Crisis 2018

Just got back from Crisis 2018.  Overall, a great weekend.

Four of us departed Kent early Friday morning to catch the 6.50am train from Folkestone to Calais.  Some interesting questions from UK Border police officers re purpose of visit and how much cash we had on us? 

Train left on time and arriving in France we had a smooth run from Calais to Antwerp.  We used an alternative route to avoid the heavy traffic on the E17 approaching Antwerp, experience of last 5 years.  Having got to Antwerp at around 11.30am it then took us over an hour to get to our hotel which was near the main station.  Antwerp roads and traffic make London look good.  No left turns, no right turns, dust carts collecting rubbish at noon!!!  No wonder the police use bicycles.  Finally checked in at the hotel - we were told the roadworks (tram system) would be finished November 2019 - hopefully before Crisis next year.

The rest of Friday was spent in the Antwerp Pub opposite the hotel.  Several games of C&C Napoleonics Waterloo, lunch, snack, dinner and many beers.

After the traffic of Friday, all agreed an early start for getting to the show on Saturday morning.  Left the hotel at 8.45am and aimed for the Scheldt.  We actually got to the car park for Crisis at around 9.15.  This allowed sufficient time to fight the Antwerp parking meter system.  For a fee of €3.80 you can park all day.  Absolute bargain.  The drawback is trying to get the machine to issue a ticket!  After multiple attempts of trying to input my car's registration number and a large queue forming behind me and one of my colleagues, a friendly German said as we were British with a UK registration plate we would not be penalised.  So we simply joined our colleagues in the Crisis show queue to await the 10am opening time.

Tip for Crisis organisers; collect €5 from all cars on entry, give €4 to the local government and €1 for the club.  Much quicker.  We noted, once in the show (€20 including 8 Jetons - tokens for food and drink) how quiet it was initially with streams of people still coming in at 11.30, I suspect after having battled with the parking meters.

Crisis is a great trade show with a really good spread of European traders, especially terrain but also good model material suppliers.  A few no shows from the traders (e.g. Flag Dude) but this may have been due to a train failure in the tunnel later Friday morning.

Picked up all my pre-orders plus some (Napoleons Berlin coach for one!).  Looked at most games, some excellent (especially the Arnhem game) but some did look like an excuse for a club night game.  Couple of my colleagues thought it was quiet until they saw the scrum for the Bring & Buy. 

We had a previously made engagement to be at the Ligny Museum at 3pm, which was especially opened for us (shuts for the winter 31 October) after making contact some months back and requesting a visit.

We left Antwerp at around 12.30 and headed south around Brussels.  Checked into our Saturday night hotel in Waterloo (Martins - excellent) before heading down to Ligny.

Museum at Ligny was brilliant.  Small but really comprehensive coverage of the battle and also Quatre Bras and huge collection of artefacts on display.  The most informative exhibit was the map of the Allied and French dispositions on the 16 June 1815 (by squadron, battery and battalion) which provided a clear sense of how stretched out columns were (D'Erlons) and the distances involved - shame they did not have a printed copy for sale.  Personally, I thought it more informative than the new Waterloo museum and only €5 per person to get in.

Many thanks to the staff at the museum.

Rest of Saturday afternoon was finding original buildings of the Ligny battlefield including Ferme du Haut and Ferme d'en Bas, both now relatively disused and run down but both very solid!

Ferme du Haut

Ferme d'en Bas

As the day became cooler and darker we made our way back to Waterloo, via Quatre Bras to collect some bricks from the now bulldozed Quatre Bras farm.  Will mount this at some point.  The wife rolled her eyes when returning home with 200+ year old bricks!!!

Back in Waterloo, dinner at a great Brasserie and then off to the Irish pub (The Snug) for the rest of the evening.  It actually closed at 3am but we retired at 2ish.

After breakfast Sunday morning, down to Waterloo battlefield to walk from the new centre to Hougomont via the path marking the Allied right wing front line.  Some new markers on the path which I hope do not stay!!

This is promoting a new automated shuttle to run from Waterloo museum to Hougomont.  There was one of these about every 12 yards.

They make the Lion Mound look in keeping!

Once at Hougomont, we decided to walk round to the south side (wall defended by the Guards) and then head east towards La Belle Alliance.  A bright and chilly morning but a great walk with us finally heading north on the Brussels Road to confirm our views re the location of the Grand Battery at various points in the battle.

Walking the Waterloo battlefield is something I strongly recommend to grasp the hills and undulations.  At points between the Allied and French lines you could not see Hougomont or La Haye Saint.  And the crops at this time of the year are already harvested.  Napoleon's assumed observation point certainly gives probably the best view of the battlefield, especially the Ohain road ridge line where Picton's division was posted as well as east towards the Bois de Paris and Chapelle St Lambert where the Prussians massed before attacking towards Plancenoit.  From that point though you cannot see Hougomont at all.  Possibly why it is was such a mess down there?

Left Waterloo around noon after a good 2-3 hour walk and back to Calais and then England.  Tired but enthused.

Reading show in two weeks!

An expansion of the battlefield

I have started work on designing some new scenarios using the C&C La Grande Battle (LGB) system.  I will post these on this site when completed and play tested.  One of the issues I noted is that the battlefield (26 hexes wide by 11 hexes deep) is a little narrow for some battles and can end up with distortion of the ground to squeeze onto the table.  When I had the tiles which make up the table extended from the original 9 hex deep C&C system to 11 deep to accommodate the new Epic and LGB systems, it resulted in the additional 2 hexes added to the depth being put on one side.  This left the other side with room to add 2 deep hexes as well.

To keep the system flexible, I asked Martin at Warbases to prepare some 4x6 inch hex mdf bases with a mark left so that the hexes are distinct from one another.  These have now been flocked and extra PVA added to ensure the flock stays on!  I now have a table 13 hexes deep which should be more accommodating of the grander LGB games planned including Borodino, Waterloo, Ligny and Wagram.

You get an idea of how big the table is above, 14' by 6'.

Aspern-Essling again!

Two weeks ago saw myself and 5 friends fight Aspern-Essling (1809) again, I think this is the 4th time.  The difference this time was a modification to the terrain as well as adding in some further units, a Grenadier division for the Austrians and some Guard for the French, including my freshly painted Young Guard battalion.

2nd Battalion, 1st Voltigeurs

We also managed to field 3 commanders aside making the Le Grand Battle system work well on the day, although it did require rigorous control of the command cards as people chucked in completed hands.

An initial rule query was resolved amongst ourselves.  Subsequent clarification with Richard Borg provided the definitive answer, which was not what we agreed but in reality we do not see it being an issue (see the link re the rule query here: https://www.commandsandcolors.net/napoleonics/forum-main/5-rules-and-faqs/1749-la-grand-battle-corps-commander-cards.html)

Battle about to commence

The above is a general view of the game.  More detailed shots as follows:

French centre and left

Austrian centre and right

Baden artillery

Austrian Grenadiers

The game kicked off with a slow creep of the Austrians around the French right to try and mass their forces.  Under C&C rules the Austrian line infantry is slow so it takes time which means for the first few hours the game can be quite quiet.

Austrian attack on the left

On the Austrian right, facing Aspern, the fighting got underway from the off.  The Austrians were immediately under fire from the church and village of Aspern and suffered significant casualties.  Some early Austrian attacks were beaten back with high losses and after about an hour the Austrian right wing suspended attacks for a re-think.  This included shifting cavalry and some infantry to the centre which was matched by the French CinC ordering the left wing commander to shift the Baden division to the centre, where they would be very important late on.

Austrian right wing

Church at Aspern with Baden division in the rear

By lunchtime, the Austrian left had pushed in the French right, the Austrian right had stalled and was re-deploying whilst in the centre, it was mostly quiet with some French troops, including the Young Guard being pushed to the right to support that flank.

Austrians pushing in the French right

The attack on the French right would go on all day with the French feeding in more fresh units (Guard and cavalry) to try and stem the attack  After lunch the French, to relieve the pressure on their right, started to feed more infantry from the left (mostly Badeners) and launched a series of cavalry attacks against the Austrian centre.

French reserves of Guard and heavy cavalry

The centre battle raged for the rest of the day destroying almost all the French cavalry (including a Cuirassier division) and leaving only the Grenadiers a Cheval as the only full strength unit which launched a final attack, along with the Baden division to finally break the Austrian centre and win the day for the French, 22 banners versus 18.

The winning Baden division!

Overall, a great day.  Tiring but helped by some beers and a curry in the evening in the local village.  Followed next day by Colours at Newbury.

The next game planned is Vimiero 1808 and the entry of the British for the first time.

The imposing Granary - never attacked all day by the Austrians!

Mockern

Last weekend was the long awaited Mockern Epic game.  After some last minute painting of Cossacks by Don to ensure we had the Mother Russia rule covered we were ready to go Saturday morning.

Table ready to receive the figures

Don took the Prussians (Allied right wing), which are all Calpe figures, Norman took the left wing with his newly completed Russians (Front Rank).  I took the French and a spattering of Poles (Foundry, Perry and Murawski) with the objective to hold the right wing of the French Army at Leipzig under the command of Marshall Marmont.  The Allied army was commanded by Blucher.

Initial set up, seen from French right flank

We managed over the day to play two games with a close run thing in game one and a more one sided affair in game two.

Game 1 started with a strong Prussian infantry attack on the fortified Manor House north of Mockern.  This was quickly captured and with a series of force march cards in this sector the Prussian infantry was able to maintain its momentum for most of the game and push the French out of building after building.  The French also lost over half their artillery early in the game.  With the left flank almost gone, the only option for the French was a counterattack against the Russians (who had moved very little), spearheaded by French hussars and Polish uhlans.  The attack almost paid off with all the Russian cavalry being destroyed but it was to little to late.  The Allies won 15 banners to 14.

Prussian infantry in front of Mockern

French infantry behind Mockern

French artillery in the centre

Game 2 started in the same fashion as game 1 but this time the initial Prussian assaults did not push the French out of their defensive positions, the French were able to reinforce and the Prussian attacks, although pressed never got any momentum and by the end of the battle the Prussians were holding a thin defensive line along their start positions.

In the centre, the Prussian cavalry took a hard pounding from French artillery before being mopped up by the French Cavalry, again supported by Polish uhlans.

French artillery near Mockern

French cavalry awaiting orders

On the other flank, the Russians this time showed more aggression but were never able to dislodge the French/Polish infantry and a massing of French cavalry (including Cuirassiers) ended with a cavalry charge which won the game for the French, a score of 15 to 3.

Russian cavalry, light and heavy

Prussians in the centre

A great day with two fantastic games, especially the first which could have gone either way although I just could not stop the Prussian steamroller.  The day was intermixed with a good lunch and very nice dinner, courtesy of the camp followers!

As mentioned in my last post, the Polish infantry got their first outing in this game.  The Polish artillery (almost done) did not turn up so some French artillery stood in.  Next game is Aspern-Essling Le Grand Battle in September (Colours weekend) with hopefully 6 players.  I have made some changes to the LGB version on the website adding in Austrian Grenadiers and some more Grenzers.  The French get one each of an Old and Young Guard battalion, the latter being the next unit on the painting table.

Using Microsoft Publisher I am now able to construct my own maps (with terrain only and then add the units) and will be working on the following LGB scenarios, Borodino, Wagram, Ligny and Waterloo.

First of the Polish

As I mentioned last month, I have now made progress on my latest painting project, the Polish or Duchy of Warsaw.  These figures are based upon the 1812 V Corps and specifically those present at Borodino on Napoleon's right flank, attacking the village of Utitza.

I initially looked at Front Rank but these do not go well with Foundry/Perry and so when I saw Murawski these looked perfect and I have to say they are a joy to paint.  Very clean in respect of mould lines (almost none) and flash (minimal) and excellent detail, especially trims and buttons.  I will probably break the painting up with an initial rush to get figures ready for Mockern 1813 (game on next month), comprising the Uhlans, 3 battalions of Line infantry and a foot battery.  This will expand significantly for Utitza with 4 regiments of cavalry, 10 battalions and two batteries.

I started with the Uhlans and an officer Group.

As I previously mentioned, my preferred method of painting mounted figures is to do the horse first, then fix the man to the horse and then paint him.  But in the case of the Murawski figures, the fit is tight and thus after some judicious filing, the man and horse were glued and then painted as a whole.

The Polish Crimson/Pink is a an undercoat of Games Workshop Khore red, Foundry Wine Stain shade and finally Hues Polish Crimson (with added white for the final highlight).

The flag and pennants are GMB (as are virtually all of my flags).  I cannot recommend GMB highly enough and were applied to the figures after basing and varnishing with a PVA wash to protect the flag from heavy hands!  I am not sure how long it will be before a lance is lost in action.  At Partizan, the Grenadiers a Cheval lost their flag during the battle, somewhat a reflection of their performance on the day.  Now safely restored I hope they perform better this week at a section of Austerlitz.

Next to be finished, the 1st/6th Polish Line battalion.

Partizan 2018

Following the Salute show last month, we put on the Aspern-Essling game again at Partizan last Sunday.  There was only three of us this time which made the day quite congested fielding many questions from the visiting public and trying to progress the game so that visitors did see some progress as they visited us.  However, as always, it is the questions and chat that make the show worthwhile.  If all we wanted to do was play the game, then we would put on at our club or a members house.  I always think the aim of a demonstration game is to try and showcase the hobby, not an extended club night!

We set off from Kent at just before 5am, arriving at the Newark Showground around 7.30, after some breakfast.  One thing to note is how few service stations are open early on a Sunday morning.

It was a bit tight in the car, thankfully I am the driver.

Parking, as usual, excellent, and we had the game set up by 8.30, ready well in time for the public when they came in at around 10.  Our table was at the start of the Demonstrator zone, next to the Perry's Germantown game.

One of the issues with having so few of us putting on the game is that you get little time to look at other games or the trade.  I managed to pick up my pre-booked orders.  There was some confusion with Dave Thomas but will pick up the balance at Crisis in November - it is not as if I will run out of lead by then.  Other than that, little opportunity to get around the show.  A few books acquired but I will use Crisis and Reading for my main shopping and research.

The game itself went well, we actually managed to finish it (French win), unlike at Salute.  It was good to catch up with a few people, specifically;

Michael Perry who obviously was taking a look at the large number of Foundry and Perry figures on the table but was also interested in the fit of their figures with the Gringo officers on the table.  He was also impressed with the Warbases wagons and caissons.

Steve Shann (see link on this blog), who I met for the first time and was the designer and creator of all the buildings on show, including the Granary.

Steve and I spent some considerable time discussing our next projects; the Peninsula and Waterloo.

Most people passing wanted to discuss the Command & Colors systems and also were impressed at how many figures were on the table, and for the General de Brigade gang, one comment was how nice to see 12 and 8 figure units (not such a painting marathon as 36+) and yet the battlefield looked well stacked.

Attack on Aspern

Aspern Church

My overall view is that the Partizan show has a very good standard of wargames that clearly are games that can be played.  There are no diorama style games which you see at other shows.  The location is very good, with good lighting (an advantage over Salute) but on a very sunny day it became very warm and the body odour aroma of some rose as the day went on!

The guys I felt really sorry for were the traders on the south side of hall (including Warbases) where the feel of a greenhouse came to mind.

It is a long day for people coming from the south (and no doubt the north), so for next year I think a night in Newark or Lincoln before hand will break up the day.  Something to consider.

I also noted two of my officer bases in this month's Wargames Illustrated, the Lannes (with Vistula Legion staff) and Grouchy.  Both Gringo figures.

Next post is the first of the Polish for Mockern.

Latest painted additions

Setting aside the ever increasing pile of metal (more picked up at Salute and more to come at Partizan), I have made progress, albeit slowly on completing some units for the next major projects.

Maybe I should try and focus on one project at a time but they are all linked in that they relate to Napoleonic 'Command and Colors' and my attempt to build a French Army and its allies for a number of battles and campaigns.  The main projects at present are:

• Vimeiro 1808
• Utitza and the rest of Borodino 1812
• Mockern 1813
• Laon 1814
• And long term, Waterloo

A friend of mine (Don) is working steadily through the British for Vimiero and the Prussians for Laon, the latter obviously being ready for Waterloo as well.  The Russians are already complete.  The immediate project is Mockern (July) for which some Prussians need completing and I need to complete some Polish units.  I am underway on these and have to say the Murawski Miniatures are superb figures.  I will soon complete the 11th Uhlan and will post some pictures when varnished and flagged.

The Murawski figures are very good for detail, clean and require little preparation.  I found the matching of men with horses a challenge.  I usually paint the horses, cloths, saddles etc completely before mounting the trooper but a quick check with the Polish Uhlan suggested this would not work and would probably damage some of the painted area.  Thus the two were brought together (with a little bit of bottom filing!) before painting.  I will explain more when they are done.

Turning to the 1812 campaign, I picked up at Salute last year some Steve Barber Westphalian infantry in a mix of uniforms, mostly campaign.  They will be quite good for the Peninsular, some in bare feet and with pots and pans - see below.  I have painted them in the pre-1812 colours, much of which I suspect was kept into the 1812 campaign.  Why chuck a way a good uniform?  Pre-1812 they had various facings, switching to dark blue in 1812, officially.  I have 3 more battalions and Junot (superb Gringo figure) as a command stand to go.

The flag is a cloth flag from Maverick Flags which I have to say was very easy to prepare and apply but do follow the instructions to avoid fraying.  A personal preference of mine is to finish, including basing and varnishing the figures before I put the flag on.  I use PVA (whether paper or cloth flag), slightly watered down to apply the flag and shape it.  A little dab of super glue is sometimes required to keep the flag in place on the staff.

I leave to dry for a day.  Then touch up the edges and anywhere that the flag does not align, as well as highlighting any folds.  Once all done, leave to dry for another day.  Finally, using watered down PVA (about 50:50) with a clean brush (only used for this purpose), I paint the glue generously over the flag, remove (with the brush) any excess and leave to dry.  Once done, the flag is set hard, protected from clumsy hands and has a nice sheen to it.  I initially did this on some older figures of mine which had been varnished with the flag attached and some yellow discolouration arose, which actually gives them a bit of an aged look!  This was not planned or expected but did forewarn me to avoid with future productions.

The Westphalians are a bit chunkier than my usual figures (Perry/Foundry) but nice character, they are almost a cross between Elite and Foundry.

Lastly, an Old Guard 12 pound foot battery, one of the Emperor's Daughters.  These are Perry figures and cannon with the addition of the Perry field foundry.  The third base is a requirement of the game and gives me (as someone who enjoys painting) an opportunity to play around with some nice compositions.  This battery will suffice for most campaigns but is primarily aimed at the Waterloo campaign.  I have another one of these to do before moving onto the Guard Horse Artillery.

A top view shows the 3 bases of a battery for C&C purposes

Salute 2018 - The Day

Well another Salute goes by.  My first was in 1981 so this makes it 38 for me.  As in the past few years we arrived Friday afternoon to set up the game and avoid the mad rush on the Saturday morning.  Also the daylight from the large loading doors helps those with eyesight that has seen to many years.  I do wonder if the lighting at Salute could be improved?  Nice picture below of the Battle in the dawn half light (Salute lighting!)

Early morning - half light!

The logistics of getting in are a credit to Excel and the Warlords, well done.  It does take time but once moving, very good, especially the assistance from the Warlords staff on duty on the day.

We (the Old Guard members on parade) completed the set up on Saturday morning by putting the figures out before dispersing to pick up pre-orders and adding even more figures to our respective lead (now white metal) mountains

The set up went mostly without mishap except for a spilt coffee that destroyed our only set of rules for the day as we tried to peel paper pages apart.  Lesson for next time, laminated or plastic envelopes!

As last year (Raab - 1809), we did another Command and Colors (C&C) Napoleonics game from the same campaign, Aspern Essling.  Our new banners (including a club banner) were on show for the first time and we did get some interest from the public on attending on future club evenings, which hopefully makes the effort worthwhile.

Throughout the day we had a good number of interested people which meant the game made little progress as we happily chatted with them through various matters.  We have played this Le Grand Battle scenario before but it takes time and is a close run thing.  Ideally you need 4 players per side but we were down to 2 a-side so a lot of work to do.

A lot of interest was shown in the game system (C&C) and we considered asking for some commission from the Box game sellers at the show as we directed numerous people their way.  The terrain was also of interest, especially the buildings.  These were Warbases generic modules adapted and superbly finished by the excellent Steve Shann, who I am hoping to catch up with at Partizan next month when this game will be on show again.

One chap was particularly interested in the orange used on the Guard heavy cavalry - it was Foundry Orange with a terracotta base.

As already mentioned, the game made little progress on the day with the Austrians avoiding attacking the centre (dominated by a Grand Battery and the Granary) and trying to sneak down the wings, with mixed results.  The left wing made progress, eventually; the right wing fell back from Aspern after losing a number of battalions to fire from the French Legere holding the town.

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Austrian centre with the Granary in the background

French line  behind Aspern await the Austrians

As the show wound down around 4ish, I made my way back to the car to begin the reverse logistics exercise which seemed to take a long time (I did get to listen to the Grand National commentary) but when back in the hall the last of my colleagues was waiting to help load the car and we were away.

Overall another great day and a great Salute, it certainly felt busier to me than previous years.  The main drawback is not getting to walk around the show and talk to the other gamers and traders but there are other shows for that.

Cannot wait for Salute 2019.  Plan is to do another game but not sure which yet, Vimiero (1808) or Utitza (1812)?