Deployment

Following the decision to play the opposition in this game semi-automatically, I needed a system where I colud be fair to both sides. The best option, to my mind, was to work out several options of how I would respond and then roll a die to see which the commander would take.
For the deployment we knerw that they would be positioned inbetween the two roads. With three foot brigades I decided that two would form the first line and the last would be in the second line. The artillery was given to the two brigades in the front line. All that remained was the horse. These are the options I came up with and the roll needed for each.

1 - Horse in 1st line on right, 2nd line foot to centre.
2 + 3 - Horse in 2nd line on right, foot on left.
4 + 5 - Horse in 2nd line on left, foot on right.
6 - Horse in 1st line on left, foot on right.

The die was cast and came up....a 6

The Opposition Deployed

Now I had to find out the start time for the action. I decided that it would start at 7 + the roll on an average die. Again the roll was the highest, resulting in a start time of 12 noon.
I then followed Alan's orders for the deployment of his troops. Hopefully they are in the required positions!

Both Sides Take Up Positions

The game will now run in a series of half hour long turns. A full turn includes movement and combat phases for each side. To represent this I will report every 1/2 turn so that you can see what happens for each sides' moves.

As these pictures are all that Alan will have to work with when deciding his moves, they will generally be large when 'clicked on', especially the shot which will show the whole table. This view will be in every report. Close ups will only be shown of troops within 6" of Alan's general (he is near the building on the right of the field). Along with the pictures there will be a brief report of any actions which taken place. This will not include details of movement as that should be obvious from the pictures.
With Alan as the 'aggressor' I will allow him the honour of going first. So reports on his turns will be timed at a quarter to and a quarter past the hour and those of the opposition will be at half past and on the hour.

Conventions Used in the Games

I hope that the following pictures are easy enough to understand!

Manouver One

You are the commander of Blue Army. Your troops are those listed above. There are two batteries of artillery which must be allocated to one or more foot brigades.

“Last evening your forces came into contact with those of Red Army who were making camp across a shallow valley. (The stream in the valley is of no significance and has not been shown.) Within the valley are two small hamlets, each capable of holding a battalion of foot. A few copses are scattered across the valley floor.
Red Army is camped on the high ground to your South, between the two roads running in that direction. It is safe to assume that these troops will form in to Line of Battle in this area.
You must order the deployment of your troops within the area defined by the edge of the area being used and the blue line shown on the map. Your troops will enter along the roads to the North. "
Note: A battalion of Foot and a regiment of Horse have a frontage of about 150 yards, with an artillery battery taking up about half of this.

Alan has this description and has forwarded his initial dispositions. I am in the process of putting the table together (just need a few more trees) and when it is complete then we are off.
The plan is to send Alan photos of the situation at the end of each player turn. When he has sent in his next orders I will post the previous moves, with notes that Alan did not get, on the here.

Upcoming Manouvers

As the forces of The League gather, the commanders are troubled by their lack of co-ordination. To help remedy this situation and to keep the troops occupied, they decide to perform a series of manouvers.

For the forthcoming campaign, the army will be split into two Wings and it has been decided that these wings will provide the opposing forces for these manouvers. For this purpose only, the wings will be named Red and Blue.

Red consists of 3 brigades of Foot, each of 3 battalions; 1 brigade of Horse, of 3 regiments; a total of between 2 and 4 pieces of field artillery will also be attached to the force. In total Red numbers some 6750 foot and 1500 horse.

Blue consists of 3 brigades of Foot, each of 4 battalions; 2 brigades of Horse, each of 3 regiments; a total of between 4 and 6 pieces of field artillery will also be attached to the force, In total Blue numbers some 9000 foot and 3000 horse.

During the manouvers, troops will be restricted to operating in an area of about 2400 yards by 4800 yards. Each geneal will be provided with a map of this area the evening before the manouver in order to allow them to issue deployments and orders to their troops.

The conduct of the troops will be monitored by observers drawn from the various regiments. These observers will impart to the unit's commanders the 'state' of their troops. This will include the state of disorder and any casualties received. It is hoped that this will enable the commanders to see how well their troops may perform in the heat of battle.

Alan (of the Duchy of Tradgarland) has kindly agreed to help me test the 6mm guys out using a play by email system. In the initial manouvers Alan will be playing an active role, whilst his opponent will be using a reaction led system. Basically I will roll against a list of options for what their troops will do on each of their turns. At the end of each turn I will photograph the table and send Alan an update so that he can set up his next orders.

By running a few games I hope to be able to iron out any problems with the system. Then, with the addition of the Uber Gruntshuffen troops, I should be able to run games for two (possibly more) players with me acting as umpire and getting to do the allimportant dice rolling.

The first scenario will be with Alan this evening and I hope that we will get underway during the week.

A Little Taster

This was really just an excuse to put a few figures onto the table. It also meant that I could try out the camera settings for the table.

Very simple set up, harking back to my first attempts many, many years ago.

Obviously the complete table will include hills etc.

Music

I have a request to all of you tolerant and helpful readers, especially if your ability to 'Google' is better than mine.

If you have links to any period music, or martial music that would be appropriate, could you please post them in the comments section.

All for part of the upcoming project, I really need to get back into the feel of it all.

Next up is the new game table, with construction notes etc.

Guess What I've Been Doing-

Other than taking a break on the 6mm front, I have been trying to learn how to take photos of miniatures. Quite happy with the result above - no added lighting, no light box, just simple stuff.

Still Here....

Sorry about the picture quality.

Another Update

Due to a near complete lack of time since the last post, very little has been done. Even though I paint in bocks of 45 minutes to 90 minutes, it seems that I cannot have that time to spare ;-(
Last night I managed to put the facings on to 150 figures, what a mind numbing piece of painting that was. Still it provided an interesting exercise in working out colour schemes. As many of you already know, the army uniforms are based upon those of Piedemont. Looking through the uniform plates available, it becomes apparent that only 4 colours were used on facings (with each unit having lapels, cuffs, turn-backs and collars in the same colour), 3 colours on breeches and vests (agian with each unit having matching items), all gaiters were the same regardless of unit and buttons/tricorne trim varied between white and yellow.
Taking this information and transferreing it to the organisation of my forces gives the following:
Each of the 3 recruitment areas provides 4 battalions. Each battalion raised is clothed individually. A battalion is distinguished by;
1) It's facing colour, each recruitment area raises one battalion with each of the four facing colours.
2) It's breech/vest colour, all battalions from one recruiting area will use the same colour.
3) It's button/trim colour, each battalion will have a random choice of one of the colours.
So there you have it, just another 90 figures worth of facing colours to go and then it is on to the breeches!

Today's Output

Painted today - Garde Grenadier zu Fuss Regiment
and 240 more tunics!

Plans for March - WGS Update

This month I will mostly be painting the 6mm troops for Uber Gruntshuffen. I have just prepared 16, yes 16, battalions; a total of 256 figures. Included in the prep work was the removal of 25 flag poles and the replacement of them by 25 longer flag poles! The one problem of having a great love of large flags is needing a big enough pole to fly them from.
Talking of flags i've also started putting the 1st of the league flags on. Once they are done I will post a unit by unit close up of the army.

End of the Month

Just a quick update.
No painting since Tueday, but I finally got down to some today. The last of the League forces are under the brush. All that remains to be done is the hat trim and belts.
I am only typing this as I have two minutes while I wait for the kettle to boil. Then it is back to painting so that I can get them finished tonight. An army in a month - not bad going.

Painting White

Any ideas for painting white uniforms onto the little guys? Ok I can do it taking my time, but I really, really want to get these 6mm troops onto the table. My best effort yet is this:




Which is done with a white undercoat, paint in hats and the undercoat on the flesh, wash in brown, paint in the details. Looks ok but is a bit labour intensive.

WGS Update 2

I have now finished all of the foot for the League forces (except for the flags ). There is a grand total of over infantry 350 figures. I was quite impressed with the speed of painting. Over 300 foot and 30 mounted painted in 17 days! They were bought on the first of February but I did not start work on them until the next saturday. I have been painting in periods of one or two hours a night, but not every night. But I do have a nice sence of achievement seeing how far they have come. Now I just have the rest of the horse and artillery to paint (and the troops for Uber Gruntshuffen of course!).

The Force So Far

My Poor Force (as yet with no information)

Uniforms designed by Abdul66 and Prince Geoffery

Uniforms designed by Bluebear Jeff and Tradg

A close up of the figures visable at the back of the first photo

These are a 1/32 Italieri French Dragoon, two GW Space Marines, two 1/72 plastic French and three Foundry SYW civilians. The civilians have been painted in three differnt ways; on the right is fairly traditional, the central one was block painted and inked and the nice old lady with pipe on the left was done using just inks (except for the white lace).

WGS Update

As of last night I finished the current batch of the League forces, that's now 13 battalions of infantry, 5 regiments of horse and 2 batteries done. I hope to get some photos soon, but I am waiting until they all have their flags.

Speaking of which here is the sheet with all the colours on.