Rudolph "The Red Nose" Reigned …

over Kleinstaadten for 32 years, until the fateful day he fell from his horse while leading a hunting party.

He was well nicknamed "The Red Nose", although not in his hearing as more than a few long term occupants of his dungeons could testify  His enjoyment of strong drink had resulted in more than a few tumbles from his spirited horses, but the final fatal fall was the spark setting off the Civil War which would split his Kingdom.

A siege gun 

His twin Sons, Prince Zsolt and Prince Vladislaus, had been growing apart since their late teens, as they each considered their likely futures.  Two rival Aristocratic factions within the Kingdom took advantage of this to curry favour with the Princes, attempting to further their influence.

Light Infantry are formed in 2 or 3 Companies, depending on their complement

Zsolt was the elder by just 10 minutes, and that should have ensured his Succession.  However, over the years, Rudolph had made it obvious Vladislaus was his favourite Son.  While never publically announcing the Declaration of his Successor, it was widely assumed this would be done on the grand State Occasion of the Princes' 21st Birthday.  Rudolph died when they were 20.

Couriers set off for all parts of the Kingdom to pass on initial orders

The rival factions moved swiftly to stir discord between the Princes and, within a week, the Kingdom was divided into two camps hastily preparing for War.

Some with more difficult terrain to traverse than others

This background to the War Of The Two Princes explains why my Minifigs on both sides have similar Army Organisation; uniforms; weapons; flags, etc.  

An Ottoman Artillery Regiment

Because of the large number of Aristocrats prominent in the upper echelons of the Officer Corps (Military Service was an honourable career path for Second Sons of the many Landowners); and the equally large number of Relatives of the many influential Politicians, the Army organised itself in Twos to allow a large number of Commands.  So …

2 Wings formed an Infantry Regiment
2 Squadrons formed a Cavalry Regiment
2 Batteries formed an Artillery Regiment
2 Regiments formed a Brigade
2 Brigades formed a Division
2 Divisions formed a Corps
2 Corps formed an Army

The concept of Brigades and Divisions was new, but soon copied by the rest of the Military Powers of Europe.

A combined Reserve and Militia Artillery Regiment.  The Militia Battery has 100 year old guns which are still effective - most of the time!

To man this comparatively large number of Units, they tended to be fairly small - an average Infantry Regiment numbering about 500.

Included were a significant number of Reserve, Garrison and Militia Regiments, varying in quality - which itself fluctuated depending on the Commander at the time.  Having served in many Wars and Border Clashes in this volatile region over the years, many of these older men had some military experience.

The Kingdom was rich enough to hire Mercenary Regiments from near and far; and had bought a larger number of cannon than other countries considered sufficient.

Thus the numerous Aristocrats and Political Appointees all could hold a Command at one level or another.  

The obvious drawback to this system was that, inevitably, a fair number of Officers were well thought of; a fair number were incompetent; and the majority were somewhere inbetween.

Foreign Officers served to gain experience or make their fortune, and most of them were known to be good before being accepted.  However, some (often wayward sons) were given Commissions as political favours to other Countries, and the Army had little choice but to have them serve.

Couriers have been dispatched to all corners of the Kingdom, with initial Campaign orders.

Plattzdorf Village

       Open At Last...

The buildings don't look too obviously flat card when you're distracted by the vegetation and odds and ends lying around (or am I just kidding myself!).

   I hope I've got a reasonable balance between number of buildings required to   depict a village and available footprint space on the table.

I'm starting to compile rules.  I've done the cover - that's the easy part...

When thinking about the rules, it dawned on me I may not be really wanting early 18th C battles at all!  I don't want just long lines of soldiers advancing towards each other.  I want individual Regiments and Brigades being given objectives, perhaps then being followed up by longer lines of troops.  

This is more like Napoleonic and ACW ("Impulse" I think you call it) actions.  I was never too worried about "historical simulations", but it seems I'm moving even more to just a game which happens to use nice (I hope) figures and terrain.

But I'm not losing all contact with history.  Having been given a WH Smith gift card, I saw they had this book and bought it.  I'm not concentrating on the Russian Army, but it'll give me some useful background information.

The uniform illustrations are very good, although I'd hoped for more.  And, although they're very "artistic", for my purposes and level of detail required (not to mention painting ability) more basic graphic illustrations would have sufficed.

But, really, no complaints about spending £20 on the book at all - I'm looking forward to learning much more than I do at present.  Some people much more knowledgeable than I rate it highly.

So - not a huge amount of practical progress in my wargame project (I'm retired - you'd think I'd have all the time in the world) - and I'm away for another week.  When I was away last week, I did stick lots of flags to their staffs, and will do some more over the next few evenings as I don't need much in the way of space and  tools to do that.  

Odds & Ends...

Little practical progress this week, so just a few odds and ends...

I've mentioned my enthusiasm for artillery - the quirkier the better.  Here's an example.

It'll need some sort of platform built around it to look as though it could be loaded.  It's a little too cumbersome for a small battlefield, and will have to be in a fixed defensive position, or possibly a siege. 

This one's still a heavy piece of ordnance, but slightly more practical.  I don't know which country it historically actually came from, but it'll fit in fine with one of my dreamt-up forces.

Speaking of dreamt-up forces, here's another example.

There wouldn't have been many Japanese fighting in even the most far-flung borders of early 18th Century Europe (!), but this small Squadron will be mercenaries accompanying the Ottomans.

Another move away from historical forces is I'll have lots of skirmishers/light infantry.  In those days, there weren't many, and most of them were undisciplined or untrustworthy.  Mine will vary in quality, but many will be good.  

The reason for my ignoring historical reality is simply I often have a small number of particular Minifigs which wouldn't be enough to form a regiment.  I think it would be a shame to waste them!

Sort of half way between regulars and the less effective light infantry are the militias.  

Like militias through the ages, they'll vary in quality, perhaps even during the same battle.  But again, they'll enable me to use odd lots of figures.

But the mainstay of the armies will, of course, be disciplined uniformed regulars.

At the moment, most of my Regiments are divided into three bases.  I'm seriously considering putting them on just one long base.  I realise this will not allow them to go into column; cross fords and bridges; pass through defiles; etc., but with the small battlefields my 6 x 4 table will allow, they would be close to the enemy from the start and in line 90+% of the time anyway.  As I'll be playing solo, fudging crossing bridges, etc., wouldn't lead to any problem.

In my wargaming of years ago, bases got separated as casualties occurred and the figures were handled more often leading to bent bayonets, pikes and swords.  I don't know at the moment whether I will have a Regiment all on one base - perhaps it's just a passing idea and I'll stick to tradition.

I must get back to producing and finishing off (still very few flags, for example) what I need to wargame.  I've been partly distracted by trying to install extra fixed lighting above where I model and paint.  When (if!) I get it all wired in, it'll let me see things better and get things done more quickly.

One last thing...  Not long after I started tonight's blog, it just disappeared.  I've no idea why.  I'd been saving it after every few lines or a picture.  Perhaps I accidently clicked on something I shouldn't.  I just did the blog again.  But - more worryingly - the previous week's blog disappeared as well!  That had been saved as well, but it's completely disappeared, and I can't find it anywhere.  I assumed once a blog was on the internet, it would stay there, saved in some Blogger computer wherever they're based.  But obviously not.  I'm new to blogging, so will see if there's a "Help" page I can get onto.

UPDATE - the previous blog has reappeared.  I don't know what's going on!  Nothing new there, then...

Normally, I wouldn't...

 

I'll be showing photos of buildings that will form the small village of Plattzdorf, but would point out they're all unfinished.  It would be better if I waited till they were finished and landscaped, but won't manage to do that till next weekend.  And I want to keep in the habit of blogging regularly (though not as frequently as I'd intended!).

You can see from the figure that the houses are slightly smaller in scale than they should be.  This is because I want to keep their footprint as small as practical, to save space on the table.  Actually, when on their bases, the buildings will be slightly higher - but then so will the figures on their bases.

All the houses are from the Dave Graffam card range, and can be printed out any size that suits you.  I saw a tip somewhere that said if you thought the houses were too colourful, you can print out on your printer's lower quality output and they look more subdued and natural.  I'll try that.

There'll be 5 or 6 houses on a large base, with grass, fences, hedges, etc. That'll hide the uneven bottom edges.  The white fold lines will be coloured in, and the white underneath of roofs darkened.  The tops of the chimneys will be blackened.

Eventually, I'll replace them with 3D buildings I'll make but, in the meantime, I'm happy with the card ones.  I've mentioned before I'm a great admirer of Tony Harwood's model building techniques.  He self-published three books illustrating his methods.  Within the next couple of months, his new book on making Napoleonic period buildings is being published, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon.

As usual, I managed to get sidetracked and made something not needed in the immediate future...

This is a lookout tower to be placed near a border crossing.  There's the signal fire to be lit when the enemy approaches.

And I also started on this...

You may think it looks more suited to the ACW than Europe of 300 years ago.  And you'd be right.  The card barn is new, but I made the rest for my Airfix armies which had just been produced - about 1967 if I remember correctly.  I've removed the original house and will tidy everything up.  Having been stored in an attic alternately freezing and hot, the fences have weathered nicely!  I'll leave it looking rundown, and will have to tone down the barn quite a lot.

I've been working on another field which - again - I stress is still to have a good few finishing touches...

Grass will fill in the gaps below the wall.  The lichen looks like - well - lichen.  I'll add flock to make it look as though leaves cover at least the top of the lichen.

Despite having more artillery than I can ever field, I've been recruiting...

These are from the AWI range,  As you can see, the Sergeant Major doesn't look too impressed and can't wait to get them painted up and ready for action.


As I said at the start, normally I wouldn't mention so much unfinished work but I'll not get anything finished before next weekend.  Showing it now will ensure I get things finished as soon as possible.

Slowly but surely - though being distracted

I'm still working away at gathering the things I require for my Plattzdorf battle.  But, as I hunt through cupboards and drawers, I'm coming across figures not necessary for the battle but which I can't resist basing.  The picture above is one such group.  There are no Sappers/Engineers/Pontooneers in the Platzzdorf OBs, but I like doing little groups.

However, I have produced some relevant items...

I've done a few fields, and a good number of trees (I've still to darken down the rocks outside this field)

You'll see from the above photo, and many others, I've still to finish most bases.  I should have finished the bases of the individual figures before sticking them onto the big bases, as it's difficult to get in between the figures without coating legs with flock.  Taking the easy way out as usual, I'll have to hope any bare patches between close order figures look like shadows!  By the way, I'm sticking the figures down on acrylic sealant which look like rough ground when flocked.  

Some more figures.  The first photo shows Huns (Hinchliffe, I think)

The second shows ACW Zouaves.

Huns and Zouaves!!!  In an early 18th Century battle!!!  OK - not for the purist.  Or even the reasonably sensible wargamer.  The simple answer is I've figures from ancient to ACW, and I don't want to waste them!  You can see why I'll be wargaming solo.

And for an ImagiNation campaign, I can persuade myself (if no one else) that an obscure country in the far reaches of (possibly) south east Europe would have mercenaries from even more obscure countries.  And there are quite a lot of Ottoman units which may also have brought along some unusual allies from their backwaters.

So my armies will have figures from Ancient; Medieval, Renaissance; Seven Years War; Napoleonic and ACW periods, in addition to the more historical late 17th/early 18th Century one.

Silly I know, but I'm still going to do it.  I saw an appropriate phrase in an old "Wargames Illustrated" from someone explaining his approach to wargaming... "toleration of idiosyncrasy"!  That'll do me.

Another anachronism I'm guilty of is too much artillery.  And, like the figures, I've to come up with a reason for having so many.  I've about 30 cannon from various periods (not to mention a Chinese "big arrow" thing) and can't resist buying different kinds.  In any small wargame of the period, there should be perhaps 3 or 4 cannon models per side.  I don't yet know how I'm going to introduce more.

On the other hand, something I don't have too much of is flags.  Very few of my regiments have them yet and I'm still gathering flags from all over the internet, and some heraldry books.  I should have taken a note of which sites I got them from but regrettably didn't.  However, I'm really grateful to the people who put them on their sites for anyone to use.

Like the figures, they come from many countries and periods.

The above ones will be the Royal flags of each side (it's a civil war, hence the similarity).  The black lines are not meant to be there.  Each unit will have a Royal flag and a Regimental flag.  I had thought of making big flags in the "League of Augsburg" style, but storage in file boxes would be difficult, so they'll be just the scale 6 feet size approximately.

Well, that's all for tonight.  The photos certainly have less obvious reflections since using Aly's suggestion of a light tent.  It's 24 inches wide so, until I'm taking photos of an actual wargame area larger than 24 inches, that'll be a big improvement.

Not as easy as it seems!

Is gloss varnishing a good idea?  Well, not when taking photos...  Actually, the figures usually do not look so glossy but, today, I was trying out a couple of led torches as lighting.  When taking photos in natural daylight, the gloss is much less noticeable.  Probably, I won't use lights again.  I could come up with some sort of light tent, but that just complicates matters.  The battalion gun above was taken in natural daylight.

Anyway.  In my original enthusiasm, I intended to post on the blog every day.  Then decided every two days would be more realistic.  Now, it looks as though it will be once a week...  Maybe twice a week.

Except, I'm away most of next week so hopefully will post some more at the end of the week.  I might manage text during the week but not pictures, so we'll see.

I mentioned in the previous post my fishtank castle.  Here's another fishtank ornament in the right scale I thought had potential: a Greek ruin.

I've now got it slightly more believable for a campaign in the far reaches of mid/eastern Europe.

The only reason for its existence I can come up with is that it's a Folly.  There are many of these throughout the UK, and I assume they were also built in other parts of Europe.

But, remembering my first battle is going to be based on Donald Featherstone's "Plattville Valley" (henceforth to be known as "Plattzdorf" here for its new geographical setting) I've finished a couple of terrain items.

The churches I came across on the internet were too large for what I had in mind.  I'd this old ruined Scots Church lying around and realised nobody said a church had to be in use.  I made the graveyard to fit in with the size of the church.  As I'll be using a 6 x 4 feet table (just possibly 7 x 5) I don't want buildings to take up too much space.

Now, I've amended the original Plattville map to make it more appropriate for the campaign setting.  You will notice a slight Germanic influence in the names.  Those of you fluent in German may scorn the words but - remember - this is located in a country somewhere in the far reaches of the Holy Roman Empire and Google Translate couldn't help me!  

So that's all I've managed to do this week.  Even though I'm retired, "real life" doesn't half intrude into my hobby time...

Minifigs Battles - Getting Ready

Having been an "Armchair General" for many years, keeping up with wargaming by reading magazines and browsing the internet, I've decided to once more lead the troops into battle in a late 17th / early 18th Century Imaginations campaign.  I was always drawn into the Charles Grant(s) / Peter Young type of setup.

Despite admiring the current ranges of wonderful figures, I'm going to remain loyal to my trusty 25mm Minifigs.  I know they went out of fashion years ago, and were even scorned by many wargamers (horses' rear ends were a common complaint!), but I still like them.  They were, it was said, too rigid and static in their design.  That's precisely why I like them.  I like the toy soldier type line of shiny figures all in one pose.  Shiny?  Yes - all mine are gloss varnished! 

It's taking a while to rebase them from plain green painted bases to flocked ones with added tufts and the occasional stone.  Figures glued down with PVA are not too difficult to remove by soaking overnight, but ones stuck down with other types of glue are more of a struggle.  The bases are going to be 5mm or 6mm thick - fairly unusual in the UK, although more common in the US, I believe.  

As well as preparing figures, I've to gather buildings and terrain.  The hills will be the stepped type made from 1" polystyrene coated with acrylic sealant.  Trees will be from a variety of commercial producers.  Walls and hedges will be a mixture of bought and made by me.

Buildings, for a start, will be the very good home printed card ones designed by Dave Graffam, as shown below.

Eventually, I'll get round to making my own, in Tony Harwood's style (Dampf's Modelling Page).  In the meantime, I've just started working on converting an extremely garish fish tank ornament to an abandoned castle.

To get me started with an achievable aim, the first battle will be an adaptation of Donald Featherstone's "Plattville Valley" from his "Wargames" book.  I'll know what I have to get together in the way of troops and terrain.  This not too big a task will encourage me to actually get going.

In fact, the main purpose of this blog is to ensure I'll keep working on figures and terrain, by having to show progress regularly.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch with comments and suggestions.  Thanks.