Setup

Tonight we gathered in our club venue to set up a big game for tomorrow. We will be five players and we have cleared our schedules from 14.00 to "late night" for the game. This will be our biggest game to date using almost our entire collection.. Also our biggest table to date, 6x12'. Although we can fit 6x16' in the room, maybe for next big game.

Map drawn on a whiteboard. There will be three objectives. The large hill, a small farm and the river crossing.

Prussian forces to be commanded by Tobbe. We haven't deployed, just sorted out and placed all units on the table.

 More Prussians.

Two French brigades to be commanded by Mattsson.

Two more French brigades for Nisse.

I'll be commanding the cavalry reserve, two Cuirassier regiments and two Dragoon regiments.

Fuzzy pic of the table.

Glossy glossy glossy

 
This is my collection of "glossy" rules. Actually I arranged them in order of favorites. I have several other but these are the "new wave" of glossy rules recently published. Perhaps catered towards me and my generation that was raised with a warhammer army on the book self and an army codex in our backpack.

1. General de Brigade.These are my favorite set of rules and our small group of players all like them. I bought the 2ed softback when I and my main opponent Erik decided to get a few boxes of 28mm plastic miniatures. We actually had a few games with Le feu Sacre before that with my collection of 1:72 miniatures about three years ago, but when we saw the new sets from Perry Miniatures and Victrix we dove in, and General de Brigade was the first set that came to mind when I went looking for a 1:20 "big battalion" set of rules.
Lately I have had an urge to play bigger battles and I somehow felt that we needed a simpler and faster set of rules. However now having tested Black Powder the other week I can't see us moving form GdeB, it's simply the rules we associate with the period.
Erik just bought a copy of his own and he is better then me at me when it comes to reading and remembering rules, so that has really brought up the pace we play.

2. Black Powder. A short and fun read. We played them once. I didn't have any particular gripe with them. My opponent found it a bit frustrating to learn a new set of rules. I can see a use for these rules when running a large multi player game. I will definitely buy any napoleonic supplements if published.

3. Lasalle. A really clean and well thought through set of rules. I like a lot of the concepts in this book, the army builder and no casualty removal amongst them. But I don't get why skirmishers is abstracted in a tactical game, and why units is restricted to four or six bases big, why not five? I wouldn't mind playing Lasalle, it's just that we already have a rules set that we like for this type of game, and why fix something that's not broken. I tried these in a solo game and had no trouble with them.

4. Warhammer Waterloo. I really wanted to like this book, and I did, until I tried to set up a game. There is so many weird rules, guess-range artillery, 4" infantry movement, 18" musketry range, a light infantry company can only take four hits while line infantry can take six? To bad, when I brought these to the club I really felt like there was an opportunity to bring a few of my warhammer buddies into napoleonics, familiar with the points build approach.

5. Napoleon.
I bought these for the eye candy and because they seemed like a set of rules a newbie could pick up and get into napoleonics with. The eye candy wasn't that good, have not read the rules. Browsing the Internet for reviews it seems like I shouldn't anyway.

Wargames Holiday Centre on Youtube.

Be sure to subscribe to WHC's youtube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/wargameshc

Pictures from the Wargames hc has always been a huge inspiration for me and I have a silly dream that one day our club in Ystad could run games like theirs. I'd promised myself that I'll visit the holiday centre one day. It's not a long flight from here to London.

Warhammer Historical: Waterloo

I'm holding a copy of the new Warhammer Historical release Waterloo in my hands. I have leafed through it several times and read a few selected chapters. It might be to soon to draw conclusions but I have so many thoughts running through my head that I really feel I should write some of it down.
We promised our self to give these rules a try, with the reservation that it will take something extraordinary to tear us from General de Brigade.

Biggest nuisance.
I'll have to re-base my Prussians. This is a "stand counting" game contra GdB's "fig counting". Infantry suppose to be six figs to a stand and while there are room for allowing five or even four minis if you wan't some scenic basing all infantry stands in the game are suppose to be the same size. My Prussian eight fig stands would not work within these rules.
Although I can see my self happily re-basing if these new rules get friends and members at the club jumping for joy and diving in to Napoleonics of cause!

Small nuisances.
Cavalry are suppose to be two to a stand, mine are three to a stand. This however I can work around. I have a single fig stand and a two fig stand in each unit in my collection. So when the first stand is lost I remove the two fig stand, when the second stand is lost I remove a three fig stand and the single but add back the two fig stand. I hope I make myself clear?
It is important to the mechanics of the rules this stand removing. A unit can receive a number of wounds equal to the number of figs to stand, then that stand is lost. Then unit become disorganized when it loses a stand. So you can see there is an importance to the number of figs to the stand.

There are only Army lists for France, Great Britain and Prussia with their respective allies during the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. It is stated that "plans are afoot" to provide army lists and information for other nations and campaigns. But who knows when, if ever, this will happen. I can't see myself limited to these two campaigns solely.

Musketry is 18" and all artillery fire is guess range. I can live with it, just seems odd.

Good Stuff.
The book is simply awe inspiring. Hardback, 288 pages in full color reeking of Napoleonic inspiration. From photos of Perry twins jaw-dropping collection to full spread paintings and drawings.

Eight generic scenarios is provided. Like Meeting Engagement, Battle for the Farm and Hold the Village. This is exactly what we need to get gaming. We are a "pick-up game" crowd and this will really help us to get away from doing the same battle over and over.

One chapter deals with campaign gaming. While I would like more hard fast rules this more of a guide of how to set up and run a campaign.

The Waterloo Campaign in twelve historical scenarios. From to "Action at Gilly" to "The Imperial Guard Attack". Really inspiring and something I could see us build terrain and paint troops for and then to game out over several weekends.

Cavalry units represent squadrons and are therefore quite small, mostly six to 12 figs. This got me thinking of collecting a few cavalry units in metal, maybe chasseurs for my French and several other for my Prussians. Metal cavalry has been a no-go for me because of the large regiments required, this sort of opens a new world for me.

Units has a set number of actions it can carry out in each turn, tactical points or Tac's. Most have three Tac's each turn witch can be spent all on movement or firing, or a combination of both if one so which. I think this is a really good function.

Officers have an finite number of strategy points which they can spend to influence units around them. Also an interesting function.

Army commanders have "Strategies", special rules of a sort that model characteristics of that commander or faction.

Overall the rules seems really fast and easy to play without getting simplistic.

Random observations.
Infantry unis are big, 36 fig battalions seems almost exclusive.

The rules are geared towards smallish engagements. A standard force would be six battalions of infantry divided into two brigades, two small squadrons of cavalry and a battery of guns. I wonder if they would become to cumbersome gaming with twice that or more.

Table size vary between scenarios, 6x4', 6x6' and 6x8'.

Organizing your force with the aide of a set number of points and an Army List is something I don't mind, and I suspect none at my club would either. This is the way we where raised by playing Warhammer.

Update sort of...

I haven't posted in a while so I thought a small update was in order. Last Saturday I had a game with yet a another recruit, Nisse. Nisse and I have had a few WW2 games together in the past and he has showed some interest in that game I and Erik was talking about with all those minis.
The game was totally unplanned, I didn't bring my camera, so no pictures I'm sorry to say. Especially because this was a very enjoyable game and we used a lot of minis, almost my entire collection. We took our time and played until a clear ending.
Nisse set up a cul-de-sac using all his units with a battery of 6 pdrs in the centre. I marched a brigade of four battalions straight into it and got promptly thrashed as expected. When I sent in my second brigade his line was in disarray and he had a hard time to counter-attack. It was a close game but Nisse's force broke and left the field before mine did. A new GdB player that left wanting more, excellent!

I recently ordered myself some more minis, three boxes of Perry cavalry to finish of my Hussar and Dragoon regiments. Also mounted officers and casualties for my Landwehr. Speaking of Landwehr, I'm working on the last units of these, not terribly exiting. Although a grey and red painting scheme has renewed my enthusiasm somewhat.

Experimenting, Italians.

I'm supposed to have a game with Erik today, but I don't think it will happen!

Wonderfull tokens from Litko

Litko Aerosystems will do laser cut tokens for the rules set Age of Eagles, I have to say these look stunningly beautiful. I will email Litko begging them to do markers for General de Brigade. Check them out!

http://www.litkoaero.com/page/LAI/JIMSLAB

Planning my next build.

With my windmill done its high time for me to start thinking of my next terrain project. I always give my projects a few weeks to nurture in my head and think through as much as I can. Unlike my windmill build were I only had one picture as a reference, I have several of my next. Its going to be a church and I immediately though of the church in the battlefield of Eylau. Its quite representative of a typical European church and it is pictured in several paintings.

Cavalry reservs arrive!

Huzzah! Finally, the rest of my cavalry order arrives. Four boxes, well one hussar box has already been built and painted as the 7th Hussars. The other will be painted as the 1st Hussars. The Dragoons will be the 5th and 6th. Now that will be pretty tiny regiments but additional boxes will be bought to bring these up to respectable ("man sized" as they call it) numbers.
As you would expect the quality of these sets is impressive. There is practically no flash and details are crisp. There is but one thing I feel a tiny bit bummed about is that I'm forced to pay extra for the dismounted Dragoons, which will probably never leave their sprue. But considering the price for this quality I don't feel sure I don't even want to mention it.
On that note I have to say I really prefer plastic cavalry over metal due to several factors; cost is obvious, weight is another, and they wont bend and chip the painting if you have an accident.
I'm really hoping for plastic Chasseurs and Lanciers! Until then I might consider doing one or two more Cuirassier or Dragoon regiments... darn it, I way beyond hooked!

Hedgerows

Just normal hedgerows, no fancy bocage. I have this image in my head of a rolling landscape looking like a patchwork quilt with fields of different crop, long country roads running up and down low round hills, a few patches of trees... and hedgerows! This is what I want my table to look like, this weekends build might take me a bit closer.

They were built on 1" wide plywood strips that I cut out from a larger sheet. I bevel the edges with a strong knife and the slapped on a thick layer of carpenters wood filler to give them some girth. When this was dry I glued on a few larger pebbles and then gravel covering the rest. I painted them with the same colours I use on my miniatures bases, and then finishing with some static grass.
I used a "hot glue gun" to glue on the clump foliage which works really great.

I'll probably take a few photos of them in their natural environment on the game table. I like setting up the game table with terrain, especially if you have a few new pieces.

Quatre Bras OOB

When me and my opponent started with 28mm Napoleonics one of our early goals was to recreate the battle of Quatre Bras. I modeled my first division after Foy's 9th Division and my friend Erik started on Pictons 5th Division.
We drifted away from these plans and simply allowed our self to bye and paint troops we felt like. Although we are keeping too the 100 Days campaign.
Yesterday I took a look at our original plans and specifically the French OOB. I have painted a couple of units since I last had a look and though it would by fun to see if I was closer to our original goal.

Well, Cuirassiers are done. I'll need two regiments of Chasseurs and two Lanciers. these wont be done in a while because I'm hoping these will appear in plastic. Artillery, I'm nowhere close, one battery of seven, again I'm hoping for plastic line artillery (do you hear my Victrix). I'm half way there when it comes to infantry, I think!
There are some serious anomalies in my sources. Take a look.

Wikipedia.

JC Miniatures.

Napoleon, His Army and Enemies.

Unfortunately I have no books on Quatre Bras. The Waterloo Companion is beyond excellent but covers only Waterloo and has very little of the rest of the campaign.

Why six by eight feet table will have to suffice.

That's me up there, and a 6 by 8 table, in our club venue.

* We are lucky to have a club venue to play in, but we can't hog all the space and tables, 6x8' shouldn't be a problem.

* Our troops are based according to "In the Grand Manner" rules, which states 6"=100m ground scale.

* Using a 6" equals 100 meters ground scale the table will cover 1,6km x 1,2km.

* That's enough to cover Hougoumont in one corner, La Haye Sante in one corner and La Belle Alliance in a third corner.

* Our battles will rarely contain more than ~16 units per side, say an infantry division with some support.

* If we were to fight bigger battles, I don't mind a crowded table, it looks cool!

* With six feet in depth you can reach you troops in the middle of the table without to much of a hassle.

* You can have a brigade "hypothetically" deployed just outside of the table, witch are ready to march in at any time.

Oh, and by the way, long time no see. Not much napoleonic has happened the last few months but I hope there will be a change to that! And thank you for all the nice comments!

Cheers!
/David

What to get?

The box art alone is fantastic!

I'm nearing completion on my Victrix brigade. I'm half way done with the basing, so it's high time to order some new toys! I'm considering three options.

1. From Perry minis a 3-gun battery of horse artillery for my cuirassier brigade, with a 4-horse limber team, making it a "legal" option using Lasalles army builder.

2. From Victrix three boxes of Old guard Grenadiers, enough for four 32 fig battalions, again a "legal" Lasalle option.

3. Four boxes of Perry plastic Dragoons, making a full brigade of four 12 fig units.

I think more infantry is not really what I need, and there is way more important units to get than those Old Guard Grenadiers just yet. I'm not that keen on painting a massive 48 cavalry minis so I'm leaning towards option 1. What do you think?

It took eight years!

From the time I saw a documentary of the battle of Borodino on the Discovery Civilization channel and decided that napoleonic wargamig was the perfect substitute for warhammer witch I was increasingly growing tired of, to finally get going with napoleonic wargaming.
My first try was with 6mm miniatures. Since I know I had to do all the painting and research myself I wanted to keep it simple and cheap. This got nowhere, it was to much to learn on my own and I was overwhelmed by the amount of information I had to learn before even daring to touch my miniatures with a paint brush.
Years passed. My second try was with 1/72 soft plastic. Again trying to make it cheap. I actually got a few games with these, but 1/72 soft plastic is not for wargames. The poses of the miniatures and incomplete ranges makes it a tedious chore to complete a collection for wargaming.
When 28mm hard plastic miniatures appeared on the market I presented it for my "warhammer" friends, a few showed interest but it was only I and one friend who finaly ordered a few boxes each the summer of 09.