Inaugural Game - Quatre Bras - Part One

The Battle of Quatre Bras by Woolen

After a lot of tooing and froing, I finally managed to get the War Room up and running. I had promised my good friend General Creanor that he would take part in the inaugural game, during which we would open an extremely fine bottle of 1984 port that he gave me when we first got our house. Now as it happens I also happen to have a unit of Hinton Hunt Imperial Guardsmen that I bought as part of a consortium with Old John.  These figures were part of the collection of a man who enjoyed playing with figures, but who never actually played with them.  I intend to use these figures as the Old Guard at Waterloo, which will be their baptism of fire after nearly forty years on the sidelines. 

However, I forgot that we hadn't played Qautre Bras and it seemed rude to play Waterloo without first playing Quatre Bras. The intention was to play both in an evening, but we didn't manage to get around to it. But we drank General Creanors excellent port and played a game with good friends. 

The Old Guard can stay in their box for a few weeks more and we'll get another game.  I think there may be another bottle of port somewhere. 

Command & Colours: Quatre Bras map courtesy of ccnapoleonics.net/

For those of you unfamiliar with the Hundred Days campaign, you will find something more to your liking here. 

The briefing that comes with the scenario is as follows. 

Napoleon Bonaparte’s surprise march placed his army squarely between Blucher’s Prussians at Ligny and Wellington’s Anglo-Allied army assembling around Brussels. Napoleon concentrated most of his strength against Blucher, but ordered Ney and the II Corps to capture the vital crossroads of Quatre Bras to deny Wellington the chance to reinforce Blucher. Ney procrastinated and his attack did not get underway until two in the afternoon. The delay allowed Wellington to bring fresh allied troops to support the Dutch-Belgians and the Nassau Brigade that were thinly deployed south of the crossroads. The initial French advance was greeted with musket volleys, but the outnumbered Allied troops were forced back. The Allied units in the wood, however, managed to hold. Facing three infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade, the Allied situation was fast becoming desperate, but additional troops kept arriving and Wellington, now in command, directed them to key positions on the battlefield. Ney realized that the numerical balance was shifting in favor of the Anglo-Allies and that he could only capture and hold Quatre Bras by a desperate move. He ordered General Kellermann to lead his cuirassier brigades forward and break through Wellington’s line. The cuirassiers managed to reach the crossroads, but were driven back by close range artillery and musket fire. The arrival of the British Guards Division late in the day gave Wellington sufficient strength to launch a counter-attack that forced the French to give up all of their hard fought territorial gains.

The stage is set. The battle lines are drawn and you are in command. Can you change history?

Donogh in characteristically agressive form attacks the Dutch-Belgian troops in the woods on the French left. 

General Creanor searches in his hand for inspiration. 

While Donogh seeks inspiration elsewhere

"Excellent" says Donogh. 

The gift of General Creanor - unfortunately, I didn't decant it which meant that the later glasses were somewhat cloudy

French lights and the 8iem Ligne hit the Dutch militia with predictable results

The French left clears the woods of Allied troops, but the British Guards are moving into position.

At this juncture, Capability Savage arrives and takes over command in the centre. 

"Bayonet Charge, read it and weep."

The French line before it rushes forward. 

French columns crashing into the Allied centre. 

We'll soon shift 'em off the ridge

"That chap, that chap right there - he offends me. Those trousers with that hat? The man is a monster." 

Mr. Target arrives to assist General Creanor.

The French advance starts to shatter the Allied line. 

Hitting the Brunswickers in the centre

And driving back the Nassauers on the right. 

The Dutch manage to hang on the Allied right, but it's looking distinctly grim for the Allies. 

The cork of General Creanors gift, just before I managed to cork it...

I really, really should have decanted it. 

The Highlanders manage to retake the ridge and wipe out one of the advancing French columsn

The second battalion of British move up - these are Strelets Crimean Highlanders standing in for the chaps you saw at the beginning of this post (That's the Black Watch for those at the back. Yes, you Gow. Wake up and sit up straight boy. Wake Cordery up while you're at it. He's day dreaming.).  Rated as British Grenadier Guards in Command & Colours Napoleonics, they are a very powerful unit. 

And so with that image of the Black Watch charging into battle...

...or possibly this image of the Black Watch charging into battle. 

We shall draw Part One to a close. 

Messing with the workings of the Mechanical Turk.

I quite enjoy a game of Memoir '44 online. It's no substitute for a proper wargame with toy soldiers and such, but it is always there and that's no bad thing.

One thing that I hadn't noticed though was that the scenario editor allows you to make your own maps, and upload them to the website. Not everything in the editor can be added, the online game, which seems a bit orphaned to be honest, hasn't implemented a lot of the new whizz bangs like mortars, machine guns and other good stuff.

Now I've had some success using Memoir '44 Online as a mechanical turk, setting up the game with my figures and then using the AI to provide an opponent. Of course, I'm limited by the scenarios that come with the game.

However, I have discovered the Scenario Editor not only allows you to make your own maps, but also allows you to play those maps both online and using the games AI. Now as I said, the online game lacks a lot of the features of the board game, but even with that limited ability there are some intriguing possibilities for solo play.

Art of Tactic Napoleonic

The only image I can find relating to Art of Tactic Napoleonic

I've been regarding Zvesda's recent output with a great deal of interest. They are the Rolls Royce of 1/72 plastics in my opinion and they have never failed to produce good stuff. I've been disappointed by their decision in recent years to shift away from big boxs of toy soldiers to smaller boxes aimed at the board game market, but you can't blame a fellow for making a living. 

Their Art of Tactic stable of games covers Samurai Warfare, the Second World War and a hypothetical World War Three. But what has really sparked my interest is the news that they will be releasing a Napoleonic version. I don't think I'll be changing games anytime soon, but Zvesda will be releasing figures for this game in their Art of Tactic boxes. These are small, containing at most half a dozen figures and cost about 2.95, but they are lovely. 

I imagine they will be working on the 1812 campaign with a view to the domestic Russian market, but I wouldn't mind paying over the odds for a few specialist figures particularly if they were of the gem like beauty that characterises most Zvesda releases. 

I'd certainly be interested in some Zvesda produced Russian horse artillery, but at present (stolen from plastic soldier review.com), the releases will be as follows. 

Art of Tactic Napoleonic 

• 6808 - Russian Line Infantry
• 6809 - French Foot Artillery
• 6810 - Russian Foot Artillery
• 6811 - Russian Dragoons
• 6812 - French Dragoons
• 6815 - Russian Infantry Command
• 6816 - French Infantry Command
• 6817 - Russian Dragoons Command
• 6818 - French Dragoons Command

A Very British Civil War Truck

I've been toying with doing some Very British Civil War scenarios for a while now. They seemed to be a perfect fit for Memoir '44. I could use my 20mm partisans and British infantry for another conflict and be unconstrained by the need for particular marks of tanks or other things. 

With that in mind, I picked up some Frontline resin stuff and played with it a little. 

This is an armoured truck from Frontline's resin England Invaded Home Guard range. 

Which inevitably brings this to mind.  I saw quite a bit of Dad's Army when I was small and I'm ashamed to say, had a long argument with Donogh over whether the early episodes were in black and white. It later became clear that what had happened was that when I had first started watching the shop, we had a black and white television which we later upgraded to colour.  

Well, I lost that argument. 

I painted this as generically as I could so that it can serve any master and may possible end up being used by the Home Guard in Sea Lion games at some point. The body was sprayed grey because that was what I had, the coach work painted Vallejo Russian green with some highlighting. I suspect it will be transporting British Union of Fascists troops for the time being. I tried a little line highlighting with pure white which looked very odd up close, but actually makes the detail pop in a very pleasing fashion at three feet. 

I added a registration plate on a whim, though it occurred to me afterwards that a yellow reg may not be appropriate. 

. 

Airfix Harrier GR.3

NEEEEEE-oowwwww!!!! 

Proving that I am actually incapable of thinking in a straight line - after I got home from work this morning I put these together.  I often have difficulty going straight to bed after a night shift and I find that doing something with my hands is the perfect antidote.  I found these while I was looking for something else in the War Room.  The side of the box side "One flying hour", so I thought I might at least make a start. 

A brace of birds

(and some basing going on behind) 

These were a gift from Mrs. Kinch a few Christmases ago, as I was going to use them for the "Hunting the Harriers" scenario in the Force on Force supplement "Cold War gone Hot". Now as it happens I have another plan for these, which meant that they needed to be assembled in their flight configuration.  As wargaming models, I've also done away with the internal detail and the pilot as I reckoned I would almost certainly make a hash of the canopy and end up painting it blue or silver. 

I am pleasantly astonished at how well this turned out. 

The kits actually went together quite quickly and cleanly despite my cack handedness. There were a few pieces that needed trimming and there was quite a bit of flash in parts, but mostly the fit wasn't too bad. 

The belly of the Harrier. 

Both of these planes were assembled in the wheels up configuration, so that I can eventually attach them to flight stands. A little bit of filling will be required. I plan to give these a quick blast of GW white spray and then mark out the camouflage with a pencil as instructed by no less a personage then Alfront. 

 There is of course the question of weaponry. I've heard tell of using magnets to allow different loadouts to be added to model planes. That might be something I look at, though I'll really need to get flying bases and probably paintwork sorted first. 

A galaxy of grim aerial doom. 

Left to right. 

( Two expensive bomb thingies, Slightly more expensive bomb thingies, Rocket Pod or possibly 20mm cannon whatsits, Very expensive bomb thingies. (rear) Whacking great big bomb or missile, though I don't see any sort of motor. )    

I'm not really au fait with aerial weaponry, what little I know about war in the Air was gleaned from a youthful interest in Biggles and that didn't really cover anything after 1918.  Most of the time, I'm hard pressed to tell the difference between a charleville and a brown bess. I note that unlike the Harriers in Battle comic (or was it Warlord?) this kit doesn't sport a laser.  I can't find any reference to that comic strip online, perhaps I dreamed it.

On the whole, not a bad output for just over an hours work.

Moving on

A quick snap of some Russian Dragoons

The last few days have been busy enough and I'm finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of finishing the sort of boxes in the War Room. It does mean that there is a collection of odds and ends scattered all over the table made up of orphaned units, extra figures and things that don't quite have somewhere to go yet.  Savage and Tootsie came over for dinner which was great fun. Savage made some suggestions about how to dolly up the A4 files boxes I use for storage which we'll be investigating. They are a great solution to a storage problem, but while they are practical, they're far from elegant.

In the meantime, I've been busy basing and organising units like the Russian Dragoons above in order that I can store them properly.

I was give this DVD has a Christmas gift from an old friend and it's actually pretty good. Low key, nicely written and well acted, there's a lot to like in "Ripper Street".  There have been some odd choices made in it, which are a pity, but on the whole I'm expecting good things.

Hannibals Elephants getting a bit of a work out. 

I finally finished "The Fall of Carthage" by Goldsworthy and the final third of the book did not disappoint.  I shall definitely have to read more of him, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am now casting about for another book to read. This actually reading physical books again could prove to be habit forming. 

Anyway, that's my rest days finished for another six days, back to the grindstone. 

The Fall of Carthage by Adrian Goldsworthy

One of the simple pleasures of the War Room has been a place to retreat to and read. I can happily ignore whatever jobs need to be done around the house and just lose myself in a book. I've been reading on my phone lately, using the Kindle app, and while that certainly has it's place - it's no substitute for a lump of dead tree between two covers. 

I have gotten into a terrible habit of starting books and not finishing them, but I'm determined to finish this one which has been holding my attention.  It's an over view of the Punic Wars between Carthage and Rome and I think it helps that it doesn't go into too much detail. This is a general book for a reader that has little is any prior knowledge of the period and it's certainly filled in quite a few gaps for me. My knowledge of Republican Rome was pretty much limited to some lectures and Tom Holland's "Rubicon". 

Anyway, getting to the meat of the matter. 

The Fall of Carthage is a single volume history of the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. It's paper back and I don't think it cost me much more than a tenner. It begins with a quick introduction to Rome in the time of the Republic and what little we know about Carthage along with some information on the conduct of warfare, both land and sea, during the period. The author then deals with each war (there were three) in turn, sometimes splitting each section up by theatre and sometimes treating the naval and the land campaigns seperately. 

Things that have struck me so far (I haven't started the section on the third Punic War yet). 

- Our sources are so limited, basically one Roman writer (Livy) and one Greek (Polybius) and that's most of our knowledge of the period.  Goldsworthy is to be commended to the regularity with which he admits his frustration with the limited information at his disposal. 

- The Romans were dogged. My father always taught me that character trumpts intelligence nine times out of ten, but the Romans were defeated time and time again and simply would not quit.  There's a lot to dislike about Republican Rome, but there's something admirable about their strength of purpose, their patriotism and their refusal to admit defeat. 

- Perhaps it was a childhood being brought up on pictures books, but I had always imagined that the Romans were rather good at siege warfare.   The vast majority of sieges in the Punic Wars appear to be resolved by treachery, blockade or escalade. None of the jolly siege machines that I remember so vividly seem to make an appearance. 

- The lack of sources means that in many ways there are few characters. Hannibal is a mytery and most of the Romans are smothered under layers of stereotypical hagiography that there is no real sense of the actors as men rather than ciphers. This is something a change for me, as I'm so used to being able to read about Napoleonic generals who were funny or mean or chivalrous or liked hard boiled eggs. 

On the whole, recommended and a book that has definitely given me a better grounding in the field. I might even manage to get back to that copy of Lazenby's "Hannibals War" that Donogh gave me all those moons ago.