The Battle of the Flower-Pot Men

"Flobba-dob!"
Translated: "Have at you, sir!"

I'm falling behind in my battle-reporting; this one took place at the club almost a month ago! It was the first outing of the new, improved 2nd Division against a polyglot European force of French, Poles, Swiss and renegade Irish.

Now why the the reference to an ancient black and white childrens' TV programme, featuring a pair of incomprehensible marionettes? Those of you who know my (not-so-secret) identity will understand this visual gag, but those who don't will be able to guess my first name, at least, from this clue; I was playing against Bill.... 

In another stand-'em-up, knock-'em-down game with the village at the road intersection the objective, things started out fairly evenly with both sides managing to secure a BUA of the village each. Instead of going for an evenly balanced cavalry arm, I decided to use my heavy dragoons as a shock force in the centre and only have one other regiment of light dragoons out on the left flank. My right I felt would be safe, anchored by the large highlander battalion, which, I felt, would be able to take on whatever came its way.

That may not have been an unfair supposition if I'd been a little more on top of my game! For a start, I threw away the heavy dragoons in the middle after tempting Bill's lancers to charge my Portuguese infantry line. So far, so good. Bill hadn't realised the lancers were classed as light cavalry and that my dragoons, being heavy, outclassed his severely. What should have resulted in a steamrolling only resulted in forcing the French cavalry to retire. Compounding the folly was the fact that the dragoons went battle-mad and were compelled to take the breakthrough, leaving them right in the French line with their flanks well and truly exposed! Next turn Bill turned his artillery battery to fire into the cavalry's flank causing 2 casualties and a morale test, which they promptly lost and broke for the rear.

My lack of cavalry suddenly became acute; the light dragoons were occupied by the French dragoons out on the left flank, so the rest of the French cavalry had free reign to do as they wished. Over on the right flank, the French Chasseurs a Cheval kept the highlanders pinned in closed column, while the lancers in the centre recovered after their mauling by the British dragoons to threaten the Portuguese infantry.

By this stage things were looking a bit crook for the Anglo-Allied forces, so I thought it was time to go all in. I sent three of the 5 Portuguese battalions at the French occupied BUA, hoping to capture it and weather his attempts at trying to seize it back. In a confirmation that I am not very good at attacking BUAs, my attack failed, mainly because I didn't throw the whole brigade in. Rolling a 1 didn't help either! I compounded my folly by moving the light infantry forward to firefight the Swiss infantry in the ploughed field to the right of the village. Not only did I underestimate the distance from the BUA, I didn't take into account that 3 friendly battalions were retreating nearby. Flank fire from the BUA, plus the nearby retreats meant that the light infantry didn't stand a chance and broke to the rear!

That was the point where I lost the game; a gaping hole had opened up on the right and I had nothing to fill it with. The French lancers rode down one of the remaining Portuguese regiments, while the artillery whittled away the lines in front of them. The Franco-Polish infantry pushed steadily forwards and the French dragoons finally saw off their British counter-parts on the left. The coup-de-grace happened on the right flank where the Swiss wheeled into the flank of the highlanders who had unwisely pushed forwards against the chasseurs. On the left flank the 50th had protected the highlanders' flank, seeing off the Irish Legion. I should have anticipated the Swiss move, but thought it wasn't going to happen as soon as it did, so the highlanders were caught in the flank with no comebacks. The resulting morale test was failed spectacularly and the game was declared a French victory!

The new, improved 92nd!

The other new battalion gets its first taste.

The field of battle, with the objective in the centre.

Bill's polyglot French forces

His Foot Dragoons make the early running.

The rest of his troops make the high ground on the left...

...and on the right.

The new battalion fans out into line...

...next to the Buffs on the rear slope of the rise.

The Gordons form a closed column in the face of French cavalry

The French view

The Portuguese form up on the village

An indecisive cavalry encounter out on the far left.

But in the centre, the dragoons shape up to the lancers.

CRASH!!!!

And the silly bu&%ers go battle-mad! Note the artillery battery to the right.

RUN AWAY!!!!!!

It's up to us now, boys!

The thin red line

The French artillery in the rough ground whittle down the infantry on the extreme left, while the French dragoons wait their turn.

The crisis point is reached: the Portuguese charge on the BUA goes in!

FLUB!

The light bobs have their rush of blood to the head and advance to firefight, copping all the negatives from flank fire and retreating friendlies. SIGH!

RUN AWAY!!!!!

The big gap in the centre vacated by the Portuguese and light bobs.

Bill's recovered lancers give the remaining Portuguese what-for after they failed to form square.

RUN AWAY!!!!

The provisional battalion tries a little tricky manoeuvre into the rear of the limbered artillery, but it was too little, too late by this stage and broke up the line to the left of the village.

The Buffs and Poles duke it out.

But there's a big gap between the nearest infantry lines and the French are about to fill it!

The French guns whittle away the infantry and cavalry to their front with nothing to answer them.

On the right flank, the highlanders advance, pushing back the cavalry, while the 50th Foot screen their right flank against the renegade Irish.

Whoops! Here comes the Swiss!

RUN AWAY!!!!!

The Irish charge the 50th...

...who manage to halt them with a well aimed volley, despite the flight of the highlanders.

The provisional battalion weren't able to prevent the battery unlimbering and firing into their flank!

The Buffs get flanked 

The final cavalry stoush:

CHARGE!!!!

Ends with the British cavalry routed and the victorious French dragoons crashing into the infantry, who were unable to form square. GAME OVER!

A couple of take-aways from this game are that:

1. I am rubbish at assaulting BUAs 
2. I am rubbish at estimating distances from BUAs
3. Just because I can, doesn't mean I should just push everything into the front line.
4. A cavalry threat isn't a threat if it is thrown away to no benefit.

Refurbishment of 2nd Division #2 - 28th or 34th Regiment of Foot

"O'er the hills and o'er the main

Through Flanders, Portugal and Spain.

King George commands and we obey

Over the hills and far away."

These wonderful figures from Hagen miniatures are full of character. They are battle-weary old campaigners in tattered uniforms with individual embellishments like legionnaire-style neck shades, firewood stuffed into the knapsack, trousers rolled up to the knee, espadrilles instead of boots, rolled blankets in place of kanpsacks, and various styles of forage cap. They really were a joy to paint, being used to the cookie-cutter figures in most plastic sets.

My only gripes are that there were no elite figures in the set, necessitating the fiddly application of Milliput shoulder wings to a couple of figures, and no command figures, either. The officers and drummer are HaT plastic and are slightly smaller and finer compared to the metal figures, but it's not a big problem, really.

As there were two yellow-faced regiments in 2nd Division, I haven't settled on which of the two this unit represents, hence the confusing post title. As the colours are furled and cased, they can be either at this stage. I use generic coloured flags, anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

I'm happy the way that the furled and cased colours turned out, especially after the doggy-disaster! The replacement figure has a slightly thicker furled colour than the original, not that you can really notice on the table top. Because the infantry look like they're on the march, rather than actually in battle, I wanted the officers to match. The only colour party figures available carry naked poles with finial and tassel which really need a flag attached. My solution was to bodge up a couple of ensigns carrying cased colours based on the image below.

I used the marching officers from the HaT command set, cut off the swords each arm pose carries and glued on a cased colour each, made from piano wire and Milliput. I also added another shoulder strap to each figure with Milliput; an exercise in extreme frustration!

The varnish I used for shading is a little too dark (I finished the last pot, which I got from Masters, a hardware chain which has since gone out of business!), but I think it accentuates the grubbiness of a hard-campaigning regiment. Still, I think I'll have to find a varnish that isn't quite so overpowering.

Grenadiers with home-made shoulder wings

Rear view showing firewood and neck-guard

Corporal in forage cap and espadrilles

Patched knees

HaT drummer and officer

Colour party

Two different arm poses

Left hand colour slightly thicker. Looks heavier, too!

Shako at a jaunty angle and second style of forage cap

Light bobs. The right hand figure came from another set I ordered, but instead of 4 marching elites, I only got this one and more marching centre company figures, because they'd run out!

Rolled blanket.

Refurbishment of 2nd Divison #1 - 92nd Foot (Gordon Highlanders)

"Can yer mammy sew? Well, get her to stitch that!"

After finding out I'd shortchanged myself with the size of my British infantry battalions, I've started expanding or replacing my Peninsular War forces. First unit off the desk is the 92nd Foot, or Gordon Highlanders. My existing battalion was only 12 figures strong, when I could have had a 15 figure-strong battalion!

The new Strelets set of marching highlanders seemed to fit the bill, though I found out too late that they were all elite figures, all sporting shoulder wings. I shaved off the wings on the figures used for the centre companies, swapped a couple of heads for variety and stuck a couple of highland bonnet-wearing heads on a couple of HaT flag bearers. That worked quite well, despite them having their sashes around their waists instead of over their shoulders. There is a flag bearer in the Strelets set, but the figure has a moulded flag, and there is only one.

I varied the appearance of the figures with some head swaps; a wounded head from Lancier Bleu, and a Tam o' Shanter wearing one from the HaT command set. The wounded head conversion worked well, but the other on didn't so much; the collar looks much too thick and messy. I'm not sure why, because they were the same figure.

The full battalion in comlumn

Wounded head conversion.

HaT flag bearers with Strelets heads. Officer in full dress, including sporran!

Drummer and piper

Light company troops including (not so successful) head conversion.

I also have been working on a line battalion using the wonderful Hagen Peninsular Infantry set in their battered, hard-marching campaign best, so I thought I'd have a go at creating a couple of ensigns carrying furled and covered colours using HaT command figures. I'd finally managed to make two after much fiddling about with Milliput and thick piano wire and was ready to start painting. I hadn't reckoned on our newest family member, though, had I? We recently got a Jack Russell/Fox Terrier cross puppy, and she understands that anything that drops on the floor is hers....to chew. Obviously I hadn't caught up on the news!

Sigh!