Wargaming Humour (?) Number 19

Found on the Interweb

O.S. Battle For The Crossroads.(Parte the Seconde).

The French Regt. Orleans deploy into line .

The cavalry clash in the centre of the table .

The Prussian Hussars loose the melee and are dispersed by the Saxon Fri-Korp Hussars .

Allied reinforcements , the Brunswick  Regiment Von Zastrow .

Voltaire gets a good view of the Allied artillery deploying ( apologies for the quality of some of these photos - the sun is shinning brilliantly outside !).

The French artillery deploy and fail to do much damage all the game ! .

The lines close and open fire on each other .

The Saxons suffer heavily from the combined fire of artillery , the Royal Irish and the lead company of the Regt. Von Zastrow , they fail their morale test and retire . Sadly at this point my camera batteries packed in and I could not record the last couple of moves . On move eight the Allies held the crossroads and so won the scenario I had set, although the French Regt. Orleans had not opened fire yet . Battles of the Ancient Regimes has two ground/game scales - I used the shorter one , perhaps if I had used the larger the units would have got into combat sooner and in eight moves the battle would have been more conclusive . I like the card activation for solo play and the rules are not complicated which helps keep the game flowing .

O.S. Battle For The Crossroads.(Parte the First)

Whilst I was on holiday I re-read "Charge" by Brig. P. Young , so on my return I was smitten with the need to do some Old School goodness ! . I decided on a small game using my 40mm home casts and Battles of the Ancient Regime for the rules . The object of the game is to secure the important crossroads in eight moves . Here we see the Allied force moving onto the table commanded by the Duke of Cumberland ( Fat Billy) .

The 18th (Royal Irish) Foote are the first infantry onto the table supported by the Schuamburg-Lippe-Buckeberg Artillery and the Prussian Ruesch Hussars .

The French/Saxon force initially has the Leibgrenadiergarde Battalion , Saxon cavalry regiment Frei-Husaren von Schill and a French gun and crew .

The force is commanded by the Herzog Voglemann  , he is an Irregular figure from their 40mm range , one of the few non- home cast figures in my collection.

The battle is being observed by Voltaire assisted by his manservant 'Wee Jocky' , he is taking notes for his  'Histoire de la Guerre Actuelle' ( never published).

The French artillery climbs the ridge to seek a position to open fire , whilst the Hussars and infantry deploy.

The Leibgrenadiergarde dress their lines immaculately - as one would expect ! .

'Fat Billy' and his entourage , he originally came from EBay with a horse that had only three legs and was destined to be melted down - till I noticed he had a passing resemblance to the Duke of Cumberland , so an replacement leg was fashioned (front right , viewed from the front) . Part two to follow ......

An Unexpected Journey .

'A' rang me on Saturday night and said "do you fancy going to the Partizan wargaming show" tomorrow ?

A bit short notice , but as my wife was off with friends dog walking and I was left to clean out the hens and cut the back hedge - 7.30 am  saw us on the road to Newark . Not a bad journey down and our first visit to the new venue - to be met by a queue of games waiting to enter - VERY busy indeed - the traders were impressed by the crowds of punters and their spending power ! .

Its a very spacious and airy location on the Newark Showground a much better venue to the old cramped Kedelston Hall of the past .

One of the main draws of Partizan is the excellent games put on , here is the Perrys Egyptian Napoleonic game.

Impressive ! with lots of their figures but quite simple terrain .

Like the little fort manned by sailors .

It was nice to see the game actually being played using 'Black Powder' rules.

There were lots of 'proffessional' photos being taken , so look out for them appearing in the various gaming magazines in the near future.

A nice SYW game using Clan Tarra miniatures on some 'teddy bear' fur terrain .

I like the idea of the fur - very cleverly dyed and painted.

A 'Darkest Africa' demonstration game.

A Colonial Sudanese game on a very effective plastic mat .

An unusual game between the Japanese and Chindits in the Burma jungle.

You had to peer to see the combatants ! .

The highlight of the show was a Old School game using figures made out of cloths pegs !

It was a French- Indian War game  using some home-made rules.

The figures are made from wooden cloths pegs with muskets made from cocktail sticks and paper hats added to the heads .

They were given a simple paint job using marker pens to colour the figures in and then a coat of gloss varnish.

A demonstration how the figures were made , the horses are cut out of MDF .

A very clever idea indeed ! . I didn't purchase to much (a couple of packs of Samurai and some bases) but there were a good selection of traders who seemed to be busy . The catering was basic and a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of hungry wargamers , a good day out and we have plans to go again next year .

Peter Laing Figures .

A little 'filler' whilst I'm on my hols .

I have a box of old waste figures given to me by my various wargaming ' colleagues' to be melted down to produce home cast figures . Amongst them I found these three 15mm figures and knowing their parentage I saved them and they adorn my painting table .

They are of course Peter Laing Miniatures , Egyptian spearmen I think and probably about forty years old . Though somewhat battered in my opinion  they have a style and presence that many modern 15mm figures don't have.  I wonder what (failed?) project these were destined for ? , can the donor remember  ( Wargaming Colleagues 'A' or 'R' ???)

On Holiday.

No post this week as I'm on holiday ! .

A Battle From The Past.

Have been sorting out some files on my computer and came across this battle , think it's from my old defunct blog so I thought I had better publish it here to save it from oblivion .

'A' had expressed a wish to try out O.S. ACW  I decided to dig out some Spencer Smith ACW figures to play a game .

The layout of the table and objective - Thoroughfare Gap . The game will last 8 moves .

My opponent 'A' scrutinises the rules for loopholes !

The Union forces march onto the table - been playing around with Picassa for period effect !

The Confederate general sights the artillery personally.

The Union forces deploy .

The Union take the Gap under heavy artillery fire ! . The rules seem to be giving a fast paced game - maybe artillery fire needs toning down a bit but will see how the game progresses . 

The Union Zouaves close in and engage the Rebels .

The Confederates charge and engage in a bloody melee .

The Confederates are defeated and flee , with the last move done and night falling it was time to work out who had won !.

As the situation was mixed for both sides I did a head count of casualties and the Confederates had suffered half as many again - so I judged that they had lost and would have to retire . The above photo is the finishing positions of the troops . On the left the Union hold the ridge and have succeeded in causing casualties on the Rebel gun preventing it firing each move . The Confederates hold the road in the centre , on the right the Confederates hold the ridge but are isolated as the survivor's of their flanking regiment stream to the rear and they face off the 2 Union regiments . A close call but the Rebel heavy casualties and the loss of the firepower of their gun just turned it into a victory for the Union forces ! . The rules gave a very fast game , my initial worries about the artillery firepower seemed to even out as the game went on. I would allow both ranks to fire not just the front one as my figures are based and Donald Featherstone's were not and they would take up to much room in a single line  . I don't want to mess to much with the rules and so will give them another game or two to try them out .