Saturday 29 December 2018

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.





Sunday 9 December 2018


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.