Waterloo 2013

I was asked earlier in the year by author Iain Gale

to take part in a Waterloo refight on the weekend of the 198th anniversary of the battle but myself, Angus Konstam, Bill Gilchrist and Colin Jack had already agreed to attend the latest weekend extravaganza from the League of Gentlemen Wargamers and as three of us were the organisers of the event we could hardly pull out.  Iain re-arranged the game for the following weekend but unfortunately I was working and couldn't get up until late on the Sunday afternoon but got there just as my favourite 100 days troops, the Prussians made their arrival.

Although I took loads of photos there is no point in me posting loads here as Bill Gilchrist has posted 129 on his Flickr folder

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157634008989879/

and a two part report on his blog

http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/28mm-waterloo-refight-part-2.html

After two days of gaming the French had managed to capture Hougemont but had failed to break through the Allied line and the Prussians had now arrived on their flank.

Bill Miller on the right as D'erlon tries to explain to me why it wasn't his fault

French commanders Jim Conquor and Ian Carter realise the game is up.

Apart from supplying the fantastic terrain, all the Allied troops and a portion of the French Iain also brought along a selection of artifacts from the battle.

The game was fought with 28mm figures in a 1:40 figure scale and the guys used Black Powder rules to fight all the action.

 

Borodino 200th anniversary

Back in November 2012 the League of Gentlemen Wargamers of which I'm a member put on a refight of the Battle of Borodino to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the battle but due to the problems I've been having with my blog I couldn't post any pics but thought I needed to post at least a few of such a fantastic game.  The battle was fought over four 12x6 tables although a fifth table would have been useful but we ran out of tables and terrain tiles.

This table was the far left of the Russian flank and was seperated from the main table by the Utitsa woods which was full of Russian skirmishers and any troops trying to move to the main action had a d3 delay plus the Poles and French had to clearout any Russians to move through.

Dale Smith commanded the Poles and Peter Nicholson the Russians.

This table saw serious fighting all weekend with Utitsa village and the hill changing hand many times but the Russians still hung onto the village at the end of the day and still had a brigade of Grenadiers and masses of Opolchenie still unused at end of play.

The Poles about to launch their first assault.

Waiting to get stuck in.

The main table was split into two halves to allow us to move about and reach the troops in the centre.

Even though the tables were 12' deep the French 100 gun grand battery and cavalry Corps of both sides were still off table.

The fleches changed hands many times over the weekend but all except for some defences around Semonovskya were still in Russian hands and infact the Russians were considering counter attacking from this position but decided to transfer troops to support the fighting around the Raevsky redoubt.

My gun battery did sterling service all weekend and helped in the destruction of two French ally divisions.

This table saw death and destruction on a massive scale to both sides.

Around 14 brigade, 6 division, 2 Corps, Marshal Ney and Kutusov the Russian commander all met their end defending this table.

By the end of the weekend both sides were exhausted and there were very few Russian troops still left on the table but the Guard infantry Corps and two cavalry Corps were still off table stopping the French from exploiting their success.

The French eventually managed to take Borodino off the Russian Guard Jaeger regiment that was defending it but were unable to advance due to the large amount of Russian cavalry that was blocking any further movement.  In fact the French were so concerned about this flank that the transferred large numbers of reserves to this flank that might have proved more useful elsewhere.

 

 Although turning history on it's head and recording a Russian victory everyone who took part in this fantastic battle felt they were winners, it's not often you get to fight battles with over 4,000 figures per side.

 

Borodino at Claymore 2012

Barry Hilton, Bob'Toggy' Talbot and myself put on half of our Bordino game at Claymore on Saturday and here are a few pics I took.  As usual we never even attempted to fight the battle except for a little bit when Billy Woods couldn't stand the dice withdrawal effects.  As usual at these shows we always spend most of the time talking with all the people that pay us a visit to discuss the battle, forces, terrain, painting and a load of other topics plus it's also a good time to meet up with old friends.

This is the main view of Borodino from the French side of the table.

The goreous Russian church was scratch built and bought by Barry many years ago but has hardly been out on the wargames table which is such a pity for a lovely building.

The famous redoubt from the battle with a brigade of David Imrie's lovely grenadier division.

The French respose to the Russian defences, a 100 gun grand battery.

Bob's Italians and Neopolitans lauch an attack against the Russian Guard Jager defending Borodino.

This was part of the Russian responce, the Guard cavalry about to launch an attack.

This shows the full cavalry wing, only the Guard Cossacks are missing.

But plain old cossacks can ride down the French infantry,

if they are lucky.

Day two in Derby

This is the table layout for the second day along with some of the gamers taking part,

including some of the usual suspects

Russian left flank including my dragoon brigade

Cossacks skirmishing.  Eureka figures painted by Barry

Peter Nicolson's cossacks charging Italian artillery

Here's my cossacks getting into the action

The dragoons didn't want to miss the fun either

As usual the French Guard come along and spoil the fun for everyone.

Buggeration in Derby

So far this year has been really poor for me where I have only managed to have two wargames and missed a couple of weekend get togethers.  I missed the cowboy weekend the previous weekend then missed this great extravaganza down at Derby the last weekend but at least General Buggeration and his boys got to join in the fun.

This is part of the main table on day one and shows my Russians defending Bautzen.

Stout defenders, although in the real battle there was a large defensive wall around the town.

Russians defending the flank

The French moving up to attack.  Figures painted by Barry Hilton

French moving into postiton

Not all troops were French, this is part of an Italian Division commanded by Keith Tait.

This unit is mine and although painted up as Saxons a quick change of flag allowed them to become Italian for the weekend.  This was also my first attempt at using Army Painter dip and I was quite happy with the result but I might stick to using GW washes instead.

More French moving up to attack.

It eventually took the French Guard to eject my Russians out of Bautzen but I don't mind too much as I painted these beauties as well along with a couple of Grenadier Regiment of the Guard.

Just like buses where you wait for ages for one to arrive and two come at the same time here is another shot from our Partizan game.  It was very impressive seeing my Russian artillery batteries on a 1:1 scale although 12 guns and all their limbers and caissons take up a lot of space.

When I started this blog I did think it would take me a while to keep it updated but didn't think it would take so long, unfortunately family and a whole new career change has taken up most of my time recently but hopefully things are starting to stabalise so I hope to post more soon.  These pics are taken from a display game that Adrian Howe, Barry Hilton, David Imrie, Toggy and myself put on at Partizan in September 2011.  We were using Barry's March of Eagles rules and a 1:5 figure scale so all these battalions are around 100 figures strong.

General Buggeration

This name was given to my commander during his first outing when my gaming group did a refight of the Battle for Paris in 1814.  My usual bad dice rolling and following expletives caused much hilarity with the group and their idea for my generals name which has now stuck with him.

First ever blog

I have finally taken the plunge and decided to have a go a running my own blog which will cover games and painting from my wargames.  As I'm not too great at this new technology malarky it might take some time to get to grips with it so please be patient.