I'm a Granddad

1 week ago today my little granddaughter was born, what more can a man ask for!

Pictures from David's blog

I've copied a few of the pics from my mate Davids blogsite (http://wardepot.blogsite.com/) and he takes better pics than me.

 French ligne battalion in defending a village. Please note the cardboard buildings. Most of my buildings are from the Osbourne model building series. I was once, many many years ago, a professional Architectural model maker!

 The 13th Dragoon regiment, one of 10 regiments in my collection. All are WF.

 Me in action (must do something about the battle of the bulge)

 French 26th Legere Regiment

 More French infantry on the move.

 122nd Infantry Regiment in white greatcoats, very common in the Peninsular War. WF & Perry miniatures.

 A shot of the 6' x 12' table in the wargames room. Big thanks to my wife Cathy who allowed me to convert the formal dining room into the "Games Room".

 French Legere behind the barricades, all Perry Minatures. Terrific figures.

37th Ligne advancing towards their Austrian foes. All my units are on movement trays. I've allowed room at the back of the trays for a tab stating their title and morale grade. Makes life so much easier getting the troops around the table.

French Armee Units

 French Ligne of 2 battalions based for Empire V rules.

 Part of a French brigade.

 French Ligne & Legere

 These Old Garde are based for the Eylau demo game and also for 1814.

 14th Chasseurs a Cheval

 French Ligne 2 battalion regiment in greatcoats

French Ligne regiment in campaign.

There's more pics of my French Armee on my mate Davids blogsite, http://wardepot.blogspot.com/.

Currently my armee has 98 infantry battalions, 40 regiments of cavalry & 39 batteries of artillery + engineers, gendarmes etc. I hear what you're saying . . . . its not enough. As my good freind Dr Michael says; "you always need more".

1814 Allied Commanders

 General Prinz Schwartzenberg

 All Front Rank figures with WF horses

 General der Kavallerie Blucher

All Wargames Foundry figures

1814 Campaign of France

We had our last meeting for the year to discuss our 1814 campaign. Everything is looking good for the start in late January. Currently we have 40 Divisions of (28mm) Allies available with some of the Russians doubling up in the ordbats for the Army of Bohemia and Army of Silesia.

The French Army is nearly complete with mainly my Garde to finish off and a few specialist units. My ordbat consists of 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th Infantry Corps, the Paris Reserve & National Garde formations. The cavalry: 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 5th Cavalry Corps. And then there's the Garde; 7 inf divs & 3 cav divs. On paper it sounds impressive but very fragile.

We are only using those Allied formations that were actually in the theatre of war and not those that were  technically available in the second and third lines. We've incorporated a layer of political influence that played a major part in this fascinating & overlooked part of the Napoleonic Wars. Not only were the political machinations important for the allies, but the "French Resolve" had just as important impact for the French to prosecute the war.  

The campaign will have an umpire (our great friend Drew) and we'll be using the map and some mechanics from TCG's Napoleon at Bay. At present we have 7 gamers with another 2 more joining after the Christmas break.

An enormous amount of research has gone into this over many years and if anyones interested I'm happy to share what I've accumulated.

All being well, there will be pics and campaign updates throughout he year.

Imperial Romans

These are some of my Wargames Foundry Imperial Romans currently based for FOG. These are at least 10 years old and have been rebased 3 times. I haven't gamed with these chaps for may years, so its time to go back to my orignial basing system (6 x 2 man bases per cohort) dust off my Legio rules and invade someone. All of the shields are hand painted with head and weopon conversions throughout. Once again apologies for the wobbly pics.

 Vexilation formed from 2 Legions

 Ala Milliaria

 Cohors Quingenaria Peditata

 Ala Quingenaria

 Close up of a Peter Connolly inspired shield design.

 Legion command stand

Legion Cohors

Cohors Milliaria Peditata

Here's some more of my extensively convered 1814 cavalry units. All the lances are hand made and shaped on my belt sander. The horses are from WF SYW range with horse furniture made from greenstuff. I used WF Austrian Uhlans for the troopers, adding pistols and french personal equipment. 

 

3eme Eclaireurs de la Garde Imperiale

2eme Eclaireurs de la Garde Imperiale

1eme Carabineers

Close up of command stand

These nine figures make up the Provisional Carabineer brigade in my 1814 ordbat. These figures are also converted. I removed the original "box" Cuirassier portmanteau and replaced with the correct round portmanteau and cape, all made from greenstuff. I also removed and repinned the heads. The officers horse was converted from WF Gren a Chev with the pistol covers resculpured to resemble black bearskin.