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Wednesday 22 April 2015

A game, Salute and an update

Update


Unfortunately there has not been much progress to report on the sculpting and production of the SYW range for the last month or so - hence very few posts.

I'm told that the reason for this is that Prince August are concentrating all of their efforts on upgrading their visitor centre, and their Waterloo game/project. This has delayed putting the Russian moulds into production and sculpting the cavalry - hopefully things will pick up again in the not too distant future.


Salute


If anyone is going down to Salute and wants to have a chat then I will be helping out on the Guilford Courthouse demonstration game on stand GA15.

If you want to see examples of the new range let me know and I will take a few down.


Field of Battle Game


Yesterday evening we had another game with the semi flats at my local wargaming club - they are not the lightest things to cart around!

This was a 'pick-up' game using the 'Field of Battle' (FoB) rules, which are a quicker and simpler version of the 'Piquet' system. The unit sizing and basing are identical to the last game we played using 'Maurice' a few weeks ago; and we tend to use both as takes our fancy.

The forces are based around Prussians and Austrians/Russians, with some friends thrown in as I don't have enough of the new figures finished yet. Both armies had two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade.

We set up a random terrain and then drew maps for hidden deployment. The Austrians (my good self) massed the infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the left. Opposite this, the Prussians (Greg Chambers) had the infantry brigades widely spaced, with the musketeers and fusiliers in the centre and the grenadier brigade on the right hoping for a flanking move, the cavalry were on the left facing their Austrian counterparts.


After the first few impulses (FoB is card driven not a conventional move system), the Austrian infantry are advancing in the centre and the Prussian (mostly Saxons) grenadiers advancing around the flank in the far distance.











Later on in the game with the Austrians pushing forward in the centre and on their right, and the Prussian grenadiers advancing on the far flank.


Unfortunately for the Prussians; just as the grenadier brigade was about to attack into theAistrian flank, their commanding officer was shot (a 1 on a D12), which held up the advance. (The green markers indicate they are 'out of command' which restricts movement).

The command generated a new officer shortly afterwards (turning a 'Leadership' card), who showed his bravery by almost immediately getting shot as well, A third officer stepped up to the mark later on, but by then the chance had passed as the Austrians and Russians had redeployed to face them.







The Prussian infantry in the centre advanced to meet the Austrian Advance and a general firefight developed. (The smoke indicated that the unit has fired and cannot fire again until a reload card is drawn.) This firefight proved relatively inconclusive.






The really decisive moment occurred when the Austrian cavalry put in their attack on the right flank.........


 ,,,,,,,,were counter charged my the Prussians................


.....and decided to head back to Vienna.


The loss of this cavalry shattered the Austrian army's morale, and shortly afterwards the game ended.

Overall a very enjoyable game (even though I lost), and Field of Battle is well suited for this period, if you haven't tried them give them a go.

As usual comments welcome.


For Rahway................

The Russian grenadiers break through in the centre, in front of them are a battalion of Prussian garrison troops. Give them a soft target to build up their confidence!




Sunday 5 April 2015

A head count.


After a couple of posts with eye candy, time for something a little duller (but I've added in some photos of Richard's painting to spice up the links from other blogs links - these are painted for the front of the packaging).

The Russians will be out in the next month or so (they have been delayed to try and squeeze in a belly box for the grenadiers), so I thought it a good time to have a look at where we have got to with the provision of heads for the Prussians, Austrians and Russians.

For my own purposes, to see what is missing from the range, I use a spreadsheet showing what headgear and hair various troop types wore. The boxes in the sheet are shaded to show what is already in the moulds, and what else is planned.


The results so far......................


Prussian Infantry


The Prussian 'close order' infantry moulds are all released - the tricorn is quite steep on the front.


As you can see most things are already covered, with just the need to add some heads for the light troops. These are planned to be included in with the moulds for skirmishing troops as discussed in posts back in September.

Austrian & Hungarian Infantry


Again the close order moulds are all released, the tricorns are moulded on a shallow slope at the front to be very distinct from the Prussians.


Again the coverage for the close order troops is pretty much complete.

German Grenadiers


Currently the heads for the grenadiers all have to come out of the Hungarian moulds, and so have their hair in plaits - from what I have read that is probably correct. 

There are however quite a few illustrations around showing German grenadiers in side curls, so it is appreciated that this option might be wanted. Chris has already produced a head with side curls. It was done ready for the 'German' infantry issue (my grenadiers in the post last April have that head), however when it was decided to just produce a single mould for these it could not sensibly be fitted in - so we decided to rely on the Hungarian heads. Austrian horse grenadiers are generally shown in side curls, so we will try and fit one in with the dragoons.

German grenadier officers possibly had side curls and no moustache, however it really is not worth a separate head for this - just trim off the mustache, or don't paint it.

Grenz & Jager

As discussed in posts back in September, it is planned to cover these in future releases.

Russian Infantry


I have listed these as if released, they are sculpted, but are waiting for some finishing touches, however I have not seen the mould listing yet, so cannot say what goes where, The tricorns are at a slope intermediate between the Austrian and Prussian moulds, and could probably be used for some of the Austrian units.


Again the close order infantry is covered pretty well, and the it is planned to put the Pandours in with the grenz when these are released.

Russian Grenadiers


After 1759 Russian grenadiers were ordered to swap the helmet for a tricorn, although I cannot see why any self respecting gamer would want to do such a trade. As present the best match is to use a musketeer head and paint a mustache (I assume they had one?), but a suitable head will soon come along somewhere in the cavalry.


Future Plans

It is good to see that with the addition of the light troops the the headdress for all infantry in these three armies will be covered - that is after all what I originally wanted from this project.

If anyone sees anything missing from, or wrong in the tables, let me know and I will change them and try and get any missing heads included in future moulds. (Please remember that these are only Prussia, Austria and Russia.)

Eventually I would like to continue this exercise to cover infantry and cavalry of all nations, and also torsos, to produce a 'parts list' to assemble all troops in the SYW - but not yet, 

(I actually find a good way of planning is to skim through the Blandord 'Uniforms of the Seven Years War' book and see what can, or cannot, be made with the moulds so far.)

As always comments welcome.


Thursday 2 April 2015

Kronoskaf - website of the month!

(Note 03/04/15 - I have added some more photos at the bottom of the post)


Project Seven Years War

First of all thanks to Richard Couture at Kronoskaf for making my blog his 'Website of the Month'; and welcome to any of you who have used the link to get here.

If you are interested in home casting 40mm Seven Years War figures, and the Prince August range in particular then please follow this blog, and contribute by making comments. Prince August are developing this new SYW 'wargaming' range taking into account feedback from this blog, so your comments do matter.

If you are interested in the Seven Years War, and have not yet found the Kronoskaf site then you really must make a habit of visiting the site - it is a real gold mine of information:

http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw


A game using Maurice

I had another game with the 40mm figures at the club again on Tuesday, and took a few photos. This time I managed two decent shots before the flash came on without me noticing.

This time we played with the Maurice rules, basing to these rules and Field of Battle is pretty much identical, so we use them for either, depending on what we fancy.

We used every one of the 17 new range infantry units I have managed to paint. The armies represented Austrian (with some Russian help) and Prussian (with Saxons). For those of you who use Maurice we added some national characteristics as follows:

  • Austria; 'Artillery Acadamy' and 'Cavaliers' giving them an edge in artillery and cavalry.
  • Prussia; 'Lethal Volleys' and 'Oblique Order' making their infantry both more maneuverable and more effective in the firefight.

Unfortunately I did not take enough photos to track the progress (I always get too tied up in the game), however a rough sequence of events was:
  • The preliminary Austrian bombardment with their 'superior' 4 guns was spectacularly ineffective.
  • The initial Austrian infantry assault (the Austrains were the attackers) was driven back by the 3 Prussian guns, who must have had laser rangefinders. (Including a second humiliating rout by the Russian grenadiers!)
  • A Prussian cavalry attack around the Austrian left was driven back by an infantry line
  • An Austrian cavalry attack around the Prussian left was initially successful but the stumbled up against some previously unseen bad ground (the ;'Not on the Map!' card being played and terrain placed in front of them).
  • A final push of the Austrian infantry in the centre broke the Prussian army morale (we did not even realise it at the time as we had worked out the break points wrong), but only by 'beardy' use of the last cards by the Prussian. 
Overall result, a very enjoyable draw.

Some photos.......


Austrian infantry centre ready to go (grenadiers confidently marching out to their doom in the distance).



Prussian infantry and guns waiting for the assault.


Guns on left of Prussian centre (Karoliners painted as Prussian)



Austrian  artillery firing without bothering loading the balls (Karoliners painted as French - waiting for new SYW artillery!)



Hungarian infantry assault Saxon grenadiers - result was misery for the Hungarians.



A view from behind the Austrain centre,



And then I forgot to take any more photos!

Some more photos..................


BUT, my opponent Paul Scrivens-Smith (see his blog http://scrivsland.blogspot.co.uk/ ) has just sent me some photos he took, These give a better overall view of the battle, I have added them in below:











And as a play - how about black and white?



Monday 30 March 2015

Russian grenadiers' first outing.

A couple of weeks ago I took a boot full of 40mm figures down the club for a game of Field of Battle (FoB). No particular battle, just line them up and show my opponent how to play the rules.

Unfortunately Martin had the most abysmal dice rolling I have seen for years, and my new Russian grenadiers bravely marched forward - and legged it - well that's their first battle jitters over (see his blog)!

I took a few photos, but I forgot to switch off the flash, so they were mostly rubbish, below is the only one taken without a flash.


I have just discovered (see comment 13 on previous post) that Martin took a few photos on his phone and put them on his blog:

http://tabletopmog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/old-school-rules.html

Grenadiers on the run.
Grenadiers on the run - pinched from Martin's blog.

The infantry are all the new SYW range, the cavalry and artillery old Karoliners and HE.

I have a game of Maurice with them tomorrow, so must try and take some photos.

Sunday 15 March 2015

More Russians

I've painted up another couple of units to show some more of the range.

Grenadiers in summer uniform


The march attack figures have a separate arm, but assemble and paint up easily. The new grenadier head/helmet is very nice, and is a really valuable addition to the range.

One other thing I would mention, I always file down the bayonets to a triangular section, they look much better.

(And, it is worth rotating the left hands on the officer and NCO, otherwise they look like a Nazi salute).

The flags are from Maverick Models, these are relatively inexpensive, and can be printed to the size you want (within reason).


The bodies in the moulds are for musketeers, and so do not have the cartridge pouch on the waist belt which was characteristic for the grenadiers (or the correct grenade pouch on the shoulder strap), however the difference was not really enough to justify a complete new set of moulds. 


The original plan was to have a separate 'stick on' waist pouch to convert the figure, unfortunately this could not be fitted in, and was thought too delicate for the mould making process, so when the figure is assembled with the grenadier head it is not quite correct. It would still look pretty good, however I chose to make my own pouches out of plasticard (Renedra bases). I made the pouches a bit too big, but they don't look too bad. However when/if PA produce their 'accessories' mould it might be possible to include a strip of pouches?



(Update 29/05/15, the waist pouch will now be included in the moulds, and looks much better than my effort.)


Musketeers in winter uniform


I have no plans to paint up many of this figure, as intend to paint my Russian infantry in summer dress. However as there has been some concern about this new pose I painted up a unit to see what they look like.

I agree there is some scope to improve the pose - but I still think this is a very fine figure,


This pose is more upright than anything in the range, and this presents some problems with the command figures. The officer is the new Russian, he does lean forward to match the rest of the range, but as he is leading from the front rank he looks fine.

There is no new NCO in winter uniform, and the Prussian figure is not right as it has belts over the wrong shoulder, and a bread bag. This is not a big problem as the Russian NCOs were armed with muskets, and dressed identical to the rank and file - other than extra decoration which can be painted on.


The drummer is Prussian, again leaning forward in the front rank, so looks fine.


















I decided not to use the new standard bearer (officer), as I put the standards in the rear rank, and the forward lean did not look right back there. Instead I decided to make an NCO by converting one of the rank and file, a surprisingly simple job by just drilling through the hands, which are both on the body, and cutting the musket off the separate arm - before gluing it on. I know it's not quite right as he has a cartridge box - but he has to carry his vodka somewhere!

As always comments welcome.

Extra photo added to show rear of coat.


Saturday 21 February 2015

Russian Infantry - in summer uniform

Chris has sent me the test moulds for the Russian infantry so I have cast up enough figures for a few 16 man units.

First I decided to paint up a unit of advancing musketeers in summer dress to see how they look. With the red waistcoat and trousers, and no turn backs they are very easy to paint, especially as the red is straight out of a can (Army Painter 'pure red', with any missed bits and tidying up in Vallejo 'vermilion'). They could do with some shading or lining between the waist coat and trousers, but I am trying to resist it!


I have some flags on order from Maverick Models, which should arrive in the next few days - but I could not resist getting the unit finished and on the blog so the flag shown is downloaded from Kronoskaf.


There are 8 figures in the new moulds, and this unit uses 5 of them, so
is a good indication of what is to come. The figures not shown are the two infantry in winter dress and the march attack in summer uniform - and perhaps more importantly the grenadier helmets - I'll have to get something painted.


It's worth noting that the Russians were not the only ones to fight in waistcoats in hot weather, the Saxons and probably French and others did as well, The Saxons would be particularly interesting as there was a lot of variation in waistcoat colours. The figures in summer uniform would probably work well as colonial or miltia units, particularly in 'imagination' armies.

And I've finally got around to doing the second battalion of the Saxon Leibgrenadier Guard, so I took a photo while I had the camera out.





I think this is the end of the new infantry moulds for a while - I am looking forward to seeing how the cavalry work out!

As always keep the comments coming.