28mm American Civil War Dismounted Union Cavalry

Hello There! Although this post is made during the Coronavirus outbreak 'Stay at Home' period I have had these figures finished for a while. These figures are a mix of Perrys, (ACW123) and some spare Wargames Foundry, (CWC002).

Some of these figures had neck scarves on  and instead of sticking to the normal yellow I decided to make a small change and chose orange. I did this because I remembered reading in the Blandford book on the 'Uniforms of the American Civil War' that the first and second US cavalry were formerly the first and second US Dragoons. These units had orange trim and some men retained this trim as long as possible. I retained this idea in painting orange scarves.

These are the figures from the Perrys pack. They are still in the sack coat but are in 'skirmishing' mode. They have a various poses which will fit well with the ACW skirmish project I am doing.

Here are those ex dragoons.

Here is a close up. The picture appears a little bit grainy as I took this picture from a distance and cropped it on the computer. Fortunately there is plenty of sunshine today but a little too much at this time.

This one was a little better exposure wise.

I have heard of complaints of too much 'flash' on the Perry figures recently' I bought these from Hammerhead last year and there were fine. They needed attention from a sharp scalpel  and a rats tail file but nothing excessive and did not take long.

These were enjoyable to paint and unlike the many colours of jackets and trousers of the Confederate cavalry, these were a lot quicker to complete.

The coloured tufts made a big difference to the basing and were obtained from here. 

Battle of Villers Bocage

Hello There! At last the planets aligned, the blood sacrifice behaved in the correct way and I was able to get to the club at last!

Tonight the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers played the above battle using 20mm figures and some quick play Charles Grant WW II rules.

This enormous table included the village of Villers Bocage and the approach road were the attack by Wittmann commenced. The quick play nature of the rules allowed us to play the game about six times. We played it the same way that Wittmann advanced up the main road to see were he would be knocked out. In the real attack he had no support feeling that the unreadiness of the enemy and the fact that he must have already been spotted meant he had to act immediately.

He knocked out the two leading tanks first and then proceeded to take out the vehicles that were parked along the edge of the road. 

Here is the start of one of the games as Wittmann breaks cover. 

Here is A company the Rifle Brigade and the first tank elements of  A squadron 4th County of London Yeomanry, (Sharpshooters). Wittmann knocked out a Cromwell and then a Sherman firefly which was parked further up the hill on the right and then turned left on to the road towards Villers Bocage.

Here moving down the road spreading confusion!

Here Wittmann continues down the road. In one of the many games we played one Stuart tank decided to pull out into the road.

Next the Reconnaissance Troop of Stuart tank realise that some thing is happening up front and after a short period to crew and start vehicles they get moving. This is on the junction of the Tilly Sur Seulles road next to the calvary. 

Wittmann continues to take out the vehicles of the Rifle Brigade which were not intended to be used to fight from.

Here are a couple of pictures of the combat in another game. We know that Wittmanns tank should be '222' but this model looks chunky compared to the other models used in this game. The black and white effect looks very effective, especially the close up.

Here is the end for Wittmann in one game with 20mm SHQ tank crew figures. In the actual battle Wittmanns tank was disabled by a shot from a 6pdr anti tank round from the rear but the crew left it hoping they would be able to recover it later. Wittmann and crew made it back to their lines.

Further games resulted in the tiger tank getting past the Tilly road junction and continuing into the village.

At one point Wittmann got to the town and engaged the HQ troop and then realising that fighting in a built up area was not a good idea without infantry support he retreated back up the road.  

Here are a few views of the tiger advancing up the street.

Finally a top view and a view of the bend in the road part way in the town.

Here are a few final view of the models used to represent Villers Bocage. These are also used in the owners version of D Day which has been at a number of shows including winning best of show at Salute.

Sun King Wargame

Hello There! I recently played a Sunking game around a friends and used some new rules Adrian had found to see if the flavour of the game could be retained but the game speeded up.

Here is the table set up. We were also fortunate enough to have Chris also join us for the days game. The French were on the right and the allies on the left. The aim was to push the allies off the ridge which ran most of the length of the left side of the board.

The lower, or French left flank, consisted of a large cavalry battle which was helped by the allies having two large units of cuirassier.

The French forces included French Guard Cavalry. I have not usually had an awareness of the period but it is a time of great transition including matchlock to flintlock, pike to plug bayonet to ring bayonet and changes in drill. This leads to units having different capabilities, depending on what years the combat is set in.

 

In turn here are some of the allied cavalry who advanced to contact, to allow them more space to manoeuvre.

On the upper part of the board, or French right flank there was a wooded area which his some hussar.

Each cavalry and infantry grouping had a commander who could influence meleeing and morale.

 

There were a number of items that broke up the table surface but which does not affect the movement or visibility over the table. this was mostly trees but here is one of the haystacks from my Tunnies Terrain resin range of scenery items. I can be contacted for the sale of these items, either painted or unpainted.

Here is one of the French artillery pieces. Artillery was not very mobile during this period and had to either start limbered and remain where it unlimbered or remain were it was at the start of the game if unlimbered.

The French troops approached the high ground and a long battle progressed to try to push the  allies off the ridge. The cavalry battle on the French left wing finally led to the collapse of the allies and the opening up of the  flank to exploitation by  the French cavalry against the defenders on the ridge.

Here are those pesky cuirassier which had a number of advantages including acting as a denser formation and a larger unit. What a pain they were! Over on the French right flank the hussars were not able to charge  formed enemy units, being more equivalent to Cossacks than formed troops, however they caused many problems  with their presence preventing deployment of troops in the area.

Overall the game was very enjoyable and with good company. The rules had the benefit that a single dice throw could decide two outcomes. For example melee decided the result of the melee and the actions of the winner and loser and casualties. 

This speeded the game up and maintained the flavour of the period as well. The rules used were converted from a set that were used for a board game so that the movement rates needed to be converted from hexes to inches, otherwise the conversion was seamless.