Wargaming in Minnesota

An Extra Figure

2011-10-16T22:20:00.002-05:00

So in the middle of painting Austrian and French Artillerists I took a 8 minute break to paint a Clan War figure I had laying around.

Not kidding eight minute paint job. It took longer to get the ballast on the base than it did to paint the figure.

Looking Ahead to 2012

2011-10-15T23:31:00.005-05:00

As October 15th comes to a close I am looking ahead to next year. Gaming wise this year has been a disaster to say the least with a total lack of time and ability to push lead minimized by the personal issues that have haunted my footsteps. But the end of a number of issues is in sight, there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel and it doesn't appear to be an oncoming train. So yes I have thought about my projects for next year.

I will be running two games at Con of the North and partcipating in a couple of others. The first game is a 25mm Brother against Brother Scenario for my 1861 (Early War) collection of figures I am painting up. The second game is a 25mm Horse Musket and Gun scenario featuring my French and Austrian Collection in one of the lesser know battles of the 100 Days Campaign, la Suffel. So I am busily painting up figures for both of those games. In addition I am working on adding enough terrain to make those an interesting as possible and still be playable. No Roman Hedges in my future.

My next project is my 1862 Battles on the Peninsula game I am looking to run, hopefully at a spring ReCon. I am working slowly on figures for that as well. My plan is to use the ACW variant of Rank and File, but if Horse Musket and Gun works I may just stick with that in effort to not teach people too many rule sets.

Speaking of Horse Musket and Gun I plan on doing far more work on that over the winter. Many discussions with Kelley and what's left of the group in Stuttgart really made me reconsider how some of the mechanics are working. The result of these email exchanges have lead me to consider making two rule sets rather than one. The First Rule Set is for Mass Battles the second is more of smaller skirmish (small action not 1 to 1) game. I have been trying to combine the two into one game and honestly I think that has been my problem.

With that in mind I am going to attempt and run what I hope will be a large 25mm Napoleonics game on Saturday June 16th. My goal is to have a table 30 to 40 feet long and 3 five foot wide sections as the field of battle. That is a lot of space, the question is do we have enough figures and more importantly enough players to make it worth while.

On the figure side of that question, I have just shy of a Corps of French Infantry, light Artillery, Command and Cavalry. I will be adding 6 more battalions of painted French from the Old Glory Painted, leaving me short six battalions of Legere for a French Corps and a Division from the Second Corps. Artillery well I am going to have to bite the bullet and buy some more figures, probably a mix of War Games Foundry and Old Glory 1st Edition. Legere however is a tough question, I wouldn't mine some of the Plastics, but man are the poses hideous. In the Vitrix I figure I would be throwing out 1/3 of the figures.

I also have a division of Minor and by Minor I mean minor, French Allied. You got to love the minor Confederation of the Rhine states. With them and the other figures I am planning on buying that should give me two full French Corps. Fitz has a Division of French, short Artillery. Keith and Violence both have a Brigade of Bavarians. Joel Gregory has a French Corps.

On the Allied Side I have a workable Austrian Corps. Fitz has a Russian Corps, short Artillery, Joel Gregory has two Prussian Brigades and a mix of Austrians.

Jim has informed me he has 300 to 400 unpainted Prussians, BJ and Ray have decided to paint Russians and I have way to much unpainted and half-painted lead.

So if we get everyone to show up it could be well worth while game. Especially as a couple of other players hem and haw about participating.

I am also painting up a good deal of Austrians and Swedes for the Era of the War of Austrian Succession. Yeah I know Swedes foe the Hat's War, I love punishment. I have a good Start on an Austrian Brigade and Swedish Battalion. I am hoping to try a game of BaR by the end of next year. As a continuation of this I have a French Brigade and a British Brigade technically for the F&IW but who's counting.

I am really taking a long hard look at my AWI collection and wondering what to do with it, as the Wilderness Wars Rule seem to be too fundamentally flawed to continue with and I have way to many figures painted. Maybe a BaR variant?

Well off to bed, after listing a small sample of what i will be working on for 2012, and I am already looking at 2013 with reverence and awe, as the 200, 150, and 70th anniversaries. I see Gettysburg, Leipzig and North Africa in my future.

The Plan for November

2011-10-10T09:55:00.003-05:00

As I continue to concentrate on 25mm figures I have decided I need a plan or at least a theme for each month in an effort to convince me to paint more figures.

For November it is 25mm Napoleonic Artillerists. Or maybe Artillerists in General, but for now Napoleonic Artillerists.

On the Napoleonic Front I have about 100 Austrian Artillerists and 24 French Artillerists laying around waiting for paint. Obviously I don't need 100 Austrians but a good 40 wouldn't hurt. I am going to have to pick up some additional French Artillerists, but I guy has to do what a guy has to do. For the Seven years war I have about 30 Prussian and 30 Austrian Artillerists

Maybe I can convince my friends they two need artillerists painted and November is the month for it.

Accomplishments for the Weekend - Part 2

2011-10-09T15:29:00.003-05:00

My second project for the weekend was to paint the remaining 9 of 10 Swedish Jager's in Schwarter's Company for the Seven Year's War.

Again an easy figure to paint, starting with a black primer, Snot Green for the pants, shirts,and jackets, White, burnt umber for the undercoat of the faces, bestial brown for the muskets, snakebite brown for the leather, a couple of flesh colors, bleached bown for the gloves, gun metal, and brass highlights. In all each figure took about 10 to paint once the Snot Green was completed.

Accomplishments for the Weekend - Part 1

2011-10-09T14:50:00.006-05:00

I almost completed my son's new Tau Empire Fire Team. Eight of twelve Tau and both drones completed.

The figures were extremely easy to paint, while not Games Workshop magazine quality, it still a very acceptable finish.

I started with a black primer, used Africa Brown for the hoofs, Brunt Sienna for the lower legs, than used vermin brown to highlight the skin, leather suit (nor sure what it actually is.) I then used Vomit Brown for the Armor and Weapons. Followed by highlights of Brass and Red. With some Bleached Bone for the straps and unit markings.

For the Tau Skin it was a fairly simple procedure. I started out with a slightly waterred down Shadow grey over the black primer. I than dry brushed on a 50/50 mix of space wolf Grey and and water. That's it.

The figures look well together as a goup and pretty sharp singally.

Some Bad Pictures

2011-10-05T23:38:00.008-05:00

The first is a picture of Schwarter's Company of Light Infantry from the Swedish Army in the Seven Year's War Era.

The Second Picture is Swedish Artillery, Light Artillery Battery of two Cannons, from the era of the War of Austrian Succession until the Seven Years War.

The third is 12 of 16 figures (need more bases ) of the Liv Company of the Narke-Varmlands Infantry Regiment for the Era around the War of Austrian Succession. They wore red pants during the Seven Years War.

Yes someday I will figure out how to take pictures of figures, obviousily not today, but someday.

Tau Empire

2011-10-05T23:28:00.005-05:00

Gunther has asked if he can play Warhammer 40K, well more exactly he has asked to play that cool looking game with guys in space suits (Space Marines) that has Monsters (Chaos) and Aliens (Tyranids) that the boys were playing with at the Source. I should add tha most of the figures were just primed and not painted.

So we spent a few hours looking over the website and looking at boxs and Gunther has decided on an army from the Tau. Not wanting to be another guy with half painted or only primed army I decided to buy the figures one set at a time and only after that set gets painted will i get another set.

The first set was a Tau Fire Team, which includes 12 Troopers and 2 Drones. I have completed the first 2 troopers and one drone this evening. I have the second drone primed and still have to assemble the other 10 troopers.

Swedish BAR

2011-10-03T22:55:00.004-05:00

Yeah Yeah I know I am supposed to be Austrians, while I am painting those too.

I completed the LivCompany (16 Figures) for the Swedish Regiment Narke-Varmlands in 25mm for our BAR 1741 project. In addition I completed 4 of the 8 Figures for the Command Section, and the 8 Artillerists and 2 Cannons, plus the Regimental Officer and Brigade Commander.

For Narke-Varmlands this leaves 4 Figures for Command and 32 Figures for the Second Two Companies.

I also got all the Figures for the Dalarnas Reigment (2 Battalions) which is the mate Regiment in the Brigade. Plus just because I own the Figures every mad jack of the Swedish Jagers will be covered as well.

On the Austrian Front I completed the First Company of the Carl Lothringen Regiment only 120 more to go for them.

25mm French and Indian War

2011-07-15T11:19:00.003-05:00

Over the past week I have painted up some more figures for the French and Indian War (Seven Years War in North America) that have been sitting on my painting table way to long.

I completed the 10 British Artillerists and 2 Cannons, 20 British Independent Company Soldiers, and am getting started on some more figures for the French La Sarre and Guyenee Infantry Regiments and the Command for my Compagnies franches de la marine. I think most of the those figures have spent the better part of two years on my painting table. All toll it is 76 figures, most of which are at least half-painted. I'll just say cross-belts and be done with it.

Looking in the British box I see another 20 Rangers in the half-painted stage plus a full Regiment of Foot plus the Royal Americans in Hunting Shirts,that are at least half-painted. The French box is even worse with three battalions of figures painted white many with the black bits already painted.

I have to get out of the habit of starting one project and jumping to the next, very very bad habit.

25mm Guals

2011-05-28T15:53:00.003-05:00

Okay, I know a project flop for the weekend, however I pulled out my 25mm Guals for the annual I should really do something with these figures weekend. I have Caesarian Romans to, however I haven't really done anything with them either since they got painted up fo the release of Warhammer Ancient Battles. And this year I actually did do something with them, can you say painted cross belts or the gallic equivalent anyways.

I finished the 32 Gaeseti Mercenaries for playing in the Punic Wars period, plus 48 Swiss - Heleveti Tribe - warriors for 16 stands, got a good start on 16 Javelinmen and 16 slingers for all of those figures I will ever need.

Somewhere I have the Chariots done for the period, will have to get some cavalry for the Caesarian period.

15mm Napoleonic Figures

2011-05-22T11:47:00.002-05:00

On Saturday Tom Zwirn handed me a box of 15mm Napoleonic figures that he painted for me, included were 100 Austrian Landwehr, Charles Legion (Prague Students and Mahrisch's Battalion) and Viennese Volunteers and 50 French Young Guard and 16 Sailors of the Guard.

Always nice to get more painted figures in the collection, wish there was more interest in the period.

Completed 2 Sections of Confederate Artillery for Brother Against Brother

2011-05-18T00:58:00.001-05:00

While it isn't a huge under taking I completed two sections of Washington's Louisiana Light Artillery for Brother Against Brother. This includes 11 Artillerists (1 Officer and 2 NCOs and 8 Privates) and 2 Union 12# Napoleonic Guns.

I purchased a bag of Union 12# Napoleonic Guns and if the project gets large enough will pick up a confederate 12# Napoleonic Gun Bag I just can't justify $35 ($21) to get two guns and let the other four just sit there for now. Considering most people can't tell the guns and limbers apart I am okay with it for now.

Next on to completing the 20 Louisiana Tigers I have started plus some more terrain.

June 25th - ACW my place

2011-05-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

My wife (future ex-wife) and Son will be out of town the weekend of June 25th and 26th, leaving me to my own devices. Seems like a perfect oppertunity to get in some extra, wait considering how little I game lately ANY, gaming in. I am really not in the mood to game in public, I might be a bit too high strung and ready to go ballastic on too many people to endure a ReCON!.

My Goal is to put on a smallish game of Brother Against Brother putting on about 6 squads a side plus some artillery.

I have been working on finishing up some 25mm Terrian, have a plan for some Corn Rows, and maybe break down and get some other road sections done. I hope to purchase a building from JR Miniatures and maybe a barn, however I am committing to get a lot of stuff painted between now and then.

If I can't get stuff painted will fall back on a 15mm Game either Rally, Fields of Honor, or Fire and Fury, there are enough of those figures floating around.

1862 Project Google Document

2011-05-11T11:04:00.001-05:00

The following Google Spreadsheet is openly viewable for those people that want to follow this link.

Brother against Brother

2011-05-02T10:19:00.002-05:00

Years ago I purchased a number of 25mm ACW figures for a couple of projects, the first was attempting to do 25mm Mass Combat (cough Gettysburg Campaign cough). I have/had a fairly substantial collection of 15mm figures, mostly Confederate Troops that were supposed to be for a number of failed campaigns. Right now I think I have at least 75% of the Army of Northern Virgina, short Artillery and some of the Specialized Figures at 1 stand = 100 men and 1 gun = 1/2 battery.

Lately I have been painting up the 25mm figures which have been in a box unpainted for at least eight years. The Union I Corps at 1 stand = 50 Men painted at paper strength is coming along, with four Regiments of thirteen Regiments completed. There are another two regiments in the works on the painting table. For the Confederates I have been working on Heth's Division of with two regiments painted and one more on the painting table. So now that I am getting to a point where I will be able to demonstrate the game and attempt to get other interested in painted time to look at some other figures.

I have 60 Zouaves with Straw Hat that I purchased for a Brother Against Brother (BAB) project that never went anywhere. Like so many other projects I got started in more than a decade ago my partners all disappeared when it came time for the rubber to hit the road.

I think I am going to try and get a some number of figures done for BAB as well. it really won't take many figures to make two playable forces and I have a good start at some terrian. Arguably to make two armies to allow 6 to 12 players a chance to push figures and roll dice I am talking 60 figures a side, give or take a couple.

In talking with Tom Zwirn, who has an interest in doing 1861, an idea sprung into my head over the weekend, 1861 for BAB. Units would be relativily small and there would be a wide variaty of uniform options available.

The Two Forces I plan on painting or Wheat's Tigers and 2nd Rhode Island Infantry Regiment, being the two forces collided at the First Battle of Bull Run it is a fitting grouping.

What is interesting about the Two Units is the detail of the Uniforms that are available for the 1861 Campaign. I personally like the Kentish Guards for the 2nd Rhode Island.

To start with I will be painting 30 to 40 figures in two companies for both sides. Starting with the Tiger Rifles and the Kentish Guards, my goal is to have 40 figures in each of the Companies (four squads of 10) with one Squad being the Color/Guard and three Squads of Troopers. Both Sides will end up with Five Companies, that 200 figes a side, which I think is reasonable.

For the Wheat's Tigers:
Company A - Walker’s Guards – (WBS-41 – Zouaves with Fez)
Red Fex, Blue Tassle, Dark Brown Jacket Red Trim, White Pants with Stripes
Company B - Tiger Rifles – (WBS-42 – Zouaves with Straw Hats)
Straw Hat, Dark Blue Jacket, Red Trim, Grey Pants)
Company C - Catahoula Guerrillas – (WBS-39 – Zouaves with Kepi)
Blue Kepi, Dark Grey Top, Red Trim, White Pants
Company D - Delta Rangers
Red Fez, Red Tassle, Dark Blue Jacket with Red Trim, White Pants with Blue Stripes
Company E – Wheat’s Life Guard
Red Fez, Blue Tassle, Dark Blue Jacket with Red Trim, White Pants with Light Blue Stripes

I don't have all teh details yet on the 2nd Rhode Island, so stay tuned.

Company H - Kentish Guard

ACW 1862 in 2012

2011-05-01T19:45:00.000-05:00

After talking with several people I am going to move forward with the plan for a game in summer of 2012 to commemorate a number of battles fought in 1862, which I am for now call 1862 in the East.   Due to the scale of the game I am considering trying to organize I think a year’s preparation time may be needed.
Tentatively I am basing the concept of the game around the Seven Days’ Battle which was the conclusion of the Peninsula Campaign using Rank and File in 25mm with 1 stand representing 50 men.   The game will be configured for approximately 20 players, 10 players on each side with each player pushing roughly a brigade of troops.
The game is based upon the Peninsula Campaign I will be using troops from a number of Corps which are available so the Order of Battle is not exact.   My figures are organized for the 1863 Gettysburg Campaign, Union I Corps and Confederate 2nd Division III Corps.
Union
4 Brigades (provided by Jeff J)
1 Brigade (provided by Fitz)

Confederate
4 Brigades (provided by Jeff J)

I know several people have figures for the period, both painted and unpainted and have ‘volunteered’ to provide figures, so I am asking people to commit now, even if it is just a Brigade.
If we get beyond 10 brigades per side brigades will be added equally to both sides.

A generic Brigade will consist of 4 Regiments of 5 (or more) stands.   My figures are mounted 3 infantry figures to a 1 ½” square base.   It is not the figures that matter but the bases and as long as the bases are close in size than all is good.
At this Scale an Artillery Stand represents 2 guns, so 3 stands represent one Battery.

The game will be played on either four or five tables.   If only four tables two tables stacked in the center and two single table of each flank are a possibility (depending on location).
Prior to the Game the players will be assigning brigades to each of the tables.   Each Table will have a number of points available varying be sides and the strategic importance. The idea is that players will be doing grand tactical movement and then each table will be fought independently.

24th Michigan part II

2011-05-01T19:32:00.002-05:00

I have completed painting all 30 figures of the 24th Michigan Regiment of the "Iron Brigade" today. For as little time as I spent painting those figures I think they have turned out fairly well. After getting the figures on popsicle sticks I may have spent a grand total of six hours painting them.
Once I figure out how to post images with the iPad I will do so.

Already have the 147the New York Infantry Regiment on popsicle sticks waiting to be primed. I hope to get the painted by next weekend.

24th Michigan

2011-04-24T13:56:00.005-05:00

This weekend I primed up 30 figures Old Glory "Iron Brigade" figures that will become the 24th Michigan Regiment of the Iron Brigade (1st Brigade, 1st Division, I Corps, Army of the Potomac).

I got about half the unit completed, painting 3 figures or 1 stand at a time. Currently my plan is to paint up 10 stands for each unit (unless like the Vermont Boys there were 15 stands) and a 1:2 ratio for Artillery. That ratio should allow me to drop down to 1:100 and 1:200 fairly easily if need be. However for now...

Once I complete the 24th Michigan that gives me the 2nd Wisconsin and the 24th Michigan out of the Iron Brigade and the 14th Brooklyn out of the second brigade complete. I have the figures short command for the 147th New York, and a third unit tbd out of the second brigade. That leaves 3 Regiments out ot the Iron Brigade and 2 Regiments of the 2nd Brigade. To complete the 1st Division. Man that is a lot of figures.

I have 30 of the 36 artillerists and I am pretty sure all the actually artillery pieces.

Painting Plan - Napoleonics

2011-02-14T09:52:00.005-06:00

Well I really need Plans (and Painting Plans) for a number of periods I have made my semi-official not going to change my mind plans for at least another week plans for the Napoleonic period. Historically I have changed plans every time the winds blow. Which has caused me to get like ten tonnes of lead and not whole crap load of that lead is unpainted.

That doesn't mean I don't have a a lot of figures painted, I just don't know what to do with everything anymore, since so many projects died. (I can say the same for a number of periods, but this is the one I have the most lead for.)

Wars of the Second Coalition (1798-1800)

General de Brigade (1:20) in 15mm

Mounting figures for Napoleon's Battle for Infantry and Artillery and 1/2 stands (2x1) for Cavalry.

Alexander Suvorov's Italian and Swiss Expeditions

Please note I am still looking for a partner in crime for this project. Jim is interested but time and figures are limited.

Crisis on the Danube (1809)

Napoleon's Battles (1:120) in 15mm

Mounting figures for Napoleon's Battles with 1/2 Stands for Cavalry

I am painting up the Austrian Army and the French Allied (starting with Bavarians and Saxons followed by the less units of the French Allied.) Will be using my 1815 French Infantry for the French.

I find this probably the most interesting campaign as the Austrians suffered from poor leadership is certian places but good quality troops capable of going toe-t0-toe with the French. For a wargamer a lot of possibilities.

Wars of the Sixth Coalition (1813-1814)

Napoleon's Battles (1:120) in 25mm

This is sort of a lie, units actually will be organized at 1:30 but the math of 1:30 and 1:120 allows us to play either scale. My Goal however is to have this the dominate game (NB) in 25mm for a number of reasons. (Size of the table needed, space requirements, figure requirements...)

The killer in this plan will be the 240 figures of cossacks needed to do something along the size of Leipzig.

I have Austrian and French (plus some minor French Allies), Fitz has British, Russian and French, Joel Gregory has Austrian, Prussian, and French. There are some others with British, a few Russians and some French.

It would be Assume to do Leipzig in 25mm for Napoleon's Battles on October 16-19 in 2013, the 200th Anniversary. But that will take a lot of work and coordination. It is definetaly doable, the more I think about it the more doable I think it is.

100 Days Campaign (1815)

Horse Musket and Gun (1:30) in 15mm

For this I am planning to have the entirety of the campaign painted by 1815. I have Two French Infantry Corps, the Guard Corps, 1 1/2 of the Heavy Cavalry Corps completed. I have the Hanoverian Army Complete and one Division of British Infantry and the Heavy Cavalry Completed. In addition I have all the odd ball units completed. For the Prussians I have most of the Artillery Completed and a good start on all the landwehr. An odd assortment I know, but it happened to be organized around the figures I owned and what we needed for other games.

I am not sure WHY I got dragged into this campaign in the first place, oh yeah I remember a failed Campaign, not really a very interesting campaign but I now own the figures and I am committed.

Other Armies

That leaves two Armies/Figures that I really need to figure out what to do with.

Russian Army 1807-1813. I have a large number of figures both before and after the uniform change.

Austrian Army 1813. A fairly complete force.

I plan on looking at the Austrians for the Invasion of France 1815 in Horse Musket and Gun and what the reorganization would take. The Russians I am leaning towards completing painting and selling them off. I have a goodly number of figures in a variety of paint jobs. But they just aren't going to be any sort of focus for me.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Horse Musket and Gun

2011-02-08T20:43:00.003-06:00

Posted some new files in the Yahoo Group. Man is formatting a pain in the ass.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Horse-MusketandGun/

I will be working on the formatting of the remaining chapters and trying to get them posted in the next couple of days.

The Shattered Ring World

2011-01-05T16:04:00.002-06:00

Years ago, about 25 to be more exact, I started working on a Campaign setting for AD&D group I ran. I wanted something new and different than your typical Greyhawk setting. And I created the Shattered Ring World.
Over the past years I have continued to work on the setting and it has grown matured and now takes up a couple of Composition Style Note Books. I can’t say that I have used the setting much since my last campaign in the Mid 90’s which is now 15 years ago. But I kept adding notes and other thoughts.
It been suggested more than once that I formalize the work and work towards maybe writing a book with all the back story I created.
This year one of my New Year’s Resolutions was to put the information out there for people to use. I have no false illusions that this anything but what it is, however if a group or two uses the setting and finds it as enjoyable to use as I have written than it is a good thing.
You can find the Wiki here.

I am looking for people to help fill it out. Let me know if you have some spare time and want to suffer with me.

Okay so it's not 2011 yet.

2010-11-25T11:13:00.003-06:00

I have spent some time preparing the Austrian and Prussian figures for Batailles de l'Ancien Régime (aka BAR).

I have decided to organize the troops for the First Silesian War (aka War of Austrian Sucession) for the Battle of Mollowitz.

Austrian
http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/741DAF.pdf

Prussian
http://www.cgsc.edu/CARL/nafziger/741DAA.pdf

Projects for 2011

2010-11-13T17:11:00.002-06:00

Okay, it might be a little early to announce the projects and such for 2011, but wat the hey.

Fields of Glory - 15mm Punic Wars
Forlorn Hope - 10mm Thirty Years War
Drums of War Along the Mohawk - 25mm French and Indian War
Rank and File - 25mm American Civil War
Broadsword - 15mm World War II - Pacific Island Campaigns

For Fields of Glory I am going to finish up my successor army or have either Tom or Jack paint me up a Republican Roman Army.

For Forlorn Hope I took the easy way out, I bought Tom's Swedish Army. The price wasn't bad, a Figure for a Figure since Tom wants to paint a French Army.

I will be finishing up the Figures I own for Drums of War along the Mohawk, which right now is two Brigades of French and two Brigades of British.

For the American Civil War I have two brigades of Union (1st Division 1st Union Corps) about half finished, needing some Artillery and Command plus 4 Battalions. I have purchased the figures from Old Glory and they should be here next week. Not sure if I am going to attempt to send them out to get painted or what with those.
There has been some interest in Regimental Fire and Fury, but I am not holding my breath.

For Broadsword, well I have several hundred painted Japs and Marines and I have decided to just bite the bullet and play Broadsword. Crossfire is a one player game and Flames of War is a "bad" game.

There are a couple of other interesting things that I am going to try, a double blind WWII Pacific Naval Game I am already planning out for January 15th Centurions Game.

Other activities for the year:
Seven Years War Convention, South Bend IN, March 25 and 26th. The Centurions will be running the Battle of Grocka (Austrian/Russian Turkish War 1739) using Koenig Kreig in 15mm. Will need to get a few more Austrian Battalions Painted, but can backfill with Imperials if need be.

25mm Horse Musket and Gun, big battle, tenativily set for July 16th. We will probably have a game or two over the winter.

Finally for Nov 19th, going to try and get a decent game of Rank and File accomplished. The idea is to get 10 players pushing a division worth of troops (two brigades) and see what happens. There is some interest but I will have to see where it goes.

Finally I am going to get a bunch of stuff either painted, sold, or traded. This stack of unfinished unpainted lead has got to go. Okay most likely I will be getting it painted, but what the hell.

Preparing for November 20th

2010-10-06T09:59:00.001-05:00

Last night I received my latest order from Old Glory Miniatures, all the figures I need to complete a full strength French Brigade for Batailles de l'Ancien Régime.

The first Battalion to be completed will be the 2^nd Battalion of the Guyenne Infantrie Regiment. For which I have 30 Figures already completed out of the 54. I spent the evening cleaning up the figures, getting them mounted on bases and prepping for priming.

The Second Battalion I am planning to work on will be a little strange. I had Fernando Enterprises paint up 24 figures for the 1^st Battalion of the Royal Roussillion Infantrie Regiment however since I cannot match that painting style the figures I will be painting up will be for the 2^nd Battalion of the Languedoc Infantrie Regiment.

The next two battalions to be worked on next month will be the 2^nd Battalion of the La Sarre Infantrie Regiment and 2^nd Battalion of the Bearn Infantrie Regiment.

My goal is to get Guyenne Infantrie regiment done over the next week. Lots of work, however this is my shortcuts of short cuts regiments the first time around so I will be matching that painting style mostly. The Figures will be primed white, the boots and belting Natural Leather, the muskets bestial Brown, the hats and a few high lights black, flesh, trim and shiny bits followed by a dip for completion.

The Priming will be done tonight, than I will start cleanup work and mounting the figures for Languedoc.

Wish me luck

The Austrian Balloon Game.

2010-08-10T12:59:00.002-05:00

I hosted a Seven Year's War Game at my place in 15mm using Koenig Krieg (2nd Edition) on August 7, 2010. The game was played on three 4' x 5' tiles (from my Waterloo Collection) and one generic 4' x 6' tile shaped in sort of a T Shaped formation.

The Prussians would be on defense with Austrian Coalition defending.

The Prussian order of battle consisted of 44 battalions of Infantry (8 of which were British), 1 Battalion of British Light infantry, 12 Regiments of Cuirassiers, Two Heavy batteries, Eight Light Batteries and 3 Regiments of Hussars.

Storm over Bavaria

2010-05-09T07:36:00.004-05:00

On Saturday May 8th, at the Levee Café in Hastings, MN five members of the Centurions gaming group meet to refight the Battles in Bavaria during the “Storm over Bavaria” April 19-23, 1809. I would like to thank Fitz, Joe, Chris and Noel for an incredibly enjoyable game.

Austrian III Corps, IV Corps, V Corps, IR Corps and IIR Reserve Corps, slightly more the 1000 figures representing approximate 90,000 Men squared off against Oudinot’s II Corps (partially commanded by Lannes), French III Corps, Two independent Divisions, the Bavarian Army (VII Corps) and the Württemberg Army (VIII Corps), slightly less than 1000 figures representing 90,000 Men. The Austrians had great number of Infantry, but fewer Cavalry, and was on equal footing for Artillery.
For those keeping track at home, the Austrian Organization made one tiny-tiny mistake, we doubled up V Corps. So the Austrians had III, V, V, IR and IIR as an organization Louis (4) activation was going to sort of haunt the Austrians throughout the game. However for clarity purposes I will be call command of Austrian command of Joe IV Corps, which it was supposed to be.

The battle was played on three tables. The two outer tables were 18’ x 30” wide and the central table was 18’ x 6’ giving a total playing space of dang near 200 square feet. The outer tables which were separated physically from the inner table by 3’ were considered directly connected for game purposes.

The game started on the morning of April 19th with Austrian III Corps moving into position near Hausen. Davout’s III Corps was in position, a defensive position, near Teugen. For game purposes each of the Corps rolled a D10 to determine when they marched on. A Score of equal or below the turn number allowed you to march on. While Oudinot’s II Corp marched on on turn one, most of the rest of the forces were closer to turn 8.

April 19th was a boring day as Troops marched into position across the board. It was interesting given free will (and for the most part not a lot of knowledge on the specific campaign) how the players tended to follow the historic precedent. Had we actually had a bigger tabletop (something at some point I would love to try) I think we would have ended up with actual historic battles, not approximations.

We did movement during the night, turns represented 2 hours, all command radius were cut in half and activation numbers reduced by 1 and units could move no closer than 12”.

The Austrian players discovered a small whole in their plan. It took so long to move Austrian III Corps into place, two turns at night, that moving V Corps from their planned river crossing was out of the question mathematically. The problem with the low activation numbers and the decision to focus on the Austrian Center was tactically sound but a strategic mistake. In retrospect as the Austrian player the biggest single error I made.

April 20th, using the weather rules opened with down pouring rain. V Corps attempted to take the river crossing south and west of Hausen. We knew at 9PM turn that it was a bad idea, and yes it was. The Cavalry attempted to open a hole in the French Line was repulsed and what little bridgehead we had was gone. The decision was made to leave a brigade plus the shattered Advance Guard Division to hold the far side of the bridgehead and move the rest of the V Corps east to another bridge head.

The Austrian II Reserve Corps sat waiting for the time to move against the French Reserve Division holding the second bridge head. They waited most of the day trading fire but never able to disorder the French Legere brigade that held the bridge. Late in the day the First Grenadier Battalion went forward in an ALL-OUT attack and was defeated, the second Grenadier Battalion took the bridge later in the same turn.

On the other wing the Austrian IV Corps battled with the Bavarian Army. An early charge of the Bavarian Light Cavalry Brigade seemed to open a hole in the Austrian Line, but in their exuberance the Bavarian Light Cavalry ended up a mile away from the battle (failed control roll with no target to their front).
Later the Austrian Light Cavalry Charged the center of the Bavarian Army, breaking two brigades and opening a good sized whole before swinging around and taking two Bavarian 12# batteries from the rear. By the end of the Day the Bavarians were strung out and the Austrian IV Corps was attempting to reorient itself to attack the flank of Davout’s III Corps.

In the Center Oudinot’s stripped down II Corps and Davout’s III Corps made a slow plodding move against the Austrians. In a well coordinated attack the Cavalry from Oudinot’s II Corps charged home, forcing the Austrians to square before bouncing home. The French Attack in the next turn caught three Austrian Brigades in Square. Across the line the French Attack was successful, four Austrian Brigades Routed as well as their light Cavalry Brigade in the center. The Center Collapsed.
Charles attempted reorganize the line but it was too late. The Austrians were forced to retreat, the initiative Charles had in the campaign gone.

We called the game a minor French Victory, while they were able to defeat the Austrian Forces, the Austrians retreated in good order with realitivily minor losses (two to three thousand) most of which would be reconstituted in the coming days.

http://s433.photobucket.com/albums/qq56/the_goldy_gopher/2010%20May%2008//

Not as productive as I wanted to be.

2010-04-04T17:22:00.003-05:00

I was not as productive over the weekend as I wanted to be. I cleaned and primed 20 AWI British with Command as British Independent Comapnies for AWI and 30 Figures in Hunting Shirts as the Viriginia Regiment; both units are for the French and Indian War.

In addition I finished up a company of 10 figures as Rangers for the French and Indian War. The figures didn't turn out to bad.

I used another technique for faces, I think I will use this method for a while. The Faces are completely painted "Dark Flesh" and than I add in a few spots of lighter flesh. It is not as clean as the method I used on the Compagnies Franches de la Marine however it takes about half the time and beyond 3 inches you couldn't tell the difference.

I think the unit is James Roger's Rangers but i will have to pull up the source material for me to know for sure.

Just to let everyone know I wasn't slacking completely, I also painted up a unit of Virginia Continentals for Fitz. Not exactly the greatest paint job as it was getting late on Saturday when I did these 12 figures. I used the 7th Virginia Re-enactors as a guide to paint the figures, so they don’t um match the descriptions in a couple of Ospreys, the one thing I didn’t do, and if Fitz wants to he can, is put hat tape on them, since neither the contemporary painting and descriptions list hat tape.

Compagnies Franches de la Marine

2010-04-02T09:09:00.005-05:00

As I prepare for my upcoming Warfare in Colonial America game at the Levee Café in Hastings for my Birthday May 8^th and 9^th I am attempting to finish painting the figures I own for the period. It is sort of depressing that I need to order six bags of figures as the Local Stores don't have what I need, on the plus side I am saving some money. Any ways I have been working on Compagnies Franches de la Marine over the past week. I have 31 figures of Old Glory 25mm figures, without command in Blue Waist Coat in Fatigue Cap, which I divided up into 6 companies of 5 figures. The problem is there is little to differentiate the companies, so basically as I finish up the last of the figures it looks more like 3 companies of 10 figures.

I changed how I was painting faces about half way through the project, I may go back and attempt to update the first 12 figures or so but I am not sure I will have time before the May games with another 120 figures left to paint. I'll post pictures later today, but I like the way the later figures turned out.

This weekend I will be working on a battalion (30 Figures) of Colonial Militia in Hunting Shirts, they shouldn't take long, Air Brush a Dark Brown, a Quick Dry Brush of a lighter brown, leather work, face and Weapons. In addition I have a few more 15mm 1809 Austrians to mount up, but that's another posting. I am hopeful that beyond them I can get to my two units of British Independent Companies or more Indians, I guess we will see.

BAR Games at the SYW Convention

2010-04-02T08:45:00.004-05:00

I played in two BAR games hosted by Jim Purky and Bill Protz (the rules author) while at the SYW convention in South Bend, IN; the Prussian Assault on the Luethen Church and the battle of Mollwitz (First Silesia War).

The first game on Friday was the Prussian Assault on Leuthen Church. Yours truly had Rot Wurzburg and the Church, my orders hold the church. Special rules the walls are considered 8 feet high and only one battalion in the walled courtyard at a time. In addition to Rot Wurzburg, I had a battalion of Hungarian Infantry (YARK), two battalions of Austrian German infantry and two pieces of artillery, a 12# and a 6#. On my right flank was Rolf Running and his four battalions of infantry and two 6# guns, Paul (whose last name I didn't catch) had another four battalions of Austrians, including our Grenadier Battalion, on my left. On the right Flank Brent Olsen had a contingent of Austrian Cavalry and I forget who controlled the Austrian light Cavalry on the left.

Facing us was three brigades of Prussian Infantry (each of four Battalions and two pieces of Artillery) and Prussian Cavalry on both flanks.

The game opened with Cavalry actions on both flanks. I moved my battery up to a position I was told was going to be supported and deployed them out. Paul on my left became extremely aggressive and moved out of the Leuthen Village and started forward against the Prussian, to achieve balance in the whole thing Rolf dug in behind the village leaving my artillery high and dry.

I cannot give details of the Cavalry Battles, as both flanks worth of cavalry on BOTH sides ground each other into oblivion. On the Left flank in Turn 5 there was a grand total of 6 Austrian Light Cavalry figures left out of nearly a 100 figures on EACH side. On my right flank while the destruction wasn't quite as complete neither side was going to have a usable force left.

I am not sure why Paul launched his attack, the problem is because I was anchored in the Leuthen Church he had his right flanked exposed and took fire from Chris Combs Prussians who was straight across from me as well as the brigade directly in front of him. My poor unsupported Artillery Battery took 20 some potential casualties of fire and evaporated.

I realized on turn two when I started waving at Chris and Fitz we were doomed. The Prussian plan involved removing our cavalry than focusing on the two flank infantry brigades before converging on the my Brigade. Paul moving his brigade forward unsupported on my left allowed his brigade to get wrecked sooner than Rolf's on my right. After five or six turns the artillery started to fall on Leuthen Church and Rot Wurzburg was done for, Rolf began retiring from his position and the first wave of the assault finally came, a Fresh Battalion of Prussian Line led the charge. After the Referees changed the height of the wall, the first wave was defeated.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door, I sent Ensign Parker to see who it was, and more Prussians poured forward, my Second Line was engage in a fire fight to the rear of the Church and against Prussian Infantry deployed in the village of Leuthen on my right. Ensign Parker informed me the Prussian Garde Grenadiers wished to make a donation to my funeral arrangements all I need to do was open the door. I said no, poor Ensign Parker had to go tell them the news.

The next wave came and that damn knocking on the door continued. I held strong and still refused to let the Garde Grenadiers make a donation, they actually offered to double it.

In the end Rot Wurburg was compelled to withdraw, however we held, the reality of the situation was they were going to be ejected at some point allowing a Prussian Victory, my goal of delaying to night fall was almost achieved. In the end it was a costly piece of real estate for the Prussian resulting in a Swedish Victory.

TBC

Pictures by Jeff Knudsen and can be found on his site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/war_artisan/collections/72157623604512741/

Jim Purky comments and description of the action can be found on his site: http://altefritz.blogspot.com/2010/03/syw-assn-convention-update.html

A quick report back from the SYW Convention

2010-03-29T09:57:00.002-05:00

Over the past weekend I attended my first SYW Convention, in the Tourist Capital of the World, Sunny South Bend Indiana, and I am fairly impressed with the whole thing. My wife accompanied me and I meet up with other members of the Minnesota Crowd, Fitz, the other Jeff, Brent Olson, Rolf Running, and Chris Combs and I think I speak for all of us a good time was had by all.

The drive down was uneventful, we dropped our "two" children off with Melanie's parents on the way down and made the 525 mile trip in three legs (To Melanie's Parents 200 Miles, To Chicago 200 Miles and Finally South Bend 125 Miles). I have to say the drive from Chicago to South Bend seemed a lot longer than 125 miles at that point. Fitz gave me directions for the trip home, 10 to 15 miles further (30 actually) and you skip driving through Chicago. Whether or not the drive was longer, that route seemed MUCH MUCH longer as there was absolutely nothing to see but flatland in IL, on the plus side virtually No tolls on the way home.

Of course the tourist capital of the world didn't really leave much for my wife to do while I was playing with little toy soldiers. She visited the College Football Hall of Fame, The Studebaker Museum, (A bear in his Natural Habitat), the Oliver House, and about six trips to the Fiddler's Hearth (one of four Bars in South Bend). However as a guy who grew up in a small town, it seemed eerie to walk around South Bend because there was never anyone on the streets. I do have to recommend Tom's Café for breakfast, $11 for both Melanie's and my breakfast was well worth the price since neither of us could finish our meal there was too much food.

I participated in both of Jim Purky and Bill Protz BAR games (the assault on Leuthen Church and Mollowitz) and kibitzed a number of other games. Many games had a great look to them, but I will be honest there is little chance I would be pushing figures in their games, and to be more honest I have to wonder if the scenario designer flunked scenario design 101 as I spent several long minutes scratching my head. Example, a 12 x 6 table, a game for 12 players, game played on a corner of the table using maybe 16 sq feet (8' x 4' triangle) because the center of the table had a 24 square feet of impassible terrain (dense wood). When I asked the scenario designer… "well um we didn't play test it specifically but we thought player might want to use the rest of the board."

Jeff Knudsen's game of "Paper Ships and Portly Men" was spectacular, except the players were Portly, funny thing at a gaming convention. The Swedes/Ottomans vs. Russian game by Panzeri was intriguing, the 10mm game had an okay look, A cow Too Far (skirmish Game) looked like a hoot.

On the down side my camera and I had a disagreement on it function at the convention. Most of my pictures are unusable as they somehow got over exposed (the shutter speed slowed down because the room was not the bright place on the planet and what I was focusing on was too far away for the flash, so it tried to be helpful.

We already are discussing plans for next year convention (Mar 25, 26, 2011) hopefully at the same location. We have already had some discussion about running the battle of Krefeld, Ottomans vs. Russians game AS WELL AS a potential Battle in the Wars of the Jumbled Alliances all using Koenig Krieg (2^nd Edition). Additional the plans for BAR locally have been pushed and discussed. Fitz and I will be flipping a coin to see which one of us (the Prussian Players) is going to be Freddie, Brent has some figures already, Chris is painting the Swabian Circle, and Tom is painting Austrians.

I'll be posting a detailed battle report for the two BAR games later this week (hopefully with some pictures).

American Civil War – in 25mm

2010-03-15T10:23:00.002-05:00

After years of debating what to do with all those 25mm American Civil War I picked up for better or worse I have finalized a plan.

I have decided to mount 3 figures on a 1 ½ inch square base with five bases to a typical battalion/regiment, thus one stand represents about 100 men. Putting 4 or 5 of these battalions together with a mounted colonel and a stand of artillery will than represent a brigade.

Due to the fact I have so many figures I gave Jim a bag of the Union's Irish Brigade (II Corps, 1^st Division, 2^nd Brigade), Keith a bag of VI Union Corps, and Joe Knight a bag with figures from the XI Corps. They will need to add a second bag to complete their brigades, but it should be fairly cheap ($30 to get everything they need). I then handed Tom Zwirn a pack of like 100 Confederate Figures and told him to paint up whatever he want and hand me back the rest of the figures, which is semi organized for Early's Division of Second Corps.

I personally have painted up the First Division (Both the Iron Brigade and Cutler's 2^nd Brigade) from 1^st Corps and a couple of Brigades of Heth's Division (Pettigrew and Brockenbrough) as my commands. Or rather I had them painted up.

The plan is to use Crusader Games "Rank and File" with their upcoming ACW Supplement. The decision to start out with "Rank and File" is more about getting nice easy simple rules (Beer and Pretzels) that minimizes the need of multiple people buying the rules and HOPEFULLY minimizes the need arguing over the intent of the rules vs. what they actually say. Of course with so many rules I wanted to avoid (cough Johnny Reb III cough) this was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated when I bought the figures. The fact that Crusaders rules aren't going to cost me big dollars and have a decent print quality to them didn't hurt either. I should add I don't think these rules are perfect, rather I think these rules will allow us to get started and really debate what we want to do as a group.

My goal is to get a couple of games run in 25mm later this summer and decide upon the level of interest and how much effort people want to put into the period. For me, since I already own the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in 15mm at 1 stand = 100 men I really um undecided upon how much effort I want to put into it. I am thinking about re-organizing the ANV as 1:150 per base for Fire and Fury and selling off the extras, IE Basic Fire and Fury using the proceeds to finish off the Union which I currently have about 1/3 of the Army of the Potomac. Since I am short Artillery for the ANV it actually might workout okay.

Saturday March 13th

2010-03-01T10:22:00.005-06:00

On Saturday March 13th I will be hosting a SYW game at my place. The wife, child and dog are out of town so it seems like a good Idea.

The game, 15mm Koenig Krieg will feature the Thirty Third and a Third Coalition of Lunacy vs. the Sarcastic Alliance. Hopefully we can get some pesky Prussians to show up to preseve the Jumbled Alliances. My plan is to use the Waterloo Terrain boards, but I haven’t inspected them in over a year, so, be warned.

Game Start 11AM (That’s 10AM in Fitz Time).

I have heard from a couple of people already So I know there will be an Austrians, Bavarians and Swedish presence to take on whatever Fitz has in the box; like I said hopefully a Prussian player or two can make it, the Swedes burned Berlin for the fifth time last week and I would hate to think what happens if they have to switch sides.

I will throw something in the Crockpot (thinking BBQ Beef Sandwiches) for lunch and have a few Adult Beverages in the cooler, along with a few cokes and maybe even diet OR bottle of Wine if there is a request for it.

If you would like coffee, I have a coffee pot but no actual coffee so if you want coffee you need to bring some ground coffee and I can put in the pot.
Parking shouldn’t be as big of premium as it has been in the past.

The Wurrtembergs

2010-03-01T10:07:00.003-06:00

I completed six of the 13 Battalions of the Württemberg infantry battalions needed for the Austrian at Leuthen (Seven Years War) in 15mm for Koenig Krieg. Fusilier Regiment Truchsess (2 bns), Roeder (2 bns) and Prinz Louis (2 bns) are done, leaving the three grenadier battalions and two battalions of Garde du Fuss, and two battalions of Infantry Regiment Spiznass.

The last battalion was tough to paint as Painting Prussian Freikorps figures (as well as Austrian Freikorps figures) is incredible boring monotonous work.
Two sleeves plus three dots of blue, four red turnbacks, cuff and collars in facing colors, brown muskets (and two hairs), light brown hair and satchel (plus one hair), dark brown for the remaining hair, white shirts, belts and paints and of course hat tape, bolt gun metal for barrels, chainmail for bayonets, flesh, and then any touchup work. I can do a battalion in 45 minutes, if I don’t spend 90 minutes daydreaming while doing it.

Fitz, hopefully tonight, will be handing me four battalions worth of Prussians to be Garde du Fuss and IR Spiznass, I already have three battalions of Prussian Grenadiers on popsicle sticks and primed so the Württemberg Army should be done in short order. The funny thing is the player we were going to hand the figures to has basically left our group, so I am not sure what will become of this Army.

Another Weekend in Gaming

2010-02-21T17:42:00.002-06:00

It was another quiet weekend in the Johnson household as I watched my five year-old grow up before my eyes, my wife work on her latest sewing project (the Pink Musketeer Outfit) and Bryn (our new 16 week cocker spaniel) see what she could eat. Okay we have had Bryn for a month so she isn't quite new, but she still in the house breaking stage.

On Friday I worked some more on 30 Rangers for the French and Indian War in 25mm. I guess only so much green, or greenish tinted colors in the world and after painting the figure, once dipped you cannot tell that I had 21 greens in my collection. I have decided to go back add some "royal blue" and "leather" gaiters to provide some variation in the colors. The figures were quick to paint and since I may need another 30 or so in May, however I will take a long look at painting some of the other colored uniforms, blue, orange, black, and red.

I spent some time preparing my two British independent companies of 10 figures each for the game. I decided to use AWI British figures for the units rather than SYW figures as the described uniforms were more tailored for wear than the SYW. The only problem is the cross belts as opposed to the waist belts. Oh well only Fitz and anyone else reading this blog will know. For the Royal Americans I will also be using AWI British, but they had cross belts so that problem is solved, at least for them. I also considered using Continentals in Hunting Shirts for some rangers, I might you never know.

On Saturday I played in Tom Zwirn's SYW Koenig Krieg game. Following directions I left my figures at home so Tom's figures could start to be properly blooded. I unfortunately have been condemned, I mean nic-named as a Prussian, Prince Hank, I am upset it stuck. That's okay we had a long discussion about Roman Hedges (Boscage in French, because it is a literal translation of the Roman Word) and were introduced to "Conan The Bavarian". I am sorry there is no response to that one other than it is going to stick. Anyways my Swedes are still undefeated; my command of the Prussian Armies, including the Earl of Garfield, the Ice Cream Boys took it to the French, Russian, and Bavarians like there was no tomorrow after 3pm. Since we had to not only be done but cleaned up and out the door by four I made it the world's fastest 16 turn game. Yes 16 turns in three and ½ hours. No potty breaks for you. I screwed up one rule, but oh well. Life goes on.

I went home and pulled out some figures to see how close a number of collections towards playability. Wars of the First Triumvirate, Gauls and Greeks in 25mm since there is again interest in 25mm Punic Wars, sorry Fitz, not my fault. Anyways I need 9 stands of Warbands and 10 stands of Cavalry for my Gauls, Caesar needs 15 stands of Cavalry, and finish up the Legions for Pompey. (That of course is for the 400 point starter armies). If there is interest in the Punic Wars I will finish up the Gauls for my contribution. I actually don't need that many additional figures painted to get to say 800 point, beyond the warbands since I have the Gesati done and some other figures already painted (not that 32 naked guys was tough to paint) and slingers and other allies done.

Additionally I get into a new project X. Okay an old project X has resurfaced and I have already made arrangements. I am not at liberty to discuss until I have a couple hundred figures ready to go. But it should be soon.

Weekend in Gaming

2010-01-24T22:18:00.001-06:00

For me it was very unusual as my weekend actually was full of gaming or gaming related projects. Lately it seems I spend more time considering gaming than actual gaming.

Friday afternoon I received a response from a rules author for which I had a question concerning their French and Indian Wars rules. In an attempt to protect the innocent, I’ll skip the rules and authors names… “Your answer has absolutely frelling nothing to do with the question I asked. As a matter of fact my question was on the interaction of movement ranges and firing their answer was on unit morale and survivability.” So in other words neither the authors or the play test groups never asked why a infantry unit can basically charge half-way across the table and not take a single round of fire while closing. I’ll just say I didn’t know whether to be amazed or just accept it as fact that the Authors let reality come in the way of a bad rule set.

Friday evening it was all about research and banging my head against the wall. Sometimes the obvious questions are the one that go unanswered in peoples “painting guides”. Where the uniforms of British Drummers of the Line Battalions in the French and Indian Wars reversed. The obvious answer is yes, but I don’t have a single source that actually sells that. And since the only source I have access to that says directly is Kronoskaf, and it indicates that some are and some aren’t. In the end I finally agreed with Jim, even it is wrong it just makes more sense to reverse the colors.

Saturday afternoon was all about the Carnage and Glory Napoleonic Game at the Levee Café. Okay I need to preface this, I have suffered through six games of C and G before Saturday game and had some idea on how the rules worked, but this the first time I played v2 so I was slightly surprised. Now honestly I am not going to buy the rules or run games using C and G 2, but I will not not play. So I can’t say I dislike the game but I am not enamored with them either. Too many things happen that make you go, um okay, I guess if the rules allow it.
I was on the Prussian side and a piece of bad intelligence before we set a single figure on the table probably did more to stop us from crushing the French than anything else. We were told the French were approximately 32” (one mile in game terms) away from our starting line, when in reality the French set up within 12”. Do you take three turns to reorganize yourself for an attack you were planning for turn three/four or do you push forward. Half the Army charged the other half attempted to reorganize neither worked.
I had to leave early to make it home and let my new puppy out before she had a bad accident in her kennel, So I missed the Prussian attack completely stalling.

Sunday was all about painting figures. 25mm British Line for the French and Indian War. I am tentatively planning on playing BaR for the period, singly mounting figures against my better judgment cause there isn’t anything else out there right now I want to play. I bought the figures years ago for another project, now I am trying to make something out of it cause I own the figures.
Well anyways I completed the first division of the 48th Infantry Regiment, just 45 figures to go and that regiment will be all painted. On the plus side I have completed all the difficult figures to paint and just have musketeers left to paint, so they will take like six to nine hours to finish the other 45 figures. However I wonder where I put all those painted 25mm Hessen figures for the AWI. I probably have a 25mm Prussian Army already painted.

Republic to Empire

2010-01-08T23:10:00.002-06:00

So the other day I was surprised to find I had a package in the mail, wasn't expecting anything. So I was little shocked to find a copy of "Republic to Empire", a new Napoleonic set of rules from the "League of Augsburg." I had preordered the rules a long while back, so long ago I had almost forgotten that I had done so.

After reading the rules I can say the book is nice, about 150 pages with roughly 100 high quality photo images. The problem is the game contained in the book is completely unplayable as written.

Where to start?

I'll start with the pictures, yes there are 100 beautiful photos of figures, a grand total of three are useful (in any shape or form) to explaining the rules, and that might be a slight exaggeration, the photo on page 58 shows front, flank and rear, the other two photos almost represent what is being talked about, and the other 97 have virtually nothing to do with the game itself. To me that turns 60 pages of rules in 150 and when and if you have to use the rules during a game it's going to take a while to find what you are looking for.

The next problem is the verboseness of the rules. Yes I am a very verbose and longwinded guy, however some the rules explanations are over the top by MY standards. So you 60 pages of rules which is really maybe only 30 pages at most. What am I talking about, while not only does the author give the rule, but an explanation of the rule and in some cases the history behind the rule and why he didn't implement 8 different variations of the rules.

Because of the Pictures, Explanations, and other inserted crap into the rules I have to say the rules are poorly organized. There should be a section on the rules, a photo section, and finally a "this is why I did this" explanation kind of section instead of the cluster that currently exists.

The narrated battle report was interesting, but I hate to say this, makes the game sound even more complicated than it is. Well actually a lot of the explanations make the rules sound a lot more difficult than they really are, maybe that's because I am a simple man.

As an individual who has/is suffering through writing a set of rules I have learned a lot about the process. One of the things I learned is how rules morphing and changes work their way into the rules; kind of looking at C and knowing that it was B at one time and A beforehand. I see a lot of that in these rules, you see the finished or published concept and know what was the working model as the rules were developed. For instance it is easy to see the rules were developed for individual mounted figures but were modified along the way to handle multiple basing and finally that multiple basing becomes well the norm. Now I understand why multiple basing is the norm, the problem is the rules don't always follow along.

The basing in the game, for infantry anyways, is a 15mm square per figure, how you mount is your personal choice and most of the pictures show 20 to 25mm frontages for the figures. Well anyways If we consider a paper strength French Battalion of 720 men, that's a decent sized unit of 36 figures. So mounting figures two deep that 18 figures or 360mm wide frontage, which makes a French Battalion in line 11 inches, but wait a second the pictures show stand deep line cutting frontages down to 6 inches and …. Well I could go on, but it highlights a pet peeve of mine, if your unit basing doesn't match your unit's spacing than it's broken. The spacing described in the game and throughout the rules doesn't match the spacing; to me it looks like the individual mounted figures might make sense (three deep lines and two deep lines) but the multiple figures per base kills it.

Because of the basing to me it looks like a concept that probably works at 1:30 is being stretched to 1:20 or requires singly mounted figures. Now as everyone knows I am not a big fan of 1:20, it's an in between ratio that really has no reason to exist now-a-days in games. You want the big battalions go 1:10, you wants something a little smaller go 1:30. Don't get me started. At 1:20 you are almost to a part where you need to show divisions (two company units) rather than battalions but not quite.

The next downer for me was the concept of what a game looks like. The Author (in several locations on the Web) indicates that a typical French Division could be set up on a six foot wide table top. Okay assuming 2 brigades of four battalions in a historical formation (arrow head or trapezoidal) and the ground scale in the rules where 2.25 mm = 100 yards (don't get me started on mixing metric and imperial measurements) you would need roughly 100 to 125 inches, yet the rules author has you doing it in 72 inches. I honestly understand when the rules have to fudge and percentage point or ten because of how the rules work, but honest 40%, that's just too much. So historical layout of troops linearly is way out of line. Okay next they indicate that a typical French Division should have 350 figures… What a second – assuming you give yourself 1 foot of depth, that means 60% of you deployment space will be covered in figures and you have two feet between the forces. What a second Musket Range is 27 inches so you start in Musket range. I could go on and on, it just doesn't work out.

I found the fact the Command and Control rules a hodgepodge of ideas stuck together extremely annoying. I believe someone referred to them as each part designed by committee, I am reminded of the movie Apollo 13 and the CO2 cartridge. I realize they are independent of one another at the different level but there is no meshing of the rules concepts, you are just left wondering why they are so different.

I could go into shooting, 11 dice divided by 2 since you moved, halved because in effective range… Since may people currently believe fire fights the norm and cold steel the well un ordinary, I just don't see how fire can be effective enough in this game. You do any moving and firing at any range at all and block of figures are rolling nothing for dice.

Napoleon's Battles in December

2009-12-01T13:57:00.001-06:00

It’s the day after Christmas; you know you are going to be bored of your relatives and looking for a lot of GAMING EXCITEMENT.

Well look no further….

Saturday December 26th,
10 AM until we can’t take it no more.
The Source Comics and Games

Napoleon’s Battles in 15mm
Wagram (Light!)

In a desperate attempt to avenge his first defeat Napoleon has called up every military asset he could muster and is now ready to throw everything, including the KITCHEN SINK, a few BATHTUBS and if he had them a couple of Hot Water-Heaters at the defending dogs. Those mangy mutts won't know what hit them.

The Archduke Charles knowing that Napoleon and the entirety of the Military Might of France is crossing the river is counting on the Imperial Army, two dozen drunken collegee students on summer break from University of Vienna who think they are going to Key West, a couple of pickle farmers from down the street, and 12 boys from Siiberwald to hold them smelly froggies off. We'll see who lets the dogs out! Where oh Where has that little Archduke John gone?

I must be honest, it won't be completely Wagram, as we would need nearly 250 square feet of table space and we only have 100 square feet, but gosh darn it we will make do. Besides I have a freshily painted Bavarian Corp that needs to see the tabletop for the FIRST TIME, not to mention like 30 Regiments of Austrians that have never been on the tabletop.

Horse Musket and Gun

2009-11-27T00:01:00.001-06:00

Over the last couple of days I spent many hours pondering, considering, postulating, pontificating, and slamming my head against the wall over Horse Musket and Gun. There is no question that the rules are very close to the finished product, yet a couple of small incidental little "bugs" or quirks haunt the game.

In reviewing the previous versions of the rules, I am on the ninth rewrite and I have yet to really finish on version, I am really at a loss as a consider how close I am, yet how far away I feel. I kind of like running a marathon (Well I guess it is like running a marathon since I have only run a couple of half marathons) 25 miles down, 1 mile to go, but you may as well have another 25 miles for as little as in your tank.

Let me recap my problems:

Artillery the queen of the Battle Field is over powering the game. It is too effective. I know that for at least one of my loyal readers that probably doesn't seem possible. Yet Artillery alone stopped two brigades of Prussians and held a Division of Austrians at bay in the last game. In the game before that a couple of batteries at long range messed up the French defense so bad we might as well not have played. So the question is why is Artillery so effective? Good Dice, Cautious players, is Bombardment to effective, are players miss reading the charts, are the ranges to short?

I at first played off the Austrian Artillery as just good dice and might have played off the French Artillery as good dice, but it wasn't. Well at first for the French it was, but simply rolling 10, 11, and 12s was enough to hold off a Austrian Division

The Austrian players in the last game were a little worried about a few fatigue, yet the Prussian players attempted to push forward, and in the other game it was offensive Artillery fire.

In the last game only the Russians put a heavy battery in bombardment, the French never considered it.

I went through the charts two dozen times, it seemed like the French were reading the charts properly. However the scale of the game just put them in to long range early on where distance modifiers didn't seem to matter. Okay I cover the last two options in one paragraph.

I suppose there is another option, there could be too much artillery, however we are representing who batteries that actually existed in the period, I mean in 1812 we'd also have French Regimental Guns for a number of Corps, that just gets to be too much, but that isn't the period we are currently playing.

To me it seems like it is a combination of all factors are conspiring to make artillery to effective, so the question is what to do.

I have over the past several months making it more difficult to move Artillery, requiring Divisional, Corps and Army Assets to have an ADC attached to limber and reduced the prolong of all artillery. But that makes Artillery more difficult to move not less effective when it fires.

So what else can I do?

In Bombardment we are change x2 fatigue to +1 fatigue. This still makes Bombardment 33% more effective and since fire is completed before movement can be an effective measure on either the defense or offense.

I am looking at a way to reduce or should I say remove the fresh marker on artillery. I had considering giving artillery a different kind of bonus, but my goal has always been a simple game without 97 different bonuses or modifiers, but I seem to be getting that way anyways. So rather I am proposing removing the Artillery's Fresh Marker at the initiative stage (which I am renaming Administrative) on any turn the Artillery fired in the previous turn. I realize that in some game play the players may take advantage of that, but trying to monitor three phases seems too difficult. So after some thought my suggestion is to a check in the Administrative Step in turn after the artillery battery has fired the turn before. On a pass no changes, On the first pass the artillery loses its fresh marker, on the second fail it takes a -2 low on ammunition (which can be removed via a pass in the next administrative step.)

I am going to adjust the ranges of the artillery, shorting the ranges for Effective and Long Range, while increasing Extended and Extreme Range to make up the difference. I have pulled up the work of Chandler amongst others to evaluate what distances are, rate of fire, rounds in the caissons, and so and so forth.

A 12 Lbs can fire canister 500 yards. However its overall effectiveness decreases by 50% for every 100 yards (see Chandler). So if Canister is 100 percent effective at 0 yards it is 50% effective at 100 yards, it is 25% effective at 200 yards, 12.5% effective at 300 yards, 6.25% effective at 400 yards and 3.125% at 500 yards. So how would you map this out on the tabletop? In the 1830's the British Army did an extensive study on Napoleonic Artillery, I never understand why people always study the last war, rather than preparing for the next war, however I am going to refer to this test.

At 0 to 100 yards a single blast from an artillery battery would effectively kill or injury 64 men, at 200 yards this would decrease to 32 men, and at 300 yards 16 men, and so on and so forth. The rate of fire is approximately 1 round every minute, and Artillery only had a high point of slightly more than 95% effective at 0 yards (miss fires, bad powder, shells exploding, or worse guns exploding) With all this I created a complicated spread sheet modeling fire, and I got to say I was surprised at how well it lines up with the British Documents. In all I shortened the ranges of the artillery, Light Artillery ranges are changed to 0-4, 4-8, 8-20, 20-40, Medium Artillery 0-5, 5-10, 10-25,25-50, Heavy Artillery 0-6, 6-12, 12-30, 30-60 for Effective, Long, Extended, and Extreme.

Another change is to increase the bonus to +4 for effective range, this make the math against the chart work out to where I would like it to be. This is one of those changes simply to make all the math work out.

The way this works out, at Effective Range with a Fresh Heavy Battery should be doing 2 fatigue per round (10% no fatigue, 35% 1 Fatigue, 35% 2 Fatigue, 16% 3 Fatigue and 4% for 4 fatigue).

Another minor change, counter battery fire was so common in the last couple of games (with so much artillery on the table and as effective as it is) I have added the requirement that only Artillery on Bombardment orders can fire counter battery fire. Again I refer to both the writings of Chandler (and Richard Hook who I am sure is using Chandler as his source) that it took an hour of extensive fire to silence an enemy Artillery Battery, too few targets in too large of space. Followed on with "brigade batteries" rarely (if ever) fired upon enemy artillery because they were more concerned about supporting the infantry in case of a surprise attack or in case of a charge. To me this is a case that it happened so rarely that you probably don't need to model brigade batteries and should be concerned with divisional, corps and army assets. And we already have a solution for that, bombardment.

The Math on this puts most attempts in the -3 to -5 modifier range (55 to 45% effective doing 1 fatigue or no fatigue on a roll of 11). This also adds in the fact the counter battery is usually two batteries against one hits the fact that 3 fire phases should produce 2.7 to 3.4 fatigue, which I think is right in line with where it needs to be.

I am also reevaluating my Scenario, instead of allowing the defender 18 to 24 inches to deploy I am reducing the deployment zone to 6 to 12 inches. This puts more of the board in play and hopefully allows the attacker to better prepare an attack while under minimal fire.

So to recap

I have increased the modifier for fire in the Effective (Shortest Range) by 1 to +4
I have decrease the ranges for Effective and Long Range to be in line with British Study in 1835
I have now requiring Counter Battery Fire to be in Bombardment Only
I am changing my scenarios to give less depth to the defender.

Let me know what you think.

Upcoming Game at the Levee Café

2009-11-22T22:21:00.001-06:00

Tentatively I am planning on a late April (17^th or 24^th) game at the Levee Café. The game again will be 25mm Napoleonic's using Horse Musket and Gun; and again because of figure availability we will be revisiting the Fall Campaign in Germany 1813, as we refight The Battle of Dresden.

Joel Gregory, Jim Fitzgerald and I have already agreed to work to providing as many figures as we can for the game. While I don't expect to put out 12,000 figures I am hoping that a slight bathtubbing will get us to around 5,000 or so figures. Additionally the tabletop will be right around 200 square feet.

At this point it looks very do able.

Game at the Levee Café was another great success

2009-11-22T22:11:00.002-06:00

I am happy, as well as greatly relieved, to say Saturday's game of Horse Musket and Gun (infantry action of the Battle of Liebertwolkwitz) was in my opinion a stellar success.

I need to provide a great number of Thank You's for the success.

At the Levee Café I got to start with my brother Brian Johnson, the Executive Chef and General Manager, who opened the Café early, made a special breakfast and laid out our lunch, as usual my brother thanks. For the other staff whose names I don't remember we do appreciate you going the extra mile and poor Emma who had to deal with 20 Geeks all day and did so with a smile.

For the figures I have to thank Joel Gregory, who provided the lion share of the figures including a number of buildings on the table top, Jim Fitzgerald who provided the Russians and a couple of brigades of French, and Keith Dalluhn who provided the Bavarians; Jeff Knudson who provided some of the buildings on the table top.

Everyone who showed up to play, as everyone should know I am so bad with names I am always happy to remember my own name on most days.

We had at the height of the battle I believe we had 20 players pushing slightly more than 3200 figures on 152 square feet of table top. We completed 6 turns (18 phases) in just over 8 hours. I am happy with 6 turns, even though I wanted 8 turns. Considering most players were new to the system six turns isn't bad.

I feel I also learned a lot about running such a large (25mm) game and the space requirements. We could of used another 24 Square Feet and that might have change the flow of the game some.

I'll post more on the game later.

November 21st - Horse Musket and Gun at the Levee Cafe

2009-11-08T20:27:00.001-06:00

On Saturday November 21st, 2009 at the Levee Café in Hastings, MN advance elements of the Army of Bohemia will clash with the elements of the Grande Armee in a recreation of the infantry action around Liebertwolkwitz, (October 14, 1813). The battle features 3 French Infantry Corps plus some cavalry vs. 4 Allied Infantry Corps plus some cavalry which occurs after the more famous Cavalry Battle.

Everyone is welcome to attend and play, there is no cost to play and all figures will be provided. As usual we will be paying for the room via services in kind, IE buying drinks and eating meals at the Levee Café. We have made special arrangements to have breakfast served on Saturday at the Levee Café as the Resteraunt no longer serves breakfast on Saturday; however I will need a head count before hand for breakfast.

The battle will be refought using Horse Musket and Gun in 25mm. http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Horse-MusketandGun/
In the next day or so I will have a short version of the rules posted and will continue to be turning my notes into full blown rules.

Figures will be provided by Joel Gregory, Jim Fitzgerald, and myself with the possibility of a few others bringing their own commands.

On Friday evening we will setting up the terrain and preparing as many figures as we have available for the game. Jim and I are planning on eating supper around 6PM with the rest of the festivities occurring after dinner.

Saturday morning we will get special access to the Levee Café at 9AM, with breakfast around 10AM. We will be pulling and preparing as many figures as they arrive.

There will be a rules overview at 9:30 AM and the Game will start at 10:30. My goal is to get in two turns (six phases) before Lunch.
For Lunch I have ordered a buffet style meal which will be available for a donation or you can order from the Menu.

The Levee Café, 100 Sibley Street, Hastings, MN 55033

If you have any questions please contact me via email the_goldy_gopher(at)yahoo.com.

Hope to see you all there.
Jeff

Austrian Artillery,Generals and upcoming painting.

2009-07-27T09:32:00.005-05:00

On Saturday I received my latest order for Litko, bases which will be used for my 25mm Austrian Artillery and Generals and ADCs first.

The Heavy Artillery Batteries are now mounted on 2 1/2" square bases with four artillerists. Three of the four bases have a 12 lbs artillery piece and the fourth has a large diameter howitzer.

The Medium Artillery Batteries are now mounted on a 2 1/2" wide by 2" deep base with three artillerists. They have a variety of 6 lbs and 8 lbs guns.

My Light Artillery Battery is also mounted on a 2 1/2" wide by 2" deep base except it only has two artillerists on the base. I have used 2 smaller 6 lbs guns because at the moment I do not have any 3 lbs or 4 lbs guns.

For the Generals I have mounted up Two Divisional (or other Senior Commander) bases with three mounted Officers, six brigade commander bases with two mounted officers and now have an even dozen singly mounted Officers.

A couple of the single mounted officers are Generals once I pick up a few more ADC figures will be remounted as Brigade Commanders or higher. But I had to make do with what I had.

I am looking at my box of unpainted lead and trying to determine what I need to paint up next. I will be ordering a few figures from Foundry in a couple weeks to fill out my Light Division Cavalry (A couple command packs, a few packs of Dragoons/Chevaleger, and two packs of Uhlans.) But between now and when they arrive I should get something else painted, especially for the Allied Side. I think I am going to focus on a Battalion of Austrian Line Infantry for the Ruess-Greitz Regiment. I have the Command (eight figures) and 24 musketeers, which is slightly more than one battalion, so I may add in three packs of figures to complete the regiment when I order the figures.

I also have at least three battalions worth of landwehr that I should at least consider painting, a number of Jagers and Grenzers but not enough to do a battalion of either. So the Line infantry are probably my priority.

On the French Side I mostly have unpainted or half-painted guard to work on, while I remount a number of figures from Tom's Collection that I picked up a while back. While I would like a few battalions of Line and Legere I just don't currently have the figures.

Future Gaming at Chez Johnson

2009-07-13T08:50:00.004-05:00

After the success of our last game I have received my wife’s special permission to host a game about once every two months at our house. So in pulling out the calendar and check the busy social schedule for the rest of the year, I only wish I was kidding on the busy part, here are the dates and plans for the upcoming games.

Saturday September 26th: 25mm Napoleonic Gaming using Horse Musket and Gun
Friday November 27th: American Civil War using Fire and Fury

The goal for each of these games is to have about 8 players give or take a couple. The gaming table is 16’ long and if I can get off my ass 6’ wide. If we assume a deployment space of at least 4’ wide that gives us a space for about 4 players a side. That is on the tight side of course, where 6’ is a much better deployment zone but beggars can’t be choosers.
The biggest challenge faced is parking, a downfall of living in a Rental Community I guess. There are only about half-a-dozen parking spots nearby and another dozen within a couple blocks. I would love to see some carpooling action, make life a lot easier.

The Napoleonic Game will be open game and we will use any available 25mm Napoleonic figures that are mounted similarly to mine or are close enough that we can make do. Right now between myself and Fitz I think we can field the following:
Austrian: 2 Commands / -
British: - / 1 Command
French: 3 Commands / 1 Command
Russian: - / 1 Command

That gives us roughly four commands per side. We might be a little light here and there but it should be doable. Several others have indicated an interest in painting figures and bring theirs along which would greatly “increase” the size of commands back to regulation sizes.

For the American Civil War game I have just listed Fire and Fury and not a scale. I have about six regiments of 25mm Figures painted and another six somewhat ready but needing the final detail work. Of course I have no Dismounted Cavalry and no Artillery at the moment, but that is a something fairly easily added. So that being said I would love to do the game in 25mm, but I need to get more figures painted. There is some time yet to make a decision on the final plan for this game.

As a full back plan, I have more than enough 15mm Confederates Painted (Okay I can field most of the Army of Northern Virginia at 1:33) and a decent amount of Union so if worse come to worse the game will be in 15mm.

Luther Con

2009-07-13T08:44:00.003-05:00

HMGS-Midwest (a group out of Chicago) is hosting a new Fall Gaming Convention, in addtion to the Little Wars Spring Miniatures Convention, called Luther Con. So named because it is at Luther High School.

Luther Con – 2009! Announcing Luther Con – 2009! HMGS-Midwest in
cooperation with Black Sun Games is bringing to Chicago a TRUE LOCAL gaming
convention.
This two day gaming extravaganza is scheduled for the weekend of
Oct. 3rd and 4th (Saturday, Sunday) to be held at the Luther NorthHigh School
located in Chicago's Northwest side.
This gaming convention is meant to bring together all facets of the Chicago gaming cmmunity, historical, fantasy, and Sci Fi table top wargaming, board gaming, CCGs, and RPGs. The future of gaming is with our youth and we want to attract all to this new convention.
See the website for more details.

I certianly wish them the best of luck.

Why my wife is incredible!

2009-06-29T09:40:00.003-05:00

As a wargamer I, like many of my wargaming brethren, have many ahhh umm unique qualities. Like the 57 boxes of Historical Books that I had to move, or the boxes of figures. The person who has to deal the most with these idiosyncrasies is my wife. I can’t tell you the number of times she has asked a question and was left shaking her head in either amusement or befuddlement There are times I am not sure I can tell those two sentiments apart when it comes to my gaming.

I have explained in the past it is either gaming or drinking in the bar with friends and I let her choose which choice. Having seen way too many of our friends marriages fall apart, gaming doesn't seem so bad.

After moving into our new Townhouse last week my wife asked me a simple question. “Now that you are going to host a game or two, on what are you going to playing on?”

When I tried explaining tabletops I got the amused look. Her response was simple. Unless your tabletops are going to magically float 30 inches off the ground; Menards has Folding Tables on sale go by a couple.

And that my friends is just one of the truly many reasons why I love my wife.

While I only picked up two tables, another two tables will have to wait for another time.

Swedish Army for the Seven Years War

2009-06-14T19:38:00.001-05:00

Over the weekend I spent some time thinking about how I was going to configure the Swedish Army for the period around Seven Years War. Here is what I am thinking.

Left Wing (Light Division) – Maj General Sprengtporten
Volunteer Light Cavalry Regiment (600 Cuirassier from the 6 Swedish Ryttare Regiments)
Jamtland Ryttare Regiment (Dismounted)
French Fribataljon (I did not make that one up)
Jager Corps
Bluhussaren Regiment

Left Wing Front Line
Spens Varvade Regiment
Upplands Indelta Regiment

Left Wing Second Line
AboLans Indelta Regiment
Nylands Indelta Regiment

Left Wing Cavalry
Bohuslands Dragooner Regiment
Nylands Dragooner Regiment

Center Front Rank
Kungl Livgardet Regiment
Posse Vavarde Regiment

Kungl Livregiment
Lowenfels Vavarde Regiment

Center Second Rank
Sodermanlands Indelta Regiment
Dalarnas Indelta Regiment (1 Battalion)
Narke Varmlands Regiment (1 Battalion)

Ostgota Indelta Regiment
Halsinge Indelta Regiment

Center Cavalry
Livregiment
Adelsfanor Regiment
Vastagota Regiment

Smalands Regiment
Ostragota Regiment
Norraskanska Reiment
Sodraskanska Regiment

Right Wing
Vastgota Dals
Vastermanlands
Vasterbottens

Right Wing Cavalry
Livregiment Dragooners
Karelska Dragooners

Right Wing Light Division
Jagerkorps
Bohnen Fribataljon
Gul Hussars
French Frikorps Cavalry

For such a small project I am amazed at the number of figures I will need, actually the number of horse is what I find staggering.

Campaign this Fall - Plan Made

2009-05-15T12:11:00.004-05:00

After much discussion with people and looking at sources I think the most interesting situation to campaign will be “The Periphery Campaign” of early World War II, AKA “Wavell’s War”. “Wavell’s War” constitutes the actions in North Africa, East Africa (British Somaliland), The Balkan’s, and The Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon) that were fought while Archibald Wavell was the Commander and Chief British Forces in the Middle East (1939-1942).

The campaign will not be a campaign in the strictest sense but rather a series of games representing the campaigns and operations that mark Wavell’s War. Some of the games may be interconnected (The Italian invasion of British Somaliland followed by the later British Counter Attack) where the results of one battle may have an effect on the victory conditions and organization of the following battle.

The games will be played using “Spearhead” with 15mm Figures.
I understand the scale of Spearhead is not necessarily in line with the scale of the games that may be played and that some orders of battle may be adjust to allow for playability; however my end goal is to run a relatively large battle sometime late winter or early spring 2010. This big battle would be on the order of 4 divisions aside fought on 40 linear feet of tabletop, I hope that is more than a pipe dream.

For this I am currently committing to providing:
Italian Colonial Command ~12 Battalions of Colonial Troops, 3 Battalions Black Shirts, 1 Armor Battalion
German Ramcke Parachute Brigade - 4 Battalions of German Fallschirmjagers (Basically already completed)

Fitz tells me he is interested and has approximately one British Brigade for the Desert and would be willing to expand.

If enough interest is generated I probably will paint more figures but for now this is what I have committed to.

If figures are available we may do some of the action outside of what is normally considered Wavell’s command, West Africa, South East Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Rim.
For this I have approximately two divisions of Imperial Japanese Army and some IJN ground forces.

Let me know if you are interested. I'll be honest I am looking for people to paint Infantry for both sides. Historically there were 10 infantry battalions to 1 armor battalions in the theatre so you will see a realitivily few armor (and similiar) commands on the table top for these games.

Campaign this Fall

2009-05-03T21:14:00.001-05:00

I have decided that I would like to run/play a series of connected games or a campaign of some sort this fall (2009). That was the easy part the difficult part is what comes next; what the hell do I want to run.

Fantasy
The Lion vs. the Dragon (Clan War in 25mm)

Ancients using “Field of Glory”
Punic Wars (15mm)
The Wars of the Triumvirate (Caesar’s Civil War in 25mm)
First/Third Crusade (25mm)

French and Indian War – Drums of War along the Mohawk in 25mm)
Seven Years War – (Koenig Krieg in 15mm)

Napoleonic – 1809 Campaign (in 15mm)
Napoleonic – 1813 Campaign (in 25mm)

American Civil War (Fields of Honor in 15mm)
American Civil War (in 25mm)
Franco Prussian (Fields of Honor in 15mm)

Great War
Eastern Front (Great Wars Spearhead in 15mm)

World War II
Wavell’s War (Spearhead in 15mm)
Sicily/Italy (Spearhead in 15mm)
A Bridge too Far (Spearhead in 15mm)

That’s a pretty long list, considering it doesn’t include Modern Micro Armor, a few other fantasy games, and more weird periods than I can count.

After some thought I am leaning towards doing something a little out of the whack for me, okay not out of whack, just my usual I don’t have figures painted up for it but it sounds interesting, Wavell’s War in 15mm. I am not exactly sure how to make it work, but I am still working out the plan. Of course I would need to paint up Brits, Italians, and Germans and maybe something else. I am thinking the Red Bull Infantry Division would be entertaining, but that is too late in the war for now.

Horse Musket and Gun - Game this Fall

2009-04-19T10:22:00.002-05:00

It's been suggested that we try and run a larger game of Horse Musket and Gun this fall.

I believe a reality check is in order before getting too excited about the prospect.

1) Is there enough interest among potential players to cover the cost?
2) Do we have enough figures to provide a playable force to each player?

Right now I figure there are about a dozen players interested in game of 25mm Napoleonics at the scale we are playing. That would be about a three or four short of the number we would need. Could we get the additional players by this fall, probably, but I am not going to hold my breath. Twelve players would require a $17 fee per player, either in food and beverage or payment. Twenty players drops cost per player down to $10.

Assuming 15 players, that would be 15 divisions worth of troops needed.
Austrian Light Division – 2 Regiments of Grenzers, 2 Cavalry Regiments, 1 Battery
Austrian Division – 4 Regiments of Infantry, 1 Regiment of Landwehr, 2 Batteries
French – 12 Battalions of Legere/Ligne Infantry, 2 Batteries
French Cavalry Brigade – 3 Regiments of Light Cavalry
Prussian Brigade – 5 Regiments of Infantry of Some sort.
Russian Infantry – 6 Regiments of Infantry/Jagers

Austrian Light Division – 60 Foot Figures and 60 Cavalry Figures
Austrian Division – 325 Foot Figures
French Division – 180 Foot Figures
French Cavalry Brigade – 40 Mounted Figures
Prussian Brigade – 120 Foot and 12 Cavalry
Russian Infantry Division – 136 Foot Figures

So with those numbers in mind
6 French Infantry Divisions, 2 French Cavalry Brigades = 1080 foot figures and 80 mounted figures
2 Austrian Divisions and 1 Austrian Light Division = 710 foot figures and 60 mounted figures
2 Russian Divisions = 300 foot figures
2 Prussian Brigades = 240 foot and 24 mounted figures.

Between Jim and me we have the following figures:
French Foot = 500 foot + 176 Guard foot
Austrian Foot = 192 foot, 28 Grenzer + 28 Jagers, 192 Grenadiers + 72 Landwehr
Russian Foot = 96 Foot
Prussian = el zippo

At this time we just don’t have enough figures.

I’ll look though my pile of unpainted lead but most of that is not plain jane basic infantry, which is what we need at this time.

I realize the Joel Gregory has probably as many figures as I do, probably more but that still leaves us too many short for the big game and Hastings is probably outside of his range to drive to.. We would have to get the Tom Zwirn, Kevin MacDonald, and Jack Ladd Painting services very very busy for the next six months. I am afraid I just don’t see it happening right now.

However that won’t stop me from drawing up a potential order of battle :)

Horse Musket and Gun - Game April 18th

2009-04-18T21:24:00.004-05:00

Today I rolled out the latest version of the “Horse Musket and Gun” Rules for public trials to see how they played and how the game flowed beyond conceptional discussions and lots of dice rolling. I am again amazed at how well the game flows and how fast everyone seems to pick up the basic concepts.

Of course with all trials the one issue that I have been so concerned with reared its ugly head again.

For the 200th Anniversary of the Battles along the Danube during the Austrian invasion of Bavaria the game today featured what else, an Austrian and French battle.

The Austrian IV Armeekorps faced off against the French 2e Corps. This battle put several differeing twists into the game that the players needed to account for.
The 2e Corps was a newly reformed formation in the spring of 1809, every battalion was a 4th Battalion from either Ligne or Legere regiment, mostly filled with new recruits of the class of 1809. The French units were smaller than many players were expecting and rated as 2nd Rank Line.
The Austrian IV Armeekorps was a veteran formation in the spring 1809 and was probably as close to paper strength as you ever see Army going into the field. The large Infantry Units were supplemented with a number of Archduke Karl’s Legions and two light brigades.

Austrian IV Armeekorps – FML Rosenberg
Division Dedovich
Brigade Grill
IR Ludwig - 3 Battalions 24 Figures
IR Koburg – 3 Battalions 24 Figures
6Pdr Battery – 2 Stands Medium Artillery
Brigade Neustadter
IR Czartoryski – 3 Battalions 24 Figures
IR Ruess-Greitz – 3 Battalions 24 Figures
6Pdr Battery – 2 Stands Medium Artillery
6Pdr Battery – 2 Stands Medium Artillery
Division Bartenstein
Brigade Riese
Mittrowsky IR – 3 Battalions 24 Figures
Bellegarde IR – 3 Battalions 24 Figures
6Pdr Battery – 2 Stands Medium Artillery
Brigade Waldegg
Chasteler IR – 3 Battalions 24 Figures
Archduke Karl Legion – 2 Battalions 20 Figures
6Pdr Battery – 2 Stands Medium Artillery
Division Somariva
Brigade Stutterheim
Grenz Regiment 12 – 1 Battalion 24 Figures
Vincent Chevaulegers – 2 Divisions 12 Figures
3Pdr Grenz Battery – 2 Stands Light Artillery
Brigade Radivojevich
Grenz Regiment 13 – 1 Battalion 24 Figures
Stipsicz Hussars – 2 Divisions 12 Figures
6Pdr Cavalry Battery – 2 Stands Medium Artillery
IV Armeekorps Reserve Assets
12Pdr Battery – 2 Stands Heavy Artillery

French 2e Corps D’Armee – Oudinot
Division Seras
Brigade Conroux
6th Legere – 1 Battalion
24th Legere – 1 Battalion
25th Legere – 1 Battalion
9th Legere – 1 Battalion
16th Legere – 1 Battalion
27th Legere – 1 Battalion
Brigade Albert
18th Ligne – 1 Battalion
24th Ligne – 1 Battalion
45th Ligne – 1 Battalion
94th Ligne – 1 Battalion
95th Ligne – 1 Battalion
96th Ligne – 1 Battalion
Brigade Jarry
4th Ligne – 1 Battalion
18th Ligne – 1 Battalion
54th Ligne – 1 Battalion
63rd Ligne – 1 Battalion
Division Asset
6Pdr Battery – 2 Stands of Medium Artillery
Division Claparede
Brigade Coehorn
17th Legere – 1 Battalion
21st Legere – 1 Battalion
28th Legere – 1 Battalion
26th Legere – 1 Battalion
Tirailleurs du Po – 1 Battalion 32 Figures
Triailleurs corses – 1 Battalion 24 Figures
Brigade Lesuire
27th Ligne – 1 Battalion
39th Ligne – 1 Battalion
59th Ligne – 1 Battalion
69th Ligne – 1 Battalion
76th Ligne – 1 Battalion
Brigade Ficatier
40th Ligne – 1 Battalion
88th Ligne – 1 Battalion
64th Ligne – 1 Battalion
100th Ligne – 1 Battalion
103rd Ligne – 1 Battalion
Divisional Asset
6Pdr Artillery Battery – 2 stands Medium Artillery
Light Cavalry Brigade Colbert
9th Hussars - 12 Figures
7th Chasseurs a Chevel – 20 Figures
20th Chasseurs a Chevl – 12 Figures
Heavy Cavalry Division d’Espagne
Brigade Raynaud
4th Cuirassiers – 20 Figures
6th Cuirassiers – 16 Figures
Brigade Fouler
7th Cuirassier – 20 Figures
9th Cuirassier – 10 Figures
Corps Assets
12Pdr Positional Battery – 2 Stands Heavy Artillery
12Pdr Positional Battery – 2 Stands Heavy Artillery

I instructed or highly suggested that both sides take to the offense on turn one.

The battle didn’t take shape as I had intended, no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy or turn 1 of a wargame. In almost every other previous public games we have played the players have been ultra aggressive. The overall game was just a few too many figures for our table space, but I figured it was okay because both sides have lost brigades early on. In this game all but two players were content to site just out of long range and take pot-shots at one another. This is not something that the rules simulate very well as if no other actions occur it add a fatigue remove a fatigue. It would take several luck rolls to force things to break. The other extremely ultra conservative in-action was one of usual more aggressive players went total turtle defense on turn 1.

On the opposite end of the table top from the Turtle Defense jack Anderson went over the top with his assaults against the French positions. The problem from a game stand point was that he did it with the worst rated troops on the Tabletop, the Two Austrian Light Brigades.

It’s hard to sit back and discuss the flow of a game when such “unusual” anomalies of game play are occurring. However the players understood the system and for the most part the game went smoothly. There were a couple exceptions, twice the kibitzing on the table-end of the game away from me caused some slow-downs.

From a game play standpoint we still have an issue of interaction between cavalry and infantry during the close to combat. I tried again to make the rules as streamline as possible and less gamey, but we end up with too many dice rolls. I think I will reorganize the flow and ordering of the actions.

Another minor concern/problem is that Jim and I weren’t on the same page as were the all the rules were. I suppose we will have a sitdown before the next game so we are playing the same version.

The other noticible issue is terminology. I will have to “clean-up” some of the terminology so that it has less specific connotations in several cases. Light Fortifications will become “Light Cover” as an example.

I think the number of figures probably would be okay for 12" wide table but t 10" wide it is just a touch short in depth. I will have to adjust scenarions accordingly. We will have some more discussions on Frenc Divisional Assets.

I have a number of figures sitting on the painting table that just need basing and flock, that we could have used for this game. No excuse I was just lazy. Eight Austrian Guns, 1 Battalion if Hungarian Infantry, 20 some Austrian Commanders, and gosh knows what else. All needed. Time to get off my ass and finish them up.

In the end I have to thank the players, Fitz, Joel G., Joe K., Tom, Noel, Jim, and Elliot for putting up with my concepts and providing some feedback. While I know a couple players went what the hell did I just play, everyone else seemed excited byt the rules. All and all I have been asked to run another game and will do so, probably in May some time, maybe May 9th.

Game Day Set - Saturday June 6th

2009-03-31T10:54:00.006-05:00

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

Images of the Guyenne Infantry Regiment

2009-03-29T15:41:00.005-05:00

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.

Images of Quebec Militia

2009-03-27T22:23:00.002-05:00

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

Weekend Projects

2009-03-27T19:37:00.004-05:00

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.

ACW Figures in search of a Project - Follow Up

2009-03-21T20:41:00.002-05:00

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.

ACW Figures in search of a Project

2009-03-18T11:52:00.002-05:00

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?

Austrian Roll-Call

2009-03-16T08:31:00.003-05:00

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

2009-03-16T08:07:00.005-05:00

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.

25mm Napoleon's Battles

2009-03-11T18:29:00.003-05:00

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.

Centurion's Schedule

2009-03-10T16:14:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-10T11:25:00.003-05:00

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"

2009-03-10T11:16:00.002-05:00

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.

Napoleonic Skirmish - revisted.

2009-03-09T08:33:00.003-05:00

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.

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

2009-03-02T12:40:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-02T11:43:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-02T11:25:00.002-06:00

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.

25mm Napoleonics

2009-02-22T11:26:00.001-06:00

A hot topic amongst a group of local gamers is 25mm Napoloenics. After much talking, and not enough listening, I would like to try and enunciate my position as clearly as possible.

I like 25mm Figures, they are extremely beautiful scale. Regardless of manufacture an army of painted 25mm figures is damned impressive.

The problem with 25mm Figures is there is no consensus on a number of issues.

For the Napoleonic period there is no reason to mount the figures individually. In my opinion Napoleonic Skirmish is a pointless exercise. There are two problems with Napoleonic Skirmish:
The first is mission or game creep. No one wants to do a small skirmish action rather they want to recreate larger actions that are well beyond the scope of the rules. I listen to people tell me that you only need “sixty” figures yet when you listen to their plans they want hundreds. You move into the realm of an unplayable game when you go even one figure beyond the scope of the rules. If a game is a one-on-one game and requires sixty figures a side it is NOT PLAYABLE as a six-on-aside game were everyone has 120 figures.
The second is people only want to recreate “Sharpe’s Exploits”. I shouldn’t need to go any further with that complaint.
A semi-third issue, one that most over looked, what rules do you want to use? Have you read the rules you are suggesting? Yes that is directed at all three parties. If you are really interested in Napoleonic Skirmish, try Flintloque I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how the rules work and the fun you can have with the game. And heck you can even buy the figures painted.

So moving beyond Skirmish mounting the figures make the most sense in some sort of multi-figures per base scheme. It took us ten years to decide on the current schema in use and now at least three parties are suggesting other “better” plans. To those let me ask the simple question, why is your plan better than what we already have; why should I remount hundreds of figures?
Of course the only answer I have received from those three parties so your figures match up with mine. Wait you (might) have sixty figures that you are painting and I have 1100 tell me again why I need to match yours? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Finally I listen to a number of people who tell me why my “plan” and or “opinion” is wrong. I listen politely and then ask a simple question. “Do you realize that is neither my plan nor opinion you are ripping into?” I wonder how people who have jumped to such conclusions expect me to take them seriously?

What would I like to do?
I really enjoy Napoleon’s Battles. It is a nice solid system which allows me to recreate fairly large battles in a short amount of time without requiring a gym floor to play. Yes I want to play Napoleon’s Battles in 25mm. This has been my goal and objective for years. However it doesn’t necessarily jive with others in the area desire with 25mm figures. Several want to play battalion level games in 25mm and others company level games.
So it is all about compromise, and I think I have been on the winning end of those so far.
Others want a 1:30 scale game, let see if I paint up my figures at 1:30 that gives me four units at 1:120 in infantry and two cavalry units at 1:80.
In the end there are virtually no rule sets I can’t play with my mounting and everyone else is who is painting 25mm figures is working towards my end goal as well as their own. I really would like to do Leipzig in 25mm for the 200th Anniversary of the battle. But that is four years away. First we have to get through the Peninsula and Russian Campaigns of 1812.

But what about my 15mm Napoleon’s Battles Armies?
My French are actually organized at 1:30 and like my 25mm armies it means I use a battalion to be a brigade. And so on and so forth.
I have been expanding my 1809 Austrians to 1:30 as well.
In the end I should be well positioned to play lower scale games (1:30) in 15mm and my larger scale games in 1:120 using 25mm figures.

Well enough venting for now. Later all.

What's with the lack of Posting?

2009-02-22T11:23:00.001-06:00

Sorry I haven’t written much lately, I realize my three and a half regular readers are probably pretty frustrated about my lack of web venting. Okay I probably don’t have that many readers but a guy can dream can’t he.

I haven’t done all that much gaming lately; suddenly I don’t much free time. I find that as an over exuberant parent I have my son scheduled for half-a-dozen things during the week and except for Tuesday night, which my wife works, we are constantly running from skating to soccer to Taekwondo to Parent Teacher Conferences to floor hockey. When I get home and finally convince Gunther to go to bed, or just give up, I have spent more time Fishing the Brandywine in “Lord of the Rings Online” or chasing the mythical “Chatter Ring” in “Dungeons & Dragons Online”.

So without much further ado here is a rant, I mean a couple of posts.

Happy Holidays

2008-12-25T11:28:00.001-06:00

From the Johnson Family to all of you.

Some more painted figures

2008-12-02T09:48:00.003-06:00

I have completed the following units

Napoleonic
Italian Cavalry - 1st Chasseurs-a-cheval Regiment (8 Figures)
Italian Infantry - 1st Line Regiment (24 Figures)
Italian Infantry - 3rd Line Regiment (24 Figures)
French Cavalry - 7th Cuirassier Regiment(12 Figures)
French Artillery - 8 Stands (16 Figures and 8 Guns) Horse Artillery

In addition I have a few more stands of Artillery at least 50% painted (sorry didn't have my painting guides with me so detail work was left off)
Italian Artillery - 1 Stand (2 Figures and a gun) Horse Artillery
Italian Artillery - 2 Stands (6 Figures and 2 guns) Foot Artillery
Saxon Artillery (1809) - 1 Stand (3 Figures and a gun) Foot Artillery
Saxon Artillery (1809) - 2 Stands (4 Figures and 2 guns) Horse Artillery
Berg Artillery - 1 Stand (2 Figures and a gun) Horse Artillery

As well as the following units that are about 50% complete because I ran out of time.
Italian Infantry - 4th Line Regiment (24 Figures)
Italian Infantry - 2nd Line Regiment (24 Figures)

Some Figures I have Finished Painting Recently

2008-11-28T15:06:00.004-06:00

15mm Napoleonic
French Light Cavalry - 12 Figures - 3rd Lancers a Cheval
French Light Cavalry - 12 Figures - 4th Lancers a Cheval
French 6# Artillery - 6 Stands - 6# Horse Batteries
Italian Light Cavalry - 8 Figures - 1st Dragoons
Italian Light Cavalry - 8 Figures - 2nd Dragoons
Italian Guard Infantry - 8 Figures - Chasseurs of the Guard
Saxon Line Infantry - 8 Figures - Prinz Anton Line Infantry Regiment

Hopefully I can get a bunch of stuff done fairly quickly.

Updated Project Priorities

2008-11-28T14:39:00.002-06:00

After much discussion, primarily with Fitz but others were involved to, I have set my painting priorities for the winter. I have decided on focusing on two projects; the unending Napoleonics for Napoleon's Battles/1:30 and Seven Year's War in 15mm. Most of the other projects are just going to sit for now. My goal is to get a lot done between now and say Valentine's Day.

For the Seven Years War Project I will be working on my Swedish and some Austrian Allied, mostly the Swedes. And I have determined that I will paint all the figures for this project myself. I will use other resources for the Napoleonics projects I have going.

1) Drottningens Livregemente
Three battalions of figures are cleaned and primed black waiting for me to put paint to brush.
2) Blu Hussarenregiment
I own the figures and they are still in the bag.
3) Gul Hussarenregiment
I own the figures and they are still in the bag.
4) Nylands Dragoon Regiment
I own the figures and they are still in the bag.
5) Hästjägare
I own the figures and they are cleaned and on bases.

For the Napoleonic Period:

Off being painted in Sri Lanka:
· Austrian Cavalry - Archduke Ferdinand’s Hussars
· Austrian Cavalry – Stipsic Hussars
· French Cavalry – 1st Chasseurs a Cheval
· French Cavalry – 6th Dragoons
· French Cavalry – 10th Dragoons
· French Cavalry – 2nd Regiment Guard Lancers “Red Lancers”

Off being painted by Tom Zwirn
· Austrian Infantry – Archduke Karl’s Legion – Prague Students
· Austrian Infantry – Archduke Karl’s Legion – Mahrisch’s Volunteers
· Austrian Infantry – Croatian Inserrecto
· French Infantry – Sailors of the Guard
· French Infantry – Conscript Grenadiers of the Guard

Figures I am working on
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 1
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 2
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 3
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 4
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 5
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 6
· Italian Line Infantry Regiment 7
· Italian Light Infantry Regiment 1
· Italian Light Infantry Regiment 2
· Italian Chasseurs a Cheval Regiment 1
· Saxon Line Infantry Regiment Maxmillian (1809)
· Saxon Line Infantry Regiment Frederick (1809)
· Saxon Cavalry – Prinz Clemons Chevauxlegere (1809)
· Saxon Cavalry – Herzog Albert Chevauxlegere (1809)
· Saxon 8# Horse battery (1809)
Many of these figures are primed and have many of the Initial colors painted on them. It is just about doing the detail work.

More Figures sent to Tom Zwirn Painting Machine

2008-11-26T10:06:00.003-06:00

I sent some more figures to Tom Zwirn to get painted.

1. Archduke Karl’s Legion – Prague Students (32 Figures)
2. Archduke Karl’s Legion – Mahrisch’s Volunteers (32 Figures)
3. Croatian Insurrecto (32 Figures)
4. French Sailor’s of the Guard (16 Figures)
5. French Conscript Grenadiers of the Guard (32 Figures)

The downpayment is a pack of Seven Year War Prussian Musketeers (48 Figures) with more packs being sent as soon as they are available.

Hopefully I can make a dent in my stacks of unpainted lead sometime this upcoming year.

Message to the Centurions Mail Group

2008-11-25T14:48:00.001-06:00

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who attended Saturday’s Napoleon’s Battles Game at the Levee Café in Hastings. We had eight players (Fitz, Joe, BJ, Crow, Elliot, Dave, Jim and myself), I am fairly certain everyone who attended had a good time and there was a resounding request to do another game soon.

It has been a while since I have organized and run a larger game, we used to do it all the time, but I was too involved in running other events, so some things did not go as smoothly as I would have like. I have learned from it and will attempt to apply those things to the next game.

As I am a problem child when it comes to cameras, Fitz and Joe have provided some pictures of Friday and Saturday's action which once organized and notated will be added to my blog.

We have scheduled another Napoleon’s Battles game for the last weekend in February at the Levee Café. We will be using the 1813 stats and army organizations but instead of using a set scenario will be a little bit more dynamic using a system we talked about to build scenarios. Several of us are fleshing out the system and hope to have the final rules in place shortly.

On Friday Evening, February 27, we will be setting up the Terrain, pulling figures and hopefully doing the first few moves. Than on Saturday the 28th we will be doing the big games. Yes I said games.

Another change is that we hope to be using the Third Edition of Napoleon’s Battles; we have been informed that they should be available starting next week.

Several individuals have asked what they can do to help for the next game. As always painting figures is a big help. If you’d like to volunteer to paint something up and need some help choosing drop me a line and I can point you at several interesting choices.

As always everyone is welcome to come down and play all figures will be provided. However for the event in February there will be a hat for donations to cover the rental cost.

Jeff

We have a date for the Next Game at the Levee.

2008-11-23T14:13:00.001-06:00

Feburary 27th and 28th.

I have an interesting plan for a larger game.

Jeff

Short Post about the Nov 22nd Game

2008-11-23T02:08:00.001-06:00

Okay it is late and I want to get a quick post out there.

I want to thank everyone who showed up we had 8 players (Fitz, Crow, BJ, Joe K, Elliot, Jim, Dave, and Myself) and unless everyone is lying to me we all seemed to have a great time.

Of course the batteries in my camera were dead so I am dependant on the pictures from everyone else :(.

By unanimous voice vote we all agreed to host another game at the Levee Cafe in the late winter early spring time frame. I'll talk to Brian about dates.

The Leipzig Game - Friday

2008-11-22T01:53:00.002-06:00

I made my way to the Levee Cafe at 4PM yesterday. Meet with my younger brother Brian who helped me arrange the tables.

I was caught a little off guard as the tables were not what I was expecting. The tables were divided into two sizes. Six 8' x 36" and 8 8' x 30" rather than the 6' x 30" I was anticapating. So I had to rearrange my layout.

I screwed up the green cloths I had purchased earlier in the week. I though I bought two 6' x 12' and one 6' x 9' table coverings but it turns out all three were 6' x 9'. Again more rearranging.

I had purchased brown electrical tape to lay out the roads as I could not find the brown masking tape. The electrical tape was difficult to work with as it had a tendany to stretch and contract at in oppertue times. So it took a couple hours to do the lay out.

For the rivers I left the 1 inch wide blue masking tape at home so I had to cut the 1 1/2" tape in half to do the streams.

Afterwards I began pulling troops. I got through the French Guard and three French Infantry Corps when my head began to hurt. So I went off to pull the Austrians and paint their bases.

Just as I got started painting bases Crow showed up. I never look a gift horse in the mouth so we put him to work putting labels on the French Bases.

So as Crow work hard on the base labels, Fitz painted his bases green and I flocked mine we listened to electorica trance and busted hump for several hours.

Jim had to drive back to his place to pick up the Russians he left at home.

Crow left at midnight and I was kicked out closer to 1.

I have to remember 4 stands of Austrian Landwehr and 1 stand of Austrian Heavy Cavalry.

Figures from Tom Zwirn

2008-11-19T10:37:00.003-06:00

Today Fitz handed me a nice little gift box, my painted figures back from Tom Zwirn.

Included were:
30 Peasant mounted Cossacks
16 Infantry with Rifle at the Ready
16 Infantry firing Musket with Bayonet
56 Militia with Musket at the Ready including 8 Command
16 Infantry with Halbreds

In addition Fitz handed me
6 Austrian 12# Batteries
2 Austrian 12# Canons.

it was almost my birthday.

Figure Count

2008-11-18T22:43:00.003-06:00

Below is my letter to Fitz with my figure count.

My Counts as of Tonight
French
1 4 Figure Command Base
3 3 Figure Command Base
5 2 Figure Command Base
18 1 Figure Command Base
8 1 Figure Command Base (Detail Work Needed)

Old Guard Cavalry
5 Grenadiers-a-Cheval
5 Empress Dragoons
2 Gendarmes
5 Chasseurs-a-Cheval
6 1eme Lancers
1 Mamlukes

Young Guard Cavalry
2 Grenadiers-a-Cheval
2 Empress Dragoons
2 Chasseurs-a-Cheval
2 1eme Lancers
7 Guards d’Honneur

Guard Infantry
6 Grenadiers a Pied
6 Chasseurs a Pied
5 Middle Guard
11 Young Guard

Guard Artillery
4 12#
5 6#

Cavalry
15 Cuirassier
2 Carabineers
4 Light Cavalry
4 Light Cavalry (Detail Work Needed)

Line Infantry
210 Line
37 Light

Artillery
14 12#
4 12# Detail Work Needed
4 6#

Italian
1 2 Figure Command
1 1 Figure Command
4 Guard Infantry
9 Line Infantry

Confederation of the Rhine
15 Line Infantry

Saxon (1809)
5 Heavy Cavalry
1 Light Cavalry
4 Grenadier
7 Line Infantry
2 Line Infantry (Detail work needed)
1 12#
1 12# Detail work needed

Austrian
1 4 Figure Command Base
4 2 Figure Command Base
14 1 Figure Command Base
14 Cuirassier
29 Light Cavalry
12 Grenadiers
86 Line
16 Grenzer
10 Jager
4 landwehr
12 12#
10 6#

Russian 1798
4 Cossack
9 12#
6 12# Need Detail Work
4 6# Need Detail Work

Russian 1810
TBD

Russian 1813
TBD
11 Cossack

Prussian
22 Landwehr
4 12#
11 6#

I have far more Austrian Figures; however as that is the Maximum we need for this Scenario that is as much as I listed.

For the Russians I have a large number of Figures for the Russo-Swedish War of 1810. All these figures would need to be mounted.
Additionally I have a large number of Figures for 1813 that need to be mounted again (originally mounted on card stock that is falling apart).

If you can send me a final list of what w are short I will focus on completing the detail work on that.

Unexpected Package

2008-11-17T14:21:00.003-06:00

I arrived at work today to discover I had a package. Seems that Fernando Enterprises was better than there word and my latest order arrived unexpectedly early. It is another sign of their great service.

Arrived:
Napoleonic Cavalry
French 1st Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 10 Figures
French 2nd Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 8 Figures
French 3rd Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 6 Figures
French 4th Regiment Gardes d’ Honneur - 6 Figures
French 3rd Chasseurs-a-chevel - 15 Figures
Austrian 1st Dragoon Regiment - 12 Figures
Austrian 2nd Dragoon Regiment - 12 Figures
Austrian 3rd Dragoon Regiment - 12 Figures

Napoleonic Infantry
Austrian Jager - 48 Figures
Austrian Line Regiment Mittrowsky - 24 Figures
Austrian Line Regiment Rayniers - 24 Figures
Austrian Line Regiment Ruess-Plauens -24 Figures

American Civil War
Union Mounted Command - 3 Figures
Union Infantry Command - 36 Figures
Union Infantry - 51 Figures

We are down to one Week

2008-11-16T14:02:00.002-06:00

Too many people who don’t understand my fanatical behavior when it comes to whatever I do or in this specific case my almost obsessive behavior towards miniature gaming they really have no clue what kind of an undertaking it is to put on a big game. When Jim and I decided to put on a large Napoleon’s Battles game because we had already schedule the weekend off for MGCon I really thought we were a lot closer than we are.

We won’t be able to do exactly Leipzig and I am okay with that. Rather we are going to do a close approximation of the first day with some substitutions of some units. I am fairly certain that both Jim and I will have a very good time setting up and playing the game. There will be great stories to tell after the game no matter what the outcome.

Today I started doing a troop pull and final counts. I may need to paint a few figures over the next week so this pull helps me get everything in order.

What I discovered:
- I actually have enough Austrians to do all Four Corps and the Two Reserve Corps, in Shako even.
- I have a large number of French Stands that need to be flocked
- I wonder where the Italians went.
- I know I have more painted Saxons

I also hope that my order from Fernando ships early this week. Knowing my luck it will arrive next Monday. Not that we really need anything from the order since it is primarily Austrian and French Light Cavalry.

I’ll have to call Tom Zwirn this week and see if the Cossacks I sent to him for painting are done. Be nice to get the Cossacks since I believe they will really help determine how the game will turn out. Yes Schwarzenberg (aka Me) has a plain for the Southern Front. Strange after hours of looking at it, it all comes down to about a half-a-dozen dice rolls.

Blog Update

2008-11-04T10:58:00.002-06:00

I have taken the time to redo the templates and layout of the blog. Part of the changes is adding a Photobucket Slide Show showing images of recent games.

Let me know what you think.

Too Many Projects.

2008-11-03T09:39:00.004-06:00

I spent several hours over the weekend looking at projects I have started and not got around to finish and wondering what the heck I had to do to get them to a playable state. While I have literally dozens of projects I was really looking at the projects that I currently own figures for, have started painting figures and basically walked away. So projects that I have playable armies for and not the need to paint, even though I may own more unpainted lead, are not included (with one exception).

Here is the list in Historical Order (from Ancients to Modern) with comments:
Bronze Age Greeks (IE the Trojan Wars)
Several years ago I was convinced to buy figures for a Chariot Wars supplement of Warhammer Ancient Battles. I bought figures for a Greek Army and basically completed painting the chariots using an Ink only painting plan. A number of spearmen are started as well. The problem here is I only have one side and there is not much interest locally to do the period anymore. It is too expensive with all the chariots and other such figures that are needed. While I like the paint job it was very time consuming way to paint.

Ancient Greeks (The City State of Lesbos)
Another Ancients project that got started and lost traction as soon as people bought figures; at least in this case I don’t have a huge investment in figures. I am thinking these figures will go up on ebay shortly. There are a few primed but literally no paint on any figure other than primer. I doubt you’ll see interest restart in this scale anytime soon.

Seleucid
I bought a starter army several years ago at a RockCon. The army was never complete for anything and for years I have debated on what to do for it. Fitz has given (loaned) me the needed Essex figures to complete a Seleucid Army so I can fight his Carthaginian Army using Field of Glory. But I got to put paint to brush. I probably will send these figures to Sri Lanka to get painted.

Wars of the Triumvirate (Roman Civil War 55 BCE to 49 BCE)
Another ancients project I was convinced that HAD to be done. The Roman World during the Fall of the Republic. I should have known better than when I had been convinced to buy figures this period was going nowhere. Problem is I have continued to buy figures for this period, good money after bad I believe the saying is. Anyways I own enough figures to almost have three playable armies, yet I still need to purchase more figures to fill out the individual armies and make it playable. I have a Two Roman Armies (Caesar and Pompey) and a good start on a Gallic Army. The Figures I own for Caesar (Roughly six of the 10 legions) are painted as the legions for Pompey have a good start. The issue is the figures I don’t own. I would need to get those figures.

Fall of the West
Reoccurring them in the Ancients period. I was convinced there was interest in a period I invested money and then as I got started the project fell completely apart. Here I own 95% of the figures need to make a playable army, but I am not sure who I would fight as a historical enemy. The only painted army I know of is Jim’s Saxons that are 400 years to far into the future. I have good start on the painting with four “legions” painted.

Third Crusade
Okay, here at least I can almost blame myself. I was interested in doing First Crusade but was later convinced to Third Crusade (by a player no painting first crusade) and so I have two half painted Armies I really have no clue what to do with. I am currently planning to complete a Third Crusade Army for both the Crusader States and Arab States. But I will be honest it is not high on my painting list. I am still pissy about the fact I was dragged kicking and screaming to the Third Crusade and then they went back to the first crusade.

Seven Years War – Swedish Pomerania

Seven Years War – Quebec Campaign 1759
I own a painted French Army for this campaign I probably won’t have to paint another figure for the period, all I need is a set of rules. “Wilderness Wars” which is the de facto set for the period around here doesn’t handle the larger campaign that I am interested in. I suppose if I wanted to do the Mohawk Valley or Louisburg or Louisiana or Mississippi Valley Campaigns “Wilderness Wars” would work out okay. I just not sure how interesting that will be considering we are using “Wilderness Wars” for a similar projects in the Southern Campaigns….

Napoleonic Period
This will need to be it's own post.

American Civil War – Fire and Fury - Gettysburg Campaign
I think I am just doing this period to piss off other people and I am not sure i care it is such a poor reason, at least I have one.

American Civil War – Fields of Honor - Gettysburg Campaign
I am not sure why i list this project as I will have in about three weeks playable forces on both sides when my latest batch of Union gets back from Sri Lanka.

Franco-Prussian War
I suppose we just need to settle on a rule set "Field of honor" being the current favorite and move forward. I have a good number of French done and a good start on some Prussians. Maybe I hand Tom some figures here.

World War II - Russians
Painted for Broadsword, being converted to Spearhead basing. Jus the rebasing is all that is left, I suppose this will be a weekend project.

World War II - German (Hermann Goering Panzer Korps)
This unit fights in North Africa, Sciliy, Italy and the Eastern Front. So i figure a good generic unti that with trading out a few pieces of armor I can use from 1940 to 1945. Most of the Armor is painted I just need to finish the Infantry.

World War II - Japanese and US Marines (Island Hoping)
Need to choose a rule set. I have about three hundred painted Japanese and equally that number of Marines, but I have not chosen a rule set yet. I am leaning toward a modified Broadsword, but I am not sure I can stand the screaming I'll get from Kevin.

World War II - Operation MarketGarden (A Bridge too Far)
I just need to finish painting a few figures.

Modern Czechoslovakia and Modern French
Need a rule set. I suppose I will need to go over to "Modern Spearhead" i just wish it was as interesting as a set as "Corps Commander" which is a better system except for combat. I have talked for years about combining the two and going with it.

Mecklenburg Order of Battle

2008-10-29T10:03:00.003-05:00

1754
Alt-Zülow - 5 Companies
Jung-Zülow - 5 Companies
Rostock Garrison (Infantry Battalion Dömitz) 500 Men
Kavallerie - 1 Squadron

1754
Alt-Zülow - 8 Companies
Jung-Zülow - 8 Companies

1759
Alt-Zülow - 8 Companies
Jung-Zülow - 8 Companies
Both - 5 Companies
Rostock Garrison (Infantry Battalion Dömitz) 500 Men
Schwerin Garrion 500 Men
LiebGarde Kavallerie - (von Barsse) 4 Squadrons
Husarenschwadron - 1 Squadron (113 Men)

1760
Both - 8 Companies

A slight change in plans

2008-10-28T11:20:00.003-05:00

After much discussion with the Self-Elector, umm I mean Fitz, I have changed my painting plans slightly and this will involve a slight change to the completed Württemberg units.

I will be getting six battalions on older Prussian figures from Fitz so the currently completed four battalions (using Old Glory 15's) will have their facings redone as red and become the Infantry from the two Mecklenburg Duchies.

The Six or Eight Battalions of Freikorps figures will be painted up as the Württemberg Army. These will match the Freikorps figures I am painting up as the Bavarians. I'll probably have to come up with a few more artillery pieces but with a Heritage Artillery Park for the Austrians I think I have that covered.

Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz

2008-10-28T10:25:00.003-05:00

File this one under d'uh...

In searching for the Seven Years War uniforms of the two Mecklenburg duchies I was drawing a virtual blank. I mean not even Knotel.. That's because the two Duchies are not found under Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz that would be two darn easy, nope they are under Schwerin-Mecklenberg and Strelitz-Mecklenberg for the Seven Years War Period and Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz for the Napoleonic Period. Who thought that one up.

Uniform Details
Prussian Style Uniforms.
Blue Jackets - Red Turnbacks, Cuffs and Collars. White small clothes, belting, and hat lace. Black Gators.

Now to find the Regiments names.

Böhnens Fribataljon

2008-10-28T09:15:00.003-05:00

While painting up the last four Don Cossacks I also painted up 12 figures of Böhnens Fribataljon for the Seven Years War. I really like the way this unit turned out. Each figure is wearing a different but similar uniform. Several Prussian uniforms symbolizing Prussian deserters which made up much of the battalion.

I also prepared the Second Battalion of Drottningens Livregemente for painting, well actually I primed them as I had cleaned all three battalions and mounted to Popsicle sticks last week. These should be a quick unit to paint with white facings, white paints, white gators, white small clothes, white hat lace, and white belting.

In addition I primed up both of the Swedish Heavy Batteries for painting, again this will be a damn quick unit to paint. Blue pants, blue small clothes, blue facings, natural leather belts and no hat lace.

Don Cossacks

2008-10-28T09:10:00.004-05:00

Last night I completed the first block of 16 Don Cossacks that I am planning to paint up for the game on November 22nd. Other than the lance pennants (which the Don Cossacks didn't have) the unit looks pretty good, from a distant.

The paint job is not the greatest and I rushed a few things. These are defiantly the figures you look at from three feet away rather than up close and personal. I primed the figures brown and painted over the top. The uniform I used my standard Prussian Blue and than dabbed color on the bits and pieces. For the lance pennants I painted four blue, four green, for red, and four another shade of red. I figure I will use yellow, light blue and orange for the next twelve figures.

I prepared the next group of 12 plus my command stand which I plan on priming up tonight and getting ready for painting this week.

The Glorious 26th of October

2008-10-26T23:06:00.010-05:00

The Saracstic Alliance: The Self Elector (Notice how he is peaking at the Camera), The Left Hand Man, Count von Zoltov, Freddie the Adequate, and Prinz Henri von Kersed

The Austrians: Duke Jimbo of Whirlyberg, The Elector of Bavaria Noel the First and the Archduck Jack.

The Thirty Third and a Third Coalition of Lunacy: Duck Jimbo of Whirlyberg, The Elector of Bavaria Noel the First, the Archduck Jack, The great Pasha Beybey, and General "Biggie" Johnson

Freddie the Adequate and Duck Jimbo discuss the sharp lines of battle before the game game starts.

The growing Swedish Army moves into defensive position behind the Mississippi Creek.

A wider view of my Swedish forces.

Freddie the adequate surpressing a chuckle as he discuss battle plans with the Left Hand man.

The Austrian commanders laugh about the deployment of thier army. "How bad could this be?" Asked the Noel the First.

A view down the Coalition Line after the first turn.

A view down the Alliance Line after the first turn.

A view of the Prussian Position.

A view of the Hanoverian Position.

Prinz Henri von Kursed looks over the board in antipation as turn two is about to begin.

Right wing of the Austrian Line.

Prinz Henri von Kersed Cavalry command of two Hussar regiments chages home against a Austrian Cuirassier Regiment and an Austrian Dragoon Regiment.
If you look closely in the woods you will see a unit of Prussian Jagers engaged with an Austrian Grenzer unit.

The Second Hussar Regiment is replused.

A closeup of the battle line.

The Ottomans under The great Pasha Beybey cross the Mississippi Creek and begin advancing on the Hanoverian Army.

A view of the Austrian Line at the end of turn three.

After entense combat the Austrian Cuirassier regiment rambles back to regroup.

During the explotation phase the Prussian Hussars under Prinz Henri von Kersed move to flank the Austrian Line.

The Hanoverian line slowly retreats in attempt to intice the Ottomans to charge.

Two, four, six eight, who do we appreciate. Freddie the Adequate tries to determine how many dice he needs for his Artillery Battery.

We have seen this look before on the Austrian commanders. Something like reindeer just ran over grandma.

The freshily washed and bathed Ottomans begin the rumble forward.

What do mean we have been charged from the rear? The Austrian Dragoons and Cuirassier Regiments in a clear moment of dooooommmm.

Well, with the Elector of Bavaria, Noel the First, in charge we are assured of a Couple Cavalry Charges being replused by teh Bayonetts.

A view of the Prussians of the Left Hand Man moving forward in the center.

The valiant charge of the Hanoverian Guard Cavalry against the Ottomans cavalry.

A view of the Ottoman and Swedish positions on the left of the Austrian Line. The Swedes wait paitently at the Mississippi Creek for the an attack that never came.

A look down the Austrian Line as a regiment of Cuirassier have found themselves out of position.

The lone Ottoman Cavalry Regiment stand triumphantly as it has successfully replused the vaunted Hanoverian Guard Cavalry Regiment relentless assaut.

The Final Dispositions as cleanup is taking place.

The Actors:

The Self Elector: Jim (AKA Fitz) Fitzgerald
The Left hand Man von Zoltov: Joe Zottola
Freddie the Adequate: Tom Zwirn
Prinz Henri von Kersed: BJ Kersteter
Duke Jimbo of Whirlyberg: Jimbo (He who I will learn his last name someday)
The Elector of Bavaria, Noel the First: Noel
Archduck Jack: Jack Anderson
The great Pasha Beybey: Chris Combs
General "Biggie" Johnson: Jeff Johnson <- That's me by the way.

Gettysburg - Day Three

2008-10-26T22:26:00.003-05:00

Starting to do a lot of reading on the American Civil War, which is interesting from a foreigners perspective.
I think everyone can agree that Picketts Charge didn't stand any reasonable chance of success.
But what should he have done instead?
Whats the verdict on the battle?

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=153704&page=1

My Responses:

Short Answer: Lee made the right choice based upon what he knew.

I apologize for such a long reply but the OP is a difficult question to answer. I will try to be as brief as possible. Forgive me if I oversimplify a number of issues. We are gamers and don't necessarily put into prospective the problems of politics and logistics that concern those in command of Armies.

Long Answer:

Up to and including the "Gettysburg Campaign" the intelligence reports for the both the Union and Confederacy were extremely flawed. Due to how the intelligence was gathered and disseminated the Union greatly over-estimated the strength of the Confederate Army while the Confederacy greatly under-estimated the strength Union Army. It is hard for us to understand that fact now that we "know" the real troop strengths but both sides thought the Confederate Army was numerically superior. By the "Gettysburg Campaign" both side we in the final stages of realizing how far off their intelligence reports were.
Today Robert E. Lee is a universally adored and loved personality in the South, in spring 1863 out-side of the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia he was not well liked. In the Confederate Government he only had one ally, Jefferson Davis I guess he is the only one that matters; the rest of the executive branch of the Government, especially the cabinet, held him in disdain and were active in looking to replace Lee as the commander of the most important Confederate Army. In the spring of 1863 James Seddon, the Secretary of the War for the Confederacy, requested the Jefferson Davis replace Lee with Longstreet. Davis refused.
Prior to the Battle of Chancellorsville the Confederate Government was planning the campaigns of 1863. In the last eight months of 1862 there were fourteen major engagements in Virginia, if 1863 followed suit than the war was lost before the first snows. The "Battle on their own ground" strategy was problematic for the south; while it allowed their inferior numbers to cope with superior numbers of the Union (they didn't realize that was the case) it played havoc with the Confederate ability to grow crops. The Executive Branch drew up objectives that they felt needed to accomplish in 1863. After many meetings the Cabinet drew up a series of objectives.
The primary objective was to pull the Union Army out of Virginia for the summer and early fall months. This would allow the crops to grow and be harvested without threat of the Union Army destroying them in field. It is important to remember that Virginia was the "breadbasket of the Confederacy" and that at least 1/3 of agricultural crops were grown in such a small section of the country. They needed that year's crops to survive as a nation that winter.
The second objective was to force the Union Army to redeploy on a grand tactical scale. Remember that the Confederate Army was believed superior in numbers and that because of Confederate forces defending Mobile, Knoxville, Charleston, Little Rock and dozens of other minor outposts they were more spread out. This is a much longer topic but for this discussion I am just paraphrasing what takes whole books to discuss in any detail.
The third objective was to relieve the pressure along the Mississippi Corridor. The Armies of Mississippi, Missouri, Western Louisiana, as well as Gardner's and Ruggle's Commands (in Port Hudson and Corinth respectfully) were all threatened by Grant's position in Southern Arkansas.
Multiple plans were presented including two competing plans by Lee and Longstreet. Lee suggests what becomes the Gettysburg Campaign while Longstreet plan suggesting taking his Corps from the ANV and create an independent army to streak at what becomes Burnside Command in Lexington Kentucky than moving Southwest and pushing Rosencran's between himself and Bragg. Longstreet's is the plan approved by the Cabinet but over ruled by Davis and Lee's plan is approved.
Lee understands the pressure placed on his position. Of course Lee's plans fall apart on May 10, 1863 when General Jackson dies of his wounds. Lee is forced to rework his plans and organization. However he has little time to rethink and replan as he is forced to move by the first week in June.
While I will skip the tactical movements from June 3rd to July 3rd I will talk a little bit about supply. The ANV was used to moving light and had three days of supplies at all times. This includes both food and ammunition. Every day foraging parties would return with at least another days worth of supplies while on the move. The Union Army had large amounts of supplies available in depots but not necessarily enough on the actual man. As an example it took a week to issue three days worth of supplies in early June to allow the AOP to start the full pursuit. This difference was amplified by the actions of J.E.B. Stuart cavalry as it disrupted the Lines of Communication in southern Pennsylvania and Central Maryland. This slowed down the movement of the Union Army allowing the ANV to get a much larger head start and more space than anticipated.
Between June 26th and when Meade assumes command the AOP, Jun 28th, the AOP stole a march on ANV. This movement of an additional 20 miles may not seem like much in modern terms but it is all that it takes to take the initiative away from the ANV. On the 28th Meade doesn't realize how much the last 48 hours have changed the course of the campaign.
Somewhere between May 10th and June 28th a new tactical aim was added to Lee's laundry list. He had to wreck the Army of the Potomac. In this era of Napoleonic ideas wrecking the opposing Army meant a titanic Battle in the mold of Napoleon's victory at Marengo or Austerlitz. However a more appropriate battle to examine would be Hohenlinden (Dec 3, 1800) in which French General Moreau catches the Austrian Army of Archduke John and is able to surround and destroy the Austrian Army in a piecemeal fashion. Austria sues for piece shortly thereafter.
One the evening of the 28th Lee decides to assemble the Army near Cashtown PA, this movement moves all three corps from behind the Blue Ridge/South Mountain Ranges to the same side as Union Army thus removing his screen.
After Day 1 at Gettysburg, Ewell made a tactical mistake by note pushing the disordered Union defense at Culp's Hill. Any hope of regaining the initiative for the AVN is lost. Thus Lee must make a plan to attack on Day 2. Again it is important to remember Lee believe the Union to number to be at most equal to his own and maybe slightly less. If you ever play out the battle using Lee's estimates of Union Strength you understand why he had the grand attack on Day 2 and then the follow up on Day 3.
Another issue that is rarely brought up but is an important factor here, Lee was very solitary person and he rarely kept anyone fully in his confidence. On Day 2 Longstreet didn't know the exact plan for Ewell and vice versa. It can be argued that because he saw specters of failure and ultimately his replacement around every corner or if just didn't have the staff many of his orders were not recorded in the same fashion as that of the Union. We depend on the writings after the war by Generals like Longstreet to GUESS at what Lee was thinking. After the War Lee only wrote once on the conduct of the war and that was to defend Longstreet when southern writers were looking to blame someone militarily for the failure.
On Day 3 Lee had to make a choice. He was facing a force that he believed was his equal in numbers and had historically had short term supply issues. They were strung out over about 15 miles from Buford's command south of the Peach Orchard to Gregg's command five miles east of Gettysburg. His spies reported that the Union had reinforced the wings of the line. In the center he estimates the strength of not more than 5,000. 5,000 would have been the correct number had the AOP numbered only 75,000 not the 95,000 there really was.
All said if we had to make Lee's decision on the Third Day we probably would have made a similar choice because based on the information Lee had it is the best choice.
As a minor follow up:We don't know is exactly what Lee ordered Stuart to do when he issued his VERBAL orders on the morning of the 3rd. Stuart dies before the end of the War and there is no written record of the exact order. What we do know is that Stuart Cavalry which has had a running battle with the Gregg's Cavalry (Less Buford) since June 26th mounts up and moves against the extreme right of the Union. There are a number of books on the premise of what was supposed to happen, including "Lost Triumph" by Tom Carhart, the most recent that I am aware of. Whether it is by chance or fate or simply because the Confederate Cavalry hasn't slept more than a few minutes at a time in over a week, the attack doesn't achieve its objective. Whether it is supposed to be a break through or simply to force the Union to move reserves to the right flank or anything else that you can come up with; while we don't know exactly what the order was all we do know is it didn't work.
Thus as Sally Pickett tells us, Pickett's Division goes forward (along with two others) and the high-water mark of the confederacy is achieved.
Lee has a number of options on the fourth day of battle, one in which both sides stare down each other. Lee misses his last opportunity to regain the initiative as the AOP in the field has virtually no supplies. Many men were without ammunition, food was scarce and water was in short supply. Lee whose Army was still in good supply and was ready to take the fight to the Union again decided to withdraw. It takes the AOP two days to resupply and begin the pursuit.
When you move beyond the battle and beyond the Lee's retreat we are left to look at the objectives laid out by the Confederate Government.
1) Pull the Union Army out of Virginia. This was done with great success. It allowed the Confederate Crops in Virginia to harvest in the end of the summer stockpiling almost 16 months supply as estimated later in the year. It was a very prophetic answer since the Confederacy last only 16 more months in the east.2) Force the Union Army to redeploy. The union army was not forced to redeploy any units, not because the plan was wrong but because the intelligence used to generate the plan was faulty. By the end of 1863 both the Union and Confederacy remake their intelligence agency and reports and get more accurate numbers on their advisories.3) Relieve pressure in the Mississippi Corridor.The plan failed to remove any pressure from the Mississippi Corridor and Vicksburg surrenders on the same day that Lee decides to withdrawal from Gettysburg. This is of course is for a number of reasons, being too far east, too late and simply too little in terms of numbers.4) Wreck the Union Army. The AOP lost 25% of its strength hard not to call that wrecking, considering its noext major engagement is in May 1864 (The Wilderness).
However as the Army achieved the most important objective and Lee acknowledged his own mistake and accepted blame (as well as many of his contemporaries blamed Longstreet) Lee stays in command of the ANV until its surrender at Appomattox.
As Gamers' an interesting scenario would be to allow Lee to Attack on the Fourth Day (July the Fourth) and using some sort of supply rules to determine whether units in the AOP were supplied or not.

A number of people (both in this discussion and other works) have suggested that Lee move the ANP to the SW and attempt to get between the AOP and Washington.
The are at least two problems with that suggestion. There is no "north-south" movement. The road network is in a shape of an X and moves in a SW/NE or SE/NW pattern. Any movement by the ANV takes them further away from Washington and the AOP always will have a shorter route. Example: While it is about ten miles from Gettysburg to Emmitsburg and then another 10 miles to Tannytown it is only 8 miles from the Gettysburg to Tannytown. Unless you could steal a march (very tough to do in such close quarters) there is no way to out maneuver the AOP. The second problem is more problematic, after day one Buford's Cavalry is arrayed from the Emmetsburg road west cross country towards Fairfield. You'd have to fight your way and that blocks any chance of stealing a march.

Figures given to Tom to paint.

2008-10-26T22:24:00.003-05:00

30 - Peasant Cossacks
24 - Tyrolian Jagers
24 - Pseudo Uniformed Troops
16 - Billman
36 - Armed Mob.

This should be a good start for the my forces to face The great Pasha Beybey.

My Evil and Nefarious Plan

2008-10-23T10:03:00.002-05:00

I admit to being a sucker for the slightly off beat projects that come up from time to time and of course I may have found one true to my tastes.

Chris Combs (The great Pasha Beybey) has a fully painted Ottoman Army that he uses in a number of games and periods. Considering the Ottoman costumes haven’t didn’t change from before the Seven Years War until after the Rebellions in the 1850s (A period of over a hundred years). I think this is a great plan and good reuse of figures. However Chris’ problem is that his Army is completely over matched against Non-historical opponents. IE he always is fighting Regulars in weird settings.

So I pulled out my collection of unpainted lead and went what the hell can I paint up that would be interesting to fight The great Pasha Beybey.

In searching I found I have the order of battle for the Austrian, I mean Hungarian, Army that fights the Turks from 1808 to 1812. And then I started looking at the list and going I bet this would be a great game if we can find the right rules.

The Core of Hungarian Army is Two Hungarian Infantry Regiments and a battalion of Hungarian Grenadiers. I assume there is some artillery in this group but none was listed.

The cavalry is a Dragoon Regiment (called the Hungarian Dragoons so I am doing some research on that one) and the other two Irregular hussar Regiments that were virtually taken on the regular roles.

Other units involved include several Border (Grenz) Regiments including four battalions of Grenzer Landwehr. There is also several Hungarian Insurrection units. And if Hungarian Insurrection wasn’t bad enough I also get Hungarian Militia which are untrained Insurrection troops. I am not sure who would have the worse army. The Ottomans or the Austrians?

To make matters worse I have made an agreement with Tom Zwirn to get the whole thing painted. What have I done…..

Wait this could be entertaining. The big challenge will be finding rules since neither side mustered very large forces.

You could also throw in Marmont, Russians and a few other items and you get trouble with a capital T.

Nylands Infantry Regiment

2008-10-23T09:51:00.004-05:00

I have finished painting up the Nylands Indelta (Provincial Infantry) Regiment last night. This regiment has two battalions of 3 stands.

This gives my Indelta Brigade 4 Battalions with 1 2/3 to go. A battalion of Närke-Värmlands Indelta Infantry (three stands) and a detachment of Västgöta-Dals* Indelta Infantry (two stands) will also be painted up in the next day or so. I also want to paint up Böhnens Fribataljon and maybe a few jagers but those may have to wait.

I also spent some time looking at my next Brigade. I decided that I need some staying power in my painted army. So my next brigade will be Drottningens Livregemente or the Queens Own. This will have Two battalions of four stands and one Battalion of three from the same regiment.

* I may change my mind on these eight figures I may make them part of Böhnens Fribataljon and add in four Jagers figures to make the 12 figure battalion. I am kind of leaning that way today. If I do than I will need another 12 figures for the Västgöta-Dals Indelta Regiment

Next Shipment to Sri Lanka

2008-10-20T13:54:00.004-05:00

All figures 15mm
American Civil War - Union Infantry (100 Figures)
Austrian Napoleonic - Stipsic Hussars (12 Figures)
Austrian Napoleonic -Archduke Ferdinand's Hussars (16 Figures)
French Napoleonic - 1st Chasseurs a' Chevel (16 Figures)
French Napoleonic - 4th Lancers a' Chevel (12 Figures)
French Napoleonic - 5th Lancers a' Chevel (12 Figures)
French Napoleonic - 6th Dragoons (16 Figures)
French Napoleonic - 10th Dragoons (14 Figures)
Swedish Seven Years War - Gul Hussars (16 Figures)

I will also be sending a few figures for Fitz to pay off my figure debt.

What a way to spend the day

2008-10-19T23:20:00.002-05:00

I spent much of Sunday mounting and rebasing Austrian Napoleonic Figures.

From previous shipments to and from Fernando Enterprises:

Kaiser Franz Infantry Regiment
Erzherzog Carl Infantry Regiment
Deutschmeister Infantry Regiment
Freiherr von Schroder Infantry Regiment
Erzherzog Ludwig Infantry Regiment
Furst zu Liechtenstein Infantry Regiment
Freiherr Reisky Infantry Regiment
Freiherr von Klebeck Infantry Regiment
Freiherr von Zach Infantry Regiment
Graf d’Aspre Infantry Regiment
TBD Infantry Regiment
TBD Infantry Regiment
TBD Infantry Regiment
TBD Infantry Regiment

The reason I have four TBD Infantry Regiments is that I made a mistake in painting. I painted up Freiherr von Hiller (IR2) as an German Infantry Regiment rather than a Hungarian and repeated said issue with three other Regiments. I have to figure out what I can do with the units if I can use them as other reigments (that I haven't already got painted).

Figures that I rebased:

10 Austrian Heavy Artillery Stands
15 Austrian Light Artillery Stands
Kiaser Franz Hussar Regiment (12 Figures)
Stipsic Hussar Regiment (16 Figures)
Dragoon Regiment #4 (8 Figures)
Dragoon Regiment #6 (8 Figures)

I was shocked at how time consuming this project is. I suppose takening the time to make sure each base is properly labeled and organized correctly isn't helping the process.

I have four more regiments of Infantry to base up, which were painted by Fernando, and about 200 figures of Grenadiers that need to find a base.

In addition I got about 300 Figures from an Empire Corps that need to get rebased. This is going to take some more time.

Things to do for the November 22nd Game.

2008-10-19T08:37:00.002-05:00

60 Cavalry React Markers
120 Disorder Markers
120 Rout Markers
An undetermined number of Casualty Markers
Table Rental
Setting Up Terrian
Mount Austrian Figures

Napoleon in Spain - 1812

2008-10-18T21:02:00.002-05:00

As the warm morning sun rose across the Spanish field that clear October morning in 1812 Napoleon stared at the distance and daydreamed about cold and snow.
“My Lord” an unnamed Aide de camp broke the silence. “General’s Reille and Junot are here for their orders.”
“Will be a hot day today, have my horse saddled and ready. The British are making a mistake, while it is bad form to interrupt them I prefer not to leave them long enough to realize it.” Napoleon turned and smile that smile he always did, he was after all Mr. Happy. “Send in the Generals”
The Emperor spoke “General Reille you will command the leftwing moving against the British under Lord Hill. While Genral Junot you will take my right wing and move against those washed and freshly bathed Ottomans. I’ll never understand what they are doing here, it Spain for goodness sakes.” He looked at the two Generals and continued “We have no heavy cavalry so we must use Artillery to force the enemy to do our will.”
After a pause General Reille spoke up. “I’ll send the Light Cavalry Corps against the Extreme left, Lord Hill has massed his cavalry between his command and the Center. My two infantry Divisions will form the center with the Light Cavalry Division on my right towards the center.”
Napoleon switched has gaze from Reille to Junot he spoke up “I plan on using a similar plan against the Ottomans. My Light Cavalry Corps will be on the Right, Two division of Infantry in my center and light Cavalry division on my left towards your position in the center.”
“My boys that is a good plan. We will drive the enemy from our Spanish Soil.”

To be completed later

The cast in order of appearance
· The Emperor Napoleon – Jeff Johnson
· General Reille – Joe Knight
· General Junot – Jack Anderson
· The Duke of Wellington – Noel
· Lord Hill – Jimbo (Whose last name I will learn someday)
· The great Pasha Beybey – Chris Combs
· The Final Arbitrator – Jim Fitzgerald

It was unfortunate that the two most experienced players were on the French Side. Noel and Jimbo were overmatched and unable to handle the moves and countermoves that Joe Knight and I did.

Package on it's way from Fernando

2008-10-17T08:10:00.002-05:00

I received an e-mail this morning from Sanath at Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka that my next parcel shipped yesterday. In addition I have a $16 credit to my next order. Whoot. Considering I shipped too many figure that will help.

Comming back are the following:
25mm Napoleonic Austrian Grenadiers
Grass Green Facings - 8 Figures
Apple Green Facings - 8 Figures
Parrot Green Facings - 8 Figures
Dark Brown Facings - 8 Figures
Light Blue Facings - 16 Figures
Poppy Red Facings - 8 Figures
Pink Facings - 8 Figures
Napoleonic Austrian Hungarian Grenadiers
Light Blue Facings - 12 Figures
Emperor Yellow Facings - 8 Figures

Napoleonic Austrian Mounted Generals
ArchDuke Charles and staff - 4 Figures
Bellegarde and Staff - 3 Figures
Liechtenstein and Staff - 3 Figures
Hiller and Staff - 3 Figures
Generic Offices and Staff - 4 Figures
Austrian Mounted Infantry Officers (1809) - 3 Figures

Napoleonic French Mounted Infantry Officeres - 5 Figures

Of course this gives me way too many Austrian Greandiers (chuckle) I'll have about 50 stands with six being command stands only 140 figures or another 35 stands.

Koenig Krieg Game at the Source on Sunday October 26th.

2008-10-15T11:37:00.012-05:00

I have reserved the Sandtable for a Koenig Krieg game on Sunday October 26th. I have sent out a Call-to-Arms in the usual method (Email) to all commanders to assemble on that well bloodied ground of the village Falcon Heights which will be fought over at least one more time.

Answering the call "Freddie the Adequate" (and his Prussian Command) and the dual personalities of the "Self-Elector"/"Archduck Fitzgerald" have both (or is it all three) informed me that they will be in attendance.

Hopefully that Sunday also works for the "Archduck Elliot", "Archduck Jack", "MyLord the Earl of Garfield" and we can get a good sized game going. I also hope "Duck Jimbo" and "Elector Noel the First" will also be present.

Roll-Call of the known members of the Sarcastic Alliance:
* Freddie the Adequate - Will be Present
* The Self-Elector - Will be Present
* MyLord the Earl of Garfield - will not be present
* Freddie's Lefthand Man count von Zoltov - Will be Present
* Lt Gen Beej von Kursed - Will be Present

Roll-Call of the Thirty Third and a Third Coalition of Lunacy
* Archduck Jack - Will be Present
* Archduck Elliot - Will be Present
* General "Biggie" Johnson - Will be present
* Duck Jimbo (He whose last name someday I will learn) - Will be Present
* Elector Noel the First - Will be Present

And Finally those showered and well bathed Ottomans
* The great Pasha Beybey - Will be Present
* The trivial Visar Ahkray of Robbinsdale

"Freddie the Adequate" has informed me that those dust clouds on the horizon are more figures marching to battle. Something about "Boys in Blue" will be well represnted.... Stay Tuned

Württemberg Artillery

2008-10-14T21:31:00.001-05:00

While not much of an accomplishment I completed painting the two Württemberg Artillery stands that I need. Four Artillerists and two guns. There are a couple of minor fixes that I need to do. I gave the officer Red Turnbacks for some odd reason, I must have been tired, so i need to change those back to black.

Tomorrow I will be focusing on the Brigade Commander (one Roeder by name) and working on the first two battalions. I need to pickup more flesh paint and a rose color paint.