Projects Update

Kevin invited me over Friday evening for a game of CCN. When I arrived, Kevin had Bailen set up on the table. Given Kevin's Francophile tendencies, I selected the Spanish. In short, the Spanish took the victory 7-3 after the French-allied Swiss broke and ran, followed up by playing two Spanish Cavalry Charge cards. The first Cavalry Charge either eliminated or weakened and pushed back a number of French units. The second Cavalry Charge card effected a mopping up of the remnants from the first Cavalry Charge card.

My French Intervention in Mexico collection is gone! I made Kevin an offer he couldn't refuse and now he is the proud owner of the collection. As a consolation, I still maintain visitation privileges and perhaps, will see them on Kevin's gaming table occasionally.

I picked up a neat terrain piece from eBay this week. I usually build my own terrain items but this one caught my eye. The piece is a two foot escarpment or cliff which will work well with various scales of figures. Two shots of the piece are included below.

10mm ACW Project:

The Musket Miniatures' fences have been assembled, based and painted. Excluding a few left over sections to later use as corners and gates, I was able to produce 60 linear inches of ACW snake-rail fence. Although gluing the fences together was a bit tedious, the resulting product turned out nicely. I mounted four fence sections onto a 3" x 1" painted and flocked strip of balsa.

15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:

Kevin asked me about rules I plan to use for this period. I really couldn't provide a definitive answer. There are a number of rules that I have examined and many of these have bits that I favor.

As often happens, I may take ideas from all of them and write my own. Some rules considered include 1859, Fields of Honor, and Fire and Fury variants. With each base representing one battalion, both Fields of Honor and F&F would require modifications to comply with my desired basing scheme. 1859 has one battalion per base but my base size is variable based on actual battalion strength while 1859 puts all combatants on the same frontage regardless of actual battalion strength. Also, 1859 infantry bases have at most 8x15mm figures in double rank while my French and Sardinian line infantry are based 12 figures per base. Austrian line battalions field 18 figures per battalion. This figure ratio works out to about 50:1 man-to-figure.

My original attempt at creating Piedmontese flags was based on the flag without the crown. Seeing more period paintings and illustrations showing the flag with the crown prompted me to recreate the flags. The original flag is on top with the new flag below. All of the 'old' flags have been removed from existing infantry battalions and have been replaced with the new, crown design.


 

Progress on adding painted units to the project continues. Recently completed figures include 18 Bersaglieri, 12 Austrian hussars, and 4 Austrian mounted commanders. All figures are Mirliton. Two battalions of Austrian infantry are just now moving off the painting table. These two Austrian line battalions have exhausted my stock of Old Glory Austrian line. I'll need to place an order to replenish these figures. Likely to be included in an order from 19th Century will be a few bags of French. I haven't painted any of the Old Glory French so it is about time to field a few French units on the battlefield.