The Generals

Advance!!! General d'Armee Action

Some Gd'A... and a Battle!

Been spending quite a bit of my free time reading and playing the new set of rules - by General de Brigade author, David Brown, General d'Armee. So far I am quite happy with them. They provide a nice level of tactical detail , while still allowing for a large, 'big division' type of battle.

The French - to the right - advance on the Russian positions.

Here are some of my favorite aspects to the new rules:

• simple and fun command control through the use of ADC rolls - basically, a general rolls a d6 for every brigade to see how many ADCs are available to assign to tasks;
• 'fatigue' based casualty system, divided into levels, with each level causing more degradation of a units effectiveness;
• versatile basing system for any scale minis - there is no strict figure scale;
• simple point system to help new players design scenarios;
• battles feel right - like a proper Napoleonic battle.

The rules work great with my 10mm collection - a collection which is still in its early stages, and the GdB basing system I use works out perfectly. It should be noted that, although the rules have no strict basing or figure scale, the author does offer some suggestions - including using his preferred 1:20 figure scale and basing.

A bloody fire-fight between Saxons and Russians.

Anyway, I do hope to post more on these rules in the future. In fact, I am setting up another battle for the upcoming weekend - the Russians and French square off once again! I'll be sure to post more on this later on, including yet more of my observations regarding the rules.

Here are some pics of the set-up of the forces for this weekends battle:

A French brigade advancing on a lightly defended village.

Russian reinforcements on the way!

A small brigade of Russians holding the village.

The Saxon brigade - always popular in my battles.

Overall a great set of rules. However, I am still a rabid fan of GdB, and it will take quite a bit to shake me away from those rules. I can see myself playing with both sets for a while until I get a good feel for Gd'A. We shall see.

In other news, in case you have been living under a rock, I will be starting my newest project later this year: the 1813-14 campaigns in... 28mm scale!!! At the moment I am loving painting and collecting 28mm for the American War of Independence, so doing Napoleonics in that scale just seems... well... right. :) So, 28mm it is. Of course, I will be collecting and basing for use with the GdB rules.

Some of my AWI troops in action.

So there you go folks. Stay tuned for more updates as I find time - and have something interesting to post. See you all soon.

~K

"Reload the Cannon!"

     Well, that was certainly a wild ride! 2016 is almost gone – imagine that. I have to admit, I certainly had some amazing battles, painted up some glorious miniatures, and read through quite a few rulebooks. Remember all those?!

One of many Blucher games I played.

The Saxons on Parade!

Finally finished off my first regiment of Saxon infantry on a 1:5-8 figure to men scale. Quite big units I must say. Like the Russians, the infantry companies are mounted on the bigger 4cm frontage bases; four companies to the battalion. Keep in mind I have not included a fifth grenadier company for either battalion in the regiment - at least not at the moment. This is mainly due to the fact I just don't have any proper figure to represent them. Unfortunately, the Old Glory "Allied" elite infantry pack does not include the shako with tall plume! Of course, the grenadiers have such a tall plume. So, it looks like I have to buy another pack of elites, this time with a proper shako.

The Saxons so far. Note the battery of Saxon med. field guns deployed to flank.

Blucher Movement Trays

As I mentioned in my previous post I was considering making some movement trays specifically for the Blucher rules. So taken was I to the use of the cards during play, I thought trays were an excellent idea. Thus, here I am making a little prototype tray.

Blucher Action and Some Terrain

After a little diversion in to WW II last week, I opted for a game of Blucher to finish off my weekend. What a great battle it was too. I wont say who won or go in to too much detail regarding the fight, suffice to say I changed it up a little and had a blast.

This weeks battle was a blast. Frst time I actually used the cards with my miniatures. I liked it a lot