A little Bit of Painting.

  I didn't get nearly as much painting done over the Crimbo holiday as I had hoped. This was mostly my own fault-December was much busier than usual and we were sending orders our right down to the wire. So when the Hols came I was a bit fed up with the little metal bleeders and wanted a rest. So it took a few days to get the mojo back. Slowly.... very slowly.

40mm Thirty Years War French cavalry trooper.
Romanoff figure with a Sash and Saber head.

I managed a couple of additions to the 40mm TYW collection and a few 28mm AWI.

 The two troopers together. The pistol armed trooper is Sash and Saber with Romanoff carbine- pistol holsters and head, 

The first 1/3rd of another unit for my 'modern' AWI collection.
These are Old Glory 2nd Edition.

Next up on the painting desk are some Mughals and some Indian Mutiny-at least they are in the same sub-continent! 

Catching Up on My Reading no 22 - A Bundle from Helion.

 It is not often that I buy more than 1 book at a time since I can only actually read one book at a time. Well that is almost true even if I have one book in the lounge, one book in the bedroom and possibly another in the kitchen- though this last is unlikely.

 This 'rule' does not of course include the piles of books around the computer  that I use to refer to when I am writing.

 So most often it is sually 1 book at a time.

However rules are made to be broken escially when Helion have a sale on!

 So all three of these Helion books were bought in 2 different Helion sales. one in  late june and then 2 more in late July.

 So to deal with them in order of arrival.

French Armies of the Thirty Years War 1618-48 

The French army of the 30 Years War has interested me for some years and as I have said before that is the fault of Oliver Reed and Gerard Depadieau between them. Oh and just possibly Alexandre Dumas.

Stephane Thion has written on the French army of this period  previously for LRT Editions in 2008 and in many ways this new Helion book is an updated and improved  edition of that previous work.

 If you do not have the LRT version then get this one.... if you DO have the LRT edition as I have - then get this one too, not only is it somewhat better it is much more convenient to handle.

So what do you get for your money-  I  plumped for the hardback simply because at the then sale price the difference between the two was minimal- a couple of quid- so no worries there.

 In 213 pages- including an exstensive bibliography, M Thion takes us through the developement of the French army from its poor start at the beginning of the 30 Years War (when it was not technically involved)through rebellion and civilwar in France to the victories of the 1640s of Conde and Turenne. Organisation is discussed in detail as is equipment. The sometimes confusing changes inboth of these areas is also covered in some detail. This is interesting stuff. The French army has its own foibles and distinctions which make it subtly different from others involved in the Thirty Years War.

 For me though the core of the book is in the last 2 chapters which cover the main operations and orders of battle in  Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 has  a selection of contemporary accounts of various battles involving the French forces which are most useful for getting the 'feel' of the period and the army.

The book is , as you would expect well illustrated with both contemporary and non- contemporary illistrations  in black and white some of which appeared in the 2008 work - but many which did not. There is also a 14 page colur section  of which 6 pages are flags of fFrench army Infantry units - a total of 24 different flags- engough to keep most wargamers busy building units  (I'd have 23 more units to build if I was to make a unit using each of these flags as a source !) The other colour illustrations show assorted troop types and are by Giorgio Albertini one of my favourite Helion artistsand are of excellent quality.

This book  will give any English language reader a decent grounding in the French armies of the first half of the 17th century.

 Recoomended. 

The Battle of Castillon 1453.

Now there was a time , when I was much younger that I was of the opinion that nothing much of interest had happened in Europe after 1485. I had gone all medieval- seeling off my ECW armies and buying a bundle of assorted Hundred Years War. These kept me amused for a few years and even now when I don't have much of an HYW collection the period still holds some interest. So this book by Peter Hoskins was added to the purchase..

Castillion was the death knell of the once substabtial English possessions in France.. This book is quite slim compared to some other recent Helion publications being a mere 125 pages but that does not mean that it is in any way a 'lighteight' volume. The book begins with a swift gallop through the  Hundred Years War up to the Treaty of Tours in 1444. This is simply scene setting for those whose first foray into  the 15th century this may be.

 The next two chapters deal with the changes and reforms to the French forces who would fight in these final campagns. These reforms - especially in the use of gunpowder weapons were fundamental to the French victory. Gone were the days of the hapless French nobility being mown down by English Longbowmen as they struggled through the mud to reach the English line! These reforms are put into a wider European context. The details of Fifteenth century artillery are particularly fascinating along with the photographs of modern reproductions of the medieval weapons. There are some meaty beast of war here !

The following chapters deal with the campaigns that lost the English their possessions in Normandy and the two campaigns in Gascony plus a chapter on John Talbot - Earl of Shrewsbury - the English commander at Castillon which ive a view of the man and his experience before the fatal campaign.

The battle itself is covered - as one would expect - in some detail and is not a run of the mill HYW battle at all. The role of the French artillery was crucial and while you may know how the story ends if you don't buy the book - or even if you do, but that does not detract ffromm its usefulness as a source for the last stages of the Hundred Years War. 

The maps by George Anderson are clear and to the point and the colour plates by Girogio Albertin once again are fine and include four pages of heralry and banners...there is a little niggle here, the plates though fine in themselves are perhaps poorly chosen. One each of Talbot himself, his standard bearer, a French crossbowman and Jean Bureau- the commander ofv the French artillery, the other four pages of colour being heraldry and flags- 2 images per page. The plate descriptions are also quite brief though mostly to the point. This is not a problem for those  of us who have a bit of medieval military knowledge but  for the newcomer to the period perhaps a little more might have been helpful.

A useful book which works on two levels - as aprimer on the HYW and more to the point as a text on the final campaign of that long series of wars. Reccommended. 

 Now I wonder if I could find the time to do some 40mm Late HYW French ..... 

Now for the third and final book in this review.

 

 Atlas of the Battles and Campaigns of the American Revolution 1775-1783.

 By David C.Bonk and George Anderson.

 

A long winded title for a largeer than average tome.

 George Anderson doing an atlas  well that needed looking into. I'd had my eye on this one since its first publication , intending to pick it up at a show if it was up to the mark. However I bought this during the sale and aside from a certainty about the quality othe maps I wasn't sure what I was getting.

  I need  not have stressed- not even a litttl bit.

This is a serious book 241 pages with an excelent collection of coloured maps of all the major and many of the smaller battles of the American War of Independence or Revolution as the Americans seem to prefer.

The ladscape format is a bit of a pain but once you open the book it becomes obvious why this format was used .

 Each engagement battle or campaign is treated , in chronological order, to a double page spread, usually one page of text and one a colur map. Though there are exceptions to this as some pages have less text or perhaps a smaller map. There may also be  a contemporary illistrtion or painting  to illustrate some of the sections . There are 119 of thhese sections showing battles from Concord to Trincomalee. As you would expect the bulk of the actions are in the continental USA but the West Indies is not neglected nor are naval actions.. The siege of Gibraltar is also covered - though  while Suffren's naval campaign  in Indian waters  is covered  the land fighting in India is not- this being the only gap in an otherwise superlative book  The usual price tag of around £60.00 is not out of court for a hardback quality volume such as this. Frankly I was much more impressed than I expected to be.

Highly Recommended. 

Too busy to Blog ... well almost

Well been a while since I wrote a proper blog post. Frankly what with Crimbo and trips to hospital and recovery from said trip there has not been a lot of time for fripperies. Figure painting especially has suffered and is likely to suffer for some time. However I did manage to get a few things added to a couple of projects over the last month or so. 
 So however slowly we progress - little by little but we progress.

30mm Retro AWI. A mixture of Stadden and Willie with a single PMD fifer I picked up somewhere. The flag is foil from a rather nice bottle of Pugliese. I could have used paper but that somehow did not suit the reto zeitgeist!! 

 Additions to the Retro AWI collection first. This is not yet a stand alone collection- unlike retro Napoleonic- aka "shinyllo" or the considerable retro ECW collection I have. I do have good numbers of unpainted figures but currently the painted collection is fairly small and so gets used with the  bigger "modern" AWI collection I have. Betweem the two groups there are enought units for a decent game  using either retro or modern style rules. I like British Grenadier as the modern set and possibly Charge ! or Featherstone for retro.

Another view of the infantry unit- which has more to be added. Sorry tht the rattlesnake looks more like frexh doggy -poo but it does not always go according to plan.

American dragoon in Hunting shirt. A willie 30mm  found in a secondhand job lot. 

Another of the dragoon. 

Not everything is "retro" style. These Bengal Light Cavalry are from the Old Glory 28mm Sikh Wars range. The pack includes command but they are still on the painting table. 

Another shot of 3rd BLC. They are in the pre- 1847 uniform 

 Otherwise the  EIC India collection is slowly  growing the very first of the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry  for the First Sikh War - and earlier are done as are some Bengal Irregular Cavalry - shown in an earlier post. With my mate Jim also painting units this will be a new period for un in gaming terms though I have had my eye on it for years in terms of books and reading up on the period and of course on the Indian Army in  general. It is actually touch and go which bit of my library is the more extensive, India or the ECW, both have numbers of books. India covers a larger timespan with numbers of " sub- species" so it very probably the larger- though I have never counted.

Off to bloody hospital again later this month then will have to spend a small fortune on new glasses but there you go. Looking forward to Vapnartak in York in Feb- loads of new stuff that has never been to a show . At least three new ranges. More of that in a later post.

More Mutiny men- and a bit of refurbishment

What with the World Cup causing the odd bit of skiving off over the last few weeks tjre jas not been a lot of painting done. However there has been a bit here and there . Indian Mutiny and a bit of refurbishment of some older stuff that needed a bit of TLC .

  The Stadden AWI cavalry were first painted in the late 1980s and have been used on and off ever since so they needed a bit of touching up . The Mutineer High command figure is a mullah so doubtless will be called "mad" by the British in any upcoming battles.!

Refurbished Baylors dragoons 30mm stadden for my AWI collection 

A second shot of Baylors. I have a good numner of these still to paint. Most aquired more recently than these /

The possibly "mad" Mullah 

Hodsons Horse- on the older possibly a bit thin OG horses. These  horses are no longer supplied with the pack  so you can tell how long these have been in the collection.

British gun crew for the Indian Mutiny

The Battle of Bumbletown September 1777

So there were were a mere 4 T.W.AT.S. for our September game. A  game which had been put off until the 30th for various reasons- on the 29th it looked as if 7 or 8 members would turn up but last minute work and  a case of the Squitters put paid to that!
  Therfore Gentle Reader  there were only 4 stalwart fellows for this engagement.
 to wit- Myself ,Jim the Builder , Andrew the Tekkie and Mechanical Shaun. Jim was in the chair and he elected to run a 15mm AWI game with his rather tasty collection of newly painted Blue Moon. Rules would be the  AWI  set British Grenadier.
 The stage was set for a bit of a bloodbath.....

The Battlefield a few moves in . The British navigate past the pond, The Patriot redoubt on the extreme right.Bumbletown on the left. 

 The Patriot Forces- this time commanded by yours truly were a mixed bag as you would expect . Some decent regulars and some iffy militia backed up by good artillery, This lot faced a somewhat larger British force of all regulars including Grenadiers and Footguards with a German Brigade of Hessian mercenaries and slightly less artillery than the Patriots.
 Aredoubt containing our 4 guns dominated the right and much of our centre and funnelled the British somewhat o n the left the hamlet of Bumbletown (founded by Jedidiah Bumble in 1763 pop 69) was defended by the Bumbltown Minutemen. The main American battleline was a bit stretched and despite fence lines and redoubts this was- eventually- a serious matter.

View from Bumbletown across the field.. Their are an awful lot of British. 

 However all started well for the  outnumbered Patriots with their artillery performing particularly well. The German Brigade- commanded by Shaun  however began an advance on Bumbletown whilst in the centre the British Brigade hung back somewhat because of the havoc being caused by the Patriot guns in the redoubt . Also - after hanging back for a while a unit of Patriot backwoodsmen advanced from the redoubt into the woods to their from with the intention of taking the British guns in flank and subjecting them to accurate rifle fire. This took time but eventually was to neutralise the British guns as well as seeing off a small infantry unit.

The Bumbletown minutemen resist the Hessian onslaught.

On the Patriot left the Hessian bundled the minutemen out of Bumbletown but were brought up short by the fence line and a battalion of regulars. Taking heart the minutemen saw off the Hessian Jaegers and the regulars eventually broke a musketeer battalion - with help from the militia.
 However in the centre the deluge was about to appear- no less than 4 British battalion including Grenadiers and Footguards descended upon the Patriot centre.. Enfilading fire from a militia battalion was not enough (odious cubes!) nor was a first volley from a battalion of regulars(odious cubes again) and after a brutal melee the regulars broke finding British Grenadier bayonets just too much.(odious cubes yet again).

 It is starting to go just a bit pear shaped..

With a gaping hole in the centre and the left engaged with the Hessians it was time to go - so standing not upon the order of our going we went ....

Allover me like a rash. Time to be off home I think.

The extra 2 British units were crucial here giving them a powerful reserve to which our mixed bag of regulars and militia ultimately had no real answer- yes we bloodied them and at one point Andrew was ready to pack it in, in despair but Shaun stiffened his resolve and shouted  "Vorwarts" in crusty  Germanic accents !  Guzzeling his diet Coke the while(well he was driving so his beer was imaginary)

So it all went pear shaped at the end for the Patriots.. Nevertheless a pretty good game. I do like British Grenadier despite a few foibles it is the best commercial AWI set I've come across - and would work well for the War of 1812 and possibly- with a few amendments 18th century India as well.
 As always thanks are due to Landlady Jean for excellent Beef Butties and the White Hot was very drinkable as well- cos I wasn't driving .

Other things that Shine.

Regular readers will notice that I'm quite taken with my "Shinyloo" project  which finally is almost table ready. Indeed if all goes to plan the next but one T.W.A.T.S   game should be their first outing. The whole project is so different from my other periods- not just in terms of look but also in terms of approach and yes style. In theory this will also change the "gaming experience" though that awful phrase was never part of the original idea.

A Stadden AWI British General, possibly Howe, bought in the 1980s already secondhand.
Repainted at least once and possibly with as many as 3or 4 coats of varnish!

 Indeed  most modern gaming jargon leaves me cold as it is frequently gobbledegook and often put in to confuse and obfuscate the lack of actual content in the latest skirmish-a-like. The "rampant" series being a perfect example of this (though by no means the only one) 3 or 4  books containing mostly the same rules trying to get the punters to believe that they are different. The startling thing is that some of you fall for it. Indeed I did myself and only AFTER purchase did I realise I had bought a pig in a poke.

However the foregoing is not to the point  caveat emptor thinks I, moving on...

 So getting back to the shine and the main thrust of this piece. "Shinyloo" has caused me to re-think quite a few of my smaller wargaming periods- especially those where the collections have older figures in them.. Now the ECW collection is already split into two distinct groups and is not small having both older Hincliffe and Garrison  units- most bought from DC of the splendid "Unfashionably Shiny" blog but also additions of my own - most notable my single regiment of Les Higgins Jason 30mm and a single troop of Jason cavalry but also more recent additions from this year of Hincliffe,Essex and Foremost cavalry. All of these are shiny dudes simply because it seems to fit the style of the models. Equally I have more "modern" ECW forces- almost entirely Old Glory given a matt finish and again added to as recently as a couple of months ago. Now I've no objection to using all of these on the same table for a big game but with around 1000 plus figures to move to the pub it is not likely to happen soon. Nevertheless the point  here is that - for certain periods- shiny has taken my fancy.

Shiny scenery. All of the hedges, fences and haystacks are at least 60 years oldand have been repainted and repaired as well as being based up for wargames

So  given that some of the first Stadden 30mm I ever bought- sometime in the late 80s were AWI- all secondhand and including a steal of a 30 plus man unit of SYW Prussians for a mere two quid at a Durham wargames group auction , you'd think that my AWI forces would be as shiny as can be. But no gentle reader, you would be wrong. When I first painted them yes they were shiny but for reasons which now escape me I matt varnished them in the noughties. Gawd knows why, upon reflection - possibly because my modern AWI units were matt and indeed still are.. Anyhow digging out the AWI forces for a future game I realised that the matt varnished Staddens were a bit dull and chipped and could do with a bit of TLC  which they are now slowly getting- along with nice new shiny coats of fresh varnish. Now since I was also restoring and repainting some 1950s Britians and Timpo fences and haystacks at the same time then they received a coat of gloss varnish as well  so we now have shiny scenery!. Some of these -bought for just a few quid- scenic items are actually for 54 mm figures but don't look out of place with 30mm or 40mm. They did need a good bit of restoration- one of the hay haystacks had a hole in it- being hollowcast it was a bit obvious. However filling and re-texturing was no problem and now the only way I can tell where the damage was is by touch. All the items needed repainting but that was a doddle- even trying to make the flatish hedges look a bit like a theatre backdrop was not too difficult- though I may need a tad more practice at this.

Stadden 30mm American riflement skulking behind hedges and fences 

 I've thought for some time that I wanted a somewhat different look to some of my collections and games. I don't know about you but these days many show games look so samey- especially from more than 6 feet away. Green blocks of terrain tiles  ready made scenery - often those laser cut buildings- which not infrequently look like  flatpack furniture for the wargames table unless some chap has put in the extra effort needed to make them look like model buildings. Of course it depends on the when and the where but I do find myself surprised and indeed rather pleased when a demo- game LOOKS different from the herd. Newark- this coming Sunday is always a respectable bet for games that stand out as it has not, so far, been infected with samey-gamey 4 feet square skirmish -a -likes to the same extent as other shows I've been to over the last few years.

Stadden  AWI British grenadiers with light Infantry doing their own skulking.

Now I'm not altogether sure where this is going  but if I get a retro look to the scenery that fits the retro look of the figures- both AWI and Napoleonic then my work here is done.......

More Stadden. . Units will grow as I repiant and restore these old figure. 

Black Powder- damp squib.

The weekend before Derby a few TWATS got together for an AWI game at our usual pub. Now I was in the chair as I planned to use British Grenadier however I didn't have a copy- I'd sold out so I thought I'd try Black Powder. Now mu=y earlier musing upon this ruleset in another place- wherein now I do not go- were mixed to say the least. This small game did nothing to change those views except perhaps for the worst. The Britsh force had 2 "brigades" with unit sizes rangeing from large to tiny 40 figs for a guards battalion and 5 for a light company of the 17th foot while the rebels had 3 brigades - 2 of militia and 1 of continentalsand out mumberd the brits about 3 to 2 . Add to that the defemsive position and the brits were on a sticky wicket but not by any means impossible. So to the game. We managed 3 turns - the turn and turn about system doubles the length if the game, the proprtions between the various ranges and movement are just twaddle the spatial relationships are just wrong for the AWI but far far far worse than all of the above is the simple fact that you can't find anything in the damned book.. There is no index. The contents page is only of marginal help and flicking hither and yon though all the " pretty little rich boys eye candy" to find a given page became a real chore. The patronizing tone was also a pain in the **** even when you found the bits you were looking for . It became obvious that BP is simply a pretty book for sale to the sycophants or the suckers with a few nice ideas hidden between the rich boys showing off pages. I do like the way you can personalise the units but set that agaist the set unit sizes - which I'd hate in any ruleset-and I like the idea of the order system- despoite its "poseurs charter" - which could be fun once or twice but could end up being deeply annoying at least to permanent TWATS. As an AWI set well no. But I still think they might work well 100 years later as a colonial set . I will have another go at 'em but not without a bit of serious butchering

The above pic shows a general view of the battlefield - British in the Foreground.

American Militia defend the bridge.

this pic shows the 1st foot.- Old Glory Second edition figures. The rest of the armies were a misture Old Glory - both standard and Second Edition ranges rubbed shoulders with Staddenand a very few Hincliffe X ranger- the Hezzlewood figs a lot like RSM. Its just a pity that the rules just didn't function. I've lent my copy to Andrew the Tekkie basically to see if its just me who thinks they are twaddle I await his " not quite a wargamer's " verdict. It will be interesting to see how he fairs finding his way around the tome. It drove him nuts on the day.