First Shots from my new Canon!

And no, that's not a spelling mistake! 

Lots to juggle these past few weeks.  I'm off to Vancouver for three weeks home leave starting next Monday, and the amount of things that have to be taken care of before I go would have taxed all of Berthier's powers of organization, let alone mine!  

No time for much painting, but we did have a rollicking game of Black Powder on Sunday, and I was able to try out my new digital camera.  A Canon S95, and I'm really happy with it so far, even though I'm still learning the ropes as to all its features.  It has a great macro function, and I also bought a tripod to go with it so hopefully I can pull my cellphone camera into reserve, and post better pictures.  

For this game, though, I simply made use of the zoom function for close ups, and didn't play around much with the white balance. Still, I was very happy with the way they turned out, especially given the generally crappy lighting on the day of the game.

Here are a whole bunch of them, to make up for a lack of recent posts.  Click on any picture to enlarge.

Rod made some great disorder markers, using printed out paper flags and toothpicks.  They really added to the game.

Johnny Crapaud et cie. arrayed in serried ranks.  Rodney and Matt were the Allies, Achilleas and myself were the French.  You can see Achilleas' version of events here, although I wouldn't put it past him to "doctor" the reports to deflect some of the emperors' wrath when he finds out the butchers' bill!

 

 General Tallon harangues his staff.

Position of Shame on the left flank, my unfinished cavalry.  Units that are not fully painted receive a morale penalty in our games.  That way we get the numbers we need, but also have an incentive to get them painted!

The Allies consisted of British, Brunswickers, and Russians.  My formidable horse artillery licorne is now joined by a battalion of infantry as well.

Achilleas did a great job on his first unit of Russkis.  Of course, the Church Militant (eastern branch) was there in support.

 GdB Bouillon-Cantinat sends his command forward.

Achilleas laughing maniacally at the sight of the imposing Gallic Horde.  Matt, as usual, lounges unimpressed at the notion of even more potential fodder for the prison hulks.

Matt's British.  He recently increased the size of his units, and they look very nice indeed.

En avant!! Sound the "old trousers"!

This is one of Achilleas' nicest units.  Perry metals, here going off on their merry own way after another one of Gen. Tallon's trademark command blunders.

Gen. Tallon has always been a very aggressive cavalry commander, and this game was no exception.  In fact, the rumour among the cavalry is that he really hates their guts.  Here are Achilleas' beautifully painted hussars. in their all-too-brief battlefield debut. 

New unit syndrome, of course, and his Swiss also fell victim again to the cruelty of fate and Brown Bess.

Things heat up!  The scenario was childishly simple.  The side who has the most troops in good order and left on the opponents side of the table by the end of the day wins.  The chateau and the woods created a funnel which didn't help the French, although they considerably outnumbered the allies.

  "Alphonse, do you smell borscht?"

The 28e legere scored well on their command roll, and pushed the 60th Rifles into the woods, passing alongside the Russian licorne battery in the process.

  Puleez, let the Russians fail their next command roll!  Puleeeeeez?!? Pretty please?

No chance, pal: ka-boom!  What goes around in Black Powder, comes around.   This wasn't pretty; seven hits and the unit breaks in a puff of smoke.  Howitzers normally have a minimum range of 6". but the Licorne had a direct fire capability too.  Merde...

Russians and French going toe-to-toe.  We opted to give the Russians an automatic pass on their first break test, as a way of reflecting their legendary tenacity.  This made them a very tough proposition indeed, and the French were repulsed- taking their supports with them!  Grrrr!!!

Clergy and rifles rejoice...

The game ended in a technical French victory, but things were clearly going the Allies' way and had nightfall not come it would have been a real debacle for the French.  So honour was satisfied for both parties, and the game was a real hoot.

As I said I had nothing new painted for the game, but that was in part because I got distracted making putting together plastics!  Warlord Landwehr and Perry French.  During the game Matt gave me a box of Perry Prussians that he had ordered for me in exchange for me giving him a bunch of Baccus 6mm Austrians, part of a stillborn project that I just couldn't get into.  

The Prussians are exquisite, and are a little larger than the French.  Which is fine, as they will go very well with my Landwehr and Front Rank Russians.