Nap Campaign: Battle of Grissburg, Turns 17 - 21

As a reminder of the current situation at the end of turn 16 -

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Nap Campaign: Battle of Grissburg, Turns 11 - 16

Turn 11

Of the 3 Landwehr battalions lining up to charge the isolated 1/92nd Line, there was only room for two. The 2/4th Westphalia lead by Groeben and the 1/3rd Westphalia from Friccius' regiment began their charge. With the 2/4th Westphalia about to hit its flank, the 92nd Line lost their nerve and routed. As they ran towards the bridge both Landwehr battalions continued their charge and successfully made contact. The Prussians butchered 10 of their number before the rest dispersed. In the rules a routing unit contacted by an enemy unit automatically disperses. However, for the purpose of the campaign the attacking units are allowed one strike inflicting casualties as they would for a melee win before the unit disperses. In certain situations where the attacking unit outpaces the routing troops, I allow the pursuit to continue leading to the potential destruction of the routers.

This defeat left the attack of the 9th Division back to square one.

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Nap Campaign: Battle of Grissburg, Turns 5 - 10

Turn 5

An overview of Turn 5. The French have won the initiative again (the Prussians won the first couple of turns but then ran out of luck!) giving them the advantage in the firefights.

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Nap Campaign: Battle of Grissburg - French arrive + Turns 1 - 4

As the sun rises the Prussians observe the arrival of the French:

French left flank as observed by Prussians.

French centre.

Continued -

Nap Campaign: Battle of Grissburg (Prussia) - Introduction

Present Situation:

Blucher has rallied his army on the Prussian capital, Grissburg, following the rout at the Battle of Ainsworth. Hasty defences have been prepared including significant redoubts and earthworks.

An overview of the area shows the concentration of the Prussians on Grissburg and it's industrial suburbs to the west of the town.

To the north the Prussian 14th Brigade (green 7) is routing following defeat in the Battle of Erfurt and is being pursued by the victors, the French 3rd Corps (blue 9).

Blue 1 and 3 are the main French army under the command of Napoleon. Green 2 is a singly battalion of Middle Guard Grenadiers on its way to join its parent Grenadier Brigade.

A note about the Prussian forces. Although they had been routing after their defeat in the Battle of Ainsworth I have them automatically rallying on the capital. After rousing speeches by Blucher all 2nd Line and Conscript Prussian units will be classed as 'enthusiastic' for this battle.

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New Entrant into the 6mm Market - 2D6 Wargaming

I was fascinated to see a new manufacturer enter the 6mm world. Or more precisely 1/285th scale. 2D6 Wargaming has released the first models in its WW2 range and very promising they looked too. I placed a small order for 3 Panther D's and 2 Jagdpanthers. They arrived this morning:

These really are superb sculpts with crisp well-defined detail. My models required almost no prep. They are certainly comparable to GHQ in quality and I am guessing will be the same size (I have no GHQ Panthers to make a direct comparison).

They are priced at £1.10 each, almost half the cost of GHQ in the UK with the additional benefit of being sold singly. 

Having made the decision to confine my new WW2 purchases to H&R in 1/300, this now presents a problem. I will acquire a Panther from H&R when I place my next order to compare the two. Lining them up against my PzIV's they appear, unsurpringly, larger than H&R but I am hoping there will not be too much difference. I have mixed GHQ AFV's with mostly H&R trucks in my Western Desert collection without any problems. 

Hopefully this will be the start of a growing successful range from 2D6 and cannot recommend them highly enough. They can be found here https://www.2d6wargaming.com/. I have also added a link to the right in my blog.

On the Workbench: 2mm French Light Infantry Brigade

Among the terrain and 6mm WW2 another Brigade base has been completed in 2mm Napoleonic. This is a light infantry base representing a 3,500 strong brigade:

Rather than repeatedly posting bases of 2mm as they are completed, I will now await until the French force is ready for action before updating the blog. It can be a little repetitive!

Other news from the workbench: I now have a number of German AFV's and vehicles painted awaiting varnishing as soon as my decal order has arrived. I had been in two minds as to whether decals should be added given the small scale. However, upon seeing some excellent examples on the internet, I have decided to take the plunge. Providing not too time consuming and the desired appearance is achieved, I may continue with this process.

The final building bases have been completed for Grissburg. They will be matt varnished tomorrow morning following which I will begin preparing the table.

On the Workbench: A late update

The real world severely intruded on my wargaming activities over the past 10 days which had not been planned! Over the last couple of days I have continued where I left off on the painting table. I also provisionally laid out the town/city of Grissburg to ascertain if I needed additional buildings or other terrain. Fortunately all was present and correct on the building front but more bases for said buildings were needed. 

So on to the present state of my workbench:

From left to right: 6mm WW2 vehicles & artillery crew; 2mm French Napoleonic Brigade base; a number of building bases for Grissburg; more river lengths 'upgraded'.

Most of the WW2 stuff is destined for my campaign battle, the landing on Rhodes. Some however, will feature in late war NW Europe. 

The bases have yet to be drybrushed and finished off with foliage etc. They are different colours for different purposes. e.g. industrial buildings base, stone bases, a central city square and bases for individual houses.

The river sections have been repainted and 'water' effect poured on (Woodland Scenics 'Water'). Trees have been attached leaving just foliage to be added.

Grissburg is tantalisingly close with just 3 or 4 more industrial bases to be completed. I had planned on giving Blitzkrieg Commander IV a try out but the events of the past week lead to its postponement. Therefore it looks like Grissburg will be next up on the tabletop. With 4,000 - 5,000 figures on the table it will satisfy my large battle itch for a while.

On the Workbench: 2mm Portuguese in French Service

A combination of family matters and ebay sales having taken over my wargames room has, disappointingly, prevented me from playing any games over recent days. I am hoping to get my final WW2 'Battle of the Camps' game onto the table soon using the new Blitzkrieg Commander IV rules.

I have though managed to maintain a reasonable tempo on the painting table. Two bridges have been completed for 'Grissburg' and another battalion of Africa Korps has joined the orders of battle. The only job left for Grissburg is to lay out the city and determine how many terrain bases I need to complete for my buildings. 

On the 2mm front a Portuguese Brigade in French service has been completed -

This represents a small brigade of 2,000. I had trouble finding relevant flags for these units and although I could have used those for the Peninsular War, I decided to merely use French flags for now.

Well it had to happen sooner or later! On many occasions I have been about to dip my brush into a mug of tea or coffee rather than my jar of water only to pull back at the last moment. Today I failed! I gave my tea a good stir while looking at my figures and it was only when my brush had a thoroughly good 'clean' that I realised what I had done. No harm was done to the brush but acrylic paint does not enhance the taste of tea! 

On the Workbench: 6mm Napoleonic Redoubts

I thought I would give a quick run through on how I completed the redoubts supplied by Total Battle Miniatures. To recap these are the medium, large and extra large redoubts. A small redoubt is also available which I did not purchase on this occasion. 

I completed the medium redoubt using it as a test for the larger versions. 

The large redoubt comes in 3 sections and the extra large redoubt in 5. Having washed and cleaned up the models I cut out bases from hardboard (not needed for the medium redoubt).

Top is the extra large redoubt with 2 large redoubts and the medium redoubt at the bottom. I surformed the base edges and glued the redoubts using PVA glue. The 6mm batteries give some indication of the size of these models.

Once dry I applied filler to the joins including to the bases blending in with the models.

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