Prussian Brigade Commands

With a few Waterloo related games June has been a slow month for painting but thankfully I've managed to complete 2 Prussian command bases to join my army. A video is probably overkill for such small progress however I made 1 for my YouTube channel so I've added it here to:

And below are some pics of the bases. I have no idea why my shading on the uniforms is unseen in the pics and the shading on my grey horse looks so harsh? I guess I'll never make a photographer!

I don't think I need any more brigade commands for my infantry now however I'd like to do a couple more with landwehr officers as I will be adding 2 final landwehr regiments to my army. 

 They are mostly AB figures, the general had his saddle altered and stars added and has had a head swapped. The feldjager has had a satchel added to keep maps and important messages in for a little interest.

The general here is a battle honours figure from a set my buddy Malc sent up to me (cheers Malc!). He's the same figure from the AB set just a little finer in scale however it's hardly noticeable. The ADC is the regular AB ADC with his bicorne in a waterproof cover and a new hand.

And a rear view showing the satchel.

So that's it short and sweet as June comes to an end, I hope everyone got a little bit of Waterloo gaming in and I'm hoping in July to crack on with my 4th Silesians landwehr regiment. I have a load of troops on the way from Dan Dunbar so I've started work on the command figures to finish the battalions!

Awe ra best

happy warGaming!!!

Falkirk Wargames Club: Waterloo Day1

I was incredibly fortunate to be invited to take part in Falkirk Wargames Club's Battle of Waterloo in 18mm using the General de Brigade rules. This was by far the most amazing wargaming experience of my life and as you will no doubt imagine set off all sorts of sparks of inspiration!!! Below you will find a link to my YouTube video of Day 1:

Or if you would prefer I have uploaded some pictures of the initial setup and opening moves from Day 1:

On Friday evening we all arrived at our host Alisdair's home in Edinburgh and made our way to his Wargames den in the bottom of his garden and the sight that awaited us was awe inspiring!!! 7,500 beautifully painted 18mm figures set out in their battalions, regiments and brigades for us to play with.

I felt like a kid in a candy shop!!! I'm sure we all did!

Billy with part of D'Erlons corp heads up the left of Hougoumont to attack the Brunswickers

A view from the French lines (Billy's command post) looking along the valley over Hougoumont towards the allied position on the ridge line opposite. Allied skirmishers can be seen forward of the ridge position.

The beautiful building complex of Hougoumont well garrisoned my Allied troops. I believe the building is produced by tiger terrain and is very interesting in that although it has the height and detail of 15mm buildings the actual footprint is very much reduced making it perfect for 15mm wargaming. 

The French initial advance limbered artillery with columns of infantry out front heading for the open ground to the right of Hougoumont.

The French advancing on La Haie Sainte, I believe the troops are Young Guard as the French brought on parts of the guard pretty early.

The 95th rifles defending La Haie Sainte were in a pretty exposed position. An early discussion by the Allied commanders came to the conclusion that La Haie Sainte was going to fall and the only question was "how long would it take?"

Wellington observes the initial French movements, the push on La Haie Sainte begins in earnest and the right wing of the French sets off for Papelotte. 

A view from Papelotte along the French lines, the French still have a pretty sizeable force in reserve off table. The advance is most definitely begun.

Almost my 1st roll of the dice and a double 6 for my skirmishers took 2 casualties from the French cavalry brigade (used to be an instant falter if I remember right?) advancing on our positions and their commander stumbled into our lines and was captured! The day started well, would it continue???

The staunch defenders of Papalotte, Sax Weimar and his troops will be sorely tested by the decisions of the Prince of Orange!!!

Nassau troops soften the French columns as they approach Hougoumont.

More Nassau troops looking across the French centre . . .

. . . As the French artillery limbers forward!

La Haie Sainte being put under a lot of pressure by the French Young guard, will they hold out?

And a final shot with the French advancing on Paplotte at the end of day 1, My position for the 1st couple of days of the battle until it was time for the Prussians to advance!!!

I'll get a post up for day 2 ASAP with plenty more pics and lots more action!!!

happy Wargaming!!!

Plancenoit Bat Rep 1815-2015

Right so our big battle fell on my only day off in my long week so I'm only getting around to the final bat rep now. I also wanted to say sorry for not getting round everyone's blogs, I just seem to be swamped at the moment however I'm off for a full week from tomorrow! I made a wee video of our days gaming and if you want to see more of the pics you can find them on my Facebook page under: paulalba

So here is the video for anyone who would like to watch it:

And if not here are a small selection of the pics:

Young David taking some shots at my advancing troops.

The 1st lot of my reinforcements arriving.

The main part of the town is my target.

AB French artillery making themselves heard.

The storm approaches.

Some of my newly finished landwehr were on their 1st outing, usually a bad omen!

Young David checking our interpretation of the rules, thankfully everything ran very smooth on the day.

Heavy fighting around the village.

The church and main area of Plancenoit cleared of French.

All 3 sections now in Prussian hands!!!

Entry of the young guard ( you'll see AB Swiss standing in for YG in some of the pics).

As they approached I double 6'd the lead unit with my jäger (jammy git!!!)

Well into the battle at this point, the Prussians are holding off the YG however they are being worn down by the attackers. It was great fun throughout!!!

Prussian reinforcements threw themselves into the battle at times getting thrown back but they made a good account of themselves.

The 2nd YG arriving on the table . . .

The YG target the middle section of the town trying to split the Prussian forces.

A sturdy defence of the Prussian right as the French bare down on them!

Chaos in the centre as I rush my reserves to far forward and they are caught by a YG battalion and a rout is begun with a couple of units being lifted from the field however the remaining battalions formed square and the fleeing troops flowed round them and their morale rolls were high, the advance continued!

The table at the end of the game, a YG battalion finally pushed itself back into the centre section however the Prussians most certainly fought them down all the way with a few battalions on assault orders ready to hit the unformed unit in the village.

We had a superb days gaming and it surprisingly went a lot smoother than we had thought it would as we hadn't played GdB in a long while.

David's AB legere being used as YG for the day. I believe AB will be doing Bardin uniformed YG soon so we will look forward to them! 

Old Glory YG fighting their way into the middle part of the village pushing back AB Prussians.

Some close ups of the troops, my newly painted Silesian landwehr making a good account of themselves in the battle. 

They managed to take and secure the church after some hard fighting.

Some recently painted Von Lutzow troops mixed in with some fusiliers from different battalions to make the 24 man battalions of the 25th regiment (I have only 1 battalion of the VL painted at the moment) Looked good to me as for 1815 there would be a few interesting uniform combinations if all the sources are anything to go by. I even had Saxons standing in as Westfalian Landwehr! Worked fine for me.

So all in all great fun and loads of inspiration for us to get more troops painted. I need a few more command bases and a good deal more landwehr plus jäger and maybe another artillery battery? I hope you enjoyed the read/video. Please remember we are not experts on the period and it was just a fun day out for us. I know there are a lot more qualified gamers out there who may require to see a more accurate battlefield and better looking terrain. I'm afraid unfortunately at the moment we don't have the time or space for that however we will try to improve over time!

Happy wargaming

Paul

Plancenoit Setup 1815-2015

So this will be young David and my own tribute to the 200th anniversary of the Waterloo campaign and to the men (and women) who fought in the Napoleonics wars. It's our 1st GdB game for a good while and we are looking forward to it. We set up early today before I left for work and we will fight the battle tomorrow from around 9am till late.

A view from behind the French lines towards the Prussian lead forces and on the left the Prussian reserves marked up and boxed.

I fired some paint on the church and some of the buildings today as they've looked pretty odd for far to long.

David sat his troops around Plancenoit however I'm sure he will redeploy tomorrow.

Prussian reinforcements waiting for their call to arms!!!

A view of the road ahead, Plancenoit must be taken!!!

Some of David's lovely chasseurs.

More of David's toys

And the main section of the town, the church will be a tough nut to crack . . .

Bat rep to follow!