A Game-Seven Years War with Black Powder

Whilst home from work I managed to get a game in, yes an unusual occurrence but a very enjoyable one.

Having never been used my 10mm Seven Years Austrians, me and Russians, Clive needed to see the light of day.  I did not quite have enough Russians so they were ably assisted by the Reichesarmee, although they were treated as Russians.  No army lists were used, we just made up brigades with what I had and put them on the table.

I'm sorry about the quality of the pictures I took them on my IPad.

Austrian right wing, a brigade of hussars and cuirassier with an infantry brigade advancing to the front.

The Austrian line, four brigades of cavalry and four of infantry.

The Russian left flank, a large brigade of Cossacks, who proved to be quite useless so may need to adjust their stats.  Inside them are a brigade of hussars and a brigade of cuirassier.  Unfortunately for Clive he never managed to get the hussars and cuirassier into combat.

A closer look at the Austrian right wing, hussars and cuirassier in all their glory.  The hussars managed to destroy the Cossack brigade for the loss of one regiment.

Austrian infantry brigade

The Austrian left, a brigade of Cuirassie and a brigade of Grenze

The Russian right, opposing the cuirassier and Grenze are two brigades of Russian cuirassier and a three gun 'grand battery' on the hill.

In the center an Austrian Dragoon brigade of three dragoon regiments and a combined Horse Grenadier regiment.  These saw a lot of action against Russian infantry and suffered 50% casualties.

An over-view of the center, the infantry are a brigade of Hungarians who advanced smartly towards the Russians and then blundered and marched all the way back to their own table edge.

Infantry clash on the Austrian right.  The walled field is held by Hanoverian and Reichsarmee regiments.  The 'skull' casualty markers are made by Charlie Foxtrot.

The center of the table, a village with an important road junction in it is held by the Russians and they never lost it!  They were helped by the stonewalls were fronted by.   The buildings are 6mm scale but look correct for 10mm.

the ineffective Hungarians.....

The Russian line in action, they had a strong defensive position which proved too much for the Austrians.

 

We called the game after about 3 hours and could not play it to a conclusion.  We made numerous errors with the rules, being novices but really enjoyed it.  

The unit stats were taken from a couple of sources and need a little adjusting, Cossacks need to be a little stronger.  

Soon I will have a Prussian army to take the field.

10mm is a wonderful scale to play in, you really get the mass effect with a very good amount of individual detail.

 

The Black Powder, Pike and Shotte and Hail Caesar are my go to sets, at the minutes and are fun to play.

Now back at work and back to my painting routine...updates will follow.

15mm Black Powder Napoleonics

Here are some commission pieces for a fellow club member.  Black Powder Napoleonics in 15mm, by far the best scale to use!

All the figures are Old Glory, I really do like their range and you get a bit of variety in each pack

Above are two pictures of the 'Black Brunswickers'.  These are painted for the 1815 campaign.  They are not as dark in real life as they look in the pictures.

French Line Lancers, these are based in pairs as light cavalry (a local convention at our club).  It does give a very quick way of telling the difference between lights and heavies.

And finally a large regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde.  I thought I would make theses a large unit to give them more presence on the field.

There are a few other units that I have done in this commission but no pictures yet.  My own Napoleonic collection is the allies of the Grande Armee'.  I chose this mixed bag to give me plenty of choice both with gaming and painting!  I have completed the Baden contingent of 6 infantry battalions, 1 jager battalion, 1 cavalry regiment and 2 foot batteries, a total of 156 infantry, 8 cavalry and 2 guns and crew.  I'll post some pictures once the basing is complete.

The next major contingent will be the Westphalians......

New Painting Style for Napoleonics

Ok I have decided to paint some Napoleonic for Black Powder and after reading another blog I changed my painting style. Although I said I was going to use Army Painter Dark Shade, i was too wary to carry this out so I used GW Black wash and I must say I am happy with the results.

Firstly I undercoated white, not my usual black.

Second was the block painting of the horse and rider. This was a little strange for me as I usually dry brush everything.

So here they are together fully block painted, now this definitely does not float my boat and one of the reasons I wargame is that I like nicely painted minitures.

But after a wash of GW Black wash and then highlight the white bits, just for effect the finished unit passes muster!

So a unit of Bavarian Cavalry ready to take to the field.