Blucher 1806 Prussians v French

Another first outing, this time for the 1806 Prussian army for Blucher against Gordon's French. This army has taken years on and off to paint and, to be honest, I'd taken a bit of a dislike to it as a result but having finally finished enough to use it a while ago I thought I should at least give it one game before leaving it to gather dust.

One of the things I like about Blucher is that the armies all have their individual character with advantages and disadvantages. The early Prussians have the firepower trait for their infantry making them good at close range fire, far too many to be useful powerful cavalry units and the ability to have advanced guard units with the nice integrated cavalry trait. On the downside they are very poor in massed artillery batteries and don't have much filler (none at all for the cavalry). Overall I'd say they are a somewhat cheaper version of the British!

Given the above I decided that the plan for the army would be to use it aggressively,  trying to get as much on the table to start with as possible while not worrying about taking VP in Scharnhorst. Once on table I would try to attack quickly and make use of the short range musketry advantage the army has.

The Scharnhorst map moves went well for the Prussians with all three corps on table against a single French corps which had reinforcements arriving from various directions:

The initial set up saw the French arrayed defensively protected to some extent by difficult terrain that would make it hard for the whole Prussian force to get into action:

The Prussians begin by advancing the 1st Corps on the left. Behind them, as yet undisclosed, is the Saxon Corps with the 1st Corps yet to get into action on the right:

The 1st Corps moves forward as well, this is a bit risky as they don't know what they are facing but I want to overwhelm the French before any more Corps can turn up to help them:

The French Corps turns out to be composed mainly of aggressive Polish troops commanded by Marshal Davout. Both brigades of Polish Lancers charge into the unprepared Prussian Advance Guard and Horse Artillery:

The Advanced Guard repulses the Lancers taking heavy losses but the Horse Artillery is forced back: 

On the left the Prussian infantry have moved up to close range of the French defenders with the Saxons following up in support. The Prussians are hoping to crush the French in a vice before any reinforcements arrive:

Both sides are taking hits now but the Prussians can afford them more than the French:

Polish infantry assault the surviving men of the Advanced Guard:

The Polish infantry are victorious breaking the Advanced Guard but then, in turn, being hit by a brigade of Cuirassiers while unprepared. One Prussian infantry brigade has broken through the French lines and is menacing the rear of the remaining French infantry one weakened brigade of which has also been charged by the Saxon Cuirassiers:

Both cavalry attacks are thrown back but the damage to the French and Poles is rapidly mounting and the Prussian infantry are quickly winning the musketry duel on the left. Marshal Davout is desperately holding on hoping for help to arrive but none is forthcoming:

The French line crumbles quickly and collapses:

It is almost all over for the French, even if reinforcements do arrive now it may be too late:

The French break and run. One small reinforcing corps had arrived on the far left while the other failed to arrive at all leaving the field to the Prussians:

A victory in their first game then  for the Prussians and, I have to admit, my enthusiasm for them has increased! Gordon made a mistake on the Scharnhorst moving one column into a vulnerable position which I could exploit and I don't think he was expecting me to change my strategy to try to choose the battlefield and have the maximum number of units on it rather than take the VP as I usually do.

I think aggression pays off for the early Prussians, once they get to close range they have a real advantage in musketry especially with the advanced guard units and some attached artillery. Gordon was unlucky though in that none of his reinforcing columns arrived in time to affect the outcome, if they had it would certainly have been a very different battle!

The Men of Company B VC v ARVN

 After what seems like a long time I managed to get in another TMOCB game, this time against an actual opponent (Gary) instead of playing solo.

As it was Gary's first game and he hadn't been able to read the rules I thought the best way to go would be for me to be the VC and Gary to take the ARVN (but the 'regular' Mike Force' not the 'raw' version so basically Americans but I'd get to use some of my ARVN figures for a change. Again as it was Gary's first experience with the rules I went for the 'Search and Destroy' operation.

The peace of another day in Nam is shattered by the arrival of the ARVN:

I didn't choose the Chopper as a support for the ARVN but thought it may as well make a brief appearance for the customary photo:

A VC leader arrives and begins to recruit the enthusiastic peasantry to the cause:

The Imperialist lackies prepare to begin their mission:

More VC are recruited in another village, again the villagers seem keen to repel the invaders:

An immediate success for the ARVN who find a food cache and destroy it:

The first casualty of the day, an innocent peasant killed while being interrogated for refusing to give up any information. A reporter covers the scene:

Despite the villager refusing to talk the ARVN find another food cache and destroy it:

Another village, another food cache destroyed. The villages and VC will be hungry tonight:

More VC gather together:

The ARVN have now searched most of the easily reached villages and will have to move on to those now held by the VC:

They advance on one of the weaker held villages and the first VC casualty occurs:

Following up the ARVN assault the surviving VC who fall back with heavy losses:

The entire VC squad is wiped out by the ARVN:

They search the village, find another cache of food and destroy it. Not much is going for the VC so far!:

However they manage to strike back with three ARVN bases going down in a firefight:

VC begin to mass around the animal enclosures:

This proves to be a mistake as the ARVN commander calls down an artillery strike with devastating accuracy:

Several VC are hit including one unfortunate villager:

On the other side of the road fighting continues:

Neither side seems willing to attack across the paddy fields:

Eventually the ARVN move forward but take heavy losses from shooting. The VC assault with a large numerical advantage but fail to drive off the ARVN and are forced to retreat:

The game ends with a few further exchanges of fire:

On counting the victory points the final score was VC 54pts to the ARVN 54pts so the game was a draw! Gary kept his men together well, not allowing the VC to pick off isolated units. He also decided to concentrate on destroying the food caches rather than capture the VC VIP or their arms supplies which again worked well. If he had evacuated some of his casualties I think he'd have won easily but, not realising really how significant that could be, he didn't evacuate any.

We both enjoyed the game and Gary would be happy to play again, it is quite a thoughtful rule set with a variety of ways to play. It was also good to get the ARVN on the table even though we didn't go for the 'raw' version of the list with two platoons, I'm curious to see how that would work! Maybe next time. 

ADLG Palmyran Army

The first metal army I ever painted back in the 70's was a Hinchliffe Palmyran army to play WRG 5th Edition at the club in Redcar. For many years they campaigned with me but eventually I sold or swapped them for another army and they disappeared into the mists of time!

For a while lately I contemplated trying to get them back  but, realistically, that wasn't going to happen. I couldn't remember who I sold them to or even if it was in Redcar or London. The clubs I played at then no longer existed and many of the people I played at the time would now probably be no longer active so while I'd definitely recognise them again if I saw them the prospects of doing so seemed minimal.

While looking at the Lancashire Games website for some 15mm Franco-Prussian wars figures I noticed that they had taken over manufacturing and selling Hinchliffe figures  at very reasonable prices. Inspired by my new-found enthusiasm for 25mm ADLG and being tired of painting WW2 stuff I thought why not order a few figures and see how they came out? At worst I could add them to my existing Late Roman army to give it a few options.

As is often the case a 'few' figures ended up turning into 'quite a lot' of figures as I painted them up and placed more orders to add a 'few' extra elements...

Six bases of Regular Archers:

Six bases of Irregular Light Archers:

The green Cataphracts:

The red Cataphracts:

Regular Medium Cavalry:

Irregular Medium Cavalry:

Caravan Guards as medium camelry:

Caravan Guards as light camelry:

The blue Cataphracts:

The purple Cataphracts:

Irregular Light Horse:

Zenobia:

Sub-general:

The second sub-general:

All together easily enough for an ADLG Palmyran army especially as I can add all the Roman allied troops from my Late Roman army (though the original army had Hinchliffe Late Romans rather than my Garrison ones).

I tried to paint them in a similar style to the originals and even contemplated gloss varnishing them (does anyone do that anymore?!) and, largely they look similar apart from the irregular horse who were much more colourful than these new ones. 

I think they have come out nicely but, as I suspected, they suffer from not being the original army and I'm not that happy with the way the irregular cavalry came out. Hopefully with some games they will develop their own personality and they certainly made a change from painting endless WW2 and Napoleonic figures!