We few, we happy few...

Last Saturday was the annual game in the Hinton Hut and I was joined by Matt and Goya for a Muskets & Marshals Waterloo game. As two of our regular players were hors de combat it was a smaller affair than our previous games. Matt played Wellington and I was Napoleon whilst Goya took on the mantle of Umpire/ADC.

Napoleon's object was simple, occupy both Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte and have at least one undisordered infantry unit on the Ridge by the end of turn 8, otherwise the Prussians would arrive and secure an allied victory.

As there were just two of us playing and I didn't have to accommodate the Prussians, my standard 6' x 4' table was all we needed. This was an 'all in' game with no off table reserves so there were approximately 1,000 figures in play.

The is the allied left with Picton in his splendid red riding coat visible behind the main line. Matt was a bit nervous about this, having lost Picton twice in previous games and refused to use his +1 morale bonus for fear of a 'fallen officer' result.

The French centre stuffed with 5 units of Guard. They were initially in reserve with the Young Guard released on turn 3 and the Old Guard on turn 4.

The French right. d'Erlon's corps looked very impressive, 6 units with 5 guns backed up by the Guard Light Cavalry. So impressive in fact that Matt's first order was to retire Picton's line back behind the ridge!

The emperor arrives on the field flanked by de la Bedoyere and Mameluk Ali. I'm not sure if Bedoyere's nose was put out of joint by the arrival of Napoleon's new favourite Ali. Note that La Belle Alliance has transformed into an English cottage.

The Duke looks on calmly from the ridge behind La Haye Sainte. Wellington's tree is rather unusually in full leaf due to the absence of Tony who normally supplies the winter version for our games.

Ponsonby's Union Brigade. These lads were also in reserve until turn 3 when they could be released and repositioned anywhere within the British lines.

Our 'impartial' umpire kindly brought this little gift along. This was very good of him (it is a superb model) but he could have waited until after the game to present me with it. I think Matt thought it was his birthday!

This was another secret weapon in Hougoumont - Captain Mainwaring of the Walmington-on-Sea fencibles - in position to cheer on the Coldstream Guards. The figure is a lovely conversion also from the hand of Goya.

The Field Battalion Verden look out from behind the hedge at the poor old Belgians who don't appear to have got the memo about retiring to a safer distance.

This is how the game would have looked if I'd had these figures in 1972 when I first concieved the idea of fighting Waterloo on the tabletop.

My first action was to have a crack at Hougoumont and to my surprise I managed to force out the Coldstreams on turn 2 and occupy the farm.

On the right my five batteries only really had one target in range so there were soon a lot of cannonballs heading towards the Belgians.

Matt started to shift the 95th Rifles to their right correctly anticipating that the main attack, when it came, would concentrate between the two farms.

With Hougoumont in our hands, I now fancied my chances against La Haye Sainte but I hadn't counted on that Rocket Battery. Soon the infernal machine was sending streams of hissing rockets to cut swathes of destruction through my ranks. This was not cricket.

Another barrage took out 5 figures from the 85th in one go as they bravely started to advance past my gun line. Not cricket at all!

With our left flank secured on Hougoumont I started to push infantry forward between the two farms and on towards the ridge.

d'Erlon was ordered forward at the same time to bring maximum pressure to bear on Matt's line.

The view from behind Hougoumont as the British observe the advancing French columns. The Coldstreams lick their wounds and prepare to have a go at retaking the farm.

Ney senses that now is the time to unleash the Heavy Cavalry, it's almost as if he has seen the film!

The whole French army is advancing - vive le emperor!

On our extreme right flank a cavalry clash is developing with both the Guard Light Cavalry and the British Household Cavalry being committed to a growing melee.

A view of the whole table (probably turn 4) and you can see that the Coldstream Guards have retaken Hougoumont! This was annoying because it meant that Ney's troopers would be caught in a crossfire between the two farms.

We were coming on in the same old style and looked unstoppable!

Then Matt sensibly had his infantry form square and unleashed the Union Brigade onto the glitter ranks of the French heavies.

A stirring sight as the sabres clashed! It was eventually to be the French who had the best of the melee.

Meanwhile I was having yet another (unsuccessful) attempt at taking La Haye Sainte.

With so many horsemen around, the 1st legere formed square. It was just as well as the Brunswick Hussars were soon upon them.

On the right, the Guard Cavalry were having some success although the Blues did manage to rout the 6th Chasseurs. In the end we saw off all the British cavalry enabling d'Erlon to continue unimpeded towards the ridge.

Time for the Old Guard to have a go at La Haye Sainte surely they would take the place? Well, no they were repulsed - merde!

d'Erlon's columns were steadily approaching the ridge. The Duke was heard to mutter "Night or the Prussians must come". Not in this scenario Matt, you're on your own!

I brought the Guard Horse Artillery up to blast away at the Coldstreams in Hougoumont. The effect was to reduce them to below retiring point when meant the farm was ours again.

The situation at the end of play (turn 7). La Haye Sainte has finally fallen to the Young Guard but I had failed to establish any undisordered infantry on the ridge so it was a victory to Matt although it was a damn near run thing.

We ran out of time at the end of turn 7 and there was some debate about whether or not the French could have won if we'd played the final turn. My own thought was not really as although we had both farms getting infantry onto the ridge was tricky especially as Matt's own infantry had taken very few casualties and were in fine shape to repell any charges.

Thanks to Matt for making the trip up to the wild north and to Goya for his superb and impartial umpiring and for supplying the very useful (!) Congreve rocket battery. Also a shout out to Mrs S for single-handedly running the field kitchen. Hopefully next game we will be back up to full strength.

Russian Bus

Typical really, you wait years and years for 20mm Hinton Hunt Russians and then three units come along at once! I find myself in the position where I am simultaneously painting three Russian units - The Garde du Corps, Astrakhan Cuirassiers and Foot Jagers.

This is my test figure for RN/30 Russian Cuirassier (mounted) charging. I'm painting him in accordance with the Hinton Hunt painting instructions as a trooper of the Astrakhan Regiment. The black horse makes him hard to photograph when varnished but I do like the contrast between the black and the yellow.

The Hinton Hunt painting instructions. This version is one that Clive painstakingly re-keyed from the original flimsy copy because the original was too feint to scan or photograph well. I like to refer to these sheets whenever I can.

These are RN/15 Russian Infantryman, firing. I'm painting them as Jagers - or more accurately as Jager-Chasseurs because I didn't want to cut off the plumes.

This is not the sort of painting pickle I would normally get myself into so I will put the others aside and focus on the Cuirassiers for now.

 

Terrible painting finished

The 57th Les Terribles are finished. These have been a bit of a struggle to complete mostly because I kept getting distracted with other things on the painting desk. I was also putting off painting the flag as this is the eighth one I have done and the lettering is a real pain and my eyes aren't getting any younger. The figures used are:

1 x FN/1 Officer (charging)

1 x FN/4 Colour bearer (charging)

1 x FN/6 Drummer

1 x FN/241 Officer (charging) - 1807/12 range

20 x FN/244 Fusilier (charging) - 1807/12 range

All my French units have the same battle honours inscribed on their flags as these were the ones Marcus Hinton engraved on them!

It was only when I based the figures that I discovered some of them were orientated at a slightly different angle which meant that lining them up was a right old faff. Interestingly (in a nerdy way) my other unit of this figure type (the Swiss) are all orientated in yet another direction. I know all the figures I used are genuine vintage castings but presumably they have come from different molds.

In other news I was very pleased to receive some Russian cuirassier castings from Don W. in the US last week. This was exceedingly generous of him and I have already stripped the figures and prepared them for undercoating also converting a trumpeter.

RN/30 Russian Cuirassier (mounted) charging - one-piece-castings.

These cuirrasiers together with my Garde du Corps will certainly catch the eye of the Czar once painted.

Russian Horse Guard - or is it?

Well, no this is actually a Prussian Garde du Corps trooper with a small modification and paint job conversion. The modification is that I have removed the canteen slung above the scabbard, apart from that the figure is unchanged.

PN.73 Prussian Garde du Corps (mounted), charging - painted as a Russian Life Guard.

So why have I done this? The simple answer is that I don't have any Russian heavy cavalry figures and as you know they are a bit on the rare side and this has stymied the growth of my Russian forces. I have infantry, artillery and some light cavalry in the lead pile but without the heavies you really can't fight Borodino can you?

The figure is similar enough to the Russian version to pass inspection. The saddle cloth is not square cut and the portmanteau is square not round but hey, who's counting?

What I do have are some recasts of Prussian Garde du Corps that were destined for Blucher's forces however last year's aquisition of Prussian dragoons and Cuirassiers means that old Marshal Vorwarts no longer needs them.

First though I must finish those French infantry.

Austrian parade and another drubbing at Goya's

Back last July I posted a review of the Austrian infantry but of course since then recruitment has continued unabated so I thought I would treat you with a full review of the complete Austrian army.

There are now 12 units of foot, 6 of cavalry and 6 batteries.

This brings the whole force (including generals) to 400+ figures which is surely enough?

I'm thinking even Bonaparte must be starting to take them seriously!

The map reading generals section - always good to know where you are.

On Monday I was invited to take in more seaside air at Goya's with a game billed as the AWI battle of Cowpens but as we were using his War of 1812 collection it had more of that sort of feel about it. The rules were standard Commands & Colors Napoleonic.

We played the game twice swapping sides. In the first game I was the Americans (on the left) and Goya played the British (on the right).

These are all Airfix British figures painted as US troops - they look great.

All the troops on my left flank were militia and once the redcoats advanced they seemed to melt away.

The result was a swift and decisive victory for Goya. These troops are of course Hinton Hunt so no wonder they were winning.

The second game played out in a completely different way as although the militia once again ran away it wasn't far enough to give me any VPs. Then somehow the US troops got the upper hand and before I knew it I seemed to have no army left...

It's always a pleasure to see Goya's troops on the table even if it results in a double drubbing!