Friday Forum #1

Please post your comments on any topic you please.

I'll be checking them as frequently as out time-zones allow to enable something like a free-flowing conversation.

Change to Duchy of Alzheim Style and Content

I’ve been thinking a little about my style of blogging in the past few days.

I think it could be characterized as a lot of little posts on progress on this or that project with pictures of my latest half-dozen painted toy soldiers.

I’m thinking I might revise this approach in coming weeks and concentrate on more meaty (but obviously less frequent) posts on what’s going on, rules ideas, battle reports and so forth.

I’m also thinking of running a “Friday Forum” with an open topic where we may post to our heart’s content using the Comments feature . I’ll them convert the comments into a post and respond as necessary.

I hope that these changes will make the Duchy a more interesting place to visit.

A box of tin from America has arrived! Hurrah!

Oh for joy! at last my RSM order has battled its’ way through shoals of Easter mail to land on my doorstep.

So excited was I at this advent that I plucked out, cleaned and primed the dozen galloping horses that will be the mounts for the Kurfurstin Dragoon regiment. Keeping in mind that I have now painted four of this regiment, scrounged up an officer and trumpeter, as well as this additional dozen I am on my way to having about a squadron and a half of troopers – a very satisfactory stare of affairs I think. I like the fact that this sort of regiment size (say 36-38 figures) will give my horse regiments some sort of battlefield parity with my Infantry. Thus they won’t be withering away too quickly under the impact of a battalion volley.

I ought to have the horses painted to completion by tonight, I hope and then be ready to make a start on the troopers.

I am contemplating doing a skirmish line of a squadrons’ worth of dismounted Dragoons. I was going to use some of the RSM dismounted dragoons, but they are not quite to my taste and I am wondering whether to use some Austrian infantry and Grenadiers in the advancing pose and do some small amount of modification to their leg-ware to indicate boots rather than gaiters. I will be putting a few horses on two bases to represent the horses they dismounted troops leave behind – I’ll probably have to sculpt saddlery onto them.

Equal cause for excitement was the discovery of some sample Ottoman Turks who I thought might make good “early Croats”. I think that, after examining them closely, that they will make fine wild men from the fringes. I’m thinking here especially of plate ‘A’ in the Osprey on Austria’s Frontier Troops (1740-1796) and some early images of some few Serbian troops of the earliest part of the era.

Dragoon Regiment Kurfurstin

Also called Kaiserin fom October 1744 until October 1745 and Piosasque thereafter, I've based this dragoon regiment on the 1740 version of the uniform mentioned in Stephen Manleys excellent uniform guide to the War of the Austrian Succession. Significantly though, he neglects to tell us what colour the small-clothes were. I opted for buff as the "best guess".

This regiment was organised into three squadrons each of four troops. One troop (represented here) was designated as Grenadiers. In my organisation, I am using three figures to represent a troop and thus a dozen for a squadron. When they are fighting dismounted (an option I'm going to allow myself), two figures from each squadron must remain behind as horse-holders.

I'm piecing the regiment together from odds and ends while I await my last RSM order. The horse closest the camera is from Eureka.

Painting for pleasure.

Here's a few things I've been pottering with while

I've been awaiting my latest RSM order.

I've decided to renovate my French regiments, taking them up to a three-company, 15-figures-per company structure with a couple of ensigns and a mounted Colonel to round them out. it's proving pretty painless; as you can see I've just about finished the Berry Regiment. Next on the list is Royal Languedoc with the first three round-outs painted up.

Second is a cheap plastic building from what I think is a Chinese company called "Lee" which I've decided to build into part of Strudelberg. It's actually the second Strudelberg building - the first is a little church with a conical top on the steeple that features earlier in this blog when I was building my Vauban Fortress.

Finally is the converted Austrian/Bavarian Grenadier Officer I've been threatening to do for ages. I'm not entirely sure about how he's cradling hus musket, but we'll see how he looks when he's painted.

Until my next order arrives, I'll probably be painting more Frenchmen and refining my gris-blanc skills. I do have a few other odds and sods saved up for painting just to spoil myself with - mostly aavalry singletons. More later as I get on.

Ducal Doings

Thanks for being patient. And Ducal doings aren't what you think. That's between Friedrich Augustus and Bauer.

I've been fairly busy this past week with work and overtime and haven't really had the time to post much here.

I have been doing a little work on the Strudelberg project. I finished the first Bavarian house a couple of days ago. I have painted up a couple more Croats of the Szluin Regiment, so have had to perform a little hat-surgery upon them.

Speaking of surgery, I have been slicing around an Austrian infantry officer with the aim of turning him into a Bavarian grenadier officer, complete with fusil and belly-pouch - I think the French used to call the equivalent item in their army a "gargoussier". I have an NCO lined up for similar surgery, although I think he will keep his pole-arm. This officer figure, once he has had his "Spanish Reed" cut away would also make a dandy ensign with a little arm-bending.

Anyway, that's enough for now. I'll post a few pictures tomorrow for the sake of a little eye-candy.

Doodling Along

In between writing another Battlegames review for Eureka (or is that the other way around?) I've been quietly adding to my Croats - I'm up to 26 now (including a standard-bearer) with another couple to be added in the next day or so - these will be Sluiz and so will need the "hat-swap" surgery to do them, so they take a little longer than the regulars.

After that, I'll be out of Croat castings and will be waiting on my next shipment of a dozen from DPC, so I think I'll round out next week painting some more Hungarians to build up Regiment Haller.

This weekend I'll be raiding the model railway shop for some "Bavarian-looking" buildings. Painting them ought to be a nice break from painting miniatures.

Croat Horde

Captain Kalnocky leads his reinforced company into action across the top of my spray-paint spattered recycling bin. To him it is a field of Mars. To his Carlstadters from the Likaner Regiment it's just another fight.

I just finished painting Captain Kalnocky this evening, promptly dropped him on a concrete path, curses, re-touched and varnished him then got him together with all the lads if the first company and a few of the second for a group photo.

They refused to pose with the fisrt recruits to the Szluin Regiment of the Karlstadt Generalcy. They look too much like Germans to them.

More on the Defense of Strudelberg Croats

I just sent off an order to DPC for another dozen Croats which ought to finish off the second company and help the third get well on its' way. I also will be welcoming a dozen galloping Austrian Dragoon castings to recruit into my Bavarian forces. Additionally, I ordered a few Ottoman Turks who I think look promising as "early Croats" - I'm fairly excited about these and really hope they'll live up to my expectations.

Next, I'm hoping to convert a couple of the dragoons into drummers using the seperate drums it's possible to buy from Castaway Arts. How did these guys steer their horsies, anyway? Did they tie their reins to the stirrups or something? Anyway, expect me to beplaying with knives, files, greenstuff and brass wire soonish...

I'll get a picture of the completed company up tonight or tomorrow morning.

On another note, me and the missus have finally (after saving for about three years) booked a European Holiday. Mmmm. Six weeks, and only two of it tied into a tour (OK, Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Prague, Budapest, Vienna - it's like the Austro-Hungarian Empire Tour...) so I'm free-ish for four weeks.

Who's got suggestions on places to be and things to do from a geeky perspective?

Croats for Strudelberg

Just quitely noodling away here on the idea of the Defense of Strudelberg and I'm thinking about the composition of my Croat forces.

I like the idea of creating a company of "early" Croats using some of the figures from the RSM Ottoman range - I've spotted a couple of chaps in tall hats and baggy pants wearing shirts and loose waistcoats who might suit. I even like the guy with the horsetail standard who I could swap with a more "Austrian" standard-bearer.

It might even be possible to get some of these blokes into flugelmutzen (perhaps casting my own) to create something approximating von Trencks' infamous freikorps.

In the meantime, I'm nearly done on my first Croat company and have made some progress on companies two and three. My next order to DPC will get these latter companies close to completion, buy me some Austrian Dragoons (who will go nicely with some old von Kleist Cavalry as horse-grenadiers, I think) and some samples for my Balkan wild men.

The Defense of Strudelburg - Croats

Here are a couple of new Croats/Grenz.

I've done them to represent the Szluin Regiment of the Karlstadt Generalcy. You'll note that they are the two RSM Croats with their felt tshakoes chopped off and replaced with tricornes. I did this on the basis of a throwaway line in "Instrument of War"* referring to those troops having at one stage tricornes. Whether they retained them for long is another matter...

You'll note the man on the right has a bandage on his head. This is the legacy of me being too eager with cutting his old hat off, then being too generous with the Green Stuff as I tried to patch the gap!

Overall though, I think they look pretty cool; I really like the overall effect of the colour scheme.

The RSM Croats are very easy to paint, too. Try them for yourself some time. I'll soon be painting up an Austrian Officer with a Hungarian infantry head swap on him to "exoticise" him enough to serve with the Croats.

It strikes me that you could almost mistake them for early (mid1740s?) Hungarians, especially if you replaced the sabre with a plastic card sabretache. Just a thought.

*Duffy

A few thoughts on "The Croat Terror" (or "The Defense of Strudelberg")

Some little while go I posted on what is evolving into a demonstration game - "The defense of Strudelberg".

To refresh your memories: It is about 1742. Austro-Hungarian forces are ravaging Bavaria. A small Bavarian force of Infantry and Cavalry are trying to hold up a strong force of enemy line and light infantry supported by a strong force of hussars and some light artillery. My initial idea was to fight down the length of a table with towns representing victory points scattered on either side of the river. TheBavarians would be forced to choose what to defend and this choice would be complicated by a river running down the centre of the table. The Austro-Hungarian player would be able to choose where to strike, and would have a small but significant advantage in numbers.

To all this, Murdock said:
The only concern I would have for your planned 'long running' battle along the banks of the river is the speed of most infantry cannot match that of the cavalry. Wheras the artillery is what is generally needed to 'batter-down' hardened town locales.Your overall concept I think would be better organized as a 'campaign' to be faught over a number of 'imaginary' weeks. With each defensive stand, chosen by the Bavarians (probably based on the 'value' of the locations) becoming the basis for a tabletop engagement.This way the Croat forces would be able to either 'blitz' trying to rush past with their superior cavalry...or surge forwards in a unified formation.

Me: Murdock, I take your point and am revising the scale of the game down to an "evacuate the civilians" game. Further, I am taking on board your recommendation on artillery and will be equipping the Austro-Hungarian side with a pair of battalion guns. Play-testing may also result in the Bavarians obtaining one also.

I would still like to play out the campaign at a later date, though!


And then Grimsby Mariner said:
We ran a very similar idea for a demo game some years back at Triples & Partizan. the game was based on a large Indian raid down the Ohio valley in the French indian Wars. Twelve warbands of indians (some 120 figures) racing down the valley against 30 regulars and 40 civilians (including women and children) with a relief force sailing up the river in boats. The terrain had two steep wooded valley sides with a fort close to the river and homesteads scattered across the valley floor. we found the whole thing great fun and added twists with each play adding in some French regulars to support the Indian or local militia for the English - we even had Indians in canoes!).the trick we found was play testing it several times before the demo to make sure it worked and was not too unblanced.I imagine your Croat terror game being similar.

Me: It's interesting that you should say that. I'm fairly sure that Jim Purky's "Croat Terror" rules (the title of which I'm pinching to head this series of posts) had it's own genesis in a set of FIW rules called "Iroquois Terror" that had a premise not unlike the series of games you describe.

In light of Murdock's comments above, I'm inclining toward this sort of a scenario at the moment. Hungarian regulars replace the French, Croats replace the Indians, a walled or fortress town replaces the fort - hm, at last! a use for my Vauban fortress - as eye candy at least.

Now i just need a number of 18th Century civilians to look out for. I have some from RAFM's old "Flint and Feather" range. Can anyone suggest some more?

New progress pics of the Haller Regiment

I finally finished off the second company last night - plus a few extras.

I'll start adding command when my last order from DPC comes through.

Bits and Pieces

Just so you know i've not dropped of the face of the earth.

Well, work on the 2nd company of the Haller regiment is coming along quite well; I think they'll be finished off in the next couple of days. I'll hold a parade whaen that happens.

I'm still waiting on my latest RSM order, so the part of the project that's the incentive (ie, the pretty bits) is still a twinkle in my eye. I'm contenting myself with a drummer and another mounted officer for my Bavarians.

Yesterday I took delivery via Amazon UK a copy of Stephen Manley's The War or the Austrian Succession; A Wargamers' Guide - Part IX. This comb-bound A4 paperback (reviewed in BAttle Games V1 Nr5) covers the Uniforms of Denmark, Bavaria, Pfalz, Hannover, Saxony and the varios Hessian states. Let me just say that I was humming with delight as I perused this little gem with it's densely-packed and well-laid out information. It's a great help for my Bavarians in my growing "Croat terror" game that I am slowly assembling. I will be buying more of these. Especially the Austrain book.

Anyway, I must carry on; the dishes won't wash themselves and I would like to put in an hours' painting before Amy gets home from karate.

Here's an idea

I woke up in the middle of the night last night thinking about how I might create a pioneer figure for my Bavarian infantry.

RSM do a couple of figures in their waistcoats with empty hands as part of their artillery sets. I'm thinking, perhaps a grenadier head-swap, a greenstuff apron, a scratchbuilt axe, a loose musket on a sling and a painstakingly built-up coat and I might be there.

The bare head could be transferred to an Officer or NCO who might then be persuaded to hold his hat in his hand.

I'll let you know how I go with that.

I'd like to go further too with my Grenadier officers and actually arm one with a fuisil and a belly-pouch (did the French call them "gargoussiers"?). The Austrian Officer advancing with his "spanish reed" in hand looks a promising subject.

What's on

Every now and then I must really annoy Rich and Dave from DPC by putting in orders like this:

5 x S6-001 - Austrian Officer with Baton
5 x S6-002 - Austrian Officer Advancing
5 x S6-003 - Austrian NCO with Halberd
2 x S6-004 - Austrian Musketeer Drummer
13 x S6-005 - Austrian Grenadier Marching
10 x S6-007 - Austrian Musketeer Marching
8 x S6-012 - Austrian Grenz Loading
8 x S6-013 - Austrian Grenz Stand & Fire

Still they are good about it and they humour me, which I like.

That being said, that's my Hungarian regimental officers taken care of, as well as my Bavarian Grenadiers and a company of Grenz.

Speaking of Grenz, I reckon that with some judicious chopping, you could turn a Grenz Officer casting into an "enthusiastic" ensign. That upraised sword cries out to me to be replaced with a flagstaff.

Flags here: http://royalfig.free.fr/DrapAut.htm These are amazingly beautiful flags by Frederic Aubert, surely one of the most helpful people in this hobby. I stand in awe.

I've finished undercoating the next company of the Haller regiment and am painting all the blue bits. Next comes highlighting them, then the gray base-coats of the coats followed by the white highlighting.

I've a busy weekend on!

1st Company, Haller Regiment

Voila!

The Grenadier drummer will eventually be drafted to the Grenadier company. Just as soon as there is one...

New Recruits

Yhis weekend i started batch painting the first fusilier company of the Haller regiment.

As you can probably see it's an Hungarian unit. Figures are the huge stash of RSMs I found I had.

These two are a pair of test shots I did last week; they are painted very much according to the plate in my Blandford book on the uniforms of the 7YW.

I've another dozen fusilieers and a couple of drummers (one a Bavarian) in process. I've painted the coats, facings, leggings, cross belt and have made a start on the faces.

I ought to have them finished by the end of the week. Each company will have an Officer, Drummer and NCO in attendance. Four companies plus a mounted Colonel should see the regiment come in at 61 figures.

If only all my regiments were of such a size!


This next gentleman is from the RSM aid package of "odds and ends" that lovely Ioannis Mavromichalis sent me, and I painted him over the weekend to stop myself from going mad as I splashed the white paint around. He has now joined the von Kleist Freikorps.

Eureka Toy Soldiers - Free!!!

...and they're gone!

Next available lot are Eureka's Warrior Frogs.

Take a look here:

http://eurekamin.com.au/news.php?newsid=EEyuFulkAEOKftJokR

Again, a pretty fair sampling across the latest releases in the range.

bloggerator@gmail.com

I'll be posting a bit later today to let you know what's been going on here.

Eureka Toy Soldiers - Free!!!

I've some review samples from Eureka Miniatures "Toy Soldiers" range. They are a complete sampling of the range, so there's quite a few items there.

http://eurekamin.com.au/news.php?newsid=EEyuFuZAZkMNLaWktT

For the cost of postage and packaging I'd like to get them to a good home.

First email gets them. Please contact me at: bloggerator@gmail.com