For the French, anyway!
The West Tokyo Wargamers had their monthly games day this past Sunday, and Matt, Achilleas and I had our second game of Napoleonics using Black Powder.
The West Tokyo Wargamers had their monthly games day this past Sunday, and Matt, Achilleas and I had our second game of Napoleonics using Black Powder.
Brunswickers in trouble; disordered and unable to change formation, while out of view at the bottom of the picture are the 7th Chasseurs au Cheval busily forming line for a charge on their flank!
It was a real blast- almost literally, as the Allies (Russians, Brunswickers and British) were aided by the redoubt I built last week, and which was ably crewed by Russian and British artillery. But ultimately it ended in a French defeat, as les crapauds failed to take the redoubt which protected the river crossing.
At least it was certainly no walkover; both sides had their share of heroism- and of craven cowardice!
Suffice for now to say that the 8th Russian Horse Artillery Battery managed to perform wonders again, while my new French 6pdr- painted just in time for the game- put in an overwhelmingly underwhelming performance.
My very-much-unfinished unit of the 7th Chasseurs au Cheval, on the other hand, behaved most gallantly; wiping out the stain of their most shameful behaviour in the last game. They have now earned their place in the front of the queue on my painting table, and will be awarded the privilege, unique among French light cavalry units, of being able to carry their eagles on campaign.
It was a real blast- almost literally, as the Allies (Russians, Brunswickers and British) were aided by the redoubt I built last week, and which was ably crewed by Russian and British artillery. But ultimately it ended in a French defeat, as les crapauds failed to take the redoubt which protected the river crossing.
At least it was certainly no walkover; both sides had their share of heroism- and of craven cowardice!
Suffice for now to say that the 8th Russian Horse Artillery Battery managed to perform wonders again, while my new French 6pdr- painted just in time for the game- put in an overwhelmingly underwhelming performance.
My very-much-unfinished unit of the 7th Chasseurs au Cheval, on the other hand, behaved most gallantly; wiping out the stain of their most shameful behaviour in the last game. They have now earned their place in the front of the queue on my painting table, and will be awarded the privilege, unique among French light cavalry units, of being able to carry their eagles on campaign.
Once I get some more pictures of the game, I'll put up a full report. No apologies for not having everything fully painted, but we are in the early days of Napoleonic gaming here, and the number of painted troops is growing steadily. We find that nothing inspires painting quite so much as does playing a hard-fought and enjoyable game with good company.
*****
I was lucky to be able to get anything painted at all this month, as work has been really eating into my time. But tomorrow marks the beginning of almost three weeks vacation, and I'm itching to take up the brushes and to get painting. My first task will be to finish off the almost-painted miniatures on my desktop, and clear the decks for some new units.
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10 comments:
Great stuff Robert,
Really nice looking game and look forward to more pics. The castle and redoubt work well.
I know how hard it is to get time to paint so look forward to some more finished figures (more Russians I hope). No pressure ;-)
Regards
Paul
P.S. Have a great Christmas
Jeez, Paul, you're fast- I just posted that!
Russians are coming! Infantry and command, as are some French artillery and infantry. Most are already well on their way to completion, all I needed was the time to work on them as you say.
The Allies are short on horse with no British cavalry on the horizon for a while, so it looks like I'll be working on Russian Dragoons as well.
Good post.
Hi Robert,
Yeah I was just uploading some stuff on my blog into draft form when I seen your page jump to the top on my own blog.
Russian Dragoons that's great as I will be doing some soon too. Which regiment did you go for?
cheers
Paul
Eventually three regiments of Dragoons; The Kharkovski, Kievski, and Kinburnski.
The "grand plan" for my Russians can be seen here;
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/8/12/1342564/Russ_9th%20Corps%20Painting%20chart%20v2.pdf
I have the flags for each already from GMB. I'll be starting with the Kharkovski Dragoons- green with orange facings.
Hi
I remember when I played with my first Airfix unpainted (i.e. yellow) figures
Best regards
Rafa
Hi Robert,
Looks like a great plan.
Are we talking 3 figures a squadron? 12, 12, 6?
I planned on doing the Kinburns 1st as I started a 25mm regiment of them 20 years ago (I am sure you know my story now) and never finished them so I felt I owed the Kinburns a regiment?
Look forward to seeing your plan unfold!
Hi, Rafa
At least I can honestly say there were no unpainted figures in this game. Almost all the British and Brunswickers were fully painted, as was about 50% of the French. Everything had been at least undercoated, with most of those being somewhere in between.
Paul, as for the dragoons I had intended to go for 24/24/12 figures for each regiment respectively, using a 1:20 ratio for GdB or Republic to Empire.
The numbers were based on an orbat from the Leipzig campaign I came across in one of George Nafziger's books on the battle.
But that takes up a lot of table space, and manoeuvring even a 12 figure cavalry regiment can require considerable planning.
For Black Powder games, I think I will build up each regiment to 16 figures, which is four squadrons of four models.
With a brigade strength of forty-eight, that is still one heck of a lot of horseflesh to be moving around the tabletop! But based on experience so far and given table space available, having cavalry regiments of sixteen miniatures is really pushing the envelope in terms of practicality. If I decide to play GdB or RtE later, and if we have the table space, I can always add another two models to each squadron.
Lots of painting, but the brigade would look jaw-droppingly impressive! I'd probably end up giving myself a hernia carrying them back and forth to the club, though.
After reading your report Robert I'm itching to try out all my French cav in a BP game. I also run them at 16 figs per unit, as you say, with two or three regts, that's a lotta horseflesh to manoeuvre (or not) around the table. They make such nice targets for everyone too!
I plan to do some painting too, Carabinier, Fallschijager and Prussians amongst the eclectic list of 'to-dos'!
Have a good holiday and Merry Christmas to you and yours.
Cheers,
Doc
Yeah that does sound like an impressive brigade, Maybe Perry miniatures will bring out some plastic Russian cavalry to help you out with the lifting?
Awe ra best
Paul
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