Achtung Spitfire!

Well, two out of three ain't bad...

I set out two weeks ago to ruthlessly pursue some summer wargaming activities. I immediately managed to go into displacement mode when I found a completed Revell Spitfire Ia lurking in the study awaiting a paint job. I then, ahem, painted it.

In fact I have just finished it and I'm quite pleased with the result. I painted my last Spitfire 43 years ago and time has improved my eye even if my hands shake quite a lot and my fingers are the size of bananas!

I didn't put on all of the tiddly decals and I think I made an error painting the prop boss white, at least in photographic terms. For the record, the top surfaces were painted in English Uniform (Vallejo 921) and Catachan Green (GW and now called something completely different) with Pale Blue (Vallejo 906) under surfaces.

So, having completed arsing about, I have applied my mind to some actual wargaming. In fact I have been playing Into Battle by Saxon Games. I haven't had time to play through a full scenario but I have started to play through one of the four that comes with the game (Scenario 3: KG Sivers). This is a Russian front WWII tactical game with squads, individual heavy weapons and individual tanks. This is the package, compete with random event cards, play sheets and turn track.

 

 

 

What I really like about this is that it uses squares (great), has a feel like Squad Leader to play but without the endless complexity and shows a really good understanding of the technicalities of some of the weapons (the ratings of the Panther tank for example chime very well with some of my recent reading about Normandy).

This is a Print and Play game (PnP to the aficionado) and was really nicely designed for easy assembly. Feeling very cocky after nailing the Spit I proceeded to try to chop my thumb off with a sharp knife and a straight edge. Never mind. It has stopped hurting and I'm ready for a full game over the weekend.

Check out the Saxon Games website, Norman Smith has another three games available one of which (Anzio) I have already purchased:  http://mistersmith.magix.net/public/

So, why only two out of three? Well it has been too hot for "numbers" type thinking, so this may well be the objective for my Autumn offensive. 

Neil goes to the ACW again

Army lists for the ACW (2)

I have put together two army lists, not surprisingly these are for CSA and USA forces.

CSA circa 1863
Infantry	Elite, Rifled Musket, Loose Order
Skirmishers	Fanatic, Rifled Musket
Cavalry	Average, Dragoons, Muzzle Loading Carbines
Artillery	Smoothbore
Special rules:   1.     Command level: Good   2.     Conditional charges: If the charge is defined as “conditional” as per the rules (paragraph 2a), roll one D6 and score 4-6 to successfully charge. Add +1 to die roll for elite units.   3.     Dismounted cavalry: Use the dragoons rules but with the following modification:   a.     I don’t think that cavalry should be able to move and fire. Not because I think that these evolutions were not rapid, but to give the players additional decisions to make that will have an impact. My rule modification therefore is that cavalry can either be mounted or dismounted in a turn but not both. b.     At the start of the player turn, mount or dismount cavalry units in the Changes of Formation phase. Use a marker to denote dismounted cavalry. c.     If mounted, cavalry may charge and move as per the dragoons rule, but may not engage in fire combat. d.     If dismounted, cavalry may not move or charge into combat. They may conduct fire combat.
Commentary:   This army represents the core of tough and reliable volunteers from the start of the war before casualties whittled them down in 1864 and 1865.   Charging into contact in this war was not always successful and depended primarily on the morale of the attacking troops (or their naiveté in the case of US levy troops) hence the changes to the conditional charge rule. However, the charging unit does not have to outnumber the target, they just need to have the required level of self-belief!

USA circa 1863
Infantry	Average, Rifled Musket, Loose Order
Skirmishers	Elite, Rifled Musket
Cavalry	Average, Dragoons, Early Breech Loading Carbines
Artillery	Smoothbore or Steel Rifled
Special rules:   1.     Command level: Average.   2.     Conditional charges: : If the charge is defined as “conditional” as per the rules (paragraph 2a), roll one D6 and score 4-6 to successfully charge. Add +1 to die roll for levy units.   3.     Dismounted cavalry: As CSA list.   4.     New levies: Roll one D6 before the start of the game:   1-2: Add 1 levy unit 3-4: Add 2 levy units 4-5: Add 3 levy units (if force pool allows).
Commentary:   The US continued to create new units throughout the war resulting in the presence of levy troops even in 1865 such as the infantry units converted from heavy artillery troops.   This is the US army before the development of their cavalry arm into first class mounted infantry with repeating rifles.   Note that the rifled artillery was iron (wrought or cast) so not strictly steel but let’s treat as such for the game.

The next job is to convert the rules to hexes, I see that Norman has already had a go at doing this for Neil's Napoleonic Rules so I wonder if I'll come up with something similar? En Avant!

Neil goes to the ACW

Using Neil Thomas' Wargaming C19th Europe for the ACW (1)

To return to my attempt to use Neil's European rules for the ACW, here is the next step.

I have a limited number of 6mm troops on 40 by 30mm bases. I plan to use these on a modified M44 board. As they are blocks, I will need to use markers for casualties.

My force pool is quite limited:

ACW Force Pool	CSA	USA
Infantry	10	10
Skirmishers	2	2
Cavalry	2	2
Smoothbore Artillery	2	1
Rifled Artillery	Nil	1
Generals	2	2

I will be using the Pitched Battle Scenario (scenario 1, page 51) from Neil's book so I need to modify the army selection table to fit my force pool.

Army Selection Table: Pitched Battle Scenario
Die Roll	Infantry	Skirmishers	Cavalry	Artillery	Generals
1	7	1	2	2	2
2	7	2	2	1	2
3	7	1	2	2	2
4	8	1	1	2	2
5	8	2	1	1	2
6	8	1	1	2	2

 
At the moment, I plan to use two generals for each army. When I consider the rules in more detail I intend to use the command rules, or at least a variant of them. For the artillery selection, where the USA player has 1 unit, they can use either the smoothbore or rifled piece.

Next step, lets do some army list things.

By the way, I found myself very pleased with the Bavarian blog piece, it went together really well with no formatting problems. I didn't expect to encounter any difficulties with this one but if I had any hair left it would all be gone by now!

Bavarians for 1809

Not there yet, just prepping

I have purchased some Bavarians for the 1809 campaign. This was a long time ago and I feel the need to get on with painting them. The rules will be Neil Thomas' Napoleonic Wargaming, or such an approximation as I can get together. The troops are from Hat.

First things first, have we got an army list? Well, we do now:

Bavarian 1809
Line infantry	2-4	(Close Order Infantry (Musket), Average)
Light infantry	1-2	(Light Infantry (Musket), Average)
Tyrolean Jaegers	0-1	(Light Infantry (Rifle), Elite)
Dragoons	0-1	(Heavy Cavalry, Elite)
Chevaux Legers	1-2	(Light Cavalry (Carbine), Average)
Artillery	0-1
Notes:   1.    Only the elite company of the light infantry had rifles so the whole unit is treated as musket armed. 2.    For the Tyrolean Jaegers I plan to use the Hat Austrian infantry in shakos in a suitable paint job. Strictly they are 1807 only but I couldn’t resist them. 3.    Dragoons are horse cavalry only, they do not have dismounted ability. 4.    I have no special rules for the Bavarians, although I am tempted to build in a Black Forest Gateaux moment as a command and control limit when Bavarians are fighting anyone other than fellow cake eaters, such as the Austrians!

And what colour do we paint them? Lets look up the book (Osprey 106 Napoleon's German Allies (4): Bavaria):

Bavarian Paint Chart 1	Infantry	Light infantry	Artillery
Coat	Light blue	Dark green	Dark blue
Facings (Collar, Cuffs, Lapels)	Red, yellow, poppy, green	Black piped red	Scarlet collar and cuffs, black lapels
Turnbacks	Red	Red	Scarlet
Bandoliers	White	White	White
Trousers	Grey	Grey	Dark blue
Gaiters	Black	Black	Black/yellow buttons
Musket sling	Red	Red	Red
Cartridge box	Black	Black	Black

Bavarian Paint Chart 2	Tyrolean Jaegers	Dragoons (1st “Minucci”	Chevaux Legers (2nd “Koenig”
Coat	Dark grey	White	Dark green
Facings (Collar, Cuffs, Lapels)	Light blue	Red collar; cuffs and lapels red.	Red
Turnbacks	Red	White piped red	Red
Bandoliers	Black	White	White
Trousers	Grey	Dark grey	White
Gaiters	Black	NA	NA
Musket sling	Red	Red	NA
Cartridge box	Black	Back	Black
Saddle furniture		Red , white/blue border	Grey, white edging
Sash		Red	Grey

And what colour is Bavarian blue? Some say it is a dark blue, some say the dark blue faded to a cornflower or grey blue, others say that the blue turned purple from the soldiers perspiration. Well, one guy says use Vallejo Andrea blue (841 (65)), another says do something different. hey ho, nobody knows! I'll have a look at Deep Sky Blue (844 (66)) and Sky Blue (961 (67)) as well.