Ayton Wargaming Weekend

I have been away this weekend in East Ayton, near Scarborough, for a weekend of wargaming with the LAOW 

I arrived on Friday and joined in an ACW game using a set of rules based on the Perry's Firepower set.

I commanded two union brigades and faced three brigades of rebels. 

My first brigade looks across the field at a mass of yelling rebs intent on overthrowing our lines.

My second brigade had already been in action and retired to recover and reform. I managed to rally some of the men and re order the ranks. Before sending them forward into the cauldron of combat.

The Confederates were massing their third brigade to take the theimportant crossroads in the centre of the table. But for some unexplained reason the brigade failed to move forward any further failing 3 activations in a row.

On Saturday morning I put on a game using my classic Napoleonics using the classic Charge rules, with a few of my own amendments. The game featured the French facing a combined Anglo-Prussian army. Although out numbered the French had a central position and had the opportunity to beat the British before the Prussians could force a defile and capture the village in the valley.

The game played fast and furious with the Prussian initial attack on the village being thrown back. The Russo German legion slowly advance through the hilly woods.

The French bombard the British, successfully destroy one of the guns, and slowly advance. The British launch the Lifeguards in an attempt to slow the French however the French stand firm and easily repel the British Cavalry.  

In the centre the British Fusiliers move forward and are supported by the Brunswick Cavalry who clash with a regiment of French Dragoons. The melee see saws backwards and forwards before both sides fall back to recover. 

The British Infantry are still holding the ridge and with the French Infantry strength reduced Bonaparte decides to break off using his still intact cavalry to cover the retreat.

After a spot of lunch I spent the afternoon playing a 24 point game of DBN with Alex T one of the authors of the rules. The game was an 1813 engagement between Austrians and French.

The game was set up with the Austrian  attacking the French. The French had garrisonned a built up area and non linear fortification. As this was only my second game of DBN I decided to attack both.

The dice gods were with the Austrians who successfully captured the BUA and NLF  and turned and destroyed the French right.  The French quickly reached their 12 unit loss break point and the Austrians claimed a victory.

Sunday morning dawned cold with a touch of snow. We gathered and set up the group game of shiny toy soldiers using the 'A Gentlemans War' rules.  In all we had 12 players and we werre split up with our own00 section of table and opponent. 

The game was set as an invasion of Albion by a coalition of various european armies, both real and imaginary. I was on the side of the invaders and was up against Mr H, seen here in the green shirt.

My forces deployed at the start of the game.

The British slightly outnumbered me so I decided to play a bit more defensively rather than my normal aggressive tactics. My brave boys take up their positions ready to pour murderous fire  on the British.

The Brotish lead unit of Scots win the prise for the best troops on the table with those rather natty looking trousers.

My initial volleys damage the advancing Scots and the Post Office rifles seen with the white pith helmets in the background.

The British are however able to deploy their Infantry and either the extra numbers start to take a heavy toll of my army.

With the British cavalry successfully defeating my cavalry on the flank it was time for me to concede.

In all a jolly good weekend.

Scots Greys progress

I am now down to working 3 days a week and should in theory have more time to spend on painting.

I have made progress on the first six Scots Greys. The horses and main colours are done and I now need to finish the detail and tidy them up. The full unit should look rather nice once I get them completed.

One of the reasons why these are taking longer is that I have got side tracked into rebasing my 15mm Napoleonics. This collection is hardly used and must be over 20 years since I first started this collection.

With my 20mm classic collection built around the battalion and used with battalion scale rules and formations I have decided that the 15mm collection should be used for higher brigade level games such as Blucher and DBN with one stand representing a unit.

This week I started rebasing on larger 80 by 50mm bases and rather like the way they look. I only had a few mdf bases of this size so I am now cutting my own from a piece of mdf I had using a Stanley knife. 

A Russian Brigade using AB figures. I have also gloss varnished these figures as it really makes the colours pop.

A French Cuirassier brigade again using AB figures.  AB are by far the best figures although I also have Essex, Old Glory and Battle Honours.

And finally an Italian artillery unit. I am unsure who made these figures but they required a little extra card board on the base as they are smaller than my others figures.

Soldering Iron

 As I while away the last few days of work before I retire I realised I had few points  left in the company rewards programme.  Well I thought I better spend them so perused the online catalogue. Normally I end up getting stuff for the wife and kids so I had not great expectations that this would be any different.

Well I found something useful for me for once and got one of these.

The soldering point looks like I will be able to do some fine soldering and the variable heat control should allow me to apply a low heat without reducing figures to gloop.

I will try a few practise runs before I try any repairs on a Hinton Hunt figure.

Back to Napoleonics

I have been having a break since June from painting classic Napoleonics. However I am putting a participation game at a small get together in late November and I  really need another alied cavalry unit to balance the armies.

I have quiet a few unpainted units to choose from including Austrian, Prussian and British.  In the end I decided to go with a unit of one piece castings of the Scots Greys.

I got these figures a while back and the previous owner has altered some of the figure positions to make the unit more  animated. The horses have all had their tails docked. The figures have been painted some time in the past as there is still some red left on the uniforms.

Originally I was going the repair the tails but I have decided to go with the docked look. One figure had no hand or sword so I decided to graft on a bugle cut from a Newline figure. Some of the swords were a bit weak so I covered them with a thin layer of super glue at the weak points.

I used gorilla super glue to a fix the bugle hand to the figure as I have found this is a strong enough bond. As a change I will be using a grey undercoat rather than my normal black as I hope this well speed up the painting time.

I have also be doing some more rebasing and refurbing of my 28mm ACW collection.  

About 50% of the collection is done and I hope to complete by the end of the year. 

The vast majority of the figures are by First Corps and painted about 25 years ago.  

Altar of Freedom

My interest in the ACW goes back to my very first Airfix figures.  I have a fairly large 28mm collection but as my gaming table is limited I was looking for something in a smaller scale.

Last year I bought the  Altar of Freedom rules and over the last few weeks I have been adding to my 10mm AOF collection. I have been basing the figures with between 12 and 14 figures per brigade base. The figures are mostly Blaze Away with a few of the old Pendrakens mixed in to add variety. I have also done a few head swaps.

I have also being making fences and trees. I need to get some more tree armatures as I am going to need a lot more trees. 

I have another 6 brigades on the go and just need to paint the command to finish them off. I also have 4 command bases undercoated.

Take the High Ground

With retirement fast approaching I thought it would be a good idea to try a game of Neil Thomas One Hour Wargame rules solo as a possible set of rules for some light gaming.

This morning I played my first solo game using scenario 4 - Take the High Ground.   I used one of the alternate firing mechanisms with each unit having 5 strength and cavalry, artillery using one D6, infantry two D6 and Zoauves three D6 to fire. A four plus is needed to score a hit.

The union start the game holding the high ground and they have 3 infantry, 2 cavalry and one zoauve unit. They deploy  2 of the infantry units on the hill.

The Confederates have 3 infantry, 2 zoauves and 1 artillery unit.

I played the game with no sutility to the tactics and saw the Confederate and Union trade musket and loses in a stand up fight for the hill with the rebels gaining the advantage.

In the woods both sides had a zoauve unit and the fire fight lasted a number of turns  before the Confederates down to 1 hit managed to destroy their opposite number.

The other Confederate zoauve unit is able to emerge from the woods and take on a union cavalry brigade (represented by dismounted 7th Cavalry).

When they are joined by the 2nd zoauve unit.

The combined fire quickly destroys the union cavalry. The union have now lost 5 units to the confederate 2. A rebel victory.

I plan to run the game again later today and look to apply the lessons learnt from my first game.

I am wondering if 6" bases are a bit large as there was little room for manoeuvre particulary when using cavalry.  I am thinking of increasing the table size to 4ft 6" by 3ft or alternatively reducing the sabot base to 4".

54mm ACW ready for action

I have now assembled my two 54mm ACW armies for Neil Thomas OHW using my old childhood figures. 

The figures are a mixture of Britains Swoppet and Deetail together with a few  Herald ones. The union cavalry are Deetail 7th cavalry figures.  I have made the movement strays from artist board painted a suitable green and used white tack to hold the figures in place.

My son has unpainted Imex, Armies in Plastic, BMC and Italeri figures which I can always raid to paint up a few extra if needed.

I plan to play a game tomorrow. Take the High Ground looks a good scenario to start with.

54mm ACW for One Hour Wargames

As a kid I had 54mm ACW Britains and Herald figures and I still have them after over 50 years together with some later Britains Detail figures.  

Yesterday afternoon I spent a few hours putting as many figures together from the bits and pieces I have and realized I have enough for two ACW armies for Neil Thomas One Hour Wargame. Each army consists of 6 units and I will be using 6 infantry, 3 cavalry figures per unit.  I also have 3 Britains 12Lb Napoleons plus gun crew.

I have made a cardboard base 6 inches by 2 1/2 and painted it green to go with the old toy soldier style and put together my first unit.

I am missing a few muskets and will make some replacements from plasticard.  

My few old Herald figures date from the mid 60s and will need some re painting to make serviceable. The Britains Swoppits are in pretty good condition.

Prussian Artillery

My latest unit is a 6LB Prussian Field artillery battery. These are recast Hinton Hunt figures and are manning SHQ artillery pieces.

Napoleonic Prussians are a nice army to paint as they have a good mixture of unit types wearing a range of uniforms. They are not all Prussian blue. Not as pretty perhaps as other nations but functional and business like.

The figures used are 

PN 30 Officer

PN 31 Gunner with porte fire

PN 32 Gunner with rammer

PN 34 Gunner with handspike

The gun is available from SHQ and is code GUN02 - Prussian 6lb Gun

Reinforcements and painting progress

In the last couple of weeks I have been very generously been given some original Hinton Hunt figures by fellow enthusiasts.

Firstly from the East.  Dave V has sent me 6 French one piece line lancers (FN118). One has a broken lance so I am going to convert him to a trumpeter. These figures will bring my 5th Lancers up to full strength.

Secondly from the West I received 24 French Guard Marines (FN 94) from David C.  The officer is a recast Marine Officer (FN 90) l had in my spares box.  I will use a line drummer and standard bearer to complete the command.

Meanwhile on the painting table I am close to finishing 8 Prussian gunners and a couple of SHQ artillery pieces. These should be completed this weekend.

5th Line Lancers

This morning I finished the 5th Line Lancers I started earlier this month.

The figures are a mix of Hinton Hunt and DK figures

Now the unit is painted the DK figures are a little harder to recognise and the unit looks rather smart in their nice green uniforms. I used Vallejo Flat Green for the uniforms.

Since my post early this month I have been very generously been sent 6 original Hinton Hunt Lancers by Dave V so now have enough figures to complete the full unit.

Can you spot which figures are the DK ones?