Painting Completed

 ....at least the ones I'd made up my mind on what to paint. Here they are:

First the Saxons: 2 bases of grenadiers, 1 of fusiliers and behind them 4 bases of musketeers. 3.5 BMUs. This is enough for the whole Saxon corps at Minden.

Then the Hanoverians: 3 units of infantry and 1 of dragoons. With the existing 2 units of infantry and 3 of cavalry, I probably have enough Hanoverians now for any WAS/SYW battle.

Next the Piedmontese (aka the Sardinians, I think because that was where Charles Emmanuel actually got his crown from, a bit like the Electors of Brandenburg being Kings in Prussia). 2 regiments of Native infantry; 2 Foreign regiments (1 German, Schulenburg, in blue and the Lombardy Regiment - yes, despite being fellow Italians, Lombardy was a foreign state). Finally, at the back 2 Provincial Regiments (kind of reservists I think who served 'for the duration' so not permanent professionals).

Last, but not least, the Spanish.

In the first line 2 native regiments.

In the second line, another native regiment and an Irish regiment (Hibernia).

And in the 3rd, 2 units of Swiss, (Antiguo de Reding and Nuevo de Reding). There was a Swiss unit named Reding in the French service too (present at Hastenbeck and Rossbach) but I don't know if they were related. Surely it's too much of a coincidence that there was more than one Reding family serving different Bourbon monarchies.

Next task is to texture the bases.

Painting Progress

Thanks to the long weekend, and a session last night, I was able to crack on with painting the troops that were in the battalion column post.

From right to left:

3.5 brigades of Saxons

3 infantry and 3 dragoon brigades of Hanoverians

3 brigades of Piedmontese

3 brigades of Spanish

The column 2nd from the left is temporarily looking like Cornishmen with the flag of St Pirran (Trelawney’s Army?). When I finish the flags they will look a bit more like the Piedmontese they’re supposed to be.

Odds and sods without a definite purpose. Most likely some Prussian fusiliers (because of the hats, there’s not much else they could be), Piedmontese grenadiers and ??

A Battalion in line..........and column

In the last post I said I was interested to see what a battalion in line looked like. Well tonight, after watching Bastarden I set out the recently acquired troops in a three rank line.

18 bases each with 30 musketeers (or grenadiers in the case of the bases at the two ends), plus an officer and NCO per two bases, a mounted chef der battailon, 5 company ensigns in the centre, plus corps of drummers (4 in the centre and 2 at each end). I didn't put out enough NCOs and officers - should be roughly double - or drummers. 

A Prussian battalion at full strength in 1756 should have 560 privates, 18 officers, 36 NCOs and 20 musicians. I had 480 privates, s 1/7 down. However, the bases were a bit too wide for 30 men, so the overall frontage (108cm or 42 inches) was about right. There were only about 1/2 the number of grenadiers there should be for a Prussian battalion. On campaign the grenadiers would be detached to form composite grenadier battalions.

The 18 bases would work though as 18 British platoons of the WSS. Ignoring the two grenadier bases, this would also work as 8 Prussian pelotons.

You can't see much can you! To get the whole line in I had to zoom out. For context the table is 8ft by 4 ft. Sorry, I forgot to angle the overhead lights on to the line.

The mounted officer is invisible!

As I said, it's dark and you can't make out much, but at least you get a sense of how wide these formations where. And that is just one battalion. Imagine a brigade of 4-6 of these in line, let alone an army.

Battalion in column of platoons. The intervals allow enough space for the platoons to wheel into line.

In the afternoon we took a trip to Ikea to get the Youngest-of-the-Youngest the stuff she needed for uni. She's going into self-catering accommodation in halls. Whilst there, I splashed out on a new storage container as I'm running a bit low on Ferrero-Rocher boxes, and they stopped selling them in the shape of boxes I use. Should the need arise, these boxes are stackable.

The internal dimensions of most of the compartments are in multiples of 3cm, so good for my bases. The box, at c 5 cm, is very deep for 6mm figures, so I might decant some 10mm figures into it (not that they need higher boxes than I have). But at least that will keep things uniform.

I enjoyed the film by the way. I got annoyed at a couple of silly translations/bad scripting. The hero, Mikkelsen's character, was supposed to have been a captain promoted from the ranks with 25 years service. Now the film was set in Denmark roughly around the time of the SYW, and the hero had served in Mecklenburg. But the translation was given as he had "served in the German army". WTF!! In the offending section I heard them say "Mecklenburg" in so why they translated it as "German" God only knows. And later on they referred in a couple of scenes to people "serving in THE army" - to a bunch of German settlers. WHICH army? Oh, and the German settlers looked a bit well fed. Having said that, these were minor irritants and I would recommend the film (if you don't mind misery!).

Oh, nearly forgot. The title in English may have lost something in translation too. "Bastarden" became "The Promised Land".

A Battalion Masse

Want to see what 715 18th century soldiers looks like together? See below.

Flash trimmed, undercoated and ready to paint.

How they came.

What 2 packs of musketeers looks like. Each has 45 musketeers, plus 10 in the command stands. 1 pack makes up 1 unit of 2 bases (a brigade) in TOSK.

My order from H&R arrived today. 10 packs of Austrian musketeers, 1 Austrian grenadiers, 1 of Prussian grenadiers, 1 Prussian fusiliers, 1 Austrian cuirassiers (21 per pack), 1 Austrian dragoons, and 1 Austrian artillery.

The fusiliers are destined to become Saxon Rochow Fusiliers*, as well as Prussians. A base each (1/2 a unit). The musketeers will be a mixture of Hanoverian, Spanish (or maybe Bourbon Italian states?), Piedmontese and maybe something else. I haven't worked out yet. The cavalry will be either Spanish or Piedmontese. Finally, there's a pack of (6) guns and crew, yet to be prepared, which will be Anglo-German.

* Note, my first foray into the other north-east German Protestant electorate.

Dettingen Take III - Finale!

Late into the evening I got just under 2 more hours of play and completed the game. Just before Turn 30! As ever, the pictures and captions tell the tale. Will King George and his Austrian principals* make it through the encircling French? Find out below!

* Technically the British were auxiliaries of the Austrians in their defence of the Empire, against the Bavarian usurpers and their French auxiliaries.

On turn 13 the allies have almost blasted a way through the French infantry. I'd forgotten to give the British their superior musketry advantage in previous rounds, but boy did they let rip after I remembered. Fresh British dragoons (as ever with the 2nd Royal North British/Scots Greys) have charged into the Maison (already 1 hit out of 3 down).

Remarkably the Maison break taking Grammont's wing down to half strength, whereupon they fail the wing morale test. Grammont has gone, in only two more turns!

George and Arenberg, oh so slowly, get their forces across the streams. Some units failed their tests to cross the streams, and the cautious allies don't want to go forward with disorganised masses. French reinforcements are coming in the distance. Half of them have already crossed the bridges downstream of Dettingen.
In TOTSK there are no movement penalties for crossing streams, but you can get held up of you fail the action test to cross.

By turn 19 the combatants have entered a confused brawl. Charge is followed by counter-charge. An Austrian brigade has appeared out of Dettingen on the flank of a French unit of horse and has inflicted a hit on them by shooting.

Same turn but with the focus pulled out to take in the whole wing. The French are easily outnumbered. They only have half of the reinforcements on this side of the river at this point (4 out of 7 brigades, with only one cavalry unit). The other 3 (2 horse and 1 large dragoon brigade) are held up at the bridges in a traffic jam with fleeing troops from Grammont's wing and various baggage wagons belonging to the French senior officers. [This was the rationale I gave for the 3 turns in which the French columns failed action tests to change direction and cross the bridges].

The gap where the French horse were! The British brigade of dragoons that had routed the Maison du Roi, also finished off the brigade of line cavalry!

A few turns later the allies are still battering away at the French reinforcements. There is very little room to manoeuvre in the narrow gap between the river and the woods. But the French have lost a brigade of infantry - also finished off by the same British dragoon brigade! In true British cavalry style they have gone charging in to the next unit. A couple of turns previously the French wing commander was lost (with the cavalry brigade) and his replacement came on a turn later.

Again, the camera pulls back to reveal the wider picture

Same turn but a close up.

Soon after and the British dragoons are about to be charged by the late arriving French cavalry. Have they met their match?
King George can only lose two more units before a wing morale test is necessary (as can his opponent).

The answer is.....yes! The British dragoons have finally met their match. But the Foot Guards Brigade (6 battalions of British and Hanoverians) revenge their mounted brethren and push the French cavalry back to their rear. George can only afford one more loss, but so can his opponent. That massive column of Anglo-Hanoverian-Austrian infantry on the left is facing a lone French brigade supported by dragoons. [Turn 29]

That French foot unit routs and the rest of the wing follows (the French rolled a 1). 2 formations out of 3 down, the French are defeated.
Huzzah! The road to Frankfurt is open!

Well that was a case of quick, slow, slow! Never mind quick, quick, slow. Grammont disappeared quite quickly after the re-start, but it took a long time to finish off the reinforcements, due to the cramped terrain. There was some fairly inconclusive action at the far end of the table. This didn't really affect the outcome, but Cumberland held up the other French wing. 

The butcher's bill was wildly unbalanced. The allies only lost 2 brigades to 9 French (not including the balance of the wings that routed).  About 4 more allied brigades were on the brink of routing, but these were from 3 separate commands. With a swing of luck, like avoiding the hold up at the bridges, the French might have finished off the King's wing, before losing their second.

The tweaks I made to the scenario worked well. They definitely gave the allies more of a chance. Something a bit more like the historical outcome.

***************

A little birdie tells me that the troop augmentation I'd ordered a few days ago will be with me in a few days. 16 packs to come from Heroics & Ros. Great service!

Dettingen - Take III

Having set-up the table yesterday evening, I got the third go at Dettingen underway. This time with some changes, to see if I can rebalance things so history has a chance of repeating itself. In previous goes at the battle , I'd allowed the French on the left bank of the Main to start moving as soon as the various formations passed an action test. This time I restricted that until Noailles, in overall command of the French got word that Grammont was engaged in battle, and then the normal action tests could take place. I reasoned that in the real battle, nothing much seemed to happen in terms of supplying re-enforcements to Grammont. The new scenario rule was that only when Noailles heard heavy fire coming from Grammont could things possibly start to move over at French HQ. Once that happened I would test to see if Noailles reacted. With cavalry clashes nothing could be heard. With musketry Noailles would need a 5 or 6 on a D6. With artillery, the required score was 4,5, or 6. With each successive turn after that first test, the odds improved on Noailles reacting. And only then, could formations begin to take action tests.

I got through eleven turns before I stopped for the night. About 1 1/2 hour's play. Here is the action up until that point.

4 Turns in and the Pragmatic Army is wheeling into battle line from the route along the Main. Grammont is beginning to cross the first stream.  Apart from, the tramp of feet, and rat-a-tat-tats of the drums, and harassing fire from the French batteries on the left bank*, all is quiet.
* Jean-Paul Sartre's ancestor must be there arguing with Voltaire that to be is to do.

At the same time the baggage train is coming under fire, and the infantry at the rear are having some trouble understanding the order to swing off from the river, and head to the right. So they just stand there trying to figure out what that 'crazy German' (to the British)/'coffee swilling Austrian' (to the Hanoverians) is trying to tell them.

A short time later, Hanoverian dragoons catch some French hussars. The French fail to evade, and then bear the brunt of the heavies charge, and rout never to be seen again, until they are discovered 36 hours later plundering the peasants outside Frankfurt.

Another view of the same action. Hanoverian infantry are marching up behind their dragoons.

After turn 6, the infantry from the rear has got the message then head up to the right at breakneck pace.

The Hanoverian dragoons try to forestall Grammont's main body between the streams whilst the Hanoverian, Austrian and British infantry form up.

There are some missing pictures from before this. I had 'cinematic' mode on my phone camera, and that takes videos. Rather good quality, but videos are not accepted by Blogger!
What happened in the interim was that the Hanoverian dragoons charged a brigade of French infantry, inflicted some losses on them, but were then charged in turn by the Maison du Roi. The dragoons were pushed back, and with no immediate supports, they ran through the infantry lines following up. No further damage, but they were left facing the wrong way and out of action the next turn.

The brave messieurs who withstood the dragoons, and the even braver Mousquetaires etc. who chased the dragoons off.

Wider view of the scene after the repulse of the Hanoverian dragoons (left). Grammont to the right.

The baggage train gets lagered up. I must do something about those wheels on the coach.

Infantry clash in the centre! The Gardes Françaises have charged into close combat with the Hanoverians, who take a hit as a result. Beyond them, a brigade of Austrians having taken hits from the French guns, also charge in with the bayonet. The artillery pass the morale test so the gunners are able to retire behind friendly infantry within a base width. Said friendly infantry advance through the guns and charge the Austrians. The Austrians coolly  retire unperturbed (they passed their morale test so are free to retire 1/4 base width.

The situation in Grammont's sector after 10 turns. Off in the background (and off picture) the various French formations beyond the Main are beginning to form up and march to the bridges. Some are already across on turn 11.

In turn 11 the Maison have been charged by British dragoons, including the Scots Greys (no special bonuses for them, other than looking dashing on their white horses and sporting impractical looking mitres). Both rounds of melee are inconclusive. The infantry actions in the background are also fairly stalemated, with the allies having replaced the front line units with fresh troops

View from beyond the Main near Aschaffenburg.

Where I left it after turn 11. The wagenburg centre right, the main action beyond that, and beyond the Main, Noailles has got the other columns moving, and one is already crossing the river (top left). I must do something about the background. Maybe I should get a background picture.

Another angle on the fighting.

And there I leave it until Wednesday evening.