Sunday 21 June 2015

Back to the Franco Prussian War

After what seems like an age I decided to make some more headway on my Franco Prussian stuff. With a big game up at Micks in the Autumn I really need to crack on. Late last year Mick gave me a bagful of mounted figures so I decided to have a sort through. There should be enough for 3 regiments of Prussian Cuirassiers and a hussar regiment. There were also enough figures for the Bavarian Cuirassiers that I need for the Bavarian I Corps.

So with Dave making steady progress on the French guard here I needed to get my skates on. First up was 2 of the Prussian Cuirassier regiments. The figures are all from Essex miniatures, very nice apart from the annoying bases which are much to fine in my humble opinion. Not sure when I will get to field these as I don't have any plans yet to add Prussian infantry divisions.



Next up i made a start on the Bavarian Cuirassiers. I will need these for the game at Micks as I committed to providing a full Corps of Bavarians. I currently have the 1st Division done, and these guys are part of the 2nd division.



Going through my research material for the 2nd division I will need 4 infantry regiments at 1 battalion each (or 6 stands each), 2 small Chasseur regiments (2 stands each) and 2 Jager battalions (4 stands each). After that 3 artillery pieces will be needed to be attached to the Corps. Should be manageable for the Autumn, though need to purchase them first.

Saturday 13 June 2015

A Napoleonic Skirmish

With the club being in their temporary venue we are unable to play larger games as we have to pack up each night, so we decided to play a small Napoleonic Skirmish game using Black Powder. The scenario was that a Westphalian Division had to fight its way down the road and exit the table on the left hand side. A small Brunswick detachment were acting as a blocking force until relieved by some Prussians. Neither side new when these reinforcements would arrive, being determined by rolling a D12 each bound and once the total reach 200 they began to enter the table at a random point on the defenders side of the table.

The Forces - Westpahalians
1st brigade - 1 Jager battalion, 2 infantry battalions, 1 9lb gun
2nd brigade - 1 Chasseur regiment, 2 infantry battalions
3rd brigade - 4 Polish infantry battalions, 1 6lb gun
4th brigade - 1 French infantry battalion, 2 Dutch infantry battalions, 1 6lb gun
5th brigade - 1 Grenadier battalion, 2 infantry battalions

The Bruswickers
1st brigade - 1 hussar regiment, 1 light infantry battalion
2nd brigade - 2 infantry regiments, Sharpshooter skirmishers, 2 9lb guns

The Prussian Reserve
1st brigade - 2 Dragoon regiments
2nd brigade - 1 Grenadier battalion, 3 infantry regiments, 1 Brunswick light infantry battalion, 1 9lb gun

The battlefield

The Westphalians had to cross R to L
The game did not begin well for the Westphalians taking 3 moves before 2nd brigade advanced onto the table, led by the chasseurs. On spotting the waiting Brunswickers they began to swing North to try and flank their position while awaiting the rest of the army. The next few moves were all about getting the Westphalians onto the table.

Brunswicker's in position
The first Westphalians arrive
First 3 brigades move into position
Eventually I was able to bring on the 4th and 5th brigades who both swung South to try and capture the town and open the road up. Meanwhile to the North the polish brigade continued on a march to get behind the Brunswick position. The 1st and second brigades began there assault as the Chasseurs first held a charge from the hussars before sweeping them from the field. this forced one of the Brunswick regiments to form square, right in front of the deployed artillery. Now at this point we all thought they were doomed, however despite taking a horrendous number of hits from musketry and artillery fires it took 5 turns before they eventually broke, at the same time that the Westphalian 1st brigade was also forced to retire broken.

We'll go this way
Brunswick light infantry deploy
Form square
Finally the Dutch got themselves into position and swept aside the Brunswick light infantry before turning their attention to the artillery deployed on the hill. Surprisingly the artillery managed to hold up the Dutch for a couple of turns. To the North the poles continued on their advance and looked likely to achieve our objective and exit the table when the Prussian brigades made a timely arrival, crashing into the Poles and halting their advance. The Brunswickers in the center were finally broken under the severe pressure, but they had done enough to hold up the Westpahalians to prevent their escape.

The Dutch charge in
Now for the artillery
With time running out and needing to clear up we called the game a draw. Our conclusion was that this is a rather difficult scenario for the attacker as you must decide to either try and outflank the position or smash into it.

Tuesday 2 June 2015

Flags and more Hessians

To try and finish of my Hessian's I decided to make a small purchase with maverick-models as a number of bloggers had recommended them for the quality of their flags. So with a small purchase made I was surprised to receive an email the following day asking if I wanted the standard 15mm scale flags or re sized to fit the flag poles of the figures I was using. As it happened the standard size is fine but it is nice to know that re sizing can be done, particularly thinking of those 15mm ranges which border on 18mm nowadays. So a big thumbs up on that, especially when you are only paying 50p a flag.

Next to delivery, the website say to give 21 days for delivery, so imagine my surprise when they turned up only a week later. This may have been to do with the small size of the order, but still excellent service. So to the flags themselves, well I was impressed. I did take a picture but it didn't come out very well. However after a few minutes trimming I had them added to my Hessian Horse units.


The flags are from left to right, Erbprinz, Erbach, Leibregiment and Aurochs. Now luckily I have some black and white line drawings of these flags with colours in German and confirm that they were spot on for accuracy. So overall i am very happy with these and will be making future purchases. If you haven't already done so I would check out his site.

The second part of this post is for my completed Dragoon regiment - Aurochs. This brings my Hessian horse to 4 regiments. The nice thing with these is they fit in well with my British troops fighting at Blenheim.



I have also been slowly updating my WSS/GNW page with better photos showcasing each of my contingents.