With Boney In Spain: A Sharp Practice Playtest

 

Last week I had the chance to visit my friend Joe Saunders to playtest his Sharp Practice game for HotLead in two week’s time.   Joe of course is the proprietor of the Miniature Landscape Hobbies YouTube channel, and a friend of the Canadian Wargamer Podcast.   Here is the always friendly Joe beside one of his epic scratch built terrain boards, in this case depicting a village somewhere in Spain.    

The scenario was built around Napoleon’s one visit to Spain in 1808.  The Emperor is travelling cross country by coach wit a small elite escort but the details of his trip are leaked and Spanish partisans are lying in ambush.  French and British troops are hastening to the site.   The Emperor wins by getting from one side of the table to the other.

Close up of Napoleon (front rank on the right) with his elite escort Chasseurs of the Guard.  All figures painted by Joe.  The Napoleon casting is I believe a Warlord sculpt, and Joe’s tutorial on painting him is here.  Napoleon is rated as a Level 4 commander, the best in there can be in the rules, so he has a ton of clout on the battlefield.  The downside is that from turn on, he is in long range of Spanish guerrillas, so he needs to be careful.

When I learned that I got to play Napoleon in a tactical game,  I absolutely HAD to play the French!

The game unfolded with a full run of cards allowing all units from both sides to deploy.  The British had a light and a heavy cavalry unit on their side of the table, directly facing Napoleon.   It was only a matter of time before they decided to charge, and while I did my best to block them with a unit of dragoons, I had deployed my other unit of cavalry, cuirassiers, on the far side of the table where they weren’t able to protect L’Empereur, which proved to be a fatal mistake.

In retrospect, Joe and I decided that both sides should only have light cavalry, as heavy impact cavalry in Sharp Practice is murderous.  Otherwise, the British player will do their best to ride down Napoleon as quickly as possible and end the game.

As an example of what impact cavalry can do, here are my cuirassiers charging into a hapless formation of Highlanders.  The cards allowed me to hit them while the Jocks had their muskets unloaded, so they got bundled off the table with heavy losses. It was one of those rare moments in Sharp Practice where you get perfect card draws: I  moved into charge range with the last card of one turn, and got to charge with the first card of the next turn.  Fun when it happens, especially given how rare such moments are.

It’s always fun to help a friend think through the balance and structure of a war-game scenario.   I wish I’d taken some more photos of Joe’s lovely terrain and of his wonderful collection of 28mm Naps.   Hopefully I’ll get some more for you at Hot Lead in two weeks time.

Cheers and blessings to your die rolls,

MP+

Victorian British and Canadian Brigade on Parade

After my last post here, I thought it would be fun to take all my completed Victorian  British and Canadian troops and put them on the table for a group shot.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Perry figures in the foreground, British regulars and behind them a regiment of Canadian militia.

Perry Canadian militia cavalry in the centre.

Perry command figures in the centre.

Two Perry Armstrong Whitworth cannon and crew.

Most recently completed Warlord regiment, British regulars, in the foreground, and a second regiment of Canadian militia behind them.

Flags by Adolfo Ramos.

I found this an encouraging exercise to see the fruits of two years’ work on the table.   Now to dig out my US American Civil War figures and put them to the test.

Cheers and thanks for looking, MP+

Warlord Victorian British Infantry

I recently finished this unit of 28mm Victorian British infantry for my alt-ACW project.  These are metal Warlord sculpts, I think by Paul Hicks, for their Crimean War range.   I am fairly sure that these figures are which are OOP as I couldn’t find them on the Warlord website.  I bough them practically for a song from a very generous friend at last year’s Hot Lead convention.

The figures are painted using Foundry paints and the flag is from Adolfo Ramos.    There was only one banner bearer in the unit, so I opted for the regimental flag rather than the national flag, just because I liked the look.

These figures, added to my existing Perry British Infantry Force figures, give me a small brigade, which I’ll try to get some pics of the next time we have some sunlight.  Hopefully they’ll see some action in defence of Upper Canada soon.

Cheers and thanks for looking.   Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Things I Did in 2022: Early Imperial Roman Cavalry

Parish work has been rewarding this last week but has left me with precious little time to paint or to post here.   With a slight respite this afternoon, here’s a return to some of the projects I completed last year.

Following on the heels of a surprise turn to Ancients Gaming, I decided to paint some Roman cavalry as adversaries for my Germanic warriors.   I have only a vague idea of how the Romans used cavalry in Germania, probably more as scouts and line of communications troops than on the battlefield, but I’m sure they had their share of skirmishes and patrols.  I showed this figures to my friend, Consul Homo Lepus, who knows more about Romans than I do, and he was impressed that the Victrix figures come with quivers (right word??) for their javelins, as well as blankets, canteens and other useful kit.

These are 28mm plastic Victrix figures, with shield transfers by Little Big Men Studios.  The horses are painted using Foundry tri-colour paints from their “Horse” paints set.   I’m still figuring these paints out but in general I’m pleased with them and would use them again.

Command figures:

I have quite a few more ancients to paint, including Roman auxiliary infantry and archers, and more lead Germans thanks to the Wargames Foundry Diamond Jubilee sale last year where my finger slipped and I bought rather a few.As I may have posted here earlier, I acquired the Germans last year when the local gaming group was playing a lot of skirmish games using Clash of Spears rules, and I may stick with them or perhaps look at Too Fat Lardies’ Infamy rules.   I also have a set of rules from Helion, Three Ages of Rome by Philip Garton, which I confess I’ve barely looked at since it arrived.  

So ancients are not a back burner project, exactly, more of an interesting diversion which I’ll pursue this year.

Blessings to your brushes,

MP+

#Terrain Tuesday: Warbases Prussian Barn WIP

Hello friends:

I’m reviving a feature here which I’ve called Terrain Tuesday.   Here’s a bit of progress on a project carried over from last year, this 28mm Warbases T-Shaped Barn from their Napoleonic Prussia series.   I can use these in a variety of horse and musket settings, and this particular model could possibly be used in a North American setting, assuming the barn was built by settlers of German origin.

I wasn’t happy with the MDF roof, so I ordered some of the Warbases cardboard roof tiles sets and laboriously glued them on.

Now I have to decide how to paint the roof.   I was thinking a brown base coat, and then a dry brush of red, as most German roofs I’ve seen in paintings of the period seem to have red roofs.   Any advice?

Blessings to your modelling.  MP+

Things I Did in 2022 - Tiny Prussians

I don’t think I’m going to do a full year in review blog post, but I will do a few posts to highlight some projects and directions that seemed fruitful to me.  3D printing was definitely the big thing of 2022 for me, and while it was often enormously frustrating, it also opened some doors, including the possibility of doing SYW battles in a big way.

In 2022 I agreed to help Henry Turner by printing and painting some figures from his recent 6mm/15mm Seven Years War Kickstarter, in return for a discount on the range of STL files.    Henry sent me some files, including these Prussian musketeers, which you see here.

 The figures print in strips of four, including one strip of musicians (seen above in the front left of the second base) and below on the far left, and a command strip.  I would say that the detailing is comparable to Baccus, and while these figures look lumpish and squat when scaled up, at 6mm they look fine.   Fairly easy to paint and they look good when based, using the same size bases I use for my 6mm Napoleonics and with my scenery.  There’s definitely a large battle project here if I want to pursue it.

 

If there’s any downside to 3D printing, it’s simply the time cost of cranking out figures - a print run of this size, assuming it all goes smoothly, is a day to set up and print, and another to clean and cure the figures.    It may be easier to just order some starter packs from Baccus, and then flesh them out with prints as I choose to.   At any rate, this project was a successful proof of concept.

Blessings to your printers and brushes!

MP+

 

Resisting (?) The Allure of Big Napoleonics

Hello and Happy New Year.

One of the last two games of 2022 for me was a game of Sharp Practice with my friend and podcast partner James at his place.   Besides the pleasure of spending time with an old friend, there was the thrill of playing with James’ 28mm kit, which he has been assiduously assembling and painting for the last two years along with our mutual friend Scott.   While Scott has been focusing on the French, James has done Bavarians, Russians, and is now working on Austrians and Prussians.

Here is the force of invading Bavarians that we assembled for this skirmish on the steppes of Russia.  The figures are a mix of metal (including Front Rank) and various plastics including HAT.

And the defending Russians, which I took.

It’s hard not to be tempted by how attractive these units are. James is a decent, workmanlike painter who has a knack for turning out figures that are wargaming standard, in large numbers, and in fairly short time.   When he wants to he can kick it up a notch, as with the Russian officer in the centre, on his prancing horse waving his expensive hat.  The overall effect is very impressive.

On the tabletop, these figures are paired with some fine scenery.   As with the figures, James aims for a wargaming standard with his scenics, but the overall effect, as with these Russian houses, is quite pleasant.   

 

Likewise this MDF church (Our Lady of Cabbages) is nicely presented with a scratch built fence, and the unfortunate billiard ball dome will be replaced by a nice 3D printed spire for future battles.

Here’s one shot of the battle, which went badly for me.   We advanced from the long ends of the table, and spilt the village, where my light infantry was slowly evicted by the better fire of the Bavarian rifle-armed jaegers.   I foolishly led with my weakest infantry formation (bottom left) which were ripped apart by James’ grenadiers.   James has an intuitive grasp of Sharp Practice and used the order cards to best effect, seizing several extra moves/volleys for his grenadiers.  The only real success I had was a cavalry victory as our light horse basically cancelled each other’s out of the game.

As readers of this blog now, I made the decision a decade ago to do Napoleonics in 6mm and I have not regretted that decision.  However, all this is building up to the confession that this period in 25/28mm is hopelessly infectious.  The figures are just so much more dramatic in the larger scales, which reward painting and uniform details in ways that 6mm can’t.  It’s like comparing an impressionist painting (6mm) with a romantic but realist painting such as Lady Butler (28mm).  The big scale wins in the close ups.    That being said, I am firmly convinced that 28mm for Napoleonics works best with larger skirmish games.    For battles of a brigade on up, I’ll take 6mm any day.   

But, I still feel the need to paint a force in 28mm!    So here’s the likely solution.   Piano Wargames, a very clever fellow named Lucas, has been labouring away for some years now on the troops of minor German states, and has just wrapped up a very successful Kickstarter focusing on the Tyrolean Revolt, which will feature rebels, Bavarians, and Austrians.   The KS offers .STL files as well as metal figures, and I’ve decided that it will be a good opportunity to use my limited 3D printing prowess to do some of these rarer figures for James (and I get to play with them from time to time, so win win).  

Since my experience with printing 28mm figures is minor, I thought I’d practice by ordering some of Lucas’ files already on his webstore, in this case, six light infantry figures from the Duchy of Wurttemberg, which would themselves be the basis of a nice little Sharp Practice force, since they can fight as French against Russians or Austrians until, as invariably happened, they turn coats and fight against the French towards the end of the Napoleonic period.

I had a devil of a time getting the pre-supported files to print, for some reason known only to my Elegoo Mars2 printer, but when I decided to print the unsupported figures, I was fairly successful, though there are some minor flaws in some prints.   Still, I now have enough to print and to see if 28mm is as seductive as it appears to be.  Wish me luck.