40mm Peninsular Foraging game

I have been working on some foraging rules for Sharp Practice so games can revolve around troops competing for livestock and supplies. First game for some while last night so I decided I would give the first draft rules a try.

The additions are one side of A4 which tries to use existing rules from Sharp Practice applied to the lifting and driving of livestock to gain points for our games. I will share them once play testing is finished.

Steve commanded a formation of 24 Paris Muncipal Guard Grenadiers with 4 groups of skirmishers

I had 24 Spanish with 2 groups of rifles and 2 of Guerillas.

One of my groups of Guerillas was on table in the church with a convoy of material outside but no command figure so I would struggle to manage them. 

There were also three groups of sheep, three groups of cattle, a bull and a group of goats. The capture of this material and escorting off table scored points for each side. 

We randomly placed the livestock on table and then started turning the cards, all the skirmishers were quickly on and as soon as I got two flag cards I activated the Guerillas in the church to get to the convoy. Steve also got all of his Skirmishers on table but not his formation.

In terms of points players get a point for a base of livestock, 3 for the convoy and 2 for the Bull as its a bit more dangerous and unpredictable. 

So far I have got lucky and the convoy is ready to start moving towards my lines.

Second go and the Rifles on the right come out first, Iopt to move, move, fire inflicting just one shock on the French voltiguers. Nearly all the livestock are within 24 inches of the rifles and so must test, tests see over half of the livestock move pretty quickly towards the French, Bugger! 

The Guerillas move again and, ignoring the livestock, keep the supply train moving to the table edge.

The Bull remains in the middle of the table looking menacing.

The Rifles fire again and again the livestock scatter, mainly towards the French.

Spanish regulars deploy on and advance towards the French and the sheep.

The supply train keeps moving and its 2 points in the bag for the Allies, Will it be enough?

The Paris municipal guard get moving towards the livestock, will Steve focus on the foraging points or seeing off the allies?

The movement of the livestock has made the job of the Volitguers easy, even the Bull is brought under control pretty easily and they have 3 points to move off table.

One base of cattle trot right up to the guerillas escorting the supply train and the Allies suddenly have 3 points, almost by accident.

Its fairly even stevens so far, we havent got much gaming in as we have been working through the rule mechanisms and making sure they work.

With the night nearly done the rifles fire again and this time a startled Group of sheep run straight through the Paris Municipal Guard and are snaffled by a group of Voltiguers behind them.

There are still a base of cattle and another of goats up for grabs but it will be a bloody business for either side to go get them slap bang between the two opposing formations, last move and the French are winning 5 points to 4.

To add insult to injury the volley from the Paris Municipal Guard kills two riflemen and knocks over their Sergeant. Think we need to chalk this down to a French victory.

A victory for the French and a good playtest, a few rules tweaks required but overall worked well. 

40mm Hessian Workbench

So I have been slowly working through these guys for some time but finally making some progress with the Hessians.

As always images from both cameras so forgive the photo overkill. The first lot are sharper with clearer colour but focus is an issue with a couple.

All these figures are 3d prints blown up from 28mm to 40mm the STL files are from Piano Wargames and 3d printing by Paul at Sabotag3d

Four musketeers first, all of these have black pompoms whilst I decide which figures fit together best.

Two officers, original uniforms had blue trousers with a yellow stripe but quickly wore out and replaced by brown, somtimes still with the yellow stripe.

I have chosen to have an officer and standard bearer in blue trousers, possibly recently arrived to replace field casualties.

This sergeant is one of those printed a little too large and will therefore be a separate leader figure where its less obvious, the sapper is a lovely figure, both have brown trousers with yellow stripe, this should be a theme through the unit with one or two on each base rather than on all figures.

Another shot of the musketeers, really lovely figures these with much paler Shako covers than previous figures.

I had a couple of figures printed without a head, this chap in the bicorne being one to allow a head swap and provide some variety, flags are for the Hessian second battalion.

Nice Group shot here giving some idea of how the finished unit will look..

The old camera group shot for comparison, colours washed out but still looks ok.

I think the head swap came out ok, the head is a metal Perry from the French drum major.

Again a mix of shako colours and trouser but brown trousers predominate and a good mix with yellow stripe.

Possibly the best picture of the officers, these will be based in the unit as I already have the same two figures as separate leaders.

This gives me 28 or so Hessians so I can start figuring out which ones to base together and then finalising the pompom colours for them.

Thanks for stopping by, hopefully see these on table fairly soon.

Victory at Sea Game

 Rich C put on a bit of a test game at the club tonight for us.

Nice models, apparantly some people think the bases are too thick but it does make them robust.

Chris C would command the Japanese Imperial Navy, two cruisers and 2 Destroyers, whilst I would have the Americans with 2 cruisers and 3 destroyers (Mine were not as good)

The rules are by Warlord and as with most Warlord games need a modified 4 to score a hit. Rich has amended rules somewhat but torpedoes are still king and devastating giving the Japanese a slight advantage.

Chris sends one cruiser left and the rest of his force Right, I mirror his larger force and send a destroyer to support my Cruiser taking on his isolated cruiser. 

After some initial inefective long range firing we start to close and I have two destroyers heading straight at the Japanese Cruiser.

Chris cruiser on my left in this picture scores a few hits on my cruiser whilst my destroyers continue to close, we miss that torpedoes come before everything else including movement so don't get to fire as expected.

Next go and we have multiple torpedoes in the water, the ships are closing and the firing is becoming more effective.

The Japanese destroyer in the middle of the table gets a little close to my cruiser and takes a hammering before sinking.

That doesn't stop Chris throwing some great dice to hit my right hand cruiser, nothing serious in terms of damage but it is beginning to add up.

Next go and its chaos as my destroyers are at point blank either side of the Japanese cruiser and launch multiple torpedoes at it. It takes a bit of working out but the cruiser is well and truly sunk, although it badly damages one of the destroyers leaving it practically crippled. 

with a destroyer and a cruiser sunk Chris concedes but we decide to run the torpedoes on and see what happens, my left hand cruiser runs straight into another top and wouldnt you know it is sunk.! Chris has lost a cruiser and a destroyer with one of each remaining, I have lost a cruiser leaving another cruiser and 3 destroyers but one of those is practically out of action.

A narrow win for team USA.

Fun game ,easy to pick up and some lessons learned about cruisers keeping their distance. Potentially another of these planned soon.