Chocolate Box Wars Campaign Game #1

Saturday I played the first of what should be a series of five games in Ed M's Chocolate Box Wars Tournament. I'm looking at the tournament more as a way to play with a bunch of new opponents and less as a competition. I expect the others are as well. 

This first game came on the heels of me hosting a game at our Club's monthly game night, so I begged Ed to host our game as I wasn't sure what condition my game room would be in with an upcoming convention preparations and the tear-down of my game night game taking up space. The battle pitted my only completed CBW army, my 1859 Austrians vs. Ed's Hungarians with their multitude of different line uniforms - very beautiful, very CBW. The photo above shows the armies after deployment during turn one's marches. I anchored my right flank on the town and shifted some line units left with thoughts that if Ed defended, I needed flank pressure on that large hill he was occupying. More on that to come.

Ed stole a march on turn two (won the initiative roll) and surprised me by jumping forward with his class D line (militia) flanked by two of his class C line (regulars). I saw clearly his plan, to get in the plain between our hills and take up enough space that he could use his artillery to support his class D line while simultaneously preventing me from doing the same. I was planning on doing exactly the same. Ed's plan worked and he got the precious middle ground and started very effectively pounding my infantry. Just when I thought General Dice had abandoned me I got a clutch 3-casualty rally on my pressured infantry, extending their life....for a turn. They would later on succumb to the relentless pressure of Ed's combined class D infantry and artillery. 

Ed demonstrated against the town on my right, but chose caution over engaging my advanced rifles that were defending it. This allowed me to press my class B Grenzers into the center to put more pressure there. This forced Ed's left flank to engage the plucky border patrollmen. Ed pounded them for multiple turns racking up three casualties (one from flaking a stand) several times. With their B class morale, support from the CinC and General Dice, they were able weather the storm with multiple rallies of 3 and 2 casualties. I believe in the second to last turn I used seven of my 22 command tokens on rallies and at least FOUR of these were to support the Grenzers. At some point in there Ed did flake a full stand off them reducing them to a single stand. This was at a great cost in command initiative points. In the center things seemed to be holding on as a stand-off with my line infantry taking the worst of it eventually losing a full battalion.

With Ed's expenditure of initiative to wear down my Grenzers, it was time for his cavalry to engage my left flank. It was what he had left for the job, and it was a fine tool. Ed executed a wonderful cavalry maneuver, withstood my light cavalry's counter-charge and got off two solid attacks on my leftmost line infantry. Unfortunately these attacks yielded no casualties and Ed was nearly out of command points. With me holding a reserve of several command points my infantry and light cavalry were able to counter-attack to great effect, eliminating Ed's cavalry unit. With a few remaining command points my center was able to focus fire on one of Ed's class D infantry in the center eliminating it as well. Ed's final turn attacks were all excellently planned and executed. On the right I got effective rally rolls when I needed them and on the left it was all a matter of chance. I felt out-played most of the game, but was able to steal a victory. 

Below, a note on army size for Chocolate Box Wars. Here is my over-sized Austrian army in it's storage and travel containers, labeled and ready to play. This includes additional line infantry and all 'options' for cavalry ranging from Hussars through Curiassers, easily enough for two players per side. A large army in two medium-sized stackable boxes. I can literally carry the army under one arm.

Two 28mm Burned Out Farmhouses

Back in 2020 I painted up these resin ruined farmhouse sections.  I've been enjoying using them in games as their footprint and styling are both to my liking. Unfortunately the bare pieces on the tabletop didn't really convey the 'ruined building' vibe. Also the actual footprint of the terrain piece was difficult to define during a game. Move forward four+ years and I've finally based these up and added some additional features made from foam and other terrain materials. Now they're much more functional while preserving all of the qualities that I liked from the original resin pieces.

The larger piece, suitable for the 'main farmhouse' includes the larger of the two corner pieces. At the recommendation of my uncle, I also added some wisps of smoke to convey that 'freshly burned' feel.
 

 

 

The smaller of the two pieces, with a 28mm British infantry NCO for scale. This could either be a smaller farmhouse or barn building. The corner with the white smoke was scratch built from foam and balsa to round out the building area.

One of the nice things about these pieces as they're quite generic and can be used for many historical periods.
 

First ACW Electronic Brigadier Game - Last game of 2024

We held our monthly game night this past Friday. It doesn't always work out that we can have December game night due to the holidays, but this year it did. The game I ran was a scenario converted from the "Caldwell Clears the Wheatfield" scenario from Volume 2 of the Fire and Fury Regimental Scenarios book. This scenario is quite well designed, and I look forward to using other scenarios from these excellent books in future games. 

For the Confederates, we had Rob and new-to-Electronic Brigadier player John. On the attacking Union side, Veteran players Phil, Kevin and Byron.

The obligation to attack is on Caldwell's 1st division shown here in the foreground. They must drive the surging Confederates from the Wheat field, oat field and back through the woods behind both. Although the Union have a significant advantage in numbers, there are some challenges bringing everything to bear in a coordinated attack. In our play test, Ed M did this marvelously, but also had the benefit of sole command of all of the Union forces.

Here about mid-game Byron's attack has carved a significant hole in the Confederate line, driving one of the Georgian regiments back. While Rob tries to rally them, John denies flank in the center preventing Byron from following up. John also brings in a large South Carolinian regiment from his reserve just in time.  As seen Phil's large green Pennsylvanian regiment charges through the Oat Field (left in the open) but was subsequently repulsed. John's follow-up counterattack driving the green regiment back over the artillery. At game conclusion John captured one section of guns on the road. 

Byron and Kevin conducted one final coordinated attack on the Confederate right flank. This attack included some fresh reinforcements from Kevin's command. Unfortunately for the Union, the defending Georgians had just enough punch left in their defensive fire to force a firefight from most of the smaller attacking units, breaking up the attack and allowing the larger Georgia regiment to turn the one regiment that made it into close combat away.

A well played affair by both sides with one charge in particular being a very fortunate roll of the virtual dice in the melee resolution. The plucky confederate defenders turning a larger Union unit away with a roll of 97 (out of 100) vs a roll of 12. Anything less than this and I'm sure the union would have broken a second hole in the Confederate line securing a much different outcome!  Next time I'll run this scenario will be Saturday Morning at the Mayhem convention during the Saturday morning session.

28mm 1859 Austrian Artillery - Also First Finished Chocolate Box Wars Army

Followers of my blog may have noticed after a very active spring and summer, I was AWOL for the late summer and fall. I've been dealing with a significant health issue with my back that has unfortunately significantly hampered my ability to sit up at the painting table. As 2024 comes to a close, things are starting to improve and the physical therapy has been helping. Proof is here in this two-stands of artillery for my 1859 Austrian army for Chocolate box wars. The crews are figures from Piran's Warriors (https://piranswarriors.co.uk) contract painted by the owner, Terry Birmingham (piranswarriors@gmail.com) who I contracted paint a sizeable number of figures for this army. I can highly recommend both his figures and him as a contract painting service. 

The guns are from Perry Miniatures and were painted by me. Basing is per Ed M's basing specifications for Chocolate Box wars. On the rear of the stands I put some magnetic sheet to allow for labels to be swapped in as necessary.
 

Here is a photograph of a 'standard' Austrian army for Chocolate box Wars. Left to right front row: Grenadiers (posing as guard), Jagers fulfilling the lights with Advanced Weapons slot, four line infantry, and Grenzers filling out the light infantry slot. Back row an officer, artillery battery and light cavalry, in this case lancers. This is part of the total force that I've collected. My plan is to have two armies large enough for two-player teams for group play - Austrians and Garabaldists.

Here the complete force adding a second unit of Jagers, two more line infantry, the second of the two batteries shown above, two sub-commanders and the full compliment of 9 stands of cavalry, three each of Kuriassers, Hussars and Uhlan lancers. Of these the units painted by me were the Grenadiers, Grenzers, pennants for the Uhlans and the artillery pieces. The balance was painted by Terry from Piran's Warriors. Basing was done per the Chocolate Box rules using my standard basing recipe. Considering my health hiccups in the second part of the year, I'm happy to have a completed army to show for the year's work, even if my primary contribution was basing the whole thing up and contracting to have it painted. As the project continues, next up on the painting table are three units of line infantry for my Piedmont army. I started them this past spring, so hopefully I'll finish them before the snow melts this upcoming spring!

May you all have a healthy, happy and enjoyable 2025!

28mm Swiss Line Infantry for the Neapolitian Army 1848

This is the second unit that I've painted for my Neapolitan  (Kingdom of the two Sicilies) army for my Risorgimento project. The Swiss line infantry was some of the highest quality infantry in the Neapolitan army until they finally abandoned the cause. Those that remained loyal were incorporated into their own Neapolitan line units bolstered with local recruits and remained dependable and highly performing. There are enough battles where they fought, and with uniforms this glorious, I had to have at least one unit for my Neapolitan army.

The figures I've used are from Gringo40s Piedmonte Infantry line. Yes, I could have used their Neapolitan figures, but I wanted a slightly different look for these from the bulk of the rest of the army's line infantry, so I opted for the covered, more modern, shakos.

I don't really enjoy painting white straps over red uniforms. I seem to make a mess of it normally. I took a different approach on these. I first primed the figures in a Zenethal white scheme, very heavy on the white. I then painted in the red uniforms using Vallejo Xpress Color 'Plasma Red'. This is a 'contrast' style paint. By doing this there was just a small amount of touch-up of white over red. I then was able to go over the rest of the white straps much more quickly and effortlessly in white. The only other 'contrast' paint used here was my favorite 'Dwarf Flesh' Xpress color on the flesh. The remainder of the figures were painted with a traditional acrylic basecoat, wash and highlight method.

Other than the officer, all of the red was left as a single coat of the 'Plasma Red'. For the officer's coat I went over the recesses with an additional coat of the same paint as a pseudo-glaze / wash.  I'm still getting more experience with highlighting large areas. I feel on the pants on these guys I've done a better job than on previous units. Every unit you paint is a chance for learning and improvement, even after 30+ years doing this. These represent six more figures on this year's tally. Next up on the painting table, a group of three units of line infantry for my Piedmont army.

28mm Royal Naval Guard "Real Marina" of the Kingdom of the two Sicilies 1848

This is the first unit for my Kingdom of the two Sicilies for my Risorgimento project. I hope that this is the start of the last major army for the project. I will admit, my initial figure purchases were all over the place as I compared figure lines and explored options. This is one such exploration.

The naval infantry "Real Marina" unit was an elite unit and comprised half of the Royal guard. That said they were far from ceremonial, participating in several campaigns including the  Battle of Volturnus in 1860. I'll include an image of the Peter Dennis painting of this battle which shows the unit fighting in their campaign hats. I've tried to model this unit after that painting. To do so, I've re-purposed Perry Miniatures ISA33 Infantry marching, flank co, greatcoats and 'Isabellino' caps from their Carlist War line. The backpacks aren't an exact match, but they're close enough for me!

The core of the line infantry for the Neapolitan army will be from the Gringo40 Neapolitan Infantry line, but I wanted something 'different' for the guard unit and this unit and these figures seemed to fit the bill. Not all guard wear bearskins!

Here is a good look at their packs. They are missing the characteristic blanket rolls. I considered adding them with green stuff, but they would have been positioned comically high. Also who's to say that on campaign, the luxury of carrying some non-regulation gear wouldn't be allowed to such an elite unit? Either way, this is how they're going into battle, like it or not!

 

 

These will count for another six figures in this year's painting totals. Next up a unit of Swiss line infantry for the Neapolitans. To the left, the Peter Dennis painting that I mentioned above. I've opted for flank company figures with their more adorned shoulder scales, hoping to set the 'guard' unit off a bit more on the tabletop. Call it creative license.

28mm Battaglione di Faenza, Papal army 1848

28mm Battaglione di Faenza, Papal army 1848. Volunteers of the national guardsmen from the city of Faenza.  These are Perry figures from their American Civil War line: pack ACW61 - Early Confederate infantry in Sicilian Hats.  Unfortunately this pack only contains three figures with these hats. This requires a two-pack purchase for the six figures needed with six left over figures wearing head scarves. The latter I'll use as generic Garibaldists in my Garibaldi forces. I do wish that Perry would make a pack of six of these figures, possibly with additional poses. I have at least two other units that this particular figure would be a great fit for. When doing the Risorgimento, one has to be particularly resourceful to find appropriate figures for some of the lesser known units. Repurposing and converting is the name of the game here. Chocolate Box Wars small figure count makes both much more tolerable allowing exploration into periods with less figure support. 

This unit wore an a simple light blue uniform. With light blue being a challenging color to paint and shade I looked outside my normal process for this unit. I primed the figures in light blue and made a medium blue wash from contrast paints thinned highly. After coating the entire figures with the wash I was very disappointed with the tide marks from the wash.

 

I pressed on wit the rest of the blocking in, and after a light wash on the weapons and faces I repaired all of the light blue uniform irregularities with a thorough highlight pass. Now I'm much happier with the result. If I had to do it over again, I might de saturate the blue a bit, but for a first try, they're good enough for the girls I go out with. I suppose if it ever bothers me enough I could hit the entire unit with another wash of some sort. I'm likely to just leave them as-is.

These figures even look the part from the back with their simple haversack and canteen. Perfect for quickly raised and trained national guard!

Hopefully Osprey will forgive my use of their image here showing the simple all light blue uniform. I can highly recommend both of the Armies of the Italian Wars of Unification books from Gabriele Esposito published by Osprey. These with Espisito's more thorough book, Armies of the Italian Risorgimento published by MMP Books make for nearly everything you need in terms of Uniform research for the period.

These comprise another six 28mm figures for this year's painting totals. Next up my first unit for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the elite Royal Guard naval infantry regiment 'Real Marina'

28mm Legione Polacca (Polish Legion)

These figures represent the Legione Polacca (Polish Legion). In addition to fighting in the Hungarian Revolt and the Crimean War, the legion was first hired by Piedmont to reinforce the Northeast of Italy, but it didn't arrive there in time before Piedmont sued for peace. They then were in the service of Tuscany for a few months, finally ending up in Garibaldi's Army of the Central Italian League, aka the Army of the Roman Republic serving in 1849 and 1850.

These are the last figures from my recent order from Keelmen Miniatures. They are lovely sculpts that were quite fun to paint, although the white hat piping was very challenging. I will not hesitate to order more Keelmen miniatures should I ever choose to paint up a Hungarian army for the Hungarian revolt. I highly recommend the line.

This unit is a 'Swiss Army Knife' able to be slotted into several armies of the period, but it will likely be used mostly in it's primary role as a line or 'foreign volunteer' unit or a for the Central Italian League army.

This adds six more 28mm figures to this year's painting totals. To be honest, I'm finding these small six-figure units quite motivating to paint. Each is like a 'snack' on the painting table providing lots of variety. Even when you hit a challenging part of the unit, you're through it relatively quickly.  We'll see how I feel about that when I paint up four units of Piedmont line infantry at once at 24 figures.  Before that, I have two more two stand units on the table that I'll reveal here when they are finished.

28mm Volunteers of the Italian Legion - Second War of Italian Unification

This is the first unit in my Italian Roman Republic / Central Italian League / Garibaldi army. This unit represents the 'Italian Legion' or 'Legione Nationale'. I've depicted them in the second uniform, as it also makes them eligible to be used as generic Garibaldists if I wish. 

These are lovely Keelmen miniatures from their Volunteer Legions - Hungary 1848-49 range. I've filed off the "death's head" emblems from the hats to convert them for use as the Italian Volunteers. 

This line has just enough poses to allow each of these three-figure stands to be a small diorama. This one the NCO is giving some orders to the troops and....

 

 

 

in this one, the men are standing at the ready, drinking and reloading.

I've used a mix of traditional acrylic and Vallejo Xpress color 'contrast' paints on these. Contrast for the bedrolls, packs, hat feathers and flesh, traditional paints, washes and highlighting on the rest. I'm starting to get 'in the zone' as far as deciding when to and when not to use 'contrast' style paints. 

This adds six more 28mm figures to this year's painting totals. Next up, volunteers of the Legione Polacca (Polish Legion).

28mm St. Patrick's Volunteers

When I decided to attempt to do all of the major armies for the Risorgimento for Chocolate Box Wars this particular Papal unit was high on the list of reasons why. These are the St. Patrick's Volunteers. Irish Catholics who fought for the Papal army during the Italian Unification Wars. These uniforms define all this is desirable about the Chocolate Box Wars historical period. Other than possibly the uniforms of the Wars of the Triple Alliance, I can't think of a unit with a more colorful uniform.

 

These are Gringo40s figures. They are in fact the only figures that Gringo40s makes specifically for the Papal army. I will likely be using some Perry British Intervention figures for some of the line units and filling out the rest of the Papal army with various volunteer units. The Papal army is an eclectic bunch. That's part of the appeal of it!

The yellow piping on these figures was a very large challenge for my aging eyes and hands. I took over an hour PER FIGURE to lay down and tidy up just the yellow piping. Suffice to say, I'm happy that six figures is all that is required for a unit in Chocolate Box Wars. I wouldn't be up to the task of painting this unit for rules with larger figure counts.

 

Next up on the painting table are some Polish legion figures and some German legion figures. The latter will be re-purposed to represent one of the many volunteer units of the era.  Following this, likely a return to the Papal forces with a unit of Papal Zouaves. Another wonderfully colorful unit for the Papal army.