6mm Imaginations for Charity

Per at the RollAOne blog came up with the idea of having a bunch of folk paint up units for two Imagi-Nation armies in 6mm, and then auctioning them for charity. Great stuff I thought, I like doing 6mm, and I can just do one unit, it won't be a chore. The always avuncular Peter Berry of Baccus Miniatures kindly donated the minis, and they are starting to be done.

My paticular unit is Melblom's Horse, dragoons. I swear they look better 'in the flesh'.

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.

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

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.

WSS Finished

So - with a day to spare...  I finished the WSS army.  I elected not to paint up the extra two bases of mounted, instead these may well be donated to Nick.

So the basing steps are very simple..

Neat PVA applied over the base, then dipped in fine sand with a few 'pebbles' mixed in. A flat brush is handy to get in between the ranks.

Bases are stained with a homebrewed black/brown acrylic wash using a size 8 brush and letting capillary action do most fo the work. It ends up pleasingly irregular in colour.

Apply neat PVA in random patterns, notice that a lot is focused on the edges of the figure bases, so these will be concealed by the static grass.

Douse liberally in short static grass (I get mine from Baccus), allow to stand for 30 minutes then invert and tap the bases to remove excess.

After static grass added.

'Leadbear's' Tufts applied - this is the mounted - finished - unless I choose to go back and work on flesh shading.

Infantry and Artillery.

Close-up Royal Scots Greys. (Hay's Regiment of Dragoons).

And voila...  once the PVA has set overnight, these will get another coat of acrylic spray lacquer as a final fixative, and done!

More WSS Foolishness

Here come the cavalry.. so now I have to tart up the flags, and do 30 bases before Thursday... Should be a doddle..

The army arrayed..  

D-Day - 6th of June

Peter and I played a game last night for the 70th Anniversary, seems like the only D-Day game played at the club.

6mm 21st Panzer Dvision attacking elements of British 3rd Infantry Division (supported by a Yeomanry regiment).

We used club terrain, 6mm models and BKCII rules, and due to a small error on my part, (I used the wrong calculator for the Brits), it was 3345 points of Allies keen to capture two vital crossroads - running into 21st Panzer coming the other way.

My phone camera unfortunately died after set-up, so I am waiting for Peter to post some of the shots showing Typhoons stalking the Normandy country-side, while burning Shermans litter the fields.

So here's the terrain:

And here's the action unfolding:

Typhoons stooging about - looking for some trade - Roger Wilco

British Command unit supported by Recce Regt Cromwells

British advance rapidly to the edge of the central village - Yeomanry in the lead

A similar group enters the leftmost hamlet

German Fallschirmjager plus Command beside the sunken road

German Left, PzIV and Rommel's 'Funnies'

The Typhoons first air strike

The anti-aircraft fire misses and German casualties start

British 25lb unleash a massive stonk onto open topped AFVs

But the British armour on the right cops a pasting

The Recce Regt and supports also take a beating

Oh - Oh, the boys in blue are back..

In the village, the Brits consolidate

View from rear of Brits left

The real winners a British artillery regiment

Fallschirmjager successfully close assault the remnants of the Recce Regt

German left moves up to cover the sunken lane

And get's hammered by 17lb AT, the Firefly, artillery and air attacks

At this stage, Peter conceded that 21 Panzer would not be breaking through to the beaches.

Cracking good game. Neither of us had played in a while - but I felt like we got through it all with minimal mistakes. Cheers!