Saturday 21 April 2018

Battle of the Marne, 1914

Background

Tabletop, viewed from South Edge
Fought in early Sept 1914, this was the first clear victory by the Allied forces over the advancing Germans. The battle followed on from the Battle of the Frontiers where the Allied armies were forced into retreat and the pursuing Germans were on the verge of reaching the outskirts of Paris, where the French and BEF were able to hit the extended German lines in their western flank.

The Game
More 1st Korps advancing Battalions
Staged on April 20th, 27th and slated for a 3rd week on 4th May, was put on by Phil, using his collection of 15mm WWI figures and his own adaptations of Shako rules to meet the period change required for combat occurring 100 years later than originally designed for.
Seemingly endlesss Advance of German
1st Korps columns on Eastern roads

Hopefully we'll see some notes from Phil on how he went about the development of these rules at some point but in summary each nationality has its own play-sheets to represent specific doctrines and skills whilst the core mechanics of the Shako rules shine through.

Advancing French Battalions to South West of battlefield
Game is played on a detailed 8' x 6' table, with play running length ways of the table (ie Short edge to short edge. The forces involved are a snapshot of the opening phases of the battle and are not 100% historically accurate - rather they use as much of Phil's collection as possible whilst trying to respect historical balance.

Lead elements of German &
French Divisions clash in woods
Week One: The Germans start the game advancing with 3 infantry divisions and a cavalry division to north east of table.

Town dominating centre of
battlefield held by German Jeagers
French have deployed two divisions along the ridges at the south end of the table and they are later able to deploy a third (Zouave) division advancing into the German rear from the North East.

Week Two: The French Zouave division push on securing one of eth two roads used by the Germans as lines of communication, in the process mauling 1st Korps Artillery and a Reserve Korp Landwehr Brigade that blundered into the advancing French.

Advancing 2nd Korps Battalions
along North central roads
Elsewhere the Germans fared better, 1st Korps captured the town in the South West of the tabletop, before swinging north to move between the two French ridges. In the process two French divisions were badly mauled, being forced to retire with heavy casualties. The Germans also suffering heavy casualties to their 1st Korps: 1st Division.
German Divisional Artillery
To the North the Reserve Korps and Cavalry Korps were hit by fast advancing French troops bit managed to hold them off in a series of firefights, before pushing back one of the French divisions with both sides taking casualties.

Week Two ended with elements of the BEF arriving to bluster the faltering French line, moving North West to South East and approaching the center of the table where a brigade of German Jeagers have been bravely holding out against repeated French attacks.

More to follow as the game progresses

Thursday 19 April 2018

Off the Workbench - Mike W, 18/04/18

What's Off the Workbench today,Wednesday  18/4/2018?

So without much real thought, I have decided that these posts will now be approximately every fortnight, this accounts for the longer summer evenings and the need to get other jobs I have been putting off all winter done before we get too far int the summer months...

Since last post I received a delivery of 28mm First Corps Mexican soldatos, artillery (Mexican & Texian) and associated crews, these have all been duly painted and made ready for gaming - with the deadline for the first Texas Revolution game set at early June - time is running out to get enough of these little guys ready.
Matamaros Battalion Companies plus officers & NCOs

Matamaros Bn unifrorm
with red plastron

Firstly I completed 2 units of 8 Soldatos, painted up as the Matamaros Perminate Battalion, these guys had sky blue trousers, blue jackets with red collars and cuffs and a red plastron on the front of their jackets, all trimmed with white. These First Corps figures have a mixture of shakos and field caps on the figures. I'm not convinced the field caps are 100% accurate as they more closely resemble Spanish Isabellista caps than the French bonnets they were meant to be modelled on.
Boot Hill Texian Gunners with 6lb Gun

Overall the units have turned out well and I'm pleased with them. Their detail is no where near as crisp and easy to paint as the Boot Hill figures but they are considerably cheaper!

The delivery also included 2 x 6lb guns for the Texians, plus an 'American' crew - the other will be crewed by Boot Hill artillerymen - they don't yet supply artillery pieces in their range,
First Corps Mexican Gunners with 6lb Gun

The guns put themselves together pretty easily, fiddly as ever but again the norm of any scale really. The Mexican and 'American' crews painted  up nicely. I like the 'American' crew in their entirety more than the Mexicans - better poses and easier to paint. However the best figure of the bunch is the Mexican artillery officer who has a foot up on a stone and resting his telescope.

Boot Hill Mexican Gunners with 6lb Gun

First Corps 'American'  Gunners with 6lb Gun
Best bonus was that I was spurred on to finally complete the 6 First Corps Mexican Soldatos that I gave up on a couple months back. These now represent an under strength Grenadier company for their Matamaros Perminate Battalion stable mates.

Final completed item was a 28mm MDF Wagon, this was so simple to put together and build - I can't praise it enough, I have a second in the packet waiting to go - I just need to get some cart horses to pull them!

What's On the Workbench today?

At present there are 6 x Front Rank 28mm Austrian Cuirassiers, that I got from Colonel Bills a few weeks go, there's a couple more days painting work on these before I 'Dip' them and get them completed.

Then I'll be looking to get back to the Texian Revolution again to meet my self imposed June deadline...

... I've still got to finalise the Melee rules and design a scenario!

Saturday 14 April 2018

Sikh Wars Battle - Photos

Tabletop Battlefield
Tabletop Detail
The Game

Staged on April 6th & 13th  by John & Dave, using their collection of 15mm Sikh Wars figures, fought over an 8' x 6' table.









Sikh Regular Cavalry

Sikh Irregular Cavalry

Sikh Irregular Infantry

Wednesday 4 April 2018

Off the Workbench - Mike W, 04/04/18

What's Off the Workbench today,Wednesday  4/4/2018?

Well it's been nearly a month since my last posting, sorry about that but to be honest I found other things to be doing and my rate of painting also dropped....

... a bit of variety always makes for a more balanced approach, so they say.

Well since my last post I finished the 28mm Boot Hill Mounted / Dismounted Vaqueros and Texians, see group picture below and apologies for cutting the head off the mounted guy on the left!


The other set of figures that I completed were the Tres Villas Grenadiers, again 28mm Boot Hill miniatures, these are as shown below.


What's On the Workbench today?

Just  few figures really, three Boot Hill 28mm dismounted cavalry men, from the command pack. The NCO has been painted up in the Regulars red jacket, whilst the officer and bugler are in the green jackets of the active Reserve Cavalry - more Reserve troopers to be added in due course. These guys are nearly done,just waiting on the bases to have vegetation added and a matt varnish to be applied.

More observant readers will notice three painted horses in the background of the picture to left. These are for the mounted versions of the cavalry figures - unfortunately I seem to have lost these little guys in the last four weeks so I may need to acquire some more.

Finally to right are 3 x 28mm Boot Hill Mexican sentries in various poses - painted up to join the ranks of the Tres Villas Infantry Battalion, these are much less near to completion!.

Projects for the next week or so will be either a new Anglo-Dutch Wars Brandenburg Infantry Regiment or some more Mexicans - I'm expecting a delivery of some First Corps figures in the next couple days. Lets see what takes my fancy!