A Little Squeeze on the Side

Aside from painting some new figures and armies, I've been diddling about with some much older ones. My SYW Prussian army was painted around 14 or so years ago and the basing used hand cut cardboard squares with that old wood coloured flock. In short, I've been meaning to give them a touch up for some time. 

Here are half of my infantry (almost) complete. I say almost due to the fact I damaged one flag during un-basing and have not glued the unit name tags on the backs either. 

I'm very pleased with the result - just what I was going for. I was after a good standard for play rather than a 'internet professional' level of job (I'm not capable of that anyway.) Added to this, after two Prussian armies, I find getting Prussian blue 'right' quite difficult. Getting a good highlight is the hard part in my opinion. Something that looks good to the eye is simply too bright for the coats the soldiers wore. There is often a disconnect between what is seen as a good painting standard today and what things looked like in history. Any surviving coats were very dark. 

When I put them together it looks like such a small group - guess that will happen when my last LARGE painting project was two Napoleonic armies with a combined total of 1056 infantry, around 80 gunners (+cannon) and over 120 cavalry. 

Don't they look good in their ranks ... ready to march into the guns for Prussian glory!

Another side project was a single figure for my good friend, Mick. Fired by nostalgic zeal, Mick purchased Heroquest and we've had a few games. He decided the paint all the mini's and since I played the wizard - who I call 'Ronson' - he asked me to paint it up. The paint job was quite difficult as the miniature details were in very low relief. After base coating and some washes I thought I had muffed it - but perseverance paid off and I'm once again happy with the result. 

These other images are of a board I set up for a recent game of 'O' Group I played. This terrain has not seen the light of day for over 6-7 years - at the time I stopped playing FOW. 

As for 'O' Group ... what can I say. It is a typical Dan Brown set of rules ... painfully slow with dice rolls upon dice rolls deciding every factor of the game rather than player decision making. 

I find the 'Brown style' (evident in General de Brigade, Pickett's Charge and 'O' Group - all of which I've played) to be a good representative of an outdated method of writing rules.  

 

Napoleonics Mustafa Style

 

The following images tell the tale of a game of Lasalle 2 ... backwards. 

This week's club game saw but two hardy gamers playing. Upon request, I ran my good friend Mick B through the Lasalle 2 introductory scenario. The only difference was that we played with exactly the same army - 8 infantry, 2 foot batteries, 2 light cavalry and 1 horse battery. 

What followed was a great game which we both enjoyed very much. We played with the 3 unit sudden death victory condition. As the above image shows, the Prussians achieved victory on the French left wing. An entire Prussian infantry brigade flanked around the forest and struck the French a fatal blow. When the charge finally drove home, three units were lost in a single combat phase. 

These images show the struggle for the centre and the flanking force in the background. It is taken from the moment of victory. The Prussians had angled their centre and were trying to fend off the French advance. The Prussian cavalry played a key role in this - especially with their 5+ disruption (?) roll - which helped shrug many incoming hits. 

As the Prussians had advanced of their right, it was their left which was held back. The French cavalry tried to take advantage of this with a hook into the Prussian flank and rear. A hasty repositioning of the Prussian cavalry stopped the French from causing certain mayhem by getting behind the Prussian flank. 

The above shows the French main attack. Marshal Mick had pushed an infantry brigade up in support of his cavalry. This put the Prussians in a nasty spot forcing them to endue several torrid rounds of fire. Some poor French musketry and average Prussian rallying enabled the men in dark blue to hold out. 

With MO needed to advance around the flank (including through difficult terrain) it was hard to have the points to advance the Prussian centre. These took sporadic hits from the French foot batteries who peppered their line. In addition, the French had placed their horse battery in a flanking position - pouring fire across the Prussian line (bouncing is a threat in Lasalle 2.) 

The Prussian flank attack shakes out and readies for a lethal bayonet charge. Mick played well delaying this by volleying and falling back. He rallied several hits from these units. The Prussian advantage was less hits and one more infantry unit. Marshal Mick also shifted a foot battery from the centre to bolster his line. But the Prussians pushed ahead. 

The French advance. 

As stated above, these images are in reverse order. The above shows the long road which the Prussian right hook took. It asked much of the centre to hold on. 

Here the Prussian cavalry only just got into position before the French could outflank the line. It took forgoing MO points and using the division commander to allow an additional formation change in the beginning of the phase. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of the original Prussian cavalry position. They had ridden straight into the centre of the battlefield and forced the French infantry into squares. This was vital as it held the French in place for the Prussian flank attack. 

Okay, going to brag ... those hussars look GREAT! These are my newest painted unit. They are the 10th Hussar who were attached to the III Corps of Ney, then Souham, during the 1813 campaign. The labels on my French units all come from this formation. Likewise, the Prussian labels are from Yorck's Corps from the army of Silesia. These forces tackled each other time after time in the spring of 1813 - my favourite period of Napoleonic history.