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Saturday 19 March 2016

WSS - Game 2

Back at the club - and the 6mm War of the Spanish Succession (Marlburian period if you want to be Anglo-centric). Again, Nick and I faced off - approximately 150 points each. As I left bases in the box, I realised that I must have had a fair bit of a points advantage in the first game, at least 15 or so, which was at least a 10% edge.

Nick was featuring as 'tired general' coming directly off a flight, so I grabbed the club terrain tiles, tried to make the terrain interesting, and gave him choice of long edge on the 150cm x 90cm table. (5 x 3 foot).

Opening
British are on the left, French on the right. The British have loaded the flank with German firelock brigades, their horse are concentrated there as well. On the British right, a small village obstructs a straight forward fight.

View from the British Right
The French have horse (well in 'Horse, Foot & Guns' - 'Pistols') massed on their left, and a lot of foot.

View from the French left
 The 'thin red line' in the distance, you can just see French dragoons and foot on the French right.

View from the British left
In front of the British you can see a sunken lane, which became a key feature.

French Left
The French left never really got into the game, struggling with enclosures and buildings.

French Centre
The French centre, lovely flags and detail by Nick. I really like the way he has varied the officers and drummers positioning to add colour and movement. I will be stealing this idea when I do my own French army.

And the engagement is on!
At the far end the German firelocks are pushing through the village on the French right, the British assault on the sunken lane is in full swing, and in the centre, Marlborough is having to reposition brigades to shore up his centre, after Blood's regiment is blown away by a close assault (the brigade routed and could not be rallied).

The French defenders of the sunken road, dragoons and firelocks..
The sunken road was backed by a wooded hill. This created real problems for the British. Their horse charged the dragoon lining the road - which we treated as an 'ELF' or linear feature that added a bonus to the defenders.  The dragoons then returned through the woods and started taking potshots at the Horse. Unable to respond the horse were withdrawn and two Irish brigades brought up to try and displace the defenders.

Crunch point
The French assault has stalled in the centre with heavy casualties from the British foot, while the defenders of the sunken lane have a problem with German firelocks turning their flank (foreground). A brigade of French dragoons entered the village to try and hold up the Germans, but were bundled ouy and forced to withdraw into the woods.

British assault the lane with infantry backed by Horse
 This became an expensive proposition for the British.

The end
Casualties in the French centre caused Villars to end the engagement while in the foreground, despite being outnumbered, the French dragoons still hold the woods as the British cavalry reform behind their screening infantry.

Overall, another cracking game. The French firelocks really struggle against the British/Dutch infantry that are superior in a firefight. The French left never really got into the game, and the French dragoons did sterling work on the French right.

Not sure what the answer is for the French. In some respects they have command advantages (they have an Army HQ as opposed to the Allies 'Command Party' so they have a much greater command radius). Massing of artillery, use of heavy artillery, and pressing all along the line, using the press forward to get into combat might even things up a bit.

Wednesday 16 March 2016

WSS- 6mm in Pictures

Now that I have actually completed a project, I thought I would show the results - Overall, these were very very quick and easy to paint, looking at the pictures you can see that they are mostly just 'dots' or 'blobs' of colour, with the exception of the hat lace. The 'wargamer's view' (below) is how they will mostly be viewed, so I am very happy with that. Baccus have now recast the War of the Spanish Succession range, so the latest sculpts will form my Imperials and French regiments when I build matching opponents.

So here they are:


Massed British Horse & Dragoons


Massed British Infantry


Command & Artillery


Minor States Firelocks

 
Foot viewed from typical perspective

 
Mecklenburg Foot

 
Horse of Cadogan and Webb

 
'Supply' Depot

 
Pontoneers

 
Osnabruck Liebregiment


Wurttemburg


British Infantry, Guards, Royal Scots, Buffs & Royal Irish


Hesse Kassel


Rear of Firelocks


The Bays


Cadogans and Webbs

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Wargame figures/models for Sale

As I will shortly be moving - I have compiled a long list of figures that will either have to be sold, packed up for shipping or loaned out.

I have identified the ones I definitely will be hanging on to, but the rest I am happy to put online and see what offers I get. I have not set a definitive price, though where it can be calculated, I have tried to work out a rough 'raw lead' price as an indicator.

I have included 4 pages on the blog where I have put up details and pics in 4 main categories:

A few things have now sold - noted below:

6mm WW2, mainly GHQ, with several armies still in original packaging as well as fully painted ones:

http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com.au/p/v-behaviorurldefaultvmlo.html

6mm Cold War & Modern, again mainly GHQ, with several armies started as well as fully painted ones: 

http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com.au/p/for-sale-6mm-cold-war-modern.html

6mm Sci-Fi a mix of Brigade Models, Dark Realm, GZG and others, all fully painted: 

http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com.au/p/for-sale-6mm-sci-fi.html

15mm Ancients & Medieval, all originally purchased for DBMM, many with a sample painted, but some still in original packaging:

http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com.au/p/blog-page.html

In addition to these, there are a range of other items that I will consider selling - including:
  • Baccus 6mm Sasanian Army Pack (undercoated black and based on 60 x 30) 
  • 15mm 1917 French - fully painted and based for Hordes in the Trenches SOLD
  • 15mm 1917 British Commonwealth Desert forces, all unpainted including yeomanry, armoured cars and aircraft.
  • 15mm US, Mujahadin & African forces, mainly unpainted and with many vehicles etc. SOLD
  • '28mm' GW Bretonnian and Empire - mainly plastics.
  • 28mm 'Geezers' figures, plus several suitable diecast vehicles.
  • 28mm Foundry 'Gang' - Future Street Violence.
  • 1/2400 GHQ WW1 micronauts, approx 20+ ships most still in packaging, others undercoated.
  • Painted 'Full Thrust' UNSC, Japanese and SAC fleets, with many unpainted additional ships.
  • 1/3000 1980s British & Russian naval forces, Russians completed, British need basing. SOLD

As always..  hundreds of odds and ends. Add a comment if you have any questions or would be interested in more information. I am based in Australia, so postage elsewhere is likely to be exorbitant, or I can arrange pickup in Canberra.

Thursday 3 March 2016

WSS - First Outing

So - 6 years after we originally planned, Nick and I finally managed to get our 6mm Baccus War of the Spanish Succession forces onto a table at the club.

We originally intended to use the Polemos rules, but as we didn't really have the time to familiarise ourselves with these, and a new edition is scheduled, we decided to give Phil Barker's 'Horse, Foot & Guns' a try. Copies are available free online, though we both had a copy of the Lulu print, and as we are experienced DBMM players, the mechanics are very familiar.

I have to say - it was a gripping game, played on the club terrain, and I was very happy with how the armies looked in 6mm.  Really gave a great visual impression. Scaling is an issue for me though, as technically, the bases should each represent a brigade, but I had scaled the army at each base to a regiment (battalion) - theoretically, I could go back and repaint some as Dutch or other allied forces, but I really don't want to. 

So here's how it looked...  sorry, I didn't take more photographs, but the game was too much fun to break it up.

The British army confronts the French forces

Closer up

The table French on the left, a further British command arrived to attack the French right

The view from the opposite flank.
Cracking game, highly recommend HFG in this scale.