Additional Hessians and French

Throughout the month of December 2019 I've been working on more troop units for our January MLK Day game.  Here's what I've completed so far.

Regimental Commander, 25th Regiment Gardes Mobiles de Gironde

The commander of the 25th Regiment Gardes Mobiles de Gironde is a Falcon Miniatures French officer.  So far only his 3rd Battalion has been completely outfitted (see previous post).

Commander, 2nd Regiment (Grand Duke's), 25th Grand Ducal Hessian Division

The second regiment in the 49th Brigade, 25th Grand Ducal Hessian Division, is the Grand Duke's Regiment.  Its commander is a Foundry (I think) Prussian dragoon officer.  His white collar designates the 2nd Regiment, as each of the four Grand Ducal Hessian regiments had different colored collars.  The white dot on his base also serves to identify the regimental affiliation for the players.

1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment (Grand Duke's)

And the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment has been completed, composed of Foundry figures.  This battalion shows a variety of the Foundry Prussian infantry figures since I bought some previously owned figures.  They were not very well painted, especially the blue coats which were too light, so I soaked and cleaned them, then repainted.  They'll be joined by the 2nd Battalion sometime in January prior to our January 20th game.

2nd Battalion, Tirailleurs Algerien de Marche

The 2nd Battalion of the Tirailleurs Algerien Regiment de Marche also joined the French forces.  Called "Turcos" this regiment is formed of soldiers from the Turcos' depots, survivors of one of the four regiments mobilized at the beginning of the war (which were trapped in the fortresses of Metz or Sedan), and newly raised soldiers from Algeria.  The Turcos were known as fierce fighters and were rightly feared by the Prussians.  This battalion consists of figures from Askari Miniatures.

Turcos Battalion Command

A close-up of the battalion command stand showing a French officer (in native costume) and one of the guidons that were flown by the battalions and individual companies.

January will see, as stated above, the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Hessian Regiment join the forces as well as a Hessian light artillery battery and a French heavy artillery battery.  I'm not sure in what genre I'll be painting after I finish these.  I think I'll be a little "burned out" with the Franco-German War and will go with something else.

Here's hoping everyone had a blessed and merry Christmas and will have a prosperous and joyous new year!!

Hessians and French in the Franco-German War

As promised in my last post, here are the initial units and commanders for my burgeoning German and French forces for the 1870-1871 Franco-German (AKA Prussian) War.  In raising my forces, I've been concentrating on the Republican phase of the war from after the fall of Sedan and the abdication of Napoleon III (the Little) in late 1870 through the final French surrender in early 1871.  My German forces are organized around the Prussian IX Korps with its 18th Prussian and 25th Grand Ducal Hessian Divisions, reinforced by the 6th Prussian Cavalry Division.  My French forces are an amalgam called the 15th Corps, 1st Army of the Loire with the 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions and the 15th Cavalry Divisions.

First the Hessians:

Command Group, 49th Brigade, 25th Grand Ducal Hessian Division

The commander of the 49th Brigade, 25th Grand Ducal Hessian Division was Oberst (Colonel) von Winckler.  Here he is represented by a figure titled "Baron von Gruber, EXT-15."  But I can't recall from which manufacturer I procured him.  (Anyone have any idea?)  He's a nice stout German officer adjusting his monocle for a better view of the battlefield.  His aide, a vintage Scruby 1" Prussian officer, is holding his bay mare (made by Castaway Arts in Australia).  His brigade will consist of the 1st "Life Guard" Infantry Regiment, the 2nd "Grand Duke's" Infantry Regiment, and the 1st Guards Jager Battalion.

Hessian 1st Guards Jager Battalion

This battalion is composed of 24 Helion figures of Prussian jagers from their 1866 line, now sold by Northstar Miniatures.  These are very well sculpted figures and with the proper paint job pass easily for Hessian jagers.

And now some French:

Command Group, 1st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division

In my version of the French 15th Corps, 1st Army of the Loire, the 1st Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division is commanded by General de Brigade Daries.  The general and his horse are Falcon Miniatures castings while the aide is from Castaway Arts.  His brigade will consist of the 30th Regiment de Ligne de Marche and the Volontaires de l'Ouest (the former Papal Zouave Regiment).  In the French Republican forces, "march" units were created using the various depot battalions, late mobilizers, and new recruits.  Some of them were good, solid units and some weren't.  I haven't decided how good (or poor) the 30th will be.  The Volontaires were a very good unit who fought with great courage, many of the men being long-term professionals from their service in Italy in defense of the Pontifical States and Rome itself.

As an aside, the colored dots on the rear of the base designate which regiments are in this brigade -- white and red for the 30th and medium blue for the Volontaires.  All of my units have their own distinct "dot" and their brigade and division commander groups have dots from all their subordinate units.  This allows a player to keep track of who belongs to whom in the heat of the battle.

Next is part of the 5th Chasseur (light infantry) Battalion of the 1st Brigade, 1st Loire Division.

5th Chasseur Battalion with a mix of Foundry and Castaway Arts infantry and some unidentified manufacturer's officers.

I still have another six figures to paint to complete the battalion but only have four on-hand.  But that's OK as we only need 4 stands per unit for our game in January being run by our visiting Tim C. from North Carolina (an original member of the Jackson Gamers from our days at Mississippi State University in the early 1970s).  He brings his computer and the Carnage and Glory rules every Martin Luther King holiday for a game.  This year being the 150th anniversary of the war, we decided to start off with a bang.

Unidentified manufactuer's French officers.

Can you help identify the manufacturer of these two French officers?  They are not Foundry (as far as I can tell from their current listings) or Castaway Arts.  Any assistance would be appreciated.

3rd Battalion, 25th Gardes Mobiles de Gironde

And the final unit is a battalion of Gardes Mobiles from the Department of the Gironde.  I chose this unit because its troops were in the French Loire forces and there is a nice illustration of a soldier in the Osprey Republican France volume.  This battalion also has one of those unidentified manufacturer's officers.  I believe that I got these figures from the late Mark "Doc Ord" Stevens, one of our Jackson Gamers stalwarts.  According to the Osprey, they were armed with the .43 Egyptian (11 mm) Remington rolling block rifle.  We'll see how well (or poorly) they do in the January game.

Well, that's all for November's painting.  Next up are the two battalions and regimental commander of the Hessian 2nd "Grand Duke's" Infantry Regiment, a Hessian light artillery battery, and a French heavy artillery battery, plus the regimental commander for the 25th Gardes Mobiles de Gironde.

I hope that all my American readers had a wonderful and filling Thanksgiving!

More Russians

As promised, although a little delayed, are some more Napoleonic Russians.  These are all Miniature Figurines figures.  They form part of my Russian contingent "Corps Winzingerode" of the Allied Army of the North.

The 1st Battalion, Musketeer Regiment Tula, Division Detachment Harpe

The 3rd Battalion, Musketeer Regiment Tula, Division Detachment Harpe

During my selected period, 1813, the Russian infantry (musketeer) regiments had three battalions of which only the 1st and 3rd were considered active field units.  The 2nd battalion was a depot battalion.  During the 1812 campaign and following on into 1813 and 1814, the grenadier/schutzen company was withdrawn and combined with the companies of two other depot battalions to form three-company combined grenadier battalions.  Also during the 1812 campaign, some of the grenadier-less depot battalions were pressed into field service as three-company battalions.

Heavy Artillery Battery #21, 21st Infantry Division

Armed with 12-lb guns and 20-pound licornes, the heavy battery provided the big punch to the Russian infantry divisions and corps.

This will be the last Napoleonic figures I paint for a while.  Our gaming group will be having a "Franco-German" (AKA "Franco-Prussian") War theme in 2020 for the 150th anniversary of the war that established the 2nd German Reich.  Our first battle will be on the Monday Martin Luther King holiday as our friend Tim C. joins us from North Carolina for our annual MLK Carnage and Glory game.

And Now for Some Italians

My 44th (Foreign) Infantry Division of the French IX Corps [my 1813 French force] has added a new leger battalion to its rolls.  The 3rd Battalion, 1st Light Regiment has reported for duty.

It uses 16 Miniature Figurines French light infantry figures.  They will join the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the Neuchatel Regiment in the division's 1st Brigade.  The 2nd Brigade has two battalions of Nassauers and a battalion of the Irish Legion.  Still organizing is the 3rd Brigade composed of three Polish line battalions as well as two Polish foot artillery companies for division support.

Russians, Saxons, and French, O My!

Just completed some more 25mm units for my Napoleonic forces.

First up we have the 1st Battalion, Pavlov Grenadier Regiment, of the army of the Czar.  Due to its heroism in 1807, it was authorized to retain the miter helmet (and did so until WW1).  In April 1813, the Pavlovs were given guard status and transferred to the Imperial Guard and renamed "Pavlovski".  According to most valid data, in the 1813 period only the grenadier company wore the taller grenadier miter while the three fusilier companies in each battalion wore the shorter fusilier style miter.  But since Hinton Hunt and Der Kriegspieler did not make a fusilier miter back in the 1970s when I acquired the figures, all of them are in the taller miter helmet.  The flag is from the Warflag site and is the 1803 pattern for the regiments of the St. Petersburg district.  I believe that during my time frame (1813) they were still using this flag and not the new issue guard flags.

This battalion will be the senior guard battalion in my small guards brigade, along with the 3rd Battalion (of vintage Scruby figures) and the Finnlanski Jager Battalion (of vintage Der Kriegspieler figures).  The 2nd Battalion will be completed at a later date once I get enough Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegspieler figures.

Second is the Saxon foot battery #3 which will support my small 6-battalion Saxon division.  This battery has Miniature Figurine gunners and Scruby/Historifigs guns.  The battery had four 6-lb guns and two field howitzers.

Since the Scruby/Historifigs 6-lb guns are slightly under "scale" I've used their 8-lb models which, to me, look good.

Third is a regiment of the French guard cavalry - the Guard Scout Lancers or Eclaireur-lancier de la Garde Imperiale.  Although this cavalry component of the French Guard wasn't raised until late 1813 and into early 1814, I've had three of the stands since the mid 1970s.  Recently I acquired two more figures and was able to finally complete the regiment.  This is the first guard cavalry unit I have in my French forces, but it may not be the last.

The three stands with pennants on the lances are the original figures, being early Miniature Figurines with horse furniture sculpted on the riders.  The other stand with the officer are late Miniature Figurines with the horse furniture sculpted on the horse.  Since they are bigger than the early ones, I've added a "booster" base onto the older ones to get them up to the same height.

More Napoleonics in future posts, including a leger battalion from the Kingdom of Northern Italy and a Russian musketeer regiment in overcoats.

Genesis of My TMP Moniker

Just asked over on The Miniatures Page is how did you come by your moniker on TMP.  Well as many of you can guess, mine is "Col Campbell" from my very first painted wargame mounted commander - from the venerable Airfix Waterloo Highland box.  Since Campbell is one of my family names, the mounted officer became Colonel Campbell and has led my Napoleonic British forces since the early 1970s.  And yes, even though an Airfix plastic figure, he's still going strong.

And realizing that I've never posted a picture of the figure, here it is:

Please click on photo for a larger image.

He was painted during my 1970-1971 third year at university, not long after meeting my long-time friend and wargaming buddy, Lord Sterling.  We've been gaming together now for 49 years!!!

15mm Pegram's Cavalry Brigade

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have now changed my Confederate cavalry basing from their temporary "Fire and Fury" basing to my permanent "On to Richmond" basing.

Here is the still to be completed brigade of Confederate cavalry commanded by Brigadier General John Pegram.  It consisted of the 1st and 6th Georgia, 6th North Carolina, and 10th Confederate Cavalry Regiments and Rucker's (cavalry) Legion.  The brigade was commanded by Pegram until Bragg formed a second cavalry corps to be commanded by Brigadier General Nathan B. Forrest.  At that time Pegram was elevated to a division command and turned his brigade over to Brigadier Henry B. Davidson.

The brigade is incomplete, missing 7 mounted and 3 dismounted stands.  They will be procured in the near future to complete the brigade.  Another horse-holder stand will be created out of on-hand figures.  The horse-holder stands will be used to show the position of the brigade's horses when the troopers are functioning in their dismounted capacity.

I also plan on raising a second Confederate cavalry brigade in the near future but an unsure of which one it will be.  There were eight cavalry brigades in the Army of Tennessee at the time of the Tullahoma-Chattanooga-Chickamauga campaign which is the timeframe I'm using to raise my Union and Confederate forces.

Polk's Brigade of Cleburne's Division

While I was painting Confederate cavalry for our just completed Chickamauga game, I also finished painting and basing another brigade for Hardee's Corps of the Army of Tennessee.

Polk's brigade of Cleburne's Division

This is the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Lucius Polk (no relation to the Bishop) and consisted of the 1st Arkansas, 3rd/5th (consolidated) Confederate, and 2nd, 35th, and 48th Tennessee Infantry Regiments.  The figures are 15mm Old Glory miniatures and are dressed in my rendition of a "drab" colored uniform which was common in the Confederate west.  They are based for the venerable "On to Richmond" rules.

Now I just have to paint Wood's Brigade and I'll be completed with Cleburne's Division.  That will put my half-way through painting my Confederate infantry forces, leaving just the three brigades of Breckinridge's Division and the two brigades of Bowen's Division (borrowed from Pemberton's command in Mississippi).

15mm Confederate Cavalry

I should have uploaded this several days ago.  This is almost all my contribution to our just completed Chickamauga game (Saturday, Sep. 21).

The four mounted stands plus more than enough horse-holder stands and four of the ten required dismounted stands.

They are a mix of various 15mm manufacturers.  Although currently mounted for "Fire and Fire" they will be remounted this coming week as Pegram's Cavalry Brigade of the Army of Tennessee.

Pirate Lass

On "Talk Like a Pirate" day, my grand-daughter's school had a "dress like a pirate" day, their mascot being a pirate.  We outfitted her with a head scarf, a jeweled parrot pin, and a treasure map.

Arrghh, matey!  Shiver me timbers!

Another Two American Revolution Units

In between painting my 15mm Union cavalry (see previous post), I've also been working on two additional units for my American Revolution armies.  I'm running a game on Saturday, August 31, and felt I needed these two units with their different characteristics.

First, a battalion of Miniature Figurine British grenadiers:

The 1st British Grenadier Battalion, composed of companies from the 4th, 5th 10th, 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 27th, 35th, 38th, and 40th Foot Regiments.

The British army in North America removed the grenadier (and light) companies from their infantry battalions and "converged" them into 10-company battalions.  Initially formed for the New York City campaign in 1776, they remained on the order of battle until the final actions at Yorktown.  Losses were filled by drafts from the original regiments or others if the originals had been deployed elsewhere.  This battalion will eventually be joined by the 2nd Grenadier Battalion.

Second, not a new unit but two new commanders:

Hessian Colonels von Donop (left) and von Schamm (right)

I've had these two mounted officers for a while and decided to go ahead and get them painted while I was in a revolutionary frame of mind.  I'm sure you'll recognize Colonel von Donop, who was the inhaber of the Musketeer Regiment von Donop and led Hessian forces in North America.  But you may not be familiar with Colonel von Schamm, who attacked an American fort at the "Battle of Bagle Heights" and when defeated joined the American cause, saying that he was "... a Hessian without no aggression" and "If you can't beat them, join them."

Third, my first American militia unit, the Southern District Militia Regiment.  This regiment is not patterned on any particular state's militia but labeled so that I can use it just about anywhere.  It is composed of Miniature Figurines and (probably) Frontier figures.

The American Southern District Militia  Regiment

They will eventually have three compatriot regiments - the Northern District, Eastern District, and River District regiments.

They will be in action on Saturday.  I hope they do well.

15mm Union Cavalry

My friend Electric Ed is developing a club game for us to play on September 21.  He is using the "Fire and Fury" rules with the 1st Day of Chickamauga as the setting.  But the challenge is that Ed doesn't own any 15mm ACW figures.  So three of us are helping him out - Phil with Union infantry and artillery and most of the Confederate cavalry, Larry with Confederate infantry and artillery, and me with Union cavalry and the balance of the Confederate cavalry.  So for the past month or so, I've been working on painting enough Union cavalry for 11 mounted stands (at 2 figures per stand), 8 dismounted stands (at 3 figures per stand), and 3 horse holder stands.

I'm using almost all of my Union cavalry figures in this endeavor from several different manufacturers.  Although they are currently based for "Fire and Fury" rules, they will eventually be permanently based for the "On to Richmond!" rules.

Eleven stands of Union cavalry which will later be divided into Wilder's mounted infantry ("Lightning") brigade and Minty's cavalry ("Saber") brigade.

Eight stands of dismounted cavalry and three stands of horse holders, which also will later be divided into Wilder's and Minty's brigades.

I know that the dismounted command stand's flag is incorrect for a cavalry unit, but it will go to Wilder's Brigade which carried the standard Union infantry colors.

Now to get to work on the Confederate cavalry, which will be reported separately.

Byzantines vs Seljuqs in 15mm

Today our weekly old guys meeting (lunch then a game) used Simon "Big Red Bat" Miller's "To the Strongest!" rules and my 15mm forces to fight a game between Byzantine defenders and a Seljuq raiding party.  For those who are not familiar "TtS!" uses squares to adjudicate movement and weapons ranges and playing cards for activation, missile fire, melees, and rallying.  If you are interested, you can get the rules, playing mats, and all sorts of accoutrements at Simon's shop.  You can also read more about the rules at the "To the Strongest!" discussion forum.  The playing mat was obtained from Simon and features a thin square grid that doesn't detract from the very nice surface.  Well, enough blatant advertising 😁 on with the battle report.

This game was the second in a row for us.  The first one, for which there were no pictures, pitted two relatively balanced Norman forces against each other.  It was mainly a learning game.  Today the forces were:

Byzantine (Nikephorian list):  four commands with a total of four units of tagmatic cavalry, two units of thematic cavalry, two units of nomadic light cavalry with bow, four units of tagmatic infantry spearmen, one unit of psiloi javelinmen, four units of toxotoi light infantry with bow, and a camp.  This force had a total of 38 victory points with 13 victory medals.  Two players controlled the Byzantines.

Seljuq (Seljuq Turkish list):  four commands with a total of 1 unit of Seljuq noble cavalry, three units of ghulam cavalry, ten units of turkic light cavalry with bow, one unit of Dailami guard javelinmen, three units of light infantry with javelins, three units of light infantry with bows, and a camp.  This force had a total of 37 victory points and 12 victory medals.  Two players (including me) controlled the Seljuqs.

It would seem that the Seljuqs, with all their light bow-armed cavalry, would ride circles around the slower moving Byzantines while shooting them to pieces.  Unfortunately it didn't quite work out that way.  All I can say is "the cards was against us!"  All four of us couldn't seem to get into a good sequence where we activated with low cards and then shot or fought with high cards.  It was the other way around for almost the entire game.  In addition, our Seljuq light cavalry was very fragile.  It was not a good day to be a Seljuq.

Now for a few pictures, taken about midway through the game.  As you'll see, I use a rather large base with my 15mm figures, 80 mm x 40 mm with 8 to 12 infantry or 4 to 6 cavalry per base.  This basing was originally used for the old "Vis Bellica" rules which turned out not to be a particularly liked rule set among us - a lot too much adding and subtracting of combat modifiers.  As I already had a ton of figures based this way on fairly expensive Litko bases I didn't want to rebase them back to the old DBA etc. standard.  But with TtS!, this basing seems to work so I'll continue to use it.

A good look of most of the battlefield from the Seljuq right rear.  The gray colored numbered chits denote missile ammunition available to a bow or javelin equipped unit.  All 21 Seljuq and 15 of the 17 Byzantine units were bow or javelin equipped.  Directly in front of the camera you can see a Byzantine nomadic light cavalry unit in the rough ground and a leader and two heavy cavalry units to its right (your left) with a third Byzantine heavy cavalry unit to the rear facing one of my Seljuq light cavalry units.  My leader and three Seljuq light cavalry units are in front of the Byzantines.  My plan was to ride around the Byzantine flank, get behind them, and shoot them to pieces.  Didn't happen!

The Seljuq left flank with bow armed light infantry then light cavalry beyond them facing Byzantine cavalry and infantry.  The cards immediately behind the Seljuq units indicate their activations with the "3" being pretty good, allowing future activations while the "8" being not so good as one has to get a higher card to continue to activate.  The two red cards were played by the bow units as their missile fire, with both getting a hit on their respective targets.  It probably wasn't enough as I'm sure the Byzantine player was able to save from the hits,

Finally a view from the rear of the Seljuq center with my four heavy cavalry units and my leader facing a Byzantine infantry force.  The black squiggly marker by the left front cavalry unit indicates it is disordered from a missed save.  Another such missed save and the unit would be destroyed.  We only had five "2-hit" units with the rest being "1-hit" wonders - a missed save and the unit was destroyed.  The toothpick on the left rear cavalry unit indicates that it had not used its "lance" capability which allows it to draw two hits cards in melee.  It would later use it and bow fire to destroy one of the opposing Byzantine heavy infantry units seen in the distance.

The Seljuqs really took it in the shorts today, loosing one heavy cavalry, five light cavalry, and four light infantry units for a total of 11 of its available 12 victory medals.  We decided "he who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day" and conceded defeat.  The Byzantines didn't lose but about 1/3 that amount.  To paraphrase, "something was wrong with our bloody bows and arrows" today.

But we are catching onto the mechanics of the rules and will have more of these games in the future.

Captain Quigley and Some Guns

Two posts ago I featured my Natal Native Horse with their squadron commander Captain Quigley.  I mentioned at the time that I was working on a dismounted figure for him and here it is:

Captain Quigley, dismounted and mounted

While the horse is from Ral Partha, both human figures are from Miniature Figurines.  I've added a carbine under the dismounted figure's right arm by drilling a hole and slipping the weapon through, securing it with CA glue.  I still need to match the base terrain effects to the mounted figure and then improve both of them with some tufts.

At the same time I was completing some additional naval artillery and a small gun for my native forces.

A large maybe 6-lbr flanked by two smaller maybe 4-lbr naval guns.  Not sure of the manufacturer(s).
The gunners are from Reviresco that I have had painted for a number of years.  They man my river gunboat.

A reverse shot of the three guns.

And finally a small mountain howitzer that has somehow come into the hands of my native forces, in this case a Pathan gun crew although I have Dervish gunners as well.

Both the mountain howitzer and the gunners are from Ral Partha

This gun will give both my North Central Frontier Pathans and Green Nile Dervishes some artillery support.

These will be the last Colonial figures for a while as I need to get back to my 15mm American Civil War forces with a Confederate brigade next in the painting queue.

Backyard Predators

Not wargaming, but ....

While working out in my yard at several different times this past week, I saw these two backyard "predators."

First we have:

This very small toad-frog (that's what we call them down here in Dixie) waiting patiently for a several small bug or three.  It was only about 2" long.

And then several days later as I was cutting my front yard and around the side of my garage, I came across this:

At first I thought it was alive but when the noise of my lawn mower didn't startle it, I looked closer and discovered that it was the shed skin of a non-venomous snake.  The skin was about 24" long and sort of fragile.  When I went to move it, it started to fall apart.  It brought back a recollection of another snake we had in our back yard, a king snake.  My wife decided that we should call it "Severus Snake" in honor of the recently released Harry Potter movies.

But these could be denizens of some forgotten world being explored by our plucky pulp heroes - a gaming scenario in the making.

Natal Native Horse and Pathan Horse

During the Zulu War, the British raised a number of "colonial" units, primarily mounted, to augment the regular British Army forces deployed to the Natal region.  One of these was the Natal Native Horse.  Originally formed in 1866 and "regimented" in 1879, the Natal Native Horse was composed, in part, of amaNgwane (or Sikhali) tribesmen, Basuto tribesmen, and tribesmen from the Edendale Mission.  They were armed with Martini-Henry carbines and were used extensively for scouting and escort duties. The Edendale Horse were at Isandlwana where they covered the retreating British refugees as well as at Hlobane, Khambala, and the pre-Ulundi reconnaissance.  [Colonial Wars Sourcebook by Philip Haythornthwaite]

Here is my rendition of this unit.  The mounted troops have been painted for many years but the dismounted troops were just finished.  They are organized per "The Sword and the Flame" with 12 mounted and 9 dismounted figures per unit.

Edendale Horse Squadron of two troops.  On the left are Miniatures Figurines and on the right are Ral Partha.  The officer in the middle is a MiniFig.  I've named him Captain Quigley and he gets a +3 addition to his rifle fire.

The dismounted figures, along with Captain Quigley.  They are a mix of vintage Scruby, Falcon, Ral Partha, and some unknowns given to me by a friend.

I have found a dismounted figure for Captain Quigley, which is currently in my active painting queue.

And traveling from southern Africa to the Northwest Frontier of India, I've added a 12-figure unit of mounted Pathan warriors.

This mounted clan is a mix of Iron Brigade and Miniature Figurines cavalry.

All of these will see action over the coming months in some of our group's games.

4th Prussian Brigade Completed!

Finally I've completed all of the units for the 4th Prussian Brigade, III Korps (August 1813) commanded by Generalleutnant von Bulow.  This "brigade" is actually a division sized unit as were all of the Prussian "brigades."  They did this to get around part of the onerous French terms after the 1807 capitulation of Prussia.

The 4th Brigade was commanded by Generalmajor von Thumen and was composed of:
      Infantry Regiment # 5, 4th East Prussian (of three battalions and a volunteer jager detachment)
      5th Reserve Infantry Regiment (of three battalions and a volunteer jager detachment)
      half battalion, East Prussian Jager Battalion, #2
      Elbe Infantry Regiment (of two battalions and a volunteer jager detachment) [Should have three and will if I ever run across the requisite number of Hinchliffe figures.]
      Pomeranian Light National Cavalry Regiment
      Foot Artillery Company # 6 (equipped with four 6-lb cannon and two 7-lb howitzers) [Should have six cannon and will if I can get the requisite gunners and cannon.]

As you can see this is a formidable fighting force although light on artillery and cavalry, additional assets of which were provided by the corps.

Pomeranian Light National Cavalry Regiment, composed of eight vintage 25mm Der Kriegspieler one-piece cavalry figures.

Slightly different view of the four 2-figure stands that compose the regiment.

The Pomeranian Light Cavalry Regiment was one of four national cavalry regiments formed in 1813 by the resurgent Prussian Army.  It was dressed in an uhlan style uniform with a dark green kollet and grey overalls.  The regiment was armed as a light cavalry regiment with sabers and carbines.  In 1815, this formation was divided between the Guard Dragoon and 4th Uhlan Regiments. [Information courtesy of David Nash's The Prussian Army: 1808-1815 (Almark Publications, 1972), my "bible for the Prussian Army.]

In addition to the 4th Brigade, my III Korps Prussian forces include the complete 3rd Brigade (three 3-battalion infantry regiments, one grenadier battalion, one hussar regiment, and one foot artillery company, plus four volunteer jager detachments), the still forming 5th Brigade (one 3-battalion infantry regiment and one hussar regiment) and 6th Brigade (one Landwehr cavalry regiment), almost all of the corps cavalry (three dragoon regiments, one hussar regiment, one uhlan regiment, and one Landwehr [of three] cavalry regiment), and most of the corps artillery (two 12-lb foot companies and one 6-lb horse company).  The Prussian III Korps was part of the Alllied Army of the North, commanded by Crown Prince Bernadotte of Sweden (a former Napoleonic French marshal).

Plus I have scattered units from the I Korps, commanded by Generalleutnant von Yorck (five grenadier battalions and five cavalry regiments), which was assigned to the Army of Silesia, commanded by General der Kavallerie von Blucher.




   

Additional Napoleonic Prussian Battalion

I just finished painting and basing an additional Napoleonic Prussian battalion to add to my III Korps troops.  This battalion is the next to last unit needed to complete the 4th Brigade (division equivalent).  They are carrying a "landwehr" flag as there is no indication that they had colors until after 1815.  But all my battalions have flags so I used this one.

1st Battalion, Elbe-Infantrie-Regiment using Hinchliffe figures

This regiment was originally organized by Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) von Reuss in the spring of 1813 as the Auslander Bataillion von Reuss.  But with subsequent recruiting it was expanded into a full three-battalion regiment by July 1813, incorporating Hessian guardsmen, dismounted Westphalian cheveauleger and the Westphalian Legion. In 1815 it was retitled Infantrie-Regiment Nummer 26, Erste Magdeburgisches.  [The Prussian Army: 1808-1815 by David Nash, page 86]

I only have two battalions, the first of Hinchliffe figures and the second of Prinz August castings.  If I ever get any more of either, I'll raise the third battalion.

WW2 British and German Infantry

For many a year I told myself that I would not get entangled in collecting WW2 forces.  So what did I do - get into collecting WW2 forces.  I have a significant mass of British and German 1:285 microarmor for the North African campaigns between Rommel and the 8th Army.  And now I have 28mm British and German infantry for Northwestern Europe.

British infantry squad (Warlord Games/Bolt Action) posed with some of my hedge (used as "bocage") terrain.
Consists of 8 riflemen and a 2-man Bren gun team.

German infantry squad (Artizan Designs) also posed with hedge terrain.
Consists of 2 submachine gunners, 6 riflemen, and a 2-man MG-34 team.

During the Bayou Wars convention, I bought enough figures to make a British two-squad platoon with mortar and machinegun support and a small German Kampfgruppe of two platoons (one Heer infantry and one Luftwaffe infantry) plus mortar and machinegun support.  The Germans will be augmented by a Feldjager squad using some of Bob Murch's "Between the Wars" German infantry.  I'm adamant that I'll not expand this force level (he says convincingly and hopefully).

For rules we're trying modifications to the Sergeants 3 "The Sword to Adventure" variant of the venerable "The Sword and the Flame" rules.  They worked adequately for the first test but we'll be making some modifications to them.

Here are some pictures of our first run-through:

Germans occupying a bombed out building.

British and Germans fighting across a hedgerow.  The Germans were repulsed with significant casualties.

British commandos try to expel the Germans from a ruined church.

During the fighting one of the Germans took a catastrophic hit!