Old School Outing

Good Afternoon!
Sorry that I have been neglecting you but I just haven't had any big games this year. Just to let you know- I have still been having my regular evening games with friends so I will post some pictures from them. I currently don't even have another game planned as I am busy writing and 'being academic'!
Anyway just for a change of pace we have been doing a bit of what I shall call, for want of a better term, Old School Gaming. That is to say we used simply painted 30mm figures with a version of the 1960's ruleset 'Charge or How to Play Wargames'. I always enjoyed the Charge rules having been introduced to the m by Dad when I was a nipper; he believing there should be some regulation to my games of soldiers thus starting me down the slippery slope! However, when using the rules recently I found them to be a bit bloody and I felt that for French Revolutionary battles they needed to cover morale so I wrote my own version. As it turned out I hadn't really thought them through very well (this happens a lot with my own rules) and the game was a bit hit and miss but here are some pictures:

In homage to the source material we played a version of Blasthoff Bridge - this is towards the end and the allied commander has deployed his guns in a rather nasty grand battery - teh resuot was messy!

Electoral (actually British) Guards advance over the bridge.

The same... but closer! '28mm' Figures from Irregular Miniatures - Bridge by Italeri. These figures were painted extremely quickly (in batches of 50!) for a re-fight of Hondeschoote at a friend's house and look quite reasonable - might gloss varnish them to enhance the nostalgic vibe!

The opposition - Foot Gendarmes of Paris- 30mm this time (almost no difference in size) also from Irregular.

The cavalry lie in wait for any Hanoverians foolish enough to attempt th eford!

Chasseurs by Spencer Smith - too small a unit to be effective they covered the flanks and were later decimated by the grand battery.

That battery! Guns by Irregular and Hinchliffe plus some Foundry gunners.

So - the game wasn't great and I do prefer the feel of a big battle for which you can't really beat 20mm (1:72 call it what you will) but I did quite like the idea of this kind of game and will persevere with these rules... though I might try 'Black Powder' .

1/32 Cuirassiers

This is for the fellow on the HaT forum that reckons no one makes decent French Cuirassiers in 1/32 - They aren't perfect but they look pretty good to me.

27th August 1799 - Battle of Callantsoog

Well there weren't many assault landings in the eighteen century but this was one of the few. You can read all about the real thing in my book (it's even on the cover):



Plug over on with the game!
The battle was the first stage in a British attempt to invade the Netherlands (or the Batavian Republic as it was calling itself) and free it from the French yoke.
This one involved quite a bit of painting and modelling as I had to paint two armies and build an invasion fleet and a beach... was reasonably pleased with the results.

Turn 1- The British Land

It's that pirate ship from Wilko's with a new coat of paint, showing her worst side.

The navy gets the lobsters ashore. Here the Guards Grenadier Battalion (Irregular AWI) are helped from Zvezda launches by HaT sailors. Historically the landings were a shambles but I wanted to make a game of it so landed units in waves and had lots of skirmish bases.

An overview of the battlefield showing Daendels' Batavian army poised to implement his plan to repel the invaders but will they fight or will they embrace the counter-revolution?

Turn 2

The British land more troops.

 The Batavian Jaegers begin to skirmish with the British light companies.

But mostly they hold their position (cavalry from the  Irregular Miniatures 'Early Napoleonic' range)

 ... and observe the landing out of range of the ships' guns.

Turn 3

The British land more troops- In fact Moore's troops!

Moore's Brigade on the beach.

The light companies push back the Jaegers.

Turn 4

There is more desultorary skirmishing

The Batavian line is strengthened by the deployment of some infantry companies but they are pushed back.

Turn 5

The British take the first line of dunes.

The Guards push on through the centre.

Turn 6

There is a lot of skirmishing but increadibly every single hit was saved and there was no result apart from the inexorable adavance of the British invasion force.

 The British push up to the sand dyke.

Colonel Crass leads the defence.

Turn 7

The British take the Sand Dyke and the Batavians finally move.

Fighting atop the dyke.

The Batavians advance to meet the invader.

Turn 8

The British break through to the planes

Some artillery is dragged up the beach.

Moore's Brigade also moves off the beach.

Turn 8
The British close with the bayonet but things don't go their way and they are thrown back.

The melee.

The Batavians withdraw to unmask their guns and counter attack but with little success.

7HB move up from Helder to encircle the British.

Turn 9
The Guards assault the telegraph post.

But are repulsed - The telegraph is made from a drinking straw, a couple of coacktail sticks and some wine bottle foil. - It is protected by an emplaced artillery battery.

The Batavians fight back and there are melees along the whole line.

Turn 10

The Guards rally under fire by the telegraph post - It turns out I interpreted the rules incorrectly and they should have taken the post last turn but hey - that's war!

 Moore's Brigade continue to advance.

The Batavians throw in their cavalry and successfully attack the Guard Grenadiers.

Turn 11

The struggle continues with no conclusive result.

It's the sun!! As rare in my loft these days as in the Helder in 1799!

Turn 12

The British finally take the telegraph post.

This was a tough nut to crack historically too.

Triumphant guardsmen.

The Batavians are beaten back across the whole front. Their only fresh troops are those from Helder who hav ebeen held up by pockets of British infantry in the dunes. Although they have suffered heavy casualties, the British are in a comanding position and may call this a successful landing. 

Nice little game really.