The Les Higgins Project

 Having played most of my recent Napoleonic battles using the Command and Colors (C&C) rules, I have decided to try something new.  I like C&C a lot and my brother, nephew and I have spent a great deal of time over the years adjusting the rules to suit our needs. However, I wanted to play some games not using a hex based mat.  I think my aim is to try and relive some of the simple games that I played in my youth.  To that end, I have taken a look at the rules by Neil Thomas, which offer up small fast moving games that do not need a great deal of troops.

To fully adopt these rules requires some adjustment to force levels.  I did not want to start rebasing my existing armies, so, over the past few months I have been accumulating 25mm figures by Les Higgins.  Units consist of 16 foot figures, eight light and 12 cavalry. I am going for British and a French armies (as they are the only figures produced by Les Higgins).  Most of the figures have come from a collection sold on eBay, but I have also had some very generous donations from friends.

I started working on the French army, which for a bit of colour will include some German units.  I would like to stick to Les Higgins figures, but some figures seem hard to find, especially French cavalry, although I now have lots of lancers. As an interim I have used some plastic figures to make up numbers.

Here are the first of the French coalition army:

Grenadiers:

French light infantry

Saxon line infantry

Saxon light infantry

French Guard Lancers

There are more French on the way, as well as a number of British units.

Travel Battle - Giving it a try

 Bob Black popped over for a few hours and we had agreed to give Perry's Travel Battle an airing.  I have had the game, in fact two sets, for a couple of years, and although I had painted some of the figures I had not actually tried the game.

We had more troops than needed for the game, but we decided to play it as it comes out of the box.  Bob took the French army and I the Austrians. The game starts with a random selection of the playing area, decided by a dice, with the two boards set up side by side.  Each army has three Brigades formed as desired by the players.  Then in turn each player places a brigade on his edge of the board.  This is what the initial set up looked like:

My Austrians are nearest to the camera, and I had organised my army with two infantry brigades with artillery support and a cavalry brigade. Bob, on the other hand, went for three mixed brigades with infantry and cavalry.  

My side of the board had some key defensive positions, with a walled farm on my right and high ground behind, a small farm in the centre in a flat area of land.  On my left was a large wood and more high ground.  Bob, however, had high ground in the centre, a village on his right and a wood on his left.  I decided from the outset that I would defend the the walled farm and the wood, keeping my artillery on the high ground. The cavalry would work best on the flat ground in the centre.

The village, with a French Brigade deployed behind:

The Austrians move forward to take the high ground and advance towards the walled farm beyond, the French can just be seen beyond the wood:

Early on, Bob pushes his heavy cavalry forward, but has overlooked the need to keep them in contact with the Brigade commander.  They will not be able to move further until he catches them up, but they can fight if attacked. However, he has left them very exposed with the Austrian cavalry to their front.

On the next move the Austrian cavalry brigade charged forward, with their brigadier and slammed into the French:

Fighting is done on the basis of the highest score on the dice, with elite troops and heavy cavalry getting a second roll option.  The Austrians did not do as well as expected. They lose a heavy regiment and one light cavalry regiment routs.  The French lose a regiment too.

A second round of combat sees the destruction of the French cavalry attack and the Austrian cavalry pull back and reform.

The French attack towards the walled farm also comes unstuck as they lose a cavalry regiment and two foot units, although they force one Austrian unit back to the edge of the boars upsetting the cohesion of the Austrian brigade.

In the centre French infantry push forward and are attacked by the Austrian cavalry:

The French troops are grenadiers who have some lucky rolls on the dice.  They destroy one regiment of Austrian Hussars and force the remainder of the brigade back:

However, with the destruction of the French cavalry and the mauling of the French assault on the walled farm, further casualties on the French right sees that Brigade abandon their advance. They withdraw out of range:

Having had all three brigades blunted and with the threat of beer, sausages and baked potatoes for lunch Bob concedes the battle.  He could have gone on fighting as to win, two complete brigades need to be destroyed.

This was an interesting experiment that provided a couple of hours of fun.  The game probably moved a bit slowly as we had to consult the rules frequently.  We made a few mistakes too, for example, forgetting to attempt to rally broken troops as they fled the field.

We will give the game another go in the future.  We are already wondering if some micro tanks could play on the same boards!

Capture the farm and Orchard

 Another Rapid Fire game, again set in Normandy using Rapid Fire rules.

On this occasion, using a scenario borrowed from Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine, the Allies, advancing from the right,  have orders to take the farm buildings and secure the orchard.  Forces consist of a full US platoon, with a mortar and supported by a single Sherman tank.  The Germans have two sections of infantry, a sniper team, a machine gun team, and an assault gun to arrive later. The Germans had also laid some mines.  These were laid at the Y junction by the triangular field, although on the table indicated by a marker.  The German forces were all hidden and represented by markers, several of which were hoaxes.

Map courtesy of WSS magazine

Below, a  view of the table.  Some of the markers can be scene as round discs. 

The Sherman arrives and fires some speculative shots at the farm, which in fact contains the German sniper team.  The observer is killed.  Will, playing the allies, is worried about the marker at the Y junction and fires a few shots into the hedge, with no effect.

A view from the German end of the table.  In fact, the Germans have no forces in the farm buildings, other than the sniper team in the centre farm.  Both sections and the machine gun team are in the area of the orchard.  The idea being that the German commander wants to outgun the enemy that are likely to try to move around that flank.

Soon contact is made.  Two section of US troops, supported by the Sherman run up against the first German section and the machine gun in the orchard. The US suffer some casualties, but the Germans also take losses from tank fire and the machine gun is hit by small arms fire.  It looks bad for the Germans.

However, the Stug III arrives and quickly destroys the Sherman, but the US mortar is now raining bombs onto the Germans. In the background more US troops can be seen moving around that flank.

Now the second German section appears and causes a number of US casualties.  With the Sherman destroyed, the infantry sections cut to pieces with failing morale and the sniper picking off the bazooka team and mortar observers, the US assault on the orchard falters.

Attention shifts to the other flank, as the third US section moves to secure the farm.  But, with the Sherman destroyed, and despite attempts to mask them with smoke, the Stug III deploys and fires HE into the the US infantry.  Their morale collapses after taking casualties and they withdraw.  

The battle is over.  having suffered heavy casualties and lost their tank support the allied attempt to take the farm buildings and orchard fail.

A German victory. The figures are by Valiant and the tanks are from Armourfast.

A Clash of Iron - War of the Roses

 Continuing the theme of heavy metal forces pounding each other, Will and I put away the tanks and dug out the medieval figures (after a long search for the cavalry, which were hiding in plain sight in a shoe box!). We used Command and Colors rules for this battle. The cards were to play a devastating hand.

The game was based upon a non-historical theme, having divided the armies into two, consisting of two feuding barons; Baron William and Baron Robert.  The field was largely open with the odd copse and some hedges:

Both sides exchanged fire from their archers, with William pushing his light troops forward.  Initially there was little effect, but eventually Robert's forces gained the upper hand ( I had a card that said 'darken the skies' that gave my archers extra firepower), this with a couple of cavalry charges pushed the enemy light troops back.

William ordered a major attack on Robert's right flank and for a moment things looked difficult, however lady luck played her hand again, seeing Williams heavy cavalry destroyed.  This left the flank open and Robert's cavalry smashed into his infantry, supported by those pesky archers in the woods.

With William's left flank in tatters, Robert pushed his infantry forward in the centre, supported by cavalry.  In the clash that followed Williams remaining cavalry unit is destroyed along with more infantry.

William's forces are checked in the centre as enemy heavy infantry steadily advance.

Robert's cavalry are now free to roam the field and sweep into William's left flank, which crumbles under pressure.

In a last ditch attempt to reverse the situation William himself leads a charge but after some heavy fighting he is surrounded and his best troops are cut down. He drops his sword and kneels in surrender.

It is all over, a short but bloody encounter.  William's forces are smashed with a score of 8 - 3 to Robert. The figures are all 28mm plastics and were originally from the collection of the late Alan Cook.

Advance to contact!

 Will popped over today and it proved to be a great opportunity to get some figures on the table for a game or two.

The first game was set in 1944 and saw US and German troops probing forwards in Normandy.  Both sides had 100 point forces and both elected to to have a tank company represented by three tank models.  The US had a couple of infantry platoons, heavy machine guns and mortars, while the Germans simply had the three tanks and four companies of infantry. Rapid Fire rules were used.

The troops would arrive and advance to contact based upon a roll of the dice. 

This was the area of operations, the Bellona river, with its humped backed bridge, dotted woods and fields and several ruined buildings.  The US forces appear from the right and the Germans on the left:

Closer up on the US side, with the river in the background:

Looking down the length of the table from the German end:

The US forces begin to arrive; an infantry company cautiously moves towards a small wood:

Both sides bring their tanks onto the field, with a Panzer IV now sitting astride Bellona bridge.  Then follows an exchange of fire between it and a Sherman along the road.  A second Sherman moves up behind, while another Panzer IV creeps around the wood by the river.

More US troops move cautiously around the hedgerows.

A third Sherman advances to support the US left flank.

The third Sherman attempts to outflank the Panzer IVs by the bridge.

The two Panzer IVs strike it lucky and one of the Shermans on the road is destroyed. US mortars deploy near one of the buildings and a Bazooka team attempts to sneak towards the Bridge.  Unfortunatel the Bazooka team is knocked out shortly after.

A wider view of the field, showing large numbers of German infantry closing in on the Bellona river, while the US infantry occupy a building supported by the third US tank.  In the background a Stug III has crept around behind the bridge to engage the second Sherman on the road.  The Panzer IV on the bridge withdraws after being damaged.

German panzer grenadiers line the hedge and fire at the US troops in the building.

With the Stug III covering the approach to the bridge, the two Panzer IVs swing around to engage Sherman 3. Meanwhile two more companies of Germans rapidly advance towards the bridge.

The Stug III destroys the second Sherman on the road by the bridge.  The US attempt tp mask the two Panzer IVs with smoke, but they move to a new position and engage Sherman 3, causing some damage and forcing it to withdraw. The german tanks and infantry pour fire onto the building and the US infantry follow Sherman 3 reawards.

The Germans now dominate the river preventing any further forward movement by the US forces.

Supported by the Stug III masses of German infantry pour over the bridge outflanking the US troops, who now concede defeat.

It was a major victory for the Germans.  The Rapid Fire rules worked well and Will and I are now getting the hang of them without constantly referring to the rule book.  Most enjoyable.

Another mystery figure

 I recently purchased a group of Roman soldiers that were being sold as possible Ros Figures.  They are 25mm. The shields appear to be separate castings.

I am not so sure that they are by Ros, but they are delightful, but I think that they are quite old - 1970s probably.

Does anyone know who manufactured these figures?

More adventures with Speed Paints

 Over the past few weeks I have been dabbling with painting 25mm figures using Army painter Speed Paints.  Overall I have enjoyed using them, however, I had run into difficulties with the paint bleeding into lighter colours (especially red) and later in applying white.

My solution has been to paint most of the colours in the normal way with Speed Paints, which is very quick.  Once dry, I then give the figures two coats of Army Painter matt varnish.  It is then possible to paint on the detail, such as cross belts and shako cords.

Overall, not brilliant, but acceptable and an easy way of churning out multiple battalions.  Here we see three units, one Portuguese and two British line.  They are a mix of figures.  The Portuguese are mostly Ros British and the British are in the main Minifigs S range.