First game of the 15mm Napoleonic campaign

Last weekend I paid a visit to Eureka miniatures and purchased some AB Figures Napoleonics for a skirmish campaign.

As I had a few units in my OOB, I decided to start painting the units one at a time, and whilst doing that, I would perform what some regard as heresy and play a game with unpainted miniatures! Gasp! Oh the Horror!

Regardless of what others think on unpainted miniatures (and, not, that isn't an invitation to pass judgement via a comment to this post), I decided to play the first game of the campaign.

The campaign is set n early 1814 when France was 'copping it a bit' from all sides (well, maybe three out of the four sides anyway).

The rules being used are Nordic Weasel Games "FiveCore 3rd edition" with some modifications for the Napoleonic period.

The British have just landed in the Netherlands and must meet up with allied troops before pushing on to Antwerp, and then on to Paris.

For the first game, elements of the 95th Rifles are scouting ahead of the main force to determine what French troops are around.

The Set up:

The British had the option of setting up in either A or B, as marked on the map above.

The French were placed as blinds in areas 1, 2 and the 3 that was the opposite to where the British started.

The French force was unknown, and one of the blinds would be an actual enemy, the other two were shadows messing with the riflemen's heightened senses.

This was a semi co-op game, in as much as I was the referee for the game.

The Game:

The British began their patrol on the right hand flank of the area, with some of them skirting the forest along a small hedge, with the others moving forward to investigate the farm house.

Half of the detachment on the left  cross over the hedge to check out the area on their left flank.
It is just as well they did, as a patrol of dismounted French Dragoons was lurking near by.

The other half of the riflemen move closer to the farm house.

Three of the Riflemen fire at the Dragoons, dropping one and causing a second to flee.

The French fire back, knocking one Riflemand to the ground and causing a bit of panic in another. The Paniced Rifleman jumps back over the hedge to settle his nerves.

The next British action sees some reloading and a Rifleman take aim at a Dragoon, who panics and retreats in to the forest.

The Rifleman take advantage of a 'dash' move and jump the hedge between them and the Dragoons intending to close with them after firing a volley in to the Frenchmen.

One Dragood is dispatched with a quick stab from a sword bayonet.

The Dragoon officer is shot, even whilst trying to rally his troops who have fled in to the forest when faces with superior numbers.

(Note, this took a couple of activations).

Deciding they have had enough, the remaining French Dragoods beat a hasty retreat, leaving the British victors of this skirmish.

The Riflemen have joined up with the remainder of the Battalion and are currently paying a visit to the Quarter Master, who is giving them some nice green uniforms.


Notes:

This game was played on a 60cm x 60cm terrain tile.

For small unit vs unit skirmishes I found this to be perfect; there was enough room to manoeuvre, and it was small enough that it forced the engagment, meaning the game didn't drag on too long.

For larger games with multiple units per side, I would play in a bigger area.

Between cups of tea and chatting, the game took roughly two hours to play.

The Dragoon force was only seven men, compared to the 14 men in the Rifle detachment, but only six of the Riflemen were involved in the actual battle.

The remaining Riflemen fell back towards their jump off point so as to not be exposed during the battle, and kind of just lurked there for the remainder of the game.

The rules are very easy to pick up on, and the only time I had to check the rules was to see if troops next to the hedge could actually take their shots.

Given the muskets/rifles needed to be reloaded, not a lot of reaction fire took place - this may have changed with different scenery, and if the remainder of the riflemen joined the battle.

I really love this game - it is easy, a lot of fun, the game play creates a story for the game as you play, making it excellent for a narrative.

Black Powder

I went around to my Mate's place last night and we started a game of Black Powder. It has been around a year plus since we last played a game of BP, so we decided to learn the rules again.

 After cleaning the gaming table a bit we deployed our troops, both sides are from his collection of 15mm French and Prussians.

 This is the set up for the game - we are playing three brigades per side for this game.

My French

His Prussians

As you can see the scenery is nothing special at all for this game - we places a couple of buildings on a whim. Once we know what we are doing with the rules we will add extra scenery for our next game.

 After one turn each we ran out of time for the evening, so we will take up the game again next time I go around to my Mate's place.

Black Powder Napoleonics

Today I am showing the 15/18mm British army I am making for Black Powder games.

Due to lack of space and money I have done something close to heresy for some wargamers - one base represents the whole unit, not a number of bases representing the unit.

An infantry corp with support. Four infantry bases represent a brigade.

One base of infantry (three figures) represents a whole Battalion, a base of cavalry (two figures) represents a whole regiment and one gun and crew is a battery.

 At the moment the majority of my figures are Eureka Miniatures, with some AB and CGM thrown in to fill the gaps in the Eureka range. I am also trying to get some Battle Honors British generals so that I can complete my command bases.

 By painting some extra units I can swap out a few units to totally reconfigure my army to represent an different Corp.

 For my Brigade command bases I am using Colonel figures with a standard. I know Brigades didn't have standards, but I wanted to add them as a bit of pomp and pageantry.

 I had to make some changes to the rules to accommodate my thinking - counters are placed next to a unit to indicate formations, and I need to use a record sheet to record morale and casualties, but this works ok.

 I still need to finish off my command, artillery and cavalry units, but I am able to field an army a lot cheaper than I could if I used the basing conventions in the Black Powder rule book, especially if I made my army in 28mm!

My Friend and I have played a number of Black Powder games, including this minimalistic approach and it works great. Being able to field a force larger than a brigade allows for tactics, defense in depth and even a reserve force is a vast improvement on Brigade level games, and we can field the armies in a smaller area.

 For the cost involved it is also feasible to build a number of armies cheaply. I am contemplating making a Bavarian and a Russian army, and I think I will put together a French army so that I always have the forces at hand to play a game.