Thursday 20 July 2017

Commands and Colors Seven Years War in 6mm.

Twenty five years ago or thereabouts I bought a pair of 6mm Seven Years War armies from Irregular Miniatures and painted three quarters of them. Many times I've thought about finishing them but never did until last week.

Nowadays it is so much easier getting painting info on the internet. One of the reasons I stopped painting them all those years ago was that I didn't have a guide to painting the flags. I got all I needed at Kronoskaf, link a fabulous website.

Another reason I stopped painting them was a lack of rules that suited the 6mm blocks. Nowadays I could use Black Powder, Honours of War or a modified version of Napoleonic Commands and Colors. Being a huge fan of Richard Borgs Commands and Colors system this is what I did...

 I just made up the scenario, though I would like to attempt some historical re-fights too.
 These are some shots halfway through a game, Prussians defend the church.
 The Irregular Miniatures blocks fit onto my 90mm hex board very nicely and I'm sure I could use them on the game board too.
 An aerial view of the battle.
 Frederick the Great watches the action unfold. He and his aide are Heroics and Ros artillerymen.
 Prussian Musketeers.
 Austrian Bethlen Hussars.
 Croats skirmishing for the army of Maria Theresa
 Austrian Dragoons, I painted them all in green coats for ease of identification much like the blocks that come with the boxed game.
 I enjoyed the game so much I quickly set up another.
 Commands and Colors battles aren't easy to write up because they have many moves involving just a few units, but they certainly make an exciting game with a plausible narrative.
 So I'll leave you with a few shots of the toys deployed for the battle.






Now I'm off to play it.

Sunday 2 July 2017

Commands and Colors Marlborough

I've been playing a lot of Commands and Colors lately, Ancients and Napoleonics but today I dug out some very old 6mm Marlburians and had a couple of games.

I modified the Napoleonic rules a little and these photos show the end of the second battle.

 This battle was a long struggle over the fordable river, the Franco-Bavarians had the upperhand from the start.
 The French defended the position very well and were very successful with counterattacks.
 However the pendulum swung and the Allies slowly gained the advantage.
 A very weak Bavarian formation holds the church.
 A lot of units removed from the field.
 Marlborough led his cavalry reserve forward in a desperate attempt to win the battle and was winning 8-6 when he played this card.
He forced the Bavarian guns to retreat to the high ground and just managed to destroy them with his bonus attack. He won the game 9-6.

What an exciting game!, I was punching the air at the finish.

I don't recall ever having a duff game with Mr. Borgs creations and some of them have been very exciting indeed.