The Wing Scale Napoleonic Game System

Here is a photo showing the deployment of two opposing forces which will be part of our Wing Scale Napoleonic Campaign.

At the top right of the photo there is a three battalion French Regiment de Ligne deployed in "l'Ordre Mixte". My US infantry is standing in for the French. The two battalions on the flanks of the formation are in attack column while the battalion in the center is in line formation. Light companies are deployed in front of their battalions and grenadier companies are deployed in the rear of each formation. A battery of two sections is to the right of the regimental formation. Each of the French battalions is two center company stands, a light company elite stand and a grenadier elite stand.

At the bottom of the photo is a British infantry brigade of three battalions supported by two artillery sections all in a line formation. The battalion on the far left of the line is made up of three center company stands instead of the more prevalent two center company stands.

A couple of things we learned during the recent play-test include:

1. Don't try to attack a line like this without prepping it with artillery before sending the infantry into a melee against it. Artillery fired into a line like this will not be that effective at Long Range. It will be much more effective if it is brought into short range so the hit numbers go up from "6" to "4,5,or 6".
2. Players will need to be reminded that the Wing Scale is played at the battalion level and combat is resolved by stand. Just like the Regimental Scale V&B, other stands can add more dice into a combat resolution, however, the combat is one stand against another and the results apply to a single stand.
3. Units attacking any formed enemy units will need at least a 2-1 or 3-1 local superiority to be pretty well assured of success.

War at Sea - French Navy

I really like the models of the French Naval units and aircraft in the War at Sea range. I have several of the ships and planes so I can do some historical as well as fictitious scenarios for the Mediterranean. Here are some of my French ships including the Carrier Bearn, Battleship Dunkerque, Cruisers Algerie and Lamotte-Picquet and a couple of destroyers.

Here is a close-up of the Dunkerque which is one of my favorite pieces. I really think the French playing pieces stand out with the khaki nametags.

War at Sea - The Royal Navy

Here are a couple of photos of my War at Sea British Navy collection. I have included the Aircraft Carrier Victorious and Battleship Prince of Wales and Cruiser Leander along with three destroyers and supporting aircraft. Note that even though these are all part of my Royal Navy collection I have identified allied ships with their national naval ensigns such as the Australian Leander, Canadian Haida, and Dutch Witte de With.

Here is a close-up of the Victorious with her aircraft the Dive Bomber Barracuda and Fighter Martlet Mk II.

The Italian Navy

Here are a couple of pictures of the War at Sea Italian Naval Forces that I have collected. I like the boats to be on stands instead of just using the ships themselves on the table. By having the stands I can put the name of the ship and a national flag on the stand which I think really adds to the look of the playing pieces.

The ships I am showing are: Aircraft Carrier Aquila, Battleship Roma, Cruiser Gorizia, two destroyers and a stand of MTB's. Note that I identify the type of aircraft and which carrier they come from by their own stand.

Here is a close-up of the Roma

War at Sea

I have a pretty sizable collection of ships now for War at Sea scenarios. I enjoy the game quite a bit. It is really the only playable set of rules for WWII Naval gaming that I have ever come across. The rules are simply, yet I think they pretty accurately simulate the conflict. I am going to post some photos of the set up I use for my War at Sea collection.

New Books Added to the Library

I have three new Osprey Men-at-Arms series books added to the Library. I got Wellington's Light Cavalry, Wellington's Heavy Cavalry and British Forces in N. America 1793-1815. All three titles are very interesting and they add facets of British Uniforms during the Napoleonic/War of 1812 period that I did not previously have in my collection. I think that each one of these books will be a great reference for me as I continue to build my British/Canadian collection for the War of 1812 and as I build my British forces for our Volley & Bayonet Wing Scale Peninsula Campaign.

Figures Have Arrived!

My War of 1812 figures painted by Fernando Enterprises have arrived. They are very well painted and with more than 100 figures, this really takes my collection forward. I am going to use figures in a skirmish level game using a modified version of Brother Against Brother. There were a couple of battles during the Wo1812 which were too small even for Volley & Bayonet Wing Scale. This Brother Against Brother should be a good level of game to recreate these smaller battles. I will be unpacking the figures over the next couple of days and I will try to get some photos up.