Our Journey To Borodino

Part 4

The Great Day Dawns.
3rd and 4th October, The World Championships.

Well we made it.

It seems that the previous parts of our story didn’t inspire Pete Berry with much confidence and he appeared genuinely surprised – and relieved – to see us, well most of us, turn up with painted figures and terrain.

As you may remember Mike’s son had inconsiderately arranged his wedding day for the 2nd October, the day before the debut of our Borodino at the Worlds. Mike promised he would be fine for the big day: the worlds, not the wedding, and if we got to Derby for about 830am to set up he would join us not long after.

Now I thought the wedding was in Derby, so wasn’t unduly concerned. We’d set up, Mike would join about 10am at the same time as the public. What I’d missed, or what hadn’t been mentioned, was that the wedding was in Birmingham….

So at just after 10am I got a text ‘Just leaving Birmingham be about 40 minutes.’ Oh well not too bad, quick coffee, chat to the visitors and we can start. My text reply was that everything was ok.

Next text was ‘Can you text more quietly, on way soon’ Not so good.

And then at 11am ‘Slow traffic u start when ready’ the reply ‘No; you drive faster’ apparently wasn’t appreciated.

Anyway at just before midday the Russian’s illustrious commander, the mastermind behind the whole project, finally turned up. Fortunately he’d had time to force a full English breakfast down his neck while we’d been setting up (and in my case missing the excellent breakfast at the university!) so he’d sobered up a bit….

We could then start the game. Actually we couldn’t. And this was the best part of the two days. We had loads of people coming over to chat and discuss. Even in some cases to admire our work.

Although it might seem we’d been kicking our heels for the first two hours that wasn’t the case, even if Mike had deigned to be present from 10am we wouldn’t have moved a figure. There seemed a never ending line of people wanting to talk to us, asking about the rules, the terrain, how difficult/easy the figures were to paint.

Quite a few had found the same problem with Baccus figures as I had – a total inability to resist purchasing them. Pete has assured me a number of times that he never sells to people unless they really want to buy, and that he is only helping us. On the Sunday he said this to me a number of times, and lots of other wise and learned things, unfortunately I didn’t hear him as I was agonising over buying a load of Zulus I don’t really need. You may be familiar with the phenomenon: I had no intention or desire to start another period, nor to paint any more 6mm figures(1) , but as someone had mentioned the nice Zulus I just had to have a look. I was sorely tempted, but No I was determined, next project 15mm Seven Years war Austrians.

As Pete has said on his website we only managed two moves on the first day, and I can’t even blame Mike, there was always someone wanting to talk, which was great. It also showed how much interest there was in the game and the scale. It may not surprise you to know that the Saturday was the first time we had got all the figures together and we were very pleased with the result. It was even better when someone mentioned how good it looked from the balcony above. They were right.

As we’ve said all along our aim was to put on a nice visually appealing game that any group of wargamers could do. We have no particular skills (2) and virtually everything was bought. The only exceptions were the Shevardino and Grand redoubt. I made them and they were just off the shelf hills, with a small ditch and parapet added and then painted using the Baccus basing method (3).

As I’ve mentioned we had planned to do the game on a 16 foot by 6 foot table, unfortunately we only had a 12 foot by 6 foot on the Saturday. We chopped a bit of the north end off (as a few of the more observant noted); as this meant most of my command (Barclay de Tolly) would be missing I put them on anyway behind the Russian right flank (4) , hence it looked a little unbalanced. Also the French hadn’t put on all their cavalry and the Guard, partly because of space partly because spectators kept interrupting. So for those that saw the game on the Saturday our apologies, on the Sunday we got another 2 foot (5) and put all the French on. It looked much better, even if (ungratefully) we still wanted a further 2 foot).

We hope to show the game again and will try hard to get the full 16 foot and you can then see it as God (6) intended.

(The Lead Commanders preparing to defend against a free kick aimed for the top left hand corner of the Nat West Bank. Why is Mke so unconcerned about protecting his valuables?)

For the record on Saturday we managed 2 turns, on Sunday we managed three or four (I lost count). The battle was just getting going; the French left flank had advanced slightly. Yes the Poles came out of the woods. Although they nearly didn’t (7). A half hearted attack on the Russian centre was repulsed and the Grand Redoubt was unchallenged. The French left wing caused a diversion, well that’s what Napoleon said, not sure what was diverted, certainly not the capable Russian Commanders. After two days the French had suffered twice as many losses as the Russians (8) and were dispirited, a clear and well deserved Russian victory. History rewritten and Moscow not burnt to the ground. Not bad eh?

In truth as a game the two days were a disaster, we were talking too much! As a demo game it was excellent, we showed what could be done by anyone (9) and generated a great deal of discussion. We even got a highly commended award from the show – brilliant.

Finally, thanks to Pete Berry and Baccus for allowing us to use his brilliant figures (10) , and for his unwavering faith in our abilities(11) . More importantly, thanks to everyone who took the trouble to talk to us, you made it worth while.

By the way I bought the Zulus………

(1) I was asked a number of times how many figures were on table – we daren’t add up. Pete estimated 10 to 15 thousand. I worked out that I had painted around 3500.
(2) Quite a few quirks and flaws, but no skills.
(3) Shameless plug….
(4) I’d painted the damn things they were going on the table no matter what
(5) ooh err matron
(6) i.e. Mike
(7) I’ll charge that Russian unit” cries the valiant Polish commander as he cautiously leaves the shelter of the Utitsa woods. Both players roll dice and add factors. “Oh b*gger I didn’t realise they were guard I wouldn’t have done if I’d known. Too late, the fight ensued and the Poles duly ran back to the woods. Brief appearance and not very glorious either.
(8) 2 bases routed against 1 of ours………..
(9) Well anyone daft enough
(10) Shameless plug two
(11) Not..