First Napoleonic brigade, ready for action!

As you know by now, most of my armies are 28mm for the anient or medieval period. But I am also slowly building a Napoleonic allied army for 1815. 

I painted two units earlier this year, and now my first brigade is ready. 

The first unit is the 5th Dutch militia, a standard 24 fig unit. (our standard Black Powder unit)

 

The second is the famous Belgian 7th line regiment, a large 36 fig unit.

And some "wound counters", to keep track on the status of the units.

I now have enough painted miniatures to field the 1st brigade of the 2nd Dutch division as it looked at the start of Quatre-Bras. I only need to paint their commander, Van Bijlandt.

I then also need to paint the other brigade, to field the complete Division (another 174 miniatures), plus artillery. And then 2 cavalry regiments. I'm not there yet...

But here is how it looks now:

27th Jager regiment is deployed in skirmish formation.

One thing that is already clear to me is that we will need a huge table to play a good sized battle.

I'm currently working on one of my other armies (next to reading Bigredbat's rules - will need testing soon).

Pictures when I'm ready!

As addendum, I would like to put a link here to a nice overview of Salute 2014, made by the  Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE8kQ6AkPU4

Visiting a show in the UK.

So, Salute lies a week behind us.
I've visited the show this year with two of my wargaming friends, and belief we all had a great time. We went by train (TGV) on friday and had booked a hotel room only 500 m from Excell. We had to "travel light", because we had to take all our bagage with us all saturday long, and then go home that evening. We could use "luggage" from the well known Terry Pratchett books!
With all this in mind, I did not bring my camera with me. Pictures enough around the web for who wants to see them I guess. (Check for example www.theminiaturepage.com ).
So where did I spend all my cash?

Here's a list:
I pict up my advance order from 1st Corps (two unit packs of Skythian cavalry and a some smaller bags).
Two blisters of Foundry Mins. (Impulse, was only £10.00 / blister)
Three blisters of Perry Mins (planned)
A box of Peltasts from the new Steve Saleh company (Lucid Eye). Steve is the guy who sculpted all the World of the Greeks miniatures for Foundry. Most of my Greeks are Foundry, so they will fit in perfectly. (impulse)
One book from the Wargaming in History series and The War Game by Charles Grant (Kent Trotman). The others I wanted were OOP. (Was also ordered in advance)
One Osprey book from the Myths and Legends series, Troy. (Impulse)
Two book at Casemate Publishing. I'm especialy looking forward to read the book on Philip of Macedon. (Impulse, 20% discount!)
And last but not least, Masters in Miniature. A really fantastic looking book on the miniatures of the Perry Brothers. My copy is signed by both Alan and Michael. (Planned)

I also viewed lots of demo and participation games, but time was too short to play a game. And after seeing the pictures from others, I still managed to NOT see everything there was to see.
I did missed Simon (Bigredbat) when I finaly got to the WSS demo table. The game looked good and they rules seemed to be simple enough to play a few game on the day. They were not Simon's rules though. I also wished I had spend some more time at the Society of Ancients participation game.
At the end of it, I think I will have to visit the show again next year.

There is some bad publicity for the show on the WWW, but if they (the moaners) can do better, go ahead! It is not an easy task to organise an event with a few thousand visitors and I don't know how many traders and clubs.
Many thanks to the South London Warlords, who organise the show now for many years.

Next update will be on painting. Yes, I have painted a few units already this year!

Chaeronea 2013 - Battle.

Sorry, there is no excuse for not updating my blog earlier.
It's not that I've not done anything wargames- related, just, well maybe blog-tired. (did I just invent a new word???)

Anyway, here is a short report on what happened that friday evening, at the end of 2013. Or at least, what I remember of it...

Both armies started a bit cautious. the Greeks tried to get through the hills/mountains on their left with some skirmishers, where no formed units could pass. When the Macedonians tried to stop them with the Thracian peltasts, the Greeks charged them with their cavalry!

Bad luck for the Greeks, though. The dice were against them, and they only inflicted one casualty! The Thracians got better luck, and got the cavalry running away from them, killing several mounted Greeks.

In the mean time, skirmishers were exchanging missiles all over the table Not a lot of victims, but most skirmish units are very brittle, and don't need a lot of casualties to run strait of table. Not this time.

(This picture is actualy taken before the one above, hence the cavalry is yet to make contact)

it is now time for the Macedonians to advance . They try to attack on their left, Greeks right, where the heroic Theban Sacred Band is positioned. They don't wait for the Macedonians, and urge forward themselves, while the other Hoplites keep the line unbroken and also advance.

One of the Macedonians phalanx doesn't make the test after combat, and breaks!

Alas, no luck for the Greeks. In another combat, that same bound, the Greek generals gets killed, and the whole army must test. Most of the unit make the test, but in combat most of them have to test again, due to receiving more casualties then the Macedonians. In this second test many units take the battle for lost and start running away. With no general to boost moral, this is a disaster for the Greeks. The Macedonian Companions then surge forward, and, after only 5 turns battle is over.

Many thanks to Peter and Johan - the Greek generals, and Chris and Bert the Macedonian generals. They all told me the battle was great fun to play. 

As said before, we used Clash of Empires, and armies were around 4000 point a side, with +/- 700 miniatures on the table. Playing time was just over 3 hours.

Tomorrow I make a little trip, together with Peter and Johan to London. We booked a hotel there. The day after, it's Salute time!

For those who never heard of this (no, impossible!) that is the biggest one day wargames event in Europe.

I hope to meet some fellow-bloggers there. I will go search if I can find Simon (Bigredbat) who's figures will be used by the WSS team for their show game.

See you there! 

Or not...

Chaeronea 2013 - Set up.

Exactly one month after my last message, finaly a new update on my blog.
We played the Chaeronea scenario the weekend in between Christmas and new year with lots of tiny metal toys. four players took the role of the generals, while I was umpireing the game, for as far as nessesary.
We used the largest table in our clubhouse, but unfortunately, lighting was not that good. I took lots of pictures, but some were so bad, I erased them.
The rest, you can see here!

As told before, we used the Clash of Empires rules set, which we regularly use and are fairly happy with.
The terrain was set up historicaly, or at least, how I think it was. A river on one side, and mountains on the other side, with a large plain in between.
Total terrain was 6 foot wide and 5 foot deep. It was measured that there was not a lot of space left for maneouvering or flanking, if any.
Troops could be set up as the generals desired.
The Alied Greeks placed their troops more or less historical, while the Macedonians put their Companion cavalry, including Alexander in reserve.
Let's see what that gives.
Macedonians on your right, Greeks on your left.

In case anyone wonders, that little D10 in the river is the turn counter. The game lasts max 8 turns.
Next time: The battle.

In a world, where my plastic army soldiers beat the s*** out of your plastic army men...*

First of all, a belated merry Xmas.
And of course also a happy new year!

My last painting for the year is done now. I did pretty well for my standards. I managed to paint 180 miniatures, all in 28mm! I know some people do three, four or more times that much figures in a year, but for me this is great. I just checked, and its my best year in painting since 2006.
I think this has much to do with internet. When I look back, I did over 200 miniatures a year before 2006, not counting the 15mm, of which there were also at least 100 or more each year. I'll try if I can reach that number once more next year.

But that's history and future plans, on to what I painted now.
A 36 figure unit or PLASTIC Celts. Yes, you are reading correct: PLASTIC.
It is the first time since the plastic revolution in 28mm wargaming, now several years ago that I constructed and painted plastic.  At first I thought it was very time consuming to put them together. Most are from Wargames Factory, and they have separate legs, a body, a right arm, weapon, a shield and a head. The left arm is part of the body. But that is a lot of glueing before you can start painting!
There are also a few Warlord Games Celts in the unit. these are easier to build (lesser parts), but you have to be carefull: not all bodies fit all legs. Which I found out after a few mistakes...
I also had not enough Warlord heads, so had to file of a few WF necks, to make them fit on the WG bodies.

I also had rub-on shield decals, which were part of the WF boxed set. They look very nice, but are a real pain to fit. I had to retouch every shield, and even pull of a few because they sticked only partly or on the wrong place.

But look for yourself, and tell me what you think of them. The pictures are not that great, but I must say that I like how the miniatures came out.

I also painted three more miniatures, which should fit in with them. the warband will be used as proper Celts, but also as fantasy Celts. So I also painted a hero, a huge Foundry model called Slaine, a witch (I think from Reaper?) and an army standard bearer (plastic Warlord Games).

I think more plastic will follow in 2014, but I'm not shure when excactly.
For those who wonder what happened with the two "Off to War" parts, well we did play the battle in our clubhouse! We got lots of attention from other club members, who had not seen shuch a big battle before. But more of this in the next blog message.

Keep gaming &painting!

*The title of this blog message is used (without permission...) from Pat Lowinger from the Southern California Warhammer Radio, now the Historical Wargames Podcast. His podcast (http://www.historicalwargames.org/) is one of the four I regularly listen to when painting.
The others are View from the Veranda, Meeples and Miniatures and Ancient Warfare Magazine.
Thanks for making them, and keep me inspired!

Off to War (Part II).

After a few pictures of the "rebel" army, here are a the pictures of the Macedonians.

Some lighter troops, as the Agrianians and the Thracian peltasts have crossed the river to protect the left flank of the column.

The Thracian commander has sought higher ground, to check if he can see any enemy troops.

On the right flank, Alexander with a few of the Companions is doing the same.

First troops in the column of heavy infantry are the Hypaspists, followed closely by Philip, the commander of the army, with his elite phalanx unit.

After them are 5 more phalanx units, making them look like a moving wood of pikes.

For those interested, the miniatures are mostly Wargames Foundry, with some Old Glory, a unit of Gripping Beast (Polemos) and a few A&A Miniatures as Hypaspists.

The scene is set, battle is upon us.
We don't have a date yet, it is not easy to get a date we (the friends and me) can come together to play the battle.
Who will win???

Off to War! (part I)

Due to personal reasons, and a few minor relays, it has been a while since a new update was posted.
I hope to be more regular in the future, but you never knows what will happen...

Anyway, I have been painting ancient Greeks and Macedonians for several years now, and think it is time to play a big game. The battle I would like to play is Chaeronea, taking place somewere in the middle of Greece, between a greek Alliance and the Macedonian army of Philip, aided by his 18 year old son Alexander,  in 338BC.
The battle took place between the Kephissos River (nort-east) and Mount Petrachos (south-west), so it would be difficult to catch a flank.

The rules we will use are Clash of Empires, with around 5000 points a side. That is a couple of hunderd figures a side.
The set-up of troops will be at the players decision, but the battle field will be more or less historical.

The Greek Alliance was made of mostly Athenian and Theban hoplites. I'm not going to give away too much details now, as some of my gaming friends are probably reading this. But a few pictures won't hurt.

Here you see the allied Greek army marching by a hero's shrine, set up to honour Perseus, who took off Medusa's head.  A priests is offering a lamb for good fortune of the army while it marches along.
The officers are checking and discussing the troops and the way they wil try to overcome the Macedonians.

 



Apart from hoplites, there were of course also a few mounted troops, peltasts and skirmishers.

The most famous of Greek hoplites, the Theban Sacred band is leading the rather large column of hoplites.
There were only 300 of them, so a much smaller unit than the other phalanx units!

The Greek forces as seen trhough the eyes of an eagle passing over.

Two more units of skirmishers are to be added to the forces, making the total over 300 miniatures.

The Macedonian army will be shown here soon. (I hope)