Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Battle of Wartenburg Part 3


Prussians start to pour across the river and over the bridge


French General looks on


Prussians clear the berm and close on the French


French battery valiantly defends the berm.  This lone battery was a thorn in the Prussian's side throughout the battle. 


The mess on the Prussian left flank...Bavarian cavalry routing, Bavarian infantry falling back, Prussian infantry facing the flank instead of advancing on the main French line...a total bogging of the Prussian assault


Advance!


The French line stabilizes and the Prussian attack stalls


The French line steadies and finishes off any hope for the Prussians

The French won the battle - the Prussians suffered enough losses to run out of AMPs and failed their first Army Morale test by a significant amount.  All in all, a very intriguing scenario....how many games have seen a Napoleonic army assault through a swamp!  Great game, great figures, great group.  

Monday, November 16, 2009

Battle of Wartenburg 1813 - More!

The battle of Wartenburg continues...


A mass of Prussians slog through the marsh in the center



The Prussians march across the marsh, toward the river and the Italians sheltering behind the flank of the berm.



Bavarians move toward the left flank of the Prussian assault through the marsh



Closeup of the Prussians...Beautiful!



Bavarian cavalry thunders into the flank of the Prussian assault!



The Prussian infantry defeats the Bavarian cavalry in the initial melee, faces the cavalry and routs them!  Note the 2 Bavarian infantry battalions pitching into the Prussian left flank.



The Italian Guard! (moved up from reserve to fill the gap at the open flank of the berm)



French (Italians?) move forward under inspiring leadership to blunt the Prussian assault.  Errr...wait a minute - that French (Italian?) unit has 3 UI loss!  This looks grim...

More to follow in a subsequent post.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Battle of Wartenburg 1813

Our game Saturday night featured a scenario of the Battle of Wartenburg 1813 - scenario details provided by Greg C and Eric.  The historical action had Yorck's 1st Prussian Corps defeating Bertrand's IV Corps composed of a mix of French, Italian, and Wurttemberg  troops.  I won't go into detail of the actual battle...check out "Napoleon at Leipzig", page 50+, by George Nafziger.  Or...Google it.

Rather than give a blow by blow account, I'll post a series of photos from the game.  As there are a lot of photos, I'll post over more than one posting.


The battlefield.  The French are deployed behind a berm, marked by the line of trees to the left of the river at the top of the photo.  The "Wurttemberg" contingent has been replaced by Bavarians in our game - they're deployed beind the river at the bottom right of the photo.  The Prussians arrive on the right of the table...with the bulk of the middle of their area filled with Class III marsh.   Slosh, slosh, slosh.




The French command "brain trust".  Don't they look confident?  From left to right - John, Greg R, Greg C.



The Prussians...looking very serious.  From left to right - Terry, Greg S, Eric, Chris.



Bavarians deployed in village on Prussian left flank.  Is that smoke?  Yes!  The Bavarian artillery makes a nuisance of itself, distracting the Prussians.


The remainder of the Bavarian command...horse regiments poised menacingly in reserve.



French on the left flank look up on the top of the berm in horror as the French advance much faster than anticipated.  Can the Prussians crack the French left and unhinge the line?


French infantry confront the dark Prussian horde.

More in the next post....

Prussians were provided by Eric; French by Greg C; the Bavarians were mine, painted by Eric.

Broncos lose to Redskins.  For those who thought that Kyle "Ocho" Orton shouldn't be starting as Broncos QB...the pathetic, paniced, incompetent display by backup Simms in the 2nd half (after Orton injured his ankle) should stop any call for Simms to be the starter.  I think the Broncos would easily have won that game with Orton playing the entire game...but with Simms?  Pleeeeeeze.  That guy is a S-T-I-F-F.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Bavarian Napoleonics

We're playing a Napoleonic game tomorrow night.  I think it will be the debut of my Bavarians, painted by Eric Miller.  Its been a busy week getting them based and the flags done.   Here's the lot of them:


Command Group Officer



The first battalion in the first regiment.  Eric hand painted the flag.  Insane!




The 2nd battalion of the 1st regiment.  Being goofy, and not insane, I modified a flag downloaded from Warflag.com....


The artillery....


I'll post the other 2 infantry battalions and the cavalry in a post to follow later.   I love Eric's style.  I also have a "lot" of Macedonians and Greeks that he painted that are working their way into my FoB Ancients armies.

I'll post details and photos of our Saturday night game ....really looking forward to a nice Napoleonic bash.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

That's So Base

My basing method isn't unique, but I thought I'd post a few "how to" photos of a Napoleonic Austrian infantry battalion I'm finishing.  First step is to thin some yellow glue and paint the base and figure bases, and then dip into a plastic shoebox filled with coarse sand and ballast.

The bases are then painted with thinned brown paint.  I use Americana Dark Chocolate.  The key is to thin the paint enough that it flows into the ballast/sand mixture without having to paint every tiny bit.  The result is even coverage with a minimum of work/time.


After the brown dries, the next step is a quick drybrush of Americana Mississippi Mud (above).


Next step (above) is a lighter drybrush of the next lighter earth shade, in this case for me - Americana Driftwood.


Next step (above) is to thin some black paint and "blob" it onto rocks and coarser rough areas that I want to highlight in a grayish stone color.  This isn't too precise...just blob black where it looks like you'll want the gray highlights.


Then a drybrush of dark gray onto the black areas - in this case Ceramcoat Hippo Gray.


Followed by a final gray highlight of Apple Barrel Dolphin Gray.

The base colors are now done, and all that remains is to add some vegetation texture.

While I'm sure that there are plenty of commercial products to use for grass clumps, I use my old stand by of cutting short sections of jute twine (packaging string, essentially) and gluing it to the stands.  I use 2 or 3 clumps per stand.  Just put a blob of yellow glue on the stand where you want the tall grass and then stick the jute into the blob.  Then just splay out the ends to make it look more like a grass clump...I just use the back end of an old paint brush to press against the jute clump.


The above photo shows the stands with all steps complete except for the final application and highlight of dark green static grass.  I just use a small plastic sculpting spatula and smear yellow glue where I want the green grass to appear.


Once the glue has dried, I brush the static grass areas briskly with a small stippling brush to "wake up" the static grass fibers and dislodge the loose fragments.  I then finish off the static grass areas with a drybrush of yellow to highlight and give a bit more texture.  Another photo below for a further example....



And that's it!  It's pretty easy to do, and it adds a lot more texture than a simple flock will.  The colors are my personal choice; you can select any combination that fits your terrain better.

Friday, November 6, 2009

That Takes a Lot of Gaul

Its been a busy week at work, so I've been unable to do any blogging.  I thought I'd post some photos of my Gaul units for FoB Ancients.  The figures are all Old Glory










That's all the FoBA for now.  I'm currently basing up several Bavarian Napoleonic units that I purchased from a brilliant painter in our group, Eric Miller.  I'll post photos after they're all based to match my collection.  They'll get their battle initiation next Saturday in a Napoleonic bash on my table.