A wargaming Christmas... plus 2018 reflections and projects for 2019

2018 is ending and it's time for a small tradition I've seen over the various miniature wargaming blogs... that of reflections on what has been done in this year what projects are ahead for the next one!

First of all, I'm closing the year with a truly "wargaming" Christmas... a short illness prevented me from actually setting up and playing a game these last few days, but this truly was  a Christmas where presents took the form of wargaming minis and equipment...

I received several 1/72 Napoleonics sets from various manufacturers (Plastic Soldiers Review for each is linked so you can see what's inside):

2 from Zvezda: Russian Grenadiers and Russian Guard Heavy Artillery.

Zvezda is surely doing some outstanding job, producing excellent sets that truly stand out in terms of historicity and sculpting... I already had their beautiful French Voltiguers, and I'm sure to take more sets from them in the future.

3 from Italeri: French Dragoons, French Imperial General Staff and Prussian Light Cavalry.

The Italian company has its headquarters near my home city and I visited them once. The French Dragoons are a truly excellent set and the French Imperial General Staff is a nice addition (too bad the other command sets aren't up to this standard, even if I'll take them sooner or later anyway...). The Prussian Cavalry (actually dragoons) set is described on PSR to have several sculpting and size issues and I had some doubts before, but they cover an interesting subject that isn't easy to find elsewhere and after seeing them in my hands I feel they are not bad at all. Probably the only real thing that stands out negatively is the horses' poses - some are a bit ridiculous, but that won't be enough to stop me using and painting them anyway!

All these sets complement the ones I had taken in November (Waterloo's 1815 very good Prussian Hussars, Hat's Austrian Artillery and Austrian Cuirassiers), I feel I'm reaching a very good stage in variety and quality.

Plus, I also received a modeling kit (I never had a complete one and used less-than-perfect means for cutting sprues and flash...) that is already being put to good use!

Finally, since this remains a blog that started over Risorgimento Wargaming, I've recently purchased this book on Risorgimento battles. Not many details over each single battle, but a good, quick overwiev of the campaigns and some very interesting reflections on the armies and how they fought.

Reflections on 2018...

I rediscovered miniature wargaming in 2017 (IIRC) thanks to Neil Thomas' One Hour War-games and started this blog in February this year... 24 posts (25 with this one) were written, with a lull during the summer months due to other commitments. Not bad for a first year... I started some projects, continued some, left others and started some more; overall it was satisfying because it build a small niche for personal fun. I discovered more rulesets I didn't know and lots of wargamers that play great games and paint even better. My blog is small, just a reflection of the few time I can devote to this hobby nowadays, but it was really exciting because, as they say, the best is yet to come...

...and projects for 2019

And speaking about what is to come, what are my projects for 2019?

I will probably leave the Colonial project aside, at least for a while. I'm currently concentrating on Napoleonics and want to playtest my ideas for fast Grande Armee. I aim to recreate the battle of Dresden (1813) this year, I already have most minis (I just really miss some French Young Guard, Austrian Grenzers and Grenadiers and a few other smaller bits) but I need to paint them. As usual, I'll play even if not everything is painted and even if not everything is correct (I prefer playing with proxies than not playing... because after all playing remains the real aim!).

Still, most of my time will be about painting the minis for that - and in the meanwhile play smaller games to test the rules and see if they really fit my needs.

Finally, I hope to at least write some more scenarios for Risorgimento battles, maybe continuing the Barolo campaign I have started this year...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

Making Grande Armee fast... or, at least, faster...

I've tested my Napoleonics SiP rules a few more times... and as it often happens when you really playtest something, I can now see what it does well and what it doesn't.

Pros: it really is a fast ruleset, that mirrors the original SiP system and gives a more Napoleonic feel. You can easily use it for OHW's scenarios, or for other teasers.

Cons: 

- the shooting rules have to be a bit changed, because they provided for too many casualties. A unit could just stay back and shoot the enemy until it breaks, without the need for close combat, because it's safer and usually assures destruction, even if not quickly. Close combat is useful only if you are in a hurry and/or if the enemy is already really weakened or in a bad tactical situation. Unfortunately, this may be not enough historical, as under this scale, skirmishing fire was a good thing to soften the enemy but close combat was what effectively drove the enemy away. A solution for this would be to reduce the likelihood of hitting for each die by 1: normal 5-6, skirmishing advantage 4-6, ancien regime 6. Or even reduce it even more to normal 6, skirmishing advantage 5-6 and no fire for ancien regime armies (which would actually fire more under close combat circumstances anyway). This would make it more likely for players to choose to close attack when near the enemy, while still allowing the skirmishing effect.

- army command and control. It works fairly well for a OHW- or teaser-like scenario of 10 units each or less without reinforcements, but is less useful when battles are more complex or with more units. Somehow the idea is sound but some of the flavor is lost and if reinforcements arrive, you have to recalculate the number of units each side can control.

Conclusions: good rules for fast, small games, but only if you take the modifications above for shooting. And the command rules may prove unsatisfactory to some players or in some battle scenarios.

Grande Armee rules, by Sam Mustafa

I've been looking for alternatives and I've found the Grande Armee rules, by Sam Mustafa. They are the predecessors of Blucher, and they are not supported anymore, but I think they do lots of things better than Blucher - but not everything. The way it deals with skirmishing, in particular, is excellent, better than in Blucher and fits my needs perfectly. Still, some other parts are less good, like the close combat rules, where Blucher definitely shows improvements. Also, the movement rules are a bit cumbersome. The command system is sound and interesting. I guess Sam moved to Blucher to improve the game - and he did in several areas - but also had to sacrifice some historicity (the volley fire part in Blucher is no more a part of close combat, which doesn't really make sense...) for more gamey solutions that would appeal more to wargamers.

In order to get a ruleset for larger battles, that would be less easy to fight with Napoleonic SiP, I'm toying with a fast versione of Grande Armee (no, not the Fast Play Grande Armee system that Sam Mustafa once wrote, because the rule changes don't give the same feel and don't appear "fast" at all...)

Therefore, I think I'll use the Grande Armee framework, starting with the Command and Control system, even if I'm thinking about a more elegant way of recording Cps spent than using the counters.

Blucher rules, by Sam Mustafa

The skirmishing and artillery fire part is good and would be used "as it is". For close combat, I would use the system from Blucher, which is more elegant, and for movement I'd use the SiP/Neil Thomas conventions, which make it much faster and straightforward, speeding things up.

Also, I would give up the training rating for units, keeping only the SP rating, just as Blucher does with the élan.

The biggest plus of playing with Grande Armee or Blucher is the great amount of author- and player-made scenarios available, which are easily adaptable to either!

Going to playtest this soon and see if it really works!

Small painting update

A short update on my painting. Sometimes it takes quite a lot for me to finish a units, while in other times it takes me just a few sessions: this time I got both things, as I started painting two cavalry units and then left them aside for some months... only to take them back to the painting table and finish them quickly.

Recently painted units

Recently, my painted units included 2 units of French Line Infantry, 1 unit of Polish Lancers and 1 unit of British Hussars. 

Polish Lancers (Esci)

French Line Infantry (Italeri)

The Hussars had a complicated painting sequence... I knew very little of British Hussar uniforms during the Napoleonic Wars, and I started painting them as Crimean War hussars, since that's how they were labeled in their box image (Lord Cardigan's 11th Hussars). Then I read their entry on Plastic Soldier Review and found out the sculpts actually were more accurate for the Napoleonic Wars, not Crimea, but the uniform colors were wrong... especially the trousers. In short, I made a quick search or the correct colors (this mainly impacted the trousers, the bugsby and a few other details and repainted the relevant parts...) and I managed to convert them to the 5th Cavalry Brigade during the 100-jours campaign, with half painted as 7th Hussars and half as 15th Hussars.

British Hussars 1815 (Esci)

Now I will probably turn to artillery, in particular Austrian Artillery. I also have French Hussars, and French Voltiguers mounted and ready for playing and painting... but I still have to decide in which order I'll paint them!

Radetzky - Milano 1848

A few days ago I played with my brother at a new boardgame with a distinct Risorgimento theme: Radetzky: Milano 1848, which deals with the "5 giornate di Milano" (5 days of Milan), the uprising which saw the Milanese people start a 5-day unrest from March 18 to March 22, 1848 which ultimately saw Austrian Marshal Radetzky evacuate the city and retreat east towards the Quadrilatero fortresses. During the uprising, King Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia declared war and started the 1st Italian Independence War. 

The game is a cooperative one, with 2-5 players playing the Milanese people against the AI (which controls the Austrians) in a struggle to win city district after city district. Players win if they control 5 districts and the Austrians have less than 5, while Austrians win if they control 5 districts before the Italians do it or if both Italians and Austrians end up controlling 5 districts in the same turn. Austrians also win if almost all their soldiers have been deployed (this happens later in the game if players didn't eliminate them effectively enough). Players have to confront an enemy which starts to send more and more soldiers against them, but they can muster resources (including the historically decisive barricades) in order to limit the enemy moves and turn the tide. The Austrians have a special "Radetzky" mounted counter that moves each turn and makes it harder for the Italians to take control of the space he's in, but also allows some more benefits if he's defeated. Historically, as the historical notes included at the end of the rulebook correctly note, Radetzky stayed inside his HQ, the Castello Sforzesco, and never went outside until the retreat, but the variation in the game allows some interesting game mechanics and challenges for the players.

We played two games, one with basic rules (where we lost) and one with advanced rules (where we won). Good coordination among players can be useful to win the game, and if ends up being too easy (but we felt it was nail-biting to the end!), players can limit communications between them to make it harder to win. Players win individually, not just as a team, but we didn't care for it. If we had done it, maybe it would have resulted in less cohesion and, possibly, in defeat...! Well, in the end it looks like our Milanese were able to overcome their political differences for the common good!

Overall, a good game that I really enjoyed playing!

First game: too many Austrian soldiers (black blocks)
and too few patriots around!

End of first game: Austrians get control of 5 districts,
while patriots only control 3... this time Radetzky wins...

End of second game: a nail-biting victory as Italians control
5 districts while Austrians have 4!