Civs Foray into Sharp Practice

So i managed to piggy back on a friends front rank order so i picked up some Prussian artillery crew. I already had a few spare cannons so here goes some heavy firepower for my force.

So after a few games of Sharp Practice under my belt ive found myself not quite needing the quality (and expense) of the musketeer and so am looking to the humble landwehr to fill out some of the ranks.

The reduction in points also allows me to field a cannon now which have been ruining my last few games against the dastardly French!

Black shading done and buttons painted, i think theyre really starting to come together now. Basing still to do and picking some highlights up but we are getting there!

So my forces have been painted and readied for our second larger clash with the French. My opponent had also made sure he had a painted force and it looked like really thematic game was underway.

We rolled meeting engagement and randomly rolled our deployment third of the table. Fate had it that i rolled the far left and my opponent rolled his far right, so we set our deployment point directly opposite each other, it would be a close battle.

The first few turns saw our forces arrive, my skirmishers moved up to start harassing the line troops facing them behind the house, my level three leader with two groups of line troops followed up behind to engage the same.

My larger formation comprised of a level two leader, a level one leader and three groups of line troop marched in column over to the right of the battle to open up the field and find some open space to engage the French.

My opponent got his line troops on first and marched them to meet my line troops, his skirmishers were a little late to the party which is why in the early photos you will see them behind the main line of battle.

The French continue to advance to meet my troops, the French line troops on the left start pressing my skirmishers and because i only have a level one leader with them i shoot and start backing off, also getting out of the way of the forthcoming line troops which are ready and present their muskets ready.

The French right also continue to advance and my larger formation swing round and form a line partly behind some low brush ready.

Next turn the French on the left move round the building and i use this opportunity to fire my troop and with two flags to hand i make it a crashing volley to try and build up some early shock. It works better than i thought with benefits from frist fire, controlled volleys and the French being in the open i put 12 shock on the unit, really cramping their effectiveness in the coming turns. The French only have a level 2 leader and so struggle to remove this shock during the remainig turns.

On the right my line troop are harassed by skirmish fire and lose a few men. I wait presented for the line troop to come into my firing arc and fire. This puts shock on the skirmishers and line troops but doesnt kill any troops. The Prussians just need to hold here whilst the formation on my left press hard.

The French on my right keep firing at the larger Prussian formation but the line troop struggle due to the range (meaning 6’s to hit) and my troops being behind light cover. I also have a sergeant to clear excess shock so the formation stands firm.

My skirmishers start coming round to the right to help tackle the groups of skirmishers threatening the larger Prussian formation, due to the French line on the right being on the far right i really want to swing my line round to face them but with skirmishers on my flank i cant risk it.

The Prussian skirmishers being light infantry really start to put the pressure on the skirmishers and the shock starts to mount. The French skirmishers are led my level one leaders so find it difficult to remove any shock. The French also focus on the line troops leaving my skirmishers free reign to reposition and keep firing (this was mainly because the skirmishers count as being in cover where the line troop dont).

The Prussian formation on the left follow up their early success, using four flags to move up reload and get another volley off on the reeling French forces. The four flags also allow me to get my skirmishers moving again putting more pressure on the French equals.

We had a few random events during the mid phase of the game with the French being the most affected. One group (on the right) run out of water and the group on the left create a smoke cloud making it harder for both our troops to hit.

The shock on the French skirmishers in the centre proves too much and they start to fall back. Similarly the French left starts to waver as men starts to fall and the shock builds. My Prussians have been continuing there advance, firing controlled volleys when they can to keep the French from regrouping. A cry rises up form the French “Pas de Charge!”. This removes four shock but there is still too much and it slows the charge meaning the troops fail to make contact.

The French skirmishers engaging my right hand formation have also had enough, being in the line of fire from my large formation the shock has built up and some surprinsingly accruate firing from my own skirmishers have reduced their numbers to the point that they break. Its looking bleak for the French, can they rally on the left and push up on the right to get back in the fight.

My Prussian troops on the left, after the failed Frech assualt, charge them in turn. It is a VERY one sided fight, with the amount of shock, qulaity and number of models remaining the French threw two dice and i was rolling handfulls. The formation now thouroughly broken, a leader two killed and the group wiped out cuase the force morale to tumble and the French route from the field.

It looked like a very one sided fight looking at the aftermath. The prussians lost three men and the French many more.

There were a few things that really swayed the battle:

• The Prussian early crashing volley on the left put the opposing French line on the back foot from the early game and they never recovered.
• The fire fight on the right was actually quite one sided as the French can only fire uncontrolled volleys and at long range were always hitting on 6’s whereas i could fire controlled volleys and so hit on 5’s and 6’s, double the chance to hit. My prussians were also behind some cover which helped whilst the French were in the open.
• The skirmishers are incredibly fragile, not being able to remove shock meant any shock stuck fast and being caught in front of line troops meant it built on the French skirmishers quickly. I think being more aggressive with the skirmishers would have paid off, getting to the flanks of the rigid lines causing more shock.
• I benfitted from having four flags twice in the game meaning my left hand push really had the advantage meaning all the right hand Prussians had to do was hold.

All in all a great game with a great opponent, it was his first game and my second so we had to do some rule searching but we both learnt a lot from this. I also now both have a fully painted force for once…until i add the cannon waiting in the wings…and perhaps come calvary…

Thanks for reading!

So i finally managed to finish the force. I have finally painted all 60 models and am able to field 4 groups of line troop and 2 groups of skirmishers, both rifles and muskets.

This includes 2 level 1 leaders, 2 level 2 leaders and a level 3 leader. The higher the level, the bigger the base (saves me remembering who is the most important in the heat of battle)

Enjoy the pics!

Managed to squeeze in another painting session last night. Almost finished another 16 line troop and their commanders. (sorry for the pics, once they are done i’ll get some decent ones)

Next steps will be basing these guys and getting on with my fusilier skirmishers (another 9 models to paint!)The end is defnitely in sight though.

I have a game next week against another new player who is also playing French so i have my deadline.

I am taking five groups of line infantry, a skirmish troop, a leader 3, a leader 2 and two leader 1’s. I have created some stat cards to help speed up the game a bit so we shall see how that goes.

Once these guys are done i have some artillery to paint and i might look at some calvary options, though the thought of painting even more models at this point is a little offputting.

Fingers crossed my next update will be of a completed Prussian ‘army’ and i can introduce my intrepid leaders ready to go forth into our first major battle.

I have painted a few of these guys now so thought it worth putting together a how to (just in case i need to paint more and forget how i did it) but it might be useful for anyone looking to get a Prussian force going.

1. I based the models and sprayed them with halfords (Uk) grey primer, its much cheaper than undercoat and as much of the prussian is grey it gets a majority of the figure painted from the off.
2. I used chocolate brown to colour the gun, backpack and any bits that will be painted gold (gold looks better over a brown undercoat). The main bits were the emblem on the catridge case and the bottom of the short sword they carry. You can paint some of the hair here too, dont forget the impressive sideburns!
3. Next step was painting the uniform. I used dark prussian blue to colour the jacket, dont worry about being too tidy here, just the the blue in all the small areas we will be painting over anything the blue isnt meant to be on.
4. I then paint all the black, this is anything that is actually black and anything to be painted silver metallic later like the gun stock. Mainly its the shako, cartridge box, short sword scabbard, rifle barrel and boots. You can paint the hair at this stage too.
5. Its worth painting all the white piping at this point (i didnt on the example but changed my process a bit as it was easier).
6. The face was painted using a vallejo paint (need to add what exactly it was)
7. I then used gw dheneb stone to paint the bread bag they all carry, any light beige colour will do here.
8. Depending on what regiment you are doing you can paint the cuffs, collars and epaulettes your colour of choice. Mine are from colberg and happen the have white cuffs and collars and red epaulettes so i paint these.
9. Then comes the army painter strong tone dip. Now i actually paint this on so it doesnt pool in weird places. I dont cover the face, boots or shako as the face is already shaded and the boots/shako being black dont need it either. Try and get it in all the creases and deep areas as this is where is really shines. Its a gloss so be careful not to get it on anything as it really doesnt come off again. Have some white spirit ready to ‘clean’ your brush, the brush will be ruined so use an old/cheap one.

Leave the dip application to dry at least overnight and whatever you dont dont varnish it until you are 100% sure its dried, if not it cracks and looks awful, trust me my FOW british armoured company is testament (that was a sad day).

Once dry i found given the model a spray of matt varnish makes it easier to paint and really takes the shine from the gloss off which you need to do at some point. I use army painter matt varnish as its what my FLGS stock and it seems to work fine.

Next is the highlights.

The black is covered using a very dark grey (eschin grey?) Leaving the actual black colour only in the recesses.

The metal on the musket is painted gw boltgun metal making sure to leave the black in the recesses. It might be easier to do this before the dip if you arent the neatest of painters as the dip will then pool in the recesses so you can be less careful in painting the metal. The buttons on the side of the boots and the water can on their back is also painted the same metallic colour.

The jacket buttons, bottom of the short sword and emblem on the cartridge pouch are all painted with vj gold.

The skin is painted with gw tallarn flesh being careful not to get it in the recesses. Its then highlighted using vj elf flesh only on the highest points of the face.

The jacket gets highlighted with vj prussian blue.

Gw codex grey is used to cover the trousers and blanket across the shouler leaving the dip in the recesses and covering up any mistakes, it matches really well with the halfords undercoat.

This is then highlighted using gw fortress grey.

This is the mini pretty much done, just the base to finish.

Basing

I paint the base using some cheap dark brown acrylic paint from craft shop.

I then use the static flock applicator to create dark green flowers/tufts which need to dry before applying (using 4mm flock, 6mm is too long and falls flat).

The bases are covered in pva and the tufts/flowers are then applied in a (hopefully) random pattern so when they get ranked up it doesnt look to artificial. 2mm spring flock mix from dorspring models is used to cover the rest of the base.

I am going to try and add some patches of yellow and white to the top of the 2mm flock on the overall bases to see if it breaks them up some more, the idea is they look like dandilion and other smaller flowers. Will do a test and see.

So i took the prussians to the field in my first game of Sharp Practice. There are a few people in my area looking to start and have armies built so last night we finally had a game.

28 points of Prussians vs French 1814 period so there werent too many compliacted rules. A small battle to start with and to learn the rules. Neither of us had actually managed to read through the whole ruleset due to life in general getting in the way but armed with a rough quick reference sheet i pulled together and some videos on BOW being watched we started a game.

I brought 2 groups of 8 musketeers accompanied by a level 2 leader. These were backed up by a group of 6 musket armed skirmish fusiliers and a level 1 leader with them. When packing i had assumed i could afford some riflemen hence the very green looking rifle armed troops in all the photos but we played them as being armed with muskets.

We set up in a cobbled hamlet somewhere in northern France. My opponent brought two groups of 8 French line troops with a level 2 leader and a group of Cuirassiers with a level 1 leader.

The french started with a morale of 11 whilst the Prussians where not so confident with a force morale of 10. We shuffled the cards and the battle commenced.

My skirmishers are first to take to the field and deploy on the right behind a hedge ready to harass the approaching French line troop.

The French then come out in force in the middle of the board, hiding the calvary behind the line troops looking for an opening.

My line troops start heading for the brick wall on the left and take about 4 turns to get near but never quite make it (very poor movement rolling hampered my troops throughout the game).

My light infantry open up on the line infantry piling up the shock but not actually killing anyone. The French got fed up with this and soon started firing back, causing lots of shock but thankfully not killing anyone. I soon backed the light infantry off to try and recover some shock before they started effecting my force morale.

My prussians finally got to the wall after about 5 turns and the French impact calvary unleash their charge.

Despite being in line the prussians fend off the charge (just!). 5 calvary go down whilst i lose 4 musketeers. My leader survives unscathed whilst the French leader takes a minor wound.

Things are looking up for the prussians!

Things went decididly downhill from there. The calvary escaped and found my skirmishers in the open. I fired at the calvary needing one shock to push them back and miss with all my shots. *facepalm*

The calvary charge and kill all but one of my skirmishers in the ensuing melee and the remaining guy breaks and runs off the board.

My line infantry form square but the calvary hide behind the building so i dont get any shots off. Meanwhile the French line troops have been working their way to the fight and removing shock as they went.

My prussians form back into line and get the first two shots off on the French. Their aim was definitely off though and inflict some shock but no damage.

The French fire was much more effective and they kill 4 of my musketeers. My return fire was awful and it continued to get worse.

The calvary finally finished my line with a flank charge.

It was a great game and we learnt a lot. We played a lot of rules wrong but didnt let that stop us. Next time we will up the points and i might even get to read the rules properly.

Better get to naming my leaders and training my troops so they perform better next time.

Thanks for reading!

So attempts at the basing where made today. I flocked the individual models first but used the wrong length flock so it all fell flat and looked a bit naff.

Second attempt using shorter flock was more succesful, this i used on the group bases. It looks better as it stands up but a bit too uniform, ill need to find a way of making look a bit more natural.

I added a few tufts i made but again some lessons learnt as they were a real pain.

More troops to paint next and hopefully the basing will be miles easier.

So attempts at the basing where made today. I flocked the individual models first but used the wrong length flock so it all fell flat and looked a bit naff.

Second attempt using shorter flock was more succesful, this i used on the group bases. It looks better as it stands up but a bit too uniform, ill need to find a way of making look a bit more natural.

I added a few tufts i made but again some lessons learnt as they were a real pain.

More troops to paint next and hopefully the basing will be miles easier.

So i finally managed to finish the force. I have finally painted all 60 models and am able to field 4 groups of line troop and 2 groups of skirmishers, both rifles and muskets.

This includes 2 level 1 leaders, 2 level 2 leaders and a level 3 leader. The higher the level, the bigger the base (saves me remembering who is the most important in the heat of battle)

Enjoy the pics!

So the Jaegers have some more colour and the leaders get some more detail too.

Pretty close to finishing these now. Just need to highlight the black and faces. Then its on to the dreaded bases. They could probably so with some tidying up as well but ill do that once ive finished the main bits.

My officer is going to have grey hair so ill have to tidy that up when i have finished there faces and ive got to work out how im going to bronze up the trumpeters horn…that sounds worse than i meant it!

Ill add a pic of all the models ive done so far once they are based.

So after painting the 16 line troops making my 1st detachment i wanted to get my first leaders going.

I have based the leaders according to their level, so small bases are level ones, medium are level two’s and the bigger ones are level three.

I block coloured the leaders (and the Jaegers) and applied some army painter dip to get the shading. They look awful at this stage but once highlighted come together much more (i promise they do). In the photo i have a level one leader (a very enthusiastic model from foundry) and a level two officer with a trumpeter (in case no one listens to him the first time).

I then made a start on the first unit of 8 Jaegers as well, a mismatch of perry british riflemen and actual jaeger models from the prussian box set. They annoyingly have only 6 jaegers in the box and sharp practice requires 8, so with a few head swaps and varying the colour scheme a little, the british troops can pass as prussian Jaegers.

Once i’ve finished these guys i am going to decide on a basing scheme, i have seen some nice ones on this site and James Wappel seems to have some good ideas so we shall see what i can find. I aslo need to use the static flock box i have some more so here is the perfect excuse.