Favorite AWI Blog's 2014

VolleyFireVSFwargames

New for 2013 new adventures 1895 and Beyond
http://volleyfirevsfgames.blogspot.com/

Henry has introduced me to a new set of rules look here for new tales of these adventures.
IHNM - In Her Majesty's Name by Osprey

Volleyfiresupplydepot

My newly updated blog for supplies and painting tips gleaned from the web and my general surplus miniature selling page click on the link to take you to the new blog.
http://volleyfiresupplydepot.blogspot.com/

I now have joined the electronic age and have paypal and EBay auctions.

VolleyFireOverseas

This is a blog I set up to chronicle my adventures in wargaming overseas in Scotland in 2011 and to continue following particular games overseas that I enjoyed with my new friends in Edinburgh. I look forward to finally updating this with more pics soon.

http://volleyfireoverseas.blogspot.com/

Napoleonic Campaigning in Italy

Napoleonic Campaigning in Italy
Les Grognards Blog "The sabre that Napoleon used at Marengo"

Napoleon's Drum and his Marshals

Napoleon's Drum and his Marshals
Napoleon Mulling over his battle plan

Napoleon reflecting by Iron Mitton

Napoleon reflecting by Iron Mitton
Quiet before the battle

Napoleon the morning of waterloo

More Iron Mitton Cartoons

More Iron Mitton Cartoons
Knock - Knock

Iron Mitton Cartoons

Iron Mitton Cartoons

Civility in wargaming

Civility in wargaming

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Siege of Augusta XXI - Jan 20 - 22 2012

Couple Pics from the recent Convention in Augusta GA - They had a good turnout all though the sudden death of local Atlanta gamer may have kept some folks away. next year plans are in the works for a potential game or two dedicated in the gentlemans memory.

I played in three games - Dwight Jones - Darkest Africa (The Sword and the flame variant) - once as Belgian and then as the Zanzibar Slavers - Next time I will put gun powder in the huts - (this would be an interesting game for Black powder.)


Game two (Notice the Chic Filet Cows laying wounded in the corral)
- Dwight allows you interesting options - I wounded the cows first -
and then we had a gorilla snatch one of the slavers and drag him into the brush .
by the end of the game the entire village was in flames and the
Zanzibars snatched a Phyrric draw out of the Belgians hands in the final turn of the game.
 Zanibar musketry killed off all the Nordenfelt gunners, 
As final charge saw 2 fanatic Zanzibar sword and shield
kill the cannon crew and its remaining defenders.


game one


Second and third games were with Bob Moon - ACW Peters Hill. (Union the first time - won a trophy for a fantastic charge) (Southern the second - almost won the game again but our Confederate Infantry charge in the center failed to sieze the day and reinforcements were delayed due to lost orders) While the Confederates cleared the right flank and almost captured three Union gun positions with an unusual flank charge. The Confederates failed to carry the day.




Tried too put on my own game that evening but by the time I got back from dinner everyone was pretty much set. Next year maybe.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

More Iron Mitton Cartoons



The caption on this one was really cool -
"Join the army, see the world they said...all I get to see is sand and arrows!"


Painting since 1983 (seems we both have been doing this too long.)

Proposed T-shirts for Siege of Augusta XXII provided Iron Mitton gives permission

I have the following potential ideas for Seige of Augusta 22. These require final approval by both the creator Iron Mitton and the Seige of Augusta BOARD of directors.



This one and the one on the bottom are some of my favorites




Also I have a couple of other favorites on the previous entry - see the world they say!

Friday, January 20, 2012

More Black Powder on a Thursday night

Well once again the French and Russian duked it out with the French getting the worst of it. The French forced several Russian units to retreat and captured to batteries but were unable to exploit their success as the Horse Battery was charged and chose to fire rather than evade, Caught in the open by Russian Line which broke and ran when countercharged by French Cavalry - French Cuirassiers doing aTerrifying Charge followed up in a sweeping advance but were unable to exploit the retreat. (Turns out I may have done the melees wrong - not enough dice for either the cavalry or infantry used the number of shooting dice for melee makes a big difference also i wonder what the modifier should be for infantry not in Square hit by Cavalry or Hvy Cavalry?) The Russians ended the day holding both villages on the flanks, Having broken 4 French infantry units including the French Hvy cav.

We utilized a couple of special useful rules - But made everyone 4plus on saving throws as we are still feeling our way around the rules. It went smoother this time even more. Pics to follow after I get back from Augusta.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Kennesaw Mtn Wargamers Game Day

Dont have any pics but today was another day of gaming and socializing with the Kennesaw Mtn Wargamers. They had a huge turnout today 11 gamers
While Mark Luther ran a Sharp practice AWI game in 15mm - Link is below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6mmgaming/sets/72157628884451797/

 Daniel's force consists of 3) groups of 8 Light Infantry under Lt. Maurice Hinchey, Ensign Eliot Engel and Sgt Joseph Crowley. These troops are considered Good quality, Regular Infantry, Musket armed with bayonets. They are capable of Platoon Volleys. Good troops gain a die/5 men when firing.
The other unit under John consists of a 9 man group of Queens Rangers Hussars under Lt Gerald Nadler and 2) groups of 12 Queens Rangers Light Infantry under Capt Edolphus Towns and Sgt Robert Duffy. The mounted troops are considered Average quality, Provincial Dragoons, armed with sabers and pistols only. The Foot units are also Average quality, Provincial Infantry, Musket armed, with bayonets.
All troops may operate in Skirmish Order. Ignore the first Kill and take a point of Shock instead.

This is a 15mm Sharp Practice AWI game played at Bill Amick's in Jan 2012.
The basic premise of this game was that both the rebels and Crown forces were out looking for some supplies in the same area in late Fall 1780 in Virginia. The scenario is basically the Foraging one from TSS rules with a rocky, wooded ridge between the farms.
Rob and Brian were the Rebels and Daniel and John Ford the Crown units. It was an extremely even game with almost mirror terrain on both sides of the ridge.
The Objectives were the same for both sides:
You have been ordered into the area with a supply wagon to search both farms in order to seize any food that may be found there. Your forces begin the game on blinds on Edge 1/2. Searching each farm building is a task with a value of 20 points. Each group of eight men searching rolls a D6 for the cost of 2 Action Dice. Once the total rolled reaches 20 they roll a D6 and consult the SEARCH chart. (which is from the TSS supplement)

SEARCH Chart

DiceResult
1Nothing to be had.
2Small amount found. It will take 1 group a cumulative task roll of 10 to load.
3Not bad. Loading these supplies will require a total of 20 points.
4Abundant quantities. Loading this up will require 1 group to reach 30 points
5Bountiful supplies. Too much for the wagon. Send a messenger to bring a second wagon. Roll a D6 on each Coffee Break after his departure. A total of 30 will see the second wagon arrive on the road on the relevant table edge.
6Enemy occupied! 1D6 + 6 men are guarding the farm and will immediately enter into melee


Bill, Greg and I discussed and organized our current and future forces for our French Revolutionary Wars - Italian Campaign 1796-1800.

Greg donated Austrian infantry in hasket? and Austrian Light Cav in hasket? to my Army of Austrians. I am already trying to inventory mmy collection and its extensive contribution to the campaign, while Bill gave me a Napoleon dismounted figure to put on an artillery gun base.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

More Black Powder! ATPD!

Well got in a little Quick game of Black Powder agian today - It was pleasant getting in some gaming time on a Saturday.  Steve came over again as well as my friend Daniel. I basically umpired and taught the system/modified per my nuisances. Using the SEWSC turn sequence with a bit of tweaking myself - The game ran rather smoothly. Since I wanted to try this out - I used my amended turn sequence and amendments - we rolled for units seprately but placed markers separetly for brigade orders - also the more I play it the more the rules (make sense) apparently you roll for melee saves on kills as well - I am simply applying the rally movement from CLS as FB 1, FB2 or rout move - it worked well (the melee support rule I still think needs tweaking) Made a couple mistakes - proximity moves are optional you may chose to or you may try to move more in the regular move phase. ( I prefer the locked in tactical phase - once your engaged it should be difficult to get out.)Because we only had the two players and limited troops (2 Brigades Infantry and a Brigade of Cav each - although the French Cav brigade never made it on the table (Poor maps of Russia) Russians were all stubborn and russian Hussars were bloodthirsty - We only had one blunder move the whole game - Daniel rolled for his 4 gun French Battery and it had to retreat one move almost all off the table.

French were taking advantage of the Russians inability to get his commands moving - The French maintained control of the village and the vital bridgehead until the end of the game. A Daring set of Charges by the Russians Using Cossacks as Shock Cavalry caught a French unit forming square in disorder. This was followeded by Flank and rear charges as the  Cossacks and a smaller unit of Prussian Cav caught both Batteries deployed facing the wrong directions.

The Russian Holy Icon gave the russians a major morale boost at critical times. pics to follow. In spite of some mistakes on the part of the umpire (too many dice for meleeing a BUA) Disordered Cossack retreating past a French square (does that count as an advance?) Although the Russian medium guns finally got deployed (next to a french square facing the wrong direction) and never fired a shot the whole game.

The French 4 gun battery caught the Cossacks mentioned earlier with enfilade fire and only killed 2 Cossacks which were saved in the morale save - Only mistake I made was letting the Russian Cossacks on Morale saves from hits roll as 4+, when they should have been 3+ or 2+.

Anyway finally getting a handle on the rules and the nuances of some it makes since although I still prefer a clearer winner on the melees and support only counting for break test rolls.

Friday, January 6, 2012

Polish Legion link and Flags contains history of the Legon

Found this on another gamers blogs French Rev War flags make it an interesting set of Polish infantry




As I said I especially like the flag

Thursday, January 5, 2012

More Black Powder?!?!?Actually changed the game a bit

Once more into the breach - tba January 5th depending on schedules this time less river and less artillery. ANd perhaps more understanding of the rules - Really miss Bill Gilchrist's expertise on these rules. Who has provided remarkable clarifications even all the way from Scotland - Got a copy of issue 281 of Wargames illustrated and change the game a bit - Barry Hiltons Shervadino scenario complete with a Holy Icon and 2 priests and a Cossack foot commander left the table pretty much as is depicted on the map.
Same general objectives
The Redoubt - not shown
The Village
control access to the road network at the objective marker 4

Now the pics which again the french lost but had several Russian Units break



First Break test of the evening



The Valiant French Legere in square that eliminated a Russian half battery

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

First Units of 2011-2012 Everybodies favorite

Well no Pics yet first Units started at the end of 2011 moving into 2012

Are Prussian Silesions (inspired by Saxon Dog and one other Blog)
posted by saxon dog at Saxon Dog - 2 weeks ago
Painted for Saxon Dog collection by Chris Meacham and based for R2E by Saxon Dog. 10th (1st Silesian) Regiment 1st and 2bns. Chris is painting up the Fusiliers needed to complete the full Regiment.

Followed by an excellent example of 10 Silesian Prussian Artillery
According to the painter -
The painter comments on  getting completely confused now by all the rulesets I have been using, but I think I will probably add a cannon to each battery in the future. I have been primarily playing Black Powder and the one peculiarity about the ruleset is that it requires only one stand to make a battery, which I quite dislike. ( does anyone play Black Powder with 4 stand artillery, does it change the game?) Lasalle and most rule sets, It is believed, have one stand representing two guns.  this so for most nations this is 4 stands to an unit aside from Britain and it some it's allies where there would be 3. I do not have nor plan to have Russians, but I believe they would be an exception. Generally most nations had a fixed ratio of howitzers to cannon, I usually like to put one howitzer to each battery. I also plan to have a caisson or limber for each battery. It would be way to expensive to have one for each gun, and one will suffice to represent a limbered battery.
3rd Silesian Heavy Foot Artillery
Here we have two 12 pound cannon and a 10 pound howitzer.
Myself I am painting
Silesian Grenadiers
Silesian Line (1 battalion) with skirmishers in landwehr uniform
Silesian Line (1 battalion) Elite minis
Silesian Lights (1 battalion)
Silesian Landwehr (2 battalions) Old Glory
Silesian Landwehr Dragoons
12 Silesian Gunners
2 smaller Silesian Battalions Hinchcliffe castings

NOTHING as fancy as Saxon Dogs but sold off all my other prussians

but inspiration can be a good thing

Also for tomorrow nights game painting set of 3 cossacks - 2 priests and 1 Captain for my Holy Icon for Shervardino from Wargames Illustrated #281 Republic to Empire scenario redoubt side table
mounted 8 polish horse artillery gunners - interesting the blog gives me the idea of using modified Russian gunners for Prussian - I have lots

No project lists but Early French revolution campaign in Italy is on the horizon