Weekend games planned for 2022

A lot of the inertia in posting on this blog in January and February was due to being involved with several wargaming buddies on what we could do at my den in Oakridge,  Gloucestershire this year as special events. It required a lot of emails, ideas, trials with game scales on paper, sketch maps , discussion of orbats /game balance etc and me doing formal maps from which to make customised table tops.  And we were supposed to be getting free of COVID weren't we?  So we tried to make games that will maximise the numbers we can invite. As we found in our 2015 Waterloo games -  in the space available that is  about 4 aside per day plus a couple of umpires.

Then the Ukraine crisis hit the World and we went into a temporary limbo; some of our friends are working long hours in the defence/security fields and we have to wonder still if we can go ahead as planned. But we can't let Mr Putin's desires stop us (yet!) so we are just carrying on planning and hoping for the best. So what are we doing?

The first weekend game is in late April and Ken Marshall is getting out his  Red/White/Blue Imagi-nation armies for our delight. Here are a few photos from what he laid on about 9 months ago - the battle of Stadl an der Mur. All the figures seen here are from Ken's super collection of 28mm Minden, Crann Tara and Fife and Drum miniatures.   

This year, as I have given him a clean slate Ken has come up with a sketch map and description which I have turned into this Photoshop map for a sculpted 8 feet x 6 feet terrain for his Battle of Madling

Ken says 

"The game is best described as a 1750s imagi-nation game. Saturday will involve light troops in an encounter type battle leading to a general engagement by the main armies. Depending on how the light troops get on, elements of the main armies may be involved late on Saturday but we'll know that on the day."  

The main battle is expected to take place on the Sunday. So we can accommodate a few players on the first day and more on the next. Rules, as usual, will be "Honours of War" and Ken may be supplementing his own collection from mine and those of Paul B so it should be a pretty sight. I'm hoping my Hanoverians will make an appearance as something!

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After that I'm giving myself a bit of a holiday and then I shall have an informal 18th Century game with Willz Harley who is coming to visit Oakridge for the first time in June. Willz is kindly giving me a lift on to the Wild Geese weekend at Kenilworth where he is putting on one of his fun games with, I believe, his superb collection of Spencer Smith 30mm 18th century figures.  One other treat talked about for that weekend was many of us sharing parts of our armies to refight the "iconic" classic Charles Grant wargame of Mollwitz.  We shall see......

Not long after that I shall have to get into making up the 12 feet x 6 feet table for the major game of the year.......

WATERLOO - D'Erlon's Assault on Mont Saint Jean

As I intimated late last year on this blog "JP" of Youtube fame is staging his own variation on the General d'Armee scenario of what some may consider the core activity of the Battle of Waterloo. In early afternoon on 18th June 1815, preceded by a bombardment of the grand battery of 80 guns, General D'Erlon, advanced with his I Corps up the long slope to Mont St Jean, only to be swept away by the Union Brigade of Heavy Cavalry and Picton's British infantry.

Obviously I am horribly over simplifying and we have come up with an extended scenario taking the section of the battlefield from just beyond La Haye Sainte across to the farms of Papelotte and La Haye so we can include the KGL Rifle battalions,  Life Guard cavalry, Cuirassiers, Hanoverians and Nassauers and the right flank French Cavalry Division. JP reckons there will be around 3000 Perry 28mm miniatures available over the three days we have to do the game in mid August. The vast majority will come from JP's own collection and Kevin East will add some of his too; JP bought a lot of Kevin's figures which followers of this blog will recall from our own Waterloos at 1:3 scale and Quatre Bras (see side bar links for a reminder). It will be fun to see them in such numbers on my table again.

Here is the table map I have come up with to help me make the terrain and for JP and Kevin to work out the scenario.

Apart from sculpting all the terrain, I have promised to make a scratch-built La Haye Sainte as we could not find something suitable ready-made as a compromise for the footprint in this scale. Should be fun and hopefully I can give some "how-to" tips on this blog in the Summer.

Here are a couple of the photos JP sent me while he was setting out his French infantry to test the frontage of most of D'Erlon's Divisions

If you want to get much more on this and hear from the man himself JP has put a very nice video on YouTube of his set up trial Preparing for this Summer's big game.

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Last year we had a very good outing with Guy's Jacobites at his "what-if" Battle of Brampton in November 1745.  Some reminders of that game:

Guy has since been painting more Highlanders and has uncrossed his eyes from tartan painting long  enough to give me his ideas on a scenario. To be fair he was limited in choice as I will have the 12 x 6 Waterloo terrain made and won't have enough time to do anything other than adapt it by the time of our mid-September two-day Jacobite game.

He has put it in the context of the next stage of his fictitious Jacobite rebellion. It is about the very end of 1745 and the Jacobite Army has reached Northamptonshire. Guy reckoned we could adapt Waterloo to the Althorp Estate just North of Northampton city.  I did some research on Google Earth and ground level photos for inspiration and he researched the history of the house and gardens.

This is what it is like nowadays

All very inspiring except that it turns out this lot was built around 1780. The 1746 buildings would have been the preceding dwelling and stables based on brick and half timbered construction. So I've got to do a bit of scratch building/card download conversion. The gardens were still formal but in a different place.  So I scratched my head a bit, took some ideas from Guy's brief and came up with this:

I'm really looking forward to seeing this one come together - only trouble is I'll have somehow to convert mid June Belgium into mid-Winter in Northamptonshire! Browner rather than green........and maybe a dusting of white stuff?

Guy has already put a lot of effort into the background thinking, he has about 2000 figures for us to use and has provided this foretaste for you, my beloved readers:

Synopsis of the run up to the Battle of Althorp

 

"This is the next battle in my fictitious Jacobite campaign. The Jacobite’s have successfully managed to evade the Duke of Cumberland and his forces which were mustered at Stone in Staffordshire. The Jacobite’s reached Derby and were having a council of war on 5^th December 1745. Just before a decision was made to withdraw to Scotland a mud splattered messenger arrived with the startling news that a French expeditionary force had successfully managed to evade the Royal Navy and had landed at Boston in Lincolnshire.  Now much as the Jacobite’s were much taken with the local Bakewell tarts (the cakes….stop tittering at the back Gregg minor), the Prince ordered the army to move with haste towards Grantham with the intention of uniting with the French.

 

Unfortunately for the Prince there was a government spy in the Jacobite camp and the news was swiftly sent to both the Duke and the King in London. Upon receipt of the news, their forces set off from different directions along Watling Street and met at Northampton on Christmas Eve. The government forces from London had force marched the 75 miles and the Duke felt they needed somewhere to rest for a day or so. The Duke was informed that the Hon John Spencer, MP for Woodstock, was at home at Althorp House. He was a well-known gourmet and kept a good table so this was justification for the Duke to order the army to move to the spacious grounds and park land of Althorp which is about 6 miles northwest of the county town.

Boxing Day beckons. Regretfully the Duke’s cavalry pickets were having another off day (primarily caused by consuming too much ale and plum pudding) and failed in their duty as they were mainly posted to the north. The Jacobite army , which was now considerably strengthened by French units including an Irish brigade, cavalry and guns, had advanced southwards by Ermine Street to Huntingdon. There they were advised of the concentration of the government forces at Northampton. The Prince, under the guidance of the French officers, decided to try and outwit the government troops by approaching from the south and to cut their lines of communications with London. The Jacobites were in good order, if a little foot sore, but confident now they had the French in support and intended to bring the government forces to battle.  If they can destroy the government army then the road to London was open and……… "

I can hardly bear the excitement!! See you there, at least vicariously!

CG

UPDATE TO JP'S WATERLOO

I've just noticed that JP has done an update on his French Army as at mid June .  Although it includes Guards it is likely that about two thirds of these shown will be in his D'Erlon's attack weekend here in mid August . Well worth a look at this YouTube video JP French update 

Standing with Ukraine - a new Hussar painting

 My blog has been quiet  for quite some time and I've been very busy, among other things, in organising several wargaming weekends for 2022, more on that in the next blog hopefully. More significantly I've been stunned by Mr Putin's action against Ukraine and it makes a mere hobby pale into insignificance compared to the plight of the many thousands he has put to flight and deprived of their homes.

Apart from making mere donations like so many others, last Sunday, realising that things for the women and children of Mariupol was going from bad to worse, I resolved to use what little skill I have to try to raise more money than I can afford myself.

Since then I've been trying to do the best job I can to pay tribute to the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people in a painting of the Mariupol Hussars in 1812.  Admittedly then, their homeland was part of Russia and fighting to protect it from the French. How times and politics change!

So I present you with the finished result and invite you please to read on - find out more about the painting and how to bid.

"Determination - The Mariupol Hussars 1812".
Acrylic on canvas 16" x 12" by Chris Gregg 2022

This is an acrylic painting on canvas and is 16 inches x 12 inches (40cm x 30 cm), unframed, but with painted sides and is ready to hang or frame. 

I had thought to just dash it out quickly and cash in, so to speak on the zeitgeist. But dashing off paintings is not my style and it soon became evident to me that as my clients like detail and accuracy I had to do my best within an artistic spirit, and it's taken about 15 hours work over 5 days. As every day has passed the plight of the besieged in Mariupol  has got worse and my sadness deepened. I'm privileged to know a few people, Ukrainian and Russian, in the UK and with relatives in those two blighted countries. They are all on the same side.........Just as the Ukrainians and Russians were in 1812 and in 1941. It's not my fight (yet!) but I'm hoping this painting can raise some money by an online auction.

Many of my readers will be familiar with some obvious artistic influences from the Napoleonic era and in my humble way I hope I'm paying tribute to them too. Funny though, these were all painted in homage to an autocratic ruler who also had disregard for how may lives were lost in pursuit of his goal of a Europe united under his leadership!

Théodore Géricault - Charging Chasseur

Edouard Détaille - "Vers La Gloire"

"Towards Glory" - detail

Edouard Détaille "Le Trophee 1806" 4th Regiment of Dragoons

Capturing enemy standards seems to be a theme of these glorifications of war from the 19th Century. For mine I have gone for the Ukrainian flag as a background to show solidarity, not captured, but preserved. The same colours are echoed in the Mariupol Hussars uniform and purists might say it should be "dark blue"; but I looked up all the sources I could and artistic representations varied from sky blue to dark blue and everything in between so I used my own instinct of what works best.

I've called it "Determination" and I've tried to reflect that in the expression of the Hussar and the defiance in the horse's eye (as in Gericault's too). The sun flashing on his blade is another "Don't mess with me" message which I get from the vox pop TV interviews with 2022 Ukrainian fighters.

So, maybe you have thought you might like one of my original paintings but never had the excuse. I'm auctioning this to the highest bidder via email or DM on social media by 11pm London time on Tuesday 15th March.  I will donate all the proceeds (minus insured postage to your location) to a suitable Ukrainian aid charity. I have in mind the UK Disasters Emergency Committee, which is reliable 

https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal

I normally sell this size picture for between £125 - £175 so I'm starting the bidding at £100 please. If there is only one bidder you'll get a bargain! But I hope it will raise considerably more!

Feel free to email me with questions , and especially bids! If there is anything to report I will post an update on here each day.

Thank you for whatever you are doing to help.

Chris

UPDATE

2100 Friday. Very pleased to say the bidding has started at £125 

UPDATE

Sunday 12 Noon - Bidding now at £151 - very many thanks 

UPDATE

Sunday 1900 - Now up to £200 looking good, thank you

UPDATE

Monday 1500 - Going really well - Bidding now up to £250. Still a day and a bit to go so you still have plenty of time to cash in your Premium Bonds and bid! 

CONCLUSION

Wednesday 1100

Well I didn't get any further bids last night but really pleased to say that we have raised £250 on my work on this painting. Better yet, one of the thwarted bidders has donated another £100 for the DEC Ukraine appeal on the strength of me doing  a commission specially for him later this Summer - possibly of the Saxon Zastrow Cuirassiers fighting the Russians in 2012; look out for that in due course.

It's been an interesting but demanding exercise as I spent a lot of time promoting it round the web. Successful bids came via a personal email shot to over 60 addressees - many past or current art clients or wargamers.  I did a small a paid boost of my Instagram post which evidently reached over 5000 people and solicited about 100 "likes" but no direct bids. Useful knowledge for the future and for anyone with an Instagram account it seems a fair and cost effective way to promote yourself if you have something special to offer (Yeah, I know I'm normally irresistible anyway!!!!).

I only had one "adverse" comment via Instagram Direct Message. That was from a person called  "Elina" who complained that a Russian "imperialist" Hussar was an insult to Ukraine. I get the point but tried to address it in my blog. "She" said I should have done a Cossack, so I agreed and tried to engage her in helping me by advising of the right sort of Cossack so as not to cause offence again. Sadly by that time she had gone "User not found". So if you are out there "ellina" please get back in touch.

I find it ironic that in 1812 the Cossacks too were fighting the French in the "imperialist" Russian army. But more significantly, we wargamers and military art enthusiasts associate Hussars with hard living, bold, smartly dressed and daring soldiers but look on cossacks as pillaging near savages in tatty uniforms and who only fight from ambush. Hence my choice of a Hussar.....but I'm really pleased to see that with the help of UK-supplied anti-tank missiles the current Ukrainian soldiers are fighting successfully from ambush and knocking out hundreds, if not thousands, of Russian vehicles.........So the real choice for me is what art subject is likely to gain the best price for the cause! I think I made the right decision, I'm pleased with the painting and excited to think of where my buyer will put it in his home.

Thank you to everyone who helped, bid and supported in whatever way. They are fighting for us and it goes on.

CG 16th March 2022

Despite everything - more wargaming this year than ever!

 In normal times I usually post a Christmas Hussarette......well, it's not normal but we all need cheering up I think, so I hope a cheeky smile from Amélie will help!

Amélie - A Christmas Hussarette 

From an original painting using water colour brush pens and fine liner pen on Bristol board

by Chris Gregg 2021

No background story this year - a Hussarette just for fun. “Amélie” is based on one of many poses by real horsewoman, “Five feet of Fun”,  Emily who modelled for me way back in 2012 with her horse Bob. Amélie is wearing the “undress uniform” (waistcoat and breeches) of the French 7th Regiment of Hussars around 1807 when Napoleon’s Empire was at its Zenith.

For a reminder about Emily and Bob’s modelling performance please see

Can blackpowder era cavalry really fire mounted?

and

More on cavalry mounted fire

Many of my usual wargaming and military art associates will have received this through the post (overseas ones may be delayed in transit I understand!), So for everybody else here she is with my very best wishes for 2022 and heartily felt gratitude for all the page visits and lovely comments throughout 2021

The original of "Amélie" without the "Merry Christmas" is available for sale at my usual very modest price - please contact me if you want more information.  If you have not seen my Military Art on my website lately please take a look  Chris Gregg Art - Welcome

Now about that Wargaming......

In the UK we were banned from meeting in our homes till mid -May. So with my usual mates we arranged  several games here in the Cotswolds in late May and mid June. You'll have seen from blog posts all those were based on variations of my customised Battle of Brampton terrain. While that table was up I had a mini campaign over three days of  Seb's soldiers with my grandson. Fortuitously his isolation because of COVID at school threw us together with the time and space to do it with his classic 25mm Napoleonic collection. 

Seb's mini campaign set in an imaginary Gloucestershire in 1806

Here is a selection of random photos from the three battles fought near Cirencester. Duke Sebastian of Purton beat me soundly in the first two and I held him to a draw in the third.  Consequently the wicked Lord Bathurst just held on to Cirencester but felt very chastened by the experience!

I then got into serious planning and building mode for the Battle of Langensalza refight and I have made four blog posts on that so I expect you are sick of it by now! In answer to those who worry that I go to a lot of trouble to make a sculpted terrain then it gets dismantled - fear not.  This one has been adapted ad nauseum and I have had about 8 games on it since the first.  I will give you snapshots of some of them and ask that viewers use the comments to say if they would like to see a blog post on any of them. Nearly all have scenario documentation you could use for your own games as a variation on my themes.

Langensalza II, February 1761

I mentioned in the last post that I had got a contingency plan up my sleeve for Day Two of playing if we needed it. Well, we did. Kevin and Ken came with their orders of battle and plans, to be joined by Paul B and Guy. We used the same terrain and rule amendments as for Langensalza I but I projected it on a week from the historic Allied victory and imagined the two heroes from my Savoy/Reikland Imagi-Nations having been hired by the French and Allies and just happened to meet in battle.  Count Gregorius von Grunburg had to defend a supply depot by the town against about 5 columns of enemy French/Savoyards under the Duc de Deuxchevaux  coming from lots of directions to converge on their target. All the figures for this one were from my collection.

Bit of a party atmosphere that day after the "big game " was packed away

I try to use the pink-clad Battenburg infantry whenever Imagi-nations gaming gives me an excuse!
 We recognise diversity here!

.....and a redoubt

Every good Imagi-nations game deserves a good cavalry bust-up

Battle of Schlusselburg, April 1761

Readers may recall that at the end of the fist post on the Langensalza terrain I invited anyone who could get here to join me in an "Honours of War" game on another variation of this terrain. It was with some trepidation that I waited to see what, if anything, would happen. And I hit the jackpot! Don McHugh contacted me and I invited him and his long standing partner in crime, Andy Claxton, to join me in mid October. Don is a veteran of 18th century wargaming and wanted to see if HoW would give him what he was seeking in that era nowadays.  Some may also know Don from his many official "Rapid Fire!" WW2 scenarios.

Again using elements from the Imagi-nations armies, I concocted a situation where a "disgraced" Count von Grunburg was back on his estates in the south-west German province of Reikland. The French/Savoy force was this time led by the Chevalier de Neuvalee, and their aim was to capture a key Schloss and vineyard as well as the wine trading town of Schlusselburg. A forward Grunburg contingent of poor  quality troops  commanded by the famous Major General Countess Natasha Gruzinskaya, together with her regular cavalry brigade, was to hold off Neuvalee until Grunburg could arrive with  good quality reinforcements.

Schlusselburg I

Don adjusts his defenders of the Schlusselburg gatehouse while Andy watches like a hawk!

Countess Gruzinskaya's cavalry has emerged from behind the town to meet the French cavalry

The Erprinz Grenadiers and Bogenhafen Grenadiers lead the reinforcing column

Grunburg heavy cavalry join at the right as afternoon sun illuminates the table

Don and Andy expressed enjoyment in the game and felt that HoW might offer them a good way back into Seven Years Wargaming. A good days' work as far as I was concerned, and they treated me to a pub lunch!

Schlusselburg II

I'd met JP at the Cotswold Wargaming Day and he is a follower of my blog, and patron of my friend Kevin East's excellent figure painting service. One thing led to another and I invited him and Charlie to play on my table. They were unfamiliar with 18th Century wargaming so HoW was completely unknown to them, nor the differences between this and their usual Napoleonic extravaganzas (such as this one). They came to Oakridge in late October.  Same scenario and only slightly reworked forces, but it proved a very different game.

Above and below: All the French cavalry were massed on the right flank. A couple of Hussar regiments were dismounted to help the light infantry take the Schloss and vineyards

Both sides used the extreme flank for mutual light infantry fire exchanges

Once again the cavalry faced off near Schlusselburg town

JP and Charlie teamed up to beat me soundly at my own game. - but the main thing was they said they had a good time as their intro to the wonderful world of 18th Century Imagi-nations.

The Battle of Altstadt - Bavaria 1809

During our refight of Langensalza Paul B was telling us about his 18mm armies for the 1809 Austrian Napoleonic campaign and how he uses General d'Armee rules to play games solo on his relatively small table. Kevin got in on the conversation and, before we knew it, we had persuaded Paul to put on a game at my place over the broad expanses of yet another adaptation of the Langensalza tabletop.  This happened in early November. Paul was content to let us deploy in a central 6 x 6 zone but that also gave plenty of room for outflanking should we need it.  Apart from the opportunity to see Paul's lovely AB figures on my sculpted terrain it was a chance for Kevin and me to have a second go at Gd'A...so a game on my learning curve.

Put simply I had a fairly ordinary quality Austrian rearguard trying to hold a line of communication against what appeared to be a significantly larger and better French Division. As we used "blinds" it was difficult to tell at first. We had a lot of action, but as seems to be the case with Gd'A, not enough major losses soon enough to get a proper result. I felt as if I was getting a losing hand building up when time came to call a halt. I hope you agree the photos look great, and this is just a small sample.

Austrian commander behind his fortified hilltop battery

Kevin clutches the rule book prior to his main attack going in on my village and hill. Austrian blinds in the foreground sheltered by hill slopes

View from the French side. A secondary attack on Altstadt is making slow progress

Beautiful Austrian Hussars emerge from out of my "blinds" on the right flank

 We must do another sometime as I think the effects of these sort of units on my terrain are great. So much so I have revived some AB's tucked away in my drawer and spent some ridiculous sums (for me anyway) on acquiring more so I can join in the 1809 fun using the "Thunder on the Danube" trilogy for the history, and Michael Hopper's wonderful scenario books to help me focus. More on that when I've made progress hopefully.

Euan's first game

In amongst these games I found I had a selection of my 18th Century units on the table during the week my other grandson Euan came to stay. We were talking about his cousin's "Seb's Soldiers" set up and I asked if he wanted to have a go. Euan loves model making but is not really into "military" things as such, but he said he'd like to. I showed him some clips from Borodino in Bondarchuk's  "War and Peace" to give him an idea of horse and musket warfare. He took to it very well and we got through about 6 moves with 5 units per side and he beat me fair and square.

With the kind of sang-froid only 10 year old boys can summon he sagely commented "It was far more interesting than I expected". I take that as a tick in granddad's box.

The Battle of Misiche 244 AD

Finally, flatteringly, JP said he'd like to stage one of his own games on my terrain and, always enjoying a scenic landscape challenge, I happily accepted the idea of my dear old Langensalza valley now being turned into the Euphrates for a clash between 28mm Romans and the Sassanid Persian Empire.

This one took place in mid December and was to use "Hail Caesar" rules. I asked around but it was too near Christmas for most of my friends, except Ken, who, like me, was happy to try Ancient wargaming after a gap of many years.  JP made me the Roman Emperor Gordian III and Ken was my "ally" Philip the Arab, the Palmyran ruler.  We had to make progress up river and through a screen of Sassanid's....or so I thought.

It turned out that my Romans should have just stood firm and deployed for a set piece battle and let the Sassanid's come at us, but I did not realise that and tried to press on with my objective to break through them. Mistake ......eventually I got beaten in detail and broken up;  and Gordian's person was looking like a corpse or a prisoner just as it turned out Ken's objective had been to encourage that situation and become Emperor himself.  So Ken won, Charlie's Sassanid King Shapur achieved his objective of stopping the Romans, and me?......Well I had the satisfaction of playing with JP's excellent toys and learning that Hail Caesar seems a very good set of rules for this kind of game in the hands of an expert Games Master like JP.

JP advises while Ken scrutinises the Roman/Palmyran column screened by light troops

Sassanid Cavalry soon arrive to work round the flank

And then my cavalry scouts reveal a massive block of Sassanid infantry across my path

Legionaries turn to gain the high ground and try in vain to see off crowds of horse archers

On the other flank my outnumbered Auxiliary cavalry clash with the Sassanid Cataphracts

Fortunately my stalwart Palestinian clubmen hold the rocky high ground against the Persian hordes and force JP to help his son reform their line

At the rear a heavy attack by Sasssanid cavalry pins Ken down just as the baggage was about to catch up with my main column. Ken actually saw most of them off and "saved" the baggage.

Cutting a long, rather sad, story short this is Gordian in the final throes of defence as his veteran Legion cracks about him, fighting on two fronts

Well, that was something a bit different and you can see an excellent video version of it on JP's YouTube channel here

I hope you've enjoyed this quick run through of my last few month's wargaming. It certainly proved eventful and busier than a normal year! As I said earlier please let me know if you'd like more on any of these games and I'll see what I can do.

Happy New Year and thanks for following this blog and all your kind comments.

Chris G