Battle of Lodi Valour and Fortitude Napoleonic 73

 Des and Ben came over and we had a game of Valour and Fortitude based on the battle of Lodi, I know not strictly Napoleonic and the French are anachronistic, I also had to use Landwehr to substitute for Grenzers but still better than just a meeting encounter game I think, it was a scenario  Des found on the Internet he chose the Austrians, he had two Grenz units in Lodi three line units , a light cavalry (chevaulegers) and an artillery piece and needed to hold the bridge and not lose over 50% , the French had a brigade of two units of Guard plus an artillery piece, another brigade with three line units and a light cavalry unit ( chasseurs) and a brigade with three infantry units and an artillery unit, all played on my venerable 6' x 4' table with no trees becausewe ran out of time to find them !

I led with the Guard instead of keeping them in reserve and Des did good work shooting from the other side of the bank, in spite of losing activation a number of times I managed to take the unit out on the bridge and eliminate the Grenzers in the town and take the Austrian unit out on the far side of the bridge leading to the Austrians losing over 50% although I did in my hurry lose the  Guard brigade in the process!  Its a  big ask for the Austrians  and they need to get a bit of luck, which they didn't get, apparently it was my dices fault even though we were both using my red set? Worked for me! We were in a hurry as we didn't start until 10pm, probably took until about 11.30pm, we hadn't seen each other since January so there was a fair bit to catch up before getting down to the game, plus Des brought up his 28mm pike and shot troops and British/Portuguese Napoleonic army as he is moving over to warlord epic and 6mm as he doesn't have room in his flat, he's still got to paint the Brunswicker cavalry and highlanders so he'll do that and give me his 28mm WOTR/ 100 years war troops,he's given his ancients and bolt action figures to Ben which is a bit of a relief as otherwise storage would be severely pushed with all those Napoleonic armies I just bought! Ben's just got Pillage from Victrix so we're going to have a go at that with the dark age figures I already have  ( although some more were already on the painting tray, just to change it up slightly from a continuous Napoleonic diet!) We all chatted about Midgard which I bought for the dark ages but I think we're liable to see Rohan warriors, undead and dwarves! Still a good outing for the Jamaican painted French line, still need flags and flocking. 

Got to find a home for these now!

As a birthday treat earlier in the month we went to the Wallace collection for lunch, it's  a free to enter grand house in central London bequeathed to the nation in 1897, lots of baroque and roccoco and Canalettos, which is of course good for Venetian terrain!  But the main reason I mention it here is for the arms and armour collection, much of which I'm sure you'll recognise, worth a visit if you're in the area and the foods pretty good too!

Right Keith,I've done my bit for the tourism industry, other than that painting has taken a hit, just managed to get the replacement hardwood, double glazed door that I'd cut down, planned, primed and undercoated off the table before the game, DIY jobs have piled up in my absence plus the garden is eating some of my time , still I've almost finished preparing four battalions of Bavarians and trying to get terrain built so I can paint it in Dave Stones Summer terrain challenge which runs through July and August, last time I did it, I was pretty productive so hopefully the same thing will happen this time! 

All the best 

Iain