Capitaine de frégate Josepe Aurèle Géroux had been pursuing the English frigate for several days now, but finally he had outthought his foe and was almost upon them. His command, the Dryade (a 36-gun Frigate of the Republic) was in fighting trim and spoiling for a fight, and he was himself known in the French Navy for his uncanny aim and the quality of his crew’s gunnery. It was also vital that the English vessel be caught, as it contained valuable intelligence on board and a person of great interest to The Directoire, it must not reach the safety of English waters! However as dawn approaches the Dryade has been shrouded in a thick sea fog, and the enemy vessel is lost from sight – but with the rising sun the fog burns off and the enemy is spotted… Continue reading “When The Fog Lifts”
Category: Napoleonic 1789-1815
Setting Sail With Sails Of Glory
Ahoy there shipmates, we’re setting sail with Sails of Glory! That’s right, hopefully there is finally a playable, fun, Age of Sail ruleset – and it features ready painted ships for those who just want to get into playing… After much frustration with numerous rulesets over the years (for various reasons), including both versions of Langton’s “(Hoist The Signal For) Close Action“, “Fire As She Bears“, “Trafalgar“, and others – and flip-flopping between scales (1/1200 and 1/2400) – I’m hoping SoG (Sails of Glory) is finally something fun and easy to play long-term that will have enough historical feel to prevent it getting bland quickly! Continue reading “Setting Sail With Sails Of Glory”
Blücher By Sam Mustafa
Early this year Sam Mustafa will be releasing his latest game system in his “Honour” series, Blücher, which provides the ability to fight grand-tactical type games in the Napoleonic Wars. One units, stand, or counter, represents a Brigade or Regiment (incorporating multiple-battalions) or a massed Artillery concentration. Also included with the rules is Scharnhorst, a pre-game campaign that determines the manoeuvres of the opposing armies and ultimately how their deployment occurs on table. Continue reading “Blücher By Sam Mustafa”
Gary Chalk Pirate Ship Update
In an update to Kieran’s highly popular Avast! Ye Lubbers: A Pirate Ship in 28mm article about how to build a pirate ship similar to the famous Gary Chalk one featured in Wargames Foundry’s magazine, we have with some help located the PDF versions of the article that were previously available for many years from the Wargames Foundry Website, but have since 2009/2010 been unavailable. Continue reading “Gary Chalk Pirate Ship Update”
A Spanish Village near Waterloo
In a Spanish Village somewhere between Quatre Bras and Waterloo, in Belgium, Napoleon’s advanced guard clashed with rearguard elements of Wellington’s retiring British & German allied force. My detachment of dragoons were in the vanguard of the returning Emperor’s advance, and had stopped for the evening in a strangely Spanish village not far from Quatre Bras, having pursued the English since the battle and the last mentioned place. We selected the village to billet in and establish pickets for the evening in anticipation of the arrival of the leading infantry elements of the following Corps. Unknown to us the English and their their new Allies had sent forth aggressive rear-guard patrols to the village with similar intent, and presumably hoping to deny us the village for the evening, setting the scene for a brisk late afternoon action! Continue reading “A Spanish Village near Waterloo”
1866 And All That
1866 And All That is the blog of well known New Zealand Wargamer & Sculptor Mark Strachan. Mark has been involved in Historical wargaming since 1972. He is most well known as the sculptor behind many (or most) of the figures and/or models produced by the now defunct New Zealand wargaming manufacturer Military Miniatures (the business eventually ceased operating as Military Miniatures, but then morphed into the current Battlefront/Flames of War business). Many a New Zealand Wargamer has buildings, terrain (rivers, roads, scenery), or figures, designed by Mark in their collection. Continue reading “1866 And All That”
Miniature Addiction!
Roundie, from my local gaming group (the Auckland Wargaming Club), has recently launched his own website & blog of his wargaming & modelling work – he’s one of our area’s most prolific modellers & painters and has built some amazing terrain boards and scratch-built buildings & terrain… He’s also running a local SDS (Song of Drums & Shakos) Napoleonic Skirmish Campaign at the AWC. Continue reading “Miniature Addiction!”
Hundred Days British
Life has been a bit hectic over Christmas – with holidays, work, catching up on gardening & clearing clutter (both wargaming and general household accumulation), and a few other matters – so I haven’t had much chance to progress any posts in January at all, even though I do have several part-written or drafted in outline. Meanwhile here’s a little eye-candy of a couple of my 28mm Napoleonic British units that featured in my ‘Hundred Days’ games in 2011!
Near Three Divisions at 1:1 with Airfix Figures!
I saw this posted on TMP and couldn’t resist putting a link up here!
Continue reading “Near Three Divisions at 1:1 with Airfix Figures!”Dominant Hill: The Black Brunswickers Baptism
Recently I finally got my Brunswick Corps close to completion (well barring the grass for the bases, and the 3 Brigade Commander figures) and Cam and I were overdue for another larger game akin to The Crossroads (that we had played several months ago) – so it seemed a good excuse to give them their baptism as an entire corps. This time we went a fraction smaller than that game, but a little larger than a standard Lasalle AB List Game, with the forces selected using an updated version of Cam’s Lasalle Points System originally posted on the AWC Website. The purpose was to try a game with about a reinforced Division (e.g. an Infantry Division with Cavalry Brigade in support) a side, test out the points amendments (especially regarding on-table cavalry), and play a scenario from Charles Stewart Grant’s Table Top Teasers or Scenario Books. This is what happened about three weeks ago…
Continue reading “Dominant Hill: The Black Brunswickers Baptism”A Lasalle Points System: Our Latest Draft
Those familiar with Lasalle will know it uses a set of ‘Army Builder’ lists to design fairly generic Divisions based on an across-the-board average of the real life historical equivalents (very similar to what SHAKO II also does). To add extra flexibility, assist scenario design, and provide options for building historical forces and such, we’ve been working on a points system as an alternative for Lasalle.
Continue reading “A Lasalle Points System: Our Latest Draft”Gosh those Victrix Austrians Look Nice!
I stumbled across Jeff Lower’s Blog recently care of Michael Davis – and he’s currently working on some new Victrix Austrians – and my gosh they do look good! The new Victrix ranges include two Infantry packs (a early 1798-1809 set in helmets, and a mid to later period 1806-1815 set in shakos), a Grenadier set (for 1798-1815), and a Landwehr Infantry set (for the later 1808-1815 period). You can check out Jeff’s progress on his blog.
Continue reading “Gosh those Victrix Austrians Look Nice!”