Painting Pink Wargame Figures, and all that

 

Marshall Schwerin visits Saxony

I took this picture a long time ago, circa 2010, of a vignette of the Prussian Marshall von Schwerin visiting some little town in Saxony (probably sizing it up for a future invasion, no doubt). Schwerin is an RSM figure and his pet dog comes from a place unknown (hey, it was over 14 years ago - do you really expect me to remember?).

Herb Gundt made all of the buildings in the picture. The inn on the right is modeled after the Alter Fritz Gasthaus in Hochkirch.

The two-wheel wagon was made by Ed Phillips and the team of pioneers in orange waist coat are from the Minden Miniatures set of Pioneers (CIV-004 product code). These are really useful figures to have and can be painted as either civilians or soldiers in waistcoats from any European army in the 18th Century. 

Here is a link to the Minden web page (civilians) where you can find the pioneers. The first person to buy a pack will get some extra free figures.

Minden Pioneers at Minden web store

Prussian Dragoon Regiment Meinicke (DR3)
Minden Miniatures

One doesn't get many opportunities to use pink colors when it comes to painting war game figures. However, the Prussians have a few blue coats with pink facings in their army, notably the dragoon regiment Meinicke (DR3) DR3 dragoons and the fusilier regiment von Kreytzen (IR40). Kronoskaf link takes you to the history of the regiments. I would imagine that many table top Prussian generals have one or both of these regiments in their armies.

The image of the uniform for the Kreytzen fusiliers comes from Kronoskaf.

I don't have the Kreytzen Fusiliers in my Minden Prussian army so I had better get on to it and start painted a 32-figure regiment.

SYW All-Cavalry Battle Part II - the Heavies

 

Prussian cuirassiers (backs to camera) and Russian cuirassiers (facing the camera)
chop, hack and thrust one another in a grand melee. Minden Miniatures exclusively.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE

I finally got around to finishing my SYW battle that featured only cavalry and no infantry. In Part I of this report, the Prussian and Russian light cavalry forces came to blows in a meeting engagement. The Prussians were able to drive back the Russians and take possession of the key land feature called the Kammin Heide.

The Cavalry Rules

One of the benefits of staging an all-cavalry battle is that it gives your cavalry melee rules a good work out. I haven't used my Der Alte Fritz rules in quite awhile so it took me awhile to remember what to do mechanically and discover why I made the rules the way they are in the first place.

I did not like the way that my cavalry melee rules with respect to (1) the sequence of charging and counter-charging; (2) some of the morale elements; and (3) the rallying and pursuit mechanics in the rules. As a result, I developed a number of tweaks to the rules that I feel should make for a better game, going forward. After I make all of the rules changes, I will post a new version on the Fife and Drum Miniatures web site so that readers can download copies for free.

Notable and likely changes will include charge declarations without the need to roll for morale to see if the squadron will actually charge. Both sides should just automatically go into melee when one side or the other declares a charge. The only exception will be if the defending cavalry unit has been "caught at the halt" position.

My original rules only allowed for one round of melee in order to speed up this part of the game. However, for an all-cavalry game, melee is all that the squadrons can do so I increased the number of melee rounds in a melee to two rounds of combat. After that the possible outcomes are (1) tie, both units retire a full move back to their own lines and are disordered for a full turn, (2) loser routs and winner rolls a D6 to see if it will pursue, or (3) winner halts in place and becomes disordered for a full turn, unless it is rallied by a leader.

In order to rally, I now allow a squadron of cavalry to remain in place, neither moving or charging, for one turn after which it returns to a good order state. Units can also attempt to rally by moving a leader into contact with the unit and attempting a rally dice roll (it's about a 50-50 chance of success) so most players will likely opt to rest their cavalry for a full turn and not risk the possibility of a rout if it attempts to use the dice rally mechanism in the rules.

The Heavy Cavalry Battle Report

Part II of the cavalry battle featured the arrival of the heavy cavalry brigades for both armies, so we are talking dragoons, horse grenadiers and cuirassiers in this battle. The Prussians started the battle with the terrain advantage since they held the high ground and were well positioned to bottle up the arrival of the Russian heavy cavalry. The map believe depicts the terrain features and locations of key locations on the tabletop terrain. This is the light cavalry map and I apologize for not having a similar map for the heavy cavalry action.

The Prussians begin the game with their dragoons deployed on the high ground called the Kammin Heide. They are supported by a second line of cuirassiers hidden behind the ridge. There are a few remnants of light cavalry hussars milling around the flanks of the Prussian position. The Prussian cavalry commander, yes Him, is Lt. General von Seydlitz. His plan is to lure the Russian cavalry onto the Kammin Heide and then surprise them with a counter attack from the hidden Prussian cuirassiers.

The Russian heavy cavalry is entering the table on the hill where the remnants of their hussars and Cossacks are shown on Map 1.

I place a couple of light infantry units on the table for both sides, but these were 
really placed there "for looks only" and did not contribute to the battle.
Here we have some Prussian Frei Korps troops, using a mix of Mindens, 
Fife and Drum Hessians and some AWI Continentals, converted by paint.

The initial deployment of the Prussian heavy cavalry regiments. Hussars in the first line
 (right hand side of the picture), dragoons in the second line and a third line of Cuirassiers

Some left over light cavalry from the previous game: Prussian Black Hussars (L)
and Russian Yellow Hussars (R)

Russian Horse Grenadiers and Cuirassiers charge

Russian cuirassiers provide support to the Horse Grenadiers

But wait! Prussian CR8 Seydlitz Cuirassiers seemingly come out of nowhere
and charge into the flank of the Russian Horse Grenadiers. This demonstrates
the advantage of winning the initiative die roll at the beginning of each turn.

Closer view of the Prussian flank charge.

We get even closer.

It's a bad day for these particular Russians as they get cut down by
the Seydlitz CR8 cuirassiers.

Prussian dragoons advance at the trot looking for someone to melee with.

Many individual squadron melees erupt all over the Kammin Heide.
Such action is typical of cavalry melees in my rules. The Black Hussars in the 
right foreground have Lt. General von Zeiten attached to the squadron to give
them a morale boost (one extra D10 in a morale dice throw).

Russian Cuirassiers finally seem to have an advantage over their foe: cuirasses vs no cuirasses.

Alas, the worst possible melee morale throw. All that the Russian cuirassiers
needed was anything but a "ten' (or double zero) on just two of the three dice.

Post melee, some of the Prussian squadrons have to fall back towards their own
lines, in disordered status, where they will recover in two turns.

Some of the non-viable Prussian squadrons have been removed from the table. Now there is 
a more open look to the battlefield. When a cavalry unit is down to only two stands
 (out of six to start with in a squadron) then it is removed from the game.

Russian heavy cavalry squadrons fall back to reform, hoping to deter the 
Prussian cavalry from making any further attacks.

After ten game turns I decided that the cavalry of both sides was knackered and ready to call it a day. The butcher's bill saw the Prussians losing 34 of 60 figures from their squadrons engaged, and they also had 24 more cuirassiers that were held back in a third line and were unengaged in the battle. The Russians registered 36 casualties out of a starting total of 84 figures and all of their forces were engaged.

At the end of the day it looked like neither side was in good enough condition to carry on the cavalry battle, although the Prussians had a substantial reserve of 24 cuirassiers that they could have committed to a renewal of the battle. Doing a little bit of free kriegspeiling in my head, it seemed reasonable that even as bold a cavalry general as von Seydlitz would have decided that further charges would not result in any significant gain. Thus von Seydlitz, who held the initiative in the battle, decided that his cavalry had done enough for the day. The Russians were likely grateful to see an end to the cavalry battle, but they were confident that they still had enough viable squadrons to stop the Prussians. So they too broke off the fight and reformed on top of their hill.

Perhaps some Russian and Prussian infantry will come up and renew the battle on the 'morrow. Who knows?

cc

A Peaceful Village In Silesia, Circa 1758

 

The Prussian Red Hussars (H7) come marching into Frobeldorf.
Is the captain's name Ned and is he the pride of the regiment?
 Minden Prussian hussars and some Blue Moon and Minden civilians

Another view of the March of the Red Hussars.
Buildings by HG Walls.

Click on all pictures to enlarge

I have been working on my terrain for the SYW era group of German villages located somewhere in Silesia. The pictures in this post depict the little hamlet of Frobeldorf, which has suffered from the depredations of marauding Russian light cavalry and Cossacks. They have made an appeal to King Frederick II of Prussia to protect them and save them from the bad guys: the Russians. Boo, hiss!

When I set up the four villages on my game table, I realized that I needed to have more civilians on the table, so I painted 20 Minden civilians and converted the pioneers into civilians by painting the latter in civilian clothing colors. I am also working on some of the Ratnik civilians, but I find these to be more difficult to paint due to all of the extra nic-nacs and accouterments that they have. I also found a box of Venture/Suren Miniatures civilians that I forgot that I had and I will be placing an order for some more Old Glory 18th Century civilians to add into the mix. The more the merrier I say.

Minden agricultural workers cutting down the grain.

The grain fields were made for my Pickett's Charge project, but I had 28mm vignettes in mind when I made them. I used a coir material door mat for the grain and sprinkled it with coir cuttings that I clipped off of the door mat.

I find that if I stoop over and crank my aged knees into the down position, then I can view the various villages and vignettes from "the ground level". This point of view almost makes the little men come alive and if you squint your eyes just a little bit then a sense of realism is seen. Good stuff. Good idea.

Here are some ground level pictures that I recently snapped:

Minden Bosniaks and Black Hussars on the march.

Looking down the main street of Gross Kammin. Buildings by HG Walls. Roads by Der Alte Fritz
and some Foundry, Perry and Minden civilians.

The Heroic Zeiten personality from the Minden Miniatures figure range.
This is one of the best figure sculpts every made by Richard Ansell.

Prussian camp scene. John Ray made the officer and servant vignette and 
the two camp followers are Foundry figures.

Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick vignette from the Minden Miniatures figure range.

My next terrain project will be to make some green agricultural fields for my 18th Century villages. I also want to make some "backyard" terrain pieces, such as the ones that Troop of Shew (Alan Steward) made for his Normandy WW2 terrain. He includes things like flower and vegetable gardens, an out house and general yard clutter. Each small terrain vignette tells its own story.

This picture shows some of Alan's work. This is THE ULTIMATE in war game terrain modeling.

Normandy terrain vignettes by Alan Sheward.

Very inspirational to say the least.

Next up on my painting table are another 8 Prussian Yellow Hussars that I need to finish in order to complete a squadron of 12 such figures. These figures are the newer hussars with shouldered swords pose that can be used for hussars at rest or trotting into position or prior to a charge. While I like the Minden charging hussar poses, I prefer the shouldered sword pose for its durability.

I am starting to get adjusted to painting smaller 28mm figures as compared to the large 54mm figures that I had been painting over the past twelve months. Once you get the hang of it, Minden Miniatures are a joy to paint.

I hope you agree.

And finally, Bella the Golden Retriever asks that you leave some comments in the comment section of this blog post. Bella says, "My favorite human is much happier when people leave comments, so please do so. He will give me some liver treats if you do."

A Zieten Figure Does Exist - Minden Miniatures

 

A couple of days ago I was rather gobsmacked to to look at my Facebook feed and read a post by someone lamenting the lack of a von  Zieten personality figure across the 28mm spectrum. All I could do was to just shake my head in wonderment since Minden Miniatures has not one figure, but TWO ZIETEN PERSONITY FIGURES.

So for your viewing pleasure I present pictures of both the mounted and dismounted version of Minden Zieten figures.

Zieten is the figure base that is second from the left. Frederick of course is in the center.

Oh, and by the way, Minden offers the only Marshall Maurice de Saxe riding in his wicker carriage at Fontenoy figure. Simply put, if you are looking for 18th Century military personality figures, then Minden Miniatures has the largest selection of such figures by a wide margin over any other manufacturer of 28mm figures. That’s a fact.

By the way, let’s dispense with all of this copyright nonsense that we see elsewhere; if you want to copy any pictures on my blog then feel free to do so.

Maurice de Saxe and his uhlan escort. All are Minden figures.

A close up, and better picture, of a dismounted Zieten handing a message to an orderly.
Minden Miniatures 

Please click on the pictures to enlarge your view and look at these wonderful Richard Ansell sculpts.

Picture of the Day : Prussian Hussars

Here are some pictures of Minden Prussian Hussars painted as HR1, the Green Hussars. These were painted by Michael S. in Germany for one of my Minden Mini customers. Lucky fellow.   I hope that my readers will draw so inspiration from these awesome painted figures.

Austrian Artillery at Mollwitz

 

I worked on some close up pictures of units on my game table for my Mollwitz game. I thought that the Austrian artillery pictures were particularly good. The equipment and figures are Minden Miniatures. The ammo wagon is the Russian wagon (frankly the Austrian and Russian wagons look nearly the same) and the team of limber horses is driven by an Austrian train driver. The two fellows carrying a wooden box are from one of the  Civilian Ag Workers set.

Moving the camera away from the ammo wagon reveals more of the battery in action. Notice how the figure and equipment bases blend in with the Cigar Box Battle Mats green mat. Nice coincidence on my part.

Close up of the Austrian cannon and crew. In the first picture you can see the Austrian limber teams positioned well behind the cannons. I think that adding limbers and ammunition wagons adds  a lot to the visual look of a Wargame army.

If you own some Minden Austrian and Prussian armies then head on over to the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store and start rounding up your recruits today.

Fife & Drum web store

Coming next: the Savage Swann Inn in the town of Mollwitz.

Battle of Fontenoy - Best of Show at Partizan This Year

 

Steve Ignatiev's splendid collection of the armies at Fontenoy.
Photo by Steve

My congratulations go out to Steve (nom de plume = Ignatiev) for his award winning game at last weekend's The Other Partizan convention in the UK. I believe that Steve won the Best Demo Game award for his rendition of the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Steve has amassed a beautiful collection of Minden and Crann Tara British, French, Hanoverians and Dutch infantry and cavalry.

I believe that these are Minden Prussians painted as Dutch soldiers by Mark Allen.
The Dutch flags are made by War Flags. Steve did the basing of the figures.
Photo by Steve

You can find more photos of Steve's game and collection from the various Facebook groups devoted to 18th Century wargaming:

Wargaming in the Age of Frederick the Great

Seven Years War Wargaming

18th Century Wargaming

Warfare In The Age of Reason

It is really good to see that the War of Austrian Succession & Seven Years War games can garner attention in the UK. Hopefully such games will do better at future conventions in the United States. Steve put together a winning combination of great looking EVERYTHING (bespoke terrain, superbly painted figures that are attractively based, Minden and Crann Tara figures). 

There were lots of good looking games at Partizan and I'd hate to have to be the person who had to choose "the best in show" games for awards. So a tip of the tricorn goes out to Steve for putting on a great looking game and showing off the best of 18th Century history and wargaming.

nnn

Prussian Guard Grenadiers (painted unit)

 

Third battalion of the Prussian Guards (IR15/III) - Minden Miniatures

CLICK ON ALL PICTURES TO ENLARGE

I finished, finally, the painting and basing of the third battalion of the Prussian Guard infantry during the Seven Years War. It's numeral designation was IR15/III meaning that it was the third battalion of the regiment numbered "15" in the Prussian establishment.

The first battalion was the ceremonial battalion with all of the fancy and expensive uniform lace. They appeared in only one SYW battle (Kolin), spending the rest of the war stationed at the royal residence at Potsdam.

The second battalion (IR15/II) wore tricorn hats and the third battalion (IR15/III) wore grenadier miters. Regardless of the type of headgear that they wore, all guards were considered to be grenadiers.

Here is a link to the Kronoskaf site for more information on the Guards Regiment. IR15 Prussian Guards

Here are two views of the battalion from the rear ( I have removed two of the stands from the unit so that it would be easier to take a photograph).

As per my new basing system, the figures are mounted on 3mm thick MDF bases that measure 60mm frontage and 80mm depth. The stands hold either 8 or 9 figures. The officers, NCOs and musicians form a third rank. Flags are from GMB Designs.

Here are pictures of the full battalion with five stands of figures. My recollection is that there are 44 figures in this one battalion compared to my line regiments' strength of 32-34 figures.

Both the Guard musketeers and grenadiers are available from Minden Miniatures as distinct castings (these are not line regiment figures converted with paint). The main distinction between the line and guard units is that the Guards wore an aigulette on their right shoulder.

Here is a link to the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store Prussian figures section of the catalog.

Minden Prussian figures

The relevant product codes are:

MP-020 Prussian Guard Command in Tricorn Hats  

MP-021 Prussian Guards in Tricorn Hats

MP-022 Prussian Guard Command in Grenadier Miters

MP-023 Prussian Guards in Grenadier Miters