Merry Christmas

It's a rainy Christmas time here in Southern California.  I must admit that I like it very much and it hasn't caused any problems for us, though I fear others have not been so fortunate. 
Merry Christmas to everyone out there in cyberland.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday and joyous and prosperous New Year.

My first go with General de Brigade Deluxe

I just finished my first small encounter using the new Genereal de Brigade rules.  They are very similar to the previous edition, but the rules themselves are filled with terrific photos and charts.  In this game, a French division of two brigades set about the task of taking a hill from Kempt's brigade of Picton's division. (click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

The first contact was made by a regiment of three batallions.  The highlanders were positioned behind a stone wall and their initial volley faltered one batallion, forced another to retreat and then the third had to take a formation test, which it failed.  It was not a good start for the French!

A legere regiment attacked a wood held by the 95th Rifles and slowly but surely drove the men in green back, but took casualties in the process.

A third batallion of the same regiment charged a British foot battery.  Though being blasted by cannister, the veterans passed their moral and closed with the guns, routing them from the field and allowing a French battery to advance.

The line regiment's two remaining batallions tried to assault the stone wall a second time, but was stopped cold by another fierce volley from the Scots. 

You may be able to see colored rings on some of the figures.  Yellow represents halted, orange retreat, red routed and green unformed.  The white rings represent losses until an entire stand is killed and removed, being replaced by a casualty stand.

It was an enjoyable first attempt at the new rules.

Too Long

It has been too long since my last post.  School started and with it came all the other distractions of fall.  I love it, but it does put a crimp in my wargaming activities.  In the meantime, however, I did receive my copy of General de Brigade Delux.  It is a terrific volume; lots of beautiful pictures of figures and the changes to the rules are very positive.  I have tried to set up a couple of small actions to try the rules out and so far so good.  I'll post some pictures soon.

Battle of Wheeler's Creek ends

The Battle of Wheeler's Creek has come to an end.  Despite the valiant efforts of His Majesty's soldiers, the Americans were able to fight off the British advance and inflicted stunningly high casualties in the process.

In the top middle of the picture you can see the casualty markers of the British regiments.  In the forefront are those of the Hessian grenadiers.  (to enlarge the photos, just click on them.)

The Bristish and Hessians had more success on their right, driving in the two brigades of American militia.  But behind them was a solid line of fresh Continentals.  Further attacks were deemed futile and so the King's men retreated back across the creek to await developments.  Washington considered a counter-attack, but as darkness was drawing a curtian across the bloodied landscape, he decided otherwise.  It is probably just as well since the British had several cannons in their line that would have dealt out death in bucket fulls.

A fresh wave of British infantry deployed to attack, but the American line was literally untouched by the previous assaults, so the charge was called off.

In this shot you can see the Hessians make progress against the American militia.  Note the many casualty rings, however, that adorn the mercenaries.

Forward up the slopes

The second stage of the Battle of Wheeler's Creek is well under way.  I got two turns in today.  There were mixed results for the British and Hessians.  On their left, the Americans licked the enemy with some vicious volleys and blasts of cannister.  Two more battalions were routed from the field and others were disordered by their departure.

The British take a beating attacking the Americans defending a stone wall

   On the right flank, however, things went a little better.  The casualties were still very high, but some progress was made.  A battery was captured, a unit of militia was shaken by a thundering volley and another unit was pushed back into the woods by the same charge that captured the guns.  It's up to the supporting units now to continue to press the attack.

Despite terrible losses, the Hessians make some headway against the American militia

Phase two of Wheeler's Creek is underway

After taking a few days off, the battle has been resumed!  We left off with the British pushing back Alexander's fifth division.  The first turns of this new round saw the Americans disengaging their forward line and exiting the field.  It will now be up to the second line to settle the manner.

The American militia await the attack

The British are pressing the attack with the Hessian grenadiers and Grey's and Agnew's brigades on their left.  On the right, Knyphausen't fresh division is going to take on the American militia units dug in in the woods.

Knyphausen's Hessians get ready to attack.

The disciplined ranks of the British and Hessians appear to be unstoppable.  The first turn of the attack sees them moving forward relentlessly.  But on the second turn, they move into cannister range and the situation changes dramatically as two units are routed from the field.  The momentum has truly shifted to the American side.

In the top picture, the Hessian grenadiers aren't able to withstand the losses they suffer and turn tail and run, disordering and shaking up the unit supportin them.  The second picture shows the same thing happening on the right flank.  It's a whole new ballgame

Wheeler's Creek continued

Turn seven was relatively calm as both sides had to reorganize after the British attack. 

The British have cleared the fenced road and now control the heights. (To enlarge the photos, just click on them.

The American guns made good their escape, but only because of the sacrifice of Nash's North Carolina brigade that took two point blank volleys from some Hessians and British regulars.

Only dead and wounded remain on the field from Nash's North Carolina brigade.  But the guns have been saved.

As the Americans are pulling back, Knyphausen's division makes its appearance on the field.  This is Grant's brigade leading the way.  Phase one of the battle is just about over.  The next objective is to cross Wheeler's Creek and attack the hills that the town sits upon.  Losses have been heavy on both sides.  The British guards and grenadiers are no longer able to participate due to heavy casualties.

These are the lead elements of Knyphausen's division making their way on to the field.  It will be their job to attack across the creek into the teeth of the American defenses.

More of Wheeler's Creek

Turns five and six. The volleys continued and both sides lost heavily. The Guards, having lost 33% of their strength, disengaged, as did the New Jersey regiments that faced them. But behind the boiling clouds of battle smoke, the British had moved up some fresh units for a decisive push.

The volleys continue to take a heavy toll on both sides, but neither will back down

Behind the battle smoke are over 360 British Guards dead and wounded

Turn seven. On the British right three attacks went in. The Americans were stubborn in their defense, but ultimately had to give ground, yielding most of the fenced road to the King’s men. On the left, the elite light units of both sides fought a bloody mele until both battalions were forced to withdraw to regroup.

Once again, the bayonette does its job in driving back the rebels

Unthinkable!  The Guards have had enough.

No one is left in the woods except the dead and wounded.

Wheeler's Creek continued

Turn three of the game saw the British Grenadiers surprise the Americans with a first volley.  However, the damage was not significant. (click on the photos to enlarge them.)

On turn four, both sides first fired and the losses mounted.  Both sides lost a stand, but passed all of their morale checks.  But the British definitely got the worst of it.

On the other flank, the British light infantry kept up a hot fire and inflicted some casualties, allowing the guards and Hessian grenadiers to advance without being fired upon.

Battle of Wheeler's Creek

I am starting a new battle now that all of my troops are home safely from Camp VIP.  I painted up a few more regiments of American militia and wanted to see them in action.  This is a fictional battle, with the Americans defending in depth.  In front, they have a formidable line of Continentals.  Behind that are more Continentals and the large militia division.  The picture below is after two turns, just before the first volleys.This picture is of the American line at the start of the game.  Wheeler's Creek is behind them.

Figures Sold!

I must have priced the FIW figures right, because they sold right away with several offers coming in just a day.  It was a beautiful collection and I think I found them a good home.

figures for sale

I painted up a large collection of French and Indian Wars figures that I know I'll never get around to using, so I am offering the whole collection up for sale.  There are 324 total infantry figures and 8 mounted officers.  The photographs contain portions of each of the types of figures for sale.  The asking price is $280 plus $10 postage.  This is a brand new collection that has never been used.  It's ideal for skirmish games.  Email me at dukewin@ix.netcom.com if you are interested.

Well, the last week is almost over.  Today we began the last of the three battles.  Optimism was present on all fronts as each side felt that victory was within their grasp.  And so the games began.  Below, the Austrians aggressively attack the weakened Prussians.  On this front, things were fairly equal at the end of the day.

These are the Russian players preparing for their defense.

These are the French players, feeling pretty good after two straight victories.  It turns out that their luck continued to hold in the final game of the week.

The Prussian players were hoping for a better start as they faced the Austrians.

And finally, the Austrian brain trust felt good about their chances.

Two battles down, one to go

The first round of battles were concluded on day two.  The French were declared winners agains their Austrian opponents while the Russians and Prussians battled to a draw.  The second battles saw the French face off agains the Prussians and the Russians take on the Austrians.  Each team was allowed to select one new brigade to add to their depleted forces and off we went.

This time around we allowed double movement to begin with to allow the two sides to get into the actual fighting faster.  This proved to be a significant factor.  The Russians advanced very rapidly toward their objective.  But this allowed their Austrian adversaries to react in a telling way.  The Russians advanced too far and received a thorough pounding from the deployed Austrians.  The Russian grenadiers were particularly hard hit.  However, the cavalry of the two sides fought to a draw at on end of the table.                                In the other match, the French had tremendous success against the Prussians.  Their cavalry was particularly fierce, destroying two brigades and capturing the Prussian objective almost before the Prussians knew what was happening.  There were some very lucky dice rolls that came at critical time for the French.

Thursday will see the start of the third and final round of games.  The Russians will try to tame the almighty French while the Prussians will try to redeem themselves against the now confident Austrians.

Week Four of VIP

The final week of Camp VIP is under way. This week we are featuring the Seven Years War, powdered whigs and rigid lines of well-trained soldiers in colorful uniforms. This week's format is a bit different. The class of 12 has been divided into four teams of three. They will all play against each other over the course of the week. A win will be worth three points, a draw is worth one and a loss, of course, will be zero points. I am curious to see how this works out, but we are off to a good starts.

The team to the left has the potent Prussian army. It is the smallest contingent, but the best trained.

Here are Russian commanders who are having to take on the Prussians in the first round.

On the second table the Austrians, commanded by these handsome young lads, are taking on the French.

These are the French commanders.

In this shot, the French are making their opening moves.

Here, you can see the first volleys being fired in the Prussia vs. Russia game.

Week three ends

The last two days of our class saw the battle rage intensly. The allied line was stretched almost to the breaking point, even being penetrated at a couple of points. But the polyglot force somehow managed to hold the line. To the right are the British guards. (click on photos to enlarge.





The were some amazing rolls. This wasn't staged! Nic tossed the dice and one of them stood on end.






For two days the French tried to force the
Nassauers out of the Bossau wood, but these soldiers held on stubbornly until the very end of the game.

Here men from Bachleu's division attempt to break through. This division was almost completely used up in the attempt

French cavalry had a field day on the Allied left flank. The entire 3rd division was destroyed by a skillful use of combined arms. The Dutch/Belgian cavalry was no match for the Emperor's horsemen.

This is a shot after a cuirassier regiment caught a Brunswick battery in the flank, but then was caught in the flank by a counter-charge from the Duke's uhlans.

There was lots of action right up until the end of the game. Both sides claimed victory, but it was determined by yours truly that the allies had met their victory conditions by holding on to the crossroads until the end of the game. It had been an extremely costly victory, however. In hindsight, the French could have used their artillery better to soften up the weaker allies.

In the end, however, everyone agreed that it had been a great week and that a good time was had by all. Thanks, gentlemen, for another terrific week!