From the German 'Kabinettskriege' - Cabinet Wars: a period of limited conflict from the Peace of Westphalia (1648) to the French Revolution (1789).
Showing posts with label 20mm Napoleonic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 20mm Napoleonic. Show all posts

A Shiny Scuffle in Valencia

After an epic Chain of Command game (see previous post) we were short on time so hastily set up a quick Napoleonic game using 'Backpacks and Batons', my version of Stryker's 'Muskets & Marshals' rules from his 'Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures' blog.

The scenario involved an isolated French garrison holed up in a church ...


... which the Spanish hoped to overwhelm ...


... before the two relief columns could save it.


In all the French force should be capable of crushing the Spanish, as they include some excellent troops, like the Imperial Guard Fusilier-Chasseurs led by Cambronne himself in the column led by Lasalle.


Bessières' column, while smaller included the super-large regiment of 4th Hussars.


The Spanish forces, as well as the main body advancing on the church, included two small bands of guerrillas, one of each of the two hills overlooking the approach roue of the French relief columns. 


But the Spaniards chief hope lay with their newly reinforced cavalry brigade, consisting of the 2o Rgto. Dragones de Almansa and the newly arrived Coraceros Españoles, resplendent in their red uniforms captured French cuirassier equipment.


Realising the Bessières' troops had almost reached the garrison, the cavalry were sent off to halt Lasalle's column.

And to ease their way, one of the Spanish batteries opened fire to soften up Lasalle's lead unit ...


... the 3e Légère immediately feeling the effect.


Cambronne, with incoming roundshot and a cavalry brigade coming straight at him seemed unconcerned feeling it was not necessary to put the 
3e Légère to deal with this.


He must have felt a bit less sure of himself as, taking only hit from the French volley the Dragones de Almansa, crashed into his men.


And well he should as the melee was a crushing 3-nil Spanish win!


While this was happening the Coraceros had veered off to attack the French 6e Chevau-légers Lanciers, but not quite come to blows yet.

Away from the cavalry action, some orders issued by a commander who seemingly couldn't tell his right from his left, has seen the Guadalajara regiment hopelessly entangled with the Spanish 12pdr battery.  The result of this was the Princesa regiment found themselves advancing alone and without artillery support against the French 44e and 46e Ligne regiments.


The question was whether, with their general down, they could hold until the confusion to their rear was sorted out?

They couldn't!


Also, taking advantage of the confusion in the Spanish line were the 4e Hussards, who charged the Spanish 12 pounders, but paid a heavy price as five of them were swept away in a hail of canister, before they cut down the valiant gunners.


By the time your correspondent switched his attention back to the cavalry fight, he found he had missed the melee, but the Coraceros had been put to flight by the French lancers who were in hot pursuit.


Next turn the pursuit continued ...


... and the Coraceros and their general were 'eliminated'.

The curse of the newly-painted unit had struck again!

Elsewhere, the French hussars had fallen back to rally but it left the Guadalajara regiment facing insurmountable odds.


With time running short, and with the balance clearly in the French favour they were awarded the win.  The French had lost no units (the 3e Légère had rallied), while the Spanish had lost: the Princesa infantry regiment; the Voluntarios de Valencia skirmishers (outshot by French voltigeurs); the Coraceros Españoles; and, the 12pdr battery, not to mention both generals.

The Spanish had paid the penalty for stretching out their force in line as the two outermost infantry units had hardly contributed anything to the fight.  Also, as a postscript the Alamansa dragoons had pursued the 3e Légère who fled behind the Fusilier-Chasseurs to rally.  The dragoons' melee with the Fusilier-Chasseurs was a draw with both falling back in disorder.  

The rules worked reasonably well, but more changes are required including some slimming down.  One bit that did work well were the skirmisher rules which made the Spanish guerrillas a nuisance but not much more.  The main difference to skirmishers as in M&M are limits on independent action and how close they may approach the enemy, as follows:

A/A+ Class & Rifles: effective range in the open; close range if in cover; and, do not require infantry support. 

B Class: effective range in the open; close range if in cover; and, must have infantry support in the open. 

C Class: long range in the open; effective range if in cover; and, and must have infantry support* in the open.

* Irregular skirmishers e.g., guerrillas, are always C Class, they do not require infantry support but must stay out of cavalry charge range unless in or behind cover.

Skirmishers are supported by formed infantry within 6” of their rear.  



Peninsular War - Spanish Mules and Oxen

Just a quick post to show off my Spanish Peninsular draught animals to get 'The Gun' to Ávila while avoiding the French.  It's not their first appearance as they did get a walk on part in my first ever post.

First, an overview of the whole baggage train.


The ox-carts.


The mules.


The postillions on the mules, like this figure ...


... were all fairly straight-forward conversions of the Jacklex Colonial figures inspired by Suhr's contemporary illustrations of Romana's Spanish Division in Hamburg, 1807-08. 


And the reason for it all, The Gun, complete with Cary Grant, Sophia Loren and Frank Sinatra.


Yes, the gun is ridiculously over-scale being a Warhammer Great Cannon, but the Hollywood version is even further over the top.

In C S Forester's 'The Gun' it's only an 18-pounder, and in the historical event on which the story is based it's a 12-pounder.  

Bring on the Empty Horses

Just a quick progress update on my Hinton Hunt French hussars which have suffered from a number of distractions slowing progress.  The latest distraction from the hussars is their mounts.  As I've no doubt said before, I enjoy painting horses a great deal more than their riders, and the net result is that I've finished their mounts while making little to no progress on the hussars themselves.

I'm pleased with how the horses have turned out so thought they deserved a quick post.  So here are the 'empty horses'.


And some close-ups of the different painting schemes / markings - some of these show up some of the casting flaws in some horses that escaped my clean-up and fill process.







That's all for now, but for anyone following the Caesar's Camp, Chain of Command, campaign the next game is now scheduled for the 15th of the month.

Lasalle & Drumming Up a Special Figure

A while ago I posted a WiP piece, the French 4th Hussars, and a personality figure of Lasalle.  As I find painting one-off figures much more enjoyable it's no surprise that Lasalle is the first to be finished.  I present: General Antoine-Charles-Louis, Comte de Lasalle.


The figure is a Hinton Hunt (HH) casting except I added a pipe in his right hand, as he is so often depicted with one.  I painted his uniform, horse colour, tack and shapbraque based on an illustration by Patrice Courcelle (I think) showing him leading a charge by chasseurs á cheval.  


I'm guessing the picture is meant to depict him at the Battle of Medina de Rioseco (14 July, 1808), and as my collection is primarily Peninsular War focused that seemed most appropriate.  Anyway, that's why he's not on a tiger skin as in the famous painting of him by Detaille.

Give us a twirl Antoine ...


... and then a curtain call in close-up.


In the meantime, while Lasalle has been hogging the painting table, and now the limelight, the lack of progress on the 4th hussars is getting embarrassing - see below.


But, Lasalle doesn't deserve all the blame for the sluggish painting on the hussars, as I've had a fairly ambitious conversion job running in the background.  

---

For some time now, I've been rather taken by this Knötel image of a Prussian drummer mounted on a coach horse during the Prussian pursuit of the French army after Waterloo.


The story goes that the sound of the drum convinced the fleeing French that Prussian infantry, as well as cavalry, were on their heels and thus they'd keep running.  Whatever the reality, I wanted to make this figure, and here he is.



He is an amalgam of an artillery draught horse (unridden), a pair of hussar legs and, from the waist up a Prussian drummer courtesy of 'Wellington Man' from 'The Hinton Spieler' blog.  I had all but given up on this conversion after working on the separate bits, but while cleaning up Lasalle and the hussars I put the bits together and realised it looked much better when assembled.  This was enough to revitalise the project, and it, together with Lasalle, then claimed most of my recent painting / modelling time.

So first, as I'm rather proud of him, a couple more photos ...


... and yet more.


This was a pretty ambitious conversion as removing the drummer's legs while keeping his coattails attached was a long drawn out and fiddly job.  Other challenges included: rebuilding some of the detail on the drum (it had to be repositioned for a riding figure); adding straps on which the drummer is resting his feet for balance; and, building a more animated horse tail out of solder.  The following montage shows some of these points in close-up.


Now he's off to find a Prussian army that needs him to help them whip the French and chase them all the way back to Paris.


WiPs and Butchered Bits

With the WW2 items finished it's time to do some more vintage 20mm Napoleonics; in this case the French 4th Hussars, courtesy of a very kind gift from a fellow blogger (Hinton Hunt Odyssey).  I had been trying, without success, to obtain some of these figures since I had been seduced into this vintage madness by 'The Hinton Spieler' back in 2017.   So, having finally obtained some, they have been fast-tracked to the front of the painting queue.

Now, as is ever the case with vintage OOP figures, comes the inevitable cleaning up and repair of the castings; plus, converting some rank and file into command figures that were sadly lacking in the Hinton Hunt range.

First up the horses.  These have been cleaned of any flash and had any holes from in the castings filled with Milliput. 


The filling is rather simple but cleaning out the excess metal between the horses back legs would be a real bore without my trusty Dremel rotary tool and grinding bits.  As I didn't take any 'before' photos of this process, here's one of a handy one-piece casting showing the problem next to one of the 4th Hussar horses that was free of this flaw.


The troopers, seen in the first photo, now need cleaning up and the following photo shows the figures selected for conversion into an officer and trumpeter, ...


... together with one trooper who needs his sword repaired, the photo below showing the missing point that needs replacing.


The 'butchered bits' in the title to this post are standing by to be cannibalised for these figures; including a Newline Design trumpeter - trumpets are just too fiddly to fabricate from scratch.



To command these hussars, I've included a personality figure in this painting batch, and who better to command a regiment of hussars than the man himself, General Antoine-Charles-Louis, Comte de Lasalle.


I hadn't originally intended to do any mods to the figure but his right hand resting on his thigh was just begging to have a pipe added as I've never seen an illustration of him without it.  

That's all for now, but these will take some time to complete so there will probably be another WiP post before they are completed and ready for a full-dress parade.