More Casting and 2 Wargames

         My wife has had to work Saturday nights recently. I try to get all my work done early to get some gaming in. This week, besides my usual work, there was a union meeting which I had to attend, which went on for 2 hours. It was also a beautiful day so Jerry got some extra playtime in. It was getting late and it looked like little gaming was going to get done.

         After my last casting session, I decided to order some new metal. In the past most metal has come from old home casts that I never used.  I ordered some low melt, easy pour metal. Hopefully this would solve some of the issues with the molds filling properly. It proved to be a wise investment. After the casting session, there were enough figures to complete one army of soldiers in tricorns, and enough for another 4 units. I have learned not to skimp on metal.

        I also got two wargames in, one using Peter Laing Turks vs Mamelukes, just because they are such good figures.  The second game, my new 2mm Irregular Miniatures ACW armies "Saw the Elephant". And speaking of "seeing the elephant", for this game the rules used were fromThe Stronghold Rebuilt and are called "See the Elephant". There are several interesting twists to these rules that make them a great little set of grid based rules. Perhaps the best is that cavalry has a range of two, and when adjacent to the enemy, still only get two dice. The reasoning for the range of two is that cavalry often dismounted and fought as skirmishers. And when closing with the enemy,  they don't seem to simulate a heavy cavalry charge. I really can't think of too many cavalry charges in the Civil War  against infantry, simply because a charge against rifle muskets could be suicidal. The rules are free and I strongly recommend that you at least give them a look.

Newly cast AWI figures.

Peter Laing Turks vs Mamelukes

Mamelukes won the battle

2mm ACW battle.

The good thing of battles at this size is the board can be picked up and turned so you can view  the battle from the playing general's side.

The left Confederate brigade stays on the "reverse slope" to avoid the Union artillery. The Confederate cavalry on the right is "dismounted" and is firing on the advancing infantry brigade.

The Union start pushing forward a 3rd brigade into the fight.

The Confederate cavalry has been pushed back.

The Rebels deploy an infantry brigade to protect the right flank. At the left of the picture another brigade is moving to reinforce the right.

The Confederate left moves forward to try to distract the Union general. The Rebel  brigade on the right  deploys and is facing two Yankee brigades.

The Union left brigades push forward. The right Union brigade moves off the ridge to engage the dismounted Confederate cavalry.

The Union left have caused 50% casualties to the Rebel brigade and it has been forced back.

The Union now orders forward all their units.

The Union brigade assaults the left ridge and breaks the last regiment holding  the ridge. The Confederates right collapses completely and the Rebels concede the field. (If the Confederates had won the initiative roll, they would have conceded the battle before they lost so many units. This would be important in a campaign.)

This game proved a most enjoyable game. I changed a few things from the rules, mainly I used Battle Cry dice instead of 6D dice that are use in the rules.

Charge of the Light Brigade

     While my wife was in Maryland, I spent one night watching the 1968 movie, "Charge of the Light Brigade". The first time I watched this, I really didn't care much for it, except the actual day of Balaclava. I then read Cecil Woodham-Smiths' "The Reason Why", and found that the movie follows the true story, with some "artistic license". It is certainly better than "The Charge of the Light Brigade" with Errol Flynn.  I now find it among my favorite movies.

   After watching the movie, I did some research online and read that the Director also recreated the charge of the Heavy Brigade, but this was removed from the final cut. I have an old issue of Military Illustrated Past & Present, which had the second part of an article " The Making of the Charge" by John Mollo. John Mollo served as advisor on the uniforms in the movie.  I went on Ebay and managed to find the first part of the article. In it Mr. Mollo mentions the charge of the Heavy Brigade, stating; "Impressive as the scene was, it was probably just as well it 'ended on the cutting room floor'- since apart from the excellent brass helmets made in Rome, the Heavies were, at the Directors insistence, incorrectly uniformed in Light Dragoon blue."  In the one photograph in the magazine of the charge of the Heavy Brigade,  I believe the scene would have added much to the movie, even if the uniforms are wrong. Someone mentioned that the BFI has a 4 hour uncut version of the movie. I was wondering if anyone has seen this missing scene?

My Peter Laing Light Brigade

Peter Laing Heavy Brigade

AWI Peter Laing Figures

I managed to trade some old figures I wasn't using anymore for some samples of Peter Laing American War of Independence figures.

Officer figure, standard bearer, cavalryman, and Highlander.

Hessian grenadier, light infantryman, frontiersman, infantryman, Highlander, and British grenadier.

I already made a mold using the marching "hatman" and British grenadier.  The  Hatman tends to be semi flat  and is quite hard to mold.

Peter Laing WW2 Russian Conversions

In the last post, I mentioned I had received some Peter Laing WW2 American infantry who were converted to Russians. Several people mentioned they would like to see the figures, so here you go.

The great coat roll is over the wrong shoulder, but still they are great conversions.

The Russians with a Micro Machine tank.

Land of Counterpane Army

      Last summer while camping I started painting some Peter Laing goose-stepping Germans using a print of "In the Land of Counterpane" by Jesse Willcox Smith as inspiration. The infantry have red trousers, light blue coats, and white helmets with a red plume. I never did finish them, until last week. As I was painting up another regiment of Shiak infantry, I painted up the two units of Counterpane infantry. I liked them so much that soon three more units of infantry and one of cavalry was painted, although the cavalry still needs some work. This weekend they saw their first action.

The Army from the land of Counterpane.

The new Shiak regiment (2nd Infantry Regiment).

One Counterpane unit is pushed to the edge of the board by Shiak Dragoons, but manages to kill the last dragoon. At the top of the picture a single Counterpane soldier pushes ahead.

The Counterpane cavalry pushes back a Shiak unit...

.... and wipes it out for the victory.

This soldier managed to hold off superior numbers. With this army I decide to have a little more fun with it.

This soldier deserved recognition. I decided to give him a promotion to lance corporal.

2mm Block Wargame

     Last year I had planned a wargame using Jack Scrubys' Strategical -Tactical wargame rules. I never did play it. I dug out the board this weekend. I just chalked in the different terrain. Each army has three divisions of 6 units each. I used Neil Thomas' OHW army lists to pick the different divisions.  The Strategical-Tactical game plays out like a wargame,  but it covers a large area like a campaign.

The two armies on the march. For objectives I used the three crossroads that each side had on their  side of the board (where the troops are deployed) as goals.

Both armies start deploying their troops.

The Red center division starts working its' way around the Blues right flank.

Add captioThe Red left division crosses the river.The Blue Right Division commander holds back two infantry units; with the center in trouble he might have to go to the center divisions' aid.

The Blue left division pushes back the Red division.

The Blue left starts sending one of the reserve infantry to the river crossing; the Red right division starts shifting their units to attack the Blue center division.

At this point the Reds left division is down to 50%, the Red center division is just about wiped out, and the Blue army is sending reinforcements are moving towards the center. The Red army concedes the battle.

The situation at the center at the end of the battle.