Slow going

The weeks have flown by since our visit to Salute.  As you may have guessed by now, tabletop action has come to a juddering halt.  Other commitments and the sudden passing away of Roy Adams one of the Gentlemen Pensioners means that gaming has taken a back seat. Every group has someone like Roy, there was never a dull moment when he was around, nor a pause in the conversation.   Roy was generous with his time and knowledge and would always help if he could.  A kind man who will be missed by all who knew him.  Rest in peace Roy.

I have at least managed to paint a few figures for the Muscovites, but that project will now have to be put aside as planning has started for the ECW game at Steve's over the Phalanx weekend.  The figures are not quite complete, (the bases need flocking), but here are some photos

Two cornets for the Muscovite reiter regiments.  The designs came from Dan Schorr's Great Northern War website, (now sadly no longer available).  The figures are from my ECW collection, 'moonlighting' as Muscovites.

The other new arrivals were a unit of streltsy pikemen.  They are Old Glory figures and fit nicely with the Hinchcliffe musketeers.  The figures were almost free of flash and had painted up well.  My only criticism would be that the figures all had their heads tilted to one side. (see the Lonely gamers blog for similar comments and photos of very nicely painted Polish troops of the same period)  The design for the flag came from the same source as for the reiter above.

For more photos of Muscovite troops try the Sword and Scimitar  website.







http://lonelygamers.blogspot.co.uk/

Painting update

In a pause between games due to holidays/family commitments, I actually managed to finish the unit of pancerni which has been sat on the painting table patiently for the best part of 3 months

This now brings the total to 6 units and means that at last I have achieved the 4:1 ratio between pancerni and hussars which was the goal over two years ago.  My plan to next do some work on the Grand Alliance collection has since been disrupted by 'circumstances'

First, Steve very generously gave me some ECW cavalry on 'free transfer'.  They were painted, but needed re-basing and some minor paint repair.  Unfortunately for my work plans, there were 50 of them!  The first, 'Nutters', has joined the ranks of Sir Victor Meldrew's forces.

Next in line are two units for the Royalists, but then the Phalanx show came along and I spotted a 'bargain' on the B & B.  15/18mm Prussian cavalry from the 'Napoleon at War' series.  The box had two regiments of landwehr cavalry (24 figures) and a brigade commander.  The downside was of course that they needed painting.  Even though  they are smaller, they seemed to have elbowed their way to the head of the painting queue.

More potential disruption to my plans came in the form of a set of the Armati rules.  It reminded me about the two drawers of 15mm Ancients and Medievals I acquired to do some small DBA/DBM type armies at least 2 years ago.  Perhaps if I avoid the dreaded 'buttefly' effect I may get the 4th unit of Austrian infantry painted by Christmas?

Rawkins Uniform books

I am sure that most of us who wargamed Napoleonics in the 80's had a few of the Rawkins uniform guides on their shelves.  For the time they were essential reading. Even though the illustrations were line drawings, the information on uniforms and organisation made their purchase worthwhile.   The books have been out of print for some years, but I recently received an email from Bob Metcalfe, one of the gamers who helps out on the Lance & Longbow stand at shows in the North.  He pointed me to a website where the titles can now be purchased on CD Rom.  These are new editions, with colour illustrations and greatly expanded text. They are very reasonably priced, roughly the price the paperbacks were all those years ago.  I ordered the guide to the Italian army and was delighted with the new edition.

 
So if you haven't already visited the historyman website (link above) it is worth a look.

More Austrian infantry

Earlier this year I published a post on some Grand Alliance infantry I had just painted.  Well, after many false starts and being sidetracked by various projects, I have eventually got around to painting two more units.

The previous unit used plastic figures, but these are mainly Essex, with officers and pikemen from other manufacturers.  Using the Pike and Shot Society book on the Austrian army as my main source I decided to paint the figures as the Herbestein and Metternich infantry regiments.

Herbestein

Metternich

Only one more battalion to go and that will complete the brigade. Perhaps completion by Christmas?

Austrian infantry

With family  and other priorities, Steve and I have not managed to meet for a game for two weeks and with half term that is likely to extend to three weeks.  However, I have managed to find my paint brush and fight my way to my painting table to finish the first unit of Austrian infantry for my Grand Alliance collection.  The figures are Wargames Factory plastics and work out pretty good value, plus with all the options available in the box all sorts of units/nationalities can be created.

I decided to paint the figures as Regiment Furstenburg, like the majority of Austrian units they had pearl grey coats with red facings. The Pike & Shot Society publication on the Austrian Army by Robert Hall and Giancarlo Boeri provides all the uniform and flag information via its excellent plates. In the introduction, mention is made that the Austrians fought two different types of opponents during this period, the Ottomans and the French and their allies. For the former they discarded their pikes and relied more on firepower, therefore I painted up an extra two figures of musketeers so I could swop out the pikes for the campaigns in the east.

 For the western theatre I can retain the pikes and swop the extra musketeers for the grenadiers and then group the grenadiers from several battalions into a composite battalion

Painting and reading

After a long delay I managed to finish painting a couple of units for my Royalist ECW army. I was inspired to complete them by reading a book published by the Chetham Society "The Parliamentarian and Royalist war effort in Lancashire 1642-1651, by J M Gratton (Third series vol 48. 2010). This has a very useful appendix detailing the various units raised in the county and the actions they took part in.

This is Tyldesley's foot regiment, with the horse regiment moving to support them. The foot were at First Newbury and Marston Moor, whilst the horse also served with the Oxford army and were present at First Newbury. The figures come from various sources and the flags were created on the computer. Tyldesley's foot also double as the Mohrungen regiment serving as mercenaries with the Polish army (see below)

Two further cavalry regiments are under way and as the Warlord Games boxes come with the possiblilty of having two or three cornets, these units will also lead a double life, turning out for the Royalists and also as mercenary reiter for the Muscovite army.

Another book I have been reading is Andrew Uffindell's "Napoleon's Immortals, the Imperial Guard and its battles 1804-1815", published by Spellmount in 2007. What I have found particularly interesting is the analysis of the membership of the Guard units over time and the way in which the purpose of the Guard changed. Many sets of rules give bonuses for the Guard when it is in action, but, Uffindell's research suggests that this bonus should depend on the date of the scenario being played, particularly after 1812. During the 1813 and 1814 campaigns the Young Guard units consisted of the best conscripts rather than soldiers with several years experience. This would lead to a classification of at the best 'first class line', rather than elite. Plenty of food for thought.

The current battle on the tale is an ACW scenario based on the attack on the lines around Petersburg. The action is following historical events with the Unionists taking heavy casulaties. A full report will follow in the next post , but for the moment here is a view of the two brigades on the Unionist right preparing to advance.

Painting progress

I have mentioned my (lack of) progress with the backlog of painting several times over the last couple of months and at last three battalions are ready for action. The Austrian Napoleonic army has now been reinforced with two battalions of IR 37 Weidenfeld and a second battalion of Grenz Regiment no 6 Warasdiner-St Georger.














I have also been working on some trees, some of which appear in the photograph above. They were a christmas present and it has taken me all this time to tackle them. I wasn't really sure of the best way of creating the trees and the packaging gave no clues. Ideally they are aimed at railway modellers and it will be interesting to see how long they survive the rough and tumble of wargaming. The bases for the trees come from Irregular Miniatures and they give stability for lighter plastic trees. It is a curious thing that although they are meant to be more realistic than the trees I have used up to now (see below); I don't know whether they really 'work'.
Perhaps it is down to the scale of the figures, or the fact that most wargaming trees are of the latter style.

Lull before the storm

There is a short break now before the final stage of the Chiraz campaign. The umpire is keeping a tally of the points gained by Lorraine and the Electorate, but my feeling is that the final battle will decide it, as things have been balanced up by the rather eccentric Lord Percy.

The metal mountain is diminishing slowly; the 2nd and 3rd battalions of Austrian infantry regiment 37, Weidenfeld are now primed and ready to be started. The 1st battalion is based up and ready for action.

One advantage of the smaller figure scales is that troops originally bought for one period can 'migrate' to another without offending the eye. True, if they are picked up and examined closely, their true origin will be discovered; but, on the table, en masse, they can pretend to be someone else. This is true for some Franco-Prussian and Risorgimento Austrians and Italians. Over the next few weeks they may find themselves as the protaganists in the First Schleswig War, joined by some rogue ACW types. Hopefully, I will be able to provide some photographs of these 'renegades' in a future blog.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of the Austrian light cavalry, from an earlier war,who could really do with some more infantry supports, hence the move to get regiment Weidenfeld ready for action.

Even more painting

Yes, as if to overturn my previous post on the lack of progress on the painting front, this week some figures have been completed. The project seems to have crystallised around the creation of some units to represent the forces contesting the occupation of the North West during the first phase of the English Civil War. Following my usual practice I hope to utilise some existing units and simply furnish them with a different flag. For the Royalists I hope to have foot regiments of Gerard, Molyneux and Tyldesley supported by a mixed bag of mounted troops. Parliament will have units raised in the towns in and around Manchester and East Lancashire. These units will also be serving (under different flags) as TYW Swedes and Imperialists, so I hope they don't succumb to having a crisis of identity.
Information on flags seems to be difficult to come by so I will probably be a little 'creative' with them, especially the ones for the cavalry units, which were often at the whim of their commander.

Gerard's Foot

Aspley's Foot

Our battle this week was set on the steppes. The distant lands of the Kingdom of Poland were being swept by Tartars, bent on recruiting the local peasants for the slave trade. Regional light cavalry units had been despatched to escort the populace to a place of safety and the Governor had ordered some regular Polish cavalry units to assist. As the game started the Cossack light cavalry, with two mobile guns in wagons were shepherding their motley collection of peasants towards a distant fort. A unit of Polish dragoons had also arrived to assist, just in time, as Tartar scouts appeared on their left flank. The Cossack commander moved his forces to present a flank to the Tartars and but time for the peasants to make their best speed towards the fort. He was aided considerably by the disorganised and fragmented arrival of the Tartar forces. The initial attack was stalled and this allowed time for the regular Polish cavalry to move forward.
A second, flanking attack was also held and for a time the Polish general thought that the day might be his. However, the constant probing by the Tartars began to create gaps in the Polish lines and once created these gaps proved impossible to close. In a short space of time all available reserves had been committed and still the Tartars probed for the breakthrough. An impetuous attack by the Pancerni and Hussars on the right created the gap that the Tartar Khan had been waiting for and within two moves 6 units of tartars were bearing down on the peasants with only two units to stop them. The artillery of the fort stopped one Tartar unit and the Haiduk foot inflicted casualties on another but enough got through to force the peasants into a tight huddle, ready for rounding up. Just as this was happening, on the far left, the gallant Cossacks and Dragoons were overwhelmed and yet more Tartars moved towards their prize. So the battle ended with the Polish regular cavalry having to hack their way clear of the whirling Tartar cavalry to seek the cover of the fort and leave the peasants to their fate.

Painting

As a break from the sequence of battle reports I thought that this post could feature that other element of wargaming activity, painting. Now my progress on this front has not been too good of late; I did have plans to have three or four units finished by the end of February, but events intervened. There is also the constant threat of the dreaded "butterfly effect"; where progress on a unit is halted, sometimes never to resume, because of a new project which seizes the imagination. I must admit to a measure of this myself. At christmas I started some 15mm Austrian Napoleonics, then got sidetracked into ECW, because I discovered a bag of figures and purchased some more from a bring and buy. This then morphed into Grand Alliance, so I now have three lts of figures on my painting table. I sometimes wish I had the singlemindedness of some other bloggers (Will comes to mind), who can set out a programme for the year and seem to be able to stick to it. There is talk of a small scale SYW campaign, modeled on the recent Grant/Olley 'Raid on Chiraz' so no doubt my current admixture of figures will gain some new recruits. I will close with a recent proud moment. The first wargames figure painted by my grandson. He is only six, but shows great promise and seems to have begun to master the essential wargaming skill of rule debating!

Work in Progress

Like many wargamers I have several painting projects on the go at the same time. Regardless of my best intentions the next unit always gets prepared and undercoated before the current one is based and ready for action. Some 15mm Austrian napoleonics are supposed to be the priority; I need some Grenz units for the advanced guard, but some War of Spanish Succession Austrian cuirassier looked interesting and so they are also sitting there looking at me. The Austrians form the minority component of the Coalition against the French at the moment, totalling about 15 battalions. There is a small brigade of grenadiers, a couple of landwehr battalions, but few light troops. That is why I decided to recruit a few battalions of Grenz. I liked the look of the Fantassin figures, they seemed to have a 'presence' and they are fairly easy to paint.

In addition my frugal nature means that I like to use the same figures for several armies. All that is required is one extra command base with an alternative flag. This way units can be used for the Thirty Years war and the English Civil War. The unit below is part of my TYW Imperial army, but with a change of flag it becomes Gerards in the ECW Royalist army.