Napoleonic Playtest

Continuing to work on our joint venture to put on the Battle of Hanau (October 30th, 1813), Seth came up last weekend to playtest the new rules I have been developing.
Because of our use of very large base sizing, the type of grand tactical game we have envisioned, and the requirement to keep the game rules as simple as possible for the convention but still be Napoleonic in style, we felt a whole new concept is required.

The lone picture (we both had technical difficulties with our cameras!) shows to good effect the look of the game.  One should ignore the uncompleted bases and rudimentary terrain as this was a private game we did much to hammer out the concepts.  Of course this was between two like minds; once played by the convention player, the rules will surely fall apart <grin>

But the game did keep us stoked about the whole project.

I now understand the popularity of the Austrians.  Very effective looking on the tabletop.  Easy to paint (white primer, a touch of flesh, browns and facing colors, a quick wash and taa daa) and the white wave of their infantry crashes upon the enemy. 

(please note that the rules will not be published and are strictly a private venture and perhaps, after the convention, thrown away!)

'Hanau' French completed

I have happily met my obligations to paint up the French troops for the Battle of Hanau ( October 1813) with the completion of the Imperial Guard Chasseurs a Cheval.  These are in their campaign dress - so no plumes, no pelisse, no colpack bags blowing in the wind....  Rather boring in their green uniform actually. 

My original intent was to do the 1814 Campaign for France which was fought in the winter and a wet spring; so conceptually I wanted most units in their practical campaign dress.   Not very colorful but realistic. Thus my newly painted Young Guard are thus attired with mud encrusted hems of their overcoats and loose march order showing their fatigue in fighting for Napoleon's glory.

The figures are Victrix Chasseurs of the Guard with an assortment of miscellaneous Perry heads. I did not add some backpacks and thus added the crossbelts on the back to further give a ragtag feel.  I wanted a motley look  :-)

[ For those questioning: the dice are for 'hits' and are in small divots in the terrain putty mud.  The blank sections at the rear of the stands make for easy placement of the formation's or commanding General's information card.
Yes the stands are very thick but this to to encourage the use of the stand not the handling of the figures by players.  The flocking blends the stands into the table quite well however ]

Plastic and sun

Oh yeah, clipping plastic bits off of sprues is fun in the sun.  The sun finally makes an appearance after many weeks of hiding under clouds and rain.  So to take advantage of the light and, frankly, its morale lifting effect, I have set up a table in my south-facing office room and listened to podcasts while clipping and gluing at least a few of the many boxes of plastic Napoleonics I have acquired recently.
The largest advantage the plastics is weight; the lack thereof. However, aslo the Perrys are VERY nice sculpts.  While yes, I could get the horse in the required groups of three as sold by the Perrys, and for which I have bought many different packs already; the plastics offer modelling possiblities which are not available or would be difficult to do in metal.
 For example the 1st CaC of the Waterloo campaign were the ex-"Roi Chasseurs a Cheval" of the Restoration which did not, in the mere three months of the change back to Napoleon, manage or perhaps want to, part with their distinctive headdress.  Thus they wore, what to me looked very similar in shape to the carabineer helmet of which I had extras from the Perry Heavy horse box. The dragoon box has the upper torso for the trumpeter which I scraped off the lace - easy(ish) to do with plastic, much more problematic with metal - and used extra French hussar legs to complete the unit!  Now the unique 1st CaC will represent Pire's Light Cavalry Division of Reille's Corps of which it was one of the units. 

Anyway, sitting in the sun I can listen to podcasts and of the many various editions one had a Canadian military historian give a lecture about the logistic buildup for the Canadian attack on Vimy Ridge during WW1. (podcast) It is quite apparent that armchair generals speak of tactics (such as ourselves - luckily we wargamers do not need to feed and supply OUR troops)   Real generals speak of logistics.  One of the many aspects which lead the commander Gen. Currie to victory in spite of huge problems to overcome. 

But right now my main problem is not to get any more glue on top of this miniature's torso I am struggling to put together......

Again in the Russian steppes

A Monday night game at Francis' which unfortunately for me is a bit of rarity these days.  While they are building planes for the latest 'Dave Craze' (1:72 scale WW1 planes for Canvas Eagles) the boys are playing a lot of WW2 15mm. Both Francis and Dave have big collections.

I joined Kev for a German attack upon a Russian strongpoint. I will not bore you will a blow by blow, but let it be said that the Russian dice were not very good and with the poor Russian 'training' and the Battlefront rules which hamper ill-trained troops, the battle was one-sided even though technically, with no time left in the night, the Germans had not penetrated the Russian defenses. (more a fault of the scenario (distance) than casualties or such)
 For a rare time, I seemed to have the best of the dice, with at least five T-34's destroyed by time end....and one plane!

The Russian defenses

my force of Germans

The results of the Russian surprise flank attack. I seemed to roll particularly well during the game!

The Russians bring up the reserves.  Dave believes we probably have a Tiger off table. I say, "No, Dave we do not have a Tiger coming on... (he now thinks "more than one?!") But no, it is but a lone Elefant!

Francis (left) hopes that this roll will not be another 1, but Dave does not seem that convinced

Part of Kev's force of elites.  SS in peadot, painted by me for Francis an few years ago.  The over sized dots on these 15mm show up better at distance so more identifiable on the table.

Oh and that plane I mentioned I had shot down, by a tank no less?  And thankful I did too as Dave forgot to bring the proper model (and it was the "special thing" of the scenario!)  so substituted this white 'object' unpainted upon the table!  Shame, shame!