Sharp practice 2

Two pictures from a small game of sharp practice. The british were attacking an american farm. Using the stats from the War of 1812 supplement.

 Canadian Militia in the farm yard, beating back the US rifles.

The American try to take on the thin red line. I was using D8's to mark shock. They can not be confused with D6's.

It was a fun little game.

Some 1812 pics

So here are a few photos of a game I had using Sharpe Practice. The scenario was based on the Perfect captains John Bull scenario generator. I rolled beach Landing. There was no beach landing in my game. But basically, the US startedwith half thier force entering the table edge. The British started with 1/3 of thier force on the centre line of the table. The rest of the american force would arive when the initial troops had taken the center line (the beach in the scenario). The rest of the British arrive arrived shortly after this, in two 'waves' of a 1/3 of the army each.

 These are pictures right at the end of the game,  the 2nd wave of British reinforcements has just arrived. Unfortuantly for the Americans it was a unit of the 95th rifles and the Grenadiers of the 89th foot. 

This next picture show the US high tide. Sadly it was only two milita units, so at this point the americans fell back to the beach.

Here are the US Rifles I was painting last month, who put up a good showing in thier first battle. Next on the painting table are 6 more indians, to make the unit up to 12 warriors.

Till next time, whenever that is....

Generals and WIP rifles

So here are a few pics of my latest paintings. Two generals from perry miniatures, and two from knuckleduster miniatures.





And lastly some work in progress US Rifles also from Knuckleduster.

Crysler's Farm (sort of)

So the other weekend out came my War of 1812 stuff. Here is the result a battle using Black powder based on The Battle of Crysler's Farm in 1813.


The Deployment, The British with Light Infantry and Indians along the wall on the edge of the lane. The Americans advancing across the fields.




Deployment from the British point of view. 2 British battalions and a Canadian militia form the British 2nd Line.



The initial fight goes against the British. A Blundered order pulls the Light infantry back.


Then the Indians break after a volly from the advancing US infantry.



The Light Infantry make it back to the wall, but are defeated by a US bayonet charge.



On the right the Americans advance unaposed till they reach the 2nd line and engage the British.


More Americans joint the fight


Eventually the British battalion fails a break test.



These last two photos show, the remaining British troops pull back. But the Americans hold the field, with more troops marching up to join them

Black powder battle

Some time back I had a little battle in the loft, using the Blackpowder rules. Anyway here are some pictures I took.
The basic set up was, a US regular Brigade and Militia Brigade, supported by two guns had to hold off the attacking British. The British had 2 veteran Brigades with plenty of light infantry (the majority of who cleared the woods at the top of the picture).

The Americans started out holding the wall with two militia battalions and both guns. The British stormed the wall and drove off the Americans. The Regular US infantry then counter attacked with some success.

However, as the counter attack started to push the British back, the British Light Infantry took the wood, and so gave enfilading fire on to nearby US counter attack.

On the other flank, the British committed the single battalion which had been held in reserve. They arrived just as the British battalion in front broke. The already weakened US infantry couldn't hold against fresh troops, and the British made sort work of them. And with that, all the US troops where either dead or falling back. The Britsh carried the field.

It was a fun few hours, but I really need some generals. I only have two mounted officers one US and one British. The lack of commanders is so dire that one British was led by a rifle Sergeant! So general officers are next thing on the buy list.

Laters..

US artillery (I think).

This is a unit of US artillery, at least I think it. I painted the crew a while ago and can't remember if I painted them as US or British. I think they are US because although similar I think the British had darker blue coats, and more in the way of epaulets.
Anyhoo....

US Militia 1812

So continuing building my War of 1812 armies, I have painted up unit of US militia. They are old glory miniatures. As you can see they are a townish looking lot still in there civilian clothes.

Here you can see their officer in a united states army uniform. The militia where supposed to wear blue coats, but like this lot many didn't have uniforms. This officer has got himself one tailored, no doubt to impress the ladies.

I have another unit of militia still to paint for the americans. And thats is that army basically finised apart from a cannon or two and some dragoons.

Marching to battle...

89th Regiment of Foot

These where actually painted a little while ago, but here are the pictures anyway. As you can see they still need basing, but that won't take long. The 89th were present in the Niagara campaign 1814. My war of 1812 armies are roughly based on the real armies in that campaign.

I have done these as grenadiers, in case I ever want to field some, but generally they'll just be another line battalion in games. There is a slight conversion, (although I don't think its worthy being called so), the officer has a head swap from the Victrix British artillery box. Speaking of which...

This crew just need their bases painting, but the cannon is still bare plastic. The other two cannons and crews are still on the sprue. At least one of them is going to become Americans.

Easter is soon, and so the holiday should provide some painting time. However, I think this will be devoted to the Mantic undead army, which I am going to try and paint in only two weeks. It should be a good challenge, 114 minatures in 14 days. So probably no time for the war of 1812.
Over the summer holiday I plan to finish everything I have for 1812, so till then Canada is safe.
Anyway, laters....

Scott's Brigade

Here is another unit I painted over the Christmas holidays, It represents one of the Regiments in Winfield Scott's Brigade on the Niagara in 1814. Scott couldn't find enough blue cloth for his Brigade, so they got grey colour coats.

The officer has however got a blue coat this is because the officers bought their own uniform. The drummer has reverse facing colours as was the norm, however as the proper uniform of the unit should be blue coat, red facings, so the drummer has the reverse of that, not the reverse of grey on grey. Which wouldn't work anyway.

Here is a private, I filled off the Shoulder 'puffs' and lace on the cuff off the jacket, for correctness. The US army gave up on fancy uniform details later in the war, when it became obvious they could not uniform the whole army properly.

These go along side another US unit already painted in grey to form my representation of Scott's Brigade. I just need to make Towson's artillery battery to finish the brigade off.

Till next time.....

Colonels War of 1812

So ages ago (some time last summer), I bought the Victrix British colonels pack, and painted them. They are currently acting as generals for my British and American armies for the War of 1812.

That above is the British colonel, and below is the American one. They are both on 40mm round Games workshop bases. I haven't decided wether to base proper cavalry (these are command stands) on 40mm rounds (AKA lord of the rings style) or on the 25mm x 50mm rectangle bases (warhammer style). This is somthing which I will ponder on.

Also in the pack comes this sapper, I decided to paint him up as British, but have not yet decided what regiment he will join, hence painting on him has stalled.

Till next time...

War of 1812: still to come (Part 2)

Here is my planned army for my US force for 1812. This list is based on Major General Brown's force at Lundy's Lane 1814.


1st (Scott's) Brigade (all in grey coats)

• 9th/25th Infantry
• 11th/22nd Infantry
• Artillery
  

2nd (Ripley's) Brigade (all in blue coats)

• 21st infantry
• 1st/23rd infanty

3rd (Militia) Brigade

• Militia
• Militia

Artillery and Cavalry

• Artilery
• Artilery
• US Light Dragoons

So 2 regular brigades (one in grey, one in blue) a milita brigade, and a few guns and a squadron of dragoons. units in blue I don't yet have.

War of 1812: still to come

I've been thinking about what I want when I finish my 1812 collection. My idea is that it's roughly based on the orbat of Lundy's Lane. My infantry battalions are 12 men strong, cavalry 6, and artillery 1 gun with crew.

For the British Brigades (note these are not purley historical)

2nd (Light) Brigade

• Glengarry Light Infantry
• Canadian militia (good quality)
  
• Light Dragoons
• Artillery
  

1st (and 2nd) Militia Brigade

• Canadian militia (poor quality)
• Canadian militia (poor quality)
  

3rd (Morrison's) Brigade

• 1st/8th/48th foot
• 89th foot
• Artillery (Congreve Rockets)
  

1st (Scott's) Brigade

• 8th/104th
• 103rd foot
• Artillery

Now a few explinations; this is only based on the British force at Lundy's Lane, it is not the actualy orbat, it is designed as a gaming force bassed on historica ratios.
This force give 2 regular British brigades, a Light infantry brigade, and a militia brigade, fairly repersentive of Lieutenant General Dummonds army. The two historical militia brigades have been combide into one as both where only about 300 strong. Units in red are ones which I haven't yet got.

Upper Canada Militia

This is my just finished unit of the above in 1813 regulation uniform, according to my osprey book, they had green coats and red facings like so. The Canadian militia was (as far as I gather), uniformed where possible exactly as British regulars, although this was quite often not possible, as red coats could not always be found, particularly towards the start of the war. So many were issued green coats, but others just turned up in their civilian clothing.

I wanted a unit of generic unit of Canadians, and decided on green coats as opposed to red, to make them stand out as Canadian militia and not just another British unit, also it adds a different colour to the gaming table. Depending on the battle, I will use these as poor or average quality troops, whatever really. You will also probly notice they are dressed as light company with wings and green truft on their shakos. This emables them to be used as light infantry when I want. But also as just line militia as quite often militia units where uniformed and even equipt as light infantry, but with no training or expierience using light infantry tactics, they could act like nothing of the sort. So all in all a very useful wargames unit.

The officer you notice has got a red coat, I figure that he, providing his own uniform, would be able to buy red cloth for his own jacket at least.

Next time, I should have my victrix British Colonel painted up. After that I have a box of the victrix artillery waiting for me to glue it together, but that's still some time in the future yet...

More 1812 painted

I have now at this moment of writing actually painted all my 1812 miniatures that I own!!! 1 box of perry British infantry and 1 box of victrix British infantry. A break down of what I've painted them as is in the previous post. But, here are some pictures of the 'brigades', well if you assume each 12 man unit is a battalion. I don't know tho, I'm toying with making them 16 or maybe shrinking them down to 10, I dunno. I should work out what rules I want to use, so know how big units should be.

The Americans and the British
(click for bigger pic)

The new units are the sort of militia or line U.S. unit. The green faced British unit with grey trousers, as well as the rifles and British light company in the foreground. You may also notice I have now moved my wargaming up into my loft where I have a 4 foot by 4 foot table.

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