Seven Years War Austrians finally done and a club game of BP

I can finally say, "yay!".  I got the 4 units of SYW Austrians finished. These have been on the tray for a while, but too many other projects have interrupted my attempts to get them finished.  

Photos are not the best with a shaky hand, but here they are.  

And some pictures of a Napoleonic game we did last week, using Black Powder rules. British and Allies versus the French on a 'battle for the crossroads' type of scenario, loosely based on Quatre Bras.  All the figures and terrain were provided by one of the chaps. The figures are mostly Napoleon at War 'big' 15mm.

Here the French advance through crops to attack the British defending the crossroads. The French were repulsed.   

Here the French right advances on the Allied left on a hill. 

Now, I have to admit, the gamer tactic of using French columns in a kind of phalanx, kind of annoys me.  But at least Black Powder usually only allows one unit to attack one unit at a time, so it's not too bad. Still, I wish players would not try to mass everything in the front line so they can roll maximum number of dice every turn. 

And later in the game, the French still struggle to clear the crops and never make it near the crossroads or houses before nightfall.  

The game was a lot of fun, and in some respects showed what happens when players ignore the victory objective and want to win on their side of the table.  The French advanced on both flanks but ignored the centre. I could imagine the French general reporting to big boss afterwards.

General : "I captured the hill".  
Boss: "What about the crossroads?"
General: "I captured the hill, and nearly took the crop fields."
Boss: "And what about the crossroads?"
General: "Errr…."

Post game discussion brought up another interest ( a slight pet peeve), and that is that no Napoleonic rules set ever demands players deploy units or brigades by the seniority of the regiment. i.e. what I've seen repeatedly on tables is units massed together, or heading off in all directions in a kind of firework display, and where a column is just any old column and can form another formation in any direction.

Now, I may be a bit anorak (geekish) about this, but I am not aware of ANY set of Napoleonic rules that asks players to deploy battalions or brigades by seniority.  e.g. If a French column is being led by the senior grenadier company, who's place is the right of the line, then the following companies should form up to the left of the grenadiers. So, 

        Grenadiers
        1st Fusiliers
        2nd Fusiliers
        3rd Fusiliers
        4th Fusiliers
        Voltigeurs  

They would form in line as,
Voligeurs 4th Fusiliers 3rd Fusiliers 2nd Fusiliers 1st Fusiliers Grenadiers 

I am aware than units could form, "left" in front, or "right" in front, and in other combinations, but as far as I know, the battalion would not form up in any old order, to please the general (game player), as officers need to know where everything is. 

And this focus of seniority deployment can be seen in maps and descriptions of brigade level deployments.  e.g. British deployment tended to be senior regiment on the right, next senior on the left, junior in the centre.  French deployments were similar, though they tended to deploy by battalions within regiment. e.g. look at the deployment of D'Erlon's columns at Waterloo. If I remember correctly, the order of advance was; 

2nd battalion junior regiment 2nd brigade
1st battalion junior regiment 2nd brigade 
2nd battalion senior regiment 2nd brigade
1st battalion senior regiment 2nd brigade,
then repeat for 1st brigade, so that the senior battalion of the senior regiment is at the rear of the column or on the right of the line.

I also seem to recall an incident during the Nine years war or WSS, where French units got themselves in a muddle, because an Allied rear attack meant that the senior regiments 'les vieux', were not on the right, and they refused to co-operate until they were given their rightful place at the right of the line.  

Historical accounts contain these details, but I don't think I've ever seen or heard of any rules set or any games requiring forces deploy by seniority.  So while gamers focus on uniform details and weapon capabilities, no-one seems to focus on historical deployment.

Bah! Humbug! Charge and throw lots of dice! Who cares about history.  :) 

More later … 

A bit of painting and some club games

I've finally got some more of the Seven Years War Austrians painted.  Painted, but not yet finished. Still I'm pleased to have got them done.  This was something I had planned to do sooner, but too many other games and activities meant they progressed slowly.  Now only the basing and flags to finish.    

Some pictures of recent club games. First, my mini mini Kursk scenario. I had planned to do this last July, to commemorate the 75th anniversary, but life got in the way. Each vehicle or stand in this version represents a company of 12-15 vehicles or battalion of infantry. My original planned big version was to have everything at platoon level.  

And just in case anyone wonders, the scenario is from the Spearhead rules, and represents the action on 12th July between the SS Totenkopf and elements of 5th Guards Tank army. This is after the earlier breakthrough and the Germans are now trying to complete the destruction of the Russian forces and advance off the top of the table towards the rail-line to Kursk.

First pic is a view of the initial Russian defence; then a view of the Germans advance, and then a view of he Russians racing forward their reserves.   

This game was also interesting in showing the style of the players. When I initially ran through the scenario, I had formed panzerkeils, and advanced the armour and left the Russian infantry to the panzergrenadiers.  However, when the panzer fans at the club took command, they formed what was essentially the "windscreen wiper" of doom, a line of armour across the table and they plodded forward, firing at everything till they'd destroyed it. They didn't actually make it more than halfway up the table. Hey-ho, such are different styles of play.  

Last Thursday we played Cruel Seas.  One chap brought the boats and the rest of us just played. Here's a picture of close to the start. This is a British escort to cargo ships. At the top of the picture are the e-boats. 

And views from the German side. Torpedoes in the water! Also, please note the smoking boats at the top left. 

The torpedoes reach the cargo ships. I needed to roll 5 or less to his the first ship. Then the torpedo passed under to strike the second ship. I rolled to hit and the torpedo was a dud. 

And finally, a classic episode worthy of a British film of the era, the 50's or the 60's. A badly damaged British boat deliberately rams the e-boat, sacrificing itself to stop the e-boat  attacking other British boats or the transports.  

The British losses. All in all, a fun game, but greatly enhanced by the 'go for it' attitude of the players.  This game also benefitted from being played on a small 4 foot by 4 foot table. 

And finally, a picture of some more of my attempts at some AB Napoleonics. I bought these already undercoated black, so I had the choice of stripping the undercoat or just starting. My first step was to do a light dry brush of white over the figures, just so I could see the detail. I'm afraid that when I look at black undercoat I can't really see a damn thing to paint. I then painted a bit more white on the drum major and some blue on one of the infantrymen. I'll see how this way of painting goes.  

Cheers for now …

More Napoleonics under way

I'm getting some more Napoleonics underway.  I'm intending to revisit an old, old project going back nearly 50 years or so, to do the forces at Quatre Bras in 1815. I've done this so many times with different figures and scales and with boardgames.

However, I'm still debating which figures to use.  One thought was to part with some of the 8,000 or so 15mm Napoleonic figures I have a switch to something like only AB Miniatures.

But then I thought about actually going back in time to my old 2nd generation Minifigs. I still have a lot of them (estimated at over 5,000) and I have a nostalgic fondness for them. With a bit or reorganising, I reckon I could do the forces at 1:20 figure scale, though I might have to use Russian or Prussian substitutes for the Nassau and Dutch Belgians.

So unpainted figures were brought from boxes and set out on card trays. The weather here was quite good last weekend so I had a good outdoor spraying session. Here's the product.

Here's a close up of the AB figures. I got these to try as a test. I'll see how these turn out before maybe getting more. 

Here I have given the figures a light wash of black to highlight the detail. 

And the first test of some red for the jackets. I used Vallejo flat red for this, again just to see how they would turn out. 

Now, AB miniatures have a lot of hype around them as being some of the best Napoleonic figures on the market. They are nice, and well proportioned, but I was a bit surprised to see no lace detail on the jacket and no real definition for the cuffs. These can always be painted on, but it's still disappointing for these details to be missing.

I'll see how I get on with the AB miniatures, but I also were to get more of my old minifigs done. 

And finally, this week at the club we're planning on a game of Hail Caesar with 15mm figures, just to see how it looks. 

More later … 

Games of the year 2018

Here's a quick review of the club games I played in 2018.  In the order of most played to fewest. 

Black Power - 9 games 
Longstreet - 5 games  

No Retreat Russian Front - 5 games

Lion Rampant - 4 games

Hail Caesar - 3 games 

Great War Spearhead - 3 games 

Then the remaining games which were played only once or twice. Command and Colors Ancients, 1914, Maurice, Dystopian Wars ( a last game before I sold off my stuff ), Shako, Flames of War, Sharp (sh*t) Practice, To The Strongest, Blood Red Skies, and The Somme, Vikings and Panzerkrieg boardgames. 

All in all, not too bad for the year. The total was 43 games.    Here are some notes. 


Black Power - 9 games 

This has been the game of this year, as we embraced fun and playability and used it for skirmish games after abandoning the turgid mess of Sharp Practice. We played 4 AWI, 3 Napoleonic and 3 Great Northern War games. The AWI games were played with 28mm figures, the others with 15mm figures.  

Longstreet - 5 games  

We played these games as part of our campaign.  The Longstreet campaign system is not about taking terrain, but about you as a commander, making a reputation, getting your name in the papers and maybe even getting a statue put up in your name.  A great fun game.  

No Retreat Russian Front - 5 games

This was another campaign. My opponent and I took photos of the board at the end of each game night, so we could pick up next time.  A truly great boardgame. 

Lion Rampant - 4 games

Most of this was at the end of the year when we did our Lion Rampant tournament. Still a great fun game.  

Hail Caesar - 3 games 

We played HC with 28mm figures. All fun games, and it's only really lack of time that means we can't play more. 

Great War Spearhead - 3 games 

I played these with a friend's 6mm figures.  Good games so far, though as I get older, I think 6mm is too small for me.  

Shako - 2 games.

I still like this game, though it never caught on much with club members.


Of the other games, I said goodbye to Dystopian Wars as I hadn't played in a while. Maurice is still good to play as is Commands and Colors.  As usual with us, there are too many games and not enough time. 

And this year has started off with a game of Cruel Seas, the latest package from Warlord Games. It was OK, but I'll have to play again.  In one scenario we had a great bash with 2 small boats each, but then the second scenario was an escort to a tanker, and the tanker seemed to be more maneuverable and powerful than the MTB's.  We might have got something wrong, but it did seem oddly weird.  We'll play again though, because a couple of chaps at the club are fans of small boats in WW2.

More later … 

Game activity ongoing

Here's a brief update on recent game activity. Just to show games and painting have not stopped.  

First up, a recent game of Commands and Colors, using a friend's 10mm figures.  He also made these hex mats from railway terrain. This is the battle of Zama as seen from the Carthaginian side of the board. 

Next up is a Commands and Colors Napoleonic game. Same idea with 10mm figures on 3inch hexes. This was the battle of Eggmuhl between French and Austrians.  This is the view from the Austrian side of the field.

And some of my ongoing work with figures. First a test unit of Napoleonic 15/18mm AB British miniatures.  I'm going to test if I want to revisit an old project of the 1815 campaign, but using new figures and selling off all my old figures.

And the alternative is to rebase all my old 2nd generation minifigs. Here is a test basing exercise of unpainted figures.

Another alternative is to sell off my 15mm and move to 10mm.  Here are some 10mm test figures from Pendraken. Painting is slightly different with these. At the back are figures with a black undercoat, and at the front figures with the follow-up dry brush.  I liked the dry-brush idea at this stage as it lets me see what to paint.

And the painted 10mm.  I've tried to use brighter colours for these smaller figures. So the French tunics are a mid blue and the British tunics are carmine red.  The rifles uniforms are a mid green. The intent is the brighter colours are more visible across the tabletop.

And my Seven Years War figures stroll towards getting finished.  This year I want to get enough Austrians and Russians painted to do the battle of Kolin.

A side project is 12mm early WW1 figures from Kallistra.  These French are pretty much completed and I only have to flock the bases. 

More of my gaming activities later ...

Black Powder 1 vs Black Powder 2 - a quick book review

So here's a quick review of the physical Black Powder 2 rulebook.  

I'll leave a review of the actual rules to others, though I will say I do like the rules and have had very good games with them. And I'll continue to play BP games. 

However, while the Warlord chaps are no doubt smugly congratulating themselves on a flawed product, I thought I'd give my view. 

Let's start at the very beginning ... the cover. 

BP1 had a clear cover. Dramatic main figure on the front surrounded by smaller images, and the key subtitle "Battles with model soldiers in the age of the musket." The simplicity of the cover gave the full idea that the rules cover battles from the 18th century through Napoleonics and the 19th century. 

And BP2?  Well, to me it looks like just another set of Napoleonic rules. There's nothing special here and no hint of other black powder conflicts. Just a bland cover.  

Now, if it was me, I would have kept the same cigarette card theme for the cover, and perhaps replacing the highlander with the French Line Infantry as the main central figure if I wanted to give it a Napoleonic theme. I would also have kept the key subtitle "Battles with model soldiers in the age of the musket."  

The vanity page. 

The vanity page. Ho-hum. It's part of a modern trend for authors and artists to put themselves into action paintings for rulebook covers. You know the kind of thing - Over the Hills, Napoleon and anything by Barry Hilton. 

You just know that these vanity people would run when they heard their first shot, and probably clutching their brown trousers. Still, at least the BP vanity page is a relaxed setting.

The text. 

Now to my main issue with the book.  Do you see the changes.  On the left is BP 1, on the right BP2.                                 

                                       

                                       

In BP1, note the black bold text headings and the text laid out in 2 columns. All good.

Now in BP2, headings are now orange on a buff background, and the text is now in 3 columns. 

Seriously guys, what stupid clown in the editorial team though that orange text on a buff background is, 

    a) readable in the first place, and
    b) more readable than black bold text.  

Seriously? What did the change to orange achieve. To me, it looks like change for the sake of change. Just the kind of thing smug idiot managers want because they don't think about the customer.  

I can't easily read these headings when flicking through the rules.   

And, 3 columns?  Again, seriously, why? WTF did this achieve? Change for the sake of change. 

Compare this picture of Hail Caesar (left) and Pike & Shotte (right). See how simple and readable it is. Bold black headings and 2 column text.                                    

                                    

Scenario for Quatre Bras. 

The hint on the back cover is that this is a scenario. Except, inside the book, it's a photo 'replay' of a Quatre Bras game. 

Again, seriously guys? 10 pages of photos?  How many times do you thing readers will look at this? Once if you're lucky.

This is a complete waste of 10 pages that could have been used to provide an actual scenario, or better, more diagrams and examples of play. e.g. How about examples of fighting at the edges and inside woods? More examples of support?                             

                                     

Typos. 

There are a few, and you'll find them on the internet somewhere. Most hilariously on pages 20 to 22. Lo and behold, here is a heading 'Skirmishers' in black bold text and a paragraph.  Except it's repeated at the top of page 22, this time with an orange heading. 

This looks like someone was changing BP1 and forgot this bit. It's also very amusing that the Skirmishers is a black bold text.  

Later in the rules there's even a die roll modifiers table in the wrong place. 

               

         

There's also a change to enfilade fire in the rules, but the QRS has not been changed.

All of these are just bad editing and bad proof reading. Probably done by people who were far too familiar with the rules and did not actually proof read anything.

Finally 

So, all in all, a very disappointing product. Specially when they charge £30 for it. 

The clowns in the editorial team really need to be given a gook kick in the rear echelon. Or as Billy Connolly once said, "hanging is too good for them; it's a good kick up the arse they need."

Finally, if you have BP1, keep it. And keep playing games with it. Find out any changes and apply them if you want. Don't buy BP2. 

If you're part of a game group, buy one copy of BP2 for the group and learn the changes. No need for each of you to buy BP2.

Enough for now. There a good few more examples and you'll find them on internet somewhere.