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Monday 22 January 2018

Finaloo Shinyloo

Through Rain and Snow and gloom  of Night the TWATS still get a game in. Though it was touch and go . Still 3 of us made it to our usual haunt for the January game. I was in the chair and decided that come Hell or High Water it was time the s"shinyloo" collection had an outing. After all I'd been working on them long enough.
 So I went the whole hog and decided to use "Charge!" as that was the inspiration for the collection in the first place.

The table before the action begins. The low winter sun through the windows to the left does not help. 

 I'd never played Charge before- well maybe once 30 years ago but not so as you'd notice so to all intents it was a new rule set for with all those possible pitfalls. You know what I was very pleasantly surprised. The basic system is so simple and open ended is it refreshing. No farting about with "mechanisms"  but having said that there is a possibility of subtlety in minor tactics that we will be exploring further. The old fashioned move by move order writing was new to both of the player- though I had used it back in the day with London Wargame section Napoleonic rules and again for simplicity it really does have merit.
Calamity. The RHA battery falls to the blood spattered remains of the French heavies.

 Anyway on with a short narrative of a short but interesting little affair,
 British forces- Andrew the Tekkie commanding
 3 and a half companies of line infantry
1 company of Rifles
1 Battery Royal Horse Artillery
 1 cavalry regiment- The Scots Greys
 The French were a bit more numerous. Mechanical Shaun as Napoleon Shinyparte!
 3 and a half infantry companies- though they were 18 man companies in 3 ranks the British being 16 men in 2 ranks
 1 company of Light Infantry
 2 cavalry units 1 light 1 heavy
 and a battery of Guns
The British under pressure. The Scots Greys belatedly move.

The French kicked off with a general advance- Light infantry in skirmish order covering the front of their main mass of Line Infantry. However their heavy Cavalry immediately advanced towards the RHA battery which was somewhat isolated on the British left and coming under fire , expected to be turned into horseburgers-. Andrew picked up his dice with glee the  gamely rolled snake eyes!  The next move the Cuirassiers and Carabiniers took the bit between their teeth  and then declared a charge.
 Canister blasted them  but not quite enough to get and"under strength" result and the RHA battery was taken by the survivors.
A beeter view of the whole action

 First blow to the French.
In the centre the French mass advanced an it's skirmishers took a steady toll on the uncovered British Line as the rifles were off to a flank covering the Footguards company on the other hill  on the British right.
. Belatedly the Scots Greys began to move and advanced against the French Light Cavalry. The resulting two move melee ending in a draw with both units withdrawing- each side thew totally bum dice. The French in the first turn of melee the British in the second and neither side had quite enough losses for the other to claim victory. In the context of the game this meant a narrow success for the French.
The cavalry melee after the first round.

 The decision however was to come in the centre. As the French skirmishers withdrew all of the French line advanced against 2 damaged companies of the 44th foot.who came down from their hill and were swallowed up by the French 3 rank mass. Belated fire into the flank of the Imperial Guard being only enough(just) with their melee losses to take them under strength.
 At this point Andrew  decided the day was lost.

Andrew begins his flanking move but it will be too late.

So what did the players think. Neither has encountered "Charge!" previously but both were interested in another bash, as am I. I suspect hat next time I may put in a few amendments such as
 1/.
 Musket armed light Infantry will fire as line infantry in 8 man groups so light companies will be the same strength as Line.
2/.
Rifle armed troops may not be able to move and fire- not sure about this one though.
3/.
 I may lower the threshold for under strength or possibly introduce a more "featherstonian" morale test- still thinking about this.
4/.
Allow artillery crew to defend their guns in melee- albeit with penalties.
The French - doubtless chanting "There's more of of us than you"(in French obviously) swallow the British. and it is all over bar a few beers.

What was clear here is that these simple- but far from simplistic rules give you far more "positive freedom" than many more modern limited games. I can, should I wish, tinker around the edges for a bit more "Napoleonicness"  without unbalancing the game. The longer than usual movement distances and the move by move order writing force the players to think tactically rather than merely "gameyily". The cavalry melee method does allow for subtlety in minor tactics if you choose
 Suffice it to say that all 3 of us were  more impressed than we expected to be.
 As usual thanks go to landlady Jean for superior Beef Butties and chips and to Landlord Eric for fine pints of White Hot. Roll on the February game.


Because of the weather Andrew and I took a cab to the pub- so scenery was of the simplest. the hills are wood blocks under the cloth and the trees  fences haystacks and hedges are Britians or Johillco (these last from the 1950s). The only post 1980 items are the roads and the farm.

Wednesday 17 January 2018

Bits and Pieces.

3 40mm Imperialist Officer for around 1630 
Still painting away though as you might expect always slower than you'd like. The first of the Mutineer Artillery is finished- with more on the way and I've also finished a few more 40mm 17th century figures- with luck I'll get a game on using them towards the end of the coming year- assuming nothing new takes my attention... well you never know. First "Shinyloo" game this coming Saturday- assuming we don't get snowed off.


Mutineer artillery crew and 6 pdr gun.

Friday 5 January 2018

Old Glory Miniatures UK of Facebook

Well I've finally done it- though I've no real idea why  Old Glory Miniatures UK has a facebook page of that title. Quite where I'm going with that I have, so far, no clear idea - except as an advertising billboard. Also I will use it as a page to disseminate news about Old Glory products- in addition to here and the Old Glory Newsdesk on the OGUK Website.
 For some reason I now also have a personal facebook page as Andrew Copestake- since  farebook shut me out of my Andy Copestke on over a year ago.
Social media is frankly a two edged sword so I have no ideawhere, if anywhere, this will lead.
 One thing is for sure time on Farcebook of whatever colour will be strictly limited as it is not real and does not server beer !!

Tuesday 2 January 2018

NEW YEAR,NEW PROJECT

Happy New Year Chaps
 So here we are again at the start of another year 2018  well it should be interesting - just like the Chinese curse probably knowing the bunch of self centred halfwits we have to govern us.
 However on to happier things.
 I've finally decided how to present the Indian Mutiny collection I had. It is pretty small at the moment but it will grow as I have at least 2 more unbased units to add to those in the pictures with other stuff needing a bit of refurbishment.
 Not really thought about rules yet but my mind does shy away from the samey-gamey small unit knowledge free skirmish-a Likes that seem to be the popular way these days. Not my style at all  even though I'm a long way from dismissing low level small action games out of hand.
 However the photos show the first fruits of my current thoughts- again using sabot bases which I'm quite taken with

Mutineer Infantry- all from the Old Glory 25/28mm range.
Mutineer gunner are on the painting table and I can see I ned to buy a bundle of new bases from Warbases at Varnartak in feb - where I will of course be trading as per usual.


Individual models - all from the same pack as it happens..
I have some British troops to rebase so I'm actually not a million miles away from having enough for a small game.
 However as far as the T.WA.T.S. are concerned I rather think it will finally after at least 2 false starts- shinyloo first.


Close up of the Sabot bases- 16figs to a base in this case though I will also use smaller ones as well.