Fighting On All (probably too many?) Fronts..

I've had a little more time for hobby stuff this week, and nibbled away at a few different tasks - though I suspect I am trying to progress, or think about, at least one too many projects! 

Unsurprisingly the vintage Minifigs Seven Years' War/AWI  'great rebasing' continues; Regiment of the Week this week is the French Infantrie Bourbonnais.  They started on slightly scruffy plain cardboard bases, and with no standard: 

  (the regiment was ID'd simply enough - 'Bourbonnais' written underneath the command base).

Looking at the figures, another slight wrinkle is that in common with some other 'French' figures in this collection,  they are actually from the Minifigs Austrian Seven Years War range :

Musketeer figure: code ASW 5  

We'll call that 'wargamer's license'..  They had the usual soaking in water to remove the old base, then new MDF bases - and a flag, simply done with plain paper and acrylic paints, on a plastic broom-bristle flagpole - it's all good...  

..or so I thought.  On proudly showing them off, I've been told 'that flag is upside down!'. Hmmm.. I had found the colours on Kronoskaf Seven Years War, of course, and here they are : 

Copyright: Kronoskaf 

 

Now I was assuming that the pole would be to  the left of the picture, was I wrong? hmm.. Of course, you can search the World Wide Web for 'Regiment Bourbonnais', and get this  (from  a website called Expedition Particuliere ) 

 which looks to agree with me... and then again, also this (from the regiment itself - or at least, a re-enactment group recreating it!) which begs to differ.. 

 

Now I will admit, the latter pattern seems to be more common on t'internet, so maybe I need to re-do that flag.. Comments welcome - is Kronoskaf wrong, or did I interpret it wrongly?   After the mystery of the Volontaires Etrangers last week, I had thought this next unit was straightforward - yet again it  goes to show the interest and challenges involved in recruiting our miniature armies!

*** UPDATE : I looked around in the boxes containing the vintage Minifigs collection - and I found this : 

 This looks to be the original flag that my Bourbonnais chaps carried, which must have snapped off the  ensign figure at some point, and sadly also broke into two pieces. As you can see, it does not agree with the Kronoskaf version which I used for my source. And so, I think I need to honour the original intention of the person who painted the unit, and I will change my flag to match this.  Many thanks to all who have left comments about this ( Neil invoked the great god Funcken, and Jon found he had  sources on his bookshelf  which disagreed with each other - interesting!), I'm glad it stirred up some interest, all part of the fun! 

I had found that recently the Minifigs rebasing project had elbowed everything else aside, so I am determined to get back to other projects which may be feeling neglected.  I have picked up the 1859 Risorgimento in 6mm project, and have  some works in progress  - first off, four bases (two units) of Jagers and one battery of artillery for the Austrians, to join their 2nd Division. They just need some flags, and colour applied to the bases:

 

and then the little matter of an entire Brigade, of 6 battalions of Line Infantry, to complete a Piedmontese division. Here are the six battalions, one (24 figures) per coffee-stirrer stick, awaiting priming :

 

Actually there are seven battalions to do, as the previous brigade is missing one. Even in 6mm scale, I admit that the prospect of painting 168 figures is fairly daunting!  Let 'little and often' be my motto, I think. 

Now for a recent purchase, which I am pleased with: 

  A nice big 6ft x 4ft Battle Mat from Geek Villain, their 'Sicily' mat, which I hope will be useful for my 'D-Day Dodgers' WW2 Italian Campaign project.  Here's the mat (still folded in half, so 3x2 ), please excuse the fold lines, it's been quite tightly wrapped in a parcel!  I thnk it looks pretty decent, and it is good-quality cloth.  Service was good and delivery prompt. too. 

 

I thought this would  be ideal for Ancients in the Mediterranean region too. I've been reading my copy of Art De Le Guerre rules, and had a look to see if my DBA Macedonian and Achaemenid Persian armies could be used for ADLG.   I looked at the ADLG chapter on army lists to pick out the ('MVP'?) minimum-sized armies suggested for the rules, and found that I do pretty much have sufficient troops. First here is  Alexander's 'pocket army', parading on the new mat: 

The force consists of a couple of units of the famous Macedonian pike phalanx, two units of Companion cavalry  ( actually one of them was painted at Thessalians, but never mind that ), one unit of 'Hypaspists' in the style  of Peltasts, and a couple of units of psiloi (treated as all javelin men). The bases are not quite a match for the suggested ADLG sizes, but are at least all the correct width at 60mm.  The pikes could do with another base (4 figures ) each unit, but that should be simple enough to add. I'm thinking I should also be adding a bit of variety to the bases too, to match the cloth. 

 ..and then, their Persian enemies: 

 

These have (to the right) three units of Medium Cavalry and one of Heavy Cavalry, a couple of units of Light Cavalry skirmishers (left), and an interesting 'mixed' unit of Heavy 'Guard' Infantry - For these I used Kardakes spearmen as the front rank, and mail-clad archers as the rear rank. From the army list, there really should be another unit of Heavy Cavalry of the Guard, but for now this looks a fairly formidable force.

Once I've got through the rules, these two little armies will clash in a trial battle, which I will report here, of course! More about those rules later, but I am fairly happy with them, on a first reading..

 

That just about wraps up my recent progress; I will probably have less hobby time in the next week, but hope to resume normal service after that.  Meanwhile I will keep reading and being inspired by all the other excellent blogs  on 'my blog list' here. Until the next time keep well, everyone.

The Art of Coarse Painting (6mm Style), and looking forward to 'Cavalier'

After all the excitement of storage boxes last time  ( something of an unexpected 'hit', going by the response in comments ), it's been a quiet couple of weeks hobby-wise, not helped by several  'real life' issues - for example door-locks have had it in for me, on both house and car. Oh well, must have rolled low for initiative that week.. 

So, limited time available, but some progress on painting 6mm MDF figures for the 1859 Risorgimento project : ten battalions ( 240 figures ) of Austrian Line infantry all painted and stuck to bases. 

 As you can see, they need flags adding and bases painting and flocking, but essentially they are done, and regiments IR11, IR17 and IR39 should soon be ready for service. A couple of Feldjager units and some artillery will complete the 2nd Austrian division - then on to the French and Peidmontese. 

A bit more of a close up so you can see my rather minimal/sloppy painting style and the semi-flat, stylised look of the Commission Miniatures MDF chaps: 

Looks like a few of the skirmishers have gone a bit skew-whiff before the glue set, they may need re-fixing to straighten up the skirmish line, or the sergeants will be getting annoyed ( 'du schrecklicher kleiner Mann..'  says  google translate ). 

One more picture to let even more light in on the 'magic'; I thought I'd try for a really close-up look with my phone camera - which had interesting results.  Some of you are may  be horrified by this! 

 The lighting is pretty harsh, and the close-up shows not only my very basic 'blob'  painting but also the slightly  textured look of the MDF! Hopefully you can see some of the etched detail of cross-belts etc; I may need a finer brush for hands next time.  The main thing to bear in mind, however, is that the picture above on a laptop/PC screen probably shows the figures at about twice their actual size - in real life, no-one will EVER  see them this close without a magnifying glass, and that would be very bad form at the gaming table, and may provoke a slapped wrist.. The pictures of them on their bases are much more like a table-top view, and I think they are fine.  Equally, I think you can see that a really careful, patient painter could probably put a surprising amount of detail on these - just not me, or not yet, at least.  

So that's about it for a progress update, but there is something to look forward to - this Sunday I hope to get to Tonbridge, Kent for the 'Cavalier 2026' show organised by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society. The show's website lists 18 games and an impressive 28 traders, and I've enjoyed visiting this show in the past couple of years, so here's hoping for another good one. There is  a  slight tinge of sadness attending this, as TWWS founder and all-round hobby hero - see the title of this blog - George Gush  passed away last summer. I never met him, but have always treasured his Renaissance Armies book (which I chose as a 'Fourth Form Prize' at school in about 1978!)  and his Airfix Guide to the ECW, among many other inspiring books and articles.  Who could forget his WRG 1420-1700 rules, certainly my first 'Pike and Shot' set: 

thanks George,  and R.I.P. 

  

And finally, a little humour suitable for wargamers  - saw this on Instagtam the other day:

Clearly a master strategist of the future.. 

 [ Credited to one 'Scott Alexander' but shared on another account, so I can't tell you any more about the author or point to any more of his humour, sorry ]

That's all for now, but I hope to bring a few pictures of the Cavalier show in my next post, sometime next week.  Until then, from wet and windy England,  keep well, everyone.    

    

Fnurban #40 : Boxing Clever

I should give fair warning, this post is about storage boxes. I don't want any of my readers to risk  triggering  any adverse physical or mental health reactions due to becoming over-excited; so please, look away now if you are at risk..

I've been looking at storage options for the various collections of toy soldiers that I have accumulated, with the aim of standardising a bit and organising properly. As seen in my last post, the 25mm Seven Years War / AWI forces seem to suit A4 box files, which are widely available and cheap; the next challenge is the currently expanding collection of  6mm figures for the Italy 1859 Risorgimento  project. For obvious reasons, these can fit in smaller, and especially shallower, boxes. I've been looking around various outlets including supermarkets, DIY stores and 'Pound Shop' discount stores, and this week I struck lucky, I think. 

don't get too excited..

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the 'Crofton' stackable food storage range from Aldi supermarkets, here in the UK.  Aldi are a German 'discounter' supermarket chain with a special feature being the 'middle aisle' which has an ever-changing seleciton of homeware, clothing, DIY kit etc, which currently includes these boxes. There's actually a range of sizes, and this is the 'large', measuring  27.4 x 20 x 4.7cm   ( about 10.5 x 8 x 2 inches ).  Decent sturdy plastic, secure 'tupperware' style lid.  It looks just right for the 6mm chaps, and I  reckon I can get about a Division's worth of troops in each box. Here's an example, the temporary cardboard storage  'sabots' (actually just blu-tacked )  for two Austrian brigades fitting nicely in there, with a bit left for some artillery and/or  cavalry if needed

1859 Austrians : one complete brigade and one partly-finished

 

I will have four Divisions to accomodate (two Austrian, one Piedmontese, one French) so I ended up buying 6 boxes, allowing for 'extras' and expansion. Price  £2.99 per box which  seemed quite reasonable. Of course the collection may expand, and who knows whether these appear on that middle aisle ever again, but fingers crossed!  I should add that there is also a version of this size box with one internal partition, which might be worth thinking about if you're interested - but as I said above, I wouldn't want anyone to get over-stimulated by this, so please do just take care.

Having been looking around for suitable boxes, I also couldn't quite resist an impulse buy at our local B&M  (which somewhat confusingly has replaced a branch of B&Q) - they had a multi-pack of three Really Useful boxes 1.75 litre size ) at a good price (£8 for 3 boxes)   

Really Useful indeed..

 Really Useful seem to be the Rolls-Royce of storage boxes and priced accordingly, so bargain offers are good to find! I think these may be good for some of  the 20mm. WW2 D-Day Dodgers - I have found that their 2.5 litre box will hold a Rapid Fire battalion of infantry, and these will be handy for brigade HQs, artillery units etc I am sure.

I hope that's been interesting, and not too emotional for everyone - I just wanted to highlight these current offers, so if you are in the UK and these look useful, you may need to get down to your local Aldi ASAP..

In the meantime I have managed to put in a few more painting sessions on the 1859 Austrians - about 240 shakos, muskets and backpacks have been completed.  

from the front.. 

  

..and the back 

Each coffee-stirrer stick in these pictures holds a 24-figure battalion. The Commission Figurines figures pretty much oblige you to 'keep it simple' - there are features like cross-belts etched into the MDF, and moulded canteens and back-packs etc,  but that's about it detail-wise. The figures are in 'At Attention' with musket grounded and not projecting above the torso, so  I 'drew in' the muskets using a fine-line artists sepia pen - you'll have to look very hard for that!  Now just blanket rolls to paint in (optional, still considering it), flesh for faces and hands, and brass/gold splodge for a badge on shako front, and they'll be done - 'simples!'

Now after that thrill-ride of a post, I think I may need a lie down in a darkened room.. I hope this has been of some interest, at least, if you are looking for similar storage items. I'll try to do something slightly more interesting in my next post - may have even finished those Austrians!   Until then, keep well, everyone. 

'Not a Child in the House Washed..' A January Miscellany

Late January already? And not a child in the house washed, as an old friend from Roscommon would say.. Where did January go?  ( I suspect I may have said 'where did December go? in a post last month, too - let's not make a habit of this! ).  There's been quite a lot of  real life, and not a lot of hobby activity since Xmas - 'time and space, dear boy'.  But there's always something to think about and get on with, or think about getting on with,  and no harm in discussing some of that here. 

This raises an interesting question - does this blog simply report hobby progress, or does it drive hobby activity?  Which is a subject I spent some time thinking about, having taken part in a really interesting discussion on Jon Freitag's  Palouse Wargaming Journal  about blogging and commenting, which in turn had been triggered by a thought-provoking post on Norm Smith's Commanders blog ( 'Thinking aloud and a reduction in output', 14th Jan ). I thoroughly recommend all hobby bloggers or potential hobby bloggers to have a look at those posts - I suspect many readers of this blog will have already done so!   I think this current blog post is a case in point; I admit I am blatantly using the 'need' to put something on the blog as a spur to get on with some actual hobby activity, as well as simply showing the wargaming world that I'm still here..  

There has been a (very) little progress. I have finally picked up my paintbrushes again, and made a start on the next batch of 6mm 'Risorgimento'  figures for Italy, 1859 : working on the Austrian Line Infantry of their 2nd Division (2 brigades) and the remainder of  2nd Brigade of 1st Division.  That's a  total of 10 battalions, 240 figures - turns out I can splosh pale blue paint onto trousers, and white onto jackets,  at a rate of about 90 mins each colour for all 240! Next session, black paint  for the shakos. Here's a 'work in progress' picture 

 I think this gives a good idea of the simplicity of the Commission Figurines MDF figures, which suits me very well - there are simply no buttons to try to paint, let alone count, so these chaps will get a very simple jacket/trousers/shako/backpack/musket/flesh paint job, which will do just fine on the gaming table. Bases and flags tend to play a large part at this scale, too. 

At a larger scale, there are of course my vintage 25mm Minifugs  Seven Years War / AWI collection, acquired in the summer, which I've been trying to simply sort out and put in decent boxes. That's going fairly well, we are up to six A4 box files in some sort of logical order : 

 Here are some examples: 

9 units of French 7YW infantry

 

United States, Native Americans and a few British for AWI

 

Russian contingent

 

and Prussians..

 I've also acquired some A4 Magentic Paper and Ferro Sheets, which should allow me to store them more securely in the boxes.  Thinking around this, I suppose I am eventually going to have to go for a wholesale re-basing exercise on these. I had hoped to keep the vintage bases, but some of them are rather heavily and unsubly textured, some are on non-magnetic aluminium bases, and several different base sizes are in evidence. I think that coming up with a simple, standard-sized, plain old-school basing system, and applying it to all the models, should go a long way to improving the overall look of the collection. But of course, that's going to be a large job! 

Aside from 'physical' stuff like painting and sorting figures, there is the 'mental' stuff  - which recently has been  largely confined to reading.  I am a bit of a magazines obsessive ( just as print magazines are probably withering on the vine, of course! ), there's always a pile to be worked through. I must put in a plug for a couple of recent ones: 

 

For anyone interested in 19th Century European military history, you really should be getting The Foreign Correspondent from The Continental Wars Society. Four issues per year, just 20 pages but it's all good stuff, and a subscription is £10 per year  ( only £6 for PDF version ) - a bargain! This current issue includes articles on : 

•     Lieutenant Colenol Litzelhofen and the Battle of Solferino
•     The Cyclist Service in the French Army, c. 1900
•     The Bavarian 'Feldl' machine gun, 1870 
•     The Battle of Le Bourget, 1870 (which will be the society's game at 'Salute' in April) 
•     Polish Scythe Men, 1830
•     The Army of Liechtenstein in the 19th Century 
•     The Russian capture of Khiva, 1873 
•     Illustrations of Belgian uniforms, 1830/31 

Mostly short pieces, but all interesting stuff! 

I do rather like the 'think-piece' columns in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy magazine -  in the recent  issue no. 138,  Richard Clarke of TooFatLardies fame discussed Wargames Shows and how they might move forward, and  Ilan Mitchell-Smith ( is this really the actor from 1983 movie Wierd Science? ) discussed Arthurian wargaming in 'Taking Arthur Literally' - his idea being not to try to game 5th-Century Romano-British conflicts, but to game the later medieval literary versions - 'we can wargame not who Arthur was, but who the late-medieval audience of Arthur imagined him to be'.  I'm not about to start buying models of 13th-Century knights, but it's an interesting thought. 

There's also  another  good article using literature to inspire gaming - 'Going Solo Over Chalkis' by Mark Backhouse takes episodes from Roald Dahl's wartime memoir Going Solo, about his experience flying Hurricanes in Greece, 1941, and makes them into game scenarios. Of course there are many memoirs by fighter pilots, and thus there must be many possible game scenarios waiting to be created.. 

Easily the best 'opinion piece' I've seen recently was in WSS Issue 137 ( 'Rearguard Actions and Fighting Retreats' theme ),  this was by Keith Flint and entitled 'Let's Escape'.  Keith starts with the oft-quoted idea that  a hobby such as wargaming is an 'escape' from your real life, and expands into the nature of hobbies and their benefits, and some possible drawbacks. He covers a lot of ground in two pages - one line that stuck in my mind being 'What's so terrible about your life that you need to escape from it?'.   This very much  ties into the discussion that Norm and Jon started, too - so thanks to Keith, too, for a really stimulating piece. This picture probably won't let you read the article - maybe go and buy the magazine!  

 

And then by pure coincidence, just as I was thinking about his article, yesterday in an Oxfam Bookshop I found Keith Flint's book 'Airborne Armour' -  so buying it seemed a no-brainer!  Not quite my specialist area, but I'm sure it will be interesting - perhaps a fictional airborne armoured landing in Italy may follow someday? 

 And finally, another 'ooh shiny' piece of shopping - sometimes just buying something will scratch the hobby itch, when there's not time for more activity - I was in central Londond, dropped in at 'Orc's Nest' shop,  and came away with this: 

 

Well, one day my Ancient Macedonians, Persians and Indians are bound to expand beyond DBA and Dominion of the Spear, surely?  A semi-impulse purchase ( and I already have Neil Thomas' ancients book, and and Three Ages of Rome, oops ) , but AdlG seem well-liked, and will at the very least be an interesting read - a large chunk of the book is devoted to mulitfarious army lists, which may  well be useful. 

That about sums up what little I've been up to in January - a bit more effort clearly required in February! (must keep Freiburg 1644 in mind..)   I am in the mood to devote some time to my hobby, and there's the Cavalier show next month to look forward too, and hopefully take inspiration from. I think I'd better press on with painting those  Risorgimento armies, for a start, and try to show some progress next time. Until then, keep well (and warm and dry), everyone. 

Risorgimento 1859: Organising the Forces

Having recently  acquired a selection of reinforcements for my 6mm Risorgimento 1859 armies (from Commission Figurines), it's time to make a start on organising and painting.  Let's start with the organisation;  up to now I have simply painted enough figures to make a minimal representative  'army' from the lists provided in Neil Thomas' excellent book Wargaming 19th Century Europe , basing them according to the rules in the same book. Now, I want to expand the forces and put them into reasonably realistic orders of battle.  A very good source of information turned out to be the Osprey Campaign series book no. 207 Solferino 1859 , which gives sufficiently detailed orders of battle for the Austrian, French and Piedmontese forces in that campaign. 

 

Neil Thomas is careful not to specify exactly what a 'unit' in his rules is representing; I think this is to allow the depiction of different-sized engagements with the same rules, so an infantry 'unit' might perhaps represent  a battalion, a regiment or even a brigade on the tabletop.  Having looked at the OOBs, I decided to treat one Neil Thomas Infantry unit as (roughly) a Battalion,  one Artillery unit as a Battery and one Cavalry unit as a Regiment.   Using those parameters, I  am aiming to represent one division each of French and Piedmontese troops and two divisions of  Austrians.  Hence roughly equal but somewhat differently-organised forces, given that each nation's organistion of regiments/brigades/divsions  differed slightly.  I thought I would take actual Division organisations from the OOBs and represent them, with the real names of commanders, brigades and regiments - at the very least that would save having to invent names!  

So without further ado, here is a summary of the OOBs I am aiming at : 

Austrian : these will be (more or less)  two divisions of the VIII Korps, commanded by Graf von Benedek :

 1st Division - commander FML Berger 

    Brigade Watervliet 

        - Kaiserjager Battalion nr. 2    (1 battalion skirmishers) 

        - Line Infantry IR7 Baron Prohaska (4 battalions)

        - 1 Battery Field Artillery 

    Brigade Kuhn 

        - Grenz  IR4 Szluiner, battalion nr. 2  (1 battalion skirmishers)         

        - Line Infantry IR11 Kronprinz Albert von Sachsen (4 battalions) 

        -  1 Battery Field Artillery 

    2nd Division (part) - commander FML Lang 

        Brigade Phillipovic 

            - Kaiserjager Battalion nr. 5   (1 battalion skirmishers)   

            - Line Infantry IR17 Prinz Hohenloe-Langenburg ( 4 battalions ) 

            - 1 Battery Field Artillery

        Brigade Dauber 

            - Jager battalion nr. 3     (1 battalion skirmishers)

            - Line Infantry IR39  Dom Miguel ( 4 battalions ) 

            - 1 Battery Field Artillery 

I have not included the complete 2nd Division, which seems to have  had an extra brigade in its original organisation, plus yet another brigade which had been attached from another corps a few days before the battle - I didn't want to make the Austrians much stronger than  their opponents. You'll notice there there is no cavalry mentioned, this is simply becuase there was no cavalry in the Divisions listed above. There was a regiment of cavalry (4 squadrons ) attached to VIII Korps, so I think I will add one Neil Thomas 'unit' of cavalry to represent them. It's clear from the OOBs in the book that infantry vastly outnumbered cavalry in the actual campaign.  I chose these formations mainly because of their commander - Graf Von Benedek seems to have been about the only senior Austrian commander who really knew what he was doing and acquitted himself well at the battle! 

 

Piedmontese :  3rd Divison, commander. Lieut-Gen. Mollard 

    Brigato Cuneo:  commander Maj-Gen Arnaldi

        - 10th Battalion Bersaglieri   (skirmishers)

        - 7th Regiment di Fanteria  (3 battalions Line Infantry) 

        - 8th  Regiment di Fanteria  (3 battalions)  

    Brigato Pinerolo : commander Maj-Gen Morozzo della Rocca 

       - 2nd Battalion Bersaglieri   (skirmishers)

        -  13th Regiment di Fanteria  (3 battalions)  

        - 14th Regiment di Fanteria  (3 battalions)         

    Divisional Cavalry :  Regiment Cavallegri de Montferrato 

    Divisional Artillery:  3 batteries Field Artillery

The Piedmont/Sardinian 3rd Division was involved in assaulting the hill of San Martino which Benedek's troops were holding, so these seem appropriate opponents for the Austrians. 

 

French :  (from 1st Corps)  1sr Division : General de Division Forey

    Brigade Dieu 

        - 17e Chasseurs a Pied  (1 battalion skirmishers)

        - 74e Ligne  (2 battalions Line Infantry) 

        - 84e Ligne  (2 battalions)  

    Brigade D'Alton

        - 91e Ligne (3 battalions)  

        - 98e Ligne  (2 battalions)  

    Artillery  :  2 batteries Field Artillery  

This was a division from Marechal Baraguey d'Hilliers  1st Corps, which seems to have done well enough in the battle, having 'pushed the Austrian outposts back from one crest to another, until they reached the ridges before Solferino' , then being involved in fierce fighting in the assault on the Monte di Cipressi - Forey himself being wounded.  The division also has a fairly 'bog-standard' composition, with no units of Zouaves, for example - I haven't got any figures for those yet!  

If you also have the book I'm using, you may notice that the numbers of infantry battalions  don't always tally - I have made some adjustments to allow for the different sizes of battalions in the three armies.  French and Piedmontese infantry battalions were about 600-strong, but Austrian battalions seemed to be larger, with almost 800 men each. I pondered how to reflect this - should I simply ignore the differences and  treat all battalions as equal in power? This would seem to treat the Austrians a little harshly, even if their army was hardly a model of efficiency at the time! Should I make the Austrian battalions stronger,  perhaps having 5 bases to the other nation's 4? But this might cause issues with the game rules, and of course would involve buying/painting  25%  more figures for the Austrians! In the end I have (roughly) treated an infantry unit in the game as about 800 men, so that Austrian units remain battalions, but French and Piedmontese need fewer units to make a brigade than the real-life number of battalions ( the French 1st Division actually had 12 battalions of Line Infantry, I have 9 units).  Hopefully that piece of wargamer's license won't cause any problems. 

As a result, the overall strengths of the three forces should be as follows: 

Piedmont    12 units Line Infantry,  2 units skirmishers, 3 batteries artillery,  1 unit cavalry. 

France        9 units Line Infantry,  1 unit Skirmishers,  2 batteries artillery 

Austria:    16 units Line Infantry,  4 units Skirmishers, 4 batteries artillery,  1 unit cavalry 

I think these should give plenty of scope for games large and small, with over 50 available units in total, even at 6mm scale they should fill a table!     

So, that's the proposed organisation, now I need to get them painted.  To keep things organised, I have used cardboard 'templates' to lay out the formations, starting with the units I have already painted - as units are completed they can be temporarily mounted on the cards using blu-tak. For example, here is the incomplete '1st' brigade (Brigato Cuneo) of the Piedmont Division, which is only missing  one of its  6 line infantry units, and the Divisional Artillery ( 3 batteries ) and Cavalry regiment. ( I need to change '1st' Division to '3rd' on the cards - oops!)

 

and here, the Austrian 1st Division, 1st Brigade (Watervliet) which is already complete, from the units I have previously painted. 

 

That all looks good, but the rest of the formations are still in this state:

 So there is a way to go! I'd better get started with the priming, at least... I don't think this will be 'all over by Christmas'.  But at least I have a plan, and it's eminently do-able if I just get on with it! 

Now the 'festive season' is upon us, there are cards to write and send, gifts to buy and wrap, etc, so there may not be quite so much hobby  time available, but I'll try to press on with this, and we'll see how it goes.  Next time, perhaps a progress report?  Until then, keep well everyone. 

Warfare 2025 - Retail Therapy

Of course, no hobby show is complete without a little light shopping, and I did pick up a few new shiny things at Warfare last weekend. There was a pretty good range of traders present  (see Big Lee's excellent video report on his visit, which featured the trade stands quite heavily ), so plenty of opportunites. Here is a summary of my purchases, the directions they may be sending in.. 

I had pre-ordered a couple of things to collect at the show - first and most important being from Commission Figurines.  I acquired 10 packs of their 6mm MDF semi-flat figures, to increase the forces available to my 'Risorgimento' 1859 Italy armies.  A cunning combination of packs from the Napoleonic and ACW ranges should allow me to represent two divisions of Austrians and one division each of Piedmontese and French - the first time that Louis Napoleon's men have appeared. 

 A major plus point for these figures is that a packet of nearly 100 infantry costs just £2, and that will make four battalions - very economical!  I am using Napoleonic British infantry in 'Stovepipe' shako for Austrian infantry, and ACW foot and artillery in Kepis for the French, for example -  as I think my friend  Chris aka Nundanket has said 'as long as the hat looks right, you're OK'..

My second 'pre-order' was from NewLine Designs  20mm Ancients range - specifically the 'personality' set of Darius of Persia in his chariot. I already had their Alexander figure for my DBA Macedonian army, so obviously I needed Darius.  And here he is, in kit form.. 

 I am quite looking forward to assembling and painting this, along with Alexander  (albeit the latter is a simple single  mounted figure ).  

Having dug out the Macedonians and Persians the other week and tried out Dominion of the Spear rules with them,  I admit I had a hankering to add another DBA-sized army to the collection, allowing a potential three-cornered campaign - so obviously, I needed Porus and his Indians.  I was fortunately able to make good on that idea, thanks to a couple more acquisitions :

First these two HaT 1/72 packs,  which I found on the Grubby Tanks/Brittannia Miniatures stall

These will provide up to 12 cavalry and 3 chariots, which should be plenty for a DBA-size army. I was mildly disappointed that they didn't have the Elephants pack from the same range, but I'm sure they will be available for on-line ordering  somewhere - it wouldn't be  Porus' army without some elephants! 

I also spotted some appropriate infantry on the Newline Designs display, so I picked up 2 packs (4 per pack ) each of their archers and javelin men - I think they are rather nice: 

 

I am looking forward to painting these too, they are nice figures, and I have a piece of wargaming magazine nostalgia to inspire my efforts too, of which more in a future post. 

Well, the above seem to have go me well and truly into an 'ancients' mood, and that doubtless influenced a couple of purchases from The Society of Ancients stall, and the pen of Phil 'Lost Battles' Sabin :  

 

Strategos II is a set of fairly simple rules for tabletop battles, using a gridded system. Armies are a little bigger than DBA, for example, which suits my longer-term plans, and I know Phil Sabin is absolutely an expert in this field, so it will be interesting to see how these play.  Empire is 'a very simple game... simulating the struggle for imperial dominance between Carthaginians, Romans, Macedonians and Persians/Parthians, from the 4th to the 2nd centuries BC'  - I am intrigued by the way that this period saw the parallel existence of all those powers, and the resulting campaigning possibilies (real or imaginary). The game has rather a nice map, too: 

 With a simple strategic game and more than one set of relatively simple 'small armies' tactical rules, I can feel  an Ancients campaign coming sometime in the future (though of course that might mean raising Roman and Carthaginian armies too!). 

And last but not least, I couldn't resist a bargain (it was the cheapest item here), from the second-hand books offered by  Stonewall Figures  - not quite directly relevant to the above purchases, but who can refuse a piece of vintage (1981)  Terry Wise, with classic illustrations by Angus McBride?  

file under 'comfort reading' 

 And that, as they say,  is about that - not a bad selection of stuff new and old, which should keep me busy in the winter months. I will need to have some regular painting sessions for the various figures, but I think I have kept them to manageable numbers which can be painted fairly quickly without boredom setting in.  

 As a quick postscript, I was fortunate last week to take part in one of Jon Freitag's remote games - this time the Reconquista battle of Zallaqah 1086.  I took the part of King Alfonso VI, leading his Knights to... well, I'll let you read about it in Jon's battle report.  A very challenging and tense game that went right down to the wire - many thanks to Jon and the other players for a great evening's gaming. The picture below shows an 'interesting' manoeuvre that I tried with Alfonso's Knights..

  

 Anyway, do read Jon's report for a flavour of the back-and-forth of a nerve-wracking game! 

Next time, perhaps an account of an interesting talk that I attended recently. Until then keep well, everyone. 

'Dominion of Risorgimento' : Palestro 1859

In between counting and photographing vintage Minifigs,  I fancied a quick and easy bit of gaming with my 6mm Risorgimento 1859 armies.  I have to thank Bob Cordery for his most timely pointing out that the latest  'Dominion of..'  rulesets to be release included  Dominion of Otto von Bismarck,  which cover the period from the Crimean to Franco-Prussian wars. at around £5 from Wargames Vault, they looked worth a try.   

As you may be aware, these are very simple rules, designed for solo play and using only about 6 units per side, so games can be played in pretty quick time - and from my experience with the Pike and Shot version, they have some interesting and subtle mechanisms. In this case, Infantry are defined as 'Line' (mainly relying on firepower)  or 'Column'  (mainly fighting in assault columns), and this seems a fair reflection of the period. Artillery can be kept in the 'reserve' area and used for bombardment in support of attacks by other units, which can be very effective.

The rules include scenarios and army lists for 24 historical battles, one of which is Palestro 1859, which suits my current  'Piedmont vs Austria'  setup (really must get some French next!),  and with  the forces  comprising five or six units each side, very easy to  find armies for.  So I gave it a go, and here is the intial deployment - Peidmontese nearest the camera. 

 

Historically, the Piedmontese had counter-attacked the invading Austrians and re-taken the village of Palestro on the River Sesia, and the Austrians then attempted to push the Piedmontese out of their defensive positions. In the suggested scenario,  Piedmont has three 'Line' Infantry units in defensive  positions  ( denoted by the walls )  as their front line, with the right-hand unit also being Elite status - these were the French 3rd Zouave regiment on the day, but I used Piedmontese Grenadiers (must get some French next!).  That unit was concealed (hence trees) and could not be bombarded by artillery until they had revealed themselves by engaging in combat.  In reserve (back line) they had two 'Column' infantry units, which were deemed 'unreliable' to simulate the uncertainty of reinforcements arriving. 'Unreliable' units have to roll a die before their first combat - they will either rout and be eliminated, or become 'regular' and fight as normal. You might have noticed that I deployed 'Column' units in a sort of T-shape formation representing the attack column with skirmishers out front, and 'Line' units in simple blocks. 

The Austrian force had three 'Column' infantry units on the front line and ready to attack, plus two more 'Column' units and one Artillery unit in Reserve - the latter being able to fire in support of attacks by the front-line units. So, they had the advantage of one extra infantry unit and supporting srtillery, but were facing 'dug in' defenders, one unit of whom had Elite status. And so, to battle..

The basic turn mechanism is for the attacker to go first and specify one sector of the table (Left, Centre or Right ) to mount an attack, with combat taking place between the opposing front-line units in that sector  ( note that since this is a solo game, it's easier to keep the same sectors as 'Left' or 'Right' for both sides - in this case, as per the photos ). Once that attack is resolved, the Defender takes their turn to attack in their specified sector. The choice of sector is decided by the active player rolling a die - they may be able to choose their attack sector, or have the choice forced upon them, depending how the die roll goes. So there's an element of uncertainty in that decision, the Commanders are not in complete control of their forces and fighting may break out in unintended places - which seems quite a reasonable, 'fog of war' effect.

Turn One opened with an Austrian attack in the Left Scctor (having rolled a high enough score to choose), where on of their 'Column' Infantry faced an entrenched  Piedmontese 'Line'. The Austrians could also have their Artillery fire on the enemy unit first - it did so, but missed.  In the subsequent combat, 'Line' units fire first (all combat rolls are one D6), but have less chance of scoring a hit, then surviving 'Column' units can charge home, with a better chance - rather subtle.  In this case the Piedmontese shooting was too good, scoring a hit and eliminating the attacking Austrians.  An eliminated unit must be replaced from Reserve - so one of the two reserved Austrian  'Column'  units stepped up.  In the Piedmontese turn, the Die decided on a 'Centre' attack;  there were no Piedmontese artillery, so no bombardment. In the combat the  tables were turned, with the Peidmontese scoring a 'miss'  and the Austrians rolling high - the Piedmontese unit was Eliminated, and had to be replaced by one of the two 'Unreliable Infantry 'Column' units from Reserve.   Each side lost one unit in Turn One, but perhaps Austria did better, knocking out a dug-in unit which was only replaced by 'Unreliable' reserves. 

Turn One: Piedmont centre weakened?

 

Turn Two started well for Austria; again getting choice of attack sector, they chose the Centre. Their artillery missed again, but the 'Unreliable' defending Piedmon unit rolled low on its reaction test, and promptly routed! It was replaced by the second, and last, also 'Unreliable' unit from reserve. Piedmontese pride was restored on their turn; the die roll forced them to attack on the Left, but their 'Line' unit there rolled high and defeated the opposing Austrian 'Column' unit. It was replaced by another 'Column', leaving only the Artillery in Austrian reserve. Losses still even at two units each, but that Piedmont centre looked quite worrying, and reserves were denuded..

Turn 2 : Front lines holding, but Reserves almost gone

On Turn Three,  fighting broke out on the Left (decided by the die roll), and the Austrian  Artillery finally got the range, scoring a hit which removed the 'Dug-In' advantage from the defending Piedmont unit.  Piedmont's 'Line' unit then missed, but so did the attacking Austrian Column, so no decision there. The Dice Gods favoured the Austrians, however, as Piedmont's roll  indicated the same Left sector again, the defending Line unit's shooting was again ineffective, and the attacking Column charged home and overran them! With no units left in Reserve, Piedmont could not replace the loss, leaving their Left sector undefended.  Things looked bad for the Italians.. 

Turn 3 : Piedmont Left gone - is it all up for them?

 Would Turn Four spell the end for the Piedmontese?  The Austrian die roll denoted fighting breaking out on the Right, where all had been quiet until then - and here lurked the Elite Piedmont Grenadiers. As noted above, these were concealed and could not be bombarded by artillery, so the Austrian Column had to fight unsupported - and were promptly shot down by the Grenadiers' musketry. This was a double blow, as it forced the Austrian artillery to come out of reserve to fill the front line gap, leaving it unable to bombard in support of other sectors AND facing an Elite enemy!  On Piedmont's turn the worst promtly  happened for Austria - the die roll decided on the Right sector again, and the artillery were sent packing by the Piedmont Grenadiers!  That Elite unit had really proved its worth. 

Now the opposing sides are each allowed one attempt to 'Rally' and bring back one routed unit, and at this point ( luckily I remembered the rule!) both sides took advantage of that  - and both sides rolled high and succeeded. The Austrians were able to rally their Artillery (hmm, perhaps an Infantry would have been better?)  and put it back in place on the Right, and Piedmont rallied one Line Infantry, and filled the gap on the Left.  With three units each left, the Piedmontese had held things together, at least, and their Grenadiers looked well placed for potential further success. 

Turn 4 : successful Rallies fill the gaps

 

Turn Five opened with  the Austrian die roll indicating combat in the Centre, where Column faced Column, so combat rolls would be simultaneous - but first the 'Unreliable' Piedmont unit must test, and failure could spell disaster.  The die was rolled - success, the Piedmont unit held its ground! Better yet for them, in the ensuing combat the Austrians were defeated, leaving their Centre wide open, no reserves available. The Dice Gods were merciless then - the Piedmont roll indicated 'Centre' again, and this allowed the unopposed  Piedmontese centre unit to attack the flank of the Austrians on the left..

Turn 5 - Piedmontese flank attack

 In a flanking attack, the attacker gains an advantage on its die roll and the defender cannot fight back - and the Piedmontese attackers rolled high. The last Austrian Infantry unit was sent routing, and with only their Artillery unit left to oppose three enemy units, Austria was soundly defeated! 

How it ended - only Artillery remain for Austria! 

 

So that was that; I rather enjoyed the game. For such a simple syatem, there are some interesting and subtle features which felt 'right', and for fans of quick games, it probably would have taken only about half an hour, had I not been taking plentiful notes and photographs.  Apart from just 'a quick game', the obvious use for this would be for a 'mini-campaign' where map moves could generate  multiple battles which could each be resolved very simply and quickly.  I also think that it would be interesting to 'tweak' and add to the rules; I think it might be worth making 'bigger' games,  perhaps increasing the number of sectors on the board and/or maybe the number of units per sector, and perhaps bringing in more terrain effects and thus enabling more 'meaningful' terrain to be placed? My only hesitation about the basic system is that  the commander's choices can feel quite limited  ( the downside of the die roll for sector choice), and there isn't really a concept of 'manouevre' - would it be good to be able to move units between sectors, to bolster weak points or reinforce successes?  I'm sure others have been thinking along some or all of these lines.

For a quick and simple game, that has set quite a few thoughts running, as well as simply  being enjoyable.  I hope my description has been of interest to you, too! 

Now I need to get back to sorting through the 'Minifigs haul' - more pictures to come soon, Probably before that happens, though, I am  lucky enought to be promised a bit of 'Face to Face' gaming this coming week, with Black Powder's  Pike and Shotte variant and Edgehill 1642 as the scenario, which promises to be interesting and fun, and will be fully reported in a future post, if possible.   Until then, keep well everyone and (if in the UK)  enjoy your holiday weekend!