This Blog Has Moved!

Well, I've finally done it! AWI Stuff and Nonsense is to be retired and this will be the last post (if only I could get an MP3 of that playing now!)

The link should still be http://blog.belisarius.org.uk and this blog has reverted to it's Blogspot URL.

Hopefully see you there and thanks again to all who've visited here. Your support has really encouraged my return to wargaming.

Thanks

Andy

Moving Blog and the future

Well, I've decided that a new all encompassing blog is the way to go and sometime over the next week I will move the focus there. The address should still be the same so bookmarks will take people there but I'm not sure what happens re followers etc. For the 12 of you so doing I'd really appreciate your company there when the time comes...

So what do I have planned? Well...

• 15mm Punic War - I've been tempted by Field Of Glory and have dug out my Punic War armies and have been finishing off the painting of my second legion, bought some Corvus Belli Spaniards and Numidians and will be delving in to my ancients lead pile to see what else I have. Assorted pics will follow as well as game reports when I actually get round to it.
• Nostalgia - I'm currently sorting through boxes in the attic and hope to uncover my old 25mm Medievals. A mix of Lamming and Hinchcliff with the very dubious painting of a 14-15 year old! I should also find the pictures I took at the Wargames Holiday Center back in c.1979? I think it was the first year Peter Gilder ran them but the memory fades. It'll be interesting to see that
• Scenery - I have a veritable forest of Bachmann trees to be based up as soon as I get the MDF I need from East Riding Miniatures.
• AWI - I have the minifigs I need for the Guards. I tried my normal blacl undercoat with Vallejo but it seems to not take very well so I will be trying the spray approach and see if that takes better. I'll also be sorting through the AWI lead pile, deciding what I need and don't need and then selling on the spares. So expect see a few Polly Oliver figures available soon(ish).

there is though.
That's the plan anyway. I don't want to do the move until I have some nice pics to launch it properly.

Back soon...

Andy

All Change?

I started this blog last year after deciding that my playing Advanced Squad Leader was just not relaxing for me anymore. We'd also got a new baby in the house which meant gaming time was minimal and I always remembered finding painting a relaxing experience. As my last project had been AWI - and I was still reading related material - that seemed the obvious place to start. Hence this blog.

Recently, as I've made a few more meetings of the Tyneside Wargames Club, the odd show, and read more online forums interests have started to diversify. This shows in the few SYW and WW2 posts here. Now I'm really facing a similar dilemma to Giles over at Tarleton's Quarter here. Do I restrict this blog to just AWI and move more diverse wargaming content to it's own blog? Or do I change the scope of this blog? Or start a new one, import all the content from here and make sure it's all clearly labelled? Seeing as I use a domain name for the blog I would assume that links would just transfer over easily.

Also I feel the need to keep more uptodate posting here and if I keep it more general then I'm more likely to post something rather than waiting on new figures to post. it's been weeks since the last post and little painting done but lots of reading, more figures/terrain/rules bought, more ideas for spreading my limited gaming time even thinner! :)

We shall see...

Andy

Yet another slight diversion!

Well, as a bit of an aside from the masses of 15mm AWI I've been doing of late I thought I'd have a crack at some 28mm stuff. There's a game at the club tomorrow, 28mm WW2 skirmish using Richard's solo rules, and seeing as I was taking part I thought it best to have a few figures of my own to throw on the table.

I've not painted any 28mm ever. The last 25mm I painted were Hinchcliffe many many years ago. I may have done the odd figure for role-playing but again that has to be at least 15 years ago!

So here are my first attempts...





The hardest part was the faces. I've tried at least three different techniques on the four figures and still not sure which looks best. But I figure for skirmish everyone's skin is going to look different so I may as well experiment!

I've got a few more figures to make up 2 squads, an HMG team and some officers, and also some Fallshirmjaeger to do when I can face the camo! Figures are Bolt Action. The Tiger in the background by Corgi!

It was a pleasant surprise painting 28s. Easier in some ways - easier on the eyes anyway! Looking forward to painting more...

Cheers

Andy

British Grenadier - rules and firetable questions

Now, after a few games (well 2!) of British Grenadier we've had a few questions raised but overall we've been very happy with the games and the way they reflect the period. The issues we've had have come down to units sizes and how these work with the fire table.

Because I've done my units at 1:10 I've got some big units. von Bose is 32 and the Guards could be similar with attached Grenadiers and Lights and a few others hit 30+. Now I'd grouped my militia into 40 fig units. We weren't playing any particular scenario and to be honest a lot of it was that the big units looked good! However, as some of the British units were smaller (16-24 figs) we had a few cases where they'd face fire from the militia, the militia would roll badly and still cause 2,3 or 4 casualties. As the British had been acquiring DPs on the advance this lead to some heavy casualties before they got in to contact or meant they were always on 2-3 DP even with rallying them off and cold never risk going in as they would nearly always be on 3DP after taking fire. We looked the effect of splitting the 40 fig units into 2x20 and on the same rolls the effect was much less than a single 40 fig unit firing.

In our next game we cut the unit size down but still had a couple of 28 fig units and again these seemed to dominate in a firefight even on low rolls. They could be in 3DP and militia and roll average and still do damage. I've been discussing this with Eclaireur on the BG forums by PM but wanted to open this up as although I've raised the point in other discussions I think it's got lost.

How do we fix it? Does anything actually need fixing? EC suggested enforcing the fire arcs so bigger units cannot always bring all to bear. I found a rule in I think Terry Wises Battle Gaming where he suggest 45 degrees firing to the left and only 30 to the right as there is more freedom of movement to the left. I quite like that and may use it instead of the blanket 30 for both ways. But I digress...

Even using the arcs still doesn't change the effect of big units. Looking at the scenario books the vast majority of units (even in 1:10 at Camden) are 16-24 range. There are a few that push to 30 but it is a few. Now I understand that GdeB had proper big units which is why the chart caters for it but I'm not sure how things work in those rules. So maybe it comes down to design. Split the big units into wings etc. and design for effect. My concern is that splitting a lot of units may either unbalance the brigades (too many units) or require too many brigades to make it work?

The alternative would be to modify the Fire Tables to factor out the effect. Richard at the club came up with the following two options. I've not looked into them in too much detail yet but the aim is to make bigger units less powerful lower on the table. And to factor in multiple hits from large volleys.

Musketry Hit Table - Alternative 1
Number of figures firing	Modified Dice Score
	0	1-2	3-4	5-6	7-8	9-10	11-12	13-14	15-16	17-18
9 or less	-	-	-	1	1	2	2	3	3	4
10-15	-	-	1	1	2	2	3	3	4	4
16-20	-	-	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5
21-27	-	1	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5
28-34	-	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5	5
35-41	1	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5	5
42+	1	2	2	3	3	4	4	5	6	6

The second alternative makes slight adjustments again. But is a more logical progression of effect.

Musketry Hit Table - Alternative 2
Number of figures firing	Modified Dice Score
	0	1-2	3-4	5-6	7-8	9-10	11-12	13-14	15-16	17-18
9 or less	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1
10-15	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	2	2
16-20	-	-	-	-	1	1	1	2	2	2
21-27	-	-	1	1	1	2	2	2	4	6
28-34	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	6	6
35-41	1	1	2	2	2	4	4	4	8	8
42+	2	2	3	3	3	5	5	5	9	9

Now to be honest I don't know enough about the design issues to know how these were arrived at. I also don't want to advocate the rules be changed as stated above, I think a lot of the issues we've had are from unit size. But I want to see if other people have had similar effects/experiences and possibly for someone to argue the logic of the original table and why it doesn't need changing!

When I get chance I'll amend the table below to show the original. And I'll point a BG Forum discussion here to see if it leads anywhere. Don't have my rulebook to hand so this is just a space filler for the moment.

NB 13th April Chart Updated to show original values.

Original Musketry Hit Table
Number of figures firing	Modified Dice Score
	0	1-2	3-4	5-6	7-8	9-10	11-12	13-14	15-16	17-18
9 or less	-	-	-	-	-	1	2	3	4	4
10-15	-	-	-	-	1	2	3	3	4	4
16-20	-	-	-	1	2	3	3	4	4	5
21-27	-	-	1	2	3	3	4	4	5	5
28-34	-	1	2	3	3	4	4	5	5	6
35-41	1	2	3	3	4	4	5	5	6	6
42+	1	2	3	4	4	5	5	6	6	7

A Change of heading - so to speak...

When I started this blog it was with the intention of focusing on the Battle of Cowpens and painting up just the units for that. As with all/many wargame projects the focus has shifted as time moves on and as I discover new units I want to paint and new books lead me in new directions.

If I'd really stuck to Cowpens I'd like to have done something similar to this investigation into the battle. There is some excellent research and information here so if you've ended up here looking for Cowpens I can fully recommend a visit to the miniawi blog.

So where am I heading? I've a feeling to Guilford. I've just finished Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse by Howard and Babits and can highly recommend it. I've even finally started undercoating the figures for the British Guards and it is likely to be the next game of British Grenadier we play at the club.

And as I've read more and seen more of what people are doing with the AWI in miniature I want to up the stakes a bit and redo some of my earlier figures. I've got 40 Continental painted up as 1st New York in pretty standard uniforms and I want to paint up some more irregular guys and make two more 'campaign' like units.

And I've got some redoubts coming to be painted and I have trees to start making up decent scenery so all in all it should/could be a busy year. Life, work, wife and kids permitting!

So I've redone the header image above and now to go make a start...

Andy

A Second Game of British Grenadier

On Saturday 28th March we got together for our second game of BG at the club. After the last game we'd decided to scale down the size of units. The 36-40 fig units were proving just too powerful, especially the militia. So I painted up another couple of American brigade commanders and we put together a force of 4 American brigades v. 3 British. Again, the Americans were on the defensive and as this time we had 5 players we opted for a bigger table setup. Ian had not brought his roads so these were just laid out with fences, and annoyingly I had failed to pack my markers while battling with a three year old just before leaving!

So here is the opening setup:


The Americans again deployed along the fence lines. You can see the militia brigade to the right with the New York and Maryland Continental behind. Along side the militia were the Virginia Continentals and to the left, set back, were Lee's Legion and the massed American cavalry.

The British marched on table in column. On the left, the elite brigade of Lights and Grenadiers head for the small town, Tarleton and his Legion, with the 42nd and some South Carolina militia advanced to threaten and tie up the militia, The remaining brigade was off marching round the left flank.

On the right the militia and Continentals await developments:


The British forge ahead on the left and center...


...while on the right the Legion cavalry and militia pause to decide how to deal with the militia in the farm and riflemen in the woods.


Meanwhile, on the left the British elites surge towards the town:


Finally, on the far left after a worrying delay, the British flank attack appears:


The 71st, von Bose, 17th Dragoons, DeLancey's and Jaegers march towards the American lines.

The elites finally begin to deploy on the edge of the town, ready to push the flank of the Virginians:


Who, realising the threat await orders from the CinC. These don't arrive so the brigade commanders tries to use his initiative. Unfortunately the troops are spooked and begin to retire as the Grenadiers surge forward and the 42nd deploy and advance:


But next turn the CinC restores order and the Continentals form a new line along the next fences and begin to pour fire into the advancing 42nd causing much disruption and a few casualties:


On the far left as the British flank march slows through woods the American cavalry and Lee's Legion move to the counterattack:


And only the 71st and Jaegers are ready to face the threat:


As can be seen from the overview, the American lines still look formidable but the elites have yet to engage:


Scrambling across the fences the 42nd struggle and the Grenadiers begin to take casualties as the massed Virginians pour a devastating fire into them.


On the far left the flank attack finally emerges from the woods to be faced by large numbers of American cavalry bearing down on them:


As more of the elites deploy to the attack the 42nd are finally forces to retreat under heavy fire and the CinC watches their attack falter:


And back on the right, having driven the militia from the farm, the South Carolina militia trade ineffectual shots with the riflemen as the Legion cavalry continue to threaten and take fire from the main militia line. Only the small Light Infantry contingent causing some casualties.

And yet again....we ran out of time. Things were not looking good for the British. The flank attack was about to face its own attack before fully deployed. The elites, although yet to fully engage were struggling over the fences and taking heavy fire before being able to dress ranks for an assault. The Virginians were still steady and the New York and Maryland brigade was about to re-deploy and bring overwhelming odds against the British attack. Maybe we should have added the last couple of Line units I had to the British OOB, maybe the fences had too adverse an affect on the elites attack.

We still felt that the larger units, we had a couple of Continentals at 28 figures were too powerful under the rules. Looking at the scenarios we saw that most units were in the range 16-24 and we're beginning to think this is the size the rules work best under. Although if you take an average roll of 7 then 2x20 fig units will cause 2x2 casualties and a 40 fig unit will cause 4. However, if you drop down to poor rolls e.g 3 then those 2x20 will have no effect and the 40 will cause 3 casualties!

Next game, as has been suggested elsewhere, will be one of the scenarios. Not sure which yet. Either way, everyone enjoyed the game and felt that another outing for the rules was due.

Cheers

Andy