Bolt Action German vs. British AAR

Played first game of BA tonight and had a really good game. Very simple to pick up and the game flowed nicely. I had got my list slightly wrong and Neil's list was very strong but I blew away his centre with an outstanding artillery bombardment (I killed his AT rifle team, blew up his 222 and killed 5 of his 6 pioneers) and some excellent mortar fire. MMGs don't seem that effective and having veteran troops is very much a good thing. Snipers are really deadly and I did not enjoy getting one of my sections behind a hedge getting cut to pieces by him. Neil had small squads of 6 but they were veterans with 3 assault guns with them and a LMG which was a good and tough combination. Very much better than my Regular class sections of 8 & 9 with one SMG and LMG.

Our centres got wasted and Neil's right flank was far too strong for me to attack with a section of infantry, mortar, sniper and Pak 40 defending it. I managed to kill Neil's left flank infantry on the right and my Churchill managed to kill his Stug only after losing 2 squads of infantry and a PIAT team on my right flank into the bargain. At the end of the bloodbath I had a winning draw. If my bombardment hadn't have killed the 222 I might have been in trouble and the PIATs 12" range leaves you wanting a bazooka or two!

Overall an excellent and very cost effective game that I highly recommend. Thought something was missing and realised it was some hills. Still looked pretty good though and I got to use all my new terrain.

Neil had:

• Lieutenant and 1 man
• 1 x StuH 42
• 1 x Pioneer Vet Platoon with 3 Assault Rifles and Flamethrower
• 2 x Vet Infantry Platoonwith 3 Assault Rifles and LMG
• 1 x Reg Sdkfz 222
• 1 x Vet Pak 40 4 crew
• 1 x Vet Sniper Team
• 1 x Vet 81mm Mortar with Observer

I had:

• Capt and 2 men
• 3 x Reg Platoon with 8 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg Platoon with 9 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg MMG
• 1 x Reg 3" mortar
• 1 x Reg Churchill
• 1 x Vet Medic with extra man
• 1 x Reg PIAT Team
• 1 x Reg Artillery Observer

I should have taken a 2nd Leut as my HQ as the Capt apparently is additional. Changes I will make will be dropping HQ to 2nd Leut and 1 extra man and making my troops veterans although having fewer of them. I found the medic not that useful but it is hard to say based on one game.

Cheers,
Adam

Wars of the Spanish Succession French Infantry

This is the start of my Franco-Bavarian army for the 10mm Wars of the Spanish Succession. I’m intending to do a fair chunk of the Blenheim order of battle over time, starting with Prince d'Isenghein's Brigade in Marquis de Rosel's Corps. This formed part of the centre of the line of battle around Oberglauheim.

These are all Old Glory 10mm figures which I nabbed off eBay some time ago. Unfortunately I ran out with one battalion to paint in order to complete the brigade. Being me there will always be more orders for more tin so no real drama although it would have been nice to do the lot in one go. These come in strips of five, so I had to cut a single figure off each strip to fit in two rows of four on a 25mm square base. This gives me good sized units for Maurice at 32 figures each. When battles get really large we’ll use something simple rules-wise I think.

 

 

 

 

I painted these using the same method I use for 15mm figures and in truth there is next to nothing different in terms of effort required. Over a black undercoat I have two shades of grey for the coats and other bits, followed by another 8-10 colours depending on complexity of the uniform. I initially thought they would be quicker and was berating myself for mucking about but then another challenger on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (IanH) replied to my comment on his 6mm stuff saying the same thing – 10mm takes as much effort as 15mm for him too.

So to close a quick summary of regiments: 1st Poitou (red and blue colour), 1st Guyenne (pink and green colour) and 2 battalions of Regiment de Beauferme (red and gold colour). The second battalion doesn’t carry the white colonel’s colour I believe, hence the double up on the red and gold. Regiment d'Isenghein will be added in due course.

Next up for me is more 10mm WSS, starting with 10 squadrons on horse forming the first and second cavalry lines of Marquis du Bourg's Corps.

Cheers,
Millsy

History of Wargaming

A quick post to share a fascinating link I came across a couple of days ago. Bob Beattie has put together a timeline of wargaming publications and important milestones which contains all sort of useful and interesting information.

Check it out if you're interested - A Timeline of the Historical Miniatures Wargaming Hobby.

Cheers,
Millsy

KGL for SDS!

Recently I finished 11 x 28mm King’s German Legion infantry from the Napoleonic Wars. These are Brigade Games miniatures and will be used for skirmish games. Once again these are a commission for Cory and finishes off my efforts in 28mm Napoleonics for now. I’ve never much liked the stovepipe shako, preferring the Belgic style but these have come out well enough.

The background is the painted scene given to me by my mother-in-law as a birthday gift. Its designed specifically for use as a background when taking photos of miniatures. I’m still getting the hang of the lighting with my new setup so to my mind these are not the best pics but they’ll have to do for now at least.

Cheers,
Millsy

Spanish Napoleonic Skirmishers

I've been busy of late knocking off some commission work for a mate as part of my submissions for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I've got some KGL infantry I've 99% finished to show but they will have to wait until they've appeared on Curt's blog. In the meantime here are some Spanish I finished a little while ago but forgot to post...

The first batch are some guerrilla characters on foot. These sculpts (and my painting) are based on the illustrations from Osprey’s Elite 108 - Spanish Guerrillas in the Peninsular War 1808-14.

The second batch are Don Julian Sanchez lancers 1810-12 from the same book. We had to go with whatever we could find regards the sculpts but have matched the uniform as close as possible. Lovely sculpts but some of the most fiddly mounted 28s I've ever painted. I do love their horses though. Certainly amongst the best going around IMHO.

Something interesting to note regards the photos – the mate who commissioned the work bought me a pair of rechargeable folding LED lights for my birthday, specifically so I can take photos of minis indoors regardless of time of day or weather. It’s quite late in the arvo here and pouring with rain so pretty drab and dark for daytime, yet these photos have come out jolly well for a first go. Hardly any Photoshop retouching needed at all. I think once I get the camera settings worked out they will be a great tool and I thoroughly recommend them. I imagine similar lights are available in most countries.
Cheers,
Millsy