New project underway and a game of Blucher

My Dead Mans Hand Western side project is well under way with the first of my Lawman and Gun men 'posse' figures completed along with some of the buildings i purchased recently. All the models/buildings are from the Peter pig 15mm Western range. I love the look of the buidings, my dad had some Western shop signs lying around amongst his "just incase i ever decide to do this period" spares BIG box. They are orginally 28mm signs but they have been photocopiyed at a smaller scale and the results i think are great.

Up holding the law, Marshal Heals, Judge Haime, Sheriff G and gunman

Agent Barber Pilkington (grey coat) and various gunmen

"wanted dead or alive" Bad man Mongo Larry

Hopefully after another look through the rules i will be get a game played in the next couple of weeks, it certainly seems like it should be a fun game, so i look forward to it.:-)

Also in the last week we played another game of Blucher, however this time for a first i played the Austrains while my dad had a go at handling the French in a 300 point game

the game set up

It was yet another good game using Blucher with the momentum swinging my (Austrain) way during the second half of the game. After managing to hold off a large cavalry attack from the French on my left flank i was able to make big inroads into the French centre. This was helped my my ability to roll pretty low activation points for my dads command phase much to his frustraition throughout the entire game. I managed to time a couple of my movement phases to great effect when i gambled on having plenty of activation points which luckly i did!  Also i managed to commit my reserves to good effect for a change, with my Grenadier corp when called apon really pushing deep into the French centre effectivly splitting my Dads army in half.

The 1st Corp lead the attack in the Austarian centre supported by the Veteran Grenza from the Reserve corp

French line infantry brigades of the first corp advance through the fields in the Centre of the battlefield

Close combat fighting rages in the centre of  the battle

Mid way stage of the battle

Under a heavy cavalry and infantry attack the Austrain Infantry brigades of the 2nd corp crucially hold their ground

After repulsing the French attack the Austrain left flank launches a late counter attack led by Dragoons and Hussars

The final actions of the battle sees the French infantry retreating in the centre of the battlefield under the cover of the Curraisers

I wasnt able to break the French army by the time the game ended but my dad and I both agreed that the battle was currently standing in favour of the Austrains, who we felt still had the strength in numbers to inflict the loses required to break the French morale (i think my dad was 2 units away from the army break total). My dice rolling in the fire fight exchanges had been better in this game and my artillery had proved a useful addition, constanly inflicting casualties all through the game on my dads troops where as the less said the better about my dads dice rolling for his artillery fire! So my first outing with the Austrains ended in a Tactical victory