2mm Napoleonic test battle: 'Austria 1809'

This is a fictional battle to try out my new 2mm Napoleonic figures. The reason for having a look at this scale is the possibility of playing the largest Napoleonic battles on my maximum (7'6" x 4'6") table and not taking years to paint the figures. Each base represents a brigade and therefore suitable rules will be used. In this particular action I am using my version of Fast Play Grande Armee. Essentially this is pretty much as written with a few tweaks.

This scenario is by Tom Barkalow and is downloadable from the Grande Armee website. 

http://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/html/gw_ga_scenarios.html

The setting for this battle in the 1809 campaign and is a fictitious corps engagement assumed to be fought a few weeks after Apern-Essling. The premise is that French scouts have located an unguarded road that leads behind Austrian positions and a corps is dispatched as an advanced force to get as far along the road as possible. The Austrians detect the movement and hurriedly rush the nearest corps into a blocking position while pondering what to do next.

The French goal is to open the road being blocked by the Austrian forces and to hold it open off the table. The Austrian goal is to prevent this.

Weather: sunny.

Ground is hard

Game length is 4 turns.

Continued - 

On the Workbench: 2mm French Corps complete

For the last few days, in between preparing ebay listings, I have forged ahead to complete the 2mm French Napoleonic Corps for my test game. This is made up of 3 divisions and 1 cavalry division. Each base is a brigade. The 3 artillery units and a Portuguese brigade in the foreground are Corps troops.

I do not like units to be too generic in size, preferring each to more accurately reflect differences in strength. Hence the variation in numbers. The game is now pretty much good to go and will be near the top of games to be played as soon as my ebay sales are finished. The plan remains to test the 'Blucher' rules versus 'Grande Armee' both by Sam Mustafa.

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: 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: 2mm Austrian Army completed

The artillery component of the 2mm Austrian force completes the army required for my forthcoming test game. Work will now start on completing the French.

6 batteries of Austrian Artillery

2 Divisions of infantry with 3 batteries of Corps artillery.

2 Divisional commanders on the wings with the Corps commander in the centre.

On the Workbench: 6mm ECW Hopton's Bluecoats + more 2mm Austrians

My first English Civil War foot regiment has been completed. This is Hopton's Bluecoats with a 2:1 mix of Muskets to Pike. Figures are Baccus and the same basing method has been used as most of my 6mm of artists card 15mm x 15mm. 

The lighting annoyingly has changed the hew of the blue. The first photo is the most accurate. My limited photographic skills have failed to correct this unfortunately. 

Continued -

On the Workdbench: 2mm Austrians and buildings

The 2mm buildings needed for my test game have now been completed along with 2 more Austrian brigade bases:

The buildings are by Brigade Models and are larger than Irregular Miniatures although they are more in scale with the figures. 

I based them on 80mm x 40mm, 40mm x 40mm and 40mm x 20mm mdf bases to provide for a modular style approach. They can be small hamlets up to a small town in size. 

At some stage in the future I will add more to the collection but this will do for now. As originally intended, the 2mm project will move to the background with a continual, but slow, production line under way to complete the figures required.

My attention now switches back to 6mm with an ECW foot regiment primed up. I will then be taking a close look at my WW2 requirements. The arrival of Blitzkrieg Commander IV has provided the spur to get another game on the table to try them out.

On the Workbench: More 2mm, Medieval buildings and new streams.

More 2mm bases have been completed this week. This time it is Austrians:

These are the first Austrian bases. As you can see I have been experimenting with formations and base groupings. Rather than have generic standard bases I am aiming to very roughly represent the varying sizes of different brigades. This will be based on a 1:20 figure ratio. In the examples above, the massed columns on the left represent 3,500 men, as does the centre base. The base on the right is 3,000. 

In this scale the challenge is making each figure stand out. For the French I painted a blob of grey on the tops of their shakos. For the Austrians I have added a dash of gold/brass representing the front of their helmets or can be shako badges. 

Also for 2mm, I have completed my first buildings. These are from Irregular Miniatures and consist of a small village on the left and a farm.

Continued -

On the Workbench: The First 2mm Napoleonics

My first test bases of 2mm Napoleonics have been completed:

The large round base on the left is a Corps Commander with the smaller round base being Divisional. The Brigade command is amongst his troops on the Brigade base. 

I agonised over the appropriate basing method including what colour to paint the base edge. Given the small scale I was conscious that it would be all too easy to overwhelm the figures whereas they needed to 'pop'. I have ordered a lighter shade of Woodland Scenics fine turf green to blend in more with the textured part and to further enhance the figures. Or at least that is what I hope it will do!

I also plan to vary the number and size of units on a brigade base to represent the various numerical strengths. The 10 skirmishers on this base represent SK2 value in Grande Armee and future bases will have 5 representing SK1 and obviously none for SK0. I settled on a 50mm x 30mm base (2/3 of a standard Grande Armee base) with artillery being based on 25mm x 25mm. The bases are 2mm thick mdf from Warbases.

So the verdict of 2mm! It certainly requires a rethink on painting styles, even from 6mm. I initially painted these what I thought was a light shade of blue only to discover that they looked  dark from any distance! A 2nd coat with a touch of white added to the blue made a big difference. While for me it will never replace 6mm, as a means of creating large armies cheaply and quickly, they do the job for me.

To see the true potential of 2mm I invite you to take a look at the 'Roundwood's World' blog (a link is on my blog list). His ECW siege of Portsmouth game is a work of art and beyond my capabilities!

On the Workbench: More 6mm Spanish units and 2mm arrives!

More Spanish units completed this week:

The Cadiz Line (left) and Aragon Light infantry. These are British supplied uniforms for later in the war so not suitable for Talavera. However, I will play fast and loose with a few units as I do not relish painting new Spanish armies as I progress through the Peninsular War.

The 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Cazadores de Antequera. Only one battalion was present at Talavera but being a large unit I will combine these two for the game. Also completed a battery of 6pdr Spanish artillery. 

More river sections completed including a couple of sections with trees attached. The 6mm figures gives some idea of scaling. 

The first pine trees supplied from China completed. I removed the plastic bases which made the trunk too large. They are not quite as dark as they appear in the photo and for the money they do a reasonable job. 

The first 2mm figures have arrived from Irregular Miniatures. And 6mm has been described as 'micro' scale! The 6mm Spanish base would beg to differ. I have ordered samples from across most of their range to establish what I felt would be most suitable. Next task is to paint a few up and see how they look.

I have had a look through the 'Blucher' rules and first impression is that I will probably stick with the earlier Grande Armee. The command and control system is not solo player friendly and it would need a good reworking to make it so. I can see how it would be fun to play during a 2 or 3 hour club night game but just a little too basic for me.