I should have brought some rope

Hi all,

It feels like I should have embedded some Jefferson Airplane on this blog post, as it's more or less about me beginning to fall down a rabbit hole.

See, I painted some 18mm Napoloeonics.



Some ways back (6-7 years?), when I was living in Toronto, the THMG gang started playing Lasalle.  I was a little divided on the game at the time.  One one hand, it was a Sam Mustafa game (and I'm an unrepentant fanboy of his work), and the eye-candy was top notch.  On the other hand, it was on the small side of battalion-scale Napoleonics, and at the time I was very much into big-battle stuff.  However, AB figures were pretty enough for me to pick up a few units to test the waters, but expensive enough that I didn't grab a whole army in one go.



At that point, I promptly sat on the figures for the next several years.  Lasalle died out at the club, I was drawn into other projects (notably Maurice and Impetus), and life happened.  I never got rid of them, however (too pretty by far), and periodically pulled them out for a look over and a good sigh.



Then a week or two ago, I went on a bit of a youtube binge, notably getting caught up on Paul Alba's channel (he also has a blog, and if you've missed it, here, you're welcome:  http://napoleonicsinminiature.blogspot.com/), and it was enough to get me moving.  I dug out my Russians, and got a unit painted up.

It was fun, but it also brought home how out of practice I am at painting the scale (it's been a while).  They didn't turn out as well as I wanted, but I'm pretty sure I'll do a better job on them next time.  I suspect this is the beginning of something, as not only has painting these got my mojo going again (I've note really done much painting for months), but I'm also looking at some of the other stuff in this scale I have tucked away.

The unit, by the way, is the 3rd battalion of the Preobrajenski Guard.  The planned starting force for Lasalle was a guard formation, based on some of the units at the Battle of Kulm.  Might try some cuirassier next.

FMB

Sundry painting

Hi,

Got a bit of painting in over the last week, mostly BA Soviets.  First up are my second weapon team, the PTRD anti-tank rifle.



With only a +2 pen bonus, these guys aren't likely to be giant slayers, but they can put pins on vehicles at long range, and will pose a real threat to transports, open topped stuff, etc.




I also managed to paint up the heroic LM gunner from my last game, along with some company.





Looks like the rifleman is in need of a little more matt coat ;)

In addition, I knocked out a test fig for my planned 15mm  Russian guard force for Lasalle.  First unit will be second batalion, Semenovsky Guards.



The level of detail on these AB figs is insane.  Actually figuring out what all the doodaddery on the fig was, was probably the most difficult part.  In some ways, I think the project would be easier at 28mm ;)  Still undecided about whether to go with metallics on these or not.




While this is going to be a back burner project for the next while, I can see it coming to the fore by summer 2013, and being one of my major projects in 2013.  The club guys are planning a build up in 10mm for the anticipated new US civil war game by Sam Mustafa, but so far the idea isn't lighting me up.  I may have actually dodged the Magpie on that one.  Getting a Lasalle force together would serve as a viable alternative.

In addition, my Ayyubids arrived from Legio Heroica a few days ago.  I'm hoping to sit down with them tonight after the Puddin' is in bed, and have myself a good drool.  I'll try to get pics of them and a proper review for next weekend, maybe.

FMB

Lasalle Take 1, Part 2

Hi,

Having stopped in at a couple of tech / cell phone stores, it appears that not only does no one carry the cable I need to download photos from Wednesday's game, it's a distinct possibility that no one even manufactures them any more.  I figure I'll cobble a batrep together while I still remember what happened, illustrating as best as I can from whatever pictures I can drum up.

As mentioned in the last post, the figures for the game were provided by michaeld, and I played French  infantry with light horse in support vs. Young Guard with Old Guard cavalry in support.  In Lasalle, core terrain is randomly determined, and then modified by the players as part of set up.  We generated the "Chateaux" table, which has a large urban zone on a hill in one corner of the table, and a small village on the opposite diagonal.

Club terrain just keeps getting better.

I won the set-up roll, chose to defend, and opted to give up choice of table edge in exchange for forcing michaeld to set up first.  We placed additional terrain, and ended up with a long hill abutting the viallage on my side, and a forest anchoring my left.  I think there was another hill on michaeld's side of the table, but it didn't have much of an effect on the game.

Forcing micaheld to set up first gave me several advantages.  French infantry can take light cavalry as "organic" support, i.e., they start on the table.  In contrast, michaeld's cavalry, while hard as nails, had to come on as reserves.  This meant if he set up first, I'd be able to both concentrate my artillery on his most likely approach route, and position my cavalry to spoil his initial attacks, before he could bring on his cavalry to counter them.

Michaeld concentrated the bulk of his infantry in his centre, with his guns on his left (my right).  Most of his stuff deployed in column.  In response, I put my foot battery in the gap between the woods and the long hill, put my infantry on the right (intending to advance to take the hill) and my cavalry on my left with the option to counter an attack on the guns, or sweep around the forest and flank him.

The long hill.  Or, at least, a long hill.

You win in Lasalle either by breaking the opponent's morale, or by holding the objective at game's end. michaeld, as attacker, got to place the objective, and had put it behind the long hill (hence my deployment).  To get to the objective, micaheld was looking at an open field dominated by my artillery

Like this, but with more cannon.  Lots more.

and an uphill slog against the troops I was going to move up on the long hill.  While this left my "back door" open (my right rear was essentially undefended and unanchored), I had a couple infantry batallions in reserve, and would have plenty of notice when his reserves came on table.

The game unfolded more or less predictably.  I pushed four infantry batallions up to the top of the long hill, while my guns pounded his centre.  I sent my cavalry around the woods on my left, flanking his advance, and threatening to catch some of his units in attack column or line.

They took their time about it, too.

At this point, things started to get interesting.  Lasalle uses an ingenious turn order that inverts the usual IgoUgo process - you move and attack on your turn, but the resolution of the combat happens on your opponent's following turn, AFTER they get a chance to react (shoot, change formation, evade, etc.).  For example, once my cavalry had cleared the woods, I sent a couple units in on the infantry batallion on his flank.

On his turn, michaeld opted to react by changing formation into square.  He had to make a discipline roll to do so, but between the bonuses inherent to the Young Guard (they are disciplined, elite troops) and his superior commander (randomly determined at the beginning of the game), there was only a 1 in 6 chance of failing.  The battalion deployed into square in time, and my cavalry bounced off causing only minor disruption.

If the infantry are squares, does that make the cavalry beats?

A turn or so later,  micaheld pushed three units of his Young Guard up the hill to attack my four batallions on the ridge line.  On my following turn, I reacted by shooting (adding a few disruptions to those caused by my artillery on the YG's advance), and then combat was resolved.  Although the Young Guard are elite troops, with bonuses both to high esprit and guard status, this was compensated by my advantageous position (on the hights), the disruption caused by shooting during the YG's advance, and my superior numbers.  The net result was the Guard were thrown back down the hill.

One thing I picked up about Lasalle rather quickly is that unit facing is critical.  There are fairly strict target priority rules in the game, and it means that it's entirely possible that a unit with a juicy target in charge range (like flanked artillery) must disregard it in favour of a much less appealing one (like infantry in square).  This became a feature of the situation developing on my left.  Michaeld responded to the threat of my cavalry by forming several batallions into square.  This pinned down his flank, preventing him from supporting the attack on the hill (a result with which I perfectly content) but also meant I spent several turns manoeuvring to try and set up a legal charge against something other than well-prepared infantry.  I did manage to eventually work a unit of hussars around behind him (prompting a few more squares to form) and getting in a charge on his guns, but it took time to coordinate.

The biggest potential shift in the game cam when micaheld's reserves came on, two units of Old Guard cavalry (who are frankly badasses).  Fortunately for me, I was able to distract him a little with my own cavalry, drawing one of the two units into a running fight on his side of the table.  He did push the other around my flank, and managed to engage my guns and the reserve batallions Id left to guard the objective, but not before time ran out in the game (there's an escalating chance after turn 16 that the current turn will be the last).  We'd seen a bit more action on the hill (including a downhill charge by two of my units that broke one of his), but no outcomes decisive to army morale.  Night fell with me still holding the objective.  This translated into either a minor victory for me or a draw (can't remember which), but in the core rules for Lasalle, guard formations must win decisively to win at all - something I'll need to keep in mind when playing my Russians.

I really like this game.  It lacks some of the command friction of Maurice (you can do something with everything every turn, without the forced choices of Maurice), but on the other hand, has some really inventive mechanics.  Having to commit to attacks without full control of the conditions of the attack introduces a real sense of tension which energizes the game.  Despite these novelties, the game plays intuitively.  I knew more or less how I wanted the battle to go (hold the ridge, pin him on my left, stall the OG cavalry until nightfall), and had no problems executing that plan via the game's mechanisms.  Lasalle is figure intensive (at least relative to some of the other projects I've worked on lately), but after playing, I'm motivated to paint.

Next week will likely be Maurice, but things are still a little up in the air.  Might be able to throw up a Spartan WIP before then.

FMB

Lasalle take 1

Hi,

So, got in my first game of Lasalle last night, Sam Mustafa's previous effort to Maurice.  It's a battalion-scale Napoleonics game, and one can clearly see the continuity in design philosophy between the games.  Things got off to a bit of a rough start, when I realized that I'd forgotten not only the rules but also my camera.  I managed to get some pictures with my phone, but now need to pick up a cable to transfer them over.  I figured I'd do a post outlining my basic impressions of the game, and then follow up in a few days with a more detailed batrep.

Overall, the game is terrific.  While it doesn't have the card-driven mechanics of Maurice, it does have a similar feel, particularly in terms of command friction and combat.  Decision-making matters, and you can influence outcomes, but they are not subject to determination.  They both give the impression of extreme depth as well.  You could play either game for years, and still find new insights into the game.

We played a fairly small game - a core force (basically a brigade or two) plus one supporting brigade, so it roughly translated as a light division.  We used my opponent, michaeld's figures, so I played French infantry with light cavalry support versus his Young Guard with Old Guard cavalry support.  As attacker, michaeld got a couple of extra battalions.  Michaeld arrived around 6:30, we played a leisurely game, and were finished before 9:30; Lasalle is definitely an option as an evening / club game. 

The game "feels" Napoleonic.  Battalion formations are represented on the table, there are reasons to change formation, and it has an impact in game.  Coordination between units is key, both in terms of combat and at the army scale.  Artillery is useful, but seems to be dramatic only when massed.  Shooting is attritional, combat can be decisive, but must be well-timed and coordinated to be so.  Rules become intuitive quickly, despite some rather innovative features, notably an "inverted" turn order that is frankly, brilliant.  Put it this way - after playing my first game, I'm definitely motivated to paint the 300 plus figures I'll need for the game.

Plans within plans . . .

Hi,

Bit of a planning / WIP post today.  With the completion of my Maurice SYW French army, I'm ready for a few new projects.  Up on deck, as I've mentioned, are a Spartan army for Impetus and a Russian Guard force for Lasalle.  I thought I'd take a post to outline my plans for each.

While I plan to alternate between each of these, I think I'll start with a unit of Spartans.  These will be in 15mm, using (mostly) Xyston figures.  A while back, I picked up a DBA boxed army of these as part of a larger deal (the same one that brought me the OG figures I've used for my Antigonids).  I supplemented this core a few months back when Skip at Legends in Time had a sale on some of his Xyston stock.  I now have enough to do a 500 point Impetus army, with options.

The list I'm starting with will be a 300 points in a single command.  So far, the plan is this, with the point values and options drawn from the updates list in Extra Impetus 4:

Good command structure, 20 point commander
2 Large units of FP Spartan hoplites
1 Large unit of FP allied hoplites
1 unit of CM Spartan cavalry
1 unit of S Skiritai
2 units of S Javelinmen
1 units of FL peltasts

It works out to 297 points, and give me a good mix of troops.  I've already begun sorting through my figures, sorting some of the heavier-armed troops (for the front of the large units) from the lighter (for the rear units).  One of the things I'm coming to appreciate about the Xyston figures is the range of poses.  For the core hoplite figures, for example, take a look at this:

That middle line is all the individual poses side by side (with multiples of each extending above and below the middle line).  By my count, that's 16 different poses.  You don't often see that much variety in a range.  With the extra packs I picked up from Legends in time, I should be able to minimise the amount of repetition in my units, even without head swaps, etc.

My initial plan is to use the hoplite unit I did for the Antigonids in the army, but I will likely replace them with different figures in time.  One option I only just came across are the hoplite range from AB figures.  I saw them on the Eureka Miniatures website while doing some research on the Russians.  The figures looked good, but I wondered how they'd mix with the Xyston.  I picked up a couple figures when I made the Russian order, and I think they'll mix reasonably well.

From L-R:  AB, Xyston, Xyston, AB, Xyston

The two ranges compare well in terms of detail and style (the AB stuff seems a little more conservative in pose), and of the figures I've seen, only the AB general seems a bit tall.  Given there's a bit of difference in size between the figures in the Xyston range itself, I think it'll work.  I've currently sorted out figures for the first large unit of Spartans, and will try to find time to clean and prep them over the next couple days.

In terms of the Lasalle project, it's AB all the way.  I'd seen some of the range in the flesh, and was flabbergasted at the quality.  While the new Blue Moon stuff had me waffling for a while (they seem to be the "best of the rest" in terms of quality, and are about 25-30% cheaper), in the end, I opted for the AB.  Now that they've arrived, I'm not disappointed.

Lasalle has been fairly popular at the THMG, but until recently, I'd not really been in a position to do Napoleonics in 15mm.  I had puttered a bit with doing something in 1/72, but despite the vastly increased quality of the figures in that scale from what I remember as a kid, they just weren't grabbing me.  After a certain amount of waffling and planning (considering, among others, French and Brits), I settled on Russians, specifically guards, as my core force, with a supporting option of guard cuirassiers.

My first order, with two units of infantry, one of cavalry, and a couple of guns, arrived while I was away on business this week - a nice surprise for me coming home.  As an aside, I'd recommend both EurekaUSA and EurekaAU to any potential customers out there.  I bothered both of them extensively with questions prior to purchase, and they were both extremely helpful and patient with a first-time customer.

The figures are astonishing, but the impact isn't immediately apparent. You can see a couple of pictures below:

Those are actually 2 different poses.  It's not immediately evident, as there's no exaggeration in the sculpting, but the two figures are holding their muskets and heads at different angles, and their bags / pouches are positioned slightly differently.   There's at least three subtle pose variations I've identified so far, and if used effectively, should give a pretty effective sense of movement on the finished bases without any risk of this:

The "naturalist" approach to the sculpting carries over to proportion and scale as well - none of the exaggeration in heads or hands I associate with other figure ranges, but the sculptor has still managed to capture a level of detail that rivals good 28mm sculpts.  The more I look at these, the more I appreciate them.  Can't wait to get them on the table.

The list for these guys is pretty straightforward, with 6-8 units of infantry and some guns as the core, and two large units of cavalry in support.  Simple, but effective.  I figure that if these grab me as much as I expect, I can expand the scope of what I own over time, even building towards alternate rule-sets like Black Powder.

I'm scheduled for a first, trial game of Lasalle at the club on Wednesday.  I'll be sure to get some pictures, and post an AAR with impressions, etc. afterwards.

FMB

Royal 13ieme

Hi,

Painting post today, the 13ieme regiment of infantry, Royal.



As one of the "vieux" regiments, these will serve as one of my trained infantry in our upcoming campaign.



I'm still not clear on how I get better pictures in a relatively dim basement than I do in full daylight.  The angle maybe?



I'm now tantalizingly close to completion of my list for Maurice.  I'm half-finished my last cavalry regiment, at which point I'll need one more base of guns, and some mercenaries.  I've more or less settled on the following list:

National Advantages:  Oblique Order, Supply Depots, Maison du Roi, a la Baionette

1 Elite (guard) infantry (Claire)
2 Trained infantry (Navarre and Royal)
4 conscript infantry (Artois, Chartres, Foix, Saintonge)

1 Elite (guard) cavalry (La Reine)
3 Trained cavalry (Maugiron, du Roi Dragon, Archiac)

3 batteries of guns

Under the command of Le Marquis d'Escquarbrie



The army is mainly about flexibility and durability.  I have a core of capable units, up to 5 of which come back at full strength when broken, which means I can use them aggressively.  I've got decent mobility with the relatively large cavalry wing plus oblique. I've got a bit of an edge in the infantry clash, and decent artillery support.  For mercenaries, I'd originally thought to do some Bavarians or reichsarmee (for variety), but am now leaning towards more French (as they'd be usable in my Might and Reason list).  I know there's at least two armies out there using the Lethal Volleys / Rally to the colours combination, so hopefully mobility and tactical genius will be enough to compensate ;)

On the topic of starting something new, I've finally decided to take the napoleonic plunge.  Scale will be 15mm, and I'll begin by collecting a force for Lasalle that I can use to game with at the THMG.  The leading contenders  right now are a Peninsular British light brigade a force of 1813-14 Russian guard.  The Brits have the advantage of lots of unit variety (also, Bernard Cornwell ate my soul), while the Russians have the advantage of being Russian.  It's still also possible I  will simply bow to the inevitable and go French, but after pumping out a force for Maurice, a change would be nice.

I keep waffling between AB and Blue Moon for the figs.  AB, from what I've seen, are simply gorgeous models.  BM while not perfect, are nice, a little more animated, and provided I buy the entire army over one year (so as to take advantage of the OG army discount) cost about half as much.  The sculpting, while good, is still a little more rough that AB, however.  I'm unused to buying expensive stuff in this hobby (I've written before about how I tend to get large buys at discount via ebay or bartertown), but this is going to be a special indulgence for me.  I want to really enjoy painting whatever I choose, which keeps bringing me back to AB.  Once I get my head around the cost involved (and realize I'll be distributing it over a good chunk of time), I imaging I'll go AB.  I've spent a good chunk of my free time over the last couple days chewing over lists, figuring out what and how much I'll need, etc.  Good times.

Barring catastrophe, I should be getting a game in on Wednesday vs. Nick the Lemming's Austrians.  This is the first campaign game for either of us, and a bit of a grudge match, as I'll be looking to keep Nick's perfect record intact, and he's hungry to find out what winning feels like ;)  For those of you interested, the club (under the auspices of dictator for life Watts), has set up a separate blog to chronicle the campaign "in character".  There's a few manifestos up there now, including one from yours truly.  I bet you never realized the potential for conflict in sausage.

FMB

A crushing tie!

Hi,

Got in my first game in Lord knows how many months last night, a 300 point Impetus game against Watts of the THMG. Man was it fun ;) We're both about half-painted at that point level, and were using plenty of blank sabots, but it gave us a chance to get our finished stuff on the table and give the rules a good butchering.

I was running my Pyrrhic list against his republican Romans. He had a pretty standard force, doubling up on a Triarii / Hastati / Principes / Velites formation with some can support, and I ran a core of Phalangites and Hoplites with skirmisher, light infantry, elephant, and a mix of cav.



We went with consensual terrain, and as attacker, I was allowed to move a terrain piece (denying him a hill) and deploy second. I put my heavier cavalry and thureophoroi on my left, my heavy infantry in the centre, and my elephants, the bulk of my skirmishers, and my light cavalry on my right.



My apologies for the sub-optimal pics. I'm going to have to get some better close-ups in future games. The first few turns saw my flanks advancing, and some indecisive conflict between our skirmishers and cavalry.



His pesky, pesky Numidians (curse them!) drew first blood, their javelins (which we discovered are lethal at point blank range) whittling down my Greek medium cavalry.



On the right, I sent forward a screen of skirmishers and light cav to tie up his units, while my elephants manoeuvred for a charge.



This is how the field looked prior to our first real contact. I had advanced my wings while my heavy foot plodded forward. Roman infantry are a pain in combat, and I've learned that deep formations like pike are vulnerable from the flanks. The goal was to tie him up on the wings, and hopefully cause some disruption and superficial VBU damage prior to the contact of our main forces.



I disrupted and damaged his medium cavalry with my light Tarantines, and then hammered home the heffalumps, rolling nine dice, and getting no hits. The cavalry got a hit in (on 2 dice!), and I managed to fail my cohesion test by 2. There is no justice, though I suppose it serves me right for not even having the miniatures on the table ;)

On the left, things weren't going especially swimmingly either. Over the next few turns, the Numidians (curse them!) kept harassing my advancing cavalry, and managed a lighting strike at the end to finish off my poor Greeks (they retired to the sidelines to commiserate).



This did, however, leave my Epirote heavy cavalry unengaged, with the Numidians (curse them!) pushed off to the side, and lined up for dramatic charge.



Fresh, rested, with a perfect charge lane open to his infantry, my brave Epirotes thundered forward, rolled nine(!) dice, and managed the following:



Sound familiar? This was something of a theme last night. I had three really good, hammering charges, and the first two were tragic. There was much gnashing of teeth, and it was pretty clear that someone was going to be falling on his sword by nightfall.

The next few turns were mainly devoted to attrition. I pushed forward with my cavalry, elephants, and skirmishers, expending them in an effort to thin out and wear down his legions prior to contact. His Numidians (curse them!) raided my baggage, but then were then unable to recover from disruption for several turns, which pretty much kept them out of the game (presumably they broke into the wine casks). On the right, my elephants finally rolled over his cavalry (though they were brought down to 1 VBU in the process), and limped and lumbered their way towards the Roman camp.



I think we both learned something about light troops last night. He made fine use of his blunting my second unit of ellies, and I was able to use my skirmishers, light infantry and light cav to good effect softening up his infantry formations. As long as lighter troops have room to manouvre (evade, disengage, etc), they are a real annoyance to heavy troops. While they likely won't do real damage, it is possible, and the potential alone is enough to cause one to tear out hair and gnash teeth(see that unit in the middle of his infantry? That's my Tarantines).

Things were heating up. I was shedding units like mad, but in this list, you pretty much have to take out one of the big infantry units to break the army. His legions were dispatching my light troops, but were being worn down in the process. The last turns of the battle saw our infantry lines clash. My phalanx was nicely lined up:



And I hammered it home in, if not a devastating, at least an effective charge. After some bumping and grinding (where I bounced off a Triarii unit, then closed on his rotating lines of princepes / hastatii), I had wiped out a unit (or two?) of legion, and had my hoplites ready for a second charge.

We had to call the game at that point, and things hung very much in the balance. We were tied at that point for VBUs, and both of us were close to a break point - a couple of bases either way would do it. We rolled to see who would have initiative, and he won, which might have been enough to do it right there, but who knows? Combat in this game, although subject to manipulation, is chancy (just ask my elephants), and we were at a point of crisis. My only real regret is that I never dealt with those pesky Numidians. Curse them.

The game was a blast, a complete nail-biter, and Watts, as always, is an engaging and gracious opponent. This has me completely jazzed to get some more 15s painted and on the table. I'm part way through another unit of SYW French, but once their done, I think it'll be some hoplites.

As an aside, the guys at the table behind us had a game of Lasalle going. I have no idea what happened, other than Russians vs. French, but it looked damn cool, so here's some completely gratuitous eye-candy. Enjoy ;)





**update Jan. 7 **

JJM at the THMG was one of the players in the Lasalle game, and posted an AAR with loads of pics. Check it out!

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.