Feeling Hungary...

Summer seems to finally be here, and I was able to get away for a week of vacation to visit family in the Soo. I brought my paints with me, and was able to get some painting done, finishing another battalion for my 25/28mm Austrian Napoleonic force.




I like to pride myself on rapid completion of projects, but this particular formation contains over 10 years of painting. Some of the figures are the very first 25mm Napoleonic miniatures I ever painted, back when I was thinking that I would base these for Shako (meaning a 24-man unit). I finished the 24-man contingent in 2009. Not exactly top speed.



Then Curt proposed the new-level of challenge for "grand manner" gaming, with 40-man Austrian units. We mounted the Napoleonic Challenge, and I'm now fully locked in for grand manner lunacy, because it looks awesome and is really a lot of fun. With my baseline formations in place, I looked around for some ways to expand it quickly. Re-basing the 24-man Shako unit seemed logical, so I finished off another 16 more infantrymen (the last four of them this week) and now have a new unit for the force.




These fellows are Hungarian fusiliers from Foundry. I love the blue Hungarian pants, a nice addition to the colour palette of the Austrian Imperial Army. The mix of poses in this unit is different, reflecting my preferences from 10 years ago (a front rank advancing, the rear rank in 'march attack'). I think the variety will be good for the look on the table, and the two different poses are not that incompatible.



I now have four full 40-man infantry battalions for my Austrians. Painting time will be sporadic for now as we prepare to move houses, and I will likely divert into the 15mm sci-fi mayhem. But in terms of what is next for the ongoing Napoleonic project, I need to paint three more Hussars (THAT is a long story), and finish off two more guns and crews to round out my artillery battery. I hope to get to that finished before the NFL season starts (or is supposed to start).

"Food for Powder"

Two weeks ago the Conscripts enjoyed a visit from from Conscript "founding managing director" Curt C, who makes his home in our neighbouring province to the west these days, but still makes time to peel down the highway and throw an occaisional game and visit. This trip marked the debut for the "grand manner" style of Napoleonics gaming with 25/28mm figures for us here in Winnipeg, and man was it cool!

Curt staged a game for the group on the Thursday night - a replay of his tried and tested "When Things Go Boom" scenario, an entertaining "what-if" engagement post Battle of Waterloo. He has already filed a report on his blog, and you can see some photos there.

As one of the players who tried in vain to crush the British rear-guard, I cannot report not much more than heavy casualties for the french side...Dallas and Dave V handled the defence of the village very well. Meanwhile, together with Brian and Mike F, those of us on the French side endured frustration and rocket attacks. The darn rocket battery chased off our Dragoon Regiment! Stupid brits...

Unfortunately my picture-taking that night was a fail, but check out "Analogue Hobbies" (Curt's blog) for some great pics. The game was outstanding, and it looked awesome. A big thank you to Curt for rolling out the game, and to Dallas for hosting!

Curt stayed over the weekend, as his wife was attending the religious ceremony otherwise known as the U2 concert that Sunday (I was able to go too, and I have to say I will now shut up about Bono after watching an incredible rock show). We were able to fill the time before the concert with some great gaming, including a first deployment for my Austrians! Here are some pictures.

The scenario was the Battle of Venzone, set in Italy in the 1809 campaign, with a brigade on each side. It is exactly the sort of battle no exalted history or rules-book-scenario writer spends much time on, and is exactly the kind of battle that is a great game with Curt's modification of Black Powder, which he calls "Food For Powder".

In the scenario, the Austrians are the aggressors, led by a fire-eating officer (pretty rare), who is leading an attack against an advancing French column.



The scenario was the one Curt and I had committed to playing in 25/28mm quite some time ago, and was the inspiration for me to get moving on painting my Austrians for this scale. Needless to say, it was quite exciting to finally deploy the lads for action!



In the spirit of this rare agressive Austrian officer, I attacked the French as soon as we could, launching my Hussars, supported by Dragoons, at the French Dragoons as they moved on to the table. The battle went well for the Austrians - the Dragoons were driven off, and in the follow-up for the assault, the Hussars caught a French battalion in column, wrecking their day as well. The charge finally whimped out in the face of a French artillery battery.









Curt countered by using the "Follow Me!" ability of his brigadier to get the artillery back into action, and my Hussars soon decided they had enjoyed enough action for the day. But their work was done - the French column was damaged and stopped - time for the ground pounders to get to work!

I sent the infantry straight up the middle, with the Grenzers in the lead. We had the advantage of one French battalion being driven into a square by the presence on my cavalry. A firefight lasted for a few turns (as I failed on my command rolls to get the brigade fully in motion) but we managed to out-shoot the lads in the square, and ultimately drive them off.



The Grenzers paid the price for "screening" the assault, but the following Austrian regulars were able to make up for the sacrifice, driving enough French units away while still "holding their bottle" in the face of some heavy-duty musketry.





It was an absolute thrill to get the Austrians on to the table to for the first time. Curt will surely find another scenario soon, and accompanying roster that I can use as a new target to build toward. Thanks again for the game dude!

Now that was some project...

So it was last July when I embarked on my "Black Powder Challenge". Well, last night, I pretty much finished the project, completing a unit to represent the Austrian 10th Hussars. With that, I have basically finished my roster from the Black Powder Challenge.



You may note the caveats "pretty much" and "basically". Well, the cavalry unit is supposed to 24 models strong, but it is currently sitting at 20 models, as I have a shortage of figures from Foundry. I ordered a final pack of Hussars back in February, and it never showed. To Foundry's credit, they have said they will re-send another package. It has yet to arrive. So I hope at some point I will be able to paint the last three figures, and do a full 24-rider unit. In the interim, I'll have these guys a little under-strength, but still ready to fight. I'm not going to let this little supply hiccup hold up the completion of the project! Plus, I am looking to rack up some more points in Curt's Spring Thaw Painting Challenge.

All in, I've painted three infantry battalions, two cavalry regiments, two artillery pieces and crews (which would either be two batteries or two sections of one battery depending on the rules), a skirmish unit and a command stand. A total of 133 28mm foot figures, 49 mounted figures and two artillery pieces.



So where did this insanity come from?

Over the past couple of years, as new ranges of Napoleonic 25/28mm figures, many of them plastic, have appeared, with newer "grand manner" rule sets to match them. Examples include LaSalle, Black Powder, and Republic to Empire. These rules (to me, at least) challenged the focus on the really large major engagements (Austerlitz, Waterloo, etc.) by the gaming/rule-writing 'establishment' of Napoleonics (Shako). Shako has a lot going for it, but to me they are maximized for the very large encounters and large portions of the biggest battles.

With these newer rules, you can play a smaller engagement, with bigger-sized units. Play Waterloo if you want, but you'll have just as much fun with a smaller engagements, of which there were countless numbers throughout the period of the French Revolution/Napoleonic wars. Because you don't need 20 battalions on one side, you can paint much larger units. And you can also do it because it looks a lot cooler. You don't need to...but the implied peer pressure is clear :)

The newer rule books make you mental and jealous, full of pictures of 32-figure battalions and huge, huge collections (all beautifully painted). I was very, very skeptical of this "grand manner" notion. I loved the smaller games, but I struggled to wrap my head around painting the huge units. After all, one huge unit was worth like two Shako-sized units, right? Plus, I paint all sorts of stuff in all sorts of scales and periods. I felt trying to go with the big units would require me focus on this one period.

Inspired/baited/motivated by Conscript Curt, I took the plunge into "grand manner" sized units. One of the engagements given as a starter scenario in the ruleset LaSalle is the battle of Venzone from 1809. Curt figured the Austrian OB for this scenario would be a good basis to start with, and challanged me to get it done, pledging to have the French side ready for his part.

Curt is very skilled a turning my skepticism on its head, and so I finally got started. I am very glad I did! In the end, I found it was possible to get the painting momemtum going to a point where I could finish these units in a reasonable amount of time, and I love the look of them. Now that I have a bit of a base collection in place, adding more units doesn't seem like its such a dire challenge. I am already plotting to expand my Austrian force, and do some other nationalities too. And of course I am looking forward to getting them on the table soon...

Send in the Hussars

With the Dragoons out of the way, I have one last unit to complete as part of my own Black Powder Challenge - a regiment of Austrian Hussars. Hussars have very colourful uniforms, and a lot of flair, so I left them for last. I managed to get started on them this weekend, and here are a couple of pictures of the first "test" models.

The Regiment is the 10th (Meszaros). Painting these suckers will take some time (all the cords make for slow going), but the end (of this project) is in sight! Now that I have worked out the colours to use, I hope the speed will pick up. It took a month to finish the Dragoon regiment, and I am going to try and finish these guys within about the same period.




One catch - I was short three figures to do a complete 24-figure regiment. I ordered an additional pack from Foundry in February. Foundry sent an email saying it was in the mail February 28. Still no sign of the package, however...thanks Foundry!

Dragoons Finished

The "Black Powder Challenge" has another completed unit.

I have finally finished my first unit of 25/28mm Napoleonic Cavalary - a Regiment of Austrian Dragoons. These are the 5th Dragoons, a Moravian Regiment, with green facings. The figures are all Foundry castings, a 24-figure unit suitable for our "grand manner" style of gaming. This is the first unit of cavalry I have ever painted for 25/28mm Napoleonics, and I have to say I am very pleased to have it under the belt! I started these back in early March, so to me this feels like pretty slow going. A whole month on the same unit is like an eternity for someone with my lack of focus.

This leaves me with one final unit left for the roster I committed to last July - a Hussar Regiment. The Hussars have a very flashy uniform - shako, pelisse, sabretache. Getting 24 of them ready will take a bit of time for sure, but the end for this project is in sight!

Dragoon(ing) along

Just a short update on my continued efforts to finish that initial roster of 25mm Napoleonics I started last July. Curt and I are doing really big units in the "grand manner" style. To help keep us motivated, Curt has launched his own spring thaw challenge. I had finished off my first three infantry units, some command, some skirmishers and (eww) artillery. Now I'm stuck into the hard part (for me) - cavalry!

Our cavalry units are 24-figures strong. I am close to half-way on my first cavalry project, a unit of Austrian Dragoons. The figures are from Foundry. Here are a couple of pictures of the progress so far.



I'm starting to get into a bit of a groove with the cavalry, but I can't quite bang these out like I can with the infantrymen. Practice helps, however, and each night I complete another one or two troopers is a good one! The picture below is a testament to my lack of project focus - you can see a bunch of 40k stuff in various stages of completion in the background.



Helpfully for me the Austrian Dragoon uniform has a lot of similarities to the uniforms of the Austrian regular infantry - white coats, coloured facings, yellow and black puff (I'm sure it's not called a "puff", but whatever*) on a black helmet, etc. I can't wait to get these guys all finished and based, and at the current rate, that will likely be end of March. Every nervous Austrian commander needs cavalry to cover their flanks of their column (or just ride with them to check out a potential new summer palace), so it will be good to get some cav together for the scions of the sausage.

*PS - fellow Conscript Curt has informed the "puff" is actually called a "comb" - I'll remember that for the future!

Ri-co-la!

Over the weekend I finished off some more stuff to go with the ongoing Napoleonic project - some Austrian Jaegers, based individually as a skirmish unit. The models are from Foundry, and they are based on 25mm washers.

I love the Austrian Jaegers - with their high, folded mountain caps, stubby rifles, lacing for the powderhorns, french horns for the musicians, big-time mustaches etc. it's a bit like a Ricola commercial with guns.



The Jaegers, armed with rifles, fought as either skrimishers or formed units for the Austrians. For the scenario that has driven my original list of units for the Black Powder challenge, the roster calls for one skirmish unit, so I did the Jaegers that way to fit the bill.


I was also limited by my collection - you might notice how quite a few of the models in this unit are in a particular loading pose, biting off a charge. Well, that is courtesy of Foundry. I had two packs of Jaegers - one of command, and one of "loading/firing". These packs were from a long time ago, when Foundry had 12 figures in the pack (for less money too). Well, all 12 of the "loading/firing" figures turned out to be loading. Thanks Foundry.

The command pack had some alternative poses (including one more guy loading - ARGH!), but it gives some variety (at least one guy firing, two guys running, the officer, and the musician). Overall, I think there is just enough variety to break up the monotony of the dudes chewing on the rounds.

I do want to have a formed unit in the collection, as Jaeger battalions were often present in the advance-guard-type columns that I think will make for some great 25mm-scale Napoleonic scenarios. A formed unit would call for about 32 models, and with Foundry looking for $22.50 US per 8 figures (plus shipping), I will opt instead for some Alban miniatures. I have never painted Alban before, but they look pretty sharp, so watch the blog for more on these in the future.

Meanwhile, I have finally started Napoleonic cavalry. Up first is a Regiment of Austrian Dragoons - a beefy one with 24 castings. I've never painted Napoleonic cavalary in 25mm scale before, so it will be slow going until I get a bit more confidence with the horses, sadles, bridles etc. But the Austrian Dragoon uniform is very close to that of the infantry (helmet, yellow and black pom-pom or whatever on the top, white coat, coloured facings etc) so that should help me get some momentum.

And back to Napoleonics...

Well, it's been a while since I last added some stuff as part of my Napoleonic Challenge, but given that Curt C has fired up a Napoleonic spring thaw painting challenge, it was time to get back at it. My goal-list for this project still stood on the blog, and I finished off a pair of 6-pounder guns with crew this week.

The figures are all from Wargames Foundry.



As Curt notes in his blog, I absolutely hate painting artillery. Consistent with many of my views on the hobby, there is no rational reason for this. I just find the effort/reward ratio really low on the guns. While the Black Powder game still hews to what I call the "get-over-yourself-re:artillery" school of thinking and lets one gun and crew represent a battery, other new "grand manner" style rules we are looking at need several guns for a battery. Forty infantry models can represent a 500 man battalion, but to abstract 10 guns I need eight guns and crews? The amount of painting an modelling needed just to get a damn gun battery on the table is totally out of whack to my impatient pea-sized brain.



There are all sorts of "rules" reasons for having the big batteries which I'm sure are quite sound (the gun batteries actually took a lot of space on the battlefield, the other rule sets like Shako are too casual in letting units maneuver near them, it makes you as a player think a lot more about where to lay the guns etc.)I still can't stand it, but if we are going to blast Napoleon's lackies, I'll have to get over it and pile in several more pieces and crews! A fresh order for more figs is already going out today...

Meanwhile, to keep up some momentum, a skirmish unit of Jaegers is up next. These are Foundry as well. Here is a picture of the first "test" figures...

28mm Command Stand: Michel Ney, Marshal of France

Here is a new Corp-Level Command stand for my 28mm French. This is Michel Ney, Duke of Elchingen, Prince of the Moskowa and Marshal of France. He was also known by many Frenchmen as 'The Bravest of the Brave." I thought I'd try to get him done for the anniversary of his death. This is a Perry casting and he is seen here as he would be in 1815 at Waterloo. The set also comes with two of his ADCs Pierre-Agathe Heymès (in red) and Pierre Levavasseur (in blue). I have also included a squadron trumpeter from the 2nd Dragoons of Kellerman's Reserve Cavalry Corps.

I have done up the stand to depict Ney after the first massed charge on the Allied squares in the late afternoon at Waterloo. He has just come back to gather more men from Kellerman's command to lead them back up the hill. Ultimately these charges would result in the destruction of over 5000 French cavalry. By the end of the day Ney would have four horses killed from underneath him, his epaulets shot away, sword broken, covered in mud screaming at the retreating French around him, "Rally on me! I am Ney, Marshal of France. Follow me, I will show you how a Marshal of France dies!" Yep, completely mental but that's how the boy rolled.

Having a Marshal for either 'Black Powder' or 'Republic to Empire' is pretty over-scaled but I reasoned that Ney did like to lead from the front so it would not be uncommon to see him down getting mucked-in with the lads.

When the Bourbons were reinstated after Waterloo they wanted Ney's head for siding with Napoleon. The trial was very unpopular as Ney was well-liked by soldiers and the common folk. Nonetheless, the royalists wanted blood and so he was sentenced to death. Ney was executed by firing squad in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris on December 7th 1815. He refused a blindfold and with his typical panache he gave the execution squad their orders to fire. Pretty hardcore.

'Black Powder' First Play: Rearguard on the Minho

This past Sunday Dan, John and Sylvain came over to my place to try out a small Napoleonic scenario using my unblooded copy of the 'Black Powder' rules. The scenario I came up with is a fusion of a series of historical rearguard actions that the British conducted during their retreat to Corunna in January of 1809. During the retreat it was not uncommon for the British to attempt to forestall the French by fighting a delaying action at a river crossing, fall back and then demo the bridge. Accordingly, the scenario has a small British force trying to buy time for the engineers to rig the bridge to blow while a large force of French press on in an attempt to push the rearguard aside, force the bridge crossing before it is destroyed and carry on to threaten the main British force up the road.

In this action the British have two infantry battalions as their mainstay. One is the solid 28th which historically fought in many of these rearguard engagements. They are solid regulars. The other is a composite battalion made up of bits and scraps of several battalions that have largely disintegrated during the retreat. I classed them as 'Untested' which means that once they take their first casualty they test to see how they react for the rest of the battle. This can range from near-collapse to raising-up to fight like heroes. The British line infantry is also aided by two companies from the 95th Rifles. These specialized skirmishers can either fight on their own or be attached to any battalions to reinforce their own light companies. The British infantry is also supported by two sections (4 guns - basically a half battery) of Royal Horse Artillery, one section of 6-pound canons and the other of 5.5 inch howitzers.

The French vanguard has a full brigade of infantry composed of four line battalions (roughly 2400 men). One battalion is considered large in size and all are classed as Regulars. In addition the French force benefits from being supported by two squadrons of Dragoons (around 160 troopers). The French commander, a General of Division, knows that the Emperor wants the British 'brought to ground' so I've rated him as a bit of a fire-eater to help keep the French moving forward aggressively.

We rolled for sides with John taking the British while Sylvain and Dan having joint command of the French.

Though this scenario could easily be played on a 4x6, or smaller, we played down the length of a 5x8 table with the bridge about 2 feet away from one end. The British (John) set-up first with one battalion, the 28th, a bit forward of the bridge with a 6 pound section of guns from the Royal Horse Artillery in support. The 28th also benefited by having the both companies of 95th Rifles in skirmish order to their front. John chose to make the 95th as in integral part of the battalion so they would benefit from the rules of 'mixed order' but risk the same fate if things went bad. The RHA howitzer section was deployed behind the river on the British right flank. The remaining British composite battalion was also back behind the river, arrayed in line next to the bridge.

The 28th positioned in front of the bridge with the 95th Rifles acting as skirmish screen and a section of 6pdrs as artillery support.




The untried British composite battalion arrayed in line near the bridge awaiting orders. Note the local monks cajoling the heretics and helping the engineering party with the powder kegs. Better the devil you know...

The French deployed 12" in from the opposing narrow edge. They chose to place the majority of their battalions in attack columns so they would benefit in the better command roll modifier (the rationale being that the compressed nature of an attack column makes it easier to manage as opposed to the more fragile and disjointed battleline formation). I believe the Dragoons also started in column as well to facilitate greater mobility.

The base mechanics for Black Powder are reminiscent of Warmaster but perhaps a little more streamlined and sophisticated. Basically each unit only gets one chance with a command roll but if the roll is especially good (i.e. low) they can benefit with up to 3 actions (moving, formation change, charging). Alternatively if the roll is pooched then that unit does nothing and the commander is done for the turn. This mechanic makes the command phase entertaining as there is much arguing of who should 'lead off', general nail biting, groans and cheers. It also makes movement and charging interesting as a lucky unit can potentially take the bit by the teeth and streak across the table to engage the enemy while other poor souls can have an unlucky streak and flounder.

The French roll forward to attempt to push back the lead British battalion and gain access to the bridge.

The French moved first and decided to keep their formation as tight as possible for maximum impact. The British opened up with long range artillery fire causing a bit of disruption in the French ranks but nothing that a few bawling sergeants couldn't handle. The rifles tried a shot at the cavalry but were just short of their maximum range. The Dragoons arched their collective eyebrows at the rifles' longer range and knew they had to get these fellows sorted quickly.

In the next turn the French managed their initial moves but did not get the rolls to allow them to charge home. John 'held his bottle' a bit longer to give the approaching cavalry and march columns some more galling fire, all the while risking the coming charge. Next turn, the French used their initiative moves to declare a series of charges from both the infantry and cavalry. The fact that the cavalry were threatening caused the British battalion to automatically recall the Rifle skirmish screen and attempt to form square. The Brits made their roll and formed a solid square to repulse the cavalry. BUT the wily French, knowing the English were vulnerable in this compressed formation have also sent in their infantry to take advantage of the situation. The Brits gave a good account of themselves but were forced to fall back from the combined arms threat. But here was the rub: The bridge hampered their retrograde movement in square and with nowhere else to go the men panicked. The 28th's square broke and its men were swept aside by the French assault columns (the Rifles sharing their fate). The now isolated British horse artillery section fired canister at short range and scampered back to redeploy at the river's edge. The remaining British battalion gaped at the slaughter in front of it while its commander screamed ineffectively at his men to move to the bridge to thwart the French. The Brits needed to hold for three more turns to have the bridge ready to be blown.

The golden moment had arrived for the French. The screening British battalion had been shattered, its supporting artillery pushed aside and the bridge was wide open. To make matters worse for the British their isolated battery was assaulted on its flank and silenced by a French regiment using its own initiative. Dan duly picked up the dice to send in the first column across the bridge - and uttered something unmentionable as (of course) his roll failed. John breathed a sigh of relief as he knew he had just been given a new lease on life. (Note: Particularly astute BP players will notice that the entire British force should have been 'broken' at this point as half or more of it's numbers were now out-of-action. I pointedly ignored this as the scenario was so small and I wanted to have as long a game as possible. I also reasoned that both combatants knew that the 'stakes were high' and would have greater resiliency for this action. Besides, why let a petty truth get in the way of a good story!)

In his turn, John rolled for a 'follow me' order and moved his command stand to join the British battalion (they used three actions to change formation, move to the bridge and shake-out into line). The howitzer section had a perfect target with the French battalion that had just silenced their brother unit. They fired canister which caused the battalion to fall back in disorder, out of the action. Two turns left.

Dan rolled for the French Brigadier and he led the leading column across the bridge to assault the British on the other side. The Brits fired a closing volley and prepared for the assault. As the French were on a very narrow frontage in order to cross the bridge they could only bring a limited amount of men to the fight whereas the British were arrayed in full battle order. The result was that the French battalion was shattered on the British line. Nonetheless they did cause enough casualties for the British to have to test their mettle as they were a composite battalion. If John rolled poorly they could route leaving the bridge entirely undefended. John's luck held and so did the British. John then redeployed the howitzers to enable them to give enfilading fire on a French column marching to the bridge. In a spectacular roll the artillery tore the guts out of the French formation making it combat ineffective. The French were running out of troops and they had only one turn left before the British could see if they could demo the bridge.

The 1st Neuchatel assault the bridge while the British prepare to give close range volley fire.

Sylvain suggested trying to soften the British up with musketry but Dan was chomping at the bit wanting to force the issue with the bayonet (watching the two 'debating' was as entertaining as the game itself). Dan won out and another French battalion was sent in, but alas it too was sent back reeling from the steady British volley fire. In his turn, John had the British stay put, give harassing fire and basically waited for the turn to end. The engineers completed their preparations and John rolled to see if the bridge would go up. The roll was too high so he girded himself to hold for at least another turn to try again (at this point we speculated that during the assault some French rear-rank fusilier had dropped his trousers while on the bridge and put out the fuse).

Things were getting desperate for the French. Dan and Sylvain decided to move the commander to the two squadrons of Dragoons to entice them with medals and easy women and then led them in a pell mell charge across the bridge to see if the British would fail in forming square. They did not. The square was formed and the cavalry were compelled to recoil. John rolled the dice for the bridge and was relieved to see it finally blast apart ending the French pursuit for that day.

The French Dragoons try to force the issue with the British. Note the Engineer by the bridge lighting the fuse with his cheroot...

We had a load of fun with the game with the result going right down to the last turn. The rule's mechanics were very easy to pick-up with us basically using the single quick-reference playsheet after only a few turns. Later I noticed I made a few slips here and there but I attribute that to the natural learning curve on any new ruleset and it did nothing to hamper the enjoyment of the game. I think they would be great for a large group of players as the command rules are quite streamlined promoting quick resolution of turns. On our part I think I can safely say that we'll be giving them another try.

In a couple weeks we'll give "Republic to Empire" a run through using the same scenario. We'll let you know our thoughts.

Deadline met for Napoleonic British

"Waddya mean we have to paint more crap for this battle...?"

Two weeks ago we were visiting our good friends Amy and John Bertolini in Saskatoon and I invited John to come down to Regina to play a game of 28mm Napoleonics. On the drive back home I thought up a small scenario we could do, but to pull it off I needed to rebase and finish off my lone British battalion, complete another, do-up a couple artillery pieces with crews and come up with command stands for both sides. A tall order but I've always liked working with an objective in mind and I really wanted to try out the 'Black Powder' set of rules. I had most of the stuff on-hand from past purchases except for artillery which I quickly ordered from North Bay Hobbies. So brush in hand I dug-in for some marathon painting and here are the results.

I want to build Colbrne's ill-fated brigade of four battalions which was over-run by Polish lancers and French hussars at the battle of Albuera (almost a 70% casualty rate). This first unit is the 2nd battalion of the 31st (The Huntingdonshires) which was the only battalion of the brigade that managed to form square before the cavalry hit. Twenty four of the figures were previously painted and based but I added a colour party, a mounted officer and some additional casualty figures to flesh it out - so 12 points here.



The next battalion is the 2nd battalion of the 48th (The Northamptonshires). This unit was mauled by lancers, rallied and then endured a protracted firefight with a French brigade. It lost over 400 men during the action. All these boys are new additions - so 35 points all told.

Next are the artillery. Royal Horse Artillery from the Perry twins. One base is a crew running up its 5.5 inch howitzer and the other is a 6 pounder being fired. I dunno what you count for artillery pieces but there are 8 crewmen in total.









The French command stand depicts a Divisional general taking a report from a couple officers from his command. 6 points.



The British command stand is a Brigadier general chatting with an officer on foot. The mounted guy is from a month or so ago but the foot chappie is new.



The last unit I prepared was a French battalion in greatcoats. I did these up as 3rd battalion conscripts fresh from the depot. They are pretty grotty looking, with some veterans seeded in the ranks to chivy them along to the front. I got a chunk of these off an eBay purchase and so I rebased them, inked them, touched up their highlights, did a bit of weathering and then added a fresh mounted commander and two sergeants and ten rankers to bulk them out a bit more.



I've done some completely mental painting binges in the past but I think this one takes the brass ring. I think this batch adds around 76 points to my tally (plus whatever for the guns). I'm completely knackered and will probably take a few days off from the painting desk...

Oh, and incidentally we did have our game yesterday afternoon which was a blast! I will post an after action in the next few days.