NEXT!!!!

Fresh off the conveyor belt today is another AWI British line infantry battalion.

Five more battalions to go…

Argentine Generals

The latest additions to the Great Paraguayan War collection are these three Argentine mounted officers.

The completion of these will call a pause to the Paraguayan War collection for a while. There will be some more a little later, but I need to wait until the Paraguayan generals and Argentine artillery are released. 

Next off the conveyer belt will be another British AWI unit.

The Return of the Butterfly

If I think of my painting table as a leaf, I have spent the better part of this year as a caterpillar chewing steadily away at my yet to be revealed project. But the urgency of that project is diminished with the cancellation of this year’s Tarawera event and metamorphosis has occurred, freeing the wargames butterfly to flit between bright and shiny objects that have appeared near the painting table in recent weeks. 

Evidence of this change has been seen of late with the posting of the Great Paraguayan War artillery sets and mounted officers, as well as the terrain tiles. But it is with this post that the complete transition to butterfly tendencies is demonstrated with the return to the American War of Independence and a long overdue expansion to the  British force that I last worked on in January 2020, before the world went mad. The project yet to be revealed will continue, but at a less frenetic pace.

Presented here is the 9th Regiment of Foot, minus its standards (because I didn’t have the opportunity to print them before we were put into lockdown). This is the first of seven line battalions that will join the six that are already in the barracks. Another artillery set and a few battalions of Hessians are likely to depart foreign shores in the not too distant future to join them.

Meanwhile as I was preparing this post fresh reinforcements arrived from Nottingham.

These will be the cause of the butterfly going  into overdrive, flitting between an even greater number of projects in the coming months, most of which will be reported on the pages of this blog.

Brazilian Mounted Officers

Riding out from the uniform store today are three mounted officers from the Brazilian army.

These three are the first of two sets of mounted officers for the South American conflict and will be joined by three Argentinians shortly.

Another Brazilian Gun

 I have completed the second Brazilian artillery piece.

Once again this is an Armstrong gun, loading this time, and has some nice touches with a gunner with his hand in the breech screw and another about to insert the shot into the breech.

There will be another couple of Brazilian guns at some stage, when the Perrys turn out the other field guns, and I will need a mountain gun, of course.

As we settle into another lockdown I wish I had a few more sets like this on hand.

In the Sands of Egypt

Today’s regular Sunday game was set in Egypt in 1801. Having locked the French up in Alexandria, the British forces under Hutchinson have commenced their movement on Cairo. The fortified town of Rahamaniyeh was taken and the army advanced along the fertile edge of the Nile while a flotilla of small boats ferried supplies up river. Near Shubrakhit, some fifty miles north of Cairo,  the Nile bends and a broad island restricts the channel. Here the French have built a redoubt in which they have positioned a battery to dominate the channel. If the advance is to be pressed further the position must be carried. It is known that a significant French force is deployed in support.

The table plan with the Nile off table to the left.  The blue line shows the limits of French deployment. Where the line is on or outside the table edge, it shows a possible point of entry. The red line shows the possible Anglo-Ottoman points of entry.

The French force is made up of three infantry brigades and two cavalry brigades.

Brigade

  • 22e Demi Brigade Légeré (3 Battalions)

  • 75e Demi Brigade (3 Battalions)

  • Light battery

Brigade

  • 4e Demi Brigade Légeré (3 Battalions)

  • 9e Demi Brigade (3 Battalions)

  • Light battery 

Brigade

  • 85e Demi Brigade (3 Battalions)

  • 88e Demi Brigade (3 Battalions)

  • Light battery

Cavalry Brigade

  • 3rd Dragoons

  • 14th Dragoons

  • 7th Hussars

  • One horse battery

Brigade

  • 22nd Chasseurs a Cheval
  • Dromedary Regiment
  • Horse Battery
Unattached Artillery
  • Light battery
  • 3 x field batteries

The British had four infantry brigades and are supported by an Ottoman force of five cavalry and six infantry units.

Moore’s Brigade

  • 23rd Foot
  • 28th Foot
  • 42nd Foot
  • 58th Foot
  • Corsican Rangers
  • One 12lb gun battery
Craddock's Brigade 
  • 8th Foot
  • 13th Foot
  • 18th Foot
  • 90th Foot
  • One 6lb gun battery

Stuart’s Emigré Brigade
  • De Watteville
  • De Rolls
  • Minorca Regiment
  • Dillon’s Regiment
  • One 6lb battery

Guards Brigade – Stuart
  • Coldstream Guards
  • 3rd Guards
  • One 6lb battery
Unattached
  • Hompesch’s Hussars

  • 16th Light Dragoons

  • 2 units Dismounted Light Dragoons
  • 2 12lb artillery batteries

Ottoman Forces

Five units Mamelukes

1 unit Jannisary infantry

1 unit Nazim-i Cedid infantry

1 unit of Albanian infantry

3 units of Ottoman infantry 

How the game ran.

The French chose to deploy one brigade with the reserve artillery in and around the redoubt and the two smaller positions. One infantry brigade, supported by the  chasseurs a cheval and dromedaries, was held off table to the immediate left of the redoubts. The third brigade and the cavalry brigade were held off the table opposite the village. 

The British chose to place Moore’s Brigade opposite the redoubts, with Craddock’s Brigade to their right. The Emigre and Guards Brigades were further to the right. Finally the Ottoman troops held the far right, way out in the desert.

The Ottomans swarmed across the long ridge and occupied the village, blocking the path of the French troops on the far left, preventing them from entering the fight.  Meanwhile opposite the redoubts Moore’s Brigade made slow progress on the fertile land, having to cross numerous irrigation ditches. The Guards moved sluggishly but soon got into a position where they could bring superior numbers against the French left. 

However the failure of the French extreme left to arrive sealed the fate of the rest of the French force as the British lapped around their flanks. 

The initial deployment, with the redoubt left centre. 

The Guards and Emigre brigades prepare to advance

The French right

Above and below, Moore’s Brigade advanced on the British left, with the Highlanders leading, against the redoubt 

The Ottoman cavalry swarm forward

The Hompesch Hussars press forward

Craddock’s Brigade advances

Above and below, the Ottomans swarm around the village

The Ottoman cavalry catch the dromedary troops out of square, and eventually break them

The Chasseurs a Cheval about to break the Ottoman cavalry 

Above and below, Ottoman infantry

The Guards and Emigre Brigades begin their swing against the French left

The British artillery preparing to pound the French in the redoubt

The Navy drags up the guns

The final position around the redoubt…the last two French battalions on the table

More Paraguayan Artillery

The Great Paraguayan War was not a war in which field artillery played a big role and these two Paraguayan gun sets complete the field artillery I am intending to join the Paraguayan army.

There will be more Paraguayan guns, but they will be heavy siege pieces that were positioned within the fortresses around which many of the campaigns were fought. But I have over spent my gaming budget this month, so these sets will be ordered a little later in the year. 

Next up is another Brazilian set.