"Which Iconic battle is on your bucket list?" Topic

Which Iconic battle is a must do for you or indeed you have already ticked it off? Why? What is it that appeals?
Waterloo, Gettysvburg, Rorkes drift, Little Bighorn, Hastings, The Alamo etc etc

I am determined to one day do Hastings. I love last stand type stuff and 1066 has always fascinated me yet I have never gamed it.

FM

Leipzig would be one and another Fontenoy.

I'm doing Austerlitz in August and Brandy Station in September.

Sometime in my life I'm running an Antietam game, the whole day, every unit.

My current project is to game the Alamo at 1 figure = 1 man. Here is my blog on the project: texianilliad.wordpress.com

I've wanted to do this ever since receiving the Marx playset for Christmas way back in the 1970's.

Last stands are fascinating, despite the outcome being a foregone conclusion in most cases. Others I might try are Rorke's Drift and Camerone.

Lexington Concord.
Brandywine.
They need to be done.

I have ticked off Germantown, the Wyoming Massacre and Trenton.
They were all so much fun, I may just add them again to the list, just to do them again.

Yorktown is NOT on my list. However, there is such a mad mish mash of French units, that Savannah is right up there too. The main attraction is that every stand of 3 figures of French can be different, although Dillon is at full strength.

For WW2, we have done Arrracourt, but I just have to do "Those damned engineers!"

I am not including Cowpens, simply because everything is painted, and little work needs to be done. It's just a matter of getting around to it, sooner or later.

A "bucket list" should imply that some work needs to be done.

I would like to do Blenheim. I've been building up WSS stuff in 28mm for years now. It is one of those periods that will never be finished. I'm doing 12 man units. It is never really at the top of my priority list for long because each unit finished does not get me that much closer to the goal. But I have been persistent there are not many years that go by that I don't add about 6 units of infantry or cavalry.

Betio, company level.

Huertegen Forest, 28th division, the capture and loss of Schmidt.

Done Borodino in grand style, got the T shirt, wrote the book, (well magazine article) so I have well and truly scratched that itch…

Also did Quatre Bras in grand style, indeed got a 'best in show' trophy somewhere, but there's something about that battle that so lends itself to the table top it might have to be done again…

But the big one for me has got to be Waterloo, and I have been preparing for 18 June 2015 for quite some time now….

Thermopylae
Salamis
Carrhae
Breitenfeld
Battle of the Nile
Isandlwana
Savo Island
Chosin Reservoir

Actually, I'd love to travel over to Russia and try and meet some of the old Soviet Submarine sailors I flew against during the Cold War period. Swap sea stories and memories, get roaring drunk, sing songs, make eyes to the local girls, and part as comrades, not the old enemies we used to be.

Field Marshall the 6 you have listed work for me plus maybe Arnhem

have done Leipzig and D-day

Alesia
Telamon
Fallen Timbers
Bushy Run
Kursk
Poltava

We don't do 're-fights' of battles anymore. We do specific campaigns, where the battles are driven by players decisions and imagination, in the context of historical operational constraints.

Campaigns drive the context of battles. Wargames without this context are less than challenging.

My bucket list has a few campaigns left on it.

Good call on Camerone, rvandusen!

I did Maiwand in pretty good style for the 130th anniversary back in July 2010, and just did Camerone myself in similar no-holds-barred fashion -- with a lot of help from 2 friends -- on the 150th anniversary, this past April 30th. Both projects were a ton of work, but well worth it, and led to some of the most enjoyable games I've ever participated in.

I'm in the early stages of building armies and terrain for the 1841-42 retreat from Kabul, but with a "What If?" twist: instead of accepting the Afghans' guarantee of safe retreat which ended in the "Last Stand" at Gandamak/Jugdulluck, the Brits attempt to fight their way through the streets of Kabul and into the Bala Hissar. I plan to call it: "Bala Hissar or Bust!" The appeal for this one comes from its rarity in miniature, the chance to use the Bala Hissar in an actual battle, and the fact that the battle was fought in December, which means I need to build snow and ice covered terrain, something I've never done before.

Some day I want to do San Romano, 1432, and bring the terrain and armies from the Paolo Ucello painting to life on the table. I'd also like to do the Battle of Long Island (1776), building the terrain, including the Old Stone House near the Gowanus Canal, which is located around the corner from where I grew up in Brooklyn.

On a more humble note, I'm almost ready to do Charasiab (1879) -- not quite "inconic" but an important battle in the Second Afghan War nonetheless -- just need to finish three more hills and then build two 6'x2' river terrain boards to represent the Logar and Kabul rivers on the East and West flanks of the battle.

As my wife points out whenever I "finish" a project… there's always another!

For me the upside of such epic projects is their ability to focus my attention and efforts towards a single, challenging, goal. The downside is they soak up virtually all the time I have available for the hobby, leaving me little chance to play between the few "Iconic" games.

Borodino, I have the figures but not a single one has a lick of paint.

Adrianapolis
Romans are finished. Goths not…

Big battles done…Gettysburg, Antietam, Arnhem, Bannockburn, Caen, Towton.
Battlefields visited…all of the above plus Ypres, the Somme, Monocacy, Alamein, Killiecrankie,Beaumont Hamel, Chemin des Dames, Falkirk (both) Prestonpans, Tewkesbury, Culblean, Dunbar, Roslin, Tipperuir, Sherrifmuir, Aberdeen, Stirling Bridge, Marston Moor, Fredericksburg, Naesby.
Battlefields to visit….Agincourt, Normandy/Caen/Falaise, Waterloo, VIcksburg, Courtrai.

I had Gettysburg, Antietam, Harpers Ferry on mine, never thought id get to see any but recently got to go to all 3 and it was amazing. If I had to re assess my list now, id have to say Manassass, Fredericksberg and probably Gettysburg again I spent 4 days there and it still sems like I could learn more

I have loads of smallish forces Dark Ages, Medieval, WW2 and Modern but not built for for specific "big" battles.

My current project is Murten / Morat in 1476 with 350+ figures plus tents, wagons, scenery.

I could also do a reasonable attempt at Isandlwana & Rorkes Drift 1879, again with 300+ figures, wagons & tents etc.

One day, I may try to do one of Alexander the Great's big battles.

I would love to do the 1066 campaign, Tostig's raid, Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge & Senlac (Hastings).

Antietam

Leipzig

Kursk

Cannae

For me it is Cannae… with a campaign of some sort leading up to it.

…and I fancy doing Magnesia, properly.

Borodino – Leipzig

I am just ratcheting up my Napoleonic playing so it will be some time before I start ticking the large battles off my list, lot of figures to paint and lots of time building a high level of familiarity with rules among the players.

I want to hit all the great continental Napoleonic battles:

Austerlitz
Jena
Auerstädt
Eylau
Friedland
Aspern-Essling
Wagram
Borodino
Lützen
Bautzen
Dresden
Leipzig
Champaubert
Montmirail
Château-Thierry
Vauchamps

Likely a couple others.

Less likely is me getting to do the same with ACW but I have a list for that as well.

In both periods I'd like to get to a point where my gaming groups could play campaigns rather than set piece battles.

Cheers,

The Bandit

Hoblane, in skirmish form, where you control a couple FLH figures (maybe 4 plus a sgt), in mounted, dismounted, wounded, seriously wounded and dead sculpts for each figure,

Started it years ago in 10mm. have some of the mountain terrain, the figures, never finished rules. :(

New Orleans

Ft. Pierce (Seminole Wars battle). have 15mm figures painted, made a bunch of palmetto shrubbery (but not enough) and never finished. Also painted 20 excellent Conquest Seminoles in 28mm.

Amoaful (Ashanti War)

I definitely have some 3mm Napoleonic madness in the works. It may take a few years but I've got a secret plan that involves the number 50,000 and the word Wagram.

I have slowly been working my way through various major battles over the decades, a few of the bigger ones including

Waterloo
Borodino
Blenheim
Ramilles
Dresden
Cannae
Gaugamela
Koeniggratz
Solferino
Kursk (northern flank only)
Operation Crusader
Operation Venezia/Gazala
Market Garden
Goodwood
Mons
Le Cateau
Cambrai
Operation Bagration (run as a campaign)
Barbarossa, northern flank (again, a campaign)

A few yet to do on the list include:

Gravelotte-St Privat
El Alamein
Amiens
Zama
Totalize

Plains of Abraham
Minden
Naesby
Breitenfeld
Blenheim
Brandywine
Monmouth Courthouse
Saratoga Campaign
Stalingrad
Omaha Beach
Mons – 1914
Leipzig
Punic War Campaigns
Guadalcanal: Land/Sea Campaigns

redo:
Gettysburg
Antietam
Brandy Station
Waterloo

Vienna (1683), Tourcoing (1794), and the Marne (1914 and likely 1918 as well)

Tourcoing isn't well-known as iconic, but it is iconic to me.

Adowa in 15mm
and Leipzig in 2mm.

Pavia 1525

The Peninsular War. Yes, the whole thing. I started working on LaSalle forces for Fuentes, but that got sidetracked by school.

I'm also working on a massive set of NWF forces, based around the Malakand Field Force.

[edit]: Forgot to add that I'm eventually going to put together the Gempei War, and I'd love to throw down on Sekigahara.

Hydaspes, Ilipa and Pharsalus.

Okay, FM you just need to match up the people who wants to do the same battle and we can get started.

After I posted my list I saw so many more I left off. The Peninsular War! Thank you Lion in the Stars, I almost forgot that project. So much to do and so little time. We at least have board games.

The thing about "iconic" battles is that they sometimes flop as a game. But we do them because we must. We can't help ourselves. Count me in!

I've done the battle of Hastings c. two dozen times. I'm ready to have another go. The whole 1066 campaign in fact….

I can't believe that I have never fought Waterloo or Rorkes Drift at this stage in my war gaming career.I'd like to do the second day of Gettysburg in the Peach Orchard to Little Round Top area. Eylau would be on my list too and Adrianople so that I could use all of my Late Romans.

Austerlitz is probably my favorite Napoleonic battle that I have played so far.

Waterloo is on the way, as is New Orleans (again).
First Bull Run (again).
Pea Ridge.
Hastings (again).
Eylau.
Cowpens (again).
Hubbardton (again).

I have given up on doing competitive wargames of iconic battles. Once the players realize what battle they are doing they adjust tactics to the point where a historic outcome no longer occurs.

Cleared Vicksburg on the way to Bayou Wars/Johnny Con 4.5 last Wednesday. Also went to National WWII
Museum in an attempt to clear it from my list. Could not clear it, not completed and too much still to see.

"refights' are fun if you want to demonstrate history in a fishbowl, mirror the conditions that produced one outcome, and then perhaps use dice to produce a different one…

"to understand the campaign is to understand the battle"

One-off battles are fun, but..to me they lack the imagination that makes 'commanding' period foces such a challenge. How can you 'do' Austerlitz, without having already been good enough to do Ulm?

Bill N:
So true, and I think it is important to understand that an 'historic' outcome can only happen when history is exactly reproduced. It never is, when you have to begin the game by maneuvering your forces to battle on an operational level. Maps and communications never read the same way twice.
R

Of course, such words irritate gamers who think Napoleonc wargames are something you can do 'tournament style' :)

Have done Camerone and Waterloo (building the terrain was half the fun).

The Alamo has been on my bucket list for many years…

Operations TOTALIZE and TRACTABLE.

It was the Alamo, but I played that at Salute. I yearn to game particular wars, but no urge to recreate specific battles…

Iconic to me at least…

Bannockburn and Bouvines in 28mm (I have done them both in 15mm).

Allen

I will game Fallen Timbers after I get the mounted Kentucky volunteers painted. Taken my 12 years to get this point.

Other factor is I have no one to play against :(

I've played Kursk. Quatre Bras, Antietam.