Round up of my last three months gaming.

August and September were quiet on the gaming front with a selection of real-life stuff combining to reduce the opportunities for games. Not least of these was the loss of my father in-law at the age of ninety-six in mid-August. A week's family holiday and the unavailability of our club facility due to other bookings also added to this.

The end of September and October however have made up for this with two Friday night games, one Saturday game and last weekend a Friday/Saturday game which I ran, which will be the subject of a further post.

The first game was a fictional Napoleonic Peninsular war encounter using Shako II rules, the second a Seven Years War game based on the Battle of Krefeld in 1758 using the Shako I SYW supplement and the third the Battle of Culloden in 1746 using Black Powder.

I'll just post my selection of photographs for these games with links to the club's Facebook page for full AARs and lots more photos.

Peninsular War: Shako II

Starting positions. British defending a ridge line with a picket forward in a village.

British and Portuguese lights defend the village.

British artillery and skirmishers try to delay the French advance.

British line steps up to the ridgeline and pours volleys into the French.

French capture the village and continue their advance.

More devastating British volleys.

Full AAR on Facebook Here

Battle of Krefeld,1758: Shako I

Starting positions, my Hanoverian command nearest

Time to advance.

Brunswick troops arrive to the rear of the French flank.

French left flank being rolled up.

Full AAR on Facebook Here

Battle of Culloden,1746: Black Powder.

Government troops starting position with Jacobite hoard opposite.

Government force need to extend their line.

Highlanders face close range volley fire.

Government horse try to redeploy as the Jacobites start to make inroads.

Bayonets vs claymores as things get up close and personal.

Full AAR on Facebook Here

Three great games to get the gaming vibe going again.

Bredelar 1761, Seven Years War, Game at NBHW

On Friday 18th of March we got together for a Seven Years War action to try out using Shako II for this period. Shako had a SYW section and several suggested amendments for Shako II can be found online.

The "small" test game was based on two actions around the same time near Bredelar 5th Aug 1761, which our umpire had combined into one. The allied army of Hanover, Brunswick and Great Britain aim was to attack the French rearguard and capture river crossings they were attempting to retreat over cutting them off and forcing a surrender.

"Small" test game.

I had command of the allied right wing consisting of the British contingent under General Conway featuring eight battalions of foot and five regiments of cavalry. Ahead of me were French and German grenadiers of Voyer's division.

The right of my command.

My left including the cavalry.

 Across the whole allied line the order to advance was given. On the far left the Hanoverians of General Witginau moved steadily towards the retiring french infantry of Rochambeau. In the centre more Hanoverians and Brunswickers under General Wolff advanced on the French battalions of General Stainvilles, while I moved ahead to engage the grenadiers.

My infantry advance.

Fire!

After initial success for the allies, especially on the left where allied cavalry suddenly appeared on the far side of the river, having crossed further up stream surprising the French flank, things started to go wrong. The French cavalry of Rochambeau were also on that side of the river and about faced and after several swirling cavalry melees saw off the allied cavalry. Meanwhile my advance had stalled after several musketry duels and my initial bayonet charge had been repulsed with the 20th foot routing.

My cavalry advance on my left as the Maison de Roi appear.

In the centre the British and Hanovarian cavalry massed for a charge on the french infantry of Stainvilles. Some accurate french artillery weakened these units on the way in, and after an initial success saw one french battalion destroyed, the rest stood their ground and fired point blank volleys sending the first ranks of horsemen back reeling. While the allied horsemen were reorganising themselves for a fresh assault the French horse of the elite Maison de Roi game up from a rear position and crashed into them sending the majority from the field in panic.

Allied cavalry charge.

With the allied advance stalling across the whole front the French were now able to commence their planned withdrawal unmolested.

Stalemate on the allied right.

A good evening for the French players who definitely had the dice gods on their side that night. As for the rules it appeared that Shako II with tweaks can indeed give a good game in this period.

As usual more photos in the club's Facebook album

Tony

2021 Round Up

So 2021 and this blog, what happened?

I think with the pause in gaming due to various lock-downs and a corresponding loss of mojo towards figure painting and that side of the hobby I just got out of the habit of blogging.

I also tended to write my blog entries during quiet periods at work and these seemed to get fewer last year.

A few wider family matters also conspired to reduce the enthusiasm to spend my free time on this hobby and therefore blogging about it.

This doesn't mean I didn't play any games, on the contrary I took part in several at New Buckenham during the latter part of last year, with rotten luck mind you. I finally came out on the winning side on the last game of the year, I even became the first British CinC to lose a Rorke's Drift game at the club.

Rather than try and post individual articles for each of theses games, even if I could remember enough about them, I have decided to summarise them with lots of my pics and links to the club's AARs.

Gorodeczna 12th Aug 1812 (Shako II)

No pictures from me for this one so Club Album and AAR

Rolica 17th Aug 1808 (Shako II)

Lost this one on the last morale check of the game. I failed, so British stopped exhausted, French played passed his allowing an orderly withdrawal.

Club Album and AAR

Willavera 1809, fictitious scenario (Shako II)

Club Album and AAR

Rorke's Drift 22nd Jan 1879 (Black Powder)

Guess what? yep last dice throw of the game, British morale save...........fail!

Club Album and AAR

Talavera 28th Jul 1809, Laval attacks the redoubt (Carnage & Glory)

Again no pictures from me so Club Album and AAR

Borodino 1812 (Shako II)

Stand by for lots of pics of this three day game:

Club Album and AAR Day 1

Club Album and AAR Day 2

Club Album and AAR Day 3

First Torgau 8th Sept 1759 (Black Powder)

Club Album and AAR

Peninsular War 1808 or 1810 Rearguard action (Shako II)

Finally a win! rear-guard protecting a stubborn engineering officer who refuses to leave his supplies.

Club Album and AAR

In all the above pictures if they feature British or Portuguese Napoleonic figures they are most likely mine, with a few exceptions, hussars for example.

Hopefully I will get back into the swing of it again this year, starting with next Saturday's game of Isandlwana from the Anglo Zulu war.

Thanks and best wishes for 2022

Tony.