Thursday, October 30, 2014

Battle Report - Peninsular Campaign - Part 2


Following on with the battle report, the french exchange fire with the portuguese and british regiments on the outskirts of the town. Most of the british/portuguese fire comes from attacks columns, thus not very effective, and the french soon start to gain the upper hand on the clash.

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In the city's main square, the Old Guard is targeted by accurate british volleys, and becomes temporarily disordered. The english guns wheel on the background to position themselves to support the line.

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Out of the town, the firing continues, with heavy losses on both sides.

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One of the french regiments opens space for the artillery to fire, but their shots prove inaccurate, failing to break the portuguese column. Such was the mess in the battlefield, that the british regiment supporting the portuguese column misinterprets an order to advance and end up moving to the rear.

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On the other side of the river, 2 french regiments advance in column towards the spanish line, that  in turn moves to the left, thus allowing line of fire to the british artillery in the back.

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Meanwhile, the Imperial Guard is fighting alone the entire british 2º brigade, and things are looking grim for the legendary guards. It's fundamental for the french strategy that the Guard holds the centre, thus stopping the british from sending support to the firefight in the french left flank, where the forces of Napoleon are starting to prevail.

The commander of the french centre brigade joins the Old Guard and leads it to charge the british line.

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On the british right flank, the English commander watches the situation deteriorate as 2 french light regiments approach from the far right.

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The isolated british 3º brigade is also in trouble. 2 french columns reach the spanish line, closely followed by carabiniers horsemen.

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The Old Guard in the centre of the battlefield inflict heavy losses on the british infantry, but it refuses to break and simply retreat a few yards. The british Dragoons then position to charge the Guards from behind. Any other unit would probably break on such cicunstances, but not the guard. It was fighting an entire enemy brigade on its on, and stood its ground.

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The left of the french flank was doing better, and 2 regiments charged the portuguese column advancing unsupported. It was already demorallised by mutiple volleys of fire, and couldn't resist much longer.

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On the 3º british brigade, the spanish line breaks and flees, leaving the rest of the brigade unprotected. The english commander orders a retreat, lest the approaching enemy cavalry sweeps through the entire corps.

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In the city square, a british light regiment entrenched in the church reforms on the outside to charge the flank of the Imperial Guard.

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The Heavy dragoons, having failed to break the Guard, pivot around and charge the nearby french battery, and easily break Napoleon's guns. The horsemen are now in the middle of the french forces, posed to inflict yet more damage to the enemy's flanks.


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Out of the town, the portuguese column breaks, and the french advance toward the british line regiment, while sustaining volley after volley from the a portuguese line deployed alongside the fences nearby.

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A french Aid-de-Camp handles a message to a courier to be delivered to the General of Division. The french are advancing rapidly on the left flank.

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The french staff finds itself suddenly exposed to the enemy, after the british horses break the french artillery. Several aides-the-camp urge the Marshall to move from that area immediatelly.

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On the french right flank, carabiniers advance toward the fleeing british forces.

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At that point, we had to call it a day, for my friend had to go. By then, it was not yet an obvious victory for the french, but it was clear that another turn or two would seal the fate of the british. Therefore, we determined that the british chose to retreat and prevent further damage to their forces.

It was a very fun game, very visually appealing and flowing. Napoleonics is definitely a favorite genre for me, and I'm more that excited to build the other armies of the period, as well as adding more units to my existing ones.

The biggest challenge is finding people interested in playing the period. In my gaming group, this is scarce, as my friends are fond of games such as 40k and Warmachine, and Historical gaming doesn't ring a bell on most of them at all. And those that do like Historical Gaming are not particularly interested in the Napoleonic Period *sigh*.

I found that historical gaming, and napoleonics in special, are more of interest for middle aged gamers. Younger audiences are generally more enthusiastic about fantastic genres, full of magic and weird creatures, and think of Historical gaming as boring. There are no ubber heroes, no hi-tech pulverizing weapons. Historicals are more about your maneuvering on the field than superiority of stats. And I find this to be quite engaging.

But anyways, I hope to get a game at least once a month, and I'll also be building armies of other periods as well, namely Imperial Rome and Crusades.

*End of Transmission*



Monday, October 27, 2014

Battle Report - Peninsular Campaign - Part 1


Last saturday I played Black Powder with my own minitatures for the first time. As currently my two available armies are french and british, this was an enactment of a clash during the Peninsular War, most certainly.

It was a 680 point game with the Black Powder rules, and I played with a friend that never had contact with that ruleset before. The system is very much "noob-friendly", and he was able to quickly grab the basic concepts of the rules while we were going.

The Armies:

French

-1º Brigade (French left flank)
2 Regiments of French Line Infantry
1 Regiment of the Old Guard

-2º Brigade (French centre)
1 Regiment of French Line Infantry
1 Regiment of French Light Infantry
1 Regiment of Carabiniers à Cheval

-3º Brigade (French right flank)
 2 Regiments of French Light Infantry
 1 Battery of Foot Artillery



British

-1º Brigade (British right flank)
2 Regiments of Portuguese Line Infantry
1 Regiment of British Line Infantry
1 Regiment of British Light Infantry

-2º Brigade (British centre)
1 Regiment of British Line Infantry
1 (small) Regiment of British Rifles
1 Regiment of British Heavy Dragoons
1 Battery of Foot Artillery

-3º Brigade (British left flank)
 1 Regiment of Spanish Line Infantry
 1 (small) Regiment of Portuguese Caçadores
 1 Battery of British Horse Artillery


I forgot to take pictures of the deployment, but from then on I took a whole lot of them. Here we see the first movement of troops in the field.


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It was early in the morning when the opposed forces made contact. The british had seized the field and planned to entrench in the village beside the river. The french wanted to avoid a city fight, and doubled their march to meet their foes before that. By the time the armies deployed for battle, the small town was half way from each force.


The british left flank (third brigade) was ordered to cross the river (shallow waters) so to draw part of the french forces away, leaving the bulk of the british army to fight for control of the town.
The french third Brigade followed suit, and soon the battle was divided over the two river banks.  The British centre marched toward the Old Guard, which was then ordered to maneuver into the town, thus avoiding confronting alone the entire British 2º Brigade.

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In the other side of the river, the french send the cavalry to flank the british on their left. The Spanish regiment prepares to form a line of fire to repel the french infantry. Meanwhile, the horse artillery maneuvers behind to find a good position to pound over the enemy.

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In the outskirts of the small town, the armies close in.

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The british Commanders face some difficulty in having the portuguese regiments march forward. The french are quicker to deploy in firing lines on the left flank. At the same time, the Old Guard rush into the city centre, trying not to get caught on march column by the British 2º Brigade.

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French Fusiliers prepare to open fire on advancing columns of portuguese and british.

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The Imperial Guard manages to reform into attack column after reaching the main square. The british infantry is already in fire line, pivoting for a better position. The rifles are ordered to flank the guard through the right, while the dragoons attack on the left.

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In the other bank, french regiments advance in attack column towards the spanish lines, which are backed by portuguese caçadores and british horse artillery. 

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The fighting is about to start. Stay tunned for Part 2 of this Battle Report!


*End of Transmission*

Friday, October 24, 2014

More stuff for my Space Nazis

As I mentioned on my previous post, there is a plethora of awesome "nazish" models around for 28-30mm wargaming. Here are some of them that I'll be adding to my army on the near future:


DreamForge Games Eisenkern APC

This is going to be the main armored personal carrier for my nazis, helping the far-right racists get to where they are needed the most. There are also going to be options armed with anti-tanks guns, so this vehicle is going to be quite versatile.

Antenocitis Zebu Scout car

Not sure yet what I'll use that for, maybe a light command vehicle, to help my HQ's get around quicker. A cool loking model, with an aesthetic that goes well with the Dreamforge one, so it's a must-have for my nazis.


Khurasan Sabre Medium Tank

Well, I want a nice looking model to perform the role of MBT for my nazis, and don't want to use any model related to a specific ruleset of existing scifi background, and this model is a very good option, maybe a little on the small side for my liking, but still very attractive. Another option I like very much is the Pig Iron Productions Tank, a true beast, but I already use those for my Warpath Corporation army.

I could also use Ramshackle Games "Pug" tank. It's obviously inspired on the German Stug tank, and comes with lots of options. My only reserve is that its retro look might not fit well with the rest of my nazi stuff.






DreamForge Games Heavy Troopers

As I'm using the Eisenkern for my basic troopers, it's only logical that I use their heavy armor options as well. This kit is also going to provide some cool special weapons to help equip my nazi units.


Raging Heroes' Iron Empire

These are from the Toughest Girls of the Galaxy Kickstarter, from Raging Heroes. I pledged for the Iron Empire models, and those portrayed above are just a few examples of the amazing looks of this army. There is also bikes and walkers, HQ's, snipers, zombies, etc. They're going to represent a female regiment of my space nazis.

Mantic's Plague Zombies


These are from the Deadzone Kickstarter, and I already have 45 of them in my painting desk (at US$10.00 for a sprue of 5, those are quite affordable). These are going to represent enemy troops brought back to life (kind of, anyway) by the evil nazi scientists. After all, what's a scifi nazi army without some zombies, right?!


And finally, Forgeworld. I'm not a fan of heroic scaled models at all (like, at all!), and try to avoid them as much as possible, nowadays, but Forgewold has some really nice HQ's that I could use for my Nazis, and the company's sense of proportions is more aesthetically pleasant than that of GW, so not that far from the rest of the stuff I'm using in the army.

*End of Transmission*