French Division

 

  The French and British as allies?  Fighting side by side?  Yes if your playing the Crimean War.  The French fielded a very colorful army which can brighten your table top.  In addition the uniforms are mostly similar so you can used them fighting in Italy against the Austrians or in France against the Prussians.  My infantry regiments are if sux stands if four figures each for a battalion;  two battalions equal a regiment.   Batteries are three stands of a gun and two crew.  Cavalry are six stands if two figures.  Each infantry and cavalry battalion gets a colonel commanding it.

1st Zouaves Regiment.  Probably one of the most dashing and distinguished uniforms of all time!  Can you really be a wargamer for this period and not have a regiment of these fine fellows!  Figures are from Askari miniatures.  I cannot remember who made the mounted officers but they are outstanding.

7th Line Regiment.  I have painted them in the short used shako.  Most soldiers greatly preferred the kepi.  I also like the advancing at trail arms which you do not see too often in the table top.  Figures from Wargames Foundry.

20th line regiment in their kepi.  The red trousers do stand out in the table top.  Regimental colours are by The Flag Dude as are my British ones.  He had not made any flags for this period but offered to do so if I  sent him research materials.  I think the results are magnificent.

A battery of French line artillery.

A regiment of the Chasseurs d'Afrigue cavalry.  Again a most colorful Regiment.

Club Game Day

 

  The club put in a open game day Saturday.   Both the public and other clubs in the area were invited for a fun and ex icing day of miniature gaming.  From Ancients to WW2 there were a great number of fun and visually exciting games for all.  A tremendous amount if work as put into this day and the club president Mike  has a tremendous amount of thanks for all the hard work he put into this.    It was a opportunity to game with a number of people week not usually see and I do sincerely hope we see these players again!  Also many thanks to Warren Smith for driving me up to the event.

  I played in two game.  AJ put on his electric brigadier  game with the Battle of Rhode Island game.  Ed put on his Jousting game.  Both are known for there blogs; AJ's War gaming blog (https://ajs-wargaming.blogspot.com) and Mr Ed's Wargames Meanderings (https://edmwargamemeanderings.blogspot.com).  Both games were great fun and both were very different from my usually type of game.

The Electronic Brigadier is a computer run game designed by AJ.  The computer rolls the dice, assigns casualties and adjusted morale.  You, as player decide what you want your regiments to do.  On the tablet you click off the action you want your regiment to do.  I found it odd at first and it took a few moves to figure out how things worked but once I got the hang of it the game moved along very quickly.  Something like twenty moves before 12:00.    Its a very clever system.

The battle saw a American Force holding a number of redoubts. A few mikitia, light infantry and continental line regiments were deployed mid field to slow up the Crown Forces.    The British were marching out of Newport Rhode Island and had to capture two of the six redoubts to win.  I had the American command on the right flack and was opposed by a very large Hessian force.  The battle raged back and forth but in the end the Americans held all the redoubts so won the game.

 Ed's Jousting game was completely different from anything I had ever played before.  The figures are very big!  The charts track horsemen ship, attack ability and defense.  Each team/player gets four Knights;  A noble, A Notable and two ordinary Knights.  You fight it out against another player by matching three of your knights against them.  Each fight us very different as players have different abilities.  Its fun and each joust is different.  I just wish I could describe it better but you have to play it to understand.  Let me just says its very clever and a lots of fun.  Ed has the rules a nab d alk the charts you need to play at his blog.  I highly recommend you visit it and check it out!

British Cavalry Division

 

Lord Cardigan

The British Cavalry Division of the Crimean War.  The Light Brigade and the Heavy Brigade.  The stuff of legends, of poetry and of colorful toy soldiers.  

Because the British cavalry division was so understrength I field it as a single unit of six stands.  

The Light Brigade is a name known to all through its tragic charge at Balaclava.  Equally famous, or infamous was its commander Lord Cardigan.  Part of the appeal to me about the Crimean War was the unusual personalities.  

The brigade is made up of the 8th Hussars, 11th Hussars, 4th Light Dragoons, 13th Light Dragoons, and 17th Lancers.

Heavy Brigade was made up of the 1st Dragoons,  2nd Dragoons,  4th Dragon Guards, 5th Dragon Guards, and 6th Dragoons regiments.  Most were understrength.  Because of this  I field the brigade as a single unit.  General James Scarlet commanded.  I have painted him in a general officers uniform but wearing the helmet of his Regiment the 5th Dragoons Guards.

British Light Division

 

  The Light Division was a nod to the famous formation from the Peninsula War.  After all the Commander in Chief Lord Raglan made his name there and patterned it after the Duke of Wellington's army.  In some ways time stood still in his mind and not much moved on from those days.  The Division bore the brunt of the fighting at The Alma and suffered greatly there.  

Commanding General: Lieutenant General Sir George Brown

First Brigade: Major General William Codrington

33rd Regiment of Foot, 23rd The Royal Welch Regiment and the 7th Regiment of Foot Royal Fusiliers.

Second Brigade: Major General Sir George Buller

77th (East Middlesex) Regiment of Foot. , 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) and

19th (1st North Riding of Yorkshire) Regiment of Foot.

  One troop of Royal Horse Artillerya and one field Battery of Royal Artillery

British 1st Division Crimean War

 

  Life does have a way of interfering.  Too many house hold activists have piled up and I have no time for a game.  I did manage to unpack my figures for the Crimean War so I will be posting them until I get the game underway.  This is good as these are my oldest figures and I truly am fascinated by the period.  My British and French divisions are almost exclusively Wargame Foundry figures while my Russians are a mismatch of manufacturers.  There is something special about the period, at least on the table top.  You get sinister looking Russians in over coats, dashing French and best of all British in outstanding uniforms.  A true joy for the gamer.

 

The Duke of Cambridge

 Here is the 1st British Division during the Crimean War.  Commanded by HRH The Duke of Cambridge they saw service at all the major battles of the war.  The division was made up of two brigades;  the Guards and the Highland brigades.  

  The Guards Brigade was commanded by Major-General Sir Henry Bentinck, KCB and included the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards1, st Battalion, Coldstream Guards and the1st Battalion, Scots Fusilier Guards.  

 The Highland Brigade commanded by Major General Sir Colin Campbell and made up of the 42nd (Black Watch) Highlanders, 79th(Cameron) Highlanders and the 93rd (Sutherland) Highlanders