I have not managed a game this week, but May has been quite productive in terms of painting and modelling.

Some items for my fantasy games.

A bone found in the garden when weeding! From some giant pre-historic creature or monster?

A plastic mounting from a plastic aquatic plant to represent an unusual rock formation?

A large pebble off a beach to represent some ancient religious feature - a red eyed god?

The last of my plastic town walls. I think they were Renedra, bought many years ago.

Inspired by Norm from Battlefields and Warriors, I made a cornfield for my ACW games out of a plastic aquatic plant. I did not have his patience to drill and glue individual plants! But I think they look okay.

A few more sci-fi/future war models completed as well.

Above is a resin/metal Antenocitis scout car with some Old Crow accessories.

A point defence model and some AA batteries, also resin/metal from Antenocitis I think, although I am not sure, they were bought a long time ago!

And finally, some casualty markers for my 1670s games.

The bases are from Vital Ground, using small magnets, with numbers up to 12.

I went to Partizan at Newark, UK, and had a pleasant time. I bought a few items on my shopping list, which I was pleased about. I managed to get a very nice group of second-hand painted ACW dismounted Federal cavalry from Colonel Bill's which I have rebased for the rules I use:

I got to the show about 11 a.m. and it was very busy inside, reflecting its popularity. It also got very warm inside by early afternoon! People who obviously were used to the heat had come in shorts and flip-flops! By about 2 p.m. the numbers had thinned out and it was easier to get around. There were lots of offers for figures, paints, scenery, books, etc. and a variety of traders, enough I thought to cater for most interests.

There was a lot of demonstration and participation games. The latter seemed to me mostly small in size, perhaps for a few people, but as I was not there to play, I did not really spend much time looking at them. As for the demonstration games, there were many of very high quality in terms of scenery and figures, across a range of conflicts real and imagined. I did take my camera, but in the end I felt that plenty of other people would have much better pictures to show on the internet than I could produce with my little pocket thing, so I did not take any images in the end. I have to say that, although there were very impressive games on display- and all praise to the clubs and individuals who put the effort and time in - I did not spend long studying them. For some reason, they did not "grab" me, perhaps because they were well beyond anything I could attain or because I am settled in my ways with my chosen periods or they were a bit on the fringe of mainstream wargames.

Anyway, I thought it an excellent showcase for the hobby and a nice size of show as well. I will attend again next year, I am sure.

 

Yesterday proving to be a wash-out owing to the weather, all outdoor plans being scratched, I took the chance to have a Sun King game. I decided to try the Battle of the White Mountain from 1620, between the Imperialists and the Bohemians, but using my 1670s figures.

I paired the scenery down to a minimum, as a reading of the events suggested that the slope up the ridge, apart from slowing the attackers down, did not really influence the fighting. The house and walled garden represent the walled summer palace, but it was not occupied by any troops for the game; in the real battle it held only a few companies and was abandoned quickly by the defence. The two artillery positions represent the handful of sconces which the Bohemians used to strengthen their front and left flank. These were not strong positions on the day and fell easily to the Imperialists, so I did not make them more than gabion walls.

Again, to keep it simple, I did a scale of 100 men equals 1 figure, and apportioned foot and horse and guns accordingly. This gave the attackers - the French - five cavalry regiments (each of two squadrons of 6 figures), six foot regiments of 24 figures and one foot regiment of 36 figures, and a light and a medium battery. The defence - the Allies - had five foot regiments of 24 figures, four cavalry regiments (each of two squadrons of 6 figures), two hussar regiments (each of 12 figures) and a light and a medium battery.

The two sides were deployed in a similar way to the forces on the day: the Allies had foot and horse units intermingled; the French had two wings, foot flanked by horse regiments. The Allied hussars were posted beyond the house on the far right flank. On the day of battle itself, they played almost no role so I made a rule that they would only take action if a hostile unit came within 6". The large force of hussars which was behind the Bohemian army I chose not to represent as they did nothing at all on the day of battle!

I set a limit of twelve turns, which proved just enough time to get a clear result. I played as the French side; the Allies were given standing orders - cavalry to attack hostile cavalry forward of the main line (which sort of happened on the day in 1620) and the infantry and artillery to hold their positions and repulse all attacks. I did not try anything subtle for the French, just ignored the hussars and house and aimed to overrun the artillery positions and batter my way through with my infantry. The French had a slight superiority in troop quality as my attempt to reflect the better Spanish and German troops available to the Imperialists on the day.

Victory went to the French, though only after some see-saw cavalry engagements mid-field and some prolonged infantry exchanges and charges, the big Swiss unit having a powerful effect once committed to the fray. Here are some photographs:

French on the right of the picture, Allies on the left.

The Allied hussars who did nothing all game! If I had been playing an opponent, or if I was umpiring for other players, I would not have told the French player about the restriction on the hussars' movement.

The artillery batteries were stormed pretty easily, largely because of the numerical advantage of the attackers and the fact the gunners were not of good quality!

The Swiss regiment Salis moves up to engage: this was, in fact, the first time I had managed to get it directly into action in a game since it was painted and based! Swiss regiments in Louis XIV's army were much larger than their French counterparts, hence the difference in size between the wargame foot units.

The position at the end of turn twelve, with half the Allied host having fled or retreated off the table and the rest boxed into the lower left corner - except of course for those hussars!

Just before clearing away, I rearranged the two sides more in accordance with 1670s deployments, when cavalry and infantry units were not intermingled, but the horse kept on the wings and the foot in the centre. Turenne did intersperse musketeer companies with his cavalry at times, but that was unusual and a legacy of his experiences of the Thirty Years War and the Fronde. Anyway, here is a photograph of the different deployment:

I hope to go to Partizan this Sunday and, if I remember my camera, I shall try to post some photographs of the event next week. I have a small shopping list!