Encounter at Matz

For our regular Monday game this week Phil and I had settled on a small SYW game, using Black Powder 2 as the rules driver. For a change Phil opted to fight the French cause, leaving me as the British commander. The French begin the game in their encampments, the cavalry away to the west, the infantry to the east. The French Commander, the Comte du Merde, is only just arriving on the field (in Turn 3). The vedette from the Hussards de Bykli are stationed at the crossroads in the hamlet of Matz. The French in Turn 1 must despatch the vedette to alert one or other of the camps to the British presence. In their Turn 1 the British can only make one move onto the table, if they pass their order test that is. From this point the action will evolve, with neither side being assured of getting into action as quickly as they might like. Read on now to see how our respective little lead alter egos managed their forces...

The hussar on vedette makes his way slowly towards the French cavalry encamped to the west to raise the alarm.

The larger of the two British infantry brigades makes its way slowly. The spring rains have been heavy and the going is slow.

Full of vigor, the British cavalry advance boldly on the French cavalry encampment but soon come under artillery fire.

The second British infantry brigade makes its belated arrival from the north west. It finds the going slow at first on the muddy roads.

The alarm is finally raised and the French cavalry deploys to face the British. The Dragoons can be seen in the background moving towards the inn.

Over on the British left the lead regiment of the brigade is devastated by French artillery fire from its flank and flees the field in rout!

Away on the right the British drive off on French cavalry regiment and sweep forward to attack the French dragoons!

The 8th Dragoons engage the Orleans cavalry! It's looking as if the British cavalry will get the upper hand for once!

I spoke too soon! Both cavalry melees favour the French and two British regiments break in rout! Oh dear, and it all looked so promising. The British infantry are bogged down on the roads and are moving too slowly into position to attack the French infantry still struggling to deploy from their encampment.

In the face of heavy artillery fire and with two regiments in rout the British cavalry falls back on its supporting artillery. Will the French attack?

The French are finally deploying for battle as the British infantry make their way steadily into position. It may be too late for the French unless their artillery can delay the British advance.

As the French deploy in number at last the Regiments Normandie and Royale Deux Ponts come under fire from the British infantry. French artillery replies with devastating effect allowing Normandie to deploy into line. Deux Ponts though is caught still in column and falls back in confusion.

At the rear of the larger British brigade the combined Grenadiers have faltered. The Grenadiers de France and the Grenadiers Royale are seen advancing in column trying to turn the British flank. Can the Grenadiers save the British position?

Finally the last British regiment arrives just in time. "Follow me boys!"

The Grenadiers are Shaken and Disordered! Can the late arrivals save the day?

It may be too late to save the army anyway as one cavalry brigade is Broken and flees the field.

The Royal Irish, having endured long periods of heavy infantry and artillery fire on the British left flank, finally break, joining the Welsh Fusiliers to break another British brigade!

Eight out of twelve game turns played and the British have lost! With two Broken brigades out of the four being enough to signal a withdrawal. The game was always going to be close, especially given the appalling Command rolls by both of us and the complete ineptitude of the cavalry on both sides, who after early exchanges spent most of the game rallying off shooting hits from artillery fire. Nevertheless, a grand way to pass a Monday!

WMMS 2020

When Phil and I, together with other members of the Alumwell Wargames Society, organised the first WMMS show in 1976 I doubt if any of us had even a fleeting thought to where the show might find itself in the life of our hobby almost 50 years later. {In fact on a purely personal note it now takes place at Aldersley Leisure Village in Wolverhampton, little more than a mile from my front door.} The show used to hold the distinction of being the first in the year, where gamers from all over shook off the lethargy of months in winter quarters and queued in their hundreds to spend cash with the hobby's leading companies. Now of course there are rival shows before and around the date which have impacted some traders’ attendance if not yet diminishing the punter footfall. When you couple that with the growth of the internet it's almost marvellous that not only has WMMS survived so long, but that it still enjoys a reputation as the friendly show with super games, model stands, hosts of traders and even re-enactors! Considering how many other shows have expired, thinking about Triples, Derby World's, Midland Militaire and Northern Militaire for example, it is to the credit of the current organisers that the show goes on each year supported by so many folk across the region and beyond. Together with Phil I popped along this morning to meet old friends and spend just a little, but mostly to enjoy the visual offerings of my fellow hobbyists. A gallery of unattributed pictures to give a flavour of what the show can offer, in addition to the many traders and modelling clubs supporting this, the 44th WMMS ~

Apologies for not having attributions for the many games and societies, but time was limited today by extranious factors. There were other games I simply didn't get around to taking a picture of too. All this, plus traders and more for £4. You can keep Salute...

SYW ~ pre-battle thoughts.

All being well Phil and I plan a SYW game at our next GHQ bash next week. It will be the first run out for my new terrain mat, so I've taken a few pictures of the pre-game set up and added a few thoughts as I've gone along ~

  The French infantry begin the game in their camp. Initially four battalions are able to deploy once the alarm is raised by the vedette.

All is confusion and hustle and bustle in the French camp.

Meanwhile, the French line cavalry and dragoons are encamped at a distance from their infantry.

 The French Commander, the Comte du Merde, is just arriving with his escort.

It looks like a slow day for business at the inn!

 But a farmer's work is never done it seems, despite the ominous signs of a developing conflict on their doorstep!

The British drawn up for the coming battle! "God save King George! Confusion to his enemies!"

My first thoughts are how different the tabletop battlefield looks in the pictures from what you see with the naked eye. The cloth, by Deep Cut, really looks much greener and lighter in GHQ than it appears in these pictures. I expect we will all have to get used to that. My second thought, prompted by a comment Phil made in the week, is that I need more small scatter terrain. Lastly, a more positive note, the roads, buildings and Last Valley vegetation look fine! Now, on to the game next week all being well.

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?

Spain in Miniature

I took a few pictures of Phil's SCW table layout during a break in our most recent Monday game in OHQ. I really do rate Phil as an exponent of the art of visually pleasing while game friendly terrain. The pictures anyway, before I waffle on too much ~

Phil has combined terrain features from several manufacturers and different mediums to produce a uniform yet varied look to the table top battlefield. I think it's a standard we all could aspire too, even if not emulate to such an end product. See if you can work out all the different sources of terrain Phil has utilized in creating Spain in Miniature...

"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.

Mat matters

When GHQ first entered service, back in its original site in 2004, sorting out the base terrain over which games would be fought was an obvious early priority. The first solution, covering the 6'6x4' table top with railway grass matting sheets , proved reasonably pleasing to the eye if not hard-wearing. In the light of experience Phil volunteered to make bespoke terrain tiles similar to those he employed at OHQ games. These proved visually very pleasing with their combination of two green colours of towelling , green teddybear fur and grass matting. So much so that over the years when time and finances permitted more tiles were added to the repertoire.
Of course, tiles proved both flexible and restrictive in equal measure: the former was always welcome while the latter grew increasingly frustrating if I'm honest. When added to the slowly growing realisation that the older tiles were reaching the end of their useful life and looking very tired and frayed it dawned on us both that an upgrade was overdue. When it came down to considering costs and time factors it was obviously a bigger job now we are both 15 years older! The solution proved to be not tiles, but a game cloth similar to the one deployed in the recent Sudan game ~

The trouble was that most firms' cloths seem to max out at 6'x4' and the table in GHQ MK2 comes in at 6'x6'6" now. As it happens I've recently been scanning the Big Red Bat shop site, having done a figures for rules swop with owner Simon. There I found a Plains Green cloth available in 6'x8' format and so I took the plunge and ordered it up. It's now in situ here in GHQ following exemplary service from Simon in delivering it while my cheque was in the post ~

I have removed the rubber Scenic Effect dirt roads from the old tiles and in due course the river sections and emplaced hills will also be freed up to give us increased flexibility in table top battlefield construction. There are even enough serviceable flat green tiles left to make up a table using our beach sections, so the old look is not entirely lost. You will be able to judge for yourself over the coming months in any case, so do have your say as you see fit. Back to finishing off those Canadian Voltigeurs now though...