Yearly Archives: 2008

The Battle at Bradville

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Since it has been a while since out last update, I’ll start with a quick note concerning our current status…

We are on track to start the ball rolling again in September. We should be firing up the pot right after the Labor Day holiday. I do suspect that it will take about a week to get back into the swing of things, so we should be in good shape by mid-September.

Cleanup has gone well, and finally my neck is getting better (a few setbacks, but overall getting better).

And now on to the subject of this post:

THE BATTLE AT BRADVILLE
TACTICAL PROBLEM #1 Table Top Talk July 1965

“The Battle of Bradville” is a Tactical Problem for you, the reader, to fight on your war game table. The Readers force will be RED FORCE and your opponent will command BLUE FORCE.

You will use your own war game rules, and your own forces, being only limited in keeping in proportion to the number of “Units” for each force as written in the orders.

It does not matter how many troops you use, nor the size of your table top, although the map is scaled for an 8ft by 6ft table top.

RED FORCES objective is to clear the entire area of BLUE FORCES within 16 game moves, as this is a Reconnaissance in Force type of war game. To be successful RED must seize Saunders Junction and Bridge 1, while BLUE must try and hold these two key positions. Bradville River is not fordable, and troops may cross it only on the three bridges. The game is designed to be played with “musket period” armies, although players could possibly make this a modern game by changing the cavalry for armored vehicles.
RED FORCE consists of:
9 Infantry units, 1 Guard infantry unit, 1 Light Infantry unit, 4 Cavalry units and 4 guns, situated upon the map as follows:

Position 7 ~ 3 Infantry units, 1 Cavalry unit and 1 gun
Position 8 ~ 2 Infantry units, 1 gun
Position 9 ~ 2 Infantry units, 1 Guard Infantry unit, 2 Cavalry units and 1 gun
Position 10 ~ 2 Infantry units, 1 Cavalry unit, 1 Light Infantry unit and 1 gun

Orders: Clear the area to Bridge 1 and Saunders Junction in 16 game Moves. If not accomplished, you will retire off the table.

BLUE FORCE consists of:
8 Infantry units, 1 Guard Infantry unit, 1 Light Infantry unit, 3 Heavy cavalry units, 1 Light cavalry unit, 4 guns. These are situated upon the map as follows:

Position 1 ~ Advance patrol of 1 unit Light Cavalry and 1 horse gun
Position 2 ~ Advance patrol of 1 unit Light Infantry
Position 3 ~ 3 Infantry units, 1 gun
Position 4 ~ 2 Infantry units, 1 gun
Position 5 ~ Reserve of 1 Guard Infantry unit, 2 Heavy Cavalry units
Position 6 ~ 3 Infantry units, 1 Heavy Cavalry unit and 1 gun

Orders: Hold the general area and block RED forces from taking Bridge 1 and Saunder’s Junction. If impossible to hold you are to retire on the main army 5 miles to your rear.

We plan to use this tactical problem as the basis for our next game day here at HistoriFigs HQ. Our scenario will be played out on a 12′ x 6′ table – terrain will be stretched to fit. The armies used will be my 30mm Scruby AWI armies (British, Hessian, American and French). As such we will need to make a few troop substitutions – such as all Cavalry will be light dragoons and perhaps Guard units will be more seasoned or elite troops (higher/better morale, etc.)

No date set for this game session – I do have to build a few terrain bits (like bridges), so I doubt I’ll get this one in before October, but the main point for me is to have a target scenario, so I have something concrete to work towards.

I’ll be sure to share pictures as the terrain project progress – there should be a few nifty pieces in the mix.

Casting Shop Closure Extended to 1 September 2008

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Just a quick update today, with more news and such to follow…

Well, we are no longer hiking in or out everyday – still not finished, but at least we can drive in and out again. We had another batch of rain late last week – something around (just over) 5 inches in less than 24 hours. As such we have a bit more work to do. The first rains changed the landscape enough that we need to change a few more things in order to get water draining properly. Anyhow, more work to do, but thing s are much better now.

We’ve decided to extend the closing of the casting shop through August. There are several reasons for this. Chief among them is that we just have so much to get caught up on, and I’ve developed an annoying neck problem; which keeps my shop time very limited. We feel that it is better put off the re-opening until September so that we can be sure to have plenty of hours to devote to production. We are still running small batches of figures here and there; we just don’t want to promise something that we are not sure we can deliver.

There are a handful of orders that got jumbled, misplaced or just plain lost in all of the confusion here. I think I have everything sorted out – just need to ship or re-ship a few packages, so if you are expecting a package from us, it should be on its way shortly.

Well, that about does it for now. There is plenty more to write about – new greens, patterns and ‘stuff’; I’ll try and group things in a logical manner for a clean presentation…