GNW game in Perth

Some photos from the game on Thursday. Basic Impetus Baroque rules and army lists, with a few Danish allies on the Russian right flank. This is the opening Russian set up. The Danes are on the far right.    

The Swedish setup. The Swedish commander cunningly placed his strength on his right and the Danes faced a near empty field.  

The Swedes advance, taking some casualties and disorder on the way (those are the little red and yellow counters behind the units).   



This is the view from the Swedish right. Swedish and Russian cavalry are about to close again. 

The first time they clashed, no permanent casualties were caused and both units fell back per the retreat after melee rule because no-one actually 'won' the melee.  The Swedish player was kinda puzzled by this and a discussion ensued. I accepted it as 18th / 19th c. cavalry tactics of cavalry falling back to reform when there was no immediate success.

However, I took the question to the Impetus Yahoo group and Lorenzo said this was correct (i.e. both cavalry units falling back), but he now thought the fallback should only apply to mounted fighting infantry.  Seems better in the context of Impetus.   

Lorenzo also clarified the oblique and side moves. He suggested that a full move by mounted to the side or obliquely should now result in disorder, but that a half move will be OK.        

Above, the Swedish cavalry mass for the final attack. The infantry in the middle have taken casualties but are pressing forward. The permanent casualties means they have lost their impetus bonus. 

And below is the situation at game end. The Russian centre has collapsed completely. The Swedes took a lot of casualties but survived.   

 

And the game end view from the Swedish right.  The Swedish cavalry have also taken many losses but are still on the table. 

So victory to the Swedes. If there had been more Russian reserves in the centre to move against the weakened Swedish infantry things might have been different.

And finally - my completed Danes on the Rusian right flank spent all evening turning and eventually managing to destroy one Swedish infantry unit.  But, by the time they were able to move to the centre, the Russian infantry had collapsed.  

GNW

The lack of posts in the last week was because I put a bit of effort into finishing bases for the Danes before a game in Perth last Thursday. Here are the results of that effort. First up, The Queen's Regiment. 

Then Sjaellandske. 

The artillery 

The 1st Sjaellandske cavalry. 

The 2nd Sjaellandske cavalry. 

The 3rd Sjaellandske cavalry. 

And how it looks together. Only 7 infantry, 3 cavalry, generals and a couple of batallion guns to go. 

     

 

GNW work in progress

And why not ... I think I'll try to show a unit going start to finish.  This will be the Fynske regiment for the Danes in the Great Norther War. 
I use white undercoat and thin coats of paint, almost washes.  So, basic white spray and added flesh.

Then green for the facing colour.  Any splotches and overspills will be corrected later.   

 Hopefully, more to come, though there may be a delay as real life or laziness take over.

Great units of the wargames table - The Red Lancers

The first of what might be an occasional series.  The 2nd Dutch Lancers of Napoleon's Imperial Guard have graced many a table. 

  

Years ago I used to have Historex 54mm models of the Dutch and Polish lancers, some Minifigs 25mm and first generation Minifigs 15mm, but they have all gone, though I still have the little coloured card that came with the Historex models.     

I still have my second generation Minifigs 15mm. These are based for Napoleon's Battles (but they also do for Age of Eagles and Shako).    

And - for Napoleonic anoraks (geeks) - I also have the Young Guard squadrons of the Dutch lancers. Again based for Napoleon's Battles, the YG had uniforms in the reverse colours of the parent unit, so blue uniforms with red facings.  

And some Essex figures,  

And of course, they appear in some boardgames.  A combo photo. 

Top row, left to right, the SPI boardgames Ney vs Wellington and Wellinton's Victory. 

Middle row, La Bataille de les Quatre Bras. The 14-14 is the regiment counter and the 3 x 4-14 are squadron breakdowns.     

Bottom row, La Bataille de la Moscowa.  Old version and then new version. 
 

I've got to add something from the painting from the Waterloo cyclorama.  Still inspiring. 

  

And something from the elegant work in the Bucquoy books. 

GNW bash

My only surviving picture from a bash we had using Basic Impetus Baroque.  This is a view from the centre of the field to the Russian left.  Note the complete absence of Danish cavalry on the Russian side. This was because I thought it was a good idea to go through the hedge, get disordered, then try to fight the Swedish cavalry.  Ho-hum, there's no accounting for stupidity.

     

newest figure painting - the great northern war

Two of the guys in the Perth club have been doing the Great Northern War in 28mm figures with Swedes and Russians.  Prompted to join in I decided to get some Danes.  Here are the first chappies as work in progress.  These are based for Basic Impetus Baroque.  Infantry and cavalry are on 120mm frontage, artillery on 60mm.  

Some friends use sand on the bases and I decided to give it a try.  Not sure about it though, so I might change it back to my normal mix of filler and small stones before I add the flock grass to finish.

old, new, borrowed and blue

This is my most recent purchase.  It's the new version of La Bataille de la Moskowa.  The 1812 battle of Borodino at the level of infantry battalions, cavalry regiments and artillery batteries and 100 yard hexes.  There are a lot of counters (1000 plus) but they are madly beautiful.  The four map sections create a battlefield some 44 x 68 inches.   

Some 30 plus years ago, I bought the GDW version of this game.  And what a difference the years make.  Here is a bit of the new map.

And here's how it looked all those years ago. 

And the new map Fleches.  

And the old.

And now some new counters, as yet uncut from the sheet - the 'terrible' 57th in the middle. 

And how they looked many years ago (The counter for General Compans is my homemade addition).