Review, long past review

 Hi gang,

Finished up a couple more units of Russians for Blucher, a second unit of grenadiers, and the last of the line.  With these two finished, I've now got eight units / brigades done up - the planned infantry core for my initial 200 points of Russians, so I figured it was worth getting them all out for a review.

This leaves me with another unit of heavy cavalry, one of cossacks, and two batteries of guns to finish up, which is relatively easy striking distance.  I've been slightly sidetracked by some GW stuff (as I noted last post, there's a new edition of Age of Sigmar in the pipeline, and the Cub is here for the summer, so 40k is once again a thing), but I should get to these in the foreseeable future (the Cuirassiers are staring at me intently from the painting queue as I write this).  

In semi-related news, I spent a rather enjoyable morning loitering about the Virtual Joy of Six.  This is the UK based wargames show focused on 6mm that I drool over each year, but don't get to attend (what with the inconvenient ocean in the way).  This year, they did an on-line version, due to Covid.  While I missed some of the morning sessions (time zones are a thing), I did manage to catch the main panel, some painting and trader discussions, and lurk in the background of some great-looking games.  Saw a number of "faces" that are familiar from the 6mm scene and the blogosphere, and generally had myself a delightful time.  Many thanks to those who organized the event!

We've had some odd weather here lately (stonking hot, then a week of rain) which has put a bit of a damper (HA!) on outdoor gaming, but it looks like we've got a break next week.  If I can clear the decks of some work stuff, I should be able to get in a Pikemans' Lament game against a real-live opponent.  

The Cub and I have also played the first of our traditional summer 40k bonanza, and I'll get up some pics of that in a bit.

FMB

The big boys

 Hi all,

I found myself needing a beak from painting 28mm, and turned, perhaps predictably, to 6mm, specifically my Napoleonic Russians.  

I painted up a brigade of grenadiers.  The Russians fielded both dedicated grenadier regiments, and converged.  This brigade is made up of battalions from the Moscow and Kiev grenadier regiments.

Along with the grenadiers, I also painted up my first brigade of cuirassiers, made up of squadrons from the Little Russia and Novgarod regiments.

As with all of my units, these are based off of those that operated in the 1813 campaign.

As I was wrapping these up, the Victrix Vikings arrived, and promptly took over my hobby desk.  I've put together several, and will have a post on them soon.

FMB

Reinforcing Russians

Hi all,

Finished up a cavalry base for my Blucher Russians.  This is Lanskoi's brigade at Lutzen, composed of the Alexandria, White Russia, and Soum Hussars.

Uniforms were grey, black, and blue.  A somber lot, this.

Tried something a little different with this base, going for a larger number of "unit clumps" composed of a smaller number of figures.  Not sure if it sells the effect as well as the last base I did, but it's growing on me.

Turns out, 6mm pelisses (pelissae?) are kind of cute.

In Blucher, there's only two categories of Russian cavalry (three, if you include cossacks), heavy (guards and cuirrassiers) and "not-heavy", which seems to include dragoons, hussars, uhlans, etc.  I figure by sticking to an all Hussar brigade, I can run these as "lights" in any game with more granular distinctions between units.  I'll admit, I am tempted to do up a mixed cavalry brigade at some point, although the Russians seem to have mostly brigaded their cavalry by weight.

Some AoS/40k stuff is likely next, and then more historicals.  Until then, stay well.

FMB

Russians. Yes, those Russians.

Hi all,

Finished up another unit of Russian line for Blucher.



This brigade is made up of battalions from the Volhynia and Tobolsk regiments.  Per my usual approach, the growing list is based on an oob from an actual period battle (Lutzen, in this case), but I'm not setting out to specifically recreate that battle.



I used some of the "skirmishing" figures I picked up in my last Baccus order on these.  Actually not sure whether I prefer these guys in their "action pose", or just more fellows marching.  We'll see if they grow on me.  Next up for the Russians will be some Hussars.  Going to try a slightly different approach with them than I did with my dragoons;  we'll see how it turns out.

FMB

Inaugural Blucher

Hi all,

Took advantage of a bad weather day to commandeer the dining room table, and run through a trial of the Blucher rules, by Sam Mustafa.  These attracted, I think, a fair amount of attention when they came out a few years back, but for those of you unfamiliar, they're his latest run at big-battle rules for the Napoleonic period.

Glam shot for posting purposes ;)

Units are brigade to division sized, and they're designed to handle the really big battles of the period.  They're also the rules system. for which I've been painting and basing my Napoleonic Russians.  I've had the rules for a while, and picked up the cards back around Christmas, but have only now gotten things out for a game.

Laying out the armies.  Cards act as a partial blind.  You know something is there, just not what it is.

Blucher is designed to be played with or without miniatures.  Cards can serve as both an introductory game mechanic (so you don't need completed armies prior to play), but also as a partial blind in the earlier stages of the game.  I put together some quick and dirty forces (3 core Russians vs. French, with 8 infantry, 3-4 cavalry, and 2 guns apiece), slapped down some terrain, and deployed.  Due the limitations of space (I think next time I'll break out the big cardboard underlayer), the front lines deployed close enough to be discovered in the opening turns.  Part of me has been thinking that smaller bases might have been a more practical approach for the game (in that table size keys off of of unit footprint), but if I'm doing napoleonics, I'm in it for the spectacle, so bigger bases are more fun.

My poor old camera.  At least part of the pic is in focus ;)

To give some structure to the game, I had three areas operate as objectives - the two "towns", and the crossroads.  The basic idea was an attack by the French to seize a crossroads and river crossing, with the Russians moving to prevent it.

Russian main line revealed by encroaching French.

The early stages of the battle saw the French pushing towards the Russian center, and the crossroads, while their cavalry corps tried to turn the Russian right flank, and envelop.  The French did try to advance on the Russian left, but found it harder to coordinate the attack on that flank.



That flank attacked was stymied by an absolutely courageous defense conducted by a brigade composed of battalions from the Perm and Sievsk regiments, who ended up holding off a sequence of attacks by waves of cavalry throughout the whole game.  "Prepared" infantry, while immobile, gain significant advantages in combat vs. cavalry, and the French inability to coordinate infantry and cavalry together (partly due to terrain), meant they were able to hold the flank.

View from the French left.

Attrition in the centre built up, while on the Russian left, both armies were able to eventually coordinate, and the French closed to skirmish distance.  They held their ground, and began a steady harrassing fire of the Russian line.

On the Russian left.  The Tsar's men take the hill, but the French move to challenge.

Some of the mechanisms of Blucher began to assert themselves at this point.  Artillery effect is essentially ablative; your guns' firepower degrades over time, as ammunition is used up.  The effect is that while artillery can wear down infantry, or if concentrated do real damage, sooner or later, the infantry has to move in.  This happened in the game, with both sides eventually using up their ammo, and retiring their guns.  Meanwhile, on the right, the Russian brigade still held the line.

Someone is getting a medal.  This brigade held off successive charges from the French cavalry from dawn to around 2pm.

On the left, the French advantage in skirmishing (they get a bonus, as the Russians do defending in combat), took it's toll, wearing down the brigades anchoring the Russian line.  Two of them broke, and the French moved in.  In the centre, fire and combat, plus the damage done by artillery, was wearing down both sides.  The French had an edge in infantry, but the casualties to the French cavalry compensated, and both sides were getting close to their breaking point.

The Russian cavalry reserve deploys.

At this point, the Russians activated their reserves.  Blucher allows units still "hidden" to make a reserve move in the game.  As long as they don't come too close to the enemy, units can rapidly redeploy in a single turn, and become revealed.  The Russians did this to their cavalry, partly to block the French cavalry's attempt to go around the stubborn Russian brigade blocking them, and partly to hold up the French attack on the left, which was gaining momentum.

The Russian left starting to falter.  After a slow start, the French pushed hard here.

Things were getting tense.  Several Russian units were on their last legs, and if the French could push an attack home, it was likely the shaken brigades wouldn't hold.  On the other hand, the French cavalry had shattered on the Russian right, and the remnants were driven off by the Russian reserves.  The next army to lose a unit, would lose the battle.

Artillery exhausted on both sides.  It's down to the PBI.

Can the cavalry ride to the rescue?

The Russian brigade anchoring the right is hanging by a thread.

Then the French unloaded a rippling line of fire, and the Russians, stouthearted as there were, blinked first.  Puddin', who was acting as my dice roller and general advisor, rolled a trip six for one French unit, knocking out a Russian brigade.  Their whole line recoiled, and the Russians gave up the field.

Never let the 8-year old roll the dice.  Unless she's rolling for me.

Undone by skirmish fire.  I assume the general was hit, and the whole brigade panicked.

This turned out to be a ripper of a game - despite it being a rather clumsy learning experience, and not really planned out at all.  The game seems to really be about army coordination; getting your bits to act together is really important, but a constant challenge.  It feels like you're coordinating an army.  The MO mechanic (a blind dice roll acts as a limit to action, but isn't revealed until exceeded) means you are constantly having to prioritize what parts of the battle need the most attention.  Combat is attrition-based.  Your units wear down to the point where they can become vulnerable, and if you don't have reserves or a second line, a whole wing can collapse with shocking rapidity.

Left-centre at end of game.

On a knife edge.  One more turn, and those Russian cavalry would have cracked open the French on the Russian left.

There's also a ton of untapped depth to the game.  I barely touched army building, terrain, and the scenario was strictly instrumental.  There's what looks like an excellent "campaign" system to set up battles - sort of a strategic mini-game informing the tactical game on-table.  There's also the sheer depth of the period itself.   It was also surprisingly conducive to solo play; the dice introduce enough randomness that whatever side you're playing has to react to events, and with a larger table I think the impact of the reserve option will be more evident.  Definitely glad I picked the rules up, and I will keep building towards a full army.

FMb

Mixed bag

Hi all,

Another Russian base for Blucher finished up this week, along with a bit of an experiment.





This lot has flags from the Tchernigov and Selenguinsk regiments.  Getting into the swing of these guys, with another set on deck.  I'll ride the 6mm train until the Magpie strikes, and then shift gears, but in the meantime, seem to be getting things done.

I've also been playing around with some 6mm WWII stuff  As I think I mentioned in my last post, I was able to print out some Panzer IVs on a 3d printer last week.  I gave them a quick paint up, and based them as an experiment.







I don't know if these are great, but at a nickel a pop I can't complain.  Colours were a little dark - I tried something with the new GW contrast paints that worked, but ended up abou two shades darker than I'd anticipated.  Grist for the mill.

I've got another order in with some attempts at different positions on the turret, and we'll see how they turn out. The idea would be to use this for Rommel, and I think for the next base, I'll try to scatter in some infantry as well.  This is definitely a slow-grow project, but it's something to muck about with, and an excuse to become familiar with some of the basic 3D modelling software out there.

FMB

Progress

Hi all,

I seem to be riding a burst of inspiration over the last week or so, as I've been busily pumping out units for the Blucher / Napoleonic / Russian project.  First up was a second base of infantry.





I'm playing around with different formations, this time a mixed line and column base.  Turned out okay, I think.  Formations and flags aren't to a specific oob, but I'm picking out formations that did actually appear in battles in 1812-13, and using them as a basis.



I'm starting to think, however, that my poor old Canon camera is on her last legs.  I've had the thing for more than a decade, and it's done yeoman service, but it seems to be struggling with both focus and light these days.



The cavalry (dragoon brigade) base was a little challenging.  I'm not sure it sells the idea of a brigade strength formation, but now that it's based, I'm a little happier with it.



The artillery base, however, was kind of fun, I definitely got to tell a bit of a story with it.





Not sure if I'll have room to use all the limbers and caissons I have, but I'll figure something out.

I've got another unit of infantry primed and ready to go, and the first of the cards for Blucher have arrived, so if I can steal some time I might get in a test game.  Fingers crossed.

FMB

The start of something new (only not)

Hi all,

Waaaaaaay back in the day, before the Cub came along, I lived and worked in St. John's, Newfoundland.  A gaming buddy, who it turned out was the Canadian distributor for Baccus at the time, introduced me to some teeny-tiny fellows who've gone on to be my favoured scale for historicals (more or less, anyways).  Our main thing at the time was napoleonics, in the peninsula to be precise, and I amassed a reasonable collection of French (some of which appear in the first edition of the Napoleonic Polemos rules).

Muromsk and Reval Infantry

At the time, we had many a discussion about that eternal issue, basing.  My buddy advocated using larger bases, inspired by some of the fantastic stuff people were producing for Grand Armee, but in the end, we opted for 60x30 Polemos "standard" basing, as a method that would give us maximised flexibility (in that the rules allowed for 2 gaming scales, and 60x30 let us play both).  The idea of larger bases, however, had always stuck with me.  Then came Blucher.

As I'm sure I've said before, I'm a unreformed fanboy of Sam Mustafa's games, and have yet to find one I don't actively enjoy playing.  When Sam announced he was releasing a grand tactical napoleonics game, it's fair to say I was intrigued.  I picked up the .pdf, printed the sample cards, and even talked the Cub into a game (which only lasted about three turns, it wasn't his thing).  After that though, it kind of petered out.  No one local with which to play, a host of other gaming priorities, and a huge painting queue, meant that grand tactical napoleonics kind of fell by the wayside.

Might eventually see about working in some actual jaeger figures.

The thing is, though, I have a fair whack of assorted 6mm napoleonics, mostly Russian, from the same Big Buy that's been driving the expansion of my SYW collection (which I got through the same aformentioned buddy in Newfoundland who was getting out of the business).  I also have the time and space now to putter about with a large collection, in multiple periods, and damn the torpedoes.  I also had some of those Russians primed up, and glaring accusingly at me from the shelf, where they were unpacked into the light of day last week.  So, this happened.

Next time, I might try to get in the cords on the Kiwer as well

Behold, the first base of Russians for Blucher (among others).  Bases are 80x60, roughly the same size as the cards used in the game (Blucher can be played with cards, and uses them as a partial blind deployment mechanic).  They're the old Russian figs from Baccus, the ones that are a bit smaller, and with the fiddly bayonettes, but once I adjusted to them (and the fact that my eyes are around 15 years older than the last time I painted Napoleonic 6mm), it went fairly smoothly.

Units in Blucher, as with most SM games, are loosely scaled, but one base corresponds roughly to one multi-battalion brigade, so that's what I've tried to represent here, more or less.  What flags to use was a bit of an issue, but I'm loosely assuming each base is a couple battalions from two different regiments, and including a royal and regimental colour for each. Flags are monstrously oversized; I tried to match the size of flag I've been using from SYW, but as they came from a different source, they ended up bigger.  Might try with smaller, or just leave it, haven't yet decided.  No doubt I've made errors with the pom-poms, but life is short ;)

Still playing around with basing.

One of things I'm looking forward to with this project will be playing around with different formations on the bases, and ideally trying out some dioramic stuff.  I'll work with what I have for now in the way of figures (which might mean some historical anachronisms), in the hopes of getting in some solo games.  If I get enough painted, I might even be able to tempt some of the local historical gamers (with whom I'm finally making contact) to play?

On an unrelated note, I've recently been catching up on the "God's Own Scale" podcast.  It's relatively new, but is doing a bang up job of generating content.  If you're into 6mm, or just wargaming in general, I'd recommend listening (can be found here). 

FMB