Little Wars and Borodino

I attended Little Wars Friday and Saturday this year. The show looked great with lots of attendees, many really great looking games, and the usual solid vendor area support.

I ran my Borodino game on Friday night (5pm - 9pm) and Saturday (10am - 2pm).

FRIDAY
Friday night's game was fully attended (6 players + 1 last minute add-in). The battle started in the south between the Russians and the Poles near Utitza. The French player was very aggressive and pushed the Russians back with heavy losses.
They then opened fire with the grand battery on the fleches, and launched a large-scale infantry assault in the center led by Davout.

The French attack quickly overran the first two fleches, but the Russians immediately counter-attacked and re-took them. The French then fed in more troops and drove the Russians back out. The casualties mounted, especially for the Russians. It started looking like the French players were going to break the Russian army quickly.

The Grand Redoubt (Reavsky)

The only unit on the table that I painted and based from scratch.

The Russians then launched a massive counter-attack capped by a 'Glorious Charge' card. The two units that charged were Dragoons and Cuirassier. They drove back the remaining infantry and over-ran the entire Grand Battery. This startled the French players, who thought that they were going to cruise to an easy victory. After a few more turns, the French were able to win, but the final score was 14 Russian units eliminated (14 needed for the win), and 11 French units eliminated (out of 13 needed).  Very close game and fun. All players seemed to have had a good time.

SATURDAY
The game on Saturday was both similar and very different from Fridays. The French team started out by inflicting many casualties on the Russians and opened up a huge lead that looked insurmountable. However, the fighting raged on both flanks instead of the center. The Cossacks led by Uvarov in the North charged across the stream just West of Borodino and were violently repulsed. In the South, the battle swayed back and forth around the Utitza mound, but the Russians took the lion-share of the losses.  By the time that the action died down and the two sides separated from each other to regroup, the French only needed to inflict 2 more unit losses on the Russians to win, and the Russians still needed to inflict 10.
Then things started to turn around:
An artillery dual began in the center with the Russians getting the best of it. Their guns were nestled safely in the fleches and on the high ground behind them while the French Grand Battery was in the open.
The French commander decided that it was time to launch his attack up the middle to finish the battle. The stream running in front of the fleches slowed the advance down just enough to allow the Russian artillery to rake the French ranks and break up the orderly formation.
The French pressed on, sensing that the Russians were bled white and on the verge of collapse. In truth, however, the Russians were ready and waiting with a powerful counter-attack. As the French attack flowed around the fleches in an attempt to close with the Russians, the Russians met them with a powerful combined-arms attack that drove the French back and crushed their will to continue the fight. The Russians had pulled off a miracle comeback and won the battle!

Credits:
Figures are Perry, Front Rank, and Foundry

Painting:
Russians by the esteemed Scott MacPhee
French: Mostly Fernando, some by Paxx88 and Artmaster Studios, and a few by me
French Allies: Paxx88, Artmaster Studios, Roger Murrow

Basing: Scott MacPhee, Paul Niemeyer, me

Assistant game judge: Paul Niemeyer (Thanks Paul!)


Here are a few of the highlights from Friday's games (My phone ran out of power on Saturday before I could snap some more...The Alamo and Omaha Beach games were unbelievable!):

Little Wars was fun as always. I am so thankful that there is a show like this so close to home.

Keith Rocco Paintings

Keith Rocco, IMHO, is the preeminent Napoleonic artist working today.  I was lucky enough to work with Keith on my board game Napoleon in Europe back in 2001.  I licensed one of his paintings for the cover, and his sketches for the manual.

As e talked, we discovered that other than our love of history, we had a couple of things in common:
* We had both lived in the western suburbs of Chicago (Keith moved to Virginia many years ago, but still comes back here from time to time).
* We had a common friend: Paul Niemeyer. Paul did the map and card art for Napoleon in Europe, as well as most art for Eagle Games.

Over the years I've collected several of Keith's prints, three of which hang in my office. I have always wanted to own an original, and so almost a year ago I approached Keith about doing two small paintings of Napoleonic soldiers.

He finished my paintings today and sent me photographs.

Well, to say that I love them is an understatement!  They are perfect.

 French Dragoon

French Chasseur


I feel very lucky to have these in my collection and will enjoy them for many, many years.

Bavarians

Here are the sausage eaters. ;-)

4th Regiment (Salern)
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

5th Regiment (von Preysing)
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

1st Regiment (Lieb)
Front Rank Miniatures
Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

Chevau Leger (Thurn und Taxis)
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

Bavarian Artillery
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

I really like the Bavarian uniforms and raupenhelm helmets. The cornflower blue for the infantry is also very interesting.  All-in-all, some of my favorite units on the table.

Saxons

Here are the Saxon Units:

Saxon Musketiers

Westfalia Miniatures

Painted by Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

 

 

 Saxon Grenadiers
Calpe Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studio

 Saxon Musketiers
Calpe Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

 Zastrow Cuirassiers
Eureka Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

Saxon Garde du Corps
Eureka Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studios

Grand Duchy of Warsaw

Here are the units that I have for the Grand Duchy of Warsaw:

 Fusiliers
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Voltigeurs
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Fusiliers
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studio

 Fusiliers
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Grenadiers
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 Chasseurs
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 8 lb Gun
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

 12 lb Gun
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

 Hussars
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Paxx88 (Darren Smith)

 Uhlans
Murawski Miniatures
Painted by Roger Murrow

Uhlans
Front Rank Miniatures
Painted by Artmaster Studio

I really like the miniatures from both Murawski  as well as Front Rank, and these sculpts make excellent units.

The paintwork on them is excellent as well. All three painters do an incredible job.

French Allies: Vistula Legion Poles

I have been building out my French Allies so that I can fight battles from 1812 - 1813.  The project is finally complete.  I'll post a few units per day over the next few weeks.

The first up are the Vistula Legion Fusiliers and Uhlans.

These figures are part of the excellent Murawski Miniatures line, and were painted by Roger Murrow.

I just received them yesterday and based them today so they don't have their lances yet.