Additions to the 17C polish....

A mix of figures painted to represent a unit of Levy of Nobility.... 

A kettle drummer for the command group....

The drummer takes up his position with the winged hussars...

On the workbench...

 Just finished a couple things for the Polish army. From items produced from a recent casting session...

The kettle drummer, quite a tricky conversion to do....

plus a unit of Levy of Nobility, a mix of figures with some minor conversions....

More Registered Cossacks ....

Recently completed another unit of registered cossacks ..

Registered Cossacks ....

Dug out some cossacks I cast in June this year; these are now painted as some registered cossacks to join the Polish army ...

Another unit of cossacks in progress on the painting desk...

The Battle of Dirschau 1627....(2) The game played through ...

Following on from a previous post (here), which covered setup and info ...the battle game report....

---oXo--

The Poles deploy an extra unit of hussars to bolster the centre...

The Swedes have started their advance...

The Poles wait for the right moment ...

The Swedish cavalry are moving up quickly

The Swedes charge and the Poles counter-charge....

The Swedes punch through the centre forcing back the Polish light cavalry, getting a bit ahead of their flank support.....on the flanks the Swedes have just about held the Poles back but lost some ground...

The Poles seize the opportunity of hitting the flanks of Swedes in the centre...

The Swedish centre hard pressed falls back as the cavalry melees on the flanks continue, one of the units routs. The Swedes have managed to push the hussars and their supporting pancerni back somewhat..

The Swedish King is badly wounded leading his men in a tough fight against the Polish light cavalry and is being led to safety..

The cavalry melees on the flanks still continue with no clear winners..

The polish light cavalry in the centre see off the remaining Swedish cavalry regiment opposing them. Some follow through and receive a volley from the infantry ...

while the rest fall on the rear of the Swedish horse ...

the Swedish cavalry left flank break and rout pursued by the Polish who pull up before getting too close to the infantry...; the Swedish cavalry on the their right flank break off and fall back - the Poles opposing them exhausted halt...

The Swedish King reaches safety, as the Swedish infantry holds a line while their cavalry retreats..

With no infantry support and fatigued the Polish cavalry fall back in good order towards their camp; the Swedish cavalry rally but with no fight left in them retire to their camp along with the infantry. 

---oXo---

Notes:

1. Commanders in Melee, each round check on health of commanders. 

    2D6, a double means commander has received a hit.. 

    1d6 saving throw;   1 - dead; 2 - badly wounded; 3 - light wound can continue; 4,5,6 OK

2. Result sort of followed history; with the Swedish king wounded.

The Battle of Dirschau 1627....(1) Information and Setting Up...

The battle of Dirschau was fought during the Polish-Swedish war of 1626-29 (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dirschau). I'd wanted to play a game based on this battle for a while; I noted down the basic particulars and found some maps in 2022 ready to tighten up the scenario definition. However as I got stuck into my Samurai project this battle game went on the back-burner. In 2023 I noticed the Via Regia blog was doing a game for Salute, so I followed the relevant posts with interest.

Finally I've taken my post-it off the reminder board (side of the filing cabinet next to my modelling desk) and decided to fight the battle with my 40mm collection. A chance to get my Polish army into action again.  I've drawn information form the Via Regia blog, including a scenario map; relevant posts below...

• https://theviaregia.blogspot.com/p/the-battle-of-dirschau-tczew-1627.html
• https://theviaregia.blogspot.com/2023/04/dirschau-tczew-1627-battlefield.html
• https://theviaregia.blogspot.com/2023/05/dirschau-tczew-1627-at-salute-50-game.html

For the purposes of the game, I've used some of my TYW'ish horse and foot regiments to stand-in for the Swedish. Initial setup pictures of the battle Polish on the left, Swedish on the right... the whole table....

The Polish end of the table ...

the Swedish end of the table....

I may make a few tweaks to the setup before battle commences ....

Polish Light Cavalry ... reworked....

 While I had the 17th century storage boxes out, I noticed my Polish Light Cavalry needed some attention, I'd painted the two units, one in a green theme and the other a blue theme - a bit too 'uniform'. So I've repainted/rebased them to give a better look.

The original green and blue themed units....

On the workbench and altering hats ....

Some of the coats repainted and blue/green/red/brown now intermingled....much better than before

Polish V Ottomans: A Cavalry Engagement

 I thought I ought to get the tweaked Polish cavalry form the previous couple of posts onto the the table this year; so for the last game before Xmas, in a scenario loosely adapted from one of the 'Fire and Sword' books - forces from Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth will have to defeat an Ottoman Turkish force.

I used a cut down version of my 17C home-baked rules for a sort of 'fast play', to give a simpler game with this cavalry encounter; routed units and casualties removed as the game moved on...

---oXo---

The two armies initial deployment,  the Ottoman force ...

The Polish: Winged Hussars, Pancerni, Light Cav and Lithuanian Tartars

The light cavalry units on both side move forward....

they clash ......

in the centre the green unit of polish Light cavalry defeats and routes two units of Ottoman cavalry and is then met by another Ottoman light cavalry unit; the blue unit of Polish light cavalry are beaten and rout their place taken by a supporting unit of Pancerni...

The Ottoman cavalry move forward on their right and are met by some Tartars

And then receive a flank attack for a unit of Pancerni

The elite Ottoman cavalry join the fray, attacking the Pancerni

The elite Ottoman cavalry defeat the Pancerni

The Ottomans seem to getting the upper hand  .....

The Winged Hussars charge into the elite Ottoman cavalry... while the Tartars push on and into the next Ottoman unit...

The Winged Hussars practically wipe out the elite Ottoman cavalry unit and kill the Ottoman commander as well; then they move on into the next block of Ottoman cavalry, who hold the charge just ...

The Winged hussars regroup and are about to plough through the remaining Ottoman cavalry with the Tartars hitting them in the flank...

a bad day for the Ottomans

a win for the Polish

Polish 17C Cavalry - Adding bows and quivers (2) ... all done ..

 Finished tinkering with the Polish Pancerni and Light Cavalry, two or three figures of each unit are now carry bow-case and quiver.  

I've reduced the number of Pancerni holdiing lance, so now have a mix of sword, lance and war hammer; (also a couple of other weapons found in the spares box).

Deployed ready for action....

with the light cavalry on one flank ...