A first game of Blackpowder

 Des was coming over so we could have a go at Blackpowder ,with the various Napoleonic figures I've painted up ,on Saturday evening, the trouble was it turned out Hayseed Dixie ( who we both like) was playing in the local corn exchange, less than 10 minutes walk away, so we ended up having a bit of a game followed by going to the gig.

I think we were both surprised we hadn't actually played a game of Blackpowder but having played plenty of games of warlords Pike and Shot and also Hail Caesar it was all pretty straightforward ( no doubt we got lots wrong!) and a good exercise before the big multi player Christmas game in France, it  has also given me additional impetus to get some more figures painted, always  a happy byproduct of a  game I find! 

I set up the French and Austrians on a clear plain, actually a deep cut mat , I've bought some to travel to France for the Christmas game and thought we may as well test that out too, three brigades a side. I was a little short on command so there are three Covenanter commanders in for the eagle eyed amongst you! Not terribly balanced, a lot of cavalry on the French side( we press ganged a French hussar unit into the Austrian force to try and even it up a bit)

Des chose the French and we had a turn each , running through moving, shooting, charging and forming square, due to some terrible dice rolling on his part he managed to lose four cavalry units by the time we needed to leave! No result but great fun, we will have his British ( taking the part of the Prussians) Ben's Russians and my Austrians versus my French at a rough go at Leipzig, I need to get some more French painted!

I'm really happy with the casualty markers   ( which is I realise an odd phrase!) but it keeps the clutter down a lot, I need some disorder markers and some white 7mm dice for the Austrians, as Rob pointed out in March and I am in total agreement with! Otherwise all good, maybe next time with a bit more terrain, Des brought over his 28mm terrain as he doesn't have room for it and we tend to play it at mine, two more churches to add to the three I've got and the sixth I'm working on!  Plus bolt action burnt out houses and hedges/ fences. 

In other news I'm prepping loads of Napoleonic figures and actually painting some which should be finished soon 

All the best

 Iain 

Terrain 16 Russian village, bridges and crates

 These Russian buildings are plastic 1 /72 model kits made by Pegasus, who are sadly now out of production.  This is a real pity as I rather like both these buildings and the 1/48 scale farm animals I purchased previously. I didn't bother with the modern looking windows but stuck a bit of balsa in as shutters, so that they can cover a longer period, medieval to modern day? Frankly I thought I could get away with them in dark age Britain! I will use them for bolt action skirmishing and also with my Napoleonics as built up areas.

I want to add a scratch built barn , church and some plastic fencing at some point but for the moment I wanted to get something done, rather than wait and do everything together, plus at one point I was going to need these for an 1812 battle at Christmas but I  think that's all changed, still it means something is completed which is always good!

In addition to  the Russian village here are three scratch built bridges which I rapidly knocked up when we were going to do the siege out of warlords To kill a king until we realised doing the siege of Worcester out of the pike and shot book made more sense, I have finished them off at my leisure and figure they'll be useful for the Danube ( hence the French  cavalry!) campaign, plus you can't have too many bridges, right? Mostly balsa and card, rapidly thrown together with Uhu, they're a bit pissed but I feel it adds to their rustic charm!

Finally some resin crates, purchased at a pre pandemic Salute, back in the mists of time, they'll serve as objectives/ barricades over a large period even if they should be 20th century I guess. 

I forgot I finally finished this sod roofed scratch built shelter which I had mostly built before I  started this blog, good to finish something off!

Up next, I've got three Napoleonic units all almost finished, hopefully I'll get one of them over the line soon!

All the best

 Iain