Santa Anna Attacks Fort Houston

On the eve of Fathers Day i decided to get out my Mexican American war figures and start a game. The scenario was an unexpected strike by a small Mexican Army under Santa Anna (of course) on an American outpost at Fort Houston held by Colonel James (Bowie) Jowett (my son) . It was garrisoned by a Battalion of Infantry, two companies of Rifles and a Mounted Infantry Regiment. Turn one saw the Mexicans advance towards the Bridge leading into town and the American Rifles, Horse Artillery, and Mounted Infantry scatter through town whilst the Fort was stood too.

A picture looking down the table from Fort Houston. In the distance can be seen the river Rio which has a small bridge across it leading into the small town. It took several turns for the Mexicans to find a ford which the cavalry could utilize.

The Mexican army approaches the bridge over the Rio.

An Amercan horse battery deploys across the road within effective range of the Bridge.

The Troops in Fort Houston man the defenses and await the Mexican Attack. Mexican Cavalry can be seen comming out from the town flanking the hill just east of the fort.

The Mexicans begin streaming across the Bridge to assualt the town. Just on the other side the Mounted Infantry has dismounted and manned the walls of the Church yard. The Mexicans will take some heavy fire from this unit as they cross the Bridge.

Mexican artillery bombard the church yard whilst infantry storm across the bridge and assualt the walls. It would be several turns before the mounted infantry were ejected from the church yard. The two rifle companies had taken up poistions else where in town and the artillery were forced to redeploy closer to Fort Houston.

After a bitter fight the church yard finally falls to the Mexicans and the mounted Infantry are pushed out. The American Horse battery that redeployed is now giving covering fire to the American units in the town.

Word soon rushes through town that the Mexicans have found a ford across the river. The Mounted Infantry scamble back to their horses and make a dash for the fort. Hotly pursued by Mexican Cavalry. As for the Rifle compaines, they have no chance of making the run for town to they bunker down in one of the town buildings and decide to make a stand.

The pursuing cavalry chased the mounted infantry and rifles right up to the walls of Fort Houston. Unfortunately a little to close to the steady cannister fire of the Horse battery. One thing i did not allow for was Jamess dice rolling. Something you would think i would be aware of by now. His first salvo from the walls and the horse battery decimated the pursuing cavalry and ensured the safe return of the retreating Americans.

Several shots of cannister and the pursuing Mexicans were gone ... For Good.

Fresh reserves were brought up by the Mexicans which were thrown at the American defenses. These suffered similar fates and were soon Routing from the fight completely decimated. The fire power coming from Fort Houston was very agressive plus of course James continually throwing 5's and 6's whislt poor old dad (Santa Anna) was doing what was expected 2's & 3's.

The Guards of the Supreme Power we brought up and set to launch an attack. Unfortuanately several shots and poor dice were enough to see them falter and become useless. At this point with 1 cavalry regiment gone and two regiments of Infantry I decided to withdraw and leave the Americans to clean up the mess... Well it is fathers day after all haha. We used Guns of Gettysburg for this scenario which worked really well at 1:20 ratio. I intend to bulk out my Mexican and American units some more using First Corps excellent range for this period. I even have some Daniel boon Texas Ranger figures to paint as well. Maybe an Alamo game is on its way. Just as soon as i can get the scaled model from Hudson & Allen. Hope you enjoy the pic's as much as we enjoyed the game. cheers Kev.

Army Painter Update

Just an update on the threat of price rises. We have decided that should we be forced to up our prices we will discontinue to stock the AP products and in fact will source similar styled products locally. We already have a few options which may come into play if this occurs. But for now don't panic buy enjoy what we believe to be a fair RRP when compared to the rest of the world. I appreciate your comments that have come through to us over the last couple of days and thank you for your support.
cheers
Kevin

Army Painter Price Hike

We have unfortunately recieved an e-mail from the Army Painter Guys. It seems certain other retailers are not happy with what we are currently selling The Army Painter Products for and as a result we are being asked to up our price from $38.00 per tin for the shade to $50.00/tin and the sprays will go from $18.00 to $25.00. This will bring us into line with the others much to our dissapointment. Its a pity that once again it will be cheaper to buy off shore than from a local retailer.

The Austrians Attack Plancenoit

Played another GdB game today with a mate Mitchell at 1:40 Ratio. The game was Plancenoit which was out of the GdB Scenario book 2. We decided to use Austrians as i had no where near enough Prussians to fight this battle. The game was 24 turns which gave us plenty of both scope and time.

This is a view looking down the table from the Austrian side. Both sides started with a small division each which escallated fairly quickly into a Corps for the Austrians.

The Initial Austrian Attack force starts the advance towards the town. Turn 4 will see some 7 more Battalions arrive to reinforce the attack.

French Troops occupy the church grounds and prepare an artillery battery for firing at the white coated colums approaching

The first Austrian attacks start to go in and clear the outlying buildings of French troops. The main defensive line was sitting waiting for the on rush of Austrians. Mitch's French did not have long to wait.

Turn 4 saw the arrival of the bulk of the Austrian attacking force. I think the French took a breath when they appeared and started to look to their rear for any reinforcements. Unfortunately there were none in site.

After fresh Austrian troops arrived attacks renewed on the main town centre and the church. It took about 4 turns to capture the Church and the Buildings occupying the French Right. The town Centre was captured onlt to have the Austrians thrown out in a renewed French assualt. The arrival of fresh troops saw it safely back into Austrian hands.

The only cavalry to be seen around town was a unit of line lancers and some Austrian Dragoons. The French lancers were lucky to see off an Austrian Grenzer Square only to be driven off by the Dragoons.

Austrian Forces clear the trees in the centre of town and start to move through the Church yard. An Austrian Battalion was thrown back in the woods around the church but once again the French were driven off by fresh reinforcements. Turn 9 saw the arrival of 4 Austriaan Grenadier battalions which added some weight to the assualts.

The town was by now lost and at about turn 15 the French reinforcements arrived. There was another 7 battalions for the

Unfortunately we ran out of time at about turn 20 with 4 more turns needed to finish the scenario. Not to worry all in all it was a great game and a great scenario, one i would love to play again. I hope you enjoy the pictures and look forward to our next game.

cheers

Kevin

1:40 GdB Napoleonic game

Today a friend of mine Mark Piper came over for a Napoleonics games using General de Brigade at 1:40 Ratio. I really like the rules using this ratio and as the game mechanics are the same for ACW and SYW i find them easy to use and we get a good result in a reasonable time. We are basically playing at Corps level with around 16 infantry battalions plus cavalry and guns.
This is a shot of the table at the start of turn one. The French were deployed on the right of screen and both small villages and the large farm seen in the distant background. It was the British who were trying to force their way into Southern France from left to right.

The above shot is of the British approaching the French centre left flank. And yes as you can see i have not finished the bases on my French, hopefully i will have them done soon.

The fight for the farm house on the far French Right turned out to be a desperate affair. A battalion from the 4th Swiss regiment held out for part of the game but was evicted by two British battalions. The Farmhouse was later retaken by a legere battalion thrown in by my brother Ken. It stayed in French hands until the end of the game.

The small village in the centre of the French line was the same story as the Farmhouse. A dessperate fight ensured by a battalion of Legere and although pushed back by two British battalions, a fierce bayonet charge saw then regain control of the village once more.

The only cavalry action of the game was an opportunity charge by the 9th Lancers which failed to stop two British battalions throwing back the 2nd / 4th Swiss Regt. as the flowed around the Farm House. It was a Fresh Battalion and a Foot battery which stalled the Brits. Unfortunately my camera died and i was not able to take any other pics. We called it quits at 315pm and decided it was a close run thing for both. I think the French held their ground but only just. It was a good effort by the Brits considering they had to take some heavy cover. The only thing i was upset about was that i had a heavy Cuirassier Brigade sitting just off centre waiting for orders which failed to activate. These bad boys will have to wait for another time, perhaps we will see a cuirassier division at full gallop. Nathan if you read this i need some Cuirassier command figures, what have you got in your range?

Imagin-nations Cuirassiers

Just finished 4 troopers for Craigs Imagin-nations army. There is another 4 troopers to do to finish the unit. The figures are Front Rank WSS Austrian Cuirassiers which have been used for the imagin-nations scene. We are having a Napoleonic Game hopefully on the weekend and i will hopefully be posting some pic of that so stay tuned.

FoW Available

Ok we have jumped on the supply cart and now have a cross section of FoW vailable now on our web site. It will be under the Products listing ubder its own FoW heading. We hope to have the stock inputted to our web store over the next couple of days.