Russians and French

I'm still expanding my 15mm Napoleonic Württemberg army, and intend to add more now that, at the time of writing, Warrior Minatures has commenced trading again (urrah!).

Russian Uhlans (Polish), Warrior Miniatures

In the meanwhile, here are some Polish and Tartar Uhlans in Russian service I finished recently.  

Russian Uhlans (Tartars), Warrior Miniatures

They can be difficult to distinguish, except that the shabraques are different and the Polish penant is blue above red, whilst the Tartar penant is the other way up, although the Tartars do also have red czapkas.

French Dragoons, Warrior Miniatures

The Württembergers also got some French allies, in the form of a regiment of dragoons.  These will eventually be supplemented by some French infantry, this time from Magister Militum, bought, sadly, in their closing down sale (whilst Warrior was offline).

Artillery limbers, Warrior Miniatures

Finally I have some artillery limbers.  These are actually Warrior ACW limbers, normally with two horses, which I modded slighly and then added more horses.  I painted them as Russian artillery, but they could be used for anything really.

Next up will be some more Württemberg cavalry and probably the French infantry, but I need to get around to painting them first.

Walls in Ruins

Further to my earlier post about some 15mm ancient city walls and buildings I'd made, I thought some evidence of violent siege would be in order.  So I made these.

Mind the gap

The idea was to have damaged sections that would match lengths of unbroken wall, so that these could be substituted in as necessary.

Rear view

The centre bit of wooden wall could also be removed to leave a gaping hole, if that was needed.

Something appears to be missing

The walls were made from cardboard and polystyrene fixed together with PVA glue.  Fine sand was then glued to the walls and painted.  The piles of masonry were made from polystyrene offcuts and were intended to hold the wooden wall in place.

Time to get the decorators in

Liberated wooden coffee stirrers were used to make the planking, undercoated in black then painted with a dark earth colour.  A couple of black washes were applied and then the wood was drybrushed with a beige or buff colour.

What, no crenellations?

Overall, I think they've worked quite well.  Just need a siege to try them out...

To be honest, the damage is barely noticable

 

Return of the Warrior

I was at the SESWC Claymore show yesterday in Edinburgh with Geoff (I may post some pictures of the show later on).and it reminded me again that I had intended to try to up my article rate on this blog (circa one post a year doesn't really cut it).   It also reminded me that one of the things I was going to write about was the apparent demise of many of my favourite miniatures (I hate the term 'minis') manufacturers in recent years.

15mm Cossacks, by Warrior Miniatures

Age, economic circumstances, global pandemics, ill health and whoever happens to be American President at the time have all taken their toll on manufacturers I have used and liked, and there have been a few whose loss I have been really quite sad about.  However, the good news is that this list isn't quite as long as I had thought it would be...

The first of these was the 'disappearance' of Roundway and Naismith, after their departure from Navwar.  I had always liked the Roundway 15 Napoleonic Russians and French (Naismith had their uses) but sadly they seem to have gone forever.  Then recently there has been Magister Militum and in particular their range of Chariot 15mm ancient figures.  It took me 15 years to collect and paint my DBM Lydian army but there are still a few small gaps (noting that by the time I'd finished, DBM had gone out of fashion).

Some indifferently painted Lydian auxiliaries, by Chariot Miniatures

Nevertheless, the good news is that there have been a couple of manufacturers that I thought had gone, but are now back (or rather they never went away).  The first of these is Navwar, which has an unparalleled range of 1:3000 warships amongst other things.  Sadly Tony Anderson died a year or so ago, but the operation is still carrying on, although there was a brief period when their website was down which made me fear the worst.

Navwar SMS Scharnhorst and squadron on homemade sea mat

However, the main thing that has prompted me to write this are the very glad tidings that Warrior Miniatures appears to be back in action, after quite a few years of nothing but a sign on their website saying they weren't taking orders due to ill health.  I'm so glad they are fit and well again, not to mention my gladness at the thought of those Russians and French I'm about to order from them.  Hallelujah.

The Württembergers are Coming

Having painted quite enough 15mm Napoleonic Russians for the time being (see various previous posts, plus this glorious AAR representing their first outing), I decided that having an opposing army of my own on hand might be useful.  I suppose I could have gone for the obvious one, the French, but decided that something from the Confederation of the Rhine might be more interesting.  Enter Württemberg.

Warrior Austrian infantry painted as Württembergers

Then there was the question of what figures to use.  As my Russian army is pre-1812, I decided Württembergers in helmets rather than shakos would be more appropriate.  Not easy to find in 15mm, but then I realised that early Austrians would do just as well if painted up properly, and the simple yet very effective range from Warrior Miniatures would be just the job.

Württemberg 1st and 2nd Regiments

From what research I managed, I discovered that at that time there were nine line regiments in the Württemberg army, with distinct facings and flags.

Württemberg 4th and 5th Regiments

I therefore decided to paint just the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th Regiments because that matched the number of figures I'd bought and also the 3rd Regiment had dark blue facings which I knew would turn out the same as the tunic colour.  However, for the typical size of wargame I would be likely to run (e.g. using scenarios from One Hour Wargames, where six units in total is usually the maximum) I considered this enough to be getting on with.

Württemberg Light Infantry in open order

In addition to the line regiments I also painted up some Austrian infantry in shakos (each with its green 'turban') as Württemberg light infantry.  As you can see I had them deploying through an area of cleared woodland, the tree stumps being made from cloves liberated from the kitchen spice cupboard.

Württemberg Chasseurs a Cheval (Regiment Herzog Louis)

For cavalry I used Warrior's Austrian Cheval Leger and finished some as mounted Chasseurs a Cheval (green uniforms with yellow facings) and others as Württemberg Chevau-leger (blue uniforms with yellow facings).

Württemberg Chevau-leger (1st Regiment)

I also painted some of Warrior's Bavarian foot artillery as Württemberg artillery.  The helmets are probably not quite right but at 15mm who will notice.

Württemberg foot artillery

Finally, there was a general or two to paint.  I think these were Warrior Prussians but again who would be able to tell the difference.

A Württemberg general

Having completed all these I felt inspired to maybe add to the collection, such as getting some French allies for my compact Württemberg army.  However, sadly Warrior Miniatures is not currently active, although I have heard rumours that it will be coming back on-line sometime in 2025, which I really hope happens.

The Walled City

Before our pocket money increased to the level where we could buy such wonderous things as those plastic Airfix forts that aren't available anymore, we used to make our own battlements on which we would line up our soldiers. In those days, my dad had a preference for Van Heusen shirts and at that time these came in cardboard boxes, usually with an illustration on the front.

I have a very clear memory of cutting out the drawing of a castle from one of those boxes and then using the rest of it to make the other walls, flimsy battlements and the wobbly walkways between them, all held together with sticky-tape.  It used to take ages to put the soldiers up there (Airfix Ancient Britons, French Foreign Legion and Guards Colour Party mainly) and only one well-placed hit by a nail fired from a Britains 25 pdr gun to knock them all off again.  Those were the days.

Some battlements, yesterday

However, since then there have been some slight improvements.  For one of our early DBM campaigns (my 15mm Lydians vs Geoff's Persians) I made some simple city walls for my troops to man.  Actually that battle was an exercise in my troops trying to get off the table as quickly as possible as I was outnumbered three to one, not to mention being attacked from two directions at once (those pesky Persians).

I remember when this was all fields (of fire)

Subsequently the extent of walls expanded and so did the various buildings I've made to put inside them.  The construction of all walls and buildings uses thin polystyrene sheets and cardboard, coated in fine sand then painted with a mixture of household emulsion and various acrylics.  The buildings are generic enough to also be used for locations such as Mexico (e.g. Mexican Revolution) or arid Africa (e.g. AK47).  They are simple to put together and I keep adding to the pile when I feel like making something (regularly).

Early Hebrews man the walls

Just to add that the figures in these photos are 15mm Chariot miniatures sold by Magister Militum, comprising a DBA 3e Early Hebrew army (that's I/34c for those of you paying attention at the back).

Airfix Gun Emplacement

This is a post about the famous Airfix Gun Emplacement, or at least what's left of the one I had many years ago.

Actually, there isn't much left at all, just the two bunkers, with the base and match-firing gun long gone.  Furthermore, the octagonal bunker was at some point converted into a pillbox by cutting some rough holes in the sides, but this was never very satisfactory.  Consquently I thought it was time for an upgrade.  And here it is.

For this small project I decided to have the pillbox sitting in a base, which is made of a couple of layers of polystyrene foam.  Once shaped, the base was covered in rough sand, painted in earth tones and textured with flock, adding cloves from the kitchen spice-rack cut down to look like tree stumps.

In addition, I constructed some 'concrete' walls around the entrance, textured to look as though wooden shuttering had been used to form them; a technique I believe the brutalist French architect Corbusier was very fond of, as were the German occupiers.  In my case, this effect was done by gluing wooden coffee stirrers to a thin foam core and then painting them to look like concrete to match the repainted pillbox.

The pillbox actually lifts off so figures can be put inside.  Furthermore, considering the gun emplacment set is not being made any more (at least at the time of writing), I may yet construct my own scratch-built version of the entire model, built around this remaining element.

One Hour Wargames 7: Flank Atttack (2)

Right lads, I'm back.  It's only been a year.  But of course I've never been away (few of us have).  But oddly with all that extra time stuck at home I've done far less wargaming related things than I would normally do in a similar twelvemonth.

Tutti a Venezia!

Anyway, here, finally, is the after action report (AAR) of what was the next game in our (now) extremely long running One Hour Wargame campaign.  In fact this game was played at the start of March 2020, a week or so before the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown.

Yep, that's a flank attack alright

As I pointed out in the previous AAR from this campaign, the varied scenarios in Neil Thomas' book are often inspired by classic scenarios published by others, with the playing area reduced to 3' by 3' and with simplified terrain layouts.

However, what we did find from playing the previous games was there often wasn't enough terrain on the table to make things interesting for our tastes, although this is possibly because we usually play on our 6' by 4' boards, so everything is a bit diluted.  That said, I do like a bit of granularity, where specific features like buildings, stone walls, woods and marshes do have a significant effect on battle outcomes, as they very often did in real life.

Therefore, reading the OHW blurb for this scenario, CS Grant's scenario Flank Attack (2) was referenced as an inspiration, and looking at the original it was clear that a more interesting table could be set up using his map, rather than the one in OHW.  Anyway, long story short, this is what our table looked like at set up.

Initial positions, with enemy starting behind the defender's flank.

Both scenario descriptions explain that the defending force should be deployed expecting a frontal attack, but in fact there is a "surprise" flank attack in the offing.  For our game, troops were deployed complying with the requirements of the CS Grant scenario.

Not a good start.  My defending LH are already pulling back.

Also for this campaign game we used Geoff's 15mm Renaissance figures for the first time.  These comprise a mixture of Roundway (which seems to have disappered), Alternative Armies, Essex (?) and possibly others.  The AA figures are apparently ex-Tabletop Games (now defunct), although they are adding to the range all the time.

Imperials push forward aggressively on the left

Anyway, here are some selected photos from the game.  I'm not going to do a detailed blow-by-blow account of the action because it's so long ago I can't remember exactly what happened. 

However, basically, to cut a long story short, the Imperials commanded by Geoff sure enough attacked through the woods on the Venetian's left (surprise!), and after a bit of struggle I was eventually pushed off the ridge and he won.

Pikes vs Cuirassiers - I wonder how that will turn out?

What I do remember is that most of the fight happened on my left flank as one might expect.  With only some LH, a unit of crossbows and one pike block (with some artillery in the wrong place) it should have been easy for the Imperials.  And sure enough, right off the bat, my LH decided to withdraw under light artillery fire.

Cuirassiers defeated by pikes and my LH rally

Geoff's cuirassiers then moved up to engage my pikes, whilst his pikes advanced to threaten my crossbows.  At first it went well, my pikes managed to defeat the cuirassiers and my crossbows held off Geoff's pikes for a couple of moves through accurate fire and then, remarkably, in hand to hand combat.

Tough fight.  My LH moves to menace pesky artillery on the flank.

My pikes could then move forward to engage the enemy pikes.  But more pike blocks were streaming through the woods.

The Venetian right wing saunters into the centre.

Meanwhile, my strongest troops, inconveniently posted on my right, started to move into the centre, to try to get into the action.  Somewhat slow progress ensued.

Still fighting on my left.  Confused situation in the centre.

Things were not going well.  There was hard fighting on my left and more enemy pike blocks were moving up, eventually sweeping away my crossbows.  This left my only pike unit on the hill somewhat isolated.

Imperial pikes sweep onto their objective.

With the demise of my crossbows the enemy was able to get onto the hill, with further reinforcements on the way.

Push of pike in the centre.

Meanwhile in the centre I was getting bogged down with little chance of being able to relieve my crumbling left flank.

This is what defeat looks like.

Eventually it was all over, with the enemy on the ridge and without much chance of me getting it back.  A win for Geoff.

The rules we used were Furioso by Alternative Armies.  I didn't warm to them at first because I wasn't familiar with them (so was perpetually confused about certain mechanisms) and I'm not that keen on rules that use buckets of dice (or that need chits put onto the table).

Chits with everything.

That said, I have since bought a pdf copy and have actually read them so now understand a bit better what was supposed to have been going on.  Always useful to understand the rules properly before starting a wargame...

One final thought is that having a specific objective is so important in wargames.  In the old days we used to just set up our armies opposite each other and fight it out until one or other of us held the field.  

I mean defeating the enemy directly in battle is a valid objective, but the importance of terrain and strategic features to fight for makes a game a lot more interesting.  Hopefully the next (and final) game in this campaign (OHW #15 or #19) ticks those boxes.

The Russians are Coming No.5

Just a quick update with another addition to my collection of 15mm Napoleonic Russians.  In this case I painted another general, to add to the four I already have.

This is a 15mm Warrior figure, in fact a Prussian general, but I thought it was quite a nice model so he was transferred to the eastern front.

As you can see he is riding past a French casualty.  This figure is actually from Peter Pig's AK47 range, sent back 150 years and painted up to pass as a fallen French officer.

Barns

Yep, making buildings again.  This time I thought I'd like to make a European sort of barn to go with the other 15mm half timbered buildings I'd made earlier.

So this is it, loosely based on a type of north german low barn, for example this one, except in my case I dispensed with the brick finish and more complicated roof structure and went for the painted half-timbered look instead.

Construction was the same as previously, with polystyrene walls and sliced up coffee stirrers for the woodwork.

The individually cut (from old business cards) and placed roof tiles did take a while though.  As with many of my wargame buildings the roof lifts off so that troops can be put inside, but it's quite neatly done (I think) so it's hard to see the join.

And of course, why make one barn when you can make two.  So I did this one as well in a different style.

I was inspired to make this based on an article by Tony Harwood in Minature Wargames magazine which I subscribed to for a year basically because there was an offer on (some interesting articles but overall too much fantasy, sci-fi and product placement for my liking).

Using this design as my starting point I bascially made this building the way I normally make them, with ploystyrene sheet walls, which were then PVA'd, coated in fine sand and painted. The fish-scale type roof tiles were actually quite straightfoward to do and with a bit of careful measurement they all matched up quite well.  I think I could make a couple of other buildings now with this roofing technique.

A nice detail was the small openings at the gable ends and I kept these in my version.  And in this case you can see the line where the roof lifts off to put figures inside.  Hopefully, with the intention to have a bit more terrain on the table, these should get an outing by the next time we get a game (Covid-19 situation permitting).