Friday Quiz 22

Another five questions to test your knowledge

1. Which battle in 1071AD saw the virtual destruction of the Byzantine Empire's regular army?

2. What were the three divisions of a medieval army called?

3. Who said, "General Lee, I have no division"?

4. Where in September 1931 did a serious mutiny take place in the Royal Navy?

5. Which island off the coast of Scotland was used during WWII for anthrax experiments?

I think this ones a bit tougher than usual, lets see how you all do

I think a mix of Thanks Giving and harder questions reduced the number of answers.

1. Manzikert.

2. Got some great detail to this one but Battles was what I was looking for.

3. General George Pickett at Gettysburg.

4. At Invergordon, among ships of the Atlantic Fleet.

5. Gruinard.

Battle of Bautzen 1813 Part I

On my first Sunday off in four weeks I was able to take The Boy over to Lee's and get the Bautzen game started. The Boy decided to fight on the same side as me and so took two Prussian Divisions nearest the open edge. Unfortunately these were  stuck behind the river so would possibly have the least action of the allied troops. I had the other Pussian Division the Prussian reserve cavalry and three Russian infantry divisions.

Lee was commanding a mixed bunch of French, Italian, Saxon and Wuttemburg troops that spanned the quality range between Old Guard through to Milita. This should be interesting.

The first turn saw The Boy and myself happy to stay in our positions and fire our guns into the slowly advancing French. 

The Boy set about reducing the Italian cavalry just as soon as it was in range. Seems the curse of the just painted was going to strike again. Not good news as the two Battalions directly behind have also just come off the painting table.

Lee steadily moved forward on his left flank and in the centre. Looks like he plans to try and take the bridges rather than cover them and hit my centre. The Boy was quick to react as he started to move his reserve into the bulge made by the river.

I had a single battalion out front with the job of slowing down the attack and causing as much trouble as possible. Unfortunately the farm was not proving to have thick enough walls and the battalion was quickly reduced to half strength.

The Saxons and French divisions towards their right flank start to move forward now there flank is protected by the captured farm.

I wasted the three Cossack cavalry units gaining neither time nor weakening the French cavalry. I would have been better to have kept them for attacking already reduced units rather than facing fresh cavalry.

But Lee also was quick to come to blows with his Division cavalry which was to allow me to have an advantage when stronger formations came to blows.

The French attack towards Bautzen was now developing, my troops would be outnumbered but had strong walls to protect them, would this be enough?

Lee brought up his Italian Division to try and force the small bridge. His fire was able to force back the one battalion but he was also taking casualties. I was quite confident that the attack against the bridge would not succeed. 

A little along the river Lee manages to get a single battalion across the large bridge and has four more battalions lining the river in an attempt to push The Boy away from the bridge. However with three fresh battalions close to the bridge he elects to stand and fight. The French battalion is quickly isolated and driven back across the bridge a shadow of its former self.

Blocking my way to the battle for the bridge is three battalions of French infantry. My Prussian cavalry has forced them into squares but I just can't get infantry up to smash them so a time consuming charge and retire cycle of actions take up the following few turns. I really needed to get these battalions away from the river to open a fresh attack of my own.

The French launch an attack to the right of the captured farm. This ties up the troops earmarked for the attack on the larger bridge and will possibly change the course of battle in this sector.

One of my cavalry regiments is under compulsory retreat (yellow die) but has bought me yet more time on this flank. I would be able to rally these cavalry back and bring them back into battle again after a few turns recovering their order. At this point the battle seems to be mostly going my way.

I continue to cause problems for the French, forcing infantry into squares (red dice), the attacks so far have been a little disjointed and most have lacked much in the way of support. However greater numbers are massed in the rear.

The Italians clear The Boy's Prussians from the little bridge, the Prussians are at this point quite weak but have troops close enough and in large enough numbers that they could contest the position if the Italians cross over.

Not that the Italians lack numbers with eleven battalions a light cavalry regiment and a battery of guns at their disposal. Still a maximum of two battalions can cross per turn, a double move may be required to get enough mass in place to stay on the Prussian side.

So neither side as yet have managed to get any real advantage, Lee is building mass in a couple of points but still continues to send in attacks that are not closely supported whilst I continue to fail to dislodge the French squares blocking my approach to the larger bridge. I also continue to remain mostly passive on the hills leaving it to Lee to make the majority of the aggressive moves.

The Sixth Annual Analogue Painting Challenge and Side Duals.

The call for Curt's Analogue Painting Challenge has again been made and of course I have again taken up the challenge, I mean why would I not? 

This year as you will already be aware will not be a large showing for me as I just don't have as much time to paint as I have in previous challengers. The only thing I have going for me is that the winter weather should allow me more painting time on my days off than in recent months.

However I still feel I will have enough in the tank to make two challengers

Most points in 6mm. 

Each of the last four painting challengers has seen me run off a lot of 6mm, this year should again see this as a fairly major part of my painting again this year as I want to get my Macedonian army into gaming shape. However I also want to be far more varied this year so whilst 6mm will feature heavily I plan on doing plenty of 15 and 28mm

Most points in Ancients.

A bit of a cross over, I do have both 15 and 20mm Ancients as well as the 6mm so will be hopefully getting a mixed bag of points.

So does anyone fancy taking me on this year in a little side challenge?

Friday Quiz 21

Fresh from two nights wargameing on the trot here is the quiz.

1. What year was the Battle of Bosworth Field fought? 

2. The Coldstream Guards is the oldest Regiment of the British army but for which war was it raised?

3. Name the king of Spain who's death triggered the Spanish War of Succession?

4. Name the first and last wars Armoured Trains where used?

5. Other than their religious links what links the Sexton and Bishop in the WWII Commonwealth armies?

A couple of odd balls this week, lets see how you do.

1. The battle of Bosworth was fought on the 22nd August 1485 and one hundred and fifty seven years to the day that Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham to signal the start of the First ECW.

2. The Coldstream Guards was raised by George Monck during the Second ECW (really an extension of the first) in 1660 as part of the New Model Army.

3. The Spanish king was Charles II

4. ACW saw the first use of armoured trains and the last use in action was the improvised ones used during the Second Chechen War by the Russians between 1999 and 2009.

5. The Sexton and Bishop are both forms of AFV.

Thanks again for all the answers.

Arena Rex Vargr

I continue to have little painting to show as my output is either slow or can't be shown due this time to being mostly my Santa Clause present for my target. But I can show you the latest finish from my Arena Rex collection. I had hoped to get one finished a month but that looks like it's not going to happen but still from an enjoyment point of view its a real blast.

This is Vargr, rather smaller than Aquila which was the first of the Arena Rex figures I have painted up. Not that Aquila is the largest of the Arena Rex figures I own. I selected this guy as my second model as I really liked the look of him.

Red Republic Games have used quite a few different artists to sculpt their figures but from what I have seen all are top flight sculptors and like all the others this one does not disapoint.

Great detail which makes the painting so much easier, though I have to say that I am extremely happy with the skin tones I have managed to get. Lots of layering and I think if I keep pushing myself I will really grow as a painter. I am more well known for my 6mm work so it's a lot of fun to show off something a little bigger. I think this figure is closer to true 32mm than many of the others, Aquila is 42mm toe to eye. This guy if he was standing straight would have to stretch to get to 30mm.

Unfortunately I was a little careless on cutting him off his sprue, snapping his ankle and pinning was not an option with the ankle being so thin. The fix ended up being a bit of glue and painting a leather band around his ankle to match the one just under his knee on the other leg. 

The action poses are only possible due to these models coming in multipart kits, in this case originally four, that is until I made it five part!

It's now possible for me to play a game with a couple of real models. It won't be much of a game but I am sure The Boy will be only to happy to hand me my ass on a plate.

Dear Santa..............

With Secret Santa already off and running I thought I had better get my list up too. Please treat this list as simply a guide and feel free to go off list as you desire.

So in no order at all we have

Baccus Macedonian Phalanx AMA01 and AMA03 open handed because you can never have enough pike.

Baccus AMA07 Prodromoi Cavalry

Baccus Any Hoplite pack

Baccus Any of the Persian range as that's the next 6mm project

Magister Militum (Chariot Miniatures) ALM4 as you can't have enough pike

Magister Militum (Chariot Miniatures) ALM1 Companion cavalry

WWII 28mm anything suitable for the British at Create

28mm Mexican figures for Wild West

28mm Wild West street furniture or even in house furniture

15mm ECW Cavalry

OK that's what I can think of off the top of my head and I hope it helps Santa.

Friday Quiz 20

It's hard to believe this little quiz has had twenty outing's. I sometimes wonder how many actually follow it beyond the ones that take part. A comment by Clint last week made me smile quite a bit as he just wanted me to know that whilst he did not take part he did read them, it's great to know so a big thanks Clint and others who read them as well.

1. Which Persian King of Kings did Alexander The Great overthrow?

2. There were three decisive battles won by the English in the Hundred Years War, those being Crecy, Agincourt and a third  one between these two on 19th September 1356, name it?

3. How old was Napoleon when he died?

4. What is the name of the British Battle of Britain two seater fighter?

5. What year did the First Indiochina War end? This being the French war in Vietnam that started 19th December 1946.

Lets hope I can get round to the answers sooner than last weeks.

1. Darius III

2. Poitien was fought between the two other decisive battles.

3. Napoleon was 51 when he died on the 5th May 1821.

4. The Boulton Paul Defiant and was withdrawn once the Germans worked out how to fight them.

5. The French pulled out on the 1st August 1954 due to internal pressure as the war like the American one that followed lost public support.

Building of the Week - Leven Manor House

I painted up the display version for Leven ages ago and immediately ordered one for my own collection but alas took forever to get round to painting it. No matter I really enjoyed painting this model even though it was a real quick paint. Unfortunately at the moment the building is not available as it was rather tricky to cast from the original mould so will be re-released once a fresh mould has been made.

It's easy to see why I like it so much as it's got loads of character, it's just a pity that the light is too poor to take shots of it outside.

I really like all the different angles that the roof and garrets give it, I know I will be able to fit this in with various Napoleonic battlefields. Not so much for our ECW ones but possibly for other periods we have yet to get into.

The building for all it's shapes is still a fairly blockish building but that adds to it's charm and actually acts as a nice foil to the other manor house that Leven released about a year ago.

I popped the house on a temporary base to show it with a unit of Infantry to give an idea of scale, works rather well for me. I don't intend to base the building at the moment but may do later if inspiration or need occurs.

Italian Napoleonic's

I have had a load of old Baccus French Napoleonic sculpts for ages with the plan of painting them up as some form of French allies and have finally been given a nudge to get some of them done. More than a bit of a nudge actually as I needed a few units for this weekends game.

First up two battalions of the 3rd Ligne Regiment. These though will be used as light battalions in our game as they are easy to tell apart from the other Italian battalions due to being based in the new style. The old castings have two drummers where the new ones have just the one drummer.

I have painted these up in the suggested white uniforms with green waistcoats the same as some of my battalions, others have green jackets. In our rules the Italian infantry are on a par with standard French line and lights.

More old castings, this time Chasseurs and again they share the attributes of their French equivalents. These are the 2nd Italian Chasseurs.

Then the 3rd Italian Chasseurs, not the best shot of them to be fair. These are standing in as Wurttemberg light cavalry, the drunken leader was later superglued back into position.

Last up two batteries of Italian Artillery. I will try and get better images when I bring them back from Lee's as the pics I have were very poor. They are dressed in rather nice green uniforms so it's a shame not to show them off.

As The Boy choose to fight on my side in charge of two divisions of Prussians these new figures are taking the table for the first time on the opposing side! Never mind, I do get to play with my Prussians which is an event all of it's own.

We have played seven turns of the game so far and it's been a lot of fun so far with both sides having a fair amount of drama. The rules are holding up at the moment, more on that in following posts.

Bautzen 1813 - Per Battle Reconnaissance

Sunday will see Lee, The Boy and myself play an adapted version of the Battle of Bautzen in our trusty 6mm and using what we hope to be the final version of our rules. Indeed if things go well with the rules we will be ready to play Project Waterloo at last. We both have around seventy five battalions of infantry each so it's still a chunk smaller than Waterloo but is big enough that we will get a real feel for how the rules cope with such numbers.

I personally think they will be fine, sure a game this size is bound to throw up a few issues but will at the same time actually smooth out some of the savage luck swings that you can get with dice games.

I will be commanding the Prussians and Russians, most of which have never been used in an actual game whilst Lee will command the French with a fair mix of Saxon, Wurttemburg and Italian troops. most of the allies have yet to also be played with. Indeed the MDF blocks you see on the photo above represent units I have yet to finish painting!!! Sunday morning should see me doing the last bits ready for the game that afternoon. These will all be Italian though a few of these will be standing in for Wuttemburg troops. Lee actually has these figures but they are yet to get to the front of the painting queue. Give us a year, maybe two and we will be able to field just about anything Napoleonic.

The game has given me the opportunity to actually start off Project 1812 Russia, as all the units I am painting up are from the Borodino OOB and I will be working in the odd unit onto the painting table to keep them ticking over. I also need to actually catalogue what I have already painted up French wise so as to have an idea just how much more I will need to paint up. 

Friday Quiz 19

Time for another quiz, you have the weekend to work out the answers

1. Who took command of the famed White Company?

2. What is the traditional reason for the English to celebrate the 5th of November?

3. What type of weapon was a Maori patiti?

4. What rank was reached by Adolf Hitler in WWI?

5. What was unusual about Captain Chuck DeBellevue, the highest scoring ace of the Vietnam War?

Late with the answers again this week, so better get cracking

1. Sir John Harkwood who took over from the German Albert Sterz and was a mercenary or free company.

2. The foiling of the Gunpowder Plot.

3. A short tomahawk.

4. Lance Corporal or Gefreiter in German

5. He was a rear-seat flier, scoring four kills with one pilot and two with another.

 Gefreiter (lance corporal

Building of the Week, Another Leven Farm Tile

I'm not sure how many of these I have done now but I have quite a few and all are different. This one is no exception as two of the three buildings are firsts for me.

I was hoping for better weather so I could take the pics outside but poor light and on off rain meant that was never going to be a good idea so inside shots only I am afraid. I tried something a bit different for me and added a second stone colour to the buildings. Whilst I was doing it I really was not too sure and expected a repaint but once finished I was rather happy with the result.

The tile comprises of FAR15 Stone Farmhouse £2.50, FAR20a Farm Outbuilding £2.00 and FAR20d Farm Outbuilding (pigsty) £1.50 and bits from ACC02 Dry Stone Wall set £3.00 all of course from Leven Miniatures. 

It really belongs in a European setting and a little later than my planned use of it but with the added bits I think it can pass for a Napoleonic tile if you push it a bit.

I added a Baccus tumbril to the yard to add a little interest but also some of the Perfect Six Scenic range of scenic items. In this case one of the larger barrels from the set and a couple of the newer releases in a couple of sack clusters.

I am quite pleased with the result, the extra bits really break up the yard area and with the latest releases from Perfect Six I could have added a farmer, his dog and even a horse awaiting the tack to be brought out to be harnessed to the cart. Expect to see a few carts in the future with sacks or stacks of boxes in them. Now please kindly remember to shut that gate.

Shout Out for Peter Lowitt for Secret Santa

I just need Peter's details and the final Secret Santa targets can be sent out. So if you know Peter can you let him know he needs to email me via the link on this blog with his postal and email address and confirm his blog details.

Cath has already sent a lot out and I have seen the wish lists starting to appear. It really is starting to feel like Christmas now. Cath loves the interaction so don't worry about contacting her with questions or requests as she loves it.

I have spent the best part of today painting, been a long time since I have been able to devote so much time to just painting and have really enjoyed it. I am trying to get two battalions of Napoleonic Italian infantry, two regiments of light cavalry and four guns finished for our game this coming Sunday. It's going to be a bit tight getting them all finished though I have a good start on them.

Companion Cavalry by Baccus

I painted these up in October and more than double my Companions for my 6mm Macedonian army. These like all the figures so far are Baccus and I am finding this range easy to paint.

To make it easier to distinguish different commands I am painting up the cavalry with a base colour of red or blue, just different shades of said colours whilst the front unit has purple cloaks to represent elite troops.

This now gives me five units in total and I have enough figures for another two units. Long term I plan far more so we can have some truly epic battles. That though will take a fair bit of time.

As I am using 40x60 bases for the cavalry I can put the figures in all sorts of different formations on the bases. It's certainly lots of fun to mess around with them.

The cloaks make these guys a bit punchy which is the intention for this project. Can't wait to get onto the Persians as they will really be bright. The more limited detail work I am putting into this project means they paint up fairly quickly, a good job when you consider the extra figures involved for each unit.

I also needed a C-in-C to boss around my lesser commanders already painted so here he is. I mounted them on a 2p coin whilst the sub commanders have all been based on 1p''s. With the 2p being larger and sporting three figures it will be easy to tell them apart.

So I now have quite a force, Lee has a reasonably large Roman army on the go, he lacks cavalry and light troops though so a battle is still a fair way away I think. Tomorrow we will be setting up the big Napoleonic game and after that we plan to get in a cheeky game of Ancients Commands & Colors so that may well get him motivated to getting these components done so we can get the figures on the table.