A fun game of ‘Black Powder’

I played a superbly enjoyable Napoleonic wargame yesterday. It was a vaguely Peninsular War stoush, played at my friend Scott’s, and involving the two of us, plus Brett, a Hutt club member who has moved over our way.

We used the Black Powder rules, and they sure gave us everything we wanted in a game – fun, excitement, fingernail-biting moments, a narrative that worked and loads of action.

Some of the game highlights included:

a French advance in column on a British line at the top of a hill (now, that seems a vaguely familiar scenario). Sadly, the French must’ve been commanded by a cadet, namely yours truly. They forgot to put out skirmishers, got flanked in the first move by enemy skirmishers in a wood, and in the end were thrown back in some dismay by a solid Spanish line – yes, Spanish!

the French Old Guard battalion (I did say this was *vaguely* modelled on the Peninsula) that we were worried actually came from the Baby Guard, so badly did it handle itself compared to a lowly German militia battalion in the same brigade. However, it eventually redeemed itself by being the only French attack column to get into the British defences at the end of the game.

a swirling melee of cavalry on the flank, that swung backwards and forwards all afternoon. It finally resulted in a ‘blunder’ (the one and only double six in the whole game) which hurled a French cavalry unit into the flank of an unsuspecting British infantry line – and yet the cavalry were still repelled!

Evening drew down upon us when the wargaming wives announced it was time for dinner (and, believe it or not, joined in for a post-mortem of the game!).

All in all, while the French possibly could be said to have got the better of the cavalry fights on the wing, the British horse were still in with a real chance to turn the result, especially once that infantry line chewed up the flanking cavalry attack. And in the centre, the British and Spanish infantry were mainly still in place on the ridge, apart from where the single Old Guard battalion had breached the line, but looked a bit forlorn and alone. So I think we can safely say victory went to Scott, which was only fair considering his hospitality in hosting!

Sorry, we didn’t have a camera, so no piccies!

Sharpe figures by Alban

My eye was caught by the following two new figures on the rather spartan Albans Miniatures blog. I’ve always fancied a good figure of Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, the wily villain in some of the Bernard Cornwell books. And this one, coyly renamed as Sgt Shakewell by Alban, is just the bee’s knees. I like the way he is looking at the picture of his mother in his shako, as per the books.

Sgt Shakewell and Corporal Hammond
http://albanminiatures.blogspot.com/2011/02/sgt-shakewell-and-corporal-hammond.html

Alban figures are sculpted “anatomically correct”. No, not THAT type of antomically correct! But the type of anatomically correct that aims to get human proportions right. In the past, I have found this looks odd, as the heads look too small. But having got used to the similarly-sculpted Minden Minatures figures, the style is starting to grow on me.

The above figures will match well with the following pairs from Alban’s range, to make a nice Sharpe-themed set.

• Chosen men
  BR17 Harris and Hangman
  http://albanminiatures.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-chosen-men.html
• Sharpe and Harper
  http://albanminiatures.blogspot.com/2009/08/sharpe-and-harper.html

Made redundant – is this ‘The Opportunity’ for a wargames job?

As some readers know, at Christmas I was made redundant from my job as an education specialist/publications coordinator.  So I am currently in the throes of looking for a new job here in Wellington.

But in the midst of applying for loads of education, writing/editing, communications, publishing coordination, project management and web managing  jobs (those are my skills)  for various government departments and corporations, I keep thinking that maybe this is ‘The Opportunity’ that has been given to me to break into a job that more reflects what I enjoy.  So something to do with wargaming – maybe writing and coordinating the publication process for a gaming magazine or website, or perhaps professional model-making and painting.

Of course, opportunities for such wargaming or modelling-related work are limited, especially so here in New Zealand.  However, I have flung my hat into the ring at Weta Workshop (get it? into the ring!) for model-making work, though I’m told there are literally thousands of others who have as well, so I won’t hold my breath.  And I keep looking at the Flames of War site and kicking myself that a publishing  job right up my alley was advertised there a year or so ago, before I got my shock redundancy. 

Well, it is probably just a pipe-dream anyway, and in time (hopefully not too long, as my wargaming funds have already dried up!) I’ll get a more normal job with one of those government departments or other corporations, and ‘The Opportunity’ will quietly slip on by.  But I thought it would do no harm to mention my dream here on my blog, just in case someone from ‘The Opportunity’ happens to read this, and thinks to himself, “Roly is just the guy we need!”

And failing that, who knows,  maybe someone here knows of a more normal job that they think I could go for?

 

PS:  The image comes from a site I stumbled across called Streets of Sadness:  ’Many of us are affected by the current financial situation, and for some of us, the first time we’ve had to think about making ends meet. The Streets Of Sadness effort attempts to shed light on those who’ve had it bad for a long time. These signs tell a heartbreaking story of each individual’s life, all encapsulated into a cheap little cardboard message.’