Wednesday 25 September 2013

A brief and unscientific review of Longstreet

Last night mate Ian brought Longstreet around for the first time.


Jay (left) led the Confederate forces, and I the Union. Ian (right) briefly explained the rules to us.

We deployed in two lines facing each other, with half a dozen units a side.  I carefully positioned both of my batteries so that they would have no targets, and Jay did likewise- in fact Jay's guns were masked by his other troops, and remained unable to fire all game!  This was due to our ignorance of the terrain and artillery rules, we'd have a much better idea, another time.

The card play proved easy to grasp, rather easier than Maurice, I thought.   Cards modify shooting, movement, casualties and so forth.  There are also special events played at the start of a turn, and cards that can cause chaos to the other player's movement plans during a turn.

Jay rather sportingly advanced and let me take a pot at him first.  Later he charged: this proved premature, as my boys gave his a bit of a kicking and shot him again, to boot, after he recoiled.  I have formed the impression that one shouldn't charge until either the enemy have been weakened by a firefight, or one has drawn the right hand of cards.  

I found some of the cards quite humourous, and there were several attempts at Southern drawls, and much general hilarity, especially as the second bottle of wine of the evening was drained.

As I shot him up, Jay played cards left, right and centre to remove casualties.  Despite this, his losses mounted until I was informed that I was close to victory.  At this point I drew a fabulous hand, and was able to shoot with two additional cards that modified his casualties upwards, and then play 2 more cards to charge through the smoke to hit a unit of Jay's square in the flank, deciding the game.



The rules seem very easy to grasp, and by the end of the evening we knew pretty much what we were up to. The cards give the game a very narrative quality, and added a lot of character.  I'll certainly play Longstreet again!

Tuesday 30 July 2013

The Emperor's cherished daughters


I've just completed my first unit of Napoleonic artillery; a pair of 12 pounders of La Garde.


I felt that the Perry crew of 4 was somewhat meagre, so added a couple of Foundry gunners and a couple of Perry/Victrix plastic hybrid figures, for variety.  The other figures also had greatcoats which ties in with the look of the army I am slowly building for early 1814.  The buckets are conversions, and the ammo boxes are from Front Rank.

Basing posed a bit of a dilemma.  I had wanted them on a 45mm frontage, to match the base size of my infantry, but found that 60mm was the bare minimum width for the gunners to be positioned around the guns in a broadly historical manner.  I could be tempted to go even wider...

Saturday 27 July 2013

Gunners II WIP


Another shot of my first Napoleonic artillery unit; made good progress yesterday, and I now just have the metallics and basing left to do.

Wednesday 24 July 2013

Gunners


A WIP shot of the Garde gunners.  I hope to have them ready for a game on Tuesday.  A vicarious mix of Perry, Foundry and Victrix conversions...

Saturday 20 July 2013

Guns

I mentioned I was going to squeeze in a little Napoleonic work; well here are the first fruits; two Perry 12 pounders for the artillery of La Garde.


They are very nice models.  When I base them, I shall muddy them up.  I've started on the crew, too...


Thursday 18 July 2013

Flogging Victrix (sold, thanks)

I'm selling 5 lots of Victrix French Ligne on eBay, that are based to a different system to my own French, to raise funds for some new gaming boards   I've spruced them up to a reasonable tabletop standard; they won't win any painting prizes, but look fine from around 2' away!  






All sold thanks!

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Doesn't time fly!

I realised today, that it has been lmore than a year since I last posted on this blog!  I've been very busy with sundry projects, and working on my rather better-known ancients blog

I am planning to pick it up with the Napoleonics, though, partly because I can (almost) field a complete army, albeit mostly Garde, and partly because my friend Ian is working on an exciting Napoleonic project.  I have also had an idea for a simple grid-based rule system that will hopefully prove to be as much fun as a similar ancients system that I'm developing.

Whilst my Napoleonic posts will be irregular, I promise that it won't be a year before I post, again!