First Carlist War Game

Dave as for some time been trying to persuade me to play a First Carlist War game with my fledgling collection, I had been putting this off has I did not think that Black Powder rules would work with only one brigade a side, however I finally relented. I am pleased to say that the game went really well and lasted for about 11/2 hours, we played with ranges etc at 66% on a 4 x 4 table, the Carlist force consisted of four standard size battalions a 6pdr gun and a small cavalry unit, the Isabelino's four standard size battalions a Royal Marine rocket battery and a small cavalry unit. Both sides had a brigade commander but no CinC.

Here are a few pictures

 Carlist Volunteers march to do battle

 The British Auxiliary Legion march to do battle

 The Royal Marine rocket battery deploys to give what would be ineffectual support

Carlist forces advance upon their enemies

 
      British Auxillary battalion await the enemy                    

 Carlist forces engage the British Auxiliary Legion

 Isabelino Light Infantry fire in support of the BAL

 The Carlist artillery battery gives supporting fire

 Carlist cavalry attempt to flank the Isabelino force

 Isabelino line cavalry advance to counter the threat

 Carlist volunteers take cover behind a low wall

 Over on the flank the cavalry clash

 The opposing firing lines

 Carlist and Isabelino infantry engage in close combat

Don David Del Pendaluna inspects his victorious troops

The game could have gone either way for a while but bad dice throwing by the Isabelino's (Me) turned the game in favour of the Carlists (Dave). First off my BAL battalion was destroyed after taking massive fire from both infantry and artillery, over on the flank my cavalry were routed enabling the Carlist cavalry to threaten the Isabelino rear whilst over on the right I lost heavily in the hand to hand fighting. My 5th game and fifth defeat using Black Powder, perhaps I don't like them after all :)

Die Ratte Keller (2)

Here are pics of the finished article

 And here it is on the board that will become my 6'x4'Great War table, the other trench sections are from Ironclad Miniatures, the shell holes from TSS and in the background the shattered wood I made myself.

Die Ratte Keller

I have just finished this piece, I can't believe I started this Dec 2009! I will put up photo's of the completed piece sometime on Thursday.

The bunker was inspired by the one in the TV series Anzacs, it is made from foam core board coated with filler and given several coats of PVA glue. The duckboards and revetting are balsa and corragated card and the sandbags are from Ironclad Miniatures. The polystyrene hill is coated with coarse Polytex.

The scene from Anzacs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uYOXnVn8Zw&feature=player_embedded

1914 Project

This is a joint project with my good friend and regular wargame opponent Dave Bickley, Dave has done the Brits, now I have to complete the Hun. As I paint full time now I have not been able to devote as much time to my own projects, inspired by the results obtained by Dave Imrie and Phil Hendry I decided to paint these using brushed on Army Painter dip, my first few were painted the normal three colour way, can you spot them?
I firstly paint all the base colours, the faces I still do the three layer way, then I brush on the dip, when this is dry I apply a coat of Daler Rowney Matt Soluble Acrylic varnish, I then paint on highlights before applying a further coat of matt varnish.
My basic colours for the main items are as follows
Helmet Cover - Foundry Moss base - Highlighted with Moss highlight added to the base colour.
Tunic              - Vallejo Panzer Aces 335 Field Grey - Highlighted with VPA 338 FG H/light added to 335
Trousers         - Vallejo Model Colour 866 Grey Green - Highlighted with VMC 886 Grey Green added
                          to 866
Leather           - Vallejo Model Colour 984 Flat Brown - Highlighted with VMC 875 Beige Brown added
                          to 984
Tent Quarter   -  Foundry Spearshaft Shade - Highlighted with Foundry Spearshaft Highlight added to the
                          shade

The officer is painted three colour method

 Both the above are painted by the dip method

My completed bases so far, you can't tell which are dipped and which are not at table distance, I don't think..

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, first off thanks to all people who have visited the site and also for the encouraging comments. Last night saw my first game of the year over at GHQ (see links), Dave put on a Crimean War game. We used Black Powder rules, this was my fifth game and my fifth and worst defeat to date under these rules, I cannot even blame the dice for my blunders! The first turn saw me blithely advancing towards the opposing Russian columns so that I could get into musket range, completely forgetting of course that my gallant troops possessed rifled muskets so I did not have to advance that far. This left my flank exposed, which the Russians (Dave) took full advantage of, meanwhile my artillery seemed to be firing blanks and my closing fire was desultory, I had a little success over on the left flank but it was a case of too little too late. I shall draw a veil over these dismal events.
I have not taken any photo's today has I went with Dave to deliver his latest colonial rule set "Washing the Spears" -     http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=94&page=1 - to North Star, I must thank Nick for his usual and wonderful hospitality.
OK of course I am biased, but they do give a tremendous "game", having being the Imperial player during the numerous play tests I can say that although currently undefeated the games were never a foregone conclusion and the result could have been a lot different on several occasions.
I plan to take photo's while I give the old eyes a rest from painting during the course of tomorrow so please pop back over the weekend.