September 2011 - Page 2 of 3 - War Games Holiday Centre

The Gerona battle looked to be a tough one for the Spanish, whenever we use the Spanish we adopt slightly different rules to reflect their somewhat unreliable nature in this period. During this campaign, they would bahave as second class line and have line morale, the downside is that they only use two d6 instead of the usual 3d6.

a href=”http://www.wargameshc.co.uk/?attachment_id=2715″ rel=”attachment wp-att-2715″> The Spanish at Gerona

The Spanish deploy for the battle in Gerona.

The majority of the Spanish on display here are from Front Rank Miniatures, I have to say the faces and the detail on the figures makes them a real pleasure to paint.

French troops flood onto the plain.

The troops here are a mix of ranges, including Connoisseur, Bicorne and Elite Miniatures. The French were very aggressive from the off in this battle, pummelling the weaker Spanish Artillery and driving forward en-masse.

Spanish Line Cavalry from the Front Rank Minatures, these are from the collection of Philip Marshall.

The fighting was fierce, the Spanish conducting themselves quite respectfully. Their cavalry were operating as line troops, however they suffered a minus 3 for Morale and Breakthrough. This makes them a somewhat fragile force that is unlikely to initiate charges or break formed infantry.

Here is a squadron of the Villaviciosa Dragoons, these are again from the Front Rank stables, lovely!

The battle raged for something like nine hours, with the Spanish finally quitting the field, leaving a battery of their artillery and around six battalions dead on the field. The cavalry then managed to cover the retreat toward the North, along the coast, Barcelona and Gerona were now in French hands however and the Jubta’s army began to dissolve! Tarragona was the only town left in Spanish hands in the Catalonian province.

A regiment of Spanish Lancers, again Front Rank Miniatures!

There’s quite a range of Spanish within the Front Rank Miniatures range, they have twenty Guerrilla figures alone. All the Line infantry, cavalry and Artillery are also covered. One small seslction in their vast catalogue. I fully recommend them.

Well the Peninsular campaign week came to an end yesterday with two historical battles being fought over no less than two times each! The initial moves on the map saw the French come out of the starting blocks very aggressively. The Spanish armies in the North taking the brunt of the assault first.

Spanish Heavy Cavalry from the collection of Philip Marshall.

The initial skirmishes were fought off the table, awaiting a significant battle. Well we didn’t have to wait long. The first actions were at Gerona and Cuidad Rodrigo. The British army under Sir John Moore attacked the French just north east of Cuidad Rodrigo, while the army of Catalonia engaged Marshal Victors corps at Gerona.

The forces are deployed for the Battle of Cuidad Rodrigo

Some of the beauty of the Wargames Holiday Centre is the size of the playing area, as I had two seperate battles needing to be fought at once, I seperated the tables into two distinct battlefields and divided the players.

Spanish Artillery deploy for action, these are some of the fine designs from Front Rank miniatures.

On one hand the Battle of Gerona and the other with the Battle of Cuidad Rodrigo, the British had pinned the French within the fortress and pushed on toward Salamanca, after a while the French moved north west to cut their lines od communication, forcing the British to fall back toward Cuidad Rodrigo.

The French begin deployment for the battle of Cuidad Rodrigo.

The British army under Moore was looking for support from the SPanish Junta in the region, but they had not appeared, the French however had managed to get two of their Corps under St. Cyr and Lefebvre into position, so the scene was set for a real dust up!

Meanwhile up to the North West the army of Catalonia had attempted to cut supply lines from Perpignon, the force of Marshal Victor moved on Barcelona and drove the garrisoning division north toward Gerona. The Catalonian were coming back south and the two met just south of Gerona

The table for Gerona fully deployed out for the battle from the French side.

On the French side at Gerona there were 30+ battalions of infantry, eight regiments of cavalry and six batteries of artillery.

The table for Gerona fully deployed out for the battle from the Spanish side.

On the Spanish side there were 40+ battalions of infantry, four batteries of artillery and eight regiments of Cavalry.

More tomorrow

Today I would like to run a bit of a spotlight on the more recent work that Doug Mason has done for the Wargames Holiday Centre.

This was taken during the Anniversary game of Waterloo earlier this year.

Over the years Doug had probably created thousands of his masterpieces for the W.H.C. more recently he’s been doing private commissions for a select few however when I met up with the man at Mike’s funeral I git talking to him about what I wanted to do with the Centre and how I wanted Waterloo to be a show piece.

Into the French Cuirassier, all these models were converted and painted by Doug.

It’s fair to say that without hesitation Doug offered to create one of his specials, I needed to replace the Dutch and Belgian cavalry, so one of the three regiments I was looking into seemed an obvious choice.

Trumpeter view here, showing how he’s built the trumet from fuse wire and solder, fantastic!

The manufacturer we chose was Connoisseur Miniatures, partly because there figures lend a lot to Doug’s talent with the soldering iron and a lot of nostalgia for both Doug and I.

Here’s another view of the squadron, horses tumbling and the poses of the figures animating the charge!

The Belgian Chevau Leger, or Light Dragoons were the regiment of choice and I think you’ll agree, they have come out magnificently. There’s not one figure in the thirty two man regiment that is like the original.

More action at Waterloo, this squadron got lucky and managed to get into the battery at 50%, well two squadrons to start.

To start with there is only an Officer and trooper in the catalogue, partly I guess because the trumpeter would have the trumpet slung while moving or charging, which let’s face it is where we want most of regiments to be. Connoisseur offer a whole host of accotrememts for finials, eagles, trumpets and backpacks etc.

Charging into the Guard Lights. Again all the miniatures here have been painted and converted by Doug.

So you can make the trumpeter fairly easily, then paint in the reverse colours. The standard bearer is a matter of cutting the sword away and drilling and pinning the pole in place.

The Standard Bearer can be seen in the foreground here.

I know, I know, I make it sound easy and trust me when you watch Doug work with this, it does look easy! Until you try it! Every figure in this regiment is an individual, every base tells it’s own story, Doug does this with such panache! I never tire of looking at his work!

The good news, well the great news is that Doug is thinking of releasing his own range of specials! Watch this space, I’ll be the first in the queue to buy some!

The Talavera weekend has now been changed to two single days of Waterloo, this offers new groups for each day.

Old Guard

The original weekend was booked out for a group however due to unforeseen circumstances they have had to postpone until the New Year.

So I’m taking the opportunity to try a different format, due to the popularity of Waterloo I’m hosting two single day events. Saturday and Sunday, each day will begin at 09.00 and finish around 19.00. This means that you guys with family duties can take a day out rather than the whole weekend. You can of course take the opportunity to play both days and I am happy to arrange B&B for those requiring it.

The price is £75 per day.

More shots of the Aspern Game.

More action in the western boundary of Aspern

The Middle Guard try in vain to stem the tide of Austrian assaults, this action was denied any support as the French morale began to break down, that and three ones twice didn’t help!

The French Guard Cavalry move in to stop the advance.

These were thrown into the maelstrom with some initial success, however the routs and the outnumbering soon began to tell!

Austrian infantry begin to pour through Aspern.

The writing was on the wall here, the French were either pinned or routing in full flight!

The Austrians occupy the Church of Aspern, the following two turns proved decisive for them.

These were the final moves of Aspern Essling, the troops of the French Empire were now giving ground, the Austrians had won the day!

Tomorrow I’ll be running a spotlight on some of the new work Doug Mason has been doing for the Wargames Holiday Centre.

Last month the Battle for Arnhem bridge was refought at the Wargames holiday Centre. Using the Flames of War rules, I needed just a few more battalions added to the collection.

Command squad, with radio and Glider Pilots.

Browsing the internet, looking specifically for British Airborne I came across these figures from TQD Castings. The images on the website showed some really animated, beautifully painted models, with plenty of poses and just the right weaponry I was looking for!

Command squad.

I needed Piats and engineer types along with sub machine gunners for the Glider Pilot battalion.

More of the TQD Casting Paras in the town of Arnhem.

The figures have slotta base style bases, which for me mean’t a little work in fitting them to my marine ply bases, let me tell you it was worth it. I clipped the metal slot off the bottom, then with the aid of a little putty and superglue stuck them in position.

Close up of a Glider Pilot squad.

Glider Pilot squad.

Painting the figures was straight forward, the denison smocks had a base coat of brown, then two colours of mid green and beige for the camo. The webbing was a lighter brown and then army painter. Job done!

Another close up.

The detail on these sculptures is second to none, this really lends itself to the use of things like Army painter as this enhances anything like this, the light camo was toned down, while the webbing was picked out!

To give you an idea of how these combine with other ranges, the figure at right back is an SHQ para.

The Piat teams come in two poses, there’s a team firing in a prone position and another on the move. Unfortunately the prone ones didn’t make the table for the game, so ours all show advancing teams. I have to say again, they look fantastic on the bases, if only I had the time to get the prone teams done as well, just not enough hours in the day!

I also used the figures for the engineer detachments, there are a number of anti tanl figures besides the Piats.

The engineer company was represented by the type of figure with the gammon bombs and large grenades.

I have some great figures covering the Russian front as well, in the shape of some NKVD officers, look out for them at Prokhorovka!