“The British are coming...”

...albeit rather slowly! For our usual Monday game Phil and I met in GHQ on Tuesday morning. A new carpet being laid in the lounge on Monday meant GHQ was then doubling as a furniture store, again. I hope that I have finally regained it for gaming now, at least until the post hip replacement operation, now scheduled for May 4th. Anyway, on to the game. I chose an AWI game using Black Powder as the ruleset. As usual in these games Phil, in his persona as Lord Rawnsley, commanded the British while I took command of the American rebels; old ‘Independence or Death’ Bykleigh once more hoping against experience for a decisive victory! In the end we managed to play eight turns before we ran out of time. I hope the following annotated pictures will tell the unfolding story of the Battle at Hogg’s Crossing for any interested followers or visitors ~

The humble dwelling of the Hogg family. Old 'Independence

or Death' Bykleigh surveys his position. Some upstart called

Washington lurking in the background.

The American left is defended by the Cavalry Brigade with some infantry &

light artillery support.

The forces of the Crown take the offensive in the centre while consolidating

on the left and right.

The 5th New York Infantry, supported by artillery, ready themselves for the

onslaught from the advancing British Regulars.

The American centre is under pressure, but the boys from Pennsylvania have

flanked the British in support of the 5th NYI and the first  attack is repulsed.

On the American right an advance has halted the Crown's attack for now.

The action in the centre of the American line, though Disordered the 5th NYI

hold their position and repulse the attacking Light Infantry.

The Crown's advance was hampered all along the front and al through the 

game by generally poor Command Rolls by Phil. I didn't complain though!

On the Crown's left flank neither Tarleton's Legion infantry nor the Hessian

mercenaries showed any enthusiasm for closing with their foe!

On the American right the Cavalry are repulsed, but at a cost. The infantry

step up to hold the line!

The 5th NYI, the Lions of Hogg's Crossing, steady their line as the next wave

of attackers gathers to their front.

On the American left the Crown's forces have largely faltered and now the

Americans advance to the attack. The Militia rather got carried away though.

The Crown's forces attack has largely halted, too much disruption from

Disorder and too many Shaken units hampered Phil's overall plan. 

The game is over! Its all up for the Crown's attacking intent. While the forces

of Liberty have held their ground they cannot deliver the decisive blow! A 

draw is the outcome.

As ever, Black Powder as a ruleset proved all we wanted from a game, delivering episodes of success and failure for both sides, aided by a number of Blunders on both of our parts. If we could have fitted in more Turns the Crown's forces may have rallied to the attack once more  the Americans may have won the day, it was difficult to say so a Draw pleased both of us on the day! Next up in GHQ will be a Sudan War game, again on a Tuesday!

Italian Wars Handgunners

My latest base of figures comprises a unit of handgunners. The figures are by TAG and were, as I’ve banged on about before, a real joy to paint. I chose a colour scheme for the coats of Foundry Storm Green and Yellow, going straight from shade to light without the mid colour. I think it reflects the stark Mediterranean light but you may not agree ~

This is the last of my TAG units, for now anyway. I have now got two bases of Foundry Gendarmes, two bases of Warlord/ProGloria, Tiger Miniatures, Dixon Miniatures and Steel Fist Landsknecht pikes and a Landsknecht Command base of Warlord/ProGloria and Steel Fist figures and, as Phil would say, we are done!
I received my new admission date letter for my hip replacement operation on Saturday morning. I am going in now on May 4th - no Star Wars jokes please! I don’t think that will be enough time to paint all these, but I will give it my best shot! I hope that my friends will keep me in their thoughts come ‘The Day’, and if they are of the inclination towards prayer, to mention me kindly. Thanks.

“The boys stood their ground,sir, indeed they did sir!”

For our monthly Wednesday night game in April Jon and I had agreed on an ACW game, using the Black Powder ruleset with the Glory Halelujah additions as we deemed appropriate. My figures are almost all Dixon Miniatures, still in my opinion the most characterful range for the period, though other ranges are of course available. The trees are from The Last Valley, whose products I highly recommend, while the fences Phil and I made back in the day! The Confederates, commanded by Jon, had the objective of seizing the bridge and turning the flank of my Union army which was camped along the river, somewhere in Virginia as they’d say. The Union begin with three small Brigades deployed defensively, one of Regulars classed as Large, but with not sufficient manpower to cover their front, with one more Brigade arriving in Turn 3. The Confederates begin with three large Brigades, each having one Large unit at least. The game ebbed and flowed, as all great games do, and so there are not as many pictures to tell the tale as I would have liked ~

The Rebs advance to the attack over a wide front. This caught me by
surprise I have to say, expecting a stronger thrust on my right to take the
bridge and turn my right flank.

The Union position from the bridge, defended by a battery of 3” rifles and a
Brigade of Colored Troops.

Turn 3 saw some relief on the Union side with the arrival of the Irish
Brigade to steady the left flank and prevent the camp being overrun.

In the centre the Reb attack has slowed somewhat due to poor Command
rolls! For the Union the Regulars are in reserve to steady the centre or
shore up the flank.

On the Union’s right the Colored Brigade seems to have blunted the Reb

attack for now, but a weight of men are building against them!

With time running short, the Rebs get one Infantry Regiment over the bridge
though the remaining Colored Regiment stubbornly refuses to give more
ground up to the enemy.

Despite several incidents of personal bravery in leading his

troops, General White is unable to exploit his advantage as 

time runs out.

As time ran out we decided on a winning draw for the Rebs who, despite driving back the Colored Troops defending the bridge, could not make the Union army quit its position. Their attack in the centre was driven off in the end while on their right it stalled completely against the Irish Brigade.

General Useless S Bykleigh was more than satisfied with the end result as at times it had been a desperate fight all along the Union front.

Italian Halberdiers

Returning to an earlier theme, that of making use of spare figures, I’ve cobbled together a base of Halberdiers. The figures come from three manufacturers: TAG; Warlord/ProGloria; and Front Rank. I think that they work quite well together myself, although the Front Rank figures are noticeably more chunky than the others. Still, some folk are chunkier than others I’ve noticed. Judge for yourselves anyway, as here they are ~

I’m working on a base of Italian handgunners now, all figures on that base from TAG. I hope that I will be able to complete them by the end of the week. We shall see, as they say.

Italian Crossbowmen

The latest base of figures to join my army of the Papal States under Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia are a unit of TAG Italian crossbowmen. One thing is immediately clear from the pictures, and that is that my painting is not really up to such close up photography any more, if indeed it ever was. I will plead the vagaries of age and infirmity and trust to my chums to play up to the game ~

As the earlier unit you will have seen was in yellow and white I wanted something a little more colourful and chose Foundry Bright Red and Union Trouser Blue for the colour scheme. I think perhaps that I should have done more than simply reverse the colours on the pavise now I see them like this, but they will have to do now, although I see VVV have sheets of heraldic devises which I might add later. I shall have to sleep on it as they say. In the meantime, I’m more than half way through a base of Halberdiers for the army, so, onward and upward!

Borgia! Borgia!

A brief post to showcase the growing force for the Papal States in our Italian Wars project ~

There are still several bases of figures awaiting their moment in the limelight on my painting desk, but I’m pressing on while I can! I’ve one final crossbowman to complete and that base will be finished leaving me with six bases of figures to complete: two bases of Gendarmes; a base of halberdiers; a base of Italian handgunners; a Landsknecht Pike block and a Command base. 

In addition I recently received a package from Tim Hall containing figures I can add to the project as a gift. Wonderful folk in our hobby mostly I’ve found! (To that I should add the set of VBCW Source Books Colin Ashton sent me last week.) I’ve put some figures in Detol for a couple of days to strip the paint off as they are a little too dark for my army, but they will give me another base of Gendarmes and more Landsknechts for my pike block. The latter are Dixon Miniatures and seem to fit well size wise with my Warlord/ProGloria and Tiger Miniatures. We shall have to see how they turn out! 

My Italian Wars Real Estate...

I have now assembled and textured with rough filler the four buildings I bought to populate the table top battlefield here in GHQ for forthcoming Italian Wars games. As you may have read in earlier Blog posts, I feel these will be enough for our needs, but like most wargamers I wouldn’t be surprised if more appeared at some stage, as if by magic!
I bought four of the five Warbases Modular Buildings, together with a small Roman Tower and several sets of extras: balconys, doors, windows, shutters and the like. I used these to make two buildings, a small walled farm with a defensive tower and a more imposing house of two stories with a portico. I used Wills plastic pantile roofing sheets to cover the MDF roofs on these buildings. At the recent snowy WMMS I bought two buildings from Charlie Foxtrot‘s range of Pantile Buildings, the Small Store and the Hermitag ~

Phil has several of their kits in his Spanish terrain collection, so I know they look nice but had no idea if they would prove as ‘idiot friendly’ as the Warbases’ kits when it was time to assemble them! I needn’t have worried, they went together with little fuss, beyond trimming the resin inserts to the walls and the roof pieces to fit. No sanding required there, just a trim with a sharp modelling knife! The combination of MDF walling and a cast resin pantile roof is a clever solution to the problem of MDF and the 3D effect of the roof. Pity though the resin is not stained Terracotta, it would simplify painting! And here are the four buildings together ~

I’ll not be doing any more to them until later in the Spring or early Summer, as I want to press on with the figures while I can safely sit at my painting desk. Besides the crossbowmen I'm working on at present I have a base of Italian handgunners; a base of Italian halberdiers, both from TAG;two bases of Gendarmes from Foundry; a Landsknecht pike block from Warlord Games/ProGloria; and a furthe Landsknecht Command base from the same source. About 60 figures in all. Let’s see how far I get then...