Tactica-Part 1 - Our tables and some special guests

Tactica 2015 was an awesome event. The show celebrated its 10th anniversary and the organisers got well deserved congratulations and presents from all around and everyone was in good mood. Thus it was a remarkable event in general but there were unique tables present as well.

During the two days I took far more than 100 pictures from which I'll present the best 50 here on the blog. But I'll split them into two posts: One today featuring the two games we brought to Hamburg and tomorrow or overmorrow some photos of the other tables.

So White Death to begin with:
After our game about Napoleon's retreat 1812  found a lot of recognition last year we decided to bring it again. Of course with a new table and new scenarios. This year we brought a 5m (about 15 ft.) table which represented Berezina River and its two banks:

Our table with a game running on the Eastern banks of Berezina River.

Looking westbound we installed a scene which showed the village Studjanka and the ersatz bridge the French built there. The streets of the village are absolutely overcrowded and dozens of stragglers were stupling towards the bridge. Actually this scene wasn't meant to be part of the game but it seemed to please the spectators very much:

Studjanka...

Hopeless stragglers.

On the Western banks there was a small cottage around which the last French cuirassiers gathered. On this part of the table it was the players' mission to detain the Russian attackers of Admiral Chichagov to buy enough time to allow a successful cavalry charge.

French cuirassiers gathering...

During the two days of the convention we had about seven games so about two dozens of players were able to join us for a game. Most of them seemed to have enjoyed the rules we designed and literally all were riveted by the collection of material we brought to Hamburg. Most of it from Bernhard's unique collection but with some additions of our club fellows Heinz, Holger and Michael as well as from me.

The first game running...

One of the highlights of the show was Saturday afternoon. A nice couple from Nottingham joined us for a game and so I had the great pleasure to participate a game with Michael and Alan Perry. Two really ordinary, sober and incredibly nice guys. Honestly a great pleasure to meet them again after I made their acquaintance last year and a very good game that we played together:

Bernhard, the twins and me.

Bernhard explaining the scenario... Yet they are in the mood for joking...

While my forces advance on the right flank, Alan and Michael attack the Russian center and left wing.

Some reinforcements: The last of the allied light cavalry on their way to the "Death Charge"

But the Perrys didn't come lonely from the UK. They brought two equally kind comerades. Sculpting hero Aly Morrison and master painter Peter Dennis. Especially Aly proved his patience when he explained me what new range he is working on. A miniature range for French forces in the 1820s for what he called "the war nobody knows" - The Franco-Spanish War of 1823. In addition he brought some greens of additions to his Crimean War range:

Aly working in his 1823 range.

1820s French army greens

Crimean War Frenchmen

Along with those three sculpters came Peter Dennis the master painter who is responsible for a lot of cover arts on wargaming boxes and for some Osprey illustrations as well. He was busy and very focused on his work all the time but a nice and polite fellow anyway. It was fascinating to see his paintings come to life over the day and on Sunday morning I had the honour to serve as a model for him. Well... I only had to pretend to hold a pencil like a drumstick but a nice experience anyway.

Peter Dennis working on the cover art for the Perrys' next plastic box "British Napoleonic Light Dragoons"

Four artists working... Michael and Alan on their 54mm figures for the ANZAC / Turk project.

Painted samples of the new Perry War of the Roses light cavalry - Awesome!

And one of the sprues... Interesting options!

But besides those well known guys some celebrities from the Lead Adventure Forum showed up. Some of the well-known moderators showed up and granted us the unexpected pleasure to make their personal acquaintance:

Richard (Cpt. Blood) chatting with our club fellow Michael (Admiral Benbow)

Captain Blood brought some of his excellently painted miniatures and presented them in on of the glass cabinets in the entrance hall. Unfortunately the lighting was rather poor but it was difficult to avert my gaze from his colourful creations:

On Sunday my visit in Hamburg received its second highlight when the LAF boys showed up for the second time and obviously were a bit idle. So we set up another game of White Death spontaneously and the trio delivered itself up to the Russian forces coming from the West. Those pleasant-natured gentlemen were very patient with my humble English and my fainting voice and we spent some great time. As Professor Witchheimer last year and Admiral Benbow always these fellows appeared as very fair and pleasant players. It was awesome to make their personal acquaintance and to see once more were the edges of our virtual world are: No social network can completely replace a real game with real fellows and real dice.

Me in illustrious company: Dr. the Viking, Malamute and Cpt. Blood

But besides White Death our club brought a dungeon which inhabited a course for Squigghopper race. The awesome board was built by our club fellow Georg with Hirstarts castings and used an improved version of the Squigghopper rules Games Workshop published a couple of years ago.

The game was pure fun and more than 50 visitors joined Georg and Kalle for a game or two or even more. Through the grapewine I heard that already there were challenges declared and gauntlets thrown down for next year's Tactica show.

After all it was an awesome weekend with my wargaming friends and a lot of nice fellows showing up in Hamburg. It was one of the rare occasions to make new acquaintance or revive older ones. Thus I can't wait to set sail for Tactica 2016...

During the next days I'll post the pictures I took of other table. Some real outstanding pieces of art so stay tuned !

Back to business: "Comedic" Bonus Round in the Painting Challenge

The Tactica show is over and I returned save and sound from an awesome trip with my THS wargaming fellows. Unfortunately I carried a cold from Hamburg which put me out of commission yesterday. So I wasn't able to sort and re-size all the pictures yet but I hope to have at least a couple of them ready tomorrow.

Anyway painting business is going on and while I'm much behind with my 750 points target I'm at least fulfilling part one of my plan and tackle all the bonus rounds. Last Saturday was the deadline for "comedic" and I entered a scratch built turn counter our 1812 games:

Since I started with the 1812 retreat topic I was pondering about Napoleonic snowmen. After I considered several possibilities for the comedic bonus round I decided to try my luck with building a funny scene or at least a scene with a twinkle in the eye. Somehow the scene didn’t turn out as funny as I wanted it but fortunately Curt accepted it anyway.

Centerpiece of the scene is a 50mm round base with two snowmen, a road sign to Paris and two frames for dice. It’s hopefully obvious who the smaller snowman is meant to represent. Anyway the frames are to place dice in as turn counters. Usually a game of White Death our custom 1812 ruleset lasts six turns but sometime a scenario might exceed that so I prepared two frames to be able to count to 12 if necessary. In front of the two snowman the creator seemed to have relieved himself with doubtful success...

The snowmen are about 28mm high (well… one of them less) and I made them out of greenstuff, glue and headgear from the Perry miniatures French infantry. The large base is by Warbases while the two single snowmen are mounted on 21mm coins. As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colors and finished them with corundum sand as snow and some static grass tufts.

 

Please don't forget to have a look at Curt's page and vote for your favourite entries of this bonus round:

H E R E

The clock is ticking... Last impressions before Tactica

Finally Tactica is prehensible. At this time tomorrow I'll prepare to launch so these are the last impressions of our winter game for now:

Hopeless stragglers stumbling over one the the Berezina bridges on 28th November 1812.

On the Eastern banks Russian guns are taking position to lay barrage on the bridge.

"Fire !"

A group of Polish troops taking position in the woods on the Western Banks of Berezina River.

"There! The Russians are coming!"

 Well... That's it for now. I hope you like those pictures which our club fellow Bernhard took during the last weeks. They came into being on the very same board we'll bring to Tactica and show parts of Bernhard's exquisite collection. The Polish troops on the last two pictures are results of my humble work.

4 Days to Tactica - Our White Death game

Four days until Tactica 2015 will open its gates in Hamburg. Time to look at the second game the THS club will present this year:

We'll bring a table which is nearly five metres long and that will represent the Berezina river in the middle and its Western and Eastern banks. There we'll offer two different scenarios taking place on...

28th November 1812

On both sides of Berezina river Russian troops gather to destroy the remains of Napoleon's Grande Armée. On the Western banks there are Polish and Swiss troops desperately trying to hold the ground until they receive support. Meanwhile on the Eastern banks Baden hussars and Hessian Chevoux-Legers ride forlon attacks to throw back the Russian troops of General Wittgenstein.

Scenario 1: Iron Men

During this scenario you players will slip into the role of the brave troops on the Western Banks of Berezina River. You'll have to hold the ground against a superiority of foes while there are the last French cuirassiers gathering under their courages generals Lhéritier and Doumerc.

It'll be your choice when to launch the attack but be careful to chose the right moment. Too early may cause a week attack since there are too few horsemen ready yet. Too late and you might have lost the chance to turn the tide...

Scenario 2: Death Charge

Here we'll lead you to the Eastern banks of Berezina River. Just the southern bridge collapsed under the weight of those countless fugitives. General Eblé's pioneers are working on it frenetically but simultaneously the Russians pile the pressure on the unfortunate French. Desperately the last mounted soldiers gather and form an unequal squadron: Some Hessian Chevaux-Leger, some Hessian Hussar, a couple of Polish Lancers, a bunch of Carabiniers and some shattered horsemen from Prussia and the Duchy of Berg. Even several mounted infantry officers gather around General Fournier and prepare for their Death Charge against the advancing Russians. You as players epitomise some of those brave and death-defying men. You'll have to defeat various waves of Russian attackers to cover your retreating comrades and to buy time to repair the bridge.

Will your sacrifice pay off?

Actually we'll try to run both scenarios more or less simultaneously but with certain time gaps to give us the chance to see something of the show ourselves. Unfortunately last year came of rather badly with that. Actually a games lasts about three hours but we'll try to shorten it here or there to adhere our apreciated participants not too long.

Anyway I'm really looking forward to the show and the games we'll play there. Feel free to come around, play a game with us or just have a look at the awesome board and the stunning collection of miniatures our fellow Bernhard brought together during the last years. The eagle-eyed of you might catch sight of the humble additions I made. Watch out for the miniatures on circular bases, these are mine.  ;-)

Wargames Illustrated about Russia 1812

Since a couple of days the new issue of Wargames Illustrated is available. Actually nothing too special for a monthly magazine but issue #327 has a very interesting topic: Retreats. Which called some fellows from our wargaming club into play. 

A fascinating topic which is accompanied by a couple of excellent miniatures by now. And as you have noticed during the last years some of us fellows are tied to Napeolon's Russia campaign. Thus Wayne Bollands from WI asced us a couple of months ago whether we would be interested to contribute some content to their January issue which is all about retreats.

Gladly we agreed and worked on an article and a scenario about the battle of Krasnyi which took place in November 1812. While my friend Bernhard was working out a Blackpowder scenario I wrote the article about the events and now our humble work is published.

In case that you've read it I would appreciate your feedback very much.

Anyway many thanks to our friends Heinz and Holger for taking part in playtesting the scenario and helping Bernhard to prepare the photos !

Retreat 1812 - Duchy of Warsaw figures

Finally this weekend I was able to send Curt the first entries for his painting challenge. Since I didn't have time to paint anything else during the first week of the challenge my first entries were my contribution to the "cold" bonus round:

A band of Duchy of Warsaw soldiers for Napoleon's retreat from Moscow

The miniatures:

The miniatures are from Murawski Miniatures. This small company run by Roger Murrow publishes a nice range of 28mm Napoleonics for Polish troops especially for 1812 - 1814. Above all he has some excellent figures in campaign and full dress but likewise two sets of ragged soldiers for the retreat 1812 theme. The seven miniatures I’m presenting here are from one of these sets.

The miniatures are sculpted by extraordinarily gifted Paul Hicks and by themselves a feast for the eye. The details are crisp and clear, the casting quality is extremely good and each and every of the figures is full of character. To cut the long story short: It was pure joy to paint those fellows.

In case that you like the figures have a look at Roger's (Murawski's) homepage. He's offering free shipping until 31st December.

The colours:

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint the boys. Because of the chaotic background of the retreat I didn’t want to paint them too uniformily and so decided to use different shades of brown and grey for the overcoats. But nevertheless the band should contain an idea of cohesion. Therefore I tried to give all of them special items in dark green. Most of them wear scarves or gloves where I seized this colour. Only exception is the grenadier which unfortunately doesn’t wear anything else than the tabard which I painted brownish.

Most of the figures didn’t have gloves because they’re operating their muskets. Anyway for some of them I painted half-fingered gloves because I found it plausible that they might have protected themselves this way.

Basing:

Actually I used nothing too special. The usual mix of sand, filler, (white) paint, static grass and PVA glue. As snow I use “Korundsand” (engl. May be: corundum sand). It’s a fine-grained and pure white abrasive which dental technician use for sandblasting. It has some sparkling grain in it and keeps its colour very good. Besides it’s extremely durable so actually perfect for the hard missions on the wargaming tables.

I hope you like my humble work.

Although Curt didn't actualise the standings yet those chaps should have earned me 35 points in addition to 50 point for fulfilling the bonus round. A good start which pushes me slightly above my expectations.

My goal for this week is to get as far with the figures for the next bonus theme as possible. This time it's "Mount(s) and Rider(s)" and I'm painting a couple of Normans / Early Crusaders for it. Deadline is 28th December but I'm pretty confident to have them finished before Christmas.

Defending the bridge head - Another Retreat from Moscow game report...

Some time ago when we played our latest game of White Death. Another playtest of our ruleset for 1812. This time we played an episode from the Battle of Berezina in late November 1812.

More precisely we recreated the 28th November 1812. Part of the French retreaters had already reached the western banks of Berezina River and were regrouping there. But meanwhile the Russians under General Chichagov were approaching and tried to empocket the bridge head. Finally General Fournier and General Doumerc saved the French by leading a daring cavalry charge with the reamins of their forces.

The battlefield... Berezina River is somewhere on this side of the board.

We as players led three warbands of retreating soldiers. It was pur goal to stand firm long enought to buy time for the cuirassiers to gather and prepare to charge. Regarding the rules this worked by special event cards which we were able to collect during the game. After this we were free to launch the cavalry charge or wait a little longer to collect more cards. The more cards the more powerful the charge but the Russians became more numerous and more dangerous during the game as well. A difficult situation...

Our warbands taking their initial positions.

Anyway a very exiting game arose and we had to fight hard to resist the Russian pressure. Here are some impressions from the game:

One of our soldiers taking cover behind a tree.

Allied troops ready to fire at the approaching Russians.

Luckily we had some artillerymen who where able to man a gun we found.

Chichgov's Russian in sight

They're fielding a sledge gun. Dangerous !

A Russian Jaeger officer leading the troops.

The Russians advance across the clearing in the middle of the board.

Their pressure becomes more and more unstoppable...

...but our curassiers gather as well. Relief seemed near!

More Russians...

Then suddenly Russian hussars appearing at our flank...

... luckily they meet the Old Guard our best fighters there...

...and underlie.

After we repulsed this charge our boys were at the end of their tether. Thus we decided to launch the French cavalry charge and luckily it was a success. Thus we defended the French bridge head and Napoleon and his troops are able to retreat further west...

Once again an absolutely entertaining and exciting game. Actually the core rules for our very own 1812 ruleset are working very well. Hopefully we'll manage to do some playtesting of the campaign rules this winter.