7 Day Painting Challenge - Final

Here we are at last.

I've had to stop painting - we are just about to go overseas for six weeks. IR33 has had it's faces and hats painted. Three-quarters of the mens' small-clothes have been painted (and look quite spiffy, too) but I am out of time now and have to go.

I think I have had just a few too many distractions or preparations to really have time for the paint-brush this week!

I'll be updating this blog as time permits and material allows.

If you want to follow out travels, please feel welcome to drop in here:

www.awaywithamyandhorn.blogspot.com

All the best.

7 Day Painting Challenge continued...

A very unproductive weekend has passed me by.

Family celebrations over a big barbeque (and cleaning up, and cooking) reduced my painting time severely.

I've painted the small-clothes of fourteen fusileers in their base-coat of pale-gray, that's about it. I'll try to get another few finished tonight and tomorrow morning so I can start on their blue coats.

It's not looking good.

UPDATE: The image above shows you roughly how we are going. I love the chracter that the blackundercoat technique imparts the faces. I also like how well the cartridge belt and small-clothes look with the black undercoat defining the edges of this and that. Nice and crisp, just the way I like it.

Day 2 of... The Seven Day Challenge!

Well folks, here we are on Day two of the Seven Day Challenge and it's not looking too good for our contestant - Greg?

*Oh, well, you know, at the end of the day, when it's all said and done, there's no I in team and..

Did you get the hats painted?

*Yes, good-looking aren't they, nice and pointy on top...

Did you get the hats painted?

*Er, no, not entirely, I gave them a nice dry-brush of white (that's 36 hats, remember - 36!) then base-coated them orange, did some touch-ups with black and then painted on the brass mitre fronts. I washed them with some nice, thinned Windsor and Newton Sepia ink to define the detail and then i ran out of time.

A little overambitious?

*No - OK, yes, but it also painted a couple of horses. They look nice. I also realised one of the limitations of my Osprey one-and-only reference; no details on Officer and NCO hat lace! I just took a gamble on gold. It looks pretty even if it may be wrong.

Seven Day Challenge

This is a bit of a follow on from a post I made a day or two ago about building on my Prussian collection.

I've since had a good scrounge through my lead pile and have come up with enough castings to build two Fusilier and one Grenadier Company. To build this force in the configuration that I am aiming at (three companies of "hatmen" and a company of grenadiers per batallion), I'm obviously a bit short but will carry on for now with what I have for now because I'm off on holiday in a week and don't have the time to wait on a new order from the lads at DPC.

Which brings me to the title of this post.

I have 41 figures and one horse to paint. To challenge myself, I aim to paint them before I go away. To make things a little more difficult for myself, I've decided to create a little vignette depicting the death of General Schwerin at Prague.

After spending the past few days with my nose stuck in an Osprey I have decided that I will be painting Fusilier Regiment Nr. 33.

The night before last I cleaned, mounted and undercoated the castings with my favoured matt black spray paint. Last night I painted all their little lead faces and hands and this morning while I got ready for work, I put the highlights on chin, cheeckbones, knuckles and nose.

As I write this I have just finished trimming the standards for IR 33 and IR 24 (the latter for the Schwerin vignette) and tonight I ought to get a couple of hours to myself and I'll get the hats and the horse done at least and start on the vignette.

As to the vignette, I'm hoping to use the mounted French officer and a rearing horse as the basis. I'll swap his hat-holding hand for a flagstaff and try to get a couple of suitably-dismayed-looking troopers from IR24 on the same base.

I shall report again tomorow.

Things to do in 2008

Just thinking out loud here, you understand. I can’t be held accountable for any of this, OK?

I’ve been thinking about where to go next with the Duchy of Alzheim. As I’m writing this, my French Army stands at nine foot units (7 Line and 2 Light), five of horse and a smattering of artillery. Now, I reckon that this is a pretty fair force for now and probably won’t be adding too much more to it for a little while, apart from the ongoing effort to round out the unit sizes to my current targets and eventually adding some Gardes Suisses to pair with the Gardes Francaises and some more gunners. Naturally I’ll revisit this at a later date and add more units, but that’s for the longer term.

I’m now looking for another project to take me through the next twelve months. I’m thinking of taking up my original Seven Years’ War project and picking up where I left off with my Prussians. I’d gotten as far as building out IR13 to my original unit standard which was about 43 figures, so it won’t take too much to build it up from there. On top of that I had about a dozen of DR5 and a half dozen of the von Kleist Horse Grenadiers and a couple of guns.

From this base I’ve been poking around at my lead stocks and think I can make a pretty good start on another two Musketeer Regiments and a Fusilier Regiment, each with sufficient Grenadiers to give me a couple of combined Grenadier battalions. I’m then wanting to round out DR5 to three Squadrons, the v. Kleist Horse Grenadiers to a similar strength(?), add a Cuirassier Regiment, a Hussar regiment, some more guns and some v. Kleist Light Infantry.

That should make a nice little force, smaller than the French, but able to stand well enough against them in the field, especially if they ally up with my Bavarians once they’ve been built up to 2 Foot and one Horse unit.

I think that’d be enough to occupy me for the next twelve months or so.

What are your longer term plans?

Wagon Hill Container

I have spent the best part of the past five or six days researching respectively the Saxon Cavalry from about 1740 to 1763 and Field Bakeries.

Enquiries in the usual places have yielded quite good results on both topics, but in the case of Field Bakeries, the process has been linguistically interesting.

The materials I have forund on Field Bakeries have been exclusively in either French and German, both languages with which I am not very familiar - although my French is FAR better than my German. As a result I have been using Alta Vistas' online translation software "Babel Fish". We are all familiar with it's limitations - it is linear, processing a sentence one-word-at-a-time and thus provides a literal translation that often lacks the sense of what the author was trying to convey. Then there is the problems with words that may have more than one meaning. I fear that this software will only use the most common meaning used for that word, thus in the fairly specialised translating required for English-speaking users the French word for "Grenadier" which has a very specific meaning in our context tends amusingly to get translated as "Pomegranate".

Then there are German compound words. I fantasised today about being a German speaker who might have been something of a military buff who wanted to find out what the amusing English term "Cartridge Case" meant. Imagine his surprise at getting back a result like "Wagon Hill Container "!

If no-one else has done it, I am going to start compiling a glossary of French and German 18th Century military jargon. If anyone wants to contribute, please email me at bloggerator@gmail.com . We can discuss terms like "hat lace", "facing colour*" and "turn-back" and compile a list.

*OK, "coleur distinctive"

Painting Panzers - OT???

I bought a box of Armourfast PzKwIIIG this weekend and have been happily painting them in North African livery. To this end, I purchased some of the appropriate Tamiya shade and some Matt White with which to lighten it.

Assembling the kits was a breeze. For anyone who is not familiar with the Armourfast kits, they are very basic with upper and lower hull, complete track units, turret, and a vew detail units to complete a satisfying model in a simple kit that takes little time to throw together.

I halted construction when I had the hull, turret and tracks as seperate units. I sprayed these in a flat black as an undercoat and then proceeded to paint these in German Dark Yellow.

Tamiya does this colour as an attractive sort of orange-ish tan. I laid this on with the biggest, flattest brush I own. The first layer was laid down quickly and lightly over the whole kit and the idea was to get good coverage while leaving the black undercoat in all the recesses. More paint was layered on with the aim of producing on a nice, smooth coat onto the flat surfaces of the vehicles, the aim being to get an almost "enamelled" surface. The black base-coat will create shading in the recesses.

Next will be to highlight with a couple of successively lighter shades put on with a lighter dry-brushing per coat.

Finally I will give the vehicles a very light dry-brush of Panzer Gray to simulate wear on the Desert Yellow base-coat.

I will then gloss varnish the vehicles and apply decals from my spares box.

I hope to finish off by washing the tyres with a thinned gray then lightly spraying with a little Tamiya USAF Tan and then an even lighter spray of white - both to simulate dust. Finally I'll apply a coat of mat varrnish to dull down the finish of the vehicles.

I'm a bit painted out on the 7YW just now, so I'm taking a few weeks out on this project; I'm thinking of a couple of batallions of Commonwealth troops and a company of Panzers, some reconnaissance troops and a Panzer-grenadier battalion. A nice diversion courtesy of Rapid Fire.

Mustering the Forces

OK, I was mucking around with the whole of my French infantry tonight and was pretty impressed with how they look en masse. What you are seeing here is the result of about two and a half years' work; nearly as long as I've been a member of the Old School Wargamers Yahoo Group.

May I take the opportunity to thank everyone who might visit this place for their inputs - especially Stokes, Jeff and Alte Fritz - who have long been regular and supportive contributers, and to acknowlege the role that OSW has had in giving me the inspiration and ongoing encourgement to keep both this blog and this project going.

My most sincere thanks to you al,l and I genuinely hope that we all keep in touch, sharing ideas, stories and perhaps even having a few laughs on the way.

Thank you.

Now, I've got some Croats to paint, so I'll be back later...

Berry Regiment - 95%

The Berry Regiment as of the weekend - almost done barring three NCOs, two musicians, an officer and a little terraining.

Establishment is set at a mounted Colonel, two ensigns and three "companies" , each of an officer, a drummer, an NCO and 12 musketeers. A total of 48 figures.

I've about another campanys' worth of French figures on the pile. Now, I know that I was speaking last week about usuing them to kick off another regiment, but I'm thinking of using them to round out a couple of the other existing regiments.

What's on in the Duchy

UPDATE 22 August:

I wrote this to a friend today and thought it germane - it's slightly edited to conceal some identities:

(Replying to a query about the Strudelberg Game)

Very slowly; I got all distracted by Bill P in the US wanting to do a Ticonderoga/Carillion game for the 250th Anniversary next year and have been madly painting my commitment of French troops to send him (about 100 figs) whilst also helping out a little with some bits of research for the scenario.

In the meantime, I've also gotten involved with Andrew from the group that did the super Gallipoli game at CanCon who it turns out is also a fan of the Australian Colonial scene and doing a "The Russians Are Coming!" scenario at some stage soon - so it seems I must also paint 80-100 British/Victorian Infantry in Home Service Dress at some stage in the not-too-far future. Blimey.

Still, I've managed to finish a Hungarian regiment, a Bavarian regiment (each about 50 figs) and another 50 Grenze and 20 Mounted and 10 dismounted Dragoons. I've still got plenty of unpainted Grenze and Bavarian Dragoons to be getting on with though.

And Austrian hussars, too.

Forgot those.

In the meantime Amy and I are off to Europe on the 27th September for six weeks. Decision time when I get back.

I've just ordered a TSaTF unit of Sikhs and a representative sampling of the rest of the Castaway Arts NWF ranges which I'm meaning to review for Battlegames. Can I say that they were launched with a bang at Historicon? It makes for good copy..!
Regards,
Greg
PS: Do I sound like I'm a little over-committed?

*******************************************

I’m delighted to report that I’ve just laid my hands on a nice hard-back copy of “Setting Up a Wargames Campaign” by Tony Bath. I’m just in the process of absorbing it now and am loving every minute – thanks to Paul and Teresa Bailey of “The Keep” via eBay. They give excellent and speedy service for those who are interested.

The “Berry” Regiment is coming along very nicely and ought to be pretty well finished by the weekend. This is going to bring my French infantry up to 7 battalions: The Gardes Francaises, the Gardes Lorraines, La Reine, Bourbonnois, Languedoc, Bearn, and of course, Berry.

I’m keen to keep going and I think I might make a start as soon as these guys are finished on another unit of infantry, perhaps one of the senior regiments – Picardie, Normandie or Champagne? I’ve also a few more Bavarians to paint before I can sign off on the Leib Regiment. Not sure which just yet. I’ll follow this up with some more cavalry – I have some stockpiled that I am itching to get started on just now.

On another note, I've just bought a laptop with on-board WiFi and have finally gotten around to buying a 1GB card for my camera. I've loaded up Photoshop on the device to pretty the piccies up, so I'm looking forward to doing some mobile blogging from the six weeks starting 27th September when my partner Amy and I go off to Europe. Whoopee!

NCO for the Berry Regiment

The figure – on the right in both images has been converted from the RSM French NCO on the left of both images.

Basically I’ve cut off the right hand, the left arm and the hat from the original figure. The right arm has been bent into a posture more suited to a walking or “advancing” pose, whilst the left arm has been bent a bit and glued on so that he might credibly be thought of as carrying his pole-arm. The amputated hat has gone onto the carefully sawn-off top of his head. I think this really changes the look of the figure, giving it a much more erect carriage than the original.

UPDATE: The figure also converts nicely to make a gunner hauling on a wheel, I've since found. I think I'll paint mine up as an infantryman pressed into serving a gun. I think the figure could also be capable of wielding a variety of artillery tools.

NCO and Colours for the Berry Regiment

More infantry need painting up today to glear the goals I set myself for the week. I've nearly finished converting the NCO, as you can see here. He looks pretty good so far - I'll need to patch him up with some Green Stuff where his hat meets his head and his re-positioned left arm meets his shoulder. I'll also need to re-model that part of his coat I had to saw through to get his hat moved!

From the Warflag site with a little re-touching done in Illustrator. I like to make my flags a bit over-size so they stand out more on the table. These are 35mm square.

I need to cut the flag-poles down a little and add finials. Perhaps I'll add the cords from fuse-wire or the like.

Eagle Miniatures - review in brief

UPDATE 13.08.2007 : Added image of an RSM French and an Eagle Prussian Infantryman.


Recently I laid my hands on some samples from Eagle Miniatures. They are a company trading out of the UK with a small-ish number of ranges covering NApoleonics, ACW, Moghuls, 7 Years' War, 100 years' War, and a few Hadendowah in 28mm and in 15mm range covering Napoleonic Russias and the Franco-Prussian War. These ranges are all fairly eclectic and incomplete, the 100 Years' War range amusingly containing a King Arthur, a Knight returned from the wars and a Welsh Spear-man.

I ordered some sample French and Prussian infantry, a personality figure of Frederick the Great and a Prussian Dragoon.



Well, what a mixed bunch they were. Overall the figures are quite nice, really. The cavalry sit their horses well (unlike say, Elite!), the infantry are quite pleasing in their way too, although some more than others.

I would rate the animation of the castings as being a cut or two above Old Glory. What I mean by this is while the figures have some of that OG liveliness, they still maintain a certain stately poise. the sculpting of the figures themselfes is somewhat unrefined, perhaps even a little crude by todays standards. the figures are not "fine" in the manner of Staddens or RSMs, and to me represent a couple of paces down the road that leads to the Foundry stable of figures.

The figures have a few neat touches. I like the way the prussian dragoon had a notch cut out of the front of his shoulder so hos sword-arm (cast pointing out from his body) could be bent forward and secured with super-glue. The marching Prussian infantryman with shouldered musket is a gem, as is the Grenadier in the march attack pose. I was especially impressed by his mitre. Lovely, and I'd love more to create a grenadier batalion.



On the downside, I understand that this is an older range of figure and that there would be some flash from the review of another OSW-er. Fair enough, and this was removed with a sharp blade. Why though was I as a customer who clearly stated that he wanted some samples (the implication being that I wanted to test the waters before I dropped hundreds of dollars on a few 60-figure batallions) would you as a manufacturer supply imperfect castings? The Prussian Dragoon was missing most of his musket, and if you look at the secoind figure from the right in the picture of the Prussian infantry, you'll see the Ensign was missing the top half of his flag-pole!

And please, if you are going to market a personality figure as Fredrick the Great, it'd be nice if he looked like him!

The French infantry were OK, but nothing to set my world on fire. I'm sorry to say that my benchmark for French infantry is the old "Willie" range ang these suffer by comparison looking, simply, crude.

I'll paint these to solidify my view, but for now, I'd create a batalion of Grenadiers and a Dragoon Regoment with these figures, but probably stop there and carry on with my RSMs.

Books

I've been on a bit of a book-buying spree recently.

As a result of my recent interest in logistics, I went and bought Martin van Creveld's "Supplying War". I'll report back as I get through it. A quick scan looks fascinating - thanks to those who put me onto it.

Recent eBay wins have put me in posession of a number of new Blandford uniform books which I always treasure for their lovely plates.

Another gem was the Ian Weekly book on building wargames terrain. A cut above the "Touching History" series, I think!

Furthermore, I've also acquired about 30 White dwarf mags from all stages of their first 140 issues and so I feel I have the best of the series - certainly WD isn't really what it used to be.

Introducing the Regiment de Berry

Here is the first company (plus a few extras) of my new regiment, that of Berry.

Note that I have finally (!) gotten around to making a start on terraining the bases. I'm using a gap-filler, plaster-in-a-tube sort of a preparation - it's easy to use, dilutes with water and requires only a wet sculpting tool or finger to shape it.

I'm using some GW "Scorched Grass" for vegetation; I just pop a dot or two of superglue on the base and dunk it in the pot and it's ready to go. A quick zap with the spray-on varnish and it's (hopefully) there forever. I think that the varied colour of this mix looks rather better than the electric green also available from GW. I definitely think that "less is more" with this material.

I am painting another company currently and hope to have them finished off for the weekend. At the same time I'm also terraining the bases of my large company of Compagnies Franches de la Marine. Furthermore, I'm thinking of converting the fairly useless French NCO figure into something a little more NCO-ish.

You know, looking at the lads as I am just now, I really want to do a 2-3 figure command vignette.

The Cavalry Melee

The weather here is a little unseasonably spring-like and this young man's fancy is turning toward... the Cavalry Melee.

My thoughts currently stand at this point, but I recognise that this is very underdeveloped.

Now, I do seem to remember that this topic was discussed at no small length on the OSW site in times past.

I think what I'm wondering is how in many of even the most terrible cavalry fights, there was often relatively little blood was shed, but a decision of sorts was reached. Ultimately, I'm looking for a mechanism whereby we decide that Side 'A' bottles out and runs even though it has taken very few casualties - and indeed they ought to be hard for cavalry to inflict upon each other, as opposed to what happens to disordered Infantry once the Horsemen get among them.

I suppose it's all about the unit which maintains it's integrity, but how do we portray the loss or maintenence of this?

Another consideration is how to represent cavalry haring off into the ountryside after a charge and what mechanisms might be emplaced to make it possible for cavalry to reform after a charge and to become a potent force again?

I could just go and buy a copy of BAR, I suppose..!

Personalitites

Following a post at the OSW Yahoo Group by BP, I've decided to flesh out some of the characters from the Duchy of Alzheim.

Augustus II Rex - also known as Augustus the Fat. An enormous and impulsive Prince, he is known as the King in Alzheim on account of his being King to a 25-square-mile patch of Italy that he inherited from his second cousins' uncle in 1738. He enjoys eating, cuckoo clocks, lock smithing, international intrigue, eating, playing with the Meistersilber toy soldiers he was given as a boy, cheating at cards, eating and drinking.

He is certainly not gay*, but has little interest in HM the Queen. His own secretary may be forced to secure the sucession - ahem - for him.

It is said that his best friend, Dogge, was excecuted in front of him buy his humourless father. Rumour has it that they were to elope together, but by G_d it's a brave man who'll repeat the rumour.

Bauer - A2Rs amanuensis, dogsbody and general fixer. If Augustus is Prince George from Blackadder the Third, then Bauer is possibly being played by Rowan Atkinson. Were it not for him, well, whoknows the state Alzheim might be in. Perhaps a better state altogether?

von Browne - one of a prolific tribe of Jacobite emigres who settled in Alzheim aftere the Glorious revolution. He's somewhat elderly, but still spry. He is a straight arrow and views Bauer with the deepest suspicion.

*Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Update to "The Fight at Neumarkt"

From the Seven Years' War Project wiki:

Sunday December 4 at 4:00 AM, Frederick marched from Parchwitz straight towards the Austrian camp. The vanguard consisted of ten battalions with 800 volunteers from the whole army at their head, all the foot jägers, all the freikorps, all the hussar regiments (to the exception of Werner Hussar Regiment), the dragoon regiments of Czettritz, Normann and Jung-Krockow, and a battery of 10 heavy 12-pdrs. The army followed in four columns by the right flank. The first column consisted of the cavalry of the right wing of the first and second line. The second column was composed of the infantry of the right wing of the first and second line. Their rearguard was formed of the three battalions of Ostenreich, Plötz and 1/Prinz Ferdinand, which covered the baggage. The third column consisted of the infantry of the left wing of the first and second line. The fourth column was formed of the cavalry of the left wing of the first and second line. Werner Hussars had the rearguard. The heavy artillery were divided into two brigades and moved behind the second and third columns. Frederick himself was in the vanguard, he planned to establish his quarters at Neumarkt (actual Sroda Slaska), a little town about 22 km from Parchwitz.

Early in the afternoon, while Frederick was only a few km from Neumarkt, he learned that there were 1,000 grenzers and hussars in this town, with the Austrian bakery at work there and engineer people marking out an Austrian camp. Therefore, before entering Neumarkt, Frederick sent a regiment to ride quietly round it on both sides and to seize a height he knew of. Once this height had been seized by his troops, Frederick bursted the barrier of Neumarkt with the hussars, volunteers and freikorps of the vanguard, and dashed in upon the 1,000 light troops, flinging them out in extreme hurry. The light troops then found the height occupied and their retreat cut off. Of the 1,000 light troops, 569 were taken prisoners and 120 slain. Better still, the Austrian bakery in Neumarkt delivered 80,000 bread-rations, prince Charles had exposed his bakery too far ahead of his army.

Meanwhile, fearing that Frederick would move on Striegau (actual Strzegom) to cut his line of communication with Bohemia, prince Charles had come across the Weistritz River (more commonly called Schweidnitz Water), leaving all his heavy guns at Breslau, and lay encamped that night in a long line perpendicular to Frederick's march, some 16 km ahead of him. Prince Charles had now learned with surprise how his bakery had been snapped up by the Prussians.

Sources Quoted:

Public domain sources:
Carlyle T., History of Friedrich II of Prussia vol. 18
Donnersmarck, Victor Amadaeus Henckel von, Militaerischer Nachlass, Karl Zabeler, 1858
Relation de la bataille de Leuthen, Vienna, January 1758, pp. 472-477
Relation de la bataille de Lissa, Berlin, January 1758, pp. 477-483
Tempelhoff, Fr., History of the Seven Years' War Vol. I pp. 121-147 & 176-188 & 190-, as translated by Colin Lindsay, Cadell, London, 1793

Other sources:
Cogswell, Neil, Journal of Horace St. Paul 1757: The Advance to Nismes, Seven Years War Association Journal Vol. XI No. 3 and Vol. XII No. 2
Fuller J. F. C., The Decisive Battles of the Western World, Granada Publishing Ltd, 1970, pp. 571-576

Discussion:

Note that after using one of his Hussar Regiments to seize the height behind the town that "Frederick bursted the barrier of Neumarkt with the hussars, volunteers and freikorps of the vanguard". This suggests to me that Fred at Neumarkt had considerably more forces at his disposal than just a couple of regiments of Hussars. Perhaps we ought to include 800 volunteer infantry and a company or two of Foot Jaeger in the Prussian OOB?

It makes their beating up of 1000 Croats and a couple of regiments of Austrian Hussars seem a little less a formidable acheivement, though.

The images at the start of this article are of Hussar regiments 2 and 4

For Jeff - RSM Dismounted Hussar

There you go!

He's not too useful for anything more than being in a command vignette, or so he seems to me. I've another floating around somewhere that i ought to paint just to see how my painting skills have progressed.

I've ordered 10 in Mirlitons from Garrison and am keen to see how they look. Pics to follow the minute they arrive!

The Fight at Neumarkt

I was reading my new old copy of Duffy’s “Frederick the Great: A Military Life” whilst on my lunch-break today and I came across what might be an interesting little action that took place at what was evidently a walled town called Neumarkt.

It took place on 4th December 1757 in the days leading up to Leuthen. Frederick was with some Hussars in front of his Armys’ avant-garde when they received reports from local peasants that the town ahead held an Austrian field bakery as well as stocks of bread and flour.

As I read the action, it seemed to me that some of the hussars went to envelop the town from the rear whilst others dismounted, smashed their way in through the town gates with axes and then, using their carbines, winkled the enemy out.

Apparently two regiments of Austrian Hussars make their escape but 100 Croats were killed and another 500 were made prisoner.

I assume the Austrians had at least two regiments of hussars and a battalion of Croats while the Prussians must have had at least one regiment of their own Hussars.

Minor Update: The Prussians had 2 regiments of Hussars; HR2 (Zeiten Hussars) and HR4 (Puttkamer Hussars).

This brisk-seeming episode might make the basis of an interesting little game, and I wonder if anyone has any more detail on force composition. And what a good opportunity to get the Old Fritz onto the table-top for a minor action!

UPDATE:

Taken from "History of Friedrich II of Prussia" Frederick the GreatChapter IX. - Friedrich Marches for Silesia by Thomas Carlyle

Found online here.

Sunday, December 4th, at four in the morning, Friedrich has marched from Parchwitz, straight towards the Austrian Camp; [Muller, p. 26.] he hears, one can fancy with what pleasure, that the Austrians are advancing towards him, and will not need to be forced in their strong position. His march is in four columns, Friedrich in the vanguard; quarters to be Neumarkt, a little Town about fourteen miles off. Within some miles of Neumarkt, early in the afternoon, he learns that there are a thousand Croats in the place, the Austrian Bakery at work there, and engineer people marking out an Austrian Camp. "On the Height beyond Neumarkt, that will be?" thinks Friedrich; for he knows this ground, having often done reviews here; to Breslau all the way on both hands, not a rood of it but is familiar to him. Which was a singular advantage, say the critics; and a point the Austrian Council of War should have taken more thought of.

Friedrich, before entering Neumarkt, sends a regiment to ride quietly round it on both sides, and to seize that Height he knows of. Height once seized, or ready for seizing, he bursts the barrier of Neumarkt; dashes in upon the thousand Croats; flings out the Croats in extreme hurry, musketry and sabre acting on them; they find their Height beset, their retreat cut off, and that they must vanish. Of the 1,000 Croats, "569 were taken prisoners, and 120 slain," in this unexpected sweeping out of Neumarkt. Better still, in Neumarkt is found the Austrian Bakery, set up and in full work;--delivers you 80,000 bread-rations hot-and-hot, which little expected to go such a road. On the Height, the Austrian stakes and engineer-tools were found sticking in the ground; so hasty had the flight been.

How Prince Karl came to expose his Bakery, his staff of life so far ahead of him? Prince Karl, it is clear, was a little puffed up with high thoughts at this time. The capture of Schweidnitz, the late "Malplaquet" (poorish Anti-Bevern Malplaquet), capture of Breslau, and the low and lost condition of Friedrich's Silesian affairs, had more or less turned everybody's head,--everybody's except Feldmarschall Daun's alone:--and witty mess-tables, we already said, were in the daily habit of mocking at Friedrich's march towards them with aggressive views, and called his insignificant little Army the "Potsdam Guard-Parade." [Cogniazzo, ii. 417-422.] That was the common triumphant humor; naturally shared in by Prince Karl; the ready way to flatter him being to sing in that tune. Nobody otherwise can explain, and nobody in any wise can justify, Prince Karl's ignorance of Friedrich's advance, his almost voluntary losing of his staff-of-life in that manner.

Likewise, from Henty:

At four in the morning on Sunday, December 4th, Frederick marched from Parchwitz; intending to make Neumarkt, a small town some fourteen miles off, his quarters. When within two or three miles ofthis town he learned, to his deep satisfaction, that the Austrians had just established a great bakery there, and that a party of engineers were marking out the site for a camp; also that there were but a thousand Croats in the town. The news was satisfactory, indeed, for two reasons: the first being that the bakery would beof great use for his own troops; the second, that it was clear thatthe Austrians intended to advance across the Schweidnitz Water to give battle. It was evident that they could have had no idea thathe was pressing on so rapidly, or they would never have established their bakery so far in advance, and protected by so small a force.

He lost no time in taking advantage of their carelessness, but sent a regiment of cavalry to seize the hills on both sides of the town; then marched rapidly forward, burst in the gates, and hurled the Croats in utter confusion from Neumarkt, while the cavalry dashed down and cut off their retreat. One hundred and twenty of them were killed, and five hundred and seventy taken prisoners. In the town the Austrian bakery was found to be in full work, and eighty thousand bread rations, still hot, were ready for delivery.

This initial success, and the unexpected treat of hot bread, raised the spirits of the troops greatly, and was looked upon as a happy augury.