WSS finish, or is it!

 Well I have managed to finish my WSS figures.
And here are the last batch. (Well not quite, there are always room for a few more.)

Having had a few moments to rummage in the lead mountain I found enough troops to complete 2 cavalry units. So One British and one French.


Additionally I found a couple of gentlemen officers and 4 extra foot figures so I thought it would be rude not to get these finished as well. Well I had the paint and brushes handy and Like I said it would be rude not to!

I will admit I did find an extra gun and crew, but I was missing a wheel so I thought best not at this stage. Besides "Black Hat" miniatures are usually at the Cavalier show so I can pick up a few extra bits and pieces should I need to. So other than a spare wheel if they have one, I notice they also do a sedan chair. Let's be honest who does not want a sedan chair in a game. Hell I would have one in a zombie game if I thought I could get away with it!

I did make one mistake though. I made the trumpet player British. These gives me 2 British and no French so I think it will be re-painted pretty soon. No reason the French can't make a loud noise as well. So I had better get on with it soon.

The flags for the British were in the army pack that I bought. The French were home made. I just looked at typical flags of the period and went for  something fairly generic. If I went for the flag of a specific regiment I feel that the figures would be only used for that regiment. Thus it would become a fantasy game if they were used in a different battle or region. So If they were at Blenhiem for example they could not be in Spain, but by keeping it generic they can be used anywhere even in America for Queen Anne's war if I felt like it.

So thanks for looking today I hope you liked what you saw. I will do an AAR for the game at the club next time out.So until then take care have fun and paint some figures or play a game or better yet do both.

Have fun, take care and I hope to see you soon.
All the best Clint

Yet More Donnybrook figures

Well this is about the last of them for now. I have a couple more cavalry to do. But they can wait for now. So anyway here are another 16 French War of Spanish Succession, there should be a flag but I don't have one just yet so I will add it later. So we have 12 rank and file soldiers and 3 characters. From left to right; Drummer (Musician), Officer, Flag bearer and Sargent.

The flag at this stage should be the bourbon flag and not the French Tricolour as the revolution has not had not yet happened (French revolution 1789). I could perhaps use a white cross on a blue or red field, but the Bourbon Flag would be better.

Still enough procrastination about getting the right flag I have a show next weekend so maybe I will pick one up then.

Again these are Black Hat Miniatures. 15mm scale and part of the Malbrurian Range. In my mind I will buy a few more, if just to get the 15mm sedan chair they do. I am not sure I have a use for a Sedan Chair but I know I will get one.

That's it for today. Thank you very much for looking and tomorrow I will do the next turn of the PBB game. But the best news is that I think I am coming to the end of my wargames doldrums as I have a few ideas of what to do next now and may even start some terrain next week. But nothing too exciting so anticipation should be at a minimum..... really boring stuff like piles of rocks and the like.

Take care and look after yourself. All the best Clint

More Donnybrook figures

As regular readers will know I have not been in a wargames mood for several weeks! I know shock horror! Well with that in mind painting has slowed down and telly watching has gone up. Not that I need to watch more telly but these things happen. As such I have not wanted to start something new. As such I have been working through my Donnybrook WSS figures. Like the others I have painted these are BLACK HAT Miniatures that I bought a few years ago.

So today we have another 15 British line infantry including a Sargent, a drummer and a flag bearer. The Flag is the English/ British flag before 1707. So just right for Queen Anne's War. The flag changed and was different after 1707. From then on it changed by adding the Scottish flag but not at that stage the Irish flag which when all combined make up the Union Flag.  It is only the Union Jack when flown at sea. I know it's picky to point that out so Moving on...

Now looking at it I have missed the white cording on the drum so that must be done today and then re-varnished. I do have several flag bearers but you only need 1 for each side in donnybrook rules so they may sit unpainted for a while.


That's it for today. I am still scratching my head and wondering what I will buy at the show next show. (10 days away).

Thanks for looking and I will try to get some more painting done.

All the best Clint

Club day on Sunday

Initial game set up.

And I had booked in a game of "Donnybrook" . Having not played it before I was not sure how long a game would take. Yes That caught me out It was far quicker than I thought.
I set the board up thinking initially that we might get two games in. Yeah right! We ended up with 5 games. A big thanks to Matt and Tim for playing and helping me sort out the rules and a game. Tim took the British while Matt was the French.

GAME 1

First turn

The British were pounding the French Fort with artillery so the French had sent a sallying raiding force to drive of the gunners. (The Artillery in this game were only an objective and not a fighting force.)

We were all just finding our feet in the first turn and we learnt very quickly that close order infantry in cover are actually really good even for the infamous dice rolling of Tim!

Dice rolling aside, the rules we found were really bloody. Matt lost 1/2 a unit of infantry in the first round of shooting.  Which meant when they fired back they were only able to take out 1/4 of Tim's closest troops. Which left neither unit on morale checks.





2nd Turn. Where are all the French?

The Turn over card was flipped and lo and behold. Tim's Grenadiers shot again. The Rest on Matts Drilled line infantry were then killed to a man! Matts cavalry got a turn and they charged Tim's Indians. The cavalry do not move as fast as I would hope in a game like this so they only just made it. But only with the first few figures and not the whole line. Melee is fought but the results were inconclusive.












Third Turn and the French Infantry are all gone!

 On the last turn before the Indians and cavalry have the chance to conclude matters, Tim has both his grenadiers and his line infantry units fire which wipe out Matts elite line in a single turn. The turn over card is flipped and as matt is now below 50% of starting figures both units and characters. The game ends and the French fort can continue to be bombarded.








Game 2

The scenario was that the French (Matt) had to raid the town and as such I gave them an extra point in their force compared to Tim. Thus 4 French to 3 British. Matt decided to take a cannon this time to try out the cannon optional rules. (So he claimed)!

Initial set up

First few turns were all about getting into position.
The cannon fired managed to get 8 d8 hits
but only caused 1 casualty, but scared the bejezuss out of all the players.
But the Game ended pretty quickly with Matt's cavalry only getting one move the entire game.
 

 Game 3.

With 1 victory a piece Tim was now the attacker. His mission was to gather livestock. Matt took another cannon (he seems to like them) and a couple of line infantry squads. Tim had only grenadiers and line infantry. (No Indians or cavalry this time on either side)

Matt's cannon has trouble getting in arc of fire. but infantry from both sides open fire.
The random event cards did bring on a brief downpour and musketry was halted for the
next turn!
 

Tim rolls better dice and our first morale check of the day.
Matt's infantry are forced to pull back. Well the Two of them still alive
in that unit!

The British finally are in position to bring fire on the cannon.
The cannon does get to fire back,
but realistically too little and far to late.

Another British victory.

 Game 4.

Matt refereed and I got a game against Tim's British. A straight forward encounter battle. Tim took cavalry for the first time as well as Indians. As it was my first try I kept it simple with just 1 cavalry and the rest line infantry.

Initial sett-up

Tim looses his cavalry to my line infantry on the right. He then sets about
picking off my centre. Only fair as I wipe out his Indians as well.

My cavalry don't get a chance to move so I detach the character. And then my centre infantry
are totally destroyed now leaving my officer exposed!

But with Tim's flanks both gone (the Indians and Cavalry)

I am able to bring my infantry to bear on his centre.

He soon looses sufficient troops to fall below 50% starting figures and therefore looses the game.

 

The Last game (game 5) I forgot to take any pictures as I was up against it from the start. Tim took charge and I lost horribly to Matt. (You rotter Matt!). The game consisted of Matt firing his cannon and wiping out my Grenadiers in two turns before they got in range to shoot back. Drat. So that was my right wing dangling in the wind. An event card stole my left flank unit as it was needed elsewhere. So I only had my centre left and was aware that a single casualty would put me over 50% casualties so I tried t get some cover. It kind of worked as another event banished Matts cavalry from the field of play and I was lucky enough to bring fire unanswered on Matt's centre. But eventually matt killed one of my figures and I was forced to concede.

 

Overall a very good day. 5 games 3 French victories, 2 British victories and on a personal level I won 1 and lost 1 so not too bad. Could be a lot worse.

 

The best part though is it looks like Tim will get a small force as well. Given that it was two army forces it's a little hard to draw definitive conclusions on the rules. Yes we got a few things wrong but when don't we? But I will continue to build these forces up some more and maybe start a town militia or outlaw band.

 

Thanks for reading today maybe another quick post tomorrow as well. All the best Cheers Clint

 

 

 

Donnybrook British.

 Well as I had a game (or 2) on Sunday I had to get some more British figures painted. To that end I managed to get 4 more Grenadiers painted. These were not used! An extra sergeant who was used and my players want even more sergeants now having tried the game!

 I also managed to get 6 cavalry (not shown) and 3 mounted characters. Two officers,shown, as well as a trumpeter. The two officers were not used but the cavalry and trumpeter were used. Generally speaking we found that the move of cavalry was not sufficiently large enough to warrant their use! But perhaps in future games I wonder if that will change.

I will do an after action report of some of the games we played on Sunday in a couple of days time. Generally speaking and allowing for looking things up in the rules we played about 1 game every hour, or 5 games in all. Therefore I will not detail all the games.


The final shows all the British troops I have managed to complete BEFORE we played on Sunday.

Thanks for looking today and I will be getting things ready for a game at the Rejects shed of war this week so I may not get so very much painting done this week as one would like. Paintmonkey has got some figures to paint though so I may get them started.....

Anyway that's it for today. Thanks for looking and I will hope to see you all soon.

Cheers Clint

1 more point. (Yawn)

Yes nothing too inspiring today. Just a single point of British line troops for Donnybrook. * soldiers of drilled quality using a d8. And a Sgt who will also use a d8. Like the others these are Black Hat figures 15mm Malburian range.

 Not so much more I can say about these but I will say I have a British Cavalry unit on the paint table which I am trying to finish before Sunday when I will host a game at my club.

That's it for today. Not so much as last time. I know but we have to be realistic and expect peeks and troughs. I can't always work flat out.

Have a good couple of days and I will see you all soon for the PBB game on Saturday.

All the best Clint.

1 more French Cavalry Point.

Yeah the title pretty much covers it. So here we are another unit of French Cavalry for Donnybrook. It is only an extra point but it is a very important point. Why is it an important point? Simply because I can now build up the British forces. Yes I have two more points prepped and primed, an infantry and a cavalry point. This should help me keep some form of parity between the two forces. Clearly I will need more British Horse so at least this will allow me to get them started. As with the last batch these are 15mm Black Hat figures from their Malburian range.  And while they may not get used having the option to use them is very comforting. Yes it may only be 7 mounted figures, 6 troopers and an officer but I do find it interesting how much longer horsemen take to paint over infantry. The other thing about having 2 units of cavalry is that it will allow me to have a larger (9 troopers and a hero) unit using d6 and not using d8's for shooting and melee.

A bit waffley today but that's it for today. I will post turn 5 on Saturday so make sure I get your orders in if you are playing the Play by Blog game. Anyway that's it for today.  Take car4e and tune in again on Saturday to see how the game is progressing. You might also want a quick look at Alan's blog (http://leofwinewargamerson.blogspot.co.uk/) as he has also done a game, played on Facebook and not on a blog but taken direct inspiration from this blog.

 Anyway all the best and thanks for taking the time to pop by. All the best Clint

2 more points.

Well I played a Napoleonic game at the club it was alright, but I was not really in the mood. No worries I was all set up t play Donnybrook but Tim was double booked so I let it slide. My mistake I should have confirmed with him earlier in the week and I did not so It's as much my fault as anyone's. I also forgot the blessed camera so no AAR either! Struth! Man's a Laggard!

I did manage to get 2 extra points of French line Infantry done for Donnybrook and a mounted officer on the Saturday. So As much as I choose to beat myself up about Sunday at the club I just can't really. So here is a picture of all the French I have finished so far for my "Queen Anne's War" period Donnybrook games. I have another unit of cavalry on the paint table at the moment so expect that pretty soon as well. The Second Picture shows 5 points worth of troops (3 Regular Infantry, 1 Regular cavalry and a cannon with crew). I will continue to build them up so that I have more variety. Don't forget the Native Americans which can go on either side, or even both sides if I choose. Not much of an update but there you have it for today. Expect more of the same on Thursday as I finish another cavalry unit.

Thanks for looking, all the best Clint.

1st Cavalry point for Donnybrook!

As I continue to work through my WSS figures I have finally managed to get a single point of cavalry done. 6 figures in total so I will still need to do a hero to go with them. Again these are 15mm figures by Black Hat and part of their Marlburian range. One of the things that held me up on painting these was quite simply that there are not too many pictures out there to get the right colour schemes from. But I did find one I liked in the end so all's well that ends well. I was not too sure about the yellow on the horse furniture but it has now grown on me and does help the figures stand out. In fact as a colour it pops out! Which I now quite like. (don't send me lots of links to pictures of cavalry I have enough now! But thank you if you thought to do so!)

Once I get a hero done for them, I will be 90% of the way to getting all I need done for a game. Which I hope to have on Sunday. I will not stop at the bare minimum though, as I have another Cavalry unit, and 2 Infantry units, already prepped and undercoated and sitting on the paint table and I will hope to get them done by Sunday as well. Even if I don't get them all done it will all help to build the forces up somewhat.

Looking at what Black Hat do and the prices I will expect me to send of a small order next week now that I have got a very small tax rebate. They do a Sedan chair in 15mm for example, and who could resist one of those on the battle field!

That's it for today. Thanks for looking folks and I will post the next turn of the Play by Blog game on Saturday. So if you are still to do your turns (and you know who you are) please get them back to me as soon as possible.

Cheers Clint

Couple more points.

Well as I am hoping for a game on Sunday using the "Donnybrook" rules I have carried on painting some figures. As last time these are 15mm.

To start with I thought I would paint one of the 3 cannons I have as a French gun. As you can see the carriage is painted red as the French guns were at this time and the crew of four are in grey with blue facings and trousers and red socks! While this may seem strange I have found a French artillery crew of this period dressed in this exact way. I must say that not all Artillery crew were uniformed in the same way so expect some variation in different players troops.

My next point is a group of French regular troops. Again in grey but this time with grey trousers. Collars cuffs and socks are Red this time. Again I would expect some people to quibble about which unit this is, but as they are not in my club generally I don't care. Sad but true. So there are 8 troops in close order with a Sargent carrying a halberd.  These really are the simplest troops I have to paint so I would expect some more of these.

Mostly dressed in buckskin I have 12 native Americans. As the indigenous peoples were used by all sides as allies it makes sense to have some native Americans In fact I should get some more. I think another 2 packets (16 figures) would be a good place to start. These should have less  muskets and more hand weapons but for now as I am using what I have I must say I am pleased with this unit. I have kept the war-paint to red, black and white just for simplicity. I could of added yellow war paint as well but I wanted to keep it straight forward. There are 12 figures here. I am one short of a unit if I want them to be a rabble, as that would be 13 figures. Or I could use 9 of them as more proficient troops.

Lastly I have added 4 extra Grenadiers from last time. This will allow them to be trained and not elite troops should I choose. So these last troops are British. Again I will get some French grenadiers (Fur Mitre) so expect me to get some of those at either the next show or even mail order some.

That's it for today, I have some cavalry on the paint table for this so they will also be coming soon.

That's it for today, thanks for looking and with luck next post on Thursday.

All the best Clint

Donnybrook first few points.

For those of you who have not come across the "Donnybrook" rules they are a skirmish set of rules base in the 1660-1760 period. On the "League of Augsburg" Forum these rules have been used for everything from  The second world war to Medieval. Yes they are that versatile. It has taken me a long while to settle on exactly what period I would do. Firstly I thought of Tangiers 1661-1668 (the British Possession). My next choice was Hernan Cortez and the Conquest of the Aztecs. But I did settle on Queen Anne's War eventually. Not because it is a period or war I am totally drawn towards but because I already had enough figures for the period. So I swapped them from the Wars of Spanish Succession to Queen Anne's War.

For those of you LIKE Myself who do not understand what Queen Anne's war was all about here is a LINK. For those not interested in following that link and reading the real history, it is the second of the French Indian Wars (the first being King Williams War). So Just think of the Queen Anne's War as being the War of Spanish Succession (WSS) but set in the new world of the Americas. AS such It was Britain with their Native American Allies against but the Spanish and the French and their Native American Allied tribes.

2 Points

 To make a balanced force the "Donnybrook" rules allow a certain amount of points, Usually 4 Points. And Depending on how skilled you want the troops to be the less troops you get for a single point the more proficient these troops will be. As such I have 2 points of British "Drilled" troops each with a character. There are a choice of characters depending on which faction you are building. Army, as this is, has different characters from "outlaws" "Tribal" "Civilian Mob""Cultish" or "Witch-hunters" for example. So for these points I have 8 drilled foot and a musician (drummer) in one group and 8 "drilled" foot and a sergeant as my second point.

My third Point is an elite grenadier squad of only 4 figures with a commander as the character. I will make this squad bigger as reading the advice on the form 4 elite figures are not that effective. Therefore I will expand this to 8 figures in the next few weeks. I have not done it yet as I will need to split a few packs to increase the numbers.

My last Point for now is a piece of artillery. There should be a character with these, but I simply forgot to include him in the photograph. Opps! Artillery are purely optional in the rules and once I expand the forces and have more options I will most likely not use it so much. But I have 3 artillery pieces (2 more to Paint) so I thought why not.

I have started 2 points of French as an opposition, so will try to crack on with them pretty soon.

All these figures are by BLACK HAT in 15mm scale. As such once we start playing I may use centimetres in stead of inches for movement and ranges. Time will tell for sure.

Thanks for looking today and I hope this change of scale and project does not throw anyone too much. Paint Monkey is also busy at the moment and you may expects some more 28mm figures on Sunday or Monday. That said I will post turn 3 results on Saturday for the Age of sail naval game. So If you have yet to send me a turn, time is running out!

That's it for today See you again on Saturday if I am lucky.

Cheers Clint

WSS Black powder.

Tims Bavarian Troops advancing up the table.

Yesterday at the club I had a game of "Black Powder" with Tim and Against Peter and Scott. It was mostly an exercise in learning the rules and reinforcing how we thought they worked as none of us had played it very much at all. Tim gave me his French while he took the Bavarians while Scott and Peter controlled the British. Peter played opposite me while Tim played against Scott. As we were playing with 15mm figures we played in CM and not inches.

My remaining Brigade advance and secure the ridge,

Not quite the first dice roll of the game, but within my first command phase I rolled a double 6 and had a command blunder and about 1/2 my force left the table backing off my table edge. They were reluctant to return but did arrive back on turn 4, just in the nick of time!

My troops secure the ridge and take up position to fight against the 3 British Brigades which were approaching. But there is a big hole in the French Centre because half my infantry had already left the table due to my command blunder.

Seeing this hole Peter send 1 of his three brigades as far forward as he can. They ran out of steam a mere 18cm from my table edge. But still left two of His Brigades to assault the ridge I was holding.



Tim on the left tries to plug the gap left by my
 brigade which had retreated off of the table.

Just in time I manage to get my wandering away Brigade back on the table. My two guns were able to pepper Peters Brigade with canister and yet failed to cause any casualties. But my infantry were now here so I could (and did) withdraw the guns.

Peters Brigade close to my table edge.

Knowing the English with their "Volley Fire" could out shoot me. I could either stand still and take it like a man or risk it and charge. I charged and Peter got off his closing fire and my guys went in. It was carnage for both sides. I did come off slightly better than I deserved (all praise the dice gods) and managed to take Peters centre to Battalions out. While he managed to beat me on the wings.  As luck would have it I passed more morale checks than Sir Peter and his Brigade was at half strength and with one battalion falling back.

I also had lost half my Brigade, but my guys had two artillery pieces to aid them and the threat of Tims cavalry taking them in the Flank. Unfortunately Tim Could not motivate his cavalry and rather than closing at the gallop they just milled about looked threatening.



After the battle at the base line.

Meanwhile Back on the ridge. 2 English Brigades took on my single Brigade.  Due to being out numbered and bad initiative making me move first when I really needed to move second and get out of the line of Fire. Peter was able to concentrate fire power on one of my Battalions. This hurt as he was able to enfilade them and thus get double dice. Well they survived one round fairly well taking casualties but refusing to give ground. I was able to concentrate on one of Peters Battalions and force them to retreat with a bad morale check. I was also able to move my horse all the way to Peters base line. Scot sent his horse towards them and turned his guns to face them before they swept into the rear elements of the British army.

The Battle on the ridge.

I was able to turn my brigade on the ridge to stop being enfiladed but Peter was able to charge home and the badly mauled Battalion disintegrated.  Woops!

My Horse Hit the retreating British of Peter who were able to form square, but it did them no good what so ever and my horse rolled a stupidly large number of melee dice and got nothing less than a 3. So his retreating battalion evaporated and my horse were able to do a sweeping advance into another battalions rear. While this worked it was not quite as effective. But they did their job and those infantry also gave up the fight.



Tim Gets involved.

Scot got his cavalry to charge and with a failed command roll mine could not move at all and as a consequence were  both hit in the flank. And that was the end of my horse!

Peter and myself had fought each other to a standstill neither of us was in a position to press any very marginal victories and we had run out of time.

Meanwhile at the other end of the battle field Tim and Scott had not really engaged in the fight. One officer was never able to get control of his spare brigade and as  such they pretty much failed to move all game. While the British were reluctant to push forward and even get in shooting range. But in the last turn they did get involved and Tim was able to charge the British line. It was messy and very bloody and did seem to end in a draw with each force loosing 1/2 a brigade due to morale failures.



Goodies from Tim.

And this is where we ran out of time and needed to pack away. At this stage it was so even it really was anyones game. But at least we learnt a few more of the rules. And a good time was had by all.

I also managed to pick up a few more goodies for the Arab Revolt game, from Tim who owns IT miniatures. Expect them painted next week. Yes two more camels but only 2 more in this batch to replace the two I used for Laurence and the Banner bearer.


Thanks for reading. Hope you had a great weekend and got a shed load of painting done. All the best Clint





Rowes Brigade compleated

 Still working with the Baccus miniatures 6mm War of Spanish Succession Here we have 3 more units which represent the three remaining units which make up the brigade.

In order they are "Sir Clifton's Regiment of foot" with red facings as with all the units flags to be added when I purchase them as they are commercially available from the manufacturer.




"Scots Fusiliers" commanded by Brigadier General Archibald Rowe. They carried no regimental colours but did carry the kings colours into battle. Red cuffs but yellow facings. I must confess the small mitres were a guess for colours, but I thought the yellow most appropriate. At 6mm (1/300th scale) it hardly matters anyway as I know my players will just identify them by the yellow stripes on the lower edge on their tunics. I felt the need to put the yellow stripes on to distinguish them from the above unit.


"Earl of Bath's regiment of foot." As you can see these have yellow cuffs which the Scots fusiliers do not have. Commanded by Lieutenant General William North.

All three units have a little bit of touching up to do but they are sufficiently finished to box up and put away until I get the flags.

The Final picture is of the complete Brigade. Five foot units each of about 580 men (some slightly larger and some less). As ever there are more units to do, but this makes Rowe's Brigade of the Blenheim Column which was commanded by Lieutenant General John, 1st Baron Cutts of Gowran.

I shall continue to grow this army intermittently but not immediately. So expect some updates in the future. Tomorrow (Sunday) I will be running a game at Skirmish wargames show in Sidcup Kent a small friendly show  with about 25 traders many of which deal in plastic toy soldiers for toy soldier collectors as opposed to wargamers. It is however local and as such worth the time and effort. I will do a show report on Monday. Until then take care have fun and treat yourself to some chocolate...... you know you want to!

All the best Clint