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 

Another French line infantry regiment Napoleonic 72

 Here's another unit of Perry plastic French line infantry with a Victrix officer, Perry plastic confederate flag arms and drum and Victrix eagle guard halberds and pistol holsters plus a spare warlord eagle with ribbons. Not as well painted as my Jamaican figures as I'm trying to get used to painting on a tray on a sofa and it's a bit dark! Good enough for government work though. So that's going to bring me up to 336  painted Napoleonic figures this year so far, not too bad, I can relax after 400? Don't be silly, I've got Austrian Hussars, dragoons, cuirassiers and an infantry regiment on the paint tray, together with a French Napoleonic command stand at the moment, plenty more to come!

The sheds at the end of the garden, while I was travelling around Greece I read this book, it's great and does of course make me want to paint up at least one light infantry regiment! 

Really well written, much more than just a unit history, it's a social history of French infantry of the period, I came across excerpts of it online while researching my provisional Dragoon unit, so ordered it for when I got back and it didn't disappoint.

As I haven't been able to prime anything for over a year I had something of a backlog ,as while in Wales all I really did was prep figures and some terrain, so I thought I'd grab the opportunity of some time at the weekend to do some priming.

What is funny is how you can forget what you've prepared!  Alright, age, got it but when I got these out of their boxes, I'd remembered prepping my last French Napoleonic infantry unit ( 2nd battalion Imperial Guard grenadiers) but I'd forgotten about the Italian Wars pike block, I'd wanted a more Italian pike block after my go at Agnadello and also some more Italian heavy cavalry, less Gendarme like following my Fornova game from some time ago, Des had a load of pre built Perry plastic mounted knights he'd got from Ebay and didn't want anymore. Also some archer heavy cavalry to fill that slot in the order of battle. In addition there is a ton of 100 years war French mounted knights so I should get on with sorting out their minions and grubby opponents! There's also three Westphalian units, three Hungarian units and two grenzers, the additional Hungarian hussars and Austrian Uhlans will have to wait till I've got some more spray paint!

All the best 

Iain

A 1970s diorama of Plessy for Steve and some future plans

 A while ago I mentioned a 1970s diorama of flats in a magazine called The British Empire but couldn't find it. Well it finally turned up, I'd lent it to a grand nephew who was doing a project on the American War of Independence and it was in the same volume. 

They're a nice collection of images I think and a neat little AAR which I remember finding fascinating as a little chap! I especially liked the elephant command group! You can probably see where I started binding together the magazines with string, my dad showed me how, as he'd done it in school pre ww2!

Getting near to the end of my Napoleonic French and to a certain extent my Austrians I picked up enough Hat and Victrix Bavarians to build Wredes 1809 division of two brigades before I went to Jamaica, I also had some French chasseurs I could convert into Bavarian chevaulegers and have got some more.

  

I also picked up the Brede  Bavarian Army book I've had in my basket for an age, to add to my geriatric Osprey, complete with copperplate title, very 20th century! 

One night when I was fed up in a hotel room I put an order into the Perry site, which included Bavarian high command and two artillery pieces. 

In that order I also got the Prussian regimental deal plus some plastic command and added it to my last full box of Wargames Atlantic Prussian reserve infantry. 

The main aim of the Perry purchases was of course the new plastic Spanish figures , what can I say I'm weak! The early light dragoons will become Spanish hussars, focused on the siege of Girona and Catalonia in 1809.

I already had some Spanish reference. 

But clearly I needed more!

Buying the two Cronin books, which while expensive seem really good, meant I could get this one free!

I will need to pick up some cavalry for the Prussians, so am planning on getting a couple of Perry plastic allied cavalry boxes and a box of Russian uhlans to use as Polish as I want to do a Duchy of Warsaw force , based around three Perry plastic boxes, I have already in the Perry order got some additional command, the later light dragoons will give me a second unit of uhlans. 

With both the Prussian and Spanish armies I need rag tag militia types and wanted those as economically as possible and came up with this.

For £80 from the outpost that's a lot of figures I can reuse and adapt, sack jackets for landwehr and short jackets for Spanish provisional/militia etc, I'm not that bothered about percussion versus flintlock at this scale and I figure with barrel changes I can get away with the artillery pieces as British lend lease kit for the Prussians and the mounted command with head swaps look Prussian to me, hopefully I can use the fencing with my Russian terrain and I'm sure I can find a use for the building? The Prussians came about because of me disappearing down a Leipzig 1813 hole of research a couple of years ago, after getting Let's play Leipzig! at Partizan I'm halfway through a Mockern terrain piece and that's what I'm building my Prussian force for,not 1809 but I'll just use my existing French force as opposition. 

Well ,it just came out and it was a declared project a while ago but this will , apart from this purchase, be a back burner project for a while as I seem to have a few things on?! Once I've got the cavalry and the Polish I think I'd better not buy much more for a while,Partizan 2026 maybe!?I have been good for the last couple of years in my defence! 

It's a lovely book but even I can't justify another army, not when I'm starting four other Napoleonic armies! 

Really nice book, Conway publishing, great author ( Brian Lavery) can't go wrong, one of a number of 18th century/Napoleonic naval books I've bought recently to add to my other books on the subject, I just don't know how to connect it to wargaming as I don't fancy sea battles, although I have been looking at admiralty ship models but do I want to spend 15 years building a ship and not finish it before I die? They are lovely bits of kit and super interesting  but you've then got something that just sits there and you throw sugar at it? ( a phrase my mum used to use about ornaments! ) 

I  might do pirates  or ship to ship action at some point, trouble is at 1/48 a 74 gun ship of the line is over 3' long, you'd need a pretty big table! Still I'm sure I can shoehorn something out of scale at some point! 

I think that's why I'm interested in this hobby, I want stuff to have a use and I like model making and research and it neatly combines that, sorry for the existential ramble, I should have another French line unit finished shortly and normal service will be resumed! 

All the best 

Iain