First Things First: But What Comes First?

What First?

As I sit at home, watching our nation's Capitol assaulted by insurrectionists and unable to do anything materially about it, I need some sort of distraction. So, I'm thinking about what wargame projects to start the year off with from my list of possibilities. Two spring to mind.

Et Sans Resultat

One member of the ESR Facebook group has invited the rest of us to a painting challenge. Set one goal for January 2020, whatever you like, and carry it through.

Seeing as I've had a pile of 6mm figures for the 1815 campaign waiting for my attention for some time, I decided to make a start on them with one discrete unit, the Brunswick Corps. This roughly divisional-sized unit consisted of troops from the Duchy Of Brunswick, a close ally of Great Britain. The corps was originally raised in 1809 as a frei-korps, a mixed-arms force, and served with the Austrian army against Napoleon until Austria was defeated. The corps marches across Germany to the coast and was evacuated by the British Royal Navy. Reorganized into two battalions of light troops, the Brunswickers then served in the Spanish Peninsula under Wellington and acquitted themselves well. In 1815, a much larger force was raised to serve with the British in the Low Countries. The horse, foot, and artillerymen of the corps were attired all in black, as they had been in 1809, in mourning for the duke's father, killed at the battle of Jena in 1806. Here's a nice selection of their infantry uniforms, borrowed from the Waterloo in 20mm blog.

The corps consisted of an advanced guard battalion of skirmishers and riflemen (who wore Austrian-jaeger-style uniforms of pike grey with "Corsican" hats instead of the other infantry's black uniforms and shakos), an infantry lifeguard battalion, three light infantry battalions, three line infantry battalions, two batteries of artillery, and units of hussars and uhlans. Here's a nice illustration of parts of the corps in action at Quatre Bras, also borrowed from Waterloo in 20mm.

Each of the battalions and batteries will get a unit in my ESR Brunswick formation. The cavalry will be represented by 3 stands of hussars and one of uhlans. And the duke will be there as formation commander. They get rounded out with a caisson to act as formation reserve area marker. Here's a shot of all the troops with their bases, with a white basecoat on.

Project Egypt: Naval Landing Forces

The new edition of the Black Powder rulebook has a pile of new scenarios in it, one of them the 1814 battle of North Point, on the outskirts of Baltimore, not far from where I live.

I know that one of my friends got a box of British Waterloo troops for Christmas, and I know that another has been finishing up some Maryland militia from just this very campaign. So, I'm hoping we can all pool our forces for a game, either via Zoom or, someday, in person. To that end, I looked at what else is needed for that scenario, and there's two battalions and several companies of Royal Marines and a Royal Navy landing party needed. I have Royal Marine and Royal Navy figures that I got for Project Egypt, so those will be my first contributions to the battle of North Point. Here's a sergeant of the Royal Marines, illustrated by master military artist Don Troani, image borrowed from the W Britain website, where Troiani's prints are sold.

In addition, the battle of North Point involves a company or more of the 2nd Corps of Colonial Marines. This interesting corps, like Dunmore's Ethiopians during the American Revolution, was raised in America by recruiting enslaved African people. They served along the Atlantic coast during the War of 1812; after the war, they were disbanded. The wise and/or fortunate members resettled in Bermuda; the less fortunate tried to set up a small town of free Black farmers in Spanish Florida but were later attacked and either killed or driven out by Americans. Here's a handsome Don Troiani illustration of a Colonial Marine, also from the W Britain website.

Wargaming Thoughts for 2021

Welcome 2021! Same as 2020?

Back in May of last year, I speculated about a variety of wargaming projects that I might engage in during the coming year. I listed seven possibilities for new things I might explore along with seven new things I was going to do my best to resist and about twenty neglected projects that I hoped to do something about. 

To the surprise of no one who (a) knows me or (b) has observed how COVID lockdowns have affected various people, I got nowhere with any of these seven possibilities, did avoid spending money on the seven others (though I thought a lot about them), and didn't really address any of the neglected projects. After all, why work on hobbies when you can lie about drinking tea and watching old British police procedurals on the telly? I read a good deal of history and historical fiction and daydreamed a good deal about gaming all of the conflicts I was reading about. But that's mostly as far as it got.

So, although I don't have a good track record with or even much expectation of "resolutions" (New Years or any other sort), I've been trying to focus at least a little on 2021 and what I might do.

Wrapping Up Kleiner Feldzug 1757

What I did, in fact, spend a lot of time on in 2020 was running a game of Sam Mustafa's Kleiner Feldzug, his quick-and-dirty map game that comes with Might & Reason, his Seven Years War miniatures rules. It's been entertaining (sometimes) and frustrating (for some players), and I have a feeling that it may be drawing to a close. It has four more turns to run, and we may play out all of those turns, but I don't think that the map game or the miniatures rules have been a big hit. M&R is easier to run via Zoom than some other games I can think of, but it has some shortcomings and is, like a lot of the author's games, a broad brush where many players would like to be able to make somewhat finwer strokes.

Whither Frederick?

The end of this campaign won't end my interest in the Seven Years War, but I need to do a good deal more reading before I launch into something specific. I have a set of rules that I think may hold promise for big battles, and I have Carnage & Glory and Black Powder for small to medium-sized battles, depending on whether I want a more detailed or a more fast-play game.

Carl Rochling: The Battle of Zorndorf

Et Sans Resultat and Other Napoleonics

I have been a fan of this big-battle Napoleonic rules set for some time now, including running it (with my buddy The Attorney) at conventions and at our club. I have a load of 6mm figures I bought to paint up as 1815 armies, and I need to get working on that. I think 6mm is the way I plan to go with ESR.

I have a substantial number of 15mm Napoleonics. I rebased a large number of Austrians in 2019 to play ESR, but a suitable ground scale to play ESR in 15mm requires a LOT of tabletop. I'm debating whether to leave them as they are or rebase them (again) for Carnage & Glory and Black Powder.

On top of which, I know that some of my friends who are dipping their toe into Napoleonic wargaming are looking to build some 28mm armies. I have a number of 28mm figures that I bought thinking I might use them for a super-tactical game, if I could find one I liked. I never have, and I don't currently have the bandwidth to write a set, so I'm thinking of building up some 28mm forces to play Black Powder, which are among the most popular "fast and fun" rules around and which I find the least objectionable.

Antoine-Jean Gros: Bataille d'Aboukir, 25 Juillet 1799

Egypt, Big Time

I've been in love with almost all of the Perry Brothers' 28mm miniatures lines for ages, and last year in a fit of madness I splurged on a huge boxful of their Napoleonic French in Egypt line. 

After the French invaded in 1798, there were battles between their army and the rather splendidly costumed Mameluke rulers of Egypt, but I’m skipping those. Partly because the Mameluke armies were huge and mostly cavalry and I can’t face painting that many horses. 

But mostly because, no offense intended to the Mamelukes, they are really boring and pointless battles. 

Warfare, especially in the 18th and early 19th century, is like playing rock-scissors-paper repeatedly. Infantry, cavalry, artillery: each has its strengths and weaknesses in comparison to the other. At first one arm gets an advantage, then your opponent uses a different arm and gets the advantage. Tactics is knowing which troops to use, and when, and how. The person who does that best, with some added factors, wins.

And with their almost-all-cavalry army, the Mamelukes essentially played rock-scissors-paper by repeatedly playing paper, paper, paper, paper. The French formed their infantry into big boxes, with all the men facing outwards, places for the artillery at the corners, and their cavalry inside the box, ready to charge out, fresh and undamaged, once the enemy got tired. The Mamelukes couldn’t fight their way into the squares, but they didn’t stop trying as long as they had fresh units. To mix metaphors, when all you have is a hammer, they say, everything looks like a nail. But if the “nail” is really a patch of sand, at some point you just get tired of hammering it and achieving nothing.

That and painting all those bloody horses...

Phillip James de Loutherbourg: The Landing of British Troops at Aboukir, 8 March 1801

So instead of Mamelukes, Project Egypt is going to be recreating the battles between the French and the British. Who, per usual, took until the better part of three years to assemble a force to try and drive the French out of the Middle East. The preliminary French forces I’m building are to represent Friant’s attempt to defeat the British as they landed at Abu Qir Bay. And the British represent the amphibious assault forces of Lt Gen Sir Ralph Abercromby. I’ll start with the landing and, if I actually accomplish that much, will move on to the later battles. Of course, before the lobsterbacks can get ashore, someone needs to secure the landing grounds. There will be sailors and marines and lovely, lovely boats to bring the soldiers ashore from the transports. Then five battalions of infantry with an uncharacteristically (for Brits) varied selection of headgear.