Battlefield Set Up

I have some nifty pictures of the battlefield that we set up for the Big OSW Game today, but Blogger will not allow me to upload any of the pictures. I have tried to do this with several different web browsers (Safari, IE and Firefox), but none of them work today. So I can only assume that it is a problem with Blogger.

At any rate, Bill and Randy joined me in Keith's Basement to set up the three 6ft by 28ft tables. I pretty much had the terrain all nailed down before the other two lads arrived, so all they had to do was to place all of the French forces on the table. We have 17 players signed up as of this evening, but if anyone wants to join in on the fun next week, it is not too late to participate. Just let me know if you are interested and we will find a spot for you.

For now, it looks like we will have 9 French/Allied commands and 8 Prussian commands in the game. I borrowed a few ideas from Keith's In The Grand Manner games for the built up areas. We placed some brown felt squares on the table (18 inches to 24 inches square) and then placed the buildings on top of the felt. So any figure that is within the perimeter of the brown felt is considered to be in the town, regardless of whether or not they are hiding behind a building or a fence or what have you. Thus, the players do not have to concern themselves with who is in cover and who is not; nor do they have to put individual figures inside the building themselves. If you are in the brown, then you are in the cover provided by the village. What a nifty idea!

Keith had some other good ideas too. I initially had the villages with the square side facing the enemy approach from either direction. He suggested that a slight rotation of the village by 45 degrees so that the corner of the village was facing each side's baseline (sort of in a diamond pattern). Thus the village can be attacked from two directions, rather than just one direction and it becomes less of a fortification. Again, what a nifty idea!

If I could upload the pictures, you would see the neatly ordered ranks of cavalry and infantry prepared to fight the battle. All of the Prussian brigades have an index card (4 x 6 inches) layed out on the table next to the brigade. The card lists the name of each battalion or cavalry regiment in the brigade, their status (Trained, Veteran, Elite, etc.) and any identifying ques such as IR20 (light blue flag) to help the player identify the elements in his command. The name of the gamer is also on the card, as well as his "general's name". So John Smith's name is on the card and he knows that he is the Duke of Bevern, and so on.

Once saturday morning rolls around, I anticipate all of the players showing up around 8:30 AM and all they have to do is find the brigade that has their name on it. Each brigade will also have an envelope, sealed with a wax seal, containing their orders for the battle. We are assuming that each brigadier general has already been given his orders (as written on the document) by the army commander. This will minimize the obligatory half hour spent prior to the start of the game wherein each side huddles together and strategizes about what they will do in the game. There might be some of this anyway, but Bill and Randy, as French commanders, have already seen the table and have a fairly good idea of what their objectives will be and they have the ability to come back during the week and inspect the field as much as they care to.

So things are pretty much set up and we are ready to move figures and roll dice. The only things that I have to do are to write up the orders for each player and put them on paper. There will be a few more little things to tweak here and there. I have to print out some labels for each town and glue them onto a nice looking wood plaque which will be posted next to the town; bring some camp tent vignettes with me on saturday and set up French and Prussian headquarters camps, just for eye candy's sake, and that 's about it.

I will attempt to post my pictures tomorrow, hoping that Blogger decides to work again. This seems to happen a couple of times each month and eventually the problem gets fixed. I hate technology, better to live during the Age of Reason when things were less complicated.

September Update

The annual Old School Wargaming Big Battalion Game is almost a week away and there is much to do to get ready. I spent the last two evenings reorganizing my boxes of troops so that the various brigades are in the same box. That will make the game set up easier. As long as I was shifting troops around, I decided to empty the contents and line the boxes with a piece of rubberized shelf liner. This keeps the figure bases from sliding around when they are traveling in my car to our games in Brown Deer and other locations. I should have done this a long time ago.

I also started replacing some of the clunky old foam core movement trays with some purpose-built (or bespoke as one might say in the UK) wooden trays made from MDF board. A fellow who does business under the name "Georgo Bases" will cut custom-made bases on request. So I had several hundred 5.25" by 3.50" bases made. There is a scosh more room on the tray, especially at the rear of the base so that one's chunky fingers can pick up the whole movement tray without causing the whole stand to go akimbo with figures. The extra space, about a quarter inch in depth, also leaves enough room on the base so that I can print up some unit ID tags and glue them to each stand. Thus, in the future, the gamer will know the identity of each regiment.

I had enough magnetic sheet available to cover 24 stands, or 6 battalions (4 stands per battalion). The new bases have a more finished, professional appearance to them than do the foam core bases. So as I acquire more magnetic sheet, I will endeavor to replace the rest of my foam core movement trays with proper wooden bases.

Big Battalion Game Update
Well, we have 17 players lined up for our Big Battalion Game on October 10th in Woodstock, Illinois. We can still squeeze in a few extra players if anyone wants to join in at the last minute. Just give a call and I will add your name to the roster.

On Sunday, Bill and Randy will join me as we set up the terrain and deploy the troops in their starting positions a week ahead of time. I really like this idea as it means that we can start the game right away, rather than spend an hour setting up on the game day. This is the advantage of having the event at someone's house. Keith Leidy, our host, has three 28 foot by 6 foot tables. If you look at some of the Napoleonic game pictures, they were all taken in Keith's basement. So that should give you an idea of how much table space we have available.

September Painting Production
I finished the month with 102 Olley Painting Points completed, and could have easily added another dozen as I had 12 more French 1806 close to completion. But as Mike Siggins tells me, "if they aren't completed, they don't count, no matter how close they are to being finished." So that is my policy too. That gives me a good head start on October's production.

I finished 72 of the "old" Elite 1806 French in bicorns, plus 23 Front Rank Young Guard figures for Keith, 1 old Connoisseur Old Guard Chasseur a Pied that I found, for a total of 96 infantry figures completed at one point each. I also painted two mounted Front Rank French officers for Keith and one "old" Elite mounted French colonel for my own collection. So three mounted figures count as 2 points each, or 6 points. Thus my total for the month was 102 points. In comparison, I had 70 in August, 102 in July and a rediculous 252 points in June when I was on vacation. I try to keep the points in the 72 figure range. Anything more than that is the canary in the coal mine warning that I'm spending too much time at the painting table and not enough with the family. Gulp!

1806 Project Update

I have been on a Napoleonic roll of late, with regard to my painting production, and one thing that I have learned is that sometimes you just need to go with the flow and paint what you feel like painting. How is that for some good old country advice?

This month (September) I completed a 72-figure battalion of the original Elite Miniatures French in bicornes and they will eventually go into service as the 25e Regiment de Ligne in General Gudin's division of Davout's III Corps in 1805 to 1807. Now all I have to do is find another 60 or so more of these figures so that I can paint the second battalion of this regiment. So if anyone has some of the old Elite figures, painted or unpainted, drop old Fritz a message and he'd be happy to take them off of your hands at an outrageously high price. What a deal! Failing finding more of these figures (and I will post some pictures over the weekend), I could use the 72 figure Eureka French Revolutionary War French in bicornes as the sister battalion for the 25e de Ligne.

As of now, I have 4 battalions of French in bicorns, one battalion in the spray primer booth, and two more of the new Elite French figures in an advancing pose that need to be cleaned and primed. So I am half way home on the French infantry since Gudin had 8 battalions in his division.

After I finish some more infantry, it will be time to turn my attention to the cavalry. I currently have 40 dragoons and 40 cuirassiers completed as well as 24 chasseurs a cheval. This chasseur regiment has 20 more figures to add at some point - they are the new Elite Chasseurs. I also found 36 of the old Elite chasseurs, which are noticeably smaller in size. For some reason, I like the older figures better. So if anyone has some extra or unwanted old Elite chasseurs, you know the drill, give me a call.

I was going to post some pictures this evening, but Blogger seems to be a bit fiddly tonight and won't let me upload the pictures for some reason. Hopefully, this will sort itself out in another day.

On the reading front, I just finished James Arnold's "Crisis in the Snow" which covers Napoleon's Eylau campaign in the winter of 1806-07. This was a very enjoyable book to read as Mr. Arnold has a nice prose style of writing that keeps you interested, doesn't overwhelm you with minutia, but gives you plenty of interesting tidbits and anecdotes. For some reason, Eylau has not been covered very well by the historical writing community. James Arnold's excellent book fixes that problem. I am looking forward to his pending companion book about the Friedland campaign in 1807. I liked this book so much that I also bought his two books covering the 1809 campaign, sight unseen, from On Military Matters in New Jersey. I'm looking forward to some quality reading in the near future.

More In The Grand Manner

A view of the French grand battery (12 guns) flanked by the Guard cavalry on the right and some Young Guard covering the left side of the picture.

Here are some more photos taken from our In The Grand Manner game on Saturday September 12, 2009 at Chez Leidy. The French had five infantry corps and the remnants of several cavalry divisions and faced two Russian, two Austrian and two British corps. As stated in yesterday's posting, this game was the start of the "second day" of battle, so both sides had the opportunity to reorganize and redeploy their armies overnight.

As Napoleon, my plan was to attack with our left wing consisting of Davout's corps (14btns), the Guard (8btns) and the Guard Cavalry plus some leftover dragoons and cuirassiers. We had a grand battery of twelve 12-pounders sited on a ridge facing the Russian army. Soult (Randy) held the French center and had two corps of infantry and division of heavy cavalry. Bernadotte (Bill) had the task of protecting the French right flank and keeping the British army from cutting off our line of communication on the back table. My story today will deal mainly with the attack of Davout and the Guard, since that is where I spent the day and I had my hands too full to follow what was going on in our center and right.

My general orders to the other players was for Soult to press the center so that the Austrians could not assist the Russians. Bernadotte was supposed to hang on for dear life and do his best to stop the British from cutting the rear road network.


The right flank of Davout's grand battery is protected by a regiment of Guard Polish Lancers and four battalions of Young Guard. The Old Guard (4btns) can be seen in the rear.


Four battalions of the Old Guard back up four battalions of the Young Guard to shore up the right flank of the French grand battery.


The French grand battery left flank was anchored by the river shown above. Davout placed a division on the opposite side of the river to threaten the Russian lines of communication and draw off some of their forces from the main French attack.


The attack begins with light cavalry and horse artillery (already across the table gap and onto the Russian table) and two squadrons of dragoons screening the hammer blow that will be delivered by the Guard Chasseurs a Cheval (5 sqds) and the 1er Cuirassiers (4 sqds). The Guard Horse Grenadiers are deployed behind the initial cavalry screen to take out any Russian cavalry that might counterattack.




Russian 6-pdr horse battery guards their right flank. Unfordable river to their right. This would be the objective of the French 1er Cuirassiers. Once the guns were taken out, the supporting French infantry would advance and occuppy this position and pry out the Russians away from the river protection.


To the right of the Russian horse battery (from the French point of view) sits a large 6-pdr Russian battery, supported by Russian cuirassiers on each side. This would be the objective of the French Guard Chasseurs. With these two batteries taken out of action, the way would be clear for Davout to advance his infantry corps and attack the Russian infantry.



Further to the right of the Russian line, stood the Austrian grand battery and lots of guys in white coats. Napoleon ordered Soult to press the Austrian center so that this lot wouldn't swing down onto the flank of Davout's attack.


While Murat is leading the French cavalry attack into the teeth of the Russian batteries, the French deploy their Guard Lancers on their right to protect the flank of the grand battery from a Russian or Austrian cavalry attack. The sight of these deadly lancers caused all of the Austrian infantry to go into square for several turns. This served Napoleon's purposes very well.

The Polish Lancers got whittled down by artillery fire and all that remained was a squadron and a half, but miraculously, the Lancers repelled the Austrian cuirassiers with some good die rolling. Napoleon was pleased as he thought that the Lancers would be defeated.



The 1er Cuirassiers position themselves to launch the final charge into the Russian horse battery. Two squadrons had to peel off to fight the Russian cavalry counter-attack, seen to their right. The Guard Horse Grenadiers were doing their job of absorbing the Russian cavalry so that the cuirassiers and chasseurs could get into the guns.


And now the Guard Chasseurs (2 sqds) prepare to charge into the guns. Their right is protected by a squadron of Guard Horse Grenadiers while their left is protected by a third squadron of Chasseurs that have peeled off to stop the Russian cuirassiers.


The Chasseurs have ridden down the Russian guns and are returning to their own lines, having missed a 'rally on the spot' by one pip of the dice. The third squadron of Chasseurs defeated the Russian cuirassiers and did Rally on the Spot and turn their facing to charge into the flank of the Russian horse battery on the hill. This battery was charged from the front by the French cuirassiers and from the flank by the French Chasseurs of the Guard. Simply beautiful!

So by the end of the day, the Russians had lost three artillery batteries, while both sides had neutralized the other's cavalry to some extent. The French were now getting ready to hurl all of Davout's infantry and 8 battalions of Guard infantry into the Russians, who would only have one 12 pound battery to face off against three French 12 pound batteries. We had to adjourn for the day at this point, with the game to be continued in two weeks.
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Murat Attacks the Russians

Marshal Murate (right) leads the flower of the French Guard cavalry against the Russians today. (click picture to enlarge the view)

I thought that I would post a teaser of some of the photos that I took at the massive In The Grand Manner Napoleonic game that we played today at Chez Leidy. This is a continuation of the game that we started back in May and continued into July and August. This was our fourth full day of wargaming this scenario.

We played 24 turns over the previous three game sessions, which meant that night had fallen and everyone had to fall back to their lines in order to refit and get ready to resume the battle in the morning. Both sides were allowed to reposition and redeploy troops within 36" of their final position, the day before. Artillery was resupplied , as were all muskets.

I will post many more pictures on Sunday afternoon and give an account of Marshal Murat's great cavalry charge into the teeth of the Russian batteries. It was somewhat reminiscent of the great charge at Eylau, but today the French cavalry wiped out two Russian batteries, while a third horse battery was decrewed with counter-battery fire.

More tomorrow, I'm off to bed right now.

Big Battalion Game News

Der Alte Fritz and his staff commence preparations for the next Big Battalion Game.

One of my readers had the impression that Der Alte Fritz's annual Big Battalion Game was a private affair, and I wanted to make it clear that the game is open to anyone who would like to attend. All you have to do is drop me a message, either in the "comments" box on this site, or via e-mail at the following box: altefritz1740@yahoo.com

The game will be held on Saturday October 10, 2009 in Woodstock, Illinois. I am working on a map with directions for anyone who is interested in attending. Woodstock is a suburb of Chicago, northwest of the city and is about an hour's drive from the northern suburbs and an equal drive from the Milwaukee, WI area. In the past, we have had gamers attend from far and wide, including Nova Scotia in Canada and Minneapolis. So mark your calendar and let me know if you would like to play. This is wargaming as it was meant to be played.

Here is a picture from our second Big Battalion Game - one of two such tables that were 6ft wide by 24 ft long. Now imagine playing this same game on three such tables as shown above. That means lots of flank space and even more depth. Wowzers!

August Painting Points

I was a bit of a slacker this month, only logging 76 Olley Painting Points for the month of August (compared to 102 points in July and a rediculous 252 points in June). This month's production included 12 Minden Austrian cuirasseirs (2 pts each or 24pts total), 20 Suren SYW British Guards, 2 Elite Miniatures SYW British, 6 old Elite 1806 Napoleonics, and 24 new Elite 1806 Napoleonics. I had to complete my fourth battalion (72 figures) of French for further play testing of our Napoleonic rules.

I will probably try to cut back the production and keep the painting points closer to my goal of 70 points per month. In fact, I have exceeded this amount each month, averaging well over 100 points per month. It is time for a little more balance in life.

A Prime Day

Today was a sunny and cool day here in Hesse Seewald. In fact it was downright chilly in the mid 60s on what is supposed to be a hot Summer day. That being the case, I felt that the weather would be perfect for priming figures. The lack of humidity means that I did not have to worry about the spray primer "fuzzing up" into little balls of black fuzz on the figures.

First on the list were 48 French Napoleonic figures for my 1806 Project. These figures were some of the original Peter Morbey sculpts that I am still looking for. I have acquired enough to build a 72 figure battalion of French. These are smaller and more life-like than the current Elite range, and I like them much better. In fact, I liked them so much that I set to work on the first half dozen figures later in the day. With Napoleonics, I paint them in batches of 12 figures as this is the number of figures that I have in a company. Any more than that would simply sap my will to live. I don't like to paint all of that piping on the lapels, cuffs and turnbacks. On the other hand, since I do like the older Elite figures better than the current range, my eagerness to paint them should be higher than normal.

Next on the priming table was another dozen of the Minden SYW Austrian cuirassiers that I have in stock. As you may recall, I painted the first squadron of the Alt Modena cuirassier regiment earlier in the month. My plan is to alternate between a squadron of Minden cuirassiers and a company of Elite 1806 French.

Happy Anniversary
I almost forgot that I passed my second anniversary of this blog a couple of days ago. I recall that the sitemeter hit counter thingy indicated that over 130,000 hits have been counted since day one, or an average of 65,000 visits per year. I am humbled by the thought that so many people have taken the time to visit this blog. Thank you all for helping to make this blog so much fun to do.

Annual Big Battalion Game Coming Up
The annual Big Battalion Old School Wargaming game is set for Saturday October 10, 2009 so I am busy working on a scenario for this game. This year's event will be held in the home of my friend Keith Leidy, or to be more exact, in his basement. This is the same venue where we have been playing all of those humongous In The Grand Manner wargames. Keith has three 6ft by 28ft tables running parallel to one another. Thus we will have a center table with two full sized back tables for each army (as opposed to a 3ft wide back table per side). So this game will have more table space. Another advantage is the fact that Bill, Randy and I can set up the terrain and position our forces several days before the start of the game. This eliminates set up time on the game day, meaning that we can get started right away. That should make for a better game, I think.