Ready for the Challenge

I did a quick toll of the minis I was planning on painting for the Analogue Hobbies painting challenge. Doesn't look quite as bad as I feared, but still it's gonna be a busy 3 month period.

The pic is missing a whole divisions worth of ACW Union soldiers in 6mm from Baccus, but they won't need any prepping anyway so I didn't bother bringing them out. Also absent is a battalion of French line, a few Warhammer Chaos characters and a couple of minis that are going to go through heavy converting and need sculpting. If I get through this pile, I still have 6 battalions of 15mm Prussians lined up so I guess I won't be running out of things to paint. A bit ambitious, but then again you never exceed expectations without aiming way over your head.

My painting challenge goals:

Napoleonics:

• Unit of British Hussars
• Unit of French Dragoons
• 2 Battalions of French Line

Flames of War:

• German armored Company (around 20 tanks)
• 2 British armored platoons (8 tanks)
• US Airborne Company (around 40 stands)

Warhammer:

• 3 Skullcrushers
• 2 Daemon Princes
• 2 Sorcerers
• Chimera

ACW:

• 12 Battalions of infantry
• 4 Units of cavalry
• Artillery

Misc:

• 4 VSF Buildings
• 10 VSF Ottomans
• 4 points of Norse Gaels for Saga

Bonus themes:

• Non Combatant (FoW objective with a civilian and some dogs)
• Villain (Daemon prince)
• Vehicle (Tank(s) :D )
• Hero (Ottoman captain)
• Casualty (28mm French casualties)
• Last Stand (French line under fire, or Ensign Kennedy of the 1st Royal Scots)

Independence day and a promotion!

Yesterday was the Finnish independence day which means that half the population sits in front of the TV to see the official independence day party with around 3 hours of hand shaking by the president followed by few hours of people eating. All this is followed by huge headlines where all the dresses etc. are reviewed and all the etiquette errors are dwelled upon.

It does bring another part with it too. Reservists are usually promoted on the independence day and I too got my share! Finally got another rose on my collar and got promoted to a Lieutenant. Brightened my slightly hangoverish day after a rough company pre-christmas party. Too bad that the next promotion might be a long way away as the army is trying to save money and training for reservists is minimal.

  I also managed to finish the rest of my Sarissa buildings. Now I'll just have to wait for next week when Curt's Painting Challenge starts.

New real estate

I've been busy prepping new minis for Curt's painting challenge and clearing my table of all WIP stuff that I have (which is a depressingly huge pile with my attraction to all things shiny and new). However I couldn't resist taking a break from minis and putting together some Sarissa buildings that I got in the mail yesterday.

I ordered 4 different Gaslamp Alley buildings from Sarissa to start on a VSF gaming board to use with In Her Majestys Name and other skirmish games. Quality is excellent, but I would maybe have liked to have a bit more interior detail, but for 15-20 pounds a building these are a real bargain. They go together without any issues, as long as you put the side walls the right way round, otherwise they won't stack. I made the mistake on one of the floors and it was a pain in the butt to correct after the glue had already dried on the MDF boards.

The only real issue I had was that window details and balcony are done from a different material (fibreboard I think) which isn't as sturdy as MDF. I already broke one and I'm a bit worried that they won't last gaming. Also one of the detail parts wasn't cut into the right size so I had to trim them a bit so that they fit the walls.

On another note, I really have to take a tally on how much I'm going to paint for the painting challenge. At the moment the planned queue has around 400 6mm figures, 200 15mm figures, 20 15mm tanks, and maybe 60 28mm figures. Don't know if it will be enough to reach my goal of 1200 points, but we'll see.

Battle of Austerlitz

We had a largish 15mm Black Powder game depicting the Northern part of Austerlitz with the French attempting to take Stahre Vinohrady and Prazeberg to push towards Austerlitz itself. Great game and many thanks to Juha and Antti for putting this thing together! Nice to try Black Powder with a larger battle too. Completely a different game with Corps sized armies compared to the division sized ones that we usually run in 28mm. Maybe I'll get my motivation up to paint my 15mm Prussians so I can get them on the table.

In the end the game ended up with a marginal French victory as they had control of their objectives. However Russian reserves were still mostly intact so no major gains would really have been possible.

 The battlefield

The battle began as both sides approaching the Pratzen heights. On the French left flank Lannes anchors his lines alongside Bosenitz in an attempt to halt Bagration's troops from flanking the French army.

 The Austrians reach Pratzen heights first, but are quickly counter-attacked by French colums. The slow grind for the heights would last for most of the game.

 Flanking Russian hussars are counterattacked by French light cavalry.

 With the first Austrian lines broken, the french press forward.

As Lannes's corps start to crumble under the russians superior numbers, the Guard and Heavy Cavalry move in to join the fight.

Fighting on the right flank where the French slowly grind their way through both Russian and Austrian troops.

The Guard moving towards Pratzen

 Guards hussars start the Russian counter-attack followed by the rest of the Guard

 One heavy cavalry division engages the Russians on the left flank to stop them from reinforcing the rest of the army.

 French Old Guard moves in to attack their Russian counterparts.

 

 

The battle ends with both Guards thick in the fight and the French controlling Pratzen heights

 Austrian heavy cavalry and one Russian division are still completely unengaged in the end so the battle could only be called a marginal victory for the French.