How not to win a battle

One good thing about the internet is that you can get in contact with likeminded people,and meet them.
Through the power of the internet,I met and invited Mark Dudley from Leeds up for a SYW game. Mark had never used Blackpowder and was interested to try them.
Anyway on Sunday Mark arrived in company with Tim [ more about Tim later] for a battle.
I had invited over Paul Stevenson to balance the game, and John very kindly offered to come up,to umpire [read interfere ] and provide a scenario.
 Paul was C in C of the Austro French armies. Tim was C in C of the Hanoverian Hessian armies.
Now Tim reckoned that he was an unlucky wargamer and never seemed to be able to throw the right dice at the relevant times. I should have known he was a ringer,but I digress.
 Due to John's scenario, lots were drawn out of the hat to give the commanders of each side various extra characteristics. Paul very kindly landed the French with one hesitant commander and one timid commander!
 The Austrians were endowed with heroic status,and launched themselves at Tim's, Hessians.
 Mark,true to Black powder form couldnt really get his command to move as he wished,well not to start with.

[The Hessian combined grenadiers,fought on heroically,stopping the Austrian advance,by some nifty sixes!]

  Me, true to French ethos, dug in around the outskirts of a village,hoping to shoot Mark's command to bits,which to be fair is not my usual game,but I was playing host as well.Everything was running well for the Austrian attack,the cavalry advanced at will,and the infantry rolled forward.

And after that things began to unravel as the Hessians doggedly held on.
Tim managed to throw sixes at will causing the Austrian centre to slow down into a slogging match.The Hessian cavalry,although made up only of dragoons and hussars,not only hung on,but broke the Austrian cuirassier command. In an effort to help I issued follow me orders,and sent my cuirassiers across to finally tip the balance.Wrong. What happened was that Tim's dragoon command forced them to retire,leaving the wing in stalemate.

[The French cuirassiers,led by a Timid general,manage to get a draw facing Hessian dragoons!]

[Tim's Hessian rifle skirmishers,show how to kill,Austrian hussars with impunity!]

  Realising that I needed to force the issue,the French infantry were ordered to advance and keep the Hanoverians engaged.Well that's what was intended,what happened was that the best French infantry sat about as the Hanoverian cavalry swept around into the centre of the table,to confront my by now battered French line.

[In an effort to halt the Hanoverian advance,my Arquebussier du Grassin, waved a flag furiously,before being ridden over]

[The Hanoverian cavalry,hit the weakened Regiment du Seuede, sweeping them away. ]

Once the line had routed, Mark very kindly followed with the rest of his cavalry command,no half measures there then. All I could do,was offer to make the tea,in an effort to slow down proceedings until night time.
All Paul and I could do was gracefully accept defeat,and allow the Hessian/Hanoverian army gloating rights. Sometimes nothing goes right,and becomes enjoyable in a sadistic sort of way.
As a game I thought it was great, I hope Mark, Tim and Paul,enjoyed it. Black powder again showed itself to be a fun set of rules. I voted Tim man of the match,but will check his dice next time.

Thanks to John for the scenario, and kindly dumping me with two surrender loving French commanders.

To cheer myself up after such a defeat,I think its only fair to display my latest re painted French unit,which luckily I didnt include in the defeat.

[ Maker still unknown.]

''Vive la France''

When is a project completed?

When is a Wargame Project classed as completed.
If anyone were to check my other blog,you would realise that I am embarking on another wargame project,this time the early Italian Wars.
Today I attended Derby World championships where I bought part of my new army from the excellent Dave Thomas of Perry fame.
However when I returned home,I checked my SYW war unpainted figures,and still have a lot of metal stored away,not counting three battalions of secondhand painted foot figures and three regiments of secondhand cavalry regiments,all to be repainted.
So when do you decide enough is enough. In the past I have based my armies around specific battles or campaigns,hence my complete Malburian armies for 1705, and my complete armies for the campaigns of 1805,1810, and 1812. Luckily these are in 6mm and dont take up that much space.
However for my SYW project,I just set away painting with no real target for the units,just a quick wants list,which is probably not the way to do it. I still need more allied cavalry to counter the Austro French army.
For Christmas last year,my wife kindly checked my Santa's wish list and bought me a regiment of 36 Stadden Prussian Grenadiers,so they need to be painted, then I have a regiment of Hanoverian dragoons to paint,not counting two regiments of Minden French,the list just goes on.
I think in the case of my two projects I will have to alternate between the two armies,concentrating on doing a two for one painting job.That is two renaissance units to one SYW unit.

Anyway,deviating further from my meandering,I have just finished the latest Minden civilians,and very nice they are to.

Oh I also knocked off two artillery crews,one British,one Hanoverian,from my EBay box.
I know the Foundry figures,look a bit bizarre facially,but they are nice uniforms to paint.
Here is the British one.

Accessories for Blackpowder.

I have found that the Blackpowder rules have grown a lot in my estimation. So much so I thought I'd better make the effort to record the causalities that each unit incurs.

 Warbases are a very helpful company making all sorts of things for wargamers,and their causality markers  are really good. So instead of cluttering up my table with causality dice,I have been through my spares box and drafted these into my games. The bases have a movable widget,that shows causalities up to ten. Well recommended.

My Project gets impetus.

As Ive stated previously,in an effort to complete!,[well at least accelerate the process] my SYW project,I have been buying up pre painted Hinchliffe figures from old collections.Basically the type of figures you see at a bring and buy,which are in need of some tender love and attention,the ones that dont often sell.Well I must admit I have been a bit inspired because there are some decent bargains out there if you're prepared to see past the bent swords,wonky legs and heavily chipped paint.

I bought over 100 hundred of these chaps.Now to be fair the paint job is very acceptable to start with,and someone clearly made a great effort to get them to look right.So the unit below is one of the regiments that I have hopefully brought back to life.I deliberately gloss varnish,because I wanted to capture a bit of my wargaming youth, and personally I think they are the dogs bollocks. 

I was lucky enough to buy some Prussian dragoons as well,although I wont be classing them as such,again, before;...

and then after;....

The best bit is the amount of time it takes to re paint the unit, well worth the scrounge about at shows.

Aut Caesar, Aut Nihil

Well I'm branching out,and have started a new blog.This time it will be about my new project, building the army of Cesare Borgia. The blog is titled Aut Caesar, Aut Nihil, which was the motto of Cesare.
Ive already drawn up a list of wants etc,Where would we be without lists.
Hopefully it will be of interest to other gamers. I will still be carrying on with this blog,especially as Ive got some ideas for games that would be nice to record. Also I still have a mini metal mountain to demolish.

Anyway,please link up to my new blog,and hopefully learn something new, dont forget,Aut Caesar, Aut Nihil.  The site is listed as dukeofvalentinois.blogspot.com 

A Bit of a Do Using Blackpowder

I must admit when Blackpowder first came out,I wasn't overly enamoured of the rules,but like a lot of things first impressions can be wrong.
 Since those early encounters I have really got to like them,although the command dice can really bugger you up.
 Anyway John and I used some of my Seven Years war Hessians and Hanoverians for a thrash against my French and Austrians.
 Although my generals,being French were the usual bunch of clueless twerps,I did manage to give the Hessians a bit of a kicking.
My award for the best performing newly painted unit went to my Saxon light lancers, who not only chased the Hessian light lancers from the board, but also overcame the Hanoverian guard cavalry, by some quirk of generalship. [actually some great dice throwing]
Now from experience,the newer the painted unit,the more chance of them running away at the first instance. Strangely this was borne out by my latest Austrian dragoon unit totally under performing,taking the French C in C with them!

 My gallant French Dragoons,followed by their Austrian allies, advance against the Hessian cavalry.Jackdaw French Dragoons, heavy brutes,but full of life.

 These units have just been completed,and were part of an army that I bought second hand,and repainted [read touched up] its a great way to get troops on the table, usually at modest prices. If effort is taken with the bases and flags,old figures can look really good. Hinchliffe figures designed by the great Peter Gilder.

 My favourite Hessian unit,the converged grenadiers. Again from my repainting project.

 My Saxon lancers[ yellow pulk] showing the Hanoverian guard where to go. The red counter behind them shows they are actually spent. They still won! [ Sorry John]

For the SYW purists out there, the Hessian light lancers are from my imaginary ducal contingent,painted to fight at the Battle games fight in North Yorks,sadly I never got,so I like to bring them out from time to time.

My mystery figures.

As I previously stated I bought some painted figures,with the intention of re painting them. Amongst the figures,were a unit painted as French SYW.
These really are good quality figures,with expressive faces,and good realistic proportions. Not to bang on too much,I like them.But I just dont recognise the figure maker.
Anyway,I have now re done one unit,bar the basing.Please ignore the officer,as he is RSM, but if  anyone can identify the figures,I will give them a prize of either some unpainted SYW figures,or a painted Foundry Malburian mounted officer.
The figures are stamped on the bottom, MF1,MF2,MF3,MF4. As I have said previously they are made of soft lead,not the more modern alloy.Anyway best of luck.