From my side of the table... The Battle of Oriamendi 1837

Greetings...


Last week (Friday to be precise ) Michael Perry hosted a Black Powder First Carlist War game to celebrate a visit from our good friend Adrian Shepherd...


The battle he picked was Oriamende... 15-16 March 1837


The Cristinos under George de Lacy Evans had advanced from their base at San Sebastian in an attempt to take the Carlist held town of Hernani...
On the 15th they attacked and took the ridge overlooking the town...
The following day the Carlists made a counter attack... this is the action we gamed...


Adrian and I took command of the Carlists and Alan Perry and Dave Andrews took the Cristinos.


We decided to follow history and make dashing frontal assault with two thirds of our force and a cunning flank attack with the rest...

Hernani looking rather peaceful ... well if you ignore the artillery.

Our brave fellows await the order to attack...

Our enemy got their orders first... there's a lot of them isn't there...

Come on do something... you are getting in everyone's way now...

Oooo! they're pretty... Hang on that's the enemy... Booo! ugly men with pointy sticks...

Hmmm! there is a lot of them and they are getting a bit close....

The men inside Hernani cheer on as one of my brigades move through Adrian's troops and make for the enemy...Hurrah!

The plan was that Adrian was going to swing to the left round that building you see here...
But instead he rolled a blunder and charged full tilt at the Cristinos... and then proceeded to stamp all over them and send them back in confusion... obviously part of a secret and cunning plan...I'm sure...

Encouraged by our surprise success my men rush from the town.... Hurrah!

The trap is sprung... as our flanking force make a somewhat leisurely approach from the rear..

On the other flank there starts one of the longest standoffs in history... this picture doesn't change much for a while...

Our centre moves forwards to engage the enemy...

The standoff... still standing off...

The Cristinos attack the men from Hernani...

After a prolonged fire fight and a lot of ... below average dice throws... by me... our centre breaks and makes its way off the field of battle... Booo!

Again rather surprisingly the men from Hernani see off the Cristinos and break their brigade...
That's two brigades down each... the next one will cost the game...

With small brigades we play that they don't break until both battalions are shaken ,stirred and disordered...
Here we see the now christened 'Lonely Battalion' waiting for the enemy or more hopefully our reinforcements...

Our daring flank attack... mills around while the Crostino centre make a beeline for the Lonely Battalion... Eek!

We are standing off here...

We are milling about here...

We are not very happy here... and feeling a bit more lonely...

Is that another blunder... sadly not the charging wildly in and stomping all over the enemy kind of blunder...

The enemy ... rather unfairly stand off and do Shooty Shooty while I fail to move back out of range...
One more casualty and they are done for...
If you listen carefully you can hear the sound of milling around to the right of the Lonely Battalion... sigh!

Hurrah!... end of standoff...

Boo! end of the Lonely Battalion...


And the end of the game...


In the real battle the Carlists coordinated their counter attack well and won the day...unlike us
We were all over the place... Standing off, Milling around and... well... running away.


A splendid game in splendid company.


All the best  Aly

One Year Old...

Hurrah! I say Hurrah!

My little blog was one year old this month... and I nearly missed it....


My hasn't time flown past...


For a relatively slow painter and self confessed wargames butterfly I haven't done to bad this year...
I have stayed pretty much on track with my projects... I think posting on the blog and getting feedback and encouragement has really helped.


Apparently I have had 35,439 views so far... Although I suspect some of them are from Viagra sales bots...


A big thank you to everyone who followed me and supported me in my wargaming endeavours.


All the best  Aly

The War of Spanish Succession... Dutch Infantry Regiment Pallandt.

Hurrah!


Another War of Spanish Succession unit finished... The Dutch Infantry Regiment Pallandt.


These poor chaps have been waiting patiently on the desk while I was painting toys for the Partizan Game...
I was so glad to be getting on with them that I forgot to take any work in progress shots...I painted them in my usual way blocked in base colours a wash of Aly's Brown Liquid (I have added the recipe to the 'Pages' section ... just below My Blog List) then highlight with the original shade.


Coat and Socks... Citadel... Administratum Grey.
Cuffs and Waistcoat... Citadel... Averland Sunset.
Belts etc... Citadel... Balor Brown.
White bits... Citadel... Pallid Wych Flesh.
Brown wooden bits... Citadel... Mournfang Brown.


After a coat of Matt varnish the black leather and metal parts were given a coat of Tamiya Clear Varnish.

A nice looking unit I think, the grey and yellow go very well together.







The miniatures are as always Front Rank...
https://www.frontrank.com/product-category/18th-century/spanish-succession/
The paints are Citadel...
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling
Bases from Warbases...
https://warbases.co.uk/?product_cat=premier-bases-metric
And last but not least Flags are from Maverick Models...
http://www.maverick-models.com/flags.htm


I will end with a question...

Do any of you lovely people out there in the blogosphere know what standards were carried by Walloon Regiments in Austrian service during the War of Spanish Succession?


All the best  Aly

From my side of the table... The Battle of Beaulieu Abbey 1513

Greetings...


Real life and work have been a bit overwhelming this last couple of weeks ... so I have had very little time to paint anything...


But... I did get to play an excellent game of toy soldiers last weekend...


It was our annual Henrician wargame weekend...Hurrah!


Our game was hosted and umpired by Michael Perry.


I joined Simon Chick and Allan Perry as the brave defenders of France...


Dave Andrews, Stuart Mulligan and Ben Wooten were the Forces of Darkness and Despair...


Our tasks were to stop the Forces of Darkness and Despair from advancing on the town of Therouanne , abusing our Abbey and getting back our lunch...

The beautiful land we must defend ...

Our lunch... at this point heading towards the Forces of Darkness and Despair... Booo!

The Abbey ....

Booo!...

Our light horse not doing a very good job of saving our lunch...

The Hordes of Darkness and Despair awaken... Booo!

 

The defenders of France... Hurrah!

 

 Our Lunch... Booo!

The Abbey is quickly in danger... I do hope someone locked the door.

Due to some excellent dice throwing and planning my infantry now block the advance of my cavalry...
I believe that my commander may have been one of the famous - some may say infamous - Malchanceux family...

 Move out the bloody way...

Ok we will try our best...

The Forces of darkness have reached the Abbey...

And the door wasn't locked... I had thought that the monks were praying ... but no they were looking for the key...

The Dark Lord Dave Andrews orders his light horse to make a rather daring charge...
Which is unfortunately quite successful...Booo!

More massed Darkness...

Massed Goodness...


This is where I decided to bypass my infantry and charge across the river at the enemy cavalry...
Things did not go quite as I planned...

The enemy burst from the Abbey... but for once my infantry do as they are told and turn and shoot... Hurrah!
Faced with such determination and for a change good dice the enemy retreat back through the Abbey.. no doubt taking all wine and beer on the way... Booo!.

Now that my infantry have moved out the way I move my cavalry up...
As a large group of angry looking Germans armed with long pointy sticks have positioned themselves between me and my intended target... I do what any enthusiastic French noble would do...

Charge the guns... What could possibly go wrong?

How about a flank attack from the other side of the river...

We turn to face...

And give them a kicking...

This is probably the high water mark of my attack...
I am attacking across the river against some nasty men with guns and going head long into the artillery... Glorious

On the other side of the battlefield the rest of our cavalry launch themselves at the enemy.

The enemy...

On my side of the river it all gets a bit 'Shooty'.
I fail to charge in and do grievous bodily harm to my enemies and get out the bullet magnets...

While I try and dodge bullets... A large and spectacular cavalry melee breaks out... ruining someone's romantic day out on the river...

I decide that it is time to move out of range... Yup!... the brigade/battle is broken... Booo!

Across the river... Brave King Henry... Runs away...Hurrah!

The cavalry battle continues ... eventually leaving just about everyone broken...

I fall back ... but looking on the good side I do have enough beef for some sandwiches when we get back to camp.


As Beer O Clock rings out across the field of battle we break off and call the game a draw...


My dice throwing was up to its usual low standard but this spoiled nothing...


A really enjoyable game with fine friends and some incredible painted miniatures...


A different version of the truth can be found here...
https://www.facebook.com/perryminiatures/photos/ms.c.eJw9kVESRDEEBG~_0xRjC~;S~_2RZ78dplJE~;XCgUlS0xT~_0ws8jmtQ5QItV0kXZX0go3oi6zyQPQHDRk50Kf1NFBo49XtFwO44xAJDd0jkRqg9UU9MrLrDigviDIhYdcWo~_04gL8gHeBq41kZYkux9Vp2zi~;qKKe4rsq8APh1vFx8x5BNTni4ttw~;QZlvbA8ExRwZlI6ETsRWj50QkFwjbQ7DfUCFz5GPPVDoSXFMX6dIQ~_QM4p2PW.bps.a.1592717997516967.1073742003.446712558784189/1592723084183125/?type=3&theater


Stuarts excellent blog is here...
http://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.com/


Simons excellent blogs are here...
http://je-lay-emprins.blogspot.com/
http://harness-and-array.blogspot.com/


All the best  Aly