Franco Prussian War

To Forres last Sunday for a chat with Graham H about a future project and a Franco - Prussian game. More about the former another time, but our Franco Prussian collection is getting large and whilst we wait for the Perry's to build up the range I now have 3 Divisions of French infantry whilst Graham's got about 2 Divisions of Prussians. We both need cavalry and artillery more infantry.

That didn't stop us having a game though, to test my home made rules which are a pastiche of bits of Osprey's blue book activation and other mechanisms. A few tweaks are required, and we worked out a way to represent off table artillery which helps give the battlefield the right sort of depth and the Prussians the ability to plaster the French, and negate the power of the Chassepot...although they still need to take the ground. 

Piccies below from what was a rather nice day.

The Battle of Portlethen - 1780

Whilst looking for an ex colleagues new business I stumbled across an account of a skirmish between Scottish Fencibles and French Privateers in 1780. Couple this with 6 hours in a train and I wrote a wee skirmish scenario for it. 

You can download it on the Free Stuff tab, along with an earlier scenario I wrote as an addition to the Sugar Islands Campaign book. 

Sunday was a sunny day so I had a quick play test in the garden. Let's just say things didn't go well for the Fencibles! 

The Black Colonel pt1

I'm collecting figures for a mini campaign set around the time of the 1st Jacobite Rebellion for an article which I will be writing. 

As a kid my Dad took me to stay at a bothy at Inverey, just up the road from Braemar.  Behind the bothy were the ruins of the "castle" of  The Black Colonel, a staunch Jacobite who blew up his own castle as the redcoats came to take him after Killiecrankie and then hid in gorge to escape. A great story for a wee kid.

More was revealed in a book I have mentioned before on this Blog - Fenton Wyness's Legends of North East Scotland.

However it wasn't until fairly recently that I stumbled across John Farqhuarson once again. This time his exploits were more detailed. Mr Wyness was never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story, but in truth the history was well worth following up.

Not only was there skirmish at Inverey, but at Braemar and another at Ballater too. 

Illustration and Re-enactors skirmishing in the woods at Braemar Castle

From Lesley Weston's blog

As I already have Jacobites it was a case of adding Williamite forces and as they seem to have been dragoons I started to look around for some. The venerable Dixon range is a little limited when it comes to dragoons. The obvious choice - Warfare - didn't come up with the goods either. I need horses as well as mounted and dismounted dragoon and I thought I'd have to make do with a mix of infantry and standing horses. However Ebor have now got Grand Alliance figures AND have dragoon units on foot with horse holders. Sorted! Even better they come with a mix of heads and poses so perfect for skirmish games and their Paul Hicks sculpts fit in with the older Warrior Miniature Jacobites. 

As these lads were far from the the campaigns going on in Ireland I have swapped two hats for highland bonnets and when it comes to painting breeches won't all be regularly uniform either.  These will be packed off and sent to the painter next week. 

For terrain I shall need a bastle house - the Colonel's "Castle". I already have a tower house suitable for Braemar, which didn't have its wall at this time, that's a later post Jacobite addition. For Ballater I thought I'd need more pine trees, but a hunt around the internet shows the pass of Ballater almost treeless in a 19thC photograph, it's carpet of pines is the result of later plantings. 

Whilst the figures are getting painted I will type up my notes into background and scenarios. These will be available later this year as part of a well known wargames publication.