Some buildings for my Syldavia and Borduria project

Any well-dressed wargames table needs buildings and I want to make sure that my tiny Syldavians and Bordurians have plenty of features to fight over.

I looked around for a while before settling on the 15mm resin buildings from Hovels who not only have a nice range of specifically Eastern European buildings but are also competitively-priced. Of course, I do not have to stick to buildings that are Eastern European, and Hovels also have some nice half-timbered and other buildings that should suit the 18th century period perfectly. After all, as the late Terry Pratchett used to have his Discworld characters say "The world is my mollusc".

Anyway, I bought an entire Eastern European village pack, which contains a nice variety of houses, barns and a church.

I undercoated in mid-grey everything before going on holiday and I've now completed a few houses.

First up, here are four wooden peasant houses with thatched roofs.

I thought long and hard about a colour scheme for these and decided on a simple weathered wood look and old thatch. Wood turns grey as it weathers and thatch, which starts out straw-coloured fades to a variety of grey shades as it ages. There are lots of helpful images online which show this process.

These are nice little buildings and will be useful for small settlements and villages. The buildings I bought also include a couple of larger houses for the better-off sort of peasant, as well as a barn. I might give one of these buildings a new thatch roof, for colour contrast.

My other completed building is this one;

This is a much more substantial house, suitable for all kinds of scenarios and represents the kind of place where minor landowners, officials, merchants or members of the (small in Syldavian and Bordurian terms) bourgeoisie might live. Once again, the colour palette is quite simple, with an aged thatch roof and plain whitewashed walls.

My next building will probably be the church, which is a wooden one with a tiled roof and a typically eastern dome on the roof. This will be a nice piece to paint, I think and will give me the opportunity to do something a little bit more colourful.

At last, the Bordurian cavalry arrives!

I finished these off last night. They were mostly complete, they just needed flocking and varnishing.

These are two groups of cavalry for my Sharp Practice Bordurians and are, once again Essex 15mm Prussians on Warbases movement trays.

First off, some fearsome Lancers from the Kashkaval Regiment. The lance is a traditional weapon for horsemen on the plains of Northern Borduria and there are three regiments of lancers in the Bordurian army. They all wear a traditional-style uniform. There is one group of eight lancers, plus two leaders and a trumpeter. In Sharp Practice, these are classed as Scouting Cavalry.

The trumpeter will probably serve as a Musician, according to the SP rules.

Next some more conventional types, a group of eight troopers, two leaders and a drummer from the Tchestikov Dragoons. I shall be using these as Impact Cavalry. Not sure what I'll do with the drummer, though.

Finally, I have painted up a few more infantry leaders.

The chap in white on the left will be a leader for a group or two of Freikorps Schtroumpf grenadiers when I get around to buying some. I've decided that Schtroumpf Grenadiers will have red turnbacks to indicate their elite status.

The one with his arms akimbo will be an engineering officer and I am sure that I'll find uses for the two on the right. I painted the guy with the sword as having red turnbacks, so he could end leading some infantry from a different regiment to the ones I've already painted.

That pretty much completes the first round of my Bordurians. So, with the Syldavians already done, all I've got left to do are a load of resin buildings from Hovels (I bought a complete Eastern European village set) and some ammunition and water wagons, six pack horses to form two mule trains and some labourers to serve as an engineering party (to be used by both sides), all from Magister Militum.

These are all going to have to wait for a while, though as I am off on two weeks holiday soon.

And now, the Bordurians have artillery

I am approaching the final stages of my Bordurian forces for Sharp Practice so it seems right that my latest completed troops are supporting ones; artillery, mounted leaders and a wagon.

First, here is a Bordurian cannon and limber with five crewmen and a leader. You can see an element of Russian influence here in the green limber and gun carriage and also in the red uniforms of the gunners.

Next up, we have a wagon and driver, which can be pressed into service for all kinds of things, plus three mounted senior leaders;

From left to right there is: a general staff officer, an officer from an infantry regiment and a mounted officer from the Freikorps Schtroumpf.

I am currently finishing off some more foot leaders, who will be useful when I add some different Bordurian troops later and two more groups of cavalry.

Sir William Huntley-Palmer - an 18th century spy?

In an earlier post, we discovered the English minor aristocrat and traveller Sir William Huntley-Palmer. He was described as being "late of the 11^th Dragoons, who travelled widely in Savoy, Piedmont, Carinthia and Hungary in the 1750s as some kind of undefined agent of the British government."

Here, we have a chance to discover a few more things about Captain Huntley-Palmer.

William Huntley-Palmer was born in the county of Somerset in 1724. His parents were Sir Arthur Huntley-Palmer of East Chewbury and Lady Arabella (née Arabella Melchett of Underton) and he was born in the ancestral home, Chewbury Manor.

His parents bought him a commission as Cornet of Horse in the 4th Regiment of Horse when he was 16 and he served in that regiment between 1741 and 1746, rising to the rank of full Lieutenant. In 1746, following the Battle of Culloden, he was offered a the chance to buy a captaincy in Kerr's (later the 11th) Dragoons, which he accepted.

He remained with his regiment until 1750, when he was seconded to the staff of a relative, General Sir George Augustus Melchett for unspecified service. He never resigned his commission, but it also seems to be the case that he never returned to active service with his regiment.

In 1751, he travelled to Carinthia and Savoy on behalf of the British government. He remained in Europe, visiting Piedmont and Hungary in 1752 before arriving in Syldavia in 1753. His movements then took him to Bavaria, Savoy again and Austria before returning to Syldavia in 1756, taking up residence in Klow. Documents in the Melchett Archive show regular correspondence between Huntley-Palmer and his patron General Melchett. In 1757 Huntley-Palmer was offered a position in the Syldavian service, in a military capacity. Seeking advice from "M" (as the Huntley-Palmer Papers refer to General Melchett), he accepted the role and travelled around the country, visiting various regimental headquarters, fortresses and garrisons.

The Melchett Archive contains several letters from "H-P" that refer to annexes in a now lost cypher. A plain text of one of these survives, containing an assessment of the capabilities of the Syldavian army. In it, H-P writes that the army is “reasonably well turned out, of tolerable quality and stout manners” but records that “the regiments of light Horse are impetuous, difficult to restrain and prone to looting”. Other passages suggest that H-P also played a more active role in the training and drilling of Syldavian cavalry regiments. It also appears to be the case that H-P spent several months in 1759 in the garrisons and towns along the eastern border with Borduria, where he records in his journals that "On several occasions my engagements across the river became somewhat troublesome and on more than one occasion my life was at risk. Only the stout and steady behaviour of our troops prevented my capture." He writes elsewhere of "Business on the islands of Polishoff" and "Clandestine adventures in the cities of Peshod, Salinkari and Ugaljigrad". A heavily redacted document in the Archive refers to "H-P's journey as plenipotentiary to the Grand Turk" and "stirring up unpleasantness amongst the Borduri".

Whatever is being hinted at clearly served the interests of the Syldavian Crown as, in 1761, Huntley-Palmer was created a Grand Knight of Order of the Black Pelican and was awarded the honorary colonelcy of the Piskot Cuirassier Regiment the following year. It seems that he was also awarded estates and a pension by King Ottokar IX. 

In his journals, H-P alludes to several romantic dalliances but in 1763 he became betrothed to the 22-year-old Doroteja Svinjske-Klobase, a member of a noble family related to the Syldavian Royal House of Almaszout.

We know little more of H-P's activities in Syldavia, apart from a suggestion that he was involved in the thwarting of a plot against the life of the King and that there seems to have been more than one attempt made on his own life.

In 1764, H-P and his wife travelled via Dbrnouk to Venice, on Syldavian official business and he took up residence in Trieste the following year. The Melchett Archive suggests that at this time, H-P was acting on orders from "M" and performing some kind of British government business. While in Trieste, H-P fought and won a duel against a certain Count Strabomytes of Kardouk and became involved in something that is only recorded as "The Bazarov Affair". In 1766, William and Doroteja became parents for the first time when their son James was born, followed in 1767 by a daughter, Caroline.

In 1768, Sir Arthur Huntley-Palmer died and William and Doroteja returned to England, where they took up residence in Chewbury Manor, where they proceeded to raise a large family.

In 1771, Sir William was elected to Parliament in the Whig interest as Member for East Chewbury.

He died in 1801.

More Bordurian infantry

Now, to continue my imagi-nations project, I am returning again to Borduria and back to the core troops for my Sharp Practice force.

Having already shown you the Freikorps Schtroumpf, it is now time to look at some Bordurian line infantry. Here are three groups of eight infantrymen, one NCO, one officer and a colour party representing the Krupski Fusilier Regiment;

As I have already said, Prussian influences were strong in Borduria in the mid-18th century, and in 1745 the Autocrat decreed that all Bordurian, as opposed to foreign, line infantry would henceforth be designated as Fusiliers and would therefore wear a Prussian-style fusilier cap.

The standard uniform for Bordurian line infantry was decreed to be, in the regulations of 1740, as;

 "a mid-green coat with buff or red small clothes, coat linings and facings in the distinctive regimental colour, white gaiters and white belts. Those regiments designated as fusiliers should wear a fusilier cap in the regimental colour and with a brass front plate. Other regiments will wear a black hat, with a white trimmed edge.

Officers of the rank of Kapetan and above should wear the same coloured coats, with white small clothes, an orange sash and a black hat, trimmed white. Officers may wear black leather top boots at their discretion."

These are all, as usual Essex Miniatures 15mm figures on Warbases bases and movement trays.

There were no grenadier companies attached to Bordurian regiments, although some of the foreign regiments in Bordurian service did have grenadier companies. Bordurian grenadiers were organised into two separate regiments, the Schtropov and Zlinkov Regiments. Neither of these ever distinguished themselves in battle and both were disbanded in 1753, with many of the troops being recruited by various Freikorps.

Bordurian light infantry for Sharp Practice

In the years following the end of Ottoman rule there was a gradual westernisation of the forces available to Borduria. The first regiments raised were equipped with muskets and polearms after the style of Polish Drabants and were termed Hajduks. These were initially supplemented by locally-raised companies of soldier-peasants known as Militani. However, the limitations of these formations gradually became apparent and by 1730, western-style infantry regiments were replacing the traditional Hajduks. Eventually, most of the Hajduk regiments were converted to regular line infantry. However, three regiments of Hajduks were merged with the best of the Militani militia units, to serve as light infantry and skirmishers wearing western-style uniforms, in a role as Grenzer and Gendarmerie. In honour of their origins they retained their traditional title of Hajduks.

The troops shown here are from the Smederevka Regiment. There is a group of eight infantrymen, a group of six skirmishers, two NCOs and an officer.

In addition to the Hajduks, who had a number of limitations, not least a reputation for insubordination and a marked reluctance to serving outside of the regions where they were raised, the Bordurians soon recruited a number of Jäger Light Infantry regiments uniformed in the Prussian style that was the main influence on the Bordurian Army under the Autocrat Constantine II Cantacuzene. These regiments wore a fairly utilitarian grey uniform and were noted for their steadfastness, shooting ability and general reliability.

These troops are represented here by a group of eight Jägers, six Schützen (light infantry skirmishers), two NCOs and an officer, all from the Moznik Jäger Regiment, one of three Freikorp Jäger regiments.

The Freikorps Schtroumpf

In a previous post, I wrote a short biography of Frans Schtroumpf, a Flemish nobleman who became a soldier of fortune and faithfully served the Autocrat of Borduria in numerous wars.

So, here are the troops who formed the two regiments of the Freikorps Schtroumpf, known as the Frajkorps Schtroumpf or Besplatno Korpus Schtroumpf in the two main dialects of Bordurian.

As previously discussed, the troops of the Freikorps Schtroumpf were uniformed in the Schtroumpf family's traditional colours of blue and white.

So, first, here are the famous Schtroumpf Hussars. Note that officers wear red breeches and yellow boots, and have a red band on their mirlitons whereas the troopers wear white breeches and sport a white band.

Secondly, here are the Schtroumpf Fusiliers.

Prussian-style fusilier caps were commonly worn by Bordurian line infantry regiments, as opposed to the tricorne hats worn by most foreign regiments in Bordurian service.

The Schtroumpf  infantrymen  were granted permission to wear caps following their bravery at the Battle of Zornik in 1753.

All figures are from the Essex Miniatures 15mm Prussian Seven Years' War range.