Ral Partha LotR 25mm

Uruk Hai. All figures in the following posts are marked 'Ral Partha 1976' on the bottom.

Goblins!

Mordor orcs with axe.

Ral Partha LotR 25mm

Wargs and rider. Unfortunately he's the last of his kind.

Mordor orcs w/ scimitar.

Another sculpt of Mordor orcs.

'Sea Elves'. Since I was the 'evil' player, I painted them in dark colors.

Ral Partha LotR 25mm

Balrog.

Dwarves of Moria.

More dwarves.

Somehow I ended up with 1 unpainted 'wood elf'.

For scale.

Almost the Berezina, Part Une

JM Seman, Jim Naughton and I played a game of DBN very loosely based on the crossing of the Berezina River. The OOB's were taken from Nafziger's Napoleon's Invasion Of Russia' just because I think it would be a great situation to wargame. I didn't have time to try to work out balance or VC; I just tried to put together forces of a similar point value. JM, not fully indoctrinated into the DBx life (yet), eschewed the typical 'felt' terrain and set up a very nice playing area using a map from Nafziger's book. JM, pictured here, took the French, while Jim and I divvied up the Russkies.

Looking from the Russian left. JM split his meager cavalry forces on each flank, while the bulk of the Russian cavalry set up on the Russian right where there was more maneuver room. Note the Guard artillery battery on the far side of the river. A seemingly good idea, but the battle soon took the forces out of range.

From behind the Russian lines. Before you comment, yes, we used some proxies for the troops! You may notice Polish Horse artillery standing in for Russian in this pic.

Ouviller's Polish Brigade and Kleingel's Saxons.



The Russians attempt to take the fight to the French. Control of the heights in the center would be crucial. If the Russians could unlimber their artillery atop the hill, the bridges would be in jeopardy! (If we had bridges and situational VC.)

Almost the Berezina, Part Dueauxeaux

The Russian Hussars get lucky and the Hessian Chevaulegers are no more. The Russian infantry column is almost out of the woods. (Those woods are stinking with cossacks!)

Charge!!!!! The Russian Cuirassiers charge into Damas' Brigade of Berg infantry and some lowly Baden Hussars. However, even with the limited charge distance, the Berg infantry rolls well and forms square, ready to repulse the charge. In the foreground, swarms of cossacks wait to overwhelm the survivors.

The charge is repulsed with losses. The Russians have recoiled and taken at least one hit each. The Berg infantry has done their job.

So, here's a look at the final positions. Unfortunately time ran out (the store closed) before either side could claim satisfaction. In the foreground, Hochberger's Baden regiments, along with the Baden Jager battalion square off against the Russian Hussars. The Russians on this end were plagued with low CAP rolls and a stingy, greedy CinC who wouldn't give us any and left us to die. (Historically, the Russian commanders did not get along. Jim's CinC'c CAP die rolls were not great either.) In the middle, the Saxons continue their advance and the fight rages over the heights on the far end.

It's potentially a great situation for a well balanced scenario. Each side had about 7000 infantry with the Russians having a 4-1 advantage in cavalry and a 2-1 advantage in artillery, but most of the French forces were elite. With Jim's expertise in Napoleonic OOB's and combat mechanics and JM's acumen in balancing a situation, I think we may be able to put together something publishable. We'll see.

DBR: Scots Covenanters vs. Low Country Spanish Part I

Jim Naughton and I sat down to play a 5oo point DBR game pitting my Scots Covenanters versus his Low Country Spanish. I won the terrain and put out a few hills on my side and a woods. Then Jim placed an even higher hill right in the center of the table and blocking the lines of sight from the other hills, so I was forced to set up on the tall center hill which meant I was already half way across the table. Not knowing what he had, and he getting to set up second, I was unsure how to proceed. What I finally decided was to put my small artillery command in the center flanked by the two halves of my main pike and shotte line. In this way, I could protect them and extend my line even further to the ends of the table. My attack wing would sweep up the end of his line and if he sent a counter attack that direction I had an ambush of some Highlander warbands in the woods. It was a great plan except that it was an illegal set-up. I could not place one command within the confines of another to start. I could have put the artillery on the hill and the main line behind it, then marched half to each side, but I was feeling bad for delaying the start

so I just moved the artillery to the flank and decided it would be a quick game as I essentially sacrificed one command out of three. (I was too tired to think straight, not that that excuses me much anyway. I had put together the army at about 2:30am when I couldn't sleep and did a piss poor job of it. I knew it but was too tired to care much.) The first pic is of Jim's army deployed for battle.

A shot of the bristling pike and shot line of the Scots! The figs are Museum Miniatures and I got most of them during their $.20 sale last summer. I should have bought more!

My attack wing, or so I thought. My second line of lancers and dragoons and half the shot will have to be redeployed to save my left flank.

As described, my artillery hangs in the open as the Spanish head for them like sprinters at some Renaissance Olympics.

DBR: Scots Covenanters vs. Low Country Spanish Part II

Great Gadzooks! Highlanders with guns! For an army with 47 different words for 'drinking till you puke', is this really a good idea?

The cavalry to the rescue! Scots lancers and dragoons March Move to prevent a total rout of the Scots left. The Forlorn Hope can be seen dirtying their knickers as the Spanish column advances. At least their general has decided to fall on hos sword with them and moves out in the hopes his dead body will slow down Spanish horses.

Highlander pike flanked on both sides by lowlander shot.

Poor buggers. The shot assigned to help protect the artillery become unwittingly (unwillingly?) a Forlorn Hope and try to act as a speed bump for the Spanish cavalry. They did manage to hold on long enough, but made the ultimate sacrifice!

The Spanish line was broken somewhat by Scottish shot as they approached the hill. Eventually though, they would cause a headache on the extreme left of the Scots line as they had to repeatedly peel off shot to deal with the enemy. It could have compromised the entire Scottish position but luckily they held on long enough for the reinforcements to arrive.