At long last ... table top game

This took 5 months of works in the unpacking, refinishing of bathrooms (more to do yet), securing a roof and deck space, electrical, water, tile, drywall, painting etc. and this past Sunday my eldest son suggested getting the minis out on the tabletop.

It was a SHAKO meeting engagement, using some second line troops and cossacks and militia in a simulation of 1812 ...

Russian Command

 

the Russian forces were put on the 'new' covers

a long-view of the whole table
something I could not do since 2011

Austrians were on the old 'green paper' bases

the 'after action' of the whole battle plans
our horse forces were going to meet in battle!

first turn was all about the Cossacks closing in (top right)

by turn 3 there were exchanges of artillery

foot 'cossack' forces (of dubious quality)

Cossacks engaged Austrian light horse
managing to give and take in the casualty counts

by turn 5 the horse were exhausted

both the Austrian right and Russian right
infantry formations were now on the move

these both contained less than 'stellar' troops

though the Cossack foot were not 'gone'
they were to have little further impact on the battle
other than being eliminated this turn

turn 7 was to be the pivotal one
the losses counters were 1 Austrian (of 9 needed)
and 2 Russian (of 6 needed)

both divisions were now fully engaged in battle

with the outcome of the entire conflict
hinging on the outcome of second rate divisions ...

Austrian horsemen, were not able to engage fully again as neither
squadron could sustain any more casualties

at this point the Austrians conceded defeat, as the
central division had fled the field and taken 1/2 of all
their artillery with them

the other Austrian foot division had not broken through
the Russian left.

Austrians withdrew ...

leaving many behind

All in all it was really fun to get some minis back on the table and test out the new stand covers.

I'll be making more of them soon and then re-doing the grass covering of the table cloth along with flocking the new covers.

Teddy Bear Fur & MORE!

 I finished off the blanket worth of the camouflage fur material I had, and laid out troops, for a sample set of photos:

Then I laid out some of the early version of the fur, for comparison.

In taking them out of the storage drawer, I was immediately reminded of why I wanted to do this change, I had 5-8 bases 'magnetize' together and dropped one mini (not on the floor thankfully) it was a few minutes of sorting before they were ready for use.

a royalist horse unit
with the first generation of 'fur'

comparison photo with a Scots horse unit
in the new fur

Royalist P&S standing on old bases
this was the difficult unit where muskets were dropped

in a fire exchange

both up close in a push of pike

wide angle shot of the whole force

I also took a few photos from above, to show the visibility of the units.

I have also taken advantage of the access to the sewing machine, to try out something that I thought of ... using some old other fabric:

A 'red' Command

Plans are in the works to consolidate this idea into at least three if not more such marker sets for use on the tabletop to aid new players in unit identification.

I am also going to work on recovering the old sets of teddy bear fur into the new versions (so that I will have at least two different full army sets of fur).

teddy bear fur - Pike and Shotte unit

 more sewing has been done, now enough to kit out a Pike & Shotte unit

the sewing continues and next up might be to lay out a force on the tabletop fully in fur bases

new teddy bear fur bases sample

 

artillery laid out on the table covering

skirmishing dragoons

Royalist horse

Jaegers

just a horse troop

the jaegers and the old 'paper' cover

a grouping with the new fur coverings

artillery

work in progress ...