Training Day - learning the ropes in Sharp Practice part 1 - Moving in column vs line

It's not a secret. I've been painting Napoleonics for Sharp Practice. Yesterday I had hoped to get a game from one of the five or six local players but for some reason all of them found an excuse, plumbing, broken down car, working etc. One of them had the gall to say he had plans to go and visit the Tuileries in Paris rather than spend an afternoon at "The Steelies" club in Middlesbrough playing Sharp Practice. I forgive him. This time  :-)

So I was a bit disappointed, but in some ways a bit relieved. Truth is my Sharp Practice experience is mostly American War of Independence, where the units are small and you spend most of your time in line or fighting light infantry style. Napoleonics are different. In particular there is a lot more reliance on Formations and larger units, and to be honest my understanding of the nuts and bolts of all that are not all there.

So I've decided to teach myself a bit more about how Formations move and manoeuvre. Basically do some Drill :-)

I need to be clear this is a training exercise. I'm sat with my copy of Sharp Practice in hand and will be referring to it as I go along. I'm going to make mistakes but hopefully I will learn. Please point them out so I wont screw up next time.

First up I need to learn the nuances of moving in lines and columns. To do this as a bit of whimsy I set up an obstacle course on the dining room table. The object being to traverse the table, cross the obstacles and form up in good order within 6" of the table edge. The obstacles are a fence classed as a minor obstacle, and a hedge row, a major obstacle. I've left gaps one base wide in both with the object of manoeuvring the column through the gaps.

The runners in this obstacle course are two identical units of 24 French Line infantry from the 1809-12 list. Each has a Status 2 Leader. One is set up in line, the other in closed column. I'm not planning on running anywhere, just get the basics down.

Turn 1 - And they're off. Both rolled a total of 6 on their movement die. This brought the line up to the fence. The Column wheeled to fact the gap. Here was my first learning moments. Units wheel on a fixed point and can't split their movement so even though I only needed 4" to wheel, by declaring I was using both movement die to wheel I was stuck with it and "wasted" 2". Reading the rules this is just a matter of my decisions. I could have declared the wheel with one action and then either continued with a second if I had got to the right point or continued ahead with the second if I had got them lined up. Lesson 1. I could have tried moving at an oblique up to 45 degrees if the set up had been better - lesson 2.

Turn 2 - First obstacle. The line crossed this using 2 actions and losing the lowest dice rolled. The Column moved up but were now somewhat behind.

Turn 3 - moving up. The Line rolled well with both die and moved up to the hedge. The Column continued to lag but was lined up on the gap in the hedge.

Turn 4 - The Hedge. The line crossed the hedge. As they are classed as Conscripts and Volunteers they lose the larger of the two dice rolled for movement, the formation breaks up, and each group takes one shock. The column ploughs though towards the gap in the hedge.

edit I moved a hedge piece to make a gap

Turn 5 - At the hedge the line now redresses itself and reforms into a single formation using two "Form Up" orders. It is now carrying one shock on each of the three groups. The column pushes on.

Turn 6 - The line now faces a couple of decisions and I think I got it wrong. I decided to go ahead and advance without rallying shock. The Formation would lose 1 point of movement distance, again here is a little quirk. If I announced I was taking both the unit actions as movement I would lose 1" from the total , so in this case taking two separate move actions. The line is now in place but needs to rally off the three shock it is carrying before declaring a victory. The column is still behind and also needs to get into line.

Turn 7&8  - The line starts to rally off shock. The problem is the Leader is only allowed to rally off shock from the group he is attached to. It follows that a Status II Leader can only rally one Shock per turn then move to the next group. The column uses a formation change and moves from closed column to line while the line is still not quite ready. It's a close thing but a very marginal victory to the column

So in the end, the column won only just. However I was not using Command Cards, which would have allowed the line to boost their Leader status allowing him to rally more quickly. The lessons so far are to be careful as to how you move when choosing one or two move actions. In some cases (wheeling for instance) it may be wiser to do it sequentially, but in others, such as moving when carrying shock, take them together. 

So I think I have a bit of a better grasp of dealing with obstacles and manoeuvring troops. More practice needed.........

The God of Lost Things

Quick moment of whimsy. All gamers are aware of "The God of Lost Things" (GOLT).

You know, that entity that hides the thing you are looking for that you know was just there. I'm aware of two sure-fire ways of placating him\her.

1. Buy the lost thing again. This is drastic but sometimes required. It is usual that once you have ordered the "thing" the original will turn up. Current prime example is the roof section of a Pegasus Hobbies Russian building. I got so frustrated I ordered a replacement. Guess what I found today while looking for.....

2. The other method is to accept and mollify the GOLT by sacrificing something else. While searching for the other lost thing you will almost always find the thing you lost before the one you are looking for.

I'm currently suffering from the following GOLT depredations:

A set of 20x40mm mdf bases to allow me to progress my Warmaster Lizardmen. I've decided to go for solution 1 and ordered some more from Warbases. The originals will turn up tomorrow, probably lodged in a shoe or something.

Not one but two Exacto knives. (I bought a spare "just in case" but didn't take account of the GOLT. Both were sighted mere days ago in my tool tin, but are no longer there......

A set of laser cut shingle tiles I ordered when I realised the aforementioned Pegasus Hobbies roof section was missing. Having ordered another I was going to mod the original with a new roof so they looked different. But I cant find them...........

Anyone else have experience of this and any other solutions??

Pet Peeve no 257 not a review of Perry and Warlord Napoleonic French Infantry boxes

OK so I'm busy painting my way through some French Infantry for Sharp Practice. I was using Perrys and then because I was hitting a painting block switched to Warlord Late French because they're in Greatcoat so far easier to paint. And all is good. I've pretty much rattled through the unit I needed and my core force is now complete. To do that I bought a box from Warlord - actually from a 3rd party supplier for cost reasons, and for some reason this box boils my blood so as it's a Sunday I thought I would share.

First up - the ££££ . 

Warlord are selling this box for £27.50 as of today. I got mine for £22 inc p&p shopping around. The box contains four half box sprues each of six models, two of which are flank company, and four metal command figures. That's £0.98 per figure. The box also contains an info sheet with some paper flags and a set of ammo box decals and a sprue of bases. 

This is the box from Perry Miniatures

It's not quite equivalent as this one has no greatcoated figures. Also the whole box is plastic. Forty-four  figures split into six sprues each of five men for the line companies, a six figure Command sprue (full size) and two four figure half size elite company sprues which are in more active \ skirmishing poses. I should add the line sprues contain arms to allow you to model them as elites in line as well. Cost from Perrys- £25 so £0.57 each. I'm sure I can pick them up for less if I shop around. The box also contains a similar paint guide \ flag sheet and bases. 

Perrys do another box with similar content but half in greatcoat. I didn't get that because I wrongly assumed I would have the fortitude to paint the whole lot in normal uniform so would not need the greatcoat.

So what is my peeve? Apart from the price, it's bloody obvious Warlord are behind the curve here. The Perry boxes are well thought out and FULL of sprues. I can't stress this enough, you feel like you're getting your $$££ worth as the box is chock full with nine sprues to the point it is hard to get it closed again. Also the box has three different sprues in there so you can get a whole unit in plastic. The comparison with the Warlord box is stark. The sprues only fill half the box, the rest is a plastic clamshell holding the four metal command figures plus some foam to hold them in place. I don't know, but to me it looks like Warlord decided not to include the command and skirmishers as plastic to keep the production cost down to one basic plastic sprue. The side effect is that you and I as the punter are paying more for less figures, some in metal, and three layers of packaging. Working with metal requires different tools and techniques than with plastic too. I know the Warlord sprue was conceived and designed a while ago, but so was the Perry. I'd also accept the Warlord sprue is slightly easier to assemble with fewer parts but it's not that much of a bonus. 

Come on Warlord. Surely it is time to redesign this box to be all plastic, including command and flank company, reduce your production costs, save the planet by cutting down on packaging and bump up the value for money to your customers. This is probably the most common of all the Black Powder range to be bought, being Napoleonic French AND Waterloo period, so it is pretty much a flagship product.

Rant over. And to be fair if you buy the Warlord army boxes or starter sets the per figure cost does come down quite a bit, and it also has to be said Perry produce their artillery and other stuff you will need in metal just like Warlord, and at a comparable price.

So am I getting wound up over nothing or do I have a point? What do you think - comment below please       

Cheating Frogs

I think I mentioned I was stalling painting my Sharp Practice French Napoleonics? Before Christmas Wargames Illustrated were giving away a sprue of Warlord French Infantry, and I picked one up to have a closer look - it was free after all. There were six figures on the sprue, all in greatcoat at March Attack. Hmm

Anyway I got a few more sprues by begging from friends (thanks Dave) and then picking up some from the Sprue Shop as I didn't need that many figures. Actually I needed sixteen. Each sprue had four line company guys and a pair of flank types with epaulettes. I needed sixteen line, so four sprues, and I would have eight spare figures to paint up as Grenadiers if I needed them in the future. I suppose I could have carved the epaulettes off them but that seems like a bit of a faff.

As I considered greatcoats cheating and as I was damned to hell for that I felt I should go all the way and just use Contrast paints. May as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

So after a couple of tries I discovered that the Warlord ones were very quick to paint and look ok (to me) at table distance. The minimal straps and the greatcoat covering the damned waistcoat really helped. I found I could paint them about twice as fast as the Perry models. In fact the main issue was waiting for the contrast to dry before putting another colour near - my eyesight is getting a bit meh so I do wander over the lines a bit.

So I have rattled out the sixteen needed which brings my Sharp Practice French up to complete for the core force. I will still need some supports adding before they can hit the table, but it feels like the back of this one is broken.

As for what supports? That's an interesting question. The basic French infantry unit is sixteen guys in the 1809-1812 Peninsular list. My usual first call for supports is to chuck in a gun, but the sixteen man units worry me because I think they lack the weight to carry either a melee attack in column or shoot it out with a British line. So my first option will be to add another stand of eight to each of the line units. They're surprisingly cheap at 4 support points each so shouldn't break the bank in points. Then if I have some spare support points I can take a gun, or maybe some Dragoons........

The sharp eyed (should that be Sharpe eyed??) out there will have spotted the problem. I only had sixteen greatcoated figures. So I decided I needed two more sprues. I consulted the Sprue Shop and they were a fiver each, give or take, plus a bit extra for postage. But a full box could be had for £22 inc p&p so it made sense to do that, it would give me all the expansion option I needed, plus a command group.

Which is why my "I've not bought any models this year" meme has lasted a whole seven days. Ah well.

 .  

The plans of Mice and Ken

 apparently oft go astray

So this was my Christmas break 2024 hobby plan

1. Print and Paint some Lizardmen for Warmaster

2. Repair a Pegasus Hobbies Log House - I have one with a missing roof bit so I've ordered some tiles from Warbases and my m8 Dave has laser cut me some new roof bits and bases so that's an easy one

3. Construct and paint three Pegasus Hobbies Log Houses - in addition to the above. That will give me a full log built village that will cover both WW2 Ost and AWI 

4. Construct my DMH buildings - I've "quite a few"

5. Repair \ bodge a few buildings for Irish Revolt \ Civil War

So a clear and well thought out plan.

Instead I've started painting bloody Frenchmen! My Sharp Practice French have been hovering at half done for months. I've decided to cheat and switch to Warlord models in greatcoats, err and contrast paint. Feels dirty but it does seem to work :-) 

2024 THAT WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS

Looks like it's that time of the year again, you know, when you look back and.....

Gin powered, here are my thoughts on gaming my in 2024

So let's get the excuses out of the way. My Chain of Command KNIL hasn't happened. This is an easy one as the figures are part of a Kickstarter from May 1940 Miniatures and they've been delayed so I have an excuse. Similarly my Blood Red Skies KNIL are still grounded - printed but grounded, awaiting a spark.

Other failures to launch - 

Fallout Factions. Total fail despite models and rules looking good, just didn't catch - maybe next year??

A War Transformed - another alt history WW1 game that I bought the rules for but never really got any progress with.

Dead Mans Hand - not a total fail as we've played and enjoyed it a bit, but the town I planned is still in the box (mostly)

Football War on the ground - got the toys but no progress on paint, which is silly as they'll probably take one or two nights to do to a table standard......... 

I should also mention I'm struggling to get organised Blood Red Skies sessions to work - just not enough interest locally though I'm hoping to start again in the new year.

Stuff that has featured -

Chain of Command - ever reliable, ever dependable and rumour has it v2 in 2025. No new "armies" added but lots of odd bits added to existing ones and plenty of "stuff" still to paint.

Blood Red Skies - still a favourite though opportunities to play are dropping off a bit - may need to refocus in the new year.

Sharp Practice - Austrian and Royal Marines pretty much done, and bonny they are too . I'm struggling with the French but will hopefully get them done in the new year.

Quar - This Quar's War has been a highpoint - an Indy skirmish game about WW1 anteaters. I've got a complete Crusader force, plus some of the other factions and every game so far has been interesting and fun.

An adjunct has been the conversion of my Irish Revolt \ Civil War to use This Quar's War rules (Clash of Rhyflers). As Tod Howard said. "It just works" and I'm looking forward to more in 2025, possibly a campaign.

Bubbling under is Warmaster Revolutions - very Oldskool rework of the venerable but ignored Warmaster rules from GW in the 90s. Free rules, free army lists and cheap 3d printed armies, looks attractive. I'm working on my Lizardmen for the new year.

I also bought Bolt Action v3 - I dont really play but the troops are interchangeable with Chain of Command and it is a rules set that is popular so just a bit of insurance really.

On the down side my mobility is now getting a bit restricted - weight, health and age are making it difficult for me to get to the games room at Hartlepool Wargames Club in the Atheneaum so I'm probably not going to go often in 2025. As I joined in 1978 this is going to be a big miss, though I hope to get some games in at more accessible venues in the new year.

Anyway, that's it. Thanks for reading and hopefully 2025 will be a good year for us all. Cheers!

Rabbit Holes in Historical Wargaming

I think we all know this but here goes. One of the joys of Historical Wargaming, over and above fantasy \ sci fi, is the rabbit holes. You know, the subject or unit that drags you in unexpectedly . I know this to be true, because whenever four wargamers gather to start a new period, one of them suddenly goes off on a tangent, off the beaten path. Example - Sharp Practice. We decided to do some French for Sharp Practice, so we got French (me) French (Paul) and then Neuchatel (Rob) and Westphalians (Steve).  Now let's be clear, theyre all viable and playable, but the last two have involved a lot more effort in thought and research even though they are, to all intents, just French in the game. Also yellow Rob wtf!

One of my rabbit holes is the Dutch Airforce for Blood Red Skies. They only fought (in Europe) for five days, but once I started "collecting" I have found myself with four "Squadrons", two of fighters FXXI and G1a's and two bombers TVs and CVs. Long ago this would have been impossible as models mostly would not have existed (armaments in Miniature do some but importing is not easy at the moment) but with the rise of 3d printing I'm now good to fight the whole five days the Militaire Luchvaart (ML) did. 

Except for one plane type. The Douglas DB-8A/3N. Now I'm going to give anyone who doesn't know this plane a pass because in truth it is a rare bird, and until I was quite a ways down the rabbit hole before I even began to be aware of it. It is a bit more confusing because it is a variant of another slightly more well known plane but with a totally different name, and in Dutch service it was used in a role for which it was not designed or suited for, and all were lost in a single day (more later).

The DB-8A was a version of the Northrop A-17, aka the Nomad in UK service. This was a monoplane two seat attack bomber, essentially a dive bomber and a slight predecessor to the much more famous Dauntless. The A-17 entered production in 1935 and seems to have done reasonably well in the export market, and served with the USA, Peru, Sweden,  Iraq, the UK, South Africa Canada and of course the Netherlands. I'm only aware of the Dutch seeing action though I think the Iraqi ones may well have been used in the Anglo Iraqi war of 1941, which is a rabbit hole all of it's own. The rest were mostly used as trainers, patrol aircraft and target tugs by their various owners. Anyway, back to the Dutch. 

Being a bit contrary in all things air - have a look at the Fokker TV used a s a fighter, the Dutch thought the DB8 would fit well in the role of two seat fighter (!) with a side order of recce \ ground attack. My initial reading suggested the only unit equipped with them, 3V-2 LvR was wiped out on the ground on May 10th 1940 so they were pushed to the side of my mind for a time. Then I "did my own research" ie didn't rely on Wikipedia and bought a book!

It turns out they were not destroyed on the ground, and that a couple of flights managed to scramble and then in a series of rather desperate and valiant actions claimed at least three Luftwaffe planes before being overwhelmed by Bf110s.

So I now have a new, interesting and viable Squadron to model in Blood Red Skies. Where are the pictures I hear you ask?

Err the problem is, noone makes a model, or as far as I can see, even a viable .stl file. I'm regularly but gently badgering Roman Troyen of PlanePrinter fame, but this far my cries have fallen on deaf ears, which is a travesty of justice when you think he makes all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. Ah well, until he get's around to it, it will have to be an unfulfilled dream.........

Hmm Anglo - Iraq war of 1941.........................