I recently purchased a copy of Waterloo from Warhammer Historicals – partly because it was on 50% discount, but also partly because initial feedback was quite positive about it’s production quality and content. I’ve had it for a few days but to date have only managed to skim read through it so as yet haven’t looked into the actual game mechanics in detail – but I can say production quality is superb – and on a par with Kampfgruppe Normandy (although Waterloo is not such a ‘heavy’ book).
Continue reading “Warhammer Waterloo Playtest at F’ de Onoro”Category: Grognard Chatter
A Wonderful 28mm Château d’Hougoumont
I’ve recently been talking to Tony Won (a wargamer & historian in Belgium) about various things Dutch-Belgian and Hundred Days related – Tony is a bit of a Hundred Days expert with 30 years effort on the subject, but is also a wargamer who obviously has some very nice models in his collection.
Continue reading “A Wonderful 28mm Château d’Hougoumont”The Siborne “Small” Model
The Siborne “Small” Model shows the area around the Brussels-Wavre crossroads including the farm of La Haye Sainte where, during the second phase of the battle of Waterloo at 1.30pm to 2.30pm (Sunday 18 June 1815), Picton’s Division engaged the Divisions of Donzelot, Alix and Marcognet, while the farm itself was still held by the Kings German Legion. This is not to be confused with Siborne’s “Large” model which depicted the entire Waterloo battlefield.
Continue reading “The Siborne “Small” Model”Bijlandt’s 1st Netherlands Brigade
Continuing with more of Lieutenant General Hendrik George de Perponcher-Sedlnitsky’s 2nd Netherlands Division in the Hundred Days campaign here we have my recreation of (Major-General) Willem Frederik count of Bijlandt’s (or Bylandt) 1st Netherlands Brigade; following on from the 2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment and the 28th Oranien-Nassau (Orange-Nassau) Regiment of von Sachsen-Weimar’s (Saxe-Weimar) 2nd Netherlands Brigade. So here’s some more ‘Work In Progress‘ type photos as I work on basing these chaps ready for service on the table top…
Continue reading “Bijlandt’s 1st Netherlands Brigade”Najewitz Modellbau Buildings Arrive
Over the past 18 months I’ve regularly looked at the models buildings and wagons (and the Berlin Tram) by Najewitz Modellbau in Germany – they look fantastic in the photos and I’ve always been keen to take the plunge – however the description of the material has always had me a bit wary – the wagons & tram and some of the smaller scale buildings being laser cut Finnpappe which they describe as “…no word for it in English dictionary is a product made of ground wood pulp. To say it is cardboard is the wrong title for it. It´s more similar to MDF, quasi ‘MDF-light’.” However the larger 1/72nd and 28mm buildings are kitsets of a resin material, the type isn’t clearly specified on the website – but I took the plunge recently and ended up ordering a selection of the 1/72nd scale buildings…
Continue reading “Najewitz Modellbau Buildings Arrive”28th Oranien-Nassau Regiment 1815
Continuing with Lieutenant General Hendrik George de Perponcher-Sedlnitsky’s 2nd Dutch-Belgian Division in the Hundred Days campaign and the balance of (Colonel) Prince Bernhard of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach’s 2nd (Nassau) Brigade, and following on from the 2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment is the 28th Oranien-Nassau (Orange-Nassau) Regiment – the unit von Sachsen-Weimar (Saxe-Weimar) was Colonel of prior to taking over the 2nd Brigade on the 15 June 1815. So as these are near completion and following the ‘Work In Progress‘ type photos theme, here’s the Oranien-Nassau regiment…
Continue reading “28th Oranien-Nassau Regiment 1815”2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment 1815
I have finally got around to getting to work on basing up my figures for Lieutenant General Hendrik George de Perponcher-Sedlnitsky’s 2nd Dutch-Belgian Division in the Hundred Days campaign. First up is (Colonel) Prince Carl Bernhard of Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach’s (Saxe-Weimar in English) 2nd (Nassau) Brigade, with possibly my absolute favourite uniformed Allied unit from Quatre Bras, the 2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment. As they are now firmly mounted on bases ready for completion by flocking, varnishing, and fitting of standards I thought it was a good excuse to take some ‘Work In Progress ‘type photos of the near completed regiment…
Continue reading “2nd Nassau-Usingen Regiment 1815”The 95th Rifles’ Song of Drums and Shakos
I’ve been giving some thought to skirmish gaming over the last year or so – it started with Fantasy, as I was looking for something to do with my collection of classic D&D (Dungeon’s & Dragons) RPG figures that I’ve collected over the years (some dating from the early 1980’s, others being more recent 2000 acquisitions after the release of 3rd Edition D&D tempted a (very) brief revisit to the P&P (Pen & Paper) RPG world), however the idea rapidly spread to Napoleonics (to use my assorted surplus figures from my Lasalle/SHAKO armies) and then it’s spread to thoughts of doing the F&IW (French & Indian War); and with the new releases by Empress Miniatures this year, the 19th Century New Zealand Wars!
Continue reading “The 95th Rifles’ Song of Drums and Shakos”
Do You Know That General, Monsieur?
Sometime (i.e. 2-3 years) ago I acquired several pre-painted 28mm French Generals on EBay – they were spur of the moment purchases put to one side for when I eventually got around to doing my 28mm French Napoleonic Army. As I am hoping to start work on that in the near future I thought I should work out what I actually have! As a result I’m trying to identify these figures – both maker and what they are (e.g. are they personalities or just generic ‘Generals’ or even just Infantry/Cavalry Colonels or ADCs?) – so I’ve posted them here in the hope someone passing by may recognise them and be able to clarify for me what actual manufacturer’s figure they are…
In Search of Points: Lasalle!
Below is a first attempt at an unofficial points system for the Napoleonic game – Lasalle.
Lasalle contains a number of set army lists for the main armies. They provide a great introduction. But they only reflect a fraction of possible lists. Playing the same few army lists repeatedly against each other could get dull fairly quickly.
This points system below tries to address this.
Using this points system and the excellent (and now free) Nafziger army lists, players can construct any number of armies that are consistent in size with the army lists in the Lasalle book.
Continue reading “In Search of Points: Lasalle!”Lost in the Wilderness: Napoleonics?
FOGN (Field Of Glory: Napoleonics) is a regimental game where 1 unit is a regiment. It has small units (1200-2000 men for infantry) and large units (2000-3000 men). This means it is an in-between scale game (sort of like Principles of War), where you can change formation into things that look like column, line, square and skirmish but aren’t really (and in practice you stay in one formation for most of the game in FOGN).
Continue reading “Lost in the Wilderness: Napoleonics?”SHAKO II Napoleonic Wargaming
Over the years I have dabbled with numerous rule sets for Napoleonics, starting with some home grown ones, and most notably a Bruce Quarrie inspired concept based on articles in Military Modelling (UK) in the early 1980’s referring to gaming Quatre Bras and Waterloo with Airfix Plastic figures at 10 figures per battalion! Years later I had moved on, and although the club I belonged to had a scattering of players who played Napoleonics in 15mm (with Corps d’Armee rules) and 25mm (with club rules developed from Paddy Griffith works) I had moved on to 1/300th scale (6mm) to enable large grand battles with huge forces, and was using the Anschluss “Ebb & Flow” rules – designed for fighting large mass battles in 1/300th scale, and representing every battalion and skirmisher formation, and using no dice! Frank Chadwick’s Volley & Bayonet was also around, and although a generally good rule set it best suited 1/300th scale (which I we played for a while and got quite good game results historically) – but which for me lacked the visual appeal.