Worth a look

This staggering outdoor wargame conducted over 50 years ago is well worth a look. Quite staggering in scale. Over 14,000 Airfix figures. 15 metres by 10 metres. 

Kudos to Mr Graham Morris and friends.

https://battlefieldanomalies.com/wargames/

Idle hands

The Devil makes work for them as you know. Having finished my SYW odds n sods (see Devils in Skirts) and having finished the Duffy Festschrift book* kindly leant to me by the Ragged Soldier, I’m at a bit of a loose end. Until the arrival of the Great French Re-enforcement and His Britannic Majesty’s Army that is. Which hopefully will be with me by the weekend!

I’m raring to go. If they do arrive, Saturday afternoon will be spent file in hand, smoothing off the bases, whilst listening to the Mariners strut their stuff in Salford**. All being well they should all be undercoated on Sunday and maybe even a start made on painting. I’ll probably prioritise the redcoats, and the more interesting French units like the horse grenadiers in bearskin caps.

Stupidly, I didn’t think to crack on with repainting any of the spare mounted officers as Anglo-Hanoverian staff. Or trying to do any of the French flags on the last batch. Still, there’s always Thursday and Friday evenings. 

* Very interesting book by the way. If you’re into this period.

** With an away form much better than home form so far, I wouldn’t…....tempt fate.

By the way, I’ve been listening to the series on Portugal on the Rest is History podcast. I knew next to nothing about the country. Amongst other things it answered the big question (why out of all the Iberian medieval kingdoms is Portugal now independent). A very good way of getting a quick overview. Don’t expect it to go into any detail on the Battle of Bussaco though.

Adeus!

Update

Looks like the Devil has got the better of me, in the form of the Communication Workers Union, as a postal workers' strike has delayed my delivery. Ah well, I don't begrudge them in the circumstances. I've used the time to convert some Austrian and Prussian mounted officers to Anglo-Hanoverian/Hessian staff. This involved prising them off their penny bases, and rebasing them on square MDF bases. Might complete the base texturing later. There appears to be no clear uniform for British general officers, with the assumption on Kronoskaf being that they wore the uniform of the regiment's that they were colonel-proprietors of.

I reckon the chap in the middle throwing his hat in the air is the Marquis of Granby, though someone will probably point out he wore a blue coat. Behind him in his cloak is Dick Turpin/Adam Ant.

The Devils in Skirts!

Off the painting desk, but not quite finished in terms of basing, come 7 bases of mid-18th century soldiers.

Murray's or the 42nd Foot ('the Black Watch'), aka the 3rd Foot & Mouth ('the Devils in Skirts'). I couldn't manage the tartan so have left them with blue/green kilts. I foolishly chose to do the Regimental colour because it has a nice buff field. It was foolish because I then had to try to paint the Union Flag in the canton. Irregular Miniatures figures.

The Bosniaken (Prussia's 'Bosnian Lancers'). Heroics and Ros has decided to portray them in the  same uniform as Minifigs did, which I think may be from the post-SYW period.

Irregular Miniatures horse grenadiers painted up (roughly) as 1st Troop, Horse Grenadier Guards. I haven't done the 'twiddly bits' on the standard yet. 

British 15th Light Dragoons. Again, standard is sans twiddly bits. Also Irregular Miniatures.

Dismounted French dragoons in forage caps. Again, these are Irregular Miniatures.

I'll finish the bases later today. Can't wait for the H&R order to arrive so I can really beef up les Anglais.

The British are coming!

I'll be making a start over the next couple of days on the British for the WAS/SYW. I have a couple of very small orders from irregular Miniatures that arrived*. Together these include:

• Horse grenadiers in mitres - will be British (2nd Royal North British Dragoons?)
• Light dragoons in those little crested helmets** (15th or maybe 15th LD?)
• Highlanders (Black Watch?)
• Dismounted dragoons with some horse holders (French - they seemed to be mostly dismounted in the battles I've looked at)

Plus I've got a pack of Bosniak Lancers for the Prussians. They didn't see much action in the big battles, but, hey, you've got to have them because they're exotic right. 

There's only enough for a base of each, except for two for the French dragoons and Bosniaken, but there weren't many of each type in any case. I'll see how they paint up though. Who knows, I may expand on their numbers regardless.

* Excellent service from Irregular. Unfortunately I prefer the more individually moulded offering from H&R, so I tend to use IM for troop types H&R don't do.

** These

The main augmentation is awaiting production at Heroics and Ros. I ordered enough infantry and cavalry to bring the French up to muster for Minden/Fontenoy/Hastenbeck and British/Hanoverians for the same battles. I'm playing a bit fast and loose with the British and Hanoverians. I've bought enough overall (25-30 Infantry battalions for each battle), but it's a different split for each battle. Fontenoy is mostly British, whilst the SYW battles is majority Hanoverian. As they're all in red there will be a certain amount of 'proxying' going on. Even then, when I totted up what I would need including all the other British allies (Hessians, Dutch etc) I came to a number that was too high in GBP for my liking right now. So I decided to use Austrians for Dutch at Fontenoy, and Prussians for Hessians/Brunswickers and Anglo-German artillery. Also on the French side, I'll have Prussians standing in for Palatine infantry at Hastenbeck, and Austrians for the Saxons at Minden. Alles klar?

It's probably best I indulge in this proxying for a while as I'm rapidly running out of spare Ferrero Rocher boxes, and they've doubled in price since the first ones I bought. 30% recently alone, thus proving that even high-ranking diplomats are facing the Cost of Living Crisis (formerly known as 'Inflation').

Friday Reflection Corner

It's odd how I've gone from not being able to resist buying books on the English Civil War and wanting to get more troops from that nice Mr Pendraken, and being a bit jaded with the SYW, to almost a complete reversal. Maybe the pendulum will swing back again. 

When the big new order is painted up I'll have substantial armies for the 5 major powers in the SYW, but will I stop there? There's a good chance not. Maybe the Dutch and Saxons will make a proper appearance. Or maybe the Reichs troops and Hessians. Also, as I mentioned before, I have an itch do the Italian theatre in the WAS. More whitecoats granted (on both sides!) but I've just 'got' to have some Spanish and Piedmontese. 🙄

Twilight of the Soldier Kings - Videos

I posted this link early last year when the Twilight of the Soldier Kings Rules were first flagged up to me. I've just re-watched them because I wanted to check I was doing things properly. The answer was 'yes, when I remembered everything'.

But I post the link again because I think it is well worth watching this set of videos (about 5 mins each) which take you through a sample game, turn-by-turn. They really are a splendid set of rules. If you want to  play games where you are Frederick, Ferdinand of even Charles of Lorraine (!) in charge of an army, then this ruleset is ideal in my opinion. After several games with them (without tweaking a thing!), I concluded that they are what I have been looking for for 30-odd years.

Hope that you give them a try:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKL0f6EVP_g&list=PLyeJr0AbkfGWGpPJBBLWRdO3E1MEOHs6_&index=1

PS I have no links with Nick who produced the rules or with the Wyre Forest war-games group. Just someone who really appreciates what he's created.

Best of 3 - Rossbach final

I ran the scenario again, for one last time, and I can tell you it was a close run thing at the end. It could have gone either way on the last turn.

The Prussians took a shorter route to cut across the allies line of march. Again they used their hussars effectively, slowing down the allies' pace. In TOTSK if you are more than 6 base widths from the enemy you can use a 'strategic march' rate. By shadowing the allied columns within 6 base widths but far enough away to escape, the Prussian hussars negated this, allowing the rest of the Prussian army time to 'cross the T'.

The French also begin to turn across the field in an attempt to win space to deploy.

Prussians turning across the allied line of march. Prussian hussars  in the centre near the Imperial cavalry.

Seydlitz's men, with proper reserves, bear down on the Austrian cuirassiers.

Wider view of the previous picture. Prussians to the right, from the white building to the bottom left.  In the centre left the French and Imperial infantry have begun to wheel their columns across the field so they can deploy into line*.

* Another good feature of TOSK is that most armies have to deploy from column into line by a 'parallel march'. I.E. they approach from either wing at right angles to their intended line of battle. Then they have to wheel until they reach the point where they want to turn into line. Time consuming and it needs a lot of space! The Prussians in the SYW have what is termed 'Improved Mobility' in TOSK, which means that they can deploy direct from column with their constituent units deploying to the left and/or right of the front unit (the 'deployiren'). Much faster! Improved Mobility brings some other benefits in terms of making manoeuvres easier. Along with the Rapid Fire feature referred to in a previous post, the Prussians clearly have some advantages but are not necessarily a higher morale class. In my opinion this makes the rules a better representation of Frederician warfare than any others I've seen.

Having seen off the Austro-Imperial cavalry and some of the French, the large Prussian cuirassier brigade (3 base unit in centre) head off to cross swords with French cavalry coming up from their left. In amongst the general carnage, the Imperialists lost their fifth base and the remaining troops left the field leaving the French to their own devices! Curs!

But the large Prussian unit are repulsed! You can see them recovering behind the infantry, right. Bottom left: the dragoons have crashed into a unit of Swiss. As before, the men from the Alpine cantons perform well, eventually driving off the Prussian dragoons with disciplined volleys, even if neither side suffers many casualties.

Like a red brick wall! Focus on the Swiss.

Meanwhile the Prussian guard cuirassiers (Garde du Corps and Gensdarmes) and the Regiment Garde and Grenadier Garde battalion have caught a French foot brigade in a pincer and wipe them out. 

At this point in the game, whilst the Prussians had routed many more French units than they had lost (something like 7 or 8 to 1, a lot of Prussians were close to exhaustion. Then a sudden surge of volleys from the French swept away many of Frederick's blue coats. 3 Prussian units disappeared, and some more French. Amongst the French losses were the slaw art Swiss who had beaten off the dragoons - Prussian Rapid Fire put paid to their resistance.

Turn 25 ended 4:9 in terms of units. Victory would be at 5 Prussian losses or 10 French remember. Who would get the last one?

The Prussian guard foot attack the French artillery that has been making a nuisance of itself. and another brigade of Swiss that had been sheltering in Obschütz storm out to assault the Prussian heavy guns. 

Alas for the French, their gunners flee the field and the Prussians notch up the final unit to finish 4:10. By the game clock it is gone 5 and rapidly getting dark. The Prussians have the clear advantage in cavalry, but it is largely spent. Only the dragoons are relatively unscathed. There won't be a pursuit á l'outrance.

Positions at the end. Prussians to the right of the red line.

Top down view of the final positions.

Up by Rossbach, a French infantry unit has manfully resisted being assaulted in front and flank. Another heroic performance.

The reckoning. Imperialists top left, French bottom left, Prussians top right.

So 3 games with the final score at 1 to the Franco-Imperial armies and 2 to the Prussians. I've enjoyed the challenge of coming up with the scenario and, I think, got something which is reasonably robust and competitive. I hope others will pick up the baton!

What's next? Well, I mentioned before about future phases of my expansion into the French side of the wars of the mid-18th century. I will be working out my order for more French and the Pragmatic Army /His Britannic Majesty's Army. Fontenoy and Minden were clearly in my sights, but I've been reading up on Hastenbeck. However, re-reading the books on the Rossbach-Leuthen campaigns has brought Breslau to my attention. A bit one-sided, but I get the sense there are more of you looking for Austrian victories than Prussian ones!