The Other Napoleonic Games at Salute

I'm afraid these photos are nowhere near as nice as the ones of the 54mm game.

The Corunna "game" was a terrific spectacle with a lot of story going on in it.  I say "game" because it was effectively a diorama, and on the BRB scoring system, non-wargames only score half points.  However there was an awful lot of fantastic modelling there, and even on half points it would score very high!   I estimated 3 French Divisions at 1:20 scale, perhaps 2000 French miniatures, alone, and a total 4000 minis on the table?

Rubbish photos.

Looks like I had the shakes.

As it happens, I had been out drinking the night before with the French Provisional wing of Muswell Militia.

But the blurry shots have more to do with me having lost a critical part of my tripod.

The ships were bloody amazing! 

I'm not a huge fan of 15mm, but the Aspern-Essling game was excellent.  The number of minis was astonishing, the villages looked like villages and the game like a proper battle.  What is more, they  were actually playing it which is hugely brave at a show like Salute!  Alas my photo fails to do it justice.  That is a game I'd really love to play, and it has made me very curious to read up about the battle.

My Favourite Game at Salute

I thought the 54mm Napoleonic game laid on by Victrix, looked absolutely stunning (all pictures clickable).

It was clearly set somewhere in Spain, with a stream running down the centre of the table, and some stunning  scratch-build buildings.

There were a couple of hundred figures a side, mostly from the Victrix ranges, but also a few that I think are Italieri.  They used a simple set of Victrix rules.

The figures were organised into battalions, each 20 or so strong, each figure mounted on a 40mm base (I'd have been tempted to use 30mm frontage, but that's just me).

Above, there was a pretty Portuguese battalion on the British left.

The French, below, looked splendid.  That's a converged Grenadier battalion in the foreground.  THe second photo has a converged battalion of Voltiguers,

The French columns were screened by Voltiguers.  The column on the right was Italian.

Shown below, there was a pretty column of red-coated Swiss, marching though a village.

Finally, below is a very striking unit of Italieri Malmelukes.

I didn't hear about prizes, but if this participation game didn't win anything, I'd be very disappointed!  Much kudos to Victrix.  

Grognards

I really wasn’t going to do the Garde Grenadiers, honest, until I spotted 24 superbly painted Victrix minis on eBay, superbly painted by Philip Hatton, going for a relatively modest price in relation to the excellent quality of the painting.  Can't resist a bargain...

The only change I made to Philip’s figures was to muddy them up a little to match my Chasseurs and Tirailleurs, and rebase to my denser basing standard.  I’ve added a mounted officer and 10 more grognards, and managed to match Philip’s greatcoat colour pretty well, I reckon.  

The officer is General de Brigade Baron Christiani from the Perry Garde officers set.  Christiani led the 2eme Régiment de Grenadiers at Waterloo. 

Now I’m fretting that there is only a single battalion of them.  There really should be at least two...  Mustn't... go... there...

Jeune Garde Tirailleurs (1er Bn., 2eme Regiment)

This is my first Young Guard regiment, the 1^er Bn. of the 2eme Regiment de Tirailleurs.  The uniforms are based on a plate in the Hortoulle "Soldiers and Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars", showing Tirailleurs and Voltiguers on campaign in Spain in 1809/10, based on period drawings.  I particularly like the greatcoats in brown Spanish cloth, trimmed with red piping.  Do have a click!

All the minis are plastic Perrys, except for the metal standard bearer.  I suspect that the mounted officer is converted from a Dragoon officer; he’s lovely!  The fanion is GMB.

All the minis were painted for me by Dave Davies, who did such a splendid job that I’ve barely touched them (I just muddied the hems of the greatcoats up a little, to match the rest of my Garde), and based them.  I have a couple more battalions to base, and I’m trying to coax one more battalion out of Dave to make a brigade... his painting is exceptional!

My Very Own Spanish Boot Sale

I bought a big lot of figures a while back that are based on 20mm-frontage plastic magnetic bases and have decided to sell them on, rather than re-base to my 15mm standard.  All the minis are Victrix, from the French Line sets, all pics clickable. 

The first unit are 20 French c.1805.  I’ve spent some time on these bringing them up to quite a respectable wargames standard, using dips, highlights and static grass tufts (the same could be easily be done with the other 4 units, in around 2 evenings per unit); I am quite pleased with them!  £45

6 French Light infantry, below, same standard as above £15

4 units of 20 French Line in shakos (4 Command stands, 12 line stands, 2 Grenadier Stands and 2 Voltiguer stands), and 1 stand of light infantry (84 minis total).  These are complete and quite useable but would benefit from dipping and highlighting as above.  £30 per unit and I’ll throw in the light infantry for free.

I can post at cost (will be cheap as these are all plastic miniatures), or deliver at Salute if you’ll be there.  I’m happy to split.  Buy ‘em quick; if they don’t sell by Friday, they’ll be in the bring and buy on Saturday!  You can email me at simonmiller60@gmail.com.

Cheers, Simon 

General de Division

I forgot to post this; he's the general for my dragoon division, lightly converted from a Perry plastic dragoon.

I'm pleased with him, but might give him some white feathers on the crest of his bicorne.  And a medal, in anticipation of his great deeds!

Garde, Garde!

These are my Garde Chasseurs a Pied, which consists of the 1^er and 2eme Regiments, each of 2 Battalions of 36 foot and 6 deployed skirmishers, and a small band of drums.  All photos very click-able.

The 1er (below) are led by General de Brigade Cambronne, he of the alleged “Merde!” incident at Waterloo (which I first read about in Zola’s “Les Miserables”, as a teenager).

The 2eme (below) are led by Général de Brigade Baron Pelet-Clozeau.

The two Brigades are led by General de Division Michel, who was killed, leading the attack of the Chasseurs a Pied at Waterloo.

All the foot figures are Victrix, and the mounted command Perry’s.  The foot were painted by 3-4 different painters (the majority by Shaun Duncan), although all were stained, detailed, varnished and based by me.  I painted a few foot, the officers and the Tambour Major and assembled drums (below).

Later, I plan to add additional stands with the earlier style of flags with the diamond design, and the later simpler flag used at Waterloo (for the 1^st Regiment only; the second won’t have a flag). 

I’m currently working on the 2/1 Grenadiers a Pied and hope to finish those by the weekend.

BRB's Away Day: La Garde!

Below you can see French reinforcements arriving, to support the faltering attack on the Fleches.  The front Brigade is of Swiss and Italians (returning from the table after a blunder), and beyond them are no less than seven battalion of Garde in their blue greatcoats, and a unit of lancers.

The above shot is of part of La Garde.   These are mostly my figures (4 bn. of Chasseurs, and one of Grenadiers a Pied), and I'll take a few shots of them later this weekend.  They came on behind the centre, but were somewhat delayed by the press of troops to their front...

And finally for today, above is a shot of my three regiments of Dragoons cantering onto the table, late in the game.  I still need to detail and base the fourth regiment and the horse artillery to finish off this Division... but they do have a certain impact...

BRB's Away Day: Brave Poles

Here are some shots of the attacks on my wing, led by Roger's new Poles.

Above is 75% of the mixed brigade of Roger's Poles and my Line, hurtling towards the right hand fleche.  And becoming disordered.

I discovered that in Black Powder, infantry can almost automatically form square at the drop of a hat; so my heavy cavalry were reduced to a "supporting role".  

Here the French and Poles have pushed on into the fleche...  the Polish unit at right rear, achieved wonders;  routing a Russian unit it became shaken, and was then charged simultaneously in front and flank by two fresh Russian units.  It routed, one, turned and then routed the other!   The heroes can be seen, below.  Eventually they had to reluctantly retire after their brigade was broken.

Roger (RTB) designed this range of Poles, which were sculpted by Paul Hicks.  I can testify that they are lovely minis, very compatible with Perry/Victrix.  There are some closeups on Roger's blog.  If you want to buy some, then you can reach Roger at roger.murrow@mmc2100.co.uk.

BRB's Away Day: Part Deux

In yesterday's post I showed the starting positions of the Russians, and here are the French!  Everything is clickable.

Above is a view along the French front line.  L'Empereur had 20 battalions of 36 infantry on the table (with another dozen off table!), and half a dozen cavalry regiments (with 4 in reserve) and a grande battery (14 total guns).  Indeed the force was so numerous that it was extremely challenging to fit it on the table!

A head-on shot of the French centre, shows some of the 14 battalions le Petit Caporal committed to the frontal assault on the fleches.

... and here you can see RTB's 2 battalions of Poles that later distinguished themselves (on which, more in due course!).  

Our light cavalry brigade was commanded by Lasalle, himself (gesturing with pipe).

And finally, below, le Petit Tondu himself, with General Staff; lovely painting by Roger, particularly worth a click.  That is Ney with his back to us, at the table.

Most of the French shown are Rogers, but some are Ken's (and a very few of the line, my own).  Tomorrow will follow some shots of the action!

BigRedBat's away day

I've been away to Nottingham to play a game chez RTB, with Roger himself and Ken and Will from WD3 forum.  We played a very large Napoleonic game, very loosely based on Borodino, using Roger and Ken's extensive armies and a small contingent of my forces.  I'll post a few shots over the next few days, here are some to get started with from the initial Russian deployment.

Above is a view from behind the Russian great redoubt, which Will had made for the game, looking towards the French lines.  I think RTB painted the guns.

Here are some troops on the Russian right; the cossacks, in particular, turned out to be a real PITA.

Above is a view of the Russian left, including a battery of 12pdrs.  The Russian guns were terribly powerful, and later took a terrible toll of the attackers.

A view of the Russian left, from behind the French lines.  This was a relatively quiet wing; not much action aside from some long range firing.  I think all the Generals were too worried that they might need to read up the bizarre Black Powder rules on attacking buildings.

...and finally Kutusov, himself (seated) with the Russian General Staff.  The Russian Staff drank a good deal of imported French Pinot Noir, during the game, but sadly this isn't depicted.  It didn't seem to unduly impair their performance.  These beautiful figures were painted by Roger, over just a few days.

Tomorrow, the French!