The Battle of Leipzig 18th/20th March 2016

Well I'm just back from my birthday present from my long suffering wife. She kindly obtained a position at the Donald Featherstone Memorial Weekend at the Wargames Holiday Centre.
 I have wanted to attend the weekend ever since its inception, and when I saw it was intended to refight the Battle of Leipzig, there was no holding me back. As Henry Hyde of Miniature Wargames has a very big input into the weekend, it would be extremely churlish of me to steal his thunder, especially as there will be a printed article in the magazine. Henry [ as he is known to his acquaintances] also created a live feed? and tweet also? where the weekend can be viewed.
                                             
                                             

 What I will say was it was an extremely enjoyable weekend, with wargamers from all walks of life getting together to have some real fun. I finally met Dave Brown of General de Brigade fame, who supplied a new set of Napoleonic rules to try out on us, and I hope he took some notice of what I advised he changed in the draft. Actually the rules were very easy to pick up, and I must admit I had worried that we would be using Gilder's Grand Manner rules, which I really didnt enjoy, ever.

 As for the battle, I think I was at my most dynamic, well apart from the series of ones I managed to throw at some very important times. Luckily I redeemed myself by some brilliant tactical decisions which I shared with everyone present.

 I managed to blag one of my favourite commands, ie the Saxon heavy cavalry, painted for Peter Gilder by Mark Allen. The photographs do not do them justice. The Austrians above were some of the many I had to face, they were so very impressive, en masse.

 Probably my finest moment, when I sent my Saxons, against the Russian Guard artillery.[ I wont say what happened here, read the article. ] I wont say who won either.

                                     

 An added bonus was being able to talk to several players who knew Peter Gilder, and had been able to buy various units from the Holiday Centre prior to it moving.
 Mark Freeth, the owner of the centre, who was a perfect host,was also a mine of information regarding the Gilder era. Clearly  I would thoroughly recommend any wargamer who loves wargaming to make the pilgrimage to the centre. This was by far the best of my several visits. A wonderful, but very very tiring weekend.

                Below are a few eye candy shots from the weekend, Gilder's innovation at its best I think.

 Henry Hyde has now put some of his many photographs up on his account at,  https://facebook.com/MiniatureWargames