The prospect of a big Napoleonic battle at the beginning of August inspired me to crank out another battalion of French early period Napoleonic infantry.
A slightly weird photo, but these are more of the excellent AB 18mm range.
Just one more battalion sitting in the lead mountain now…then it’s time to start spending again!
Lots of entries today into this year’s Painting Challenge.
A few points to note:
Mervyn has changed cameras, so his pics are looking good
Neil’s adventurers brought out a wave of nostalgia in me. I’m sure I had that cleric as one of the very first D&D figures and characters I ever had. Tolass the Holy if I remember correctly. I must see if I can find him again, although I don’t remember him being painted as well as Neil’s!
I’ve changed the way I present the Scorecard. It should make it easier (and faster) to update on an ongoing basis. The numbers are the same: it’s just the format that’s changed!
Check out the individual galleries, but here’s a selection to whet your whistle:
Bevan and I manged to squeeze in a quick game of To The Strongest last week. Choice of sides was up to me, so I decided to test out the new-ish massed lights rule (where two light units can join forces and keep most of the characteristics of a light unit but be a bit tougher in combat) by fielding my New Kingdom Egyptians. Against them Bevan would take the newly slimline Akkadians: their deep spear units being reduced to normal size under the latest incarnation of the army lists.
I deployed my infantry in the centre, with two strong chariot-based units on either wing. My plan was to use my superior missile fire to weaken his troops and then either smash his weakened centre with my foot, or have my chariots harass his flanks…and it almost worked!
On my left, Pharoah himself led his veteran chariots forward. They shot loads of arrows at the enemy but failed to make any impression: there was obviously something wrong with their bow strings that day!
They then spent the rest of the battle being slowly pushed back or, in one case, sandwiched i.e. keeping the enemy’s right wing occupied, but not much else.
My right wing, however, did exactly what it was supposed to do. Quickly disposing of some light infantry, one unit of chariots swept around the flank of an enemy spear unit and drove it from the table. The other chariot unit skirmished with another enemy spear unit until it was sufficiently wounded, and then charged in and finished it off.
Great success, but the fact that I was hitting only on an “8” (light units remember) meant that it had taken more time than I had anticipated to achieve what I had done. One unit of chariots was also now quite a long way from the action, although the other was in a position to strike a commanding blow by taking the enemy’s camp.
Unfortunately, the cards failed me at the last minute and I ended up one square short (photo: right, above). The other chariot unit, or perhaps a unit of light infantry, also missed charging into the rear of an enemy spear unit in the centre by a similar margin. I would win the next turn, but could my centre hold out long enough for me to do so.
The simple answer was “no”. The Akkadian spear and axe units in the centre had been grinding forward and my mixed force of archers and spearmen just could not hold them. On Bevan’s next initiative he manged to break enough of my units to win the game just as I was poised to do the same to him!
So another great game of TTS. Looking at that last turn, I had four chances to take Victory Medals, two of which I needed to make happen in order to win the game. In the event, none of the four came off: by such slim margins are the fortunes of war decided!
The final game of our To The Strongest battle day was a double-sized game with two players and 260 points per side. Si and I would take the Classical Indians again, Peter and Cayden would take the Alexandrian Macedonians.
One slight twist was that the results of the last four games were applied on top of the existing TTS points system to further balance the armies…and as the Macedonians had won three of the day’s four encounters so far, they had their Victory Medals (lose them all and you lost the game) reduced by a third.
Si and I decided to try the same plan that had almost worked in an earlier game: our left flank (under me) would hang back and try and hold the enemy’s main attack with the Companions and Phalanx whilst our right flank (under Si) advanced quickly, brushed aside the lights in front of it, and curled around to hit the phalanx etc in the side.
That was the plan…but unfortunately it didn’t work. Although the left flank did some heroic work holding up the Companions (the new rules about Javelinmen in rough terrain being very useful), the various Macedonian Phalanxes proved pretty unstoppable in the left centre, and our troops on the right just couldn’t get into play fast enough.
So there you have it: despite even points and a bias on the Victory Medals, the Indians still lost, Over the course of the day, that made four out of five Macedonians victories: I guess there’s a reason Alexander conquered the known world!
Half way through the year and people are really getting into their stride now.
Today we have some very large entries showcasing some excellent work. Below is just a selection: please do visit the galleries to see all.
I haven’t had time to update the Scorecard yet: I shall do so asap!
For the second encounter of the three-game marathon organised by Peter, I would take the Alexandrian Macedonians into battle against the Classical Indians.
My opponent set up in a tight formation in the centre of the battlefield hoping, presumably to pepper me with arrows before we made contact. His right wing looked very strong, with his heavy chariots and some elephants facing off against my Companions, but his left wing…well it looked a big “hanging” to me!
I therefore placed my three units of horse archers way out on my right: their aim would be to swoop round and attack his left wing from the flank and rear.
Once the game had begun, I advanced in echelon: holding back my left whilst my horse archers sprinted for the other end of the table. My pike blocks moved forward as fast as they could and, admittedly, I got a bit lucky here: the phalangites trotted forward faster than expected and almost immediately threatened his front.
After that good start, the battle unfolded almost exactly to plan. The horse archers swept around his left flank and rear just as the two phalanx units hit his front, and his left flank crumbled.
I then brought forward my Companions to prevent his quality troops on the right from intervening, and then it was just a matter of letting things take their course. In the end I won a victory 12:2 i.e. I only lost a couple of light units.
With the prospect of a big Napoleonics bash coming up I thought it a good time to get back to painting the horde (or should I say hoard!) of early period French that I have in the lead mountain.
My first three battalia were normal line infantry so, for a change, I went with greatcoated infantry for battalia number four. My reading tells me that it would be extremely unusual to see a whole battalia in greatcoats but, for one out of what I am sure will be many, I’m sure it doesn’t really matter.
There are from the AB Figures 18mm range again and, despite the slightly weird looking photograph, look rather spiffing in their long coats. I painted three different colours of greatcoat: most of them are pale grey, some are dark grey, and some are light brown.
As you can see, I also took the opportunity to paint up the first brigade’s officer as well, although I should have turned the base a little as the hat on the rifle held up by his infantryman companion is right in front of his face. That’s why you pay lots of money to a stylist when you’re doing a photoshoot!
And why am I so keen to bring the lead mountain down?
Regular readers will know that this year I have promised myself that I can only buy new stuff if I first paint some lead mountain lurkers. It’s a pretty pathetic attempt to instil some discipline into my project management process!
So, as I said, why am I so keen to bring the lead mountain down?
Well, those very clever people at Museum Miniatures have just launched their new CAD range: 15mm Normans. Haven’t seen any figures in the flesh yet (or should that be “in the metal”?) but the designs look epic…and if these are as good as the Sumerians, Indians, Persians and Greeks they’ve done before, then they are going to be a very welcome addition to my collection.
Here are some pics:
Having recently played on a table set up by Phil & Jenny Turner (click here for the AAR) it’s great to see that they are gearing up for another demonstration game at this year’s Britcon.
Michael Curtis has posted some pictures of the playtest of the game onto the IABSM Facebook Group. Click on the photo below to see all:
Off to Peter’s house for a three game marathon with him, Si and Caydn. The idea was simple: two teams of two, individual battles in the morning, one giant game in the afternoon.
My first game, therefore, was to take the Classicial Indians into battle against Peter’s Macedonians.
I was out-scouted, so set up with my powerful escorted elephants on my left flank, standard infantry and normal elephants in the centre, and my chariots and cavalry on the right. Opposite my left flank were the dread Companions, in the centre the phalanx block, and on the right several units of light horse.
My plan was for the left flank and centre to hold the Macedonians at bay whilst my chariots and cavalry dealt with the light horse and then swung round to take his phalanx in the flank…and it so almost worked!
As the battle began, his Companions and Phalanx did indeed come forward. I held back my left and left-centre brigades, but was still engaged quite early on. My chariots and cavalry began dealing with the light horse opposite them, but were too slow to do so, and although my right-centre brigade did start turning the Phalanx’s flank, it just didn’t seem to be happening fast enough.
The strong Macedonian units facing my left and left-centre began chewing me up, and although I now had infantry in a good flanking position, my chariots and cavalry were still trying to mop up the last of his lights out on the right.
I did manage to take out one Phalanx, but ran out of medals on the left and in the centre before I could get everything I had on the right back and into his flank. Unfortunately my army crumbled before that could happen, and I lost the game 4:12.
We both agreed that if I’d managed to hold out on my left and centre for just one more turn, then things would have been very different (you can see my veteran heavy chariots posed to sweep his troops off the table in the picture bottom right of the gallery above) but it was not to be. A great game, though, and much closer than the result would suggest.
Phil’s second game of I Ain’t Been Nuked Mum was based on an encounter from the Battlegroup book, with British infantry (a mix of Regulars and TAVR units) trying to clear Soviets away from a village so that engineers can breach the minefield it covers.
Some beautiful pics of the game can bee seen by clicking on the picture, below:
Phil Venables and friends have recently been taking I Ain’t Been Nuked Mum for a stroll.
Here’s a pictorial AAR covering their first game: Swedes versus Soviet Naval Infantry.
Click on the picture below to see all:
No sooner had I posted Friday’s Painting Challenge update when a flood of e-mails hit the inbox with more entries (including some that I seem to have missed) so, rather than make people wait another couple of weeks, here’s a part two:
Just a quick update to keep things ticking over so that I don’t have too much backlog to clear!
Today we have entries from Matt, Carole, Nick and Mervyn. Do look in the individual galleries (access from the NavBar, above) but here’s a taster for you:
My afternoon game at Operation Market Lardon 2022 was a game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum run by the legendary Phil and Jenny.
I must confess that I got so into the game that I forgot to note the background properly, but from memory Scottish infantry supported by tanks from the Lancers, commanded by Noddy and I, would be defending a village in Normandy somewhere against an attack by a combined force of infantry and armour from the Waffen SS commanded by Andy and friend John.
A superb game of IABSM played on wonderful terrain. Click on the picture below to see all:
Here’s the first of my two battle reports from the TFL Games Day, Operation Market Lardon: a game of Sharp Practice set not only in the Hundred Days campaign but actually at Waterloo itself. As you’ll see below, Joe McGinn put on a great-looking game
John and I played the French, commanding a force ordered to stop an ammunition cart getting to the British Guards in Hougement. The Allies were played by Ally and Phil
The French were quite lucky in that our Voltigeur skirmishers got onto the table quite quickly and managed to almost immediately drive the British guards away from the cart. One set of skirmishers was then able to take possession of the cart and get ready to move it towards our baseline.
The Allies then brought on a large force of German infantry in column that headed straight for the cart and managed to recapture it, forcing our skirmishers to withdraw, but they withdrew just far enough to put the Germans under fire again, with concentrated.fire from the two Voltigeur units then driving the column back.
This meant that the French had time to bring on both their main infantry force (conscripts) and a decent sized support unit (line infantry). The former headed towards the cart and were able to finish the German column off, the latter formed a blocking force that quickly got into a fire fight with some Nassau infantry coming up from the direction of Hougemont itself.
The blocking force and Nassau were fairly evenly matched until one unit of French Voltigeurs was able to break away from harassing the German infantry (who had been broken by the arrival and volley fire of the French conscripts) and lend its fire to the battle. The Nassau infantry started taking heavy casualties and were forced to withdraw.
As the battle ended, the French had the ammo cart in their possession and well on the way to their baseline; the German column and British guards were on the run; and the Nassau skirmishers were starting to backpedal fast.
It was a glorious victory for the French: we did not lose a single point of Force Morale and had reduced the Allied force to just one Force Morale point. We had also lost just two Voltigeurs whereas dead Allied infantry lay strewn over the field.
Here’s the game in photos:
I’m just back from another very enjoyable day’s gaming at this year’s Operation Market Lardon TFL Games Day in Evesham.
Really nice to see everyone again after the lockdown break, and my heartfelt thanks to Ade Deacon for organising it as brilliantly as ever. I couldn’t stay for the evening curry this year but I am sure a good time was had by all!
As is usual, I played in a game in the morning and a game in the afternoon: Sharp Practice and I Ain’t Been Shot Mum respectively. I’ll write both games up over the next couple of days but, before I do that, here’s a pic of all the games on show from just before the day kicked off:
What A Cowboy!
Dux Bellorum
Sharp Practice
Sharp Practice
Chain of Command
Chain of Command
Chain of Command
I Ain’t Been Shot Mum
With Flashing Blades
Another great After Action Report from Mark Luther.
It’s I Ain’t Been Shot Mum and Normandy 1944. This was going to be a two part battle, with this AAR describing the first contest covering the attack by 46 Royal Marine Commando and the Fort Garry Horse on the village of le Hamel on June 11, 1944.
Click on the picture below to see all:
I used the long weekend to build and paint up all the German tanks with the Battlefront Kasserine box set.
There were nine tanks in all: three Panzer IV and six Panzer III, all of which could be built in a variety of different marks. I opted for a mixture of tank types to give me maximum flexibility when fielding them on table.
The kits went together very, very easily…even for someone as bad at kit building as I am. Really confirmed my belief that plastic really is the way forward.
First off the production line were the Panzer IVs: one F2 or G with the long 7.5cm gun, and two F1 with the short 7.5cm gun.
Then came the three Panzer III L with the long 5.0cm gun:
Finally another three Panzer III, this time the H or J with the short 5.0cm gun:
All were painted in the same way: a spray undercoat of Desert Yellow washed with Agrax Earthshade then drybrushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand. Tracks were painted metal and then washed with a heavy Flesh-coloured wash. Finally decals were added with the use of a decal softener: essential if you’re applying the turret numbers to the bumpy bit on the side of the turret (I put a bit of softener on the turret, then apply the decal, then paint more softener over the top; leave for twenty seconds or so, then gently press down with a tissue).
These really are very nice kits that paint up beautifully, even with my crude skills. At less than £2 a tank, I cannot but recommend this boxset for anyone wanting a quick fix of Afrika Korps.
Almost half way through the year already, so hope everyone’s on course to hit their Painting Challenge targets?
Today we see the welcome return of Mr Slade: his galleries are always well worth a visit , always very inspiring.
We also have entries from Stumpy, Mr Luther, Mervyn and John Emmett…some excellent work on show. Below you’ll find an example from each: as above, I’d highly recommend a browse through the individual galleries.
Another excellent battle report from the equally excellent Bleaseworld blog.
Set during the Blitzkrieg in May 1940 the game was based around efforts by the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment attempting to relieve the French defenders of St Omer who were under attack by the 1st Panzer Division.
This AAR features a beautiful table put together by Phil and Jenny, so is well worth a look. Click on the picture, below, to see all.
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
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