Black Powder

Kent and I got a game in tonight- we had 8x infantry battlaions each, 3 cav units and a battery of guns.

The Russians deploy. We each had our Cav off table as a delayed reserve (FoWesque rules- roll a 5+ to get a unit on, this represented the Cav being released by a higher command).

 The French advance in the centre.

 My wekaer brigqade refused to move the first two turns then raced forward to enfilade the French. Things were at this point looking pretty good I thought.

 In the centre some Guards Cavalry arrived, forcing my battalion to form square. Sensing an opportunity Kent's infantry advanced (we had some issues with the form squre rules and how Cav is supposed to attack a square- Kent figured it out and started throwing a unit of infantry into assault then adding some Cav, a very powerful sledgehammer as it turned out).

 A good view of the battle in the middle turns, still pretty even at this point.

 The Cuirassiers arrive and look for some Russian to run down.

 The Old Guard stoically march into the guns and overrun them...

 Leaving a rather large hole in the centre of my line. To the left we both take casulties in the clashes.

 The Guards Cav line up a square to charge- my centre is crumbling under the pressure and my own cuirassiers are unable to intervene.

On my right flank we both lose a battalion in the assualts.

At this point we ran out of time. My centre was about to fold and I had no done much damage to either of Kent's infantry brigades so the game was looking like it was going to be a French victory in the next turn or so. The rules were pretty intuitive and I enjoy the randomness of command rolls not going the way you anticipated.

Pegasus Hobbies 1:72nd scale Log houses

 One thing we still need for Borodino is some buildings for the villages. Pegasus Hobbies do a range of 1:72nd scale Russian log houses so I ordered a couple of sets of each. They were about 8 pounds each from Wayland Games. 

They took about 10 minutes to assemble. The simple log house set comes with 2 houses so you can't really complain about that. Undercoated black and drybrushed in various brown shades they should be great for the game- sightly underscale but with the size of a battalion footprint I prefer them to be smaller and indeed 15mm buildings to represent buildings also works.

An hour later and they look like this. A quick undercoat and then heavy drybrush of dark brown and then a couple of lighter shades and we are good to go.

Craig

WIP- Hussars of the Guard

Front Rank Russian Hussars- the first stand painted up tonight.These will represent the Hussars of the Guard which were part of the First Army's 1st Cavalry Reserve Corps at Borodino.

According to the book I've got the pants should have had yellow stripes, not buttons but I'm not that anal about figures and most people I play would probably not know/spot the difference :)

My basing is pretty straight forward, I simply cover the base in PVA and then cover it in sand. Once dry it is undercoated black, a heavy dry brush of dark brown and highlighted a light dry brush of a tan shade before the static grass and silflor flowers are added. One of the advantages of painting in winter is half an hour or 40 minutes in front of the log burner and the pva glue has set and the bases are ready for the black undercoat so the process is pretty quick.  

I'm pretty pleased with the ay these turned out and can't wait to have the ful un it ready for the table but alas this stand will probably be all I have time for this week as we shift back  into the city this Friday. So thenext few nights I'll be busy packing, although I have allowed for some time out on Wednesday night to give Kent a game of Black Powder- and hopefully a report will follow.

Craig

FoW: Mid war Tankovy vs Panzer Kompany

Last night Kent and I had a game of FoW at his place. We both were keen to play Black Powder but Kent sold some FoW stuff online the other day to a local who has been collecting FoW stuff for 5 years, had all the books but has never played!  So,long story short we organised a game to introduce him to the game, my Southcon tankovy (8 shermans, 8x stuarts, razvedki, x SU 122s, recon and I 153s) vs a panzer kompany (6x MkIII late Js &; Ls), 3 Panzer IV late Gs and 2x marders.

Edit: Kent now has the game from his point of view here.

I left the Stuarts and recon to cover my left flank and loaded up on my right.

 I got the first trun and M3A1s charged the two marders, killing one and bailing the other- it did not remount in Kent's turn. 2 rules of FoW:
1) never only take 2 marders
2) never deploy them in the open!

 The Germans were more spread out, while my Stuarts did their best to hide.

 Then there was one! It didn't last long. But in his turn Kent managed to destroy an M3A1 but the team survived.

 Time to roll forward with my tanks.

 Kent reinforces the right with his company commander.

 The SUs take on a panzer IV but it manages to bounce all shots and soon the hunters become the hunted. 

 Panzer IIIs rumble forward to put pressure on my left flank.

 I try to ignore them and concentrate on the right but the Shermans move to support the panzer IV but it passes all armour saves again- my SU1222s even failed to destroy it by rolling a 1.

 The Stuarts charge out vs the panzer IIIs that have now moved to engage the Shermans, only managed to bail one panzer III! Oops.

 Now the panzer IIIs turn on the Stuarts, their RoF 3 AT 9 trumps my RoF 2 and AT 7- and being hit on a  helps in all.

 Now you see them...

 Now you don't.  4 dead, 4 bailed and the bailed ones fail their morale test.

 The Shermans get lucky. Being hit in a deadly crossfire from 3 panzer platoons I manage to survive the fire and rather than being wiped out as expected survive to fight another day, or round! The company commander bails a panzer IV which fails to remount.

 Having drawn all the panzers it was time to move.

 The SU 122s are all but gone but my Razvedki have raced through the forest to the objective-capturing 2 tanks in the process. The Germans cannot contest in time so if I can hang on for a turn I win however, if they knock out two platoons I will lose!

 The BA 6s are almost knocked out but stay on table, the Shermans also manage to survive as does my company commander. 

A close fought 4-3. Stephen enjoyed his first game and is keen for more so we are going to have a doubles game in a couple of weeks.

Craig

Cossacks & Uhlans

I've completed the first unit of cossacks- very characterful figures from Front Rank, a joy to paint.

Last night I also finished the unit of Uhlans of the Guard- I just need to get some lance tips to complete them.

The Perry's have also just released their Russian Dragoons which I've ordered so should be starting two units of those in the next couple of weeks. We move house though at the end of next week so  not sure how much time I'll get in the enxt coupleof weeks for painting.

Craig

Black Powder- first games

Kent and Dave popped round for a couple of games of Black Powder. No doubt we made a few mistakes but all enjoyed the games. Nice and relaxed with plenty of humourous results from the blunders table.

Kent trounced us in the first game, I crushed Dave in the second (he was playing the french) and then Dave and I managed not to lsoe badly in the third although in another turn it was all over for us- a moral victory?

We will definitely be getting a few more games in over the next few weeks but enjoyed the laid back nature of the rules and the aspect of not being totally in control of what was going on. The rules probably lacked a bit of period feel but made up for it in their fast play nature and the all round merriment we were having explaining what went wrong and why.

We had 3 brigades per side:
2x veteran infantry
4x regular infanrtry
2x cavalry
1x artillery
1x horse artillery

A few random pictures.

Craig