AWI Sharp Practice AAR Welcome Back

 It is with a great sigh of relief and a big smile I share with you our first Sharp Practice game back at Steves after well over a year.

We kept it simple and fun, as always and was great to be back.

Our scenario has a barn full of ammunition next to a church with some local Tory Milita skirmishers guarding it. A force of Rebels (Patriots) are marching to steal the crowns munitions whilst another force of Crown troops and Natives march to stop them.

All good clean fun.

Chris Charlton Commands the "American" Forces:

3 x 6 units of Rifle Skirmishers with level 2 commanders

2 x 8 Continentals with level 2 officer

3 x 8 veteran Milita with level 2 officer

Level 3 Force Commander

58 men.

The Crown Forces were split between Chris Flowers and I:

10 x Jaegers Level 2 Leader

10 x Natives Level 2 Leader

2 x 6 Militia Skirmisher Level 1 Leaders

3 x 8 British Regulars Level 2 Leader

Level 3 Coammnder

56 Men.

We all got moving fairly quickly with Chris Charlton getting one unit of Rifles in the woods flanking the church, our two Militia skirmisher units lined the fence at the edge of the village whilst the regulars and Jaegers pressed towards the buildings and the Dastardly rebels did the same, Chris Flowers took his sneaky Native unit left to push through the woods.

Three moves in and my British are nearly in postion lining the fence and protecting the barn, Chris F has got his Jaegers into the church and started to inflict casualties. His Indians are moving at a snails pace, perhaps too focused on being sneaky or just bad dice! My milita skirmishers are adding the odd casualty onto Chris's formations, meanwhile Chris has opened a huge 26 dice volley onto one unit of skirmishers at long range and inflicted just the one casualty, he is now pretty stuck at long range having to reload and fire rather than close.

The Indians are finally in the woods as our skirmishers continue to trade fire, my British have turned to face and presented but unable to fire so far. a second volley from Chris is much more effecive inflicting 3 casualties on my regulars. The Jaegers snipe off one of Chris's rifles as do my skirmishers, losing one each in return.

Chris's rifles focus on the Jaegers in the church with no effect given the good cover.

Chris C's skirmishers are blocking his continentals from firing but as they are so close the casualties on the rifles are being spread over the Continentals too. My first British volley is less than devastating despite controlled volley and first fire.

Finally the Natives are in range and charge into the flank of the rifles in the wood,  The rifles are quickley dispatched being both flanked and un-loaded.

The Natives are now in a good postion to line the edge of the wood and cause some havoc amongst the continentals. Note the obligatory tray of biscuits in the background, out of the authors reach so they last longer.

Chris C pulls his rifle unit behind the Continentals who pour a volley into the British, the return fire from the regulars and Jaegers however starts to punish the continentals.

The Indians line the edge of the wood and begin to add their fire on the poor old continentals to.

The British regulars are also taking a pounding and the Milita skirmishers next to them are gradually being whittled down too.

Chris F holds his Indians back for one more turn to have a volley from all 9 plus 10 Jaegers, 2 skirmishers and 17 British regulars.

The effect is devastating the continentals start to fall back, a lucky shot also puts their commander out of action preventing any removal of shock.

The British havent got it all their own way however, the Veteran Patriot militia are whittling away at both the regulars and skirmishers and an event card sees the barn with the munitions catch fire from the last volley of the regulars.

The Coninentals are pushed back fiurther and their formation broken.

Chris Flowers decides to finish things with the tomahawk, the nearest unit is 9 inchees away so he uses a card to give himself 3 dice of movement which should be plenty, he rolls three 2's. Oh dear.

The British switch targets to the milita and start to inflict casualties, however a further event card sees them get excited and charge forward, perhaps just trying to escape the burning barn at their backs!

Chris/s Natives finally make contact with Chris C's continentals and wipe them out leaving the remaining Inidans on the flank of the militta.

At this point we call it a night, the Continentals and one unit of rifles have been destroyed and the Veteran Militia are not in a great position. The British regulars are also taking a pounding and now in the open but the Patriots are not in a position to win.

A thoroughly fun game and so pleased to be back, thanks Chris C for this last picture with the pyrotechniks added on to the barn. very evocotive.

I hope you enjoyed our little game I know I did. Until next time stay safe.

Uniformed Irregular Sikh Matchlockmen

 I have a number of Sikh irregulars but these are the first in a uniform colour scheme.

Representing a local Rajah's bodyguard or Garrison troops, these are also useful for a really long period of history like the other matchlock armed troops produced so far, we could see these being on campaign right from the late 1700's to the mutiny and beyond.

Red and green seemed a pretty natural colour to paint these, it was a very popular colour for irregular horse so I assume something we should expect to see in infantry units too.

The unit is a mix of figures from different manufatcurers including Perry's, Foundry and Empress. The plastic figures mixing well with the metals.

All four of the figures on this command stand are Foundry metals, the three in turbans are from the Sikh Wars range whilst the chain armour is the village elder from the Mutiny range. The Kneeling figure to his right is a plastic Perry Afghan with a Bolt Action Sikh head.

Looking at these two stands we have a reall mix the left hand stand has two Empress figures in the front row with a Foundry figure back left and a Perry plastic back right, the enxt stand has a Wargames Atlantic plastic back left, a Foundry metial back right with Empress front left and Perry plastic front right. I think they fit together really well.

On the right we have a stand with Empress back left and front right the hidden figure is Old Glory metal and the kneeeling loading figure Perry plastic, we have already seen the front left figure on the right hand base is Perry plastic with Empress metals back left and front right and a Foundry Sikh back right.

I did wonder whether the flag being red and green was a little too much but I think it works.

Here they are in column, having the odd blanket and baggy long sleeves in off white sets the green off nicely.

There you go, eclectic but I think it works, certainly for me anyway. Thanks for bearing with me, see you soon and take care.

Legendary Wargames and Potential Projects

 A busy weekend from a Wargaming perspective. 

The butterfly has been gettign itchy wings again and I have finally caved and got hold of some reference material for a couple of projects I have fancied for quite some time.

This lot came a few weeks ago, I have read Skinners book which is full of really good reference material and scenario ideas. Lakes Campaigns I have brought with me for my week in a cottage in North Wales.

Following on from that and recycling some of the cash I made selling my WW2 20mm desert collection (Most of the foot gone but lots of vehicles to go) I have invested in some more reading material. These all look great with lots of reference material in Talon and Claw for my Great Northern War collection, a bunch more for Wellington and Lake in India and also a couple of great looking books for the Mexican or Maximillian adventure or if you prefer the Frnech intervention in Mexico.

I have picked up some figures for Mexico from various sources to do some paint and figure testing and will share the results with you. The Napoleonic India timeframe I am less well informed on. Of course a great many of my Irregulars for Sikh Wars will translate straight over. My initial interest was sparked by the Perry figures from the Napoleon in Egypt range so hopefully the books will tell me how I can best employ these in India.

On Saturday I popped over to Richard and Andy's Legendary Wargames Cabin in Bronte Country (only half an hour away from me in Bradford)

This was a big refight of Borodino for Jerry Millers delayed 60th birthday, I wasnt intending to play just to catch up with everyone after 18 months of  lockdown and take in the sight of the big game. I have to say that impressive hardly covers it. Below we see Andy on the front table as the French move on to deploy.

There were masses of beautifully painted figures, mainly from the collection of Chris Flowers, these Poles are amongst my favourites.

The rear table is pretty empty as the Russian reserves have yet to arrive and the French are just deploying so have pushed nobody back and broken through no where but as you can see there is 24 feet by 12 feet of gaming table being played on here. Smashing stuff. 

This lovely Russian command vignette is a Chris Flowers peice painted by Jerry Miller.

A glance along the table from the other end reveals long lines of Russian guns facing massed columns of Bonapartes finest.

Built by Jerry specifically for this game the Russian Grand Redoubt is pretty impressive, as is the massive French Column.

I wouldnt want to be in one of those French columns. 

And just starting to arrive on the rear table are a few Russian Cavalry. Cracking figures. Like much of Chris's collection I believe these are from the talented brush of Steve Shann.

I only stayed long enough to say hello, take lots of pictures and pinch a sandwich. A proper sight for sore eyes though this one. Anyone interested in playing at Legendary wargmes should contact Richard and Andy via the website  https://legendarywargames.com/

I think the next game we are planning there is a huge late Roman vs Gemranic tribes game, Should be fun.

There are bound to be more pictures on the website, thanks for reading see you soon and stay safe!

Baluchi, Pathan and Sikh Warriors off the workbench

 Mainly focused on getting some more irregulars off the workbench this week. Mix of different ranges and you probably get a better feel for the batch painting with limited pallettes with this lot too.

First three are Foundry Baluchi  in pale of white and ivory colours, lovely characterful figures.

These are simple but elegant figures, large when they were sclpted but fit really well with more modern sculpts.

This next lot have a definate bias for blue grey and orange (Colour party field blue and Tawny) a really goos mix of colours these.

A mix of manufacturers here from left to right we have a Perry plastic Afghan, a studio miniatures Afghan and a Foundry Baluchi leader type.

Adding more figures in scruffy of white colours with the next bunch, highlighted by a bit of mid blue.

Left to righ we have a Foundry Afghan with two Wargames Atlantic lastic Afghans, both of these last have got Perry arms added which has worked quite well.

In a slight departure with the blue out I painted an extra two Sikh Currassier, these are the Foundry Sikh Wars range.

These two give me four more figures to add to the original six and finish the unit off.

Here are the full four on their way to be based and join the rest of their comrades.

More to follow I am sure, I am however also trying to get  abit of basing done so perhaps another unit or two will see the basimg knife before I share anymore brushwork. Until then stay safe.

Sikh Regulars Based

 With the basing department busy I have been reduced to basing my own figures (shocking I know) The first unit to recieve the treatment is a unit of Sikh reulars along with a British command figure.

This command figure is an Empress Indian Mutiny figure. Lovely figure and horse.

I particularly like this horse although I have not made the best of jobs of it. The basing will do!

You will probably already know that I am doing two battallions per regiment, brigaded together so each Brigade has 2 lots of matching battalions. The first battalion for these guys is already done and is the unit I painted many years ago, sold to chum Chris who eventually sold it on himself and I discovered for sale on Ebay. More detail in an earlier post.

The figures are all Wargames Foundry and the flag is by Flags of War but only available from Studio Miniatures.

I like the white against the red with these guys, I hate painting lots of white but I cant deny that it works on these guys.

I think that the Foundry Sikhs are still the best available currently despite their age, I am however interested to see what Iron Duke do with the Punjab part of their GAPS range, the figures so far being fantastic.

The units are all 5 bases of 4 figures, 20 man units look just right to me in terms of size and it helps my sense of asthetic that the flag is actually in the middle.

I have another unit over in York waiting to be based which will give me 8 completed so 2 full brigades. As there were only 10 battalions of regulars at Chilianwalla where the British were so bloodily replused I wont need very many more. 

Overall quite pleased with tis unit.

Thats it for now, perhaps some more based figures to follow, or Baluchi and Bengal Europeans, lets see.

Until then stay safe.