Napoleonic reinforcements and painting confusion

 As mentioned in my last post I came home from holiday to find my order from Commission Figurines sitting on the door mat.  I wasted very little time before getting them sorted out.  Well I say wasted, does unpacking the car, taking suitcases upstairs, the washing to the utility room (AKA a cupboard with a washing machine and tumble drier) and feeding the dog count as wasted?  Don't bother answering Mrs E has firm views on these things and I'm not going to argue.  But sorted they eventually were.

The point of this order was to give the French something like parity with the British on a battalion to battalion basis.  I get less French infantry units from each pack than I do British as I base them with more figures per base, so I needed to balance things out.  Of course I completely blew that plan by also buying packs for creating British allies in the form of Portuguese and Spanish infantry.  Of course, it's the latter nation which is causing the painting confusion.

All of you Napoleonic War old hands will already have faced this particular problem.  It's the Spanish supply system, or rather lack of one that's the issue.  They had uniform regulations, but once the French controlled (and I'm using controlled in it's loosest sense here) most of Spain, Spanish uniform was, well, not particularly uniform!  I make it three sets of official uniform regulations, plus various ad hoc uniforms followed by at least one set of British supplied kit on top.  Most of which seem to have been in use at the same time or at least overlapped each other to a fairly large extent.  Oh how I have enjoyed researching the topic.  It's safe to say that my brain hurts at the moment.

First two Spanish Battalions one militia (brown coats) and one Regular Army (White)

I'm currently looking at the period before British supplies started to arrive in bulk, which was from around 1811.  So I finally decide that to aid identification old regular army and militia should be in white, but with a sprinkling of brown.  New volunteers and new militia should be in brown and later war units in blue coats.  Light Infantry will vary and any formed guerrilla units will be a hodgepodge of colours but predominantly browns.  Head gear will be Bicornes, round hats (the top hat looking things) or shakoes as required.  Bicornes for early war regulars and militia, top hats (actually stovepipe shakos as the brims don't show at 6mm) for local Junta raised militia and volunteers and French style shakoes for later war or units who pop up as wearing them early in the war.  All of which is probably subject to change as things progress across the painting table!

Rear view of the above.  The engraved detail is not bad at all.

From what I can see the engraved relief on the backs of the figures is created by laser engraving 'pecking' out small chunks of the MDF.  The detail is rather surprising if that is the technique used.  Flags are freebies from the the net sourced from M S Foy's excellent blog Prometheus in Aspic Prometheus in Aspic: Homebrewed Flags - more 1809 Spanish and another excellent site  'JJ's Wargames Blog' JJ's Wargames.  The latter being especially helpful with advice on uniforms for the Spanish.

Thankfully for the Portuguese hardly varied their uniforms at all probably as they had a decent supply system after 1808! 

Back from the Lake district

Not that you probably spotted that I was away!  Mrs E and I took the caravan to a rather nice caravan site between Keswick and Penrith for a few days R & R.  No TV very little internet connectivity and no blogging.  It was very relaxing.  The weather was kind and mostly only rained at night.  There is something very soothing about the sound of rain on a caravan roof, as long as you are inside the caravan at the time of course.  Our dog enjoyed the experience of running around in Crow Park and swimming in a couple of lakes and almost everywhere was dog friendly.  If you are in Keswick I can strongly recommend The eatery next to the Lakeside Theatre the food is really good and they have a few dog snacks available.

Brougham Castle Keep

Another view of the Castle

On the military front we visited Brougham Castle (pronounced Broom, so I suspect JBM has had a hand in this).  Carlisle Castle was closed while were there as it was before 10.00am and we got engrossed in other stuff (More food actually I can vouch for the chocolate cake in the Tullie Museum cafe).  On the History front we made our annual trip to Castle Rigg Stone Circle and also took in Long Meg and her Daughters as well.

Long Meg herself along with Mrs E and Mabel

Other than that we walked, drank beer and ate more than we really should have done.  It was horrible, honest.

'Surprise view' above Keswick.  Derwentwater in the foreground.

On my return my order from Commission figurines had arrived.  This consisted of one pack of Infantry in Bicornes to be used as Spanish in 1805 issue uniform or as militia, one pack of French Line with Grenadiers in Bearskins to be used for Spanish Grenadiers and French Line (I mistakenly thought it was a pack consisting of just grenadiers), two Packs of Infantry in Belgique Shakos for use as Portugeuse in Barretinas, two packs of French line in Shako, and some strips of Skirmishers and generals.  The skirmishers all seem to be French looking but at 6mm after a paint job I doubt anyone will be able to tell what style of Shako is portrayed.

I'm already wondering which packs would be the best bet for additional grenadiers for the Spanish, but won't be ordering anything until I have painted the 600 plus new figures that just arrived!  Pictures of those will follow (eventually).

Painting is back to normal

For the last few weeks painting has been a chore, not because I lost my painting mojo but because the heat made the paint go off far to quickly.  I still managed to get things done but only by dint of avoiding trying to work at the hottest part of the day.  It was the same problem with glues for basing  blink and it had gone off!  But as of this last few days we have had some very welcome rain and temperatures are actually below the seasonal average so painting is back on.

However, to paint I need good tools and I'm reluctantly coming to accept that my favourite paint brushes are coming to the end of their useful lifespan.  I can't complain they have served me well for over a decade, but their ability to hold a point has gone.  These were my first Kolinski sable brushes and to be honest they were inexpensive, given their quality, at under £5.00 a brush.  I bought some brushes from Rosemary and Co a few months back and those are very nice but I bought too many size 1 and not enough zero's or smaller.  I have to say though that I am impressed with them so far, as the points hold well even after a lot of use, and they clean fairly easily.

In respect of my painting output I have had a lot of MDF come across the painting table in the shape of the Commission Figurines Napoleonic stuff I bought at Joy of Six.  I have painted all of the British Foot I bought there, most of the French and I'm now working on some of the French mounted Dragoons.  Finding uniform details, especially for mounted types, has been a steep learning curve for someone like me with only a passing interest in the period prior to starting this project.  I used to have a hardback Osprey compilation on French Napoleonic Cavalry a few years ago but foolishly, I got rid of it as Napoleonic's were not my thing ....Doh!  Note to self never throw away reference material.

Valour and Fortitude updates

Just a quick heads up to say that the updated version of Valour and Fortitude (Version 4) is now available to down load from the Perry Miniatures website.  I have read through it and the changes are fairly minor with one exception.  Skirmishers are now automatically treated as deployed which is dealt with by giving an extended shooting range to eligible units. That means that many units now have a short and long range band rather than a single range band. Units which opt to use volley fire use the short range as they are considered to recover skirmishers first before firing (well shooting your own lads is unsporting).  Artillery also has two range bands, the short one to represent the use of cannister. Some other rules have been clarified, to deal with some issues the player base brought up.    The one exception to minor tweaking is the big reduction in shooting values for Napoleonic troops. Units which might have had a shooting factor of 3 or 4 now have a factor of 1 or 2!  This change seems to be to reflect the use of very short range fire which is part of the close assault combat.  In this it is doing the same thing Altar of Freedom does and considering assaults as a mix of short range fire fights and bayonet charges.

I don't think the changes change my view of the rules as being what I'm looking for they are still fairly simple but have subtleties hidden in the special rules for each army.

On the painting front I now have eight battalions of British painted and based along with five of French. I have French Dragoons on the painting table so I'm nearly ready for a test game. The British are line infantry with a half battalion of rifles, while the French are three Line and two Light battalions.  I have placed an order for more figures to include some that will become Portuguese and some skirmishers and commanders.

Now me being me and being unable to help myself I have made a couple of changes to the rules as written (in keeping with the spirit of the rules though, honest!).  Firstly I'm basing battalions on a single 60 x 30 mm  base.  Secondly I'm using slightly less figures per battalion than the minimum that the rules recommend.  It doesn't make a huge difference as the rules don't count figures other than to consider if a battalion is larger or smaller than the norm.  My British have 20 figures in two ranks, while the French have 30 in three ranks.  This makes depicting open order tricky so to do that I will add a 60x 15mm base of open order figures to the front of the battalion to show that status.  For march columns I will just place a marker showing the front of the column and put the battalion base at right angles to normal so the 30mm edge becomes the front.  While that means that the figures would be facing the wrong way it is a quick fix until I mount some figures in a column formation.  I'm not sure how the rules deal with the various different attack columns frontages yet but I will get my head around it eventually.  For the moment to depict an attack column I will place the 60 x 15 base at the rear of the unit. I am slowly learning about the period as before Joy of Six I didn't know that attack columns could even be on different frontages or when they were used.

One other thing I have learned is that you get an awful lot of infantry for £4.00.  Even with base costs and estimated painting and texturing costs the troops below came in at just under £6.00 all in.  Skirmish bases are not textured yet as I need to add some firing skirmish figures to each base, which should be with me in the next few days.  Flags are home printed and slightly over scale.  MDF bases from Warbases and flock, sand and glue from my existing supplies.

£4.00 for two packs of infantry gives me this!

Best Napoleonic fact I have learned so far, is that Marshall Massena lost the battle of Bussaco because he was too distracted to coordinate the attacks of his three divisions.  The reason he was distracted?  His mistress was flaunting herself topless in a hussar uniform!  I suppose that would do it.  I haven't learned which regiment of Hussar's uniform it was though.

Thoughts on ...Valour and Fortitude Napoleonic rules

Yes, alright it's yet another new rabbit hole, I know I promised not too, but they were free.  You know free, my favourite price point and all that.  It's Napoleonic's that historical period that I don't do, except that now there is a distinct possibility that I'm going to be doing them.  In my defence I'm doing it on the cheap and in 6mm (well you have to be able to see some of the uniforms) but I haven't become a button counter, honest.

The rules don't come as a book so there is no front cover to show you!

You know how it is, the figures looked nice at Joy of Six, they were cheap, oh so cheap and just one purchase couldn't hurt, could it?  Next thing you know I'm looking up Italian uniforms for the Peninsula War.  Which are white, by the way, I mean which genius thought that one up?  How did they ever think they could keep them white in the field, what with black powder weapons, and mud and blood and such like.  Mind you it will make painting them easy when I get to them.

On a slightly less over-excited topic though: the rules.  As you might know I have tried Napoleonic's a couple of times and simply couldn't find a rule set that clicked with me.  So while I was wondering what to do with nearly 400 MDF figures I started searching.  A couple of sets caught my eye but none of them were quite what I wanted.  Then I hit on Valour and Fortitude (lets call it V&F going forward) they use battalions as the combat formations but can be played with brigades as the combat unit with very little change and others have done that with no problems.  They have the right level of granularity for me and I could download them for free so if I find I don't like them all I have wasted is some printer paper and ink.

The rules are fairly simple, the core mechanisms are contained in four pages (three really as the first page is just the definitions), plus a page for a QRS and another two for optional rules, even then most of the optional rules cover changes for different scales.  On top of which, each army has a separate two page list of unit types, unit sizes and special rules, plus a fate table.  Game play is IGOUGO, with dice controlled brigade activations, the play sequence is Fate > Fire >  Action > Melee.

The fate phase is where the fate table comes in.  This is a set of thirteen events or traits that are triggered by drawing a playing card each turn.  Some are used at once others can be held onto and used in a later turn.  The effect of the cards is not huge and doesn’t look like it would have a huge impact on the game play.   Next up is shooting and units which have now decide to  shoot cannot take an action in the next phase.   The action phase is where units may choose to move, reform, double, retreat, assault or rally.  Any action requires the unit to pass an action test, although some fate cards can overrule this.  Double is used to bring reserves forward and does what the name suggests, allows a longer move.  Reforms allow changes of direction and or formation and can be combined with movement, while rallies can remove hits.

I keep reading that the rules feel like Black Powder light, but can’t comment to that having never played Black Powder.  All fairly straight forward really.  It's the Army sheets which add the granularity and flavour.  These cover most of the popular Napoleonic armies and minor nations, plus ACW, AWI and British Civil Wars. The rules and all the other free stuff can be downloaded from here Valour & Fortitude - Perry Miniatures.  These are currently (Late July 2026) the 2nd edition, version 3.1 but there is an update to Version 4 due any day now.

As soon as I have enough troops painted and based I will run a solo test game with my usual explanatory sub sections.  That may be a while as so far I have painted four French battalions and only one British one, no cavalry or artillery.  In fact I haven't even bought any artillery yet!

More Joy of Six purchases painted.

A dearth of posts followed by a glut of posts.  Yes my blogging does remind me of buses!  It’s a lot like my painting progress too.  I haven’t painted much of anything for a couple of months and in the last week I’ve painted 80 of the MDF infantry and nine H&R tanks.

It’s those tanks which are the subject of this post.  If you have read my post covering this years Joy of Six show you will know that I bought two KV-1’s and seven T-70’s for use in the Fistful of T34s campaign from Little Wars TV.  If and when I get around to that.

A pair of KV-1 the camera accentuates the  dry brushing effect

The H&R castings are not quite as detailed as the GHQ ones but they are nice and paint up well.  The lack of detail is partly because the H&R castings are a slightly smaller scale than the GHQ ones.  The great thing about H&R, though, is that they are sold individually rather than in packs.  Which means that I can buy exactly what I need.

A KV-1 flanked by a pair of T-70s as a size comparison

Compared to some of the other things I have been painting recently World War Two Soviet armour is a nice relaxing break!  Undercoat in white, give a single colour top coat of Vallejo Russian Uniform (a nice drab green with a tiny hint of brown to it) and dry brush with Vallejo Bone White, then pick out the tracks and exhausts and that's it done.  Easy peasy as they say.  They are crying out for some tiny red star decals but I don't have any to hand at the moment but that's a job I can pick up later.

I have tried out a black background for these shots and used the diffuser light box I made a couple of years ago.  The different background helps define the models and to my eye makes colours pop more.

The French units pop more against black.  Oh. and yes I spotted one flag is upside down!

Back to Manassas once more

For a replay of First Manassas 1861 to introduce a new gaming friend to Altar of Freedom.  The scenario is an interesting one as it uses a 6' x 4' table but with a low unit density.  The battlefield is dissected by Bull Run creek which can only be crossed at a handful of bridges and fords which focusses the initial action towards those points. 

The Federals under McDowell (played by Stephen the new guy) have the objective of breaking the Confederate Army.  To do that requires them to break five Confederate brigades. While the Confederates have to do the same to the Federals (also needing five Brigades destroyed)  or to be contending the settlement of Centreville.  Which means being within musket range of any part of the town.  This is because Centreville is on the road to Washington.  The Confederates (played by me) are under the overall command of Beauregard but also have Joe Johnson as second commander.  

Both sides Generals have a mix of good and bad traits just to make things interesting.  McDowell has an additional HQ (useful for rallying broken brigades, or at least trying to) but on the negative side is inept which means no two divisions can have the same priority point bids so attacks cannot be coordinated.  The Confederates have restrictions through Beauregard who has to withhold half his priority points until the turn end phase and has a random minus one or plus two priority point adjustment each turn.  Did I mention that five times out of six he will get the minus option.  Johnson at least is more positive he can reroll one shooting roll, for any of his brigades, each turn.

Last time out I played as the Federals and tried to follow McDowell's historical plan.  It didn't work! This time I was the Confederates and decided to push over Bull Run to threaten Centreville while holding the Stone Bridge and Fords until I saw what the Federal plan was.  I decided to ignore the Sudley Springs crossings based upon the time it would take for McDowell to get troops over them and around my flank.  The Confederates have to deploy first anywhere south of Bull Run.  The Federals deploy second but are restricted to a four square foot area around Centreville which then extends along the north table edge to a depth of one foot and ends two feet short of the corner where Sudley Springs is located.

Turn one initial deployments with Confederate lines of advance marked in Red

The Federals deployed defensively covering the Potential lines of attack over Bull Run and showed no intention of swinging wide around the Confederate left.  This allowed Stephen to off set McDowell's command issues by leaving one division in a static position in front of Centreville.  For most of the Game he also managed to gain control of the turn clock which allowed him to slow it down sufficiently to ensure that three divisions were always activated.  I Started by pushing Johnsons troops over Bull Run and moved a small portion of Beauregard's division to cover the crossings.  The Confederates don't have the same problem with activation as they are organised in what are for all intents and purposes two Grand Divisions.  What is a problem is the number of available priority points as there are not enough to gain the first activation and to control the turn clock and because of his traits Beauregard's division was usually slow to activate.

The situation at the end of the first turn (11.00am)

The Federal's hold around Centreville and prepare their line in the woods (top of the picture).  Their centre advances into the woods west of the ridge Centreville stands on which is a slow process as woods are rough terrain with a big move reduction (Shown by blue arrows) . On their left Stephen reenforces his line opposite the Stone Bridge.  Johnson has a toehold over Bull Run but hasn't deployed in a firing line and I totally forgot to move Stuart's Cavalry brigade at the far end of the table (DOH!).  The massing of troops opposite the bridge worried me enough to detach two infantry brigades and send them to support the defence there.  At least those Damn Yankees aren't heading for the Sudley Springs crossings!

The end of Turn 2 (12.00 Noon) Fighting has broken out in the woods

Turn two sees my infantry pushing into the woods on the North side of Bull Run and skirmishing with the Federals.  You can see fatigue markers starting to accumulate (the white and green discs).  I remembered to advance Stuart's cavalry brigade this turn !  The Federals have closed up on the Stone Bridge but the extra two brigades of infantry are helping hold the position.  Stephen is getting to grips with fighting an army level action now and has understood that fighting on the defensive is a better option for his green troops.  His experience with Napoleonics is also coming into play as he understands the importance of supporting his infantry with aggressive use of artillery.

As the day wears on the fighting in the central and eastern sectors really starts to heat up and the first brigades start to flee to the rear in rout.  By early afternoon neither side had made any progress at the Stone Bridge, over at the east end of the field, with artillery and musketry driving back any attempt to gain a foot hold over Bull Run.  However, in the centre the Federal defence had been driven back through the woods in the centre and more and more Confederate units were crossing over to add to the pressure.  South of Centreville Federal counter attacks were holding the Confederates off and there was an entire division in and around Centreville which hadn't been committed to the fighting.  This was mainly due to the way Stephen had marshalled his priority points to offset McDowell's negative command traits.  By keeping a reserve he could give more priority to the other three divisions, which was a clever move.

Things were heating up (both on the table and in my conservatory)  as the game entered its closing moves.  Faced with the possibility of having his army split by the Confederate push against his centre, Stephen elected to consolidate by pulling back from the Stone Bridge so he could reinforce the centre of the battle line.  Given that neither side was anywhere near breaking the Confederates needed to close on Centreville to achieve their secondary victory condition.  I was making slow progress to the south of Centreville but was having more success in building for a 'left hook' into the flank and rear of the Centreville defence.  Stephen basically closed the door on that idea by bringing troops west from the Stone Bridge area.

The end stage of the battle

Red arrows show the confederate advance over the Stone Bridge and the wavy red line the extent of their advance.  Blue arrows show the Federal retirement from the bridge and the advance of the reserve Division south of Centreville.  The Federals were slowly giving ground to the North East to protect the roads toward Washington and to refuse their right flank while the Confederates are slowly pushing forward onto that flank.  The delay is due to the need to get over the bridge and deploy into line again coupled with Beauregard's command problems.  This is pretty much where we were when the game ended.  Both sides had lost two brigades, but the Federals were carrying slightly more fatigue markers, although these were being rallied off as troops pulled out of the front lines and reorganised.  I'd call it a draw as neither side had managed to break the required five brigades and the Confederates didn't look like they were going to contest control of Centreville anytime soon.

It was a good game with a new opponent who picked up the rules and tactics really quickly.  Altar of Freedom gave their usual entertaining game with command and control issues to wrestle with throughout.  I only managed to gain control of the turn clock once in the entire game but it didn't really hamper me too much.  I hope Stephen enjoyed it as much as I did.