Thursday 31 December 2020

French inspections for Friedland 1807

The French appear like a mist through the Sortlake woods

So the French have, similarly to the Russians, been deployed approximately 80% in formation and position. The scenario requires Marchands division to deploy in the Sortlake woods. As you can see I do have a preference for trees of some scale to help the aesthetics of elevation upon the table.

French brigade of Dragoons

Those large trees present some scale to the table

The artillery is actually still limbered however that does look like a good spot
to deploy those guns to bring some devastating fire on the enemy 

Horse artillery supporting a light cavalry brigade - Chasseurs and Hussars 

Did I mention I like trees with height?

Marchands Division consisting of the 39th Ligne, 6th Legere, 69th and 76th Ligne plus 8pdr

Marshall Ney himself with his five Aide de Camps for the battle escorting him

25th Legere to the left of this formation

A view, shall we sat a “Russian view”, of the French Dragoons. Latour-Mauborg leads
them on on a beautiful command stand from John D and via Doug M.

Colbert leads the Light Cavalry brigade


A French 4pdr Horse battery accompanies the lights. Lovely sculpts of the limber team
and riders from Foundry.  The battery itself is pure Elite Miniatures. 


So all that remains is nailing down some time with the eldest son and kicking this particular battle off.  The game will last a minimum of twenty and a maximum of twenty five turns with the French aiming to break four of the Russian brigades and the to try and break through the position to the Friedland road.

The Russians will doggedly try and prevent that and stop the French VI Corps to roll the Russian left and roll it up towards the direction of Friedland.

Sunday 27 December 2020

Friedland 1807- Let’s get some Russians on the table

 

A view down the table showing the combatants almost finally deployed

I’m hoping that everyone had a wonderful Christmas with loved ones wherever possible. For those of you who have not been so lucky, thoughts and prayers and prayers are with you all.

Today I finally had the opportunity to get the respective Russian and French forces on the table and roughly set them up for gimbal deployment tomorrow.

So let’s look at the forces of Count August von Bennigsen.

Russian Hussar brigade along the banks of the Alle River

On the Russian left flank Lithuanian Uhlans, Guard Hussars.
Two units of Cossacks led by Platov himself 

Russian infantry brigade around the stream 

Russian Jagers en masse - all lovely Elite Miniatures 

Another view of the forces around the stream towards the left flank

Russian guns deployed on the rise. There is another 12 pounder battery off table
on the other side of the River Alle ready to hit the forces of Marshall Ney

Love those Russian Cossack figures from Elite


Another view of the Russian cavalry. Those Lithuanian Uhlans are  Front Rank figures and are lovely

Hovels Russian resin buildings (remember resin buildings folks?) garrisoned on the outskirts

The French next time methinks

Sunday 20 December 2020

A nostalgic interlude...Empire Napoleonics!

Great to have these lads out again as they once again meet their old Russian foe!

 Lots of fun on the final gaming night of the year at the Napoleonic Wargaming Society. Stephen and I had been discussing for quite sometime rekindling our affection for the rules that gripped our club in the 1980’scand 90’s- Empire III.

That’s right - some Russian Hussars from the old Minifigs strip figures. I’m sure a lot
of you young lads don’t even know what a strip figure looked like.


We went for some old school terrain and board to match our old figure basing.



These are the old Minifigs a series 2 Napoleonics from Minifigs. I think they still look great.



We decided to have a smallish “let’s get to know each other again game” and it was great fun.  The original units which I think hadn’t seen a table and rolled a dice in anger in over 25 years all came out to play again. 


Though General D’Armee is send will remain my Napoleonic Wargaming rules of choice ( they are superb), Stephen and I have committed to a game very four to six weeks at the club as our own “doffing of the hat” to a great period of our clubs Wargaming history.


Tuesday 8 December 2020

Neys attack at Friedland - GdA in 1807 table set up.


 Following on from the Austerlitz scenario game played out to its finality a few weeks ago, Ben and I are preparing for our next battle, once again leaning heavily on the excellent books of Dr. David Brown. The Battle of Friedland in 1807 proved to be another Napoleonic masterpiece from the Emperor as he took on the mighty Russian adversary once again.


A view down the table towards the Sortlack woods


Several key terrain features can be seen including the Sortlack woods, the outskirts of the villages of Friedland and Sortlack as well as the river Alle.

The excellent map from Dave’s scenario book. I cannot recommend these highly enough.

Outskirts of Friedland - poorer end of town


The view on the left Russian flank

This should be tremendous fun.

Sunday 22 November 2020

A little bit of fun with Gericault

 

Wonderful Perry designed figure from Foundry

Just a quick post to highlight the superbly sculpted Foundry French Officer of the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard that I have painted up and based as an aide de camp for my General D’Armee games.

I thought I would put him on the top of the staircase in front of my own print on the wall in my Wargames room upstairs. No need to describe the famous original of Gericault’s painting as it known by every Napoleonic wargamer the world over.

Just as a homage to a glorious model we have all seen, what about a reprise of Ray Lambs magnificent Historex plus scratch- built parts. Still seen as the model which gave a new generation of hobbyists inspiration.



Superb!

Sunday 15 November 2020

Blackpowder ACW at the club games day

My lads get ready to push, very slowly, through the orchard

 Lots of fun on Saturday as we exchanged Napoleonic Wargaming for the American Civil War on our monthly Gamesday. Not a lot of descriptions at present other than it was a hard fought victory of a minor nature to the Union forces whilst the Confederacy managed to hold off the enemy long enough to extricate the main army a few miles to the west.  Great job on the design Marty and troops on the board from all our collections.

















At the start of the battle we had random entry points and brigades delayed from arriving until
the correct dice were thrown. My division saw three brigades all arrive upon the same entry point
causing a road block of the worst kind if you were wearing grey on the day.




Another out of sequence blogger photo showing the table before deployment