Attack on Fort Trumper - Afterword

Rather than risk boring my loyal reader with a second detailed annotated photomontage of the second run through for the War of 1812-15 game with Paul from last Thursday, instead I've opted to present a selection from the many photographs Paul kindly provided which loosely follow the flow of that game ~

The first Militia Brigade were encamped behind Battery Heights at the onset of the action.

The second Militia Brigade was encamped beyond Fort Trumper, which in reality was nothing more than a stockaded blockhouse.

The Last Valley fenced garden makes a colourful and useful addition to the look of the tabletop in many different periods from Ancients to VBCW.

I used these naval boats to represent the two crossing points for the Anglo-Canadian forces. They are venerable pieces once available from Redoubt Enterprises if I recall correctly.

Matt converted the oarsmen for me, what from I don't recall, while he was still at school. There are similar sets now available from Perry Miniatures, at a price of course.

Andy at The Last Valley made this small family cemetery plot piece for me based on a piece I saw on a blog. It's versatile enough to do duty from the F&IW through to the ACW which makes it very useful.

The original collection for the War of 1812-15 I began back in the midst of time when Foundry first consolidated their business in St Marks, Nottingham. They used to sell bargain blisters of 20 or so castings for £5 or £6 and I would buy a few every time I popped over. The range was sculpted by Aly Morrison of course.

The range, which is still available from Foundry, is quite extensive for both Anglo-Canadian and USA forces, encompassing Regulars, Militia and Command figures for infantry, artillery and even cavalry. For the Americans there are also choices in shako and tunic styles to add variety. Fort Trumper itself was a bargain buy years ago ready painted on a Bring & Buy for £14! I believe it to be a Grand Manner piece.

Over time of course, as any veteran wargamer will readily understand, I added to the collection. Firstly from Foundry's Napoleonic British range sculpted by the Perrys, then later from Brigade Games sculpted by Paul Hicks and from Knuckleduster. Figures from all four ranges are in the picture and I'm confident you'll agree they compliment each other nicely.

It would be remiss of me not to say anything about how the game played out. After initially struggling to deploy Paul, as Lord Gornal, soon had his Brigades across the river both before the fort and below Battery Heights.

The Americans defended both crossing points with determination. They held fast on Battery Heights despite being under heavy fire from both banks of the river.

De Watteville's Swiss regiment in British service was forced to surrender when Broken, as an alternative to plunging back into the river and drowning, no boats being available to them!

The Royal Marine Rocket Battery was constantly in action, though sadly for Paul not with overmuch accuracy or effect.

From Casting Room Miniatures these figures were meant to mark scaling points before the Fort's stockade, but as they never made their target Paul used them for scrumping!

The game ended in Turn 7 with the Anglo-Canadian army's Morale Broken by losses, despite the arrival of a third Militia Brigade to support the assault. As the American commander I had the satisfaction of seeing the backs of the enemy as they fled from American soil! A win!!! At last!!!!!

A busy time coming up in GHQ now. On Thursday Guy Bowers from Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy is due for a photoshoot to support a forthcoming article on a battle from the Wars of the French Revolution. So I hope to take a picture of two myself for my blog if the opportunity arrises. The French Garde Chasseurs are finally finis so they have to have the bases dressed before they appear for your delectation in another blog post. Then there is the small matter of Matt's Footsore Vikings which I got underway yesterday. The first base of figures is ready for dressing and more are fixed to MDF hexes ready for their moment under the brush! Today though it's off to Phil's, for a bit of Midgard I believe.

Well,Well,Well.

Or rather just one Well. It's the Grand Manner 'Colonial Village Covered Well' which I must have bought sometime last year in one of Dave's periodic raw resin sales. I do like his pieces and have a number of them as scenic ephemera for various periods but do think them on the steep side of 'ouch!' for pricing. 

As a part of my break from painting SYW figures and given that GHQ is set up for a second F&IW game this week I thought I'd rescue this from its place amongst the Lead Pimple and get it painted. Like all Grand Manner pieces it looks a tad on the large side when you are painting it, but in situ it fits in just fine as I hope you'll see from the photos. So, waffling over, here it is ~

I chose to paint it in a warm sandstone colour, using the Foundry Rich Butternut triad. The woodwork is Spearshaft Shade washed with Brown Leather armour wash.

A couple of in situ pictures follow on now with 28mm Foundry figures dotted about for effect and to give a better sense of 'scale' ~

Firstly, a closer view of the well with two figures in close conversation.

I think the piece fits in quite well with my scratch built and Warbases buildings and scales well with the 28mm figures too. Sadly it seems that Grand Manner may be closing as I have heard that  Dave may be finally retiring. Let's hope they may re-emerge later in the year perhaps...

The Battle of Walton's Acre

 For the second game with Jon since restrictions were eased here in GHQ I rearranged the table from the previous ACW game with Phil, incorporating the latest terrain tile he's kindly made for us. The game is the fictional War of 1812-15 Battle of Walton's Acre with Jon as Lord Walton commanding the Anglo-Canadian army and yours truly as General 'Mere Marching' Bykleigh leading the the American forces. It has to be said right away that mere marching was largely beyond the American infantry! The game lasted only 7 of the alloted 12 turns and then largely only because my Saving Throws were exceptionally good, which is far, far more than can be said about my Command Rolls!!!

The Anglo-Canadian force sweeps down on the cumbersome US forces. The going must have been really difficult on the US side of the table!

Such poor Command Rolls, failing repeatedly to achieve the target score, sees the two right flank US brigades flanked by the Anglo-Canadians!

The Anglo-Canadian centre has deployed to effectively block the US deployment. Only the Militia brigade has reached its designated position in reserve.

At least Initiative Moves come to the aid of my hapless commanders! That and the first of many exceptional Saving Throws which dilute the effects of Anglo-Canadian musketry.

To say it had been a struggle to deploy for action would be an understatement, but the US columns can now deploy into line and trade lead with the enemy!

On the Anglo-Canadian right flank columns of infantry advance with no effective opposition thanks to a Blunder seeing the US left flank brigade retire off table!

A wonderful sight, unless you are the American commander of course...

Too little, too late as the US infantry begins to deploy into firing lines.

The Canadian Light Infantry seize the farm and split the US line! The Militia couldn't budge them no matter how hard they tried. The far left US brigade is Shaken and effectively out of the game!

The US centre and right are constrained by the Anglo-Canadian deployment and struggle to bring effective fire on the masses of the enemy. Casualties are mounting despite my continuing excellent Saving Throws!

It's all up for old 'Mere Marching' as the third US brigade breaks for the rear. It's a case of every man for himself at this point I'm sorry to report!!

Despite a thrashing of epic proportions I really enjoyed the game and not just for the good company and banter. Black Powder never fails to deliver the combination of uncertainty and the unexpected which we feel accurately recreates the fog of war for commanders at all levels in the army. Next up on Monday should be an AWI game, with yet another tweak to the existing table layout. Meanwhile it's on with painting the Pendawar Grenadiers and the first of the British Light Dragoons for my Pendawar project!

It's not Bronze, honest!

 When I finished the unit of Levy (see previous post) the only remaining unit for the Punic Wars project, the Allied Italians for the Carthaginian army, were not cleaned up and spray undercoated. In fact the only figures ready to paint were these Foundry War of 1812-15 oddments: an American general and four figures in summer kit - 2 officers, a sergeant and a junior NCO. I've opted for a two figure base to add to the skirmisher elements and another command base, after all you can never have too many generals, can you...?

I've now cleaned up the Italians ready to get them spray undercoated and onto the painting desk! The 20 figures will take me over a week I expect, I've noticeably slowed down with regard to painting of late. I've also been reorganizing the RUBs which hold the Lead Pimple. There are three Dixon Miniatures ACW 20 figure infantry units, one 20 figure Crusader Miniatures ACW unit, a 24 figure Eureka French infantry unit for the FRW, and 6 Trent Miniatures Scots Grey's STILL awaiting command figures after years of harassing Duncan to get them done! I've ordered a couple of books too from Caliver, one with a view to a new period/location but utilizing numbers of existing units from three other periods we play here in GHQ. More as and when on that...but in the meantime here's a clue.

The 'Peculiar Institution'...

 As I mentioned in my recent blog post on completing my Carthaginian army I just needed a break from bronze. The first 'intermission' project if you like is a small terrain feature which can be utilized in American settings from the AWI through to the ACW. Woke Wargamers should probably look away now, but for the overwhelmingly normal majority, please proceed to read on.

I've planned this piece for several months really. I got the pack of five female field hands from Eureka Miniatures UK a while ago. I wasn't sure what context I wanted to use them in, certainly two of them were obviously suited to a cotton setting, but cotton plants were entirely another matter. Quite by chance though I saw Ray Rousell's Haitian Revolt blog where he had utilized plants sourced from Vietnam! A quick Google search located the firm in question and a scroll through their web page located cotton plants! Success! So an order was placed, a confirmation email and despatch email received, and then, I waited... Sure enough, well within the timeframe quoted, they duly popped through the letter box! Then they waited their moment patiently in the queue, and now here it has finally arrived.

The MDF base is a left over offcut from some MDF building I did last year. I fixed the plants by bending 3mm of the bottom of the twisted wire stalks at right angle and gluing them into place a row at a time using UHU glue and a drop of Superglue to harden it instantly. Each row was textured then using Dried Earth Basetex and four of the five field hands fixed into place similarly row by row. (The fifth figure I've put on a seperate base as I felt it was a tad crowded. In all the piece took an afternoon to finish off. The figures probably a day or so to paint, mixed in with whatever Carthaginian figures I was working on that week.

Slavery is an uncomfortable historical truth, but in representing this in a small vignette I have no intention of giving the 'peculiar institution' my approval. It was a fact of life then and will add something to the look of the game. (As a counter I can field a Brigade of US Colored Infantry, something incidentally you don't see much of in ACW armies on the wargames table.) Now I have to consider a building to house the cotton gin... Oh, a Wargamer's work is never done!

Anglo-Canadian Militia Command

Continuing with the depletion of the Lead Pimple here in GHQ I've finished the last two mounted command figures for my War of 1812-15 collection. They are from Perry Miniatures, one from the British in Egypt range and one from the British Peninsular War range I think. They are a Colonel and an ADC. They seemed to me to fit together well in a dynamic way, suggesting an urgent order being sent out verbally during the heat of battle ~

That leaves just two Foundry American infantry regiments, in the later war tombstone shakos, to paint up at some stage later in the year. In the meantime, a new project is stirring here in GHQ. More on this in a subsequent blog post next week.

The War of 1812-15

While this period of self isolation rumbles on its nice  to have hobby related activities to provide both distraction and purpose. As some of you will know I write for Wargames Illustrated from time to time and recently Dan had accepted a piece I have submitted on my War of 1812-15 project. Of course, he can't now drive over to take the pictures to go with the article and so I've had a temporary promotion to acting photographer! I've spent some time this week setting up a table and agreeing a layout with Dan by email, so I thought you'd enjoy a general table view before I get the ok to start the individual pictures ~

I would hope to have all the required pictures taken and emailed off over the next day or so, though when we shall see the magazine again I'm trying not to think about really. I hope you and yours will all keep safe and well and that we can all look forward to The Other Partizan in October!

War of 1812-15 vignette

I really do dislike having to buy figures nowadays in blisters from many manufacturers, much preferring to choose individual figure combinations to suit how I want a unit or group to look. When the most recent phase of my War of 1812-15 expansion project had finished I had quite a few figures from the Foundry range left over. Some of these I utilised in making more skirmisher base markers and a few I used in additional Command bases, but that still left five figures to use up. My solution was to marry them up with a spare horse from another collection, albeit from a later period, to produce a vignette base. Anyway, see what you think ~

Apart from the two remaining units of US Infantry in the tombstone shako I still have some American and Anglo-Canadian command figures left over. I'll keep them for now as the US figures give me the option for a further Militia unit, while the Anglo-Canadian figures will let me create an alternate command base for my de Watteville regiment converting them to British infantry. But that lies somewhere in the future for now. Older folk like me may soon have more painting time than we want I expect...

Yet another War of 1812 US Command base!

I didn't manage to meet my target for February's painting total, falling 8 short in the end. Still, I managed 47 over the month and have finished 90 now in the first two months of 2020. These four figures are all from the Foundry War of 1812 range sculpted by Aly Morrison back in the day. The mounted General and the Infantry officer you will have seen on many a base before, but the sergeant is a new variant as he's sporting the 1813 tombstone shako. The bugler was just a surplus figure from my Lafayette Rifle Volunteers, so he is in that uniform scheme rather than the US Rifles he should represent. Here they are anyway ~

There remain now two US Infantry regiments in the 1813 tombstone shako, again Foundry figures, and two mounted Anglo-Canadian officers to make a final Command base for that army. These are from Perry Miniatures, one each from the Peninsular and British in Egypt ranges. They may get painted in April, we shall see.
Thoughts now though turn to Sunday's WMMS and the chance to view some great games, catch up with chums after being in winter quarters, and of course splash some cash on new and entirely needed new toys! See you there perhaps?

"Forward the Canadian Voltigeurs!"

The latest completed unit, and the third by Brigade Games, for my War of 1812-15 expansion is representative of the Canadian Voltigeurs. Their uniform of dark grey faced black proved somewhat less of a painting challenge than I had feared and was enhanced by sparing use of lighter colours for the haversack, canteen and strap. As usual, here they are in their entirety, followed by a few closer views ~

The figures are sculpted by Paul Hicks, a well known if, in my opinion at least, a somewhat overrated exponent of the art. Why, you may ask? Well, I dislike the very thin muskets and bayonets, an accident waiting to happen in the cut and thrust of the tabletop environment! I'm also not keen on his faces, very 'rat like' I think. However, the main issue I had with these was the poor definition on the business ends of all the muskets evidencing poor sculpting or molding, take your pick, but somewhat spoiling the final look of the figures. On the plus side the range is reasonably complete, by wargames company standards at least, and Brigade Games' service is exemplary. If I was being picky I'd like some mounted Canadian volunteer figures and perhaps another US mounted volunteer unit to be added to the range. Now though I've a Command stand of Wargames Foundry figures to finish before I can press on with some Dixon ACW figures for the 10th Tennessee.

Canadian Voltigeurs - a trial base

Just a quick blog entry to show any interested passers by my first go at painting the Brigade Games Canadian Voltigeurs. As the main part of the unit will be based 3 figures to each 40x50mm MDF base, I opted to paint 2 of the figures for the 40mm round base of skirmishers ~

ok

I wanted to try a couple first before starting on the main bases of the unit because I was unsure how I might tackle what is essentially quite a subdued uniform. The bulk of the rank and file are in Foundry Granite shade, highlighted lightly with the mid shade. All the boots, gaiters, straps, accoutrements and headgear are black! I used Charcoal Black mid to highlight the gaiters and head gear, Slate Grey shade to highlight the rest. A little relief comes with the haversack in Arctic Grey shade, picked out in Boneyard light, with the water canteen in Union Trouser Blue shade, highlighting it with the mid tone, and the canteen's strap in Deep leather shade, highlighting in the light shade. The musket is Foundry Musket Stock Brown shade picked out lightly in the light shade. The metal work is Blackened Barrel light picked out in Metal light.
I've three more ready for the highlighting phases, when I have a spare hour this weekend, and two more with the flesh and gunmetal base coats blocked in. I still hope to finish these this month, but it will be tight.

New Jersey Militia muster in!

The main four bases of figures are now finished for this latest addition to my War of 1812-15 expansion project. These are Brigade Games figures who will represent a regiment of New Jersey Militia. The flags are home produced using images I found on the net after a Google fest! I doubt they are strictly historically correct but they will do for my purposes ~

As I mentioned the four remaining figures  are mounted in twos on two 40mm round bases to use as markers for skirmishers ~

 Next in line in the painting queue I have the Canadian Voltigeurs to work on, who will be based to the same pattern, and another Command base for the US forces using up spare Foundry figures I have in stock.
If I manage those this month then I plan to paint up the Vickers 6 ton tank Phil gifted me for my VBCW collection. After that I have two regiments of Dixon Miniatures ACW Confederate infantry I would like to paint up for our campaign in the second half of the year. Wish me luck...

War of 1812-15 ~ New Jersey Militia 1

Despite the longstanding problems I needn't go on about I am pushing on as best I can manage with my planned month of War of 1812-15 painting. The second Brigade Games unit of US Militia are well underway in the form of the skirmishing pose figures in hunting shirts.
When I came to plan out the look of the unit I found that 4 figures on a 40x40mm base just didn't work for me, so these are now 3 figures each on four bases of 40x40mm and 2 figures each on two 40mm round bases, rather like the skirmish bases I made last year using up surplus US and British regular figures to represent skirmish lines. (As an aside, the Canadian Voltigeurs will also be based in a similar manner.) Here are the first two bases I've completed  so far ~

The colours for this unit, like those for the latest New York Militia unit, I made after a Google search for suitable images. It works for me, but I freely acknowledge that it may not be entirely historically accurate. But, hey ho, it's my game with my toys so frankly they will do just fine.