Monthly Archives: October 2018

Forward, the 79th!

One of the pleasures of the wargaming hobby for me, is watching my collection grow as I add each new unit. My Napoleonic collection is broadly themed around the Battle of Waterloo and the 100 days Campaign. This gives me a structure to work to when building my army. I don’t intend to make every unit that served in the Allied army, although sometimes it feels like that is what I am doing!

32nd Foot ready fo action!

32nd Foot ready fo action!

I have been working on what I think is one of the most interesting of the British Brigades that fought both at Waterloo and at Quatre Bras, two days earlier. It is the British 8th Brigade, commanded by Major General Sir James Kempt. The brigade consisted of the 28th North Gloucestershire’s, 32nd Cornwall, 79th Cameron Highlanders and 6 company’s of the 95th Rifles.

As I have mentioned, the brigade fought well at Quatre Bras, with the Rifle Battalion occupying ‘Cherry Wood’ just north of the Namur road to stop the French encirclement. With just 550 men, they managed to throw the French into confusion and push back the 2e Leger, some 2000 men. The French unit ‘fled without awaiting the enemy and the rest of the division fell into disorder and, not content with abandoning it’s ground, did not stop, even on reaching the high ground beyond Gemioncourt.’

Lady Butlers painting of the 28th at Quatre Bras.

Lady Butlers painting of the 28th at Quatre Bras.

If the rifle battalion had performed well, so to did the rest of the brigade who were thrown into the battle against the French advance. They blasted away Bachelu’s leading regiment, 61e Ligne with their disciplined fire, again causing the French 5e Division to fall back. Later in the battle, in what seemed to be a rehearsal for the events that would occur two days later at Waterloo, The brigade formed squares to resist the French Cuirassiers, pouring volley after volley into them without breaking.

The Brigade went on to Waterloo and faced D’Erlons attack – but that’s another story – back to the modelling!

As well as their contribution to the 100 days campaign, from a modellers point of view, it is the variety of units in the brigade that interests me. The 28th were wearing Stovepipe shakos and had yellow facings as well as having an additional badge on the rear of their shakos. The 32nd Cornwall battalion was a standard battalion with Belgic shakos and white facings. The 95th, are of course the famous green clad rifles, which leaves the 79th, a Tartan clad Highland battalion with green facings.

I have already completed the 28th and 32nd – you can read how I went about modelling them in my earlier blogs. Here are two of the articles to get you started!

THE 28TH STARTER ARTICLE

THE 32nd STARTER ARTICLE

I had decided to use the Victrix Plastic Highlanders to make the 79th Camerons. I am happy with plastics as opposed to metals and like the process of putting plastics together. It also means that my army is lighter when it comes to moving them around! The other benefit of the Victrix set is that you get 60 figures plus plenty of spare pieces, so conversions are straight forward. The Victrix Highlanders come as either a centre company boxed set or as a Flank Company boxed set. I went for the Centre company set as I have a box of Flank company line infantry and I will use the arms from this set to make my Flank companies.

Victrix Centre Companies Highland Infantry.

Victrix Centre Companies Highland Infantry.

Assembly of these models is quite straight forward, there is minimal flash and mould lines to remove. As always, I use polystyrene cement to glue them together. This gives plenty of working time and results in a much stronger bond than using super glue. You will also find that the joins fill if you let the cement soften the plastic for a minute before you press the pieces together.

Victirx Highland Infantry assembled

Victirx Highland Infantry assembled

The assembly instructions are sparse but do make it reasonably clear what arms go with what body. There is a choice of heads. Some have a peak on the highland bonnet, some do not. I am told that the highland troops were ordered to remove the peaks for the Battle of Waterloo but I haven’t worried about this level of detail and my unit has a mixture of peaks and no peaks! I know that some modellers will find this casual attitude unacceptable but I am happy to mix it up. My troops aren’t meant to be frozen in time to one Battle and I’m happy to believe that whilst the troops may have been ordered to remove the peaks, what they actually did at the battle when the sun came out may have been different to what they were ordered to do!

The 79th Cameron regiment of foot, Centre Companies.

The 79th Cameron regiment of foot, Centre Companies.

I have assembled 28 figures. The main Battalion will be represented by 24 figures, this includes the Grenadier Flank Battalion. I have also put together an extra four figures to represent the detached light company so that I can use them either for skirmishers in Black powder or as separate figures for Sharp Practice.

So I’m almost ready to start painting. Indeed, I have undercoated the first batch of eight figures. I will use the Mont St Jean reference sheet ( shown above) as my main painting guide but I will also have a quick scan of my other references, Franklins British Napoleonic Uniforms, The Companion to Waterloo, the appropriate Osprey and of course pinterest/google. I don’t expect this to be a quick project as I am concerned that the Tartan and detail around the head band and socks will really take time. If all goes well I’ll update my blog with my progress. I have half a mind to carry on and paint the other two highland regiments but one step at a time….

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Artillery, Greeks and Highlanders!

I’ve been bitting and bobbing this week, finishing off one project, my British Artillery, starting the next, Highlanders and being distracted with Greeks!

My Artillery Project Completed - well nearly!

My Artillery Project Completed – well nearly!

The above picture shows that both my limbers are now completed, with traces added and all five cannon are completed and based. There’s just some tufts to add to the foot artillery limber and two of the guns, although at the time of writing, this has all been done and the figures are now safely in my cabinet ready for battle.

Foot Artillery Officer and Surgeon

Foot Artillery Officer and Surgeon

I also have a Foot Artillery Officer and a surgeon to finish basing. This will be done over the next evening. I tend to complete my basing in short bursts due to drying time and I’m happy to finish this sort of job when ever I get a spare 5 minutes. Incidentally, the surgeon was a limited edition figure given away free with one of the Painting war magazines. He is a bit on the small side, compared to other figures but he paints up well and it’s not too noticeable. With hindsight, I should have put a bit of plasticard under his feet to give him a lift. Clearly he is more Tom Cruise than Clint Eastwood!

Beware of Greeks but watch out for those skeletons!

Beware of Greeks but watch out for those skeletons!

I’ve also been working on a ‘test shot’ of Greeks for the up and coming game of Mortal Gods. It’s not actually released until next year but having seen the development that is taking place, I thought that I would put together a small Locos. I’ll give these models a separate blog in the future, perhaps with as much detail about the game as Mr Hobday will let me give away!

Highlanders!

Highlanders!

And so to my next Napoleonic project. I will be making the final unit, 79th Battalion, to complete Kempts 8th British Infantry Brigade at Waterloo. As you can see I’ve started assembly, using the Victrix plastic boxed set. I very much like plastics and prefer these to the metals available, despite the need to assemble them and the perceived lack of legacy value that some of my colleagues talk of. Once again, I’ll revisit the background to this project in a future blog.

The thought of painting the tartan is quite daunting, so I’ll take it slowly ( more so than ever!) and show you how I get on. So, A short blog this week as I gather my thoughts to focus on the next stage of my painting projects!

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June 15th, Jumet – a Black Powder Battle Report

I have previously noted that I have been reading John Husseys’ splendid book, ‘Waterloo, Volume 1’ covering the Campaign of 1815. Although somewhat drier than some accounts, the book is a detailed account of the campaign and new to me, was the forensic detail in which Hussey has examined the lead up to the more familiar Battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras and of course, Waterloo. Inspired by what I had read, and motivated by the delivery of my copy of the second edition of Black powder rules, I put together a very simple scenario, very loosely based on the French attack into Belgium, prior to the main battles that were to come later.

The briefing to the players was as follows:

You are commanded to lead the advance Corps into Belgium to split the Allied and Prussian Army. Having crossed the Sambre successfully and moved past Charleroi you have encountered a small force of Prussians that are holding the route onto Brussels as well as preventing access to the Brussels – Liege road. You must push on and brush aside these defenders. Time is of the essence.

Your scouts have informed you that the Prussians consist of approximately 2 brigades of Infantry, some artillery and a small brigade of Cavalry. There are other Allied and Prussian units in the area but you are confident that it is unlikely that they will give support.

The Prussian detachment has already deployed and is barring your advance.

You have one brigade of 3 regts of Light Cavalry already in position as well as one brigade of Infantry (including one light infantry battalion). These units do not have artillery. They are deployed as you wish anywhere within 8 inches of your table edge.

As the attacker, you will have the first move.

On your turn two you may deploy an additional brigade of 4 Battalions of infantry + One Artillery piece OR a brigade of 3 regiments of Cavalry + One Artillery piece of your choice. They must enter the centre of the table through a 12″ window depending on orders thrown. All French units within 12″ of their own table edge (on or off the table) will benefit from a re roll in the case of a failed order. Blunders excepted! Your command level is 8 – no ‘pa de charge’ but column movement bonuses apply.

On turn three you may repeat the above, and so on until the end of the game.

It is not possible for the French Army to be Broken….French Brigades that are broken will Rally automatically at their table edge and any casualties reduce by one and any disorder removed. Routed units will be removed and will not return.

All French INFANTRY units will roll off disorder on a 5+.

Victory will be achieved if you can remove the Prussian barrier before turn 5….

I had anticipated the battle would be between myself, playing the Prussians and Pete Harris, playing as the French. I knew that the table that we would be playing on was 8’x 4′, so I was concerned that the scenario might favour the French, with their ability to advance so quickly in attack column.

However, a new dynamic was introduced when we were joined by a couple of extra players! So Andy Callan took control of the Prussians with no other briefing than the above and Jaz Storey-Smith took command of the advance guard of the French, with Pete commanding the reinforcements as they arrived.

I had thrown in a bit of mis information in the briefing, hinting that Allied units might be available – they would not be.

The Prussian deployment, the two Lancer regiments are to the far left of the artillery.

The Prussian deployment, the two Lancer regiments are to the far left of the artillery, out of camera shot.

Having seen the Prussian deployment, the French then deployed their units. The first surprise was that the French commander decided that the main threat was to the advancing flank and so deployed the entire advance column of 4 battalions of infantry and three regiments of cavalry to the far left flank facing just two regiments of Prussian Lancers.

Initial French deployment - the coffee mat was not there to inhibit the move to the flank!

Initial French deployment – the coffee mat was not there to inhibit the move to the flank!

Turn one saw a very cautious advance by the French…It was at this point that Napoleon (well me) sent orders reminding the French that the object of the battle was to clear the Prussians from the table by turn 5. This had the effect of galvanising the Prussians into action and their Lancers charged the French Light cavalry.

Prussian lancers charge home!

Prussian lancers charge home!

The Lancers charge was devastating! The first unit of French cavalry lost the combat and failed their morale check routing from the table. One of the supporting units also routed and the final unit was shaken by the sweeping advance that followed. So turn one and the French infantry were isolated on the flank, the French Cavalry  had run away and the Prussian lancers were confidently holding the flank!

There's Jaeger in those woods!

There’s Jaeger in those woods!

Turn Two and the French brought on the next brigade which advanced in the centre toward the woods. The French Brigade on the Flank, continued with it’s slow advance but perhaps stunned by the loss of their Cavalry made little progress, being pushed into square by those pesky Prussian Lancers. The Prussians, in reply simply blocked the pass engaging in combat with the leading French unit.

Prussians hold the road to Brussels!

Prussians hold the road to Brussels!

Turn three saw the French bring on a brigade of Cavalry to try and put pressure on the Prussian right Flank. However, despite orders to the contrary, the cavalry appeared to be in no great hurry… In the centre, the deadlock at the road junction continued with the Prussians holding firm and the French throwing more units into trying to dislodge the small unit of Jaegers in cover and force the road through the trees. On the left, the French continued with a rather ineffective advance whilst the Prussian Lancers smugly looked on! The Prussians were happy to hold, whilst in the French camp there was growing disquiet at the lack of progress.

Here come the cavalry.

Here come the cavalry.

Turn Four and at last the French, in some desperation brought on the next brigade and force marched past the woods to threaten the Prussian Landwehr. The cavalry had moved out to the flank, pushing the Prussian infantry there into square but deadlock remained at the woods! Still the French on the left were unable to move!

The French Column pushes forwards

The French Column pushes forwards

The Prussians were now feeling quite confident of winning the game, if not the battle and the French morale was somewhat shaky.

At last, the French engage the Prussian

At last, the French engage the Prussian

Turn 5. At last the French columns closed with the Prussian Infantry Line in the centre and although casualties were heavy on both sides the Prussians were now under pressure. With the right flank tied up with cavalry and now facing artillery at close range, something would have to give. However, despite numerous rounds of close combat the Prussians at the road held on, stopping the advance here. As to the left flank, well the Prussian Lancers were still in the ascendancy whilst the French infantry here were unable to progress.

The French march to Ligny!

The French march to Ligny!

It was a tactical victory for the Prussians! The French would march on but somewhat delayed by a stout Prussian defence.

POST BATTLE ANALYSIS

My concern was that with the quick movement rates in Black Powder, the game would have been over by turn three. However, a combination of some timid decision making by the French Commanders combined with some unlucky orders rolls meant the it was only turn in turn five that the French really managed to push though and engage the Prussian infantry.

With hind sight, the French were overly concerned with the brigade of Prussian lancers on the left (Although to be fair – they did soundly beat the French lights in combat) and taking the narrow road through the woods was asking for trouble. Had they bypassed them as they eventually did so, the French would have engaged the Prussian far more quickly than they actually did.

That all said, there were two other factors that made the battle more difficult for the French. The commanders natural caution to preserve their forces as with ‘normal’ battles meant that perhaps they could have taken more risks with their troops. There were plenty of reinforcements available and they couldn’t be broken as an army, whereas the Prussians would have to accumulate any casualties and could be broken.The second factor was the time limit and the umpire (me!)goading them to go faster! this added to the pressure and lead to some errors – forgetting to give units orders, forgetting to rally off casualties and even forgetting to order units to fire, all in the ‘heat’ of battle!

I think that the players enjoyed a different type of battle. The Prussian commander went home happy and I certainly had some fun. May be next time for the French!

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A Test of…..

A short and mixed blog post this week. Just to record that my Royal Horse Artillery Battery is now complete and ready for action!

Royal Horse Artillery moves into position!

Royal Horse Artillery moves into position!

I have been very busy though, but the projects that I have been working on have yet to come to full fruition so I’m not in a position to write them up!

Another shot of my Royal Horse Artillery Battery

Another shot of my Royal Horse Artillery Battery

I have completed an article for the next issue of Wargames Illustrated, reviewing the new Black Powder rules but I don’t do spoilers so if you would like to read it, you will have to grab a copy of the mag – incidentally, Arcane Scenery send the Magazine out post free, worldwide, so no excuses for being able to get a copy. Mind you, I wont be offended if you decide that my article isn’t a big enough draw…

Black Powder 2ed. has arrived!

Black Powder 2ed. has arrived!

Inspired by my current reading, I have put together a small Black Powder Scenario to start to use the new rules with my gaming friends. We are due to play this through tonight and so I am not yet able to bring you the battle report. I am concerned that it is overly ‘asymmetric’ but as I am playing the Prussians, It should be OK…. Here’s the briefing for the players:

Dear General Reille,

You are commanded to lead the advance Corps into Belgium to split the Allied and Prussian Army. Having crossed the Sambre successfully and moved past Charleroi you have encountered a small force of Prussians that are holding the route onto Brussels as well as preventing access to the Brussels – Liege road. You must push on and brush aside these defenders. Time is of the essence.

Your scouts have informed you that the Prussians consist of approximately 2 brigades of Infantry, some artillery and a small brigade of Cavalry. There are other Allied and Prussian units in the area but you are confident that it is unlikely that they will give support.

The Prussian detachment has already deployed and is barring your advance.

You have one brigade of 3 regts of Light Cavalry already in position as well as one brigade of Infantry (including one light infantry battalion). These units do not have artillery. They are deployed as you wish anywhere within 8 inches of your table edge.

As the attacker, you will have the first move.

On your turn two you may deploy an additional brigade of 4 Battalions + One Artillery piece OR a brigade of 3 regiments of Cavalry + One Artillery piece of your choice. They must enter the centre of the table through a 12″ window depending on orders thrown. All French units within 12″ of their own table edge (on or off the table) will benefit from a re roll in the case of a failed order. Blunders excepted! Your command level is 8 – no ‘pa de charge’ but column movement bonuses apply.

On turn three you may repeat the above, and so on until the end of the game.

It is not possible for the French Army to be Broken….French Brigades that are broken will Rally automatically at their table edge and any casualties reduce by one. Routed units will be removed and will not return.

All French INFANTRY units will roll off disorder on a 5+.

Victory will be achieved if you can remove the Prussian barrier before turn 5….

Good Luck – the Emperor is watching….

I will report back if it works.

British Foot Artillery and .....

British Foot Artillery and …..

Back to the painting desk, I have the Foot Artillery crew on the go to complete my Artillery project. Some progress was made before a certain new game started a new itch to scratch! I am lucky enough to be close to the new games in development at Lenton in the heart of the Nottingham lead belt, and rarely comment on anything before it is released. However, The new game from Warbanner, Mortal Gods, A Test of Courage, is currently being play tested and I just happen to have an old box of War Games Factory Greeks on the Kit pile… It wouldn’t hurt to put a few test pieces together now would it?

More to follow!

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