Monday 25 January 2016

The Battle of New Brunswick 1781 - An AWI Batrep





Last Sunday the Rejects got together for a most excellent AWI game.


Me and Ian were the Americans, while John and Surj were the Brits.
The Battle was a meeting engagement just south of Yorktown.
The above pic shows our right flank, our setup was quite difficult, we had too many areas to protect and defend and not quite enough troops.


Ian's French brigade protects our left flank.
Ian wanted to setup to the left of the wood in the field, but as CnC I decided to set up to the right of the woods as it would have left us far too strung out


Our game plan was simple, let them come to us......but after we'd set up we had to throw for our leaders command and control stats. For our leader Major-General Lincoln, I threw 
average, but John threw very well for his leader Sir Henry Clinton.Which gave them 
a plus 2 on all first move and first fire moves.Which as you can imagine put
 us on the back foot!!



The British centre, with Surj's Hessian's on the right of the pic.


My Rhode Island boys sit comfortably behind the defence of the wall, along with a 
light Artillery piece.


Rather predictably the Brits won first move and we quite quickly realised that if we didn't change our plan we'd just be wiped out by the superior British firing.
So I had to move forward and engage Surg's Jagers who had moved up to the fence line. This also stopped Surj from placing his light gun behind the fence, which would have been disastrous!


The Brits got in a bit of a mess in the woods, which delayed their attack.


And Ian had to redeploy his infantry, but we knew it would take John an age to try and flank us.


First shots went to the Jagers. I replied but with a few minuses. Because they'd fired first I 
had to shoot through smoke and I'd list casualties, who couldn't fire back.


Then disaster! 
John had a lucky shot with his heavy gun on the 2nd Bourbonnois, Ian then threw bloody snake eyes, so they routed. We only had one chance left to save them. Ian had to throw over 6 with two D6
He only went and threw snake eyes again!!!
The unit dissolved....


Surj doing his usual, inventive artillery movement!!!


Postie took a few shots for me from the ither side. John's artillery in a commanding position.


And so was his other piece.


As my Militia moved around towards the Hessian flank, Surj detached his Jagers from
 the fence, leaving me looking very vulnerable. Which is why we didn't want to advance.


My Combined Light battalion took a lot of fire and were forced to take a morale check.


Which they failed, fleeing the field.


John moved the 22nd Foot forward and gave fire.


The 2nd New York take fire from the combined Hessian Grenadiers.


My Militia still push forward around the flank.


The 22nd foot


The 57th and 37th Foot


The game wasn't going our way at all, so we threw all caution to the wind and charged the 22nd. 
We had to stop at close range for the Brits to fire, which they did causing several
 casualties on both my and Ian' s units. Luckily we both passed the check, so we 
moved on for the kill.


Quite why John isolated this unit, I don't know?


Ian moved the Royal Deux-Ponts up into the woods as the Brits were getting mighty close.


I moved up to the fence line and unlimbered my artillery.


Meanwhile on the left, our luck continued. What was left of the 22nd routed back through the units behind. We followed up and smashed into the yellow flagged 38th foot, who also routed, but they routed through the 22nd, who promptly dispersed!



Trouble was now, we were left in a very precarious position. The 42nd Highlanders
 would surley charge???



Back to the right flank....I continued to take a pounding, losing more men to the Hessian muskets.


Surj turned his artillery to fire on the flank of my 2nd New Jersey regt,so I moved the 
Rhode Island regt from the safety of the walled area to give fire.



 Luckily for us, John failed to seize the initiative and charge. Instead he chose to stand and fire.


And that's where me and Ian called it a day. We retreated off table unopposed as the British were exhausted and failed to follow up.


Conclusion

The combination of the British ability to move and fire first crippled us and forced us to attack rather than defend. Which we could only do piecemeal as we'd set up purely defensive.....Doh!

We had a long chat after the game about the tactics used by both sides and we've decided to play a second day to the battle. So loses will be added up, some casualties will return and hopefully some American reinforcements and even a better leader to stem the British advance could be on the cards!!!
Fingers crossed!


Wednesday 20 January 2016

AHPC Epic Fail - Bonus Round Doctor Doctor




I've got to admit, I was stumped as to what I could paint up for my Epic Fail entry.
I did have one idea but thought that it would better suit another of the Bonus Rounds, so fingers crossed I get the chance to paint it up!

You may have noticed a distinct lack of comments from my good self recently, I'm afraid my lovely daughter Nieve is to blame. For Christmas we bought her a gel pen set, which after you've drawn a picture, you must heat the gel, which can then be pulled off the plastic paper to make a 3D model. 
Sounds cool right?
Wrong!
It's wrong when the said daughter gets bored heating the gel and leaves her artwork on top of her Dads laptop!!!
The unheated gel dripped all over and into my keyboard and now my spacebar doesn't work!
So I've had to download a virtual one, which is quite annoying!
Kids ah! Who'd have 'em!


Anyway on with the figures........


So for my Epic Fail bonus round I chose 2 sets of surgeon figures for my Donnybrook shenanigans set in both Europe and Tangiers.
The larger base is from Redoubt Miniatures and its from their ECW range. I had to get the file out and smooth out the baggy pantoloons and try and make them look a little more from the NYW. I also chopped two heads off, replacing them with floppy headed chaps!

The smaller base is from Warlord Games and once again are from their ECW range.(I wish there were figures our there for this period!)
I've gotta say thanks to the guys at Warlord, I bought the figures at Salute last year but whilst cleaning the figures up in December, I realised that the Surgeon figure was missing, so after a frantic call,the Surgeon arrived in the post, can't believe it took me 8 months to notice!


This is my second post and I'm yet to post in the Challenge proper, although I have been painting bits and bobs and have a few figures finished, I've been concentrating on figures for the bonus rounds. My 1st entry took me to the lofty heights of 49th!! So hopefully the only way is up!

But what better Epic Fail can there be but the death and destruction and utter pointlessness of war!!!


So if you'd like to cast  a vote for my or any other of the excellent entries, click this link










Tuesday 5 January 2016

Happy New Year & the Nostalgia round.


A very Happy New Year to you all, I hope 2016 brings you all the lead or plastic you want!


For me and lots of other, 2016 bring in Curts Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I just
 managed to squeeze in my first entry into this years Challenge, before closing time. 
My two favourite comedians from yesteryear, Laurel & Hardy were my first entry into the first of the bonus rounds, Nostalgia.


I bought these Unfeasibly Miniatures, from Col Bills at Cavalier back in February last year, as a pressie for my Dad, but never got around to painting them, funnily enough I never got around to painting much last year, which hopefully will be rectified this year!!

For some unknown reason, I thought I'd be clever boy and paint Stan & Ollie in greyscale, to relive the old Black & White movies, I love to watch. I asked one of the masters of greyscale Curt, for some tips, "Warm and Cool tones" he said
Good Grief! I replied what the hell is he going on about!!


It was a lot harder than I'd imagined.......
I tried and tried I couldn't get the flesh to look right and ended up with Stan & Ollie the Zombies.
Lastly in true, a la Curt style, I added a splash of red with a poppy red grass tuft.
I photographed the figures on a white background first, which really bleached the figures, so then I chose a sand yellow background, not sure which one looks the best, so I included both pics??

If you fancy voting for Zombie Stan & Ollie or one of the other excellent entries, (Sir M's really is the nuts) click the link to place your vote!

Cheers 
Ray