Last Saturday saw members of the Funny Little Wars Yahoo Group meet together in London to refight the Battle of Leipzig as a 54mm toy soldier wargame. This was surely our most ambitious venture yet, with 11 players fielding over 2,000 figures during 7 hours of play, and the result pretty much reflected the original outcome. Garden wargaming is rather more physically demanding than you might think and today I am still very stiff in the legs, I have been assured that the exercise will be good for me. Reports on the game will be popping up all over the blogosphere by the other players, more knowledgeable than me, who actually knew what was going on most of the time, so I am just going to post up some pretty pictures of the toys.
Leipzig Cathedral with French staff rushing around organising the defence whilst also preparing to evacuate........ just in case.
Eric's superb French cavalry, see more of them here: mywaterloologaddress
Stolid looking Russians.
My Role was Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenburg (I think?) and these are my Austrians trudging through the leaves.
French cavalry everywhere!
The French hold and fortify the outlying villages
The Russians advance on the right wing
The Austrians form square in the face of a threatened French cavalry charge, which is seen off by a salvo from the guns
Bavarian infantry advance to support the French cavalry
Massed cavalry swirl around the open ground in the centre and right of the field
The British contingent send send their infernal rockets screaming over the heads of the French
A hard fought contest for possession of the village
Allied cavalry wait patiently for their turn to play....
.......as do their artillery, some nice conversions here
toy soldiers as far as the eye can see
Massed Russian and French cavalry melee on the right
The French desperately form square in the centre
Prussian Landwehr stand to
A broad view of the action on the left
Party poppers are used to simulate the effect of grapeshot, it's all great fun
Russian cavalry rule the field
The Austrians and French fight it out among the burning buildings
The very end, as the Allies break into the City, the French exit over the bridge
That's all from me, it was a great day out with lots of conviviality and gentlemanly play, as you would expect!
You will find more here:
20 years ago, Who would have thought there would such an array of 54mm Napoleonics available?
ReplyDeleteQuite the event!
Yes we are truly blessed with an embarrassment of riches in 54mm these days, and yet there is still scope for us old diehards who like to convert.
DeleteH G Wells would be proud!
ReplyDeleteIt was very much in the spirit of the game he envisaged
DeleteGreat looking game!
ReplyDeleteI like to think that with 54mm it's all about the visuals
DeleteWhat fun on such a grand scale! I hope that your knees hold up, I know that mine would never make it! I love the party popper/grapeshot idea, very innovative!
ReplyDeleteKnees are good but muscles less so! The introduction of a few explosives always livens up the game.
DeleteHi Brian,
ReplyDeleteThis has got to be the best day ever for being on the blogosphere!! I just was on Ross' site enjoying a WWII desert bash in 1/32 and now I see your post and read that there may be other blogs posting more pictures of your spectacular looking Leipzig game!! I just can't help smiling! Really great pictures, Brian! It looks like such a fun time!
Yes, I think 54mm wargaming may be stating to find it's own niche
ReplyDeleteThanks for the report Brian and some excellent pictures
ReplyDeleteHi Eric, hope you enjoyed the day, are you up for another game sometime?
DeleteThanks Brian, Yes it would be good, I am also trying to hook up with Mike Lewis, perhaps we could combine? And the day was very enjoyable.
Delete