Playing the game ( Part 2 )

 

As you remember from my last post Red armies Gatling gun has been captured by those rascals of Blue army , the Naval Brigade charge to recapture it ! Huzza ! 

They take heavy casualties charging in but drive back the enemy and recapture the gun ! Huzza !!

Unfortunately thing deteriorate rapidly, the Blue army Colonial rally and pour a murderous fire into the victorious Sailors who fail their morale test and flee and even the entreatments of the General fails to rally them - Oh dear ! a sad day for old England .

On the right flank things are not going well either, the Red army Colonials (who are counted as 'brittle' ) fail their moral test and flee as well ! . With this is where I decided to draw a veil over the sad proceedings .

Any similarities with Henry Newbolt's "Vitai Lampada" is purely coincidental , here we see Henry feverishly flicking through the rule book to find a way to win the battle . A good game and it was nice to get the 54mm figures back onto the table again .

 

 

Playing the game ( part 1 )

 

The table from the Blue army perspective with their forces converging on the crossroads.

Red army are rather slow to deploy but manage to get a unit onto the wooded hill on their left.

This forces the Blue army to deploy it's Colonial troops to cope with the threat.

The Red army Naval Brigade deploy and bring up their Gatling gun .

At a crucial moment the Gatling gun jams (rolled more 1s than 6s) -

- and is overrun and captured ! , this quite a blow for Red army who had put a lot of faith in this new technology (the Gatling gun being a converted toy pencil sharpener probably helped with the malfunction!?) - too be continued .............

Running repairs and a game set up.

I decided to set a game up using my 54mm figures as they haven't seen action for quite a while. When sorting the figures out for the game I came across this little chap with his head decapitated - I remember thinking "I must repair him" when I last used them - so I got a matchstick and whittled it down and fixed it with a dab of glue - very H.G. Wells like . I have come across several figures I've bought in repaired using this method .

He rejoins the ranks of Army Blue's Colonial contingent. 

Under the steely gaze (well tinny)of their commander General Mouters.

The Army Red force marches past their yet unnamed General - for some reason I've not got around to giving him a name yet ? (suggestions please)

The Field of Battle , Red Army nearest the camera and Army Blue at the far end of the table . Hopefully this game will be played over the coming week.

 

Fruits of the paintbrush .

 

Well after a week of painting I've finally got the Bavarians finished and varnished . The only problem was printing off a flag as my printer didn't want to print , however after fiddling with it (I didn't really know what I was doing) it suddenly started working (I think swearing at it works) .

And here they are in their shinny glory , they are of course 28mm Irregular Miniatures.. Next up for painting are French Turcos - more light blue uniforms. 

Early morning painting.

 

Having gotten out of bed at 6.00 am for work for over 40 years I still have the habit of waking up early . This morning I awoke at a quarter to six and wanted the loo . this woke the cat up who sleeps on the bed who then pestered to be fed , this woke the dog up (who sleeps downstairs) who started whining - so I got up ! Having done the morning crossword and had my breakfast it wasn't even 7 am , so I thought I'll have a look at the next batch of my Irregular FPW . One of the things I find is that playing a game always gets me wanting to paint more of them . These are two units one will be Bavarians and the other either Turcos or Zouaves .

I decided on a Bavarian Infantry unit , I like painting Bavarians ! any army that has sky blue uniforms gets my vote. In reality the uniform was probably a darker blue but seeing I've got a new bottle of sky blue paint I'm using it ! Here are the first figures ready for a coat of varnish which will cover up any mistakes in painting . All done before 8am ! a good start to the day - if only I was as motivated in other aspects of my life . .

 

An interesting fact I didn't know ....

I was reading through 'Toy Soldiers' by Simon Clark and came across an article about Britains figures before 1945 being painted in a mixture of Printers Ink rather than Enamel paint ! . A London company called Kents supplied the Printing Ink and it was mixed with a clear varnish, the mixing was done in batches which varied and was then given to the painters  , unfortunately this had a habit of separating and had to be remixed regularly . This gave rise to some of the colour variants you encounter in old figures, an almost matt finish and an translucent finish  was due to insufficient mixing . The different batches which where supplied to the many 'out workers' who painted the figures at home also accounts for the colour variants .

 

The Battle of the Eglise sur la colline (Part3) , The Debacle .

 

The French Vivandiere manages to patch up a casualty , meanwhile on the left ......

The French Artillery open fire on the Prussian Jaegers .

The Uhlans charge into the flank of the French column ! , who fail their test and -

- are scattered and destroyed - Oh dear !

Things are not going well on the other flank as the French Infantry once again fail to rally .

The game is lost for the French with both flanks gone ! . A victory for the Prussians ! 

Think Emile Zola probably sums it up ! . A great game though, which I enjoyed and has got me wanting to paint up some more figures and let the French seek their revenge .

The Battle of the Eglise sur la colline (Part Two) , in which things do not go well for the French

 

The gallant Prussian Artillery Officer has to man the gun single-hand (the dice tell how long it is going to take him to load it)

The Franc tireurs move up to support the Line Infantry.

The Prussia Uhlans charge the French Hussars !

The Cavalry melee !

-does not go well for the French ! 

The surviving Hussars rout off the tabletop without even pausing to consult the rules .

On the other flank things do not go well either , having taken 5 casualties the French fail their moral check and retire one move (hence the dice) will they rally next move ? . To be continued .......

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Where have all my BOTS gone ?

 

Just noticed my last few posts have returned to normal levels of hits/viewings, has Big Brother got tired of my endless ramblings ? , have I broken something - "does not compute ***** bzzzz !" anyway back to the O.S. FPW battle in the next posting . 

The Battle of the Eglise sur la colline.( Part One )

 

The battlefield , the French are entering the table on the right and the Prussians on the left.

The game will last for 10 moves , this is the patient move tracker I've made.

The French gun unlimbers and open fire on the Prussian Uhlans .

The start of move 2 , the Frech Hussars deploy in the center as Prussian forces move up to the church and down the road in the distance.

Prussian Jaegers advance swiftly in skirmish order towards the church .

The Prussian Artillery deploy but are hit by counter battery fire from the French which causes heavy crew casualties . The French got lucky and the Prussians couldn't hit a barn door !.

The leading French Infantry deploy into line and come under fire from the opposing Prussian line.

The Prussians also take casualties - loosing an Officer as well . Too be continued ........

 

Going the full Featherstone !

Having got enough figures painted up for a game I set the table up . One of the problems when playing Old School is the number of individual figures to be moved . Don Featherstone suggests using cardboard templates with a few figures on them for the first few moves till they start shooting or being shot at .

I was thinking on this when I noticed one of my neighbours had a skip in his driveway (some building project I think ?) , Now I can never pass a skip without peering into it for anything useful , there is of course usually rubbish , however in this one I noticed a couple of pieces of wood that might be useful ! . My neighbour said I could have anything I wanted - so I took them home , cut them to size and painted them .

Here we have one in action , when they get near the enemy I will transfer the full unit to the tabletop.

And one being used for a unit of French Hussars . Having got this sorted the battle report will be appearing next .

 

Converting 2D Wofun .

 

I bought a couple of Wofun 28mm French Foot sprue to convert into Danish which were hired by the English Government to supplement the existing forces.They are ideal as they have very plain uniforms and standards.

Here is the Danish Regiment Prince Carl which had yellow facings and stockings . The tricky part was painting the flags .

The rear of the unit , again the flags took the most time - trying to get the shading and folds right .

The finished unit , based and edge shaded ready for action. I have a couple more units to convert in the next week or so.