some cavalry. I also had a hankering to painting up a Turkish infantry division. Like the FPW stuff another epic fail.

15mm WSS - The Friedlingen project needed a bit of a kick start this year and progress was made early in the year with the completion of all the French infantry I required. I even purchased some cavalry, but since then it has stalled again.

So apart from lots of Napoleonics, what did I actually paint. Well fist there was some Skaven for WFB 3rd edition, don't know why just an urge I had. Always fancied painting some up and managed to pick up some bargains on E-Bay. I then decided to re paint some of my old Citadel men at arms that had lain unloved in a box for over 20+ years. There was also a handful of figures for Blood bowl which included 2 Trolls.

On the historical side I did finish off some French Regulars for my Musket and Tomahawk collection. I'll need to add some more British rangers to balance things out. In 15mm I painted up a mixture of Poles and Turks for some Renaissance battle which will need to be significantly expanded.

Painting \Totals wise is slightly down on last year, but I put that down to spending a couple of months re-basing Darren's Napoleonic collection.

15mm artillery - 12
15mm foot - 881
15mm cavalry - 145
28mm foot - 172
28mm cavalry - 8

Gaming wise I did get involved in 2 historical battles. The first was a re fight of Bunker Hill in which i was the Americans against Neal and Dave, A good fun battle in which I sneaked a minor victory. The other was Ramillies, a great hard fought game at Micks. it also saw Darren get back on the wargaming scene after a absence of a few years.

So what's for 2015, I'll leave that for another post as still a bit undecided.

Saturday 20 December 2014

Brozeczinski Grenadiers

These guys are my last unit of Austrian Grenadiers to finish off my brigade. They are the Brozeczinski Grenadiers made up of companies from the 24th, 30th and 41st line regiments. Like the rest of my Grenadier units the figures are all from Warrior miniatures. The flag is from Warflag.

Brozeczinski Grenadiers
Brozeczinski Grenadiers
Brozeczinski Grenadiers
After these guys I have enough figures left for one more line regiment and a couple of units of Hussars to paint. In the New year I will probably add to these some Uhlans and Grenzers  along with a couple of Hungarian line regiments.

On Thursday it was the last night of the year for the club before we reconvene of the 8th January, all we did was set up a large Napoleonic game with Austrians and Prussians defending a ridge against a larger French force.


Tuesday 2 December 2014

A couple more Napoleonic units

As promised in my last post, I have manged to finish the bases on the next two units for my Napoleonic collection. First up is the 2nd battalion 9th Regiment for the Duchy of Warsaw. Like the other 3 units that will form this brigade the figures are a mix of Essex and an unknown manufacturer. Once again I went for the blue winter trousers. The flag is homemade until I obtain something more suitable.

2/9th Duchy of Warsaw
2/9th Duchy of Warsaw
Next up is a third unit of Austrian Grenadiers. I have found in all our games so far a brigade of just 2 units have been rather ineffective. So I've determined to increase the size of the brigade and this is the next unit. It is only 24 figures, but I do have another on the painting table at 32 figures.

Austrian Grenadiers
Austrian Grenadiers.
Now back at the club we had a bit of a clear out. it is amazing how much junk you can accumulate. We've also re arranged the gaming tables to give us more room on the large table. We even had time to run a small FPW game which I will feature in a later post.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Quick painting update

Just to prove that I have started to paint some figures again I decided to take a couple of photos of some finished work. I've still got 2 infantry battalions that I need to finish the bases on before I post pictures of them. So first up is another Divisional Commander base for my French and Allies troops. The figures are both from Essex Miniatures.

Divisional Commander base
Side view
I also decided to go back to my Bruswickers' and try and round the force off. I've purchased some extra infantry figures to increase the size of the units from CGM and I also plumbed for Lancashire miniatures for a artillery battery. It has been a while since I've used Lancashire figures and I was pleasantly surprised.

Brunswick artillery
Brunswick artillery
Hopefully by the weekend I'll be able to post up pictures of the finished Austrian Grenadier battalion and a Duchy of Warsaw battalion.

Sunday 23 November 2014

It's been a month

I cannot believe that it has been a month since my last update. So what have I been doing. I've still been checking out everyone else blogs buts just haven't had the time to do any posting of my own. As for painting, I've only just managed to pick up a brush this week to finish off a couple of units that have sat half painted for well over a month. I blame this squarely on re basing figures for Darren and now John. Thankfully this is coming to an end, all that is left of Darren's french are 2 cavalry regiments, just waiting for some more bases. Then John decided to get in on the Napoleonic lark and decided to purchase some ready painted Spanish (just because we didn't have any). He has approximately a division now and yours truly was asked to re-base them.

On the gaming front we have been running a rather large Napoleonic game over the last 4 weeks. It has basically been if we have the troops lets use them. It all centered on a Westphalian division holding a ridge against a Prussian division. Both sides then being reinforced over the 2 days of fighting by large numbers of additional troops. Here are some photos to give you an idea of the game.

Westphalians awaiting the Prussians
The Prussians begin their attack
French light cavalry brigade arrives
Poles and Dutch move into position
The 1st British division arrives
More British arrive to support a Russian brigade
The battle lines
After this I forgot to take any photos of the game. It became an engrossing battle. After the first days battle both sides pulled back and re aligned before going at it for a second day. It was at this point that the marked superiority of numbers of allied infantry was to prove the winner. At one stage it was 42 battalions against 27, of which 9 were on the wrong side of a river and blocked by the Austrians.

It wasn't until after the game that I decided to do a quick reckoning of the available Napoleonic troops we had at the club.

French - 2 Corps
Westphalian - 1 Division
Polish - 1 infantry brigade
Dutch - 1 infantry brigade
British - 2 Divisions and a cavalry brigade
Brunswick - 1 Legion
Russians - 1 infantry brigade
Prussians - 1 Division
Spanish - 1 Division
Austrian - 1 Corps

Now Harry is talking about getting some Russians as these are the only remaining force from the main protagonists. When I finishing adding to my Austrians I have a hankering to paint up some more Dutc and possibly some Bavarians. Keep me going through the winter months.

Tuesday 21 October 2014

What's worse than re-basing figures

Sorry for the lack of posts for this month but I have been busy. With Darren returning to the club and getting a taste for Napoleonics using the Black Powder rules, I had already based the British, French and Prussians he had left at the club. These were each roughly in brigade strength. Darren then subsequently went bought a full French army off another of the lads and asked if I would base it up like the rest. I agreed not knowing the actual size of the army. Lets say when it arrived in Five full boxes my first thoughts were, this won't take long. Lets just say I have been slowly making my way through them. There is all sorts in the boxes, Cuirassiers, lancers, Grenadiers et al. over 20 pieces of artillery and plenty of  Generals.

So progress so far. One box full of figures completed including his last unit of British. There are 11 infantry regiments and 4 Horse regiments completed with some officers.

Completed box
Completed box
Work is also underway on a second batch which just need some static grass added to the bases tomorrow night once the varnish has dried. This lot includes 7 artillery pieces, 2 Cuirassier regiments, 5 Dragoon regiments and a further 9 infantry battalions with sundry brigadiers and a Corps commander base.

2nd batch
In between all of this re basing I did manage to get up to Micks for a re fight of 1st Bull run. A very enjoyable game using Dave's excellent collection. A full report is available of Dave's blog here.

Monday 22 September 2014

Westphalian/French C-in-C

Just a quick update as I am busy preparing a game for the club on Thursday night. I finally managed to put together a base to act as my C-in-C for my Franco - Westphalian troops. The figures are all from the Blue Moon French generals set. Very nice figures.

C-in-C
Side view
Side view
I really like the guy in the centre reading the map. I tried to picture a rather flustered officer checking directions with one looking on in disgust while the third model depicts an officer waving his hat in the general direction of the enemy. Can just here him saying "the enemy are over there!" Well back to the painting table as i need to finish off another Polish infantry battalion for Thursday.

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Painting update

As mentioned in a previous post, I obtained some Polish Napoleonic figures from one of our club members. After sorting through the figures I made a quick order to Essex to bulk out the command figures, elite companies and Generals. This gave me enough figures to make up 4 battalions. There was also a selection of light artillery pieces as well as 3 regiments of horse. Unfortunately the horses were on the rather pit pony size, so i contacted the helpful chap at Warrior miniatures to put in an order for 36 horses which he duly dispatched in his timely fashion.

First up is the 2 infantry battalions I have painted so far. I went for the 10th infantry regiment and the blue winter trousers, thought they looked better. Apart from the new Essex figures i am unsure on the make of the line companies. The flag are my own homemade until I can source something better.

10th Infantry regiment
10th Infantry regiment
Next up is 3 artillery batteries as well as a mounted brigadier from Essex miniatures. The crew figures look to be the same make as the other infantry. The trousers are supposed to be black, but I went with a dark grey as black would have faded rather quickly in the field.

Polish light artillery
When I attended the local Border Reiver show earlier in the month, I picked up some French Napoleonic Generals from Blue Moon, cracking figures. Also with these and the pack I had from Essex gives me more than enough brigadiers, Divisional commanders and a C-in-C base. The first ones I have completed are a divisional commander base to lead the Westphalians and a brigadier to lead the start of my Dutch brigade (Got to get more dutch so instead of my poor Brunswickers having to masquerade as them)

Commanders
So what's next on the painting table. So far I have a small unit of Westphalian cuirassiers nearing completion, another battalion of polish infantry then on to some Polish and Austrian hussars. I also have the figures for a C-in-C base already undercoated. Enough to keep me busy for a while.



Sunday 14 September 2014

Battle of 2 bridges

Over the last couple of weeks we have been fighting a scenario battle based on the 2 bridges scenario. basically the defenders must defend both crossing points for victory while the attackers only need to capture one for victory. Tom took on the role of C-in-C for the French forces with Robbo supporting, while George commanded the Austrians with me commanding the reserve.

The French attacking forces composed of the following

French Infantry brigade - 5 battalions
French Cavalry brigade - 3 lt cav. regiments
French Cavalry brigade - 2 lt cav. regiments
Dutch Infantry brigade - 5 battalions
Westphalian infantry brigade - 4 battalions
Westphalian infantry brigade - 4 battalions
Mixed cavalry brigade - 1 lt cav. regiment and 2 heavy cav. regiments

The Austrian defenders were as follows

Infantry brigade - 4 line, 1 Jager and 1 Landwehr battalions,
Infantry brigade - 3 line, 1 Jager and 2 Landwehr battalions.
Mixed brigade - 1 line and 1 Jager battalion with 1 Lt cav. regiment
Cavalry brigade - 3 heavy cav. regiments
Infantry brigade - 2 Grenadier battalions
Russian infantry brigade - 1 Jager and 3 line battalions.

The picture below gives a rough layout of the table before the battle commenced. the french forces were advancing from the northern edge (top)

The battlefield
George decided to split our forces. He with the 2 main infantry brigades crossed the bridge on our right flank with the intention of occupying the town to the north, using it as a bulwark against any assault. Myself, leading with my mixed brigade crossed the other bridge, again with the intention of occupying the town and using the Hussars to seek out the enemy. The cavalry and Grenadiers were to follow. The Russian brigade was still some distance in reserve and ended up only arriving on the battlefield when it was all over.

The main French assault was to be directed towards our right flank, The attack was led by one of the Westphalian brigades, supported by the Dutch on their right flank. Robbo with 2 brigades of light cavalry swung between the two hills and tried to use the orchard to screen him and get onto Georges left flank.

Westphalians preparing their assault
Dutch infantry overlooking the Austrian positions
Luckily for us George won the race to the town and managed to occupy it with some Jagers. It then cam under intense pressure throughout the game. Robbo though had become rather gung-ho with his cavalry, Seeing what he thought was an opportunity to hit an Austrian battery proved his undoing. With his charge falling short, the artillery poured grape into him. There were few survivor's to tell the tale afterwards.

Austrians moving into position
Over on our left flank I had managed to occupy the time, but my heavy cavalry seemed to take ages just to cross the bridge. We had diced before the game for the Austrian commander to determine a couple with less than average abilities. Typically the heavy brigade had such a commander who continued to fail command rolls.

With the loss of one brigade of cavalry Robbo determined to support his freshly arrived French infantry against my flank, looking to protect them from my heavies. It was then with one such failed command roll that my Dragoons failed to move yet again that allowed some French lancers to crash into their flank, luckily they survived 3 rounds of combat with some very lucky command checks.

French infantry get into position
French cavalry arrive to support the flank
Austrian heavies finally get into position
With the main attack being held on our right flank, George began moving one of his brigades to try and link up with me as now the 2nd Westphalian brigade had arrived and started a very slow advance (3 failed command rolls in a row) into the centre of the table to try and cut me off.

With my dragoons holding the lancers, my Cuirassiers finally rumbled forward and crashed into the rest of the French cavalry. They quickly showed how it was done by destroying both units. The Lancers then broke, leaving the French without any cavalry support on the table. Once again my rather inept cavalry commander failed a number of command rolls and I was unable to exploit the advantage against the exposed french infantry before the arrival of more french cavalry onto the table.

Austrians on the march
Onwards men!
Back on our right flank the Westphalians and Dutch had still failed to dislodge the Austrians in the town, but now both sides were becoming weary, with units on both sides starting to be knocked out of the line. Things were getting so desperate for us that George committed the 3 landwehr units into the front line to try and shore things up. In the centre the 2nd Westphalian brigade found itself assaulted in the flank by Austrian infantry while on my flank the French infantry were slowly being forced back. It was at this point that disaster struck the French army. With already losing 2 of his 7 brigades with the loss of his cavalry. Both Westphalian infantry brigades finally cracked. The Dutch were also close. With over 50% of his brigades either destroyed or broken, Tom had no choice to call off the attack.

Saturday 6 September 2014

Napoleonic Cavalry

After my last post my additional bases arrived from Warbase, so I set about basing up the two cavalry units that I had completed. The first unit is the 14th Polish cavalry regiment, which were equipped as cuirassiers in 1809.

14th regiment
14th regiment
These figures are all from Warrior miniatures, French curirassier figures. The unit is currently only at 8 figures but I will expand it. The figures were originally intended to be Dutch cuirassiers until I discovered during the 1809 campaign they hadn't been issued the cuirass.

The next completed unit is that of the 2nd Dutch cuirassiers. Again these are only at 8 figures and are to represent a detachment added to the Dutch infantry division as part of X Corps. The figures are from Warrior miniatures and I have used the French dragoon figure. The only issue I have with these is the length of the carbine, but not enough to be an issue in 15mm. The flag is purely conjectural taken from the Warflag site.

2nd Dutch cuirassiers
2nd Dutch cuirassiers
As I manged to get these based on time both regiments have made it into the club game, timely as well as John has now lost both of his French cavalry brigades. I will do a write up of the game when we hopefully finish it this Thursday.

Monday 1 September 2014

The thing with bases

Following on from re-basing Darren's Napoleonic French, I have then gone on to redo his British, a Russian Brigade and another small unit of French Chasseurs. All of these refurbished units can now be used in our club games, a change from sitting on the shelf for another good few years.

French Chasseurs a cheval
Russian infantry brigade
While doing all of this re-basing, I made the cardinal sin and lost track of my stock of MDF bases. Firstly I did notice that I was running short of infantry bases so sent off an order to Warbase. However I forgot about suitable bases for the cavalry. I did not realise my error until I had finished painting a detachment of the 14th Polish cavalry regiment. These guys have had to remain on their lollipop sticks along with a detachment of the 2nd Dutch Cuirassier regiment until a second order to Warbase arrives.

Polish Cuirassiers awaiting bases.
On a brighter note, one of the lads at the club mentioned that he had some unpainted Polish figures for the Napoleonic period, some cavalry, artillery and approximately a brigade of infantry. Suffice to say a deal has been struck. The only downside for me is the horses for the cavalry cannot be any larger than a pit pony. So I think I'll get in touch with the helpful chap at Warrior miniatures to see if I can order just under 40 horses to get these regiments onto the table.

So what's next on the painting table, well more Napoleonics. I've got two regiments of Austrian Hussars to complete as well as a detachment of Westphalian Cuirassiers and some Polish artillery.

Sunday 24 August 2014

More Napoleonic odds 'n' sods

In preparation for next weeks game I have been finishing off the last of my available figures before another purchase is due. To add to Darren's French brigade I rustled up some left over French figures I had and put together a 20 figure regiment. Now as the Westphalian X corps contained a number of individual companies from French garrison which game a strength of roughly 2 battalions. These guys would be one such composite battalion. Also it makes up for the lack of elite companies. The figures are a mix of Warmodelling, Old Glory, AB and some I cannot identify, making it quite a mix.

Combined French companies
Combined French Companies
As I missed them in my last post here is the first battalion of the Dutch 6th infantry regiment. These figures are all from Warmodelling.

1st battalion 6th Dutch infantry
1st battalion 6th Dutch infantry
 As I mentioned in an earlier post I was thinking of adding some light cavalry to my Austrians and so I have. Though I did make a mistake in my order and missed 1 command pack. So I have only been able to complete 1 unit so far until I can get my order sent off. These guys are the 2nd Hussar regiment, Erzherzog Joseph Anton, Palatin von Ungarn. I chose these guys as I liked the striking blue uniforms and red shako. The figures are all from Warrior miniatures as well as the flag.

No2. Archduke Josephs Hussars
No2. Archduke Joseph Hussars
To lead my Austrians I decided I needed something more than a simple command figure so instead went for something slightly more dramatic. I had a spare hussar figure, and AB model I think. That I have added to a base to represent him riding up to deliver a report to a commanding officer and his aide. The other 2 officers are from Warrior miniatures.

Generals base
rear view of the General
Following on from refurbishing the bases of Darren's French figures I volunteered to to the same to the British and Russian figures he has lying around the club. A quick look through reveals they are both at about brigade strength and I am sure we can find a use for them in our games. I always feel it is a good thing to dust off old figures and use them again.