End of the year report - Republic to Empire

Salutations!

Now when we both have mustered one infantry brigade each we can start trying out the rules and mechanics of Republic to Empire. In this first battle we saw an infantry brigade compromised of four infantry battalions. With limited cavalry support of one squadron. Facing of in the fields of Sachsen.

Although sometimes the game mechanics were a bit hard to follow, we still find the rules to provide a fun and interesting experience which match our (slightly romanticised) view of the battles of the Napoleonic wars. The Order system forces you to think ahead and also focus on the logistics of battle. It can easily become hard to deploy or make movements if slight mistakes are made early on. And battalions can be immobilised if something goes wrong.

Our battle began with a hard French right hook that pushed the Prussian infantry back. Later, the Prussian hussars managed to get around the French left flank, attacking the rear of the infantry brigade. This led to the disintegration of the French forces on that bloody day.

We know now, after the battle, that we made a few mistakes and misread the rules on occasion. It was, however a really fun battle containing cinematic events. Such as the French line infantry climbing over the hedge and walking steadily across the mud field, under fire from Prussian Landwehr. Or the massive French attack columns breaking the 1st Silesian infantry battalion, forcing them into a fighting retreat. Our initial plans were quickly swept from the table as the battle soon got a life of its own. We consider this to be the greatest strength of this ruleset. We look forward to future divisional engagements!

Right now, Anders the younger is finished with the line infantry of his Silesian regiment, and starting in January he will move on to fusiliers, more Landwehr and cavalry. Some smaller detachments of Jägers or skirmishers as well as officers will also be prioritised. Anders the elder will start on a light infantry regiment, line artillery and a few surprises...

Until next time, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New year!

 

As Anders the elder have been testing R2E, we first did a test round to show Anders the younger some mechanics.

We decided that both brigades would march unto the battlefield in march columns to simulate a meeting engagement battle

Anders the elder preparing his French for the attack while the 2nd Silesian regiment manoeuvres

Prussian Silesian grenadiers and landwehr

French infantry on the offensive

The Prussians having trouble deploying and being checked by French dragoons watch uneasily as only two of their battalions stand in line the face the entire French brigade!

The 2nd Silesian hussar squadron has routed on French infantry battalion and now prepares itself to take on the dragoons.

Road to perdition and Fields of mud

Hello again,

An quick uppdate on the terrain that will give life to our 1,22m x 2,44m table and I would really like to hear your feedback on it.

I had some real problems with finding a good base material for roads as I needed something not to thick and that was easy to work with. After a bit of trial and error I settled on 3mm cork tile with spackling paste for texture.

The road measures 18cm long and 5 cm wide

March column

Then we have some simple ploughed field meausring 18x18 cm.

 

Regards,

Anders the elder

Can't see the forest for all the trees

Hi again, first of all we would like to thank everyone that have showed interest in this blog as we now have had more than 8 000 visitors!

Here you have the promised guide on how to make the trees and please ask if there is anything you want to know more about.

What you need:

Hot glue gun
Super glue
Woodland scenic 3"-6" trees
Woodland scenic bushes tufts (I have used medium green and light green)
Brown spray color
Light brown paint
Some form of Poly fiber (The one I use is from other company but the principle is the same)
50mm plywood bases

Step one - Step two - Step three

Step one: first I basecoat the trees with a dark/medium brown and then give them a heavy drybrush using a lighter brown. Then using the hot glue gun I attach the poly fiber between the the outer branches.

Step two: Using the poly fiber as a base I start hot gluing the medium green tuft material to the branches making sure to get some volume on there.

Step three: Switching now to super glue, I use it and the light green tufts to reinforce the medium green foliage making sure that there is no loose foilage and to cover any seems and branches sticking out.

Last step is to do finish the base in the same way as I do my french infantry but without the vallejo sandy paste.

Regards,

Anders the elder.

Sticks and stones may break my bones

Some more terrain teasers, A guide on how I do the trees will come up later this week.

Newly recruited West Prussian grenadiers marches towards the war

May madness

Hi,

Anders the younger came so after some coffee we finished some bases for out brigade commanders and their staff. As he had his camera with him we took some pictures to show you our two finished "brigades" in action on my kitchen table.

The Prussian grenadier brigade with landwehr backup facing of a french line regiment

 

The lines are closing in on each other

Silesian and West-Prussian  grenadiers advance while the oberst brings up the landwehr

The french brigade with deployed voltigeurs

Landwehr trying to drive of french skirmishers in the woods

Silesian grenadiers are quick to form squares when the french heavy cavalry comes unto the field

Regards

Anders the elder and Anders the younger

Gardening

Hi,

Received two out of three orders containing supplies for my table so I could start doing some gardening.

The result

I'm very happy with how they turned out and have already started the next batch so by the time we do a update it will be an entire forest.

The hedge is based on a 14cm wooden strip and the tree is on a 50mm plywood base, behind the hedge are two test models for a future leger battalion for scale.

Cheers,

Anders the elder

Quick uppdate and dreams about terrain

Hello,

Sorry no pictures this weekend because of life coming in the way, or in Anders the younger's case a cottage.

But we got some things done:

I have now finished the 24 line infantry you have seen in the WIP pictures so now there is only 18 models left to be done in the Bardin brigade. I have also started with two test figures for a Legre brigade and the result looks promising.

Anders the younger have started basing the West Prussian grenadier battalion and finished the assembling of 11 more Prussian Hussars, He just need to get some green stuffing done.

We have done some talking and decided to start with the table this month. I went down to the game store today and picked up a Games workshop citadel battlemat. We also have put in an order for 28 woodland scenic 3-6 inch trees and a lot of foilage, and silfor tufts.

The plan with the table is to make it very modular and well go into the details of that later but basically the plan is this:

STAGE 1
Trees and Hedges
STAGE 2
Roads, hills and rivers
STAGE 3
Large farm house

So stay tuned in.

Regards,

Anders the elder

Big enough table?

This weekend we went over to the newly bought house of a friend to look at the start of his Mancave and to build some gaming tables. After a couple of hours this was the result:

Me pointing at an 28mm artillery piece with  6 crew members

The tables are MDF board with the Citadel Battlemat glued on. I think this mat is the highest quality product they produce and I strongly recommend it.

Regards,

Anders the Elder