May Musings

Hello,

I've finally had the motivation to go into the garage and sort out the crushed and scattered remnants of my wargaming armies. The 28mm french are upside down but appear to been in a good state, half of the Allies escaped as I had onlt rebased them a week before and they were still in the cupboard. 20mm plastic armies were thrown around like confetti and are basically in every other box they could land in :).

15mm Spanish are 50%. what is odd is that the newly done figures survived intact, while all the 15 year old ones died en masse. So I need to start a project to get what I can out of the older figures, aswell as finish the unpainted units I still have left. I'm also going to paint a 28mm Plastic Hussar unit to get the motivation going.

28mm ww2 is intact but the bases all came off, so some glueing is needed. Though it appears all my glue is dry so a trip to a shop is needed.

Paul

Cheers
Paul

Quake

Didn't have a good day Tuesday, had to get through town to get home.

Home to my daughter but our house is badly damaged, my entire wargames collection is crushed but I sort of dont care.

No water or power or sewage, sleeping on friend sofas at night, shovelling liquification by day.

Oh well, im alive and my family are safe.

15mm Painting So Far.

Some Spanish Light Infantry (Unit no decided) - Battleline figures, not too bad figures I suppose, though the glue on heads are a pain in the backside. I didnt have any light infantry painted for the Spanish so I have done some. All I need to do now is add a flag and finish off the base.

Some 15mm scenery I picked up off trademe, a few farmhouses, you can never have too much scenery ! I have some river, a bridge and some other buildings to go. I have never really had my own scenery so its quite pleasing to be painting some.

Hesse-Darmstadt Infantry, BattleLine Miniatures, a horrible set of figure but have attemmpted to paint them as best as I can. Base needs completion and a standard (Most likely a print yourself job from Warflag)

Some Westphalians, horrible battlineline gnomes againt but I did what I could with them.

3eme Croatian Infantry Grenadier Company. AB Figures, very nice but very expensive, A lot of people say these are the best, but I think the OG figures I have are on a par (and half the price)
3eme Croatian Voltigeur and Centre Company, I have painted more of these figures but only decided to show 2 of them.

Von Pfuhl’ Infantry Regiment (Wurtermburg Infantry), I picked up some 15mm OG figures (Poles, Wurtenburgs and some Old Guard) to increase my 15mm French. I painted a command element to see how they look and I quite like them, only 100 to go now :).

Artillery Driver - Battleline do some cheap limbers so I picked some up. Not needed for games but thought I would have some eye candy. Hopefully my artillery batteries will now actually look like batteries when they move.
Spanish Dragoons - some more Spanish Dragoons to add to my collection. Battleline Figures and they just need a little tidying up before basing.


Duchy of Jaxonia
Thus, I have also entered the realm of Emperor Vs Elector in the forming of my Duchy, rulked of course by Marquess Paulus Von Jaxon (http://jacko-thedancingbear.blogspot.com/).

SOme years ago I picked up a vast chest of plastic figures and have made several half hearted attempts at getting them ready. I dont even know where they all are currently, but I have grabbed what I can and started the project once again !.


Duchy of Jaxonia Infantry - I painted theseGreen Jackets a long time ago and they look bloody horrible, if I do say so myself. I'll need to some a fair amount of tidying up of these figures as they hurt my eyes to look at them lol. I'll probably end up painting the shade in, but anything is better than this, I think the French figures I painted when I was 13 looked better than this ! What on earth was I thinking at the time.
Duchy of Jaxonia - Artillery - I have painted some gun crew and a gun, I thoroughly detest painting guns, I dont know why but I can't fight without them and I was tempted by red coated artillery for some reason.

Duchy of Jaxonia, Infantry - Base coated figures and now into applying more layers. My units might be a mix of colours, as I haven't decided yet what to do, or even the history of my nation. Red always looks good on SYW figures, adn I have painted enough white on Napoleonics to last me a life time.

Duchy of Jaxonia, Garde Artillery - Base coated and have begn the next phase of the extra layers, will probably end up being 2 guns only, as the Duchy doesnt have too larger Guard force. I think as a whole my forces will amount to 6 Infantry battalions, 4 guns and 3 Dragoon regiments. I am tempted to create some militia force, as peasants with guns is always appealing :).

Napoleonic Campaign In Spain.

The campaign continues after the Xmas Lull, several days ago we fought a rearguard at Tortosa, in which the Spanish attempt to load troops onto the British Navy, while the French harass the rear. As it turned out it all fell to pieces on about move 3 and I find fighting under these rules with Spanish to be getting quite tedious. I know a fair amount about the Spanish army, and I appreciate the obvious quality issues but at the end of the day its a wargame and it has to be enjoyable and recently it hasnt been. I think my incessant whining was probably hightened by lack of sleep (Baby, Earthquakes), overworked (Curse you work)! and my reluctance to try and get some extra sleep when there is a tray of unpainted figures nearby. I guess as I don't wargame as much these days, when you only play one game every month and all you do is get stonked - its gets a little tedious.

Anyway, in Spain the East is going kaput at a vast rate of knots, the centre has been quiet, though in Badajoz the sudden arrival of Junot has increased the excitement. In the NW all sorts of entertaining events are happening as Portugal is once again invaded by the French and our white hearted heros march onwards to Bayonne !

Heriocs at Badajoz

I have been bored recently so started painting up some 18th Century characters I have had mixing around for an eternity, they were only 90% but I could just not resist getting them into a game. Below are my two bootleggers taking their booty away from the French, while a Westphalian Guard officer talks to some young lady.

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At the end of the battle, the officer leads his lady friend away whilst a number of ruffians follow behind. (Spanish troops hide in the Orchard behind them)

As part of the ongoing 1810 Spanish Campaign, our beloved Spanish Heroes found themselves having to defend a bridge near Badajoz against a French Corps intent on besieging the fortress. As it was such a good opportunity to bleed the French at the bridge, Brigadier La Carrrera opted to do so. Below is the French attack on the bridge, masses of french faced by 4 Battalians of concripts and a 4 pounder battery.



My little 4 pounders pasted the French with an epic display of marksmanship, the french did eventually get across the river but were seen off by the Voluntarios de Jaen, who charged in column and routed a French unit. Unfortunately they then pursued across the bridge into the French army and we lost forever. Below the Spanish heroes pursue valiently into a 12 pounder battery at grapeshot range, this actually saved my gunline as it gave me time to bug out and not get a 12 pounder bashing.


After that I decided it was time to retire as I didnt need this brigage getting a stomping, also below are some French wounded I have that I also decided to paint up.


And luckily for me Santa has just deposited 300 15mm Old Glory figures in my letter box :)

Spain
General Espagne's Invasion of Portugal came to a halt after a rather abrubt "GTFO" message was delivered by Wellington. As a result Espagne moved his forces back to the rugged heights of Galacia and sought a more pressing foe. Unforunately it appears Portugese - British communications are limited as the Portugese attempted to meet their Spanish allies, but on the road they ran into something else of the blue coated, eagle bearing variety.

Other areas of Spain are rather quiet {As the xmas lull develops}.

Painting
Ion and I are going to fight a small skirmish on a bridge near Badajoz. We decided to use 28mm figures so as a result my Westphalians and Neopolitans are being press-ganged into the Spanish army. As a result I need to finish the 2nd Naples Line Regt. These are Victrix figures and are very very nice to paint. Painting the "French" is such fun I'm so tempted to get more ! Apart from the goldfish eyes which remind me I missed the final flesh tone paint layer. The photo makes them look horrendous :(

I am slowly finishing the 15mm Spanish, below are some more Dragoons and Heavy Cav that will be painted in the xmas period. I found some yellow counters that have proved quite usefull for when I undercoat the figures tonight with the magic spray. 8 Figures will be Dragoons and the final 8 Heavy Cavalry - I'm not sure what units yet as I need to check the colour chart.


And while I do that I am test painting two Westphalian Hussars of the 2nd Regiment. ONly partially painted and I'm not sure if my blue is the right tone, but on the while I quite like the figures.



A finished 15mm unit (The 1st Westphlian Hussars). One element painted in 1998, the rest sat there until last week when I finished them off. Most of my 15mm Germans are just the same units I have in 28mm as I cant really think of anything else to paint them as.


And I am now facing a problem I havent had before. A volatile force is beginnning to affect the storage of my wargames painting area. Usually all that is heard is a shriek of primevil excitement, the flash of white teeth and then the unmistaken sound of hundred of soldiers collapsing to the ground. The beast of beckenham is crawling and standing and thus my paints are moved further out of reach.

La Guerre d'Indépendance Espagnole

April 1st 1810.
From his office in the citidel of Cadiz, General Paulo Armano Jacquino read the daily reports from his field commanders around Spain.


He worried that Catalonia had fallen as there had been no contact from General Ballasteros and the British Navy had reported smoke rising from Barcelona. This would mean that Zaragosa had fallen and as such northern Valencia would soon be under pressure from the French Corps around Catalonia. Valencia was still in Spanish hands but this was only for a matter of time as news of the cowardice at Xativa had recently arrived, the only saving grace was that the Walloon Guard lived to fight another day. Jacquino was annoyed that the possibility of a great victory was ruined by a rain storm and poor morale but as a result he had concocted a stunning plan that with a little luck could possibly work.


The Army of Galacia was surging across the northern coast towards France, nothing was able to impede its path. The British had landed at Gijon and were operating in Old Castille and Jacquino was happy that he had met a Commander (General Hill) that wouldnt hide behind fortifications like Wellington had. The Army of Galacia had also marched into Portugal due to reports of french burning Oporto, but all the patriots found was angry peasants and an abrubt Wellington.

The Army of Extremedura was occupying its province whilst probing to the North and East in an attempt to locate and intercept French supplies and troops, but nothing significant had occurred apart from reports of a French Division moving slowly south.

In Andulucia every success had been made, the French retreating in full force as the Andulucian Jugganought liberated Cordoba and pushed north into New Castille.

What news would the coming weeks of April bring ? Would the British start to act, would Napoleon arrive personally to enslave Spain again ? The only certainty is the Thin White Line shall remain defiant !

Normal service to resume shortly

Its been a busy month - work has increased and I've been doing some freelance counselling work on the side. But I've slowly been painting my Spanish 15mm army in unison with our campaign.

As overall Spanish commander its been quite entertaing moving militia armies around the map, while French veterans rampage everywhere else. Some small rule and OOB hiccups have been a small headache but this is just a teething problem and it has been quite good fun. Barry deserves a big medal as he is running the campaign and it is excellent so far.

We lost catalonia as I was outmarched and was caught divided, and then Barcelona fell but they garrison fought to the last man. The remnants of the Spanish army is fleeing south and whos knows if they will even survive.

In Valencia we attacked a small outpost and had the entire french army show up so we had to beat a hasty retreat and are now waiting the onslaught. In Andulucia things are going well, Cordoba has been liberated and we are chasing down the odd french unit while Extremedura is bracing itself for a french attack on Badajoz. In Galacia my troops are raiding Britsh supplies and have even sauntered down into portugal for some r&r.



More soon.