French vs Austrians Battle Report

Another evening of Napoleonics. This time French vs Austrians. In the middle picture you can see the small town held by the Austrians (mainly Landwehr) and some Jaegers thrown out in front. We had sizeable French force with a cavalry brigade in reserve. Although looking quite unbalanced, the Austrians had the chance to field their own much larger reserves at any time - and likely as not to appear behind us!

The first couple of turns saw the French wheel up their artillery in the center and start blattering away. One battery aimed at the barricade on the main street and another firing canister to scare away the Jaegers skirmishing to the left. A large hill to the right had an Austrian battery and some cavalry perched on top. As the French columns pushed forwards they were saved by some unlucky shooting/poor dice rolls whilst the French cavalry managed to receive their opposites charge and push them back over the other side of the hill. The French center (covered by artillery) made a rush into the village as the Landwehr vacated their barricade. Surprisingly however, they reformed and charged back in causing some serious casualties and pushing us back. Luckily the French left had by now circled the town and was likely to rectify the situation keeping the buildings firmly in our grasp.

More consternation was provoked when the Austrian reserves turned up behind us to our left-rear. The cannons that had originally faced the village were redeployed to face this new threat in double quick time, and our reserves of cavalry who had been hovering around for just such an eventuality managed to charge in with half their force (the other half standing around scratching themselves due to a failed command roll!). The end result was the Austrian artillery taking flight and leaving their infantry feeling the pressure of two batteries aimed at them and two brigades of cavalry turning their way. Not good.

We used the 'Napoleon' ruleset. The figures were mainly Perrys and Foundry. I took some pics of Simons nicely painted Austrians which I've also included here.

28mm Napoleonics 'Republic to Empire' Rules. British Vs French

We had our first grapple with the 'Republic to Empire' rules at the Quorn Wargames Club (http://www.sonsofsimondemontfort.org.uk/) yesterday. I was feeling slightly daunted to begin with, this being my third introduction to a Napoleonic ruleset in just a few weeks - the previous being 'Napoleon' and 'General de Brigade'. I was actually quite surprised how quickly we began to pick it up. The point system for actions which was decided with the rolling of 4 average dice each turn made the system less rigid. So for example you could divide up 14 points with moving, changing formation, issuing new orders etc. Obviously there were still some restrictions (as experienced by Chris who voiced his frustration at not being able to unlimber his British 9lb cannons and fire at the Frenchies rapidly advancing up the hill towards him in the same turn - something only Horse Artillery and 6lb cannons could do). I also liked how swiftly we could make it across the board and begin to engage. Brilliant for a good size game that you could easily complete within 4-5 hours.

Another very good aspect was artillery fire. First shot on a new target was inflicted with a few minus points to the die roll, unlike in other games where you'd get plus points. It was deduced that the former was more realistic in that you'd have to range in the cannons with the first few wild shots, and then later increase your accuracy.

The second photo above shows another example of rash heroics (or "Raglan's Blunder") as the British cavalry decided to charge enemy artillery from the front. Accompanied by the immortal words "well, it might just work..." these chaps unfortunately were forced into a rout back to the medical tent to have the canister shot removed from their posterior.

It was an all round great evening, with lots of fun and a nice ruleset which deserves more testing and exploration in the future.

French Line Artillery 12lb Cannons and Crew

Finished these yesterday, just in time for our first game of 'Republic to Empire' at Quorn Wargames Club. The crew and pieces are all Foundry Miniatures. 12lb cannons and personnel all late line artillery in full dress uniform. I did some digging around in a couple of books (primarily New Vanguard 066 - Napoleons Guns 1792-1815 (1) Field Artillery) and found some pictures I managed to work from. The one thing that slightly threw me was the single fringed eppaulette on the left shoulder of the officer figures. All the pictures I found displayed both eppaulettes - maybe someone could enlighten me on why there may be just one?

The paints I used were all vallejo, using Dark Prussian Blue for the main uniform. The wood on the gun carriage was painted in Olive Drab with the metal details picked out in black (as shown in the New Vanguard book). I also used Army Painter again, but this time using a brush rather than the dip method.

More Victrix French Infantry

Home from work early evening, and the living room was still quite well lit by sunshine so I moved all my painting gear in there for a while. Finished another unit of French Line Infantry. This time in firing positions. Also retouched the cockades I'd missed on some others.

On a slightly different note, I'd decided to play the Mel Gibson DVD 'The Patriot' in the background. I'd last caught some of it on TV a few years back, but was interrupted when I accidentally locked myself out of the house part way through. After finding a neighbour with a ladder and hauling myself through an upstairs window, I arrived back where I'd started only to catch the end credits rolling.

After viewing the film in its entirety I found I was quite disappointed by much of the Errol Flynn style swashbuckling and slo-mo action pieces. The Gibson character seemed to be some kind of mix between Patrick Henry and Jackie Chan. I'd read on the internet that many of the main characters in it were inspired by several different real life personalities from the period. Regarding other AWI related movies, I'd heard that the film 'The Crossing' (1999) about George Washington had some merit. So I'll maybe seek that out next.

I'd watched 'Braveheart' with the same raised eyebrow as I had The Patriot, especially since I'd read the James Mackay book 'William Wallace'. I remember viewing most of it through partially closed fingers and groaning loud enough to annoy the rest of my housemates who knew nothing of the background. The infamous 'Battle of Stirling Bridge' anyone? No, lets forget that. Actually we'll mix up the chronological order of actual events, dress them all in kilts and insert a pain inducing love story.

What gets me most, is that the true events these type of films nit pick from.....are actually a thousand times more awe inspiring than the Hollywood fantasy. The Scottish troops pulling down the Bridge behind the advancing British leaving much of their army stranded to its fate would have looked incredible. Wallace's imprisonment and escape (the British actually throwing his still living self from a castle wall into a garbage heap because they thought he'd starved to death in his cell) would likewise seem to be cinematic gold, surely?

Ok. Enough grumbling and more painting!