15mm Gettysburg ACW forces started

 The grand army of the Republic has begun, this time with a big horseflesh run.

As in the past, with the horses, I have used the 'quick-paint' method, with inks in the feature.

freshly cast bare metal on the painting sticks

black brush on base coat

charcoal and blue undercoat

top 'wet-brush' layer

under color layer

ink layer (you can see the inks I used in the
top left of the image)

black manes & tails

beige manes and blazes

greys and musket barrels

yellow and red details

mounted and matte coated

on final bases

fully flocked

this represents the first half of the Union Cavalry on Day one at Gettysburg, I have the other in cleaning process now and expect to finish before the end of December.

Much was put on hold during my bride's convalescence from breaking her arm.  All is on the mend now and I hope to have time open to complete these before the new year when a first responder course will be taking all of my spare time.

Shako II - Solo scenario throwdown - October 2024 - Flavor of Maloyaroslavets

 Over a couple of days in October, I had opportunity to set up the table and leave it, so that I could run a game over a longer period of time without having to clear it all away.

I would have post the data about this game in November, however the day I was to start working on this my bride took a slip and fall and did much damage to her left elbow, after a day in emergency, then overnight and surgery the next day for 6+ hours, she was able to recover in hospital for a few days.
Then return home.

I have been her arms for a few weeks now and shall continue to have much time taken up with these ongoing support tasks.  Thankfully her recovery is progressing well.

With the delay explained, now onto the battle:

Scenario 2, from Scenarios for all ages, was a contested river fording situation.  It reminded me very much of Maloyaroslavets, from the retreat from Moscow situation the French faced in 1812.  This being the case I chose to make it a Russian defending the line, with French attackers.

Again as a solo game, I chose some cards to make the 'command decisions' of the two sides, the Russians came up the 4 of clubs and the French the 5 of clubs. Meaning that both sides were only going to have 'middling' plans with no real commitment to much at all.

My Eugene model had commanded cavalry
many times after the first Maloyaroslavets game
now out in a command stand again

an even older generation Russian command
figure was selected to take on the role of
Baron Sacken for this encounter

I used the ruined hovels for the 'built up areas'
that the game calls for

so ... the plans were terribly simple
I was hoping that the French could get a toe-hold into the
ground on the far side, enough so that the
large force of infantry could storm across
with their flank covered

Once again I used a time-lapse system to capture all the action, which turned out to be a good idea, since I could not fully recall all the actions taken from just the still photos.

Reviewing it all via the editing process, I recalled that the French column did get across the river, in force, yet were all 'damaged' and fighting uphill into supported artillery.  The damage may only have been a 'shaken' or 'disorder' yet it was enough to make the attacks just that little bit weaker ...

The coup de grace was the Russian Dragoon force riding down a French demi-brigade to a man, capturing their eagle and putting a total victory on the battle for the Russians!

Looking back I see it was last October 2023, when I managed to get in scenario 1, perhaps I'll be able to do scenario 3 in 2025?

Let me know if you enjoy this sort of content or if I could change it up some way more interesting.

No idea if I will get in another game before the new year, though I have some painting progress to report in the coming weeks, happy holiday season to everyone reading.

A 'throw-down' Napoleon's Battles match-up

 The aim was to get 8-12 players into action in a 15mm Napoleon's Battles tabletop battle.

The actual numbers of players to arrive would determine the troops on the table.

We ended up starting with 9

setting up troops

I was able to take on troops painted and prepared by Nate, and we got to be on the same side and actually work towards a goal together.  Something new, since we are often having to teach from opposing sides.

board laying out the troops available and
the ones selected and a time-track

We gathered at the University of Victoria on Nov 24, I had the added job to deliver special performance attire for my youngest son, who is now a student at UVic.

my youngest son did not take on any command when we were
arranging troops ... he did come in on turn 5

the whole French force (seen from the right flank)
Bavarian in the foreground
then French Heavy Cavalry
French Corps with Baden troops
French Corps with Wurttemberg troops

Russians on their left

Russians and Prussians in the center

Prussians on the right

it took a couple of turns to get out from the restricted
area that the French were forced to deploy from
though we managed to do three turns in 45 mins

combat was more of a 'hold back' as the French right and
center were taunting the Russians to come out into open ground

Then my son came back the the game room and decided to jump in - now there were 5 commands on each side.

table action became hot and heavy
-seen here-
Russio-Prussian forces moving during turn 5

turn 5 became pivotal as there were firefights and melees across the line

turn 6 was massive on the French left (where Nate and I were)

while over on the French right a stalemate had developed

the aftermath of a huge light cavalry strike
3 artillery batteries destroyed two formations
of Infantry routed along with the gun crews
the entire Prussian corps on the flank was either
routing or disordered

seen in the foreground here are the horses
of France, now disordered and damaged (though only
from slowing down to brutally saber and rout
the Prussians)
in the mid section are the location of the three batteries
that were destroyed in the charge

It was so nice to finally have a charge work for me.  The mixed corps are often a challenge to operate in the battlefield environment and I have been premature in my operations in the past.  Not so this time.

Patience worked and the wounded formations of troops were no match for the charging horsemen.

more of the players Russio-Prussian forces

view at the end, on the French left
a marginal French victory

view thru the center and French right
center was a marginal allied victory
far right was a draw

Russio-Prussians managed to also wreck three
French batteries and rout/disperse the Bavarian corps

The overall victory might go to the French, given that the French side still had three of the five unused re-roll markers and the Russian Pavlov grenadiers had been routed.

Great game everyone!

Poker Night

 I had the opportunity to get Jeff's poker chips out for an actual game of poker.

my first big win

My youngest son was home from University (!) for the reading break, so we took the opportunity to have a game day at the house.  Other friends came out and the boys all had games go on during the day.

In the evening I was invited to set up the felt and deal poker.

This first big pot for me was a straight over straight, I had the Ace.

Youngest son is in computer sciences and arts, so no surprise he was way out calculating me on the 'odds'.

We ended up the last two players.

Heads up was close, as he had a chip advantage at one point, then we flipped back and forth a couple of time.

Then came the showdown.

I won with a pair of 3's

I have done more painting, there was a Shako II game run, though I have not been able to get into editing due to my bride having broken a wing.  Then the power went out for a full day ... so we have been busy catching up on things not done for a few days.

painting for Gettysburg forces begins

 The cleaning and sorting progress has been done for 'day 1' forces of Gettysburg.

I will need to make more artillery - particularly the bigger Union guns, and I have enough to do day 1 in hand now.

Same with the horses, likely more will be needed for Division and "E" brigade commands.

For now, I can get on with the painting.

I have decided to start with the Union Cavalry, as they were busy right away on the field.  This will also give me something interesting to start with the painting as I will need to be ready to shut down quickly if the house move becomes highest priority.

horse casualties, made from miscasts of horses
and kepi wearing casualties

In the meantime, I may also look into doing a tabletop solo encounter.

Slow & Steady

 There's a saying of "slow and steady wins the race".

Certainly most of my activities around here could be summed up as slow.

Save perhaps for any of the fire or rescue calls that I need to respond to.

The ACW project has been inventoried, with the bulk of the cleaning from the castings now done.

the flow channels and some unusable
broken minis in the pile for re-melting

I have most of what was needed, likely I will need another dozen artillery pieces (or even more wheels for the 48 total guns) and possibly another dozen or so horses for Union Cavalry (depending on the cleaning progress on the horses I do have).

The itch to get some game activity in has been continuing, especially with all the packing and moving to storage some of our items and boxes as we continue to prepare for a move.

I am still working out another ACW campaign setup, likely for the Shenandoah Valley campaign of 1862, so if there is interest in connecting to this game, log into the DISCORD SERVER.

American Civil War discord connection

 Hello Everyone.

 

a bivouac to stimulate thoughts of the campaign march

I am having the itch to put on another ACW campaign, that may result in some interesting tabletop battle situations.

To that end I am opening up the ACW Discord that we have set up for the last go-round that ended with the Utica Mills scenario.

ACW Discord Server <-- click the link