Basic impetus battle report Arthurians v Saxons

The Dux of the west had been watching events with interest, the Irish warlord had crushed his once allies the Romans. The Irish lord had been defeated and killed by a large Saxon army. Know the Saxons are moving westward's. The Dux calls his lords to a war counsel. War has come to the west.

The Arthurian's

1 CM heavy cavalry + leader
2 CM heavy cavalry
5 FP  heavy infantry (long spears)
1 S     skirmish short bow B

The Saxons

2 FP heavy infantry +1 leader (impetuous)
6 FP heavy infantry (impetuous)
1 S    skirmish short bow B

Two strong armies both made up of heavy infantry, the Arthurian's have the advantage with  their cavalry. The Saxons take advantage of defending a hill and some broken ground in the battle this should give them the upper hand, or at least slow down the cavalry.
The two armies faced each other over a wide valley. The smoke of the smouldering ruins of a small village the Saxons had just raided filled the air. The Arthurian's wanted revenge, soon their chance would come.

The Saxons make their stand on the hill

The Arthurian's move into the valley


TURN 1 Arthurian's win the initiative
Arthurian's move out there cavalry swing to the right to take on the Saxons in the broken ground.
(Arthurian plan is to smash the Saxons on the right then attack the hill with both infantry and cavalry)

TURN 2  Saxons win the initiative
The Saxons in the broken ground hold steady and the bow move to the edge of the broken ground to fire on the cavalry.
The Arthurian's continue to advance

TURN 3 Arthurian's win the initiative
cavalry continues to move forward there bowmen move into range of the Saxon Nobles and fire but miss.
Saxon bowmen fire on the approaching cavalry but also miss.

TURN 4 Arthurian's win the initiative
The Arthurian's cavalry make contact with the Saxons bowmen  ( the dice is rolled  but they fail to hit ) the Arthurian's bowmen also fail to hit there target. There infantry reach the foot of the hill and await the signal to attack.

TURN 5 Arthurian's win the initiative
The cavalry continue to fight the bowmen and manage to hit them and cause 1 permanent damage and are disordered. There bowmen manage to hit the nobles but they brush this aside as they pass there cohesion test  ( in basic Impetus each time a base is hit it must take a cohesion test, failing this test results in permanent losses and disordered if you pass or fail the test )

Note the red marker showing the bowmen are disordered.

TURN 6 Saxons win the initiative
The bowmen fight on but no hits another poor round of dice for the cavalry.

TURN 7 Saxons win the initiative
One unit of Saxon followers charge into the cavalry and cause 1 hit on them the cavalry fight back and also cause a hit the cavalry pass there cohesion test and are disordered the Saxons fail there's and are pushed back and pursue them.

TURN 8 Arthurian's win the initiative
not wanting to be caught again the cavalry  charge the other Saxons unit the fight continues on the right one of the Saxon units go down and the other is badly mauled the Saxon bowman still stand. on the left the bow miss again. One of the Noble warrior's unit move down from the hill to steady the followers in the broken ground
  VDT Saxons 2    Arthurian's 0

TURN 9 Arthurian's win the initiative
The fight continues on the right the Arthurian's leader base attacks the Noble and cause 1 hit they pass there cohesion test. The Saxon Nobles cause 3 hits on the leaders unit by some miracle they also pass but are driven back. The main assault on the hill starts

TURN 10 Saxons win the initiative
in a move to get to the know damaged Arthurian leader the Saxons leader comes screaming down the hill and smash into the petrified Arthurian bowmen who take 3 hits and fail there cohesion test and are destroyed  (that's how it's done)
hard fighting continues on the hill and the broken ground and another Saxon unit falls. This allows the Arthurian's cavalry to move round the rear of the Saxon units
VDT  Saxons 4   Arthurian's 1

TURN 11 Arthurian's win the initiative
a unit of Arthurian heavy infantry see there leaders base in danger and in a desperate attempt to save him move on  the Saxons leader unit.
The fight for the hill gets heavy both side doing damage both passing there cohesion tests.
The Saxon bowman finally fall to the Arthurian cavalry
VDT Saxons 5   Arthurian's 1

TURN 12 Saxons win the initiative
The hill is still in the hands of the Saxon followers at the bottom of the hill the Saxon leader cause another hit on the Arthurian heavy infantry somehow they are still there. On the right in the broken ground the fighting continues.

TURN 13 Arthurian's win the initiative
The Arthurian's cavalry cause 2 more hits on the Saxons in the broken ground they fail there cohesion test and are driven back. On the hill one of the Arthurian heavy infantry failed there cohesion test and are driven back. The Arthurian heavy infantry unit fighting the Saxon leader is destroyed  ( in basic Impetus if a unit in classed as Impetuous it must pursue a routing/ destroyed  enemy all Saxons other than the bowman are Impetuous so the leader must pursue )
VDT Saxons 5   Arthurian's 3

TURN 14 Arthurian's win the initiative
fighting continues on the hill in the broken ground the final Saxon followers unit is destroyed by the cavalry.The Saxon leader can know move on the Arthurian leader.
VDT Saxons 7   Arthurian's 3

TURN 15 Arthurian's win the initiative
The Arthurian's cavalry surround the Noble warrior's in the broken ground but fail to hit them. They in turn manage to hit the Arthurian leader. The dice is rolled a pass on the cohesion test but the unit is know holding on by the skin of it's teeth.

TURN 16 Arthurian's win the initiative
The fight for the hill continues with another Arthurian heavy infantry unit being pushed from the hill and pursued by the Saxons just before the Saxon leader unit can make contact with the Arthurian leader unit the Noble warrior's unit falls to the Arthurian cavalry giving the victory to the Arthurian's
VDT Saxons 10 Arthurian's 3

As night fell remaining Saxons melted away, the Arthurian's were to exhausted to stop them. The Saxon warlord screaming for revenge in the night.

On paper it looks like a easy victory to the Arthurian's, but far from it. If the Saxons leader had managed to get to grips with the Arthurian's leader he would have wiped him out for sure. Lucky the initiative roll went to the Arthurian's and they finally managed to destroy the other noble warrior's unit. The fight on the hill would have gone on for ever with the Saxons winning eventually I think.
Man of the match has to go to two units the Saxon bow for holding out for so long against the cavalry and the Saxons noble warrior's for holding out for so long even when they were surrounded by Arthurian cavalry and still managing to knock lumps out of the Arthurian leader unit.
Another great game of basic Impetus.

Till next time

Waterloo mini musters part 4

It's been a while, but I'm back, and it's a big one. The 3rd British infantry division was the strongest division in battalions 13 in all plus 2 coys of field jaegers.
Let's have a closer look.

The 3rd British Infantry Division
Commanded by Lt. Gen  Charles Count Alten
strength at Waterloo 8,091
casualties at Waterloo 3,725
Deployed on the right/centre on the ridge.

2 /30th British line

33rd British line

2 /69th British line

2 /73rd British line

1st light infantry KGL

2nd light infantry KGL

5th line KGL

8th line KGL

Duke of York field battalion Hanoverian

Grubenhagen light battalion Hanoverian

Bremen field battalion Hanoverian

Verden field battalion Hanoverian

Luneburg light battalion Hanoverian

The full division with command and attached artillery bases one Royal artillery and one KGL foot artillery. British on the right, KGL in the centre and the Hanoverian infantry on the left.

In the next part of the Mini Muster, I will post a battle report on a larger fictional battle between the advancing French under Nay and the withdrawing allies under William Prince of Orange. Not quite on the scale of Quatre Bras, which went almost as historically as it could, with the French having the better of the early stages but the reinforcements just kept coming which slowly ground the French assaults to a halt, but the French under Nay almost pulled off a bit of a moment when their cavalry smashed through the allies left and the allies almost bolted. A real brown trousers moment.
Till next time.

From Box To Base No1 Perry Miniatures French Hussars

I thought i might have a go at a new series on my blog.
From box to base.
In this series I'm going to look at a box/pack of miniatures, see what you get, look at how I'm going to use them, and go through the painting and basing. I'm going to cover my painting technique, most of which will be nothing new to most of you and might not be some people's cup of tea, but im hoping it might come in useful too some.
ok let's have a look at the first box in the series.

French Hussars by Perry Miniatures in the box you get 14 multi - part figures

2 of the spur types you get as an example.

Nice sharp details on these figures, like most plastic figures there is a moulding line on some parts, which will need to be cleaned off before painting
 ( use a very sharp knife for this)

The horse parts and an assembled horse. A nice miniature good size will fit in with the main manufacturers size wise, nice clean detail.

The main spur for the hussars, the box comes with lots of shako version's to cover from 1790 to 1812, this is great as you can adapt the figure to the campaign you want to cover,

The Hussar parts and an assembled Hussar again nice miniature lots of detail, should be fun to paint.

The figures are going to be used for my French Grandeur army. Each base will have 5 figures, this will give me 2 bases plus 4 spare Hussars ( I'm going to use these as single mounted skirmishers for a later Peninsular project ) The bases are also going to be for the Peninsular Campaigns, so I'm going to use the covered shako for the troopers the full shako and cords for the officer and the colpack for the trumpeter. You only get one of the trumpeters arms in the box plus a hand holding a eagle standard, I'm not going to use a standard but I will use a trumpeter, the other base will only have an officer. I'm going to paint one base as the 1st Hussar and the other as the 4th both served in the Peninsular wars. A quick look at the handy painting guide that comes in the box, will give you all the information you need to paint your Hussar.

So on to the painting .
My painting technique has 4 stages not counting the under coat. It sounds quite an ordeal but trust me once you have done it a few times it works quite quickly.
Under coat: I use a grey. Why to be honest I have tried white and black, but I have found grey suits me.

One under coated horse.

STAGE 1
Paint your figure with what I like to call the flat colours. eg: for a horse it would be it's coat colour, markings, the horse equipment all gets painted in it's flat colour. Same think for the Hussar paint him up in his flat colours from his skin out (I got this tip from a friend ) you don't have to be that activ as you work your way around the figure as long as you know that you are going to cover up any little mistakes as you go.

The horse and Hussar at the end of stage 1 flat colours.

STAGE 2
Ok this bit will be familiar with most of you. We are going to ink wash the figure.

My secret weapon brown ink.

With a soft brush wash the ink all over the figure, what we are trying to achieve here is to blend all the painting elements. The ink will run, (if that's the right word) into all of the figures detail, but it will also leave a thin coating over the hole of the figure. As brown is a neutral colour it works over all colours. Leave to thoroughly dry. Then spray a thin coat of Matt varnish.

The horse and Hussar inked. end of stage 2 but not matt varnished

STAGE 3
ok hang in there.  Next up we are going to use the flat colours we used in stage 1 to highlight our figure this can be done with a detailed brush for the likes of belts,tiny details, the face. For the larger areas I find a dry brush technique. (dry brush is using a small amount of paint, even wiping the brush till it is almost dry then applying this to the figure). paint in the highlights on the figure add in as much as you want or as little, it's up to you. Leave to thoroughly dry then spray a thin coat of Matt varnish.

The horse and Hussar at the end of stage 3. The horse has had a coat of varnish.

STAGE 4
Ok last part use a light stone colour, and this time we are going to dry brush over the hole of the figure. This is what I like to call giving them that campaign look. I have read lots of Napoleonic books and all have the same thing in common. The uniforms of the combatants don't look good for long, when you are on campaign. So I like to dust them up a bit.
Ok what we are looking to do in this stage is to apply the lightest of covering of grey over the figure. (this might take a bit of practice  use a black painted figure to have a few tyres before you try it on a painted figure). As you get better at this technique you will be able to apply as little or as much,as you want to your figure.
There you have it a quick spray of Matt varnish to finish.
You may have picked up on my multi use of varnish, I use this as it creates depth to the figures.

The horse after stage 4  and the Hussar and mount.

Ok the base I start with painting the base a earth colour then apply PVA to the base and cover this in my sand, stone mix.

Leave to dry and then apply PVA to the areas you want to grass I use a mix of Army painter static grass. Once dry add some larger stones and some straw. I'm hoping this will give the base an arid look? Then dry brush with your stone grey on the stones and where you want, and there you have it.

The base of the 1st Hussar ready to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of France.

Well that's it for the first on my From Box to Base blogs  Hope this was of interest to some.
Till next time.

On the work bench more French for Grandeur

So far I have painted up 3 bases of French line infantry each base represents a brigade 12 figures on a 15cm by 8cm base. The army lists for Grandeur are designed for the full scale version of Impetus  (as of yet no Basic Impetus version or list figures crossed) were you can field a full army of between 2 and 6 corps each between 2 and 4 Divisions, with each Division represented by 1 to 3 bases. Potentially the army could be made up of each corps having between 8 to 12 bases with up to 2 Cavalry bases representing the corps cavalry arm, with 1 or 2 artillery bases for the corps artillery.
Know I'm sure this would look spectacular on the table, but I don't have the room or the funds for this project.

So I have played around with the army lists a bit so they fit better into the Basic Impetus format, of between 8 to 12 bases per army.

FRENCH
1 Infantry Corps of
2-4 infantry Divisions each of  M  VDU I  D VD
1-2 line infantry  (FP)                  5    4/5 1  B2  SK A
OR conscripts line (FP)              5    4/5 1  C1  SK B
OR veteran line (FP) *                 5    5/6 1  B2  SK A

Corps Cavalry Division  of        M  VDU   I  D VD
0-2 dragoons  (CM)                    10   4/5  1 B2
OR Chasseurs (CL)                     12   3/4  1 B2
OR hussar (CL)**                        12  3/4   1 B2
OR lancers  (CL)***                     12  3/4  1 B2

Corps Artillery of                       M VDU   I  D VD
1-2 heavy batteries F art****    6   2       0 B1 artA
Or medium batteries F art        6   2       0 B1 artB


* maximum of 2 divisions
** veterans
*** veterans only one base can be fielded
**** only one base can be fielded
This gives a maximum of 12 bases all up still a large number but more manageable.
              
BRITISH Peninsular Campaign
In the army lists the notes state  (and rightly so )
before the Waterloo campaign the army did not use the corps army structure, they tended to format divisions of infantry and had separate cavalry Brigades, some times divisions. The artillery was generally spread around the army or deployed were it was required on the battle field. So the army list looks like this.

British and Allies
1-3 Infantry Division each of       M  VDU  I  D VD
1-2 foot line British/ KGL  (FP)    5   5/6  1 B2 SK A
OR light rifles (FP) *                      5   6/5  1 B3 SK A
OR Highlands  (FP)**                    5   6/7  2 B3 SK B
OR Portuguese line (FP)***         5  4/5   1 B2
OR Portuguese line (FP)****       5   5/6  1 B3 SK
OR other allies line (FP)*****      5   4/5   1 B2

0-1 Cavalry division of                 M VDU  I  D VD
1-2 heavy dragoons  (CP)******  8   5/6  2  B3
OR light dragoons  (CL)               12 3/4  1  B2
OR hussars  (CL)                          12 3/4  1  B2

Artillery attached of                     M VDU  I  D VD
0-1 medium batteries  F art        6   2      0 B1 artB
Or horse batteries  H art             10 2      0 B1 artB

* only one division can be fielded
** only one division can be fielded
*** represents early Portuguese line infantry 1808 to 1810.  must field one division
**** represents late Portuguese line infantry.  must field one division
***** represents all other allies. must attach a base to any division in the early campaign 1808 to 1810 if fielding all 3 divisions

This gives an army of a maximum of 9 bases smaller than the French, but generally historically correct. As the British found themselves out numbered.
The above is just a trial version of the army lists my own in ideas not official. I have left out the legendary Old Guard and the British Guards as I want to look a bit closer at these. I might not use them or limit there use. Feel free to change any of the above comment's and ideas always welcome.
Only 9 more bases for the French, I think I might have a go at some cavalry next.
hope you enjoyed
Till next time

On the work bench more Gallic warrior's

The last of the Gallic warrior's I could find in the bits box just enough for 4 more stands. A real mix of figures, some Essex Magistar and some I have no idea.

The Gallic warrior's a site to strike fear into any Roman

Well that's it for the Gallic's for know hope you have enjoyed
Till next time