New York Provincials

I realised that I've not yet posted any real pictures of my new New York Provincials. So here they are, a full Grand Division. I like them so much I may go on and do more as well as some of the blue-coated privincials from other colonies. The figures are very easy to paint indeed.

The figures are by RSM. The Officer is the Advancing Prussian, the Drummer is a British figure with a minor conversion to his head-wear whilst the rank (and the file) are from the AWI range, American Militia. I think I have said before that they seem to have been incorrectly catalogued, having been commissioned from Steve Hezzlewood to supplement the French and Indian war range as it then was by Hap Jordan's Battalionfeur Games. I take this information from the "Reviewing Stand" pages of The Courier Vol VIII, No. 5.

An intriguing mention is made that more figures were planned to fill gaps in current FIW ranges. Does anyone know whether this is so?

My conversion of the drummer - I've added a fur front to his cap. I have no evidence as to whether this is remotely accurate - I suspect not!

Post #401

Bit of an update, OK?

Action on two fronts, as it were. As of today I'm finished the painting of the European troops I need for la Belle Famille. They are the New York Provincial Regiment, and mighty fine they look too in their green coats. I converted (slightly) a British drummer by putting a greenstuff "bearskin" front on his little cap to give him a little interest*. I like the way they look, being all in a firing line, nine shooters and nine loaders with an officer and the drummer keeping them in line. More than I need for the Battle, but I think that I'll come up with a use for them in the context of the wider Niagara campaign. That has been my idea for building this collection; over-do things for la Belle Famille in the hope that the greater campaign will turn out to have been well served.

This is what passes for planning in the Duchy of Alzheim!

I promise, promise, promise to get some photos up soon in support of my previous post, but time and circumstances have been against me. I can't promise when I can make good on this, but I certainly intend to. DoA has been something of a neglected child of late, though my conscience niggles and niggles at me.

On the topic, I've just gotten home from the hospital here. The Duchess is in the process of being induced and, without bothering you all with the details, we are waiting on the moment. It's late and I'm very tired and looking at being at the hospital again tomorrow morning at 7 am and waiting for her to go into labour. She's been waiting for things to get on since about 2 this afternoon, so we have spent a very boring and very LONG day doing not much of anything.

I did take the time to look at the latest White Dwarf and look long and thoughtfully at my 50 or so mounted Riders of Rohan and go "hmmmm, tasty". Is anyone else inspired or is it just me? Are the rules good or rubbish? All answers published in the pixels of this august journal.

Now, a beer and bed. I hope I don't get a call at 04:00; I may not be at my best.

* A little interest is a good thing. I am inspired to hack the heads off Grenadiers now and transfer them to highlanders with the greenstuff treatment. Voila - 42nd Regiment Grenadiers for Ticonderoga - someday..!

Where are we now?

Right then.

The anal-retentive within calls for an accounting.

The progress of painting (house, not soldiers!) continues, but there is hope that this evening Madam will be out to the football which means I can sneak a few hours painting of a more pleasurable kind in.

This week I've been steadily working on a block of 16 RSM British Infantry and a Stadden British Grenadier NCO. They are all base-coated, flesh painted and have their hat-lace sewn on.

I think I might be able to polish them off tonight - it's really just a matter of getting all the highlights in and painting weapons.

That will see the British Contingent for la Belle Famille completed - in fact completed rather over specification.

The scenario calls for 30 Light infantry. I've painted 31.

I need 10 Line of the 44th - I have 18.

I need 38 Line of the 46th - I'll have 46 painted by this evening.

I need 5 Grenadiers of the 46th - by this evening I ought to have 11.

I need 10 NY Provincial Infantry - I have four. What???

Currently I have a package waiting for me at the post office with (I anticipate) another 16 Provincials and 72 Indians which ought to see me done.

I am over quota on my British. Don't worry! There's a plan to that! I'm just pushing through with an eye on campaigning the siege iteslf. I have been painting artillerymen in infantry uniforms to represent the garrison at Fort Niagara, as well. I ought at some stage start doing the same for the British.

I've mentioned earlier that I already have sufficient French to see me over the line, although they are not really from the right units, historically speaking, so there's no more painting to do on that front, thankfully.

The Light Bobs

I have finally completed the light infantry contingent I need to do the La belle Famille scenario. I've been fitting them in between bouts of plastering and skirting-board laying as we prepare for our coming new arrival*. It's amazing what you can get done in 20-30 minutes while you get ready for work. From the rear they are the Light companies of the 4th/60th, the 46th and the 44th regiments.

Each company is ten figures strong, representing their real-life counterparts at a ratio of 1:5.

They are being led by Captain de Lancey. The casting is a Prussian Officer, but it's close enough to the look of the British troops that I am comfortable using him.

The figures are by RSM (as ever) with a few minor conversions to turn up the peaks of their cut-down tricornes for a little variety.

I find that I have ten castings left over in the stand-and-fire pose, so I am considering doing Gage's light infantry at some stage in the future.

*Yes. There's a baby on the way. Number One. Ogodogodogod....

British Grenadier(s)

Grenadiers of the 46th Foot, obviously doing a little firing drill as they get ready to meet the French at la Belle Famille.

I'm getting the hang of painting the British (sheesh, it only took 20 or so figures!) and have evolved a style that is quite pleasing while retaining enough of the heavy lace detailling that I think can be a bit off-putting when approaching them for the first time.

I've tried fairly hard to differentiate them from the 44th Foot by giving them nice, smart, white gaiters and left them with laced, red waistcoats. Note that they also sport lace "wings" on their coats. These were surprisingly easy to do and look pretty effective.

Comments on "The Siege"

In response to my last post, two of our commenters, DC and Bill made interesting comments that I felt deserved a better response than I could make in the comments section.

I will interpolate my replies within the body of their text.

DC elaborated on my request for more info on his own Niagara campaign:
"Well...it all began about 20 years ago when i obtained a copy of Dunnigan's book on the siege - which is essential (i think you have a copy..?).
GH - Yes, I picked it up via Amazon 6 months ago. I'm reading it for the third time at the moment.
The first effort was a 15mm display game that was inspired by Niagara rather than an attempt at a faithful reproduction. Using 15mm allowed us to not only model the fort and works but also a section of lake (with watercraft), the river, cliffs, camps, and associated followers, livestock, etc. that the excellent freikorps range provides.
GH - I'm intending something similar but in 28mm. I'll model the shoreline, but not the lake and will put smaller scale ship and boat models on a wheeled trolley and navigate them around the playing table - an idea I've long been wanting to try out.
Our rules for this and other large FIW games were published in MWAN a few years later. The subsequent 25mm project was intended as a replay of the entire campaign at 1:10. I intended to use Bill Protz's siege rules (highly recommended) for the siege itself, and was developing a new set of rules (set at a lower level than previously) for the field actions.
GH - I am probably going to use Bills' "Drums of War on the Mohawk" with a couple of minor tweaks here and there. I'm not sure about which siege rules I'll use - either my own or Bills'.
The plan was to reenact Belle Famille and the siege solo, and then move on to umpire a 3 player campaign where the players had free rein (within certain boundaries of plausability of course).
GH - My thoughts exactly! I'd like to put on la Belle Famille as a convention game, while I play out the siege for myself at home solo. I have been thinking about the mechanics of running the whole Siege as a campaign, too.
We would use Protz's campaign rules too - with a few amendments and expansions.Was Little Niagara the stockade on the portage? If so, then yes, i made a model of that.
GH - that's the one; information on it seems quite scanty. I have hopes that Chartrands' next "FORT" series for Osprey will be helpful. It's sure to be for Fort Niagara proper.
I painted about 200 figures and then moved on to Maximillian in Mexico - as you do. They have sat unused at Mr 'Making Miniatures' house now for years. Writing this has created an urge to dig them out again...oh dear...

Bill had some very interesting thoughts on La Belle Famille:
I continue to be confounded at the defeat of the French Relief Column. Perhaps it can only be explained in my mind as:
1. Blockheads in charge of the column failing to scout properly.
GH - Was tactical scouting done all that well in this era?
2. And to not deploy into line with l'compagnie franche de la Marines in the center with the milice on the flanks sooner.They would have swept the much numerically inferior Brit. force away by outflanking them. Instead, at first, it appearss as if the column was shot to pieces as Oman might remark of French columns in Spain in the Napoleonic Wars. There is perhaps a diagram in Dunnigan showing a French line at an odd angle. I've seen it someplace. If this line did happen, I still don't get it unless the initial volleys caused a bad morale situation and a throw of snake eyes using the morale system of Drums of War Along The Mohawk.
GH - I'd have thought this a difficult fight for the Frencjh to win, charging in column against a line that was ready to receive them, then trying to deploy into line under fire. Perhaps too, the Militia were in the van, taking casualties from the typically scorching British vollies; perhaps they recoiled into the CFdlM behind them and wrecked their chances of deploying? We don't know much about the French order of march, really. Alternatively, perhaps the french were proponents of l'ordre profond and thought they would easily smash the numerically inferior Britich aside?
I've been on the spot of La Belle Famille several times. From the French perspective the Niagara Gorge is not too far from their left. To the right there would be endless forest. Forest all over the place actually except for the road and the clearing beyond the fort.
GH: If I am eventally to game out the campaign, I'll need better topographical detail on the area. I guess the maps are available online somewhere.
There are other mysteries in the history of battles why one side won in spite of impossible odds. This one is in the list for me.
GH - agreed!
Greg this is a very good battle to wargame as the real thing and with the above in mind. I'm sure you will find it satisfying.
The thing is at 1:10 it is easy to build too!
Best of luck to all concerned.
Votre serviteur,Bill

44th Foot for La Belle Famille - WIP

Long time no see! Hang on, I'll just dust off the controls here... Phew, I haven't been here for a while. Been over Defending Melbourne. It's been a busy few months - naturally I had the last minute panic over unfinished business and ruthlessly dropped absolutely everything else to get a scramble on.

Now that things have got back to normal over the past few weeks, I've had a chance to start work on my next project; the small convention game for May in Melbourne.

As you've probably gathered from previous posts, I'm interested in the Siege of Fort Niagara in 1759. I hope to stage a re-fight of the action at La Belle Famille, the attempted French relief of the Garrison by the Army of the Ohio.

I have most of the French forces I need for the game completed; that they are not all Compagnies Franches de la Marine is not a consideration for me, so I will use existing units. I do require more Indians and militia, but i think I can do them mostly out of my existing lead mountain.

The British are another story. Pictured below are those (barring the handful of Light Infantry I already have painted) few I have painted. I have sufficient stocks to finish off the Light Infantry and the Grenadiers, although i am a bit iffy as to my Line Infantry. I may need to dip into my Hanoverians who are so similar as to make no appreciable difference.

44th Foot; the battle-line is drawn up ready to face an uncertain outcome.

The Grenadiers are to the right. The officer is a conversion as the RSM line has no Grenadier officer.

The Siege of Fort Niagra

I've been thinking over what activities I would like to go through in 2009.

A few posts back I mentioned my re-kindled interest in the French and Indian War, and specifically the siege of Fort Niagra. This has led me to read BL Dunnigans account of the siege and the repulse of the French relief force at la Belle Famille. It seems to me that the forces involved on both sides were really quite modest. The French Garrison at Fort Niagra was 486 men at most. The British Army beseiging the fort was about 2300 strong.

The French Army of the Ohio that rushed headlong to it's unhappy fate at la Belle Famille consisted 800 European and 500 "Indian" troops, whilst that of the British detatchment that defeated them was less than 500 strong.

Surely then it would not be impossible to examine some orders of battle that would let this campaign be played out at 1:10 or even a 1:5 troop ratio? La Belle Famille especially would be perfectly feasable at the latter ratio.

To that end I hope that 2009 will see me play out a convention game marking the 250th anniversary of la Belle Famille, as well as privately gaming the Siege of Fort Niagra. I intend to undertake the entire campaign with RSM miniatures.

In my next post I will share the Order of Battle information I have assembled so far.