15mm's on the C&C board.

Recently on the tabletop wargamers Facebook page the administrator posted a message basically saying that his page was for those who painted and wargamed with miniatures, not boardgames or paper soldiers! He got quite a backlash and quite a few members left the site. I took great pleasure in posting a couple of images of my 15mm figures on the Command & Colors board asking him where he thought I stood with that? He said it was definitely a wargame, as did several others, which was odd because I regard it as a boardgame played with shiny soldiers. Anyway, enough of that to do, it's time to play through the first test game on the C&C board.

I placed everything I have so far on the board, a random deployment on the first two rows of hexes, the terrain simply consisting of a large central town, (2 Victory medals per hex held), plus a few hills and woods. Standing back and looking at it felt extremely satisfying, having completed this stage in what seems like no time at all.

I'm going to play through this today using the rule tweaks described in the previous post. The coloured dice are in a plastic cup, I gave them a good shake and then blind drew the first dice for first activation, it was British and a roll of 2 gave me the minimum 2 activations. I advanced both the British light infantry units, one towards the town the other towards the woods. In C&C these are 5 block units as opposed to standard 4 block infantry units and can move 2 hexes and still battle. I then moved one of the generals to attach to the unit advancing on the town which will give a morale bonus should they be on the receiving end of a flag retreat roll. The dice is placed at the rear of the board and the next is ready to draw. I should add I used 9 dice per side and once all are pulled I will return them to the cup.

More to follow. I'm going to return to painting some 40mm's now (more Chasseurs) as this will give me my wargame fix as I do so, but I'll keep adding more 'blocks' here and there.

First 2 activations - Britsh light infantry advance.

15mm Blue Moon review & Battlescale buildings.

I'm home alone again for a few days as Shaz is back in the Uk until Wednesday for our youngest Grandaughters 1st birthday. It's a nice sunny Sunday morning here in Spain, with predicted temps into the low 20's for today and the coming week after what has been a very wet couple of weeks.

I thought that a review of the 15mm Blue Moon Napoleonics might be in order as I have pretty much completed phase 1 in the C&C figure per block project. It's all gone to plan nicely, I'm happy with the paint job, the heavy satin varnish and the basing. I'm going to get them all on the board today to play through a game based on a scenario from One Hour Wargames. For this game I will be using standard C&C battle rules but will replace the cards with a simple dice activation system. This will negate the need for left/centre/right sectors and allow me to play a free movement game using the basic C&C rules. I'm also going to trial a blind draw activation system (Bolt Action style) rather than the usual 'I go, you go' game. Basically it's as follows:

Green (French) & Grey (British) dice go into a bag, one per unit. I'll change this to Red and Blue dice if this works out. Blind draw to see who activates.

Roll the dice, 1,2 = activate 2 units of choice, 3,4 = activate 3 units of choice, 5,6 = activate 4 units of choice ...... simple!

Leaders always activate themselves, and any elite unit (Guards etc) may also automatically activate,
activation may be from any sector, that is from across the board.

Infantry units may form square as usual, but those classed as 'militia'- meaning in this case lower quality troops- will make a dice roll to see if they fail to do so due to lack of training and drill. A roll of 4,5,6 required to do so.

So it is possible for a commander to get a run of activations when the dice are drawn from the bag, meaning the action can swing back and forth unpredictably when playing solo. With equal numbers of dice in the bag, things will even out during the course of a game.

That's about it for now as far as rules go, after that it's standard Commands & Colours movement, firing, melee and morale/retreat rules. I will write up this test game to see how things play out.

Beyond the above these is the potential to use Tony's 'Ramekin' ideas, which are more thought out than my own simple tweak and contains some excellent rules for control and command, but more on this in due course.

Getting back to the title of this blog post, here are some pictures of the 15mm's so far. As said previously I am absolutely loving painting these Blue Moons. I have no desire to expand them into larger units, but it has occurred to me that a custom made board with slightly larger hexes would allow me to use some nice terrain items rather than the printed card hexes that have an annoying habit of sliding about the board. I was thinking this over last week in Amsterdam, being away from the figures the concept of creating a stand alone board, neatly framed that sits comfortably on my dining table came to mind once again. The standard C&C hexes are 55mm, and I think a slight increase to 75mm would work for me. With this in mind I looked around for some buildings to represent BUA's and the Battlescale 10mm resin casts were perfect in size and scale when used with my 15mm figures. 

The Battlescale (click to visit) range is sculpted by Steve Clay whom I seem to have known for years now. He works in 6mm and 10mm scale currently but is slowly expanding into 20mm. The 10mm scale buildings are just large enough to work with 15mm figures, the sculpts are really crisp and clean with individual planking applied and each roof tile painstakingly applied as individual tiles! There was not a single air bubble to be found on my order and no chipped or broken pieces, every piece is a little work of art and a true labour of love. I hope to get mine painted over the next week or so and will feature them again once completed, but meantime I can highly recommend this range of buildings and accessories.

Time for some more Pictures, the Line Lancers were painted and finished in a day (yesterday) and this time I went for a slightly stronger highlight on the horses, I'm quite pleased with the result under the satin varnish.

Two weeks flown by!

It's been a pretty busy two weeks since my last post including 5 excellent days spent in Amsterdam. I was itching to pick up a paintbrush again when I arrived home, and first thing I did was to bash through these 6 British light dragoons. I had completed a few artillery pieces and crews before we left, but was not too happy with the small chunky wheels on the British guns so painted another 2 guns using spare French artillery wheels which look much better to my eye. I'm currently adding some French light cavalry (lancers and chasseurs) before playing my first test game on the board over the weekend where I hope to incorporate 'Foy's' ideas for a card free, dice activated twist, which negates the need for the left/centre/right sectors.' Ramekin' I think will prove just the thing for playing One Hour Wargame scenarios. More to follow.

6 'blocks' light cavalry.

Bases still wet, the washers are to allow for magnetisation.

The wheels for the British guns looked small and a bit chunky to me.

British guns with larger wheels before painting.

More 15mm Blue Moons.

I have to admit that I'm really enjoying painting these 15mm figures right now, I can't seem to stop! I think it's the fact that I can knock out 4 to 8 figures in a day, in a couple of sessions fitted around other stuff that needs to be done. Having completed the second 'unit' of French Dragoons - four blocks/figures - I decided to paint some command figures, 3 French and 2 Brits to begin with. There is something about painting 15mm horses that I enjoy, I find it much, much easier to paint convincing horseflesh in 15mm and of course it's very quick to do compared to the 40mm's. So a few close ups of stuff painted over the last few days are in order I think, and whilst intended as playing pieces (tokens?) for the C&C board, I wanted them to look kind of, well, nice. I'm considering a gloss finish for them and still thinking about the basing style, I'm now thinking that I like the plain green figure base/washer finish as opposed to the flocked style I experimented with at the start, I think it's more toy soldier like.

Artillery are now on the desk, 3 crew/blocks per gun, starting with a couple of Royal Artillery pieces. I'm very close now to trying out the first of the One Hour Wargame scenarios on the C&C board with tweaked rules, of which more anon. I hope to get the first game played and written up before we head off to Amsterdam on Wednesday for a few days to celebrate Shaz's birthday. I think I'm going to feel the cold there as used to the milder temperatures now, but very much looking forward to it.

40mm Chasseur a Cheval.

These are the first four figures of what will eventually become a full sixteen figure regiment. As I only have five figures left here I will paint another four for an eight figure squadron for the time being. As these Sash & Sabre castings are imported from the United States by Andy at Old Glory UK, I need to plan well ahead with my orders. Due shortly I have more British Heavy Dragoons and some Cuirassiers with command pack. Once they arrive more Chasseurs will go on the next order, I'm guessing for delivery in the New Year now.

You see them mostly finished save for final detail check and the addition of the carbines that plug neatly into a little hole in the upper leg. No varnish as yet either. I'm pleased with the faces, not perfect but on the whole pleasing to me with the slightly blushed cheeks. They took a lot of painting in terms of time and trying to get the contrast between the uniform shade and highlight, at one point I became slightly frustrated and put them aside for a couple of days while I turned to doing some more 14mm's for the 'figure per block' C&C project. These are progressing well now as you can see. I'm enjoying being able to paint a few at a time of different types, just starting on some French cavalry now, Dragoons to begin with. Once I have knocked out a few more cavalry units I'll get started on the artillery. I have a couple of British generals on the desk at the moment plus a couple more British Light Infantry as these should be 5 blocks not 4 so just making up the numbers on these.

And now the 15mm Blue Moon Napoleonics  - simply intended as nice shiny replacement playing pieces for the Commands & Colors boardgame!

Finally for now, still no cask conditioned real ale to be found here on the Costa Blanca. I was hopeful of this place when told about it a few months ago, but alas no. I did enjoy a nice cold glass of Sidre Dulce sitting outside here in the sun today, but not exactly 'London Beer'. Ironically we had been looking at heaters as it's chilling down in the evenings now, but it was a pleasant 19 degrees late afternoon.

Alfred Charles Gramson - 3rd East Kent Regiment, The Buffs.

100th commemoration of the end of The First World War. To the memories of Alfred Charles Gramson (my Grandfather) and his brothers Richard Gramson and Henry Gramson.

 Alfred Charles Gramson

My Grandfather Alfred Charles Gramson was twenty one years old when he signed up for 'Three Years with the Colours' on 9th September 1914. His Attestation papers, (a rare survivor of a fire at records office I am told), shows that he joined the 3rd East Kent Regiment - The Buffs. Regimental number G/2395 and his signature was witnessed by his Father. His service record shows that he was sent for training at Canterbury Barracks and embarked for France from Folkestone Harbour on 31st August 1915 recorded as 'B.E.F. France'.

His two elder brothers had already joined up in the (Queens Own) Royal West Kent Regiment (6th Battalion) .  Henry John Gramson (aged 31) and Richard Gramson (age 29). Richard is recorded as wounded on 6th November 1916, and eldest brother Henry was also listed as wounded on 22nd November 1916. 

The attack on Rainbow Trench, Battle of The Somme, October 1916.

37th Infantry Brigade were on the right, with 6th Queen's Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) and 6th  Battalion The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) as the lead battalions, 6th Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) and 7th East Surrey in support, attacked Rainbow Trench.

Little progress was made by any of the battalions. 6th The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) did manage to make it into Rainbow Trench but not in enough numbers to hold it, and on withdrawing the battalion had only 1 officer and 40 other ranks left uninjured.

My Aunt Vi who is now 92 recently told me that it was Henry who broke the news of Richards wound to my Grandfather Alfred shortly before Henry himself was wounded. Both returned to duty, 

Sadly Henry is recorded as 'Killed in Action' on 2nd July 1918. Duty location  is shown as 'France and Flanders' at the time of death his unit were serving on The Somme. He was 34.

Both my Grandfather and Richard survived the war, Richard being discharged in 1918. My Grandfather was given home leave on 10th October 1918 and was married to my Grandmother on 19th October 1918. He died in 1956, 2 years before I was born so it's been a real honour to discover his story and that of his brothers.

Diddy Dragoon Guards & 40mm shelf preview!

I got a fair bit of painting done while Shaz was away in the Uk, that and some good dog walks.I'm definitely feeling and looking far healthier since the move to Spain and my mental health is very much restored from the time when I began this therapy blog.

In 40mm I focused on completing all of the extra command figures for the four infantry battalions and then finished off the basing on sixteen voltiguers. I still need to work back through each battalion checking details - for example brass barrel bands on one unit need adding - but as you can see they make quite a formidable sight when viewed together. The British battalions are equally impressive, but I still need to paint the last four flank company for the last battalion so probably next week before they attend for parade here. They will be followed by the first of the French Chassuer a Cheval.

For the 15mm C&C project I painted six British heavy dragoons (British cavalry are of 3 blocks while French are of 4) , in a single session. They seemed to take no time at all, a 000 brush was used from start to finish on the figures, and a 0 brush on the horses, my method being to quickly pick out the colours being careful not to make mistakes that require time spent repainting or touching up. For example the dragoons arms were carefully painted leaving the lace work area black before adding fine lines in yellow to the fronts. belts were painted with a single dash of white paint and I find that leaving some black to add depth gives me the result I am looking for. I'm highlighting the Flat Red with Amaranth to give them a nice bright finish once satin varnished (two heavy coats), as these are intended very much as 'playing pieces' that will be handled quite a bit. I'd say a couple of hours max for these six cavalry and I'm pleased with them. I'm now applying the same method to French line infantry in campaign dress and I'll probably hack through quite a number of them over the next few days. You can see the first eight below, I have sixteen more sitting on washers to follow but I'm going to paint the four British 40mm's first over the weekend.

Sunday morning!
Further to the above, I painted the four British line to complete infantry phase 1 yesterday, save for some basing work etc. All of my 40mm's currently sit on shelves for easy access, I just need to give them a soft brush now and then to remove dust, but I do enjoy being able to handle them. This morning I took a few pics as an overview of where the collection stands to date.

15mm Dragoons by Blue Moon destined for the C&C board.

Blue Moon 15mm French line.

The French light companies.

Both French and British will be made up to 3 gun batteries.

Each French battalion consists of 35 figures plus 4 skirmishers ! 

French battalions each feature 4 grenadiers. The light company are separated to form a 16 figure skirmish line for the brigade.

British Battalions each of 29 figures. The heavy dragoons below will be made up to 16 figures and the battery to 3 guns and crews.

Last 4 British infantry for the time being.

The 12 x 60th Rifles with French 2nd Hussars beside them