A Black Powder battle

Last weekend, I provided figures and terrain for a game of Black Powder at a small local gaming group. They were enthusiastic beginners and I, who was supposed to demonstrate and teach the rules, hadnt played for a long time. Consequently, our grasp of the rules, especially close combats, was somewhat shaky at times. However, all four players were happy to try and, I think, became very much interested in delving deeper into Napoleonic gaming. The guys are experienced wargamers after all, having playing many other games such as for example Bolt Action before. It was not long before they understood the main mechanisms of play and things moved on at a good pace.

The game featured three brigades on each side, with the Russian army facing the Swedish army of Finland. Each brigade consisted of four battalions of infantry and a battery of 6- or 3-pounder artillery. I had recently finished enough artillery for both armies to have three batteries of two pieces each, including limbers. Each side also had two units of light cavalry, but these were kept outside of the brigades, acting independently. Infantry units consisted of 20–24 men, 16 for the jägers. The cavalry units were 9 men strong. All in all, the armies consisted of almost exactly 300 figures each.

Being fond of painting generals and colonels, I had enough commanders to have each brigade led by two mounted officers (generals and/or colonels) and each army led by an HQ vignette. In this way, each side represented roughly a complete division, which I was very happy about. The only small detail missing was drivers for one of the limber teams on the Swedish/Finnish side.

The brigades consisted of a mix of infantry and jägers. The Russians had five jäger battalions and the Finns had three. However, the Finnish jägers were equipped with rifled muskets, while the Russian jägers counted as having standard muskets, which probably evened things out. Special rules were minimized. Line infantry had standard stats, with no special rules and consequently identical on both sides. Jägers were given the skirmish and sharpshooters special rules to distinguish them. All cavalry had identical stats apart from the cossacks who counted as having lances, with a bonus for a first charge.

The hosts had an appropriately sized table, so that the playing area was approximately 240×180 cm. I was reasonably happy with how the terrain looked (I had brought everything except the grass mats in my car!). The Grand Manner windmill in particular looks huge besides the figures – and these are still 28mms! The other buildings were painted some time ago and while they looked fine at a distance, they could really use some more shading, highlighting and weathering. I had recently made more of the Scandinavian style fences (gärdesgårdar), but as I suspected, we really could have used a lot more of them! A section of the board featured a wooded area, which we kept open enough for jägers to enter. However, this never happened, and that part of the battlefield remained inactive. That could also be something to tweak somehow for future games.

The game was fought over three objectives: The first was the central crossroads, the second was the village/farmstead, and the third objective was the windmill.

The game itself ended with a Russian victory. We played a good number of turns (I dont remember exactly how many…), and when the game ended the Russians were in possession of two out of three objectives. One Finnish brigade had broken and was in retreat. Despite this, the game hung in the balance for quite a long while, with the Finnish 4th brigade fighting tenaciously before finally breaking. At the same time, the Russian left and center had suffered casualties, while the Finnish 3rd brigade on the right flank was still quite unscathed at the end of the game. The Russian cavalry had been repulsed on the far right; the Finnish cavalry had also taken casualties but managed to rout a Russian battery.

The positions towards the end of the game: the Finnish 4th brigade in the center has broken and mostly retreated, while the 3rd brigade has only just advanced to attack the Russian left flank. However, the Russians are in control of both the village and crossroads.

The game was great, and as we were four players, we divided up the command in proportion: one player commanding either two brigades or one brigade and a cavalry contingent. This is a great way of playing Black Powder. It was all a very enjoyable affair and hopefully, the players were given a taste of what Napoleonic wargaming is all about. We talked, amongst other things, about options for building armies, for example for the 1813 campaign, for which I also have some figures. We shall see what the future may bring.

Swedish 3-pounder limber

After much pondering, I have finally decided on an idea of how to model a Swedish 3-pounder artillery piece. I only have written descriptions of them, but they indicate what seems to me to be a setup which would have been old-fashioned by the eary 19th century. But then again, the 3-pounders used in 1808 were old, and the design for them was even older. There was a plethora of different models of artillery in the late 18th century, but one of the designs still in use was essentially the Cronstedt system, introduced in the late years of the Great Northern War, i e in the 1710s. Some changes and addition were made: the ammunition box on the limber was added and the old system of harnessing horses directly to the artillery piece when in action was dropped. The second change would not be visible on this model of course, but adding a ammunition chest was easily done. The model is based on two different Perry AWI light limber/artillery sets, with a couple of horses added from an Austrian Foundry set (if I remember correctly). I will add drivers to it, also based on figures from the Austrian set with new heads.

While this isnt a huge thing in itself, this particular limber was one of the last important elements missing from my Swedish/Finnish collection. So I am very happy to have finished it. Scratch building limbers is a particularly difficult project, especially when you dont really know how the pieces looked and there are no good proxies available. At the same time, having finished so much of my 1808 project, this piece was the very last last thing missing from my three Finnish brigades. The Russians now have three limbers of their own as well, so that things are coming together very nicely.

Warlord Games Japanese (old set)

During the holidays, I was able to grab a set of Warlord Games plastic WW2 Japanese. They were offered at quite a discount, as they are being replaced by a new set. I really like the old figures, and I already have several of the old metal sets, both infantry, officers and support weapons. A full Japanese platoon was larger than the platoons of many other nations, which means that the 30 man set will not provide enough figures on its own. Fortunately, the metal figures match this plastic set well.

I knew that this was a good set, as I had read one or two reviews before buying it. It is also pretty obvious that the Japanese are very similar to WG (old) plastic Russian set, which I also like very much. The detail is great, and with many options which make the set versatile.

Having looked more closely at the contents and assembled some of the figures, the first impression is confirmed. The details are very crisp, and the set is logically organized. I had some problems assembling the figures, but the problems are the same with other similar plastic sets: for example, the bipod support for the prone light machine gunner is very difficult to cut away from the sprue. I tried it twice with different knives, but the small piece broke in two, both times. I ended up gluing the piece back together and this worked well, even though it was fiddly. It has to be said that this and some other of the fine detail can require some patience and modelling experience to get through. As for the machine gun pieces, there are six of them, but you’ll only need one or two, especially if you are doing full sized Japanese squads. In fact, strictly speaking you dont need them at all, as there is an option to build up to six figures carrying the machine guns in an upright position as well – they dont suffer from the problem with the bipod.

The versatility of the set has a down side: some figures have to be assembled from as much as ten separate pieces. However, for me at least, I will be doing most of them as standard riflemen, which means body, head, arms, equipment pack and base. The equipment packs come as one piece and most of the arms come as a set of two arms holding a rifle. In other words, in most cases, the figures will be assembled from five pieces, including the base. This isnt too bad. Comparing this set to Warlord’s Russian set, which I have used a lot, the Japanese only get one prone figure per sprue, where the Russian set has two on each sprue. This is probably a good thing, as five prone figures is already really more than you need.

One feature of the Japanese platoons of WW2 is their use of several light mortars. As I understand it, a platoon would typically include three of them (this is not as strange as it may sound, I believe that the Soviets, for example, had two in the early part of the war).

This is reflected in the plastic set, which includes one mortar on each sprue, which will have you covered. However, the mortar arm seems only to fit well with one body (the one which is in a kneeling pose). It would have been even better if it had been possible to use the prone body with the mortar as well – as I hinted before, the prone bodies arent that useful apart from maybe one or two light machine gunners.

However, no set such as this will be perfect. I have seen many, including more recent ones, that are a lot worse. The WG SS infantry and the Wargames Atlantic Panzer Lehr both come to mind (if you are interested in partly used boxes of those figures, let me know…).

What I really like about these are the poses of the figures and the general sense of proportion. WG do figures which often tend towards the cartoony, caricaturesque. This is partly true here as well, but still sensible. They are much more reasonably proportioned and posed than many of their later figures. The newer set, which has now been recently released does not appeal to me at all – maybe mostly a personal preference, but true just the same.

Swedish Bolt Action championship

After stumbling across some Bolt Action players at the Army museum in Stockholm, I was able to make a late sign up for the Swedish BA championships which are held at the museum this weekend. Ill only fill in for a participant who is not able to make it to the games on day two, so my participation will only be that of a stand-in. Nonetheless, the tables look great and the guys have a perfectly positive attitude. Some seem to be more competitive players, but most are casual gamers, some of whom have just recently learned the rules. This is partly true for myself these days, as BA is now in its third edition, while I have hardly learned the changes that happened with second edition yet. It has been a while since I played the game at all – but the basics are simple and havent changed too much as far as I can tell. As I didnt play on the first day, I had time to take a few pictures and talk to the players in the morning morning – I hope I didnt distract them from the game too much.

In terms of armies, there was a slight over-representation of Germans among the participants. But there were also some more niche figures, such as East Indies Dutch and Japanese bicycle troops, both of which must be commended for their originality if nothing else! The organizers must also be applauded for their work in setting the tables (there were 13 of them!), many of which were very well prepared indeed. The organization seems to have been good over all, with well thought out scenarios and guidelines for players. The event also benefits from several sponsorships, which is great to see as well. The greatest resource however, was the sportsmanship among the players.

During day 2, I played two 1000 point games. I won the first and lost, badly, the second. The award for “Most heroic action” was appropriate for my Soviets, but was of course awarded for me filling in for a player who couldnt participate during day 2. Having seen the event this year, I am likely to sign up again in 2027. As there were surprisingly few British armies in the tournament, I might switch to using my dusty, old BEF figures next time around!

Russian commanders on foot

As a commander-in-chief vignette for my Russians, I have painted up some of the generals on foot from the Perry pack (no. 1 in their Russian range). These are slight overkill in terms of the 1808 Finland campaign, but there were several generals in action at the major battles, and possibly one or two adjutants. So they are not totally out of place. The figures are great, with an immense amount of detail. I could not resist putting some extra effort into the highlighting and detail work on them.

Russian officers in shako

As many readers will know, Russian officers in the early Napoleonic period seem to have worn bicornes (and they continued to do so to some extent until the end of the wars). However, after 1805, officers were allowed to wear a shako, and at least by 1807 there was a distinctive officer’s shako with an eagle ornament and decorative chin straps or chains. It is difficult to determine (for a non-Russian reader at least) to what extent this type of shako was adopted. There are some depiction of them at least, such as the one from the Vinhuijzen collection.

There are no miniatures that I know of with this headgear, so I decided to try to convert one. The conversion was very simple, I just swapped heads with an NCO model (both figures are by Brigade Games). I did two and they will make up officers for my musketeer skirmishers (mostly because I had surplus command figures). Although the conversion was straightforward, I did mess up. Halfway through painting, I dropped the Sevsk officer (turquise facings). The miniature fell head first and the glued on head came off… This is actually not an uncommon occurrence. I tend to drop figures regularly! It is also mostly quite easy to glue a head back into place and that turned out to be the case with this figure as well. What tends to happen is that there is a thin crack in the paint job where the head split from the body. In a best case scenario, this can be painted over. This worked for the Sevsk officer, although it took a few coats. I dont think it is very noticable if you dont look very closely…

Russian artillery and skirmishers

Cracking on with the last few pieces which I still need to round out a division of 1808 Russians.

The artillery is a mix of Perry and Warlord Games figures; the artillery pieces are Perry and Elite miniatures (I think?). The Elite and Perry 6-pounders look very similar, and as I happened to have enough models, I replaced the Warlord guns I had previously, as they look quite weird to be honest. The artillerymen are WG and Perry; the WG figures are very easy to convert, as they come with separate heads and have gaiter type false boots which are appropriate. The Perry figures needed a little more work (Ive described this in an earlier post). The heads on all the figures are from Brigade Games infantry. Four more figures need paint and Ill have three batteries of two guns each including limbers, which is the goal at the moment.

The jägers (of 26th and 24th regiments) are skirmish bases, with the goal being three bases per brigade. These bases can also be combined with the existing battalions to represent several smaller units, as the scenario or rules requires.

The idea with the musketeer skirmishers is similar. These cant be combined with the battalions, as those are in close order, marching. For that reason I will be doing one command base for each set of three skirmish bases. The skirmish bases can then be used either as skirmishers detached from the close order battalions, or as representing small independent companies or small patrols or pickets. This was a very common occurrence in Finland and features more or less in most battles Ive read about.

This use of command bases also turned out to be quite a good idea for a practical reason. I have a surplus of both drummers and officers for the Russian infantry. This is because the Brigade Games command pack consists of 2 flag bearering officers (ensigns), 2 officers, 2 drummers and 2 NCOs. Problem is that you need 2 flag bearers per battalion, but only 1 officer, 1 drummer (and 1 NCO, if you want him!). Having painted 7 (into the 8th) line battalions, needless to say, I have a big bag of left over officers and drummers. With a few surplus miniatures, I figured itd be nice and interesting to experiment with them a little. I have consequently converted a couple of officers to have shakos. Wearing shakos were in accordance with regulation for the Russian officers already at this time. However, many officers seem to have preferred the bicorne, and most miniature makers sculpt Russian officers with a bicorne, at least prior to 1812. The Brigade Games range of figures includes no officers in shako, either in their musketeer, grenadier or jäger packs. I dont know how common it was for officers to wear the shako – but Ill have a go at painting some anyway! As you can see, the goal here is to have 3×3 skirmish bases of musketeers just as with the jägers (the grenadiers, apparently, did not skirmish, probably due to their massive plumes…).

Russian artillery limber

A small step for the Russian 1808 collection. In fact, even though this is just one piece, limbers are always some of the most labor-intensive models that you would do for Napoleonic figures. This 6-pounder limber is the third I have done, which means I have one limber team for each brigade, two 6-pounders and one 3-pounder. Id like to do a 12-pounder battery with limber as well at some point. However, the 6-p team will do nicely as a stand in for a 12-p limber team until then – and I havent even started on the guns and artillerymen of the 12-pounders yet. 12-p teams were of six horses rather than four. However, I know that the Swedish army reduced the number of horses for their artillery during 1808. It would not be impossible to imagine that the Russians might have done the same, and actually used only four horses for the 12-pounders as well. In any event, Ill be quite pleased when I have finished the rest of the Russian artillery that I have prepared. I have about 10 crew and three cannon still to go. Having done the third limber team, the largest hurdle is now behind me.

The model is by Perry miniatures of course, with heads taken from Brigade Games line infantry. The model comes without the ropes which connect the limber to the horses. I added these with some string. This time I used some modelling string which I bought especially for the purpose. Previously, I have used regular kitchen string which worked just as well. Tying the strings to the model pieces is tricky, as the string has a tendency to unfurl at the edges. This is why the ropes look somewhat wonky here and there. I did the best I could, and it works well enough. But the connecting ropes were the reason I hadnt finished this model for so long. In more recently produced limber teams, the Perry bros have included connecting ropes with the model, which is a huge improvement. But even without those, the Perrys’ limber teams are probably the best on the market, and they have a wide selection of them as well. They havent produced a limber team for Swedish artillery yet, so I am lookin forward to that. In the meantime, I have used one of their Austrian sets. Ive also acquired their recent Danish limber team and will try to convert that into a Swedish team. The Swedes lack a third limber team, so that will be a priority project looking forward.

Chevaux de frise and gabions

Painting is quite slow at the moment, but I did finish some chevaux de frise and gabions. These are metal models made by League of Augsburg/Warfare miniatures https://www.leagueofaugsburg.com/

They are well detailed and were a fun detail to do. They are designed for the early 18th or 17th century, but these things changed very little and will work great for later periods as well. The gabions come as single pieces (packs of 6), with some extra stuff, like smaller gabions, packs of fascines, unfinished gabions etc. So the sets of three and the fascines over the top are my doing. Putting a pack of emtpy fascines over the top of the gabion was common apparently (something I picked up from some googling).

I was fortunate enough to receive some extra gabion pieces which were slightly miscast – these turned out to be very useful. Some of them were shorter in height, which looked great in some of the combinations I did, so that the miscasts were, in a way, more useful than more of the standard pieces would have been!

I should particularly mention League of Augsburg, who of course do a range of absolutely excellent figures for the war of the Spanish Succession/Great Northern War (and related conflicts). I have some of the figures and will have to dig them up and continue painting them at some point, hopefully rather soon (so far Ive only test painted one or two). Its difficult with all these beautiful miniatures and all the projects you really want to do but dont have the time for…