Battle Report: Black Powder - Showdown in Spain, October 1808

A while back I got to play some Black Powder again, this time with 15mm miniatures, not with my armies, but funnily enough with some miniatures painted by me.
I got to control the French forces, with some support of some Spanish troops and on the other side a thin red line of British troops.
On the French side I got to control two brigades of infantry, each with three battalions and one with two artillery batteries and the other had a large battalion. To this a brigade of horse, one hussar and one dragoon regiments. The British also had two brigades of infantry, each with two small and one large battalion and an attached artillery battery. To this was a horse brigade of two regiments of hussars.

Initial set up can be seen here, the aim was to take control of the buildings on the battlefield, the center cluster was worth one point as was the ruined church and large house on the flanks.

The luck of the dice gave the British the first turn. And got going on the British left flank, moving all the way up to the objective house, while things was a bit slower in the center where failed orders only resulted in a small forward movement, and the cavalry refused to move at all.

For the French it was mostly the same, on the right the infantry got moving as in the center, but not quite as long as the British, the cavalry slowly moved forward, eying the competition on the other side.

The next turn started on the British right, where they got into lines around the house with the intent on boxing the French in, but things did not quite go to plan and one unit was stuck marching into position, still in column! The French took advantage of this and sent one battalion to assault it while the rest resumed its advance straight to the house.

In the center both sides tried to get in order for an assault on the village, but both was reluctant to get anything done.

The cavalry was also a bit reluctant, both sides commander tried to get some charges in, but no one heeded their wishes.

The next turn started badly for the British, as the battalion caught in column got run down, and the victorious French got in the side of the next battalion, they did have some success in getting hits in on the other two battalions that tried to deploy in line to handle the last battalion.

The center was still and nothing much was happening on either side.

The same with the cavalry, they still was just eyeing each other, but all in all not doing a single thing.

But on the following turn things got going.

The cavalry finally stormed into a wild melee fight, where both sides took casualties, but the French was in a little better shape than the English before all regiments fell back.

In the center the British moved up in line to the village, and the French columns stormed the line, the fight was inconclusive and both sides took casualties as the fight continued.

On the right the English fell back in hand to hand, and all French formed lines and poured fire into the remaining British, destroying the artillery and mauling the infantry.


On the next turn noting much was happening, the fight in the center continued with a small edge going to the French, on the right the lines was still firing into each other and on the left the cavalry was trying to regain some order for another charge.

The following turn saw the end of the battle, as on the left the cavalry got in a another charge, this time with some serious consequences for both sides, as the fight with the dragoons ended up in both units destroying themselves and the other the French fell back in disorder but also shook the British, breaking that brigade.

In the center the large British battalion broke and the victorious French got into the next one in line, both in the side and front, also breaking this.

On the right the large British battalion broke under the intense bombardment, breaking the brigade here as well and taking the entire army with them in their flight.

The French did also get dangerously close to breaking, and another turn of British bombardment would probably have broken them as well.

So concluded another great BP game. And big plans are in the making for more and more armies to get bought and painted during the fall. And I hope we will have a big fight or two before the end of the year.

100 figure challange

It's been a while since I wrote anything here, so it's high time to do something about that.

Two months ago I was at a gaming convention, and as usual I got a few more miniatures, and when I got home I thought about what I could do to lessen the mountain a bit. So I set myself this goal, paint a 100 28mm figures (or it's equivalent) before I can buy another new mini.

So said and done, on the 9th of May I announced the challenge in a local gaming group facebook page and of I went.

And now after almost 2 months I'm done, and here is the miniatures that got painted during the time (basing was not included in the challenge)

I started strong and got this gun and crew completed after just a few days

Completed the last few things on these US marines and got them based to, just as I was doing other things

Then I got into some more napoleonics, and over the next few weeks got two battalions of french, one of british line and a highlander battalion done.

Then I have to say I got a little burned out on doing napoleonics, so I got a few marines that I have laying around and just tried some different colours, just too see how they are to paint, so I did a Imperial Fist marine in yellow, and a Ultramarine in blue.

The just to continue I did some of the miniatures I had over from my last 40k army that I never got around to painting, so I completed a recon squad here first

Followed just the next night with some tactical marines

And then I painted some old, old, OLD marines, the first one in plastic that GW released, known as RTB01 or the original beekie marines. I've had this box with a few of them in storage for some thing like 20 years and not dared put paint to them, Well thats over now ...

And lastly I did a battalion of 15mm french. I counted two of them as one 28... Perhaps a bit cheating, but I needed to get done some time... =)

So thats my last few months, I hope someone else can do a challenge like this, it's a good feeling when you are done!

Battle Report: Black Powder - Battle of Corunna 1809

This week we got to play another game of Black Powder, this time I took on the role as GameMaster as the other players wanted to play and it was their first and second game respectively, so I was there to be rules judge and give advice on what to do and when to do it. I also wrote the scenario for them to play, and too keep it a bit more like the real thing, I didn't tell the anything of what's going on around them.

The scenario concentrated on the action around the small village of Elviña and the main thrust of the French advance with the 31th and 47th regiments in the front and with reinforcements arriving thought the battle. On the British side it was the 1st Foot Guards in support of 4th, 50th and 42nd regiments.

To make it a bit easier to remember what was where I had made some cards for each commander with the units they commanded, the stats for these and any trait that this commander had.

First we have the setup of the forces.
The french had a attack column stance.

On the british side units was placed for movement in columns, and the Foot Guards are in reserve ready to come in wherever the british may need them.

The french started the battle and advanced most of the units, the only battalions that got stuck was the left flank that could not work out what their commander really wanted. Some units was a bit eager and got ahead of themselves and moved a bit too far...

The british realizing that they didn't have to go anywhere to get to the fight, formed lines and opened up with all that they got on the poor french columns. Getting the foremost column to recoil back with severe casualties, but still intact.

To retaliate the french sent in columns to attack, but only one got far enough, but at least some of the light infantry could get to within short range and started to fire on the cannon, but these turned out to be some of the most disciplined soldiers I have ever seen, and during the game that took loads of hits and saved them all.

On the left flank things still stood still...

The hand to hand fight didn't turn out great either, and the french column somehow got annihilated by the british.

Now the British reinforcements arrived to strengthen the front by creating another line to stop the coming french main attack, as loads of battalions are getting really close.

The french now got in front of the britts and this time trying to get them by shooting, so all the light units from the 31st lined up to give them some.

Also no french left, right at the back of the british line, 2 regiments of dragoons appeared, and the panic in the british commander was telling.

After a while of complaining that it's unfair to get cavalry in the flank, it was time to do something about it, and as most units was engaged to the front there was only the Guards left to send anywhere, so the line has to be redress and the right most guard battalion was sent to protect the flank.

On the french turn the cavalry tried to charge the guards, but they manage to get their square formed, and the charge was stopped, and in other parts of the battlefield the columns on the french left got to the village, but could not venture past it this turn. The light infantry also manage to break one of the foremost battalions, opening up the centre a bit.

On the next british turn, drums could be heard in the distance, as some of the battalions that the dragoons should have driven off entered the fray. The shock was telling in the french faces as three more line battalions and one of the 95th rifles arrived in the back of the cavalry. The winds of war turns quickly.

But the french gathered their wits and got of a nice cavalry charge in the back of one of the line troops in the centre, utterly destroying it without breaking a sweat, the british centre are now in a real bind, and can't possibly hold out for much longer.

But still there is hope, in a stroke of incredible shooting and a well placed charge, ALL infantry to the direct front broke all in one stroke, in a matter of seconds three whole battalions ceased to exist as fighting bodies and the whole of 31st regiment disappeared.

Here we had to call the game as time had run out for me, but we called it as a draw, even though the centre broke for the french, there was still two battalions left that was now in quite good order, and the cavalry there was untouched. On the flank there was a strong british force, but they would be hard pressed to do anything about the centre ad that loss would break the British army, if they didn't get another lucky turn and broke the french first.

The game then was a really good one, and both my players walked away filled with thoughts about what army they themselves should get. Once again proving that Black Powder is just a excellent  gaming system.