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Viking heroes

July 16, 2015, 5:25 pm
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The last figures from my latest commission.
Time to go a-viking
Right, let's leave.
Errr, I think the boats are this way.
Geoff gave me a transfer for the shield, but I once again proved I have no idea how to use Little Big Men transfers. I just wish they made waterslide transfers like normal people. Obviously semi-competent people can use them to great effect, but for those of us who don't make it into that category they remain an enigma. Anyway, the upshot is that I had to paint the shield design by hand. I hope that Geoff is OK with it.

Nate
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Smaland cavalry

July 17, 2015, 9:47 pm
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The first 15mm cavalry unit for the Great Northern War. Some painting for myself this time.
'Ga Pa!'
A Russian point of view - emphasis on the point!
These are Irregular Miniatures figures which are nice basic casts. They paint up OK. 
The armies I aim to build are based on units that were present at Poltava, but I'm looking at using them for a campaign based in Livonia which was created by Angus Konstam for Wargames Illustrated a hundred years ago (well, at least last century).
The standard comes from the excellent Tacitus website. If you are going to do a Great Northern War project, or even if you are just a little bit interested in finding out more about the conflict, take a look.

Nate
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Viva el Paraguay!

July 18, 2015, 4:14 pm
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As the American Civil War rolled towards its conclusion at Appomattox in early 1865 another war had broken out far to the south. The second bloodiest conflict in the history of the Americas involved Paraguay taking on the Empire of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. This slightly lopsided affair was the brain-child of Paraguayan President Francisco Solano Lopez and would see the population of his country reduced from somewhere around half a million people to 160,000. Losing 60-70% of your population is a pretty impressive record of incompetence even by 20th Century dictator standards.
The conflict has always intrigued me, and earlier this year I bought some figures from Freikorps to game the period. Her is the first painted unit, some Paraguayan militia:
Tough Guarani peasants who don't need trousers!
The Paraguayans quickly ran out of proper uniforms - loincloths and chiripa kilts replacing trousers in many cases.
A close up of some of the spear armed soldiers making up numbers.
The Paraguayan troops were incredibly brave, but often ill-equipped. They relied on their cavalry to break the enemy with a charge at the beginning of the battle, something that it continually failed to do. The infantry fought resolutely and suffered horrendously. Their victories tended to come from prepared positions, echoing the way that warfare was evolving around the world.
Figures are Freikorps 15s from QRF.

Nate
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Swedish expansion

July 24, 2015, 9:28 pm
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Another two infantry units added to the Swedish army this week, the Vasterbotten and Ostgota regiments are now represented:
The Vasterbotten regiment with white facings make a nice change from the traditional picture of blue and gold in the Swedish army.
The Ostgota regiment with the blue and yellow candy stripe lace on their hats.
Advancing together.
The Swedish army so far.
I have one cavalry regiment and a gun to paint for the Swedes and that will be the halfway mark for them. Then I'll get into the Russians. I've got another commission of 30 figures coming from Geoff, so won't be able to keep my pace of two units a week up, but I might be able to get one done in a week.

Nate

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The Russians are coming!

August 1, 2015, 3:37 pm
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This week's addition to the cabinets are two Russian infantry regiments for the Great Northern War.
The Ingermanlandski Regiment
The Butyrski Regment
They are for my Livonian Campaign which will be fought using adapted Neil Thomas One Hour Wargames rules. As such the forces will be quite small - 4 infantry, 2 cavalry, 1 artillery and 1 dismounted dragoon regiment per side. I have the figures to increase this later, but for now it is a good short term goal to get figures for both sides painted and on the table.

Regarding the above regiments, I have used the information from Tacitus.nu which is based on Hoglund's book rather than the uniform information in the Angus Konstam Ospreys. The reason is that Hoglund's regiments are much prettier - the Ingermanlanski in yellow is much nicer than dull old green! I have these troops in the kartuz rather than the tricorne. I figure that in the colder regions of Livonia these would have been preferred over the hat. Finally, the flags are totally conjectural. I have no information on the colours of these regiments, so I have made the totally reasonable assumption that they would match the facing colours of each regiment. Apologies to those who look at these and think, 'Wow! Now I know how to paint my regiments accurately'. It is one of the curses and at the same time wonderful things about this period.

The three Russian regiments so far - Rostovski, Butyrski and Ingermanlandski
Nate
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Karelian Cavalry Regiment

August 3, 2015, 9:39 pm
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The second cavalry unit for the Swedes is the Karelian regiment, which I chose for its grey coats.
Another fine Swedish unit
Showing of the hand-painted standard
The standard is based on the one from the Hoglund book - two arms holding swords and a crown in the centre.
To make sure the Swedes have someone to give directions, I painted up a general too:
General Vakta (apparently that is Swedish for guard, which is as close to the meaning of my last name as I can get).
And from the other side
I have determined that this week I will get both Russian cavalry regiments, artillery for both sides and a unit of dismounted Dragoons for both sides finished. This will give me enough to play some One Hour Wargames scenarios. Next week I'll start on Geoff's Koreans.

Nate


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A cavalcade of cavalry

August 7, 2015, 10:26 pm
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Both on and off their horses. The last few days have seen me complete two mounted Russian Dragoon regiments, a gun each for the Swedes and Russians, a dismounted Dragoon regiment each for the Swedes and the Russians and a Russian general. I'm pretty happy with the results of this dedicated burst of activity, as it shows that I can make substantial headway on a project within the space of a week.
Tverski Dragoon Regiment in kartuz.
Vladimirski Dragoon regiment in tricornes
Russian artillery
Swedish artillery
Schlusselburg Dragoon regiment dismounted
Moscowski Dragoon regiment dismounted.
The Russian general
And from another angle
The dismounted dragoons count as the fourth troop type that can be rolled up on the randomising table for the One Hour Wargames scenarios. At some point in the future I'll paint both of these regiments up mounted.
Left to paint up are two infantry regiments, the Jonkopings regiment for the Swedes and the Semenovski Guards for the Russians. The All Blacks test isn't until 10pm local time tonight, so I'll be able to get a good couple of hours of painting in before then, and should get them completed by tomorrow night. At that stage this pocket project will be complete. Monday night I'll start on the Koreans for Geoff.

Nate
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Lounging around Livonia

August 8, 2015, 5:27 pm
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With the last two units for my Great Northern War mini-campaign approaching completion I thought I'd play out the first turn. The game is based around an article from Angus Konstam in Wargames Illustrated 52 for a campaign based in Livonia in the aftermath of the battle of Narva. I'm not playing this out strictly historically, but I'll use the same map and rules to base my fictional campaign around.

The first thing I did was print off the map and colour it in - I am a Social Studies teacher after all! Then I wrote out the key rules and a calendar tracker. First turn - August 1701. The sun is shining, the birds are singing and the Russians are marching!
The Campaign map and crib sheet
First turn the Russians had the initiative. Based in Pskov, their objective was determined by a D6 roll. The conservative thing to do would be to take the nearest town as a supply base, and this would be Marienburg, so this was a 1-4 on the die roll. 5 would be to advance on Valk and try to isolate Riga from Dorpat, basically forcing the Swedes to clear them out of the way. A 6 would see the army advance towards Dorpat itself.
Starting positions everyone.
It turns out that the  Russian commander, General Shumasshedshiy, is quite an aggressive type. He rolled a 5 and Valk was the destination.
Shumasshedshiy advances aggressively
The Swedes, based in Riga had an equally aggressive response. General Vakt immediately advanced to drive out the Russian invader (on a roll of 1 they would have taken the road north based on false information). The combat would occur on hex J17.
A meeting of minds.
A battle was about to occur - but what would it look like? I rolled a d3 (result of a 3 would stand in for a 0) and a d10. Rolling a 2 and a 4 respectively I was left with Scenario 24 in One Hour Wargames - Bottleneck. I'd decided that the Swedes would always be blue force, and the Russians red force. This meant that the Russians would be guarding a bottleneck against a larger Swedish force. This made sense - Shumasshedskiy sending out a blocking force against the advancing Swedes.
Rolling on the Great Northern War army generation table the Swedes rolled 3 infantry, 1 dismounted dragoons and 2 cavalry. The Russians rolled 3 infantry and 1 artillery. However the scenario specifies that red force must field one unit of skirmishers if possible - in this version that is dismounted dragoons, so the army was changed to 2 infantry, 1 dragoons and 1 artillery.
And so we are ready to fight the Battle of Valk in August of 1701. Report coming soon.

Nate
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Battle at Valk 24th August 1701 - One Hour Wargames Scenario

August 10, 2015, 1:14 am
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General Shumasshedshiy deployed in a bottleneck where the road between Riga and Dorpat passes between a lake and a woods. In the woods he placed the Moskowski Dragoons while he marched up two regiments of infantry and a gun. Meanwhile General Vakt advanced with his cavalry deployed to the right to flank around the lake, his Dragoons screening the woods and his infantry poised to act as a battering ram to force the road.
The battlefield seen from above. The weather has been freezing so I came inside and played on the floor rather than on the wargames table in the shed. As a result the lighting isn't the best in these photos.
Shumasshedsiy advances his troops. He will join them in a moment, just a quick nip of vodka first.
The Moskowski Dragoons occupy the edge of the woods.
Vakt and his Swedes arrive on the table. The Schlusselburg Dragoons on the left will screen that flank while the infantry mass in the centre.
The cavalry are sent around the edge of the lake.
Swedes take first blood as the Russians get into position.
The Swedish cavalry continues its flanking movement.
A view over the battlefield to get the idea of the Swedish outflanking movement.
The Russians fire back to good effect, but in the crossfire Shumasshedshiy is hit.
This as good a point as any to note that unlike the One Hour rules, my modifications do remove bases. A single base of cavalry or infantry can take four hits before it is removed. A general rolls a dice to rally off any surplus hits equivalent to his die roll, but once an element is gone it is gone. When a unit gets down to half strength it shoots and fights at a -1 disadvantage to its die rolling. Still relatively simple, but a bit more complex than the rules as written. Artillery bases have 16 hits.
If the general rolls a '1' when it tries to rally a unit it becomes a casualty. Such is the fate of the Russian commander above.
The Dragoons exchange fire. The Swedes are on a hiding to nothing here, but they are are doing their job of diverting the attention of the Dragoons from the combat on the road.

The Swedes push forward as the Ingermanlandski regiment prepares to receive cavalry. Note that Vakt has rallied the hits off the Ostgota regiment that can be seen in the earlier picture.

The Ingermanlandski Regiment hold in the face of the Smaland cavalry, while the Uppland regiment charge the Rostovski regiment on the road.
A couple of notes about the above scene. Infantry facing to their front use their pikes in combat against cavalry. As a result, cavalry only strikes at half effect. This has allowed the Russian infantry to hold fast.
Infantry cannot charge other infantry in the One Hour Wargames Horse and Musket rules, which I've kept to - unless they are Swedish. Without Ga Pa tactics we wouldn't be playing the Great Northern War, it would just be any old horse and musket battle. The Swedes also get a +1 combat bonus to their die roll to encourage them to close and hopefully help mimic the results the infantry often had on the battlefield.

The Karelian cavalry charge the flank of the Ingermanlandski regiment.
Flanking units get double the hits, but the rules as they are written say that any hits against Swedish or Russian infantry are halved due to the pikes. I have since gone back and amended this to infantry fighting cavalry to the front. The Karelians should have swept through the flank of these guys like a hot knife through butter. As it was, the combat lasted several agonising turns.

The Uppland and Rostovski regiments continue to whittle each other down as the Vasterbotten and Ostgota regiments use musketry to wear out the Russian artillery.
The artillery breaks, but General Vakt is wounded in the melee trying to rally the Uppland regiment!
Not much left of the Ingermanlandski regiment now.
A bird's-eye view of the battlefield on turn 13. The Moscowski dragoons have broken the last of the Ostgota regiment and Uppland have triumphed in a hard-fought battle over Rostovski. The bottleneck has been cleared and the Swedes control the road!
The cavalry took a bit of a battering, but it will still be able to mount a pursuit.
The remnant of the Uppland regiment, now at 12.5% effectiveness, but victorious!
So The Battle of Valk is a Swedish victory. The Russians only needed to hold out two more turns and they would have won, which says to me that the scenario is pretty well designed to be that close with uneven forces. In campaign terms the Russians now fall back 2 Movement Points towards their supply lines.
The situation at the end of August 1701.
The Russians took some pretty harsh losses. For every 25% of a unit lost the same unit takes one hit when it reconstitutes at the start of the next battle. As Rostovski, Ingermanlandksi and the artillery lost 100% of their strength, they begin with 4 hits in the next game, as does the Swedish Ostgota regiment. Upland starts with 3 hits, the Schlusselburg Dragoons and the Smaland cavalry with 2 hits each. Every month that there is no battle recruits arrive to make up one hit. So If the Rostovski regiment can avoid battle until January 1702 they will be back to full strength.
Both generals went down in the fight. On a 1 or 2 they are dead and a new commander is appointed. On a 3-6 they will be back in command for the following month. Vakt rolled a 6 - just a flesh wound! Shumasshedshiy rolled a 2. Oh dear. Will the new Russian general be as aggressive? We'll have to find out at the end of the week with September's turn.

Nate
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GNW Pocket Project Complete

August 10, 2015, 3:35 pm
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The last two infantry regiments were finished off last night. I wanted to have them complete on Sunday, but I needed to repaint the flag for the Semenovski regiment.
The Swedish Jonkopings Regiment
The Semenovski Guard regiment. I had to paint the eagle and recolour the feathers on the flags.
So the Great Northern War project is complete, and these will be much needed reinforcements for both sides in the campaign.
I've really enjoyed putting this together - not just the forces but the backstory and campaign as well. The next pocket project for use with One Hour Wargames based rules will be Samurai, followed by the Great Paraguayan War and then I have my eye on a conflict from 1894. More on that later. Right now I have a commission to paint!

Nate
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Battle on the border, 18 September 1701 One Hour Wargame scenario

August 14, 2015, 4:00 am
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After the action at Valk the new Russian commander, General Kantstanski, led a withdrawal to the Livonian border. General Vakt, sensing he had an advantage that he could press decided to pursue the Russian force. Upon reaching the Ludzha river he found a bridge guarded by a single battery. The plan was simply to storm this bridge and carry on to intercept the Russians before they reached the defences of Pskov. Little did he know that the new Russian commander had a surprise in store for him.
This action plays out scenario 18 from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames - Breakthrough. I rolled up two 6 unit forces which included some units that had already taken a bit of a battering in the previous action.
The view from the Swedish side in turn one. 
Arrayed ready to try to force the bridge.
The solitary Russian gun guards the road at the bridge.
The Swedes begin their advance. The Vasterbotten regiment will have the privilege of forcing the bridge. You can see that a couple of units already have casualties from the battle at Valk.

Wait! Where did all those Russians come from?
The battle begins. The Tverski Dragoons charge across a hidden ford straight into the Uppland regiment. The Moscowski Dragoons follow on foot - blocking their ability to recoil any distance.
The Smaland cavalry spin around and charge the Tverski regiment in the flank, rolling a 6 and running them down (6 +2 for cavalry charging doubled for a flank attack - devastating!).
The Vasterbotten regiment charges into the hail of grapeshot.
And they have no fire support as the artillery is kept busy by the arrival of the Russian infantry.
The Smaland cavalry regiment charge into the Dragoons who have recrossed the river to defend the banks. After taking out a few of the enemy they fall back from the combat.
The Semenovski cross the river at another ford the Swedes had no idea about!
The Vasterbotten continues to charge into the guns only to be repulsed by close range canister.
Trying to rally the Vasterbotten regiment General Vakt is hit by a piece of grapeshot and is carried from the field.
The Smenovski regiment begin to press the Karelska cavalry regiment, advancing and whittling them down with fire.
The Russian artillery is shredding the Vasterbotten regiment.
The Dragoons continue to defend their position.
Using the cover of the river bank the Swedish infantry are driven off.
The artillery are dangerously close to being wiped out - just one more charge!
The Swedish artillery is likewise imperiled by the Butyrski regiment.
The Semenovski Guard continue to press the isolated Karelska regiment that just can't seem to break them.
The Uppland regiment are once again see off.
The Russians roll a 6! The Vasterbotten regiment breaks!

With just a solitary hit remaining the Swedish artillery likewise rolls a miracle and the Butyrski regiment are dissipated.
This will be the end for the Karelska regiment. But it is turn 13. This last charge has stopped the town from falling and the Swedish line of retreat is still open.
The Jonkopings regiment follows in the footsteps of their Vasterbotten colleagues and removes the artillery. - They have the bridge!
Turn 15 and the Semenovski guard wipe out the Karelska regiment but are out of time to occupy the town.
Stalemate has ensued on the Swedish left flank. The brave Moscowski Dragoons have put in another creditable performance and held the ford.
The Ingermanlandski regiment advances to contest the bridge.
The situation on Turn 15. The Swedes have the bridge and the Russians have not taken the town, so technically a Swedish victory, but in the context of the campaign this is a very bloody draw.
Left in possession of the field the Swedes had time to mourn over the demise of the gallant General Vakt (he rolled a '2').  With so many casualties the decision was made to return to Marienburg to bury the genral and recover. The Russians likewise felt it prudent to return to Pskov and await reinforcements. This covers the October turn of the campaign.

Nate
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Osprey titles for 2016 I'm excited about

August 19, 2015, 12:57 am
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At the moment Osprey is going through their 'big reveal' of 2016 titles.  There are a number of titles that I am interested in getting my grubby little mitts on. First up, in the MAA series:
Taken from Amazon.com
I love these 19th Century South American conflicts. Outpost Wargames Service do a 15mm range for this conflict too. Tempting. 
Also in the MAA series but with no pictures available is Imperial Chinese Armies 1840-1911, which completes the Chinese army series and will cover the Chinese army in the Taiping rebellion and Sino-Japanese Wars. The land war of the latter was a planned pocket project, but in the last couple of days I have changed my mind (again) and will be going for the more mundane period of the Franco-Prussian War. I'm sure the 1894 project will rear its head again at some point though, as I find the era quite fascinating.

Still missing in action: Swedish armies of the Northern Wars and Armies of the Gallic Wars. C'mon Osprey.

Combat 18 - Israeli soldier vs Syrian soldier, Combat ??? - King's African Rifles versus Shutztruppe and Combat ??? - Finnish soldier vs Soviet soldier are a great choice of subject. Not that I game or intend to game either of these things any more, but I still retain a deep interest in them.

Still missing in action: Gallic Warrior vs Roman Legionary (Gallic Wars - a theme here I feel), Carthaginian Phalangite vs Roman Hastati, French infantryman vs Prussian Guardsman 1870, Prussian infantryman vs Austrian infantryman (Seven Years War) - well the list goes on, but it is obviously still a young series.

The Warrior series has four books planned and I have no interest in any of them - likewise the Elite series. However two titles in series I normally don't have anything much to do with stand out as must haves:
New Vanguard 238 - WWI Seaplane and aircraft carriers and Duel 71 - M48 Patton vs Centurion in the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. The former is a bit of nostalgia. As a spotty 13 year old I had built a whole pile of Esci WWI biplanes. I dreamed up a scenario where the 1918 Kaiserschlacht had been successful and the Germans had defeated the French and the British had evacuated. An air battle raged over the North Sea as both sides built aircraft carriers and carried on a carrier war. Our old rectangular coffee table made a great platform for my Albatross and Fokkers to launch from and dogfight Sopwith Camels. As I recall, the British always won. Ahhh... good times.

1965 is a conflict I cannot get enough of, and which may yet turn into a 15mm or 6mm project. I had started writing list for a Flames of War variant, but never completed it.

I'm still waiting eagerly for the Campaign titles to be announced, although with the disappointing sales of Ramillies I doubt that there will be any Eighteenth Century Europe goodness in store. Fervent hopes are for Tannenberg 1914, Lemberg 1914, Warsaw 1920, Koniggratz 1866, Garigliano 1503, Zama 202BC and/or Rocroi 1643.  Well, no harm in hoping.
Have a look over on the Osprey blog and see what you find tantalising for 2016.

Nate
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Korean commissions

August 22, 2015, 7:06 pm
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'I'm sending you some Koreans to paint', says Geoff. 'Cool', says I. 'What do they look like?' A Quick look at the Perry site says that they are pretty much all black and white. Oh this will be easy I think to myself. Famous last words...
Nevertheless, they are now complete and presented here for viewing edification.
Some militia to start with.
And some more militia - do they look too white?
Korean soldiers with pole arms. Stylish in black and white.
More soldiers on the charge.
Archers to make up numbers
I still have two officers to paint, but these will be done alongside the 17th Century artillery crew, Huguenots and civilians in my next batch of painting. I'm looking forward to not painting so much white!

Nate
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The Livonian Campaign continues

August 23, 2015, 5:19 pm
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When last we left the Russians and the Swedes had both gone into winter quarters.
November - both sides recover their strength during muddy season.
December - a surprise Russian foray to besiege Marienberg.
January - with their strength recovered the Swedes launch a relief attempt.
January 15 the Swedes arrived outside the Russian lines at Marienberg. A battle was about to commence.

Nate
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The attempted relief of Marienberg 15th January 1702 - a One Hour Wargame

August 23, 2015, 5:19 pm
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After the battle on the Ludzha river the Swedes withdrew to Dorpat to winter while the Russians withdrew to Pskov. At the end of December came the Russians under Kantstanski used the frozen conditions to make a strike for Marienberg, to try to capture it. Their coup de main failed and the army dug in to conduct a siege on the tiny garrison, figuring that they were in supply and that the winter was not too deep. In early January the Swedes under General Gyllentrad moved out to relieve the endangered town.

This game was a chance to try out a birthday present - a new folding card table that is 86 x 86cm - an inch short on each side of a 3' x 3' table. I went down to the shops today and bought a green polar fleece which I then spray painted and voila, I can play games in the house without having to sit on the floor!

I rolled up scenario 15 from the book, which was just perfect for the campaign scenario I had in mind. Based on Fontenoy it features an army in two defensive strongpoints holding out against an attack. Neil Thomas makes the strongpoints towns, but I substituted these for redoubts, because I'd already specifically made the terrain for them. I ignored the two special rules, the first that the redoubts had additional firepower, the second that the attacking army could replenish itself and bring on a whole new army. This didn't fit within the limited scheme of the campaign.

So the Swedes had 15 turns to occupy both redoubts and this would relieve Marienberg. If they failed they would retire to Valk and await reinforcement.

Turn One. The Swedes advance onto the table

First firefight between the Dragoons
The initial assault against the first redoubt manned by the Rostovski regiment.
A wider view of the Swedish advance
The Tverski Dragoons decide to hold up the Uppland regiment.
The Vasterbotten regiment decides it will deal with the Moscowski Dragoons directly
The Uppland regiment continue their stand-off with the Tverski Dragoons.
The assault on the redoubt falls to the Jonskoping regiment.
Slowly the Tverski Dragoons begin to gain the upper hand.
The Rostovski regiment is on its last legs.
The Vasterbotten regiment assault the Moscowski Dragoons, inflict some damage and then recoil. This incident has led me to make some amendments to the hand to hand combat rules in my Great Northern War variant.
Uppland take revenge on the Tverski Dragoons.
In a last desperate act of defiance the Rostovski regiment just about destroys the Ostgota regiment.
In the upper left corner you can see that the Semenovski regiment has been called out of reserve to support the redoubt.
Too late - Jonskoping capture the first redoubt!
The Vladimirski Dragoons are brought out of reserve to aid the failing Moscowski dragoons.
Jonskoping leave the redoubt to advance on the Semenovski Guards.
Vasterbotten turns and gives a solid volley to the Vladimirski Dragoons.
Semenovski unleash an unsteady salvo against the Jonskoping regiment.
The conflict in the centre is about to end in defeat for the Uppland regiment.
The battle of the minnows continues on the right flank.
The Vasterbotten begins to advance in the face of the Vladimirski charges.
Jonskoping go through the Semenovski guards like a hot knife through butter.
The Smaland cavalry comes forward to finish off the Vladimirski regiment.
The Swedes begin to close in o the final redoubt.
General Kantstanski is knocked out in the fighting trying to rally the Vladimirski regiment.
It is turn 15 and a furious Swedish assault is launched..
A view through the woods of the final moments of the battle
Bird's eye view of the end of the battle.
So at the end of Turn 15 the Swedes had not secured both redoubts. This meant a tactical draw, in which the Swedes would need to withdraw. February will see the Russians attempt to take Marienberg.
The game did throw up a few interesting moments, and I have amended the rules again for the next play through.

Nate
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August commission wrapped up

August 28, 2015, 9:00 pm
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North Star civilians from their 1672 range.
Just finished varnishing these figures.
Another picture with the right hand lady turned for a gossip session with the Huguenot minister.
Korean commanders
These guys have appeared before as blue Huguenots, but Geoff wanted some different poses in his unit so I've repainted their blue bits red.
And here are their replacements - an officer and standing pose.
And two loading figures
The last part of this group was a Dutch artillery crew
They just need a gun to fire.
So hopefully Geoff likes these guys. I toyed with the idea of putting patterns on the dresses of the civilian women, but with all of the pleats I think I would have ruined them. I can spot one or two little touch-ups that are needed - it always happens when you take photos - but I think the final result is pretty good.
My Lancashire Games Franco-Prussian War figures turned up today, so they are going to skip the queue ahead of the 15mm Samurai. More on them later.

Nate
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Napoleon in Egypt

August 29, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Yesterday I received an order from Allan at Lancashire Games. It consisted of 15mm French and Prussians for the Franco-Prussian War project (I'll do a post on this later). It also had some samples of his upcoming 15mm Napoleon in Egypt and Italian Wars ranges, both of which I am very interested in. Last night I painted the French infantry in anticipation of the units that I want to field.
From left to right: 88eme Ligne, 18eme Ligne and 4eme Legere.
The view from behind.
The 88eme with its violet jacket and green cuffs is particularly rainbow.
The 4eme Legere in green with brown facings
The 18eme which had yellow cuffs and yellow piping.
I have a couple of Mamelukes half finished and the Italian Wars knights undercoated and ready for painting, so hopefully I'll have photos of them this week. At the same time I'm trying to finish off some Great Northern Wars Cossacks, Russian artillery and my first battalion of Prussians for the Franco-Prussian War, so hopefully by Saturday they will all be finished. It's raining today, so I'm hoping to clean and base the majority of the Franco-Prussian War figures. Tonight, however, is the next battle in the Livonian campaign, so painting will be put on hold to continue tomorrow.

I'll also take this moment to put in a plug for Allan at Lancashire Games. His figures are great, they are very reasonably priced and he is a real gentleman to deal with.

Nate                                                                      
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Livonian Campaign February through April 1702

August 30, 2015, 2:50 am
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After being repulsed outside Marienberg the Swedes retired on Valk, while the Russians continued with their siege operation in the snow. On 6th February with little hope of being relieved Marienberg surrendered. The new Russian commander General Nobakstorii determined to use this advantage to maximum effect.
Marienberg is captured.
The castle where Nobakstorii planned his next moves. (from Wikipedia)
March moves
 In March Nobakstorii moved to cut the muddy road between Riga and Valk, thus limiting the reinforcements available to the Swedish army. The Swedish General Gyllentrad hunkered down in Valk preparing the town for a siege. His plan was to weaken the Russians and await reinforcements from Sweden via Reval and Dorpat.
The surprise move
Then, suddenly, on March 24th the Russians made a surprise move. They went west and attempted to storm the town of Wolmer. The storming failed, but the town was caught unprepared and would be unable to resist a siege for long. On March 29th Gyllentrad left Valk with all of the troops he could muster. If Wolmer fell then he would be fatally cut off from Riga. If he lost this battle it would be highly likely that he would lose Riga. He needed to defeat the Russians before they could get their siege lines ready. The stakes were high on the morning of 1st April as the Swedes approached the Russian army arrayed for battle around a small hill outside Wolmer.

Nate

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Battle of Wolmer 1st April 1702 - a One Hour Wargame

August 30, 2015, 5:03 pm
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For this game I rolled up scenario 1 - pitched battle. Two hills, two armies and the victor would be the one with the higher head count at the end.
The forces deployed, seen from the Swedish side.
Opening moves - the Russians advance their wings, the Swedes just advance.

Straight into the action, the Swedish right wing crashes into the their Russian opposites.
The Swedish left advances to get into hand to hand combat.
The Swedes continue to push the Russians back on the right wing, despite some devastating musketry by the Rostovski regiment.
Stalemate on the Swedish left.
The Schlusselberg Dragoons and the Ostgota regiment hold the centre in the face of devastating ratillery fire.
The Jonskoping regiment savages the Tverski Dragoons while the Uppland regiment suffers heavily from close range artillery fire.
The Russian left flank is just about broken.
The Swedish centre continues to soak up the attention of the Russian artillery.
The Karelska regiment charges into a Russian battery and destroys it. The Smaland cavalry deal with the last of the Vladimirski Dragoons. Not sure why this picture came out so bright?
The Uppland regiment is destroyed by the Ingermanlandski regiment. The Jonskoping regiment advance to within short range of the Tverski Dragoons.
In the centre the Ostgota regiment and Karelska cavalry combine to recoil the Semenovski guards.
And two turns later a second double whammy, this time with the Smaland cavalry acting in tandem with the Ostgota, routs the Semenovski guards from the board. 
Turn 15 sees a last desperate charge by the Tverski Dragoons, which causes some damage but is ultimately futile.
At the end of the game the Russians had three units on the board and the Swedes had 4. A narrow win to the Swedes which will see the Russians retreat from Wolmer in some disarray - after all they don't have access to a road as it was blocked by the army they just fought.

The rules worked better than I had hoped. I was worried that the extra unit for the Russians would unbalance things too much, but it worked perfectly in the end.  The Swedes carve up in melee, no doubt about it, but they suffer in the run up from unanswered musketry. Automatically eliminating contacted artillery also streamlines the game quite well, but they give a decent wallop with their d6+3 hits at 15cm range. I have made a couple of minor changes to the rules, as I noticed that there were a couple of things that I had assumed but hadn't specified. Cavalry now automatically retire from combat with infantry even if the infantry also retires from losing 4 hits.
The next battle will also be in the April turn, as Gyllentrad pursues the retreating Russians. I haven't rolled this one up yet, so we will have to wait and see what the next battle looks like.

Nate
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One Hour Wargames - a review

September 1, 2015, 3:12 am
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A couple of days ago Paul from the Man Cave posted a review of One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas. He makes quite a few valid points, saying that the rules are really aimed at beginners and if you have any of the Charles Grant scenario books (which I do) then  even the scenario section is largely superfluous. I think at face value there is a lot to agree with in this analysis. But I also think there are some other points that I would like to add to the review for a bit of balance.

The tome on trial
First point - the rules are for beginners. Yes, they will work well for beginners to wargaming, but that doesn't describe me and I like them. It also doesn't include people like Bob Cordery who has also taken them to heart. So what do we (Royal or collective 'we' as I can't necessarily speak for others) like about them? Well one of the selling points is the very simplicity that makes them so good for beginners. They are uncluttered, easy to remember and give a very enjoyable game. They are also a system that is easy to tinker with. Some might be put off by this, demanding a ruleset that suits them straight out of the box, as it were. Well these do play straight out of the box for the periods they cover, but they are so much more versatile than that. On the AMW yahoo group variants can be found that cover the Italian Wars, Spanish Civil War, Russo-Turkish War and more. Martin Rapier recently published his latest variant that he is using for Jutland among others. There are a lot of experienced wargamers out there doing things with these rules.

Second point - What are you looking for in a set of rules? For me they need to be able to be used solo; to allow me to concentrate on the game and not the rules mechanisms; and to be relatively quick so that they can be played out between my children's bedtimes and my own. They should ideally be able to be turned into a narrative campaign. I also like rules that I can play on a small space in the lounge during winter - I have a 3'x 3' card table that I can set up, as opposed to the 8'x 4'which is in the garage. One Hour Wargames ticks all of the above boxes.

Third point - the scenarios. If you have the Grant books then you do indeed have a fantastic reservoir of ideas for scenarios (and I would add the Tabletop Teasers that ran through the Battlegames magazine to the other books named by Paul). But they still take some adaptation to whatever period you are playing. The scenarios in One Hour Wargames are designed to work with the rules and army sizes that are given, and they really do work. Even unbalanced scenarios have well thought out objectives and turn limits. Either Mr Thomas is very good at fluking it, or he put quite a bit of time into designing the rules and scenarios to work together.

My tinkering with the Great Northern Wars variant is based on bits of the horse and musket and the pike and shot rules together with some of my own little quirks (I like base removal to show the deterioration of unit effectiveness for instance). There has been ample room to introduce these things and not totally unbalance the system, nor over-complicate it - I print the rules out on a double sided sheet of A4 in a booklet format.  Originally I had planned to fight a GNW campaign using an adaptation of Neil's Napoleonic Wargaming rules. I now wouldn't go back.

So in terms of this being a review, I guess I'd give One Hour Wargames 5 stars out of 5, because it works for the sort of games I want to play. Just like DBA is not for everyone, OHW will not be a perfect fit for all wargamers (what rules are?), but I must emphasise that they are not just for beginners.  For myself, I feel like I may have found my holy grail.

Nate
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