Caliver books visit...Ooops

Caliver Books

I decided that over the weekend I would make a detour and visit Caliver Books ( http://caliverbooks.com/ ). It was a quick visit and I wish I had set aside more time for the visit. I also wish that I had taken along with me my camera.
If you have not visited them before, I suggest that you do so. Its an Aladdin's cave of Books, Rules and Miniatures.

It was mind boggling experience and I should have taken my reading glasses along with me, as I struggled to read the titles on some of the spines. I came across numerous books in French on the Napoleonic wars and some really nice books on the various armies of World War 1 at £62 each.  The latter I think will be on my 'to buy' list if I ever get round to doing that period.

I had gone for one purpose only, that was to get a General De Brigade set of rules and look at the Minifigs. Unfortunately I was unable rummage through the Minifigs as they are made to order and us mere mortals are not allowed in to the casting room for safety reasons.

At the end of very short visit, I was a lot of money missing, but  had a carrier bag full of rule books.

General de Brigade and two of the Scenario books.

 My first purchases was the 'General de Brigade' rule book and I also ended up buying two of the Scenario books, which after flicking through I may play using Lasalle to see what the differences are.

In The Grand Manner & Westphalian Guard of the Napoleonic wars

 It has taken me nearly 25 years to purchase a copy of 'In the Grand Manner'. My previously copy had been a photocopied version from my poorer days. In my defence I did not have a lot of money back when these rules came out, they were quite expensive at the time. Now its common to ask £20 to £40 a rule book, back then I was buying £3 rule books. I think 'In the Grand Manner' was in the region of £25.
 The other book I found at the last second was 'Westphalian Guard of the Napoleonic War'. This was a Oh yes moment as we had been discussing the Westphalian Minifigs figures minutes before. It was just what I was looking for and a must if you want to paint up Westphalians. The author also promises a book on the line infantry and cavalry as well.

Blitzkreig 1939 1941

I purchased the 'Blitzkrieg' book on a whim. It has some interesting scenarios in and a quick play set of rules. Once I have had a good read of it, I will do a more in-depth report about this book at a later date.

So that's all for now, I have lots to read and another visit in a month or two is now in the planning.
Jon

Lasalle - Armies so far

Lasalle is the first set of rules that I have ever read that I cant wait to play a game. But with Steve's stuff still clogging up the works, I will have to wait a little longer.

But what Laselle this far has done is made me resurrect my Saxon Army form my Teens and also dig out my fathers Russian horde. So a lot of re-basing has gone on and in some cases just a revamp of the bases was required.

There is also another complication I have just agreed to buy someone's Napoleonic collection for metal price. Oops.

I will end up with the following armies to use with Laselle. British, French, Russian, Prussian, Austrian and Saxon, along with a plethora of minor states.

So up to now I have a Saxon army (an unofficial list off the Honor Web site) and a Russian one, although I need to re-base some of the Russian cavalry units for use with Laselle.

Saxon 1812 Army

My Saxon VII Corps is almost complete. I still need 3 more Light Infantry Battalions. But in Lasalle I can not field the whole Corps. I can either field my Saxons as Allied Brigade for the French or use the list from the web site.

Saxon Brigade (Back 3 battalions are only used if attacker)

I intend to use my Saxons as stand alone army as I have always have done. So under Lasalle, my armies core Brigade would consist of:
4 Line Battalions
2 Grenadiers Battalions
1 Jager Battalion
1 Medium Artillery Battery

with the following for use when attacking:
2 Line Battalions
1 Grenadier Battalion

If attacking this gives almost a Division worth of Saxons.

As most games I will play will only have one support available I will mainly use a Cavalry Brigade, which consists off:

1 Cuirassier Regiment (+)
2 Light Cavalry Regiments
1 Horse Artillery Battery

Cavalry Brigade (Cuirassiers still need their bases updated)

Although the Cavalry Brigade should not have the Cuirassiers in as these were farmed out to another French Corps, the author of the army list deemed fit to include them.

Russian 1812 Army

The Russians are still a work in progress and are still in need of re-basing.  Up to now all I have ready is the Core Brigade.

Russian Brigade (Artillery Batteries are two guns each missing)

 The Russian Brigade consists of:
6 Line Battalions
1 Medium Battery
1 Positional Heavy Battery

Russian Artillery battery at full strength showing how wide it will be compared to the two infantry Battalions behind.

The Russian Batteries are five guns strong each, and in my main picture I am only showing them as three guns each as I have run out of bases for now.
I have not yet re-based the Cavalry brigade, and I am undecided between a Light Brigade or a Cuirassier Brigade.

More to come.
J

1812 Saxon Army Part 2 - update

Well I have been busy the last day or so and have already agreed in my head to re-base everything within my Saxon army to Lasalle for 1812. Originally my army was based for use with the Newbury rules and then In the Grand Manor. Whilst both rules had there merits and the later was quite fun to play. They still were missing something. I have tried Black powder and it did not click, and I found that they seemed to be written in a way, by people who knew the rules, but then had no ability to write them clearly in a way that new comers, could and would easily understand them. They also lacked any type of Army list or points system.
A lot of people hate point systems or army lists but I find that they give a balanced game otherwise it becomes a lead arms race.
I have also tried Principles of War and quite like the game system, which I use for my Zulus. It makes an interesting game. Having re-based a portion of my army for these rules, my current re-basing will ultimately bring those units into line with the new basing.

The progress so far:

I have re-based two battalions off infantry, 1 Regiment off Cavalry, plus two Artillery Batteries.

Old bases on left, new bases on right.

Old battalion basing on left, a re-based battalion the right

So you have to agree that the new bases look 100% better and do actually look nicer than they do in the pictures. I have ordered a large quantity of the 40x30mm bases as I only had a few in stock.  Once the re-basing program has finished I will then undertake a sprucing up of the figures them selves. Using army builders system to shade them and to neaten up some of the details. These figures have a lot of paint on them.
I have also to repaint all the cannons as new research shows that they were painted in an almost black grey and not the light grey I have them at the moment.

15mm Saxony Army of 1812 Part 1

After a recent conversation with a friend in regards to Napoleonic rules, Laselle was recommended.

So 2016 is time I dusted of my 15mm Saxon Army and debased and tarted her up to be finally finished. I was first given a Saxon starter army around 28 years ago. By the late 1990's my VII Saxon corps of Napoleons Grande Armee of 1812 was almost completed. It then went into storage.

With the purchase of the pdf version of Laselle, I am going to undertake a re-basing and sprucing up of my Corps. SO today I dug out my Saxons to see what I was missing.

My army consists or should consists of the following units:

VII Corps under commander of General 'Reynier'

Bulk of my Saxon Army

21st Division under command of Generallieutenant 'Elder von Lecoq'

1st Brigade: Generalmajor 'Von Steindel'
Grenadier Battalion 'Von Liebenau'
Infantry Regiment 'Prinz Friedrich' - 2 Battalions + 4pdr Regimental Guns
Infantry Regiment 'Prince Friedrich' - 2 Battalions + 4pdr Regimental Guns

2nd Brigade: Generalmajor 'von Nostitz'
Infantry Regiment 'Prince Anton' - 2 Battalions + 4pdr Regimental Guns
1st Light Infantry Regiment - 2 Battalions
4th Foot artillery battery - 6pdrs and Howitzers

The Infantry

22nd Division under command of Generallieutenant 'von Gutschmidt'

1st Brigade: Generalmajor 'von Kleugel'
Grenadier Battalion 'von Brause'
Infantry Regiment 'Konig' - 2 Battalions + 4pdr Regimental Guns
Infantry Regiment 'von Niesemauschel' - 2 Battalions + 4pdr Regimental Guns

2nd Brigade: Generalmajor 'von  Sahr'
Grenadier Battalion 'von Anger'
Grenadier Battalion 'von Spiegel'
2nd Light Infantry Regiment - 2 Battalions
3rd Foot Artillery Battery - 6pdrs + Howitzers

The Cavalry and some skirmish infantry

Light Cavalry

23rd Light Cavalry Brigade under command of Generalmajor 'von Gablenz'
'Prinz Clemens' Uhlans - 4 Squadrons
'von Polenz' Chevauxlegers - 4 Squadrons
Hussars - 5 Squadrons

Although not part of the Division you got to have the Kurssiers

Heavy Cavalry Brigade under command of Generallieutenant 'von Thielmann'
Garde du Corps - 4 Squadrons
Kurassier-Regiment 'von Zastrow' - 4 Squadrons
'Prinz Albrecht' Chevauxlegers - 4 Squadrons
2nd Horse Artillery Battery - 6pdrs + Howitzers

Corps Artillery Reserve
1st Horse Artillery Battery
1st Foot Artillery Battery
2nd Foot Artillery Battery
all 6 pdrs + Howitzers

Some of the Artillery

What is also missing from the list I have above (I cant find my other book) are the 12pdr Batteries of which I also have two off.

The bulk of my Cavalry

So that's my Napoleonic army, let the re-basing commence

Well that was it but then I found this information:

August 1812

Jean Reynier

General of Division Jean Reynier (15,008 infantry in 18 battalions, 2,186 cavalry in 16 squadrons)

• Artillery: 50 guns
• 21st Division (Saxon): General-Leutnant von Lecoq
  • 1st Brigade: General-Major von Steindel
    • Liebenau Grenadier Battalion (one battalion)
    • Prinz Friedrich Infantry Regiment (two battalions)
    • Prinz Clemens Infantry Regiment (two battalions)
  • 2nd Brigade: General-Major von Nostitz
    • Prinz Anton Infantry Regiment (two battalions)
    • 1st Light Infantry Regiment (two battalions)
  • Cavalry Brigade: General-Major von Gablenz
    • Prinz Clemens Uhlan Regiment (four squadrons)
    • Polenz Chevau-léger Regiment (four squadrons)
• 22nd Division (Saxon): General-Leutnant von Funck
  • 2nd Brigade: General-Major von Sahr
    • Anger Grenadier Battalion (one battalion)
    • Spiegel Grenadier Battalion (one battalion)
    • 2nd Light Infantry Regiment (two battalions)
  • 1st(?) Brigade: General-Major von Klengel
    • König Infantry Regiment (two battalions)
    • Niesemeuschel Infantry Regiment (one and a half battalions)
• 32nd Division (French): General of Division Pierre François Joseph Durutte^[8]
  • 35th Line Infantry Regiment (2 battalions)
  • 131st Line Infantry Regiment (3 battalions)
  • 132nd Line Infantry Regiment (3 battalions)
  • 133rd Line Infantry Regiment (1 battalion)
  • Belle-Isle Infantry Regiment (3 battalions)
  • Würzburg Infantry Regiment (3 battalions)

Stephen Atkinson Page

Hi All
Just a quick one, I have now added a new page dedicated to my late friend Stephen Atkinson, please take some time to look at it.
Thank you

AK47 Republic

A small 4x3 table set up for the test game.

A few years back I purchased a set of Peter Pigs AK47 Republic reloaded rules and had put together a Syrian/Arab Army from some stuff I had. Since then I have been slowly purchasing the odd unit here and there.  Then I spotted something on E(V)il Bay, a job lot of AK47 vehicles and figures. It had been on for a few weeks slowly dropping price, so I put in an offer, which was then revised and hey presto I ended up with a large parcel arriving on my door step the day before I had to go into hospital for an operation.  Now I have  been off work for just under two weeks and have been sorting through all my stuff.

Even though I had purchased a very large collection I realised I still needed more???  Sure I had enough for the makings of three armies but I could not complete any of them. What I had was a very big army capable of making any type of army.  So some hunting and quick basing gave me two opposing armies to play with.

 The Figures also came with the original AK47 Rule book and I have been looking on-line at a few blog`s and reading a few threads here and there. All came to the conclusion that the AK47 Republic (Original) is far better then the reloaded version of-the rules. So I have been doing some testing.

For the test game I put together two 600 point armies, one was a Religious Movement Army and one was a Dictatorship.

First up is the Religious movement army which came in at around 562 points plus 38 political movement points.

• Unit 1: 8 Militia Small arms bases plus 2 Militia RPG bases.
• Unit 2: 8 Militia Small arms bases plus 2 Militia RPG bases.
• Unit 3: 4 Militia Small Arms bases plus 2 HMG bases and 2 RCL Bases. Along with 2 trucks.
• Unit 4: 4 Regular Gun Armed Armoured cars
• Unit 5: 2 HMG armed Militia Technical`s, 1 RCL armed Technical  and 2 AA Gun Trucks.

The Dictatorship came in at 509 points, leaving a healthy 81 points for the political movement chart.

• Unit 1: 4 Professional Small Arms bases, 1 HMG base, 1 Mortar Base and 2 Trucks.
• Unit 2: 2 Regular Tanks
• Unit 3: 2 Regular Gun armed Armoured Cars and 1 Machine Gun armed Armoured Car.
• Unit 4: 7 Militia Small Arms bases and 1 RPG base.
• Unit 5: 7 Militia Small Arms bases and 1 RPG base.

The Religious Movement ended up defending and only got 2 of its units on table while the Dictatorship managed to get 3 with 2 being its best units.
So the game started with the Religious nuts getting units 3 and 5 and the Dictator got units 1,2 and 4.
I only managed to carry out three moves and it soon became clear that the Religious nuts were not going to last long. The game mechanics are simple and shooting becomes an annoying dice throwing affair, With the Attacker throwing 2 dice and the defender throwing 1, with a difference of 5 or 6 needed to Pin or kill respectively.   Some units are harder to kill then others and I soon found that the tanks are almost invulnerable to normal fire. I needed the Armoured cars on table as the Technicals were dying fast. Any ways here are a few shots from the test game. I need a live opponent to make a proper go of it.

The table is all laid out and the objectives marked, ready for the deployment.

Militia Technicals bravely take on the tanks.

Militia units defend an objective, one of the townships.

Technicals taking fire.

The Militia in the township about to be squashed by the Dictators troops.

Professional Infantry skulking in a township protected by there tanks.

Roads

Roads

When I was sorting through Stephens stuff, I came across some roads, which I decided was going to be added to my collection.  I then remembered something, some of the paper work that Stephen had,  mentioned Fat Frank and Ebay.

So off I went searching Ebay, and lo and behold I found him.

Fat Frank is a terrain manufacturer who sells through ebay, not only does he do assorted roads and rivers, he also manufacturers several walls and hedges and other useful bits.

I was mainly interested in the 6/10mm roads and 15mm desert roads as these are what I got off Stephen. So several lots were purchased. He sells them in  different sets consisting of 4 pieces of straights or kinked road sections and he also does junction packs. Not only does he do 6/10mm scale roads he also does 15mm and 28mm sections plus rivers and streams.

4 different sets of 6/10mm roads.

15mm desert roads and junctions.

Several sets of the 6/10mm scale in use.

Franks roads in use in a 1/300 Modern game.

The roads are made of thin strips of what I assume are plasticised rubber, gritted and painted edged in flock. The desert roads have a rubble edge to them.  I love them and now I have more than enough for my needs.

The only almost insignificant criticism I have of his production techniques is that the road colour differs batch to batch. Obviously I do not know when Stephen purchased his, but the new batch that I have received are slightly a different colour. The dry brushing is a lot heavier on the newer ones then the ones Stephen got. So my advice is that if you buy some of his roads is to buy all that you need in one go. After all they are quite reasonably priced.

I have also just noticed he does tarmac road sections as well, looks like I will be buying more off Fat Franks stuff.

Top is the old batch and bottom is the new.

Just me nit picking but the older roads are slightly darker than the newer ones. The pictures do not really show the difference but you can tell, and I will be making sure that road sections are all the same batch or I may end up  with a stripy road.

Top is the new batch and bottom is the old.

You can find Fat Frank on Ebay here: Fat Franks Ebay Store