15mm AWI game

We played a game of 15mm AWI recently and here are some pictures from the game. The scenario was

a hypothetical battle set in the South. The British have a smaller, but better force (as usual!) and the Continentals have a larger amount of mixed troops. The British objective is to cross the river and destroy the Continental army. They can get some additonal victory points by capturing the town and/or Continental supply wagons & camp. The British have been told that there might be a ford down river from the bridge.

The Continental's must keep their army intact and repulse the British offensive.

An overview of the battle. The British are starting to move toward the bridge. The Conitentals have positioned
militia on the hill to the top right (across the river) and are trying to defend the ford. I use a cloth mat with foam hills underneath.

The British advance! This is the 23rd Regt. of Foot - Royal Welsh Fusiliers. These are Polly Oliver figures.
 They are my favorite 15mm AWI figures, but they are very slim and suffer from a lot of broken bayonets, swords, etc.

The Hessians came onto the board on turn 4 (we rolled for random entry turns). These consist of old Frontier Miniatures
Jaegers, Old Glory "von Bose"  line infantry and Polly Oliver "von Rall" grenadiers.

The 5th New Jersey advances to secure an apple orchard. Old Glory 15mm AWI.

I recently started painting French troops for the AWI. This is a unit of French grenadiers advancing to help the
Continentals.

Polly Oliver American Militia defend a rail fence. These troops were soon shaken
by the Hessian light artillery piece, and forced to retreat.

The main American defensive position around the bridge. The American commander
did not deploy well and was soundly thrashed by the British commander in the game. He had troops deployed on both sides of the river, and had his artliiry and best troops deployed so that they never really got into the fight until it was too late.

An American heavy artillery piece. 15mm Frontier figures.

The 33rd Foot advance past a plantation.

25mm Marlburian Game

My good friend, and gaming partner, Titch White, ran a 25mm Marlburian game

over the New Year's Holiday. Titch's figures are a mix of Dixon, Foundry, Front Rank and Stratagem.

The rules used were "Under the Lily Banners" (ver 1.). The English/Austrian/Hessian coalition won

the day...but mainly due to bad French die rolling! Here are some pics from the game:

Overview of the battlefield!

28mm Anglo-Boer War

I have a small, existing collection of Wargames Foundry 28mm Second Anglo-Boer War figures, and as part of my planning for 2012 I would like to expand this collection. My project theme for 2012 (at least for now!)

is to NOT start any major new periods, but to finish/add to some of my existing periods. Here are some pictures of my Boer War figs.

Perry Boers defending a Perry plastic house! The house is for the ACW, but works OK
for the Boer War. I should probably replace the shingled roof for a tin roof however for South Africa. I love these figs
and painted enough to do the "Duivelskloof (Devil's Chasm) skirmish scenario in Edwin Herbert's book "Wargaming in History - The 2nd Anglo-Boer War". I would like to paint enough figs to do a larger scenario, like the action on Spioenkop.
I have also considered doing larger scale battles in 10mm or 15mm. I would love to get my hands on some
old 15mm Naismith Boer-War figs and do a large scale battle like Colenso!

I painted mounted and dismounted versions of all the Boers, and riderless horses too!

Here are Capt. Percy Hunt and his men hunting for "bittereinders".
28mm Wargames Foundry Perry figs.

Merry Christmas...and looking forward to 2012!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all my blogging friends! It's been a great first year

of blogging and I can say that I have met a lot of wonderful, like minded individuals. It's always great to see

what other wargamers are painting and playing. Well one of  my big projects for 2012 will be to paint more 28mm ACW figures. I am planning on running a small 28mm "Johnny Reb" game at Nashcon this year and am using that as an excuse to get crackin' on these guys! What is your project for 2012?

My lead pile...I had to spread them out on the table to see what was left to paint. Each bag represents
a 20 or 25 man unit. These are all 28mm Dixon figures. I can purchase these at my local gaming store, and it's
nice not to have to use mail order. Support your local gaming store!

28mm Dixon CSA sharpshooters. This is a unit I have finished already. I like the distinct look
of the Dixon figs. These Rebs are defending a Perry plastic building.

The Battle of Eckmuhl 1809 - 15mm Napoleonic Game

The Battle of Eckmuhl 1809 -

We are playing the scenario from Dave Brown's "General de Brigade" volume 1 scenario book. We aren't

using GDB, but my own homespun version of big battalion DBX style rules. If I ever find the time I will post the rules here on the blog! The battle is pretty straight forward in that a smaller, attacking, elite French

division is trying to capture two villages and a wooded hill that are held by a larger Austrian division. Oh, and the French don't have any cavalry! These pictures represent the first few turns of the game. I'll be posting more pictures soon!

Here is a Wikipedia link for more information on the battle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Eckm%C3%BChl

Austrian infantry defending Ober Laichling. These are old Heritage/Empire figures and
Architectural Heritage buildings.

An overview of the battleflied: The village Ober Laichling is to the left, and Unter Laichling is to the right.
These two villages are the objectives of the attacking French, as well as the wooded hill to the top right
and the breastwork to the top left. 

Austrian Infantry defending Unter Laichling.

The elite 10th Legere have been repulsed from Unter Laichling. We use cotton balls
to represent "shaken" morale status.

The Austrians holding the wooded ridge. The commanader decided to move off the ridge and support
the fight for the villages!

French line infantry moving from the area around Unter Laichling to support the
attack on Ober Laichling. 18mm Old Glory figures.

Th fight for Ober Laichling - The French have captured a section of the village. The French
are old true 15mm Naismith figures....some of my favorite figs!

The Austrian counter-attack! All of my 15mm Napoleonic figures are for
the 1809 Danube campaign.

The Bavarians - marching to the sound of the guns! They will show up in
a few turns to help their French allies.

The scenario book - great scenarios!

More 28mm War of the Roses

The War of the Roses has been the flavor of the last month or so. We've gotten in a couple Medieval Tactica WOR games and  I'm currently painting another 24 man unit of Perry longbow men. The Perry sculpts are

some of the most realistic and well proportioned figs on the market (lead or plastic). The plastic figures

do feel a little "light" in the hand and need a little getting used to. I mounted them on metal bases to give them a little more heft! I suspect that they will be a little fragile too,and have told my kids to be "gentle"....a few years ago they put some major devastation on some of my old GW plastic figs! 

Here's a shot of my paint splattered painting area! I keep an old piece of wood on an old  desk.
This let's me cut and paint away with no worries of doing any serious damage! It's nice to have a
permanent painting area so that I can just leave current projects set up and get back to them when I have time.

This will be a 24 man Lancastrian archer unit. I like to prime white and then work with washes and highlighting.

A view of our last WOR game in progress! I like fairly big units and most infantry units are 24 - 32 figures strong. This fight is going N -S instead of our typical W-E.

A unit of peasants crossing the bridge. These are the local folks and have decided to get involved in the battle!
The players had some fun with this since I let them roll to see if/who the peasants would join. In order to get the peasants
to join their cause they had to roll against each other and if they won 3 times they got the unit!

My favorite rules for the period. I think Tactica and Medieval Tactica
are Arty Conliffe's best work! 

28mm War of the Roses

I finally finished painting my first unit of Perry Miniatures 28mm War of the Roses plastic figures. It took me forever to cut, glue and assemble the two boxes, but I like how the first longbow unit turned out. I have another longbow unit on the painting table, and then a unit of billmen. I'm still not used to how light a stand of plastic figures feel. There is still something comforting about 1lb of lead in your hand! I took these pictures

outside, away from the shadows of my gaming room, and I really like the natural light. 

A 24 figure unit of longbowmen. I generally prefer Tactica Medieval, but I'm still planning
on giving Warlord Game's "Hail Casear" a try in the near future.

An old OOP Wargames Foundry cog that I'm painting and rigging. I'm looking
for a way to get the ship into a scenario! I'll post some more pics of the cog when it's finished.