Joy of Six and the Demo

Got back last night and was cream crackered so no report was a coming. Well I had to be up for 6.30 with my poor son. Well I was up at five as I had failed my sleep task check due to forgetting to take my night meds with me and so was fighting a losing battle come time I went to bed. I was so very tired when it was time to leave for the show. 

We did the usual stop for breakfast at the Golden Arches and still rolled up outside the workstation to set up and be ready more than thirty minutes before kick off so we simply started the game. I explained to my son he would need to attack the woods hard and try and clear them of the defenders. He then amazed me with his plan that included sending reserves to attack the second line whilst using other troops he had spare to attack into the flank of Lee's centre! Actually this would be a great plan and he really did seem to be thinking many moves ahead. My boy :-)

The view from Lee's rear area, he starts with less than ideal forces and as such a strong attack would leave him with no reserves to plug the holes. However with only two commands on the table at the start he should activate all his formations leaving us with one division unable to move.

We were in the doorway so it was really nice with a cool breeze the only issue was taking photo's from my end could be fooled by the light coming through the massive door way.

View from the side with Quatre Bras in the distance (top right of photo). The boards went down very well with Lee getting the much deserved praise. Mind you the figures (especially the basing) also got the thumbs up which was a great feeling.

Bossu Woods was again the scene of the hardest fighting with sunbeam driving Lee's first line of defenders from the woods routing one Battalion and forcing withdrawal of two others. Two of his own battalions were close to forced retire but he halted these trying to bring them back to order whilst bringing up two more battalions on their flank to join the two battalions he still had in good order. Also bringing up a further two battalions that could either replace the worn battalions on his left flank or support them if required. It does need to be noted that he had diced Lee royally.

I meantime had caused a cohesion check on another Brunswick battalion which routed off on a double six so Lee was somewhat up against it. In fact apart from initiative rolls Lee was rolling quite bad all along. My son then attacked the less powerful second line in the woods but here his dice rolling started to fail him and after two rounds of close quarter firing and chargers was beaten back but not without causing almost as much damage to Lee as he took. The difference was that Lee was now out of reserves in the woods and failing to halt his retreating right flank whilst the boy was getting his two battered battalions back in order and had made up a third wave able to attack the weakened last defenders of the woods. 

Lee had just prior charged two battalions of my forward infantry and brought those close to breaking. The cavalry doing the damage then returned to their lines in good order. However I brought up four regiments of light cavalry to screen the infantry and moved back the mauled infantry and replaced them with fresh troops.

I then charged his cavalry in the following turn routing one and forcing the other to retire. Lee was now in the dangerous position that he may soon loose the Division if he had a few more units routed or under retire orders in the Brunswick formations. Help was on the way but if he wanted to keep the Brunswick's in the battle long term he would have to surrender Bossu Woods and fall back on Quatre Bras and that was far to early for this to be anything but a big worry. 

Doing so would give Lee the time to get Battalions of infantry back into a much better fighting condition and even return the retreating cavalry into the threat he would need to slow my infantry down. I was at the point of attacking the join between the Brunswick's and the other Division and had six fresh cavalry regiments including a lancer, two dragoons and two cuirassiers a mass of infantry. 

It would have been a totally different game to the previous one with the fight carrying to Quatre Bras itself. However we had spent a LOT of time talking to other attendees and as such we really could not get it played out. However I hope the three of us can get together again and play it out from the start. 

It was certainly a success from all points of view, and a great game and display, hopefully all who wanted to talk to us got the chance and a number of blog followers turned up on the day so talking to these guys was one of the highlights for me.

In fact the game and the chatting was so much fun I failed utterly to take any more pictures, however I still have enough to talk about to do a follow on post tomorrow regarding the other aspects of the day.

4 Days to Baccus Open Day - 5 Days to Joy of Six

Yes in only four days I will be at Baccus HQ looking (again) at how they make the figures. I have to admit it's as much for the event that follows as the tour. Yes the curry night. This will be the first time for me and I am really looking forward to it with all the banter and fun that comes with it. This of course is the starter for the main event. Sunday has the 6mm only show that is the Joy of Six. 

As any regular reader will be aware, we are staging the battle of Quatre Bras on a six foot deep, five foot wide custom board. Whilst this is really just a warm up test game for our Waterloo game we still have put a lot of effort into getting it to look right. 

Just about everything is packed and ready to go, I still have a few bits to do to get it all squared away but all in all it's ready and we can sit back and enjoy the wait.

Baccus New French Line Lancer NFR14

As I mentioned yesterday the next post was going to be the new Baccus French Line Lancer figures from pack NFR14 and again it was a joy to prep and paint them.

I did not mention prep for the Guard cavalry mostly down to the fact there was so little to do. The same can be said for the Lancers which had minimum file work.

I have painted up this regiment as the 5th Lancers as these fought at Quatre Bras along with the 6th. Interestingly the trumpeter does not have a reversed uniform making for a quicker paint.

Painting up two regiments at the same time is the way to go as I was able to do the four different colours of brown without being stop start. Actually I think it's best to do four or even six at the horse painting stage! Lots of detail though I forgot the straps across the shoulder!!!

The saddle cloth edges were a bit of a challenge as they are scalloped really nice touch as it helps make the figures. I still have the other four regiments awaiting painting and I also have a few Adler Lancers as well so I should be able to represent almost all the Lancer Regiments by the time I am finished.

So now I have finished all the available French Cavalry I have to say I am happy with the results and that the upgrade on the originals was well worth waiting for. Also I really like the size difference between the lights and the heavies, a real nice touch. I would have liked more poses though it's a relatively small quibble. Yes I still prefer the look of the Adler but I would not kick these off the table and in danger of being a bore, these are so much better for a long campaign.

Baccus NFR12 French Elite Light Cavalry

Good intentions are, well good. That is unless they happen to lead to hell I suppose. In this case the good intention was to buy the last two of the current cavalry releases slightly late with the expected next lot of French infantry. Unfortunately that did not happen as the looked for infantry have been delayed but hopefully they will be available at The Joy of Six. So I delayed and delayed the purchasing of the French cavalry until well until they were no longer really new. Triples was where I bought these guys and I even got them painted up in not to a slow pace though I did not get them based till last night as I wanted to base them at the same time as my new Guard Artillery to save some time, yes ironic I know.

So these are the new Baccus NFR12 French Elite Light Cavalry or 1st Regiment de Chasseurs de la Garde and is one of the last two cavalry regiments for our Quatre Bras game that will have been played out at the Joy of Six show in less than four weeks (eeeek!!). These are rather very nice and I found them to be a nicer figure to work on than the previous new releases by Baccus. Not that I am giving those disrespect, I just found these nicer.

I am still not sold on the standard bearer well the standard but can live with them. Love the moustache that is sculptured which demand attention. These are really colourful chaps and I again went with a black base colour which speeded up the process a little.

These have the typical Baccus upright pose that adds to the speed of painting and robustness of the figures and it has to be said that at typical wargaming distance looks more or less the same as the Adler equivalent. Though close up such as this the multi pose comes into play with the Adler. The important detail is all there and a handy brush can make these look really cool. These colours really suit the scale and so these boys will stand out on the table. Not convinced they will get into the game though at JoS as they are fairly late arrivals but at least they can be placed at the back of the table awaiting their turn at bat.

You can't see the braids on the photo but they are there, honest. These are my new favourite of the new Baccus releases and that includes the next lot up on the blog the regular Lancers. I still have four of these bases worth of figures to paint up at some point but as Lee is covering the Guard at Waterloo they will have to sit waiting for a few years I fear, a real shame as they deserve to get painted.

First Tree - It's Big

Not wanting to wait, I rushed into building two trees. One with the bush foliage and a second with the hair infused material. Both by Woodland Scenic's but whilst the bush one looked more realistic it held just small clumps of leaves so would not look right. On the other hand both really look tall against 6mm figures compared with the usual tree's. These could easily be 15mm small trees. But what do you guys think, please be fully honest as it's not too late to get more of the usual size.

Also what do you think, is it worth continuing and doing another 20 plus? I think I won't need all 57 for this game, so maybe make up so many and then if we need more make even more. I have also seen another way of making them but not sure they will either suit 6mm or take the strain of regular use though would be fine for a one off display game.

I do plan to dry brush the trunks to get a better tree like colour and finish as at the moment it screams out plastic a little too much. I am leaning towards hidden in a forest of trees they will be OK but if not then I still have time to sort things out.

I have the Guard Artillery and Limbers on the painting table at the moment and these should be finished before the week is out. This will have all my figures painted with four weeks to go, though I still have to label and store them ready for the game but I hope to get that done next week. Last up will be boxing up the trees and buildings for the game. Can't believe it's less than five weeks to the game. Lee has done 17 battalions of British (34 flags!!!) but still has a and flagging  to go. I can see an afternoon/evening spent chatting and flagging on the cards, not a bad way to pass the time as I don't mind that job and can take pleasure from watching Lee who hates it LOL.

Adler Old Guard Artillery Arrive.

Got back from London he other day to a small buff envelope. Inside was an even smaller order from Adler of just four gun's crews and limbers for the French Guard. They are needed for the Quatre Bras game and an unwelcome surprise when talking to Lee that neither of us had them as the figures are fairly newly released as in about ten months ago. Having only just picked up an Adler order at Triples last month it did feel a bit like a fail. I need to get these painted up in the next 4-5 weeks as Joy of Six is just around the corner. I also need to finish two French cavalry regiments but at least those just need painting as of last night.

On the other hand, Lee is flagging, well he should be! You see Lee hates attaching small paper flags to small figures, shame then he has the British who need two a battalion LOL. He has said he will get a good session in tomorrow, you can bet I will be getting in touch to check how many he has done and mock him no matter what the answer, it's what friends are for.

Post Triples I started to think about how my attitude to funding my hobby has taken a bit of a diversion, seems I am in the red for the Wargames Neutral and whilst I will get a shot in the arm funds wise when I get to sell some of the Winter War stuff I wonder if I will ever go back to total funding?

With that in mind I made up yet another little spreadsheet that chartered the figures bought against painted from May onwards. The idea being to halt the worrying situation of increasing size of ones mountain and should I hope stop the shameful growth :-) So once a month expect something like this to be published.

May saw an increase of twelve regiments to the mountain for the painting of just three so I go into June with a PLUS 9 which will take a few months to work off. I also bought six battalions of Infantry but balanced that with the French Infantry I had painted.

Whilst I will mention figures painted in excess to bought the balance will not be carried forward each month so I don't have a pot of done figures to count against purchases. This should help to REDUCE the mountain, I know heresy! 

May was an incomplete month of calculations, June though does not look good at the moment and with the Baccus open day and Joy of Six in July I have doubts this will look good for a while yet.

Battle of the Crossroads AAR Part Three The End

So three weeks on the trot we managed to get to play, that's a record for me since rejoining the ranks and saw us finish the game.

Fortune was smiling on Lee with him getting the best of the activations at this point. He also managed to stop the retreat of the Nassau Brigade on the first attempt but it remained fragile with being forced to retreat again a real threat. The only real good news was that they could shelter behind the Brunswick reinforcements whilst they continued to try and recover order. I also was trying to take a breather to reorder my troops before taking on the fresh Brunswick troops.

Lee has brought up some of Picton's troops to the edge of Quatre Bras with a light regiment just outside the village. I bring up my Hussars and prepare to charge these troops in the following turn, my cavalry have been very busy and all of them carry cohesion losses.

Whilst Lee was weak on the hill in the centre, closing for the kill was difficult as his guns poured in canister causing severe cohesion loss on a number of battalions. It was inevitable that the hill would fall but the cost was surprisingly high, the Brunswick troops were not going to give up the hill before extracting a high price.

I bring the two flanking battalions onto the Brunswick flank whilst I reorder the troops to their right (blue marker means disordered) Lee knows I have numbers and position but can do little about it as the Nassau are very fragile and though these Brunswick troops are still fresh their Division as a whole is close to breaking so he can not afford to loose many more units.

 My charge against Picton's exposed infantry fails to be conclusive and the Hussars rally back behind the guns whilst a second Hussar regiment advances past the guns to try it's luck.

The central hill is almost mine now, the single Brunswick Battalion with the all important guns is now flanked and under threat of being attacked from two sides and the guns can now be flanked. The cost has been hign but the Brunswick's lost another battalion to a cavalry charge and are on the brink of being forced to retire the Division. Piction did have some revenge as many saddles were emptied as my Lancers passed two battalions of Fresh British troops were shaken and forced to retire to their own lines. Fortunately they were soon rallied and would be in position to rejoin the action after a few turns.

Another charge in the centre against Picton but this time I won the combat round but still failed to break the infantry being forced to remain in the melee. The last Brunswick battalion on the hill could not resist the attack being forced from the hill and bringing the total loss to the point of Division break. These were now forced to retreat with no home of recovery. The effect being that the exhausted Nassau would be uncovered allowing me to force these from the field. Picton was soon to have to fight on all fronts.

The troops crossing the bridge were now slowed down more by the need to use activation on other Divisions than the enemy as Lee had retreated into the safety of the woods. A wise move as one Battalion was forced to flee into the same woods due to being charged in the rear by one of the Lancer Regiments. My cavalry had done sterling service but were now were getting to the end of their usefulness unless I was prepared to rest them for three or more turns.

I forced my way into the woods on the right but was repulsed with a severe mauling but still it forced two of the three defending Battalions into disorder. I was in position to keep throwing fresh units against them or drive a wedge between them and Picton, but I knew Lee was unlikely to try an attack on my flank.

Now I was activating this flank early in the turn to increase my advantage. I had nine Battalions of fresh troops and now the activation rolls were going more often my way I was going to position my troops onto Picton's flank ready to bring greater numbers against his vulnerable flanks.

Picton is gathered around Quatre Bras and the only troops south of it that are not French are either cut off or in retreat. With his flank threatened and army morale showing signs of breaking he would have to fight with a very narrow front, extended flanks and still outnumbered and out of position whilst I as the French was bringing most of the reserve battalions through the worn ones and preparing to attack from all directions.

The last of the Brunswick's start to stream past the steady line of British and allied infantry who can do nothing to stem the retreat. The hill is starting to will with lines of French infantry, the day looks like it's going to be very long indeed.

The front line looks solid but these will be retreating soon as their Division has been fighting without support in the centre from the start of the battle. The only troops left are scattered, without cavalry or artillery support (the only guns in the area are being limbered up and heading back down the road). They have no hope to hold the ground they are standing on. These too will about face and march away from the sound of guns.

Meanwhile Picton has no choice but to use his forward units as a blocking force whilst he about faces and tries to out march the French flanking force.

So we left it at this point. Both of us felt the Divisions starting to melt away and become less able to even stand and hold ground worked well. Seeing them falter, recover and falter again was really nice. A few turns out of the front line could have made the difference but the Allies don't have the troops for that and whilst I was able to cycle units in and out of the front line, Lee was forced to keep troops in the line that had no business there.

So this was a rule we like and think does the job we wanted. I also had the idea that units that drop one or more cohesion levels in the game should not be able to rally back to full cohesion. This makes them that bit more vulnerable, less effective and will bring a game to a quicker conclusion.

It is still taking too long but that has as much to do with the chatting as the rules. More aggressive and better management of the attacking French would have speeded it up a notch as well. Sure the terrain is restrictive but I feel that I was not getting the best out of the attack and the victory had more to do with Picton's slow slog and Lee's weakness in force than my generalship.

Picton simply takes too long to get there fast enough to save the at start force from being soundly whipped. I have a number of ideas for this including the earlier activation of Picton but also bringing them on in a double column wide front would also help.

Lee certainly needs more troops earlier than they are brought into the action and whilst this is not full protection from an aggressive French player it would mean he can dish it out better.

Lee also threw his cavalry away too early, keeping them behind the line and forcing me to be more careful with my own cavalry would have slowed my down and half of the Brunswick casualty loss was down to my cavalry. I certainly got the better of the cavalry  scrap this time, one all then.

So a mixed result really. The rules are almost good to go, the scenario needs just a few tweaks and we are there. Not a bad result in my book.

Battle of the Crossroads AAR Part 2

Back to Lee's safe in the knowledge that Lee would have read my post and possibly started the plan to undermine my master plan. I was met with a "your early" as I walked in on the battle. This you understand is Lee for I'm not ready but in truth I was a little early.

The battle for Bossu woods continued to heat up as the close range musket fire was slowly reap results with the Nassau starting to loose cohesion and thus it was almost time to give them the bayonet charge.

In the distance you can see one Allied cavalry regiment in rout (blue token) with a second retreating towards the rear. Just in the front of them is a French Hussar regiment ready to put the shaken cavalry to flight. I have three other good order regiments of horse ready to sweep into the now open left flank of the Brunswick infantry. Lee leads the way towards Quatre Bras with his last two cavalry regiments (one just a few troops) with Picton leads his infantry towards the all important crossroads but can he afford to advance beyond the village?

With my right flank not being considered vital at this point, it is often the last moved Division meaning that often as not it does not get activated so it's moves stutter along. Here it is still held up by five Battalions and a few guns.

A breakthrough, even though one of my battalions is close to collapse I have finally sent an enemy battalion in retreat which will allow me to charge his remaining three with a good advantage. Support is coming but I am confident I can gain the woods before these troops can come to the battered defenders aid.

In an attempt to relieve the pressure in the centre Lee chargers with his two remaining cavalry regiments after I had routed his second regiment. One of his chargers was into a infantry battalion and I took the risk of not trying to form square due to the close proximity of Brunswick infantry and artillery. The poor infantry were routed but at least they dropped the enemy cavalry cohesion by one.

The poor infantry running for the rear and exposing more infantry but at least the charge has exposed his flank. The other cavalry were having the best of the cavalry fight.

Through marching along the edge of the stream and up against the pond and turning to face the hill. This is a dangerous move as they have no where to go if forced back but it will force the defenders on my right to take notice.

Centre right view from the field. The buildings on the left were painted for me by my father so very long ago and it was great to get it on the table again.

I get to go first in the following turn and charge home all along the line. This disorders the line battalions due to charging in light woods but the result was a landslide victory with two battalions routed whilst a third was badly shaken and left unsupported, nothing would help them stand against a whole Division! This was going to leave the two remaining battalions in the woods in a difficult position.

Meanwhile I play the guns of three batteries onto these two battalions in the woods as the French cavalry fail to take full advantage of the flank opportunity on the Brunswick cavalry though they push them dangerously close to being forced to retreat with no cavalry support whilst one of my cavalry regiments is forced to retreat behind the gun line where Ney himself waits to bring them back to order.

Lee seeing the dangerous position my right hand battalion is in charges and whilst he devastates them with a ferocious charge they themselves take a pounding. The melee was to go on for several turns before both units were routed from the field through mutual destruction, a first for us.

Neither of us could lend the fight support, itself an unusual situation but the hill meant that any units turning to join the fight would expose themselves to a charge so we watched each hoping the other would be driven back.

The forgotten flank seems to be low on the priority at the moment for both of us but when we had the chance we traded shots between the artillery though I was starting to gain the upper hand. Lee had moved away from the bridge. Possibly to try and draw me into attacking and thus changing my priority from the other flank and centre.

Lee chargers his remaining battalions in Bossu Woods but suffers a serious reverse as I win both melee's first round forcing two levels of cohesion loss which means they will fight at a disadvantage in the coming round. Whilst we move to contact and use the term melee a lot of this would in fact be very close quarter firing, with actual routing or forced retirements actually being the final physical charge.

With the rout of the last of Lee's cavalry I was in position to attack his infantry in the flank whilst another regiment had passed behind the hapless infantry. My plan to force the flank was now coming into reality though Picton was peeping around the corner of Quatre Bras, it was possible Picton could save the Brunswick's for Waterloo.

The cavalry regiment whilst blown was in a great position to charge the Horse Artillery way to the rear. Well being Lancers they kicked their tired horses into another gallop and charged through the canister to crash home and scatter the hapless gunners. Now all they had to do was return to their lines.

With the left flank now holding Bossu Woods I decided to rest them and regain cohesion and order before descending on the reinforcements. This allowed me to start the attack over the bridge as my cavalry started to work the other flank. Now it was possible I would be able to crush the Brunswick and Belgium forces between to fairly intact Brigades before the British could attack the flank of the centre Division.

I was able to force into retreat the two standing battalions in Bossu Woods but in my moment of triumph I rolled boxcars and another healthy battalion turned tail and routed from the table, of the disgrace.

The guns guarding the bridge having suffered losses to the guns could only slow down the French Infantry as they charged forward once over the bridge and another battery was silenced. The infantry holding the hill opposite failing to move down in support now has the difficult choice of attacking the bridgehead or withdrawing onto Pictons support.

Still a little worse for wear the Bossu Woods regiments start to descend onto the plain beyond whilst the Nassau are still disordered and their line broken. I need to also get more battalions down the hill from the rear ready for reinforcing my battered battalions as they take cohesion losses. Meanwhile Lee is bringing two strong Battalions into the woods but that will be nought if I can force his formation to crack. This Division is under no advance orders, one more rout or forced retreat will force them all to retire until he gets some of the forced retreats to be reduced to shaken. Not easy if your being attacked with vigour. This will be the first true test of the army break rules. One a Division is lost it weakens the army and it can have the domino effect so Lee needs to try and recover the Division but on doing so then really needs to remove it from the front line to further recover cohesion before daring to send it back into the line.

View from the Brunswick central position, Lee is stating to withdraw from the hill and hopes to get back to Picton, this is a major win for me as I get the hill and remain in good order and still have the opportunity to catch them as they try and withdraw. If I do it could be very messy.

The Nassau look up at Bossu seeing mostly good order French stream down the hill. The Nassau need to form up quick and face an opponent who has already beaten them on better defensive ground. This could be a long day if they do not get more help, especially if they remain unable to advance.

Through Quatre Bras yet more Allied troops pour. Lots more troops await their turn to enter the battle, it's all going well for the French at the moment but the allies have a lot more fresh troops to throw into the fight but now the defensive terrain is in French hands. The battle is in the balance, if Lee can keep his two weakened formations on the table and extract his cornered troops from near the ponds (or give me a bloody nose sending me back over the bridge) then he has every chance of giving me a bloody nose.