Command and Colors Meets The Smell of Powder.

Last week, Lee and myself got together to try out using the Command and Colors Napoleonic combat system with our own rules. Overall rather pleased with the result but need to make a few more changes to the rules to make the combat fit more comfortably with the rest of the rules but it sure speeded up the game process without making the game a bit of a lottery.

We made good use of one of the Waterloo boards for the scrap. I played the Prussians with Lee playing as the French. The forces were almost carbon copies of each other in numbers but quality was a little different as I was fielding a few Landwehr units.

The French had to deal with a woods to their front that partially split Lee's force. This long term did not have a great effect but was a worry at the start.

Meanwhile I had a village that I was able to garrison before the French could come to grips with me. Again the choosing of which units to activate was to become very important as the battle wore on.

Both flanks seemed to get going quickly whilst my centre was quite slow and was to struggle to close the gap once we got to close quarters.

Lee was first to strike causing me a strength loss on one of the supporting battalions. I was not in position to do anything back to him on that flank so just had to take the punishment. Artillery given the opportunity can really wear you down.

On the other flank it was soon the same story but with me dishing out the hurt. Indeed the artillery on this flank was to prove the most effective of the game.

Prussian cavalry tends to be weaker than the French but I got the better of the first clash wrecking two regiments though I lost one in return and a second was left weakened by the clash.

View of the whole battle, my centre is still trying to catch up whilst my cavalry have taken up a position on the hill (bottom right). Lee is now in a position where his cavalry are vunerable due to one flank being wrecked and the infantry at the top of the photo are two moves away from being charged in the flank.

Lee went for broke attacking both the town and my supporting troops. If he fails he will face almost certain defeat. Win and the tempo of the battle changes to his tune.

The result was an overwhelming success. French charging into melee are quite effective and the dice were certainly going his way. Two of the three Prussian battalions outside the town were destroyed whilst the third was almost wiped out but was sent in full retreat almost off the table. 

Meanwhile cool musketry from my Prussians drives off most of the French but one battalion stuck around for the cold steel.

It was not to last as the French drove off my right hand flanks cavalry and turned their attention to my infantry forcing one Battalion into square.

The view from the flank shows the effect of around four turns of fighting. A lot of gaps on the table and a result looks possible in the one session.

Indeed I felt the Prussians at this point would withdraw, I had just the one cavalry regiment, fresh from hitting a battery of guns in the flank but unable to help out the infantry on the opposite flank. I would need to head for the board edge and hope to retain enough men to fight another day.

Total play time was about two hours and whilst we both agreed it was too bloody and needed some tweaks we also thought it fitted well with our aim for the rules. We each had 12 battalions of infantry, 6 regiments of cavalry and three gun batteries so not a tiny battle. With the proposed changes and double the number of troops we still expect to get a game finished in a single session. We don;t have long to wait as we will be playing tonight, this time in Spain by French against Lee's British, I will let you know how it went.

Last Partizan Purchases

OK not the last Partizan but certainly the last at Kelham Hall. It's always been a great setting but lets face it it's one of the worst places to hold a show if you happen to be either putting on a game or a trader as between the limited access and the horrendous lighting (seemed far worse this year!) it just makes the experience one giant ball ache.

I spent most of my time chatting with mostly people I know whilst The Boy spent a chunk of his time playing the RAF clubs excellent Minions racing game or keeping away from the traders so he would not spend his money as he wanted to spend it away from the show.

I was as restrained as I had intended to be, well mostly. I did buy a £6 booster of French Napoleonic casualties from Baccus but these don't count towards the lead mountain as they are scenic accessories to increase the looks of the bases. 

Talking of which I bought 60 die holders to be mounted on bases to keep track of casualties or strength for games. These were from Warbases and if they work as well as expected I will be buying more come Castle Donnington in October.

Last up was a real farce as I had to use the torch on my phone (as others were also doing) to be able to see the paints in the racks as the light was so bad in the corner. Indeed a number of traders had portable lights or flash lights dotted around the stands. I did get the four I was out of and also an old one I was unable to pick up at a previous show. Next show will probably see yet more new purchases seeing as I have room in the racks.

So I see the move away from Kelham in a very positive light (excuse the pun), and look forward to what is rumoured to be the new venue (Newark Showground). All we need now is a better spread of scales in the games and all may well be good with the world.

The Other Partizan...................

Well I won't be making anyone rich at Kelham Hall tomorrow as I head into the third month without a single figure purchase. Simply put I have so many figures I want to paint it's not worth me getting any more. Well unless I see something I really want that is.

What I do want though is to buy a few replacement paints and probably some new colours as well. I went all spreadsheet and 5.45 this morning I was putting the finishing touches to the list.  I probably will pick up a few more bases and such but I don't see me doing much more retail wise.

Looking forward to checking out some games and hopefully getting The Boy into a few games, the Minion Racing game looks a likely candidate. I look forward most to catching up with friends at the show. I will of course visit Peter at Baccus just to see if my resolve will stand up to the test.

To help keep my hands in my pocket I received a package today that has some Commands and Colors goodness in it but more on that in a later post.

Lee like me is not really on the hunt for stuff to buy, we have looked at what we need for next years game and it looks like we are mostly sorted so no mad painting of figures, just sorting out the terrain and buildings by the looks.

Friday Quiz 12

OK after Roy's great questions last week here are another five from me. As always feel free to use references to get the answers but if so please let us know what you used

1. Which English King's army was defeated by the Vikings in 991AD at the Battle of Maldon?

2. What US General had Vinegar added to his name?

3. Name the South American country in which the War of a Thousand Days was fought from 1899 to 1902?

4. What was Operation Cobra the code name of during WWII

5. What was the name of the British destroyer sunk on 25th May 1982 during the Falklands War?

Lets see what you make of these, answers after the weekend

Answers.
1. Aethelard the Unready, they sure know how to punish you for eternity when you fail to win.

2. Vinegar Joe Stillwell, a US General who served in the Chinese/Burma/India theatre and got his nickname for being rather caustic.

3. Republic of Columbia, it was a civil war that the Conservatives won, albeit at great cost in lives and economy plunging the country further into debt and crisis.

4. Part of a number of operations designed to break out from the bridgeheads of Normandy.

5. Sheffield Class HMS Coventry.

Some great answers this week, glad the questions went down so well.

Building of the Week Going Fantasy

Leven will be releasing a range of Fantasy buildings in the future, I was sent a number of buildings and asked to keep the results to myself but now Mike has announced his intentions so here are the ones I have done for him

This came in two parts and I just love the model. Chris Hudson has done a great diorama using his representation of the building and it looks great. My nod to Fantasy was the purple roof tiles which came out just as I imagined it to look so am rather pleased. 

Obviously as things stand I don't need a wizards tower so will not be getting one for myself though it will be a great addition to the Fantasy Armies fans.

These three are other possible releases that Leven have designed. I would use a mix of Medieval and these types to make up an interesting and bizarre fantasy town.

I don't know when Mile plans to release these buildings or the level of interest they have generated on his Facebook site. Hopefully enough to make them a success. Meanwhile Mike continues to add new buildings to the historical ranges including some I featured here recently. 

Next week expect to see some work fresh from the table as I get back into painting some of the buildings I have stacked up waiting my attention. 

French Line Infantry by Commission Figurines from MDF

I actually painted this Commission Figurines Battalion before The Joy of Six but never quite got round to posting them. The BIG difference between these figures and other 6mm producers is that they are made of MDF. Yes MDF and they are rather nice.

I had this battalion on the table all game and only one person spotted them all day! Not that they actually look the same when closely looked at but at game distance they work perfectly well. They are sold as a cheap option to metal figures 96 figures set you back £2.00 opposed to just over three times for the same from Adler or Baccus. However that is not the best selling point, it's the speed you can paint these figures up in. I painted the 48 figures above in about 2/3rds the time it would take me to do the 28 figures I would of a Baccus battalion. So they win on both speed and cost but how well do they measure up across the board?

Well they obviously do not have the detail of the metal figures and the limitations of working with MDF and cutting via laser means it would be a big ask to get them to be more detailed than have been done so far. That said you can also get drummers and skirmishers now which would make these fit in with my other battalions much better.

It's also something of a learning curve, next time I will take a scalpel to the plumes and pompoms which I missed on this lot. I also need to put them slightly offset and weather them a little to get away from the chocolate box look. I sprayed them Army Painter Ultramarine Blue and was surprised with the amount of detail that showed through post spraying. Indeed I lost no detail what's so ever. At this point it just needed a dry brush of a lighter blue to give a little depth and help create the illusion of cloth rather than a straight forward painting (i.e. less old school look).

They do get backpacks, blanket rolls and ammo pouches though. As stand alone they work well and I would be happy to make a whole army out of these wooden wonders. The range remains fairly limited with many generic types of units though 21 codes is not a bad start at all and these include extra codes released since Joy of Six so is expanding.

They do sit reasonably well with Baccus and as they are slightly larger than Baccus sit well with Adler from a scale point of view. I still yet have to paint up the cavalry and artillery but will be doing this sometime in the near(ish) future as well as painting up the rest of this pack.

So I think you can start with one supplier be that metal or MDF and add in the other at a later date. Indeed the ones I have been given to paint up will find their way into my armies and I will be picking up a few more bits at Donnington in October. However I remain a big fan of both Adler and Baccus so they will remain my main go to guys for my Napoleonic needs but I can see Commission Miniatures getting a growing following and look forward to seeing more display games that use these figures in the future.

I have a game tonight and hopefully tomorrow night as well and with another already booked for next week I am finally getting back to the swing of gaming, can you tell the Holiday season has finally come to an end?

Lead Poisoning, The Mountain Bites Back

I purposely missed last months post as I had a whole lot of nothing to report, well almost nothing and hoped this month would be a lot better. Actually it is but from a personal view point it was worse. I have managed to paint up the equivalent of nine battalions of 6mm British Napoleonic infantry but all these were for Steve, so nothing at all for me.

I will be mostly painting my own figures this month though I will try and get a bunch finished for Lee. The last two months have been the worst painting months I have had since coming back to the hobby over four years ago. This has been in part down to going on holiday for a week but mostly I have been slow at adjusting to the new work routine with the much later finish and almost double the time journey to work.

I plan to be more proactive, making more effort to get to the desk than recently. This goal will be much helped by the simple fact I will be painting my own figures which is that bit more rewarding than painting for others.

My mix will be different as well. Last night I spent a few hours on one of the Arena Rex gladiators from their Kickstarter, a very enjoyable few hours. I have a second one assembled and ready for undercoating with a few 28mm fantasy figures also waiting in the wings.

I also plan to get more of the 6mm Ancient army painted up, several pike blocks are demanding attention and yet more companion cavalry units look set to cross the table if not this month then next. I still have a few command bases to paint for Steve which will be done as I go as he needs them next month. I will also kick myself into gear and continue with painting my Leven Buildings and of course get back onto the Cowboy buildings that I have not touched in almost a year!!!

Another positive is that I have not bought any new figures in the last two months so at least the mountain has stayed the same size though with The Other Partizan this weekend that could change.