Time Out

El Capitano - the casting is a Commander Dante of the Blood Angels. He's on permanent transfer to the Ultramarines, now.
An angry, angry man, the Sarge. I suppose that in the grim darknes of the 41st Milennium, you'd get a bit peeved occasionally.

Trooper Womble. A lucky bulk eBay purchase snagged him and most of his comrades.

Trooper Smith. Note the extreme highlights!

Trooper Jones. Coming to your house to set the cat on fire.


Inspired somewhat by this blog I'd been meaning to paint up some Space Marines for the fun of it.

Being a traditionalist, it had to be Ultramarines.

Because of the level of fiddly detail on them, they are a bit of a chore to paint - especially with having to highlight the edge of each and every bit of armour plate!

I havent even looked at the arms and weapons yet.

Still it's a nice change.

Is the Old School Wargaming Yahoo Group Dead?

Everything has it’s time on Earth and in time that allotted span must come to a close.

Has this happened to the Old School Wargaming Yahoo Group?

Consider:

Is there really anything NEW happening there?

Once upon a time the group was a real clearing-house for information. New members were being put in tough with like minds, a very great deal of information was being exchanged. Old miniatures lines were being evaluated, old books re-read, ideas being shared; it was a melting pot for ideas.

What is happening there these days?

It seems to me that we are going around and around in circles to the point that the group is becoming a caricature of it’s old self.

All too often we get this ridiculous self-image of the OSW member as a florid-faced retired Colonel type of figure, slurping the port and brandy whilst inflicting his foul cigars upon those about him from the comfort of his leather-padded chair.

How many times must we have the debate on what it means to be Old School? The argument always resolves on the inevitable suggestions of hail-fellow-well-met versus reminders that the old schoolers had their rather glaring faults as human beings? Everyone then just realizes that they want to have fun playing with toy soldiers.

Is the problem one where the topic is too limited? There is only so much self-indulgent “Old Schooling” that a group can chew over before all the juice of the topic is vanished?

Guess What I'm Thinking?

Recently I've been reading my new Osprey on the Fortifications of New France (FORT 75) and I've been revisiting some very old wargaming territory.

The French and Indian War was my first love, and you never forget the first one, do you? I think this came from a few sources. One was the front cover of the 1982 Military Modelling issue which featured the new (!) Pax Britannica 28mm figure range of French and British Figures contesting a palisaded fort. Lovely figures and very well painted. Another was a uniform feature in the same magazine some time later on the FIW period. The final push was the first "real" wargames magazine I ever bought.

That was "The Courier", back when Bill Protz was the editor. He and another gentleman wrote twin articles on "The Action at la Belle Famille" wherein French forces attempting to relieve the 1759 seige of Fort Niagra were defeated at the eponymous action.

Compagnies Franches de la Marine fire at advancing Red Men.
The Indians in this image contain the FIRST Ever RSM/Pax Britannia figure I ever bought!

I have noticed that the next volume in the FORT series that is in preparation by Rene Chartrand intends to conclude with an examination of the Forts around the Great Lakes - this includes Fort Niagra. It's a real shame that I've mis-laid/lost my copy of "Drums of War Along the Mohawk" - BARs older brother. I'll just have to buy another.

War Games and the DIY Spirit

In his introduction to “War Games”, Don Featherstone makes reference to his age being one of “Do It Yourself”.

When you read this book, you really do have this point brought home to you again and again. One pictures the Author slaving away with plaster of Paris moulds, producing the odd few soldiers before the mould falls to pieces – perhaps the odd mould explodes because the plaster of Paris was imperfectly dried out. I was minded of the author grimly gripping his hard-won casting in a pair of pliers whilst doggedly grinding away at the abundant flash with a selection of rat-tail and jewellers files, probably before going on to modify some plastic Airfix ACW types into Sassanid Persians with only a razor blade and some Plastic Wood to get him through.

War gaming in this era was tough. Really tough, especially for people without a lot of money. Retired Brigadiers could afford the best of everything, but someone with a day job and access only to the local public library laboured under special handicaps. Materials were rudimentary, unsuited or roughly adapted from many other theatres of life, it would seem to me. Every man (and I do mean every man) was an island, vainly reaching out to his few others of like mind, making contact through Model Soldier and Model Railway societies. Writing on the topic were in Mecanno Magazine (or whatever), Home Florist or some other ill-adapted, non-speciality publication, but somehow the War Gamers persevered with their damp, sand covered tables and plaster of Paris scenery.

I should note here that the three main rule-sets offered, Ancient, Horse and Musket and Modern (ie, WW2) are by Tony Bath, Don Featherstone and Lionel Tarr respectively. Interestingly, Featherstone also provides a brief set of rules for what he calls “close wars”, or what you or I would today call skirmish gaming.

What I thought most interesting about the book though was how it was seen by the author in his introductory remarks. The edition that I read was that of 1970. The book had been in publication since 1962 and gone through seven editions, for every war gamer melting type-setters lead in his kitchen there were now one hundred war gamers now using professionally made product. In 1970, war gaming was a hobby that was clearly on the move, and really one can only look back now, some thirty-eight years further on with some amazement at the changes that have been wrought on the hobby since.

What really strikes you when you read this book is the handicaps that the war gamers of this period laboured under. They really did do it themselves. And that dedication to and perseverance with the hobby is what shines through this excellent little book. The rules are simple – some would say rudimentary – but are obviously products of a time when research materials were thin on the ground and not easily accessed. Again, one imagines the difficulties that these authors laboured under.


The internet has been the salvation of the hobby, with vast amounts of product of any kind available to anyone with an internet connection and a credit card.

The DIY spirit though, is well and truly moribund.

First Thursday Book Club

It has been on my mind for a while now to publish short reviews of "Classic" war-gaming titles on a fairly regular basis. I first turned this idea over when I made it my resolution to re-read my entire "Old School" collection over the next year.

What I am thinking of doing just now is posting once a month (or more often if I have time) a review of about 500 or so words. I'm not sure as to what criteria I'll be applying, but style, content, readability will be featuring with some sort of weighting.

The first volume I will be looking at will be Donald Featherstone's 1962 "War Games: Battles and Manoeuvres with Model Soldiers" - more this evening when I have refreshed my memory!

I would be more than happy to take submissions on this project - if you are interested, please email me at: bloggerator@gmail.com

More Croats

I had the day at home yesterday and started in on some lead mountain reduction. Among other things, I had one part-completed company of Croats I wanted to knock off before I moved on with any more conversions. My companies are fifteen miniatures strong, so I had ten to do from plain metal to final blast of varnish.

Below is the first shot of the completed troops. Note that after what seemed to me a sucess with the dismounted Kurfurstin Dragoons, that I am starting to base the odd few troopers on larger bases to allow for the creation of mini-dioramas.
The same line-up from a different angle. Note the minor conversion on a couple of the loading troopers for the sake of a little diversity in the firing line.

The completed company with flag-bearer. I think the colour is from Frederic Aubert's site, although there are many lovely Austrian flags available, including those from the Warflag site.

Full line-up of my Croats. I've now three full companies with another two in preparation. I expect to finish off a fourth company in the next few days.

Maria Theresa's Wild Men

It seems like ages ago that I began to become interested in the less regular of the forces available to the Austrian Empire in the 1740s or so on. This project that I began at the time to start creating some of them has been on hold for a long time, but Amy and I were away on a brief holiday recently and while we were away there were a succession of rainy evenings where she read a detective novel and I got out the Greenstuff and some RSM Croats.

The images below are the painted-almost-to-completion results of a two-day painting blitz; well, it was a blitz for me!
A few Warasdiners. New additions to the company-sized unit I am slowly putting together. It was conversions like these that opened my eyes to the potential of the RSM castings. The Officer at the right of the image is from the Russian Infantry pack to whose coat I have added a fur edging down the front. He needs some metallic lace on his waistcoat to finish him off. Had I a fine enough brush, I might have made an attempt at some gold frogging as well.

These four figures were inspired by plate C2 of the Osprey volume on "Austrian Frontier Troops, 1740-98". They represent troops of the Ogulin Regiment in 1757. The only difference between them and the RSM sculpts is the red bag I added to the crown of the tschako and allowed to flop down one side and the modification I made to the hand that supports the musket to vary the loading pose. This latter was quite successful, I think and is one I will repeat. I am also experimenting with basing variations for my light troops to give them some more interest after good experiences with my dismounted Bavarian Dragoons.

Above are three Hungarian infantry in the basic 174o uniform, painted as Regiment Ujvary per the print from the Vinkhuizen Collection at the NYPL. It's a simple conversion where I have painted the top of the slightly cut-down tschako red and sculpted on some fur. Perhaps the fur detail is a bit heavy, but I've exaggerated a bit for the sake of making the "furriness" obvious. It could use a thin, black wash to tone down the rather violent high-lighting on the cap, too.

The final image here is a couple of Hungarian Soldiers from the later part of the War of the Austrian Succession, perhaps from 1745 onward. Here they have had new hats added and fur cuffs and edging sculpted onto their otherwise short coats. I am so pleased with these that I am almost certain to do a full regiment of them.

I'd love to do some officers in a mix of "German" and "Hungarian" uniform; pelisses, more fur hats and some flugelmutzen for instance. I'd like to investigate adding sabretaches and hussar boots to some of them at least.

Victorian Militia

Small update at the Defence of melbourne blog here.

More on Castles

Continued...

Just as tower construction was a response to the perceived vulnerabilities of curtain walls, as time passed problems were experienced with defending towers.

Early, simple towers defences were basically crenellations that garnished their tops and arrow slots that pierced their sides. These allowed the archers who were the main troop type of the castle garrison to shoot out at an attacker and to sweep the face of the wall of those who pressed in too closely.

These simple wall-head defences did not however allow the defenders to prevent an enemy from attacking the base of the tower.

The eventual response was to build projecting defences that would allow fire to be directed down the towers’ faces. Called, machicolation, they were basically a gallery that stood on corbels projecting over the top of the wall. In their earliest form, they may have been of wood as at the Cave of Sueth (a remarkable “castle-in-a-cliff” reminiscent of ancient Petra in Jordan), but later were of stone. The most common form I have encountered is the so-called “box-machicolation” which pretty much was a stone box positioned over a vulnerable feature like a door for it’s defence. Just as often, they would also have an arrow loop in the front face.

A variation on this theme was the slot machicolation which cut an arrow-loop at a downward-sloping angle in the wall so that arrow-fire could be depressed to cover areas closer to the foot of the wall or tower.

Building a castle on an isolated spur or ridge was an early practise in fortification, seemingly imported from France with the original Crusaders. This may be seen today at Saone, about 30 km from Lattakieh in Syria where the well-preserved castle stands today. It’s most remarkable feature is the rock-cut fosse or ditch dug out by Moslem prisoners who left behind a remarkable 23 metre high spur of living rock that in it’s day supported a bridge over the ditch. As neat a description as any I have read runs like this:

“Lawrence of Arabia called it "the most sensational thing in castle-building I have seen". The morning mist was rolling up from the dramatic ridge on which the ruins stand, in the midst of precipitous ravines. In the distance you can see the Mediterranean. Everything here was built "big, solid and magnificent", with a key feature being the extraordinary 28m high rock monolith, which once supported a drawbridge. The monolith stands in a formidable 156m long ravine cut from the living rock, 28m deep and 14m to 20m wide, dating mainly from Byzantine times. We were taken around by a man born within the walls of the castle, when it was still possible for ordinary folk to live there. One feature he showed us: a secret spiral stairway that runs from the roof of the keep, down through the giant central pillar in floor after floor, and then through the living rock of the mountain to the river, far below. The idea, apparently, was to take besiegers from behind.”

Next time: Gates...

Something About Castles

What follows is one of my semi-regular exercises where I try to order my thoughts on a topic.

In this case, I have continued my reading on Crusader castles in the Holy Land, necessarily concentrating on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.

When the Crusaders came to the Holy Land they brought more with them than knowledge of timber motte and bailey castles. Stone castles of some complexity were already being built in France, especially in the Anjou and Poitou, and this knowledge was modified by experiencing first hand the walls of Constantinople as they transited the Byzantine Empire.

The earliest crusader castles were basically walled enclosures centering on a substantial tower called a donjon or keep. These enclosures were strengthened by towers at intervals that began as very slight constructions, being little more than buttresses in their earliest form and meanly provided with arrow-slits. As time went on, these towers became more substantial, projecting further forward from the wall to give flanking fire across the face of the curtain. This increasing size allowed the towers to be used as accommodation and storage.

More and more too, as siege engines - especially in the form of the counter-weight trebuchet - became more able to reach out and touch a work, so too were they provided with vaulted shelters to protect the garrison from bombardment. In the earliest period, though, the most successful means of attacking castles was to mine. This meant digging a tunnel beneath a wall or tower, carefully shoring it up as one went along. When complete, the tunnel was stuffed with timber and fired - this would cause the tunnel to collapse, hopefully causing the structures above to come down. The angles of towers were particularly vulnerable to this form of attack; indeed, they were also vulnerable to direct attack by covered engines that would have a good chance of levering individual stones out from the masonry wall. Another disadvantage the square tower suffered was that its flat faces were vulnerable to the smashing impact of missile fire.

Counter to this was the round, polygonal or even prow-shaped tower. The former was the most frequent expression of a defensive philosophy that tried to either deflect missile-fire or resist it directly; a circular tower is effectively made of a series of wedges, any impact upon which would tend to drive the whole structure more firmly together. They were nonetheless more difficult to build, requiring stone masons' work of the highest order and thus square or oblong towers continued to be built until the end of the Crusader period.

As time went on and experience in the siege grew, towers became if anything even more massive and broad, both to more successfully resist the earth-quakes frequently experienced in the region (and one reads frequently of fortifications damages in just these events) and to mount the siege engines that were frequently used to good effect in counter-battery efforts. Also becoming more common in guarding against both earth-quakes and mining efforts was the glacis, a very steeply-sloping ramp built up against the wall and towers. The glacis might also conceal (as would later walls) shooting galleries for shooting out at attackers. The most striking extant example of a glacis may be seen at the Crac des Chevaliers in modern-day Syria.

Crac is also a fine demonstration of a concentric castle. As the attack became more powerful in siege warfare, outer walls were added to the older simpler castles to create an outer yard or bailey overlooked by the towers of the inner ward. The inner towers overlooked the outer to facilitate shooting over them and into them should the outer ward be taken.

Next time: Wall head defenses, defensive locations, the rock-cut fosse and gates.

Work In Progress - OT

I posted a WIP on one of my Defense of Melbourne-related projects here.

Crusaders

As you may have guessed, these past few weeks a young man's fancy has turned to the Crusades. I've been poking around for bargains and the Black Tree Design 2nd Crusade range with it's regular 35% discounts led me to buy a unit pack of 20 foot knights which i finished painting last night. I'm only posting some pictures tonight because I had no batteries for the digital camera!

I decided to base them two-by-two on 40mm square bases because I had a surplus of them. I normally prefer my figures singly-based and will revert to tht scheme as I go on. This has been a bit of an experiment that I may repeat later on, depending on how I feel about these with more mature reflection.

Since I bought these, I have also purchased an army deal that will net me a dozen archers, a dozen cross-bows, 9 knightly cavalry, a dozen light cavalry (which I shall treat as sergeants), two dozen armoured and armoured spearmen as well as a couple of dozen axemen. That should get me a pretty respectable army. All I'll need will be an army commander (from the Perry brothers), some Turcopoles (the Perrys again) and perhaps some allied light cavalry - I'm thinking of some eBob Mongols standing in for Petchenegs or summat - especially lovely-looking figures. Maybe even another dozen eBob Archers, too.

We'll see.

I found that I had a couple of circular shields floating about that I determined to paint in a sort of floreate pattern per what I'd seen on the Perry miniatures websites' images of their Turcopoles and moslem figures. I wanted my army to represent the secular barons of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the years up to the fall of Edessa in 1144, before the Second Crusade. To this end I thought to let a little Islamic style seep in.

I'm rather pleased with how this shield turned out, hence the extreme close-up!

Note the purple-yellow-purple and the stripey green-and-white shields. Every medieval army I've ever painted (Bretonnians, Agincourt and now Crusades) has had a couple of knights in this livery. It's become a tradition now! I may have to come up with a story for these two knightly families. Let's see now, Odo Lecornu and Fulk Ibein. Or something like that.

A view down the battle line.

Cross-Posting!

I've written a small photo-essay on one of Colonial Victoria's warships, the jaunty little gunboat HMVS "Albert" here:

http://defence-of-melbourne.blogspot.com/

Take a look!

UPDATE: I've added a small WIP shot of one of Victoria's torpedo boats, the HMVS Nepean, here:

http://defence-of-melbourne.blogspot.com/2008/07/work-in-progress-hmvs-nepean.html

Cheers!

Medieval Castles and the Operational Art

I've been doing a some supplemental reading to build up a little knowledge on medieval siege warfare after having recently finished Runciman's three-volume history of the Crusades.

I've been trying to understand what castles are for.

I understand that castles are tactically strong fortifications in the context of the weapons technology of the pre-gunpowder era, just as the artillery fortification was tactically strong after gunpowder weapons were disseminated among western armies. But just as the individual “Vauban” fortress was only one element in a larger strategic system, then so also was the castle.

The Western-European style of warfare in the Middle Ages consisted largely of sieges – the taking and holding of fortified places, including towns and castles.

Holding ground was the means by which wars were won rather than by fighting battles. Fighting battles was a risky business that, were it to go ill for you, could lose you your field army. So siege warfare was the primary means of prosecuting a war, with raiding and devastation a secondary strategy that was practiced upon your enemies' territories as a kind of economic warfare.

Your own priority was to limit the damage raiders could do you and to attack their supply-lines. Additionally you might take your army to attack the raiders whilst they were dispersed.

The Role of Castles

*Firstly we could say that they were springboards to extend one's domination beyond the limits of one's own territory.
*To jeopardize an enemy's communications or economic arteries should you have a stronghold close enough by.
*To support an advance.
*Blockade an enemy position. Counter-castles could be built to invest or baffle an enemy fortified place.
*Castles could act as store-houses for both the garrison and even to support a field army operating in the area. They might serve as an armory or mobilization store for equipping the militia.
*Defensively castles served as refuges. A defeated army might shelter in one. Local peasants and their livestock might shelter there from raiders. If relief seemed unlikely, a garrison was likely to become demoralised. Think of the collapse of virtually the whole of the Kingdom of Jerusalem after the defeat at Hattin

Bavarian Pictures

Well, here they are, the promised pictures. First up is a fusilier from the Lacy FreiKorps. Apart from it being a compny-sized unit, I know absolutely nothing about it. I intend to build it up to 16 fusiliers and a few command - Officer, NCO and a musician perhaps. Does anyone know anything of the unit's history? This fine fellow is a Grenadier of the Bavarian Regiment Minucci, distinguished by his pale buff facings. The uniform is from my recently-acquired copy of Herbert Knoetels "German Armies in Colour". Click on the image for a larger version. I really enjoyed how his face turned out despite using a #1 brush.

Last come are the Grenadiers from the Autrian German "Arberg" regiment. You'll note that they are painted in a version of the Austrian uniform more suited to the War of the Austrian Succession rather than that of the Seven Years' War. I enjoy how they look with their coloured small clothes.

The figures are all from the RSM range, and some of the better ones they are, too. They are very easy to paint. I put on the blue base coats of another eleven Minucci Grenadiers this morning in a spare thirty minutes I had while I was getting ready for work.

Billions of Bavarians

I had quite a productive week this time around.

I painted the Grenadier Company of the Austrian German regiment Arberg – eleven figures plus the sample I painted a year ago - and individual samples for the Lacy Freikorps and the Bavarian “Minucci” Regiment. Thirteen figures in a week is a bit of productivity high for me, why, I could paint a whole regiment in a month..!

Dream on! Still it’s a nice fantasy, and I’ll probably keep it going for another week before I get back to the Victorians.

It’s starting to look like I am gathering a Bavarian Army by stealth.

I have the completed Leib Regiment and those Dragoons, the Minucci Regiment is officially commenced and I stumbled across a handful of Austrian Cuirassiers which means that the Taxis Cuirassiers (or some other regiment) are about to rear their ugly heads.

Can’t you see it happening? I’ll be painting some Brigade staff next, then I’ll just HAVE to paint the Locatelli Hussars and another regiment of Cuirassiers to balance them out, then the Infantry will start to look under represented and I’ll slate another two units there. Oh! And what about artillery?

It just goes on and on!

Heckenfeur

What ho.

Been having a break from the Victorian military forces this week and have dug out some Austrian Grenadiers from the lead mountain that I painted some samples for quite a while ago. I am cracking on with them at quite a pace and am enjoying the results mightily.

Pictures to follow, as ever.

Recently the Duchess and I went to a crime fiction night at the local “Reader’s Feast” mega chain bookstore. I naturally drank too much (*ahem* – free booze) and made an arse of myself in general, but between spouting off too loudly about this and that I stumbled across a large-format book of Richard Knoetels water-colours. I begged and pleaded nicely enough for the Duchess to dispense cash and I made off with my prize. I was delighted to discover it included a pretty fair selection on the Bavarian army. This has led me to decide that the Minucci regiment looked very smart in their mid-blue coat, buff facings and small-clothes and will thus be my next unit after the Austrian Regiment Arberg gets done.

The Bavarian Cuirassiers illustrated in the same volume look rather tempting also, but I suspect Mr Knoetels’ accuracy* when he’s depicting the lace on the shabraques – what’s that triangular lace thing he’s got going on there?

The strength of the Australian dollar at the moment means another order will be going out to the chaps at RSM/DPC for more bags of their Austrian castings.

In other news, I see that Eureka are gearing up for a crack at the 28mm French Revolutionary Wars market with a young Napoleon and a few Grenadiers storming the bridge at Arcola way back in 1796. Will Eureka be able to get a run in an arena pretty well stitched up by Elite miniatures? Only time will tell, I suppose. They look fairly nice in the pictures on the website, though.

I hope there will be Austrians.

*Has anyone of the nit-pickers out there ever thought of putting out a book. The title could be "Correcting Knoetel" or "Mollo, Knoetel and Funcken: A nit-pickers guide" or even: "What the Ospreys got Wrong". Get to it, nit-pickers; money where mouth is.

The Slavic Menace

*Sigh* one blurry and one clear photo of my new Russian Colonel - the figure is by Eureka - an Austrian 1866 Mounted Officer whose shako I cut down and turned into a Field Cap.

It's quite a small casting - almost *true* 25mm, but very fine.

I've just finished off my third Sword and the Flame Unit of Victorian/Imperial infantry. I'm on target to polish them off entirely over the nect few weeks. I'm painting a couple more of the Victorian Cavalry at the moment, and have started work on my allotted buildings.

More updates in the near furture.

Little Wars Pictures

That's my troops in the left background. My Nemesis is in the foreground. The figures are mainly by Eureka.

The enemy's left flank. I accounted for their chariotry easily enough, but his skirmisers (en bloc!) nailed me in the end. I was amazingly lucky to survive under their massed fire for as long as I did.

Eye candy! Eureka carts going into the fortress to escape the onrush of the battle lines! Lovely fortress; I'm assured that this is nothing compared to the one they left at home.

I never got to see this game get unserway. The figures were all from the Eureka Pax Limpopo range. I love the steam-boats! Extremely nicely painted bits of kit.

Amazing Tower of Isengard with squadrons of minis. Brilliant!

Little Wars 2008

I went to the inaugural “Little Wars” show in Melbourne yesterday.

It’s a new event promoted in part by Eureka Miniatures as being aimed at getting gamers in touch with each other.

It certainly did that for me!

The venue was the German Club Tivoli in Windsor. I got through a liter of beer and a plate of rindsroulade mit dumpling despite the rather eccentric catering arrangements!

There were a good few games on. I noted a very impressive “Ring of Isengard” LoTR game that featured a colossal Isengard tower that must have been more than one-and-a-half meters high; this very much impressed the Duchess of Alzheim.

I played in a Sumerian Game – Water Wars with some very nicely painted Eureka Sumerians. It was also my first introduction to the Armati rules; all I can say is we may have done better at rolling for initiative at the start of each turn! As it was, my ability to roll a six with unerring accuracy at most other times kept my chariotry alive under an absolute hailstorm of missile fire for far longer than I deserved!

I picked up a few nice items both from the traders and from the Bring and Buy. Pride of place goes to my English Language edition of Engelmann and Dorns’ volume on Frederician Infantry Uniforms. Apparently all I need do now is track down the companion volume on the Cavalry and I’ve got it made… I picked up a large mixed bag of Castaway Arts oddments which will feed various projects nicely and I was pleased to come across a copy of the WRG 1685-1815 rules for a fiver.

I laid my hands on a copy of the League of Augsburg’s’ “Beneath the Lily Banner” rules for the 1660-1720 period and am now retrospectively very glad I never sold my old Essex figures after all!

Finally, I picked up a sample pack of Eureka’s’ new Saxons – not the tricorne era ones, but chaps from a far darker age. Very nice and they will give Gripping Beast a run, I think. Review to follow in the next few days.

I was very pleased to be able to spend some time chatting to Gerry from Castaway and Nic from Eureka and to bump into Maurice from the Old School Yahoo group. It’s such a shame he no longer seems to post there – he always was worth reading when he posted! Gerry showed me some newly cast command for his Colonial range – I noted British, Ghurkha and Bengal Lancer Command – so there’s a lot to look forward to from our Australian manufacturers – take note!

I’ll upload a few pictures this evening.

What's all this Defense of Melbourne stuff, then, eh?

In the comments to my last post Jeff asked for a little more information on the "Grand Plan" for the Defense of Melbourne.

The DoM is pretty much my major project for this year. It's taking about 80% of my hobby time. The remaining 20% is turned over to little bits and pieces that I will take on as a break from the main project. It's the culmination of more than a decades' general interest in the colonial defences of what was the Colony of Victoria as well as more focussed efforts on over the past three years.

In the past six months I stumbled across some other gentlemen from Canberra who shared my interest in Australias' pre-Federation defense forces and together we have been working toward a fairly large demonstration game for CanCon which takes place in Canberra over the Australia Day long weekend.

The game will involve a Russian Amphibious assault on Fort Nepean, one of the cluster of Fortifications that defended the Heads of Port Phillip Bay, at the north end of which stands the City of Melbourne with seven millions of Sterling in the bank; a tempting prize for any raider!

It's 1887, and Britain and Russia are at War.

Russia has decided to strike a blow at the Prestige of the Empire and has decided that units of her Pacific Fleet will embark troops and raid the coastal cities of Australia.

The local defenders have been listening with rapt attention to news of the War Scare from Home when, of a sudden, the telegraph cable goes silent. It is Easter and the Militia are already enbodied and at their encampment on the Mornington Peninsula when the Russian attack falls!

Can the defences at Point Nepean hold while a relief column rushes to it's aid? Will the Fort's guns be silenced so a Russian Cruiser Squadron may raid up the Bay?

Who can tell?

That's the general idea. We're constructing a three metre by one metre model of the fort, models of a Russian cruiser and torpedo boat, a Victorian Monitor, a gunboat and spar torpedo boat (I want the model boats to be on tea trolleys, circling the main display... we'll see). The Victorians will have 30-40 figures at the fort and another 100 or so marching to it's relief. The Russians will be attacking with Huge amounts of Infantry, Machine Guns, artillery and the obligatory cossacks.

Rules will be The Sword and the Flame.

I think we are aiming pretty high for this game, but we have more than adequate research resources, the figures are pretty well all sourced. We are in the process of scratch-building the warships, and I am in the fortunate position of not having to build the fort - although i'll be providing sundry barracks blocks &c!

Introducing... The Colonel

There he is, freshly varnished, the Colonel of my 1st (West Melbourne) Battalion of the Infantry Brigade of the Victorian Military Forces.

He's a conversion of this cavalry casting - a head-swap from an infantryman and a gauntletted right arm built up from greenstuff on a paperclip armature. Oh, I also spent ages getting a HUGE moustache to adhere to his top lip.

I think he looks a bit like the illustration from the TVAG (google it) website! and none the worse for that.

Here he is giving orders to his ADC, Capt. Smedley. Young Smedley looks delighted to have a CO at last.

A Quickie for Fitz

I finished off my Victorian ADC tonight. This shot of him is as he was just after getting the coat of matt varnish that goes over the initial coat of gloss I put on.

You'll remember that originally he was basically a hussar with neither head nor right arm.

His new head comes from a spare infantryman, whilst I sculpted his arm from a coil of greenstuff which I wound around an armature made from a bit if bent paperclip that I superglued into his shoulder.

The only tricky bit was sculpting his hand as it wobbled about on the wrist with a millimetre or so of wire poking ot of it as a kind of wrist. I only hinted at the lace detail on the cuff, knowing that I'd paint it on later.

Obviouslly he still needs basing. I'm probably going to use 1mm thick plastic card in a blobby, rounded, "no shape" shape to harmonise with the coins I'm using for the Infantry.

Loose Ends and Norman Nonsense

I've been painting away at lots of "Victorian" infantry the past few weeks and now have more than fifty of them lined up, ready to go, but the TSaTF rules need a batallion to be commanded by a mounted Officer. Now, sadly, the HLBS range never had any mounted Infantry command, so I have have had to improvise somewhat.

Fortunately I had surplus one Line Cavalryman and one Hussar who I thought would make a splendid "Colonel" and a glittering "ADC". So, it was out with the razor saw, a quick zip-zip and off with their heads. I had a pair of infantry colour-bearers going spare, so took their bally heads off and hey presto!

Neither figure has a right arm; the originals were sword arms, and I have no suitable substitutes. I have decided on a tentative venture into the world of sculpting and will create my own.

To have a small break from the Nineteenth Century, I have taken a brief trip back down the time tunnel to both the Eighteenth Century, at last painting the last of the Stadden Command figures for my Prussian Fusilieer Regiment Number 35 per the tip from der Alte Fritz. They look very satisfying and go extremely well with the RSM Fusilieers.

Oh, if only Stadden had done some Austrians!

Finally, some while ago I took delivery of some few Mirliton Normans. I am intending to use Norman figures as the basis of a First-to-Second Crusade Army, and started painting them last night. They are no better than "average" being very stiffly animated, but I'll see how I go. I'm looking about for decent Norman or Crusader figures, but haven't really seen anything I really like at the moment. I don't mind the look of the Black Tree Design ones, and I quite like the Perrys' take on the First Crusade.

Does anyone have any recommendations? My basic criteria are realistic anatomy and good horses.

Blog Update

Small update to the Defence of Melbourne Blog.

Take This Mans' Credit Card Away From Him!

I've been buying things.

I know I oughtn't.

I have though...

I was messing about last night in front of the TV and decided to get all my Minden Prussians out and line them up. I was pleasantly stunned to realise I'd got almost an entire unit.

I'll be getting more to flesh this lot out. I'm going to have to get some French, too, just to take a look, you understand. Not to build a batallion of them... honest.

Then I went and bought some (about twenty) Hanoverians from Jude Beckers' Venture Miniatures. I'm very eager to get these. Very eager - I'm extremely keen on the style of the sculpting; and the officer with the raised sword looks just like I imagine Baron Munchausen to be. They look a little cartoony, but in a good way, if you understand me.

Then there are the Eureka Sumerians. I've just bought my first 40 or so as I intend to follow Phil Olley's example on how to build an army. Here's hoping I have the discipline... Oh, who am I kidding? I want to paint the little domkey-chariots!

On the imagineering front, I am reading the Cambridge University Press volume on the Agean Bronze Age that I picked up in an excellent 2nd hand bookshop here on Brunswick Street. This has led me to fondle the sample Myceneans I bought from Eureka a couple of years ago and to really regret that it is nowhere near being complete. I must resist the call of the 100 Club - I've other irons in that fire! It's really nice to be reading a volume of history or archaeology that has actually been published less than twenty years ago and represents a rather more recent state of the art than I have been used to in recent years of "self-directed study".

On that topic, I have been watching with a great deal of interest the debate at the Old School Wargames YahooGroup on the topic of Anglocentric history. It bodes well as a topic worth exploration. Indeed, the topic could very well be broadened to take in the whole wargaming-history axis. Who knows what directions that might take us in?

Heckenfeur

It is with a rather guilty start that I noticed the amount of time that has elapsed since my last post. Still as they say, it's a hobby, not a job, and so...

I'm still here and as usual painting far more than ever I game, which suits me well enough, although I do have a little Sword and the Flame bash lined up for a couple of weeks from now. That the game will be between Anglo-Egyptians versus Mahadists is about all that has so far been finalised, so I suppose there will be more as we talk it through.

Continuing along the Colonial front I have finished my first TSaTF unit (20 figs) of Victorian infantry. They look very smart; I'm pleased with how their red tunics came out. Red is a colour I normally struggle with a bit, but this has worked pretty well, despite Games Workshops' dreadful Mechrite Red bought in the hope I really would be able only to put on one coat of it over my black undercoat. I had to bulk it up rather with my trusty Vallejo paints to get an even enough coverage, sadly.

Still, they are done and I've moved on with my reward which is to paint the first four figures of the Victorian cavalry. The castings were most unpromising, just being really quite unattractive sculpts with poor location points for their seperate sword arms. I hope superglue will be enough to hold them on, and that a good paint-job will lift the poor chaps up a bit. Still their horses have painted very nicely and only need a shot of spray varnish to finish them off.

I actually went a bit overboard with the horses and painted seven of them - but I'm cheating and regarding this as preparation for my next "reward stage" which will be converting a couple of Cavalry to a mounted Infantry Colonel and his rather glittering ADC.

On the topic of rewards, I think I remarked in an earlier post that the "Defence of Melbourne" project would be soaking up about 60% of my hobby time this year. At the time I'd not really thought too much about what the rest would be, but now I know.

I've enough Grenze castings from DPC to finish of my Croat forces for the Strudelberg game (whenever that may happen); along with them I also got a couple of bags of Austrian German infantry who I intend to paint up per the test shots I did a while back with the red pants. Too gorgeous.

This ought to see me with some leftover Grenzers. Hm, what to do, what to do... I am thinking of cutting them up and trying to create some pose variants - after all, DPC only offer three - including the ropey Officer/NCO type wearing the cloak with an un-pleasing looking sword being freely brandished. Secondly, I think the cut of the Grenze uniform is not unlike that of the Hungarian infantry during the War of the Austrian Succession, and I'm doing to try my hand at producing some. Ulp! That's about 20% of my hobby time.

The remaining 20% will be taken up with some of the new Eureka Sumerians. This is a period of history that has always exerted a strong fascination for me and I am looking forward to getting some of these minis and really getting to grips with them. I'll review them when I have them to hand and talk about the project when it has gelled a little more.

What else, what else? I was moaning before about the poor quality of the GW "Foundation Paints". Let's go on and suggest that GW get out of the paint game and just stock Vallejo - or someone who does quality paint! Furthermore, have we seen the packs of plastic bases? 20mm and 25mm and 40mm and then the horse bases all in one pack! I guess I won't be buying any more of those then - Litko, here I come!

What's up?

A bit off topic for this blog, but I've been painting 19th Century Victorian troops.

Pictures here.

What I'll be (mostly) doing this Year

Go here for a sneak peek.

The long and the short of it is that I'll be devoting about 60% of my hobby time this year to a fairly ambitious demonstration game slated for the Australia Day Long Weekend in January 2009.

The year is 1887, Britain and Russia are at War over Afghanistan or Caviar or something or other, and the pesky Russians have decided to empty the bank vaults of her Majesty's loyal, but tiny Colony of Victoria!

To do this they need to storm the forts at the Heads of Port Phillip Bay.

We will be re-enacting this momentus "historical" event by putting on a demo-game of the Russian amphibious assault on Fort Nepean.

Prussias' Hussar Regiment Nr 5

Illustrated is "Altpreussische Uniformen" by Hans Bleckwenn. This book is a nice little snapshot of the Frederician Army. It's not complete, but has a smattering of different regiments of each troop type. Each is illustrated with a colour plate depicting the basics of the Privates, the NCOs, the Officers and the Musicians uniforms as well as numerous small details like their colours and standards.

I had quite forgotten that I had ordered this book via the Internet until it arrived in my letter box. On examining it, I was so taken by the plate for von Reuschs' Hussar Regiment number 5 that I had to try painting some figures up as this regiment.

The figures are RSMs, on one of the galloping horse variants. I used the the Prussian Hussar in Mirliton for the troopers with an Austrian Hussar as the Busby-wearing Officer.

They are quite nice figures, but can be a little tricky to paint on account of the fine-ness of the detail. Try a beer instead of a coffee while you are painting these boys.

Painting was done from a black undercoat with a pretty liberal amount of mid-gray highlighting. It took me the best part of a week to get them done. The "dagging" on the saddle-cloths was done by painting the whole pattern in white and then going over again in red - this let me leave a fine white border while also brightening up the red.

Heckenfeur

Getting the painting wobbles…

I’ve spent most of the past week painting a few old Willies and some Stadden command for IR 35. I had been wanting to be doing a really good job on these figures; not only do they cost an awful lot of money, but they are also my beau ideal for toy soldiers.

The upshot of the whole experience has been to convince me of a few things.

Firstly I’m a choker.

You know whaen you want to do a really, really, really good job painting figures and then just can’t? This happens to me every time I lay my hands on some particularly beautiful or coveted or expensive castings. All of a sudden I am a sausage-fingered idiot with a four-inch brych trying to paint the cross-belts on a 30 millimetre figure.

Sure, and I can paint just fine on any figure I have decided I don’t care about. Perhaps a solution lies in this direction? Perhaps I ought to get good and drunk before I touch my next Willie?*.

Which leads me in a near-perfect segue on to the new Willies.

I have only briefly seen the new ones – incautiously ripping open the mail one afternoon last week to discover my birthday present (roll on March 22nd!) – and admit to some mixed emotions on seeing them.

I have always really liked the older Willie castings for the light and graceful style of their design, but was getting very tired of trying to repair some really shocking imperfections in the castings which for the asking price were really unacceptable.

To me the new Willies are very much based on the old masters, changed somewhat and improved in terms of the research behind them and the fact that the old moulds look to have been re-made from the “new, improved” masters.

That’s all to the good, but (and this is going from a five-minute peer through the plastic baggies) it looks to me that the castings still have certain faults. These are not as bad as in the old range to be sure – I have a couple of French Infantry with lower arms attached by a metal “thread”, and British drummers with no fore-arms – but I saw at least two castings of the 32 I bought with significant pits in the backs of the figurines.

At GBP12.95 per eight castings (or about $AU31!) I’m not too sure as to whether I ought not just wait on Minden Minis or even just buy RSMs!

Has anyone else bought any of the new Willies and seen this problem? I’ll do a more thorough review when I can get my hands on the figures toward the end of March.

UPDATE: I recently bought and started to assemble some of the new customisable GW movement trays.

Initially, I thought that these were a great idea - customisable movement trays that you can size in 20 or 25mm units. Then I started to assemble them. Why (oh, why) are the edge pieces that you glue onto the traysides and front not themselves made in lengths corresponding to multiples of the 20 or 25mm units that make them up? Am I being obscure/silly? It makes sense to me to make the "edges" in - say - 75 or 80mm lengths.

Oh, and instead of providing "corner" pieces, why not just bevel the ends of the "edges"?

Is it just me, or do they seem to be quite bad examples of design?


*fnar, fnar, fn-a-a-arrrr!

Move the Third

The third move saw the Alzheimer side continue to mine doggedly forward. Their three mines now projected three inches forward of the lip of the glacis.

Meantime, the Gallispans had repaired their right-hand sap and opened a 48" second parallel. At the right-hand end of it they promptly emplaced a battery of two guns, having judged that it was time for them to begin striking back at the Alzheimer artillery.

You will remember from last move that I named the Alzheimer fortifications from left to right as the Kurprinz Bastion, the Kurprinzessin Ravelin and the Kurfurstin Bastion. So then, from the six dice the Alzheimers got to throw, five of them came up as either a five or a six. The only fortification that rolled low was again was the Kurprinzessin Ravelin with only one of it's guns striking home.

The five Alzheimer hits demolished the entire Gallispan second parallel and the battery they had planted there, but not before it had itself fired it's guns in defiance, scoring a single hit on the number two gun in the Kurprinzessin ravelin. This hit dismounted the gun.

NOTES: Gunfire is simultaneous. A hit on a gun happens when a six is rolled - the gun is irreparable on a roll of a further six on a d6. The ALzheimers will have to use one of their working parties to repair their gun if they want to have it ready to fire next move.

Introducing IR35

The Fusilieers are coming along nicely enough. I'd say they are about two-thirds complete, with the remaining rank and file of the third of four companies due for completion tonight.

I will then get cracking on their command. I took Jim Purky's advice and bought Stadden command to go with the RSM rank-and-file, and they are a very good match being as they are of a somewhat smaller stature than the rest of the Stadden Prussians.

I'll do a comparison photo tonight to demonstrate.

UPDATE: I finished of the third company tonight - that's them in the second picture from the top of the page. I've also included a picture of the Stadden Fusilier NCO for a point of comparison with the RSM fusilier with the cheeky look on his face. Note also the part-painted Officer and fusilier drummer ithe the completed company.

Gunners

It was common practice to borrow infantry from their parent regiments to serve the battalion
guns with the aid of a few artillery-men.

I've decided to pick up on this by painting a few of my gunners in the uniforms of one of my French infantry regiments - Languedoc if memory serves. Obviously they are not serving a little battalion piece here, but a monster siege piece.

Note that the gunners are doing the things that require artillery skills whilst the infantry are providing the brute labour!

Gunners are by RSM, the gun is a Willie/Suren.

Anyone have any Willie Artillery they'd like to part with? The Gallispans are in dire need. Seriously.

Willies

I've had a long standing thing for Edward Suren's "Willie" range of figures.

With one of the OSW crowd talking up the Regiment he's working on, I was prompted to pull out the ones I'd bought a few years ago. Looking at the paint jobs, I decided it was time for a thorough renovation.

I also thought this would give me something to do as I waited for the temptation to buy some of these frighteningly expensive figures to go away.

That didn't work, did it? I've since bought two packs if the Line infantry, a pack of the Foot Command and a pack of the Mounted Command. I've decided that my old Willies will form the second line of the regiment I build.

I'm really not very good at resisting temptation. Perhaps I may need to build an Old School Brigade?

JAFP*

Well, here we are again, another blog posting. Maybe a few belated new years’ resolutions, too.

Sorry I’ve been a bit quiet of late; boring old real life has been getting in the way of noodling around on the internet. On the bright side, Amy and I have gone a long way toward creating a native garden which in turn in drought-stricken Melbourne goes a long way toward saving water and making it possible to keep a garden alive!

So it goes.

In the blog world, I’ve not had too much to say and am trying to keep to a policy of not saying anything if I have nothing of substance to say. That’s the problem with blogs, I think. That empty page and the perception of an “audience” sometimes prompts me to write where I do not always have too much to say.

It is nice for me to put up yet another picture of the same dozen toy soldiers and say “Well, just did the highlights on their coats – what do you all think out there?” but it doesn’t always add to much to the greater discourse, does it?

Does it?

I resolve not to blog about having painted the gaiter buttons on the officers of the grenadier company of IR35, no matter what a terrific job I think I have done.

That brings me to another little niggle that’s been with me since I stumbled across an article in some Wargames mag or other while in the UK. Proper references later, but the gist of the article was what are you guys blogging about? Your miniatures? Please! I only want you top blog about well-painted miniatures, not some of the duff bits and pieces that I’m seeing.

This was accompanied by some photographs of some rather ordinary bits of painting (unattributed) on some decidedly unappealing bits of sculpting that allegedly illustrated his point that people were/are getting lavishly praised for any old thing.

I cannot begin to tell you how the patronising tone of this article got my back up. I fairly choked on my Full English breakfast!

I actually think the tone of posting that we have in the “blog-o-sphere” is possibly a product of the comments moderation policies of those of us who run blogs, rather than the fairly pathetic sycophancy that the writer seems to think holds sway.

I do think sometimes that commenters are over-nice or over-generous and that sometimes a post will be left as much to register a visit as much as anything else.

What are your thoughts?

I promise not to moderate any comments that are cranky, gnarled or spiky. And yes, you do only have my word for that!

UPDATE: The Article was "Wargaming Meets the X Factor" in WI #241, by Barry Hilton.

I'm strangely conflicted about the article insofar as Mr Hilton basically goes out and sets up a straw man - that the internet has bred a lot of people out for fame as it were and that this is coupled with a lot o people out there who'll praise any old rubbish. I think that what annoyed me was the broad brush approach he took and his complete lack of any real examples.

He then holds up a number of figure painters who he believes are worthy of praise.

Speaking for myself, I may enjoy the work of Holger Schmidt or Kev Dallimore, but really would not try to emulate them as I don't believe that their painting styles are sustainable over the kind of army that I am interested in raising. Indeed, modern painting exemplars strike me as being really only suitable for the single miniature or at most for the skirmish game. Taking the point just a little further, I really find the kind of painting admired by Mr Hilton just a bit depressing because I know that there would be no way I could ever finish of a 60-figure unit in anything like an acceptable time-frame.

Perhaps the failing is mine.

UPDATE the Second: I've posted reasonably lenthy responses in the to the comments in the "Comments" section.

*Who remembers "Blue Thunder"?

Vale Ed Hillary

It's a bit late, and not really on topic, but, well, good on you, Sir Ed.

There are not too many like you.

Sculpting Stuff Arrived

I just got a little parcel of sculpting bits and pieces from the good people at eBob.

It's a sort of a sculpting starter pack and consists of two sculpting tools, a 15cm strip of two-part epoxy putty and three "dollies" and 25mm circular plastic bases, similare to those you get from Games Workshop.

The dollies are almost an exact match in size and proportion to an RSM Austrian (German) Fusilier. Thus means that they are impressively dainty and I may need to buy some of those magnifying goggles to work on them.

I am already suitably intimidated - and a bit awed at how skillful our miniatures sculptors actually are.

So, what's the goal?

I want to sculpt up some French infantry suitable for the War of the Austrian Succession. You know the sort - collarless coats with no collars, although collars could be addd easily enough as they began to appear throughout the conflict.

These figures would form the basis for doing Spanish and even Piedmont-Sardinian infantry from the same conflict. Then there are the light infantry of several nations (not forgetting the Montagnards!), Hungarians and Pandurs from the same conflict, to say nothing of the Austrians...

But that's getting ahead of myself.

Better learn how to sculpt first!

I'm thinking my first step might be to gently sever the little heads and trying to get some hats and hair onto them without mucking up too badly.

Let's see how we go.

PS - YES, there will be a seige move enacted this weekend, too.

Projects - good for Lead Mountain reduction

Having a project on focuses the mind.

Doing this siege game has really highlighted to me just how incomplete some of my units are/were.

Just a few examples, my Bavarian Leib Garde were short by a whole company, as were my Gardes Francaises.

Many of my French (or”Gallispan”) regiments while standardised on a three-company organisation were all short various NCOs.

When I started the project my Prussian (or Alzheimer) Fusiliers stood at less than half company strength – now they are at almost two companies and still going strong.

I had almost NO gunners – now I have eight Alzheimer and nine Gallispan (as well as an Ouvrier!) with more on the way.

I had no fortress artillery but for four unpainted and fiddly to assemble Hinchcliffe 12 pounders. Now I have a neat half-dozen from Eureka.

Hurrah for projects; the siege has boosted my forces by something like 70 figures since the start of December.

Note to self

Riding a bike in peak-hour traffic is a great way of developing ones coup l'oeill.

I think the modern term is "situational awareness"!

Second Move

Alzheimer Gunners about to give Johnny Gallispan a jolly good hiding!

No chance cards were drawn this move for either side, so the Gallispans made like busy beavers and began sapping forward.

They opened two trenches and, using three working parties on each, constructed two 36” saps, zig-zagging every 12” as they went.

This left them with an unoccupied working party, so these brave souls went forward along the left-hand sap and constructed 12” of the second parallel.

The Gallispans also now moved to occupy their works, The Gardes Francaises and the Bourbonnois regiments occupying the first parallel, whilst the Berry and la Reine Regiments received their orders to occupy the second parallel once it was completed.

On the Alzheimer side, “Kinsky” watched the sudden surge in Gallispan activity with not a small degree of alarm and while not relenting with his mining activities, determined to open fire on the enemy saps.

Batteries one and two in Bastion Kurprinz opened fire – Battery One demolished the Parapet thrown up before the incomplete second parallel, effectively destroying it. Batteries Three and Four in the Kurprinzessin failed dismally to hit a single thing, whilst Batteries Five and Six in the Kurfurstin Bastion were very successful indeed, destroying two 12” lengths of sap.

Neither side elected to make an ACTION move, so this concluded the second move.

Oh, the Gallispans were gnashing their teeth that night!

NOTES:
Chance cards – at the start of each move, each side draws a chance card from a deck of 20. Half are blank, the other half have various “amusing” (to me!) incidents printed on them.

Move One - Alzheimer

Oberst-Lieutenant Kinsky and his Chief of Engineers, von Fotze stood on the lip of the towns’ glacis.

Von Fotze lowered his glass and opined: “Herr Oberst-Lieutenant, it seems to me that the Gallispans have opened their first parallel and that they have almost finished buildind infantry redoubts at either end.”

“Very good, Captain. Ah, I see my fusiliers are taking a turn on the covered way today?”

“Yes Sir, but-“ and von Fotze lowered his voice “- their morale is low after the last beating they took. They looked more like refugees than soldiers when they came into town.”

Kinsky stuck out his bottom lip. “That won’t do! No, that won’t do at all! Let’s give them something to do other than just stand around. I want three listening galleries driven forward from the edge of the ditch. Knock holes in the counter-scarp if you have to. Start now – it’s slow work, so the earlier we get to it the better. By the time our Gallispan friends have sapped up, we might get far enough out to give them a nice surprise.”

One of the gunners had been trailing them like a lost puppy and now piped up. “Your Excellency, begging your pardon, but I’ve been taking the range and I think I could get a ball as far as the enemy lines.”

Kinsky turned to the man and shook his head. “No. We will wait until he has dug himself further into range before we start burning powder.” He clapped the man on the shoulder. “Don’t worry my lad, there’ll be more than enough to do, bye-and-bye! Now, von Fotze, a crown for each man in the working party that cuts the most clay – does that sound reasonable?”

NOTES:
Mines are dug at the rate of 1” per strategic move.

Detonating a mine or engaging in a day’s artillery fire (ie, firing one’s Artillery in a SIEGE Move) expends a unit of powder. Kinsky has 15 at his disposal. To win, he must hold out for 20 days. Kinsky is seeking to shorten the range before he opens fire.

Kinsky has three infantry units at his disposal. He can this dispose of three engineering officers and thus employ three working parties.

IR35 is on the covered way whilst IR13 mans the bastions and ravelin. The Leib Battalion is in reserve.

With all stragglers now in, IR35 stands at 31 figures.

The Gallispan siege lines are 72” from the salient point of the ravelin and thus at the uttermost extremity of cannon-shot.

First Move - Gallispans

The Marquis de Gonsalvo

In the inevitably gray light that preceeds the dawn, silent files of men were issuing forth from the Gallispan camp.

Each man bore a burden. Some carried ordinary tools in the shape of shovels, mattocks and pick-axes. Others bore stranger items – long bundles of brush-wood that took two men to handle; these were called fascines. Some men wheeled in small carts or simply rolled gabions, large basket-like objects, open at both ends, woven from supple withies.

At the softly-voiced commands of their officers and NCOs all these men stopped and formed a long line facing the Alzheimer fortress.

The Marquis de Gonsalvo dropped his handkerchief fluttering to the ground. At this sign, his engineering officers made their last adjustments to the line, necessary since it was almost as long as two infantry battalions were wide! The men then planted each before themselves a gabion and started to dig.

As they dug, the soil thus excavated was flung up into the gabions, first to fill them, then to cascade in a natural rampart on the side facing the fortress. The fascines were used to bind the rampart laterally and to top the gabions off.

Whilst the line of the first parallel was being constructed, other parties, each under the close supervision of an engineer began to build one at each end, a redoubt roomy enough to hold an entire company of infantry. Gonsalvo noted with satisfaction that Brunetti his Chief of Engineers had taken him seriously on his worries about having strong places where he could shelter his infantry as they waited to counter-attack the inevitable raiders he was sure would come with mischief in mind!

He noted that Brunetti was keeping busy supervising the cutting of some embrasures in the new parapet. He was a good, conscientious officer. Breathing deep of the sour smell of the freshly-turned earth, he wondered if this might not be the odour of success?

NOTES:

Engineering officers are issued at the rate of one for each infantry regiment a side has.

The Gallispans have seven regiments\battalions and thus seven engineers.

A working party needs to be supervised by an Engineering Officer for relatively complex tasks. Each party can create 12" of parallel in a strategic turn.

"Gonsalvo" elected to build a first parallel wide enough to take two infantry units minus their grenadier companies which he intends to house in the redoubts at its' extremities. In the centre is a small battery position in which he'll be mounting a pair of battalion guns for protection against raiders.

My infantry units have a frontage of approximately 20" and thus we need four working parties to open the parallel, another two to build the redoubts and another to create the small battery position, for a neat total of seven fully-employed working parties.

Rules, rules and more rules.

I just thought I’d take the time to lay out a few basics on the siege rules I’ll be using for this game.

The rules are based on a slightly incomplete set published in “The Courier” years ago by Gary Comardo and heavily modified by me as I like my rules a little less abstract, although I preserve his turn sequence intact.

There are two move types, SEIGE and ACTION.

The turn Sequence for the SEIGE move is as follows:

a) Attacker constructs new works
b) Defender constructs new works
c) Attacker places troops in his/her works
d) Defender places troops in his/her works
e) Defender explodes mines
f) Attacker explodes mines
g) Defender fires cannons
h) Attacker fires cannons
i) Defender fires small-arms
j) Attacker fires small-arms
k) Either side may call for an ACTION sequence

You can find many of the basic ideas that I have “plugged into” this turn sequence in earlier postings:

http://mavisming.blogspot.com/2006/05/seige-rules-some-considerations.html

http://mavisming.blogspot.com/2006/05/couple-more-seige-warfare-thoughts.html


The ACTION turn is played out as a tabletop action, using your favoured war-gaming rules. I favour the Charge! Basic rules as they are quite straight-forward.

As I see it, SEIGE moves will largely be played out on a map, whilst the ACTION moves would occour on the tabletop.