The Яussians Are Coming! The Яussians Are Coming!

 And yes, I do know that the Cyrillic R is actually a P, but I couldn't resist using the old movie title.

Over the past several months, I've been experimenting with a new set of rules -- "The Men Would Would Be Kings" from Osprey Publishing.  I got 'hooked' on them thanks to Neil of Toy Soldiers and Dining Room Battles blog and his 'Anglo-Russian War' thread, of which this post sets the stage.

I've been a long time Victorian colonial gamer using the late Larry Brom's venerable "The Sword and the Flame Rules."  But I've always wanted to do a smaller group of battles around a common theme.  So I decided to partially copy Neil's set-up.  In my imaginary conflict, the action takes place in the tri-border Russia-Persia (Iran)-Afghanistan area.

My first new unit of this theme was originally owned and painted by the late Dr. Mark "Doc Ord" Stevens.  I bought it from his widow after he died from ALS back in 2018.  They are a group of Old Glory Russians from their Boxer Rebellion line.  I've done some repainting to back date the uniforms somewhat.  They will be used as a border guard unit of two 12-figure platoons.  

Please click on images for larger pictures.

Border Guards 1st Platoon

Border Guards 2nd Platoon

"The Men Who Would Be Kings" rules use 12 figures for each regular or irregular infantry unit and 16 figures for a tribal infantry unit.  Cavalry are either 8 or 10 figures and guns of any type are manned by 4 figures.

The next unit I painted, this time from the bare metal, is from Askari Miniatures' Russian Colonial line.  These figures are dressed in the field uniform popular with Russian units all along the southern arc of the expanding Russian Empire.  It consisted of a loose white canvas smock, white canvas trousers, and a Havelock fitted to the kepi.  This "Slavic" style uniform was worn from the early 1870s through WW2.

8th Siberian Rifles, 1st Platoon,
led by the General Skobelev figure

8th Siberian Rifles, 2nd Platoon

After reorganizing and repainting the Old Glory Russians I obtained from Mark's estate, I had two figures remaining.  Since their soft caps looked like some of the ones worn by the figures I've used for a 'Back of Beyond' White Russian unit, I repainted them to match and added them to that unit.

The two "new" additions are flanking one of the original figures.

And the entire White Russian unit.

But there is more!  I still have two more "Siberian rifle" platoons to paint as well as a gun with crew and a Gatling gun with crew.  Plus there are four more figures on order to add to the White Russian unit.

And I have two British and three Indian infantry platoons and one British and one Indian machinegun team to paint.  More later!

New French Marins Infantry (1870-1871)

 

I finally finished my special project after several months.  It is a unit of Askari Miniatures French naval infantry in shore uniforms that 'Askari Al' had recently released.  They are equipped in what became the 'standard' uniform for French sailors used as land-based infantry by the Republican armies during the Franco-German War.  Please click on picture for a large image.

These figures are very well sculpted as one would expect from Askari Miniatures.  They came with standard French-style backpacks but I did not use them.

This unit will replace one of my older Old Glory Boxer Rebellion figure battalions as the "new" 5th Battalion, Toulon Regiment des Marins of the 1st Division, 15th Loire Corps.  Overtime I plan on replacing the other two battalions with these very nice figures.

French Naval Auto-Cannon (FPW: 1870-1871)

I haven't done a lot of painting so far this month.  I have done a little on a 15mm Confederate brigade for my "On to Richmond!" ACW rules based forces and a little on my special project (more on this once I get it completed).  The one element I completed is an auto-cannon manned by French naval gunners that will be used in my Franco-German War (1870-1871) French Republican forces.

I've had this 'large' Gatling style gun for a number of years as part of a collection of figures I bought.  I think it was manufactured by Falcon Miniatures as the wheel spacing resembled the heavy Krupp guns that I used as Hessian heavy artillery.  The gun carriage was rather wide and looked rather spindly.  So I shortened the axle and glued a reinforcing wire to hold the barrel mechanism.  I had to drill fairly deeply into the bottom of the barrel under the ammunition box, through the center of the gun carriage, and then bend the wire along underneath the trail of the carriage.

After painting, it turned out rather well.  The gun is manned by two Askari Miniatures French naval gunners from the Sailors line.  I bought two 4-figure packs and used six of them for the French naval heavy battery that I included in an earlier blog post.

This gun will be included as part of the Naval Heavy Artillery Battery in the 15th Loire Corps artillery.  If need be, I can also use it to support any French naval or land forces conducting operations in the Victorian Colonial period.

More Prussian 1870-1871 Artillery

The other day I completed painting the newly acquired gunners for the 3rd and 4th Light Batteries, part of the IX Armeekorps artillery for my 1870-1871 Prussian forces.

These two batteries each have 3 Frontier Krupp guns, 4 Foundry gunners, and 2 Frontier gunners.

Along with the 3rd and 4th Heavy Batteries, these compose the 2nd Battalion, 9th Artillery Regiment 'Schleswig-Holstein.'  The 3rd Battalion is attached to the 18th Infantry Division, IX Armeekorps while the 1st Battalion is attached to the 17th Infantry Division which is currently helping to guard the North Sea coast in northwestern Prussia.

This will basically conclude my painting 1870-1871 forces for a while.  Now to complete my Confederate forces so I can run some American Civil War games.

A Death in the "Family"

 

Just learned yesterday evening that long-time Jackson Gamer John Murtagh has died.  He apparently suffered a heart attack Tuesday afternoon.  According to his brother he had called 911 but after loading him into their ambulance the EMTs could not revive him.  John was a real larger-than-life character, always brimming over with enthusiasm for wargaming.  He was a feature at the local Bayou Wars and Colonial Barracks conventions and at Historicon.

He had a large collection of self-cast 40mm Prince August figures that he used to run both SYW imagi-nations and AWI battles.  He was a resident of Portland, Arkansas.

He will be missed by us all.

Rest of Hessian Artillery

After a brief diversion to paint WW2 German tanks, I returned to the 1870-1871 Franco-German War to finish the artillery assigned to the 25th (Grand Ducal Hessian) Division of the Prussian IX Armeekorps.  These are the last three of the six batteries of that division.

 The 2nd Heavy Battery, part of the 1st Abteilung (Battalion) consists of three Falcon Krupp guns and six gunners - one Foundry officer (with binoculars), two vintage Scruby 1" figures, and three Castaway Arts gunners.

The 1st Horse Battery, also part of the 1st Abteilung consists of three Ral Partha Krupp guns, two Foundry gunners (on middle gun), three Eagles of Empire gunners (left and right guns), and one Castaway Arts gunner (right gun).

These two batteries, plus the 1st Heavy Battery compose the 1st Abteilung.

The 3rd Light Battery, part of the 2nd Abteilung, consists of three Ral Partha Krupp guns and six Castaway Arts gunners.  Its two companion batteries in the 2nd Abteilung are the 1st Light and 2nd Light.

Now all I have to do to complete the 25th Division is paint five battalions of infantry (four musketeer and one jager) [120 figures plus a two-man brigade command group and two mounted regimental colonels] and two regiments of cavalry [32 dragoons and a two-man brigade command group].  That's only 195 human and horse figures.  Peace of cake, right!

That doesn't consider three more batteries of artillery (two Prussian and one French), five battalions of infantry (French), and ten regiments of cavalry (five Prussian and five French) plus assorted command figures.  That's only 668 individual humans, horses, and guns, including the above unpainted Hessians.

Oh well, just like eating an elephant -- one bite at a time!

Memoir 44 - Battle of Prokhorovka (Kursk, July 1943) 'Overlord' Version

As I stated in my previous post, this was a massive game with 25 units per side.  This particular battle was the one of the largest tank actions in modern history.  Some say the largest but others, including historian David Glantz, say it was the Battle of Brody in 1941.

Anyway, it was the largest one we've fought.  The German 2nd SS Panzer Korps had (or would have had if we would have counted properly) 48 armored vehicles and 44 infantry stands [92 in 14 armored and 11 infantry units].  The Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army had 47 armored vehicles, 32 infantry stands, and 4 artillery stands [83 in 15 armored, 8 infantry, and 2 artillery units].  As an interesting note, the 5th Guards Tank  Army went on to increase its stature and ended up as one of the Soviet armies in the Belorussian Military District where it formed part of the strategic second echelon armies against NATO forces in western Germany during the Cold War.

Now on to the battle.  There were six of us which just the right number as the Memoir 44 board is divided into three sections -- left, center, and right.  Jay (Lord Sterling), Ed, and Steve started out with the Germans while Mark, Phil, and I had the Soviets.  Jay and I were the two overall commanders who got to hand out the action cards.  In the 'Overlord' version, each side can play up to three cards per turn and at the end of each turn draws two replacement cards as long as your "hand" doesn't exceed your starting number, which for this scenario was ten each.  Victory was measured in units killed with 12 being the magic number.

I only took four pictures at the start of the first game, but they will give you a good appreciation of the games.  We played in my church's library on a table that is 10' long and 4' wide, which was just about perfect for the layout.  The two battle mats are from Cigar Box Battle [shameless advertisement] and were printed with 4" hexes.  I've also used these for a large number of Commands & Colors - Medieval battles.

Please click on an image to get a larger picture.

Here is a long view of the entire battlefield.  The Russians are on the left (Where else would they be!) while the Germans on on the right (Undsoweiter for them as well).  As you can see with the Russian tanks in the foreground, there are four 3-tank units with one of them down to only one tank as is the German tank unit directly in front of it.  Prokhorovka is in the middle of the battlefield on the left beyond the stream.

Here we are looking towards the German attack from behind the Russian center.  As you can see, we're using whatever we had available, including armored vehicles that had not even been fielded yet.  Here also you can see the losses.  And some of the cards available to me as the Russian commander.  Plus you'll notice a visitor to the battlefield.

A good view of the German command team with Steve pondering the mass of Soviet tanks bearing down on him while Jay (center) and Ed try to decide who gets what command/combat card.

Another shot of the Doctor facing down the German panzers.  But unfortunately for the Soviets he was neutral in the battle.

Things began going downhill swiftly for the Soviets who ended up losing with 5 or 6 victory medals to the 12 that the Germans got to win the first game.

At this point we reset the battlefield, went to lunch (at the Quiznos sandwich shop down the street, and returned, switching sides.  Then Mark, Phil, and I showed that since we lost with the Russians in the first game, we could just as easily lose with the Germans in the second, 12 Soviet victory medals to our 9.  It was a little closer but still no "cigar."

Overall it was a fun game and we plan on doing some more of these 'Overlord' variants, maybe one from the Battle of the Bulge.  There are many. many scenarios for Memoir 44 and all its iterations on the Days of Wonder web site.

Clankety, Clank, I Am a Tank!

 

My good wargaming buddy Lord Sterling and I, in response to a fellow gamer's request, are running a large Memoir 44 game using 15mm miniatures on Saturday.  The scenario is the tank battle at Prokhorovka (Kursk, July 1943) pitting the German SS Panzer Korps against the Soviet 5th Guards Tank Army.

Then we realized we didn't have enough German armor for the scenario so we ordered two boxes of Flames of War 15mm German tanks (one of Pz-IV H and one of Pz-VIa) from Noble Knight Games.  They had them in the post to us very quickly and they arrived on Tuesday at my house.  I immediately started putting the tanks together.  This was the first time in decades that I've assembled a plastic kit (except for some buildings) so my first two, even following the instructions on the Flames of War web site, were rather slap-dash.  But I quickly got the hang of it, assembling three Pz-IVs and all five Pz-VIs.  I left the other two Pz-IVs to Lord Sterling.

My first (and partially painted) Pz-IV H

Not having the "right" paint colors, I was forced to improvise, assisted by a Vallejo to Craft Paints conversion chart I had run across several years ago.

The first Pz-IV H and three unpainted PZ-VIs

Hand painting was too slow as we needed a quick turn-around so I went to a spray paint - Krylon flat camouflage tan.  That seemed to do the trick in representing the elusive German dunkelgelb (dark yellow) basic paint scheme from the factory.

And here are my results.

Three Pz-IV H tanks.
One handpainted with a mix of craft paint (desert sand and butter pecan), one sprayed with an almost empty can of flat tan, and one with the Krylon flat tan.

And the five Pz-VI Tigers, all painted with the Krylon flat tan.

In addition, I did some detailed painting of the bow machineguns, tracks, and a few other items.  With time being short I did not attempt any camouflage paint addition (a combination of dark olive green and red brown) that the German fieldtroops applied.  My thought was these tanks had just arrived fresh off the train from the factory in Germany and were rushed into the field.  That sounded good to me.

Of course I found out after we had already committed ourselves that the requesting gamer would not be able to come to the game.  Oh well, his loss!

So with this quick diversion from the Franco-German War (1870-1871) to the "Russo-German" War (1943) done, I will gratefully return to the 19th Century to complete several more batteries of Prussian artillery for the IX Armeekorps in 1871.

Mystery Manufacturer of Prussian 1870-1871 Gunners -- EDITED

 

Some time ago I obtained these three Prussian gunners (1870-1871) from the estate of a late friend.  AT the time I think I knew who manufactured them, but now I cannot recall.  I thought they were Helion (now Northstar) figures but upon looking at the current Northstar web site, these poses to not match anything being produced by Nic.

I seek the "Hive's" help.  Please click on the picture for a larger image.

The three figures in the center are the ones I need help on identification.  On picture right is a Foundry officer and on picture left is a Castaway Arts officer for comparison.

Any help in identifying the three middle figures would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jim

EDIT:  I also posted this on The Miniatures Page and received a quick answer.  They are 1866 Prussian gunners from the Eagles of Empire range that is available from North Star Miniatures in the UK.

Prussian and Hessian Heavy Artillery, 1870-1871

The Fabrik Eisenmuhlen has been busy these past weeks turning out artillery for the German forces.  Three more batteries of artillery have joined or rejoined the Prussian IX Armeekorps, two Prussian and one Hessian.

Please click on each image to view a larger picture.

The two Prussian batteries are each composed of three Old Glory Krupp guns and six Foundry gunners.  I painted and assembled the guns but the gunners were bought already painted.

3rd (left) and 4th (right) Prussian Heavy Batteries

In addition, the 1st Hessian Heavy Battery has been 'upgunned' with two of its older, non-standard guns exchanged for two 'vintage' Falcon Krupp guns.  The gunners are 'vintage' Scruby 1" figures that I bought already painted.

1st Hessian Heavy Battery
The original gun is in the center, flanked by the two additions.

The German army at this time was well equipped with artillery.  My rendition of the Prussian IX Armeekorps will eventually have sixteen batteries of artillery, against the French 15th Loire Corps with only eleven batteries (three heavy, four light, one horse, and three Mitrailleuse).  That is not unusual as the German forces normally had much more artillery than did the French and employed it much better than the French.  That helped to make up for the difference in effective ranges between the German Dreyse 'needlegun' rifles and the French Chassepot rifles.

IX Armeekorps artillery -- two heavy batteries, two light batteries, and one horse battery

18th Prussian Infantry Division -- two heavy batteries and two light batteries

25th Hessian Infantry Division -- two heavy batteries, three light batteries, and one horse battery 

16th Prussian Cavalry Division -- one horse battery

All of the above except four Prussian batteries are complete.  The 2nd Hessian Heavy, 3rd Hessian Light, and 1st Hessian Horse batteries are complete but not yet painted.  The Prussian 3rd and 4th Light Batteries are painted but lack three gunners each.  The 1st Prussian Horse Battery has all of its guns but only one of its gunners, while the 2nd Prussian Horse Battery only has one gunner available.  I'm working on acquiring the remaining three guns for the Prussians as well as all the needed gunners.

 As I related in an earlier post, the French only lack their horse battery which needs three guns and five gunners, the officer already being available.

Well, now on to getting the three Hessian batteries completed.

 

Prussian 1870-1871 Artillery

In response to the increase in French artillery in the 15th Loire Corps, the Prussian IX Armeekorps has received new, heavier guns for two of its heavy batteries.  These new guns were supplied by the Frabrik Eisenmuhlen, originally established by Lukas Trask, Baron von Traskon in the 1740s.  His foundry has continued to supply artillery to the Kingdom of Prussia and other states in the North German Confederation, including these C/61 6-pounder (91.6 mm) breechloading rifled guns.

As usual, please click on the image for a larger picture.

5th Heavy Battery, 18th Infantry Division artillery
composed of Old Glory Krupp guns and Castaway Arts gunners

6th Heavy Battery, 18th Infantry Division artillery
composed of Old Glory Krupp guns and Foundry gunners

Originally these two batteries had smaller gun models, but needing additional "light" guns for the corps artillery, I replaced them with Old Glory Krupp guns.  These versions are actually from Old Glory's Egyptian-Sudan line but they were the closest I could get nowadays in the US.  I wasn't going to pay an arm and two legs for Foundry guns.  These will work just fine.  All painting except for the 6 Foundry gunners was done in Col Campbell's 'art studio.'

Next in line are the two heavy batteries (3rd & 4th) for the Corps artillery.

P.S.  As with the French foundry, Fabrik Eisenmuhlen and its founder Baron von Traskon are part of my 1750s-1760s imaginations.  Besides, Space Vikings is such a good book by a great science fiction writer.

Revitalized Frontier Miniatures

 

Some time ago I acquired a batch of 12 painted Frontier Miniatures French 19th Century light cavalry that were already based on 2" squares.  They sat in a box for a while until I got the "bug" to do something about them.  Since the base size doesn't match with the cavalry base size for the "Chassepot & Needlegun" rules I use, that had to be changed.  An overnight soak in water softened the adhesive enough that I could gently pry each figure off the old base.

I was able to identify them as French chasseurs a cheval in their 'trademark' green jacket and black sheep wool busby.  But I needed 16 to make a full regiment.  As part of the same acquisition there were 4 other apparently French light cavalry.  A little research in the two volume Ospreys on the French Army, 1870-1871 revealed that at least three of them were hussars.  The fourth looked close enough even though it had a white havelock.  Since Frontier made figures for several wars during the mid-1800s in which the French were involved and the figure fit in, I decided to use it as well.  Besides this regiment would be part of my post-Sedan "revolutionary" French Army so the exact uniform wasn't that much of a concern.

A little touching up of the paint, including repainting all four hussar kepis, and the regiment was ready for their new bases.

Please click on image for a larger picture.

3rd Mixed Light Cavalry Regiment with hussars on the left of the photo and the rest chasseurs.

I now present the 3rd Mixed Light Cavalry Regiment of the 2nd Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 15th Corps, Army of the Loire.  Because of all of the losses of cavalry at Sedan and Metz, the French were doing whatever they could to get their cavalry arm reformed.  This regiment is a typical example where squadrons from four different regimental depots were organized into a regiment.  In this case, three squadrons of chasseurs and one of hussars.  Temporarily they'll join the 3rd Spahi Regiment in the 3rd Cavalry Brigade.

And here is the 3rd Brigade, in all its 'glory!'

3rd Spahis on left, brigade command group in center, 3rd Mixed Light Cavalry on right
All figures are Frontier Miniatures!

I painted the brigade command group and the 3rd Spahis way back in April 2007, 14 years ago (yikes!).  It has taken this long to add to my French cavalry.  But the Germans are still stuck with one cavalry regiment, the 6th Magdeburg Dragoons, even though I have several that are complete but unpainted.  Just as the French have several more regiments complete but unpainted.  Can you tell I don't particularly like to paint horses!

Now to painting more German artillery, two Prussian and three Hessian batteries!

French 1870-1871 Artillery

Well, the Fonderie de Bullion has been working overtime to increase the artillery strength of the 15th Loire Corps of the Republique de France.  Originally founded by Mestre-de-Ordinance Jacques Riviere, Comte de Bullion ( J R Bullion ) in the 1760s to answer the improvements in artillery made by the Austrians and Prussians, the foundry has continued to provide  artillery pieces to the French army, even during the dark days of the war with the Germans.

Please click on each image for a larger picture.

The 2nd Division, 15th Loire Corps obtained their two light artillery batteries.  All of the gunners are from Foundry Miniatures and were bought already painted.  The guns are Old Glory ACW Union Napoleons "masquerading" as French guns because I cannot locate reasonable priced French guns.

The 4th Light Battery of six 4-lbr canon de campagne de 4 La Hitte.
In the "Chassepot and Needlegun" rules, each battery of 6 pieces has three guns and six gunners.

The 5th Light Battery of six 4-lbr canon de campagne de 4 La Hitte.

These two batteries have joined the 6th Mitrailleuse Battery to complete the division's direct support artillery complement.

The 15th Loire Corps has gained a fourth battery, this one manned by gunners from the French fleet at Toulon.  The gunners are Askari Miniatures French naval gunners and the guns are Falcon Miniatures.

The Naval Battery has six 85mm canon de campagne de 7 de Reffye modèle 1870.

This battery has joined the 7th and 8th Heavy Batteries (also similarly equipped) and the 9th Mitrailleuse (Gatling) Battery in the corps artillery.  

That leaves one one battery to go, the 10th Light Battery a cheval which will be raised as soon as funds are available to obtain the guns and gunners.

P.S.  I hope that by now you've guessed that the Fonderie de Bullion is "imaginary" and based on one of my imagi-nations 18th Century Gallian commanders.  It is fun to be able to cross over between imagi-nations in an earlier century and the "real-world" in a later century.

Reinforcing the Loyalist Cavalry

I finally got around to painting an additional four mounted figures for my Loyalist York Dragoons, a "made-up" regiment of Tory horse.  This regiment is composed of vintage Custom Cast mounted dragoons from their American Revolution line.  I've had eight of them painted and based for a long time and finally acquired another four to complete the unit.

Please click on an image to see a larger picture.

Here they are as I begin to paint them.
I use some older 1 liter soda bottle caps on to which I glue the horse (or in this case the horse and rider) in order to paint them.  This allows me to hold onto the bottle cap rather than the figure as I paint.

Here they are completed but still attached to the bottle caps.
I painted one of the figures as an officer after cutting and paring away his slung musketoon.

He's on the far left of the image.

The two newly based stands.  The officer described above is the figure on the far left.
He is riding his favorite bay horse.

And the complete unit with the newly painted command group figures on the center front stand and the others on the front right-hand stand.

This regiment joins the British 17th Light Dragoons and the mounted portion of the Queen's Rangers as the cavalry arm of my British Expeditionary force.  They are opposed by two Continental mounted units -- Bland's Dragoons and William Washington's Dragoons.

Saracen Leaders, Arab & Numidian Infantry, and Asiatic Horse Archers

The last 15mm painting for a short while includes two new Saracen mounted leaders, a unit of Arab infantry and one of Numidian infantry, and another unit of Asiatic horse archers.

First the two leaders.  These are both Miniature Figurines ZC-332, Saracen cavalry with sword and shield.  Although these figures are listed as being later than my period (900-1100 AD), their armor and weaponry doesn't put them too much out of time.

They are mounted on horses from an unknown manufacturer but are suitable for "noble" leaders by having a chest protector.  The one of the left is of metal scale while the one on the right is of horn scale.  These two were given a terrain treatment on the bases consisting of a grass tuft, some rocks and some earth-tone scatter.  They are the first ones with which I have done this.  I think it looks good and will most likely retrofit at least all of my mounted leaders this way.

The Arab infantry unit is all Miniature Figurines figures and also features a "made up" banner.

They are wearing light blue clothing with different colored head wraps.

The Numidian infantry unit is also all Miniature Figurines figures and features a "made-up" banner.

I made their shields dark to resemble animal hide such as rhinoceros or elephant.

And finally we have a unit of Asiatic horse archers.  They are Miniature Figurines ZC-350, Mongol light cavalry firing bow.  These are really out of my time period but as far as I'm concerned, an Asiatic horse archer is an Asiatic horse archer.  Many styles of dress didn't change that much from century to century.

I'm trying something new with this unit, basing the figures as if they are swirling around loosing arrows at various targets.  I think this gives a feel for the type of tactics used by Asiatic horse archers.

Well, this will be all the 15mm figures I'll be painting for a short while, taking a break from the little guys to paint some 25/28mm figures and guns for my 18th and 19th Century forces.

Khorasanian Horse Archers and More Arab Infantry

As I continue painting my way towards a break from 15mm Dark Ages/Early medieval figures, I added four newly purchased horse archers to four I had painted many years ago to make an eight figure unit of light bow cavalry.  These figures are from Alternative Armies' Dark Age Isarus line, the Arab ARC-8, Khorasanian horse archers.  I originally had twelve of these figures but when I got the GMT "Commands & Colors - Medieval" game, eight of them were quickly grouped into a unit of light bow cavalry.

These differ from the other unit only with their red skull caps.  The other unit, although wearing shades of red tunics, have light blue skull caps.

And I've added to my Arab infantry with two more 12-figure units.  These units can be used as medium infantry, warrior infantry, or auxilia infantry, which gives me plenty of latitude in deploying them in various Middle Eastern armies.

This "red" shield unit has nine assorted Miniature Figurines Middle Eastern infantry figures and three unknown manufacturer Middle Eastern figures.  The unit standard is just a "made-up" one using a geometric design.

This "dark" shield unit has the same composition.  The unit standard is also "made-up."

This post was delayed a number of weeks due to forgetfulness on my part.  But now it is up and the next post will catch us up to date with my 15mm early Medieval forces.

Khazar Heavy Cavalry and Moslem Infantry

Although these were started in May, I didn't complete them until now.

First, a unit of Khazar heavy cavalry (Essex Miniatures, Asiatic Hordes, #HA6a) have joined the Byzantine forces as foederati.  They are armed with lances, swords, and bows, giving them a multi-level means of attack and defense.

The Khazar unit of 12 heavy heavy cavalry

Close-up of a stand depicting the hand-painted "S" design on the shield.

And now the first of five units of Moslem infantry.  This particular unit has four 15mm Miniature Figurines figures (rectangular bases) and eight others from an unknown manufacturer.  These can be used as warriors, medium infantry, or auxiliaries.

The MiniFigs are rather "static" sculpts while the others are more animated.
But they both seem to work well together.

The command stand showing the leader brandishing his sword and another view of the flag from the Warflag web site .  Although dating from the Victorian colonial era (1880s), it works OK for me back in the circa 1000 era.

Next up are four Khorasanian mounted archers to complete a unit to 8 figures, followed by two more units of Moslem infantry.

Introduction to "Company of Heroes" Boardgame

At our regular "5th Saturday" game on May 29th, we gathered at Bryan's house in his "man cave" building for an introduction to the "Company of Heroes" board game that he helped develop.

 https://www.companyofheroesbg.com/

This is a two-level game with tactical-level play happening on the game board as the players pit their infantry squads supported by various other types of combat commands against each other and on the 'strategic' level as you decide what new units to build using the resources that you gain through the tactical play.  This 'strategic' level is displayed on an individual player's control board which tracks the manpower, munitions, and fuel resources you have as well as your combat experience points and victory points.  You start with three levels of "builds."  The basic command has three 'units' that are available to you.  Then you can progress through two more powerful levels as you gain resources and can unlock them.

All of the game pieces are 15mm sized, from the individual soldier figures through the supporting guns and tanks to the buildings, including a beautiful multi-piece cathedral.

For the first game, Ed and Phil each played Germans while Bryan had Americans and I had British.  Bryan and I 'won' that round.  In the second game, Ed and Phil continued with Germans; I switched to Russians; and Bryan switched to OKW Germans (Yes, we had Germans fighting Germans in this game.).  Again Bryan and I prevailed as 'darkness' fell (getting late and the three of us had long drives back home).

Here are some pictures I took with the camera on my new phone of scenes from the second game, which was played on the Stalingrad terrain boards.  The river was iced over and infantry could cross anywhere.  Vehicles could only cross at the railroad bridge or where the ice was thick enough (denoted by the tracks on the ice).  Please click on the images for a larger picture.

My Russian T-70 light tank and an infantry squad get ready to engage Ed's German SdKfz 222 and German infantry squad.
The blue flags indicate that I have possession of a munitions resource point (tank's location) and a victory objective (infantry's location).
In the background you can see Ed's and Phil's player control boards with the white cubes marking the resources each has accumulated.

Further to my left, one of my infantry squads is attacking Ed's German kubelwagon.  The three yellow cubes on my infantry squad base indicate that I have moved them three hexes, the maximum move for an infantry squad.  Behind the kubelwagon is a manpower resource point that Ed controls.
The background shows more of Ed' control board.

On Bryan's side, one of his panzergrenadier squads (near red-flagged fuel resource point is attacked by Phil's German SdKfz 222 while Bryan's rocket-equipped SdKfz 250 series half-track gets ready to bombard some of Phil's Germans.
In the background, Phil is lifting a new build combat vehicle out of the tray that contains the forces available to him.

As you can see from the pictures, the figures and vehicles are very well cast.  They come in basic colors but you can easily paint them.

All in all it was an enjoyable game that entailed a lot of 'strategic' thinking about what to build at the end of each turn.  I think this is definitely a game I'll enjoy playing again.

As the link (above) indicates, the version 1.0 has been sold out but they are working on a version 1.5 release.

Inventory of Wargaming Figures

As I have entered my 7th decade, I've begun to contemplate what I still have to complete in my many wargaming periods.  So for the past week I've been inventorying and counting what I have painted and based and what still needs to be painted and based.  I knew that I had a bunch of figures, but not quite this many -- about 21,880 with about 60% painted and based (13,140) and 40% still to do (8,740).  These totals and sub-totals are probably accurate to within no more than 5% error.

So here is the breakdown.  First the actual figures (plus some pack animals), by period and size:

Please click on image to enlarge it for readability.

And the ancillary planes, ships, and vehicles:

Please click on image to enlarge it for readability.

Now to decide what I can realistically finish and use and what I'll never finish or use and put that up for disposal to another wargamer.