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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.