A return to the blog - Black Powder and Hail Caesar

Greetings reader!

It has been a while since my last post, more than two years actually. Recently I've been picking up some more steam with the hobby, resulting in miniatures painted and battles fought!

Here are some pictures of this weekends wargaming, involving Black Powder and Hail Caesar. 

For my Black Powder armies (got to provide both sides) I'm working on a Russian and a French. I recon I'm about half way collecting and painting, having six infantry units ready for both sides. Also I think I've settled on a basing method, 4 per base on a 1,5cm frontage, with the depth of the base varying between 3 and 4,5cm. All my Russians are now based in that manner, and the French are up next for base-surgery.

The battle involved 6 infantry units a side with a artillery battery and a unit of hussars, two brigades for each player. Because of the small game size in Black Powder terms I decided to double the stamina values for all units. This seemed to work out well, causing some more eb and flow in the development of the battle. Also I decided broken brigades would be allowed to be rallied, but in the end the situation didn't come up. Lastly we used the Hail Caesar rules for disorder, calling for a special break test on the roll of 6 during shooting instead of causing disorder immediately. This caused some harrowing moments when the Russian grenadiers went in for a final push against one of the French brigade and closing fire caused them to fall back disordered. I'm not quite decided on what I think about this effect as in the standard Black Powder rules it would never occur. It does make charging that more dangerous! In the end the Russian main assault on the French center faltered and the French were able to crush the Russian right flank, breaking my last brigade.

Next up some Hail Ceasar game. This is the first time I actually played the game, after having the book for some years now. Inspired by using the break table in Black Powder I did a little test run with some Old Hammer models which turned out quite nicely. I then proposed to give the game another go with my friend and most regular opponent Guy who was happy to comply. Thus we dusted of those veteran soldiers of the Empire and threw in some Bretonnians to make two nice armies of 6 infantry, 3 ranged infantry and 3 heavy cavalry units. Those were quite sufficient to fill a 4*6 table and it was a great game. 

My Knights of the Realm met with initial succes, breaking the enemy left flank infantry brigade, while his knights came crushing down on my left and center. This caused the balance to tip over in favor of my opponent. My general made some heroic charges but went down in the melee. His second in command did the same, and found the same fate. In the end the army was led by the lowliest clown, which caused a general rout.

Great games all in all and I hope to return this blog more often than I've done in the last couple of years. Cheers to you all. Also please leave a comment when you've enjoyed the photo's!

Retreat from Moscow - Dismounted cavalry

Here are some more painted mini's from the Retreat from Moscow range.

Cossacks

A little update on the Black Powder side of things this time. These have been laying around for a long time now, so I'm happy they are finally done. For the moment I use them as a small Cossack unit in Black Powder. The miniatures themselves are from the excellent Perry miniatures Retreat from Moscow range of which I hope I can add some more to my collection soon!

Black Powder Painting

Since I started napoleonics some 1,5 years ago there haven't been too many updates on the paiting progress, but not all has been quiet on the painting front. Especially over the last holidays I've been painting quite fanatically.  These last weeks it have mainly been Russians, which I'll show soon, but now they're almost all done my focus is back at the French again. 

In the mean time I've also been busy with some skirmishers in a retreat from Moscow theme. I've played Song of Drums and Shako's once, and it felt like quite a nice little game. 

I've also finished two of my three Austrian regiments and received some much anticipated Russian Cavalry reinforcements. 

There will soon follow a post showing the developments on the Russian side of affairs. 

Dragoons and Cuirassiers

Battle of Turovo

Here's a quick impression of a recent Black Powder game. The scenario used is an adaptation of http://www.warlordgames.com/battle-report-the-battle-for-st-piere/ using smaller forces. In our case it pitted the French against the Russians on the way to Smolensk.

French:

Advance guard
4 infantry regiments
1 artillery battalion
1 regiment cuirassier (small)
1 regiment hussars

Main body
5 infantry regiments
1 artillery battalion
1 regiment cuirassiers

Russians:

Garrison
3 infantry regiments
1 artillery battalion
1 regiment cuirassiers (small)

Outlying force
2 infantry regiments
1 Jaeger regiment
1 artillery battalion
1 regiment cossacks (small)
2 regiment hussars (small)

The first few turns saw the French advancing towards the river. Making contact with the Russians on the left side of the village. In the end the French left flank was compromised, but the cavalry managed to protect the main assault, and one regiment could cross the river to encircle the Russians. When the main attack was launched the village was soon captured. Victory to the French.

The advance guard swings left

Russian possitions in the river delta

Russians possitions in the village

The French left flank makes contact

Russians finaly line up a shot

The advance guard is pushed back

The main force arrives

Cavalry hold the flank

The river is crossed

Battle of the monastry of Saint-Cyr

For our third Black Powder battle we decided to use a flames of war scenario, mainly to have some guidelines for deployment and reinforcements. The scenario was dust up, where each player starts in an opposing table quarter defending an objective. Reinforcements arrive from the third turn from the other corners.

Here we see the British brigade deployed around the remains of the monastery of Saint-Cyr. 3 regular infantry and a unit of foot artillery.

In the opposing corner the french have deployed around their objective, the barn, filled with precious supplies. In the first two turns the French move up to put the pressure on the British. One of the British units responds fast, but is left unsupported.

The second French brigade arrives from reserve, and marches on the monastery.

Battle lines are drawn

The British fail to organize the thin red line, and the first unit is disordered.

The French cavalry brigade arrives and starts a move on the British left flank.

French infantry columns march on swiftly, but don't deploy in line yet. In the next turn British artillery fire badly damages the front of the column, disordering the first unit.

The first British reinforcements arrive. The cavalry brigade deploys to relieve the center.

French cavalry prepares to charge the ruins.

Finally the third brigade arrives, the notoriously late Austrians.

Cavalry charges force the center units into squares. A head-on cavalry charge proves to be to much for the shaken square, which is destroyed.

Infantry charges the ruins, but the British defenders hold their ground.
The French cavalry turns their attention to center, where the British guns are destroyed by gunfire.

The Austrian brigade starts to threaten the French left flank, but their progress is slow.

French cuirassiers are destroyed batteling the British cavalry.
French hussars charge the British cavalry, chasing and destroying them.

Here we decided to end the game. The British had two broken brigades and the French were firmly in control of the monastery. We thought the FoW scenario worked really well. Next time we might try one of the others!