Thursday, September 24, 2026

54mm 1815 DBN game.

 

Tried out the DBN rules with my 54mm figures on Monday morning.
 
 I've looked at they in the past but they were still too close to DBA with recoils, etc and having to double to destroy.  The 2.1 edition now has an attrition system where units can take up to 3 hits before being destroyed but can still be destroyed by being doubled  in combat. 
 
I was also intrigued by Norm Smith's review of the rules and play through on his Battlefields and Warriors blog and that was enough for my to download a set of the rules.





We tried out a 12 point 1815 game on a 4'x 4' table and used 2" = 100 paces which seemed to work well.  Each army had a break point of 4 units and, as the French, I broke 4 of the British (mostly the Belgian Militia units in the centre having lost 2 of my own.







I have been looking for a system that will let me play some historical scenarios with my 54mm in 2 hours or so and these might be the rules for that.  My regular opponent prefers games that that 2 hours or under rather than the 3-4 hours other sets of rules require.  I would probably try a scenario next on a 6' x 5' table and see how that goes.  Or increase the unit sizes and use an 8' x 5' table.



Friday, September 18, 2026

WW2 French Buildings for Warfare Game

 At the Guildford Club we are in the planning stages for a participation game at Warfare based on the training at Hankley down but actually portraying the initial armoured landing at D-Day where the armour has 30 minutes to clear the way for the infantry.

I am making some buildings and an insert that will fit over a cloth and between polystyrene tiles to for a tank ditch.

I have been modifying my Dendermonde buildings to make them a little more French and upscaling to 28mm.

 I have made 2 house kits and this is the hotel:




The shutters are cut and the beams, door frame and the roof tiles are next.  I am not painting these - they will go on to another willing volunteer to complete..

I am away for the next game run through with a mostly complete setup but the game is coming together.
.

Saturday, September 12, 2026

Wofun Italian Wars

 

I have been thinking about an Italian Wars project for a while and was planning on using 6mm Baccus figures and a set of hex based rules from Battlegames #7.

My regular opponent has bought the Flodden Collection from Wofun Games in full-colour flats using Peter Dennis art and we have played a couple of games with them.  I came to realise that I could use these flats instead of painting a huge number of 6mm figures.

I initially thought I'd use 18mm, but realised I could fit the same number of 28mm figures in a hex as 18mm due to the nature of the strips and the base widths they are designed for.

In the end I went for 28mm as it matches what Anthony has and we can combine collections for some games.

I had planned to buy some test sprues, etc and plan stuff but then Wofun announced a price increase from Sept 1st of £3-£4 a sprue and so I took the plunge and ordered the renaissance starter set and 21 other sprues - 985 "figures" in total.

They arrived yesterday and  I have spent sometime today playing with bases, shapes and sizes, number of strips, etc for my 28mm Italian Wars project.
The following is what I think works with the hex terrain for the rules I am looking at using and fits into the space without looking too big. It also makes the best use of the sprues.
Infantry 2 x 2 strips - 16 figures
Cavalry 9 figures in 3 rows
Pike 2 x 5 strips - 40 figures






I have now made up a test base of Arquebusiers and like the look.  The back of the base will hold 2D6 and a label for the unit.




It took a couple of hours of cutting different base sizes and depths before deciding on the final result but I think it will work okay and each unit fits the hexes well.

Now I've got about 40 more units to base up - at least I don't have to paint them!

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Back to the Siege Lines

 


Laid out a 6' x 5' table this morning and the siege part of the Dendermonde setup up to the Glacis.

Still working out exactly how many more gabions I need to print and gun positions to give a reasonable size of siege lines and parallels. 

This shows the Lines of Investiture at the back with gun emplacements.

There will then be trenches leading to gun pits along the road and then extending on to the first parallel.

From there onto the 2nd Parallel.

 Finally to the 3rd Parallel on the Glacis. 



I also setup some French troops along the Glacis to see how many I needed to fully man it - 105 in total.  That means I need at least another 200 to man the town itself.





I also setup some English and Austrian troops to man the parallels to see how many I had and how many are needed for a parallel- many more needed there as well!





Behind the lines of Investiture, the square board represents the area that will hold the encampment and the artillery park.

I am thinking so making them on roughly 6" squares so I can split them into 2 camps or parks for use in 7YW games.  The tents are 3d printed and I'll be adding several rows of tents to them.

The next step is to assemble some Minifigs wagons and guns to see how much space they take up.

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Russian Command

 




Finally finished painting something.  These are 3d printed 54mm Russian Command figures to complete some units.

Pleased with how well they have come out as slightly rough (I've improved my printer settings for the second lot of figures I printed).

Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Having a Clearout


 I am having a clearout of boardgame, rules and figures that I am not using in order to concentrate on the bigger collections.

 There is a listing here:

https://littlewars1913.blogspot.com/p/sales-clearout-games-rules-figures.html 

Drop me a line at

littlewars1913@gmail.com

if you are interested in anything and I'll sort out pictures - some of these are listed on Lead Adventure Forum here:

https://www.leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=153757.0

and some will eventually make their way to ebay.
 

Monday, August 3, 2026

The Sound of the Guns (printing)...

 


Working on Artillery at the moment.

Having 3d printed some Russian Guns for the new 54mm Russians I have moved on to:

1) Rebasing all my existing British artillery onto smaller bases
2) Rebasing the French Guard Artillery
3) Printing guns for French Line artillery and starting to paint some crew
4) Printing guns and crew for French Horse Artillery
5) Just bought and download some Prussian Foot artillery and crew and the first file for those is currently printing...

That should cover just about all the artillery until I start on the Austrians.