"Grand Gueule" BTLB battle report

At the Goulburn Valiant Sormers club meet on sunday we tried out "Beneath the Lilly Banners" as a tester for the upcoming "Lace wars" in October.

we used 7YW figures for the Prussian (Bruces) and British (mine) as stand ins for the Dutch (Greg B was a no show)and Daves WAS french

A lovely looking set of rules but not overly impressed with the substance, as they were very much same same as most other rule sets out there for the period, although I would like to try them with event cards to shake it up a bit.

The rules although they were quite playable, and probaly would be quicker after a couple of uses (if we didn't chat so much ), I did like the general abilities rolls which really played havoc with the British General, who failed on two occasions to move any troops. The have taken a few good bits and pieces from a number of rulesets I feel. Explantion fails them a little and a few areas possibly need a remake to make it clearer for those who are not horse and musket gamers to pick up the set and play.

I think I may use these for the deluge game for "Lace Wars" as the WAB based stuff will fit fine, although I will rework the cheat sheet to make it more clear for new comers.

As for the battle, The dastardly french held the crossroads and the village and the prussian allied army were to retake it, all went according to plan when the generals rolls started, the prussian cavalry and Infantry brigade commanders rolled exceptional commands, however the brit failed misserably and roll poor (despictable!) the french all rolled average c0ommanders. The entire allied army avanced at a slow pace and eventually the light infantry contacted each other, the position guns started a artillery dual which the prussians won,
The French held on even after the Prussian cavalry assaulted them on the left flank, and the prussian infantry never made it over the hedges around the village to take on the French Gaurd, and the second rate Brits failed to do much at all (probaly the generals fault ) as the poor general could only manouver 25% of his troops at any one time, and of course the French cannon shot up my Highlanders and another provincial unit !

so a tactical French win in the end!

I failed to remember to take my camera so the pics are Ian's










cheers
Matt

Shop.............ping

Sometimes I think wargamers are a bit like women when it comes to buying stuff for our hobby we go out with good intentions to just get one or two items and come home with an armful!

It all happened on Monday when the Cardinal and I went for a drive too Canberra to spend my Father’s day money and pick up some Vallejo paint and peruse the bookshops of Fyshwick (Academic remainders and Crusader books).

We went to Crusader first to pick up some Vallejo paint and have a look at some books, so I picked up a mix of browns and some washes. Next stop was Toyworld and as my painting MOJO has returned and the weather is warming up I decided to peruse the kit shelves and decided to pick up an Apache helicopter (Airfix) as I am starting another modern army in 20mm and I thought justified it that way, then we decided to get some lunch next, however we thought that we really should visit Monaro hobbies.

At Monaro I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of plastic kit they had of the shelves and decided to pick up a Trumpeter M1 Abrams, however on the way out they had a sale on ICM cold war Russian kits for $5 each, so I picked up 3 BTR152’s and 5 trucks!

Now I normally get one of my mates to put my kits together because they annoy me and I have two left hands when it come to fiddly bits. However as they last few days have been wet I have sat down and put four of the nine kits together already.
The Apache went together very nicely and I made the rotors removable for transport.





The ICM 152 kits are excellent and I put them together easily also, the ICM plastic is a little different so setting times are a little longer, but I used a production line so I could do three models at the same time, a few little adjustments, so battle kit and damage then off to the spray booth for all of them (probably after I finish the trucks).



The BTR152s and trucks will see service with my Soviets for Afghanistan and Cold War and may even make it into my African Warlord army, so I think either a generic green or the tan/khaki camouflage.

On the painting desk I have some Volunteers de Clermont (see my 18th century blog 'Fine and Dandy") and some 18th century civilians, next up will be some WSS French and then some more Imperial Romans, and some individual British general characters for the “William Atkinson memorial build” on the Guild forum.

Cheers
matt

Victory without Qauter

The guys at the Goulburn Valiant Stormer’s are throwing around some ideas for the big project next year, a few of us think be 30 years war could be a possible front runner, as the warlord plastics lend themselves nicely to the period (still some discussion and dissention in the ranks as to basing conventions though), so with that thought a number of us have started to play test some rule sets. On Sunday Dave and I (we both normally play Warhammer English Civil War) had a game using the Free “Victory without Quarter” rules.

Using my ECW figs we each had a C in C, one cavalry general , two pike and shot blocks, one trotter and one galloper horse unit, one gun and a clubman for the parliament and highlanders for the Irish Royalists.

The game was played over 4 hours, I really liked the rules as I found they could be a little unpredictable and I liked the different factors for troop types and the card idea, although I think that VWQ will be a little slow for those players wanting to get two games in on a club day. VWQ still gave a satisfactory result and possibly would speed up after a few games; however I don’t think they would handle much more troop wise, two more pike blocks possibly and another regiment of horse each would slow it down even more. My ECW army is a mix of different figures, the Irish Montrose army are mostly Eureka, the pike and shot, horse, a mix of Old Glory, Perry and Eureka Highlanders and a Foundry gun and crew, On the parliment side, all Foundry and Perry except for the clubmen who are Warlord metals.











As the boys want to play a more grand tactical game I think VWQ will not be suitable for what we have in mind, although I would happily use VWQ for ECW. The next rule set we will play test is the Baroque set from the guys who wrote impetus.


Cheers
Matt

A Bit of Tacking!

Last club meet Greg and I enjoyed a day of playing “Form line of Battle” by David Manley using Langton’s lovely ECW/Dutch wars 1/1200th scale ships. Greg made up some nice playing cards, some smoke markers (see http://unluckygeneral.blogspot.com/2010/08/baptism-of-fire-and-water.html#comment-form ) a broadside distance rod and some very useful data sheets. Greg also has solved the transport challenge of heavy MDF boards with the use of large framed art canvas which he has painted a great green blue sea upon, and as it is tight the ships easily move upon it.
We played two engagements in the first Greg played with his Dutch Kromster and a Frigate, and I played with my British unrated merchant and a Frigate. I managed to gain the weather gauge and sunk the Kromster and heavily damaged the Frigate before lunch.

Gaming resumed after Lunch and Greg used a Dutch armed merchant and a frigate and I used a 4th rate armed merchant (40 guns) and a frigate, Greg gained the weather gauge in this game and eventually sunk my merchant and ran my frigate aground (my own fault really) this whole game was played in a Gale and rain, which funnily enough, was happening outside (perhaps even some sleet).

I was very impressed with the rule set and I think it plays better than GW’s “Trafalgar” which we use for 7YW/ Napoleonic. Greg has finished rigging his ships, adding flags and streamers etc and they look fantastic, his glass bases look good also but as my ships are already based on Langton bases I will not be removing them, I was so impressed I intend getting mine finished this month also.


On the modelling front I am still building my ECW manor which has morphed a little so I can use it for the European continent also as a coach house or the like, WIP pictures below. I still need to finish the stone work before I add the windows and half timber upper. I will also add some hedges, stone walls and perhaps a small garden and dovecote.

This week I have started some 7YW and WSS French which I will post on my 18th century blog “Fine and Dandy”. I also started some NVA/VC Vietnam sculpts and some Britannia Americans which I will post next week.

Cheers
matt

Germans in the trees

A beautiful winter’s day today in the sunny city of Goulburn, about 13 degrees with no wind, I ventured out of the house and decided to do a re-org of the terrain boxes, after sorting out the buildings and the tree boxes out, I decided to refurbish some of the damaged trees with flock, creating six new poplars and a re-flocking about 15 others, I still need to refurbish about fifty trees, but I need some more rubberised horse hair, so a visit to the local upholstery shops this week is on the cards. I also marked out and cut the base for my manor house and some roman roads which I have been meaning to do, it should be all painted and completed by tomorrow night.





On the painting front I have finished my 28mm First Corps German tribal cavalry, and my last unit of 28mm Fenlon ACW figs Coppen’s Zouaves need flocking. I have also almost finished off my Warlord ECW clubmen, another unit of Foundry pike and shot, some Perry dismounted dragoons and warlord guns and crew, and they should all be on the table this weekend for our ECW club game.






My manor house has been cut out and will be glued down tomorrow, once I have painted the base coat on the base tonight. I have decided to do a fictional house but I have based it on an old Ian Weekly model, but not as big!
Looking forward to the clubs ECW bash this weekend, hopefully I will get some good pictures so I can do an AAR for you all.

Cheers
Matt

English Civil War revisited

Funny how I tend to have little things like TV shows spark my interest in periods again, I was watching "Supersizers" elizabethan food on SBS last night and they had a feast in a magnificent manor house. After the show I thought I would do some cruising on the net and I started looking at ECW sieges of stately homes, well that started it, I vsited TMP and asked if anybody had some ground and floor plans of maor houses and today instead of painting I was planning a ECW manor house with a church, a wall or ditch and perhaps a ravelin for a gun emplacement. I decided to have a look through all of my magazines and books today and managed to find several articles and a whole book I forgot I had on ECW archaeology, with articles on ECW seiges and buildings and lots of suitable structures feeding the fire, many were making there way into my sketch book for planning a suitable building(s). So this weekend I should have a start on some buildings for our club game later this month on the 15th. I also dug out my ECW figs and decided to move some into the production line this week, undercoating occured this afternoon of 20 odd Warlord Games clubmen and 10 more Foundry dragoons both mounted and dismounted. I also discovered that I had not put all of my flags on my built units last year along with one unit of pikes are incomplete, so some pikes to be made and some printing to be done this weekend as my daughter makes my flags for me with her wizz bang graphics program. I will post my sketches tommorrow when my vision is complete! cheers (excited) Matt

Catching up and messing About

Well such a beutiful day on Sunday I decided to take some photos after I finished preparing the garden beds for spring planting. I managed to get my ACW 1/1200th Langton ACW ships out and take a few photos so I thought I would share them. A bought a few of these for a river fight game for the ACW weekend, but they never managed to make it onto the table. I enjoyed painting these and after undercoating I think I painted all four in about two hours, a basic colour then a wash in devlan mud, and I am very pleased how they came out, I am thinking about returning and adding stays to the funnels with brush bristles and perhaps flags.

here they are
CSS Albermarle



Uss Cairo


USS Benton


USS Virginia



cheers
Matt