'Approach to Monmouth' Scenario with The Electronic Brigadier

Two weeks ago I hosted a my 'Approach to Monmouth' scenario at our club's June game night. This was a 'do over' for my game that didn't go off at the April game night. This is one of my favorite scenarios. It's a twist on the historical battle under the presumption that General Lee convinced Washington's council of war in conducting a full assault on the British column as it approached Monmouth rather than the 'only volunteers' debacle that actually happened. There is no Washing marching to Lee's rescue as Lee has the force he needs to do the job. If you want more insight on my justification for this scenario, I highly recommend you read The Making of a Scapegoat by Thayer. 

This is a scaled-down version of the game that I will be running at Historicon in July (sessions S16:115 & S16:133). I was one player short, so Rob and Ed (shown left) having experience play testing the rules, offered to play short handed. The British were two beginners, Warren and John anchored by Electronic Brigadier veteran play tester Byron. 

The British plan was simple - overwhelm the New Jersey brigade that included the local militias. The Americans, to delay with the New Jersey brigade and attack with their other two higher-quality brigades. This was a case of the unstoppable force vs. the moveable object.....

 

The British assault went in on the New Jersey brigades. Initially they sent the Hunterdon militia running but the New Jersey state troops and the Monmouth militia held the line. The Monmouth militia finally broke, but not before the Hunterdon militia recovered just in time to cover the American's left flank. 

Meanwhile on the American right flank the Americans were doing a good job of getting some advantageous two-on-one firefights running. Towards the end of the battle, both the British First Guards and First Grenadiers had shaken and fallen back from the withering American musketry. 

Overall this was a solid American victory. Casualties received by the British were approximately 8.7% of their total force while the American casualties were under 6.5%. Considering the disparity in quality of troops this was a very nice win for Lee.

28mm Napoleonic Bavarians Re-Based

These are 56 Bavarian Napoleonic infantry and four mounted officers that I've recently re-based for use with either my Electronic Brigadier rules or my friend Charlie's rules, Napoleon's Rules of War. I purchased all of these on Ebay recently with the exception of two of the officers in bicornes which came with some other figures I bought and re-based years ago.  I'll count this as 32 stands re-based in my annual totals.

AWI Units Re-Based Courtesy of My Brave Fusiliers! Blog

My good friend Mark from the My Brave Fusiliers! blog offered me the opportunity to purchase two of his superbly painted AWI American units. Mark wanted to fund a new project and offered me some of his figures. I still have a few units in my American force that I bought pre-painted that aren't quite up to the standards of the units I've painted myself. Mark's figures definitely are much better than those and will replace some of those units in my army. Mark paints at least as well as I do, and better in terms of style and historical accuracy. 

Mark had these labeled as Pennsylvanians, which I'm sure is accurate. Mark's units each had 30 figures in them. This matches up perfectly with my preferred basing of two six-figure stands and a three-figure skirmish stand. Each of Mark's units will create two separate units in my basing system, but can also be used en masse as a single larger unit as shown in the first photo above. To the left here is the typical way I'll use them when in open order. In line formation the center stand is removed to close up ranks. 

This unit in hunting shirts is very flexible in how I can use it. The flags give away the units identity to the extremely knowledgeable, but the popularity of the hunting shirt means I'm happy to substitute this unit for many others. 

A look at the back of the figures showing off Marks' excellent brushwork.  I'll be counting these units as twelve stands re-based in my annual painting totals. Thanks for the figures Mark!

Gale Force 9 Rocky Hill Collection

This is my collection of Gale Force 9 rocky hills from their 'Battlefield in a Box Essentials' range. Left to right this includes their 'Large Rocky Hill', 'Extra Large Rocky Hill' and 'Rocky Hill - 2 Pieces' sets. The latter I've had for almost a decade. For the lazy these come out of the box ready to use on the tabletop with a decent dry-brushed paint job. The kits come supplied with a small amount of flock for you to add. I used the two 'Rocky Hill - 2 Pieces' hills for nearly a decade without flocking them. Eventually I added some additional dry-brushing of my own to break up the monochrome palette and flocked them with my preferred ground covering - Scenic Express Farm Pasture Blend. 

After flocking the smaller pieces I realized how much I use them and decided I wanted the full set, so I ordered both other pieces off of Ebay. Unfortunately when they arrived, there was significant damage to both. The worst was the 'Large Rocky Hill' which lost several large pieces of the resin. Interesting this exposed the filler foam inside giving a glimpse as to how they're constructed. Rather than returning them I used some epoxy to back fill the area and pieced all of the larger pieces in like a jigsaw puzzle. I filled the voids with fine sand and waited for things to set up. 

After the repair I re-painted and used flock and grass tufts to strategically hide the small spots that were obviously repaired. Now that it's flocked and I've added my additional dry brushing, you can't even tell where it was broken. I'm hoping the epoxy back fill will provide a durable repair. I'm fairly rough on these pieces, and they will be handled often and figures will be placed on them, sometimes multi-figure stands.

The 'Extra Large Rocky Hill' had a fairly large four-inch crack all the way through the resin. It was still in tact, so I opted for a thin CA glue fill to re-bond the broken area. The repair was nearly invisible after drying, but I did opt to flock this area just for additional visual appeal. Dry brush, flocking and grass tufts were applied as I did for the other hills.

Again the repair is invisible. Hopefully the CA will hold through the pieces lifespan. If I have trouble with it re-breaking I'll go with the epoxy solution for this one as well.

This was a quick and easy repair and 'pimp up' of some excellent out of the box terrain.

 

28mm Iberian Infantry for Saga

I've had these Warlord 28mm Iberian infantry on my painting table for over a year. Early on in the project I had the figures painted up but the shields were not painted. I took a swing at hand painting the shields, but that was a disaster. I made homemade shield transfers, but those proved impossible to cut-in to the shields that had molded in spines and bosses. Finally I broke down, pried the shields off the figures, filed off the raised detail and applied the homemade transfers. Bob's your uncle. 

These will form two eight figure warrior units in my Iberian army for Saga Age of Hannibal, or two units for Clash of Spears.

These will count as 16 figures for my 2022 painting totals even though they were mostly painted in 2021. I count them only when they're finished, based, and ready for the tabletop! Next up on the painting table are some 28mm crusades era crossbowmen, some AWI figures I'm re-basing and some terrain.