Quatre Bras refight

General De Brigade Quatre Bras refight

Saturday saw the local club play General De Brigade.  every 3 months or so the club puts on a large Corps Size game and has a whole day of Napoleonic fun.  The last game was the Battle of Ligny, and this time, sticking with the 100 Days campaign, we put on Quatre Bras.

The Map....

...translated onto the table.  Gemioncourt Farm and Bossau Wood

On the left flank, French Forces start their advance to clear out the Dutch-Belgians holding Bossau Wood.

On the right, more french advance!

 Dutch-Belgian cavalry in the outskirts of Quatre Bras, with Picton's British division beginning to appear behind.

Dutch-Belgian infantry and guns try to hold off the advancing French on the outskirts of Bossau Wood.  

A Dutch Battery is over-run by Lancers.  Despite Valiant efforts the dutch were slowly pushed back into Bossau Wood by the French.

Dutch reinforcements hurry into Bossau Wood....

While Picton's Division marches through Quatre Bras.

To give the British time to form up, the Dutch-Belgian cavalry try to delay the French advance. 

The British deploy and a general engagement occurs all along the line.

On the Allied right flank, the Dutch-Belgians are slowly falling back.  Meanwhile the Brunswick Corps enters the woods in support.

At this point sadly I had to leave.  but here's a few more shots of the game:

Although I didn't get to finish the game, everyone else carried on and a near historical result was achieved, with the French being halted outside Quatre Bras.

All in all a great game, and what Napoleonics should be all about - lots for figures, good terrain, and great company!

can't wait for the next game.

Miniatures were mostly Perry Miniatures with some Front Rank and Warlord.

Hobby update

So, it's been a long time since I did anything substantial on the blog - time to remedy that!

Games Played:
At the start of the year I took part in a great General De Brigade game refighting the Battle of Ligny (see previous post).  The same club is due to refight Quatre Bras in May so hopefully I'll get to play in that.  The Necromunda campaign I was in fizzled out during a break - my gang, the "Maniax" started badly, losing 2 gang members in the first game, followed by the leader "Vasko", two games later.  They never really recovered, and ended up near the bottom of the campaign table.  That said, it was a lot of fun and I really started to develop characters within the gang - Ganger "Syko" really started living up to his name, gaining the highest kill-count of the gang, while the Champion "Ko-Nan" stepped up to the plate and took over the leadership of the gang.  Hopefully  the campaign will start up again and I can take the "Maniax" to greater success.

The "Maniax" when the Campaign ended.  "Ko-Nan" took over from the deceased "Vasko", the gang was bulked out by two new Juves as well as "Fat Lars" a ganger reassigned by House Goliath from another gang.


And actually, the General De Brigade game and the 4 necromunda games I've played in 2019 is more games than I've played in the previous 5 years combined, so it's all good :)



Projects:
Projects are still ongoing, but slowly as ever.   In a vague effort to make progress on the Marengo project, I bit the bullet and paid to have 3 battalions painted by Battle Brush Studios (https://www.battlebrushstudios.com/) 2 battalions of French and one Austrian.  that should give me the impetus to start painting some more of my own.  the 1813 project is still ongoing, I have primed 2 battalions of Prussian Landwehr, just need to get the actual paint on!

I also was drawn back into 40K with the new Genestealer Cult army.  A box of brood brothers and neophyte acolytes have been purchased... as if I need another new project!  (oh and two Ambots for Necromunda!)

Finally, Chain of Command related projects.... I have started building an early war french force.  I also bought the "29! Lets go!" Campaign and the "At the Sharp End" campaign book.  The Necromunda campaign, for me, was fun in that you really got the sense of characters developing and a narrative forming,  as well as being more cautious with your forces than you would in a one off game. Having only played 2 Chain of Command games - solo - to test the rules, I've decided to jump in and do a campaign from the off. (more in the next post)

General De Brigade - Ligny Refight

On Saturday I got the chance to take part in my first large scale General De Brigade refight - the Battle of Ligny.  I took command of a brigade of French Light Cavalry (Lancers and Chasseurs), and spent most of the battle charging Prussian squares to little effect.  I broke one Landwehr Square, but lost the bulk of my brigade against line infantry squares - including losing my Brigadier in the first charge (he fled at the sound of the guns and was executed the next day!)

regardless it was a great game and with over 1000 figures on the table, it was an impressive sight to see.

                                         the starting positions

                                          French on the march

                                          Cavalry Melee

                                          French - thousands of them!

                                          Prussian Infantry

                                          Skirmishers to the fore!

                                          More French

                                          Prussians - thousands of ém

                                          light cavalry charging squares....never a good idea!

Prussian Landwehr

In yet a further effort to avoid doing anything for my Marengo 1800 project, here are some Prussian Landwehr.  This is the 2nd Battalion, East Prussian Landwehr in 1813.  Just need to finish the base and add a flag.

2 more battalions of the East Prussian Landwehr to do, followed by a battalion of the Neumark Landwehr.

Based for General de Brigade, so 4 x 8 figure bases.