More Medieval stuff - Opening boxes

This is the last lot from from the garage, although there is a box of Britains cavalry to sort out. Will do that tomorrow. 

These figures are mostly britains deetail:

A small amount of siege equipment:

There is a plastic castle somewhere, will need to dig that out too.

Britains knights on foot:

Think this guy is meant to be the King?

And lastly for this batch, some Herald pike men:

An update

I was a little shocked to learn that I had not posted on here since May - a whole month and a bit has slipped by! I have not been idle, its just that there has been little to report as I work on several projects at once. I seem to do a few days on one, until I tire, or somethng else crops up, when I shift to another theme.

At the moment I am working on the following:

1. I continue to paint my 1/32 Britains Deetail collection. I am working on some scots soldiers, painted up as the Black Watch:

2. I am working on a Command and Colors scenario, playing on a 5 inch hex board with miniatures. I found a scenario for the battle of Bunker Hill and this led me to dig out my old Spencer Smiths. They have not been used since the 1980s and were in a bit of a state. I also had to rebase them to fit in with the game rules. Almost finished, this too is a work in progress:

Here are the Brits:

I need some 17 battalions! And here are the Americans:

I still have a couple more units to do. I am cheating slightly by using some Prussian figures, until I can muster all of my US troops.

3. I stumbled across a couple of old boxes containing a collection of 1/300 tanks and troops - these go back to the 1970s. I have had an idea to fight a Normandy 1944 action using Memoire 44 rules. Yes, that means more rebasing and scenery construction. Here are some of the troops:

British armour:

German armour:

and some other stuff:

The German artillery and 88s are on the updated bases.

4. I am slowly putting together a plan to refight the charge of the Light Brigade; when I have finished the last British cavalry unit.

There, that's what I have been doing.

Britains Deetail Napoleonics - A long term project

I have a fair number of old Britains plastic Napoleonic or Waterloo figures. Having enjoyed doing battle with my Britains ACW, I thought it might be fun doing the same with the old Napoleonic stuff. However, those in my collection are not in very good condition:

Most annoyingly many that should have backpacks do not and they just have two lugs on their back. Below you can see from the left hand figure what they should look like:

So, hoping to resolve the problem I asked Old John if he could cast some metal replacement backpacks for me, using an original plastic version as a master. Hey presto! Here is the result:

Old John did a great job and I now have enough packs to repair most of my Napoleonics. Even so, the resulting figure still looks a bit scruffy and as the backpack will need to be painted, I thought why not do the whole figure and this is the result:

This has some potential. I painted some more British:

.....and French:

So far I have painted a Battalion of Highlanders and I am half way through some French line infantry. Sometime downstream I will put them all on the table and do battle.

In the meantime, I am still pondering Command and Colors using 25mm figures...more later.

The Action at Wilkin's Farm

The idea behind this battle is heavily influenced by the defensive action fought by Buford's cavalry during the first day of the battle of Gettysburg; in that I have a key ridge line and farm being held by two Union cavalry regiments to allow time for the union army to deploy.

In my battle the action starts with two regiments of Union cavalry, armed with carbines and supported by a light artilley battery. They have been deployed as patrols have identified a massive Confederate force approaching along the turnpike. The cavalry have been ordered to prevent the capture of the ridge at all costs.

The cavalry is deployed dismounted, with one regiment on the left holding a wood, the fence line and Wilkin's Farm itself:

On the Union right the second regiment, with the artillery, holds the fence line and unfinished railway:

For this battle, I decided to have another go at using Donald Featherstone's Horse and Musket rules. For troops I used mostly Britains plastics, with a few from other firms thrown in to make up numbers. Some are almost as old as me!

I rolled dice to determine when the main Union force would arrive and this turned out to be after 12 turns. Looking back to my last action with these rules the battle was over in around six turns!

The action begins with an unsuspecting Confederate regiment being pushed forward to clear the farm and carry out foraging for the main army. They believe the enemy to their front to be a few poorly trained and equipped militia from the nearby town:

They are in for a shock and come under a hail of fire from the farm to their front and the fence line on either flank as the Union cavalry open up with repeating carbines. The Confederate losses are horrific:

Despite attempting to deploy into line and return fire the Confederate column is decimated and falls back:

There is now a lull in the battle, but on move five the Union cavalry can see masses of grey and brown uniforms; as the Confederates deploy a Brigade of three regiments into battle line. In the centre the first rebel regiment makes a dash across the stream:

While on the left an Alabama regiment in butternut approaches the corn field in front of the Union right:

While intent on sweeping around the Union left through the woods, another regiment fans out:

The action picks up around the farm once more as cavalry carbines rip into the rebel ranks and after a brief but bloody action the centre Confederate regiment pulls back:

Although this assault is blunted the cavalry in the farm take several casualties and are weakened. This episode is followed by a rebel assault onto the Union left, through the wheat field. Initially the Confederates take heavy casualties, but do not break. They establish themselves behind a fence and begin to wear down the Union cavalry in a firefight that lasts three turns:

Eventually the weight of confederate fire forces back the Union cavalry in the wood and on the left :

On the Union right the Alabama regiment steadily advance, and some poor shooting by the Union cavalry and artillery allow them to reach the fence line. The hard pressed cavalry are forced back up the slope:

With dwindling numbers the Union troopers are forced to retire and form a small knot around the artillery. By move nine it is largely over, when rebel rifle fire silences the Union gun. The morale of the cavalry breaks and they withdraw back beyond the ridge.

The Confederates have been severly mauled, however, they have driven the Union forces from the field and it will be a full three turns before any Union infantry will arrive, leaving time for the Confederates to consolidate on the captured ridge. So a victory for the rebels.

Action at Twin Farms - by Charles Grant

Over Christmas my wife and I headed for the sun, which is the reason that I have not posted for a bit; however, as part of my reading list I took two of my favourite books - "Battle" by Charles Grant and "Operation Warboard" by Gavin and Bernard Lyall. Now, whilst I have had these books for decades and thumbed through on countless occasions, I had never actually read them from cover to cover.

I was taken by the introductory scenario in "Battle", the Action at Twin Farms and was inspired to have a go. I did not use the rules in the book, chosing to use my own, for two reasons. First I am not keen on the machine gun and artillery grid system and second, I wanted to introduce the idea of suppression, suppressing fire and the effect this has on command.  This allows some fire and manouvre.

Also, I changed the forces from Russians versus German to British versus German. I  gave the British a carrier platoon as a substitute for the third half track. The Germans have a platoon plus, while the British have three platoons, including a light mortar. Here is the scenario from the book:

This is how the battlefield looks when laid out on my 6 x 4 table:

The table is 180 degrees different to the map. North is to the left and I have called the top farm' East Farm and the bottom farm, West Farm.  The German dispositions are also shown; on the far top left is the anti tank team supported by a machine gun in the copse to their rear. Around West Farm are the remaining Germans, with a second machine gun by the gate covering the road. British forces are off the table.

I decided to start the scenario as Grant did, with the first (1 Platoon) half track coming into range of the German anti-tank team:

The action kicks off with the Germans firing the panzerschreck, which misses and a burst of machine gun fire, which hits one of the British infantry in the half track. They throw for suppression but they are OK.

The British cry, "ambush left" and debus from the half track fearing another anti tank round and the vehicle machine gun pours fire into the anti tank team eliminating the loader.

A second half track comes onto the board.

In round two the remaining German anti-tank gunner decides to make a run for it and is cut down by rifle fire and the half track pours fire into the corner of the copse taking out the machine gun and loader, but not before they cut down two further members of 1 platoon. The German ambush is eliminated. The 2 platoon half track continues to move around the east flank and the first vehicle of the carrier platoon arrives:

On move three the German commander is concerned about his exposed east flank and orders additional infantry to reinforce East Farm. At the same time the second German machine gun, forward of West Farm, opens up on the now debussed 1 Platoon, causing a further casualty and suppressing 1 Platoon.

The British dismount 2 Platoon, while the german machine gun continues to take its toll, eliminating another rifleman in 1 Platoon.

British command falters and for a while they are halted by the heavy fire coming from West Farm. Meanwhile the Germans pull back some forward infantry on their left flank and continue to reinforce East Farm as infantry dash across the road:

On move 5 the german machine cuts down another member of 1 platoon, which remains trapped on the edge of the field next to their vehicle. The British commander, again with a weak command throw, decides to try to out flank the Germans to the east by deploying the carrier platoon.

Also 2 Platoon pushes forward and engages the Germans in East farm causing one casualty:

In move six, the german reinforcment from West Farm arrives in East Farm and the machine gun causes another two casualties in 1 Platoon, which breaks and pulls back out of range.

On move seven, the German commander decides to redeploy some of his forces in West farm, including the machine gun, so that they can engage 2 Platoon. Meanwhile 2 Platoon accounts for one German in East Farm.

This creates a slight lull for the British, who despite the loss of 1 Platoon reorganise and push forward, with the carriers sweeping around the flank and a 2" morter is deployed, which engages the german machine gun, but the rounds fall short:

On move 8 number 2 Platoon is swept by fire from the newly deployed machine gun and lose 3 men, including their officer, meanwhile the British pour fire from the carriers and the 2 Platoon bren gun into East farm to little effect. This exchange of fire continues and 2 Platoon lose another man, and they too pull back. The British carriers open up on the Germans in East farm causing two casualties and the defence of the farm begins to collapse as the Germans are suppressed.

On move nine the German commander decides to withdraw as British mortar fire takes out the remaining machine gun and the carriers eliminate the defenders in East Farm.

The British carrier platoon dismounts to sweep through the farm while the Germans escape off the to the southwest.

Having lost over half of his troops the British commander decides to advance no further and consolidates around East Farm. The battle ends. While the British have control of the field the German commander has done well to halt the enemy advance and inflict heavy casualties. A thoroughly enjoyable scenario.