Vittoria refight at the WHC: part 1: The Brits

So, the scene was set for Gerry and I to slug it out for a couple of days.
The choice of game was influenced somewhat by the fact that there is a weekend game coming up doing Vittoria, so it meant Gerry didn't have to change the terrain around again.
We completed this task on Sunday afternoon, only took about an hour, and laid out the buildings etc.
One unusual feature of this game is that the roads are packed with French baggage. We laid out about 40 models of limbers, wagons, caissons etc. all over the roads. In the game these had a real effect. They all headed towards the exit road in the north-eastern corner of the map, moving at just 2 x D6 per turn. They had priority over everything else on roads, could not be overtaken, and unformed anything they passed through. They blocked all fire and LOS. If they were charged or came under small arms fire they were abandoned, the model remaining on table as an obstacle. If a British unit came within charge range it had to attempt to charge. When it contacted it then had to loot the baggage for 2 turns before rallying. Then the baggage model would be removed from play.

The French Line on the western Zadorra. Baggage stretches away in the distance
British Order of battle:
CiC Wellington. adds +1 to morale of all infantry and artillery within 18"
1st Division: Howard:
1x 48 Guard
1 x40 Guard
4 x 30 KGL Veteran Line
1 x 30 KGL Elite Light infantry (rifle)
6 x skirmishers
6 x skirmishers (rifle)
9 pdr foot btty (2 guns, 1 how, elite)

2nd Division: Stewart
2 x 40 Elite Highlanders
5 x 32 Veteran Line
2 x 30 1st class Line
5 x Portuguese (PG) 2nd class Line
18 Skirmishers
12 x skirmishers (rifle)
9 pdr foot btty (2 guns 1 how, elite)

3rd Division: Picton:
4 x 32 veteran line
2 x 30 1st class line
4 x 32 PG 2nd class line
12 x skirmishers
6 x skirmishers (rifle)
9pdr foot btty (3 guns, elite)

4th Division: Cole:
4 x 32 Veteran Line
3 x 30 1st class Line
4 x 32 PG 2nd class line
12 x skirmishers
12 x skirmishers (rifle)
9pdr foot btty (3 guns, elite)

5th Division: Oswald:
4 x 32 veteran line
2 x 30 1st class line
4 x 32 PG 2nd class line
12 x skirmishers
6 x skirmishers (rifle)
9 pdr foot btty (2 guns, 1 how, elite)

6th Division: Dalhousie:
3 x 32 veteran line
3 x 30 1st class line
4 x 32 PG 2nd class line
1 x 32 Chassuers Britanique
12 x skirmishers
6 x skirmishers (rifle)
9 pdr foot btty (3 guns, elite)

Dalhousie's infantry attempt to cross the river
Light Division: Alten
1 x 36 Elite rifles (open order)
2 x 36 veteran line (open order)
2 x 40 veteran line
2 x PG 1st class line
12 x skirmishers
6 x skirmishers (rifle)

Ponsonby's Brigade: (staff officer)
4 x 6 dragoons (elite)
4 x 6 dragoons
6 pdr horse btty ( 3 guns, elite)

Von Bock's Brigade: (staff officer)
4 x 5 KGL dragoons
4 x 6 KGL dragoons
6 pdr horse btty (3 guns, elite)

Von Alten's Brigade:
4 x 4 light cavalry
4x4 light cavalry
4 x 6 KGL light cavalry
6 pdr horse btty (3 guns, elite)

Grant's Brigade:
4 x 4 light dragoons
4 x 4 light dragoons

Anson's Brigade:
4 x 4 light dragoons
4 x 4 light dragoons

Hill's Brigade:
4 x 6 Horse Guards

Spanish Formations:

Morillo
6 x 32 1st class line (2 dice for morale)
12 x skirmishers
6 pdr btty (3 guns, militia)

Longa's Brigade
4 x 32 1st class line
6 x skirmishers

Silviera's Division prepares to shoot it's way across the river
Portuguese Formations:

Silviera's Division:
9 x 32 2nd class line
12 skirmishers
8 pdr foot Btty (3 guns, 1 how)

Pack's Brigade
4 x 32 2nd class line
6 skirmishers

Bradford's Brigade:
4 x 32 2nd class line
6 skirmishers

Durban's cavalry brigade
4 x 6 Light cavalry (militia)

So, thats the British army. Impressive to say the least.
They were briefed as follows:
Flank Marches:
Up to 3 flank marching columns may be detatched: They enter on the north and south edges:
2 may enter to the northern edge, and 1 to the south.
Each may consist of a maximum of 2 & 1/2 infantry divisions (Pack, Longa, Bradford, Morillo each count as 1/2) and 1 cavalry brigade.
Forces entering on the Northern edge enter on the turn corresponding to the board number (ie. turn 1 to 9 ) depending how far east they wish to march.
Forces on the southern edge are the same up to board 6 except each march must dice for arrival.

Special Rules for the British:
British infantry:
Ignore Spanish routs. Regardless of how many spanish rout within 12" British infantry and artillery only ever count a minus 1 for friends retreating.
British cavalry: (Not KGL)
Roll 2d6 for rallying after melee.
British Foot and horse artillery is all elite and may fire shrapnel
Spanish infantry only roll 2d6 for morale
Spanish artillery fire as Militia but are 1st class line for morale
Open Order infantry in the Light Division are treated as follows when in a single line:
Ignore woods and rough terrain.
Recieve minus 4 modifier when fired upon by musketry and artillery
Recieve 1/2 casualties to skirmish fire.
Move as guards
Open order btns may interpenetrate each other with no penalty
When charged and passing morale they may evade (12") without unforming any friendly units in their path.

Next up:
The French:


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A Long week-ends gaming

The view from the German artillery OP plane.

I've had a fairly fabulous 5 days gaming, to be honset I'm pretty tired after but its that happy sort of tiredness.

Last friday saw me heading up to Scarborough for a WWII game.

It turned out to be an excellent weekend, Gerry was putting on a post-Cassino Italy game which, amazingly, was not wall to wall kit but quite the opposite.

I pitched up and was placed on the German side.

The scenario was rather loose. The total German forces consisted of a single parachute regt of 3 btns, supported by 2 companies of pak 40's, 2 coys engineers and 3 ad-hoc armoured coys 2 each of 2 x stugs + a Tiger 1 and another of 1 marderIII plus an Elephant.There was a nebelwerfer btn of 3 bttys in support.

3 btns plus 8 AFV's and 6 ATG's to cover 28 feet of table ....tricky.

These forces were given the task of defending a dry river line, there was a single bridge in the centre of the line which was the only point at which wheeled vehicles could cross, the rest of the river was no significant obstacle to tracked vehilcles or dismounted infantry. Other than that we had no briefing. Given that we had 2 companies of engineers the inevitable bridge-blowing question was asked. Yes, it would take 10 turns to lay charges on the bridge.

We had no idea what we were facing but my guess was a British Infantry division and a tank brigade. Not far off as it turned out; although they had only 2 regts of infantry per brigade (there were indeed 3 brigades) plus 3 tank regts, and 2 coys of 17pdr towed guns, plus an MG btn.

So, we deployed. I played in the centre with a para btn, both eng coys, theElephant and marder plus the Werfer observer.We figured (correctly) that the bridge had to be the main allied objective. Everything was hidden apart from the Elephant which I deployed in view covering the bridge. This was a psychological ploy as much as anything and it worked, the Elephant didn't do a massive amount in the game but it did prevent the superior allied armour (54 AFV's versus 8) from using much of the ground around the bridge.

The view from the bridge: Dug in para engineers repel the British tanks.

It took the allies a little while to figure out that the bridge was their sole objective, (to establish a truck supply line), and it cost them. By turn ten they infiltrated 2 infantry coys along the river bed to attack the engineers at the bridge but it was too late, and the bridge was blown, on the flanks they made slow headway, there was a moment when a company of shermans could have outflanked the bridge but they swung right instead of left to go hunting down a battered tiger.

It was a difficult scenario, and had sufficient tension for both sides. Would the British work out just how weak the Germans were? In the end it took them too long.

Game 2: My Brits consolidate a factory building

We turned it around for a second game by swapping sides. With the suprise element gone the German deployment was made a little more flexible, but that didn't deter the Brits, who made a stronger push in the centre, and quickly gained the bridge. In this second game the Germans attempted to trade ground and probably took fewer losses than in the first, but it was to no avail. The bridge was captured intact.

All agreed the scenario was a good one, and the room for manouvre allowed by the low troop density was instrumental in providing a good game.

Next up, in the spring we will try an early war scenario.

So....everyone said there goodbyes and departed on Sunday afternoon.

Except me.

Gerry had very kindly invited me to stay on for a few days for a Napoleonic game:

Just the 2 of us:

Vittoria. A relatively small game by WHC standards ....a mere 420 square feet of table and aproximately 7,000 figures, a mere bagatelle for experienced Grand Manner players.....right.

Spanish infantry mass west of Tres Puentes at the begining of the game, the river Zadorra winds east into the distance

This will require at least one blog entry to describe, so stay tuned for a full description next week!

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Wurtemburg Cavalry....Have I been a complete prat all my life?

Kavallerie Rgt. Nr. 4 Jäger König
I can't help feeling I've been a bit of a plonker. Since the mists of time I've always painted cavalry in the following manner: Glue rider onto horse, spray undercoat grey, paint whole thing as required.
Such stupidity!
While approaching painting these Wurtemburg mounted jager for Noel, I was struck by the fact that the uniform was very dark. Dark green coat and trousers, all belts and gauntlets black, black helmet. Seemed pretty sensible to undercoat black, despite my general dislike of black undercoat. Fine, we are all allowed to change our minds once in a while. The trouble was the horses, unless they are actually black, I REALLY don't like black undercoated ponies, and as these are light cavalry, bays and browns were going to be what I wanted. My method normally for this is to undercoat grey, then apply either a tan or dark brown, then wash over with the ubiquitous burnt umber oil paint. Relatively quick and easy, but the tan doesn't work well with a black basecoat.
Hang on...What if I painted the riders and horses seperately? Then I could base the riders black and the horses grey. Problem solved. Then....What if I sprayed the horses seperately as well??? Tan for the bays, grey for the greys (thats white ones for those who don't pander to horse-speak), and dark brown for the...dark brown ones. Blimey! this was a revelation! Now it might be blindingly obvious to all of you lot, but it is a good example of how we can get set in our ways. .
I explained how I'd never done this before to Mr Sympathy (John Lander) and he almost wee'd himself laughing at how I'd never worked this out previously. Thanks.

Rear view: Lots of black belts.
So thats what I did. Preped up 8 horses at a time, sprayed in strips of 4, either tan, brown or grey. Block in the harness, mane and tail black. Black wash over the legs, then splat on the umber wash. Wipe a bit off here and there with a dry cloth. Then detail with dry-brushing the tail etc and do some white markings. A little bit of brass on the harness.
It was SO quick! I could bang out 8 horses in about an hour or so, even allowing drying time for the oils. Varnishing does need 24 hours or so or the wash will come off.

As usual, plenty of head variants possible with Firing Line stuff
Painting the riders was fine too, and they were pretty quick with a black undercoat, which was then heavily dry-brushed in very dark grey, before highlighting with 2 lighter greys. Uniform in green. The Trumpeters were nice to do, a tan base and then highlighted with a very pale yellow (Vallejo German yellow). I'm not that keen these days on using a bright yellow, and this fits the bill nicely.
The white and silver lines on the shabraques took a while, but all in all it was a quick paint job with decent results.

There are however, 2 errors in this unit. 1 was deliberate as it actually conformed with Noels' instructions for the unit. The second one is a lot less conspicuous and I only found out about it about 1/2 an hour ago by which time it was too late to rectify.
So...Pedant of the month award and a punch in the mouth for those of you who can work out my terrible inaccuracies. I am waiting for the ground to swallow me up as I write this.
So, thats the Wurtemburgers all done apart from the Skirmishers, I'll start them when I get back from the WHC. I'm off up there on friday for a WWII game, which is followed by a game of Vittoria between just me and Gerry. I've never played Vittoria before...He said "You'd best play French"...I'm expecting a proper shoeing.

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4th French Hussars

4th Hussars deploy on the Bunny-mat
Currently painting up the Wurtemburg mounted jager, which is going fine. When I have some pics I'll do a fuller piece on them.
Meantime, here's a few photographs of a favourite unit. When I was about 13, some 35 years ago(!) the first ever metal cavalry unit I bought and painted were some Minifig French Hussars. I had the old Almark painting guide which showed the uniform of the 4th regt. All that resplendant red and blue! Irresistable! I painted them up, and at the time, I thought they were the bees knees. The figures (I think) are long gone, and I didn't do too a bad job of them (my memory can be highly selective). So, a few years ago when I wanted to paint a French Hussar regt, naturally, the 4th regt were the obvious choice.
I had plenty of Connoisseur hussars but wasn't that keen on them. They are in the late cylindrical shako and I wanted the earlier, bell-top shako.This coincided with the discovery of the Firing Line range of heads, so I decided on a bit of a conversion to make up an original and unique unit.

Elite coy, new heads, bent arms and drilled out sabres
There was no trumpeter for the Connoisseur Hussars (or 90% of all of PG's cavalry), so I bought 4 of the FL early French chasseurs Trumpeters and a standard bearer, they are perfect for hussars dressed just in the dolman.
The Connoisseur officer is wearing the pelisse as a jacket which is quite nice, with new heads they become all different. One in colpack for the elite coy, one in bicorne worn fore and aft, and one with a bald bare head. Suddenly 3 completely different looking figures. They are all in the pics.
For the final officer I wanted something a bit more fancy, so dug out a Connoisseur Guard Chassuer officer and gave him a big plumed shako'd head- Suddenly he became a line colonel on a grey horse.

HELLO!... (I never knew Leslie Philips was a French hussar?)
The rest of the trooper figures were given plumed shakos and one with a bonnet de police, another the obligatory bandaged head. The swords on the original figures are held down, tight to the leg, so these were cut away, the arms bent out away from the body, hilts drilled out and replaced with beaten pins for sabres. They seem to get a bit more "movement" this way.
GMB as ever, provided the standard.

Horses are mixture of Connoissuer, FL and some Connoisuer personality horses
So, with a relatively small amount of work it's pretty easy to produce a unit which is unlike any other. Bespoke wargames figures on a budget!

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Work....such an imposition

Guard Chasseur officer and trumpeter
Not been around at all for the last 3 weeks, working away, so no painting or gaming has been going on. This also meant I missed the annual trip to the WHC for Noel's campaign week http://garagegamer.blogspot.com/2009/09/another-week-in-scarborough.html which annoyed me immensely - the fact that it was deemed the best week yet coincided with my absence....read what you will into that.
I will get a bit of compensation in 10 days time though when I will head up there for a WWII weekend, an Italian campaign game using Gerry's new rules in their finished form. Also, Gerry has kindly invited me to stay on for a couple of days to have a game with just the 2 of us. Not sure what yet, probably a big old Napoleonic bash. Looking forwards to that.

Firing Line Guard Chasseur Regt

When I arrived home there was a big heavy box from Bicorne containing Noel's Firing Line Wurtemburg cavalry, I've not painted any of these before and have spent the afternoon assembling them (lots of seperate sword arms and heads). They look good. Obviously no photos yet but the poses are all very similar to their French Guard Chasseurs, so I've put some shots of them up. As you can see they are very nice figures and have a highly dynamic air about them, the seperate sword arm allows the figure to be cast a point which would not be possible otherwise, this also allows a pistol option

Firing Line line chasseur officer

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First Victrix Finished and the Wurtemburgers have flown the nest

Finished the first Victrix Italians painted in the early uniform last week, and they turned out fine. Another box should be on it's way to complete the regt and then I'll just keep adding to them as I see fit. I think this is going to be a sporadic project rather than doing them all in one hit

Another view below with a rather blonde (for an Italian), drummer in the front rank, apparently, this really upsets some anal twats, (the drummer being there, not the blondeness) so if you are one; look away...NOW.

Perry mounted officer, GMB flag.

I must admit I do have a slight problem with the "lightness" of these Victrix guys. With the Perry stuff having 2 metal figures a base its not an issue, but these figures lack heft. In the end we are all a bit anal I suppose,which is why we are wargamers.

3 of the Wurtemburg Btns - chaps on the right lack a flag -typically it arrived this morning...a nice pink one
The other completion last week was the final battalion of Wurtemburgers from Firing Line Miniatures, I delivered these to Noel down in Plymouth over the week-end, so he is now the proud owner of 6 x 32's and a battery. Skirmishers are going to be a real problem. I'm still not sure what figures to use. I will however, order the figures for the Light cavalry regt today.

Noel has plumped for the mounted Jagers, which will look good in green

Close ups...having seperate heads makes for plenty of variation in adition to the 3 infantry poses shown here plus sargent/officer etc shown here. There is another infantryman with leveled musket who was rejected because those figures are always a pain because they inevitably stab the guys in the next unit..Firing Line also make the additional seperate heads which can be seen here (bandaged, baldy, Bonnet de Police etc) One or two of these add even further variation and character to a unit. The mounted officers are random Connoissuer figures I had lying around.

So..... The painting table is empty! What next?

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LETS TALK ABOUT BASING!!

Ok, so it's not that exciting, but every little soldier you paint needs a base. A few people (ok, 3) have asked me about my basing techniques, its not particulary revolutionary, in fact, it's incredibly simple, which is actually the entire point; If you have an army of 100 figures, then you might well go for something more complex, but if you want to base lots of figures, quickly and easily, then this is as good a method as any. So here goes:

All you need:
Basing is pretty important, over the years I've done it all; those first Airfix plastics stuck on beermats painted gloss green, the radical move to neat mounting board, Tetrion, Basetex, green paint, brown paint, Miliput, Flock, static grass, pre-cut alluminium, you name it, I've done it....In the end its all bollocks...like everything else, if only I'd known, I could have saved myself a lot of time and grief and rung up Peter Gilder and he would have pointed me in the right direction from the word go.
The secret is 1.5mm plywood.
Basing has come a long way, most folk these days make a decent fist of basing their kit, but I'm still staggered by how many people dick about with all manner of bizarre materials which look bloody awful! Or who embark on incredibly complicated processes and make their life unbearable with unnecessary nonesense to little effect.
What I've learned is keep it simple.

First off...Thickness. A toy soldier on a piece of 4 or 6mm thick card, MDF (or the most hienous of crimes: The "Slotta base"), whatever, does not look good.
The base shouldn't overshadow the figure. I spent a lot of my working life in theatre and opera, and when a critic said the set was really impressive you knew he felt the show was crap, its a bit like that with bases, when someone says "Nice Basing!" you always think: " Why didn't he say nice painting?"
I've seen SO MANY figures on absurdly thick bases, just....don't.... do... it...1.5mm ply can be bought from a woodyard, £20 will buy you a 5' by 5' sheet which will base A LOT of figures (or you can nick it from the workshop where you work like I do). It can be cut easily with a Stanley knife and won't warp, curl, chip,..the corners won't look rubbish 6 months later. It's simply brilliant, and if you use anything else, frankly, you are a plonker.

So, get your little men and super-glue them onto a bit of 1.5mm ply. Super-glue is fine, you don't NEED to araldite or weld them to the base, super-glue will do the business.

Then, smear PVA wood glue over the base and up to the bases of the figure. Don't water it down, bung it on thick, (it's not expensive, for God's sake!) it will take out the height difference between the wood and the base of the figure, it will do the job just as well as laboriously building up the surface with Milliput, Tetrion or Green Stuff, the only difference is it takes a fraction of the time.

Next, dip the base into a tray of a mix of fine sand and something coarser, I tend to steal my sand either from the fire bucket in the garage up the road, or get it from the beach (Warbleswick has some lovely dunes where there is amazingly fine, dry sand). Fine sand isn't enough, however. It looks very boring. Pet shops sell "Budgie Grit" which I believe is made of crushed sea shells, this stuff is brilliant, and adds some nice "big bits" to the sand. Mix this in with the fine sand to taste, experimentation is everything here, so you are on your own. Then press in a few bigger bits of small stone, some folk use cat litter, but I always feel this looks like...well...cat litter...the stuff above is Railway modelling ballast, slightly rounded rocks in pale brown. I'm still quite fond of bits of carved cork bark, but anything that looks like big rock is fine. Again, personal taste in the end.

The PVA then needs a few hours to go off and set hard, and it does set hard. It helps stick the figures down, which is why you don't need Araldite etc. The water in the glue reacts with the super-glue and strengthens its bond even further. I must have based somewhere up to 10,000 figures like this and I could count those who have come unstuck on one hand. The first bit of colouring I use is an oil wash. "Burnt Umber" well thinned down with white spirit is sloshed over the base, including the exposed edges of the plywood, it soaks in. It just needs to colour it, no need at all to get a solid colour, you just need to tint the sand and grit with the dark brown.

This needs an hour or so to dry, if it needs more than an hour then you are putting on too much paint and not enough thinners, next step is easy, a nice big softish brush and dry brush on a tan acrylic onto the sand, highlighting all the texture you've put on. Currently I'm using Vallejo "Green Ochre" but any tan paint will do

Straight away, you can do the last paint touch, dry brush on white acrylic.... Yes, WHITE...pure white. It took me a while to believe that this wouldn't look pants... but it works, if its slightly off-white thats ok, but the brightness picks out the texture.

Finally, blob on a few dots of PVA where you want the grass to go. I gave up painting bases green a long while ago, green paint doesn't look like grass....it looks like green paint. I found this very fancy grass from a German company a while back :

http://www.fredericus-rex.de/shop/index.php/cat/c85_Wildgrasbueschel-lang.html

Its a bit pricey but worth the cash, I used to use sisel string pushed in when the base was wet which I could then paint green and highlight but frankly this stuff is much better.

Don't worry about splodging on the PVA, being the wonder material it is, it just disappears.

Then just place the grass clumps onto the PVA...easy...

Hey- Presto! The PVA has dried and vanished, and this is the finished result. Like I said, its not rocket surgery, I've just read so often how people seem to make basing a really complicated exercise, and a chore, which it really doesn't need to be.

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