Update on the RJW Project and A French and Indian War Game

Life in the real world has been busy of late so I haven't had time to post much. This is not to say that I haven't been busy on my RJW project. Since the last post I have completed two Russian and four Japanese machine guns and two field guns a side. I have also received, and painted, two regiments of Russian infantry. Finally I have placed orders for the last of the Japanese infantry and the last of the artillery for my initial armies. The armies will get their first test in action when we play our first game in early May.

Today we fought a French and Indian War game. The scenario had a French force charged with attacking a fort while a secondary force held off a relieving force.

We French launched a quick assault on the fort and were lucky enough to carry it at the first attempt. But the British were able to quickly rally and when the relieving force came up we were soon forced to burn the for and retreat, but not before we had done significant damage to the British.

Russo-Japanese War Machine Guns and Artillery

Yesterday I received a parcel from Redoubt containing six Japanese machine guns, two Russian machine guns and two guns each for Russians and Japanese artillery.

I have completed a machine gun for each side, and they look OK when based up, but I have to admin that the figures are not a patch on the Tsuba Miniatures. However, I need guns and machine guns before I can play a game. I will replace them later when Tsuba produce theirs.

If the weather holds over the long weekend, I might be able to get a few photos posted on Monday.

English Civil War

Yesterday we fought an English Civil War game based loosely on the First Battle of Newbury, fought in September 1643.

On the Parliament side the were eight pike units and six regiments of horse, with an artillery force of three guns.

The Royalists had six units of pike, nine regiments of horse, one unit of dismount dragoons and three guns.

The were three players on each side, plus a game organiser/ umpire.

The battle began with a cavalry action on the flanks. Two regiments of Royalist horse were driven off, but the remaining four succeeded in passing around the right of the Parliament infantry. When the Royalist infantry failed to stir, the Parliament foot were able to drive off the Royalist horse, assisted by the artillery.

On the opposite flank the a Royalists drove off two units of the Parliament foot and one of the regiments of horse, but could not drive off the remaining units.

When the Royalist infantry finally managed to get going on the left-centre it was too late and the Royalists were compelled to retire to Newbury.

It was a great game in which generally followed the historical outcome.

More Japanese

I haven't posted for a while, I know, but that is because I have been busy painting.

 

I have completed a new batch of Japanese infantry for the RJW from Tsuba. I have added two new regiments, bringing my total to four regiments.

 

One of the two new regiments has painted in the blue winter uniform, as shown below.

 

I will be ordering the next two regiments of Russians next week to be followed by one more order of Japanese, to make up the Kobi brigade.

I have also been working on some buildings for the RJW, but more about them in a later post.

Waiting for Parcels

I have conquered the lead mountain. I have no figures to paint. Well that is not strictly true since here are still some 40 Italian Bersaglerie figures for 1866 in a bag in the study, but I am not inspired by them since I would need to add several hundred more line infantry if I were to paint them.

I am waiting on two parcels from overseas: the first is a the next batch of RJW Japanese from Tsuba and the other is some Russian and Japanese machine guns and artillery from Redoubt. The latter will only be placeholders until Tsuba release their models. Both parcels should arrive this week so the painting drought won't last too long.

In the meantime I have been finishing off the trenches I started about a month ago. I have 1500mm completed now and have just two end pieces and another couple of angled sections to make to finish my target.

I have also started on the first of a series of buildings for the RJW. The first of these is a walled town house, similar to the Beijing Hutongs that I saw there in late 2009. I intend to make another couple of these walled residences, a few farm buildings and a small monastery before I am ready to have my first RJW game in May. I will post photos if the new buildings as I complete them.

Russian Flags for RJW

I spent some time this week drawing up some Russian RJW flags, based on an article from a Courier magazine.
Below are the variations for the First Regiment of each division. Top to bottom they are:

Non-Christian troops 1894 version
Non-Christian troops 1883 version
Christian Troops 1894 version
Christian Troops 1883 version

First Russian Infantry Regiment

As mentioned in the previous post, here is the first picture of my first regiment for the RJW.