JUNE GAME NIGHT AND ELECTRONIC BRIGADIER

AJ's Electronic Brigadier "Approach To Monmouth" game that I participated in during the recent June Game Night (AJ, of AJ's Wargaming Blog, is seen seated in the foreground).

In this post, dear readers, I will provide a short update on hobby activities in these parts.  Specifically, this will be a somewhat delayed report on our recent June Game Night.  It will be a bit shy on eye candy, given that I was involved in playing in AJ's game (on which more later, particularly his Electronic Brigadier system!).  As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post.  There were three games offered for our club's game night:

Mark D, seated at left (of Mark D's Gaming Site), provided a Battle of Britain Blood Red Skies game.

Mike C (standing at right) put on a Bloody Big Battles game of a sector of the huge Battle of San Martino (1859) on his custom made terrain boards. This is a project that he has been working on for some time. He will be creating other boards to to this to eventually do the entire battle. 

The third game, in which I played, was AJ's "Approach to Monmouth," a re-fight of the American attack on the rear of the British Column at Monmouth during the American War of Independence. The above picture is of the game in progress as seen from what would be the environs of Monmouth: the British started on the road marching towards the camera and the Americans entered from the board edge on the right.  After the interruption of COVID, AJ is getting back up to speed on running his Electronic Brigadier system, and will be taking this well polished scenario to the upcoming Historicon convention (for anyone who may be going there: watch for it!  At present, I intend to also be on hand to assist).  

The game is designed for six players, but a friend of AJ's who had intended to play dropped out at the last minute, so we managed with five. Rob (pictured standing) and I took up the part of the Americans, while there were three British (John M took the Center, and Warren, the British left). Byron, not pictured, took up the head of the column/British right.  The American plan was for me (on the left) to interdict the head of the British column and isolate the center, where we (the Americans) enjoyed a numerical advantage. Rob would take the American center and right and press our advantage there (main effort: the red arrows above).  For my part of the fight (outlined in yellow) I had two units of continentals and two of militia on the Amercian left, and two battalions from the American center (just to the right of the woods).  

...Be careful for what you wish for.  Turns out that the British fell right into our trap, or we into theirs.  Their intent was a mirror version of ours: to win the battle by crushing the isolated Amercian left flank (c'est moi!). And so, above, we see the opening of the game with Byron smartly doing a left flank with the head of the British column and marching straight at the American left.  

...taking a page from history (Guilford Courthouse), I advanced my two militia battalions (and my gun section) and held my two continental battalions behind. Byron wasted no time in closing with these and coming full steam ahead...

...Bryon (blue shirt) contemplating his options of the British Right mid-game. The militia and gun section were sent off, and then things settled down to a standing firefight between my two battalions of continentals and the three battalions of British, with one British battalion swinging around on the American left being held off (somehow) by one of the rallied militia battalions.  Fortunately, taking out the militia and overrunning the American guns in the first line had taken some of the paste out of two of the British Battalions, so the fresh American Continentals waiting for them were able to hold up under the extended pounding and hold the line, which was all that I could hope to do given the circumstances.  I have to add that it is a tribute to AJ's system that you can replicate these kinds of tactics on the table. AJ's system is not just about the tech, but his the algorithms and other calculations render a really good feel to the action. 

Meanwhile, the two battalions of Continentals that I controlled in the center/left did their part by swinging out and engaging the British Guards, taking their lumps but in the end keeping the British Guards from influencing the battle in the center.  Having fulfilled my role as punching bag, it would be up to Rob and the American Center and Right to carry the day, which he did (kudos to Rob: unfortunately, I was distracted and didn't get any pictures to do justice to his play). In the end, it was a near run thing, but the advantage was to the Americans: a minor victory. 

Honors of the day must go to the Huntington Militia, who (somehow) rallied after being bowled back in the initial onslaught and came up just in time to hold the American left against Byron's flanking battalion: cinematic stuff. Without this happening, there is no way that the two Continentals would have been able to hold the line, and by extension, the narrow margin of victory would have swung to the British.  Regardless, it was well played all around and another enjoyable outing with the fellows in the club. AJ also has a report on the game on his excellent AJ's Wargaming Blog. 

Electronic Brigadier tablet in use. 

AJ has been running and perfecting his computer facilitated Electronic Brigadier system for the last few years.  He has (in my opinion) taken the "next step" and uses tablets.  In a nutshell, you hold the tablet when your opponent on the other side of the table is moving and enter the moves and orders as he does them (there is a button for each unit and a set of options available for each once you choose it, also simple buttons or pulldowns).  When the side is done moving, the system runs and does the combat resolutions and morale checks, etc.  Then the tablet goes to the other side of the table and you repeat. This keeps everyone engaged and elegantly takes care of data entry: when it's your turn, you just move your figures as normal, and your partner takes care of data entry). It works really well.  I would encourage anyone who is curious to check out AJ's Electronic Brigadier YouTube Channel for more. 

Excelsior!

POST NAPOLEONIC COMMAND STANDS

 

Danish Commanders: from the indispensable NYPL Vinkhuijzen Collecton.

In this post we report on the completion of another "round out the collection"  project, one more modest than the previous two consisting of Prussian and Austrian 1866 infantry.  This one addresses the major remaining loose end of my post-napoleonic forces: commanders/command stands. Specifically for my Danes, Prussians, and Austrians.  Although each force contains sufficient command stands to fulfill the modest framework of my yet to be completed Chocolate Box Wars system, I have been successfully playing these armies using my Post Napoleonic VnB variant , for which the command stands are sufficient, albeit with a few compromises (depending on the situation).  Having a campaign or large game idea kicking around in my head for these forces, I wanted to do a proper job of rounding out the command figures in case more were needed.  And so, dear reader, this post I report on the rationale and completion of these figs.  As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX in this post.  First up, the Danes...

...Above, Danish Commanders featuring the very characteristic look of many post-Napoloeonic generals (again, from the NYPL Vinkhuijzen Collecton). My Danes are a hybrid of repurposed figures, and that includes the command: although Northstar does make Danes, they still make no mounted commanders for them.  As is my norm, I tackled this problem by repurposing other figures....

...when doing my Danish command, I turned to the Perry Carlist War line, at first, the Isabelino Foreign commanders (left), and now also the British Auxillary Legion Command (right). The major sticking point for the former is the headgear...

...they lack the characteristic feather plume, a marker of not only the Danes but of many of the continental mid-century commanders. So I modified the figs by shaving down some of the ornament and adding the feather plume using green stuff.

Above, the previously completed Danish Army command stand included as an illustration: the modified Bernelle figure (plume added) serves as the Army commander along with the Evans figure (to the right) in the role of ADC...

...in that earlier project, I modified the generic Isabelino command figure (boxed in the foreign command figure picture) by adding the plume and painting him up appropriately...

...for this project, I added a second conversion of this figure: always tricky to get two modified figures to look consistent.  You'll see this figure again, by the way, later in this post.  If you're looking for a basic command figure to repurpose, you can't go wrong with this fella, as far as I'm concerned (I keep a few on hand!). 

So, although this gave me two Danish subordinate commanders, I needed three (figuring that in a six player game there would be three per side, each needing a command figure).  As I was digging through my Isabelino figs, I ran across this previously overlooked figure among the British Auxillary Legion commanders (he is boxed in the picture at the top). For some reason, he struck me as a likely lad: so I did him up as my third Danish officer. Given that the other two are twins, he adds some variety to my set. In smaller games, I can use two different sub commanders and save using the twins for larger games where I would need  the third.   

The Danish Command, now a proper group providing me more options. 

When I was putting together my 1866 Austrians, Northstar had not yet produced any command figures.  Thus, I used some out of production command figs that I found along with some other substitutions. Northstar has since come out with more Austrian command figures, and so I decided to round out my Austrian command as well. 

It all begane when I picked up this spectacular Austrian high command figure (left), which I added to my Army command stand...

...in place of the previous Austrian Army Commander, which was this figure, which you may recognize.  In this case, I had shaved down the epaulettes and other ornaments on his coat to give the clean lines of the Austrian uniform and added the large green/black plume using green stuff. For those with too much time on their hands, there is a more complete account of the production of the original Austrian command set in this post from July 2017. Having pulled him from the Army command, I plopped him on an individual base and he now provides me with an additional sub commander figure. 

This elegant fellow came in the Austrian High Command set, and so I did him as well. One thing I'll add is that--by happy accident--I found that Front Rank horses compliment these figures particularly well, and so I use them instead of those that come with them. 

The complete Austrian command, filled out to suit just about any combination I might require. 

Last but not least, I added this Guards Officer to my Prussian Command set.  Like my Austrians, I had put together my Prussians when command figures were not available. Thus, I supplemented what was available by putting cavalry trumpeters on command stands.  

...The complete Prussian command set, now structured to be able to handle the deployment of the complete Prussian force without pressing cavalry trumpeters  into the role of infantry commander (instead, they can be used for cavalry commands). 

Excelsior!

PRUSSIAN INFANTRY: 1866-ISH

 

Newly Completed Northstar 1866 Prussian Infantry Advance

The summer schedule and life in general have cramped blogging activity. Nevertheless, I am happy to say that I have had time for hobby fun mixed in, but  it has not been so dutifully recorded and reported upon here (yet).  The good news is that I'm collecting fodder for posting here when the time becomes available. But enough of a apologies. On to toy soldiers.  In this post, dear readers, I am happy to report on the completion of the Prussian side of a larger project that was initially mentioned in my Austrian 166 Infantry post. In that, I rounded out my Austrian infantry so that I could field two full brigades of line infantry without substitutions. In this part, I finish the project by adding figs to field a complete Prussian division of two infantry regiments of three battalions each without substitutions. I turned to the excellent Northstar 1866 figure line, of which my other figs are composed, to complete the project. As usual, in this post, you may clix pix for BIG PIX. 

When I began my collection, Northstar had not yet expanded the line as much as today (it had been picked up from Helion), and so my figs were a mix of what was available, in various poses and types, the main distinction being headgear (pickelhaube vs feldmutze). So to round out my Prussians I added three new units in pickelhaube and four in feldmutze (ie, soft caps). In the latter case, I really didn't need four (mathematically speaking)...

... because I had several units in feldmutze, but wanted to replace them since they were in skirmish poses (above).  These aren't bad figs or poses, but given the length of the rifles, they were prone to getting bent in use, and also tended to get bumped in storage. So there were practical reasons for painting a few too many figures to replace these, but there were also aesthetic reasons (for me, anyway)...

...I much prefer the look of this pose: Northstar calls it, "Prussian Infantry Charging."...

...It mimics almost exactly the look of Carl Rochling's images of massed Prussian infantry advancing during the Franco Prussian War, something I very much like the look of on the table (you may need to click the above to see what I mean). The sculptor(s) really did their homework with these figures. 

Although all of the same pose, there is still enough variety to keep them looking "real", particularly when you mix in command figures, characters, and musicians. 

I have to say that the drummer with the drum slung on his back is among my favorites. Unfortunately, you never know what the exact mix of figures will be when you order a command set, so it's hit or miss whether you can get one of these. So far, I've scored one in pickelhaube and one in feldmutze. I guess this is probably for the best; it protects me from myself and keeps me from ordering nothing but these, and it also keeps them unique. 

Originally, I would have preferred that all my Prussian infantry be in the iconic pickelhaube. Over time, though, I've come to very much like the look of the soft-capped feldmutze units, and this has worked out well in practical terms. Since it will now be easy to differentiate between the two brigades on the table...

...one brigade in feldmutze...

...and one in pickelhaube.

Excelsior!