Call to Arms 2020, review

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So Call to Arms is over for another year and our second BlackPowder competition has been held.

Unfortunately our 8 player competition at the last minute went down to 6 with Goldie forced out with urgent house repairs(water leaking in sons bedroom wall) so I dropped out to make it an even player event.

So we were left with 3 French players and one each of Russian, Prussian and Spanish.

After 4 rounds, 2 on each day and where most games went to or close to the time limit of 3 hours, the podium winners were:

1st Place – Nick with Prussians

2nd Place – Paul W with Russians

3rd Place – Brian with Spanish

Paul W has volunteered to run next years competition.

A selection of photo’s follow.

Day 1 and we are up on the stage again……. battlefields each are 10 x 6 feet.

Some of Brian’s Spanish

Oh dear….a shaken Russian square with Polish Uhlans lead by their general charging in….unpleasant.

Shot down line of French advance

 

 

Only other thing of interest over the weekend was the Team Yankee and in particular taken by German force…. tempting.

last round game between John and Paul….. this scrum when out for sometime as more and more units were fed in….the game ended with the French breaking and Paul stealing 2nd place.

And the last round game between top 2 had Brian and his Spanish up against Nick and his Prussians. It was a hard fought game but ended in a draw which gave Nick 1st place and Brian dropped to 3rd place.

This is an example of a French 200 point force.

 

 

 

Reinforcements report – September 2020

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The recruiting depots have been working away.

First up is a unit of Byzantine light cavalry that was 95% completed in Lockdown, however the shield xfers were faulty. Stephen Hales from LBM Studios sent me replacements free of charge and I have put the xfers on the shields and added a LBM banner.

My Byzantine force now has 2 cavalry units, a heavy and a light and  1 unit Skutatoi infantry. Another heavy cavalry unit is on the painting table at the moment. All figures are metals by Gripping Beast.

Next up are 4 battalions of 1809 era Austrian Grenadiers. Figures are Front Rank with flags by GBM Flags. There were some broken bayonets on the figures, so I found a use for some plastic Warlord Prussian Landwher by painting their bayonets, cutting them off then gluing them onto the metal Front Rank figures. Happy with result.

Last up are reinforcements for my Netherlands Waterloo force. I already have 2 Militia battalions and have added the 2nd Line Battalion and 35th Jager battalion plus the Belgian horse artillery battery Bichin. All figures are Perry Miniatures.

That’s all for now.

Call to Arms on August 8 – 9 2020

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This years Call to Arms Convention is almost upon us.

As with last year we are running a Blackpowder Napoleonic tournament.

This year we have reduced points from 220 to 200 points and games from 5 to 4.

Due to Covid 19 we were restricted to 8 players again.

I have been playing with a Russian army but considering a last minute change to a French Guard force to balance off 4 French v 4 Allied players.

Practice games have been going on and some pictures are below.

Busy night… 6 players……

Game between my Russians and Goldie Prussians…he had a moving gun line…you can just see the edge of it…I got a large unit Uhlans into flank of Leib Hussars….they turned to take charge ..stationary…so then sent a column into now exposed flank…Leibs went…poof…gunline went…poof…supporting cavalry went…poof…..poof….. Goldie had tried to move units to block what was coming…but they all refused…..

Robs French v PW’s Russians…my new Hovel Russian buildings on background.

Another shot of the Rob v PW game……they really got stuck in…..

My set up in a game with my Russians and some of the new Hovels buildings.

Nicks Prussians spanking Alans French

Last act of Goldies Prussians taking out PW trialling British force… it lasted 2 games and he went back to the tried and true Russians. Without a hill to hide behind…the Britz just get smacked.

Battle of Saltanovka, July 23rd 1812

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Rather than a 200 point game night I decided to give the Saltanovka scenario from Black Powders ‘A Clash of Eagles’ another go. We last played this when CoE first came out using the troop adjustments in CoE but for this game, used Black Powder 2 rules. I did make change of not allowing ‘Follow Me’ order but giving Davout, Compans, Dessaix and Raevsky special abilities and allowing them to be used normal commanders and not just having a Generals reroll ability. However, everyone forgot this for most of game…..annoying!

The evening was one of a howling southerly storm with gale winds  and driving cold rain but 5 hardy souls still ventured out.

Russ, Goldie and Robert commanded the French while PaulW and Steve the French. As a 3rd Russian player was required for later in game, I took that role.

Scenario is First Russian Army is attempting to cross the Dniepr River at Mogilev , however Davout has arrived there. So Bagration throws troops at him to see how strong position is, if weak, will smash through, if strong, will find another crossing.

The French are over the opposite side of the river, defending 2 villages in Fatova and Saltanovka. The French have 4 brigades, each of 5 bttns and 1 battery. They have 2 of the brigades holding the villages/river line, 1 in reserve to their right rear, the last off table as well as1 Chasseur and 3 Cuirassier regts off table.

The Russians have 2 standard divisions of 4 Jager and 8 Musketeer bttns each plus 2 light and 1 position battery each. The Jager start on table with the musketeer brigades/ artillery advancing on. They also have 2 brigades of 2 Dragoons each to arrive later on.

Russians get first turn. Objective is to take the villages and inflict as much damage on the French as they can, the French have to stop this.

View down table….Russian Jager skirmish line on right , Fatova which is held by Robert , Saltanovka in distance held by Russ and to left Goldie is sending the reserve brigade down to the French far left flank from its reserve position behind Fatova. Steve commands closest Russians while PW has those opposite Russ. I also placed 4 earthworks between the villages for the French.

View of Fatova with Steve’s forces arriving on table.

Reserve French arriving and heading towards Saltanovka.

Far right of Russian position when PW has discovered a ford and is sending his columns over it.

Saltanovka where Goldies brigade has formed a firing line and is advancing on Pauls columns. The villages were supported by some earthworks.

Goldies French after several rounds of combat…PW charged in…French held….then flank attack…Russians pop(where green dice is). Others stay.

Something not in the CoE scenario but one found in another. Russian 2nd Grenadier Division, which is my actual division arrive on a flank march…..as Goldie has sent the reserve brigade to other flank…the French had the Cuirassiers there…..so on a flank with woods and wheat fields…..perfect…for me anyway…..plan was to send briagde into woods…..shoot up cavalry til retired….and set up guns behind columns and retire some columns and shoot the c**p out of the cavalry…..alas ran out of time. Will need refight this on a weekend.

Fatova from Steve’s position……no attacks been made on the village….what has he been doing….he even sent a brigade to help PW…what the….needed take the village…..he is getting a major demotion. Siberia…in winter.

In the centre Russ reserve brigade has moved up and be hard to break through for Steve and Paul.

On far flank its is all rather in the balance. PW is taking it to Goldie….Russ still holds village and PW needs turn the flank. Dragoons in reserve if can get across the ford its fairly open for them. One again Russian columns are hard to take out.

And that was game called….will have to play on a weekend to get to a conclusion. French won this one in a canter, no villages swapped sides. No one used the abilities I gave the commanders…..will take a piece wood to next briefing so the French understand to use their commanders and the Russians understand they are meant to take the villages. Will need change setup as Russians need more depth so their guns do not set up within musket range of villages.

But was an attractive game, next time will have my new Hovels Russian buildings which are on their way from UK. Its a bday prezzie to myself, bunch painted buildings and plan having the woods finished as well.

 

Waterloo Revisited

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Back in 2015 for the 200th Anniversary of Waterloo, the Group led by Goldie organised a multiplayer refight of Waterloo. This took place at the aptly named ‘Wellesley Hotel’ in Wellington, a venue which was a treasure trove of prints on walls of said battle. It was a rather large game, 50ish players, 1000’s of troops in varying paint standards and basing conventions! Goldie got Russ’s wife to sew him up to long base clothes for the 2 tables and he then painted them on his driveway to match aerial pictures of the fields at that time of year around the battlefield….Alan made card buildings to scale and the rest of group had hill making sessions in the then garage to scale.

It was a great success.

A few pictures are below, mine were on a laptop that died…these are courtesy of Von Peter.

 

Table maps overlaid over setup map for battle.

Start positions on main table, Prussian table is elsewhere!

Multiple lines of Allied troops, Prussian table in background….they took a LONG TIME TO ARRIVE.

Prussians arriving at last and clearing all before them. Very nice Calpe figures painted by Rhys.

Roll onto 2020 and the Auckland Group which Garagegamer John has joined planned to put on a Waterloo refight. A few of us in Wellington Group decided we would head up for the game, and provide a large portion of the troops. A certain global plague has caused the delay of this refight(unknown future date!).

As I don’t collect British(they are a sideshow army) my contribution to the original game were basically French. However, as I was to be Prince Orange(with special rules!) in the original game, I obtained the Prince Orange and General Chasse figures from Front Rank and painted them. Feeling a bit guilty I also painted up the Dutch Heavy cavalry Brigade, mainly because I really like the Front Rank Belgian Carabineer figures. However, the Dutch ones I did not like so used Wurttemburgers!

Roll onto 2020 and for some reason I agreed with PaulW I would do the 3rd Netherlands Division. Prior to Global lockdown I ordered the 1st Brigade from Perry Miniatures and not Front Rank…..mainly as Alan had 2nd Netherlands Division in Front Rank figures so decided to have different figure range.

The 3rd Netherland Division is commandered by Chasse(who will be on both the Prince of Orange command base and the division command base, he is a busy chap!). Initially I will be generating the 1st brigade only, if have time and motivation, will add 2nd!

  • 3rd Netherland Division – General Chasse
  • 1st Brigade Colonel Detmars
    • 35th Light Bttn
    • 2nd Dutch line bttn
    • 4th Militia bttn
    • 6th Militia bttn
    • 17th Militia bttn
    • 19th Militia bttn
    • Horse artillery bttn Bichen

The first 2 units ready for service are the 17th and 19th bttns. Pictures below(painted by Fernando Enterprises). Figures are Perry Miniatures, flags from Flags of  War, bases/movement trays from Battlekiwi. I am painting up the Perry, Dutch command figures from their range and quite like the Ghigny figure so thinking will add his light cavalry brigade so he can command it.

Production has ground to a halt as the bolts on my Superlux Magnifing lamp have sheared off and its a goner. New one ordered  but will have a few days respite before can paint again. Good news is my Front Rank order sent from UK on 21st April has arrived…..so can clean up the 2 command packs of Russian Musketeers for 2 completed bttns that are awaiting their commanders and get cracking on them when new light arrives!

200 point Napoleonic Game

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It’s a holiday here in NZ today, Queens Birthday so Goldie suggested a game.

At Call to Arms Convention in August we are gaming a 200 point Napoleonic Tournament. Last year it was 220 points and 5 rounds, this year we will do 4 rounds over the 2 days and game at 200 points. Due to the Plague the organizers are restricting overall numbers of participants so we are allowed 8 players.

The brains trust(that doesn’t include me!) have made some changes in the points matrix so Goldie and I decided play 200 point game. Goldie to use his Prussians and I would use French. Half way through a rebase/tidy up of my French so had to proxy in some Vistula legion units.

Terry’s Force:

  • 2 brigades infantry each of 5 ligne bttns,1 legere bttn and a battery
  • Brigade 2 Polish Uhlans
  • Brigade 2 Wurttemburg light cavalry
  • The infantry and the Uhlan commanders were Command rating 8 and the Wurtt Cav were a 7. Plan being to assign General to the Wurtts to use his reroll.

Goldies force:

  • Brigade Leib Hussars, 2 Grenadier bttns and a small Freicorp bttn
  • Brigade 6 bttns Landwher plus a battery
  • Brigade 2 musketeers
  • Brigade 2 Dragoons,a landwher cavalry and a horse battery
  • All commanders were 8’s

We decided to play down the battlefield which was 10ft x 6ft. We used Goldies new 1813 building and my new woods(not quite finished but close enough).

Below is my set up….

And below is Goldies set up. Centre of table has stream to pond and village with 2 defensive position. The race is on!

I won first turn. Both infantry brigades made x3 moves down table, Uhlans 1 move down my right flank, on the left the Wurtts stood around.

Prussians advanced except for the landwher on their left.

Next turn I move up to the stream, occupy the 2 defensive zones with my legere bttns and form checkerboard formation from village to edge of woods. Guns fail to deploy on my left. Wurtts still back in corner.

Now on my left flank I had deployed a skirmish cloud out in front of my columns. Goldie charged this with his Leib Hussars…my skirmishers naturally retired on their columns leaving the Leib hussars in the open. So I deployed into line…and gave them a good round of French gunsmoking!

Below is Goldies situation. On his left his 2 skirmishing landwher have advanced to centre of ridge, guns are moving up but 4 bttns still back at start position. In centre his cavalry have moved up and are behind ridge line with musketeers to their left. On his right the Leib Hussars have retired behind the Freivorps with the 2 Grenadier bttns now behind the Leibs and the horse battery to the flank.

In my turn I did a ‘Follow me’ charge with Wurtt cav into the Freicorps. They could not form square as to close to Leibs and so we decided they would evade, now disordered and Goldie rolled for a 1 move retire. This unmasked the shaken leibs who now got hit stationary. I then moved the left side infantry brigade up in support of the cavalry charge. Shooting caused wound and disorder on horse battery.

After the carnage of my cavalry charge, the Leibs had been destroyed, a supporting Grenadier bttn had broken, the horse battery auto popped and I turned to face the flank of the surviving Grenadier bttn. As brigade was now broken they would have retire 12 inches away from me as first move in Goldies turn.

On my right Goldies landwher had now surged forward and I was taking a bit of firepower!

On my left Goldie has used a ‘Follow Me’ to move a Musketeer bttn to put a block on his flank after the Dragoons failed a ‘Follow Me’ attempt against my flank Wurtt cav unit.

Below is final position in game after several frenetic turns! My Wurtt cavalry charged the Musketter bttn by woods. They formed square. We retired as we would, and I threw in a column against the square. Beat it but it stood and formed disordered line. I also moved up a line and skirmishers from other bttns and shot up Dragoons…..1 regt popped and the remaining 2 regts retired. I also moved the 2 leger bttns out of the village and shot up skirmishing landwher on ridge. Goldie had thrown in the other musketeer bttn against the line that shot up his Dragoons…..I won the combat, they stood and I then hit them in flank with a bttn, jammie sods lost but stood…..I had managed to get the other Wurtt cav to move up and also moved a Uhlan regt over to the left flank. On my right flank I swapped damaged bttn for fresh bttn, formed others into line and this added firepower along with artillery disordered and wounded the battery on ridge. Goldie conceded game at this point.

 

 

Lockdown Report # 16

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Well, we are into Lockdown level 3 now which seems to mean more traffic on road, and crazy lines of vehicles queued up outside KFC and Maccas .

I have failed to complete 2nd unit Byzantine cavalry……but that’s down to the decals being faulty. They are from LBM and to date I have never had an issue. But this time…arrgghh. There are 12 in the set….need 8 as the 4 mounted archers do not have shields…but after mutilating 4 decals attempting to peel off the the clear plastic cover…gave up. Quick email to LBM, and within hours reply…sound faulty…sending new set. What more can one ask?

So have moved to work on some woods in interim. I obtained 9 woods bases from Battlekiwi which hold from 5 – 9 trees on them. Beauty is if a 9 tree woods…can have as few trees as want as they are on 20mm discs and by using discs with no trees can create heavy or light woods. Gone for some terraining and a lighter colour than normal flock. Test base is below…..consider it a work in progress still.

Thankfully, others have been more productive.

PaulW has been busy rebasing newly acquired units from Goldie as well as painting units himself. Selection follows:

Iberian cavalry

Portugese Line Infantry…

British 1st Dragoon Guards from Waterloo. Paul and Alan are on a quest to have ALL the Allied army.

 

And last but not least…..Goldie has been busy over level 4…..locked in a dark room…..growing a Mexican bandito mousetache…..

And that’s all folks!

 

Lockdown Report # 15

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Another 3 weeks of this……..

So Alan has sent through some pictures of more additions to his Carthaginian Army in 2 units of Iberian Caetati. Very nice they are to.

I have been getting hassled for sometime about the size of the bases on my older troops so I have started to rebase them to current convention. Way back when started my Naps, Von Peter and I agreed on a basing regime(well….I just followed Pete truth be told) which had 4 figures on a base and 6 bases to a unit. They look like the unit below.

And the 3 bttn Regt looks like picture below……

With the basing convention in the group being 4 bases of 50mm x 50mm being a 24 figure unit these units are just not fitting as take up to much space. So the first converted units are below. Now on standard bases, the bases are in my latest colour/flock variation of lighter colours(English Uniform with drybrush of Iraqi Sand) and have replaced the badly faded GMB flags with new ones and movement trays.

And below is a close up of the refurbished 33rd Ligne from 1809.

Below is a comparison between the old and new basing styles.

The greatcoated bttns of the 48th Ligne will be up next for an update.

The next offering is from Goldie. Now this crazy man sold off his French/British Portugese Spanish themed troops to PaulW. I swooped in early and acquired the French Guard Cavalry.

Goldie has now gone and started Front Rank French using the newer Reinforcement packs and is painting them in a style similar to my 33rd Ligne and also basing them similar to my newer basing style. However he has moved away from the 50mm x 50mm basing to 100mm x 50mm with a seperate Voltogeir base per bttn. I think it all looks rather smart. These are residing in my garage at moment and I will be adding the flags to them this week.

Below close up on a column. A VERY NICE paint job.

At present Goldie has painted up 3 bttns, here they are beside my 33rd Ligne.

As mentioned above, I obtained Goldies French Guard cavalry, they are all Front Rank so I really had no choice!

Gardes d’honneur

Empress Dragoons

Guard Horse Artillery

Grenadier a Cheval

Finally below is a shot of my Guard Cavalry. Command base are Front Rank(of course) figures painted as Imperial Guard Artillery Officers( refer page 65 of F.G. Hourtoulle book ‘Wagram -The Apogee of the Empire’ for the picture, had to have that look!)

And thats all for now. Von Peter has alerted me to Front Rank actually now being open again…but with 100 pound limit on orders… postal restrictions apparently….but that gets me 3 bttns French Reinforcement packs!!

Terry’s Russian Army for Borodino refight

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So with the Borodino Game postponed thought would post my Russian force as it stands at the moment. There are still gaps I need to fill, but it is of an okay size now for most games. For the refight we are reducing the orbats by 50%, so for the Russians that made things quite easy as Russian Infantry Corps were normally 2 Divisions for example.

My force is based on the Second Western Army commanded by GoI Petr-Ivanovich Prince Bagration.

Bagration in front, Borozdin to left and Mecklenburg-Schwerin on the 2 figure base to right.

 

From the 8th Corps commanded by GL M Borozdin I have the 2nd Grenadier Division commanded by GM Karl von Mecklenburg-Schwerin.  This has 12 bttns of Grenadiers. Attached to this corps was also the 2nd Combined Grenadier Division of 11 bttns, I have added 5 of those. To tell them apart on the battlefield, the converged bttns have brown blanket rolls and the regulars have grey. Figures are a mix of Front Rank reinforcement pack commands and Warlord Games plastics. Flags by GMB.

Grenadier brigade of 4 bttns, lead bttn of each Regt has commander on horse.

2nd Combined Grenadiers of MG Vorontsov.

 

They are supported by 2 light and 1 position battery. I have a further position battery but PaulW is using it in the Redoubt so I did not base it so he could make a diorama feel to it.

3 batteries of 2nd Grenadiers. 2 light batteries with position battery in centre.

My cavalry force is the IV Reserve Cavalry Corps of MG Sievers which contains a heavy brigade of 2 regts of Dragoons(Kharkov and Chernigov) and a light brigade of double sized Uhlans(Lithuanian) and Hussars(Akhyrsk). There is also a horse battery, the 8th Horse company attached. The Uhlans are Polish Uhlans subbing in until purchase and paint Front Rank figures.

MG Karl Sievers, commander of 4th Reserve Cavalry Corps. My basing convention means he is a 3 figure base.

Dragoons

Hussars

Horse Artillery

Then there is the 2nd Cuirassier Division of MG Duka which had 5 regts split into 2 brigades. I have 3 regts in one command. These are the regts Ekaterinoslav, Military order and Glukhov.

2nd Cuirassiers

 

For my Cossacks commanded by MG Karpov, at present I have 1 unit, the Bykhalov. All my cavalry are Front Rank bar the cossacks where I chose to go with Perry Miniatures as they are smaller and so to me suited cossacks better. However, I have hit a road block in painting them. I just don’t enjoy painting Perry figures so have struggled through 1 unit so far. Thankfully there are plenty of other units available so will be borrowing some. 

Cossacks

I have a selection of Perry ammo wagons which have started painting, but with delay of refight have put them on a back burner for now while work through my Lockdown programme. They are rather cool, pictures from Perry website.

I am also adding the 12th infantry Division of LG Rayevsky’s 7th Infantry Corp with 2 bttns of the Narva Regt painted at moment but unbased. Will base them up bar the command base of the 1st bttn as I like a mounted officer in all my 1st bttns and with Front Rank shut, need to order the mounted officer. PaulW decided he had to many Jager bttns so I took 2 off his hands. Goldie painted these for him so at some future stage will get 2 more bttns from Front Rank, get Goldie to paint and then rebase them all while I work on the remaining 6 line bttns.

So I am quite happy with force as it is and am looking forward to finishing it all off!

 

Lockdown Report # 14

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Its Monday 20th April and hopefully today we find out when level 4 ends!

My painting has been bit slow… work been busy(working from home 4 days and then go into Hospital on Fridays as opposed to work remote), then an unfortunate accident with a bean slicer with the thumb on my paint brush holding hand(lesson learned…contraption has 3 sharp blades where u push the bean through!) and daughter stealing laptop to binge play Sims4 then delayed weekend update.

So few updates today….

From me the first of my Byzantine Heavy Kavallarioi units is finished. Figures are from Gripping Beast Miniatures with the shield decals and banner from LBM . If the decals are out of stock on the GB site, LBM normally has them. I have started a Light Kavallarioi unit next.

Russ has added more French Napoleonic’s in a Legere Bttn and horse artillery battery.

Rob has also added some French Naps as well.

Hussar Generals

General Pajol

And Goldie has finished his 1813 Prussian/Polish buildings…..

 

Lastly, the Perry’s are in Lockdown but they have a plastic box set of Austrian cavalry to be released at SALUTE and I am really hoping Goldie and Alan who have Perry plastic Austrian armies will take advantage of all this Austrian Cavalry goodness and generate brigades if not DIVISIONS of Austrian HEAVY Cavalry goodness.

and that’s all for now……. lets cross our fingers for a sensible decision at 4pm!