Rawden Gap: Pt One

After two quiet months, the Origawn and Dominion of Faraway armies were on the move again. General Lannigan decided to make a dash through the Rawden Gap, hoping to bypass General Douglas's main force.

The gap is a break in the ridge that separates the North and South Valleys. 

Unfortunately for the Rebels, General Douglas got early word of the move and marched quickly to meet him. 

 

By mid afternoon on the 4th of Dec, the opposing advance guards clashed at the gap. 

(To be continued)

Lagg's Lancers

Make and Mend is over. 

I only managed one converted & repainted figure but he allowed me to add a fourth Rebel cavalry unit. Since I also based one existing unit for each side as well as the Dominion's field hospital, I'm satisfied. I'll need to do some work to produce a hospital for the Rebels but I have something improvised for the game.   

The newly raised Lagg's Lancers.
(No relation to Rush's Lancers.)

The reversion to my initial plan of three figure cavalry units had left the Rebels with a spare bugler and officer. The pool of reserves is getting thin but it included the last of the Britain's 17th Lancers that I once bought from Stuart Asquith. His four mates have been in Zululand for a couple of years and I was waiting for one of them to be released for other duties before making a Rebel unit with officer or bugler plus two lancers. Well, the two newly surplus figures needed a job so I decided one lancer was enough.

Tomorrow I will set the table and, hopefully, get to try the big lads on the hexes. (hmm looks like Captain Jinks needs to be reminded to keep his squadron within the grid area lines.)

Shaping the Battlefield

 "Waste not, want not", that's  an old saying that reflects how I was raised. 

I bought many feet of pine boards for use as display shelves 15 years ago when we bought this old farmhouse. A few years later, after I retreated into my current room and sold off or gave away over half of my miniatures and toy soldiers, some of the shelves became various rectangular hill shapes. Now they are beginning to morph into vaguely hex shaped hills as I prepare for battle.

Some of the joints are a little iffy if used to make multi-piece hill complexes, but they work fairly well as stand alone hills and the joints can always be disguised with a little scatter.  

Note that deployed units will face the point of a hex giving them 2 frontal, 2 flank and 2 rear hexes.
 Road columns will face a side and have 1 frontal, 2 flank and 3 rear hex sides.

The new and adjusted bases need a lick of paint, and I'd like to add a new unit or two and get the field hospitals ready and based if I have time. Once that's done, or Friday regardless, the troops will deploy and the dice will begin to roll.

I also clipped my cavalry bases to fit the hex grid, and rebased the guns.

 My initial thought is to start with a small "advance guards clash late in the day" scenario and then follow it up on the weekend by a larger pitched battle with positions determined by the advance guards' clash.