PAINT DAY

A wonderful evening of brushwork's was shared with Bluebear Jeff.


I worked on some Napoleonic Austrian foot and four 1/900 scale Portsmouth Miniature sailing ships.

They were all primed and dark undercoated, the evening was spent in quiet conversation on topics ranging from Emperor vs. Elector Blog items of interest ~ the Frankzonia proxy battle ~ to historical tidbits, such as the pre-dreadnought ships and plans of Jeff.


Jeff's work concentrated on some tricorne foot for Bearstein and conversion of some more xmas buildings for tabletop use.

All in all both an entertaining and productive evening.


The ship finished product looks great with all the sails!

Little Table Top

My youngest son, Marcus, was excited to learn that on May 2 we were to play out a game that he could control the troops for.

I set up a simple little skirmish on the kitchen table.

Some red coats and some blue coats.

Marcus liked the blue ones.

After a few musket exchanges, where Marcus got to roll lots and lots of dices, we came to an encounter with the cavalry and a 'square' of red coats.

The blue riders did not fare so well, the red coats did loose one unit also.

After sneaking around the trees (and having the house move?!?) the 'green jackets' sent off one more of the blue coat men. Marcus turned his final unit and blasted the 'green jackets' out from the trees and won the game!

Fast Tabletop Action

My son Alexander really wanted me to run a game on the first afternoon I got back after a biz trip away for 4 days.

So I decided to set my time to the boys (his younger brothers wanted to watch) for the afternoon after getting home like that.

So a fast SHAKO game got put on the tabletop.

Alex wanted the redcoats vs French.

We set it in Spain in 1813.

Rolling for terrain we got lots of 'rough ground'

The troops were simple, one foot gun with a light and heavy foot for the British and a force of light cavalry. For the French some hussars a pair of horse guns and a light and heavy foot force.




Alex set his men into a mass on his left and Horse to his right, with the Gun on the tall hill in the center ~ set to dominate the field!

I had set the French into defensive formation, with the horse on the left (the only open ground) and the light infantry to support them.

The action took a couple of turns to get into the main thrust, Alex's guns were not able to get any hits and he chose to move the Horse forward, putting them into the range of the French horse gun on the flank. Then the horse formations together clashed, here we see that the French Hussars have withdrawn from the first encounter and were rallying to come back again.

Here we see the field at the moment the British commander chose to fall back ... their horse were defeated, first a salvo of artillery broke their morale, then the French Hussars charged into them ... sowing great confusion and sending the unit from the field.

Shootout in Grizzlyville AAR

With Jeff down with a flu, I stepped into the spurs and took on the challenge of hosting a tabletop game at the Courtenay area game event Dak-Kon XV.

Grizzlyville is a wild crazy-horse town where you never know when the next throw-down gun-slinging gang fight might break out.

We started with a really simple 1-1 gunfight in the middle of this one-horse town to demonstrate the simplicity of the "Fistfull of Lead" rules and let a few folks hear the "ace" - "king!" - "queen!?!" calls (which brought in some more players). The players were also feasting their eyes on the Whitewash City buildings by Eric Hotz.

With the quick & the dead cleared up we were able to get into a fast 3-way gunfight.

One gang setup tight together and on the roof of one of the buildings.

Storming around Patterson and Brothers GUNS was another gang, carefully avoiding contact with ROY (we'll see more of him later).

Fighting broke out fast around the Grand Hotel, here we see one man pinned behind the privvy.

Out in front of the Grand Hotel, life was carrying on...

The street in front of the Saloons had been cleared (mostly) now was filled with whizzing lead. The first gunfight ended when the Corn hat gang rushed the brown hats pinning their last man behind a corner, then storming him to gun him down.

So a new group of three players had assembled, this time each controlled two gangs...

Roy had crossed the street and appeared ready to bring the news to the Sheriff about the gang activity.

The gunmen had shot at Roy as he ran into the Sheriffs office. Roy came out AS the SHERIFF now and demanded that they throw down their guns. The gunmen that he first saw did this, the rest ran for cover and continued their gang war in the back streets...

Roy was not amused.

A gunslinger, gang leader was dropped at his feet...pinned and wounded (you can tell from the PIN on top of him!). This picture also shows off the great detail in the Hotzworks Whitewash City buildings.

... meanwhile down the backstreets more of the townfolk were having to take cover from the battle raging between two of the rival gangs.

The gallows were ignored for now as the gangs battle out behind the sheriff's post and the Saloons.

Sheriff Roy had been forced to retreat for a time into his post early in the fight, not coming out from pinning for two rounds. Now the reason comes clear...he had called for the mounties to come clear out this bunch of rowdies!

Actually I had run into the next 'time period' and wanted to clear off the table so as to have enough time to run a bigger game with some of the registered players.

The mounties rushing onto the table brought another rush of interested players and now I had one that wanted to run the NWMP ... why you ask? He was a real-life (off duty) Mountie! After some discussion with the other players it was agreed to let him run the NWMP, though this time the 'attacking' gangs would be bigger...and better armed.

Random luck permitted the gangs to start at one end of town and the Mounties at the other. One group of police riders were in the livery stables, the other at the Hotel across the one horse town (mat) road. The gangs decided to throw away any cautious meeting or pretext of camouflage and shot Sheriff Roy with a rifle right away!

This brought all the combatants into the street and a fire fight ensued, with the pistol armed cowboy gangs coming off the worse for wear. Roy was NOT dead and came out shooting!


The Mounties were definitely doing well early in the fight, they were now dashing down the boardwalks, led by their officer, to catch those cowboys that had taken cover or were staying out of range.

CHARGE! was the command from the Sergeant to urge the Mounties across the last open street towards the gunmen.

The Corn hat gang leader had holedup in the Orient Saloon, it was then that he started to pick off Mounties ... starting with an incredible long-shot at the officer in charge!

The mounties put up a great cross-fire, but could not manage to kill off this man in the Orient Saloon. Meanwhile Sheriff Roy had gunned down four of the rifle armed cowboys and sent the rest running for cover behind the Grand Hotel.

The streets of Grizzlyville were silent and empty for a time as both NWMP and gunmen maneuvered.

Both groups then suddenly decided to occupy the Grand Hotel, gunmen ran in the back, Mounties in the front door. The close-quarter battles began.

There are rules to cover some 'interior' actions in Fistful of Lead, we did not have full interiors filled out for all buildings ... so I improvised. Along the way I think I have hit upon the simplest CQB fast result skirmish "cinematic" system I have yet seen.

Works like this, both the gunman and the mountie rush the building in the same round, one was already in there 'somewhere'. So the rushing in player draws from a standard deck of cards (not the whole deck as there are already cards dealt as part of the rules, these are the ones left), the 'defending player' in the building draws next.

If the suit (hearts, diamonds, club or spades) is the same they will have a hand to hand battle - no option. The one with the higher card will get to 'shoot first', however the result of the 'shot' will not count until AFTER the hand to hand.

If the suit does not match, then the high card gets to shoot, the lower card then may take action after that has been resolved.

This system was so good that it was used four more times in the Grand Hotel until the main staircase was soaked in blood.

One Mountie was now on the balcony of the Grand Hotel, with two dead NWMP inside and three dead cowboys with them. Across the street the Oriental Saloon had no windows left as Mounties and the corn had Gang leader had exchanged multiple rounds of fire, leaving the leader pinned and wounded inside.

Up on a balcony a young Mountie keeps cover fire on the Oriental Saloon, while in the distance a nearly dead Sheriff Roy has run out of luck.

The Sergeant rushed the smashed front of the Orient Saloon, while in the back another Mountie rushed that door. Both had shots at the Corn Hat Gang leader, both only managed to keep him pinned, as he had run out of ammo and was not shooting back they felt confident that the situation was under control.

Going for broke having a "6" card, the Corn Hat Gang leader instantly reloaded his guns and managed to kill the Mountie in the back and badly wound the Sergeant in the front.

A round later, having failed to recover from pinning, the Sergeant was shot by the leader of the Corn Hat Gang.

The Mountie on the balcony of the Grand Hotel was rushed by another gang and shot down off the balcony, finally succumbing to his wounds in the street.

Grizzlyville was quiet, now in the hands of the Corn Hat Gang of desperadoes...

Preparing AAR for Grizzlyville.

Challenge of working and three active boys aged 4-10 makes for interesting nights to say the least.

I leave you with the promise of weekend AAR and this offering from Tombstone ... I must go to put children to be (again).

Shootout in Grizzlyville

Jeff, of Saxe-Bearstein, was a bit under the weather.
As I was able to attend this year's Dak-Kon and I had been part of the playtest and preparations Jeff had done for the tabletop game of Shootout in Grizzlyville I agreed to fill in his stead and moderate the games and do the support.

In all four games were played over an 8 hour period, with a lunch break and a break for an SCA fighting demonstration.

I have plans to summarize the battles over the coming week with some more eye-candy, readers will have to enjoy the offering above, from the third game where the good sheriff Roy had come out spitting bullets and demanding the gunfighters 'throw down their guns'.

Jeff's efforts and my putting on the game were crowned with success ~ BEST PRESENTATION AWARD for 2010!

PULTUSK

A game played on December 26 & 27 2009.

Rules used: Shako version 1



Alexander (my eldest son) set out the Russians and I commanded the French (his choice as he wanted to command all the Russian Cavalry).


Once the troops were laid out and the plans set, we began movement.

The Russian plan consisted of a general hold of the line, actually very typical.
atypical was the deployment that left fully 1/2 of the infantry and 2/3rds of the move able guns isolated on the right wing.

The French plan was a refused left, using cavalry (all that there was to start with) to screen any Russian plans to strike across the open ground. Then press into Pultusk using the arriving 3rd Div of III Corps to push thru the town and strike into the Russian line.

Early on, things went very badly for the Russian Heavy Cavalry, they were exposed to murderous French artillery fire and forced back from the French Squares that they faced on the reverse slope with no way to back away from them...

The results were disastrous, losing fully one unit of Cavalry and having the others wounded either by charging into squares or having the French cannon pound them to the breaking point...

The next four turns consisted of either Russian or French Cavalry charges in Pultusk, while in the center a murderous cannonade was exchanged with Russian and French Infantry coming away the worse for wear.



With turn 6 the III Corps had made its presence felt, pushing back the Russian Light Cavalry...


Messengers had been dispatched from Russian HQ to get the right wing into motion, partly to break the deadlock in the center and partly to make room for the heavy cavalry to deploy.



The silent Russian Right wing suddenly became the scene of the battle, with the Infantry moving forward and heavy cavalry coming into view from beyond the woods.

Just as a French horse battery moved to bring fire into the moving column, the heavy horse was totally exposed ... and obliterated.


Turn Nine brought the tipping point.

Near Pultusk the Russian light cavalry was bloodied but resolute in holding off the French III Corps from advancing through the town. Undaunted d'Aultanne took them across the river Narew and through the buildings on the other side, bringing fire into the flanks of the Horse Battery attached to the Russian light cavalry formation.



In the center a formation of Russians had charged the gun, driving off the gunners.

French Infantry (seen here in greatcoats) then raced up over the hill to crush the Russians in a flank attack.

Over on the French left, Russian right, the horse battery was now bringing fire into the columns of advancing infntry, having dispatched the horse...



Alex got to use the HEAVY BATTERY measuring stick as his big Russian guns finally got to pound the French that had strayed over the hill...

Now though the Russian left along the River Narew was coming under increasing fire. as even more French battalions were storming over the river to press on the flank...

While over on the Russian right wing the coup de grace was delivered by Hussars (just out ov view here having recalled from the successful charge) who broke a Russian regiment, this then caused a morale failure of the division, having suffered 50% losses, which took the whole Right wing away with it...

Victorious this time were the French, by a score of 5 units to 10 lost by the Russians.


Unlike the historical battle, Lannes was able to push the Russians out of the way while keeping some Chasseurs available to keep up the pursuit...would an ugly Eylau been necessary had the French been able to do this in 1806?

Battle of PULTUSK



Glancing through my collection of Napoleonic books I found the Dec 26, 1806 battle, ok ACTION, of PULTUSK as the destruction of Prussia was winding down and the Russians were continuing to retreat, one commander General Bennigsen, chose to turn and fight one last time. Marshal Lannes commanded the infamous V Corps of the Grand Armee and was to receive support from the 3rd Division of the equally famous III Corps.

I have compiled the photos and an AAR will be coming later this week.