Wild Geese 2023 Report

What a great weekend. 

A chance to stay at a nice hotel, with a great bunch of guys, relax, unwind, catch up, have a drink AND play 3 fantastic and very different wargames really does take some beating. 

Good to catch up with folk I've not seen for too long - I really enjoy this aspect of the weekend at the Chesford Grange almost as much as the games themselves. But now, some pictures! 

 

Return of Roddis

Games get underway

Shiny Toy Soldiers

40mm Kolin using Prince Augusts and Command & Colours

Canoe chase with rafts from 28mm FIW Game

! Gratuitous shot of Castor Canadensis !

 Great Northern War 

42mm Shiny Toy Soldiers

My phone was low on charge so I didn't get a chance to take pics of Willz excellent baggage train game with his Spencer Smith figures nor of Paul's lovely Flats and as there was only time to play 3 games over the weekend being spoiled for choice. I played the GNW game which Steve ran, the FIW game run by Keith, and Iain and Tim's lovely Shiny Toy Soldiers game in which Aly actually rolled decent dice. (However as no pictures exist of this rare occurrence it will be dismissed as a myth by those who were not there...!)

Thanks for a great weekend folks....😁

Wild Geese 2023

Looking forward to my annual weekend of wargaming in Kenilworth with a fine bunch of folk and some great games.

The group grew out of the book “A Military Gentleman…” by John Ray and attending has become a highlight of my hobby year. 

The games are usually 18thC with one of two other periods also featuring. There have been great colonial games in recent years as well as fine napoleonic skirmishes.

I’ll post some piccies of this years gathering over the weekend.

Now….just waiting for my flight to leave on time!!

Project Alma - Reading Material

 Some reading material arrived today. 

The French book in particular looks interesting. 

(Ronin is not connected to this project at all but I have a lot of Warlord Samurai, ashigaru, shoei etc., and it looks a neat set of skirmish rules). 

Project Alma - a fine day for a varnish

 Dry and warm days have, until this week, been a rarity in this part of the world. Or when they've been here I've been elsewhere. So with the sun out it was a fine chance to get my Crimean stuff vanished in one go. 

1 tin of Windsor and Newton at the ready and off I went. 

Russians first. 

Each unit has a base of skirmishers and lurking behind are 5 guns, 2 cossack batteries and 3 line. 

British next.

The Guards Brigade, Highland Brigade and part of Pennefathers Brigade, with the 95th skirmish order. Hussars and Lancers and Artillery to the rear.

Seeing (almost) everything laid out like this makes me want to do more...light dragoons, heavy brigade and Russian cavalry, and maybe French, Turks and the Sardinians......uhoh! 

Napoleonics - French v Russians

 I had the chance to head up to see Graham H this weekend and have a game of 28mm Napoleonics. Graham has been building French and Russian forces for 1812 and we fancied something bigger than the skirmish games we've been playing recently. I found a scenario based on Pirna 1813 in which the Russians under Wurttemberg were trying to get over the Elbe whilst Vandamme was trying to cut off their route. 

This was a good sized scenario as it mean we could both use figures for both sides, making sure that my French (painted 17years ago and still looking fresh, bar a bent flagpole and broken bayonet!) and the Russians I inherited from a late friend's collection were both able to get on the table as too were Graham's figures.

For rules we used a set I made up based on Neil Thomas's Napoleonic Wargames with ranges and movement tweaked a little to fit my unit frontages. They seemed to work well enough - although they're probably too simple for many tastes they allow a decent sized game (a corps plus a side in this case) to skip along with all the usual formations. We played over the afternoon, getting 10 turns and a lot of chatter and lunch in and I will be back at some point to finish the game.

Playing the French I brought my corps on to find Graham's rushing deployed in an arc just forward of a small village on the road to the Elbe. My deployment zone was tight and my scouting lancers took some hits before I was able to retire them behind my infantry. However I managed to get my artillery into play and my divisional and corps batteries were soon pounding the advancing Russians.

Grahams right flank was open, that nearest the bridge, so he threw his cavalry forward (we both need Russian light cavalry, so stand ins were used!) and I was forced into square to see them off. By now my guns had torn through two Russian units on their left and Graham pulled his men back to the road and out of range. It was my turn to advance.

I limbered up my guns and pushed my left flank, closest to the river, forward. Now it was the Russian artillery's turn to cause damage. My morale tests were good while Graham's shots on target were mercifully few until I got into close range with one battalion. This gave me time to open up my divisions and get the brigades moving on my right along the river to try to force the Russian flank away from the bridge. 

The Russian reserves were now on the table - 3 battalions of Grenadier Guards, marching straight for the bridge. It was going to be a foot race to see who got their first and that will have to wait til we play next.