Page 27 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

A little knowledge….

I’ve read 7 books on the battle of Waterloo in the past 18 months, visited the battlefield itself and have just completed a distance learning course with Southampton University on Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo. For a change, I decided to give Waterloo a rest and I read an account of the Peninsular War ”The Peninsular war 1807-1814 A Concise military History” by Michael Glover.

All the above doesn’t include the blog entries, Uniform references and internet research, conversations with other gamers, Magazine articles, films and TV and radio program’s that I have absorbed. The net result of all of this is that I still feel as though I have just scratched the surface of the subject of the Napoleonic Wars. I have however, reinforced my view that definitive answers, whether regarding who did what, when or why, or who wore what uniform in which style are sometimes difficult if not impossible to come by. 200 years of distance from the events and only artist impressions and eye witness accounts to go by will often lead to confusion.

What we generally have is a collection of opinions and views ( some more thoroughly researched than others) from which we as gamers have to make a decision on which to follow. In making that decision though, be careful not to totally discard the possibility that you may just have picked the ‘wrong’ set of facts. Just take the thorny issue of uniforms.

During the invasion of Gascony in 1814, an observer described the 57th as follows:

‘The men are absolutely in rags and tatters. Here and there are five or six inches of bare thigh or arm visible through the patches; some have had only linen pantaloons all the winter through’

Remember, this isn’t the retreat to Corruna being described but the British advance into France at the end of the war. Meanwhile, elsewhere, the 1/39th Battalion was at St Jean-de-Luz, collecting it’s new issue of clothing ( Clothing was issued once a year if possible). I suspect that given the date, this new clothing was the new style uniform of grey trousers & Belgiac Shako. So it looks like you would have one Battalion (1/57th) in very tatty, patched ‘Peninsular’ uniform fighting alongside the much smarter Battalion ( 1/39th) in ‘Waterloo’ style uniform.

The point that I am making is that unless you are recreating a specific battle in a specific campaign at a specific date there is no need to be too vexed as to who wore what when. Which brings me to the last of my Hanoverian Battalions, the Osterode Landwehr. I’ve done quite a bit of research on the subject and the details of the Landwehr uniform appear to be sketchy at best. They usually have a paragraph devoted to them in a book. Here is the general guide:

Lüneburg Landwehr Batt: Red jackets with dark blue facings and grey pantaloons. All of the leather equipment was white. The battalion wore shacks of a tapered [stovepipe] design.

The above details are repeated for the Osterode, Verden and Münden Landwehr Battalions.

So thats pretty clear and to be fair, its confirmed in a couple of the other references that I use. However, when I checked my favorite reference, Mont St Jean, the following scheme was shown.

Hanoverian Landwehr Osterode

Quite clearly, the facings here are green, not blue and the shoulder tufts are also shown as green. Now it could be that there is a mistake, as the Field Battalion had green facings and the author of the site may have made an error in transposing them to the Landwehr Battalion. So what should I do? Well, as I have already painted three battalions in Blue facings the chance of a change in colour was quite an attractive proposition. So my Battalion of Osterode Landwehr will have green facings!

But I promise that if anyone asks, I will say that I have taken a possible liberty when choosing this option. Furthermore, if in the unlikely event that I meet up with a fellow gamer who has decided that his version of the Osterode Landwehr have blue facings I will keep my opinions to myself and just compliment him on his fine body of troops!

Napoleonic Field Forge completed!

Napoleonic Field Forge – Perry Miniatures

My Napoleonic Army continues to progress and the field forge completes another mini diorama that will eventually build into my Artillery Park. I have always been fascinated by the support units that ensure that an Army is able to fight. It is a shame that the rules systems that I have come across fail to take into account the logistics required to get an army into battle. I have just finished reading about Wellingtons Peninsular campaign and it seems to me that the battles were won because of Wellingtons attention to this area. The French seemed to have lost the campaign because of their decision to live off of the land rather than have a supply train in place. They were unable to continue to press any advantage gained because they ran out of provisions. This is best illustrated by the problems that Massena experienced when Invading Portugal. Held in check by Wellingtons defensive lines of the Torres Vedras before Lisbon, Massena saw his army dwindle away due to starvation and sickness.

I wouldn’t expect ‘club Night’ games to reflect this logistics problem in every game but there is certainly room for a scenario or two here! Just to give you an example of the logistics involved, a Brigade of Infantry required about 150 mules to carry supplies. A troop of Horse Artillery required some 205 mules to carry supplies. And these were only the Commissariat mules. In addition, every unit had it’s own beasts to carry camp kettles, reserve ammunition, pay chest, medical stores and tents. Whilst all of these beasts were left in the rear during the major battles, I suspect that there were times when they were present ‘in the thick of it’ or certainly close to the action.

Blacksmith close up

I digress, back to my field forge. It is from Perry Miniatures, although I have added a spare artillery man & officers horse to fill out the base. As usual, I have used Vallejo paints to complete the figures. I could find very few references for details of the clothing , So I painted the figures as Foot artillery in shirt sleeve order! The leather aprons were my first attempt at painting raw leather and I used the Vallejo Orange brown as the highlight and wash over the actual leather brown paint. I then just stippled some black on the aprons to represent the burns that would be there from working. I think that it has worked quite well.

Detail on Blacksmith aprons

For the base and ground work, I used Vallejo Sandy Paste. I actually have a pot of the desert coloured paste that was left over from another project, so I am working my way through this, being too mean to buy either the plain or brown that is available. I am a great fan of this product. It is ideal for blending your figures into the base and has sufficient texture when dry to enable a quick dry brush to bring up the detail.

Field Forge Ground work detail

Once the paste was dry & painted, I used a green scatter to represent the grass as well as some static grass dotted around to add some different texture & colour. I then added a few Grass tufts ( I like the ones from Noch) and flowers and the basing was complete.

The field Forge takes it’s place in Little Bingham!

So although my Field Forge is unlikely to change the course of any battle that I fight, it will make either a nice objective or simply add to the scenery. It was of course a pleasant distraction from painting the rank and file….Talking of which, next up are my final battalion of Hanoverian Landwehr, the Osterode Battalion, More on those next week.

Work in progress – More Hanoverians! And my new favourite basing material…

The Age of Simar – One mans meat…..

There is an awful lot of web space and angst currently being devoted to the latest offering from Games Workshop, the Age of Sigmar. Well, although it’s not really any of my business ( or thank goodness, any part of my business), I thought that I would add my two pennyworth for the entertainment of my two readers….

I’m not going down the road of the ‘Games Workshop Corp.’ is terrible rant. Nor do I fall into the ‘we owe our hobby to Games workshop’ groove either. That, to my mind, is the nonsensical equivalent of thanking the current management and personnel of EMI for finding the Beatles and inventing popular music.

I do understand the anguish of some gamers though. To use another metaphor, the current situation with Sigmar seems to be the equivalent of a Football club being bought up by a new owner. And the new owner wants to change the club name, or shirt colour or just seems intent on evicting the lifelong supporters that can no longer afford the new season ticket prices ( safe in the knowledge that there are plenty that can…)

The problem for the supporters is that they have invested a lot of time and money in ‘their’ club and even more importantly to them, emotional ownership and support of the ‘brand’. Which of course, is what marketing is all about. What the fans haven’t always grasped, is that their real love is for the game itself and there are plenty of other teams out there that you can enjoy watching. Even better, the smaller the team, the more appreciated your support will be.

And so it goes with gaming. If you are disenchanted with the latest Fantasy offering from GW, don’t waste energy wishing it would change back to the ‘old days’. Find the bit of the hobby that you love and move on. It may surprise some gamers that Games Workshop don’t own the Fantasy World. They were just very good at taking what was already out there and developing it into a game and to be fair, a very good one at that. Times have changed again though and there are plenty of games systems out there with more being published all of the time. No doubt this is part of the reason that Games Workshop have had to change. But if Games Workshop need to change, then may be it’s ‘Fans’ or ‘Supporters’ should as well.

It’s a process that I have been through myself. I used to be a fanatical supporter of Games Workshop from the launch of the first Space Marines plastic boxed set through to about the Black Reach edition of 40K. In fact it was back in 1982 that I first saw some Citadel miniatures that were painted to a standard that I’d not seem in model soldiers before that brought me back into the hobby. Note that I said, brought ‘me back into the hobby’.

I became disappointed with the constant changes to the rules, codex creep and even worse Games Workshops cavalier attitude to the older gamer and long standing customers. The light bulb moment for me was watching some guys at War Hammer World playing a Napoleonic Game and realising that they were having more fun than me. The rest, as they say, is history and for me that is now my hobby!

I still have my old GW 40K armies in the cabinet. I enjoy looking at them and I’m pleased with the armies that I created and the fun that I had. Who knows, I may dust them down and get out my old rule books and play again, but I doubt it. There’s far too much fun to be had with my latest obsession, Napoleonics. No one company ‘owns’ or even pretends to ‘own’ the hobby in the Historical world. Actually, one Company did try ( I wont name them to save their blushes). The response from the hobby was ‘get lost’ or words to that effect and that was the last we heard of that piece of nonsense.

So if you are not happy with Games Workshop in general and the Age of Sigmar in particular, my advice is don’t even bother to spend energy trying to hold onto something that has gone. Try something new. There’s a couple of new games out there right now that I would recommend. In fantasy, there’s Frostgrave, developed by Osprey publishing and North Star Miniatures. The rule book is just £15 and a box of Figures £20. A character pack is £6. For less than £50 you will have a whole new game to play. If Science Fiction is your thing, then take a look at the new ‘Gates of Antares’ from Warlord Games. If you order the figures, you’ll get a free rule book and can join the game at the start of it’s development.

Of course, if you would really like to break away, then move on into Historical gaming. You might just find that it’s a lot more fun than you think. There’s certainly plenty of background, a massive choice of periods and rules sets, superb miniatures and resources, a huge choice of manufactures and suppliers and a lot of players that would welcome you into the game.

Well, enough of my rambling, I’ve got figures to paint! To sum up, I think that the most important thing is to remember is that you are a fan of the hobby and a customer of Games Workshop.

Confusing the two will just end in tears.

Summer madness….

The weather has somewhat curtailed my painting over the last week. It’s a bit hot to be sat in my garage painting when other activities beckon. You know the sort of thing, burning meat on the barbecue, sampling the odd cold beer and the occasional gardening task which can be put off no longer. I have made some small progress on the Napoleonic field forge. The forge is finished, the crew are at the final stage of highlighting and the two other figures need about an hours work on them. What will really make the difference is the basing, which as you can see is nowhere near finished.

Just to add to my agonies over my lack of progress on painting, the Perry’s have only gone and released their new British Light Dragoons boxed set! Well, I expect to receive it into the shop tomorrow, so watch facebook for confirmation. I’ve been drooling over these ever since they announced the release at Salute.

With fourteen figures plus loads of extras, I cant wait to get my hands on a set! Those Hanoverians that are sat on the work bench might just get pushed down the painting line! Of course, my mind then goes into overdrive. If I bought three boxes, I could do the whole 4th British Cavalry Brigade at Waterloo. It comprised of the 11th Light Dragoons (Light Buff plastron & facings); 12th Light Dragoons ( Pale yellow plastron & facings) and the 16th Light Dragoons (Scarlet plastron & Facings). Even better, if I keep to 12 models per regiment, I will have 6 spare, so I could get some of the Perry Metal Dragoons and have an extra regiment, say from the KGL. Of course then there is all of the spare Tarleton heads that I’ll have. Just thinking about the conversion possibilities is giving me a head ache! Tarletons were worn by horse artillery and rocket troops and of course the Out riders on limbers etc, so a quick search in my spares box and I bet I could soon find the bits that I would need to build a few of these…

And there lies the madness! In the time that it takes to sink a cold beer, I have convinced myself that I can have 48 Cavalry figures painted and based in the next couple of weeks and meanwhile the other project of completing the Infantry brigade has been put to one side. Whats the betting that just before I finish the Light Cavalry Brigade another new release will set me off on the next project! I guess it is what makes the hobby interesting and gives us all something to talk about whilst we are gaming!

But I’m still going to get those Dragoons!!!

Prussian Artillery Ready For Battle

The New Prussian Artillery at drill in Little Bingham!

After all the excitement of the previous weeks Waterloo spectacular, my painting output has slowed down again. However, I have finished my Prussian Artillery Battery, so I wont be quite so out gunned in the next battle. I’ve changed my basing size for these. I’ve used 60mm by 90mm for each gun. It allowed me to get the full crew onto the bases and to be fair, it was a way of using up some spare 60mm x 45mm Renedra bases that I had – I just glued two of them together. To strengthen this arrangement, I glued them onto a piece of 40/000 thou plasticard. It means that the bases are a bit thicker than normal but they now look better along side the troops, who are normally in movement trays.

The other slight innovation for me was to use the Vallejo paste for the ground work. In the past, I have used this but then painted over it and then added sand for texture. With hindsight , this was totally unnecessary! The Vallejo paste has more than enough texture when it has dried, so all that was needed was to paint it – Chocolate Brown, then highlight and dry brush with Earth brown and then Iraqi sand added in to highlight further. It was actually very quick to do and will be my basing method of choice for the future.

Prussian artillery from above showing basing.

To finish off the bases, I added some green scatter and my usual assortment of grass tufts and flowers. The yellow flowers match the bases on the rest of my Prussians and add a bit of color to what is otherwise quite a dark paint scheme. Incidentally, I think that the pictures are a bit on the blue side! In real life, the figures look a bit darker to me. Oh! I haven’t mentioned that they are from the Perry Metal range. One last point about basing. I actually finished painting the figures and then fixed them to the bases. When I painted the ground work on the base, I also carried the colour up onto the guns & the figures to give the impression of mud.

‘utching up the guns according to Peter Harris….

So another project is complete, the next is on the work bench! I’ve decided that now there is less pressure on me to turn out battalions, I will alternate between painting units and painting special projects. I already have a painting plan in place but the first project is a little diorama of a field forge. It’s from Perry Miniatures, although the Artillery man & horse are out of my ‘spares’ box. Here is a rough layout of how it will look, I’ve started to paint the forge and the tree is already fixed in place with Vallejo desert sand paste.

Field forge work in progress.

Whilst I am painting this diorama, work still continues on the troops! My next (and final) battalion of Hanoverians are being prepared. These will be the Osterode Hanoverian Landwehr battalion, with green facings & shoulder tufts. Once these are done, I will have a representation of the full Hanoverian 4th Brigade which in turn, with the 10th British brigade ( already finished), will complete the 6th British Infantry Division!

Osterode Landwehr Battalion advance to the work bench….

Waterloo June 13th 2015!

British deploy behind La Haye Sainte

The plan for this years ‘homage’ to Waterloo was to re-fight the battle on the biggest table that we could find, with as many troops that we could muster. It really was ‘all the toys on the table’! We were lucky enough to be able to secure the Polly Bowling Club hall as a venue. This is the home of the Mansfield War gaming club, and many thanks to Quinton Dalton for helping us to arrange this.

The view along the ridge to Hougomont

As for the players, there were just the four of us; Myself and John Grant playing as the British, Peter Harris and Mick Rood as the French. The latter have massive figure collections and as well as providing the French opposition, they were also able to provide reinforcements for the British and Prussians as well as some Brunswickers! We had thought about bringing more people to the table but the difficulty with this is that you then need a command and control system and getting a big group of war gamers to work in concert can be the equivalent of herding cats….. I think four to six is the optimum number of players, even for a game of this size.

The Fench Troops advance past La Belle Alliance Inn

As for the tables, we had five 6×4 foot tables side by side to give a playing surface of 20 foot by 6 foot. On one end we had an additional table in an ‘L’ position to represent Plancenoite and as an entry point for the Prussians. As regards scenery, we were very lucky to be able to borrow the painted versions of all the main buildings from Sarissa Precision. So present on the battlefield were Hougomont, La Haye Sainte, Pappelotte farm, La Belle Alliance and for Plancenoite, the church and windmill, as well as a small farm made by Pete Harris. A few hills were used to make the ridge line at Mont St Jean and the Battlefield was ready.

The Prussians Arrive at Plancenoite

We then deployed the troops. There were approximately 2000 figures on the table! We deliberately did not count who had what or what the points value of each army was. It was clear that the French outnumbered and out gunned the British but the Brits had the stronger position and the buildings to defend, whilst the French had to go on the attack.

The British Defend the ridge to the left of La Haye Sainte

Finally, we were using the ‘vanilla’ version of Black powder with very few additions or modifications. Our reasoning being, that in a game of this size, trying to remember which unit has what attribute or special ability just slows things down. Let the dice decide who will be the heroes today!

The view of the battlefield from Hougomont to La Haye Sainte

And so at 11.00 am precisely, the French players proceeded to attack. Pete Harris facing John Grant along the area from La Haye Sainte to Hougomont, I was facing Mick and defending La Haye Sainte to Papelotte. The British side had a brief meeting to decide on tactics. It went like this. John: what are the plans? Me: Hold! On reflection, less like tactics and more like Tic tacs…

The Guards defend Hougomont

TheFrench prepare to Advance!

The first moves went largely without incident, the ranges being too far for effective artillery fire. The French were maneuvering to assault La Haye Sainte but it was clear that they intended to ignore Hougomont and focus on the British centre. At Papelotte, the British were attempting to use their cavalry to flank the French & draw them onto the defensive position of the farm.

British Light Cavalry deploy behind Papelotte

The French comence their advance down the main road to Brussels!

The French commence their advance down the main road to Brussels!

The British rocket batteries were actually very effective at this point, causing casualties in the advancing French Columns and throwing them into disorder, slowing the advance. However, confusion also occurred in the British ranks, as a result of a blunder, the 52nd Light Company defending the ridge towards Hougomont rushed forwards in a charge toward the enemy.

French Columns march against Papelotte.

The flanking move at Papelotte was under way but largely ineffective. As the morning moved on, the French artillery moved into position and started to take a heavy toll of the British defenders. La Haye Sainte was subjected to a fierce bombardment!

The Light Companies of the KGL and 95th Rifles hold on!

It’s fair to say that at this point, any real communication between the two wings of the British Army began to break down as they fought for survival! A flanking attack by Cavalry around Hougmont had been stopped by the French and the 52nd were now in square after a French cavalry attack. Despite the overwhelming odds, the British right was drawn off the hill in a desperate attempt to rescue the 52nd!

The British attempt to relief the 52nd!

At La Haye Sainte, the French continued to pulverise the defenders, causing them to break. Fortunately, the British were able to move in a fresh unit. But they were being pressed hard by the French Infantry columns!

The French Army assaults La Haye Sainte

Difficult times at La Haye!

If things were hard pressed at the centre, at Papelotte, the British were not enjoying success either. A determined cavalry attack had been pushed home catching two French columns in the flank but despite this, the French were only forced to retreat, without losing their batalions. The British cavalry faired far worse, losing two regiments, one to artillery fire, the other to combat. As a result, the British cavalry in this sector became ineffective, with a further two regiments of heavy’s refusing to move all battle!

French Pressure begins to tell!

The Defence of La Haye Sainte

So where were the Prussians? They arrived on the battlefield at 1.00pm but despite all the encouragement from Blucher, they were tied up in Plancenoite. Although only faced by a smaller French detatchment, they were making slow progress and had yet to join the battle. Even their Cavalry were ineffective. When they finally did charge, they were roundly beaten by the French and fled from the table…

The Prussians had reached Plancenoite but would not move much further than this.

Desperate fighting at La Haye Sainte!

The French assault on La Haye Sainte and the centre of the British line was relentless. There was nothing to divert them and gradually the British were worn down. The 27th and 40th were shaken and as a result began to fall back with the rest of the brigade. At Papelotte, although resisitance was stuborn, a further disaster occurred when a Battalion of Hanoverians, rather than rally, enthusiastically charged the nearest French column only to be routed!

The French tide sweeps around Hougomont!

La Haye Sainte is by passed as the French advance towards Brussels!

The battle was lost! With the Prussians bogged down in Plancenoite and unable to reach the British, French numbers were begining to tell. Papelotte was holding on but in the centre, La Haye had now fallen! The road to Brussels was open. Hougomont was still held but all support was being driven back, it would be a matter of time before the Guards would have to retreat.

The French flag flies over La Haye Sainte!

And so the battle was lost! The French had a clear strategy of forcing the centre and were not to be diverted from this. On the other hand the British had spread their forces too thinly and engaged in diversionary attacks that just took valuable resources from where they were needed. At around 4.00pm, the British withdrew from the field leaving the French to march on Brussels!

A fantastic game, played in the true spirit of Black Powder! Thank you once again to Quinton for helping with the Hall, Steve at Sarissa for the loan of the fantastic buildings and of course to Pete, Mick and John for being such great gaming companions!

Prussian Artillery 11 June 2015

Prussian Artillery – Work in Progress

With the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo fast approaching. I’m desperately trying to finish another unit for our ‘Grand Battle’ planned for this Saturday. It’s not going to happen though! I’ve fallen into the trap of trying to do too much and not actually finishing anything that I’ve started.

The ‘Grand Battle’ planned for this Saturday will be our annual tribute to Waterloo. We don’t actually re-fight the battle as such. It’s more a case of that we put as many troops as we can muster on a battlefield that has some similarities to Waterloo. After spending an hour or so admiring the scene and having a chin wag over a cup of tea, we then roll some dice and play a huge game of Black powder. It takes all day, and the result is largely immaterial, but it is great fun and the random results of the dice throwing usually causes some merriment and some good talking points. You can see last years battle report here http://arcanesceneryandmodels.co.uk/battle-report-waterloo-2014/

with the need to field more artillery, I thought that I would crack on with my next Prussian unit, a battery of three guns, 6pdrs to be precise, made by the Perry’s. The first task was to do some research as to what colours to paint the guns and the Uniforms of the crew. My usual quick source, the superb Mont St Jean web site gave me this picture to use.

I always use this website as a starting point. That and of course, and the Manufactures’ own painted examples. You can be fairly confident that they have done their research when producing the models and the pro painters will be following their own research. I also consult my collection of Osprey books and various other references that I have and then finish off with a trawl through the internet – google images is a good source! By the time I have done all of this, I have a picture in my mind as to how I want the figures to look. The are always discrepancies and contradictions in the material. For example, I have found pictures showing the short sword scabbard in both brown and black. And the blanket covers & straps in both dark grey and leather. At the end of my research, I just make a decision as to what I think will look the best for me, no doubt to the horror of some purists!

So onto painting! The guns were painted in Vallejo Prussian Blue, with the ironwork in black and the gun barrels in brass. The crew in Vallejo Dark Prussian blue jackets, Neutral Grey trousers, Black Grey gaiters, red turn backs & facings, Black collars, cuffs & boots, much as the picture above. The first gun and crew are now almost finished, the the other two not far behind but they are not going to be ready for Saturday!

Prussian Artillery – nearly complete!

Prussian Artillery Battery – still much to do!

I could possibly rush them, but in reality I know that I have at least three more ‘sessions’ to go before they are ready for the battlefield. Even the first gun will need a final highlight & tidy up, and then there’s the basing. Rather than cut corners, I’ll wait – they will be ready for next year! What really caused the problem was that I was diverted and panicked into trying to finish another project that has been sat around on the bench – Papelotte Farm! Talk about biting off more than you can chew! I started to paint this as well and again, it is nowhere near finished….

Papelotte Farm – Under construction!

It will end up on the table – even in this state it will be OK but it’s not quite what I had in mind. And just to show how I have engineered my own failure, whilst preparing the Prussians I decided that it would be a good idea to get this Field forge ready for painting…

Never mind, at least the Cavalry are now finished and ready for battle!

Prussian Cavalry ready for battle!

Black Powder for Club Nights

Playing Black Powder with Napoleonic figures continues to be my obsession, with no sign of ‘game fatigue’ appearing. I still play at least once a fortnight at the club, only recently having a break every other week to play Muskets and Tomahawks. The other guys at the club are quite amused at our adherence to this rule set and period and we are now known collectively as the ‘Black Powder’ lot! That said, our ‘gang’ is growing and whereas it used to be just two of us slugging it out over a table, there are now at least six ‘hardcore’ members of the sub club, so to speak, with a few more that are happy to join in and even more that come over to check our battle progress during the evening.

So whats the secret that keeps us locked into this rules set. Well, read the opening line of this blog. We are well aware that we are playing a rules set with Napoleonic figures and we are not too hung up on how realistic the rules may or may not be, we just know that we will have a fun game. Of course, there is a nod in the direction of historical realism, but thats all. When ever we play there will always be a talking point about what may or may not be realistic. Our current debate concerns the use of Howitzers and the limitation on the effectiveness of these guns at close range. The rules say that you cannot fire on an enemy that has closed within 6 inches of a Howitzer, which pretty much implies that you have no closing fire option. It also prevents you from firing canister into Squares at close range.

Is this historically accurate? Probably not, but I don’t think it matters too much when playing a table top game. The rules are clear, and you take a howitzer in your ‘army’ knowing those limitations. Of course there are benefits in the game for Howitzers and when you put your army list together, you take the rough with the smooth. That’s not to say we haven’t modified some of the Black Powder Rules to suit our style of gaming. The two Napoleonic Supplements, Albion Triumphant 1 & 2, introduced some new rules and ideas, some of which we have adapted, some not. The beauty of Black Powder is that it allows this, provided everyone is clear at the start of the game.

For anyone that is interested, here’s the points system and a few of the rules modifications that we use for our club night. They are designed to allow us to play a reasonable game on a 6 foot by 4 foot table in an evening or a couple of hours.

The 30 Point System

Level 8 Commanders are free. +1 point for each addition level (Max 10)

Regular Line Infantry = 2 points

Regular Light Infantry = 2.5 points

Militia, Conscripts, Reserves = 1.5 points [Cannot be upgraded]

Foot Artillery ( 1 Cannon = Battery) = 1.5 points [No half Batteries]

Horse Artillery ( 1 Cannon = Battery) = 1.5 points [No half Batteries]

Regular Heavy and Lancer Cavalry = 2.5 points

Regular Light Cavalry = 2 points

Vetran Status = + 0.5 points

Elite Status = + 0.5 points

Rifles = + 0.5 point

Old Guard = + 0.5 points in addition to Veteran and Elite Status cost

Large units = + 0.5 points

Small units = – 0.5 points

Tiny units = – 1 point

Unit Sizes

Standard Infantry = 12 to 16 figures

Small Infantry = 8 figures

Tiny Infantry = 4 figures

Standard Cavalry = 6 figures

Small Cavalry = 4 Figures

Tiny Cavalry = Not Permitted

Unit Restrictions (Maximums)

Rifle Units = 9 points

Old Guard Units = 9 points

Lancer Cavalry = 9 points

Regular Light Infantry = 15 points

Notes:

Small and Tiny units cannot constitute more than 25% of a brigade and do not count towards the Brigade’s morale.

Infantry brigades must have a minimum of three infantry units and Cavalry a minimum of two units in addition to any Artillery.

Mixed Brigades must have a minimum of two Infantry units.

Brigades and Army break on greater than 50% loss

Cavalry may retire in the movement phase when disordered.

Mixed Order Columns do not benefit from a column save bonus if you are shooting at the skirmishers or from artillery fire.

French Columns do not benefit from Pas de Charge – they already have a bonus from being in column.

British first fire only applies if you have not moved more than once during the orders phase.

British troops fight in line and do not form column

Now I guess that there will be a few dissenters out there with regards to these amendments but don’t worry, they are not official and you will only be asked to use them if you join us at the White Hart…. In the meantime, I can only hope that other gamers enjoy Black Powder as much as we do.

Prepare for Battle!

Prussian Landwehr Cavalry 28th May 2015

Prussian Landwehr Cavalry – Nearly finished!

It’s been a slow week or so for painting but at last, my Prussian Landwehr Cavalry unit is nearly ready to leave the work bench. As you can see, the command group is just about finished, with just the bases to highlight and detail. I’ll finish these off with a quick dry brush with an Iraqi Sand and Chocolate brown mix, and then a final highlight with pure Iraqi Sand. Once that is dry, I’ll add the Static grass ( I prefer the flowered field mix) and then my usual mix of grass tufts & flowers. I find that a bit of colour on the base will tend to lift the figures, particularly when they have a dark uniform. It will also unify the army if the basing is similar.

Prussian Landwehr Command Group

I’m quite pleased with the way that the horses have worked out – see my last blog post for details of the paint ‘recipes’ used. I’ll have a last look over the figures as I base them to decide whether to add any further highlights. It’s always difficult to know when a unit is really finished. There’s always a compromise between producing my best possible finish or moving on to the next unit. Do I spend another session adding a few more highlights to the uniforms and a bit more ink to add shadows to some of the equipment or do I just get them on the table?

Regardless of the above question, the final job will be to add the lances and pennants and the flag for the unit. I have these ready to go, you can just make out the first two Lances added to the figures in the background and it will be another evening session, to finish that job – so these boys are about two evenings away from the war games table…

Close up of the Trumpeter

Actually, there is one other job to do before they are ‘table ready’ and that is to make the movement trays. I could use a ready cut MDF tray but will probably make my own as I have a different style that I prefer to use rather than a normal tray. It’s a straight forward job and I think I’ll show how I do this in another blog post.

So my Prussian brigade now consists of 2 Battalions of Regular Infantry, 2 Battalions of Landwehr Infantry, a Command base and a Regiment of Landwehr Cavalry, all in Silesian colours, making a total of 110 men and 14 horses painted. Next up, some Artillery – now can I get them finished for the 13th June, the date of our next big battle…..

Painting Horses – Prussian Landwehr Cavalry

Prussian Landwehr Cavalry – Work in Progress

I guess that you can make painting horses as easy or as difficult as you like, from just a brown coat to the more complex spotted greys. I have tried quite a few of the different techniques over the years but I’ve been trying to improve my results to make the horses look a bit more interesting without spending too long on each horse. It’s also been a good way of practicing highlighting and shading, without relying on Quickshade or Inks.

There are two techniques that I’ve been trying with this latest batch of horses. Both are very similar and both are based on using the three colour; shade, main coat , highlight technique that the professionals, such as Kevin Dallimore use to such good effect. Lets be clear, I’m a long way from that standard and I’m still set on producing regiments for wargaming rather than high quality figures for photography. However, practice makes perfect, as they say, and learning a particular style will help me speed up my painting process.

If any one is interested in seeing a master class in how to paint horses using this method, then I recommend this youtube video by Toby of Art Master studios – it’s an hour and a half of watching paint dry but still better than 90% of the stuff on TV these days! There are some great ideas here and I’ll just summarise them, as much for my own reference, although I hope that it will be useful for other wargamers.

First choose your colour pallet for your horse – using three colours will allow you to get variation on horses, even when using the same colours on a batch of horses. Here’s a few of my favourite recipes using Vallejo paints! All of them are used over a black undercoat.

For Browns: German Cam. Black Brown,70892, Flat Brown,70894, Orange brown 70891 or Mahogany Brown 70846. Be careful with the mahaogany brown, it is quite red and adding white to it will make your horse look pink so if you want to lighten it, use a Light brown, 70929. Another useful combination is Chocolate Brown 70872, Flat Brown,70984, Cork Brown 70843.

For a light brown or cream horse, try Flat earth 70983. Cork Brown 843 and Green Ochre 70914. Or try gold brown, 70877 as the mid colour.

For black horses, use Black 70950, Black Grey, 70862, and highlight sparingly with light grey,70990.

For Grey horses, Dark grey 70984, Neutral Grey 70992, Light grey 70990.

And for White horses ( still Grey really!) Light Grey 70990, Sliver grey, 70883 and Off White 70820.

So that’s the horses body done. I stress that these are just some of my paint combo’s that I have tried. There are plenty more out there but using three colours in combination will give you plenty of variety. I mentioned that I was trying two techniques when painting. The first one is to carefully paint one colour over the other building up the highlights by picking out the muscles on the horse. This is the most time consuming and if done well gives superb results. The other method is to use a dry brush technique with the the colours. This is much faster and the results are still pretty good but you will need to go back over the harnesses etc as the paint will cover them if this method is used.

Prussian Landwehr Lancer on Brown horse

Next up, is the detail on the horses. The obvious ones are the mane & tail. You can either paint these in the same colour as the body of the horse or use black or green ochre to give variation. On the Cream horses, Biege 70917 looks good and on the greys, either a dark grey or white mane & tail looks fine. As these areas tend to have more texture, using an ink and then dry brushing with a light shade or even white will really bring the detail out.

The next area to look at are the legs – painting white or black ‘socks’ on one, two, three or four legs is fine and will give variation in your regiment. Finish off the legs with the hooves. I paint them either black or a dark brown, it just tidies them up. You can also paint the horse shoes in steel if they are showing but it’s something that I tend to leave as a detail too far – besides , my thought is that they will be covered in mud…..

The last thing that I paint is the head. Again, a bit of variation here can make all the difference. I usually paint a white ‘blaze’ on the horses head. You can leave the muzzle the same colour as the horse or paint it black, dark grey or even a dark flesh colour. The eyes are painted black, although I will sometime use gloss black for this to get a shine.

The final bit is to paint the horse furniture and that is dependant on your Regiment and an article for another time. I have mentioned variation in horse quite a bit. Some of the elite cavalry regiments would of course ensure that the opposite was true. For example, the Household cavalry would be mounted on all black horses but I think that other regiments were less fussy and of course when on campaign or in battle, so long as the horse had four legs, it would do!

Work in progress – light brown horse

The pictures in the article show my latest regiment, Prussian Landwehr Lancers. As you can see they are yet to be finished, with some based with riders & some still not quite painted fully and none of them with their lances yet! I tend to paint horses in batches of three using one colour combo and then finish with the command group. As the trumpeter usually rode a grey and the officer would have had his own ‘posher’ horse, I leave these until last of all. Once they are all painted, I’ll go back over them all adding a few last quick highlights, correcting any obvious paint errors and of course detailing the bases with a few tufts and flowers.

So that’s my take on painting horses – Cheers!

The latest resident in Little Bingham – just the basing to finish!

Small is beautiful!

The setting for the Show was somewhat rural!

Having recently attended the largest Wargames show in the UK, Salute at Excel, this Sunday gone, I went to probably the smallest, at Owthorpe village hall, Notts. The show is hosted by Shaun Mclaughlin, who is well known for running the Wargames bunker holiday home. The show was themed as the Last of the Mohicans but it is worth having a quick look at the event page on face book to get an idea as to what was there.

There were lots of bargains!

The beauty of this event was its size. I have found recently that the larger events are great but it is difficult to settle at a stand or game to have a chat without feeling that I was in the way of somebody else. No such problem here. There was one large Demo game – a last of the Mohicans scenario, beautifully constructed with hundreds of miniatures and a fantastic scenic board as the centre piece.

The British Evacuate the Fort!

There’s more Indians coming!

Supporting this were a few other games. A science fiction game with a very nice Thunderbird two at the centre!

Thunderbirds are Go!

The other game to catch my attention was a Dead Mans Hand participation game run by James Woodward from my local club. James had taken the Bushwackers and Jayhawkers scenario from Wargames Illustrated 320. Once again, there was a superb table to play on with all the figures provided so it would have been a shame not to join in! I actually played twice, completing the opening scene and second scene from ‘Ride with the Devil’. The games were played at a leisurely pace, as befitted a relaxed sunday morning, with plenty of banter from the spectators and much amusement at my ‘demise’ in both games. The photo below sums up my performance in the game…

The last man standing was about to meet his maker!

And so on to the trade stands. I won’t list them all but I must mention the ‘Galloping Majors’ stand. This company specialises in the French Indian Wars and AWI periods and has a delightful range to support these periods. The owner, Lance, was happy to spend time explaining the differences between the various Indians tribes involved in the conflicts and was clearly an expert in this area. I came away with my first pack of Indians ( Mohawks) and an enthusiasm for a new period….It looks as though I will be painting an army for the Muskets and Tomahawks rules after all.

The Galloping Majors Indians – coming soon to my work bench!

So all in all, a morning well spent! A couple of games of Deadmans Hand (I’ll be painting cowboys for this game as well it just plays too well to not have it as an option!), a few extra figures from the bargains stand for the lead mountain and a lovely pack of Indians that I will be painting sooner rather than later. Of course, the coffee, Kit Kat and conversation were pretty good as well. There’s a lot to be said for the smaller show and I’ll be going again!

Scenarios for Black Powder

The Guards line up ready for battle!

In an ideal world, where we all have plenty of time and unlimited resources for our hobby, we could spend hours re -enacting all the battles of the Napoleonic era, exploring the ‘what if’s’ and ‘if onlys’ of history on accurate terrain boards, with all the right troops in all the right uniforms! It would be the ‘Carlesberg wargaming club’. However, for me the reality is that I get to the club once a week on a Thursday evening and we fight a battle that lasts for about 2 hours using the troops that I have to hand with a rules system ( Black Powder) that allows an easy flow to the game on a gaming cloth with a few pieces of terrain to make it look pretty. Sure, once in a while we get to play the ‘mega’ battle on a posh table with special scenario rules and the correct force but that this is a rare exception in my gaming calender.

The real problem is that there is a tendency to just line our armies up on the table and try and win the game by breaking more of the enemies units than he breaks of yours. OK, it’s still good fun but it can get a bit repetitive. So we were looking for a quick fix to make our games a little bit different and to start to introduce a bit of narrative into the games – this is the ‘back of a fag packet’ ( in our case more likely to be the back of a crisp packet….) solution.

The Line Advances!

We quickly came up with a list of 6 simple scenarios and before our game we roll a dice to decide which scenario we will play. The exception being of course, when the same one has come up and every one groans ‘we played that last time’ – just roll again and let the dice decide. Here is the list that we are using at the moment. The intention of course is to add to them, rolling a D10 or D20 would be even more interesting!

Scenario 1 – The River

The battle is fought on a table with a river running across it. We use strips of painted paper to represent the river. It’s not the quality of scenery that you would find in Wargames Illustrated but quite adequate for a club battle. The river sections are about 12 inches long and we place a dice on each section. As a unit attempts to cross the section of river, roll the dice. On a 1 to 3 the unit will become disordered as it crosses. A roll of 4 to 6 means that the unit crosses safely. These are just our basic river rules – we have quite a few variations but these simple rules add another dimension to the game and will give commanders something else to think about when planning their battle.

Scenario 2 – One of your brigades is late!

Just pick a brigade on each side and roll a dice. The dice roll indicates on which turn ( 1 to 6 ) it arrives in your deployment zone. A variation on this scenario is to test each brigade in the army. Roll for each brigade, on a 1 or 2 ( or whatever you deem appropriate) the brigade is late. Then roll to see when the late brigades arrive. Great for players with Prussian armies…..

Scenario 3 – Flank March

The two opponents roll a dice. The winner will get the flank march option and can choose a brigade that will deploy on one of the side table edges. Roll a dice to decide which on turn ( if it’s turn 6 it can be tricky…) your brigade will arrive. When the turn arrives for deployment, roll a dice. On a 1-3 you can deploy on your left flank, 4 -6 it’s your right flank. We allow deployment anywhere on the side of the table so beware – you may have an enemy brigade that is effectively deploying in your rear!

Scenario 4 – Off Table Deployment

Both armies start off the table. Before any orders are given to a unit, roll a dice. In the first turn, on a roll of 5 or 6 you may place the unit in your deployment zone on the table and issue it with an order as usual. On this first move, movement is reduce by one order. In other words the maximum that you can move is two ‘orders worth’ of movement. You can apply the rule to individual units or brigades or a mixture of both. After that, movement is as per normal Black powder rules. On turn two, the dice required to deploy is reduced to 4,5 or 6. Turn three, you need 3 to 6, turn 4 you will need 2 to 6 and this stays in place so if you throw a one in turn 5 your brigade still will not arrive! It happens and can be quite frustrating. We rename those units as the Grouchy Brigades…

Scenario 5 – Capture the Flag!

A simple objective is placed in each half of the table. The objective is to capture the opponents objective whilst protecting your own.

Senario 6 -Pitched battle

Straight forward enough – back to the usual set up in deployment zones and beat the enemy. You can give this a bit more flavour by altering deployment zones rather than just lining up along the back of the table.

The other interesting variation is how to place the scenery. Rolling a dice for this is a good idea but we just tend to take it in turns to set the table out each week. We have had some interesting results when we have asked a non participant player from the club to set out the scenery though!

Stopped by the Cavalry!

The scenarios have certainly thrown out some interesting games. The pictures that I have used for this blog article are from our game last week where I had the Flank March. I thought that I would easily pin my opponent and out flank him with an extra brigade of three battalions of Infantry. As it turned out he held those battalions in check with his cavalry and after forcing them into square, proceeded to pound them with his artillery. I was then forced into trying to rescue my flank and more Battalions were drawn out of position and the army was eventually broken as they were pushed into square as well and shaken by artillery fire. It was the most effective use of cavalry in a Black powder game that I have seen and despite the musket fire that the cavalry were facing, by clever use of rotating the cavalry and rallying them it was the infantry that broke first!

The Flank is in Trouble!

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