26eme Regiment: 1811

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The 26eme regiment is the latest addition to the Napoleonics collection, bolstering the French forces to near parity with the allies:

Perry Miniatures

This regiment appeared in many of the major battles of the Peninsular War, including Sabugal, Fuentes d'Onoro and Salamanca, before being sent East to serve in the campaigns of 1813-14.  

Attempts at randomness

Using what was available, these are dressed for somewhat inclement weather.  They were intended to be a quick and easy job - by Napoleonics standards.  How wrong I was, these seemed to take far longer than intended.

But it brings the French up to 13 foot units now.  Which is real progress.

More hopefully to come this year yet!

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Euro-centrism in my gaming?

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So here is something I've been musing upon.

When I look at my historical wargames miniatures, they are pretty much, a sea of white faces.  As a white European, this is entirely predictable, but it is certainly not reflective of actual history, world culture, or any number of varyingly Woke descriptions I could throw about.  In short, as a historian first and a wargamer (narrowly) second, it has bothered me to varying degrees.

There are justifiable reasons why we tend to stick to shall we say first world conflicts, the research is easier, the required models are more readily available, and to be honest, we are a very fighty bunch.  Until the last 70 years or so we've been at each others' throats more often than not, and some of us at least are still quite happy to go sword waving around the world.  Step back in time a century or two and you don't have to look very far for any number of conflicts that may spark an interest.  And from a pragmatic standpoint, things like the Napoleonic Wars, are far more likely to generate a sustainable demand for product, even in their most obscure sectors, than battles of the same period in the Southern Hemisphere.

I tried mapping the armies I currently own...

There is no reason why anyone has to take an interest in these overlooked fields, of course.  But not to do so feels like a missed opportunity to explore, and do something unique or at least unusual.

Problem being, of course amongst other things, as I suggest, you may find it hard to get an easy start.  Or anything at all to meet your needs.

There is an obvious exception, if you were shot up by white colonials at any time, there will be at least some representation of you.  Zulus, Native Americans, Maori...  Not a problem.  But what if you existed before Columbus or Livingstone was around to record your existence?  Then it gets a little harder.

Pondering another new project to put a bit more diversity in my collection, I'm drawn towards the Sub-Saharan civilisations.  

  

One of my first interests was the Zulu war, but it led me to read around the subject years ago, and gradually get a little familiarity with the earlier societies of the continent, Great Zimbabwe, Mali, Axum; there's a lot more than most people seem to know of.  They all have fascinating and unique looks, and intriguing histories, but not much in the way of miniatures ranges.

Sometimes a bit of 15mm, but rarely anything in 28mm - my preferred size for a smaller force.

So firstly a plea, if anyone does know of a decent source of models.  Let me know.  But I'm thinking much like my Judeans, these are going to be a conversion project, from the ground up.  The first task, is the reading and image research to get some idea which nation has the most of interest from a gaming and aesthetic standpoint, and what then you would need to make/do.

Some light reading

On the one hand it is simple, a fun new project, that will be a little out of the ordinary, but on the other it is an effort to be a little more representative.  And that makes me feel good about it.

But it is certainly going to be a slow-burner.  Even as something like a Lion Rampant army, it is likely to mean researching and scratch-building 50 or so miniatures.

It is something I wish would be easier to accomplish, but I guess it's an untapped field at present.

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General Ferey and the Guarde Artillery

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One thing I was determined to make progress on at the start of this year, was the 28mm Napoleonics.  I felt I'd pushed them to one side in the last few years, and whilst there was always an aim to do a couple of units a year, that had reduced to a trickle of maybe one in the same timeframe.  

This year will not be like that!  So here we add another unit, and an additional commander to the French, who were definitely feeling outnumbered, so this is mainly their year.

Claude François Ferey, Baron de Rozengath (21 September 1771 – 24 July 1812) became a division commander during the Napoleonic Wars and was killed fighting the British at Salamanca; prior to this he commanded a division at Fuentes D'Onoro and prior to that he was a Brigadier at Busaco.  Given the available spare figures he is presented by here, and my leanings to the early phase of the war, I've presented him as a Brigadier:

Claude Ferey and chum.

Particularly pleased with the horse...

These are just a pair of Hat Industrie hard plastics, that were to hand, and made up for a nice command base.  Ideally he should be in a Bicorne, but I am plain out of suitable spares, so you make do with what you have.

Speaking of which.

In the bottom of the Napoloenics box of shame, a pile of metal had languished for a good nine years.  An old friend had gifted me some French Guarde artillerymen, he had intended for a Warhammer army (!?!), and I just had to add guns to them to make a unit.  Well I got that far; and then nothing.  Still, to each, his moment in the sun.

The Queens of the Battlefield

The whole are Front Rank models, some of my favourites, for good clean sculpts, chunky details, heft, and a fair price.

Ready...

I think the guns are the best part of the work here however.  Always pleasing objects to paint.

How accurate the Imperial Guarde Artillery is for the Peninsular, is not clear to me presently.  I should probably do some research!  But it at least now means the French have parity with the Allies, each side now sporting 6 guns.

So that gives me 3 new Napoleonics units so far this year, but there's more in the pipeline too.

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A visit from the Boardgame Faeries

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Buoyed up by successful miniature sales and looking for a new long term painting project or two; I reinvested my funds:

Booty

Blood Rage is an Area Control Boardgame with lots of 32mm Miniatures, a good stylistic match to the Conan Game mini's.  Blackstone Fortress is a Sci-Fi Dungeon Crawler in the 40K universe, bought mainly for the mini's as painting projects.  

The Age of Sigmar figures go with another nascent idea that is already getting out of hand!

This lot were ordered from Wayland Games, who seem to have a bit of a bad rep, but I had not issues.  Decent prices, fast free shipping.  Fine by me.

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An Actual Game

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Yes, I know.  Many gamers have already cautiously put their heads out of their burrows and in some cases probably never retreated to them.  But for myself, I guess I took to caution, and it has only been now after 5 months' in just the company of my beloved, and occasionally - once permitted - close family, that I have finally been ready to open up the doors to TML Towers, on a limited basis.

So with distance, ventilation, sanitiser and appropriate caution, I welcomed James over for a game of nostalgia...

Hordes of the Things

I guess I last played Hordes *mumble, mumble, mumble* years ago, whilst for James, it was his introduction to wargaming via his father.  As his lockdown project he had been working on a range of opposed armies for the game, and I was more than happy to give them a run out.

My host

I chose the Elves, to face James' Vampiric undead.  The forces, as befits HOTT were 15mm scaled and formed of around a dozen elements making up a 24 point force.  We played on a slightly oversized table around 27 inches square, with the Elves attacking and the undead defending their stronghold; a cave entrance to the underworld.

Our view of the Undead horde

Hordes makes a lot of a small table, with incredibly short movement and shooting  ranges, but it does work.  You have time to maneuver and strategise, you have room to retreat and reorganise.  Our advance nonetheless took time.

The Undead approach in a great mass

For those unfamiliar, HOTT uses a simple commander system, based on DBMM and DBA.  Being from the Phil Barker canon this is no surprise.  Indeed I always thought HOTT the best of the Barker rules.  Anyway, at the start of a turn you roll 1D6 and that indicates your command points.  Moving a single element costing 1 point, but units in a group all move together for a single point, there are few exceptions, such as Wizards, but for the most part it is a simple scheme.  

Ray Harryhausen Approved

I attempted to draw the undead towards what I considered a strong position with spears flanked by missle troops in strong ground.  My cavalry to threaten the enemy flank.  

"You shall not pass"

For his part, James advanced en-masse, with his own strong flanking force to threaten my right.

Coming on Strong

Battle opened truly with highly effective Elven shooting, then close combat.  As with all the DBX family HOTT uses a simple opposed D6 roll once for each element to resolve combat.  Generally you need to double an opponents result to destroy the, other wise merely beating them will make them withdraw a base depth, but again exceptions apply.

The Elves began strongly, and the Skeletons were soon being smashed in great number.  But James was able to get his Werewolves and Vampires into my Right, where they became a thorn in my side.  

The too and Fro of HOTT combat

ON my left however, Half my cavalry had survived long enough to be joined in combat with the enemy General and his allies, by a selection of foot troops.  The Elves were able to push the Sorcerer and his minions back, but not finish them.

The Crux

At about the same time, James was able to sneak an attack in on my Wizard General with his Vampires, but the assault failed and the sneaky daylight dodgers were sent running.  My centre line was finally in a position to advance, covered by my Archers attempting to contain the Werewolf menace.  James committed his Ghouls to try to finish off my Behemoth - a Tree Ent - but to no avail...

Victory!

Whilst both out Generals survived, I had destroyed more than half of the enemy army - in points value - for the loss of only one element of Knights and one of Archers.  On this day, the forces of good Triumphed.

So quick thoughts; it's nice to finally get a game in!

Also HOTT, still stands up.  Sure the rules, like all Barker systems, are written in a manner intended to be bullet proof for tournament play, and so are in a form of exhaustive legalese of which the kindest thing I can say is that is thorough.  It is not the easiest read.  However, I personally still think HOTT was the best of the bunch, and the most fun to play.  I reminds me of Dragon Rampant in some ways, in that it is very open.  You can build pretty much anything and find a way to use it.  Want an army of Mecha, Wizards, Dinosaurs, Penguins?  Sure, it'll work.

The practicalities of playing, in warm summer months, not too bad.  I could open the french windows, circulate lots of air, and stay my side of the table to maintain proper distances.  That all worked well enough to try it again, if we both stay healthy of course.  When the autumn and winter beckon, if things don't improve that may not be so practical, but we can make gaming hay whilst the sun shines.

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Sicilian Normans and more on eBay....

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Going through the plastic rubble, I found many models I didn't need myself, that would still be fun to paint and do something with, but not keep.  And so up online for sale now are the following:

Sicilian Normans of the 1st Crusade

Milites

Bohemond and his Entourage

Spearmen unit 1

Spearmen unit 2

Sicilian Muslim Bowmen

Crossbowmen

This lot were mostly 28mm Conquest Games miniatures left over from my Feudals project, but I also bought in a dozen more to make a viable force.  Fun to paint, but it's not an army I had any plans on making so for the time being they are a selling project to fund other whims.

These are online here: Sicilians nb: SOLD

At the same time I found a couple of Russian tanks I painted a couple of years back, and a selection of spare miniatures, enough for a scratch force of WW2 20mm's: 

Assault Group

Infantry 

T34/76 Model 1943

IS2 Model 1944

Zis3 76mm

Group HQ or Recon team

82mm Mortar team

Ideally there should have been a bit more infantry, but this is all I had, and it simply isn't worth me buying more at the moment.  for Berlin 1945, these make a perfectly plausible force.

These are online here: Russians nb: SOLD

Like I say, these were both entertaining projects to try some variant techniques and basing on, but to eBay they must go, and hopefully they'll fund a shiny miniatures boardgame or two.  I'm eyeing up something to replace Imperial Assault and Conan in the painting queues.

Feel free to help me out ;-)

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