Nap Campaign: Map Moves 18th March - nightfall 20th March 1808

Nightfall 18th March 1808

My Collections and Projects

This is intended to be a live document giving the reader information about my current collections together with projects underway and a couple that may get resurrected. It will be updated periodically.

PROJECTS

Currently Underway

1.  6mm Wars of the Roses:

     Kingmaker campaign

     Next Battle: Milford Haven

2.  10mm AWI:

     Working through British Grenadier Scenario books.

     Next Battle:  White Plains  28th October 1776

3.  6mm Napoleonic:

     Peninsular War playing all the notable actions from 1808 in chronological order. Initially British

     army involvement but in due course hope to include all Spanish actions.

     Next Battle: Oporto  12th May 1809

4.  6mm Napoleonic:

     Fictional campaign as a means of bringing into action all the Napoleonic forces I own and have

     painted.

     Next Battle: Battle of Erfurt  (Prussia v France)

5.  6mm ACW:

     Working through Guns at Gettysburg and Fire & Fury Scenario books.

     

     Next Battle:  Big Bethel  10th June 1861

6.  6mm ACW:

     Day 2 Battle of Gettysburg from scenario in original Fire & Fury rulebook but using Guns
     at Gettysburg rules.

7.  6mm WW2:

     Refighting actions in chronological order in N. Africa using Blitzkrieg Commander

     Next Battle: Into the Gap 19th Nov 1940 (8th Army v Italians)

8.  6mm WW2:

     Scenarios from Rapid Fire Op Market Garden book with intention of fighting entire 

     operation as a campaign when appropriate forces have been painted.

     Next Battle:   Battle in the Woods (Brit Paras v Germans)

On the Workbench: 6mm WW2 & Terrain

This is the start of a thread to provide the reader with regular updates on what is currently on my workbench and progress towards various projects.

After Waterloo my first job was to rebase the command bases and all skirmishers that were still on 3 figure bases. This is now complete apart from a few additional command figures to be painted. Here is the finished Prussians.

My Wargaming History

I find it fascinating to hear how wargamers got into the hobby and how their interest developed over the years. The profile section of the blog is limited, so to give readers an idea of my wargaming background I provide this history of my hobby.

I can probably trace the start of my wargaming to the mid 1960's when, as a 7 or 8 year old, my pocket money was just enough to buy a box of Airfix figures. My friends did likewise and we had some rather violent battles in the garden rockery or in sandcastles made in our sandpit. This normally consisted of us throwing stuff at them. As technology improved we introduced a rather more sedate rolling of marbles. This was followed by the discovery of cannon that fired matchsticks in our local toy shop. Life could not get any better!  

Then for Christmas 1970 my Grandparents bought me Introduction to Battle Gaming by the late Terry Wise. This was a revelation to me. I read the book in its entirety several times marvelling at the games Terry was playing and the rules he used.

This kickstarted my 'serious' wargaming. No more subjecting my figures to various missiles. It was dice and tape measures from now on. My early games attempted to emulate those in the book and using Terry's rules. And those periods in the book, Ancients (Romans and Carthaginians), ACW and WW2 have been a constant for me ever since.

The Battle of Waterloo in 6mm: Figures and Terrain

During the course of reporting on Waterloo I received a number of queries on facebook and TMP about figure painting and my terrain. It seemed sensible therefore, to provide details on the blog addressing these issues.

I would firstly point out that I am not a natural artist and will never be able to paint figures that win competitions. Neither am I a talented model maker, so what follows should be achievable by all including novices.

The figures and terrain are specific to this game. I will in due course add my techniques to other scales and periods. 

The Battle of Waterloo in 6mm: Conclusion

For some obscure reason I waited 48 years to play Waterloo! So now I have played it how did it go?

Rules:

I have a high opinion of General de Brigade and it achieved precisely what I hoped it would, a very enjoyable game with, for the most part, realistic results. It was not designed for this level of game unless multi-player but it does provide for drama at battalion level.

When playing a game of this or similar size, organisation is important when using GdB. It would be easy to lose track of the sequence of phases or forgetting which units have fired, moved, charged etc. I used the same procedures as my campaign with casualties recorded on a roster. Different coloured micro dice were used as markers to indicate which units had to take a morale tests, units that had to move in the compulsory move phase, which units could not fire etc. The 'smoke' indicated who had fired.

I did overrule the dice results on a couple of occasions where the outcome would have been bizarre. e.g. a cavalry unit had charged another unit who had retreated prior to contact. The charging unit now had the opportunity to continue it's charge into the flank of a faltering cavalry unit. It failed to charge home (I recall it was a double '1' thrown). There were no external events to stop it from charging and it made no sense.