Lockdown project parade & what next?

Hard to believe that almost three months have flown by since I decided to paint myself a couple of 12 point DBN armies as a lockdown project. I achieved that by the end of April as planned and have continued to paint on a daily basis since then. The switch to AB infantry certainly helped fuel the enthusiasm and I have now arrived at the point that you see below. I have no doubt that I will now expand the armies for the 100 days campaign, but this will be a more gradual ambition over the next few months.

I decided to stick with Blue Moon for the cavalry because the AB's are somewhat larger and I do not want to repaint my  cavalry, it's not so much the AB horses - which are beautiful sculpts - but the riders that do not sit well beside the BM's, although the infantry are a perfect match. As a nod in the future direction I painted a base of Life Guards and will add the Royal Horse Guards next, these guys are actually mounted upon AB horses and that works very well.

I'm well stocked up now with figures for the project, but once I have painted the second of my Portuguese line bases (tomorrow) I'm going to take a couple of weeks break and paint some figures for Old John that have been patiently waiting for some time now. Meanwhile with life slowly beginning to return to some normality I'm going to get some DBN games in on the new table including some of the scenarios from One Hour Wargames. I think I have achieved exactly what I set out to do three months ago with the overall look and feel of both the table and the figures.

18mm figures by AB and Blue Moon, painted April, May, June. British, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

280 line infantry.
42 skirmishers
20 heavy cavalry.
27 light cavalry.
28 artillery crew
7 guns
15 mounted generals.

 

DBN card table!

I mentioned that I have been on the look out for a second hand folding card table to use for DBN battles. My Daughter spotted this one for a mere fiver locally and today she bought it round for me. I had seen several on eBay in the £25 to £45 mark secondhand, but postage added another £15.00 or more to the cost, so this was a real bargain, in fact we gave the chap £10.00.

I wasted no time in re-covering it with the S&A scenic material, an easy job. Just needs a good clean up underneath but it's a nice stable little table and perfect for the job. This gives me the flexibility to set up anywhere in the house. It measures 2'6" x 2'6" (750mm x 750mm), just right for 12 point + DBN.

Of course I placed a few scenic items on it for the photos.

Hovels Spanish buildings completed.

I must say it was a joy painting these old buildings again. What I always liked about the range was that they were produced to a scale that was slightly reduced in order to be practical for the wargame table rather than strictly accurate. I had a few issues with the windmill to begin with, the sails as supplied (cast in metal) were a bit rough, but a bit of time spent filing and trimming was well rewarded and I am very pleased with the end result.

The buildings on the village bases (Non linear obstacles or BUA's in DBN) can be removed so that I will also able to use them individually on the C&C printed mat when it arrives. As you can see I numbered the spaces and bottom of the buildings so I know which fits where.

Latest additions to the figures include this French Hussar base and this wonderful 'Landing Party' base, a 10 figure set of AB figures, I decided to use just 8 for a looser order look. The Hussars are Blue Moon on AB horses, I'm still in two minds about future cavalry as the AB cavalry are just slightly chunkier so I may now stick with BM.

Placed a new order with Eureka this week for some French Guard, 2 bases of Young Guard, a Guard foot artillery battery and....... a base of Old Guard! I know they did not appear in the Peninsular but I could not resist them and I will expand. I have in mind generic games of Commands & Colors using all of the troop types available.

Wife's shopping morning tomorrow so I'll run through a 12 point DBN game on a 2 x 2 board. Been getting to grips with the close combat rules so this time things should run more smoothly. I'll also introduce the infantry v cavalry response test 11.14,and the cavalry charge bonus 11.22 from the optional rules.  Also need to keep in mind the Attack Column 7.5.2.3 rules (an Attack Column is formed of two friendly units one behind - and in support of - the other), and the Morale Hit Test rule 8.2.2.3 which is taken by  a unit in support of a friendly to front when the leading unit is destroyed in close combat.

All buildings are now removable from the bases.

Latest bases completed: Landing Party, Spanish Militia and French Hussars.

A Commands & Colors interlude!

I found myself with a couple of hours quiet time this morning and with the 18mm armies looking in good shape I decided to get out the old Commands & Colors board to play a quick 12 units per side game. Five command cards per side, French to move first, 5 VP's for the win. Must admit I was a bit rusty to begin with, but it soon came back to me, although I had to look up a few rules such as cavalry breakthrough and terrain effects (fighting uphill etc).

I played both sides as best I could and when discarding a card and drawing a replacement I did not look at it until it was that sides turn again. Both sides had fairly balanced hands which enabled fighting across the three sectors, the Anglo Spanish side held a 'bayonet charge'card which was only played on the final turn and effectively won the game 5/3. The 60th rifles and the Cacadore rifles fought well in the centre, although they took heavy casualties from a French battery before they put it out of action. As one would expect the battalion of British light infantry ( 5 blocks so rolling 5 dice when firing stationary) were a force to be reckoned with and gained 1 VP by destroying a French battalion with a single volley! French cavalry performed well. The Spanish (consisting of 2 line battalions, a militia battalion and a light infantry detachment), never really got into the fight, the line battalion that did advance was forced to retreat right back to the baseline by artillery fire (2 flags, retreating 2 hexes per flag).

All in all I really enjoyed myself and it reminded me just what it was that so attracted me to this game when I was first introduced to it by 'Foy' about 8 years ago now.

Set up, French to move first.

Freshly painted Spaniards!

2/1 to the Anglo Spanish.

4/2 but French turn.

5/3 the French centre collapses.

British light infantry and rifles fought well in the centre but were close to breaking.

Bayonet charge, and the final VP to the British by routing French light infantry.

The armies are coming on well now, so a game of DBN will be next up. I have managed to find a second hand card table 750 x 750mm which requires a bit of TLC but will prove perfect for the rules and will allow me to play in comfort.

More units and a C&C mat on order.

The AB orders from Eureka continue to arrive on a regular basis, one small order last week was posted out on the next day, some are awaiting new stock to be cast which takes 14 to 21 days. I now have a mini lead mountain to work through.

This week I have painted 36 infantry and 1 mounted general, all AB's. French Grenadiers, Cacadores and a couple of Spanish bases. I decided to start a small Spanish contingent for DBN, which will eventually consist of 2 line bases, 1 Grenadier base, 1 Militia base and 1 light infantry base (Catalonians in Tarleton helmets). The AB figures are packed full of character.

I have decided that going forward I will now focus totally on AB's which means that cavalry join the queue despite my earlier reservations about the very slight size difference, mainly the heavy cavalry. The light cavalry are a good match for Blue Moons and I guess the French heavy cuirassiers and carabiniers should rightly be mounted on big horses anyway.

Edit: make that 42 infantry! 

Catalonian light infantry - I did read that some continued to wear the 1803 uniform until 1808, good enough for me to include a 6 figure skirmish base!

I struck me recently that in addition to being perfect for playing DBN my bases would work equally well for a game of Commands & Colors. There was no way I was going to return to making hex grids etc, but when I spotted this printed mat on the Tiny Wargames* site I knew it was perfect for the job. The 3" grid will just allow me to place terrain along with my bases. I have it on order and look forward to receiving it.

* Bit of trivia - Tiny Wargames are based at number 68 Hatton Garden, London, which happens to be the same building where I worked for two years when it was a commercial lithographic printers. I worked there from 1977 to 1979, having completed my apprenticeship at Municipal Mutual Insurance Company in Westminster.

Somewhere in Spain!

Had great fun putting together the first of my Spanish themed 'Non linear obstacle' for DBN representing a small village. The buildings used are from the wonderful 'Hovels' range, getting on a bit now but packed with character. In these days of MDF it makes a nice change to paint some resin again. I used three buildings and added some wall section from MDF. A bit of Noch leaf was used here and there on the walls etc and an S&A tree was given 'green stuff' oranges, rolled, painted and glued on. The fountain is freestanding so can be removed when the village is garrisoned.

I like that the buildings are slightly scaled down but sit perfectly with my 18mm figures. Could of course be used as a BUA under the rules which are far more difficult to storm. I have another such feature ready to paint, plus a church and windmill, but for now this will feature in my next DBN battle planned for Friday morning which will be a modest 12 pointer on a 2 x 2 board.

Portuguese cacadores (AB) are on the painting desk next, just a six figure base of rifle armed light infantry perfect for garrisoning a village where they would prove hard to dislodge. I should have them finished tomorrow so I can use them in Fridays game.

Alex has produced another excellent teaching video which explains exactly how a BUA works in the game, the first 10 minutes of the game below is very useful to those such as myself getting to grips with the rules around BUA's. It then follows with a blow by blow account of Plancenoit. I really like how you can fit an awful lot of battle into such a small space.

S&A Scenics a review.

Today I received my river sections and woods templates together with more trees from Simon at S&A Scenics. I must say that I am, (as usual), delighted with the products supplied by this long established company. I have been a customer for several years and having decided to purchase a terrain set specifically for use with DBN I once again turned to S&A. So far I have the following:

Grass green mat 6 x 4.
Numerous different shaped and sized hills.
Road sections in 1" width and 2" width.
Vineyard.
Woods terrain templates.
Hedge sections.
30 x 2" trees - these are the 'more realistic' versions on plastic armatures.
2" (standard width) river sections.

I really like that the colour of the hills matches that of the mat very well, something that would otherwise bother me! The road sections packs are excellent value for money as you get an assortment of long and short straights, curves, junctions, crossroads etc and as they are felt backed they remain in position on the mat once you lay them down. I'm finding the 1" roads are better for DBN and fit nicely with my two model bridges which are by Battlescale (as are the 10mm scale buildings you see). I particularly like the new style trees as they do look a bit more realistic. The river sections (again great value for money) are very well made and I like the varnished finish and two tone water effect. Everything is toned together with the brown/flocked colour scheme, again something I really like.

All of the above are available in various scales from the S&A webstore and Simon makes everything to order in about a week or so. Packaging is good and uses lots of  newspaper padding along with some bubble wrap which means it can be recycled.

If you are looking for terrain which offers consistent quality across the range of products and good  I would recommend taking a look at S&A.

https://scenics.co.uk/

Edit: I note that Simon has ceased production for a week due to a fractured foot, hope you are soon back in the workshop again.

Some of the photos are a bit light,you can see the true colour in the top picture. Note that I am now starting to use some of the AB's in the units, French infantry unit features three AB's in the front rank, a very good match for Blue Moon 18's. I  do plan to make two edged boards as soon as I can source the wood from B&Q, one 2' x 2' and the other 3' x 4' which will take care of the creases you see in the photos!