Welcome

Welcome to my wargaming blog,
I'm Dave and live in Morpeth, Northumberland in the UK.
This may or may not be a regular thing, we'll just have to see how it goes.

I am a painter/collector of figures first and a wargamer second. My thrill in this great hobby of ours is to place that final well researched & painted unit into the cabinet. The actual gaming with the figures is an important but secondary experience, we all like to win, but it isn't the be all and end all of it, being with good friends and having fun is.
Hope you will enjoy reading this blog as much as I will writing in it.
Just to remind the visitor to scroll down the various pages and click on 'older posts' to see more.
Dave.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Viva Espania, well nearly!

Well here goes. I wasn't stuffed but lets say it could have gone better.
Neal and I are getting into the Lassalle set of rules, we have played about three successive smaller games (Brits against French) at his place but I thought that as the wargames table is just about there now that maybe we should give it a go with a slightly larger game.
My usual set of rules for the Napoleonic period is General De Brigade and I still like them, they seem to regularly have a 'realistic' result but do still require a bit of rule perusal during the game. Now't wrong with that but Lassalle seems to get there - well, easier and after a day at work the less head stress the better. If that is dumbing down then so be it but though the mechanisms are slicker, the end result seems the same. You pays your money and you takes your choice.
So 15mm French (me) Vs Spanish (Neal).




 Mistake number one, we should have increased the depth of the deployment zone. Doh, what's the point in having a larger table unless you use both the width AND the depth. The armies could have deployed closer together and had room to keep reserves.
Photo number two shows the objective, the white tents on the Spanish side. My plan was simple (like me), best infantry on my right attacking through the woods (top photo), mass artillery in the centre to stop Neal shifting reserves and defend my left flank with cavalry and a battery of horse artillery. Overwhelm the crappy Spanish in front and capture the objective.
Neal's plan, sit on his arse as far away from me as possible, let my French wear themselves out marching over to his side and hope I have a hernia reaching all the way over the table! It was more subtle than that but I'm writing this so there.






As can be seen from the above pictures Neal's Spanish cavalry moved across the shallow river in an attempt at flanking the French left while his right hand infantry brigades pushed on towards the town with the idea of being able to assault the French centre as it advanced. The French cavalry deploy to prevent the flanking manoeuvre.





Top picture of this set, two French batteries massed in their centre begin to pound away while the French right wing strike force advances through the large wood to their front.






Some views of and from the Spanish lines.I know one of those units is an Austrian Grenadier battalion but you know!





As the Spanish cavalry crossed the shallow river the French counter attacked and drove them back.








Now looking at the pictures above of the French infantry debouching from the wood and falling on the Spanish line it all seems to be going swimmingly, the dragoons are there to force the Spanish into square then off we go. Nope the dragoons charged in, Neal threw the spawniest dice ever while mine were crap and as the blood was up I just charged straight in with all my infantry in column instead of wearing the Spanish down a bit first and going in with fresh troops.



A before and after shot of the Spanish Grenadiers counter attacking a worn Hessian battalion and disposing of them in quick order. A few Spanish units were roughed up but the shame of it!




The situation at the end of the game showed the French having almost broken through the Spanish left after taking a bit of a pasting. With the Spanish centre coming under increasing amounts of canister from the two batteries we agreed that with darkness setting in the Spanish would withdraw to fight another day. Not quite a victory but too close for my liking.
Dave.

War game mat

A quick interlude while I put together the AAR of my French Vs Neals lucky, lucky Peninsular Spanish (no biased report coming there then!).
I sent away for and recieved two rubber wargame mats for my table from Tiny Wargames UK , not the cheapest but the quality is fantastic and I am very pleased. Richard will print the mats to any size required and will add hexes or squares as desired. I had fine 600mm squares on the mat in the photes mainly for 'To The Strongest' rules but the lines on the squares are so fine that they can be ignored if you wish.




Not quite the best shots in the world but you see what I mean.
I supose I had better get on with that Peninsula AAR now.
Dave.

Tuesday 10 May 2016

28mm Gothic/Hun cavalry

As can be seen by the (for me) extrodinary amount of painting getting done and blog posts being made progress is being made in re-basing the Late Roman/Gothic/Hun armies which have been left laungushing in the display cabinet for far too long.
This time it is Hunnic Noble, and Ostrogoth cavalry with a couple of command stands thrown in.












All of these cavalry are fairly generic for this period as are the Hunnic light cavalry seen previously which would do for any asiatic horse well into the 13th century.
Dave.

Monday 9 May 2016

Hey, it's the Huns Honey!

As promised more Impetus basing done, this time eight groups of 28mm Hunnic light cavalry. As you can see on the photos I've used the term Zunn to denote each unit. I know that it is a Mongol military title for 'hundreds' and rather too late for Huns (and there seem to be no record of unit termanology for them) but it's better than 'Unit 1, Unit 2' etc so what the hell.
Photos of some 'toothy' looking Huns, figures are Old Glory and Gripping Beast if I recall.






One a large enough table eight units of horse archers should p*** the enemy off!
Ostro and Visigoths next.
Dave.