Frostgrave Campaign: Game 2 - The Mausoleum

 

Played the 2nd game in our Friostgrave campaign using the Mausoleum I got painted this week.  Was a close game with skeletons proving strangely hard to kill.

Judicious use of the Fool's Gold spell that lets you steal a treasure from someone carrying it and move it 4" let me steal 2 treasures off Nick and get 3 treasures off the board. 

Need to play more often to remember the rules better...

 

54mm Napoleonic Game

 

Anthony and I played a 54mm Blucher game on an 8'x 5' table.  I took the  French vs Anthony's British (as usual). 

We played through 16 turns (8 each) before having to stop as we ran out of time.  The game was  still pretty even at that point - I'd lost a light cavalry unit but his light cavalry was pretty spent and his allied infantry was starting to be worn down.

We were able to resume the game 3 days later and play it through to a conclusion.

My left flank ended with the mutual destruction of both sides Light Cavalry with me losing 3 units to the British 2.

But, I was able to apply pressure to the weaker Dutch Belgian allied corps on  their Right  wing and that forced Anthony to use his command to slowly withdraw them as they were in danger of losing 2-3 units.  He also concentrated his main attack on the his left wing heavy cavalry who were facing the French heavy cavalry.

This meant that he was unable to manouevre the higher quality, stronger British corps in the centre and it was left to exchange skirmish fire with my weaker french/allied troop corps.

His concentration on the heavy cavalry was his undoing as he was convinced he could win the combats and I managed to consistently throw slightly better dice than him which meant his units were worn out slightly faster than mine.  Also, he didn't withdraw any units as they neared breaking point and I kept enough of an upper hand to break all 4 of his heavy cavalry with the loss of 3 of my own units.

This put us on 6 units lost each - the British break point was 6, the French 7, so the British army broke and ran givng a French victory.

It was a very close and quite tense game at times - we got a couple of things wrong but that didn't change any outcomes.

More laser cutting for Dendermonde

 

Spent some time today cutting bases for the Ravelins and bastions and working out sizing for the Demi-lunes.  

I have decided to redo the Ravelin without a hexed base as it is too hard to get them to line up correctly with the bastions without a lot of fiddling.

I also started on cutting the extra base tiles need to complete the 8' x 5' table.  The pictures show roughly what it will look like, the green area runs up to were the glacis will be, beyond that will be the ditch and behind the walls will be the city streets.

I am starting wonder about using removeable tape to stick the tiles down to the boards so I can move them on and off the table without having to pack them away each time.  Anyone worked with any removeable tape - I know you can get it for temporarily hanging pictures.

The glacis is proving a problem to design as it is so large and the bases for it will have to be made is several parts as will the grass slope.  I am wondering about laser cutting the back wall and covered way and firing platform and then making the rest out of foam board cut by hand.

Bastion finished

 

I have finished cutting and assembling the first bastion.  This was fiddlier than the Ravelin and I had to bodge things in a couple of places.  I think it was because I made some changes to the flat models for the half-bastion cuts, rather than going back to the 3d model and changing that.

I might revisit the front wall shapes and revise them for the next two bastions to make it easier to assemble.

This one is a little bit off, but once textured and painted I am sure it will look fine.  It is 17" across at the largest point.

I need to add steps/slope at the back to access the reserve area and also steps for the main bastion walled area.

Next up are the city wall and a gated wall to fit between the bastions.  Then I will look at putting together the other two bastions and ravelins so I can start to work out the ditch.

After that, two different demi-lunes, one with a road running through it and then on to the glacis.

Finally, I will then start on the citadel and the buildings for the city.  I have scanned and "improved" the photos from the battle  magazine article to help me identify the number or buildings and their style so I can produce a similar look.

Bastion for Dendermonde

 

Back to working on the Dendermonde project. 

Finally had time to return to the Bastion model and refine it and test cut some pieces - took a couple of iterations of one of the pieces to get it right, but the basic pieces are cut and fit together.

The next picture shows how it fits together with the city wall.

Finally, with wall and a ravelin guarding it.

The figures are 25mm Minifigs French exploring their new structure.

Next steps are to cut the interior supports and the back walls out of 3mm MDF then to cut the sloping wall parts from 2mm MDF.

Epic Pike and Shotte Cavalry Sprue

 

Finished painting a test cavalry sprue.  The figures aren't quite as good as the infantry sprue due to the limitations of the moulding process, and some are slightly odd, like a couple of the Harquebusier and one of the mounted dragoons in particular.  This makes them slightly harder to paint with washes, as they lack and detail on the front of them, but I have managed to get something reasonable done.

As always some quick photos, bases need finishing and they need varnishing.

2 bases of Harquebusier cavalry, 1 battalia commander, 1 light gun, 1 heavy gun, 1 base of mounted dragoons and 1 base of dismounted dragoons.

 

 

 Partial bases - the 2 curassier figures you get on a sprue and 6 out of 9 commanded shot needed for a base.

The sprues are definitely designed to be painted in 3s, so that you get a complete units of types, e.g. a battery of guns, 2 x Harquebusier, 1 dragoons, 1 commanded shot, etc.

I might get some horses from Peter Pig or somewhere and make horse holder bases for the dismounted dragoons, I'll see.

You are never going to get together the 15 curassier needed for a units (needs 6 sprues plus a cornet from one sprue) which would be okay for ECW but not TYW.  Warlord have realise this and provide a "resin" cast box of 15 curassier for a regiment.

I probably have enough cavalry sprues to be able to pull off the 12 Curassier I need along with a cornet and complete this unit anyway.

Another Epic Swedish Unit

 

 

Finished off another infantry sprue for another swedish 30YW Epic unit - yellow regiment this time.  Quick picture showing the result, need varnishing and flags adding.

I picked up another Push the Pike box cheaply off someone who was selling it with some extras for a pretty good price.

So, I now only have 29 more infantry units to paint, 9 cavalry sprues to finish and 3 scots units (probably in Swedish service) and everything will be done.

Planning on trying painting a cavalry sprue next and then I'll switch to painting some Imperial units.