After having a lot of hobby time in January, February was a slower month – though I did get some gaming in.
Games
I managed have three gaming sessions since my last report: two were with my Beckenham friends. A group of up to six of us meet monthly to play a variety of games. At the end of January we played a hex-based game using medieval armies, using rules compiled by our host, Pete. There was nothing particularly historical about it, but it was good to get together as usual, and it provided an absorbing contest. It is interesting how when using new rules you move on from thinking that the rules need tweaking, to developing the tactics required to be successful. The rules were loosely based on Lion Rampant. We lost a lot of the heavier uniss to missile fire, mainly bows and crossbows. The instinct is to suggest that these missiles should be made less effective in the rules. But tactics are another solution. By holding the heavy forces in a compact mass, with light troops at the front, the problem might be solved. This is actually how they fought, as far as I understand it. Especially with home-grown rules, there is too much temptation to tweak the rules rather than develop tactics.
We didn’t finish our January game, so we finished it in a second session in mid-February. We reckoned it a score draw.
I managed a game with my usual gaming partners at the club too (Tunbridge Wells Wargaming Society). I hosted a game of Général d’Armée 2 using a Lasalle scenario but forces based on Lützen, 1813. The main interest was that I tried rewriting the command system based on some ideas from members of my old club (South London Warlords) – credit Iain Fuller. I think these produced a better game experience, but there is more work to do. Here’s a picture of the game in progress:
This was another score draw, but we still need the game to go faster.
Painting and modelling
I finished my six new battalions of French infantry by the end of January, and used them in the GDA2 game. These units represented Dupeyoux’s brigade of Habert’s division (Vandamme’s corps) in 1815. This brigade had a quiet Ligny, so not an immediately obvious brigade to model (unless refighting Wavre) – though I have it in mind to model Habert’s clash with Tipplelskirch’s brigade (which I have already modelled) at Ligny. Dupeyroux’s brigade seems to have been held in reserve and not used in the class, though it would need to be available in any wargame. I chose it mainly because it includes the single battalion of Swiss troops in the French 1815 army. Back in the 1970s when my brother and I bought Airfix Waterloo soldiers to start wargaming, we were attracted by the uniform, and so painted up this regiment. One of my ambitions is to produce all the units that we painted up at that time in my current armies – so I wanted to include this unit.
There’s more I want to say about this project, but I’ll leave it for another post. What I will say is that I really enjoyed painting these figures. The AB figures (used for the five French battalions) are lovely, and a pleasure to work with. I have now ordered the miniatures for my next batch of six battalions. These will be two battalions each of French line, French light and Young Guard Voltigeurs.
My current project is some aircraft modelling, which does not have a wargame role. It’s a bit of a secret so I won’t say any more until later in the year.
Meanwhile I am assembling my 10mm 1866 Austrians ready for my Custoza project. This will be a big project, and not as much fun as painting up AB Napoleonic 18s.
Rules
Writing rules is one of the things I enjoy about the hobby most. Mostly my creations don’t go anywhere, but the process is fun. My next project is to create some Napoleonic hex-based rules for my Beckenham games. Pete likes hex grids, and GDA2, my go-to rules for Napoleonics, aren’t a good fit for the Beckenham crowd, where we can have up to three a side, and the demand is for simple mechanisms. I am using the Perry Brothers’ Valour & Fortitude rules as the starting off point. But they will be substantially rewritten. That is proving an interesting journey, and I will write about it in a future post.
And that’s it for the month. In March we are going to Egypt for a week, which will slow things down hobby-wise. My aircraft modelling will also take up a bit of time. And I will miss both club and Beckenham games. Not such a productive month in prospect.
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