Battle of Brandywine AWI : August 1777

The end of last week saw a change of period and a return to the AWI. This was a separate game to our ongoing campaign so as a face to face battle I could get a few more figures on the table, in fact nearly everything I have for the Battle of Brandywine.

Just a reminder of the Battlefield today the view here looking downhill from the American artillery 

Our scenario was based on a scenario published some time ago in Wargames Illustrated and using Rebels and Patriots I have just enough figures to stretch to the full scenario

Our table as setup, I made one slight adjustment giving the British a couple of units on this side of the Brandywine river, these would arrive from turn 3 and randomise which Ford they could use. I felt this would force the Americans to keep some forces by the river to hold their flank rather than simply allow them to rush to hold back the main British assault

The cream of the British army, Grenadiers and British guards 

As expected the Americans quickly try to redeploy when they realise the British have outflanked them

The firing starts against the British advance

The British guards advance towards the base of Birmingham hill

To their left the British third brigade arrives and advances under the watchful eye of Cornwallis (the red markers indicate ‘first fire’)

The British start to return fire but should they be driving the attack forward ?

Some Hessians arrive over the river, but the Americans have left a unit to guard the crossing

Some of the Americans are forced back but the rest seek to form a strong defensive line

The British choose to avoid a direct assault on Birmingham hill, during use their artillery which has a fairly bad effect on the defenders

The British have attempted to outflank the Americans by river advancing through the cornfield

A strong defence line is eventually in place and the British are starting to struggle to keep up any momentum

The 3rd Virginia are still holding the Meeting House

…..but then they are thrown back only for the British to be pushed back as well

The British elite troops have won out against the American left and are gradually driving them back but it is probably too little too late

The Americans are holding a strong centre where the British are making no progress, and although the defenders of Birmingham Hill have been severely thinned out the British have no chance of driving the American from their position. At this point we gave the win to the Americans as it was clear the British don’t have the force to break through and the Americans could start to withdraw in order. A fun battle and nice for me to play with the Americans for a change 🙂 next time I might give the American a few more challenges to deal with.

Still not managed to complete too much new stuff, I did pick up these French from EBay at a very low cost considering the unit includes the warlord metal command figures. The bases have been recoloured to match mine, and the figures all highlighted to try and bring them to life. They have come out pretty well.

Finally another landscape picture looking over the northern fells for those that enjoy them 👍

Thanks as always for checking in, yesterday we played a SYW battle so will post that soonish

Matt ❤️

Peninsular Battle and painting update

With posting our St Mere Eglise battle to hit the 6th June I missed a quick battle from earlier last week and some painting updates.

A couple of guys who recently visited the dungeon were keen to have a go and Valour and Fortitude as a ruleset they had not played so I set up a small battle early last week. In the end I only had one visitor but we were still able to run through the battle/rules pretty easily.

Three infantry brigades each side with some limited artillery support, I left cavalry out this time to help simplify the rules

We weren’t taking it too seriously so the French just went for it, pushing across the table using some convenient fate cards allowing them to turn the British left flank.

After several turns the French had their noses in front although several of their brigades had taken quite a beating, a fun battle and good company for the morning 🙂

I’ve managed a bit more time at the painting table this past week.

First up the final Italian infantry unit, I was keen to get them finished so we can play them in the next few weeks. These are the metal warlord figures, picked up of eBay for a reasonable price, slightly smaller than their plastic counterparts, but they do add a little variety.

In the spirit of finishing things off I also had these ‘Ashigaru’ , I’m still not very familiar with Japanese troop names ? These being armed with bows. They are Warlord plastics which I picked up as a huge  (very cheap) army box, before I then amassed a load of Perry figures second hand. I thought I would at least try putting a unit together, they are not the best but if you can avoid the overly static poses they are not too bad. Also not my best painting.

Given that they are fairly pleasing to the eye ? And scale wise they fit fine with the Perry’s

Enthused I might prep up another Samurai unit this week.

That’s it for now, hopefully another couple of battles this week and a parcel on the way form Warlord games which should be arriving this afternoon 🙂

Thanks as always for checking out the blog 

Matt ♥️

Sixty nine ships of the line ?

Well something completely different. I have been listening to a book on the Napoleonic wars recently and there was a section on the naval aspects and of course Trafalgar. I remembered that languishing for probably 20 years I had some small scale 1:3000 ships. I had managed to paint a few at the time but my techniques especially my ability to paint quickly has improved massively so I dug them out and set to…after a few evening work here they all are. (Technically these are two more army parades !)

The Spanish / French fleet

The British Fleet.

The larger coloured flag denotes the class of the ship. They are a bit rough and ready but given their diminutive scale they are fairly effective. I can now game Trafalgar on a one to one scale ? I just need to find some suitable rules which are simple and elegant….and suggestions or experience would be welcome.

The sun came out yesterday and given the recent weather it was too good an opportunity to miss, so I popped out, sunny spells and breezy on the top of Bowscale Fell.

That’s it me now radio silence for a week as I head to the Ardennes, pictures to follow

Thanks for checking in..Matt

Armies on Parade : French and Tallarn

After tidying up the weekend sci-fi game I spent a few minutes in the dungeon. Firstly getting the whole Tallarn army out so I could calculate how many points I have in total.

The Tallarn all painted at the moment. Like pretty much all my collections my thoughts immediately go to  thoughts about expansion and what else I might add. Ideally I would have another transport or perhaps another tank. I’m also on the look out for some suitable heavier infantry (stop press these may have been sourced from eBay last night)

Secondly in line with the reboxing of the British I purchased some larger boxes for the French to allow them to be stored safer/easier. So as they were being transferred I did a parade for the French as well.

Obviously I’m pretty happy with these chaps so far. 3 or 4 Brigades of infantry. The lead pile contains quite a bit more infantry and the plan will be to paint these as Legere as I don’t have enough of these. Some guard artillery, another unit of chasseurs and another Curassier regiment. I really mustn’t buy anymore French !

That’s it for now, I been busy painting some more Spanish infantry and something completely different, but they are not quite finished yet.

Thanks as always Matt

French Grenadiers and more 🙂

Keeping busy this week on hobby related activities.

First up I have completed some more French grenadiers, these are Victrix figures, obviously in greatcoats. My plan is to have at least enough for one ‘Guard’ brigade.

I tried a quick paint method for these by spray painting them in blue then picking out the rest. It kind of worked but not sure it was much quicker in reality

Like many people ages ago I picked up a couple of free Warlord WW2 MTB’s Steve managed to get a cheap copy of the rules so we thought it would be nice to combine what we had and at least have a small test game sometime, so I set to constructing and painting them. Above the German fleet

Here are the British MTB’s at 1:300 scale the painting is very quick and simple, I’m going to add some colour identification to make them easier to spot on the table ?

I spent ‘most’ of Wednesday down at George’s to continue our Konigsberg campaign, the Germans haven’t been doing too well, and with out reserves they were starting this battle well behind. The table setup was against them as well with lots of open ground and an objective at the furthest point from their table edge. But I was determined to at least give it a go. We even planned for an another game incase the Germans assault just failed and it was game over in an hour ! The Germans have lots a whole section in the campaign so far so only start with two sections as support we squeezed to a dug in MG42 team and a Panther Tank. It was quite a long game so no blow by blow report…….just a couple of snaps I took of George’s lovely collection.

One German squad did manage to advance down the railway upto the buildings but eventually were cut down by machine gun fire 

The rest of the Germans dug in with fire support, the Germans had both junior commanders wounded early on as well.

But somehow they ground out a win, we were on only three morale for ages but managed to catch the Russian commander who had joined an infantry section they were pinned down and then forced to retreat taking the commander with them, this severely hampered the Russian command and when another junior leader was killed suddenly the Germans had the upper hand. A rare and welcome win in the campaign. For the next battle with the Panzergrenadiers almost wiped out the Germans will switch to a Heer section but from now on the Russian can’t automatically replace loses so it will be a more even fight.

Finally I ordered some more larger/deeper storage boxes for my Napoleonic infantry this allows me to store the units with their flags etc which is much easier. This gave the opportunity for a British/allied army parade. And here they are…..very happy with these so far. To add to this are a couple more British infantry regiments and a highland regiment. That will be enough redcoats I think. I also have the Spanish brigade to fill out, another heavy cavalry regiment and another unit of Hussars who will form the KGL. I probably need a couple more commands. This should bring the British upto four good brigades or five at a pinch with the Spanish brigade in support.

Right that’s it for this morning….I'm off to play Xeno rampant today in a mini campaign😂

Matt

Battle of Friedland 1807

We had planned a big Napoleonic game this week and rather than just create a random scenario we based the battle around the Battle of Friedland. Of course this is pretty impossible in 28mm without almost stretching the limits to breaking point, however we managed to squeeze many of the main elements of the battle into our game. Really of course it was an opportunity to get as main French and Russian figures into the table, in fact currently all of our figures !

Plenty of resources on the internet for the battle

I find these Command and Colours scenarios particularly useful as they have already distilled the battle to its very key elements

The British weather wasn’t good but just about ok to game back out in the ‘shed’ my table maxed out to 13x6

A sight to gladden the heart invincible French Heavy cavalry….spoiler Lol

Massed French Infantry on the left

The Russians in the village of Sortlack

Russian guns over the river with the bulk of their infantry to the right of Freidland

French heavy guns set up on the high ground

To the right French infantry supported by Dragoons

Ney’s troops advancing through Sortlack wood with freshly painted Hussars !

We were using Valour and Fortitude which we have pretty much nailed down now, one observation is it really seems to encourage troops to attack in Line rather than column, ok for the British but doesn’t quite feel right for the French and Russians. Next time we may tweek the rules slightly to encourage a more historical feel ?

The first cavalry clash in the centre the French dragoons getting the worst of it 🙁

Frnech infantry watch on as the dragons are beaten back

On the left the French heavies have caught the Cossacks napping, using the Vive L’Emperor extra boost they charge in, despite all the advantages in combat they are thrown back by very poor dice rolling. Some Russian trickery ?

The infantry advance on the left but slowly

While the cannons let loose

Slightly delayed the final french ‘Brigade’ arrives in the centre heading for Friedland

With the dragoons regrouping the infantry advance through the woods

Staying in column they advance

The Russians have some Lancers and with their own Heavy cavalry blown the infantry advance on the left now slows

Shooting around Sortlack while the main infantry advance up the hill

The Russians dragoons seem reluctant to attack (failing to activate twice I think)

The battle now in full flow

The Russian reserves around Friedland advance to battle

Grenadiers advance towards the village currently held by the Russian Guards

The French crash forward (in line !)

The grenadiers manage a key win in the village against the guards who had been worn down by artillery fire

After a ferocious round of combat the French get the better of the left flank, breaking at least one Russian Brigade

The french have also managed to force the hill on the right although the Russians are still holding out in Sortlack. The ‘fresh’ hussars have not seen combat but admirably held the flank secure.

At this point we called the battle with the French having their noses in front. The Russians have been beaten back and would have little option now but to retreat back through the town, but as often happens it has cost a lot of French blood to secure the victory.

A splendid Napoleonic encounter, I’m enjoying the rules but we may seek to encourage attack formations a little more in the future. Needless to say moving all these Napoleonic figures around for the day was great fun whatever the outcome for my Heavy Cavalry !

Thanks as always , we are away for a couple of days then hopefully a game next week as yet undecided, perhaps a Bolt action encounter in Norway ? As I have some poles who have been waiting for a battle for a while.

Matt