Back to the 18th century and a return to my imagi-nations

It is quite a long time since I painted any troops for Syldavia and Borduria, but I've been painting Grenadiers. First, two groups of grenadiers for the Freikorps Schtroumpf;

A couple of groups of grenadiers had been in my plans for a very long time, a decade in fact, but I'd not done anything about them until now. I'd always planned for them to have the white and blue Schtroumpf uniform colours, but with red facings. The figures are from Essex Miniatures and are actually Prussian Von Schony grenadiers. I've added in an officer, NCO and Drummer. The drummer in the front group is there for colour, but is treated as a man with a musket for Sharp Practice purposes.

Next are two groups of Syldavian grenadiers, once again from Essex Miniatures' SYW Austrian range;

As I already have one group of 8 grenadiers from the Istow Regiment, I decided to paint two groups from other regiments, so I could have a Combined Grenadier formation for Sharp Practice. The front group  with green facings is from the Lippzshutt regiment and the group behind with black facings is from the Motörkopf regiment. Again, I have added a couple of officers, a drummer, an NCO and an ensign with a standard, showing the famous Black Pelican of Syldavia.

These chaps will be getting their tabletop debuts at Winter Wonderlard VI at BIG in Bristol on SAturday 7th February.

A new project - SYW 15mm troops

This project is something I had no idea I was going to do at the beginning of the year, but a few people at the club were getting interested in the Honours Of War rules from Osprey and were using SYW armies that they either already had or were putting together. I played a couple of games and, although I have some reservations about the rules, I decided that they weren't too bad and I ought to put an army together too.

The rules allow for the use of imagi-nations, which is something that I am very much in favour of because it takes me back to Charles Grant and his wars between the Vereinigte Freie Städte and the Grand Duchy of Lorraine in his classic book, The War Game.

My project is to create the army (in our chosen scale of 15mm) of the Grand Duchy of Überwald (a name that will be familiar to Terry Pratchett fans), a long vanished entity from somewhere near Austria. 

The rules in the book uses infantry battalions made up of five elements, but because some players have battalions of four elements, we have agreed on this for our campaign, which is supposed to begin in the autumn. We are also reducing cavalry squadrons by one element too, to keep frontages in proportion. 

Our campaign will be using a blend of real and imaginary states, so long as the imaginary armies have the characteristics of the real ones in the book.

The Grand Duchy of Überwald's army will be using Essex Prussian minis and will be based on the rule book stats for Austria.  As you can see, their flags will look rather French too.

So far, I have completed two battalions of Grenadiers and three of light troops, as pictured above. My plan is to have ten battalions of infantry, three of light troops (most likely a Freikorps) and seven squadrons of cavalry of various types, plus medium artillery and a number of brigadiers and an army commander. I expect that my imagination will run away with me and I end up with a few more units.

To provide a nice colourful appearance I will paint up some infantry in colours other than grey. There will be a battalion of Garde zu Fuß musketeers in blue and two more battalions in green, representing troops from the Margravate of Streslau, a feudal vassal of Überwald. There will also be artillerymen, cuirassiers (including one of Garde zu Pferde), dragoons and hussars in a variety of uniforms.

I am going to have to work quickly. I also have a 28mm Austrian Napoleonic project that I need to finish by November. So far, everything is assembled, based up and undercoated.

Chain of Command - a lockdown AAR

Last weekend I persuaded my partner to play What A Tanker! After the game, I persuaded my helpless hostage to play Chain of Command on the same table, treating the WaT! game as a precursor to the main action.

The scenario was that the British would attack and the Germans defend. The British had 7 points of support and the Germans had three. The barbed wire and minefield from the previous game remained in place, together with a couple of brewed-up British tanks.

I was the German player and my partner the British one. British Force Morale was 9 and German was 8. As supports, the British took a Carrier Section with a JL and a pre-game barrage and the Germans took a green infantry section. I decided that these were Osttruppen, Russian POWs who had been conscripted into the German army to serve in Normandy.

The pre-game barrage was a constant thorn in my side as I was repeatedly unable to deploy anything. Meanwhile, the British advanced quickly on my left flank.

Soon, they were closing down and capturing one of my JoPs,

Once I started getting tiny boots on the table, I moved to capture the ruined buildings to close down my right flank from another sweeping flank attack.

This was fine, but it meant that the British had pretty much free rein in the centre and on my left.

Smoke from the 2" mortar kept my troops from targeting the British too often.

Having secured a foothold in the village at the church end, I was being threatened on both flanks. Losing the JoP had dented my FM, but worse, it had restricted my deployment options. I had the green section of Osttruppen in the walled vegetable garden, basically being no use at all. However, the recce section and one rifle section got past the white house and set up a firing position behind a line of bocage. A firefight with German troops behind a wall at the eastern end of the village ensued, with both sides firing across the minefield and taking casualties.

I ended a turn using a CoC dice, meaning that the smoke lifted and allowing me to target a British section trying to cross the open ground in the centre.

Getting two phases gave me the chance to fire at them in successive turns. They were hit very hard, but the platoon leader Lt. Binkie Huckabuck survived.

As the sun began to set, the British on my right began to advance behind smoke to occupy the buildings that I had pulled back from.

The Osttruppen finally started to get involved, firing at the British recce troops and a rifle section stick behind a length of bocage.

Elsewhere, the British were closing in on the ruined buildings. My infantry were pinned back in the eastern end of the village.

Although both sides were losing troops fairly frequently, German morale was down to 5 and my grip on the village was slipping. We decided that the British had partially achieved their objective, which was to push the Germans out of the village and secure the road. Bearing in mind that it would probably be easier for the British to reinforce their position, the Germans decided to slip away as the sun slowly set in the west.

Although N had never played CoC before, she made her own decisions based upon the options I gave her. The chance to get carriers and troops across the table at the western end of the village was hers, and it turned out to be decisive, seeing as she captured one of my JoPs before I even had any troops on the table. That pre-game barrage was a real curse for me. In hindsight, I should have taken the hit and ended the Turn to end the barrage and accept the loss of the JoP long before it was forced on me by N rolling three sixes and ending the Turn.

My first completed painting of 2020

I really had to get these done as my first painting task this year, because I need them for a weekend of 28mm Peninsular War Sharp Practice at the beginning of February.

First, 16 Portuguese Fuzileiros, in two groups of eight, with an Officer and a Drummer, representing troops of the 20th Regiment of Foot;

Accompanied by a group of eight Grenadieros, with an officer and a standard bearer.

The second officer is actually supposed to be a second standard bearer, but I really didn't need two of them and he looks fine as a junior officer. The reason that I have done a single group of grenadiers is that I have eight figures with short swords (four from the Warlord box and the four Front Rank ones), and these were only carried by flank company troops.

The figures are all from the Warlord plastic Portuguese Infantry box, bulked out with four additional metal figures from Front Rank, these are the rear four figures in the grenadier group.

People who know me generally know that I do not like painting Napoleonic uniforms very much, and these were no exception to that rule, but despite my mental moaning and groaning, these have come out OK, but I have noticed now, after varnishing that I forgot to put a small dab of blue on their shako cockades, but I can live with that.

I am also always unhappy while I am painting plastic figures, because they never really look any good until I get an ink wash on them and I've done some dry-brushing to bring out the details and textures of the figures.

Anyway, although these are unlikely to ever win any prizes for painting, they will look pretty good on the table as a useful addition to my Anglo-Portuguese army.