The Defense of Strudelburg - Croats

Here are a couple of new Croats/Grenz.

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

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

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

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

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

*Duffy

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

New progress pics of the Haller Regiment

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

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

Bits and Pieces

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

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

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

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

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

Here's an idea

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

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

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

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

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

What's on

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've a busy weekend on!

1st Company, Haller Regiment

Voila!

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

New Recruits

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

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

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

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

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

If only all my regiments were of such a size!


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

Eureka Toy Soldiers - Free!!!

...and they're gone!

Next available lot are Eureka's Warrior Frogs.

Take a look here:

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

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

bloggerator@gmail.com

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

Eureka Toy Soldiers - Free!!!

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

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

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

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

More on the Croat Terror

I've been knocking a few ideas around in my little head these past few days.

I've become interested in doing a demo game based around the devastation of Bavaria during the War of the Austrian Succession in around 1742.

This probably isn't too suprising considering where my painting and modelling have been taking me these past few weeks, but geez, it'd make a good demonstration game for later in the year.

I was thinking I could put together a scenario based on this where a couple of weak Bavarian battalions with a squadron of Dragoons might try to defend a three villages from a horde of Croats with a large battalion of Hungarians in support along with a squadron of Hussards. The terrain would basically be a long-ish valley with a river running through the midle of it.

The villages could each be assigned a points value depending on their size. Lesser points values could be obtained by sucessfully evacuating their populations. Victory would be based on the number of points accrued by defender or attacker. One of the villages with the highest points value would have to be seperated from the others by a river.

The number of players could be easily varied - the Bavarians could accomodate another by hiving their grenadiers off to form a detachment; their 40-figure battalions could be halved. The Croats could be played be single or multiple companies. The large (60 fig) battalion of Hungarians could be broken down into four 15-figure companies or two 30-figure divisions.

Rules - currently I'm looking at der Alte Fritz's "Kleine Kreig" rule set, as you'll probably realise from the unit sizes.

All food for thought.

Any comments?

Finished Grenadiers

Here they are, all done.

I'
m pleased with how they tirned out. They do have some inaccuracies - the officer should not be wearing a moustache and he ought to be carrying a fusil and wearing a belly-pouch. Overall though, I'm not displeased. The ribbons on the queues turned out OK, but could have been better - I have a long way to go with my Green Stuff technique.

Works in progress

Sorry about the crap photography; the lighting conditions were less than optimal. Still, I think you get the idea. I'll put somthing better up tomorrow. Paints are by Vallejo and Games Workshop. Note that I have used a black undercoat.

I'm finding it makes life a LOT easier.

I'm starting to sound like a convert.

Well, the Croats were painted that way, too.

Grenadier NCO and Officer

Here they are, fresh out of the camera.

A note to me - use a razor-saw rather than clippers next time - you'll need to do less to reconstruct the necks!

Let Me Convert You

Right.

I got a little crazy tonight with the clippers and the greenstuff.

I've created an Officer and an NCO for my Bavarian grenadiers. Leib Regiment, I think.

After devastating the castings with my clippers, I had to re-biuild the necks and the bags for their grenadier caps with the Greenstuff. And the little ribbons on their pigtails. They look OK.

Pictures to follow tomorrow morning when they have dried enough to photograph. I'm fairly happy with the result.

I'd give a lot for a dremel tool to save myself from the tedious, endless filing though!

For my next trick I'm going to paint these guys and then a 60-figure regiment of Hungarians. Digging around tonight; having a general audit of my lead mountain, I've found enough castings to do just that and it's a pretty exciting idea for me. I even found enough castings round to build up the strength of the Leib regiments' fusiliers to a reasonable (40 figs) level.

I also dug out Alte Fritzs' "Croat Terror" rules and they look like enough fun for me to contemplate a little game (demo? convention?) later this year. I'm envisaging a Bavarian battalion versus an indeterminate number of Croats c.1742.

More later.

The Croat Terror!

Those among you with a taste for such things may recognise these Croats as being Carlstadters from the Likaner Regiment. Reference for painting then (and I think also for the original sculpts) is my Blandford "Uniforms of the Seven Years War, 1756-1763" by Mollo and McGregor.

Not so much a new venture, I was combing thru my lead mountain and found these odds and ends. They're not quite finished (they need basing and a few need loose weapons attached), but I was so pleased with them, I had to show off...

Painting Again 2

Painting Again

I reckon it's been about two months since I painted any figures.

It's time to get back on that wagon.

Some few weeks ago Ioannis Mavromichalis (he of www.wargames-etc.com fame) kindly sent me a grab-bag of RSM miniatures including a mounted artilleryman I'd never seen before and these whetted my whistle rather. I now seem to be painting again, and tomorrow I hope that I'll have a couple of images to show off.

And now, to bed.

Thanks Ioannis.

Building the Spanish Farm

I thought I'd take the time to write a short piece on how I built the Spanish Farm.

I started off with the imaes I found on the internet - they are still up on the blog a few entries back. From these I drew a rough cartoon to work out the relationships of the various buildings to each other, their rough proportions and to get an idea of the kind of details I wanted to include.

The next thing I did was to work out the dimensions. My Peninsular collection will never grow to be too large, so I felt that I could make the buildings a bit larger than I otherwise might, thinking that the larger they are, the more useable they becoime in a low-level game.

I took my note from the height of the walling I use, which is about 40mm high. From that, and with no small degree of fudging, the rest of the dimensions were reasonably easy to work out.

For the record:

The larger "dual" building with the peaked roofs are 80mm wide and 190mm long. The wall heights are 100mm and 90mm. the roof peaks are 15mm higher than the wall heights.

The smaller "dual" building is 60mm wide and 160mm long. That part of the roof that slopes from left to right is 80mm high at it's highest point, falling away to 70mm. The other is 90mm high at it's highest point, falling down to 80mm.

The wing is 60mm wide and 120mm long. It is 70mm high at it's highest point, falling away to 60mm at the other side.

The little lean to out the back is 60mm wide and 30mm long. It is 50mm high at it's highest point, falling away to 40mm at it's lowest vertical point.

All the walls were cut from foam core and apetures cut to take windows and doors from model railway accessory kits.

Finishing was done in the same way as the other Spanish buildings I've described in earlier posts. I hope the images add what the text may lack!

Urban Sprawl 5

Well, I'm back from holidays and back on deck here.

Today I came pretty close to knocking off my "Peninsular farmhouse". All that's left to do is a little detail painting.

Sean Bean's Rifles do what they do best - provide a sense of scale!

As ever, click on the image for a larger view.