Keith Con 2008

Mark your calendars everyone!

This year KeithCon will be on June 7th, 2008.

The format will be entirely different this year. Instead of a single tournament, there will be a multiple historic scenarios in a variety of sizes (of battles) and scales (of figures). The time period covered will still be the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries using our Make Ready! rules.

It's really important for me that lack of familiarity with our rules should not stop anyone from having a good time at the Con. Last year, the time constraints of tournament gaming (and a few other issues) detracted from people's enjoyment. This year will see a more relaxed pace. There will be more time to yak with old friends and check out our Vendor: Five Arrows Figures.

The location will be the Military Family Resource Centre at 50 Rivers Drive East, Trenton. It's a great venue with lots of space, good lighting and it's right next to a Timmies and a pub. (No alcohol allowed on MFRC premises)

Start time will be 9AM and we will finish at 4:30PM. Afterward we will go out for dinner at the Britannia Pub.

Below is a list of the games that will be going on.
Table #1: The Battle of Kolin
SYW Prussian/Austrian
Scale: 25mm
Players: 4-8
Time: 4-6hrs

Table#2: Seven Years War Campaign
DBA campaign SYW
Scale: 2mm
Players: 5
Time: All day

Table #3: Yanks & Rebs
ACW: First Manassas
Scale: 15mm
Players: 2-4
Time: 2-3hrs

Table #4: The Thin Red Line
Napoleonics: Fuentes de Onoro
Scale: 15mm
Players: 2-4
Time: 2-3hrs

Your options are:
a) Spend the day at table #1
b) Spend the day at table #2
c) Spend the AM at table #3 and the PM at table #4 or
d) Spend the AM at table #4 and the PM at table #3

You can always wander by tables of other games and check them out during lulls in your own table, of course :-)

Please let me know if you are planning to come and what table(s) you might be interested in. If we get more attendees, we can easily open more tables.

I look forward to seeing you there. Please feel free to email me with any questions or comments.

The Russian Army of the Seven Years War

Well, it's finished! I have completed a SYW Russian army in 2mm.


The plan is to complete all five major armies of the Seven Years War for a DBA-style SYW campaign which will be part of the festivities at KeithCon this June!

Watch for announcements about KeithCon soon. Until then enjoy the picture of my "hot off the press" Russians on a standard DBA 2'x2' board.

A Napoleonic Solo Game

I had a chance to play out a Napoleonic solo game set in the Peninsula this week. The picture below shows Wellington ad his boys forming up at the top of the picture. The brown cut out hills are steep, the lighter ones are gentle sloped, but rocky. The British left is held by the light troops, with a brigade of heavy infantry held in reserve. The center of the line is held by the Portguese and on the British right, we can see a brigade of cavalry and a brigade of infantry in column.The French have formed up with deep columns of infantry in the center, some light infantry holding the left flank and with their entire force of cavalry off table to the right, trying to out flank the British left. Unfortunately for the French the opening dice favoured the British, who seized the initiative and brought the fight to the French before their cavalry could arrive. By the time the French cavalry were getting into position, the British heavy cavalry had raced forward and caused the French light infantry to retreat to the safety of the hills, leaving their left flank exposed as we see below.

Here's a close up of the British attack on the French left one bound earlier. The British light dragoons are charging down on the French guns who have been unable to withdraw due to the fire of the British horse artillery. A regiment of Portguese dragoons rushes in to help.Fire from the French guns decimated one of the light dragoon regiments, but the other one and the Portuguese moved in as well, the guns was overrun and (since the French infantry had turned to face the threat) the victorious cavalry pulled out to allow the horse artillery to continue doing its work.

Meanwhile, an unsuccessful push in the center, left the French with only one chance of victory: turning the British left. The initial French charge looked promising. The French caused some significant damage and burst through the British hussars and horse artillery.....

But the British infantry had managed to get into fairly good position to stem the tide and held back the mounted onslaught with their unshakeable "thin red line".

With the French left in tatters and their cavalry attack on the right repulsed, the ongoing losses in the center of the battlefield tipped the balance and the French army quit the field in some disorder. The British were hard hit on their own left flank, but otherwise had suffered minimal losses. British 9-1 victory.

A French & Indian War game

Well, I finally got a chance to put together a few pictures. Emen and I played a little French & Indian War game recently. Here we see the opening stages of the game. A fleury of French & Indian skirmishers has raced forward to pin the British in their position in the corner. The British are deployed there as they are concerned about what mught be lurking in the woods off to their left....
Here's the view from the British side. Regular troops to the right of the gun with grenadiers and militia to the left. More militia and some ranger elements are moving to the right to fill out the line and possibly drive off the French skirmishers.

Emen's fears were founded. Several hundred Indians charge out of the woods and across the swamp.....

The rest of the French line formed up with them, with the French regular troops double timing it to take their place on the far left of the French line.

The basic French plan worked, which was to use numeric superiority to overwhelm their opponent's advantage in quality by a double envelopment. The Canadiens skirmished with the elite British line and the six pounders in the center,.........

while the Indians raced in against the colonial militia holding the British left flank........

and the French regulars charged in depth, hitting the militia holding the British right flank:

The French took their fair share of losses, too, but did manage to turn both flanks. The British army collapsed and the French carried the day.

Thanks for a fun game Emen.

Getting up to Speed!

Good God! No post since September!

What can I say, both Keith and myself are busy with family life. Since the last post we've had a few campaign games played. Sweden, Prussia and the Allied States have joined forces and over-run Austria. France is on the defencive and my beautiful Russia is under siege on all fronts. I've pictures from 3 battles to post ... sorry they haven't been put up yet.

Merry Christmas !! Keep your powder dry and your gaiters clean!

A New Campaign

Well, we've managed to get a Seven Years War campaign going!

Our thanks to Steve, who is running the "Grand Strategy" part of the campaign from the States while we fight all the battles here in Canada at our weekly gaming sessions. We are using a map similar to the Sport of Kings map.

I get to play the Anglo-German forces, who have managed to enlist the help of the Dutch to drive the French out of the Low Countries. Anglo-German forces have laid siege to key French fortresses in Berg while the French have similarly besieged my German troops in Franconia. But those actions are but a side show! Last night we played a field battle in Westphalia featuring 520AP of French against 400AP of Brits & Germans and 200AP of Dutch.


In this picture, the Anglo-Dutch are on the right, deployed in front of a small village, while the French are on the left, straddling a large swamp. The terrain was very marshy with a few gentle gnolls scattered across the field. A small lake sealed off my right flank. The French deployed with the majority of his cavalry on his far left, while we British had concentrated our cavalry on our far left. These were supported by British muskets, fusiliers and guards and the Hanoverian guard. The center was held by Hessians and Brunswickers and the Dutch held the far right.


We quickly raced up on the French right and hit their flank with our cavalry. The French responded by driving their troops forward in a series of column attacks on the British infantry, hoping to break through before their flank was crushed by the cavalry charge.

Meanwhile, the French pushed forward on their left against the Dutch, hoping to have more success there. (Note: Emen wasn't here with his Dutch figures, so I substituted my Hanoverians instead) Mark B helped immensely here, delaying the French advance with his hussars (now pulled back to safety behind his guns) and his jaegers until victory could be accomplished on the far left.

With their entire right surrounded, with horse behind them and elite British infantry to the front, it was only a matter of time before the French collapsed. Thanks to a couple of good moves and several good dice rolls, it was a longer time than it might have been and the French managed to bloody my British nose a bit before they went down. The picture above shows Sparky trying to keep his French from fleeing the field and (even more gloriously) my British horse and German cavalry swarming the routers :-)

French losses 135AP, British losses 47AP. The French have pulled back and the Brits are now masters of Westphalia (but only, as Sparky says, "for now.......")

Thanks for a great game guys.

Summers over, the kids are back in school and a new SYW campaign session has begun in our local group of musket balls!

Summer was busy with little time for pushing lead on the table. Hopefully Keith and I will have some great campaign reports soon.

Gary