Books I have read and recommend.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

YOUNG GUARD ROUT PRUSSIANS; 1813!


ABOVE: The Prussian defensive line.
Hi All
I've been away for quite some time, but here is some photos of a Lasalle game I played before I departed over seas. It was played over at my mate's place. Stan ran his 1813 Prussians against my French Young Guard Division. Yes, I did use some OLD GUARD minis as 'stand ins', ("oh the horror"). I just gave the 'Old grumblers' the same stats as if they were Young Guard. It was a great little battle, with the Young Guard eventually triumpant! Originally my plan was to smash my way through on Stan's right flank, but after that stalled I switched to trying to get through the center, which turned out to be successful. Stan did try to sweep around my right with his Landwehr Cavalry, but the resulting carange was lots of Prussian dead horses,..
BELOW: My YG Battalions roll forward towards the Prussian Line. Stan deployed a battalion facing the woods on his right, as opposed to deploying them IN the woods. The resulting delay in getting his lads through the wood did give me an opportunity to get close without to much hurt.

BELOW:Prussian Guns Blaze away at the advancing French. It was here on my left I used OLD GUARD Grenadiers and Chasseurs as Young Guards! Eeeeeeekkk!!!

BELOW: The Prussian center crumbles! "On to Berlin"!
Here we see the Lancers of the Guard (Dutch 'Red' Lancers) bursting through. French Old Guard are capturing a battery, and Young Guard are standing their ground where a Prussian Battalion once stood. In the distance (my right flank) you can see YG Battalions advancing into the gaps where Prussians were,..


Sorry for the poor quality of the photos,..

Cheers for Now!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

French Battery In Action!


ABOVE: "No.1,... LOAD"!
Hi All
I've finally finished my French Battery in 28mm.
I've base the figures individually, so I can use them for 'SHARP PRACTICE' and 'SONG OF DRUMS & SHAKO' games, as well as LASALLE.
For games like 'Lasalle' I will simply place the Guns on bases with a 40mm frontage, or two or three guns on a base with a 160mm frontage to represent the '4 gun' battery used in Lasalle.

The miniatures are from EUREKA MINIATURES; 'French Revolutionary Wars' range, but They will do for Early Empire also I suspect.
Below: You can just make out a young General Napoleon laying the gun on the left,..

I painted them using the Army Painter method, and am quite happy with the results.

One of the nice features with the EUREKA MINIATURES Artillery is the swag of equipment you get with each gun. All manner of rammers, and sponges, buckets, and musket stacks, ammo boxes, (both open and closed).

As a gunner myself, I really like these models.
You can see more of EUREKA MINIATURE artillery at my IMAGI-NATION Blog, HERE! and
Feel fre to leave a comment!
Trailape Out!

French Voltigeurs And a Tyrolean Cannon


Hi All
'Tis me again!
This time I thought I'de share a few pictures of some VICTRIX French Voltigeurs I recently finished. Now that I can see them 'close up' (thanks to a camera zoom), they actually look rather crappy!
Oh well, they will do for gaming!
Below: To 'Hornist', "Toot toot, Parp Parp"!

Below: "Hey, where did that Fusilier come from, and where is his hat"!

"Vive Le Emperor"!
Below: "Trust me, they look OK from 3 feet away,..."

Moving right along,...
I thought I'd show you some pictures of a nice little model and miniatures I purchased from Nic at EUREKA Miniatures.
It's a Tyrolean Cannon and Crew. Well, actually it's short one crew member, (a female getting a charge out of an ammo box). All the same. A very nice little cannon.
This model is just screaming to be used in a SHARP PRACTICE or SONG OF DRUMS AND SHAKO game.
The cannon is a home-made 'wooden cannon', as used by the Tyroleans during their revolt against the Bavarians. I have about 30 Bavarian figures, and I was unsure what to do with them.
Now I'm thinking of painting them up and basing them individually for a bit of 'anti-guerrilla' operations.

The figures are available from EUREKA miniatures, as seen here
Anyway. A nice set of figures!
Cheers

A Tale of Two Flags


Hi Again
Here is a couple of photos of the flag I recently recieved from Maverick Models.
As usual, fantastic service from Stuart at MAVERICK. Placed an order for this flag in both 28mm and 18mm scales, and they were dispatch the same day. Arrived from the UK to me in Australia within a week.
The flag was needed to finish off my French Naval Artillery Regt
I highly recommend MAVERICK MODELS for all your flag needs!

Below: Just to fill up the post a bit more, I thought I'd share this photo of a PERRY flag on a Perry Plastic Figure.

Cheers!

Gauls And Germans


Above. Ancient Germans. A mix of Old Glory, 1st Corp and Foundry figures
Hi
I just finished basing some 28mm Ancients. I've had them painted for some time, but only now got round to basing them. I'm working on a 20mm frontage per figure system, hoping for maximum flexibility, as I use a variety of rule systems.
Below: German Comand Group. Normaly I would have 3 miniature on a 60mm wide base, but this is a Command stand, soooo,...

Below: Gaul Command base, with a suspiciously 'German' looking noble in the front rank, (from 1st Corps).

Below: "Hey, careful with those spears,... someone could get hurt"!

Below: Asterix was keen to 'get ahead' in society,...

Below: A small part of what will eventually be my 200 + Gaul Warband
All miniatures were painted by me, using the ARMY PAINTER method.
Cheers

Sunday, March 6, 2011

The Prussians Assault; late 1813!

Hi All
My friend Stan and I recently played our 4th game of Lasalle. Stan had just finished putting together a Prussian Division, so we decided on a 1813 battle with the Prussians Division with a Cuirassier Brigade in support attacking a French Division supported by a Light Cavalry Brigade.
I won't go into a detailed game report, (I just don't have the time I'm afraid); but briefly here is what happened.
BELOW: The French deploy with the Division roughly in line, with the Prussian 'Objective', the building at the end of the road, (in other words, "Drive ze Frogs avay from ze crossroads, schnell"!).

Above: A section of the Prussian deployment.
The French deployed with the division in line with the sole 'Veteran' Battalion in reserve to the left of the objective and another battalion of conscripts to the right. All but one of the French battalions were Conscripts! The bulk of the French Light Cavalry Brigade, (Lt Bde), was on the opposite side of the river, with the Unit of Hussars just to the left of the Veteran Infantry. The French Commander placed himself in the center, near the house (objective). The two French Divisional Batteries were positioned so as to break up any assaults that would fall on either the center or right flank. The Horse artillery was deployed on the left bank of the river, together with the two units of Chasseur.
The Prussians massed mostly in the center, (intent on smashing through to the objective I suspected). The two Line Infantry battalions were to lead the assault, with three Reserve and three Landwehr Battalions in support. Von Crabbe (Stan) beefed up his Skirmishers from two of the Reserve Battalions with Shutzen light Infantrymen. He placed his Landwehr Cavalry on the opposite bank of the river, facing my Lt Bde (- the Hussars).
His Cuirassier Bde, which included some Saxon Cavalry and Horse Artillery that had changed sides at Leipzig, face my right flank. The ground was covered in a thick mud, and this was going to slow the sausage eaters down, "Bravo"!
Below: The Prussian's advance! Napoleon's daughters say "Hello".


Above. The French battery on the right flank open fire on the Saxon Guns. The French gunners got the better of the exchange, and forced the Saxon's to limber up and move back.

Above: As the Prussians advance on the Objective, the Battery on my right prolongs into a position to pour fire into the Prussians.
In short, the Prussians advanced on the objective under a hail of artillery fire. Eventualy both Regular Prussian Line Battalions were destroyed by a combination of Canister and musketry.
The real heros for Von Crabbe turned out to be a Reserve battalion and a Landwehr battalion that routed the two French Conscript Battalions on the left and right of the objective.
Below:The French Veterans await the order to counter attack.

Below: The Prussians are catching buckets of canister!

In the end the Prussians ran out of time, with the night came the order to withdraw. So close, but not close enough.

Above: The French right flank swinging in. The Saxon Gunners did their best to pound the French conscripts on the extreme right, but just kept coming up short of breaking them. The French commander consistently rallied off the disruption.

Above: The Prussian Reserve Battalion breaks though, and is then confronted by the French Veterans.
Below:The moment when the Landwehr Battalion enters close combat with the French battalion on the right of the objective.

Below: End Game. The Prussians haven't managed to secure the objective, with the French Veterans deploying into line as night falls.

Below: The French Right Flank at game's end.The Landwehr have routed a French battalion, and the Saxon Cuirassiers and a Reserve Battalion arrive in support. Unfortunatly the French Battery and three French Battalions are still full of fight.

A great game, and a 'close run thing' in the end. The Prussians were painted by Fernando Enterprise. The French 'Conscripts' were painted by Reinforcements By Post. The French Artillery were mainly painted by me, as were the French Veterans, Prussian Artillery, Skirmishers and Prussian Commanders. The French Hussars and Saxon Heavies were painted by Model Citizen Miniatures.
Another fun Lasalle game. I apologize for some poor quality photos.
Cheers