Monday, August 29, 2011

Mabutuland

Hello,

After getting over another cold (from yet another small person) I have slowly been painting 15mm pirates and basing two 15mm French Lt Cavalry units. For some time now I have looked into various solo colonial campaigns and for the tIme being I am going to run a 15mm solo campaign based on the Ubongo campaign that was devised by the Brilliant Chris Ferree at (http://www.reocities.com/cdferree/ubonga/ubonga.htm) whilst tying in my Imaginations nation, Jaxonia (Based on Rio from our illfated Imaginations campaign last year)


Mabutu tells the tale of a detachment of Infantry ordered to create a garrison on the banks of a river in Western Africa. This is in order to protect river trade and the local labour force from nasty tribesmen with sharp pointy sticks and their slave trader clients who are hell bent on getting their "product back". I have set it in 1742 as i) I have a few figures I can use for the Slavers and the Jaxonians and ii) I felt like a 18th Century Flavour. I do however need to get some figures to act as the tribesmen, and possibly a few huts.

I play tested the campaign twice in two days, simply to see the mechanics of it all and quite enjoyed it. There is a fair amount of paperwork and dice rolling but the randomness and feel of it all is good. If the weather, heat, snakes, animals dont kill the men the locals will.
The first test was over in one week as I managed to generate every negative event possible. A hunting party ran into an angry village and ended up on the wrong end of a sharpened piece of mango,  a horde of Slavers and Tribemen descended on the unprotected garrison, half of whom were sick and caught them unaware. The second test attempt tested various exploring, buildings and patrolling rules. I built some stockades, a Barrack and a watchtower, sent some patrols out to counter random events (Slavers, missionaries, etc etc) and just got to grips with the system. So the third attempt was the actual campaign that I will use the blog for, and actually fight the battles with figures on the Kitchen table.

http://mabutuland.blogspot.com/


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Battle of Azuel, May 1810.

Our Spanish campaign run by Barry has been going for a year now and seeing as though we have gone through several disasters and odd weather formations we are still keeping it going.After a somewhat delayed few months this game finally went ahead, this delay being due to my schedule, earthquakes and my families ability to be sick, teething etc whenever there is a game :).

NorthEast of Sevilla the Army of Andulucia had been skirting around the area trying to find the French Corps of Marshal Sebastiani and to see what would occur when they met. In the last move I advanced to a small village called Azuel and then stayed there for a week and it is there I met the French coming full steam down the road towards me. What transposed was the Battle of Azuel in May 1810 and this is a very biased report of it. The game was hosted by Colin at his wonderful table in Waikuku and it is always a good day out there. All I can say is bloody French Cavalry - there are simply millions of them :).

Given the rather brittle and limited value ot the Spanish Forces involved, I deployed them in a rather concentrated manner. The milita units were in the front line around the village and breastworks, while the better units deployed behind ready to fill holes in the line, stem the tide of those running and provide shouts of encouragement to everyone involved. I simply do love my Spanish Army, such a colourfull and varied lot, this force involved Spanish, Swiss and Neopolitan units and a large swag of conscripts.


As the French come into view the commanders prepare their men for the inevitable (aswell as using them as human shields - my Generals tend to die rather quickly)

The Vol stand to order and see, in the distance the French masses.


More pics of the pretty Spanish !



The Swiss stand to on the left flank in Battalion masse awaiting the French Dragoons (who then went right around the battlefield to the far side)


The battle began when a French Dragoon Brigade attempt to flank the village of Azuel, given that the flank wasn't prepared I sent the gallant Spanish Heavy Cavalry off to hold them up. They did defeat a French Dragoon Regiment and then I took the decision to carry on, which failed miserably.


The French used the western wood as an anchor to their attack, Legere passing through it while the main forces flowed around its Northern edge.


Hand of God near Azuel, such a wonderful piece of Norman Stonework in Southeran Spain. In that BUA (Built Up area) the Vol Molina stayed the entire game, shooting anything that came near (and they actually hit something :))



The French infantry, supported by Dragoons attack then furthermost point of the defences, the Vol Berlanga, a 12pdr Battery and Vol Merida stood their ground, shot a few volleys and then recieved several charges. They only took a few casualties but after that they promptly ran away forcing the units behind to take morale rolls. At this stage I rolled quite a large series on 1's that was a really really crappy number to roll. However they rallied soon after - the pic below shows the French advance around the left. In the far right hand corner on a hill stand the Dutch Guard brigade, who never moved for the entire battle.



The French infantry then fell back, I retook the bastions and then unfortunatelty had to go back to ChCh to pick up the kids and go watch some under 9s soccer. Colin carried on in my stead as the French Heavy Cav tried their luck on the eastern flank, and I dont know how they fared. Hopefully only a few more Spaniards fell but the French were repulsed ? or has something dire occured ?





Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Snowy Days


Hello,

Not much has happened here apart from illness and generous dumpings of snow. I had a cold, which then due to an autoimmune disorder I have turned into a chest infection, and then returned as some kind of Sinus infection. As for the snow Sunday night we had about 6 inches, and then another 4 or so Monday night and round here it locked us in. The joys of having a 50m driveway, half of it uphill. I have 99% finished the Guard Chasseurs and am about 60% through the 2nd Hussars, and by jesus they look good (If I do say so myself :0).

I have spent most of my time looking into Solo Wargaming and solo wargame campaigns in 15mm. I have purchased Sharp Practice skirmish Rules and The Sword and the Flame Sudan rules for the games. I have also spent several days researching various solo tools for campiagns, maps and inspiration. The result of this will be two solo projects for my forces, 1 being a 18th Century Possible French Indian War\America's\Imagination campiagn and a Sudan campaign based on Steve Winters fabulous (and simple campaign system) http://home.comcast.net/~theangle/FireSwrd/FireSword.htm.

I did have some 25mm Sudan figures el cheapo from a contact in the States , but I sold them as realistically I would never get to game with them. I dpo however have 15mm SYW figures floating about, aswell as a tonne of 15mm Nappies and Indians. However at least in 15mm I can have some small games on the Kitchen table by myself. I have always dabbled in Skirmish 15/25mm games since I was a teen as I like the scenario side of things. I have read through Sharp Practice and quite like them, the whole big man thing fits my plot quite well.

Anyway more to come.

The house this morning.



It was up to the top of my wellies most of the way around the house.



Monday Nights Deposit.


Now lucky for me having spent so much time in the UK, Himilayas and other cold snowyplaces that digging the driveway out was an breeze.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

More 15mm French

So, I have a cold coming on and as such haven't done anything other thain paint at night, base things during the day (When Arabella is napping). I aim to paint 15mm French and 28mm ww2 for the next few weeks and I hope that I can finish my 15mm French and ww2 Russians (RoE), I do have some Germans (A tank and halftrack) but I plan to offload these.

I am currently working on some OG and AB French, I like both ranges but I tend to use AB for Cavalry and OG for Guns and Infantry. The OG infantry I quite like, and comparing to AB the price difference is very desirable, but given that I am lucky in that the OG French figures I uses are very good whereasother packs are awful (Austrian Grenadiers come to mind).

I do however have some OG Guard Chasseurs I picked up at a Swap Meet, main problem being I have enough for 3 Regiments so one will be the Guard while the other two will be painted as something exotic (Italian or Neopolitans).

Below the OG Chassuer a Cheval Std. Base layers done plus I painted some Gold on to see how it would show up.



I am painting 12 figures in all, and have made my first booboo already. I wasnt paying attention to what I was doing and painted the Trumpter base layers in reverse colours instead of the Sky Blue, I'm not going to correct it as it the extra layers of paint would lose some detail.


I am also about so start the 2nd Hussars (AB) and the 6th Polish Line Regt (OG). Have taken a before pic of 3 of the Poles, which have all been undercoated, base coated and now await more detail.



The 2nd Hussars are basecoated to some degree except the horses as I do them last. I really really hate doing horses so I hope with this round of painting I can improve upon my crap work now and get some decent looking figures.



So for my French I have left (Horse Grenadiers of the Guard, ?th Cuirrassiers, ?th Dragoons, ?th Line lancers, 1st Carabiniers,2 Hussar Units (Using OG Guard Chasseurs), 3 Swiss Line, 1 Spanish Line, 2 Wurttenburg, 2 Legere (Westfalian maybe), Guard Grenadiers (2), Guard Chasseurs (1) and 1 Polish Line (And of course 600 Prussian Inf, 100 odd cav etc etc)

The rest of these pics are completed work. Most of the bases are going to be finished soon (I based them quickly for a small game), sand,shading and flock to come. Below are my 3rd Croatian, French 123rd and 1st Wurttenburg Line in column.



A good close up (I hope) - basing them quickly I managed to splash green paint over everyone but when I goto do the bases properly this will be corrected.


The Command stand of 1st Wurttenburg Line.




And finally a repainted Spanish unit. One of the oldest units I have, the original paint was in Humbrol (I remember the stink of that paint) so I have simply washed and highlighted.