Finished Units

I actually finished some units in the last few days which has been a good morale boost. I seem to have gone for so long without actually completing anything that I found myself preferring to read books or play computer games.

So to inspire myself I pulled out 24 Hat Saxons and promptly painted them as Spanish Infantry. I have toyed with creating a small force of 1/72 Figures in order to try Big Battles \ Small tables for the Peninsular war. I have the figures already and they are lighter than my 28mm horde so would fit nicely in a box and can play on my "table" (which is a bed). I have enough Spanish, French and English to re-fight any battle but they just need painting.

At the time the HAT Spanish were not available so I purchased the Saxon's to fill in and they do a reasonable job if one does not look too closely.

I also has two days off sick last week due to a heavy cold so I was able to finish the basing on my completed WSS Unit. I am glad I finished them but pretty unhappy with the unit as a whole due to a series of mistakes I made since putting them together. Its an imagination unit of the Rechburgian army, the rest of my figures will be French.

• Figures pose selection was awful - I don't know why I included 4 firing figures in the mix.
• Wrong officer figures for the unit.
• Painting groups at a time and not using the same colours (I am not making the same mistake with my Spanish)
• Missing steps - The faces are really bad I am actually redoing them. They have eye sockets that I may have to paint as eyes.....goldfish eyes of course.

Tamames 1809

My Spanish army has had another outing and another victory for Spain.

Below - The First division fires its volley and then runs away.

Last month we fought the fictitious sequel to this action San Cristobel in which the Spanish army fought a glorious fighting retreat against the French. So we decided to give the actual battle a go despite how difficult it would be for the French. Historically Marchand thought he could defeat a large Spanish army with a Division but found his skills were lacking for the task. The french players had a hard task, Marchand really was out of his depth and severely outnumbered but he went in anyway.


Details are over at Colin's blog Tamames

In this re-fight Jim and Ross went for a right hook against the Spanish lines. The Spanish Division was overrun, the regular infantry and artillery firing to the last while the raw units around them ran for the hills at the slightest large noise.

My plan was simple, let the French take the first line but make them pay dearly for it. Then suck them into the poor terrain where hopefully they would run out of steam on the Second line and then the Spanish would surge forward.  The french attack was strong but once again at the crucial time vital units were milling around out of action and then french ran out of men. As those missing units finally got involved it was too late.  If those extra 4 or 5 units had of been in the strike point the Spanish would have been in big big trouble.

A wave of French infantry surged over the 1st Division - the gunners died at their feet,  the raw troops ran for the hills, French cavalry crushed a militia square and the Spanish second line looked on nervously.


However in the midst of the french storm stood the Principe Infantry Regiment.

A brief interlude -   In my history of wargaming I have had two units that have become the stuff of legend. The first was the 33rd Foot who 20 years ago earned themselves an unsavory reputation. In every action they routed, not in the thick of battle of course but in extreme circumstances (oh look its raining - ROUT, French artillery killed 1 figure - ROUT). The 33rd was the worst performing unit of my British army, in fact any army with the dubious honour that it never finished a battle still on the table in any fit state.

The next Regiment started earning its reputation 6 years ago - A Spanish Guard unit that proved itself to be an irresistible and unstoppable force in any battle.  It always ended up at the critical point, holding back masses of the enemy with a sheer arrogance of will and luck that still astound me. In the previous battle it held Ventosa against 6 times its number, and then marched out in good order.

At Tamames wave after wave of french troops attacked and were repulsed. Luck was on their side as it always is with the Regiment holding out against all. It was the this point the the French morale started to fail, a steady stream of units routing to the rear and at this point the French abandoned the attack.

Above - Principe Shaken but not stirred - The pink beads on the French means they are broken, a lot of pink was used this day !

The game was concluded here. The very next turn I was going to unleash the Spanish army in counter attack but it was not needed. 

San Cristobel 1809

Bonjour de Nouveau Caledonie,

My final night in New Caledonia, the French holiday hotspot in the middle of the pacific. After several days of subjecting the locals to my not so fluent french I finally caught up on reading blogs.

I would also kill for a cup of tea. Milk is hard to come by here and I have had only one brew in 4 days. NZ tomorrow and a good few pots of darjeeling are needed I think.

Now allow me to direct you to a report of my Spanish armies latest outing - a stunning victory at San Cristobel.

Paul, Duke de San Cristobel and myself conducted a fighting retreat with the utmost precision against French forces trying to cut off our line of retreat. The Spanish army moved in unison, fought in unison and bloodied the french with every step. An absolute miracle !

(You know things are going well when half way through the game you have only taken a single hit and the enemy has lost regiment after regiment.)

The little village at Ventosa was a salient in our line but I thought it would fall quickly. The french scoffed at the troops there so I made a simple statement.......""Look at them they have bearskins on".


And thus started the legend of an Epic Spanish Victory

Luck was on the spanish side this day. When a devastating volley was needed it came, when our position became difficult the french stumbled and we made our escape. When the French finally managed to clear their traffic jam and spread across the field I thought "oh dear this is about to turn ugly". Infantry upon infantry across the line, cavalry looking at my donkey cavalry. And at that moment they became distracted by Ventosa and it brought us precious time indeed.

A thoroughly enjoyable game all around. To make things better we just wholloped england in 12 overs. I must have been the only person in Noumea watching it, drinking bad french beer and yelling at the tv.

Oh those Spanish troops - aren't they pretty and dashing !

So upon a closer inspection of the 15mm Spanish damaged in the Feb 22 Earthquake has revealed the following

25 Figures broken\crushed beyound usefulness _ it will be easier on my sanity to simply buy replacements than to try and repair.

49 elements of infantry (196 figures) need to be rebased and have the odd minor repair (Mostly command elements).

So I have taken this as an opportunity to repaint them and then rebase them. As these were painted 15-20 years ago they are simple one slap of paint jobbies when my Wargaming production line was geared towards quantity instead of quality. So Ill start with a good blackwash and then put in the highlights, new standards and new bases. This time I'll actually make an effort basing them instead of my usual green paint, PVA, flock routine I do.

The first unit on the Worskshop is a Grenadier unit (The picture is old) and I plan to make these look a lot sharper and based on an actual unit, probably the Malaga Infantry Regiment.

15mm Painting So Far.

Some Spanish Light Infantry (Unit no decided) - Battleline figures, not too bad figures I suppose, though the glue on heads are a pain in the backside. I didnt have any light infantry painted for the Spanish so I have done some. All I need to do now is add a flag and finish off the base.

Some 15mm scenery I picked up off trademe, a few farmhouses, you can never have too much scenery ! I have some river, a bridge and some other buildings to go. I have never really had my own scenery so its quite pleasing to be painting some.

Hesse-Darmstadt Infantry, BattleLine Miniatures, a horrible set of figure but have attemmpted to paint them as best as I can. Base needs completion and a standard (Most likely a print yourself job from Warflag)

Some Westphalians, horrible battlineline gnomes againt but I did what I could with them.

3eme Croatian Infantry Grenadier Company. AB Figures, very nice but very expensive, A lot of people say these are the best, but I think the OG figures I have are on a par (and half the price)
3eme Croatian Voltigeur and Centre Company, I have painted more of these figures but only decided to show 2 of them.

Von Pfuhl’ Infantry Regiment (Wurtermburg Infantry), I picked up some 15mm OG figures (Poles, Wurtenburgs and some Old Guard) to increase my 15mm French. I painted a command element to see how they look and I quite like them, only 100 to go now :).

Artillery Driver - Battleline do some cheap limbers so I picked some up. Not needed for games but thought I would have some eye candy. Hopefully my artillery batteries will now actually look like batteries when they move.
Spanish Dragoons - some more Spanish Dragoons to add to my collection. Battleline Figures and they just need a little tidying up before basing.


Duchy of Jaxonia
Thus, I have also entered the realm of Emperor Vs Elector in the forming of my Duchy, rulked of course by Marquess Paulus Von Jaxon (http://jacko-thedancingbear.blogspot.com/).

SOme years ago I picked up a vast chest of plastic figures and have made several half hearted attempts at getting them ready. I dont even know where they all are currently, but I have grabbed what I can and started the project once again !.


Duchy of Jaxonia Infantry - I painted theseGreen Jackets a long time ago and they look bloody horrible, if I do say so myself. I'll need to some a fair amount of tidying up of these figures as they hurt my eyes to look at them lol. I'll probably end up painting the shade in, but anything is better than this, I think the French figures I painted when I was 13 looked better than this ! What on earth was I thinking at the time.
Duchy of Jaxonia - Artillery - I have painted some gun crew and a gun, I thoroughly detest painting guns, I dont know why but I can't fight without them and I was tempted by red coated artillery for some reason.

Duchy of Jaxonia, Infantry - Base coated figures and now into applying more layers. My units might be a mix of colours, as I haven't decided yet what to do, or even the history of my nation. Red always looks good on SYW figures, adn I have painted enough white on Napoleonics to last me a life time.

Duchy of Jaxonia, Garde Artillery - Base coated and have begn the next phase of the extra layers, will probably end up being 2 guns only, as the Duchy doesnt have too larger Guard force. I think as a whole my forces will amount to 6 Infantry battalions, 4 guns and 3 Dragoon regiments. I am tempted to create some militia force, as peasants with guns is always appealing :).

Napoleonic Campaign In Spain.

The campaign continues after the Xmas Lull, several days ago we fought a rearguard at Tortosa, in which the Spanish attempt to load troops onto the British Navy, while the French harass the rear. As it turned out it all fell to pieces on about move 3 and I find fighting under these rules with Spanish to be getting quite tedious. I know a fair amount about the Spanish army, and I appreciate the obvious quality issues but at the end of the day its a wargame and it has to be enjoyable and recently it hasnt been. I think my incessant whining was probably hightened by lack of sleep (Baby, Earthquakes), overworked (Curse you work)! and my reluctance to try and get some extra sleep when there is a tray of unpainted figures nearby. I guess as I don't wargame as much these days, when you only play one game every month and all you do is get stonked - its gets a little tedious.

Anyway, in Spain the East is going kaput at a vast rate of knots, the centre has been quiet, though in Badajoz the sudden arrival of Junot has increased the excitement. In the NW all sorts of entertaining events are happening as Portugal is once again invaded by the French and our white hearted heros march onwards to Bayonne !