Artillery Equipment Sculpting Complete

Chris has now pretty much completed sculpting the artillery, and has used his computer wizardry to produce some graphics to show what the models and figures will look like.

Austrian 6pdr Gun

The original idea was to produce an accurate as possible Austrian 6pdr, and below is the almost finished article. (The only issue I know of is that the elevating wedge  (which will be a separate part) is too wide, so I have asked for it to be changed).

In order for the master figure to be robust enough to withstand repeated pressing in the mould making process,  there have had to be some compromises, such as leaving out the lighter cross pieces in the carriage trail, and locating the lifting handles of the barrel too close together. It is (in my opinion) a great improvement over the guns in the Karoliner and Rossbach ranges, and a welcome addition to the range.

And here it is with crew in waistcoats.

Austrian 7pdr Howitzer

The Liechtenstein system used the same wheels for all guns, so there is clearly some scope for reusing the wheels. Also the carriage of the 7pdr howitzer is reasonably close to that of the 6pdr, (it should be a bit deeper and heavier, and the support for the elevating wedge is in the wrong place). However I did not think we should miss the opportunity to add a howitzer to the range, so I asked Chris to produce a howitzer barrel - here it is on the 6pdr carriage.

 As discussed above, the elevating wedge is not in the right place. If it looks too far out when cast and made up, then a little work will be needed to cut out and move the wedge support forward and down - I don't have access to any castings, so cannot say how difficult it will be!

Barrels for other Nations

As the sculpting work progressed it became apparent that the gun would need to be split over two moulds, but the second would be half empty. This gave the opportunity to try and provide some reasonably representative artillery for other nations. There was no space for more wheels or carriages, but a couple of extra barrels could be squeezed in.

I carried out a review of all the information I had to hand and decided that a reasonable representation of some artillery could be provided on the Austrian carriage (purists turn away now)..........

Prussian light 12pdr

The closest I could find for the Prussians was the 12pdr M17/38, as this was a conic chambered piece it did not use such a large charge as a 'proper' 12pdr, so could sit on a smaller carriage. Here are details of the gun.............

....and here is the extra barrel on the Austrian carriage.

(Interestingly, if you look at the drawing, the Prussian barrel is identical size to the Austrian 12pdr, which also had the same wheel, but unfortunately the Austrian 12pdr carriage is 15% longer - worth a try at lengthening the cast carriage?)

And then for the Russians......

Russian 12pdr Unicorn

As far as I can figure out the 12pdr unicorn had the closest carriage size - drawings..

..and model

French Guns

As far as I can see they were all way bigger than these pieces (unless you know better)?

Interestingly the French Vallier 8pdr and famous Prussian 12pdr 'Brummer' looked very similar - so they would make a nice addition. Prince August currently have no plans to make these, so if you want them a good case will need to be made.

If you have stuck it out this far your then please take the time to comment?

06/04/17

Another view of the crew better showing the wheel height.

Battle of Kolin - Part 2

My apologies for any typos and spelling errors on names and places (I can't pronounce them anyway). I noticed a lot in the final read through, but it really is not worth going back editing photos.

Starting positions

As discussed in the last post the game was set up with about half of the Austrian forces deployed on the hills, and the rest were marching across the rear, and not deployed (which was good as I was out of 'white' battalions).

The Prussians were mostly marching down the Kaiserstrasse. with just Schonaich's cavalry deployed to protect against Stampach's cavalry.

Game start time about 11:00

(Ooops - I have labelled 'Oak Wood' wrong - it should be the one in the distance!)

None of the players were SYW  'experts', and luckily none knew much about the battle. I gave them a quick run down of the prelude to the battle, explained that the whole board was swarming with grenz skirmishers, but that I would not represent them (it would slow down the game - and I have no figures yet - soon?). I did not mention that some of the villages were garrisoned, as Frederick did not think of it!

The two commanders were then asked to write simple orders for their commands.

• The Prussians opted to march around the Austrian right with Zieten and Hulsen, with a frontal attach by everyone else.

• The Austrians decided to hold as they were, but redeploy Wied's infantry to the area of the Oak Wood.

Zieten's hussars defeat Nadasdy's 

East of Kutlire Nadasdy's 6 units of hussars made a spirited attack on Zieten's 7 units of Prussian counterparts. (As you can see we are having to improvise with the cavalry, these should nearly all be hussars. We don't have enough hussar figures, as we have been waiting for the new ones.)

Game time 11:24

Unfortunately for the Austrians the superior tactics of the Prussians (dice) resulted in a comprehensive defeat, and the 4 remaining units went scampering back towards the gap between Oak Wood and Radowesnitz; leaving the 6 remaining Prussian units in control of the plain.

Game time 11:55

In the background can be seen Hulsen's infantry ready to exploit Zieten's sucess.

Schonaich attacks and defeats Stampach

Towards the west end of the battlefield Schonaich threw his two units of cuirassiers and one of dragoons into Stampach's two units each of cuirassiers and dragoons on Probertz Hill opposite  (improvising again - we don't have enough cuirassier figures - waiting for..............).

Game time 12:00

Yet again superior Prussian discipline (dice) allows them to defeat their Austrian counterparts and clear the hill.

Game time 12:24

However behind the hill is Serbellini with another to units each of Austrian Cuirassiers and dragoons, so the Prussian attack ran out of steam and Sebellini retook the hill.

Tresckow and Bevern attack on Austrian centre

The Prussian attack on the centre developed at the same time as Schonaich's cavalry attack, aimed at Andlau's infantry (on Przerovky Hill) and the grenadier reserve (on Krzeczor Hill), along with their two supporting heavy batteries. On the right can be seen Serbellini's cavalry back in possession of Pobertz Hill.

Game time 12:46

A general view of the battlefield at that time, as can be seen, the main Prussian attacks are developing, but the left wing flank attack has stalled.

Game time 12:47

Hulsen has delayed the attack on the main left flank attack, and committed his whole brigade to clear the grenze from Kultire, and also held back Zieten in support.

Game time 12:47

Tresckow and Bevern made it up into a firefight with the Austrians on the ridge, however the attack ran out of steam (it did kill off the grenadiers), and when the Prussians realised there were two more brigades of infantry in reserve behind the ridge they decided to call off the attack. (Sorry about photo quality, it is a zoom into a longer shot).

Game time 14:18

Pennavaire's cavalry make no impression on Puebla's infantry

Over to the west of the fiend Pennavaire rashly decides to try and break through the infantry of Puebla who are ensconced on Pobortz Hill with his three units of cuirassiers (one elite) and two of dragoons.

Game time 13:09

We lost count of the number of charges the elite cuirassiers made but due to the skill of both commanders (dice) the infantry held firm, but the cavalry took few casualties (must have run out of powder). They were still attacking when we finished playing!

Game time 14:22

Hulsen & Zieten  attacks on the Prussian right

After clearing the grenz out of Kultire Hulsen and Zieten finally put into motion the attack by the Prussian right flank.

Game time 13:44

However the grenz had done their job well and gained time for Wied to arrive on the flank with 7 battalions of foot to stabilise the Austrian right

Game time 14:19

The End

The game started to run out of steam about 14:30, we played on for another hour or so, but as players started to leave, I took over playing rather than 'umpiring' and only took occasional photos. The last photo I took was at 15:20, showing Bervern's infantry cresting Pobortz Hill, and seeing the massed Austrian reserves behind - enough is enough!

Conclusion

The Prussian attacks in the centre ran out of steam before their left hook got into motion, delaying to drive the grenz out of Kutlire really lost the Prussians any chance of success. Also, the attacks on the centre should have delayed to allow Hulsen & Zieten to get moving.

The Austrians were cautious with their reserve infantry, and only redeployed Wied to the right, keeping Sincere and Stahemberg behind Puebla and Andlau respectively, one of them should have been enough. If Hulsen had attacked earlier there is a good chance that the Prussians could have caused serious damage. But as in the actual battle, the Prussians really did not have much hope, as Daun could observe the Prussian flank march, and had the advantage of interior lines to redeploy his forces.

A thoroughly enjoyable game, and the rules worked well, giving a very realistic result. I will use them again for large battles.

Back to work tomorrow!

Battle of Kolin - Part 1

We have just had an enjoyable day re fighting the Battle of Kolin using the 40mm semi flats.

Setting up the Game

The table size?

This was the club 'Christmas Game', so I decided to put on something big for the occasion. To make the best possible impression I decided to find a battle which would need most/all the 40mm figures we have.

Having added up all the units we could field I decided we could just about fill a 16' or possibly a 20' wide board.

I looked through the books and came to the conclusion that Kolin would fit nicely onto a 16' x 6' table. There is an excellent description of the battle on Jeff Berry's Obscure Battles blog; which also has some useful maps and an order of battle.

As you can see the 16' x 6' table fits nicely over the map, so next to scale

Game Scale

Without going into too much detail, Having decided on the battle and table size, I arrived at the figure scale by looking at the frontages of infantry formations (deployed in line) as shown on the map, and then figured how many 160mm wide wargames units would occupy that same space on the table, which worked out at a 2/3 scale (i.e. 2 wargames units equals 3 actual battalions).

The troop density is about right, and the Prussians strung out in march on the Kaiserstrasse are the right length - so far so good.

Rules - King of the Battlefield

My preference for gaming the period is currently 'Field of Battle', although 'Maurice' are good for two player games. However as this was going to be a big game, with inexperienced players, and limited time I decided to go for the 'King of the Battlefield' rules; a few of us have played a 'practice games' with these rules and they seemed to be just the job for what was wanted.

The rules are actually aimed at 15mm games with lots of units, so we scaled up the distances in proportion to frontages, KoB uses 90mm frontages with moves in inches; whereas my units are on 160mm, so scaling up gives 160/90x25=44mm. I opted for 40mm as the basic distance, and made movement sticks to suit. The choice of 40mm was also influenced by the fact that it put the Kaiserstrasse just out of range of the Austrian artillery on the ridge.

The Armies

The actual battle was between Prussians and the Austrians, supported by a few units of Saxons. However we don't have enough of those types, so we opted to have the Russians support the Prussians, giving a dark hue, and the Austrians gained support from the French and Saxons, so mainly white.

Prussians

• Infantry - 19,500 in 32 batallions, so 2/3 x 32 = 22 battalions
• Cavalry  - 14,000 in 116 squadrons, KoB assumes 5 squadron units, so 2/3 x 116/5 = 15 units.
• Heavy guns (battalion guns counted in infantry) -  28; KoB assumes 10 guns per model, so 2/3 x 28/10 =  2 batteries

Austrians

• Infantry - 30,000 infantry in 51 battalions and 43 grenadier companies, so the equivalent of about 60 battalions, we used 39 (not all came on). 
• Cavalry - 17, 700 in 171 squadrons. Austrian squadrons seemed smaller, so I assumed cavalry pro rata numbers. 17,700/14,000 x 15 =  19 units
• Heavy guns  - 60; so 4 batteries (not all came on). 

So we had about 1,000 figures on the table.

I'll post a battle report in the near future............

A head count.

After a couple of posts with eye candy, time for something a little duller (but I've added in some photos of Richard's painting to spice up the links from other blogs links - these are painted for the front of the packaging).

The Russians will be out in the next month or so (they have been delayed to try and squeeze in a belly box for the grenadiers), so I thought it a good time to have a look at where we have got to with the provision of heads for the Prussians, Austrians and Russians.

For my own purposes, to see what is missing from the range, I use a spreadsheet showing what headgear and hair various troop types wore. The boxes in the sheet are shaded to show what is already in the moulds, and what else is planned.

The results so far......................

Prussian Infantry

The Prussian 'close order' infantry moulds are all released - the tricorn is quite steep on the front.

As you can see most things are already covered, with just the need to add some heads for the light troops. These are planned to be included in with the moulds for skirmishing troops as discussed in posts back in September.

Austrian & Hungarian Infantry

Again the close order moulds are all released, the tricorns are moulded on a shallow slope at the front to be very distinct from the Prussians.

Again the coverage for the close order troops is pretty much complete.

German Grenadiers

Currently the heads for the grenadiers all have to come out of the Hungarian moulds, and so have their hair in plaits - from what I have read that is probably correct. 

There are however quite a few illustrations around showing German grenadiers in side curls, so it is appreciated that this option might be wanted. Chris has already produced a head with side curls. It was done ready for the 'German' infantry issue (my grenadiers in the post last April have that head), however when it was decided to just produce a single mould for these it could not sensibly be fitted in - so we decided to rely on the Hungarian heads. Austrian horse grenadiers are generally shown in side curls, so we will try and fit one in with the dragoons.

German grenadier officers possibly had side curls and no moustache, however it really is not worth a separate head for this - just trim off the mustache, or don't paint it.

Grenz & Jager

As discussed in posts back in September, it is planned to cover these in future releases.

Russian Infantry

I have listed these as if released, they are sculpted, but are waiting for some finishing touches, however I have not seen the mould listing yet, so cannot say what goes where, The tricorns are at a slope intermediate between the Austrian and Prussian moulds, and could probably be used for some of the Austrian units.

Again the close order infantry is covered pretty well, and the it is planned to put the Pandours in with the grenz when these are released.

Russian Grenadiers

After 1759 Russian grenadiers were ordered to swap the helmet for a tricorn, although I cannot see why any self respecting gamer would want to do such a trade. As present the best match is to use a musketeer head and paint a mustache (I assume they had one?), but a suitable head will soon come along somewhere in the cavalry.

Future Plans

It is good to see that with the addition of the light troops the the headdress for all infantry in these three armies will be covered - that is after all what I originally wanted from this project.

If anyone sees anything missing from, or wrong in the tables, let me know and I will change them and try and get any missing heads included in future moulds. (Please remember that these are only Prussia, Austria and Russia.)

Eventually I would like to continue this exercise to cover infantry and cavalry of all nations, and also torsos, to produce a 'parts list' to assemble all troops in the SYW - but not yet, 

(I actually find a good way of planning is to skim through the Blandord 'Uniforms of the Seven Years War' book and see what can, or cannot, be made with the moulds so far.)

As always comments welcome.

Battle of Mollwitz

I have had a couple of requests to show one of our games - so here goes - we played this yesterday..............

The game was fought using the Maurice rules; I took the Austrians and one of my regular opponents, Quinton Dalton, the Prussians.

The Map

I chose Mollwitz as it is a very simple battle, so I could set it up with minimal effort.



This is an extract from 'The Army of Frederick The Great' by Christopher Duffy.
(It is upside down to tie in with the photos below - honest!)

I decided that we should start with the two armies in their historical layouts.

The Forces

I organised this game in a rush, so just did a very quick conversion of the figures in Duffy's books, and scaled it to give an infantry line  which covered the right amount of the map/table. This ended up with  simple one unit for each 1000 men.

Prussians

16,800 infantry - 16 units (I was generous with the hussars), two being elite grenadiers
4,000 cavalry - 4 units
500 hussars - 1 unit
50 guns - 5 unit

Austrians

10,000 infantry - 10 units, one of grenadiers
8,000 cavalry - 8 units
1,000 hussars - 1 unit
10 guns - 1 unit

Troop types

I classed almost everything as 'trained' (I was in a rush), with just two exceptions:

• The grenadiers were made 'elite'
• The hussars were classed as 'conscript' fighting in the battle line.

The next time I play this I will put a bit more thought into it.

I did make an effort to reflect the characteristics of the two forces using the following 'National Advantages':

• To reflect their better cavalry, the  Austrians were given the 'Cavaliers' card, which allows them to re-roll poor combat dice when they are charging
• The Prussian infantry had much better fire discipline, so were given the 'Lethal Volleys' card which allows re rolls of missed shooting dice.

The armies were set up in near historical positions, with a unit of grenadiers interleaved with the right wing cavalry, which historically caused problems. 

The Figures

The Prussian infantry were mostly Prussian figures, with six units from the new range and the rest Karoliners. There are also six new units of Austrians, with the rest Karoliner French.

All of the cavalry are old HE, Karoliner or Rossbach figures, many of them French.

The Cavalry Battle

The battle started with Austrian cavalry making an attack down their left flank. I loaded the game in this area by giving the force a couple of notables to allow them to move and charge easier.

The Austrian cavalry charged into the fray, and with with a a useful hand of cards (two 'stirrups in' cards, which give advantage to charging cavalry), and the 'Cavaliers' advantage (plus some luck dice) soon add the upper hand.

The Prussian cavalry were totally destroyed, however the Austrian cavalry were shot. The dice behind the units are casualties, five hits kills the unit, so you can see they are in no position to exploit their success. 

The Prussian right wing cavalry had gained time for their right wing infantry to redeploy and link up with the isolated grenadier unit. In Maurice cavalry is only effective against infantry when the cavalry is fresh, and the infantry carrying some hits - so time to beat a hasty retreat.

Unfortunately they then became victim of the table edge syndrome, the Prussian infantry could pin them against the edge, so only option was to head back to their own lines. Rather than move away from the infantry - or better still go around the back!

The Infantry Battle

Prussian infantry then filled the full width of the table and attacked the Austrian centre. The attack came on in two divisions, this made it far less effective. The split was due to two reasons, the cavalry attack had made the infantry drift to the right, and to avoid masking the artillery battery in the centre. 

Eventually the Austrian infantry were able to hold off the Prussians, and caused enough casualties on the attacking Prussians to win the battle.

Afterthoughts

A thoroughly enjoyable game.

The Maurice card system was very effective at breaking the battle down into a series of actions, first the Austrian cavalry attack on the flank, and then the advance of the Prussian infantry once the cavalry had been neutralised. This is a far more realistic sequence than the usual everyone attack at once - or having to write special rules to prevent everyone jumping off at the same time.

We intend to play this again, and I will put a bit more thought into the armies to better differentiate the troop types - perhaps make the cuirassiers elite?

Also, I think I will refight it with less units, and leave the Prussian right a little more open.

As always, comments welcome.

And everyone have a good Christmas.

Prussian Garrison Infantry

I must confess that I don't like painting Prussians, there is something about painting Red and Dark Prussian Blue that I really can't get on with. The way I see it is that painting Prussians is one of those tasks that you have to do to be a SYW gamer.

So with some resignation, after having had fun painting the colourful and elite Saxon Leibgrenadier battalion, I decided to paint a battalion of Prussian garrison troops,

I decided to pick one of the units which saw some active service, so went for the XI regiment which was at Gross-Jagersdorf.

And also had pink cuffs to add a little colour.










Garrison troops were dressed similar to the musketeers, but probably did not carry a sword, and were generally not as well equiped as the line troops. I contemplated using the Austrian bodies which did not carry a sword, and only had one bag; however in the end I played safe and used the Prussian marching figure. I did cut/file off the sword, which wasn't too difficult, but I suspect if I had just painted the scabbard black it would not have been noticed

Below are some photos of the finished unit - unfortunately my gaming table is full of junk from decorating the kitchen, so no green table or houses - just my desk and a book cover.

Progress Update

The Hungarian infantry the way and should be out very soon, I think they are just finishing the packaging.

The Russian sculpting is also underway, I have seen some of the part finished greens, the first troops are infantry in summer dress - just in waistcoats. There is also an officer in a new pose with a separate musket - not quite finished but looks very nice. (With a change of head and a little work I think he would make a nice Austrian grenadier officer?)

As always comments welcome.

Light Infantry (1) - Frei Corps & Jager

Last updated 20/09/14

What should the range cover?

Some initial thoughts on light infantry. These moulds are still a long way off;  but it is worth thinking about what is wanted before sculpting begins.

There was a lot of minor variation in the dress of the light troops during the Seven Years War; in a conventional cast range this could warrant many different figures. However it is not practical to cover all these minor variations in this range, so the aim is therefore to produce the minimum number of moulds which will give a reasonable coverage of 'light' infantry, my current thinking is tending towards four sets, only the first three of which will be covered in the Prussians, Austrian and Russian releases:

• Frei corps (2 moulds) in western style uniforms and armed with musket/bayonet (discussed below)
• Jager (one mould) in western style uniforms armed with rifle (discussed below)
• Croats and pandour (2 moulds) in their distinctive more eastern dress (a later post)
• In the western theatre there are also the Scottish regiments in the British army (but they are a very long way off). 

This first post, which is intended to decide on the best poses for the range will only discuss the Frei Corps types. However a the Croats are not available in any form either in this range or previous ranges it might be worth putting those into production first.

Frei Corps

The frei corps are best covered with a set of bodies which are representative of all nations. These cannot be correct for all of them, so just reasonably close. - possibly similar to the Prussian line infantry, perhaps without the bread bag?

Most such troops would wear the tricorn, but there were exceptions such as the chap on the right with a casket (and in the French army the mirliton).

The figures can then also usefully be used to form the close order firing line for anyone who wants to do so.

Jager

The jagers carried a rifle which was shorter than a musket, and often wore boots rather than gaiters.

They are also often shown with lighter equipment than the frei corps and line, so perhaps dispense with both the haversack and bread bag.

The figure shown is an Austrian in a casket, a Prussian would be similar but wearing a tricorn.

Heads

The frei corps units generally wore the tricorn type of their line troops, but there were exceptions. Prussian Jager wore a tricorn similar to their musketeers, but the Austrians a distinctive casket. As far as I can see this is what needs covering:

Frei corps
 - Prussian tricorn
 - Austrian tricorn
 - Casket
 - Mirliton


Jager
 - Prussian tricorn
-  Casket

Poses

The poses need to be suitable for spreading out in a skirmish line. Also I would like to try and retain some of the the character of the old Holger Eriksson (HE) range.

There is no need for advancing figures as these are fully covered in the close order troops.

Initially I thought that three moulds, and six figures would be needed, but current feedback suggests that this could possibly done with just four figures, but not rule out doing six. My ideas are listed below.

Rank & File Firing

Holger Eriksson - PA23

Firstly I think the two classic firing poses similar to the HE originals. (there are similar figures in the Karoliners).

These two figures will also work well for anyone wanting to produce units of line infantry firing.

Holger Eriksson - PA24

Officer

Holger Eriksson - PA30

I have always liked the pose of the old HE standing figure (but the actual castings are not particularly good.). An updated figure similar to this, with the uniform  of a Prussian officer would be a valuable addition to the range and would also fit well in artillery and command groups.

Great Northern Wars - PADK101

Alternatively,  if  something a bit more dynamic is needed, raise the left arm similar to the Great Northern Wars figure,  and make the right hand able to carry sword, pole arm or musket?

However currently all 'votes' seem to be for the old HE figure.

Other options?

A standing musician, not sure if a drummer, trumpeter, fifer or hornist is most appropriate?

For the light troops it is worth adding a loading pose to add some variety into the skirmish line. PA already produce loading figures in their Rossbach and Karoliner ranges,It is probably more likely the the first figure with the ram rod in the right hand is more correct, but possibly with the musket angled forward?

Karoliner - PAS914

Rossbach -  PA51

Holger Eriksson - PA25

NCO/Standard Bearer.It might be worth making a standing NCO figure 'dual purpose' carrying either a standard or a pole arm. 

The figure pose could be similar to the HE standing musketeer, but with the right hand a bit higher to hold a flag or pole arm. Uniformed as the Prussian NCO

The figure could also be given a sponge or ram rod to find his way into a gun crew.

An infantryman priming his pan?

What to Make?

There have been some useful suggestions from Rahway and Ross; and I am wondering about only two moulds for the Frei Corps types, and then a mould for the Jagers, say:

    1.  Frei corps standing firing
    2.  Frei corps kneeling
    3.  Frei corps officer standing
    4.  Frei corps standing, one of:
             a.  NCO/Standard bearer standing
             b.  Loading
             c.  Priming pan
             d. Musician

    5. Jager kneeling firing
    6. Jager, one of
             a. Advancing
             b. Advancing at trail
             c. Loading
             d. Priming pan

These figures are still a long way off; however thoughts comments and ideas are welcome and I will update the page at intervals as any comments or ideas  come in.