Painting my British Heavies - Part 2, Painting horses

In my last post I left the British heavy dragoons assembled, primed and ready to go. Now I am ready to talk about painting them. Again, there are many very fine painters out there who do a much better job than I could ever do, but someone had inquired about my process so I thought I would cover it. Regarding style, more about this later.

A bit about paints and inks

Everyone has their favourite paints. When it comes to paints I'm a bit of a Philistine, doing all of my earlier painting with craft paints and only in the past few years migrating more to Vallejo. Still, there are some things I like to use the craft paints for. Also, because they dry more slowly they are easier on my brushes, not requiring me to clean the brush as often. In general, I often use the craft paints for my under painting and use the Vallejo, with their better coverage and thicker viscosity, for highlights and details. 

I also make a fair bit of use of washes, and for these I mostly use Liquitex acrylic inks.

A bit about brushes

Again, everyone has their favourite brushes. Sable is considered the best, of course, but again, I find the Vallejo paints so hard on brushes that I am perfectly happy to get by with synthetics. The brushes I use I purchase from an art supply store (Curry's, Series 2500), and are a round brush made for watercolours and acrylics. They cost me under $3 each and I buy them in multiples. The sizes I use are: #00, #1 and #2.

I also generally have a retired #2 for dry brushing, as this destroys the brush and a trimmed down #00 for piping, lace etc. I always reach for as large a brush as possibly, rarely using the #00's for anything but fine work with the #1 being my workhorse.

I have learnt the hard way that the best way to keep your brushes functioning is to rinse them often and the moment the paint starts to dry on the bristles (or just before!) wash them with a bit of soap and water. I keep a cake of soap on my table in a dish. Finally, never leave your brushes standing in the water and always make sure they are holding a point when you stop painting with them for the day.

The brushes I use, top to bottom: a #00 trimmed down for fine work, a #00, #1, #2, and a couple of retired #2's used for dry brushing. At the top is my painting block that I use to hold figures when painting. With riding figures, however, it doesn't work so well as there is no base to grasp them by, another reason I painted these guys attached to their horses!

A bit about style

Okay, I feel like I'm going out on a limb here when talking about style, especially as I see most of my painting as being appropriate for viewing on a gaming table, not zoomed in close to be seen warts and all. In my defence, I will say that I have painted about 5,000 figures since I got back into wargaming 20 years ago and my painting style has been developed to that end!

I would describe my style as more impressionistic than precise. Some might call it blobby or dabby and I'm good with that. I always work from dark to light, priming with black as I find black makes the colours punchy. I don't outline, but let my darker underpainting come through to break up some of the elements. I generally undercoat with a darker version of the colour I am doing, and then follow with mid-tones and highlights. Sometimes I settle for just a base colour or base and highlights.

I also make extensive use of washes and dry brushing to bring up details.

A step by step tutorial

This first part of the tutorial will deal with painting the horses. I find there are a lot of beautiful figure painters who seem to spend too little time with the horse - which is too bad, because generally the sculpts are very good and with a bit of effort, painting them can be super rewarding. The process may sound a bit tedious, but this actually can go very quickly when working in batches, as I always do, with the base horse probably not taking more than 15 minutes apiece (harness etc. is more tedious).

Reference

I would suggest that if you are painting cavalry a good place to begin is gathering horse reference. On my iPad I have a photo file dedicated to horses of all colours, gleaned from the web through image searches. There is a great deal of variety, even among the classic colours like chestnuts, bays, roans, greys, etc., with different coloured manes, stockings, nose colours and facial markings. 

The 4th Dragoons rode horses that were bay, brown and chestnut, but over a campaign other colours would have crept in. I like a few lighter coloured horses in the mix, so added some beige (roans?), but avoided greys (not used for heavy dragoon trumpeters) and blacks (because I dislike painting black horses!)

Underpainting

My first step is to paint all of the horses with a dark undercoat, in this case raw umber. (In the photos below, I will try to include the paints used behind the figures.) With the exception of greys (I use dark grey) and blacks (black) I undercoat even my light-coloured and white horses with raw umber.

Dry Brushing

Next I dry brush all of the horses. By dry brush, I mean getting some paint on the brush, scrubbing the majority off on my palette and then brushing it lightly over the horse. This is a great technique to work up details, especially something like the musculature of a horse, with the paint building on the raised surfaces but not getting so much into the crevices and valleys. Remember this will ruin your brush, so use one that has already lost its shape!

The colour used for dry brushing will be my base colour for that horse. In this case I have divided up my twelve horses, with two being beige or tan, seven being shades of brown and three being reddish brown (chestnuts? I'm going to avoid the horsey names, they just confuse me!) 

Horses with base coat raw umber, and dry-brushed sandstone (light), Vallejo English Leather (red brown horses) and Saddle Brown (mid and dark brown horses).

Close up of beige (sandstone) horse. The dry brushing allows some of the undercoat to come through, although with light horses I give it a pretty good covering, relying more on later washes for definition.

Dry brushed Saddle Brown. Here I can allow more of the underpainting to stay in the recesses.

Dry brushed English Leather. 

Highlights

My next stage is to add some high lights. Here I am using my base colour mixed with a lighter tone, often a yellow or beige, and, not dry brushing this time, but stroking that on to the areas I want highlighted, following the shape of the muscle - this goes on high points of muscles, rump, ear tips etc. I don't worry too much if it's a bit patchy, blending some on the rump maybe, as this is still a preliminary stage.

I mostly add ink washes later, but with the light coloured horses I apply a first coat now, before adding highlights, in this case a wash of raw sienna and raw umber, to bring up the horses' musculature.

 

Red horses with highlights worked up. They look a bit pasty, but again, this is underpainting. You can see I am using my good #2 for this work.

Mid-brown horses, with more highlights worked up.

Darker brown horses, with fewer highlights and done with just a more concentrated Saddle Brown.

Beige horse, with sandstone reapplied to highlights over the wash. A bit patchy, but that is okay and will be resolved later.

Washes

Having done all the prep work ink washes can now be applied. This is fast and gratifying, applying multiple layers of washes until the horse has the depth and tone of colour you want. I sometimes will apply up to three washes, remembering to allow the wash to dry before applying the next layer. These washes will sink into the recesses and also smooth out the transition on the highlights you applied earlier. The ink washes I use are:

Dark brown horses: carbon black and raw umber (multiple washes)

Reddish horses: raw umber and a rust brown, sometimes following up with just a raw umber wash

Mid-brown horses: raw umber or coffee brown

Beige horses: a light wash of raw umber mixed with raw sienna 

Dark brown and reddy brown horses with washes applied.

Beige and mid-brown horses with washes applied

Markings, socks etc.

Once the washes are dry I add the bits that further individualize the horses. I give them a mix of whites socks (one, two or three legs), black socks (usually all of the horses' legs) or none at all. The horses are given different mane and tail colours, mostly black but a few with reddish or beige manes and tails. The latter usually require a light ink wash afterwards.

I will give white facial markings to a number of the horses, and these can be quite varied from small patches, to larger blazes. Sometimes they will even run down into the nose and around the nostrils.

Finally I will give a few of the horses flesh-coloured noses (usually some of the reds and beiges) or dry brush black on some of the noses.

The hooves I paint universally grey. There is variation in actual horses' hoof colour, but as they mostly get hidden by the flocking on the base I don't worry too much about this.

Here are the beige and mid-brown horses with their individualized markings.

And here are the dark brown and reddish horses. The one second from the left with the red mane is my attempt to paint what is called a "liver chestnut".

And here are all of them again with the paints used to do the various markings etc.

Harness, blankets etc.

I now finish up the horses with the harness, rolled cloaks, valises etc. I will get more into my application of paint in the next tutorial, but here is my process in brief.

I will paint a dark base colour (in this case a very dark burgundy red mixed with black for the rolled cloak and valise and a very dark green for the saddle blanket.) This I highlight with the mid-tone colour (allowing the undercoat to come through to define some of the folds) and then add a few lighter highlights, mixing both the red and the green with a bit of yellow for those.

All the harness is painted flat black, with a few highlights of grey added to bring it forward and touches of silver are added to the harness where there are buckles and bits. The eyes, as well, are painted with black and then the smallest dot of white is the last thing added to bring the horse to life!

All twelve horses painted.

A close up showing how the dry brush, highlighting and ink washes combine to make a well-defined, glossy coat, and how the addition of socks, facial markings, pink nose and beige mane and tail individualize this horse. Also note the small dot of white in the eye to bring the horse alive!

P.S. I could have saved myself a lot of time by referring readers to these tutorials by one of my favourite horse painters in 1/72, Marvin at Suburban Militarism. Here is a link to his series of four tutorials. I can't remember if I have read all of these but Marvin's results have always been an inspiration.

https://suburbanmilitarism.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/courses-for-horses/

And now on to painting the riders, which can be viewed here.

Painting my British Heavies - Part 1, Pinning

These are the tools I use for pinning. From left to right top: wire cutters, pliers, rigged vice for sculpting, Liquitex modelling paste (vice and paste not used this time). Lower row: box cutter (rough cutting), gorilla glue, pin vice and surgeon’s scalpel (fine cutting), 46 gauge guitar wire, stripped and two part modelling putty. 

I was asked by a fellow figure painter on the Benno's forum the other day if I could put together a short tutorial on how I do my pinning. And then another asked if I could talk about my painting technique! I have honestly never thought that either of these skills of mine worthy of a tutorial but decided it might be fun to give it a try. I needed to get at my HaT British Heavy Dragoons, as I still need a few units before I can tackle all of the Talavera scenarios I want to play in 2022 so these seemed like a good choice for both. 

They are not the most beautiful set to paint, as the detailing is a bit blobby and they have a few inherent difficulties in assembly, both of which I have talked about in this post from a year ago. But they do need some pinning so I thought I would work with these. 

 My first step in preparing them was, as always, to wash them with soap and warm water to remove residual oils from the molding process. I then cut off the figures from the sprues, trimmed away the bits of flash, and paired arms to the figures that require them (In this case three of the twelve). There is no trumpeter in this set so I borrowed an arm from the HaT light dragoon trumpeter for one of those. 

Figures trimmed and ready to assemble. 

Each figure also gets a carbine which needed attaching. Although the pin for the carbine is usable, I found the arm pins are not, and chose to carve the arm pins off and replace them with my own. For my pinning holes I use a #75 bit in my pin vice, with only 1/4” or so protruding as these are fine bits and snap easily. For my pinning wire I use old guitar wire my musician friend gives me, in this case a #46 gauge wire. It is wound with a thinner wire which you can pull off easily once you get the hang of it, revealing a very stiff fine wire, much thinner than a straight pin.

As it’s a bit fine for handling with my fingers I use a pair of pliers to force it into place and then clip it off close to the body. Not too close, as I need enough to secure the arm but not too much as it is hard to trim off excess after the arm is attached. 

Using pliers to push in the wire.

Trimming the pin the proper length is key. In the arm below you can see I have also drilled a smaller hole in the arm socket. The arm itself, of course, already has a molded hole but this hole was too big for my new pin. I then placed the arm on the new pin I had created, testing to see that the pin comes just short of the surface of the arm, and glued the arm on with gorilla glue (a thick form of crazy glue).

Wire cut off and arm with new hole drilled inside of old one.

Figure with arm glued in place. The arm will be reinforced later with putty. I have also attached the carbine here but elected to wait to do this for the remainder so they would have two points of contact.

I placed longer pins between the riders’ legs that fit into holes drilled in the saddles, especially important for this set as they do not grip the horse well. Finally I added pins to the bicornes of the three figures requiring arms as an armature for plumes, because, for some reason, these three figures lacked them. 

Figures with pins inserted for mounting on horses, and (bottom three) plumes and arms. (The figure on bottom left is the one that I had already attached the arm, shown above.)

In the case of the trumpeter’s arm I also needed to sculpt a bit of a wing as this was missing from the borrowed arm. The trumpeter’s head needed to be sliced off and repositioned at an angle (again, with pinning) so that it interacted with the raised trumpet. 

The bicorne pins I built up into plumes with a bit of modelling putty, at the same time patching and reinforcing the arm connections.  I proceeded to attach all of the riders to their horses, thinking that with the pinned arms and carbines, it might be better not to have to handle the riders too much. This creates some difficulties in painting and perhaps was not the right decision, but it did allow me to glue the carbines not only to their pins but to also glue the muzzle to the saddle bag at front, giving it two points of contact. 

Figures complete, with reinforced arms, missing plumes created, carbines attached and all firmly attached to their mounts.

It also allowed me to prime them as a unit, with the paint contributing somewhat to holding them all together. The primer paint I use is Rust-oleum Painter's Touch 2X Ultra Cover, Flat Black, especially formulated for adhering to plastics. Primed and ready to go, I will pick up the painting in my next instalment.

Primed and ready to go!

1st Guards

 
I decided to redo my 1st Guards using the Italeri British infantry set, rather than the HaT Peninsular set I had used previously. Both are excellent sets, and the HaT set obviously has the advantage of being dedicated to the Peninsular War, but I have always used both for my British (adapting the Italeri when the HaT set was out of production for a while) and the taller Italeri figures seemed better suited for a Guard regiment. So this group of figures are all new, outside of the command stand which I have kept from the previous group, which will have new life as KGL.

Historically the Guards were large battalions so this battalion has nine stands of figures (although ten would be more appropriate). I had to do the usual conversions with some of the Italeri, changing the Belgic shakos to stovepipes. 

I love the look of the Guard units, their size but also the large dark red King’s Colours make them look especially formidable on the battlefield. I hope you enjoy the results.

A Bit of History

The 1st Guards, one of England’s premier infantry regiments, can trace its origins back to 1656 when a regiment was raised to protect the exiled Charles II. 

During the Napoleonic Wars there were three permanent battalions in the regiment, with the first battalion composed of two grenadier companies, two light companies and eight centre companies. The second and third had only one grenadier and light company apiece.

During the Peninsular Wars the first and third were with Moore during the retreat to Corunna, returning to Britain to join the ill-fated Walcheren expedition in 1809. In 1810 they returned to Spain and were with Graham at Barrosa in March of 1811. They rejoined Wellesley’s army at Ciudad Rodrigo, and fought with that force throughout northern Spain and into France. They returned to fight at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and after the war, in July 1815, received the designation 1st Grenadier Guards by Royal Proclamation, which they still have today.

Here are a few photos of the regiment:

I stayed with the original command stand, done with the HaT command set figures, other than the drummer, which is Italeri. The standard bearer back left (King's colours) was a modified officer figure.

Some of the figures received modified shakos, but the one in the foreground simply lost his, so I sculpted some hair instead!

The sergeant figure back left received a pike, in lieu of his more formidable swagger stick he was sculpted with!

Second Battle of Porto 12th May, 1809

 Last weekend Alan and I finally got our teeth into the Battle of Porto. This scenario, the third in a series around the expulsion of Soult from Porto by Wellesley’s forces in 1809, concludes the second French invasion of Portugal. It was written by Jonathan Jones for his Peninsular Wars scenario book O’er the Hills.

Once again the French are in retreat, having to react quickly to the unexpected crossing of the Douro River by the Allies upriver from Porto. Soult is literally caught napping, as the British slip across and occupy the Bishop’s Seminary on the eastern outskirts of the city before the French are aware of their presence!

The scenario does a good job of reflecting the actual battle and its tensions, with Foy having to initiate his historic (and doomed) attack on the seminary as his ADC was sent to warn Soult of the British arrival. The French, outflanked and in danger of having their lines of communication cut to Ney’s forces in Galicia, are not in a position to fight but rather have to withdraw the majority of their forces from the table, but this can only begin to happen once Soult is awake and appraised of the situation. Meanwhile the British have to keep their casualties to a minimum as their new forces arrive on the table to help try and keep the French from escaping.

The game was played out over two sessions on a 6’X 9’ table in 1/72nd scale using the Over the Hills rules.

The scenario map showing the principle troop movements in our game. 

The Battlefield

JJ's map doesn't include the river and south shore but I had seen it portrayed that way when he built his own table for this scenario, and was inspired to emulate it. If you are curious about my own build I blogged about it here.

Looking south from the high ground. The ground above the elevation line was considered rough throughout and I took JJ's suggestion to add walls and enclosures which made it quite claustrophobic in the game!

The Battle

1. British cross the Douro

The discovery of some wine barges on the south shore of the Douro allow Wellesley to slip a couple of battalions under command of General Paget across the river and into the Bishop’s Seminary before the French are made aware of their presence.

2. Foy mobilizes

General Foy, in command of the troops to the east of Porto, detects the British troops in the seminary and immediately begins to mobilize them for the attack. (Foy's troops are those above the city.)

3. Looking for Soult

At the same time his ADC is sent into Porto to rouse Marshal Soult and warn him of the British attack.

4. In the streets of Porto

In the town itself the 1st Division under General Merle wait for their orders. None of the French here may move until Soult is awake and about.

5. 15me Ligne in the south part of Porto

6. 4me Legere in the upper city

7. Foy attacks the seminary

In the absence of orders Foy take it upon himself to launch his attack on the seminary, hoping to oust the British before they can get established. (The scenario mechanic obliges Foy to press home the near hopeless attack on the seminary until Soult arrives to call it off. Alan, as the French player, takes on this thankless task with gusto!)

8. Repulsed!

But the seminary defence is already well established and the first attack by two battalions of the 17me Legere are handily repulsed. 

9. 1/17me Legere routed

The 1/17me Legere are routed and flee back into the outskirts of Porto.

10. British cannons open fire

At this point the British artillery that Wellesley has placed on the south bank open fire on Foy’s attacking forces…

11. To devastating effect

12. 1/66th Foot arrive

As the battle rages above more British reinforcements are ferried across to bolster the seminary’s defence.

13. British light infantry deploy out of the seminary

A third attack by the 3/17me meets the same fate as the first two, and with Foy now on the back foot, Paget has Muter send out the light bobs to harass any future attacks from the flanks.

14. 70me Ligne prepare to attack

It is now the 70me Ligne’s turn to press the attack, but as they shake out into open order to try and limit casualties they take more deadly cannon fire, throwing their advance into confusion. Foy’s brigade breaks and he has no option but to begin to retreat, still looking over his shoulder for signs of Soult’s arrival. (Luck was not with Alan this game and was very much with me. The British cannon fire proved deadly, the defence of the seminary crushing and Soult was roused from his bed two turns later than the earliest possible in the scenario!)

15. Muter’s brigade takes the offensive

With the arrival of the 66th at the seminary and seeing the French wavering, Paget orders Muter to prepare for the offensive. The British begin exiting the seminary, forming up into line in preparation for the advance while their light infantry skirmish from the orchards.

16. Overview

Foy’s battered brigade (left) begins to fall back towards Porto’s outskirts as the British sally out of the seminary. The French First Division still sits tight in the city, lacking orders to begin their retreat.

17. Cotton's Dragoons arrive

At this point Cotton’s light dragoons, the first of the Allied troops that had crossed further east over the Douro, arrive on the battlefield. Cotton rides up to Paget who, in the absence of Wellesley, is in overall command for this battle. Paget sees that the French have yet to have begun their withdrawal from Porto, and orders the cavalry north to cut the road exiting the city.

18. Soult finally arrives

Soult, finally convinced that the British have indeed managed to cross the Douro, arrives on the battlefield only to find Foy’s brigade in full withdrawal and the British advancing on the city. He immediately sends out orders that will get Merle moving the French out of Porto and onto the road north while word is sent to Franceshi’s cavalry, patrolling west of the city, to join in the retreat.

19. Overview

Foy continues to fall back towards Oporto (left) while Muter forms up his brigade in front of the seminary (lower right). Far right Cotton’s 16th and KGL Light Dragoons arrive on the field.

20. Cotton’s cavalry sent to cut the road

21. Murray's KGL arrive

Soon after Murray’s brigade of KGL along with the 14th Light Dragoons, also having crossed further upstream, march in from the east. Adjutant General Charles Stuart arrives with a message for Murray and immediately takes command of Murray’s dragoons, riding off to do battle with the French. (Again, luck was on my side as I immediately rolled a 2 on a d10, needing a 1 or 2 for Stuart to take command of Murray’s horse. The remainder of Murray’s force, historically slow to respond in this battle, is limited to move and hold orders and cannot initiate an attack.)

22. Muter's 3rd and 48th press Foy

With the 66th in reserve, Muter’s two lead battalions march towards the retreating French. This has the effect of throwing Foy’s battalions onto the outskirts of Porto just as Merle is trying to get Reynaud’s brigade organized and marching north.

23. French finally begin to exit Porto

Retreating Legere take fire from the British cannon as they march up the road. All is in chaos as the French finally get moving. But with Foy broken, Merle is in a position where he has to get his force retreating while at the same time throwing up some sort of ad hoc rearguard to take over from Foy. 

24. 4me Legere exit through orchards

To help free up the roads the 4me Legere exit to the north of the city, making their way through the tangle of orchards and vinyards that surround the city.

25. Franceschi's cavalry arrive

At this point Franceschi’s cavalry belatedly arrive on the north edge of the city. Soult orders them to immediately move and hold the road open for the retreat.

26. As do Cotton's cavalry, cutting the north road!

However Cotton’s cavalry get there first, cutting the road and squaring off against the French horse.

27. Overview

At the bottom right Franceschi’s cavalry ride in as Cotton’s dragoons (bottom centre) form line east of the exit road. By the farm house Murray’s 14th Light Dragoons ride up in support and top left Murray’s KGL infantry, also ordered to cut the road, march north.

On the right French troops start to filter out of Porto through the orchards and form up on the road, while top right Muter marches on the French rearguard.

28. Chaos on Porto's outskirts

Reynaud’s and Foy’s brigades get intermeshed as they try to get their troops moving up the road, while at the left Muter’s light infantry are now engaging the French from the surrounding orchards.

29. Fresh French troops move to relieve Foy

As Foy withdraws some of Reynaud’s fresh battalions replace them as rearguard, taking up strong positions behind the orchard walls east of the city.

30. ADC sent to command rearguard

Merle sends one of his ADC’s to take command of three of Reynaud’s battalions now serving as an ad hoc rearguard, freeing up Reynaud to supervise the retreat of the remainder of his brigade. (We have house rules that allow the use of ADC’s to take command of small forces in extraordinary circumstances.)

31. Opposing cavalry face off

On the north side of the city the opposing cavalry forces square off.

32. Murray's Dragoons move to block the road

At the same time the 14th Dragoons under Stuart spot the French infantry moving up the road and move to block their progress.

33. Overview

Bottom the evenly matched cavalry forces face off as the 14th Dragoons (on road) move to block. On the mid left Murray’s infantry also approach the road, while Muter engages the French rearguard (top right) in the orchards on the city outskirts.

34. Charge!

35. 16th routed

The French light cavalry best the British, routing one unit of the 16th and breaking the second. The KGL Dragoons survive but Cotton’s cavalry force is broken and forced to withdraw.

36. Overview from the south

For no good reason, just hadn’t shown those nice cliffs and river for a while!

37. Moving through the streets of Porto

With the roads clogged and blocked by the enemy some of the French battalions are forced to make their slow way north through the streets of the city.

38. Road blocked

Finding their way forward blocked by Stuart and the 14th Dragoons, the lead French battalion forms square. The following French are forced to detour into the maze of walled fields and orchards north of Porto as their exit becomes firmly barred. Things are not looking good for Soult!

39. Muter charges the French rearguard

Hoping to close the trap, Muter launches his battalions against the French ad hoc rearguard, firmly positioned behind orchard walls. But the British luck holds, driving one French battalion back from its defending wall with a devastating volley by the 48th which then charges, along with the 3rd, against the enemy.

Against the odds, the 3rd Buffs also fight their way over the orchard walls, routing the 2/70me while the 48th breaks the 1/70me.

40. Muter's brigade arrives on Porto's outskirts as French rearguard collapses

41. Murray's KGL arrive to help box the French in

The KGL now arrive on the road and take up blocking positions across the road, freeing up the 14th Dragoons to confront the French cavalry.

42. The 14th and 8me Dragoons face off

The French light horse, badly winded and battered, also fall back after breaking Cotton’s cavalry as the British 14th Dragoons and Girardin’s doughty 8me Dragoons, (heroes from the Road to Porto), now face off in a grudge match.

43. Overview

At the bottom the two fresh cavalry forces face off while to their right lead elements of Reynaud’s 4me Legere work their way around. Unless the Dragoons can win their way through, with time running out the road forward remains blocked to the French. Mid-right the KGL blocks the road while the French mill about around Porto, trying to find an escape route. At the top right Muter continues to pressure the enemy rear.

44. Final cavalry clash

This time, outnumbering the enemy two to one, it is the British horse’ chance to prevail, besting the enemy Dragoons and sending them packing.

45. 8me Dragoons routed

46. Rearguard parting shots

Muter is briefly held back by a vicious last volley from the remaining battalion of the rearguard before it too falls back up the road. On the left the last of the French march into the upper town.

47. Final Overview

We called the game, slated for ten rounds, at the end of the ninth. With the KGL astride the north road, the French Dragoons routed and Stuart’s 14th Dragoons still in position blocking the French light horse, there was little scope for the French to proceed (the scenario called for them to exit in the proximity of the road). Needless to say, the battle was a complete schmozzle for the French, largely because Soult failed to wake up early enough. Foy was already beaten back to the outskirts of the city and the road north cut by Cotton’s cavalry before Alan could even begin to try and organize a withdrawal.

Again, if Stuart hadn’t successfully taken command of the 14th and been able to bring them along, the French cavalry might have capitalized on their early success against Cotton and opened the road. But regardless, with Soult’s late arrival on the battlefield enough time had gone by that, with the KGL astride the road, the French still would have been hard-pressed to get anyone off the table.

It was an interesting game, frustrating, I’m sure, for Alan as commander of the French (and a bit of a cake walk for me!) but he took it all with good grace. Lady luck was definitely on the side of the British and I would be eager to give this another go sometime to see how it would have unfolded with different circumstances at play.