January update

So January has come to an end and that means, we can do a quick count of what’s been painted this month. It’s been a good month, getting 65 models painted. This has seen me paint three squads for my Desert Italian force, quite a lot of tanks, and a unit for my Bonereapers army.

I’ve only painted 5 models for my Pelennor Fields project, but another 6 has been based which is good. I even got round to painting my Invisible Ringbearers, which I spent hours painting last year up, and now I’ve based them. 

Here’s a group shot of this month’s painting success. 

Desert to the left, grassy to the right

In terms of buying, I’ve brought 31 models, so I’ve been able to paint more than I brought this month, but I’ve not painted any of these models, yet. So it's seen the lead pile decrease by 0.75% but that is taken down by the models purchased and so only really 0.39%.

On the gaming side of things. I've played 6 games. Won 5 of them. Most of them have been with the Russians on the Napoleonic's front, but I'm happy with that stat, and looking forward to the next round.

Pelennor 2020 Jan update 1

So, after years of planning, we are moving forward to going for a large Pelennor Fields. I’m working on a scenario-based around one of the larger scenarios in War in Gondor. I’m not sure if we are going to be using a Hail Caesar variant or GW’s Middle Earth SBG and scaling it up for lots of models, but we’ll get there. 

In the meantime, I’m trying to paint up lots of models, so that we can have lots of models on the table. Quantity does have a quality of its own after all. I’ve created a spreadsheet of all the models that we could possibly use. I’ve got 97 models for the forces of Gondor still to paint, and 150 models for the forces of Mordor to paint. 

Black Guard of Barad Our

Warriors of Arnor, ready to fight

So, definitely doable, and I’m going to try to dedicate this year to painting models for this game. I’ll vary it up for some variety, but this is what I’ll be concentrating on. I’ve got a number of Fell Beasts and two mumaks to paint, as well lots of Riders of Rohan and Orcs to go.

So, January has been a quiet month, with only painting 8 models. 4 Warriors of Arnor, one that carries a banner. A Captain of Arnor and three Black Guard of Barad Dur. The Arnor models, I’m treating as a fiefdom that arrives with Aragorn on the corsair ships. The Black Guard are quite Uruk based, and so I’m just counting them as some sort of Uruks. 

Corsairs ready to go

February is going to be a shorter month as I’ve got a week of holiday, where I hope to build a lot, but I’m aiming to get through some Corsairs of Umbar. I’ve got 24, from when the models were originally released as well as the command models, including the Peter Jackson, look alike. I’m going to try and blitz my way through them as quickly as possible. 

In terms of models for the forces of Good. I’m going a little character-heavy. Gamling, Erkenbrand, Derowine, and Elrond’s sons, Elladan and Elrohir. For the latter, I’ve got the armoured and unarmoured versions and so I’m going to try and get them all painted.       

If, chance get’s I’ll try and get some Moria Goblins painted. Let’s see how it turns out. 

Ironically, as I started to write this post, the Battle for Pelennor Fields came on iTunes. Must be something there. 

Future Big Games

With our Battle of Durstien approaching, my thinking is moving towards the next of our big games. We’ve got a few planned. An ancient Dark Age battle featuring Saxons and Vikings, the Battle of Albuera, a Napolenic battle from May 1811. The Battle for Pelannor Fields and a WW2 Desert battle. 

Painted tanks and armoured vehicles

Terry and I are working through the Western Desert Campaign book and I suggested it would be nice to do a big game, with lots of tanks on a big table. This would allow for some long range pots shots from Anti Tank artillery pieces. 

I’m currently drafting up a scenario, that will see a combined force of German and Italians attempting to capture a number of British held objectives. I’m thinking a radio stations, water or oil encampment and somewhere with some top secret plans. 

Which means, I need to get painting and buying tanks.

So far, I’ve got the following

Italians

 3x CV33 Tankettes

1 x M13/39

1 x M14/40

Italians on the work bench

I want to get another one of each of the M13’s for the desert campaign. I also want to get some Trucks and an Autobilinda. As well as another of the M13's

British

3 X Matilda’s 2

2x A10

3x Vickers mark VIB

3x Humber CS9

2x Rolls Royce

It's a good start, and I want to add some more. A couple of A9 and A13's. Some Crusaders mark 1 and 2 and the M3 Honey. 

As well as that I'm painting up troops to carry on the campaign against. I've got an Italian force from Warlord Games, which I'm not enjoying painting up. The models are poorly cast, and sculpted which is making them not so fun to paint. 

I've also got a British Army from Perry Miniatures, and I'm looking forward to painting them. When they get built. I'll keep you updated on how things are going. 

Cannons to the left of me, cannons to the right of me.

   After last week’s success with attack columns, it’s time for another Napoleonic Training game. I was using the same force, though this week I had finished my Perry 12 Pounder, who were waiting to be based. I also had the Huassar’s again, who had underwhelmed me last week.

Terry was away, and so John and I took the field against Jim. Facing my division, was a division of four Dragoons units and a division of four line regiments and some artillery. I was a little worried about the cavalry as they could charge through and break me quite easily. 

We won the role, and went first. I was going to position my Hussars to try and stop any cavalry charges, to the horror of John. However, my dicing rolling was poor and there was going be no movement. My cannons opened fire and got a couple of hits on Jim’s front two units. I do like this ability for cannon balls to fire through units. 

In response, Jim, opened the floodgates and charged the cavalry forward.

But the dice were against him and he fell short, just in front of my cannons. As they had moved over my ark of fire, and I inflicted some more damage on them, including a disordering hit, which would soon off disappear at the end of Jim’s turn. 

In response, and being within initiative range, I charged forward. Jim counter charged, which dragged his unit forward, but annoyingly not out of support Range. I then inched the cannons forward, into short range and then moved my line regiments forward into support. 

My cannons opened and obliterated one of Jim’s cavalry regiments and inflicted damaged on the third. Combat ensured and a combination of the Hussar’s lancers rule, charging in, and Jim’s terrible dice rolling I was able to defeat him in combat, though I did become shaken in the process. Jim failed his morale check and the unit popped and was removed from the table. 

In response Jim charged his third unit forward, as I was shaken, my Hussar’s couldn’t counter charge,and as his units had to cross my cannons as they moved into combat, I could fire again. I inflicted another hit on them and they were now only one wound from being shaken, and that meant a broken division.

Despite, being at minus 1 for being shaken, I rolled five, fives and sixes, on my roll and was able to break the unit in combat. Jim didn’t disappear but was forced off, and I knew that I could turn my attention to the line regiments.

At this point, Jim changed his dice. They did a lot better from now on. However, turn 3, was here and in an two attack columns charged forward and into combat. I took three wounds from closing fire, and my unit was dangerous close to breaking, however, once again combat went my way, and I forced Jim’s unit back, shaken. I then changed formation, as Jim’s was about to charge. I changed to a line regiment, and waited. 

As expected Jim charged and I opened fire, causing two hits and one of them disordered them. Combat, again went in may favour, and I won, seeing Jim’s unit’s off. As a winner, and seeing the opportunity to shoot some enfilading fire down the flank of Jim’s unit I opted to change facing.

As you can see from the photo, the supporting line unit, still in attack columns could now charge a unit in the flank. I need two moves, but the dice failed me, I got one move. So, quick change of plan, and I opted to shoot.

My cannons took a pot shot at Jim’s opposite number, and did some damage. I then opened fire and broke at least of Jim’s line regiments, the division, and the army. 

I had a lot of fun, this week the Hussar’s performed marvellously, and so I’m quite happy with them, and am now thinking about getting some cavalry, both Dragoons and Hussars. We’ve got long term plans for Borodino, and I’m working on the 8^th Infantry corps. I think the 4^th Reserve corps, could be something that I get as well.

I do think that Jim was very unlucky with his dice rolls and couldn’t really get into the game, once the damage had been inflicted by the cannons.

Decision has been made

 So, in a previous post I was talking abut new year, new armies, and I was dithering between Eldar and Chaos Space Marines. 

So a decision has been made. 

Chaos Space Marines. 

Now, I would love to claim that after long deliberation of the pros and cons of each army that I’ve made a decsions. Nope, I’ve been attracted by the fact that I really like the look of Chaos Space Marines. 

Not the Horus Heresy, but that’s going to happen as well, I’m going to making a Chaos Space Marines. Now I’ve got to come up with a paintjob and a background for the army. It might be one of the Legions, maybe Night Lords of Alpha Legion, or maybe my own group of rebellious marines. 

I’m looking at the Vengence Warband on the GW warband. It will give me a good core of an army. One unit of Marines, Havoks and Terminators. Plus, a Lord and a Rhino. I’ve already got a unit of terminators, from the last time I started Chaos Space Marines and a terminator armoured Lord with Lightning Claws. I can use the second model to make a more shooty option maybe. 

I need to get a second squad of Chaos Space Marins, and a Maulerfiend or Forgefiend. A Helldrake looks fun, but it looks a pain to paint.

So, the forces of the Imperium are going to burn, before the onslaught of the Dark Gods. 

Sorry for the lack of pictures. 

Back into the Desert

So following up from the previous week’s victory, it was time to switch sides and play the British in the first scenario, Frontier Battle. To play this I took 3 Humber CS9 and 2 Rolls. Three ten man squads with LMGs in Trucks. All backed up by a MMG in a Bren Carrier. 

I think this, will do me well.

Turn 1:

As the flare went up, and the enemy spotted, we raced forward. The majority of this turn was taken up with getting troops on the board. I pulled up my CS9’s in the centre. I had a squad on the left taking cover in middle. On the right, another squad took the flank. In the middle, a third squad moved forward, ready to charge forward and take a postion in the centre. 

Paint is coming

Opposite me were a number of Tankette’s. Some had double machine gun, a couple with anti tank rifles and scarily. Two had flamethrowers. Terry, got the best of the shooting, and three of my units. The squad on the left and the right, took two pin markers, as well as one of the CS9’s in the middle. Finally, pouring out of Terry’s trucks were two squads, an Elefantino and a MMG, which all took postion.

The flare gave out, and everything went dark as we went into the second turn.  

Turn 2: 

As the darkness descended, this boded well for me as Terry got the majority of his dice early on, and manouvered his vehicles forward. Not being able to get decent rolls on his visision rolls. I was able to move forward my truck on the left, to protect the squad from the impending Flamethrowe armed tankette.

Terry then moved the aforementioned flamethrower and flamed the truck to death. However, an advantage for me, it quickly ran out of fuel and began to limp it’s way homewards. More annoyingly, I wouldn’t be claiming any victory points for it. 

Finally, in the centre, Terry moved one of his Tankettes forward, and in response, I moved forward my CS9 forward and opened fire. However, I missed. In response, Terry moved another anti tank rifle and opened fire. Imobilising my CS9, gaining him victory points. 

In the lastfew dice roll, I ran forward my truck in the centre and pulled up in front of the Bagsarili, and then remembered, if I ran my truck, the squad in the centre wouldn’t be able to charge in. 

Oppps. 

The turn ended with the flares going up again. 

Turn 3:

I got the first dice of the turn, and my squad charged in against the Bagsilarie and died. They managed to kill two of the seven men out. Terry, killed five, winning the combat. On the left flank, two twin machine guns armed Tankettes, charged forward and opened fire on the squad. I went down, and lost a man. Meanwhile, on the other flank, the flamethrower came in and wiped out my squad. I had gone from three squads, to one heavily pinned and damaged squad. Whoops

In the centre of the table, the Tankettes began to change angle and move towards the CS9 and Rolls on the right of the centre. However, worse for me, the Bagelssaire moved forward, and charged the CS9, and wiped it out in a round of combat. 

Hum, things had turned against me. I was rolling poorly, and Terry was taking a commanding lead in the victory points. The only thing that was positive for me, was that the flamethrower tried to flame one of the Rolls Royce, and not only did it not hit, but it ran out of fuel, and began it’s way home. 

Turn 4:
On the right flank, my squad went down under a hail of Machine gun fire but despite the hail of fire, the squad survived. They may be pinned, but there fighting to stay in the game. 

IN the middle of the board, my commander, in a CS9, finally was able to pass a command test and moved forward and aimed a shot at the Anti Tank Rifle Tankette, and I missed. In response, Terry aimed his Tankette at my Rolls and immobilised it. 

Following on from this success, he turned the Bagisellir towards the Bren Carrier and charged in. However, they were not so successful and bounced off the Bren carrier. 

The flares came down and night descended again.

Turn 5:

With reducded visibility, I decided to through it all in, and attempted to charge the last squad at tankette to see if I can take it out in combat. However, I failed my dice roll. In response, Terry killed another two of the squad and added a pin. Taking their total to 6. 

In the middle, Terry tried to take out the Bren carrier, but despite another set of shots and around of combat, all he was able do was to drive it back. Which was great for me, as my machine gun could now see them, and it opened fire, killing two. 

On the right, my intact Rolls opened fire at Terry’s squad and killed another two. But they stuck around. 

Turn 6

The first dice was mine, and knowing that the game was not going to end well for me, I tried to charge the tankette with the last members of my squad. With six pins, I needed to pass a morale test on a 3. One roll of a 3 left and they attempted to charge in. I need to pass my tank fear test, and I rolled three and I was in. 

Until I failed to inflict any damage on the test (it was quite hard with three dice). The squad retreated and was then cut down into a hail of fire. It was worth a try. I then got another dice, and Terry’s Bagsellari squad was wiped out in the gunfire from the Machine Gun. 

The rest of the turn we traded fire, and Terry was able to wipe out the Bren Carrier, which had taken three turns to be destroyed and the game came to an end at this point. 

Terry had clearly won. 

Terry 18 victory points

David 4 victory points

  

Ouch, that’s all I can say. I don’t think I did anything wrong, but the dice were against me. I don’t the getting a number of pins, on squads on turn 1 helped me either. However, I gave a good go at it and was really happy that the squad that spent 5 turns pinned, were able to charge the tankettes, even if they did get wiped out.

Wednesday Night gaming

The French

So another Wednesday, and another chance to break out the Russians for a game of Black Powder. This time, I borrowed a unit of Russian Kossacks, from John, to add to the four-line regiments and battery of 12 pounders, that I’ve previously used. 

This time I was facing Jim, and he had a similar number of French, and divisions of Dragoons. John and I won the first turn and this time I had set my units up in the attack column. Shooting, as I have previously said, is not the strongest point for Russians. So, the attack column is worth it. Extra +1 to moving and in Morale saves is a price worth paying. 

So, I advance forward and did a bit of damage with the cannons. Then Jim advance, attempting to box me in. I thought he was going to some serious damage with his shooting, but due to some bad dice rolls, I was let off.

Charging forward in attack column

And then I began to charge in, over a period of two turns, I charged three units in, and with John moving one of his line regiments in, I was also being supported quite well. The combats, for the majority, went in my favor. However, despite Jim’s awful dice rolling he kept passing his moral tests. 

I foolish allowed one of my units to get charged in the flank, Jim’s dice rolling was, once again, poor and so I not only survived but was able to beat off his attack, and then follow up into combat with his regiment that had previously formed square. 

Ultimately, through the combats, I was able to break Jim. I did lose two regiments in process and the others were close to breaking but were locked into combats with Jim. These units were finally broken, but I still feel the victory was mine.

Le crunch

The cavalry kept failing their command tests and so their first, and the only action of the game was to countercharge against Jim’s dragoons, where they got driven off and slaughtered. Not a great impression. I blame them for being John’s models or nor being painted. J

So, looking forward, the attack column is most definitely the way forward for Russian units. It helps them move and survive better in combat, so when we get to Durstien, this is the way forward, I think. I also, now want to paint more Russians. 

Here's as photo of my Cannons being painted. Lovely models, from the Perry's.

New Year, 2020

New year, new armies.

Over Christmas, I played my first game of Age of Sigmar, using the recently released Ossiarch Bonereapers. When these were previewed, I fell in love with them, and so as soon as they were released, I brought myself the Feast of Bones boxset, getting myself a good core of an army. I then purchased a Liege Kaveos and some more Mortek Guard.

The legion begins

I really liked the design of the Bonereapers. They reminded me of the Tomb Kings from the World that Was. I loved the idea that they are all constructs and they are unstoppable. The background to them is my favourite of all the new armies GW have released, and despite the fact there a pain to build, they are good looking. 

I don’t have any photos of the game. Jim brought Ogres to the table and massacred me. It was his first game, and my first for a long time, and it was good. I learnt that Necropolis Stalkers are good in combat. Their multi face rule is really good, I used it to do a serious amount of damage to Jim’s big Thundertusk. However, I made my favourite play, making mistakes, and ultimately lost the game. 

So, my next purchases are some more Necropolis Stalkers. These are good, and I want a unit of 3, on each flank. I also want another 10 Mortek Guard to bulk out the unit that came in the Feast of Bones boxset. I also want a third unit, most likely armed with spears, as I think this would be a good purchase. Following, that I’m not sure what next. One of the Harvesters would be nice, as they are awesome models as well as some Deathsriders as the models are fun. 

Copyright Games Workshop.
Also, I want one.

Then following the AoS trend, I’m going to get a new 40k arms as well. Jim is also up for playing 40K again, and with the release of the new Sisters of Battle in plastic, he will be growing the size of his Imperial Guard army. 

Which leaves me with a choice. What army to go for. It’s either Eldar or Chaos Space Marines. I’m

still undecided about which one to go. I’m liking the look of the Eldar at the moment, with the recent blood of the phoenix Physic awakening book and the plastic Howling Banshee’s these are a possibility.

However, I’ve always wanted to do a Chaos Space Marine army, and with the release of the amazing new Abaddon model last year, I’m thinking this is the army for me. I’m tempted to see if I can do it at cross purposes. I also want to do a Horus Heresy Army as well. I could use the plastic mark 3 and 4 armour designs to make myself a force that is compatible for two games. 

I’m thinking of either a Night Lord Force or Alpha Legion. That’ll will be another blog post.

Other projects I have on this year, I’ve already mentioned the Desert War in a previous post, and I’m busy painting Italians, Germans and British for that campaign. I brought myself into the kickstarter for Barons War run by Andy Hobday of Footsore Miniatures. I brought myself enough for a small Lion Rampant force with the following units

1 unit of 6 Mounted men at arms]

2 units of 12 men at arms

1 unit of 12 archers

1 unit of spearmen. 

And a trebuchet. 

Plus a variety of commanders such as William Marshall, and I’m good to go. I would like another unit of spearmen and archers, but will have to wait for them to come available again. 

I also want to add to the Mortal Gods unit’s that I’ve got and I’m looking forward to the mythic expansion hitting Kickstarter soon. I’ve got some Wood Elves for Warhammer to paint, which will make a nice change from all the other painting.  More Harry Potter models, and Star Wars Legion. Let alone all the other historical stuff to paint. 

Plus, a variety of Lord of the Rings stuff, which I’ll tease you with here, which will keep me busy for the following year(s) to come. I just hope that I can paint a lot more than I purchase this year. 

We're all going on a desert holiday.

The table mid game.

So, after an extensive year of playing through Operation Sealion, Terry and I have moved to the Desert, and we are going to be working through the Bolt Action Western Desert campaign book. This has seen my investment in two new forces, Desert British and Italians, with plans for a third. Desert Germans. It’s also seen my knowledge in different tanks increases and I build and paint, lots, and I mean lots. 

We’ve also got plans for a big game later in the year, which will see us have a big table and a lot of tanks. But that’s another blog.

So, the other night, we got our toys out and played through the first scenario. I started out with the Italians, and I brought a force of seven CV 33’s Tankettes. One with an Anti-tank rifle and another with a flamethrower. This was backed up with three squads, in trucks, to take on any infantry or a glorious charge against vehicles.

This game would be using several of the Desert Rules, such as tanks getting double pin markers as sand get’s everywhere, which are found in the Western Desert book and night fighting. Using these rules were a first for both of us. 

Turn 1:

As the flare went up, and the enemy spotted, we raced forward. Terry got the majority of his troops on to the board first. I was soon facing a number of Humber CS9’s and Rolls Royce’s, with squads hiding in the back of trucks, with a lone Tankette. 

However, it managed to survive a number of incoming shots. In fact, it wasn’t until the middle of the turn was Terry able to kill something, blowing up a recently arrived truck on my left flank. Worse, as the squad bailed, a number died as they exited. 

I took my return and wiped out one his light mortar. The game came to an end and the next turn, would be in darkness.

Turn 2: 

With reduced visibility from the darkness, this was a turn of manoeuvring, and very little shooting. My anti-tank gun armed Tankette was able to take out one of Terry’s Humbers which had strayed a little to close. 

However, his advancing Rolls armed with a gatling machine gun was able to take out another of the trucks causing damage on the squad as they bailed out. 

In the Centre of the table my final squad advanced towards Terry’s squad in the rock pile but was unable to do further damage. The turn ended with a flare going off, ending the night. 

Turn 3:

On the right flank, Terry’s squad that was pinning my squad in the burning building. My tankette advance up behind them, and opened fire, with the machine Gun. I was able to kill a number of the squad, but they were going nowhere.

On the left flank, Terry’s squad charged into my squad, and wiped them out in one round of combat. Ouch. However, there was a surprise as my flamethrower armed Tankette rumbled up and failed to hit. It would have been so good. 

My turn got ever worse, as Terry’s squad recovered from being shot at, and charged the Tankette in return, destroying it in a hail of hits. Things had turned towards Terry.

please hit.....

Turn 4:
The flare barrage continued and once again, and I needed to do something with the squad on the left flank, I had decided to charge the Gatling mounted Humber with a squad, hoping to replicate Terry’s success of the previous turn. However, they failed the moral check, and decided to go down behind a sand dune instead. 

In the previous turn, I had reversed a truck out of the way, so that I could now manoeuvre a machine gun armed tankette into point blank range, which caused Terry to go down, despite this I did a number of hits, which saw me decide to manoeuvre the flame thrower armed tankette at another squad nearby, who were hiding in a rock pile.

I rolled a 1 again. This was why I brought a flamethrower, but no joy.

In the centre of the table, Terry and I traded pin markers, and on the right flank my command Tankette charged forward, and began to whittle down the squad that caused my tankette to be destroyed in combat. 

The flares came down and night descended again.

Turn 5:

With reducded visibility, I decided to open fire with the flamethrower, and this time it hit, and killed a two of Terry’s troops. Thankfully vehicles get a +1 when rolling to hit, but still 2 dead.

However things, swung back in my balance as I had inflicted 4 pin markers on Terry, and the squad ran off, having seen two of their number become human torches. My command tank also paid off the remaining squad with it’s machine gun, killing three of their number, and the final chap running off. 

On the left flank, after having rallied in the last turn, my squad over there moved forward, and killed one of the MMG, which had failed to spot them coming. 

Meanwhile on the right flank, through bad dice rolling, and me failing my morale check, Terry’s squad was left wounded, but still in the fight. Thankfully, the Humber couldn’t see anything. 

However, breaking from the centre of the table, one of Terry’s Humber broke through a Tankette, and could see the flamethrower mounted Tankette. The final action of my turn was to attempt to move a Tankette that had spent the last three turns retreating, after failing morale checks, this time I passed and moved on the attack, adding some pins to the 

The turn ended with the flares coming on again.

Turn 6:

The first dice went to Terry, and he took aim at the Flamethrower, damaging it, but not destroying it. It was going anywhere, but it could still shoot. Annoyingly, however, it would only shoot to the front, and there was nothing in it’s line of sight.

Choosing the better of two evils, and having already shot at it, with a machine gun, my remnants of a squad charged Terry’s squad and wiped it out.

In the Centre, Terry poured a lot of fire into my tank but was not able to destroy it, he added a lot of pins, which I then duley retunred. 

As the turn came to an end, Terry was marginally in the lead. Another turn, was rolled for and the dice showed that we had one more turn to play.

Turn 7:

Victory.

I pulled the first dice and it was mine. On my left, I shot at the Machine Gun team infront of my squad and wiped it out. We were even on victory points, I reached for another order die, and it was mine.

On the right, my squad charged forward, taking on the Humber CS9, that had immobilized the nearby flamethrower armed Tankette. As it was opened topped, I didn’t have to check for tiger fear, and wiped the vehicle out. I was now winning. 

Terry, then poured a number of anti tank shots into my Tankette at point blank range, but despite getting a dangerous number of pins, they were still moving around. The Machine gun armed Humber inflicted some more damage on my squad, but the game had come to an end and I had won.

David 14 victory points

Terry 12 victory points

So, that was a lot of fun. I like playing with tanks. Tanks are fun, and the CV33’s in this sort of scenario, where it’s mainly armored vehicles or very, very light tanks, is a lot of fun and I will be investing in a flamethrower mounted CV asap. I do think I was very lucky, we had the seventh turn, which was followed by the first two action dice, which allowed me to take out two more of Terry’s units which gave me the win. I was also fortunate, that Terry rolled poorly and didn’t take out any further vehicles or troops in the last turn. But it was a good, fun start, and I’m looking forward to taking on the Italians as the Brits.

The Russians are coming

So new year, and we’ve already got our first big game. It’s the battle of Durnstein. It took place in November 1805 and is a battle where the French forces fought the Russians. So this gives me a chance to play the Russians in Black Powder and, despite owning it for a year, give the updated Black Powder 2 Rules a bash. 

You can find out more, at this blog, which is a fantastic read http://obscurebattles.blogspot.com/2013/04/durnstein-1805.html

In terms of painting, I’ve only had to do a few things. Firstly, I’ve had to paint of officer to lead a division/brigade/army (I can never get the titles right) and 3 12 pounder cannons. Not a heavy painting load, but I did paint a regiment prior to Christmas. 

To help us play the game as smoothly as possible, and to know how Russians play in a game of Black Powder, we are playing a few games on Wednesday night to get use to it. 

John and I each had a division with a few Line Regiments and some cannons. John also had some Cavalry, forming the third division. Facing this, was a similar number of French. I was opposite Terry, and things went very well for me. I was able to advance forward and met Terry in combat. Shooting, is not Russian strongpoint, hitting on 5. However, combat, especially with a charge, and a free re-roll on the first turn of combat is a lot more fun, and though despite one of my regiments becoming shaken, I was able to see of Terry and break his division. 

I then turned to advance towards Jim, and to help John out. However, in a rash move on the first turn, Jim moved forward three full moves and stopped in front of John’s line. Though the firefight and combat were protracted John then got the upper hand and the battle was ours.

I only took one photo, which I hope you enjoy, but the game was fun. The Russians are a bit harder to play with as they have more negatives than say the Brits, but if you get it right, it’s good fun. Looking forward to playing the next battle on Wednesday.

I'll finish with a couple of tip progress pics of some Russians I'm working on for the big game.