Napoleonic

Its Bonus Round time once again. This week the theme is "Water Feature"I was going to paint up a Native American canoe or a few empty 15mm boats, I mentioned itto Postie. who had a lightbulb moment.Hence these boats...I gave him these two Napoleonic Landing boats a few years ago, I think I bought themon ebay??So I'm unsure of who makes them?They could be AB???There are 19 x 15mm figures1 x small gunand of course the 2 boatsThey're based on stiff card, that I stuck a few lolly pop sticks to, to stiffen the baseup even more. Then they're coated in pollyfilla, to create the wave effect.Hopefully they won't warp?I thought they'd be easy to paint gluing the figures in place on the boats first.Oh how wrong I was!!!!It took me double the time to paint these as it should.But I'm pretty pleased with the results.So that should be38 for the figures2 for the gun, its not that big really....Oi, none of that either!!16 for the boats50 bonus points106 in total???You can still vote for any of the great entries here, if you s

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Another couple of test figures this time Brigade Models 95th riflemen again these will be used for Sharp Practice this time replaying the Sharpes TV series set in the peninsular ,I have the Brigade figures of Sharp ,Harper and the chosen men stored away in my lead pile .

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Somewhat later than planned Day 3 concludes and the combatants are starting to get into battle positions, with intelligence reaching the main commanders of enemy movements and intentions.Rats, thieves and third columists continue to be a problem with forces across the island losing regularly losing supplies to the unwanted guests. At the end of Day 3 Toussaint Louverture see's his supplies reduce by 1 sack of grain, however his continues his expansion across the region. However he is starting to run out of room with enemy forces now on his Northern and Eastern borders.In the North East the region is fast becoming a tinderbox as the various factions move to secure strategic objectives, Bahon is secured by the Royalists as well as the coastal village of La Borgne.The stockade is empty and of enemy troops and they secure the 4 Pdr Artillery piece housed there.Dutty Bouchman continues his advance into Royalist territory his troops continue to clear plantations of their white landowners, in one such encounter he f

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As the campaign begins to take shape I have started to back fill some of the units purchased by some of the active players. I have limited the number of cannon available in the campaign, unless players purchased them in the begining or they were taken from a fort, then additional cannon won't be available as reinforcements.The gun crew are from Trent Miniatures, I made one head swap to allow me to use them across Haiti and the various factions. I should have the 4Pdr finished over the next couple of days.The Water Cart and Ammo Wagon are from Warbases and will come in very handy for the various support options selected by most players.I copied the uniform for the artillery from the Osprey Men at Arms book covering Napoleon's overseas troops. I am pretty happy with the result. Next up more light Infantry to bolster the French forces.

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No pressure, but Hammerhead is less than a month away on the 2nd March.I committed to putting on a Haitian game several months ago but it's only today when I got the mail that it dawned on me how close it is.Hammerhead is my favourite show of the year, there is always a great buzz about the show, I think it is the fact that everyone puts on a participation game which means that gamers come ready to talk to one another rather than rushing round and picking up orders.I have an idea for a game but just need to tweak the mechanics to allow for a quick turnaround of games and players, I also need some extra troops for the game so I best put my foot down on the painting front.If you are around on the Saturday come and stop by.I managed to get a further Slave unit complete this week, armed with stakes, knives and swords they are great in the first round and then not so good after that, but only 3 points in Sharp Practice they can make quite an impact on the table top if you can get them to close.The standard is the

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Today 1st Infantry Regiment of Duchy of Warsaw. It will be part of my army created for our big AB1 game in March this year. My plan is to create a division of two infantry brigades (2 regiments each) till that time. In my plans I have to create a cavalry brigade, but still thinking what to put inside. All my units will be in uniforms from 1810. Battalion will be consist of 4 fisylieur companies, 1 grenadiers and 1 voltigeurs. Voltigeurs will create a skirmish screen for battalion. I decided to do 2 battalion regiment, as for the most of the time it operated like that. All figures are from Front Rank. I did not found a big mistakes in uniforms on that figures, however to be historically correct it had to cut the feathers from officers hats. Together with infantry regiment I painted two 6 pounder guns, which will create the batteries for my brigades. Sadly Front Rank made here a lot of mistakes. The gaiters have a strange shape, the bottom is correct, but the top looks like Hungarian type boots, which is w

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Real life had conspired against me this week, but I need manage to get a few odds and ends completed, with the Haiti Campaign gathering pace.... (New Orders will be executed this weekend.) I begain to take a look at some of the figure collections which don't get much table time and could they be repurposed elsewhere, one of these was Ensign Claude Canard and his Friend and mentor Ensign Côtelettes de Mouton of the French Sloop "Le Vendeen".... last seen fighting off Arabs in Egypt.  In the early days of the slave revolt, the French Sailors were often called on to defend the port areas and supress the slaves. Our old friend Claude is far more likely to see action in Haiti in the year ahead. Originally based on pennies, I glued them straight on to Warlord bases and built the bases up to hide the raised area. With a number of the colonial powers opting for detachments of sailors, I am now thinking I might just have to reinforce them for the campaign. The French need a suitable General to lead them into bat

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With the release of Dan Mersey and Michael Leck's Rebels and Patriots, I've dug out my 15mm 18th and 19th century miniatures to build two trial companies. I'll not go into a full review (there are plenty out there, here is Karawansary's, and ilivewithcats'); these read like another elegant set of rules, building on Dan's 'Rampant' series, and firmly rooted in the black powder period.First up are the 27th Inniskilling Fusiliers - my local regiment - for the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The 'Skins' had previously fought in the West Indies (1739-1740), against the Jacobites in Scotland (1745-1746), and then were sent to Canada where they fought from 1758-1761, before redeploying back to the West Indies until 1762 when they returned to New York.Although Rebels and Patriots is framed for games in the American conflicts of the 18th and 19th centuries, all the elements are there for more diverse conflicts in the period. Troop types (all modifiable) range from line and light infantry, to shock infantr

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During the mid nineties my good friend Dean organised a Napoleonic campaign in Sydney. I had quite a large French minifig and old glory army at the time and I had just started to collect Confederation of the Rhine coalition troops. Eventually the campaign got underway and I found that I required Gendarmes to protect my rear and supply lines, so I built a number of Confederation cavalry units to meet the threat. I eventually built five hussar and light dragoon units to fulfil the role, Anhalt chasseurs, Frankfurt Hussars, Saxe-Ducal Hussars, Baden Hussars and Duchy de Berg chasseurs. This year I will be refurbishing my older miniatures bringing them up to current painting style and basing, so all of these units will be on the table at some stage.In 1806 Frankfurt lost its status as a free imperial city with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon granted Karl Theodore Anton Maria von Dalberg, Prince Primate and Chairman of the Confederation Council, the former archbishop of Mainz;  received the

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Well the campaign has certainly had the desired effect on the painting front with the first major unit off the paint table in 2019. Up until now many of the troops have been native to Haiti so time to bring one republican forces, I am working my way through the round hats but these will suffice to bolster a number of factions in play.Made up of a number of packs from Trent Miniatures Revolutionary range they are a rag tag bunch but will give the Haitian loyalists and Slave armies someone to chase round the table.I have added in a couple of head swaps to add in some Mulatto's or Black troops to allow me to use them in more nationalist settings. I would have liked to have done a few more but a large number of the revolutionary french have flowing locks which make it difficult to make a clean head swap.But a smattering of native troops could be used as freemen or troops drafted in to bolster the ranks.I have included a Haitian Army regular soldier as comparison.They still need varnishing when the temperature is

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A bag full of heads - Well you can imagine the postman's face when he enquired what it was.The opening moves of the Haitian campiagn is well underway and it's already serving it's purpose as it's got me painting again. Although the back log has just got worse.Trent Miniatures do a great range for the French in Haiti and with many of their blister packs coming with seprate heads you can build quite a variety into your units, it also means as the units build I can set about creating my own. Surprisingly Trent don't do a pack of a pack of spare black heads however a quick chat with Steve over at Arcane Scenery and a few days later enough heads to kit out several regiments.    Given the trouble Steve went to and how quickly he turned them around, it would be rude not to use the opportunity not to bolster the ranks before the first games kick off.The prep is done I just need to put paint to metal, with the various head swaps I should be able to field these extra's against the various factions. First up T

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The weekend before last I got my first game of the year in the shed-o-war. Just two of us could make it so Surjit and I went 'mano o mano' in a Napoleonic game with a difference. We would be fighting a battle set in north america during the war of 1812. This battle takes place in July of that year somewhere in upper Canada and sees two columns, one British and one American, approaching each other. As usual we pulled a slip of paper out of a metaphorical hat to decide sides and it was decided that I would be the Americans and Surjit would play the British. SetupThe war of 1812 had a long prehistory that lead almost inevitably to conflict. To the Americans the war was an act of defiance against a hostile Royal Navy that infringed on US territorial waters. To the British it was an attempt to counter American breaking of the naval blockade that was choking neutral trade to France. By 1812 both fleets were in open conflict with the Royal Navy's smaller frigates getting the worst of it.Commitment to the war in

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Few weeks ago, Andrew, the members of the Wargaming in Scotland group on Facebook, asked if someone would be able to show him Battlegroup rules. I answered him as the first and last Thursday we had our game. I was thinking which book to use, Kursk, Fall of the Reich or Blitzkrieg. I decided to use the last one, which would be the great possibility to use some of my new models. Therefore we had Polish campaign of 1939 and fight for fictitious village with hard to pronounce name of Grzmiszczosławice.Kilka tygodni temu, Andrew, członek facebookowej grupy Wargaming in Scotland, zapytał się czy ktoś nie pokazałby mu zasad Battlegroup. Odpowiedziałem jako pierwszy i w ten sposób w zeszły czwartek odbyła się nasza gra. Zastanawiałem się jakiej książki użyć, Kurska, Fall of the Reich czy Blitzkrieg. Zdecydowałem się na tą ostatnią, była to więc możliwość użycia kilku z moich nowych modeli. Dlatego też mieliśmy grę z okresu Kampanii w Polsce w 1939 roku i walkę o fikcyjną wioskę o bardzo trudnej do wymówienia nazwie G

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Campaigns are a tricky business the idea is great but all to often people fall by the way side, lose interest or the games take to long to playout before the next campaign move, however after 12 months of one off games in Haiti I am hoping to not fall into that trap as we kick off the 2019 Wyvern Wargamers and friends Campaign.A number of the key mechanisms are pulled from the the Too Fat Lardies campaign suppliment Dawns and Departures but with a number of adaptions. Each player has a set number of points to spend in this case 120, once spent all players will be advised of how many Foot, Horse or Cannon are in play, players will have no idea of the quality or make up of the forces. However the core forces are pre-built to try and keep forces largely historical. I have opted for a modern map to allow me to use the separate regions of Haiti to decide if players are on home soil, it also means I can use google maps to see how far it takes to walk to a named location if we get into a race for a certain

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The last game of 2018 so why not finish with a multi-sided affair which sees the Haitian loyalists crossing the border into Santo Domingo to attack the plantations.The Spanish had cobbled together a scratch force to defend the main house, knowing that an attack was coming. Many of the local women folk had gathered on the front porch including Lady Jane Beufort an English lady and wife of the Spanish land owner Migel Vega a nasty piece of work of owner of many slaves.The Spanish had a Squadron of cavalry who were itching to put down the revolt once and for all, they mustered at the forge looking for a chance to take the fight to the insurgents.Rushing out of the barn the first of the escaped slaves pushed forwards towards the defenders.Their shaman urged them forwards. They had one mission kill Migel Vega nothing else mattered.Fearing that Lady Jane would be harmed by revolt the English had sent a detachment from a ship of the line to cross into Spanish territory to rescue her, they had ordered to stop anyone

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