Back into it...

I haven't posted much recently because we have been on holiday in Europe - two weeks in Italy and one in France.

As any good wargamer knows, any holiday should include some wargames highlights and for me there were four wargames highlights:

First was a visit to the museum inside the Vittoro Emanuel memorial in Rome and the examples of the Bersaglerie uniforms from 1866 contained therein.

Second was the Naval Museum in Venice. This was four floors of displays of model ships, uniforms and equipment. 

Third was the Musée de l'Armée in Paris - surely a must for any wargamer who visits that city.

Fourth was finding a model soldier shop in Paris, a mere 150 meters away from the hotel. These were real model soldiers - 54mm and 30mm flats. I bought a couple of 54mms, but was really tempted by the flats.

My time away was tinged with a little sadness when I read that Donald Featherstone had died. While I wasn't a fan of most of his writing, his "Wargames Campaigns" is among my favourites.

On our return there were three little parcels of RJW figures waiting to be sorted for painting.

Ligny Refought

On Sunday our regular group played a Napoleonic game based on Ligny. There were four players per side and one umpire. It was the fourth game we have played in the Waterloo series this year.

Vandamme attacked first against a weakly held Prussian right at St Armand, but despite some initial success struggled to make headway and after a while shifted right, across the stream in an effort to join Gerard's attack on Ligny.

On the opposite flank Gerard was cautious, expecting (quite correctly as it turned out) a Prussian force to advance against his right. The Prussians took advantage of Gerard's caution and pressed forward.

Meanwhile the Prussian cavalry arrived and filled the space between the two Prussian wings. But no sooner had the Prussian troopers begun to form up than the French Guard cavalry arrived. The two cavalry forces were soon locked in combat in which the Prussians were bested and driven from the field.

Gerard managed to drive off the Prussians he had been fearing on his right, but his left collapsed to s strong Prussian assault. The Guard infantry then intervened and after a very close fight managed to drive back the Prussians.

The French now were free to march against Ligny and the battle ended. 

The RJW Armies Expand

Well the great annual weekend of wargaming at the lake was postponed - it was actually to be more of a week than a weekend this year - equally due to a leak in the roof of the lake house and to illness of one of the party. So instead of ending tomorrow, we don't go down until November.

There is a silver lining to this dark cloud, however, and that is the expansion of the RJW armies for use in my scenario for that weekend. My intention was to expand the Japanese by four regiments and the Russians by two. I placed the order on Tsuba Miniatures. True to form Markus' service was up to the usual standard and eight days later they were on the doorstep - literally half the world away. 

But I stuffed up the order and ordered too many Japanese rank and file - 42 too many figures to be precise. So there has been a change of plan and instead of four regiments, with the addition of some more command packs I will have expanded he army by eight regiments. So by the time that the game is played in November there will be three divisions - the whole 1st Army. The Russian expansion will go ahead as planned.

I have also been working on some more pieces of scenery for the game. I have finished a small temple plus two stone and thatch buildings and started work on some unique hill pieces.

Reminiscing

Maybe it is an odd thing to admit to, but I can't remember a time in my life that didn't feature model soldiers. The first "little men" in my service came from my aunt who sent me some Britains 54mm guardsmen in 1966 either for my birthday or Christmas and from that moment on I was hooked. The next defining moment in my magnificent obsession came in 1968 when I saw the film "Custer of the West". The Civil War scenes at the beginning of the film started my life long interest in the American Civil War - although when I bought a DVD copy of the film a few years ago I was bitterly disappointed that it didn't live up to my childhood memory! 

What kicked off this line of thought was reading this article on the BBC news site a while ago about H.G. wells and his book "Little Wars" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22777029. I suppose all of us who have suffer from this obsession have a trigger point that moves us from playing with toy solders to gaming with model soldiers and for many it was H.G. Wells' book. But for me that moment came in 1972 when my parents gave me the book "Charge!: Or How to Play Wargames" by Peter Young and J.P. Lawford. I still think this is the best wargames book ever written - and my copy is still in near mint condition. At least once a year I break it out and read part of it again. .

What makes this book so great for me is the stories told in the examples. There are the two players, Smith and Jones, who have a banter between them. "Oh bad luck, old chap"' says Smith with a wry smile as Jones removed the five casualty figures... In many ways that same, or similar,  banter is present in the groups of people I have gamed with all my life, so there is ring of truth in it and I love it.

Other books have had an influence on my obsession with model soldiers such as, Terry Wise's "Introduction to Battlegaming", Charles Grant's "The Wargame" and Donald Featherstone's "Wargames Campaigns", but "Charge!" still holds the prime position.

Not only was "Charge!" my first wargames book, but it also inspired me to write my first set of rules. This was by necessity because while Charge was written for Seven Years War battles, I wanted to play American Civil War games, so there was a need to customise. Since that time I have rarely used a commercial set of rules, and when I did they were heavily customised.

Oh well, enough reminiscing...back to the painting. I have decided to expand the Russo-Japanese armies by adding another six Japanese infantry regiments and two more Russians, plus eight Japanese and two Russian machine guns.

First Bull Run Refought

Today, the 152nd anniversary of the battle,  we refought the First Battle of  Bull Run, or Manassas. 

The Union Army

Hunter's Division: Porter's and Burnside's Brigades, with two batteries

Heintzleman's Division: Franklin's, Willcox's and Howard's Brigades with two batteries

Tyler's Division: Sherman's, Keyes' and Schenk's brigade with one battery

The Confederate Army

Army of the Potomac: Bonham's, Cocke's, Evans', Early's Briagdes, along with three batteries and the Hampton Leigon

The Army of the Shennandoah: Jackson's, Bee's, Bartow's and Smith Briagdes, along with three batteries.

The Game

The game assumed that McDowell executed his turning movement as planned and started with Burnside facing off against Evans on Matthews' Hill. Bee and Bartow's brigades are marching to Evans' aid. Porter's Brigade is crossing Bull Run in support of Burnside.

Burnside attempted to flank Evans but struggled to get going. Not until Porter was able to come up on Burnside's left, could Evans be forced back, by which time Bartow and Bee  had formed a solid line behind him. Jackson had by this time arrived and formed on Henry House Hill. Cocke's Brigade came up on Jackson's right.

Burnside faces Evans, with Bartow and Bee forming to the rear. Porter follows Burnside across Bull Run.

The Confederate line stabilised in the low ground between Matthews' and Henry House Hills, while Heinztleman's Division came up and formed to the right of Burnside.

Heintzelman forms on Burnside's right

With a sudden rush Porter attacked and dispersed Bartow's brigade while Sherman's Brigade, with Keyes in support, moved to flank the the Confederate line in the low ground. Evans swung back to face Sherman, while Jackson and Cocke came forward. Sherman was forced to face Jackson. 

Meanwhile Kirby-Smith's and then Early's Brigades extended the Confederate left, overlapping Heintzleman. The Union advance stalled. Burnside's Brigade was caught in a vicious crossfire and began to retreat. Franklin's Brigade was similarly engaged, but managed to hold its position for a turn.

On the Federal left Schenks' Brigade finally arrived at the stone bridge and  prepared to cross, covered by Carlisle's battery. Things were beginning to go badly for Sherman and when Jackson opened a heavy fire, Sherman's brigade melted away. 

Flanked by Jackson, Sherman takes heavy fire

Porter, in an attempt to ease the pressure on the Union left charged forwad and drove back Evans, but when he attempted to drive off Jackson, he was halted and then driven back.

Keyes' Brigade, assisted by Schenck attempted to cover Sherman's collapse, but they were caught by the arrival of Bonham's Brigade and were driven back by a concerted attack by Cocke and Bonham. 

Bonham and Cocke roll up Schenk and Keyes

On the Union right Willcox's brigade charged Early and despite an initial success failed to drive him off. At the same time Howard's brigade was caught in a fire between Bee, Smith and three Confederate batteries, and gave ground.

The whole Union army was in retreat and the game ended, much the same way as the original battle ended.

RJW Game and More

Today we played another RJW game. Once again this was a shake down for our main event in August. Lots of things learned and good fun had by all. In the end the Japanese failed to make any real headway and their attack was repulsed with a heavy loss.

Here are a series of images from the game. 

A Russian infantry regiment and their machine guns in their central redoubt, with their batteries on the ridge behind.

The advance of the Japanese centre on the redoubt

The Russian infantry on the right of the redoubt

The advance of the Japanese Kobi Brigade

All infantry figures are Tsuba Miniatures, artillery and MGs are by Redoubt.

And the new project...

Early War WWI

The first batch of 1914 WWI figures figures are completed. This includes:

- 13 stands of French infantry

- 3 stands of French HMGs

- 13 stands of German infantry

- 4 stands of German HMGs

- 6 stands of Belgian infantry

- 1 stand of Belgian HMGs

- 1 Belgian Minerva Armoured Car

Below are a couple of images of the Minerva AC from 1st Corps

RJW Project - Phase One Complete

The final artillery batteries (both Russian and Japanese) arrived from Redoubt a couple of weeks ago. They are now painted based and waiting for their first game.

Their completion finishes phase one of the RJW project. That phase sees one division formed for each side. Phase two will be the replacement of the artillery and machine guns with product made by Tsuba - the Redoubt figures just lack the flair of the Tsuba product - and some cavalry. Of course megalomania may yet get the better of me and I may be forced to do another division of Japanese and another brigade of Russians.

I still have a number of buildings to complete. One is finished, as below, but there is another 'Hutong' type of building, a farm, which is nearing completion, and a small monastery. These need to be completed by August when we have our annual wargames weekend. This is a good winter project.

In the meantime I have been attracted to a new project: Early World War 1 - 1914. I have placed my first orders and next week I should have the better part of a battalion each of French, German and Belgian infantry ready for painting.