2015-08-29

Bolt Action: Fallschirmjägers - Support I

So its high time to show off some more germans, this is the first batch of support troops. They are crews to some different weapons and special troops, I have not however their weapons as I was not commissioned to paint these.

But first are actually something that is included in the basic platoon for Chain of Command, a panzerschreck team



Then we have some crew for a MMG


And some nice little folk that I think is supposed to crew a PAK 40



Lastly I have an additional rifleman, as one of the original miniatures was armed with the wrong weapon, so I got hold of another one with a rifle from my own stash and got him painted up as a replacement.

This was actually one of several miniatures I painted before starting this commision to try out the painting scheme, it's not that easy to get the colours right and it took about 3-4 tries to get it right so that both I and my client was satisfied with the result.

And then we have a overview of them all

I also have here a little sneak peek on the basing as we decided on a basing type a while after these was completed. Missing here are the rifleman and panzerschreck team.


2015-08-19

Black Powder: Austrian - Line Infantry IR 20

So after I failed miserably at taking pictures of some of the commanders used at the last game, I instead have to present a new Austrian infantry regiment.

I here present IR 20 Kaunitz, present at the Teugn-Hausen battle under the command of Generalmajor Bieber. In this battle the regiment was initially held in reserve, and sent forward after a battalion of Grenzers and Jägers was beaten back by the French 3 Ligne and 10 Légére on the Austrian left flank. Their intervention halted the French advance and let the remaining Grenzers and Jägers retreat and regroup in relative order. They held the line until the whole corps is sent packing by the French.


In this campaign IR 20 took the field with no less than 16 companies all told, giving the regiment 2 and 2/3 battalion in the field. Almost reaching the proscribed 18 companies, but not many regiment could show such force at the time. My plan with this is to make a total of 3 battalions, 2 large such as this, and one normal sized to represent the strength they had in the field


Since we "only" have such small battalions, I have here converted a normal line trooper to be a standard bearer, and instead of using walking commanders I took the mounted one that comes in the Victrix pack. It turned out rather well I think, and makes it possible to make 3-4 units from each Victrix box. not a bad turnout for a single box.

2015-08-14

Bolt Action: Fallschirmjägers - Platoon overview

So with the command figures I showed last time the first platoon is complete.
This is the platoon as I had it a while back, right now I have them on the painting table again to base them, as soon as I have completed that I'll take some new photos of them.












A nice little bunch of minis, and looks really good when all together.

2015-08-12

Black Powder: Austrian - Line Infantry IR 56

So what do you do when you already have two Napoleonic armies that just got enough to be playable? You start another one of course!
So I have had some thought about starting some Austrians for a little bit, well quite a long bit actually, since I have grown a bit tired of the British as the opponents to my French, I wanted to find something else and I liked the white uniforms they have, and it's not the most prevalent army you can find. Also they have some really nice flags...

So I got a box of Victrix late Austrian infantry and got to it. This time I'm going to paint some specific regiments and keep to the colours that they used. And for starters I picked the III korps of the battle of Eggmülh. This corps saw some of the first actions leading up to the main battle at Teugen-Hausen where they faced of the French III corps under Marshall Davout.

For starters I'm going to make one battalion for each regiment that saw action there on the Austrian side, but I plan to expand this to make all the full (or mostly full) battalions.


The first one out then is the 56 infantry regiment, also known as Colloredo, as all regiments took name after their commanding officer. This was one of the regiments that attacked the French centre, meeting the French 3rd and 57th Lingne, that after some heavy fighting forced the Austrian away.

As we play with 3-base battalions, I have made the (often) oversized Austrian regiments at 4 bases to be able to depict them as large formations. We have 1 base for tiny, 2 for small, 3 for normal and 4 for large. This also gives me some personal satisfaction as they look really good in larger numbers.

That it for this time, I have some more Germans to show, as well as some detailed pictures on new commanders for my French and British that I used last game, so stay tuned!

2015-08-09

Bolt Action: Fallschirmjägers - Command I

To finish of the platoon there are two command miniatures.
I took a bit more care with these two and added a few more highlights on the uniforms and made sure to get all the insignias picked out so that you would be able to see who's in charge.





And with this the platoon is complete, I'll post some pictures of the whole thing in a few days. Then it's time for some gun crews and miscellaneous extras for this force.

2015-08-03

Battle Report: Black Powder - Battle of Vimeiro 1808

The other night I got to play Black Powder again. This time I took on the role as scenario fixer, and miniature provider as I introduced one of my local players to the rules.
The Scenario is based on the battle of Vimeiro August 21, 1808,  as the French attacked the British led by Wellington himself. The scenario was the attack on the village and the French had to take and hold the village.


The forces was as follows;

French

·         Commander-in-Chief – SR 8
o   General de Brigade Jean Andoche Junot, 1st Duc d’Abrantes

·         Thomieres 2nd Brigade – SR 7
o   3 Battalions of Line Infantry (1 small)

·         Charlot's 2nd Brigade – SR 7
o   2 Battalions of Line Infantry

·         Reserve: Kellerman – SR 8
o   4 Battalions of Combined Grenadiers

·         Maragaron's Cavalry Division – SR 8
o   1 Squadron of Chasseurs à Cheval
o   2 Squadrons of Dragoons

British

·         Commander-in-Chief – SR 9
o   Lieutenant General Sir Arthur Wellesley

·         6th Brigade - BrigGen H. Fane – SR 7
o   1 Battalion of Line Infantry
o   1 Battalion of Light Infantry
o   1 Small unit of Rifles
o   1 Artillery battery

·         7th Brigade - BrigGen R. Anstruther – SR 7
o   4 Battalions of Line Infantry

·         8th Brigade - BrigGen W. Acland – SR 7
o   2 Battalions of Line Infantry
o   1 Tiny unit of Rifles

For the French Thomieres and Charlot's brigades are available from the start, the other arriving later in the game. The British will have 6th and 7th brigade from the start and 8th will arrive on turn four. 


I took command of the British forces, and set up my starting forces around in and around the village.





As the first turn started the French came at me with terrible speed in attack columns, stopping just short of the village itself, but right in front of my valiant forces, and while my fire on them didn't do much in the form of casualties, my dice decided to be on fire, and almost all units caused at least one disorder, this was something that was to continue throughout the game.



This halted the French attack somewhat and made it possible for my cannon and rifle unit to finish of one unit of French troops, killing Charlot in the process. We played that killed commanders are replaced by a subordinate with one less Staff Rating, so Charlot’s aid took command of the brigade.


On the other side of the battlefield another unit bites the dust after some horrible rolling for break tests, rolling 3 on 2D6 is not recommended in this instance…


Over all the first attack has stalled, most units are destroyed or disordered and have begun to accumulate quite a lot of casualties, fortunately for the French, this is right when the cavalry arrives, bringing the hopes up for the French to be able to renew the attack, and smash a hole in the British defense.

It starts out great as the Chasseurs dash around the French right flank, threatening the British light company and most importantly, the artillery. The dragoons then are a different matter, as they refuse to enter the battle, still standing around a bit away from the fight, eating frog legs or whatever Frenchmen do. This puts quite a large wrench in the works for the French and the left flank is still in bad shape.


The britts then turn around and managed not only to put a few casualties on the Chasseurs, but also disorder them, leaving them stranded right in front of the light battalion. Also the rest of Charlot’s brigade suffers, as more and more fire is put into them by the roaming Rifles. But all is not well on the brittish side, some have fallen and with limited capacity in their commanders, movement is sluggish so units don’t get where they need to go.




Finally though, at least one of the dragoons arrives at the scene, spurred on by their commander. So even if the French are suffering, relief is on the way. Also in the distance, drums can be heard from the Grenadiers that are marching to the sounds of the guns. But they aren’t here just yet. The Brittish forces hold ground in most places, and shoots the Chasseurs of the table as they flee the field leaving many dead and wounded.



Then not a minute too soon, the Grenadiers arrives, these crack troops will surly make a difference. The first battalion smashes into the light battalion in the side. While another just can’t get far enough though their own troops to get hold of the artillery, and the last two holds positions behind. Dragoons roam the field as well, and both squadrons are at last on the field, and the first one rides right on and into a battalion hiding behind some bushes, but are unfortunately thrown back as the hedges stops most of their impetus and somehow the infantry can fend them off with a wall of bayonets.




In the centre the other dragoons smashes a battalion to pieces as they stood confused and disordered and hardly put up any resistance. Riding though the scattering remains of the infantry they thunder right into the next battalion, led by none other than Wellington as he works to restore some order.
Here the dice take sides big time, and even though my opponent hits hard, and inflicts no less than seven hits, I save them all and manages to put a few casualties on his unit, making them loose the combat and he promptly rolled a 4 for their break test, scattering them all over the field.



The French left flank is in ruins, all now hangs on how well the grenadiers can make the britts pay.

But fortune did not favour the brave this day, and even though the light battalion on the flank eventually gets destroyed the British 8th brigade enters the field and in turn breaks them and the same fate happens to the grenadiers that tried to get to the artillery and eventually the French retires from the field and leaves the British in control of the village.




The game ended in a big British victory, but although the French never really got any grip on the game, there was several times when if just a few dice had gone the other way, my britts would have been running to the hills. But all in all it was a good game, I have a few tweaks to do to the scenario I think, but all in all it turned out well, and my opponent wants to have revenge in a near future.