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That looks awesome!


Man... now I miss going to Cold Wars and Historicon over on this side of the pond!

 Sigur wrote:
Here's a 'teaser' from a wargames show earlier today at which the guys set up a quick-ish Waterloo-ish game:

Oh man, that is epic! Very well staged... but I especially like those casualty token / counters . Quite nifty!

I can't believe strategy back then was to march right into the cannon...

@Wehrkind: ^^ I'm sure there are lotsa nice wargames shows within reach of your location, right?

@RiTides: Cheers. It does look great, doesn't it. The casualty markers are painted by now (not by me, but the guy who does them owns more casualty markers than I do painted Napoleonics minis altogether ). As for Napoleonic tactics - they were sound for the time, worked out by clever people and tried over and over during the course of the several wars. Of course I'm no expert what so ever. Batteries of artillery were outmaneuvered where possible, but often that artillery position had to be taken out. Stuff like lying down (which was employed at times of course, but mostly to hide formations from the enemy as far as I know). If you would see the enemy lie down in front of you of course it's time to send in the cavalry. And let's not forget that even in WW2 and thereafter the frontal attack on enemy positions often was the only way to get the job done. As far as I know Napoleonics is such an ever-popular period to play not only because it looks magnificant, but also due to the fine balance of cavalry , infantry and artillery of the time and the fact that a quite big number of major powers were involved. This is always a popular choice for wargamers of course.

That's a fantastic looking scene Sigur. Been a long while since I've played any kind of historicals and I'd forgotten how darn realistic the tabletop battles can look.

@Gitsplitta: ...and first and foremost they look awesome!

Okay, it's been a while since the last update. Mainly because I didn't do much show-worthy to be honest (played C&C Ancients again on Friday). However, this past Saturday the Waterloo Boys set up a demo table for The Big Game (a scaled down teaser at least) at Vienna Army Museum for their special Waterloo event. They got a spot right in the middle of the big festival hall, which is pretty darned cool. Of course it's all leading up to VIVAT III in mid-November:



With a firm hand and a big map, Nikfu orders how to set up the table:


Here's a closer look at the map:


See the VI Corps under Lobau, right to the North of where the Imperial Guard is held in reserve? This is where my dudes are going to sit (along with many others). My dudes are just half of 2nd Batallion who themselves are just half of 19th Division who of course are just a third of VI Corps. But they still count!

Right on queue, the Imperial Guard Grenadiers showed up:


Quite a few reenactors were present on the day as well. No formations as such, but a bunch of various specimen. I even spotted a lone Austrian grenadier (not pictured) outside the museum as well.



All the buildings you see here are by Hovels. Really, really nice 25mm resin buildings. I've also seen their 15mm stuff. Very nice as well.



Considering they're resin buildings they aren't very expensive either.



Here's another look at the village of which I forgot the name of, along with a few more reenactors depicting Brits:


British Rocket troop en miniature:



As time progressed the table filled with minis:





After a while this chap got out the old bagpipes for a sound-check:


It sounded rather nice and certainly added mood to the whole scene, but bloody hell this thing was loud.


So that was that. I could only stay for the setup as I had to leave for further adventures (originally I had planned to visit a miniatures gaming get-together at a nearby [1.5hours drive] castle, but that [the event, not the castle] was relocated farther to the south, which would have meant a 3 hours drive back and forth each, so I passed on that). So what was I actually up to in the mean time? What I usually do when I get quiet for a while, I painted a bunch of Polish Lancers:





These of course aren't for myself, but for a customer. 25mm Minifigs from the early 1980s, being Vistula Legion, former 1st Uhlans, at the time these figures depict them 7th Lancer regiment in post-1812 field dress. As with the Guard Lancerrs, 32 figures per unit. These are just the troopers in the picture, officers, NCOs, colour sergeant and trumpeter are still in the works. The guys pictured are pretty much finished. I'll pick up the horses on Wednesday. Hope you like the pictures.

Outstanding update Sigur. Thanks for posting.

Nice table but you always seem to have the best locations to house your events. Columns and floors of marble ect. Very Nice.

@Gitsplitta: Glad it is enjoyed.

@Solar_lion: cheers. Yeah, the location was really, really nice. Here's aother shot of the hall: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/HGM_Ruhmeshalle_01.jpg.

D*mn, Now that makes a great Game room.

It's far from the norm that a table with miniatures is set up in that hall though. They usually are hidden away in one of the wings.

War hounds are a thing in Frostgrave, so this fella is going to be added to the Mordheim/Frostgrave band:







He's from that Toughest Girls in the Galaxy range which bugs everybody on pretty much a daily basis with their latest (and seemingly never-ending) Kickstarter projects. Hope you like him!

Cute pup . And the Waterloo event looks like it was awesome!

@RiTides: Cheers! Yeah, I would have loved to stay beyond the setup, but I had to leave for some other appointment.

Update!

Alright, what happened over the past few days? I did some more work on the old school Poles. The cavalrymen are done now, next up are the horses. I picked the main part of them up this week, some are still being worked on (the customer reworks the models one by one with great level of detail and making them look much, much nicer than the original sculpts. Really impressive how much work he puts into them. Tomorrow I'll pick up the rest.). Furthermore I'll be at a minis flea market hosted by the 'local' wargaming club. Very much looking forward to that, not the least because I'll meet some friends there. Anyway, the Vistula Uhlans are half done now. Very eager to see how they look once the horses are all done as well and with the unit all based and ranked up. It's a very different thing to what we're used to nowadays, but it's got a unique charm to it as well I think.

So after this short break I returned to do a little work on my part of the huge Waterloo project - the French 27th line regiment. They look like this now:



This time I used a slightly zoomed shot for a change because you already know how many minis these will be approximately. Things are getting more colourful now and I started some detailwork. These blue mushroom shaped heads two of the fellas are wearing is the kind of cap that was worn in camp. Much more comfortable than wearing a shako all the time. The guys may wear them in battle because they lost their shakos or they just dissolved due to campaigning. Maybe it's not easily visible in the picture, but there's a little 27 (the regiment's number) on the front part.

If you look over the pictures from the army museum event I posted last week you can see the grenadiers with the big bearskins and in the next picture you see their officer inspecting our waterloo table. In the second picture he's wearing the officer version of this camp cap.

By he epaulettes (the shoulder things with the fuzzy bits in the end) you can already tell which models will be part of the Grenadiers company (the biggest, burliest and seasoned guys in the regiment with the completely red epaulettes), which models will be part of the Voltigeurs company (red epaulettes with yellow rim and green tassles). Voltigeurs were exclusively shorter guys who were able to run faster then the bigger ones as well as the better marksmen of the battalion. They got special training in skirmishing in loose formation, traversing obstacles and scouting. From 1808 on they got better payment (like the Grenadiers). Both these elite companies wore short sabres in addition to their bayonets for close combat (only until 1812 by decrete, but many of the men kept their sabres beyond that date).



Here you can see the general layout of a French battalion back then (1808 to 1815 IIRC). Basically there were 6 companies: 1 grenadier company (heavy infantry), 1 Voltigeurs company (light infantry) and 4 companies of Fusiliers (line infantry; the regular grunts). On the day of the battle of Waterloo the two Battalions of the 27th line infantry regiment comprised 821 men (including officers). The ratio of model in this unit to man is roughly 1:23 (1 model represents ca. 23 guys in real life). One of the reasons why such a weird ratio was chosen is that 36 figures can depict this Battalion structure really well: 6 figures per company, a nice line look to it. I think that this is one of the reasons why this is one of those really popular sizes of units for Napoleonic infantry on wargaming tables. A few months ago there was this little upheaval with Warlord Games who reduced the number of models in their French Line Infantry box to 24 (along with a substantial price increase) and they tried to justify that move by saying that they got a lot of feedback from wargmers who said they'd prefer smaller units. of course nobody has any idea who got asked to get this information. Oh well.



In this picture you can see fusiliers grenadiers and Voltigeurs next to each other for comparison (and again one guy in camp cap with complete camp outfit). Grenadiers in full red (no.3), Voltigeurs in yellow (no.1 and 4), fusiliers (2, 5 and 6) without epaulettes. Number 1, that Voltigeur, doesn't wear any epaulettes as well. The reason for this is that ACTUALLY only grenadiers were allowed to wear grenadiers. Towards the end of the Napoleonic era this probably had cost reasons as well. Despite all this Voltigeurs are so often depicted wearing epaulettes so I assume that it was very common for them to wear them as well (some variations, but always keeping the yellow and green or just green).

That black leather case (with the golden N on it on the fusilier in the picture) worn by everyone is the ammo case. The gentleman in the right has an additional bit of fabric over the ammunition case to keep the contents from getting wet (which would have made them unusable). When greatcoats weren't worn they were carried rolled up on top of the knapsack. I left the knapsacks off the minis for ease of painting.

Alright, I can't think of anything more to wirte now. I hope that I didn't get too much wrong in this posting. I'm a newbie myself in terms of Napoleonics, but I have to admit that it's very interesting (i hope I'm not the only one in this thread who thinks so ).

So the goal is to get this bunch painted by November the 14th. Oh, by the way: I also put together an officer, a flagbearer and a drummer. Those will be added as well. You'll notice that I'll end up with more than the 36 required models. No problem, I'm sure I'll find some use for them on the day. Maybe as extra troops or exhibition pieces at my painting workshop. If the next update will be about the 27th again I'm not sure. First the Polish Uhlans should get done.

Thanks for reading, I hope you find this whole thing interesting. Comments, critique and questions are always welcome of course!

They look glorious Sigur!

@Gitsplitta: Cheers.



Yesterday I've been busy. Meeting with two customers, a shopping trip with a friend in between AND the local games club fleamarket! I missed the event a bunch of times before, but yesterday I made it. Very nice event, mostly for meeting the lovely people, but also for making sure the lead and plastic pile doesn't deteriorate any time soon.


Now for the loot:


Goff Nob and Cinder, a dragon by Reaper minis. As I may have mentioned a billion times before, I've got a Space Orks army. All 1st and 2nd edition models, mostly Goffs and Snakebites. Horribly unplayable under current rules. (the only vehicles I've got are two Buggies and a beat up 1st edition plastic battlewagon which I still haven't managed to restore properly, no fliers even though I've got a Dakkajet still in box, waiting for getting converted [at least the pilot] to fit my guys) So when I see a 2nd edition Ork Nob in blister I still have trouble not picking it up.



That dragon on the other hand caught my eye. Really, really pretty model in 'heroic 25mm size'. So it's not huge, but next to 28mm models it looks proper big as a dragon and as I said, lovely detail. There's a new Bones version of that model out, but the metal version looks so much sexier and the detail is much better. The foam inlay thing is kinda bent in the picture because I had to hold it upside for taking the picture.

I also picked up those:


I developed this weird habit of buying lots of 15mm WW2 Western Front stuff, and I managed to pick up this box for cheap yesterday. I have no excuse I'm afraid.



Now for the books. First I got the Future War Commander rules:



Last year Pendraken Miniatures picked up the rights for the whole Commander series (Blitzkrieg Commander, Cold War Commander, Future War Commander) and they're currently working on re-releasing the rules with a few clean-ups and probably with every single picture replaced with pictures of the (excellent) 10mm Pendraken miniatures. I'm still holding out on their release of Blitzkrieg commander, which will be their first release. From what I read Future War Commander is last on their list. As I probably won't pick that one up as I don't have much in the way of small-scale sci-fi gaming (well, apart from an Ultramarines army for Epic of course, but I got nobody to play), but I'm eager to see what the rules are about. I keep hearing good things about this series of rules. Has anyone of you played any of the Commander games? (Blitzkrieg, Cold War or Future War)


The Oldhammery-inclined amongst you will probably have much more of an interest in the background of the previous picture. Those probably are the 'biggest haul' (objectively speaking) on the day:



Aw yeah, it's the Warhammer Roleplay campaign books The Enemy Within/Shadows over Bögenhafen and Death on the Reik. For a phantastic price. Very much looking forward to reading those.


Well, that's that. I also started working on some promo minis for an upcoming kickstarter project from the Dead Earth Games guys. Very interesting stuff, stay tuned!

That's an impressive loot pile Sigur, I think the WFRP books are my favourite although that dragon looks nice.

@GiraffeX: Cheers. Yeah, the WFRP books surely are the most impressive haul. €12 for both of the books. Bless the guy I got them from. His friends even said he should ask for more, but he said "nah, it's okay.". Cool dude.

Just so you know that I still paint stuff too instead of just buying things and looking up Napoleonic formations and uniforms and stuffs, here's one of the minis I paint for Dead Earth Games' upcoming Kickstarter project - Princess Nave:



Just a WIP at this point of course, but getting there. Slowly. :p The other mini I'll paint for this KS project is bear cavalry!

If you're interested in what I think of the quality of the sculpts, I wrote up a review of the minis I painted for the prior KS project the guys ran a few months ago:

http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2015/06/review-shattered-crown-miniatures.html


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And another update! With a very underwhelming first WIP of the bear rider:




Added some more colour, some more details and backpacks!



Things are grinding down a bit now with all the detailwork. This is the point at which I have to decide how "well" these guys will be done on the day. Technically they only need the pommels on the shakos painted and some more decorations on the shakos and they're ready to field. Technically. Well, of course they need to be based as well. :p But let's see how much time I have to do these properly. Of course they also need their "command models" done as well.

Well, the princess is finished!

























What do you think, sirs?

She looks very nice indeed.

That mounted model looks incredible. And a Kickstarter, I'm intrigued!

I'm changing my tune though, I like the pics with that nice grey background

Excellent job. However the base is equally incredible.

That was my thought as well. Basing can really propel a model, even an expertly painted one.

@GiraffeX: Thanks muchly.

@RiTides: Thanks. IIRC the Kickstarter starts on November 1st.

@Solar_lion: Thanks. It's for promo reasons so I thought might just as well make it a pretty scenic base.

@Gitsplitta: Oh yes, very much so.


Okay, I should leave right now, but here's a quick little update:

Case in point...

@Gitsplitta:


The bear's done!





























Hope you like the model! Him and the stag rider lady are going to be fundable through Dead Earth Games' Kickstarter on November 1st! They're really, really well cast minis with barely any mould lines cast in high quality white metal.


First WIP of the officer, drummer and flagbearer for the 27th Line Regiment:



I also started working on the comparative review of the Perrys Napoleonic French line infantry (1812-1815) and the Warlord Late Napoleonic French Infantry.

Heyhey, I got to play a game again!

After Frank Shandy (not his real name, but close :p ) was so good to introduce virago and me to Sharp Practice a few weeks ago and a general agreement of the Lard being to everyone's taste we had a game of Chain of Command again!



It was me vs. Frank (his first game of Chain of Command), the setting was our regular mid-1941 Northern African theatre. He got to command virago's German Panzer Grenadiers platoon under the notorious Oberleutnant Lechner whereas I, as usual, commandeered my stalwart British rifle platoon under Second Leutenant Fitzpatrick. Virago, much to his credit, umpired, poured drinks, provided tiny Germans, snacks, terrain and the table. Speaking of the terrain: We were a bit short on terrain as the hills were all out doing duty on other tables that night, so it was ruled that the bushes as usual block LOS and between the bushes troops can see but get light cover. Same goes for palm trees. Houses and walls count as hard cover.

We chose to play scenario#1 from the CoC rulebook: Patrol. Two patrolling platoons meet by accident and have to shoo the opponent away. Only little support, get the opponent's Force Morale down to 3 or less and you win. I ended up with a whopping six support levels, the Germans got two.


Patrol Phase and Setup

Here's an overview of the table setup as well as a quick rundown of the forces:


In the patrol phase I did my dearest to get as close and if possible into the built up area. Setting up position in these buildings was my first and foremost objective, because it's a rather tedious and potentially self-destructive task trying to get infantry out of hard cover. If the Germans would get into the built up area I would try to use superior numbers to drive them out again, hence the additional infantry section as support. I also brought a second 2" mortar team because those are just brilliant. I rolled for Force Morale and ended up with 10 as a starting score.

My opponent, having read his combat manuals, viewed the built up areas as a deathtrap and instead chose to rely on mobility and keeping options for flanking maneuvers open and do that encirclement-destruction thing. Or so I assume. The German support, limited as always due to high platoon rating, was the usual: a staff officer to keep a close look on Oblt. Lechner's and a medical orderly to keep NCOs and officers out of harm's way. The German starting Force Morale was 8.


The Early Game

I started by setting up the two 2" mortar teams as well as my platoon sergeant in a nice, cosy and first an foremost safe place and started lobbing smoke rounds at the German Jump-Off points.



The Germans deployed two full squads of Panzergrenadiers at roughly a 90° angle. Of each squad one team set up overwatch positions to use the other team as maneuver element. Once those guys got to a good position they'd do the overwatch and the other team would follow suit. Again, textbook stuff. My comparatively primitive plan was to hug the buildings, keep the boys' heads down and the Germans from firing at them via means of smoke rounds. These Panzer Grenadiers can pour out horrible amounts of fire.

Once the smoke finally landed in the right spot I deployed a section of infantry in the biggest building (thanks to the close jump-off point I got there), in part because I was anxious that the Germany might take any building if I didn't deploy troops there.



There was a short exchange of fire between them and one of the Panzergrenadier teams, but not much happened.

Or so we thought.



Due to a random event fire broke out in one of the houses! Many a theory were formulated that evening about the enormous smoke cloud emerging (and lasting until the end of the game no less!), amongst them comparisons to the Springfield Tire Fire. Given how the smoke was there to stay and blocked LOS completely, this changed the whole tactical situation, and not necessarily to my disadvantage I have to add.



In the mean time the German plan unfolded further. Oblt.Lechner himself grabbed a team of six Panzergrenadiers to take them around my right flank, using smoke and vegetation as cover, to silence my mortars and put some pressure on. At the opposing side of the built up area another team of Panzergrenadiers advanced to the walls of the compound. I reacted by deploying another infantry section and by moving them into the only other usable house left (two being completely covered in smoke (or burning), the leftmost being mere ruins and completely open in the direction of the enemy.



The Germans also deployed their third full squad of Panzergrenadiers (you can see them in the background).



The Mid-Game

Curious things happened. True to his nature, Oberleutnant Lechner doesn't only lead from the front, he is the front. This team of Panzergrenadiers he took with him seem to have been especially chosen to be his Stoßtrupp because they ran like crazy. Before I suspected it they charged through the smoke, hurling bullets, spades and insults at my mortar teams and platoon sergeant who fought back bravely, but were killed after a quick and bloody struggle.



What's worse is that Lechner and his team also took out my Jump-off Point. Not that it was vital to my plans, but this can have bad effects on Force Morale. Just like losing two support teams and a platoon Sergeant.

Luckily I had held the Australians in reserve who I deployed immediately (after Lechner and his group had hunkered down behind thick vegetation to take a breather). Only few of them actually got a shot at the enemy, but hurling grenades over the wall and the shrubbery did the job nicely too. In addition to this the section on the large building repositioned a little to open fire at Lechner's team, without effect. Seeing as how well the grenade lobbing worked for the Australians the NCO ordered his lads to throw one down as well. The rifleman fumbled though and the grenade fell to his feet, which is very bad in a confined space with hard walls. Luckily the result wasn't quite as horrible as it could have been. The German group outside was reduced to three Grenadiers and Lechner himself got injured. They broke and retired swiftly towards a table edge. If at all, it would take quite a while before they would be factor in the game again.

Here's an overview:



You can see the currently unsable Jump-Off point got greyed out. By the end of the turn it would become unusable for good if I wouldn't retake it and lead to a loss of Force Morale. Of course the Oberleutnant getting wounded and a team breaking hurt German Force Morale as well.

In the mean time the third German section moved directly towards the built up area.



I expected nasty close combat erupting over the compound and pulled back then Australians to set up overwatch in the narrow alleys between the buildings. They even caught one German team trying to slip by at one point.



I deployed my third infantry section in the yard of the large building as a reserve in case nasty close combat should break out. My second section meanwhile duelled with the forward Panzergrenadiers team. As both sat in hard cover effects were bearable for both sides. However, the German squad's NCO got killed due to a string of bad rolls, reducing German Force Morale quite a bit.


End-Game



At this point things didn't look too good for the German platoon. Some defensive fire had eaten away at their teams, shock points had built up slowly and the effective loss of a senior leader and one NCO made it hard to regroup for a big attack. As another German NCO got killed we called it a night.



In the end the German Force Morale was 3, British Force Morale was 7.



Debriefing

Had the Germans pushed on they could have caused quite some damage, but eventually probably would have gotten overwhelmed by numbers and by the patchy state of their... well, Chain of Command, meaning they would have lacked the required activations. Of course it was Frank's first game, but he got into it pretty quickly as he's very familiar with the mechanics the TooFatLardies games make use of. Each one of them is different in some details, but the general mechanics are similar.

We all agreed that Chain of Command is a really, really good set of rules and the table setup and smoke was admired. Good game, thanks to everyone involved.


I hope that you enjoyed this little game summary and found it interesting! Comments, questions and such are welcome as always!

Looks like it was a very fun game Sigur. So strange to see a game decided without people dying by the hand-full! The game mechanic obviously works though.

Yeah, it was cool. In relation to how often I play a single set of rules, I think CoC I played a lot over the past two years and never had a bad or boring game. I have to stress that it really comes into its own once you play a campaign (the excellent campaign supplement At the Sharp End is available for free). I think over the course of this game I lost maybe eight dudes? The Germans probably around the same number, maybe a few more, but it surely wasn't more than ten. Keep in mind that this wasn't even a campaign game so a preservation of manpower wasn't even the top priority!

That thing about stuff dying by the hand-full (and some people thinking that this actually is important) is something I just realized a few months ago when I heard from two completely unrelated sources about people complaining that in Dropzone Commander too few units get killed each game. This is pretty insane I think. Never even thought of that before.

Back to business and that means: Star Wars - Imperial Assault. Here's the latest batch, all WIP:



IG-88 is finished, same as the Probes. The Royal Guard dudes in red maybe need some minor additional work, but are mostly done. Han Solo (ohmigawd, I'm painting Han Solo!!1) at least got the base colours in place and the skin and hair mostly done, Luke Skywalker (ERMERGERD, I PAINT LUKE SKYWALKER!!!!12) needs a bit more work.

The Scout Troopers with the heavy weapons are very WIP at this point. Lateron I'll add a champion of the Royal Guard, Two Nexu (of Episode 2 .. fame?) and three imperial officers. Hope you like the dudes so far.

Great work on those Sig.