Naps Back to the Table

 The 20mm Napoleonics made an appearance on the game table over the weekend, as I mentioned in the previous post. I reached out to Mark for a game and he suggested them since I'd done so much work on them recently. It was a pretty simple matter of "throw it all on the table and bash it out." Of course my French and Prussian armies aren't exactly paired perfectly so the French had one extra unit, but to compensate, the Prussians upgraded two infantry regiments to Veteran status. Seemed fair, right?

Rather than just traffic-jamming things up, we each deployed four units then everything else would join as reserves in turns 3,4 and 5 at pre-determined locations (right, left and center). 

I started with a basic three infantry regiments and a four-gun battery way off to the left on the hill. Mark mixed it up with Jagers, Veteran infantry and a 4-stand cavalry unit, as well as his guns in two two-gun batteries.

My line trundles forward. The Prussian cav hangs back, timidly.

The view from my "this is as Grand as it gets" battery.

Turn three. My first reinforcement arrives, more infantry, streaming forward in column. The Prussians are still hanging back.

But on turn 4 things heat up! Infantry on the left engage and more reinforcements arrive. For me, it's MORE INFANTRY! Queen of battle and all, I know where my bread gets buttered.

A better shot of the center. Not much for casualties yet. You can see I have my center arrayed in a "Eff-You" arrangement against the small cavalry unit.

Fighting is fierce on the left as my troops gain a slight lead on their foes, but neither side willing to budge.

A few minutes later and the battle is met along the center! The cavalry hit and there's an almighty scrum in the middle of the field. More reinforcements arrive; the French now have cavalry for Mark to worry about.

A little closer to the tabletop for "bonus eye-candy."

Tragedy as the French infantry on the left are run off! Looks like the reserve unit behind them will soon become battle-hardened vets.

It's a real shame that my big cavalry block was centered... they'd have enjoyed plowing into a weakened infantry regiment. I might have also been playing keep-away from the Prussian Uhlans. I didn't really want to piss my horses away in an even dice-rolling match.

But on the other side, the Prussian Life Guard succumb to stout French resistance. Glory!

Meanwhile, my own small cavalry unit, Dragoons, have snuck around the right flank and now threaten the Prussian guns and left side in general!

But as the battle ground on, Prussian units were overrun (red/pink stars). The Jagers did an admirable job holding up my Dragoons (upper right).

Although the battle had been decided, we smashed our remaining units into one another, giving the big cavalry units an opportunity to lace into eachother. My Dragoons also got to exact brutal punishment on the cannons on the hill. :)

A delightful three hours of pushing lead! We both had a good time and really, what's not to like? I was happy that the plan I concocted for my reserves worked out nicely. Cover the field with infantry then bring in the cavalry at the end to quickly exploit whatever they could. Their presence really created a dilemma for Mark who had to account for them. 

Ziggy's due back from Europe, defending Western civilization against the eastern hordes, this week. I'm sure I'll see him over the weekend. They deployed just before Putin invaded Ukraine so he's been kicking it in Germany for close to three months.

Naps - Finally A Game!

Way back on November 9, 2016 I stumbled upon some very inexpensive 20mm Napoleonic French infantry miniatures. Over the intervening three and a half years I added artillery and cavalry, as well as an opfor in the form of Prussians. I've finally got enough painted for what I consider a proper game. Mr. Mark joined me yesterday afternoon  for a first outing with the one of the all-time pillars of tabletop wargaming - rank and file Napoleonics.

The engagement was nothing specific - just two evenly matched forces to help us wrap our heads around the rules (Rank and File from Crusader). The battlefield was set up with a wide open area in the center and some bits of terrain on the edges.

I deployed my infantry and cavalry in columns to get into the center of the battlefield quickly. I've played enough "troops block" games in my life to know that you want some space between your fleeing troops and the evil "edge of the table."

Pretty horses all in a row.

A long line of Prussians.

Mark commences the slow roll forward of the Prussians. I had my cannons positioned to provide wide open lanes of fire in the early going.

My cuirassiers were on top of the Prussian infantry on my right flank in no time!

Meanwhile, my musketeers had reached the center(ish) and redeployed in line formation.

The French cavalry crash into their enemy!

Gratuitous low-angle shot

And another.

A good view of the battlefield. My horses are in deep kimchi having pushed back the infantry. They're now lined up perfectly for that cannon! Merde!

Before they disappear, the cuirassiers at least manage to run off the infantry they'd been battling. Le Huzzah!

I continue to press the issue and now our infantry is within musket range. Casualties start mounting for both sides. The Prussian lancers on my left are still threatening.

My cavalry retires.

Just as the timid/cautious Prussian commander commits his horsemen to the fight!

They take a severe mauling from cannon fire (left edge) and muskets but still hit hard enough to push my troops back.

Yeah baby! REVENGE.

We're done. Bon chance! 

One of my wrecked infantry battalions charges a lone Prussian gun. Desperate times, right?

Prussian horse ride off.

At the end of that turn, the game was called. We removed all casualties and this shot shows what was really left. The two units circled in yellow had broken morale and are essentially wiped out. The Prussians had a single half-strength infantry block on shaky morale. My French were spent.

What a blast! We both had a terrific time. We did a few things wrong, but nothing that affected the game significantly. It always happens. I'll probably tweak a few things with R&F for the next game - particularly morale - once a unit is on the slippery slope, it's too hard to recover. Perhaps commanders will rectify that but we'll find out next game - those models are in the painting queue right now. I have enough lead for one, maybe two more French infantry units. I'm excited to keep this going.

My Step Into Naps

I resisted for a long time. Then about 3 years ago (November 9, 2016) I stumbled upon a dirt cheap box of French infantry on GameKastle.com. Since then, I've been slowly painting and collecting French and Prussian forces to play some flavor of Napoleonic games. Muskets, cavalry, cannons... all that good stuff. My plan, once I finished my first batch of infantry was to hold off on basing anything until I had a lot more done so that the basing technique would be the same for the entire collection. Every few months I'd paint something... some horses... some infantry.... some cannons. Every so often I'd order a few odds and ends so that at the very least I'd have two similar armies to play with.

After cranking out a decent amount of work over the course of three years, I've finally gotten around to basing the majority of what I've done so far. I'm quite tickled with the results.

So far, that's 12 bases of French, 12 bases of Prussians and 6 bases of Prussian cavalry.

I know there are probably serious issues with uniform details. I'm not going to sweat it. The mass of pointy guns is the reward. I need to hit the lot of them with some Dullcote - most are pretty darn glossy right now. I've got 12 French cavalry in the painting queue. Once they're done I'll wrap up the French gun battery and be ready for a small game of whatever. I do need to add some banners as well.

It's been a fun slow-burn project that's finally produced real results. Oh, the minis are from "Napoleon at War" by Man at War (French and Cavlary) and Newline Designs. Although the N@W minis (now out of production) are nominally 18mm, they're big and match up better against 20mm minis, which is what the Newline Prussian infantry is.

AAR: Rank And File - First Try

Ziggy and I broke out the "Age of Reason" minis Saturday for our first game of Rank and File. I had picked up the rules a week prior on WargameVault on Steven's recommendation. Being a relatively uncomplicated set of rules, I quickly whipped up two lists and we wrapped our heads around them without a whole lot of trouble.

I herded the Turks while Zig commanded the Generic European Power. We randomly determined our commanders' talent levels and mine was disappointing - no bonus, no re-rolls. Count de Monet on the other hand was a +1 with one re-roll. There were two objectives on the table marked by the green and red spots at the bridge and farm.

We lined up in columns to quickly take up positions...

The Turks prepare to move out.

The hand of fate positions a unit of Guards infantry at the farm. I've got two infantry battalions and a cavalry unit in the area.

My central cavalry unit charges the Guards while the hand of fate moves a second unit of veteran infantry off to my right. The Empress' cavalry charges my horsemen. It's bad news for me!

I turn the tables and send the other infantry battalion in the middle off to the right and the bridge. I figure I should be able to outnumber them somewhere.

Perhaps foolhardily, I sent cavalry across the bridge in an attempt to rattle the musketeers on the far side.

And the cavalry? Tsk tsk tsk... to shreds you say?

The left side of the battlefield. We've got a cavalry duel on the far left. My cavalry in the middle was run off while the ground-pounders set up shop around the farm.

The Hapsburg (?) cavalry on the left are seen off by their Turkish counterparts while the squadron in the center smash into a battalion of my musketeers causing them to fall back. A strong volley on my right causes the Imperial infantry to fall back. The bridge is within my grasp!

A turn later and the situation changes again. Ziggy's veterans in the middle charge my infantry. I return the favor with my cavalry. His artillery does enough damage to my horsemen to cause them to fail their charge!

The veteran infantry utterly fails its melee rolls, while I managed a single hit. I had won the combat! In the interest of honor, I reminded Z of his commander re-roll, he re-rolled and got a 6. We'd drawn the combat and fought another round. During the second round, the Guards handily beat my line infantry and my troops fled. What a tragic reversal of fortune!

And there they go! Boooooo.....

But in the center, the cavalry I'd sent around the left flank had finally gotten to take a run at the enemy infantry and sent them packing!

A turn or two later, I'd gotten my infantry in the middle ready to rock and they charged the reduced-strength veteran infantry defending the farm. The cavalry couldn't join in since they were still suffering from morale issues. Of course the defending infantry caused a casualty with defensive fire forcing one unit to fail its charge and a cannon shot (out of frame) caused the other unit to waver. Blast!

After that failure, my army really just crumbled. Every unit panicked for one reason or another and I couldn't get them together. All of Z's units rallied, reloaded and reorganized. It was over for the Turks that day.


Now that was a darn entertaining game! One of the more amusing aspects of this game was the truly terrible dice rolls we both had. I'll be the first to admit - my dice rolls tend to be somewhere between "above average" and "holy shit." Zig's tend to skew towards "crap." Saturday night it was bad all around. One of the most memorable moments was when his Guards charged my shlub infantry and screwed it all up. Having his commander handy for that one, single, solitaire re-roll was so influential to the outcome of the game. I'll never forgive myself for reminding him to use it. Ah well, it was the honorable thing to do.

We certainly messed up a few things, but they were "even" mistakes that affected us both equally. I've gone back to the RAW and found clarifications for our in game questions. R&F may be the best $10 I've spent on gaming stuff this year. I'm really looking forward to some scenario play. Ziggy rather enjoyed it and Mike seemed very interested as I was sending out in-game pics.