Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Sunday 23 January 2022

Sieges: Getting Organised (a Bit...)

 For a while I've been intending to take advantage of the strange world of Covid limitations and do some solo work on getting the hang of Vauban's Wars. Siege games are, by definition, very dependant on all sorts of fancy scenery and hardware, and it is always very easy to find assorted reasons why this is not the ideal time to have a go. Well, that's long enough.

I now plan to have a solo bash at a Napoleonic siege game, so I'm scratching around trying to collect all the bits and pieces I need. Some of this is trivial work, to be honest, it's just a question of getting down to it.

Today I have a case in point. The starting set-up for my proposed training game requires the British to have a couple of heavy mortars. Now I have odd bits of artillery around the place, and I have some spare soldiers, so it was a simple matter to put together the required mortar battery from some old Hinton Hunt gunners and a couple of very scruffy Hinchliffe mortars I got as a make-weight in an eBay parcel. Here they are - not beautiful, but absolutely fine - cross them off the to-do list. Ready for duty.


There is a new approach evident here - previously I put a lot of effort into making up smart siege trains for the French and the British in the Peninsula. I now also have pieces for a proposed Spanish train, including some fortress guns, and I'm starting to collect items for WSS sieges. My new approach is that I shall paint the ordnance pieces in nondescript colours wherever possible, and make up crews of various nations who can "borrow" spare kit as needed. This is the first such - the scabrous mortars here are simply BluTacked onto the bases, so they can be loaned out to another army, in a different period if required, or they can even be replaced by more beautiful examples if the dreaded Creeping Elegance ever catches up with my siege projects.

Anyway, enough said. I retouched and based these chaps (ex Eric Knowles gunners, by the way) while listening to the Crystal Palace vs Liverpool game on the radio. Easy peasy. The British now have siege cannons, mortars (both heavy and Coehorn), various howitzers and sappers. I even have some new, specially sized and based units of foot, rescued from spares boxes for duty on sieges. And still the wonder grew.

I'll put some notes here on the starting set-up for my Vauban's Wars solo game in a day or two.

10 comments:

  1. Ooh this should be good. I know you’ve been keen to get a proper siege game under your belt fo4 a long time. I think you sent me a set of you4 own siege rules back in 2017 or 18

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    1. I have to say that games of the Piquet family are well thought through, but for my taste they use too many dice and sometimes solve a problem in a way which is more complicated than necessary, but they have a lot of fans. I've read the VW rulebook 3 times now, and have produced my own QRS sheets, so it's now or never to have a serious run out.

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  2. Refighting a siege seems a perfect fit for solo play.

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    1. Agreed - all about procedures, and a limited number of surprises, but can be visually very enjoyable. Not an ideal game to invite someone round for!

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  3. They look good to me and totally agree with the gun philosophy...I have about half the number of Napoleonic guns as I do crews...and sometimes (don't tell anyone) they even beam back in time to the AWI, if I am short for a game!

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    1. Now I've seen my rather unflattering photo of the mortars I might just give them a quick rub on fine emery cloth, to get rid of the mould line! My WSS armies should all get the right colour of field artillery, but for sieges they are all getting dirty brown! My grannie used to have a family saying, "first up, best dressed", which should apply nicely to the WSS sieges.

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  4. Hard pounding this gentlemen; let's see who can pound the longest (any excuse for a Waterloo quote).

    I look forward to seeing your saps progress...

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    1. Excellent. I am sorting out trenches and all sorts - my saps (excuse my frankness here) are currently cut from brown felt, which may sound odd but works nicely. The button-counters will object that they are not very realistic, but hey. I will also need to scratch-build oddments such as mine-entrances (not needed for this practice game), so some proper sap-heads will probably appear in the fullness of days. I am also pondering the possibility of some "spies", for which civilian figures seem suitable. Oh what fun.

      "Who fired that bang?" (Eric Morecambe)

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  5. Looking forward to seeing how your siege games go. The most interesting ideas/rules I've seen in blogland was the Siege of Sevastopol on the '20mm Crimean War Wargaming & Other Stuff blog': http://bobthepainter.blogspot.com/search/label/Siege%20of%20Sevastopol
    I also make my siege artillery (for my SSMs) 'non-aligned' so it can be used by any faction... and seeing your comment about your Spanish train I thought I'd share some WiP photos of mine (by email). It's being done with a view to some 'silly games' based on C S Forester's 'The Gun' and Hollywood's 'The Pride and the Passion' using a massive Warhammer cannon for the piece itself.

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  6. I have long been interested in sieges and bought Vauban's Wars. Unfortunately I have only used them once as I could't overcome my inertia and was pleased that I managed to do some painting. My saps are brown card with triangular dowling which worked well for me but I have since bought some Peter Dennis Paper Soldiers saps which should look good - if I ever get round to them.
    I found VW worked very well although some of the cards really only work with an opponent - I think you mentioned that. This, to me, was a minor matter. I look forward to reading how you get on.

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