My gallant crew... Good morning! - Royal Navy Captains finished

The painting challenge is on it's last days now and finally I managed to finished to miniatures to complete the first bunch of Napoleonic seamen:

When painting those gentlemen I always swayed between the Horatio Hornblower TV series and a recording of H.M.S. Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan. Although the play is set in a slightly later period these sturdy officers reminded me of sorely afflicted Captain Corcoran. Simultaneously especially the left chap has the strict but fair look of Robert Lindsay's wonderful recreation of Captain Pellew.

Tactica 2016 Review (2) - Our games

Don't miss part one with the splendid tables all the other clubs brought: Here.

Finally here are some pictures of the games we brought to Hamburg. Firstly a 28mm Napoleonic skirmish I had the pleasure to contribute some humble work and secondly the wonderful Squigghopper Dungeon our club fellow Georg designed and operated.

Let's go to Egypt to begin with. It was a skirmish game scenario my friend Bernhard designed. It was set in spring 1801 during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Here are his very own words heralding in the story:

It’s spring of 1801. Napoleon has left Egypt a long time ago. British troops have landed successfully and are marching on Kairo.

First skirmishes are taking place near Rahmanieh on the left bank of the Nile between the British expeditionary force, supported by Ottoman troops. In a coup-de-main the French occupy the small town of Disuq on the opposite river bank. The British react swiftly and strongly. With a tenfold superiority they attack the French. But what is the real objective of this fight off the main battle site? This skirmish scenario will give an adventurous answer.

Our table... Nearly completely set up for the game.

To set the stage we employed roughly 250 figures, two rowing boats, a couple of wonderful exciting terrain pieces and a bunch of palm trees, shrubbery and scenic bits like chests, bags and such. By far most of the stuff came from Bernhard's wonderful collection, but some other club fellows and me were able to contribute some small parts as well. Thus Holger made the terrain mats, Georg helped with the terrain board and I gladly added the market stand that Santa brought (look here) me as well as my unit of British tars (featured here and here).

Napoleonic bring and play - Some impressions of an epic gaming day

On Saturday some chaps and me met for a spontaneous and uncomplicated Napoleonic Black Powder game. Boiled down to the essence we simly agreed to bring the troops we wanted to play and constructed two equal armies. One of course the French forces with some allies like Saxon and Westphalian troops and on the other side British and Prussian forces. So we started at nine in the morning and arranged an enormous table with a couple of tables and a ping-pong table. We played until evening and the game didn't find a clear winner unfortunately. But nevertheless we had a great time and actually that was all this day was about.

Although a complete AAR is rather difficult I want to share some impressions of the game with you:

Marshall Davout gathers his division.

Simultaneously the Light Cavalry of the Guard arrives out of nowhere.

To balance the forces slightly we used the point system from "Albion Triumphant - Vol. II". Each of the armies had about 2,100 points.

The French forces marching on...

... and their allied counterparts.

I commanded some British and Hanoverian forces most of with advanced on and along the road.

To have enough room to manoeuvre all the troops we needed a large table. But on the other hand we had to be able to reach into the middle of the table. So we arranged them as a cross of tables. There the French got the first turn and unfolded very well. The lucky frogs past all their command rolls during this phase of the game...

The French dashing into the centre of the table.

They seem to be fear not being prepared to cross rivers since their experience in Russia...

But nevertheless they rely on their line infantry.

The Polish brigade marches steadily.

On the other side of the table we allies were slower unfortunately. Especially my Prussian allies failed several command rolls and slowed us down.

Blücher and his troops get mixed up.

The French light cavalry of the guard pushed forward into the center of the field.

Meanwhile the first Prussians make up some ground.

A French general lost touch to his cuirassiers that got scattered by Prussian musket volleys.

The allies still trying to enter the center part of the table to unfold.

But only single Prussian units are successful and threatened by French cavalry at once.

The Prussian right wing and center blocked by a defiant cavalry brigade as well as a disobedient infantry brigade.

The French tropps - Westphalians here - try to tie up their opponents.

But finally British cavalry reaches the field of glory - Now Scots Greys !

And at least some movement in the center of the allies.

Unfortunately we didn't reach a decision until the end of the day. Although the French had an excellent position in the middle of the battlefield there were several scenes which were dominated by the allies. Some Prussian units proved tougher than expected and Prussian and British heavy cavalry descended upon the French simultaneously hitting their horse artillery and light cavalry heavily.

The battlefield during the end of the game.

Anyway at the end of the day we all had a good time and we all had successful as well as disappointing moments. An excellent day with the chaps and nobody missed those detailed scenarios and well prepared games we used to play most of the time. Just plain and simple fun this time.

Major Baring and three more 2nd KGL Riflemen

During the weekend I finished the announced riflemen finally. First of all their brave leader Major Georg Baring who lead the defense of La Haye Sainte during the battle of Waterloo nearly 200 years ago:

It's a rather simple conversio based on Perry Miniatures' light infantry officer, a bicorn head from the plastic box and some greenstuff. Although I'm definitely no talented sculptor I'm rather satisfied with the figure. Especially the part of the breast where the knot of the mirliton hat was sculpted. I had to remove it and then imitate the straps of Baring's jacket. Best seen on the image in the middle. Baring is based on a rather unusual 20mm x 40mm base. Actually that is slightly smaller than mounted figures are usually based but I wanted to be able to place him seamlessly between the riflemen on foot.

 

Second is a sergeant showing the boys where to go.

Another officer on foot. I'm not sure whether my attempt to paint NMM gold on the strap of the mirliton was successful. Looks a bit too yellow I'm afraid. So I would appreciate any hints for NMM recipes based on Vallejo Model Colors.

Once again it was great fun to paint this bunch of Perry miniatures. They are very well sculpted and a funny detail is that all the riflemen have a moustache. The only thing I didn't like that much is that all the colours of the uniform are very dark. That doesn't leave too many possibilities over to play with highlights. Especially the many black parts are a bit boring for painting and unpleasant for photography. Anyway the riflemen wore such an equipment in 1815...

2nd Light Battalion KGL - Eight men finished

Unfortunately I missed the Paint Table Saturday this weekend. But I wasn't lazy anyway. Here are the first eight riflemen for my 2nd Light Battalion KGL:

The battalion was part of the Kings German Legion which was founded in 1803 after England lost its Hanoverian possessions to Napoleon. The legion consisted of eight line battalion, two light battalion which were - at least partly - equipped with Baker rifles, four batteries of foot artillery, two batteries of horse artillery, two regiment of heavy dragoons and three regiments of hussars. Overall there were between 20.000 and 30.000 Germans who gathered under the banner of King George III. Mostly of course from the lost Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg but from other occupied German countries as well.

 

The KGL took part in all major British campaigns during the Napoleonic wars. They fought in Hanover, Pomerania, Kopenhagen and during the Peninsular Campaign as well as during the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo.

The 2nd Light Battalion KGL gained immortal fame during Napoleon's last battle when they defended La Haye Sainte. Under command of Major Georg Baring the helt the estate until late afternoon when the ran out of ammunition.

 

Some friends and me are planning to revive this very event in a special scenario for Black Powder. As one of the "British guys" - those bumblebrains collecting the British forces for our Napoleonic games - I got swept into the preparations of the game and agreed to paint some riflemen. "Some" in this case means 40 since we decided to play the scenario with a 1:10 ratio...

 

 So these are the first eight and there are some more to follow rather soon. The miniatures are from Alan and Michael Perry's excellent Napoleonic range and although I didn't like the colours that much - too much black - it was real fun to paint them. Once again some figures with very characterful expression.

For further reading about the KGL I highly recommend North Ludlow Beamish's work. It's a contemporary report which was published in 1837. Although there is a reprint edition it's available for free at Googleplay here in German and English.

Death of Colonel Christian von Ompteda

Last week the next deadline on Curt's painting challenge occured: Casualties.

There are many excellent entries and I cannot encourage you enough to have a look at the dedicated website. My entry was...

The Death of Colonel Christian von Ompteda at Waterloo

Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Freiherr von Ompteda was a Hanoverian officer who served as brigade commander during the battle of Waterloo. He was born in Ahlden an der Alster in Lower Saxonia. After becoming a lieutenant of the Hanoverian foot guards he was badly wounded during the French Revolutionary Wars. When Hannover's army was dissolved after the Convention of Artlenburg he emigrated to England and was one of the first to join the King's German Legion. During the following years Von Ompteda served in several campaigns in Denmark, Spain and France. In 1815 he was colonel and commander of the 2nd Brigade KGL in Charles von Alten's 3rd Infantry Division at Waterloo. He found his heroic death during a daring but desperate attack in line formation with the 5th KGL Line Battalion by the order of the questionable Prince of Orange.

Allessandro Barbero describes Ompteda's final moments as follows in his excellent re-narration of the battle of Waterloo:

"Suddenly, the order came to deploy in line and advance at a walk; when his men were some sixty yards away from the enemy, Ompteda had the bugler sound the charge and urged his horse into the midst of the thick line of French skirmishers. The tirailleurs scattered. [...] Colonel von Ompteda was encircled by enemy infantry, and the French officers, amazed by his courage, shouted to their men to take him alive; but Ompteda, who was by then [...] beside himself, started aiming sabre-strokes at the heads of the men surrounding him, and someone lost patience. When lieutenant Weatherly regained consciousness, the colonel lay dead two steps away from him, with his mouth open and a hole in his throat."

(Allessandro Barbero "The Battle", pp. 312 - 313)

I was deeply impressed when I read those lines for the first time and they inspired me for this vignette. It shall represent the fallen colonel dragged away from his fallen horse by a comrade from the 5th Line Battalion KGL. Maybe the scene differs slightly from Barbero’s portrayal but I wanted to have it a bit vivid and the Perrys offer such an amazing British officer casualty. Actually all the figures are from Perry miniatures. Three from the British Napoleonic casualties set and a slightly converted horse which I found on a rummage table at Crisis last year. 

As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colours and employed different types of foliage, static grass and modelling flowers to add some fauna to the scene. As a little trick I didn’t glue on the single British casualty yet because I’m thinking of replacing him by one or two Frenchmen which Ompteda killed with his final blows.

Another 1812 game

Last friday at the club we started the final act of our preparation for the Tactica convention in Hamburg this February. This year we'll present a selfmade ruleset for Napoléon's retreat from Russia in 1812. It'll be a scenario driven skirmish game that will make the special situations come alive which French and allied soldiers faced on their way back home. The game is based on an idea of our fellow club member Bernhard Hennen who realized it during the last year with some help from other team members here and there. Holger who is a professional graphic designer formed the layout, Robert one of our most gifted terrain builders prepared the board and I had the pleasure to contribute some humble text work.

Anyway last Friday we played the first test match with the -for the moment- final version of the rules and here's what we experienced:

It's late November 1812. Napoléon's Grande Armée fell at the last hurdle when they found Moscow plundered and burning. They started their imperative retreat much too late and were suffering from hunger and cold from the very beginnings. After they reached Smolensk around 11th November they had no other choice than proceeding because the city was empty of rupply and the Russian forces were gathering to prepare the final blow against the French. A few days later the enemies met near Krasnoi. The Russians tried to surround Napoléon's forces and block their way. From 15th to 18th November there were several skirmishes fought and only a daring attack of the French Imperial Garde made an escape possible because their fierceness and audacity let Kutuzov hesitate. But not all of Napoléon's troops were able to use the chance. Ney who commanded the rearguard was cut off with his corps by Russian troops. So he had no choice but seeking another way. He turned down the Russian offer of honourable surrender claiming that a French Marshal would never surrender. On 18th Novemver he managed to enforce a gap in the Russian encirclement and by night he withdrew over the frozen Dnieper River.

Our scenario starts on the very next morning. Our warbands (called 'companies' in the game) were roaming around in the woods at the Northern banks of Dnieper River. During our nightly passage our corps lost all its heavy equipment including all of its guns and all heavy wagons. In addition a lot of our comrades broke through the partly thin ice and found their freezing deaths. 

But we made the way over the river. Now we are wet, confused and disoriented but at least alive. The land is cloaked in thick morning mist. Behind us there are sounds of others. Are there other French stragglers or the ever-present cossaks chasing us? Not knowing whether these are friend or foe we're stumbling forwards to find a warm and dry place to take breath.

The scenario board... In the middle the first figures, at the bottom our unknown followers and on top the space to discover.

The board was set up rather simple. Because of the fog our sight distance was reduced to 6". We started vaguely in the middle of the table with a lot of unknown things behind us (represented by markers which are labelled on the back) and some unknown terrain in front of us (the empty space on the other side of the table). Our mission was to recce the terrain and find a place to take shelter for a few hours.

My Old Guard company fighting side by side with some ragged cavalrymen.

So on the one hand we wanted to advance quickly to find out what's at the unknown part of the terrain but on the other hand we didn't want to plunk into an ambush. So we split our forces. While Heinz and me represanting some Old Guard troops went forward Holger and Axel covered our backs. Luckily Axel found out that at least a part of our chasers were stragglers which we didn't discover aerlier because of the limited range of sight.

At least one group behind us were stragglers...

While he tried to help some of these unlucky comrades, Heinz and me made our way to the edge of the woods. Meanwhile a well known personality joined our vanguard. Marshal Ney the "Bravest of the Brave" took lead of our band and gave us moral support.

Some Old Guard chasseurs exploring the clearing.

So after the first one or two turn our four companies had spread widely over the gaming board and we were a bit confused where danger and were shelter might lie in wait.

Hoping that all of the guys behind us are just French stragglers we turned downwards to the clearing across the woods.

Here are some further impressions of our approach:

My grenadiers forming a line to be able to stop any surprising assault.

Some of Holger's cavalrymen supporting some weak stragglers.

Finally we discovered that there was a small hamlet in the woods. Although it didn't seem to be very luxurious it looked large enough to provide shelter for our ragged soldiers which were chilled to bones. Suspiciously there came voices from the cabins which sounded Russian somehow...

Carefully we advance...

Actually we wanted to be careful but one of Axel's officers was too chilled to wait any longer. We ran to one of the houses and looked inside. Unfortunately a bit too careless because the cossacks inside spotted him the very same moment he caught sight of them.

The unlucky officer and some upset cossacks...

So hell broke loose. Alarm cries echoed through the village and out of each and every house there were cossacks appearing. Within moments our comrads therein were surrounded and faced grim melee combat. Fortunately Heinz had the presence of mind to rush towards the sled gun which was located in the middle of the hamlet and fired it at the advancing foes. Well, Old Guard chasseurs are no artillerymen. Somehow he managed to hit a single cossack only but at least the canon was discharged and no danger for now.

The Old Guard chasseurs near the large sled rush towards the gun.

So for now the hamlet was save. This was the chance for Holger and me to stormed into the croud of cossacks and slice to pieces. While Axel's German allies were clearing the front of the buildings our two companies charge the Russians which had no chance against our skilful fighters.

We're gaining the upper hand.

Ney cheering bravely.

The Russians last stand.

As fast as the quarrel started it was over. A dozen cossacks lay lifeless in the snow which was dyed red meanwhile. We completed our mission and found safe shelter for the night. One of the rare chances to dry our clothes and rest our exhausted bones.

But luckiest of all was Colonel Marbot the leader of Holger's company. Somehow he managed to catch one of the cossacks' horses and safed a new mount for himself.

A cossack holding the horse which will be caught by Marbot later.

At our next fortnight meeting we'll play another game and will practice another scenario for Tactica. Besides that our collections are growing steadily. Most of the excellent stuff you see above is from Bernhard's collection with a small couple of additions from myself. Figures mostly by Perry Miniatures, houses from Grand Manner and trees mostly selfmade.

The retreat continues... Another 1812 game report

As most of you know already a friend of mine and member of our THS wargaming club is working on a Napoleonic skirmish ruleset covering Napoleon's retreat from Russia in 1812. Besides the pleasure to add some research I have the honourable job of a guinea for his rules and scenarios. If you have missed it you might want to have a glimpse at the previous AAR here.

Anyway on Saturday we met with four players and Bernhard as gamemaster to play the scenario "Cabin in the woods" which was set on 19th Novemver 1812. It was our mission to reconnoitre a small, cosy hamlet in the woods and secure it as bivouac for the following Grande Armée. Sounds rather easy, doesn't it?

But after we took a look at the hamlet we got suspicious because of the French body lying around...

The hamlet... Looks rahter cosy apart from the unlucky Frenchmen here and there...

Anyway we had to proceed since tempreture was dropping below -15 °C and at nighfall any kind of shelter would be vital. So we discussed our tactics...

Some veterans of the Old Guard discussing the best way to advance. The drummer doesn't look too excited...

... and started our advance.

The Old Guard takes the lead. With their grumpy drummer still slightly sulking...

As expected we didn't reach the hamlet as unchallanged as the scenario introdution promised. Our gamemaster added some of Westfalia's sledge cannons (available here) to his collection and was keen on usung them. The Russians hiding in the northern forest dragged one with them. But they didn't anticipate our courage and speed. The two squads which guarded our right flank reconnoitred the cannon, ruhed forward and overwhelmed the surprised crew before they were able to fire the gun.

Outnumbered cossaks without any opportunity.

In the next turn we manned the gun, turned it against some Russian jägers which followed the gun and wiped them out with their own shrapnel shot. Quickly we reloaded the gun and took it with us. An unexpected but very pleasant beginning...

Our stragglers have a new toy...

Meanwhile some melee arose on our left flank. Fortunately this was the area which our veterans from the Old Guard overviewed. Quickly they chased the attacking cossacks away and cleared the way to the hamlet.

Three guardsmen finishing off the last cossack.

Our troops were strapped for ammunition so we headed directly towards the caisson in the middle of the village. Unfortunately it was empty and we had to search the surrounding sheds to find some ammo. Finally with success fortunately.

My group of veterans entering the hamlet and heading for the caisson.

Afterwards we noticed some figures creeping ddep in the forest around us. First we though that might be the wolves we cast out the village but we realized that there were more Russians approaching. Willy-nilly we had to prepare ourselves to defend the hamlet which should house our following comrades this night.

Finally we used the caisson as barricade. Undangerous since it was empty anyway...

Thankfully we had the captures sledge cannon and further three charges for it. Foresightedly we brought it into position at the Western end of the hamlet were most of the enemies were coming from.

Our brave guncrew...

But suddenly some more cossaks attacked the village from the rear. They set up another sledge cannon with surprising speed and fired a shot of the hut in which five or six of our soldiers were seeking some warmth. But incredibly they missed!

Afterwards things developed very quickly. Against the darkening sky we meant to spot the first succeeding troops. With our last efforts we made an excursion and attacked the gun crew who was trying to load the gun nervously. Especially the veterans of the Old Guard proved their priceless value. They drove into the enemy lines like a group of reapers and slaughtered the attackers on either flank.

The figures were glued to the base but the two Frenchmen had killed the crew as well as some attending Russians.

After an intensive round of shooting and melee more than a dozen of enemies lay slain. Only a few lucky cossacks stumpled away and vanished in the dark of the woods and the setting sun.

Finally we heard our comrades from the retreating Grande Armée arriving. Mercifully we already occupied some of the shed to house us this night because some of the poor fellows who arrived now had to spend the night crowded around campfires but exposed to the bitter cold outside...

"There... I see Egles advancing!"

Anyway after all it was a very entertaining game with an extremely nice group of people. Our gamemaster lead the game experencedly but we were able to surprise him here and there. Overall it was a splendid success for a beaten and tattered army...

Hopefully we'll find the time to play another game soon. If you're interested in the setting and the narrative set of rules then be a little patient. With some luck it might be published next year...