Napoleon's Paris

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Paris and managed to fit in a bit of sightseeing.

First visit was to the very impressive Les Invalides:

I've been here a few times but not for a long time. I think they had cleaned it up since my last visit. The courtyard always reminds me of the scene in Waterloo where Napoleon says farewell to his guard (though it wasn't there):

I started off in the 'Modern' gallery (1643 to 1871) which does not seem that modern to me. Napoleon's hat, overcoat, tent, chair, camp bed and even lamp:

A Napoleonic Eagle that had seen some action:

Napoleon after his first abdication looking very different to his earlier portraits, the years of campaigning have taken a toll on him:

Marshal Massena:

There is so many fantastic items in this gallery, especially the uniforms. I moved on (via the gift shop!) to Napoleon's Tomb under the Dome of Les Invalides:

The tomb is certainly impressive and could easily be interpreted as a temple to the god Napoleon, doubtless inspired by Roman Emperors.

I then moved on to the Contemporary Gallery which covered 1871 to 1945. Again, very impressive if rather Charles de Gaulle orientated for WW2. The size of this WW1 Renault tank was noticeable, it is tiny!:

At this point gallery fatigue had set in so I missed out the Old Gallery. To do the museum justice I think you'd need a couple of days really.

Next I went to the Vendome Column. This commemorates the battle of Austerlitz in 1805 and is similar to Trajan's Column in Rome:

Another classically inspired monument is the Arc of the Carrousel, again dedicated to Napoleon's victories. This is the Arc that originally had the four horses from St. Marks in Venice on top of it. Now it has copies as the originals were returned to Venice in 1815:

Finally I went to the Louvre. I don't think there is much Napoleon related in the Louvre but did see a painting which has a bit of meaning to me:

This painting is on the front cover of the book 'Waterloo - A Near Run Thing' written by David Howarth.

The version I have was printed in 1974 and was, I think, the first book I ever had about the Napoleonic wars. I still have the book and read it sometimes, it is an excellent read and uses a lot of eye witness accounts to bring the period to life.

Sharp Practice French v Spanish

I took on Gary's newly painted Napoleonic Spanish (supported by a couple of groups of my British) with my Peninsular French. The Spanish consisted of three groups of Fusiliers, two of British Line and two of skirmishing guerrillas. The French force was similar with three groups of Fusiliers, two of skirmishing Voltigeurs and a single group of Dragoons.

The terrain was fairly open and we went for the encounter scenario. Both sides moved forwards towards the farm:

Spanish Guerrillas lurk behind a hedge. They are a cutthroat looking bunch:

Voltigeurs and Guerrillas race for the farmhouse. The Guerrillas get there first:

The other group of Voltigeurs has managed to secure the farmyard though for the French:

Firing breaks out along the line with the French Fusiliers advancing to drive off one of the Guerrilla groups. The Spanish Fusiliers have deployed but don't really have a target:

The Dragoons start to try and out flank the Anglo-Spanish lines. A group of Fusiliers advances to support the Voltigeurs in the farmyard:

Disaster occurs for the French though with a remarkable five out of 6 Voltigeurs in the farmyard being shot down by the British Line. Given that they are only killed on 6's that was a remarkable result for the British and the Voltigeurs are finished as an effective force:

On the other flank the French Fusiliers are driving off the Guerrillas:

After the destruction of the Voltigeurs the Dragoons flanking move is now unwise so they dismount and head for the farmyard:

They say lightning never strikes twice but in this battle it did! Some of the Spanish Fusiliers open fire on the surviving group of Voltigeurs and kill three of them:

The surviving Voltigeurs fall back and hide in the bushes:

What was looking a good situation for the French has collapsed quickly. The French Fusiliers in the farmyard have entered the barn largely because they can't be shot in there:

The only advantage the French now have is that the Spanish Fusiliers and British Line don't have much in the way of targets!:

The British Line start to chase the French Dragoons who keep slipping out of the British arc of fire. The Spanish Fusiliers have split up with one group guarding the exit to the barn and the other two moving to engage the French Fusiliers:

The French Fusiliers see an opportunity and rush out of the barn to outflank the British Line. They will be vulnerable to the Spanish if they move into the barn but the situation is desperate:

The British react too quickly and turn to face the French. Both sides exchange fire but the Spanish are now in the barn:

The larger group of surviving Voltigeurs advance again to help out in the farmyard. The British Line have taken a few losses by now:

Are things turning back in favour of the French?:

On the right the French Fusiliers are gradually losing out to the Spanish Fusiliers and the Guerrillas in the farmhouse:

The Spanish dash out of the barn and attack the French Fusiliers. It's a fairly even fight but again luck goes against the French and they lose four men to no loss:

The situation for the French is now hopeless and they retire from the field.

The destruction of both groups of Voltigeurs pretty much decided this game, the first one especially was one of the luckiest (for Gary) dice throws I've seen in a long time. I did manage to make a bit of a comeback but it wasn't quite enough in the end.

Sharp Practice does seem to rate the French pretty awfully in the rulebook Peninsular section displaying a remarkably old-school view of the superiority of the British!

Rebels and Patriots AWI British v American

Having played several games of 'Men Who Would Be Kings' and heard good things about Dragon Rampant I bought a copy of the latest Osprey ruleset 'Rebels and Patriots'.

Once I'd had a quick read-through I thought I'd give them a trial solo game using the basic 24 point British and American Militia forces (though with the American mounted riflemen replaced by more infantry). Dicing for the officer personalities gave the British a 'Ruthless' officer who had to issue attack orders within 12" of the enemy and "Cunning" for the Rebels which would have let them use some dummy units.

I set up a fairly open table and deployed the two armies:

Both sides advanced with the odd unit failing to activate. The British Light Infantry got some lucky hits on the Rebel Riflemen and put two disorder markers on them:

The British officer was shot down and severely wounded by the Rebel Militia, slightly disconcerting his unit. Rebel Skirmishers tried to work around the British left flank:

One unit on each side has become rather exposed and have started to take hits:

The isolated British Infantry break for the rear but the British Grenadiers plug the gap. On the right the British Light Infantry push forward:

The isolated Rebel Militia unit takes heavy losses and falls back:

As the Rebel Riflemen are 'timid' in combat the British Light Infantry charge home but only inflict a single hit:

The two lines exchange fire. The British Light Infantry fall back reduced to half strength:

The British Infantry in the fenced field break and rout after a disastrous morale test. It's all over for the British!:

In total the British lost 26 figures to the Rebels 24.

So how does it compare to Sharp Practice and MWWBK? I think once you got the hang of it the game would play faster than SP. The unit activations (basically throwing 6+ on two die with various modifiers) are quickly done and do give some flavour to the different units.

Unlike MWWBK each side only has one officer so the effect of having a useful/useless officer with each unit is diluted. Looking at the traits table for the officers they don't seem as extreme as MWWBK.

Firing is simple to resolve as are the morale tests. The firing is not as deadly as MWWBK. Odd things happening on a double 1 or 6 for unit activation can have a big effect as well (similar to the 3 flags thing in SP). Movement is a set distance unless you issue an attack order where it is variable.

So a fairly simple ruleset that would give a quick game. Gary is a big fan of Dragon Rampant so perhaps we can give the rules another runout at the club sometime.

ADLG Sui Chinese v Christian Nubian

Another ADLG game, this time in 15mm against Peter's Christian Nubians. Peter wanted to practice for Roll Call so I decided to use Sui Chinese, an army I have not used in a while.

Peter won the initiative and decided to defend in the desert. The terrain fell quite well for the Chinese with an impassable oasis anchoring the left flank and some brush the right. The Chinese deployed their heavy foot and supporting cavalry in the centre and left with the medium foot and a large stone thrower on the right. The Nubians had two commands of camels and impetuous swordsmen and one of light horse:

The Nubians flood forwards. The stone thrower promptly lands it's first rock on the advancing camels!:

The match up looks good here for the Chinese with the cavalry mainly facing the impetuous swordsmen and the mixed spear/bow the camels:

The Chinese advance to shoot. Unfortunately I failed to take into account the ability of lines to slide a base width before charging unless you are very close so what looked like a good match up for the Chinese was about to go badly:

On the right more rocks land on the camels:

The Nubians charge home. Due to the incompetence of the Chinese general (me!) the camels are fighting the Chinese cavalry and the impetuous swordsmen the mixed spear and bow. These are pretty bad match ups for the Chinese:

On the right one camel has been shot down and the others have taken some hits but are now in charge range:

The poor match ups result in many losses for the Chinese. They do have some overlaps though:

On the right the surviving camels go in:

Two Chinese bases go down at contact rather unluckily:

The Nubian camels and swordsmen are making holes in the Chinese line. The Chinese don't really have anything to plug the gaps:

The Chinese right flank is looking rather outnumbered. The cavalry need a quick breakthrough:

The centre continues to collapse though the left flank puts up a fight:

Things are looking grim for the right flank Chinese:

Most of the Chinese army has now collapsed and they break. The Nubians have had quite a few losses but with a 30(!) break point are nowhere near defeat as the battle ends:

Until I made the mistake of allowing Peter to slide his battle line (which I could have stopped him doing) the outcome looked good for the Chinese. Once I'd made that mistake it became inevitable the Nubians would triumph pretty much. Special praise goes to the Chinese stone thrower crew who shot down a camel and inflicted several more hits in a great display of shooting!

Latest Late Romans!

Inevitably I succumbed to the temptation to add a few more bases to the 28mm Late Romans.

Not being able to source any more Garrison figures and not really liking the Hinchliffe ones I went for Footsore Miniatures as Tim had some and they looked quite nice.

I was going to just get some Cataphracts and generals but due to the temptation of free postage and mission creep from a 3 for 2 offer ended up with some auxiliary archers and javelin skirmishers as well!

First up on the painting table were the archers. These figures were giants but that might not be so noticeable on a gloomy club night:

Next I did the General on foot. The Draco standard keeps that theme going from the original figures:

Finally for now I did the javelin men as Legionary skirmishers using two of the shield patterns from the Garrison Legionaries:

Hopefully the cataphracts and the remaining generals will be finished before I next use the army again at an undetermined date in the future!

Spanish Buildings for Sharp Practice

Since I am likely to be playing a few games of Napoleonic Sharp Practice set in the Peninsula I thought I'd invest in a couple of suitable 28mm buildings as I don't have any 28mm Spanish/Italian buildings.

Of late I've made a fair few 4Ground buildings for Chain of Command which are really nice but a bit pricey. As 4Ground don't have a 28mm Spanish range I had a look around the web and settled on a Spanish Taverna and a Spanish Arched House from Empires at War. They looked nice in the pictures and were pre-painted but cheaper than 4Ground at £18.50 each.

As is often the case these days they arrived very quickly (apart from a few firms the days of 4 to 6 weeks for delivery seem long gone!). On opening the box I wasn't that impressed, the paint seemed little different to the wood colour and the parts were very thick.

However, once I started to build them they actually turned out nicely, the thicker parts made a very sturdy building and the paint looked okay though not up to 4Ground standards and with no interior detail (in all honesty I'm not bothered about that though). The plastic roof tiles were a good addition and looked much better than the usual flat roof you get with an MDT kit once they had been painted.

The Taverna:

The House:

Both look okay I think and they might also be useful for 'Dead Man's Hand' as well. Will I get any more? I'm not sure, they are relatively cheap but don't have the detail of 4Ground. They will certainly do for now though.