Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Game Day Set - Saturday June 6th

After discussing schedules and availability of people, figures, the room at the Levee Cafe' and dates of the Street Rod show in Hastings we have set the date and game for Saturday June 6th. We will be playing a series of Koenig Krieg (Old Edition) games between the Sarcastic Alliance and the Thirty-Third and a Third Coalition of Lunacy; throw in great Pasha Beybey for good measure.

Schedule to appear
Freddie the Adequate: Tom Zwirn
The Self-Elector: Jim Fitzgeald
General "Biggie" Johnson: Jeff Johnson
The great Pasha Beybey: Chris Combs

Awaiting Confirmation
MyLord Earl of Garfield: Jeff Knudsen
Freddie's Lefthand Man Count "by Numbers" Zoltov: Joe Zottola
Lt. General Beej von Kursed: Bart Kersteter
The Lt. General to be named: Joe Knight
Elector Noel the First: Noel Villegas
Duck Jimbo: Jim (whose last name I will learn someday)
The Archduck Jack: Jack Andersen
The Archduck Elliot: Elliot James

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Images of the Guyenne Infantry Regiment

Below are three images of the Guyenne Infantry Regiment showing the four stages (of five) of flocking the base.



The First figure is mounted to a base.
The Second figure has a few tufts of field grass glued to the base. The field grass is supposed to add depth to the viewers perception of the base without becoming a focal point.
The third figure has a light brown ballast glued to the center of the base.
The fourth figure has an outer border of burnt grass flock glued to the base.



The fifth stage, not shown, will be dull coating the entire figure. Because I am using dull coat I tend to use brighter colors because the dull coat "dulls" them out and especially the ground work gets much darker.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Images of Quebec Militia

A picture of the first company of the Quebec Militia for the French and Indian War, circa the Plains of Abraham - 1759


Weekend Projects

I plan on working on the following projects this weekend:
  • 25mm French and Indian War - Canadian Militia
  • 25mm French and Indian War - Langdoc Infantry Regiment
  • 25mm French and Indian War - Guyenne Infantry Regiment
  • 25mm American Civil War - 2nd Wisconsin
  • 25mm American Civil War - 84th New York (20th New York Militia)

    All figures just need to be based and seal coated.

  • I have decided to be a little more fancy with my basing technics for these figures. After mounting the figures I am going to attach some clumps of "Field Grass", glue a light brown ballast to the center of the base, and than use a burnt grass border around the figures. All this extra effort I hope will show off the detail of the figures.

    Saturday, March 21, 2009

    ACW Figures in search of a Project - Follow Up

    Over the past couple of days I have heard from a number of people on the subject of 25mm ACW.
    On an aside I also learned why I get so much private email off my blogs and not as many comments as I’d like, so well I learned something it’s time to get back to gaming discussion.

    I think after several discussions that a number of people are in a similar boat to me, they want to do something but you get so far into the project, stop and ask yourself what he frell am I doing.

    Today I played in a game of 15mm ACW game “Rally Round the Flag” and confirmed why I hate the rules so, but that is another topic. But it did provide a good venue to have some discussions with others concerning 25mm gaming.

    In 15mm I have the complete Army of Northern Virginia or damn close at a pretty low scale, 1:30, and for a period I find the battles so boring I don’t want to recreate that. Whether I play “Rally” or “Fields of Honor” or “Guns at Gettysburg” there is no reason to duplicate it.

    So the question becomes what do I want to do?
    The lowest scale is a skirmish game or some other game along those lines. This is actually the lowest number of figures needed and might be the quickest to get something started. In several games players might only need 20 to 30 figures or maybe as many as 60 in another game. The challenge here is how many players can you get involved and when does the game become unplayable. And I guess more importantly what rules would you use? I am not real happy with most of the rules as published and while many are okay none of them are great.
    In talking with players here there really isn’t much interest for gaming at this level. I figure if you showed up with a game you could players to play and maybe a couple of players might paint figures.

    The next level of gaming is small scale actions. Think about detachment and company level actions involving recon, supply, escape or dozens of other options. There are literally thousand of actions on this level during the course of the war and I suppose it holds the most interest to me. The problem here is the rules just don’t exist. Currently in the Twin Cities there are at least two groups attempting to play at this level, one group is playing up, using modified skirmish rules at a brigade level while the other group is playing down, using a modified version of a regimental game.
    I know BJ will suggest TCHAEATD but after talking with other people and checking out the rules I will tell you I am not interested in them. I found a group that tried the rules and I would like to post a quote, anonymously since I haven’t asked if it was okay. “No doubt they [Too Fat Lardies] developed and play tested in 15mm but I doubt they played a game in 25mm with their basing and scales. The game just doesn’t work [in 25mm]. … We are left trying to figure out if we can salvage the game at 25mm.” I will say the rest of the note was not as kind to the rules. I have seen this issue before, my classic example is “Wilderness Wars” where the game works great in 15mm but seems to fall apart in 25mm.

    When we move up the scale from here we really are left with things that we already have in 15mm. Regimental and Brigade Games; which I just don’t want to duplicate.

    So I am left with 150 painted figures and another 600 or so unpainted figures, going what do I do with these.

    Fitz knows where I have been going for the past couple of months, while he has been “supportive” I am not sure he agrees with what seems to be coming down the pike.

    The idea I have bounced around is to take a game system with many of the same principals you find in the ACW from another period and adopt it for ACW. The game I am looking at is “Drums of War along the Mohawk” by Bill Protz.

    Of course a couple people are going to start screaming hypocrite because of my stand against a BAR or similar level game in the Napoleonic period. But I think there is one huge change between the Napoleonic Period and the American Civil War; the size of the Battalion. In the Napoleonic period battalions regularly number 720 men or greater, while a typical regiment/battalion in the 1862/1864 you are looking at 300 to 350 men. Well under 50% strength of the Napoleonic strengths, thus reducing the number of figures by 50%.
    Additionally another interesting sidebar for the period is in the ACW you have just a few formations, Column of Fours (March Column), Line Abreast, an open line and skirmish. The Napoleonic period I can name four formations for a cavalry defense (Square, Battalion Mass, prone, brigade square) without even thinking about it.
    Of course those that want to call me a hypocrite I understand.

    Well enough rambling for now.

    Wednesday, March 18, 2009

    ACW Figures in search of a Project

    For those that know me it is no surprise that I own a hundred or so painted 25mm ACW figures and have another seven hundred or so unpainted figures.

    Over the years I have listened to dozens of proposals on what to do with these figures. A couple of times I was excited enough to claim I was ready to roll. But alas the figures are still unmounted and no game system been chosen.

    The problem started five years ago when I was offered a large number of Old Glory 25 ACW figures at a large discount. As the ACW is far from my favorite period and I already owned a large number of Confederates in 15mm I Should have said no, but I didn’t. A great deal and I bought 45lbs of unpainted lead.

    To me the problem is more along the lines of I am not really sure what I want to do with these figures. I don’t want to duplicate what I have in 15mm, which is the most of the Army of Northern Virginia at 1:30 but there is little if anything that excites me.

    There are at least four groups in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota playing variants of “Brother against Brother”, a pseudo skirmish level game. While I have a passing interest in BaB, as it is called in many circles, these variants really leave me cold and uninterested. I have thought about basing my figures up and just running a couple of games closer to the rules as published than the other groups but I am not sure I want to deal with that headache.

    There are a couple of groups looking at the British Rules “Guns at Gettysburg” a variant of General de’Brigade. Again I have a passing interest but there are a couple of hurdles to get over: the game is set at 1:20 which creates a scale problem and also requires the game to use a non-traditional ACW base (four figures on base in a 2x2 formation). The game has a nice look but over the years the more I have played GdB and its variants the less impressed I am with the core rules. They just missed something in the core rules I can’t quite put my finger on making my gut rumble as I play.

    There is a group interested in doing “Rally Round the Flag”, an old standby which got lots of playing in the late eighties in 15mm. The problem is the rules are greatly outdated, being written in mid 1970’s and modern research and writings indicate that a number of the rules mechanisms not necessarily as accurate as once thought. There is a new edition of the rules available but they were meet with a lot of no way in heck am I playing those attitude.

    I have suggested playing “Fire and Fury” which when suggested received the least amount of negativity. Here the problem is more along the lines of I really hate the Napoleonic Version of “Fire and Fury” called “Age of Eagles” and suddenly I find myself putting that same dislike into the original game, even though the reasons for my dislike of AoE have nothing to do with BOFF (Basic Original Fire and Fury).

    So I am left with a Hundred Painted Figures and really no clue what I should be doing with them.

    A suggestion that unfortunately has gotten some traction with me lately is writing my own rules and pissing off all the commercially available rules.

    What do you think?

    Monday, March 16, 2009

    Austrian Roll-Call

    I have the following Figures Ready and Painted Today:
  • 1 - Austrian Mounted Officers (3 Figure Base)
  • 5 - Austrian Mounted Officers (2 Figure Base)
  • 8 - Austrian Mounted Officers (1 Figure Base)
  • 48 - Austrian Grenadiers Stands
  • 7 - Austrian Border Infantry Stands (Grenzer) - 1 Battalion plus command for a Second Batalion
  • 7 - Jaeger Stands
  • 7 - Hungarian Line Infantry Stands (1 Battalion)
  • 40 - Austrian Line Infantry Stands (6 Battalions and 4 loose stands)
  • 17 - Austrian Militia Infantry Stands (3 Battalions)
  • 7 - Austrian Uhlans (2 Figure Stands)
  • 8 - Austrian Chevauxleger (2 Figure Stands)
  • 2 - Austrian 12-pound Artillery Stands
  • 7 - Austrian 6-pound Artillery Stands
  • 1 - Austrian Light Howitzer Stand

    I really don't have a whole lot of unpainted Austrians left laying around. I have roughly (subject to change)
  • 24 Austrian Militia Infantry Stands
  • 24 Austrian Line Infantry Stands - pre-1809 Uniform
  • 36 Austrian Artillery Stands (Short cannons)
  • 20 Austrian Dragoons/Chevauxleger stands - short command figures (2 Figures)
  • Weekend Painting Projects

    I spent the weekend at my in-laws which meant I had some quality time with figures and paint. My in-laws leave an hour from no-where and other than visiting family and friends there isn’t anything else to do, so to keep out of trouble yelling “Packers Suck” in the local bars I paint figures.

    This weekend I worked on 25mm Napoleonic Figures, specifically Austrian Figures.

    I finished up the Austrian 33rd Infantry Regiment, or Infantry Regiment Graf von Colloredo-Mannsfeld if you prefer, a Hungarian Infantry Regiment in Dark Blue cuffs. I don’t remember why I choose this regiment years ago to paint I am guessing because it routinely was attached to the Reserve Corps over the years. However I finished up the last few figures I own and will probably pick up a few more to truly complete both Battalions at 1:30.
    The Figures turned out pretty well, other than the Dark Blue Cuffs look black from more than 6-inches away. I have historically chosen a lighter blue for situations like this but I just went with the more correct color this time.

    The other figures to get paint were Austrian Artillery, I completed three batteries or six stands. This includes two stands of 12-pound Artillery, three stands of 6-pound artillery and one stand of a small howitzer.
    I am not sure why the Artillery took so long to paint, I only had 18 figures but it took a lot of time on Saturday and I am not the most happy person in how they turned out. For such a well sculpted figures (Foundry) they detail was all lost in the painting. I blame the painter, what that’s me.

    I really should focus on the Austrian Cavalry since that is what we are indeed short, but I have such a hard time getting excited about painting something so pointless on the tabletop as 25mm Cavalry. At 1:30 we just don’t have enough space to put out too much more cavalry than we already have and since people don’t want to play Napoleon’s Battles I can’t get excited about painting the Heavy Cavalry.
    I have about 45 Austrian Dragoon’s half painted, I suppose about six to eight hours worth of work left to complete those figures with a game coming in April maybe that enough incentive.

    Wednesday, March 11, 2009

    25mm Napoleon's Battles

    I have been asked to post some more commentary on my views on using 25mm Napoleon's Battles.

    Number of Figures per player
    In my opinion regardless of the game system most commands look alike or are at least incredibly similar.

    Using 1:30 as a scale a typical French command will contain 4 to 6 battalions of Infantry and one Artillery Battery.
    Using 1:120 a typical French Command in Napoleon’s Battles will contain 4 Infantry Brigades, a couple of artillery batteries, and some Cavalry.

    “Well sounds like you need more figures for Napoleon’s Battles.” Yes your typical starting command needs 7 to 8 stands of cavalry and a couple extra mounted commanders. The difference is that with brigade level game players are going to want to add flavor, our first discussion with potential players has already asked “Where’s my cavalry?” And after a few games we see people pushing two brigades (aka a division) in our brigade level games. Typically we have three brigades of infantry and one brigade of cavalry pushed by two players.

    Using Napoleon’s Battle in 25mm in my opinion should see players use “less” figures and it is more inline with what people want to push.

    Table Space
    When you play a game in most Brigade Level games depth and width of the table is important. Depth of the table is important because of the Range of Musket and Cannon Fire. In General de’Brigade for example artillery range is 36” to 48” inches. Thus giving 18” inches setup the table depth needs to be about 7 feet.
    In Napoleon’s Battle depth is less important as Artillery range is 24”, thus a table depth of 5 feet is needed.
    When you look at the tables we have to play on in regular basis it would be easier to play Napoleon Battles than say General de Brigade.

    Regardless of the rules choose table width will be an issue. Players will need four feet of linear table space each regardless of the rules.

    Figure Showcase
    So you want to show case your obscure little unit in miniature. Using Napoleon Battles you get to show case more units but few figures per unit. Six of one, half a dozen of other….

    Let the flaming begin.

    Tuesday, March 10, 2009

    Centurion's Schedule

    March 21st - 15mm ACW using Rally Round the Flag. Tom Zwirn will be presenting this venerable game from the past.

    April 4th - 15mm SYW using Koenig Krieg. Will FdA finally be able to bring the wiley Imperial commanders to battle? Rumors of Gallian troops approaching and a new subcommander for Milord Garfield abound…

    April 18th - 25mm Napoleonics. Yes folks, it’s the 200th anniversary of Jeff J.’s favorite campaign. Come on down for an old-fashioned Austrian slugfest.

    May 2nd - TBD

    May 16th - 15mm SYW using Koenig Krieg at the Levee Cafe in Hastings.

    Horse Musket and Gun - update

    Sometimes all it takes is walking away from something for a short period of time to figure out how to correct something.

    The New Turn Sequence
    -Initiative Phase

    Cycle A
    -Bombardment
    -Compulsory Movement Side A
    -Compulsory Movement Side B
    -Charging Movement Side A
    -Charging Movement Side B
    -Basic Movement Side A
    -Basic Movement Side B
    -Command and Control Side A
    -Command and Control Side B

    Reactions
    -Stationary Infantry Fire
    -Stationary Artillery Fire
    -Moving Infantry Fire
    -Moving Artillery Fire
    -Close to Combat
    --Emergency Formations
    --Morale Defender
    --Morale Attacker
    --Move Defender*
    --Move Attacker*
    --Melee Combat
    --Combat Morale

    Cycle B
    -Bombardment
    -Compulsory Movement Side B
    -Compulsory Movement Side A
    -Charging Movement Side B
    -Charging Movement Side A
    -Basic Movement Side B
    -Basic Movement Side A
    -Command and Control Side B
    -Command and Control Side A
    End Cycle B

    Reactions

    Cycle C
    -Bombardment
    -Compulsory Movement Side A
    -Compulsory Movement Side B
    -Charging Movement Side A
    -Charging Movement Side B
    -Basic Movement Side A
    -Basic Movement Side B
    -Command and Control Side A
    -Command and Control Side B
    End Cycle C

    Reactions


    Yes the system looks a lot like the Seventh Edition version, however there is a small change.
    The way Morale works.
    In the previous versions Morale occured only in a single phase (the end of reactions) now Morale can occur can occur anywhere.

    Units are limited to one Morale check per phase and check morale for two reasons. If you have four Fatigue Markers on your unit at the end of a phase or you have four Fatigue Markers and you wish to do some sort of movement with the unit.

    Units that do not move during any of the three movement phases (Compulsory, Charging and Basic) may remove 1 Fatigue marker from the unit.

    April 18th - "Crisis on the Danube"

    On April 18th the Centurions will be hosting a 25mm Napoleonic Game at the Source to commerate the 200th Aniversary of the "Crisis on the Danube".

    The Battles of Thann (Teagun-Hausen) (April 19), Ratisobon (April 19-23), Abensberg (April 20), Eckmuhl (April 21-22), and Landshut (April 21), or "The 4 Days in April" Campaign. I suppose we would also include Ebersberg (May 3) in the Mix.

    I am tempted to use the revised version of Horse Musket and Gun for the Game, but will fall back to Napoleonic Commander.

    Okay in reality i would like to do Napoleon's Battles, but I figure that will get shot down in heart beat; so I'll just go with a lower level game.

    Monday, March 9, 2009

    Napoleonic Skirmish - revisted.

    Over the past week and a half I have had a number of continuing conversations concerning Napoleonic Skirmish, specifically 25mm Skirmish; and I feel that I should take a few more minutes and attempt to clarify my positions.

    If you are interested in Napoleonic Skirmish, great I look forward to seeing all your figures painted and see how your game is played. Please don’t ask me to rebase my figures so *I* can run a game that you are interested in. This is your project not mine. I’ll probably play a game or two but I do not currently plan on painting anything up or running any games.

    If you ask me for my opinion on your project don’t be shocked when I give you *MY* opinion. I don’t think I have ever sugar coated anything in my life (except maybe some cereal) and I am not about to start now.

    Many suggestions that I have heard *AREN’T* skirmish in my mind. Just because you singly mount a few figures doesn’t make it a skirmish game. In a skirmish game you control each figure individually and each figure can do a unique action during the course of a turn. Many games require your units to operate in unison, all move, all fire, all reload, and so on and so forth; how is that skirmish? Other games your fire factor is figured by the number of figures so it is pointless to shoot single figures.

    Other games are designed for you to put so many figures on the table that there is no way you could operate it as a skirmish game and actually get anything done.

    Other suggestions that I have heard involve the concept of a “heroic skirmish” game. You know the games where your unit of 10 figures of Sharpe’s Rifles take on 250 Spaniards and win easily.
    The best response I have heard to this is the fable of the sandwich.

    Two brothers watch their mother make a delicious sandwich. The first
    brother asks their mother if she is making a second sandwich and she tells them
    no you have to share. So she hands the first brother a knife and tells him
    to cut the sandwich in half. He is greedy so he makes on half larger than
    the other half. Than the mother turns to the second brother and tells him
    he can choose which half of the sandwich he wants.


    This is the issue I see in this suggestion. One player only wants to paint up a dozen figures while expecting the other partner in the game to paint up several dozen figures just so they can lose on a regular basis. How is this fun for the other player?
    Now I understand that in some cases an individual is such an avid painter that painting up 100 figures is nothing so they paint up the entire project and chose to always play Sharpe’s Rifles. But what happens when another player show’s up with his “Sharpe’s Rifles” how will that work?

    Several people have suggested using a skirmish game to use figures they are painting for a battalion level game. IE As they paint up figures for BAR-Napoleonic use those figures for a skirmish game. Sounds good, but I have several questions:
    BAR Napoleonics, at 1:10, is going to require 72 figure French Battalions and 144 figure Austrian Battalions which is well just a little large for most people. Why not play at 1:30 where many people are already playing in the twin cities. The games are more manageable and still have the massive formation look. Plus you don’t need a gym floor to refight a small engagement.
    Second at 1:30 you need 120 to 150 figures for a brigade (small command at Battalion Level) compared to 120 (plus) figures to play a skirmish game (the ones that many people suggest anyways) so ummm you have already painted up virtually everything you need to play a battalion level game we are already playing. How is this using your figures sooner?

    Another issue that anyone who wants to take on this type of project is how do you get people excited about it? Most of the people I have heard from are looking for a partner in crime so to speak. The issue is their vision is such that they don’t match up with other people vision. (Mass Skirmish vs Heroic Skirmish vs Early vs late vs pass through project vs…..)
    As I have stated this is not a project that is going to excite the masses no matter how you paint it. This is a project that one maybe two people are going to have to do and hopefully get four or five others to play. I am willing to play a game or two, but I am not at the moment willing to paint up units for historical Napoleonic Skirmish.

    Now as I have repeated stated one of the interesting options that many of the historical players often over look and shake off, flintloque.

    Flintloque has several nice advantages to it:
    It isn’t historical, no arguments over what is or isn’t historical in the game, it is all Fantasy.
    To me it is the it is the most playable “skirmish” set of rules out there. Players command smaller units (up to 50) figures but more likely 25 figures, a much more playable level.
    The figures all have actions, unique actions and each figure acts independently of other functions. This figure is taking an aimed shot, these two figures are firing down range, this figure is moving over here and firing and these figures are running towards cover.
    You don’t even have to play with fantasy figures, you could substitute historical figures and play without elves, orks, and other fantasy creatures and still have a more playable game than most of the historical written rules.
    Heck I might be convinced to paint up a unit of Ferach Elves for the game, maybe two.
    That is not to say I wouldn't make a couple of small changes to the rules, like changing the ranges from Metric to English measurements, and stuff like that to make it easier for the masses to play here int eh Twin Cities.

    Monday, March 2, 2009

    Why do we "DO" Napoleon's Battles at the Levee Cafe Games

    It is one of the few periods that we have enough figures for that I can easily organize and we have enough interest in players to actually play a big game.

    There are two or three other options on that we could do today, Fitz and I also own enough figures to run a “massive” Clan War game and a largish American War of Independence game, but I doubt Fantasy Japanese Mythos would attract a large enough crowd to be worthwhile, and interest in the AWI period is lagging locally and without other players figures (Tom Zwirn most notably) we are stuck at maybe a 12 player game.

    Besides those games if we aren’t there yet with the number of figures needed to run Koenig Krieg we are darn close, but again there is a huge dependence on Tom Zwirn to provide most of the Prussian Side.

    We also are probably close or getting close to number of figures needed for American Civil War
    but everyone appears to be painting Confederates. Um Guys we need UNION forces. We have several thousand Confederate stands already painted, but Union maybe a couple hundred at most.

    There was some discussion on a Field of Glory themed campaign or tournament set int eh Punic Wars. While no one has a completed army at the moment several of us are within spitting distance (dozen stands here, fitz needs one or tow stands). But I am left "cold" by the concept of a tournament no really my cup of tea.

    Another option would be 15mm Spearhead, but again I doubt we could get enough interest to make such a game worthwhile. However I will be able to do the entire Bridge to Far Scenario in the very near future.

    Levee Cafe' Game Followup - Part 2

    Here are a few random or at least somewhat random things about the scenario we played at the Levee Café and my opinions on the topics:

    I have/had attempted to keep the issue that George had scheduled Recon on the same day as minor or back burner issue. However as much grief as I caught about it I will be much more “open” about it this time. We scheduled our date for this game about a month before George scheduled Recon however too many people believe it was the other way around. Fitz has been an adamant about stepping on this as soon as he sees/hears it, I know think that is what I must do.

    I had personally kept the much of the scenario under wraps as I didn’t want one side or the other to have any advantage outside of the historical context of the Scenario. I think that was a great plus, the game turned out very much like I had anticipated, the allies would try two different approaches to the virtually the same situation (concentrate on one board in one side and spilt forces on the other to fight on two boards.) The French would begin by being cautious and continue feeding corps into two of the boards.
    In the context of the overall Campaign/Scenario they chose to do what Napoleon decided against doing, Napoleon fell back towards Leipzig and concentrate his Army. The result however was much the same, the French basically one the battles but lost the war and would be forced to retire taking the same amount of casualties just in a different series of battles.

    I wish I would have given the players more options to move (more arrows and intermediary boxes) as it would have greatly increased the challenge for both sides overall.

    Marching on to the boards was a challenge; of course my decision on how it would work was implemented 18 different ways from Tuesday. I obviously need to be much clearer. I had to laugh because I knew Jim who was so focused on the words “march column” would be the most vocal about the ‘rules changing’ during the course of the day and I told a couple people early on I would hear about it later in the day. I tried an approach I thought would get the least amount of abuse, of course I was wrong.
    In the next game I already have a plan for a different approach; one I think will get a better result. Now to just to be clearer in explaining how it works.

    The Scenario was designed for 18 to 24 players, we had approximately 36 players indicate they would be in attendance, so I figured cutting that number in half was a safe bet. We ended up with 14 players, while it was playable, it would have been a lot faster with even two more players four additional players would be even more bonus.

    I got too caught up in the number of players telling me they planned on attending, so I kept expanding the scenario and making plans for what happens if everyone shows up. Thus instead on concentrating on the things I should have I was working on other things. Russian Light Cavalry anyone, oh we have 20 stands too many.

    For some reason I thought we had a lot more “regular” French available than we did, otherwise I would have flocked up more bases, not that would have helped the other problems in the order of battle, but at least there should have been fewer unpainted stands.
    I will be adding a few more Saxon and Italians to my forces over the next few weeks, but we need to get other German states and French Allies represented, Berg, Danes, Hamburg, Westphalia, Neapolitan, and of course Swedes for Allies side as well.
    I am in talks with Jack Ladd to see how much it will cost me to get a Bavarian Army painted, I own the figures, but just like my 12,000 other unpainted figures I need to get them done and having an outside painter do it might be the fastest and only guaranteed way to get it done.

    I did a lot of hinting to players about things on Saturday, next time there will be less hinting and more “Here is exactly what I think.” While I purposely avoid stopping people from mistakes (make the mistake, learn from it and move on is my attitude) in several instances it would have helped move the scenario along. And that goes for both sides.

    Levee Cafe' Game Followup - Part 1

    To begin with I would like to thank the people who made this great weekend possible, our spouses and significant others. With so many of us married and with children the fact that our significant others have had to spend so much additional time being the good parents to allow us to attend our “geekfest”. Without their support none of us get to come out and game.
    Many thanks are also in order for those that provided figures (Fitz, Joe K., Trevor, BJ, Dave, Mark, and whoever else I may have forgotten), the Terrain (St. Paul Irregulars) and Levee Café for putting up with a group of geeks.
    Finally I would like to thank everyone who participated in last Saturday’s 1813 Campaign Game at the Levee Café, hearing nothing but good things we already have a tentative plan for the next game at the Levee Café. Gaming to me is a social event and it is almost just as important to have people push figures as it is to have people paint figures.

    We had 14 players playing four games on four tables and the possibility of the fifth game on a fifth table. For as complicated as the scenario was it went fairly smoothly, a few tweaks to the system are coming and for those that played if you have any thoughts please let me know.
    For me it was an extremely busy weekend as I had to work overnight on Friday/Saturday to bring a crashed server back on line so I was going on 2 hours of a cat nap Saturday. As good as the games were (both visually and competitively) I had very little problem staying awake once the dice started rolling.

    Overview of the French Vistory:
    And I must say in the end it was a disastrous victory for the French.

    The French stopped the Army of Silesia from crossing at Wartenburg, but at the Cost of 2 Infantry Corps and 2 Cavalry Corps plus un-totaled damage to the first young guard Infantry Corps that was marching on. A third French Infantry Corps was well on its way to getting wrecked. The Army of Silesia lost one Russian Corps and One small Russian Cavalry Corps. The rest of the forces in the Army of Silesia were well bloodied would be able to continue the fight. The slow grind of Prussian Artillery Grand Battery destroyed the French IV Corps and the a second French Corps was getting mauled by the repeated movement forward by the Russian Right Wing. If the Russian Grand battery could have been saved (lucky for the French it was destroyed early) the table would have been a huge meat grinder for the french rather than just a large meat grinder.

    On the Torgau Board (the one ignored by the Allies) two French Corps were tied up just waiting for the Allies to show up.

    On the Dresden Board the Right Wing of the Army of Bohemia captured I and XIV corps a little sooner than historically setup, but the terrain really slowed down the Allies and what Jim was expecting to do in the morning/early afternoon took all day.

    On the Erfurt Battlefield Jack and Trevor were locked in mortal combat. Jack had a great plan and did everything right except roll decent dice coupled with the fact that Trevor rolled his equivalent of his decade quota worth of 10’s in one day. By the end of the day the French were planning to pull from the board, two Corps effected wrecked. I didn’t do the finally count on the allies on that board but I think only one Allied Corps was in the “wrecked” state and another was damaged but would be back in the fight in a few days.

    So while the French won the day it was at an extreme price, 4 Infantry and 2 Cavalry Corps wrecked, 2 Infantry Corps surrendered out of 12 infantry Corps and 5 Cavalry Corps. Not counting the damage to 1 Young Guard Corps. The Allies lost 3 maybe 4 Infantry Corps and 1 small cavalry corps with 1/3 of the Army of Bohemia not engaged.