Some Napoleonic Terrain

Our next planned GdA battle will be Quatre Bras. I am taking the scenario from the GdA Hundred Days sourcebook, with some amendments to make it work with GdA2 (skirmisher generation and number of ADC's). We are hoping to have the game in late September or Early October. It will be a club event and we will play it over 2 days with between 6-12 players on a 5x7' table. 

The scenario map from the book with a 5x7'grid

I have been working on the 2 farm complex over the last month and I am close to done, maybe some minor changes in the flock colour yet to be decided.

The building were printed from STL's available from 3D Print Terrain. The files are originally in 1/72 and I first printed them at 75% (15mm), they came out well but it was pretty obvious that the footprint was still too big. I then decided to go with the 6mm STLs, that were available but doubled the scale to 12mm. Although the documentation that came with the STLs said you could print at 12mm, I was not that happy with the quality so I went back to the original STL's and printed them at 60%. I went through a full spool of PLA in this process. I felt the 1/72 STLs were better so I finished the project with these.

In the first photo, we have Gemioncourt Farm on the left and the Quatre Bras farm on the right. The complex sizes are 9" and 7" in dimension so only slightly larger than what is on the scenario map.


The STL files come with all the buildings and fences of the actual farms but I left out pieces to reduce the size of the footprint. It was a bit of a challenge but I think they look ok. as you can see the large complex, Gemioncourt, is the centre piece of the battle and is a strongpoint according to the scenario rules.


V for Victory

I had my biweekly visit to PY's a week ago Monday for another game of V for Victory from Studio Tomahawk. We enlarged the game this time and added more teams as well an AFV each. We both had 2 core squads as well as 3 teams and a tank each. We played the second scenario from the book. This time I took the Germans and PY played the Airborne.

Great table as usual, it was probably a mistake to make the hedges bocage as that really slowed the action down as there was no line of sight on the table and even on the hedge unless you had previously fired you could not be seen.

I really screwed things up at the beginning as the walled compound was a poor place to enter as the high wall prevented as LOS and one could not fire from them. I was eventually able to get in one of the houses on the 2nd floor and was able to fire on the Airborne troops on the road which was quite advantageous.

My dilemma can be seen above, the troops within the compound were well protected but had no offensive capability.

Fiannly got them all out and turned the left flank into a killing ground, taking out a section of Brits as well as knocking out the Stuart.

It was an interesting game as here was hardily any combat interactions until more than half way through the game. PY decided to open it up by advancing down the central North/South road. There was a lot of back and forth before that we had both advanced our tanks to the central crossroads but neither of us could get a good shot off so we both moved to west on the table. Once the action started casualties were absorbed on both sides, I was able to kill more Brits and take out the British Stuart with my Hetzer, but PY had captured more of the points than I had. We added an extra turn to the game but it was now quite late so we called it a day. The points were tallied up...8 to 8 a tie.

The game is fun, but it is a game and I am not sure if using historical tactics really helps you with this ruleset. But the game is easy enough to pick, again I do not think I would invest heavily in it but would be always happy to play a game.

Well that is it for gaming for me until at least the middle of September, as it is holiday time. We have our yearly trip to Ogunquit this coming week and in the first 2 weeks of September, we are finally getting to see my daughter in London and then travelling on to Malta, a trip we planned more then 3 years ago but which got screwed up because of the Covid. Myself and my wife have a lot of trips to catch up on as we still have to go to Sicily and Bavaria, 2 other trips that were extensively planned over the last 3 years but had to be put off for various reasons.

Carnevale-Street Fight

The week before last myself and Antoine finally go together for another game of Carnevale. Personal circumstances had forced me to cancel some previously scheduled games so I was happy to finally get together. We decided to play at the Abyss as it is about half way between where we both live. I decided to play my Rashaar for this game, Antoine stuck with The Guild. 

The Rashaar are quite different than the Strigoi which I previously played. They have no shooting ability but have a very interesting ability where they consume the mindless in their gang to replenish their life points. Thus you see 4 slaves in my gang!

We played The Street Fight scenario, quite simple the attacker has to move across a 2x4' area of Venice, points for how many characters make it and points to the defender for how many attackers he kills. The usual Agendas are in play, but are not replenished. We dice off and I won and decided to play in defence.

The Table

Another terrific table by Antoine with just one cardboard building in use.

The Finish Line for The Guild

The Game

I was unsure how to start but felt it would be prudent to keep a slave close to each main character to be consumed as needed. Most of the Rashaar operate better in the water than on land.

Antoine puts 2 of his characters in a gondola to speed them along.

Lots of action here, with the Rasher attacking the characters in the gondola, they have also launched an attack along their right flank (foreground). 

I was quite successful in thwarting both the attack by canal and by land but.....

....Two of The Guild managed to escape. When we tallied the points the defenders had a solid victory.!

This was another fun game, I am still learning the mechanics but am improving and Antoine kindly always points out tactics to me which I miss along the way. I will keep at this game, as I quite enjoy it. I especially like the Rashaar gang, they were a lot of fun to play. And I may just add another character!

Shakos and Bayonets-The Final Hour

For our last club games night, I put on a game of Shakos and Bayonets, a Napoleonic variant of Muskets and Tomahawks. I have had the rules since they came out but this is the first chance I have had to play them. When I sold my 28mm Napoleonics, I kept back several figures to play skirmish Napoleonics. I initially planned to play Sharpe Practice, but I have to say I enjoy Muskets & Tomahawks a bit more. My figure collections in respect to manufacturer is quite varied and includes Front Rank, Perry, Victrix and Alban's well as some from Westfalia Miniatures, a Montreal based figure manufacturer. 

Contained within these figures, are some French ligne, léger as well as dismounted Dragoons. On the allied side, there are British line, both the 95th and 60th Rifles, as well as Hanoverian and Brunswick Jagers. Quite a mix, I have also added a few personality figures from the Brigade Games Napoleonic line, some of which I have yet to paint including Major Ducos and Major Hogan. I have already painted Sharpe, Harper, Major Dunnett, Captain Frederickson as well as Obadiah Hakeswill and Colonel Simmerson. 

Here is the OB with the traits of  the specific units spelled out. With this and the QRS, you really need little else to play the game.

In the rulebook, there were some great looking scenarios but where this was our first game I went with scenario 2: The Final Hour. I acted as games master while David and Julian were the players, while Graham also showed up to keep us all in line. He is probably most familiar with the ruleset having just put on 2 Musket and Tomahawk games at Historicon. 

This was a very interesting scenario with the game being set around the end of a large battle where one side has lost, with the remnants of their troops trying to flee the battle to relative safety. The victorious side has ordered some of their troops to go in pursuit and cut them off. If you look at the table above the French (the pursued) are fleeing from the top of the photo to the safety of the bottom of the table. They are exiting a small Spanish village with many stone walls, as well as an olive grove and some rocky ground. The scenario is set up with the defenders all on the table and the Allied forces appearing at a random deployment point either behind, or to the sides of the French. I thought this was quite a clever mechanic. David played the French while Julian played the Brits.

Some Action Photos

This looked like quite a fun game and I cannot wait to play it myself. Some of the action now escapes me, but there was a lot of back and forth and both players did a nice job, we did reach a conclusion on the second deck with the pursuers being judged the victors. Well played all around.

A Nice Gift

 

One of the guys in our wargaming club offered to make me a small transport chest for my miniatures on his FDM printer. This is what he delivered to me last week. It is terrific.

It looks like I could fit 2 complete 20mm platoons for CoC with supports into the transport case.

A CoC core British Platoon.

All I had to do was add some magnetic paper.

The finished case, all buttoned up.

Many thanks Julian!