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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I still may have to generate some more draft horse teams, wagons, artillery or certain officers; possibly a few more slouch hat or kepi infantry (due to breakage in the cleaning process and preparation for painting) and I have used up all the metal I had here along with some casting metal I was gifted at the Wagram game in August.
there they are! molds on the casting table
I decided to take a photo of the casting works this time as this may be the last mass grouping of castings that I make at our current home - yes moving is in the discussions again.
it was also the end of an era for a tool that has likely cleaned off 1000s of my miniatures this flush cutter is a favorite tool for the bulk work on early stages of the metal miniatures the handle guards have failed and started causing pain when used - so a replacement is in hand and this old veteran was moved on.
Onward and upward in the Gettysburg process, more cleaning/organizing and counting out for the formations of brigades, batteries and commands to come before the painting starts in earnest. Though if the current move progress holds (needing a contract to get set up before we can be sure) then I'll not likely get into any of that until next year as a move will activate and all my 'free time' vanishes again.
Hope you all had a great summer and can get into some games over the autumn and winter.
In a uniform from the age of 13 to 30, learned much of 'military life' and after a decade of travel have settled down to start a family. Started with boardgames and RPG's in the 1970's and added tabletop miniatures in the 1990's. Now with a family of three boys, seeking to turn this sometime hobby into more of a lifestyle.
