Waterloo - La Haye Sainte (Republic to Empire rules)

Board 1. The French attack goes in.

Sunday 20th March saw the Quorn Wargames Club ( refight D'Erlon's attack on the British left at La Haye Sainte. Simon Breen set the game up and umpired for the day. I felt slightly jittery as I was given the task of controlling the French centre and was faced with a considerable amount of British and their allies opposite.

The French objective was the Farmhouse itself and a part of the ridge across the road and past the sandpit (both of which were full of KGL). When I asked what the best tactic was, I was simply told "just don't do what Napoleon did, and we'll be alright!". Added to that was my instructions to move rapidly to the front, avoiding the cornfields that would slow movement, and veer slightly towards the British right to push their two batteries of guns off the ridge. This would leave Bob, our guest for the day, unmolested on his march toward the farm. In the meantime his own batteries would work away at reducing the walled defences.

Using our extra points we threw the French centre ahead and managed to knock back the Horse artillery that had been covering a wide area of our front. Although not quite managing to keep a foothold on the ridge the French had caused some consternation in the allied ranks. Next a British counterattack pushed us back but as we went into retreat they attempted a follow-up and came down off their defensive position. They also seemed to pour over much of their cavalry into this sector and away from their left wing. The Scots Greys came pounding over the hill attempting to surprise a column of French that were not in square and which I'd failed to get into order after a low charge-reaction roll. Nevertheless the column stood its ground and fought in a determined manner reducing the cavalry effectiveness right down. Both units wavered then retreated, but the Scots Greys were badly mauled and useless for the rest of the game. The two British units that had come off the ridge then routed after being charged by two French units. One was destroyed completely after being charged again when it turned and ran.

On the British left wing both Dave and Paul had come up against some allied reinforcements before hitting the ridge. It caused some delay but by this time it was obvious that the British center was extremely weak having pushed its support over to the right. While Paul cursed and grappled with the British reinforcements, Dave stole the Glory on the day by bursting through the hedge atop the ridge where a moment before a unit of nervy Dutch had been waiting the onslaught.

A French infantryman's eye-view from near Belle Alliance to La Haye Sainte.

Board 2. The British center at the start of the game.

Board 2. The French juggernaut in action.

Imperial Armoury, Hofburg Palace. Vienna

Thought I'd post up a few more photos from this years Vienna trip. These were all taken in the Imperial Armoury. Another one of Vienna's quite vast military museums. Again, definitely worth a visit.

Armour of Alessandro Farnese (1545-1592). Duke of Parma and Piacenza. Fought at the Battle of Lepanto (1571).

Armour of Ferdinand V. Konig of Aragon and Sicily (1452 - 1516). Designed by 'Meister P'. Italian/Spanish style dating from 1490 to 1500 period.

Sword of Kaiser Friedrich III (1415-1493)

The Austrian Military Museum, Vienna. 2011.

After getting back from a brief holiday in Vienna, I decided to post up a few of my photographs. The first set is from the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum. A fantastic place (and quite vast), which has its residence in the original Vienna Arsenal. It was very easy to find and only 5 minutes walk from the Belvedere Palace Art gallery. Entrance fee was cheap too at only 6 Euros and included an audio guide. My only slight complaint was that the guide didn't feature everything you were looking at - only the blue stickered objects. However, the Museum staff were helpful and knowledgable. The museum comprised of two floors, with each area being dedicated to its own era. So there was the 30 Years War, Ottomans, Prince Eugene of Savoy (17th Century), Maria Theresa (18th Century), Austria and Europe (1789-1866), WW1, Republic to Dictatorship (1918-1945), Austrian Naval Power etc.

Landwehr Corporal. 1809.

Captured French Eagles.

Radetzky's (1766-1858) promotion papers.

Radetzky's Death Mask.

Uniform Displays.

Field Marshal Gideon Ernst Freiherr Von Laudon's Sabre, hat and awards.

38cm Howitzer. 1916.

Complete Battery of Bronze Cannons from the kingdom of Sardinia. The first nine are all big 32 pounders. Marks on them say they were cast in 1782 by G.A. Bianco of Turin.

A Few Mutinous Sepoys!

Indian mutineers by Foundry miniatures. This is the first batch of Sepoys to come off the painting table. I used a black undercoat and then a light grey basecoat for the jackets, because I wanted to avoid having to do several layers of Red over a dark base. Very pleased with the results. As I'm considering quite a few of these chaps taking to the field along with their Indian warrior friends I'm looking at picking up a few Mutineer Miniatures models to provide a variation of poses (noticed they also do some very nice Sepoy standard bearers!).

I've grabbed a copy of 'In the Heart of Africa' by Chris Peers for a ruleset, alongside the Edinburgh Wargames 'In the Heart of India' playsheets.

Indian Mutiny Elephant with Limber

This is an elephant from the Foundry Miniatures Indian Mutiny range. It comes with one rider, two guides (in red) and a limber. I've also purchased a siege cannon which it'll soon be pulling along once I've completed it. I looked through the internet to find suitable colours for the hide. Mostly they're described as a dusky green/brown, so I mixed Vallejo German Cam Medium Brown with some US Olive Drab. I then highlighted it by adding a slight drop of white to every subsequent layer. I also found a few internet photos of elephant eyes. It appears they have quite a large iris, usually brown or grey on occasion. I've used a gloss varnish on my Mutiny figures, mainly because they'll see a lot of handling as individual skirmish models, and I didn't want to keep having to re-touch the paint jobs.

Foundry Miniatures 'Indian Mutiny' models

I recently attended the Foundry Miniatures open day where I picked up around 40 of these Indian Warriors for a bargain price. Above are the first three to come off the painting table. A warrior commander and his two followers. They're nice models and have proved to be quick and easy to paint. I've gone for a black undercoat this time, with a flat colour and one highlight. I like the variation in dress and makes a change from batch painting all those French Napoleonics.

I also bought the Foundry sourcebook 'The British in India' (slightly dented copy for a pound!). Great reading and quite invaluable as I'm a newcomer to that period. I likewise purchased some British Infantry in Airpipe Helmets, plus some in flannel shirts. I'm assuming from the source text that British dress and headgear could be quite varied. Hopefully I'll be able to field these two units alongside each other without being too historically inaccurate? If anyone knows any different then please feel free to comment.

I'm also thinking of buying the 'Sharp Practice' rules. I played these with an Indian Mutiny scenario when I first joined the local wargames club and thoroughly enjoyed it. As yet I haven't come across any other skirmish type rulesets for 28mm Indian Mutiny, but again if anyone can suggest any I'll definitely check them out.

15mm ECW - Battle of Roundway Down (Fire and Fury Rules)

Fought on the 13th July 1643 near Devizes in wiltshire, it pitched the Royalist forces of Lord Wilmot against the Parliamentarian forces of Sir William Waller. In this game we used the Fire and Fury Rules as a basis, but converted by a couple of club members to cover specifically the English civil War. Having never read or played the original F and F rules I couldn't comment on what the differences were.

A large part of the cavalry of both forces were facing each other on the Royalist right flank - with only a couple of cavalry regiments placed on the left. I was intrigued as to how this would develop given some hefty opposition in the form of Parliament armoured cavalry ('lobsters') and dragoons etc. Infantry were heavily concentrated in the center.

I'd played one game of 28mm rules for ECW before and completely neglected the abilities of pikemen (thinking firepower/musketry could carry the day). Darren, my Royalist colleague in this battle, advised me a little more on how pikemen and musketry worked together. Pikemen being the "shock troops" in this instance.

As the cavalry collided on the right it struck me how units could become easily disordered in these rules. Not essentially an immediate defeat for any unit experiencing it (as they could still charge etc if they passed the next command roll) - but experiencing successive low dice rolls could seriously put you in the crap. This is exactly what happened with ourselves, as our initial victorious charges started to disintegrate as the enemy began to rally and then counter-charge.

The reverse on the other hand happened with the infantry. The Royalists experienced some ferocious fire as they pressed forwards but only became disordered without losing any casualties. As the enemy then charged into us the minus points to the die roll during melee made uneasy viewing. However, luck shined on us this rare occasion and a high 9 to the attackers 3 pushed them back with a number of dead.

Due to the innacuracy of musket fire during this period 6 inches is counted as long range, whilst just 2 inches is short. This means getting up close and personal for effective firing. At which point your pikemen have to be ready to get stuck in. Also, having supporting lines gives some +'s to your die rolls. We had one regiment in single line (pikemen in the middle) with another regiment in line behind less than 1 inch away which proved to be sound advice.

Figures photographed above are mainly Essex Miniatures (courtesy of Chris).