The big picture

Hi,

Or at least, a big post with pictures . . . .

Last night I managed to get out to the Dueling Grounds for the first time since before the new addition arrived. I didn't get a game in, but did manage to sit in of most of a game of Lasalle, and get some pics of a biggish Impetus game going on at the next table over. There's plenty of pictures in this post, so a heads up to those of you with slow internet.

First up, I managed to get some pictures of the completed Hussar base. We had a guy in doing some plaster work in the apartment, and in the process of cleaning up the dust, I found an old can of Armory matt varnish, which unlike the GW stuff, seems to last forever. A couple of light coats later, and the Hussars are ready for their public ;)







Next up, I got some shots of an Impetus game that JJMicromegas from THMG was coaching for some of the guys. I didn't sit in and follow it, but it looked good. The figures are all from JJM's collection of "true 25s", and they were playing a fairly large game - around 400 points I think it was, Philip vs. Sthpartaaaaaaaa!.









The highlight of the evening for me, however, was a game of Lasalle played by michaeld (playing Russians, guards IIRC) and James Smith (playing Waterloo notBritish), again, both from the THMG. The game was played on a table the club recently put together for a FoW show in Barrie. Looked marvelous.

Opening moves saw the notBritish advance, with an aggressive push on their right towards the Russian position around the manor house.





The Russians formed up to welcome their guests.



After both sides deployed battaries on the notBritish right, and traded some fairly ineffective shots, the notBritish concentrated their attack on the left side of the manor. In the lead were the shaky, amateur Hanoverian cavalry, who apparantly were so new to the business they didn't realise the trouble they were in.



On the left, the notBritish used the gullies that cut across the ground to advance under cover towards the Russian line.



With a (possibly drunken?) "Hurrah!", the Hanoverians charged a battary of Russian guns deployed to the right of the manor. One can only assume their officer was so amateur he was unaware of the effect cannister could have at short range. A more experienced leader would probably realised he was about to lead his troops into a dog food factory.



Of course, a more experienced leader would also not have over-run the Russian guns, and barrelled on into two battalions of Infantry, only one of which was able to form square in time.



You can see the abandoned Russian guns behind the upper set of units.



Amazingly, both cavalry units were thrown back in disarray, and the Russians promptly formed the rest of their infantry into square. It was around this time I had to leave, but the battle was apparantly settled by a clash between the elite cavalry on both sides - Russian guard and uhlans vs. Brunswick. When the game was called for time, the Brunswickers had thrown back the Russians, and the notBritish were closing in on all sides.

I have to say, the game looked terrific, and played much quicker than I had expected from reading the rules. If I had the cash, I'd be putting in an order for 15mm napoleonic figs right now. As it is (unless I find a buyer for some fo the geek detritus I'm trying to sell off), I'm going to be good and stick to the projects I've got going already. Priority is to get something on the table I can play. More on that next post.