Join us at Hammerhead Show on Saturday 5th March

With the help of the group I game with, I will be putting on a participation/display game at the Hammerhead Show, which is being held at the Newark Showground on Saturday 5th March. 

https://www.hammerheadshow.co.uk/

The game will be based on the Battle of Prague which took place on 6th May 1757. (On the games list it is currently just called '7 Years War', as I had not decided what to do when we sent the entry details).

The game will use pretty much all of my Austrian and Prussian figures, with a few Russian cuirassiers giving the Austrians a hand (I wonder how many will notice). The infantry are all from the 'new' SYW range, but as the cavalry moulds are not yet all done, only the dragoons and mounted officers are from the new SYW range, with the hussars and (converted) cuirassiers from the Rossbach and Karoliner ranges

We are using the 'A Gentleman's War' rules, which are a fun set, these have been modified using a simpler move/activation sequence, to make them more suitable for a large participation game - there are still loads of dice to roll!.

As I have said, it will be a participation game, and the rules are easy to pick up and there will be plenty of us around to sort out any problems, so if you can come and push around some toys, throw some dice (there are lots of dice) or just see the figures and have a chat it would be good to see you there.

(Do any of you need any heads for your figures - I have quite a few spare (especially Prussian and Russian Guards), so if you need anything in particular let me know and I will see if I have any and take them to the show?).

Wild Geese Wargames & Future Plans

I thought I had better just let you know that I am still here😀

Wild Geese Wargames Weekend (22-23rd June)

When I last wrote I was frantically casting and painting the new dragoons for a gaming weekend over the weekend 22-23 June - I managed to get just the two units finished.

The weekend went pretty well, and the 40mm semi flats were generally well received. Unfortunately I somehow managed to pretty much forget to take photos, and those which I did were out of focus! Below are a few I have lifted from other blogs.

We played 3 games over the weekend using the 'Gentleman's War' rules which worked well with these figures. For those of you with the rules - we used 2 packs of cards, one for each half of the table - this speeded up play nicely.

Clearly we were playing a game - not putting on a display, so there is all sorts of mess on the table, however the plain cloth did show the figures off nicely.

Since then I have not touched the 40mm figures, and have mainly been playing Commands and Colors Napoleonic using 15mm figures.

This is not the place to discuss these small chaps - if you are interested here is a link to a write up of our last game.
http://scrivsland.blogspot.com/2019/08/battle-of-vimeiro-1808-using-command.html


Future Releases

I am told that PA are planning to release some new moulds in the (near) future. I have asked that the next releases are some Austrian grenz (Russian pandours) and a general officer.

For the light troops I pointed Chris to the posts back in September 2014 (no rushed job this) - I will keep you informed.

Steve Marthinsen's SYW Project

In response to my request for photographs of your projects, Steven Marthinsen has kindly sent me photographs of some of his infantry units.

I also asked him for some background to his SYW project to allow me some text to put with the photos. He sent me quite a long email, which he has agreed I can repeat pretty much in full, - as it gives an insight into why he chose to use the PA moulds, and what else he would like to see.

Steven's email

"My experience with the SYW came straight out of Charles Grant and Prince August.  Charles Grant's 'The Wargame' and his fictional imagination campaign books are just great and tremendous inspiration.  However, the SYW would never have come about without PA because I specifically wanted the toy soldier look for this project.  I already do Napoleonics in15/18mm so really did not need another horse and musket era unless it offered something unique and casting your own armies is certainly that!

I currently have 15 regiments of foot troops painted and based along with 13 guns and crews.  I have one cavalry regiment, hence the reason I have been asking for cavalry molds for so long!  I am excited about the new cuirassiers but do hope they prevent more scale creep within the series.  In general the molds have been well mastered and easy to cast.  I would like to see a remaster of the initial Prussian molds to bring them up to date with the others (buttons on gaiters, better musketeer head and slings on the muskets).  In terms of basic molds for the SYW, we are so close to getting it done I hope that PA recognizes the benefit of having a complete range to offer gamers.  More cuirassier torsos and everybody's dragoons would do nicely to round out the basics.  Hussars, command and light infantry could then be added in the future to really fill it out.  British troops would sell well, especially on your side of the pond, but I would not want those to slow down completing the basic line of European continental armies (but of course I would still buy them!).

I use PA Model Metal exclusively and casting issues have been few, although some are persistent.  I do not believe the hub on the artillery piece wheel has ever fully turned out leaving me to file it down before filling the hole with putty.  The more important thing is that I do get the wheel spokes on a consistent basis so I don't mind filing the hubs.  The pegs on the Russian infantry heads are too thick and each one has to be filed down to fit in the hole.  That is annoying but doable.  The hands for the artillerist with the trail spike are awkward and the fit questionable.  Still, these are essentially minor complaints and overall casting has been quite successful.

Going forward, I have some regular and conversion regiments on the block to paint.  Austrian regiment Puebla used scalloped lacing on their tricornes so I used the Prussian guard head for them.  I created my version of Saxon infantry by using the Austrian musketeer head on the Russian winter infantry body.  Three regiments of French troops are primed and patiently waiting the brush.  Of course, all of this can be interrupted by cavalry molds!

For rules, my original thought was to use The Wargame with half size regiments, and I still might,  However, I recently tried Honours of War and really liked them.  The idea for rules will be to make them fun and not too complicated so players can enjoy the game and retain some of the feel of the old school toy soldiers.

That's it for now but feel free to ask for more pictures or anything else I can do to help with the project.  This really is a unique opportunity for PA and for gamers alike to be able to purchase and cast their own armies.  I realize it is not for everyone but honestly it is a lot of fun and you really do have more investment in the armies when you create them yourself."

Back to me...............

Personally it is great to see how the new range are being used. If there is anyone else out there who would like to contribute to the blog PLEASE send me your photos and thoughts.

'Scale creep' is an issue,  it is one of the many difficulties which has arisen with the change to digital sculpting - hopefully it is being addressed?

I know there are some minor issues with the range, and even after the years spent on this project it is sometimes difficult to 'mould' PA into the mindset of the wargamer - but in general I think we re doing OK.

As always your comments are welcome, I do pass them to the sculptor (who follows this blog), and they are taken into account.

Battle of Chotusitz

Last weekend I spent a very enjoyable weekend with a group of gamers from the AMG (A Military Gentlemen) group, which is a group of gamers with a general interest in 18th Century Gaming.
http://amilitarygentleman.blogspot.co.uk/
A group very worth joining - to do so you will need to buy the book 'A Military Gentleman' from the above website - a very nice book - but not cheap.

Over the two days we played the Battle of Chotusitz twice, using the 40mm semi flats on a 12'x6' table. The table was of a size which allowed us to represent each of the units shown on the map below with one of my gaming units of either 16 infantry or 8 cavalry.

Figures were a bit of a hotchpotch:

• There were 16 units of Austrian infantry, of which about half were my new SYW Austrians and Hungarians - the remaining units being white coated French.
• The 17 units of Prussian infantry were all blue coated 'Prussians', again about half new and the rest 'Karoliners'.
• The 25 units of cavalry were just a mix of what we have (not helped by the fact that I left 6 units at home!). Like many of you I am waiting for the new Cuirassiers.

The initial Prussian starting  positions are shown below, however we did remove the two long ranks of foot which were still on the march when the battle started. Only the exposed units of Leopold's foot, the 24pdr battery and Buddenbrock's foot were available when the battle started.

And the long lines of Austrians eager to crush the Prussians in front of them before Frederick arrived with the bulk of the infantry.

I took a few photos, but not really with sufficient regularity to describe the game, so I will just show a few shots of interest.

Part way through the cavalry melee on the west of the field. The Austrians are gettingthe better of it, but there is no way I can tell you who is who!

In more detail - just to show off my new Russians (Austrians today).

And at the other end of the field, east of Chotusitz, another very confused cavalry melee  - again I can't remember which units were Prussian and which Austrian!

And the Austrian infantry assault on the centre, after seeing off Leopold they are confronted by Frederick's infantry lines.

The situation just prior to the end of the second game. The infantry in Frederick's 'square' is pretty much all that remains; Leopold's infantry and most of the cavalry having been swept from the field. Shortly after this point the far end of the square caved in under a combination of short range musketry followed by a charge of the Austrian cavalry; at which point we called it an Austrian victory.

The games were played with the 'Field of Battle' rules, which allowed the games to be played to a conclusion on both days. The card driven approach gave rise to some odd/amusing swings in play, which most players enjoyed.

There are some more photos on Mark Dudley's blog:

http://ilkleyoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/

And just something which might be of interest - Chris has found space in one of the moulds for an officers head without a hat - oh the shame!

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 game, Salute and an update

Update

Unfortunately there has not been much progress to report on the sculpting and production of the SYW range for the last month or so - hence very few posts.

I'm told that the reason for this is that Prince August are concentrating all of their efforts on upgrading their visitor centre, and their Waterloo game/project. This has delayed putting the Russian moulds into production and sculpting the cavalry - hopefully things will pick up again in the not too distant future.

Salute

If anyone is going down to Salute and wants to have a chat then I will be helping out on the Guilford Courthouse demonstration game on stand GA15.

If you want to see examples of the new range let me know and I will take a few down.

Field of Battle Game

Yesterday evening we had another game with the semi flats at my local wargaming club - they are not the lightest things to cart around!

This was a 'pick-up' game using the 'Field of Battle' (FoB) rules, which are a quicker and simpler version of the 'Piquet' system. The unit sizing and basing are identical to the last game we played using 'Maurice' a few weeks ago; and we tend to use both as takes our fancy.

The forces are based around Prussians and Austrians/Russians, with some friends thrown in as I don't have enough of the new figures finished yet. Both armies had two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade.

We set up a random terrain and then drew maps for hidden deployment. The Austrians (my good self) massed the infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the left. Opposite this, the Prussians (Greg Chambers) had the infantry brigades widely spaced, with the musketeers and fusiliers in the centre and the grenadier brigade on the right hoping for a flanking move, the cavalry were on the left facing their Austrian counterparts.


After the first few impulses (FoB is card driven not a conventional move system), the Austrian infantry are advancing in the centre and the Prussian (mostly Saxons) grenadiers advancing around the flank in the far distance.

Later on in the game with the Austrians pushing forward in the centre and on their right, and the Prussian grenadiers advancing on the far flank.

Unfortunately for the Prussians; just as the grenadier brigade was about to attack into theAistrian flank, their commanding officer was shot (a 1 on a D12), which held up the advance. (The green markers indicate they are 'out of command' which restricts movement).

The command generated a new officer shortly afterwards (turning a 'Leadership' card), who showed his bravery by almost immediately getting shot as well, A third officer stepped up to the mark later on, but by then the chance had passed as the Austrians and Russians had redeployed to face them.

The Prussian infantry in the centre advanced to meet the Austrian Advance and a general firefight developed. (The smoke indicated that the unit has fired and cannot fire again until a reload card is drawn.) This firefight proved relatively inconclusive.

The really decisive moment occurred when the Austrian cavalry put in their attack on the right flank.........

 ,,,,,,,,were counter charged my the Prussians................

.....and decided to head back to Vienna.

The loss of this cavalry shattered the Austrian army's morale, and shortly afterwards the game ended.

Overall a very enjoyable game (even though I lost), and Field of Battle is well suited for this period, if you haven't tried them give them a go.

As usual comments welcome.

For Rahway................

The Russian grenadiers break through in the centre, in front of them are a battalion of Prussian garrison troops. Give them a soft target to build up their confidence!