Old Glory Janissary Musketeers With Command

 Finished up these figures - added a few highlights since there are large areas of clothing.

Very nice, robust figures, which will work well for skirmish games. In fact, I just ordered a copy of One-Hour Skirmish Wargame rules, which I plan to use for the Napoleon in Egypt project.

One of the references used.

They match up pretty well with TAG Janissaries (middle figure pictured below).

Thanks for checking out the blog as always, and hope you all are doing well.

Perry French 2/7th Hussars - Egyptian Campaign

After one of the players from last Saturday's Rebels and Patriots game suggested (actually more of a complaint) that the French should also have a cavalry unit, went ahead and ordered a box of Perry French Hussars. Painted a unit of six (the standard cavalry size for Rebels and Patriots) up as the 2/7th Hussars - prior to them being issued blue dolmans and fitting peaks to their mirlitons.

As I picked up a bug and had a slight cough I stayed home yesterday from the usual Wednesday game day and painted these up instead. The one draw back is my wife picked up my bug and is feeling pretty bad right now. To top it off she's leaving for a trip to Europe (Scandanavia) next Monday. She should be good by then, and we don't have fevers and it's mostly congestion.

They were painted up using the usual block painting and Minwax staining, the later bringing out details like the braiding on the dolman and pelisse. Highlights were added to some areas to make them pop a bit more as they are hussars.

Printed sabretache designs shared by a kind TMPer sent me years ago were used. These may be a bit later - First Empire - but thought the green looked nice.

They were painted up using the usual block painting and Minwax staining, the later bringing out details like the braiding on the dolman and pelisse. Below is how they looked after the stain was applied - a few hightlights were added later.

This unit will be used in another Rebels and Patriots "Napleon Lost In Egypt" game next month at another game day at Fort Steilacoom. For the record, the Brigade Games F&IW British Grenadiers and French Infantry recently painted have new owners - sold them last weekend. The funds from the sale were already used to order replacement figures from Redoubt. Until next time, thanks again for stopping by and checking out the blog.

Napoleon in Egypt - Rebels and Patriots Playtest

Just finished a very successful playtest for gameday next Saturday down in Olympia - Summer Offensive. We used small units of 6 figures, but kept the shooting/fighting dice at 12 for units above half strength and 6 for those below. Most of the units were classed as Light Infantry with ability to skirmish. The scenario had Napoleon on a camel wandering alone in the desert, and would be either captured by the Ottomans or reunited with the French. He also had a direction die for movement at the start of each turn. However, the first two turns he rolled to stay in place and was reunited by a French unit. In the next turn an Ottoman unit attacked and defeated the French unit he was with and captured him. We called the game at Turn 5 with Napoleon still in the possession of the Ottomans.

The unit of Nizam-I Cedid attacking the French with Napoleon. Defeating them and capturing the French infidel.

Ottomans and French closing in on each other between obscuring terrain.

A unit of Janissaries - after taking a few casaulties - taking cover behind the remnants of the past.

French infantry advancing into the open.

French dromedary on foot on the French left flank - the smoke on the nearest unit indicates their firing being reduced by 1 after the results of rolling a Double 1 Activation blunder. The Ottomans scored an Independent off-table firing hit on a Double 6 Activation roll.

Napoleon after capture by the Ottomans. The Sultan will be pleased!

French Grenadiers - already with a permanent disorder for losing half their strength - charge into a unit of Janissaries. The Grenadiers were destroyed after losing their fight.

We actually repositioned the forces on the long edge of the table prior to the start.

Ottoman forces.

French forces.

Appropriate refreshments were had - we all want to be gyros - with a little Turkish Delights. I did refrain from providing a bottle of Ouzo as it was still early in the day.

It was a very productive playtest with a few tweaks made to the scenario, but overall a very good game. Plan to play a lot more Rebels and Patriots in the future. It's a great way to get figures into a game without having to paint up tons of figures. I may end up rebasing a few Napoleonic figures as singles to use with these rule, and still keep a majority on multi-figure bases. Thank you for stopping by and best wishes to you all.

Brigade Games Napoleon on a Camel and Nizam I-Cedid Foot

These are part of an order I just received from Brigade Games. This was only my second order from them in over 10 years. I also ordered some F&IW figures too - for a later project. Another first is the camel - never painted one before. It's a nice sculpt and with Napoleon sitting atop it makes it an Egyptian Campaign must-have (at least for me). The Ottoman infantry represent the troops that the Sultan at the time intended to be part of modernizing his army - the Nizam I-Cedid. They actually used French muskets - much to the chagrin of the British, and were supposedly trained in Western tactics and drills. The Sultan wanted them to take the place of the Janissaries, who had fallen out of favor over the years.

The figures will be part of a Rebels and Patriots playtest later this week. Hopefully the playtest will work out so I can host it at a game day later this month. I had originally volunteered to host a Bolt Action game, but most of the folks around here aren't really into Bolt Action - or may like other rules more. Besides I haven't played enough Rebels and Patriots and want to get more experience with it.

As far as the figures go, I'm really impressed with them and plan to order from Brigade Games more int the future. I received the order after only 8 days from when I placed the order - granted I'm in the US, but clear across the country in WA State.

I plan to have the capture of Napoleon the victory condition for the Ottomans. Maybe he gets lost on his own after suffering from heat exhaustion.

Below is a comparison shot - left to right: TAG Janissary, Brigade Games Nizam I-Cedid, and Perry French in Kleber uniform.

Here's  the rest of the Brigade Games order from their F&IW range - also great figures. They're replacements for the Foundry, Redoubt, and other F&IW figures I sold off years ago. Plan to use them with Rebels and Patriots too.

I'm expecting a box of Fireforge Medieval Archers tomorrow. Plan to paint up a unit of Levy Bows for an Age of Crusades Polish warband with them. Until next time, thanks for stopping by and wishing you all the best.

French in Egypt - Rebels and Patriots Game

Hello all! I've been off the blogosphere for a while, but actually hosted a Rebels and Patriots - French in Egypt game today. The game played out well enough and I learned a lot from several of the experienced players. I used the "Long Way From Home" scenario, which had the French needing to move off the table diagonally from one corner to the other.

Gratuitous group shot before the game - along with a bunch of Egyptian aquarium pieces.

Here's the view of the French units prior to the start of the game.

One thing I modified before starting the game was shortening the distance for the French. Having only played Rebels and Patriots a couple of times in the distant past, I had set up the table thinking of the longer shooting ranges of Bolt Action and the sweeping movements of Black Powder. The table size was 7.5' X 6'. I could've used just a 6' X 5' area more effectively. Anyway, we moved up the starting point for the French and also shortened their ending point. We also grouped the figures into 12-man units (except for one French Grenadier unit) from the 6-man units here. We played 12 turns and the French were victorious by destroying most of the Ottoman army - although they were still a little short of reaching their end point. Here are some images below from the game.

The one small French unit of Grenadiers taking cover behind an obelisk. Dismounted French Dromedary and infantry behind them. All of the Egyptian terrain are aquarium ornaments.

Mameluke cavalry moving into position to stop the French advance.

French pouring devastating musket fire into the Ottomans. The Ottomans had bad die rolls, including a few activation failures. One rolling snake eyes followed by a one. This had one of their units firing into a friendly unit and causing casualties and disorder. 

A unit of Janissaries moving through cover. Tufekci troops in the background.

Tufekci and Janissaries maneuvering around pyramids.

French in Close Order for more effective firing.

A long-forgotten pharaoh sits in silence while French invaders wreak havoc in his lands.

It's been a while since I've posted, but summer had me doing things away from the gaming and painting table - one was a visit to my youngest son currently stationed at Fort Hood. I had to take a picture next to the post's mascot - the "Phantom Warrior". It's really strange that a major US Army base chose this, but here it stands in front of the III Corps headquarters.

Well, so much for now, and until next time, wishing you all a great summer.

Ottoman Warband - TAG, Gringo 40's and Warlord Games Figures

 Here's the small warband that is intended to be used against the French using Rebels and Patriots. A somewhat fanciful, hodgepodge of troops. Most of the troops are from The Assault Group - Janissaries, Tufecis and Levant Musketeers. A Warlord Games command set was added to flesh out a few units - which are in multiples of 6 for the ruleset. They can be fielded as either 12-man units or small 6-man units. The Mamelukes are from Gringo 40's - and as mentioned in the previous post, they are from their Napoleonic French range and have saddle cloths from their time in the Imperial Guard. Also, the TAG figures are from their Renaissance range a few centuries earlier than the Egyptian Campaign.

Besides giving the faces and hands a flesh wash, no other highlighting or touch ups were added after the Minwax stain and basic block painting. These are intended for gaming and "rough handling".

They are all based on GW-style 25mm rounds and the cavalry on Gale Force Nine oval bases. Except for one of them, all of the horses are the same pose - not sure if this was an oversight, but I see a few other horse poses on the Gringo 40's website. If you place an order with them, you may want to specify to include various horse poses.

Next on the agenda is getting some Rebels and Patriots gaming in. I've played in a few games run by other folks, so really don't have the rules down yet. Reading up on the rules, it appears there a few modifications to the original Lion Rampant rules - for one all Activations require a base of 6 using 2D6's. Lion/Dragon Rampant had different values for this depending upon the troop type. The rules seem more streamlined and easier to play, IMO. Until next time, thanks for dropping by and wishing you a great summer.

Perry French Egyptian-Syrian Campaign Infantry

Finished up the Perry French Egyptian Campaign foot. 2nd Light in green coats; 22nd Light in sky blue coats, 25th Line in "dusty" pink coats, 88th Line in purple coats, 9th Line grenadiers in red coats and Dromedaries in light blue dolmans.

The units are in multiples of 6, with the intention of using Rebels and Patriots. Mainly wanted to paint the various coats colors without building large forces. I may add some cavalry to the French - hussars or chasseurs.

The Ottomans are next in the paint queue, but still researching their "uniforms".

Thanks for stopping by and wishing you all the best.