Russo Japanese war 1905, Jacklex Russians

 Finally, I have finished basing the last of the Jacklex Russians.  Thee was a lot of them.  I still have some unpainted figures and a few odds and ends to sort out, but the bulk of the collection is now ready for action.

Here is an overview of the Russian army:

The artillery:

Army command:

The rest of the artillery:

The cavalry Brigade:

The infantry:

The Cossack Brigade:

I'm working on some more Red Army troops and then back to the Great Plastics Revival - unless i get distracted again!

Battle of Naseby 1645

 Will came over during the weekend and we decided to have another go at an English Civil War battle. Naseby turned out to be the venue for the game and the board was duly set up.  I would play Parliament and Will the Royalists.  The field consisted of a shallow valley, largely open, with just a couple of small wooded areas, although on one side were some high hedge enclosures.  The hills were not steep enough to cause movement penalties but gave cover from view and uphill troops had a melee advantage.  Here is the battlefield as set up at the beginning, with Parliament forces nearest the camera.

The two commanders meet prior to the action:

I was feeling rather smug as, in the real battle Parliament wins and has a considerable numerical advantage.  I kicked off the battle with an artillery bombardment that had little effect.  Will immediately responded by pushing forward all of his cavalry regiments, hurtling hell for leather towards my lines.  Having more cavalry I ordered four regiments forward to counter attack. Soon the Royalist cavalry were amongst my artillery lines:

My cavalry counter attacks on the right:

Over in the enclosures a regiment of Parliamentary dragoons begins to harry the enemy infantry and Will sends two regiments of foot to clear the dragoons away.

Will's cavalry continue to charge forward, this time on my left.

Over on the right a significant cavalry battle begins:

And, back on the left my cavalry begin to engage the Royalists:

An exchange of fire between the dragoons and Royalist foot begins, with little effect, although the dragoons take a few hits from Royalist musketeers.

Over on the left a confused battle between the horse units of both sides continues.  My foot units hold the ridge:

The action in the enclosures continues and the dragoons now are being pushed back, losing half of their number:

An overview of the battle, with the horse from both sides on the flanks fighting it out.  The dice was not in my favour and bit by bit I lose initiative points and seem to be failing in combat:

Will begins to move his infantry forward and one of my guns is destroyed.

On the left the Royalists begin to take casualties, but continue to hit back.  A Royalist general falls as his cavalry rout.

The same on the right with the cavalry of both sides continuing to fight.  By now all of the Parliament cavalry have been committed to the fray:

Having broken through my cavalry, the Royalist horse charge up the ridge:

Will's foot regiments advance and clash with their opposite numbers in the centre:

Meanwhile the dragoons and Royalist foot pop away at each other.  One of the Royalist foot regiments is beaten off:

Close quarter action in the centre:

At this point in the battle most of the Parliament horse have either been destroyed or routed, two guns are lost and Parliament's nerve is weakened.  Cromwell's army pulls away from the field and although badly battered the Royalists claim victory.  History is reversed and the monarchy is saved - for now!

This was a terrific game.  Once again we used the rules from the Portable ECW Wargame book and they worked very well, providing a fast moving fun game.  

This was a big action involving a lot of troops, however, the whole battle lasted just over two hours as we adjourned for lunch!

Jacklex Japanese Army

 As mentioned in my previous post, I have acquired a couple of 20mm Russo Japanese War armies.  I have been organising them to suit my rules and table layout.  The figures are by Jacklex and were used by the ABC Wargamers, having been produced by Jack Alexander.  The figures were recently available online for sale, but sadly the shop has now closed.

Here are the Japanese:

A close up of some Infantry:

And a cavalry regiment:

The Russians are nearly finished too and I will share some pictures soon.

Funny Little Wars - British

 I have been really busy recently, which has distracted me from my current projects.  A friend gave me his collection of 20mm Russo Japanese war figures.  They are mostly Jacklex and a large portion were owned and painted by Jack Alexander.  There are three armies; the Japanese, the Russians and a Red army for the Russian Revolution.  My time has been taken up sorting them out and basing them to suit my playing rules.

I did however manage to sort out a British battalion for my 'funny little wars' project.  These are Britains Highlanders in tropical dress.  I haven't done much to them, other than paint the bases a sandy colour:

I also painted a test figure.  This is a Irregular miniatures 54mm colonial Sepoy.  He looks rather good and I am thinking of getting some more to create anoth battalion:

The Great Plastics Revival - Airfix Infantry

 Another couple of Airfix units, as I continue to work my way through the enormous plastic mountain.

This time it is a unit of Airfix 'Waterloo French Infantry', painted straight out of the box in basic French colours:

The second unit is of British infantry, again, straight out of the box, but with a Newline metal officer:

I continue to work through these figures in between other projects.