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Saturday, 29 August 2020

15mm Peninsular War British/ Portuguese vs French- Shako II

 The French Army of Spain are in retreat and an Allied force has caught their rear guard covering the entrance to a narrow valley with the main French army trapped if the Allies can reach it quickly. 

 The Allies plan is to push up one of it's Portuguese Divisions and pin the French's left while the British 1st Division push for the valley, whilst the British 2nd Division will attempt to outflank the French's right The Portuguese Reserve Division would follow the British 1st Div up the valley, when it arrives on turn 2 (We diced for where it arrived along our table edge). 

The French plan was to stop the Allies reaching the valley entrance by pushing up along their entire line and hope night falls (or the club has to close!)

All figures are from my collection, and are a mix of manufacturers.

The British/ Portuguese initiative dice were woeful and the French got the drop on us for the entire game! Written orders were issued at the beginning of the game and were questioned as the game progressed.

 Turn 1: The French pushed up their entire line and the Portuguese 2nd Division moved up, as did the British.

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urn 2: The French won all the initiative dice, and were making it difficult for the Allies to manouver. The arrival of the Reserve Division was not favourable either, and was right into the fray! Allies Right flank, two Portuguese Divisions (3rd Div & Reserve Div). The Division on the left of the picture just marched on and was supposed to be our reserve! The French Dragoons Charge the Artillery and run it down after having it fire and miss! 

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 3rd Portuguese Division, showing their initiative dice!

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 British Central Division (1st Div), made up of 2 Guards Battalions, 3 Scottish Elite Battalions. 2 Line Battalions and a Light Battalion. 3 skirmish units to their front. The French got to the farm and the cover of the stone walls

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British Left Flank, 5 Line, 1 light, Heavy Dragoons and a hussar Regt., move up but are mirrored by the French Cavalry

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French Centre moving up to occupy one of the objectives photo DSC02784_zpslc5bel5q.jpg 

The Portuguese (3rd Div) occupy one of the objectives, having now lost the Artillery and an Infantry Battalion from the first French Dragoon Charge, and now the second French Dragoon Regt. cause chaos within the Allies ranks. The Dragoons had no where to go now but had taken 2 kills and became staggered s one of the Portuguese battalions stood firm! The Allies Reserve Division, now completely on their own and was only 4 battalions big, so could not afford to lose any of it's units. photo DSC02785_zpswqu8albg.jpg 

The mayhem of the two French Dragoons units have caused. photo DSC02786_zpsijmzk3td.jpg 

The centers clash, with the British getting the better of the melees (note the initiative dice). photo DSC02787_zpsps6qdgbk.jpg 

The British left flank lost both it's cavalry unit, both killed outright by very poor British melee and very good French dice, but the so did the French, as they were chasing the retreating British Cavalry. photo DSC02788_zps3k0ijb0f.jpg 

 

And there they are.....Bonjour!

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 The Allies were just starting to get a foothold in the center, but the lack of Cavalry now made the task very hard to achieve anything, as the French were now in the allies rear, and believe or not all the French Cavalry were still within command next turn as the French pressed the Flanks of the Cavalry less Allies. The allies would not achieve their objective as the French could see what was afoot and recalled units and rewrote orders to secure the center and force the Allies back off table.

Saturday, 22 August 2020

La Haye Saint- 2 in 1

2 in 1, I hear you say? Destroyed and complete, here's how. You need two La Haye Saints, this is the good old Airfix 1/72nd model from the 70's The base is hard board, and the central paved area is wall paper sample from B&Q (Free). I made the internal damaged walls smaller internally than the shell that will go over it. Make sure before glueing in place (tack with hot glue gun with roof off). photo DSC00782.jpg 

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The destroyed parts finished inside the complete shellphoto DSC00777.jpg 

With the outer shell in place

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The extended wall on the model had to be made thicker,by using two of the walls stuck together to make a shell,so the ruined wall could not be seen photo DSC00772.jpg

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 Sand and grit added to courtyard

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All painted, the finshed project:

The Germans arrive. Zis iz your billet Herr Major.photo DSC00800.jpg 

 "Check out ze buildings men" 

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 "und ze garten, any zourkraut?" 

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Allied Aerial observer see whats moving about. photo DSC00803.jpg 

Two Regiments of 25pdrs later

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I still have 2 unmade complete models to "play" with.

Sunday, 16 August 2020

28mm Saxon Army

At our AGM last year I won a Saxon starter Army from Warlord Games. Not the best sculpts by any means, but for free, then fine. I had some metal metals from Wargames Foundry, Perrys and Gripping Beast and added some of the lovely Victrix Anglo/ Danes to up the numbers to a decent sized army for Sword & Spear rules. 

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Some Ancient Cavalry that would receive some head swaps. photo DSC04769_zpsnprl0nhi.jpg 

Some Archers from Conquest games 

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Anglo Danes from Victrix 

photo Phase 2 Victrix 1_zpstutloxlw.jpg photo Phase 2 Victrix 4_zps5tcxr75u.jpg 

Some units were getting steel spears

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 The sprues were washed and then cut from sprue and kept in this boxed. I cut enough to make one unit at a time (20 figs) 

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Did some kit bashing too. 

photo Phase 2 Victrix 14_zpseuoxfh1n.jpg 

Victrix straight from sprue 

photo Phase 2 Victrix 16_zps3qoymsrm.jpg 

 First unit made. 

photo Phase 3 1st unit 1_zpsihrdespn.jpg 

2nd unit, using steel spears

 photo Phase 4 2nd unit 1_zpsdw9tgs4s.jpg 

Block painted each unit, then used coloured washes

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Washes

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3 months of building and painting later. Completed Army 

 photo Army Complete 1_zps079gn5ni.jpg 

General & 2 sub Generals (Captains)

 photo Army Complete 2_zpstue8lg5j.jpg 

Javelin & Bow Light Foot. Skirmish Javelin unit (Kit bashed from Conquest Archers Torsos and Warlord Games bits & arms) 

 photo Army Complete 3_zpse2r8bidd.jpg 

Skirmish Bow can also have five extra figures to make an Archer unit

 photo Phase 19 4_zpsaqnua8qg.jpg 

Armoured Thegns 

 photo Army Complete 4_zpsz8ph7hfn.jpg photo Army Complete 5_zpsbvldfveh.jpg 

Fyrd 

photo Army Complete 6_zps7we263xy.jpg photo Army Complete 7_zpse6pgxwnd.jpg 

and Cavalry 

photo Army Complete 8_zpsapngtgdo.jpg 

More Fyrd

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Slingers

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