Recap for 2010

2010 drew to a close but wargaming activities persist. First up, Paul and I put in a third session of Second Manassas battle after Christmas. This session covered the action from about noon on the 29th to about 4pm. With reinforcements streaming onto the battlefield throughout the morning, this battle quickly becomes a meat grinding affair. Holes open up and are quickly slammed shut by reserves. Kearney's Division has turned Jackson's left flank and is making very slow progress along the spline of Stony Ridge. Jackson's Wing still holds the unfinished railroad cut from the Groveton Woods to the west. Hill counterattacked out of the railroad cut and hit the Federals driving them back to Dogan's Ridge.

 Unfortunately, this attack quickly became over-extended and was viciously counterattacked. Near Groveton Woods, Starke attacks Hooker's Division and having suffered heavily, Hooker fails a panic check. On the Federal left, defensive positions are hastily prepared as Longstreet's Wing reaches the battlefield and deploys. Losses to this point reach about 15,000 for the Federals and about 13,500 for the Confederates. With Paul returning to the road for a lengthy stretch in the new year, I'll likely pack up the game to make room for something new on the tabletop.

Second, I reconnected with (who was once) my long-lost gaming buddy Jake. Jake is in fine shape having complete two tours in Iraq. We enjoyed a good chat and a brief show and tell on Christmas Eve before rushing off to meet his family for church service. Very good to see him again and hopefully we'll meet across the gaming table in 2011.

Third, painting totals for December were respectable and I'm very pleased to have added Newcastle's Regiment of Foote to the ECW collection. Only three Renegade foot regiments remain unpainted. I lost the painting mo-jo for a bit in December due to holidays, final exams, work, etc. and didn't get much accomplished over the holiday break. Still, pleased to be fleshing out the SYW Austrian higher command and bringing Kolowrat up to six squadrons. Up next is more high command for the Prussians.

For 2010, I managed to paint nearly 1,400 figures and 18 pieces of equipment. Most of the equipment consisted of limbers or supply wagons. A respectable annual total and much above my goal of 900 figures. 2010 saw the completion of the FIW project having painted all remaining figures. Well, I still have a few odds and ends but not enough to field one unit. I also purged the 20mm Vietnam collection in 2010 and may be wrangling a swap of my 15mm Medievals.

Annual Painting Tally for 2010

Era	Scale	Type	Figure Cnt	Equip Cnt
American Civil War	10mm	Artillery	48	6
American Civil War	10mm	Cavalry	30
American Civil War	10mm	Infantry	46
American Civil War	15mm	Infantry	28
American War of Independence	15mm	Artillery	12	6
American War of Independence	15mm	Infantry	53
American War of Independence	28mm	Infantry	25
Bonaparte in Italy and Switzerland	18mm	Infantry	208
English Civil War	30mm	Cavalry	9
English Civil War	30mm	Infantry	54
French & Indian War	25mm	Infantry	49
Italian War of Independence	15mm	Cavalry	12
Italian War of Independence	15mm	Infantry	280
Napoleonic Wars	15mm	Cavalry	16
Napoleonic Wars	15mm	Infantry	72
Napoleonic Wars	28mm	Artillery	24	6
Napoleonic Wars	28mm	Cavalry	16
Napoleonic Wars	28mm	Command	3
Napoleonic Wars	28mm	Infantry	44
Punic Wars	6mm	Infantry	72
Seven Years War	18mm	Cavalry	114
Seven Years War	18mm	Command	26
Seven Years War	18mm	Infantry	154
		Totals	1395	18

Christmas Card from Sharpsburg

I received an electronic Christmas card from Joanne and Paul who are the proprietors of the Jacob Rohrbach Inn in Sharpsburg. Paul and I stayed two nights at their establishment during our ACW eastern battlefield tour last spring. Their hospitality was friendly and the breakfast was delightful. The Rohrbach Inn is shown in the photo below. The Inn was used as a hospital during and after the battle. My hunch is that most of the houses in Sharpsburg were utilized as hospitals.

The arrival of the card reminded me what a wonderful trip we had exploring the battlefields. Antietam was quiet and the weather was terrific. Below is a photo of the Bloody Lane looking towards the Observation Tower.

Scott, Austin, and I were joined by Kevin for a General de Brigade game at Scott's. The battle was Maida lifted from the Gd'B scenario book. Kevin and I commanded the French while Austin took command of the British. The French direct assaults against the British lines were mostly handled mostly with ease with the except for one singular moment. Kevin attacked one British line battalion with one regiment of hussars flanked by two French infantry columns. The Brits remained in line and won the melee. Reynier's one chance for glory melted away as his infantry streamed to the rear.

As for the scenario, itself, there is much to question about the attached OB. The Poles were under Peyri’s command and the 1st Legere was really a good unit. Circumstance during the battle was the cause of their sudden break. Also, the 2/78th had only 650 present and 600 of those were under-age (green and inexperienced) boys. The GdB scenario has them mustered as elites with 44 figured! The largest and one of the best units on the board. Although the 78th fought well, I think it more of a chance event than the resolve of the unit. The 81st and 58th weren't much better.

These ratings offer a chance to reflect on rating units for a given scenario. Do you rate them as they performed during the battle (i.e. Maida performance was a fluke) or do you rate them as they performed on balance knowing that to perform as heroically as at Maida would require a ‘chance’ event?

Battle Report Second Manassas

After a long hiatus, Paul and I returned to the Second Battle of Manassas game. We had left the battle at the Union 09:30 turn with Heinzelmann's Corps reaching the battlefield. Jackson's wing is still holding with continuing attacks from Sigel and McDowell. Reynolds and his division have been rendered hors d'combat both from vicious fighting on the Union left and in Federal attacks against Jackson near the Groveton Woods. Federals breached the Confederate defensive line along the unfinished railroad but without support, counterattacks from Starke and A.P. Hill recaptured the cut with heavy losses to the Federals.

Kearney reached the battlefield and swung along Bull Run onto Jackson's left near Sudley Church. In heavy fighting on this front, both A.P. Hill and Kearney panicked bringing the assault to a temporary halt. Porter arrives along the Manassas Gap Road and elements of Longstreet begin arriving along the Warrenton Pike.

By 12:30, Longstreet was approaching Lewis Lane and Porter began long-range artillery fire onto Longstreet's lead elements. Hooker's division has come up in a blocking position astride the Warrenton Pike/Lewis Lane intersection. With Longstreet securing Jackson's right flank, Early and Hays redeploy from the Warrenton Pike to north of Groveton.

Casualties to this point are roughly, Union 11,000; Confederate 7,500. It is very interesting to see historical mistakes repeated in the game. For example, Jackson's right attacks out of the entrenchments to meet the advancing Federals; Sigel throws his Corps into frontal assaults upon entrenched positions with little coordination or support; Union attacks are piecemeal and unsupported; Union attacks breach the unfinished railroad cut and without close support are isolated and counterattacked; Heintzelmann splits Kearney off to the right flank while the remainder of the Corps advances down the Warrenton Pike.

Perhaps hindsight is not 20/20.

Scope Creep And The Rule of Twelve.
How do you determine when a project is complete? I constantly wrestle with this dilemma. Over the years, I've found that combatants having roughly twelve foot units and proportional elements of horse and gun produce more enjoyable games. In a game with fewer units, a chance unit loss can have catastrophic consequences. In games with more units, the units in play are tended with less care.

Under the notion that more is better, my tendency is to continue building forces beyond this optimal project size. If about twelve units per combatant constitutes a "complete" project, which projects could I deem complete? Consider a few of my 28mm projects.  For the ECW, a quick count shows 11 foot, 9 horse, and 2 guns per side. I call that project complete although I do have a few more foot units left in inventory to paint. For FIW, I count 20 British foot, 16 French foot, 7 native foot, no horse, and only a couple of guns. This project, too, can be considered completed and fits closely to the Rule of Twelve with the excess foot units replacing the horse elements.  For Napoleonics, I have 8 foot, 2 horse, 4 guns (British) and 7 foot, 2 horse, and 4 guns (French). While this is approaching the Rule of Twelve, clearly I have room for expansion.

A recent Litko order arrived in near record time for Litko. In the past, orders have taken four to six weeks to receive. This order arrived within two weeks. Perhaps Litko is working out the logistics of order placement and fulfillment. With these new bases, I was able to complete the rebasing of the Russian cavalry. Only the Prussian cavalry contingents remain to be rebased.

Projects Update

15mm Second War of Italian Independence Project:
On the painting table are two battalions of Austrian line infantry. Each battalion is 18 figures strong. These two battalions will join the already fielded grenadier battalion of the IR #7. When these are finished, I will have exhausted my inventory of Austrian line. For now, I'm holding my order in anticipation of Scott's forthcoming 19th Century Battle Honors ACW order. If we order together, we can likely get 40% discount and free shipping. Next on the painting table will be the 1st Kaiser Hussar Regiment and will represent my first horse unit for this project.

lthough I've painted a couple of battalions of Bersaglieri using Piedmontese line, I'm still searching for proper figures. Both Freikorps and Mirliton produce the figures in 15mm with Freikorps being true 15mm. The figures from Mirliton look nice but shipping from Italy is quite expensive. That is, 24 Euros of figs cost 12 Euros to ship. Mirliton produces personalities from the war that would be very useful. I may still place a very small order to sample the figures.

Below is a portion of a painting from the Risorgimento Museo in Milan taken in 2009 showing a Piedmontese gun, crew and assorted horse. Note that the downed Austrian horseman's white, dress gloves must have been stored inside the his shako.

A second photo from the museum renders the Battle of Arcola in miniature. The diorama depicts the point in the battle where the French storm the Arcola bridge defended by lines of Austrians.

18mm 1799 Italian Project:
Two battalions of Austrian IR Preiss are complete and awaiting flocking.

18mm SYW Project:
The first squadron (six figures) of Prussian Hussar Regiment #2 is finished.

Battle Report Little Round Top

Gamed at Terry's on the 13th replaying the Little Round Top scenario from RFF. We used Terry's old N-gauge Scruby based three figures per stand. Terry's basing actually suits RFF better than it does for BOFF. The problem with the shallow bases reared its head again. Figures tend to topple over when based on shallow bases with figures only one rank deep. The laws of physics continue to hold.

For the game, Terry commanded the Federals and I commanded the Confederates. The Confederates had no on-board artillery so would have to attack without close artillery support. Splitting the Confederate line were Berdan's Sharpshooters embedded within Devil's Den. Robertson's brigade was also split by Devil's Den and 4TX and 5TX were out of his command. My plan was to demonstrate with Law and attack with Robertson and Benning. The attack was slow in developing but Benning eventually destroyed Smith's guns and held the southern end of Houck's Ridge. 4TX and 5TX and Law's Brigade was torn to pieces as it crossed into the rough ground along Plum Run. Hazlett's guns pounded the Rebs continuously. The 15AL and 47AL made one assault against the Union breastworks on LRT and were narrowly repulsed. Robertson and Law's commands became worn with light casualties and any hope of pressing the attack vanished. The Federals declared victory as the remaining Rebs slipped back into the woods.

18mm 1799 Italian Project:
Two battalions of Austrians are on the painting table after recently finishing two battalions of French line. A recent resupply from Eureka included early Russians as well. Two Russian grenadier battalions have been primed and are awaiting in the queue. The six grenadiers from these two battalions will join the half completed combined grenadier battalion. All figures are AB.

15mm Napoleonic Project:
Cavalry rebasing project is on hold until I receive a resupply from Scale Creep and Litko. As I mentioned earlier, the Russians were next in queue. The Russian heavy cavalry and hussars have been rebased with the cossacks undergoing the process once more bases arrive.

Sold! Even though the Vietnam collection saw action on the tabletop in 2010, I decided to liquidate the collection. Hopefully, they found a good home where they will see more action than I was able to provide. I have a few more orphan projects that are under consideration for culling: 15mm medievals and 28mm SpAm War Spanish come to mind. The Spanish haven't seen action on the table in about ten years.

Incoming! Books

A number of wargaming related books have arrived in-house over the last several weeks.

Rulebooks include:

• Weigle's 1866 and 1870
• Gray's Age of Eagles and Age of Honor. Somehow, I managed to pick up two copies of AoE. 
• Penn's Napoleonic Principles of War
• Mustafa's Grande Armee
• Hasenauer's Regimental Fire and Fury

Wargaming/Uniforms:

• Featherstone's Wargaming Pike and Shot
• Zannoni's L'Esercito Austriaco nel 1859
• Young's The Wargame

History:

• Lynn's The French Wars 1667-1714
• Burne's Battlefields of England
• Gates' The Spanish Ulcer
• Haythornthwaite's The Peninsula War
• Gill's 1809 Thunder on the Danube Vol III

I recently went on a search for replacement paint brushes. After several recommendations on TMP, I placed an order for a couple of Winsor & Newton brushes from Dick Blick. The brushes arrived in well-packaged and in excellent condition. The brushes were at a hefty discount too. Then one afternoon on a White Elephant run for Dullcote, I stopped at Spokane Art Supply and looked around. Many of their brushes were extremely inexpensive and I picked up a Jack Richeson Sable #3 for about $3. I've been using this brush for slapping paint on bases and this brush is simply awesome. Nice round with heavy brush for loading lots of paint and the point remains intact after multiple uses. I must go back for more.

Skirmisher Attributes in Republique+

Republique+:
After modifying movement to account for skirmish capable units, I've been wondering if units with higher skirmish ratings ought to also slow movement for opposing forces that move through the skirmishers' ZOC. This notion requires much thought. One other activity this month is the complete rebasing of the Napoleonic horse. Yeah, I know that I've gone through one iteration of this activity once before. This time, each cavalry base with contain four horsemen on a 1.5 inch square, four abreast. Before the figures were based two by two on a 1.5 x 2.5 base. One benefit is that the cavalry footprint takes up much less space in the storage boxes! All French/French Allies, Austrian, British, Spanish horse have been rebased and the Russians are next.

Rather than order Litko bases directly from Litko (and contend with exorbitant shipping charges), I saw that Scale Creep had a few packages of the required bases in stock so I placed an order. The order arrived quickly but one of the bags was opened and contained only 75 rather than 100 bases. A quick email to Mark at Scale Creep and he agreed to send the missing bases. Shipping was $6 for two large packs of bases. Scale Creep will be the first stop for Litko bases.


18mm SYW Project:
I have been successfully restocked from Eureka and have piles of cavalry and a few foot and artillery to paint. In October, one Prussian cuirassier regiment and two allied foot battalions joined the muster table. To me, these Eureka figures are really relaxing to paint. The recently completed second battalion of Bavarian Leib Garde regiment will show up in November's painting tally.

Painting Totals for October.
October was a very productive painting month despite being out of town for the last week of October and ongoing work and classes. The Eureka SYW project captured the bulk of the painting attention with a mix of other periods added for variety. In a weak effort to keep the AWI and ECW projects from flipping over to a Project Complete status, I added one unit of each. In November, I will have the 62nd British foot following closely on the heels of the 47th. On the painting table now are two battalions of French infantry for the 1799 project.