Mystery Napoleonics take 3

These are Clive N's photos of the figures in his possession.

Mystery Napoleonics take 2

I've dug my mystery horseman out from the loft and here he is - clearly of the same manufacture as the RHG figure in the previous post, again with wire reins and soldered on to a sheet metal base. The photo seems to have blanched out some of the colour of the uniform coat, which is sky blue.

Mystery Napoleonics

I've been sent this picture of two Napoleonic figures and I was wondering if anyone could help identify the manufacturers. The suspicion is that the Royal Horse Guards figure could be very early Greenwood and Ball - can anyone confirm this? or provide an alternative identification? Also struggling on the rocketeer. No visible markings on either figure.

Linka

Yes I know it's by George Erik again but actually this post is about Linka. The article "Now You Too Can Learn to Linka" was published in Wargamer's Newslett #208 in July 1979.



After a period when it was hard to find Linka is available again. The LinkaWorld web site contains information on supppliers for the UK, US, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and Soutn Africa.

Spanish Windmill by George Erik, Wargamer's Newsletter #202 January 1979

Neatly making the connection between Bill Holmes and George Erik is this windmill, commissioned by Dick Tennant from the latter, featured on the cover and inside Wargamer's Newsletter from January 1979.

And now that's enough George Erik for now... (Ed).

And then there was George Erik...

DC's comment on the last but one post anticipated the next character in this mini series, George Erik, who ran Miniature Warfare Ltd, out of 18b the Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells.

A heavy advartiser in Wargamer's Newsletter, he also penned the memorable two-part George Erik story for the magazine.

Bill Holmes: Don Featherstone's tribute in Wargamer's Newsletter 98 May 1970

I've now noticed Don Featherstone's Editorial from Wargamer's Newsletter 98 (the one with the pictorial tribute to Bill Holmes) also included this obituary.


I'm told by John Preece (see comment on previous post) that the BIll Holmes building pictured in Charge! is the octagonal roofed one, I assume from the Battle of Sittangbad - I hope these are the right pictures:

Before there was Ian Weekley - there was Bill Holmes and Deltorama

Before there was Ian Weekley, making marvellous buildings to order and having lavishly illustrated articles in the wargames press, there was Bill Holmes.

Bill Holmes set up Deltorama in 1967 as the first wargames construction service, making model buildings for Brigadier Peter Young, among others (as refereed to in Charge!)

Early Wargamer's Newsletters were studded with Deltorama advertisements with line drawings of completed commissions. Sadly Bill died around 1970. In May that year Don Featherstone posted a double page tribute made up of some of these line drawing images.


Before doing a little research for this post, I had never made the connection between Bill Holmes and the war journal featured in Don Featherstone's Solo-Wargaming book, the one with the inspirational North West Frontier campaign and pictures of Tradition 25mm figures.

Don Featherstone writing in Solo-Wargaming, Kaye & Ward 1973

“The late Bill Holmes of Deltorama had a series of such journals in which he recorded the activities of his troops, embellishing these accounts with drawings and photographs of their operations. Using as a background the wonderful buildings for which he was professionally renowned, Bill posed his figures most realistically as they attacked forts … or fought against ambushes in the rocky defiles of the North-West Frontier. There is no limit to the ingenuity that the wargamer can display in compiling a journal – Bill Holmes even went so far as to make his own army forms and letter-headings complete with rubber-stamped markings and so on, and inserted them into the journal to record when an order was received from a higher formation, for example. A journal is very much a personalized affair but the sample pages given on the opposite page (below) can serve as a guide.”

Paddy Griffith: War, Wargames and Strong Drink, Wargamer's Newsletter 195, June 1978

I am indebted to the Unfashionably Shiny DC for pointing me to the right number of Wargamer's Newsletter for the Paddy Griffith article I really wanted to post.

Paddy Griffith: A Blast of Grapeshot, Wargamer's Newsletter

I have been wondering what would be an appropriate way to mark the sad passing of Paddy Griffith. There are on line obituaries from those who knew him, such as Bob Cordery's here, and personal memories on a number of fora.

I thought it might be appropriate to post some examples of his earlier articles, which people may not have seen before. In no particular order, the represent his scholarship, his robust line in argument, his wide ranging interests, his willingness to challenge and question established orthodoxy, and his innovation in wargaming.

Reading some of the personal reminiscences, I seemed to recall seeing an article by him on alcohol - the missing factor in wargaming. I have spent much of today looking for it without finding it, so I don't know if this was real or imagined. It would have made an appropriate tribute to an affable man, and would have achieved a pleasing symmetry with Jack Scruby's article on Smoking and Wargames, posted here.

In the first of a series of five posts, here is an energetic response to Fred Vietmeyer, writing in Wargamer's Newsletter. As my copy of this issue has lost it's cover and front page, I can't tell exactly when it was published.

Paddy Griffith: The Prusso-Danish War of 1864, Wargamer's Newsletter 73, April 1968

Paddy Griffith: Marshal Bugeaud's tactical principles, Miniature Warfare August 1971

Paddy Griffith:The answer to limited wargames, Wargamer's Newsletter August 1967

Paddy Griffith: Some thoughts on Napoleonic maritime strategy, Miniature Warfare August 1968

Hinchliffe System 12

Sometime in 1976, I remember a full - maybe double - page advert in (I think) Military Modelling, advertising a whole system of Napoleonic figures and scenic items. It looked a very exciting concept and was Hinchliffe's System 12. Sadly, by the time I assembled anything like enough money to buy some of the products, it had all fizzled quietly out. I think there may have been something about the figures all breaking off at the ankles - it certainly seemed to be a short-lived episode.

The scans are from te 1976 Hinchliffe Handbook and the December 1976 Hinchliffe price list.

Early results from the play test

Early conclusions from the play test seem to be:

Mining was too effective and given too long a reach - only shorter (1 hex) tunnels should be allowed.

The rules for mortars and howitzers made these weapons almost completely ineffectual in the siege.

Either we should have gone with field batteries instead or Tony needs to tweak these rules.

(given the ineffectiveness of much of the besiegers' artillery and the destruction of most of their battering train, the excessive power of their mining operations proved their only opportunity of making a breach).

Consideration needs to be given to starting fires in a town.

The setting of a digging standard for each day had little effect and it was unclear how this did (or should) relate to mining options.

In general the basic mechanisms of the rules worked well enough to make it now worth adding extras such as a general morale barometer for the inhabitants of the town, consider chance cards etc, as well as revising mortar and howitzer fire, and mining rules, as above.

I also should metion the 15mm Vauban fortifications shown are from the Terrain Warehouse.

Napoleonic Siege Wargame play test - the assault

The crater at the front is from the first mine, which exploded underneath the glacis. The third successful British mine destroyed a bastion, the ravelin, and the section of wall under bombardment from the sole remaining 18 pdr.



Two battalions of Hessians marched forward to block the breach, their skirmishers to the fore.



The first battalion was routed before contact and the Portuguese attackers took the ground. The second battalion of defenders fell back into the town.



More allied battalions pour into the town.



The Portuguese in possession.

At any point in the siege either side can opt to "go tactical". This indicates a shift from siege rules where one bound equals twenty four hours, to tactical rules where a bound represents half an hour. The tactical rules are to cope with sallies, raids, assaults and other occurrences. They are a cut down version of Tony's main battle rules, which are hex based and computer managed.

The siege and tactical rules are not yet computerised, as we were testing them to make sure they are workable first. More play testing is required, with various tweaks suggested by our weekend's experience.

I will be posting some photos from the pitched battle we fought between Portuguese/Spanish and Italian/Spanish forces on the other figure blogs.

Napoleonic Siege Wargame play test - digging parallels and batteries

Digging parallels and batteries is the task of the infantry battalions taking part of the siege. While out of artillery range (the first and second parallels) this is relatively risk free, but owing to the survival of the majority of the defenders' artillery attempts to establish the third parallel led to heavy casualties among the digging parties. This was only resolved by the success of the third mine, which meant the third parallel was not required.


In the test, wooden blocks (from cheap Jenga-like games) were used for trench sections. Parallels need to have both a front and reverse side. Parallels are dug by subunits (six men in two ranks).


Batteries require digging parties two sub units deep, which provide consequently better targets. We used field emplacements from the Italeri artillery sets (French Napoleonic and American Civil war) for the battery postions once established.

Napoleonic Siege Wargame play test - British artillery

The British artillery park beyond the line of countervallation centres on the rocket battery - S Range launchers, crew, draught horses and drivers, with Lamming limber and rocket wagon. An S Range heavy mortar and crew is visible on the front row. (Apologies for a fuzzy photo).


These two 18 pdrs on field carriages are from Fine Scale Factory, with Hinton Hunt crews. The guns scale out almost identically with the more easily available Hinchliffe 25mm model of the same piece.


Standing in as the ill-fated second heavy battery are these two Hinchliffe 18 pdrs (not 24 pdr as I previously thought), one on a garrison carriage, the other on a naval carriage. Really these should also have been on field carriages but they were what was available to us. As events unfurled, these four guns were barely enough and did not themselves secure a breach.



Other supporting artillery included rocket, field, mortar and howitzer batteries. While the rockets enjoyed one success they also blew themselves up, and the mortars proved extremely ineffective at counter battery fire. In the end the British would have done better with fewer specialised and more general batteries.

Napoleonic Siege Wargame play test - French garrison artillery

Tony's fortress is 15mm scale, to allow for an acceptable footprint and leaving enough room on the table for three parallels and a line of circumvallation. This leaves little room on the walls so he has special garrison batteries, using Newline naval guns (to represent garrison carriages) and Zvezda gunners.




I brought three Lamming 12 pdrs, with S Range crews, which were posted on the three bastions. With their longer range these guns proved invaluable to the defence, and were a major hindrance to the progress of the siege.