From MartijnN: A very mixed bag (86 points)

This may well be my last post for this Challenge, and it is definitely my last regular Thursday post. It is a bit of a mixed bag. 

First, for my ongoing 1866 project I have two Austrian light cavalry brigades of the 1st Light Cavalry Division of the Reserve Cavalry.  Brigade Appel, consisting of the 9th hussars and 2nd dragoons, and Brigade Wallis made up of the 10th hussars and the 1st dragoons. At this point, all German cavalry wore white, dragoons as well as cuirassiers, but 1st and 2nd dragoons had been converted from cheveaux-légers en had retained their old green uniforms. 6mm Baccus figures, as usual.

Then I have painted up some more real estate, again mostly by Leven and Battlescale I think.

And some hedges, you can never have enough of those. These work equally well for 6mm and 10mm I reckon.

Finally, some more Iain Lovecraft pirates and/or general 17th-18th century types. And a beggar.

As I really had not realized we are already that close to the end, I did not really plan for another library theme. So no map.

However, I won't let you go without a final book recommendation. This is just a book that I read recently and enjoyed. It is Never Greater Slaughter. Brunanburh and the Birth of England,  by Michael Livingston.

Livingston is a well-known medieval scholar with many titles to his name, among them books on Agincourt and Crecy. This volume is on the Battle of Brunanburh in 937. Quite an achievement to write a book on a battle about which hardly anything can be said for certain. However, the book is very well written and argues convincingly for the location of the battle in the Wirral, while also painting a very vivid picture of medieval battle and the situation in England at the beginning of the 10th century. Much recommended. 

Michael Livingston and Kelly Devries also do a very interesting and also much recommended podcast, Bow and Blade. A must listen for anyone remotely interested in medieval military history. Battles from Thermopylae to the Fall of Rhodes by two military historians who know their stuff and also share the problems and dilemmas facing the historian confronted by few or unreliable sources. Great fun as well.

Scoring:

6x 28mm/32mm foot @ 5 = 30

36x 6mm horse @ 1 = 36

8x 6mm buildings and 17x 6mm/10mm hedges = 20?

For a total of 86, which should take me past my updated goal.

Thanks to all for stopping by, and in particular a very big thank you to Teemu for some great minioning!

TeemuL: A mixed bag indeed, I guess that's common at the end of the Challenge, when all the almost-dones projects are hurriedly finished instead of starting another project. At least that happens to me. Those pirates and their companions look terrific, I think I need to buy some of them myself. And the hedges are handy, like you said, can be used in different scales. 6mm cavalry and buildings are nice additions to your project, too. Well done achieving your target!

From Grahame H. 15mm Austrian 1866

 My plan for this years challenge was to paint a 15mm 1866 Austrian Army. Given the limited size of my table, 6’x4’, I decided, unlike my other armies, to be sensible and paint an army that might actually fit on the table. So I decided to painted 12 infantry battalion, 3 cavalry regiments and 2 gun batteries. 

What I didn’t think I would do was paint it within the first month. 

All the figures are 15mm Essex, so rather than show you every unit, and avoid duplication, I have just taken some pictures that show the various units.

First the infantry battalions. There are 12 of theses, each with 32 figures. Every 3 battalions makes a regiments. The only real difference is a small coloured patch on the collars so I have only shown one regiment with its 9 figure jäger attachment and its 2 commanders. 

Next are the cavalry. 3 regiments each of 18 figures. 

1st Uhlan

1st Hussars

2nd Hussars 

The artillery. Two batteries each with 3 guns and a limber. I only have one limber per battery as they are so expensive for what the actually do during a game and Essex don’t make an Austrian limber so I had to do some head swaps on some Prussian one.

Finally the CinC. I have painted a brigade general for each of the regiments in case I want to use a regiment as a brigade and fight some larger battles. 

So that is it. An army in a month and it only cost me a case of tennis elbow and a sore neck. It also seems I need to clean my cutting mat. 

I don’t think I’ll add any more to it (yeah right), well not during the challenge. I am now just finishing off my Prussian FPW army, which is a lot larger than this one. I may post some photos of these later as I only have the basing to do.

Points.

Line Infantry  (384) 768 points

Cavalry (54) 216

Jäger (36) 72

Artillery two batteries 120

Generals (15) 60

Total 1236

From MartijnN: 6mm Austrians in The Pit and under the Pendulum...

Of course, it had to turn 2021 before I managed to get another entry in. At this rate I probably won’t be able to get to the Snow Lord’s Altar, but we’ll see…  For the Pit of the Pendulum I am going to try to pull a Scrivvy.

I present you two Austrian brigades for my 1866 campaign in 6mm!

 

First heresy: yes, I know that the Austrians wore their grey overcoats in 1866 and that the brigade sporting their comfy and fashionable Kittel is more properly dressed for 1859. However, in this case I am not going to let these seven years bother me too much. After all, 6mm paints up rather fast but not by me and I really am going to use these Austrians for 1859 as well (where they will be fighting my -cough- 1870 French…).

Secondly, the Pit of the Pendulum. In 1815 Austria stood triumphant. The Austrian Chancellor Metternich dominated the Congress of Vienna and Austria was arguably the senior partner of the Seventh Coalition. The Holy Alliance seemed a guarantee for keeping the revolutionary tendencies in Europe at bay and Austria was confirmed as the foremost German nation.

Austria, however, proved the proverbial giant with feet of clay. Swoosh! In 1848-1849 it was rocked by the Honved, the Hungarian insurrection, which in the end could only be put down with the help of Russian troops. Austria repaid Nicholas I by remaining aloof  during the Crimean War, which did little to endear her to the Russians. Obviously, in 1866 the next Tsar (Alexander II) felt little inclination to come to the rescue. In the Seven Weeks War – swoosh! – the Austrians were humiliated by those upstart Prussians.

Of course, the pendulum would continue swinging swoosh, swoosh, until the demise of the Empire in the Great War, in which Austria definitely had become the junior partner…

Should Curt or his esteemed minions be unpersuaded by my plea, consider this. Another possibility for the Pit is something terrifying. Now the Austrians in 1866 were armed with the muzzle-loading Lorenz rifle. The Prussians had the Dreyse needle gun, which allowed them to unleash a veritable storm of bullets upon their enemies (the famous Schnellfeuer). To counter this, the Austrians relied on the so-called Stosstechnik, which in essence was the old-fashioned Napoleonic battalion column. I have tried to represent this on the bases, with two columns and only a few skirmishers; my Prussians are all in line with a solid skirmisher screen in front.

Now I am hard put to think of a more terrifying idea than that of trying to storm lines of Prussian infantrymen armed with modern breechloading weapons in dense columns. Needless to say, this Austrian tactic also led to a terrifying number of casualties.

So there you have it. I rest my case, Your Honour. 104 Baccus 6mm figures for a total of 52 points and hopefully another 20 for the Pit. Onward and downward!

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Cap'n Wednesday likes your 6mm vignette basing, he likes it a lot. It really brings the units to life to make them look like Regiments in action. Accordingly while he thinks the Pit claim is rather far fetched and unsubstantiated, he will award an extra 1 point per unit for the excellent dioramic look.