Thurs Night Gaming: 1813 Campaign

2017 sees in a new opportunity for a campaign at the weekly Thursday night group I game with.

We needed a good Campaign system that modeled not only movement but the affects of that movement and supply but it had to be quick and easy as it was purely for generating battles for the tabletop.

I found a new series of games from Europa Simulazioni which seemed to fit the bill.

They had just released their 1813 game so I purchased it and found someone online wanting to offload the 1812 game for Russia as it was out of print.

A quick read of the rules and a check of the maps and it looked like it would work for us. Tokens are basically a division in strength with separate tokens for artillery parks. The movement rules are based on lines of supply and supply train tokens available to each player each turn. 

We dropped the unit tokens in favor of our own army flags but kept the 6 points of stacking rule and everything else except the actual combat calculation. There is a calculation to find if an attacking stack actually succeeds in attacking a defending stack. But then a combat calculation occurs which we removed in favor of using the tabletop to make the decision. So far its working well.

Last night we did 2 moves according to the rules as a play test. All players were happy with it but we did make a couple of small tweaks to match our orders of battle and requirements.

Next week we begin a one of battle as a siege opportunity was risen and all present would like to see how it plays out on the tabletop. 

Then we will reset the map and begin. 

The group has 2 players keen on the strategic campaign with up to another 4 just happy to fight battles on the night.

Oh and before I forget, I contacted the producers of these games and confirmed they are working on an 1814/1815 game. Personally I cannot wait for that one. And I hope they do an 1809 as well and I will be all set :)

1st French Foot Artillery Battery Complete

To go with my 1st division of French Infantry for 1815 I have purchased some guns and crew from eBay and once again added some final touches and rebased them for Empire V.

Below is the pic of the guns and crew upon receipt:

Before

The blue was updated with a darker french blue. I use Vellajo Dark Prussian for all by French blues. I also touched up the white belts and straps and added an Olive Green for wooden parts, Gunmetal Grey for metal parts and a Black Oil Wash (same I use for my own undercoating) to tarnish down the brass barrels.

I then added basing and used a different flock this time that matches the table top mat more closely.

After

All thats left on this 1st division of French is to paint the 2nd Brigade Commander and the Divisional Command stand.

Week Ending 28 September 2014

Finally finished a full division of Adler 6mm Napoleonics for Waterloo!

This is the British 1st Division (Guards) complete with commanders and limbers for the 2 artillery batteries. Label applied to the tray and it is set to go into the shelves to await being called into action!

Next up I need to rebase the French 1st Division and assemble and paint the limbers for its artillery and I will then have 2 divisions to do some rules play practice.

Week Ending 31 August Update - 1 task done

Recently I revised my thoughts around basing my 6mm Adler Napoleonics for Empire V.

Yet Again!

Last year I finalised my review of this and concluded to use double the width required and double the depth with 1 figure now replaced by a stand of 2 x 2.

This week I got annoyed at how long this project was taking and the psychological block so many figures was to my building and painting my units. So I have decided to meet in the middle and go with double the width thereby making my units 24 figures instead of 48. The original rules call for 12!

I will however still increase the depth from 5mm basing to 8mm to give more stability but the figures will be in 1 rank instead of 2.

Here is a british line battalion in line on the new basing

And here is the comparison from the original decision of 2 x 2 on 10mm base to 2 x 1 on 8mm base.

Now I will move ahead and rebase the entire British 1st (Guards) Division.

Rebasing 3

The rebasing of all my Naps 6mm continues.

Here is a picture comparing the 3 bases I have used.

On the left is the new method with mounting board and magnet.

The middle was a prototype of 1mm card and magnet

The right was my old method with simple card and magnet.

Rebasing 2

As a follow on to the previous post about rebasing my 6mm napoleonics for a little more strength, I purchased a good quality cutting knife and some 1mm card and fresh magnet sheets.

I have some French Old Guard figures ready for basing - although they are missing their command figures - so I decided to base them up. 10mm x 10mm square bases x 12 bases for a full 720 man battalion.

After they were dry I played around with them a little and they certainly do feel a lot more solid in fingers that my current based of card and magnet.

I also purchased some mounting board which I think is 1.5mm thick and have glued some magnet sheet to that as another sample. 

Stay tuned.

Rebasing?

Lately I have been thinking about my 6mm units and how they are based.

I have always been keen to keep the thickness of my basing to a minimum in order not to distrate the viewer from the figures themselves but still be thick enough to not bend or warp and keep the magnetic layer flat to stick to metal trays for storage.

When I look at my British units, each stand is 4 figures and a 2 x 2 formation. This stand represents 1 normal figure in Empire which is 60 men. Having them like this means I can make a nice road column and remove stands as casualties as I go. The French and Prussians have multiples of this per stand and while they do work okay for combat formations it means a road column is too wide and I have to mark stands and await further casualties before removing them.

I am seriously thinking of cutting these stands so ALL units are 4 figures.

This leads to a dilemma of units full of 10-18 fiddly stands of 4 figures.

So I am thinking of rebasing them on thicker card but still with the magnetic bottom.

Currently I use card or plasticard less than 1mm thick and then the magnet on the bottom. I may go to 1mm card or even 1.5mm or 2.0mm card.

I will go ahead and based up one unit soon and post it for feedback.

Campaign For France - 3. French and Austrians clash in Battle 2

At the same time the French and English fight out Battle 1, another French force and the invading Austrian force come together near the eastern border with Piedmont.

The French outclass their attackers with a heavy Young Guard Corps attached Guard Cavalry while the Austrian force is their main Corps comprising a number of Line Infantry Divisions, elite Advance and Light Brigades and a strong division of Grenadiers as well a small contingent of Wurttemburg troops.

Battlefield map:

French deployed along the bottom and Austrians deloyed along the top of this map

0900hrs

As a meeting engagement both sides deploy in medium rain. The rain reduced the visibility and so the forces deployed onto the field of battle without being able to see each other and losing a lot of their movement speed.

French forces deploy on the left and Austrians deploy on the right

Austrian Grenzers deploy in line

French Infantry

French artillery massed for effect

1000hrs

Almost all formations continued forward through the rain. In the centre and on the Austrian right, contact was made.

In the centre Austrian Hussars engaged French infantry in columns and on the right Austrian Landwehr engaged French infantry in columns.

Austrian Hussars decided to take the opportunity heavy rainfall gives and they charge forward moving to line formation before they did. Their target was 4 battalions of French Young Guard Infantry who immediately formed closed columns. The change of formation triggered an opportunity charge but the unit failed to capitalise on that moment. Minutes later though, they successfully charged and while taking a small amount of artillery fire on the way in, they met their target with no loss. All 4 French battalions were routed and the Hussars continued to penetrate into the French lines. Another 2 battalions in the line of charge failed to form square and were also contacted. This time however the fatigue of the horsemen was too much and they failed to cause any damage and withdraw.

A good start to the battle.

On the Austrian right, French Infantry in columns and Austrian Landwehr marched to close the gap between them. Rain forced them both to decide this engagement by the bayonet and the 1st line of Landwehr were routed. The 2nd line of Landwehr fared better and were pushed back but in disorder only and not routed.

Austrian centre closes the gap between them and the enemy with Austrian Hussars on the left excited about the juicy formations ahead of them.

Austrian centre left and left with elite infantry leading their formations forward

Austrian Hussars clear 4 enemy battalions from the force opposing the Austrians

French infantry on the Austrian right push away a line of Austrian Landwehr

French cavalry on the French extreme right

1100hrs

The commander of the Austrians, Field Marshal Guylai personally delivered a order to a portion of the reserve made up of a brigade of Austrian cavalry and a brigade of Austrian Grenadiers to deploy with haste to cover the extreme left of the Austrian line where a French cavalry division was threatening to outflank the Austrian position. 

The remainder of the Austrian reserve, another brigade of Grenadiers, was ordered to move to the same position on the extreme right but the order failed to arrive in time.

The situation at 1100hrs with French cavalry at the bottom of the picture threatening to come around the woods and the Austrian left. In the centre can be seen the 2 Austrian line divisions attacking in perfect unison with a small wood in between them.

Austrian light brigades support the line division attacking in the centre left

Austrian attack on centre left

The Austrian attack in the centre left was now engaging the enemy troops before it. The lines made for slow progress but it also kept casualties lighter from the French artillery.

The light brigades on the left here held their position in order to deploy artillery and ready cavalry to attack through the gaps while the line division on the right pushed forward and engaged the enemy infantry in firefights on the hill.

Austrian light brigades on the left and line infantry division on the right

In the Austrian centre right, another line infantry division supported by a light brigade attacked forward as well. With 4 Young Guard battalions on the run from previous cavalry attacks, the Austrians were keen to send in the fresh Hussar regiment to cause more damage that the infantry could exploit.

Another 2 battalions were scattered in a short time later.

A fresh Austrian Hussar regiment in the centre move off the hill to line up a charge on 2 battalions of French Young Guard.

Victorious Austrian Hussars sitting in amongst the French lines

Austrian Grenadiers screened by Grenz deploy in their columns on the Austrian extreme left

Austrian Cavalry on the Austrian extreme left

Artillery and cavalry move to deny the left flank to the approaching French cavalry

On the Austrian right flank, the Austrian Landwehr are charged and pushed back en mass with some routing and some withdrawing. Soon the whole formation was forced to withdraw and began breaking contact with the French infantry.

Wurttemburg light infantry await the oncoming French infantry

The commander of the Landwehr orders the withdrawal of his units

The Austrian Reserve division commander encourages his Grenadiers

1200hrs

The battle ends (2 x night maximum as per Campaign Rules) with the French in command of 3 points of strategic value on the table and the Austrians achieving only 1.

Click here for Part 4 of the Campaign