Lace Wars in Tin

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.

(Note 03/04/15 - I have added some more photos at the bottom of the post)

Project Seven Years War

First of all thanks to Richard Couture at Kronoskaf for making my blog his 'Website of the Month'; and welcome to any of you who have used the link to get here.

If you are interested in home casting 40mm Seven Years War figures, and the Prince August range in particular then please follow this blog, and contribute by making comments. Prince August are developing this new SYW 'wargaming' range taking into account feedback from this blog, so your comments do matter.

If you are interested in the Seven Years War, and have not yet found the Kronoskaf site then you really must make a habit of visiting the site - it is a real gold mine of information:

http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw

A game using Maurice

I had another game with the 40mm figures at the club again on Tuesday, and took a few photos. This time I managed two decent shots before the flash came on without me noticing.

This time we played with the Maurice rules, basing to these rules and Field of Battle is pretty much identical, so we use them for either, depending on what we fancy.

We used every one of the 17 new range infantry units I have managed to paint. The armies represented Austrian (with some Russian help) and Prussian (with Saxons). For those of you who use Maurice we added some national characteristics as follows:

Austria; 'Artillery Acadamy' and 'Cavaliers' giving them an edge in artillery and cavalry.
Prussia; 'Lethal Volleys' and 'Oblique Order' making their infantry both more maneuverable and more effective in the firefight.

Unfortunately I did not take enough photos to track the progress (I always get too tied up in the game), however a rough sequence of events was:

The preliminary Austrian bombardment with their 'superior' 4 guns was spectacularly ineffective.
The initial Austrian infantry assault (the Austrains were the attackers) was driven back by the 3 Prussian guns, who must have had laser rangefinders. (Including a second humiliating rout by the Russian grenadiers!)
A Prussian cavalry attack around the Austrian left was driven back by an infantry line
An Austrian cavalry attack around the Prussian left was initially successful but the stumbled up against some previously unseen bad ground (the ;'Not on the Map!' card being played and terrain placed in front of them).
A final push of the Austrian infantry in the centre broke the Prussian army morale (we did not even realise it at the time as we had worked out the break points wrong), but only by 'beardy' use of the last cards by the Prussian.

Overall result, a very enjoyable draw.

Some photos.......

Austrian infantry centre ready to go (grenadiers confidently marching out to their doom in the distance).

Prussian infantry and guns waiting for the assault.

Guns on left of Prussian centre (Karoliners painted as Prussian)

Austrian artillery firing without bothering loading the balls (Karoliners painted as French - waiting for new SYW artillery!)

Hungarian infantry assault Saxon grenadiers - result was misery for the Hungarians.

A view from behind the Austrain centre,

And then I forgot to take any more photos!

Some more photos..................

BUT, my opponent Paul Scrivens-Smith (see his blog http://scrivsland.blogspot.co.uk/ ) has just sent me some photos he took, These give a better overall view of the battle, I have added them in below: