Tuesday 29 December 2009

Blue Dragoon 2nd Squadron finished.









Thankfully my back is much better now ( three days off at Christmas helped a lot ) and I got the second squadron with the Colonel and Cornet in addition finished , at last.
This makes the unit viable on the wargames table and they will be taking part in some non-campaign encounters , CS Grant's Table Top Teasers probably.
This will keep my hand in ( as simple as the rules may be the game itself is hard to master ) and keep my interest going.

Saturday 26 December 2009

New terrain arrives for Christmas.

Ho,ho,ho...
Santa brought me a couple of rather large boxes yesterday full of TSS terrain tiles.
I'm very pleased with them, I think they have quite an "Old School" look about them, especially the hills and are better than I could have made myself as I originally intended.

I had them in use this afternoon for a Napoleonic Table Top Teaser from the Battlegames book by CS Grant.
However they were really bought for the inevitable war between Altstein and Eisenburg-Essling to begin in the New Year.

Sunday 13 December 2009

Back Injury Halts Painting.


The title says it all really. Very frustrating , I injured my back at work last Saturday and even with a couple of days off sick it is still very painful . I can't sit at the painting table to paint as I can't support my back while painting , so no progress at all unfortunately.

Thursday 3 December 2009

Altstein Blue Dragoons 2nd Squadron started.




Made a start (should be painting not blogging!) the Colonel and Cornet are included also.
A finished model from the first squadron is on the exteme left of shot as a reference for me to paint by.

Osterburg Musketeers finished







Consisting of 64 rank and file with 7 staff the Osterburg Musketeer Regiment is my largest unit. Made up of Italeri AWI French the poses in this unit are slightly awkward but beggars can't be choosers and I reckon they'll fight as well as the rest of them. However they may be hard to manouvre in line.
The flag needs re-doing though at some point.

The Altstein Jager command.

Captain Weingartner.

left to right : Weingartner , Bruckner and Kranze.



Some photos of the Altstein Jager triumvirate of Colonel Bruckner , Captain Weingartner and Captain Kranze. Franz Kranze is waving his sword around as usual (he's a bit of a show off and doubles his melee dice roll because he's a good fighter).
Weingartner is second in command and is renowned for being lucky.
A special rule simulates this in that in the event of Weingartner being hit by a musket ball he gets a dice throw to save him .
On a score of 2,3,4,5 or 6 his lucky pocket watch deflects the bullet but on a score of 1 the bullet ricochets straight up his nose!.
This rule only applies to musket shots the pocket watch cannot deflect cannon balls .
(After all this is not "Warhammer Fantasy Battles").
Weingartner is actually the distant ancestor of one of my work colleagues. But I don't think he has a pocket watch.

Charge playsheet




I have photographed my "Charge" playsheet. This incorparates my own ammendments to the rules as written by Brig. Young and Lt.Col. Lawford.

Sunday 22 November 2009

Buildings


Buildings
The buildings seen above may be of some interest to readers , they are veterans of many a battle but haven't seen the light of day for several years.
I bought them roughly 20 years ago from Duncan Macfarlane's Stratagem Publications , they were made by a German company named Schreiber and are paper . My wife made many of these for me , I used them for a fictional 18th century set up in 15mm and almost forgot about them until recently.
They are various scales between 1:120 and 1:160 if I remember correctly and I have a couple of dozen , some need some work on them though and I had a nasty accident when my tape measure shot from my fingers when I stumbled and smashed the roof in of one of them during a recent game.
I like the underscale effect of these buildings on the table and am very pleased to have resurrected them .
In terms of games use I prefer not to demolish and occupy built up areas a la Grant but use them more as obstacles to movement and line of sight. I do much the same with woods and count both features as impassable to any but loose/open order troops.

The War of 1749 ends.



The battle of Bergwald was a disaster for the Altstein army which was thoroughly demoralised and fell back in utter disarray.


This defeat persuaded Ludwig to ask the Duchess Katarina for peace and the suitable diplomatic moves were made on his behalf.
The Duchess was much relieved by this and accepted Ludwig’s offer unconditionally ( perhaps somewhat naively).
Fritz von Essling was recalled from Altstein territory and honoured in a victory parade by the Iron Fortress itself.

Thus the war of 1749 ended. What might the new year bring?.

Thursday 12 November 2009

The armies so far:- Altstein

The army of Altstein.
Brigadier August von Bruckenheim.
Revell SYW Dragoon.


The Blue Dragoons.


Zvezda Swedes.



The Jager Battalion.


Revell AWI British, Italeri AWI French Colonel.





The Blue Hussars.

Revell SYW Hussars.



Colonel Fandango's Grenadier regiment.


Revell and Zvezda SYW Prussians.

Von Tripp's Musketeer regiment.
Revell SYW Prussians.



Captain Mueller's gun battery.
Revell AWI British Infantry, AWI Americans converted and Revell TYW cannons and teams with an Airfix Captain Mueller.
Other units not yet painted are:
Two full musketeer regiments(Italeri AWI French).
The other two squadrons of dragoons plus command.
Some Battalion guns (Imex AWI artillery).

The armies so far:- Eisenburg-Essling

The army of Eisenburg-Essling.
Fritz von Essling.
A Revell Dragoon Officer.

The Eisenburg Dragoons and the Essling Fusileers.
All Revell SYW Austrians.








The Osterburg Musketeers (left) and the Eisenburg Musketeers.


Italeri AWI French and Revell SYW.





Captain Fiesler's gun battery.


Imex AWI crew, Revell TYW cannons and teams and a much cobbled together Captain Fiesler.


Other units yet to be painted are:
Another company of the Osterburg Musketeers to bring the rank and file up to 64 men.
A full regiment (48+) of grenadiers (Zvezda Prussian SYW).
An irregular light infantry battalion (from AWI Militia plastic sets).
Some battalion guns (Imex AWI).
A light horse regiment of some sort , I'm still undecided as to which models to
purchase yet!.


Thursday 5 November 2009

Thanks

Well , this is the first time I've done anything like this and I'm delighted with the responses that I've had. The campaign is in a lull at the moment while I get some painting done.The forces I have are still quite small so I need to get on. I've been asked to post some parade shots of my armies so I'll do this at the weekend hopefully. 

 I have been a wargamer since the mid '70s and followed many of the trends throughout and maybe I was a bit jaded. So to try something new I got into modern air combat with 1/600th scale planes and C21 rules.This was pretty enjoyable but my interest waned .

 Then I found the playsheets for "The Wargame" and "Charge" on the Battlegames site, I dug out some very old AWI Airfix soldiers that hadn't seen daylight for years and had a tryout,WOW!, this was a "road to Damascus " moment for me. Moving the individually based soldiers about into various formations was actually very enjoyable and the simple ,elegant rules mechanisms were a real revelation. 

So out of the shed came the Revell SYW boxes that had been stored away when my son was born over 12 years before. I discovered the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog and decided to copy this very inspirational project as far as I could.
Now as I am on a low wage with a family to keep, I decided to go all plastic toy soldiers for my armies. As the Revell Prussians in particular didn't have the sharpest detail (but some lovely poses IMO), I chose to paint them very basically and smother them in Future/Klear floor polish- Stokes style. I really like the shiny feel of the figures with this treatment and it brings out the colours well too. 

 Well, I've rattled on enough for now, bye.

Thursday 29 October 2009

The battle of Bergwald

TheAltsteiners deploy : the right wing.
The Altstein left wing.
Von Esslings left wing.

Von Essling was marginally outnumbered but massed his dragoons on his left flank destroying Captain Kranze’s jagers and routing the Altstein Hussars. Von Essling himself crossed swords with the hussars during this engagement. His centre held firm and Brigadier von Kurstein withdrew with substantial losses.


Von Bruckenheims folly.

Von Bruckenheim was berated most heatedly by Ludwig , Graf von Altstein in front of the General Staff.
However, Ludwig knew that von Bruckenheim was still one of his most able officers and refrained from sacking him once he had vented his anger.
Ludwig decided to give von Bruckenheim a chance to redeem himself by sending him to probe the Eisenburg forces with a reconnaissance in force.

The forces at his disposal were:-
The Blau Altstein Hussars
2 Infantry regiments
1 Squadron of Dragoons
A company of Jagers zu Fuss led by the redoubtable Captain Kranz.

Von Bruckenheim found Fritz von Essling on the march and immediately launched an attack upon the Eisenbuger column.
Von Esslings troops deployed from the march with great speed and repulsed the Altsteiners after a series of fierce firefights and melees.


Von Bruckenheim fell back in disarray after his impetuous attack and returned to Ludwig with his tail firmly between his legs. He was received by Graf Ludwig at camp, downgraded to Colonel and sent at once to the northern frontier to take command of a garrison battalion.


Fritz von Essling was resting while encamped close to the border when an exhausted messenger was brought to him by his guards. The messenger had grave news for the general, the elderly and infirm septuagenarian Herzog Eugen had passed away in his sleep.


The Duke had no male heir to the Dukedom and his daughter Katarina was now the Duchess of Eisenburg-Essling.
This news would encourage the Count of Altstein in his attempt to become the next Duke of Eisenburg-Essling by defeating von Essling and forcing Katarina to marry him.


Within days Fritz von Essling received orders from the Duchess to advance into Altstein and defeat Graf Ludwig in battle.
On his advance north von Essling came upon an Altstein force commanded by Brigadier Albrecht von Kurstein in the vicinity of the Bergwald forest.







Monday 26 October 2009

The battle of Klosewitz



The Eisenburg Dragoons chased off the Blau Hussars and took the Altstein gun crews from the flank , while the Eisenburg infantry got the better of the Altsteiners in the central firefight.


August von Bruckenheim and his battered force retreated in some haste while Fritz von Essling’s men licked their wounds holding the field of battle.
Von Bruckenheim reached the main body of the Altsteiners some 20 miles north of Klosewitz having abandoned his guns and leaving his wounded and dead behind.


The War of 1749

In the Year of our Lord 1749 war broke out between the County of Altstein and the Duchy of Eisenburg - Essling



















Count Ludwig, Graf von Altstein, a harsh and somewhat cruel ruler, insulted by the rejection of his advances by the daughter of the Duke of Eisenburg - Essling , declared war upon the elderly Duke Eugen Herzog von Eisenburg - Essling.

The Altstein army was mobilised and marched for the border, banners aloft. Panic however was the order of the day in the Dukedom’s principal town Eisenburg.

Feldgeneral Friedrich ( Fritz ) von Essling mustered his troops in the town square and headed for the border with some haste to meet the Altsteiners head on.

The Eisenburger’s small army consisted of the following:
The Essling Grenadiers
The Eisenburg Infantry Regiment
The Eisenburg Dragoons
A battery of Artillery
Fritz von Essling ran into the Altstein advance guard close to the border town of Klosewitz. The Altsteiners were commanded by Brigadier August von Bruckenheim and consisted of the following units:-
Infantry Regiment No.1
Infantry Regiment No.2
The Blau Altstein Hussars
A battery of Artillery

As a squadron of the Altstein Blau Hussars approached Klosewitz they spotted a squadron of Eisenburg Dragoons approaching from the south-east.
Both forces deployed from the march and battle was joined.