Adler Prussian Landwehr

These Adler Landwehr seemed to take forever to finish but here they are at last. The 2nd Landwehr Infantry Regiment of Pomerania was part of the IV Corps 14th Infantry Brigade. I don't know how involved it was in the 100 days campaigns though it looks to not have had anything notable happen to it.

1st Battalion, the flags are all just generic Landwehr flags as typically little is known of them if they indeed carried any at all.

I have used line skirmishers as Adler do not supply Landwehr skirmishers, hopefully this will change for when the range is re-sculptured in the future. The Landwehr themselves need this as a number of the strips were quite heavy with flash. Not a deal breaker but when you are cleaning up six battalions worth in one go it can be tiresome.

Once cleaned up of course you have some lovely looking figures. The second battalion I reversed the flag which was quite common.

These have no role to play in our Waterloo game but do come close to rounding off the IV Corp which had the most troops committed to the Waterloo battle. I will be filling out all four Corps as time rolls on by though if we decide to do some of the Prussian battles from the campaign this will be accelerated somewhat.

I spoilt the 3rd Battalion giving them two mounted officers. Either that or they are getting a rollicking from higher up, seems the guy in blue is pointing with attitude.

I still have enough figures for another twenty one battalions of Landwehr so  I can work on these guys without worrying about running out of figures. 

I have another Regiment to blog about and two cavalry regiments. After that I will for the time being be concentrating on my Ancients for my own collection (in three scales) though I have more Napoleonic's for Steve and Sunbeam on the desk at the moment.

Perfect Six Perfect Scenic's and Other Buys

20 and 30mm Barricade sets.

I ordered a few bits from a new player in 6mm, not figures or buildings but barrels and barricades. Some of you will already be familiar with the 6mm Napoleonic's Forum which is now around a year old and a great place to visit if your interested in Napoleonic's and more so if your taste is for the small chaps like I am.

Barricades with Adler figures for scale, note figures are on 2mm base.

Well Richard who has set up the forum has been trying his hand at sculpting, first with a few figures but he has answered the call for some scenic items such as the Barricades above. These are well detailed as you will see when I get a few painted up. The prices are listed below and more details can be found here.

16 Barrel Set.

Pack of 16 Barrels £2.50

Pack of 4 20mm Barricades £2.50

Pack of 4 30mm Barricades £3.50

4 Different sized barrels.

As you can see the barrels are well detailed and will be a great fit for battlefield clutter, adding to camps and building bases.

This is a new venture, Richard already runs an excellent 6mm painting service that provides incredibly detailed work for those who want the best. More items are to be released in about four or so weeks time, so well worth keeping an eye on them.

Rosemary & Co Brushes.

After the Painting Challenge I am sure I am not the only one buying new brushes. Typically these are my most trusted supplier Rosemary & Co. It's testament to their quality and long life that I was just ordering three series 33 brushes and a dry brush (Ebony Short Flat) after three months of hard work and more abuse than they deserve. Not that all these are going into service together as two will be backups as one of the brushes is not yet spent. Indeed all brushes will be treated to a brush soap bath to see how well they come back to life.

Having bought three boxes of HaT Gaul's I would them to be rubbery so sought advice and was told this primer would be perfect. I have always been resistant to paint on primer in the past, seems a waste of time when spraying is faster but having used this on the plastics, a few buildings and the missed areas when spraying (typically horses). It's a great primer and I am very pleased to have listened. 

Brought to Account

It's been some time now since I blogged the total for my 6mm unpainted collection. Even though I have had the results ready I have hesitated to give thought to the warnings, well wises and various death threats if I was to continue with this folly. But I could not be swayed, indeed I challenge you the reader to do so too! Only kidding, it's to likely to cause the odd heart attack.

15mm

ANCIENTS

It's fitting that I start with my Ancients collection of bare metal, not only has it had the most time spent on it of late but it's the period that's had the most play of late.

Macedonian Command: nine figures, these need more Lance armed cavalry figures adding to them as Hail Caesar allows for a lot more units and I am short of cavalry  in this option.

Pike: eighty nine figures, I also have 23 figures painted and unbased so enough for another three and a half blocks so eight blocks worth which will keep me going.

Hoplites: Twenty Four figures  so one and a half blocks, I am using my Egyptian Hoplites from way back (sixth edition WRG) to bolster my Greek Hoplites so these will make a nice addition to the Greeks. I can see a fair few more Greeks adding to the collection.

Peltasts: eight figures, just enough for one more unit. I do have quite a few peltast units painted up so not sure I really have to worry about painting these.

Greek Medium Cavalry with shield and spear: twelve figures for a full unit. Will get these painted up but are not high on the list as most of the other cavalry would get more use whilst these are just option troops.

Gallic Cavalry: twelve figures, again a whole unit and these do need to be got done soon for one of my Alexandrian options.

Cataphracts: Twenty, these were part of the Seleucid army Martin gave me four years ago but they are not great figures. I don't know who made them but the horses are VERY thin. A quick paint job and E-Bay me thinks.

Persian Bow: eight figures, these are excess to my normal light infantry options but could be added to the Levy infantry I need to rebase so will get painted up at some point.

Genetic Bow: 49 figures, these will make great Levy archer units so may move up the queue some. I would get another four units so not a bad possibility for my Persians.

ECW

ECW in 15mm was the first army I started with and I only have the figures to paint up one regiment of foot a couple of mounted officers and three limbers. Not very high on my to do list.

FANTASY
An army I was given again by Martin and forgotten about until looking for all the figures that are unpainted.
Goblins: Thirty Eight.
Goblin Bolt Shooter: One.
Orcs: One Hundred.
Warg Riders: Five.
Warg Chariot: One.
Dragon and Rider: One.
Dinosaur or giant lizard?: One.

Will be looking to off load this lot in a trade, so open to offers. The Goblins are nice looking figures whilst the Orcs are a little rough though serviceable.

20mm

ANCIENTS
For Hail Caesar over at Kev's I have bought three boxes of Gaul's and have started some test figures.

Gallic War Bands: One Hundred and Eight figures. I hope to get a few units of these across the table over the coming weeks or so.
Gallic Cavalry: Six figures, or enough for one unit and a command stand, again these will need to be started soon.

WWII
I started back on this journey again for use at Kev's but these look to be used against Lee as well as he is building a German force.

Russians: Forty Eight infantry, I don't really need the majority of these figures as I have plenty of rifle and SMG figures but could do with more support such as medium and heavy MG's and Mortars. This means these may not get painted and I buy the extra support.

American Paratroops: Seventy Five SHQ figures with a few mortars and MG's. These I bought years ago and I have no plan to paint so these need adding to my trade list so again offers if your interested.

28mm

FANTASY
Trolorc's or Beastmen: Ten more figures to paint, that will really challenge the players. They are all prepped just need to get onto the table.

Old School Orcs and Goblins: Ten, including just one Goblin. I don't see these getting painted either, much prefer the new style to the old.

Dwarf: Three of the bleeders, at least one will get painted up.

Humans: Thirteen blokes and one women, these will find their way through the pile when I need them but no rush at present.

Elves: Six of these and again they will find their way into the queue when I need them.

WWII
Russian: Twelve figures I really need to get painted up and paired up with the winter Germans I have painted as Sniper Reminders.

Polish/French/Italian: Six of each all waiting for doping for Sniper Reminders.

Partizan's Eleven as the other WWII

DARK AGES
Viking: One Hundred and Fifteen infantry. These will be used by me and my son for our SAGA armies and other rule sets though some of the ones I got in trade for painting will be painted and sold on.

OLD WEST
Cowboys: I have eight each of mounted and dismounted cowboys, these are Foundry and I have to get round to painting them soon, will add a lot of interest to the games, but then again I need to paint up the buildings as well.

32mm

ARENA REX
Gladiators: Eleven Figures. Why the dice image? It's the only part of the whole Kickstarter I have actually used so far! The figures though will be started soon, it's a project of pleasure as I will be trying to stretch my skills with these, playing is at the moment secondary though I hope it will prove to be a good buy rather than good bye.

Building of the Week - Papelotte Farm by Leven Miniatures

For a change I am showing a building that is available, well set of buildings. Another of the Leven Miniatures Napoleonic range. NAP03 Papelotte Farm priced at £20 is a set of buildings forming a hollow square and comes with the period peaked roof and the more modern tower structure allowing you the choice or even leave loose and can use both.

In an attempt not to get shouted at by Lee I have not painted in any roads ;-) I also went with the lime washed wall finish that I have seen in a few images as this may be more historical than the red brick finish though I did rather like the red finish as per Leven's website (link above).

Again you get a lot for your money, these are quite large buildings and I have used a 120x120 and 60x120mm tile to base the buildings on. The barn furthest away is on the smaller tile. The tiles are individually placed on these buildings and it really adds to the finish. Odd tiles not 100% lined up and some area's ever so slightly raised or dipped make the roofs a joy to work on.

I spoilt myself and used three different colours of tufts on this model, this was to break up the grassed section a little. I have to admit I really like the look of Belgian buildings, especially those with the small windows high on the walls and the long building to the front of the photo above ticks a lot of my boxes.

Lots of detail as you would expect from Leven, it went together rather well and painted up like a dream. I always paint the whole building ignoring the fact I will be basing them and some sections wont be seen but that's one of my things.

I found a few nice cobblestone and other paving images on line and have used one here to make a change from the usual interiors I tend to do. Just a few more buildings to paint up and then I will be ready for the Waterloo game. Not sure which I will do next but I do have some test painting to do for Mike so maybe a single one to keep me out of trouble.

Project Waterloo - A Change of Plan

Over the Bank Holiday I met up with Lee regarding his proposal to change the boards from 2 foot squares to four 6x4 foot boards to speed up set up at Joy and Six. This means the work on the smaller boards has stopped though we will use them for other games in the future but effectively they are a dead project for now. We are now back to modelling the terrain as close as we can to the actual battlefield rather than the fudging that would allow the boards more use for other games later.

We spent a couple of hours mapping out the boards and then over laying bases to represent the units that would be in play. This showed the scaling was a little out that allowed us to remap the boards again so that now the terrain will be a good fit to our troops base sizes and should really look correct when it gets played out. This has allowed us to move Hougoumont in from the edge by around two feet which will allow the cavalry to lap round the outer edge as they did in the actual battle and allows the orchard and woods to be better represented.

The new board length will be six feet by sixteen and now we have the boards laid out it's far bigger than I had in mind. For the actual battle about eleven foot is in play as such with the other five foot being rather vacant of troops (aside the odd battalion) until the Prussians make their appearance. Not that this part of the table will be a void as it has a couple of the places in the area that will be fought over later in the battle such as Frichermont all the way to the Bois De Paris woods. Plancenoit will also get a little more exposure as it will not be more than half off the table as the original plan called for.

All this is very positive and later than evening I received a text letting me know he had already sculptured the smaller hills. However it's starting to look like our chance of playing the game before the Joy of six could be put on hold though it still has a chance of happening. If not then July will be the first public sight of the table and figures set out in battle, no pressure then :-)

For the Joy of Six we plan to have the game set up showing an important stage in the earlier stages during the morning and then reset it showing the battle towards the end of the day, yes the Prussians will get to be on the table!!!

Hail Caesar First Attempt With 15mm

Matt and I finally got a chance to play again after a few near misses. Matt sent over a few possible games including Hail Caesar, as it was top of the list and been suggested a couple of times I thought it would be the best option. It also helped that I had by this point a number of HC and Black Powder games under my belt so was a bit more comfortable playing a game without Kev and Andy to hold my hand ;-)

Matt and myself are old adversaries with our Macedonian and Persian tilts, though of late we have used my Macedonian's as Matt has yet to commit to rebasing once we settle on a set of rules as Matt is less keen than I am on Field of Glory whilst I am OK with them (especially as I have worked on several armies and have all the books) BUT I am liking Hail Caesar more for it's speed of play and general feel of the game.

I had the first (limited) success of the night and something rather rare with FoG, one of Matt's phalanxes lost a level of cohesion through bow fire. HC also allows the Persians more bows by rearming some of the Kardrakes with bow, something I am happy about as I disliked the loss of the bow in FoG, especially as I had four units armed with them!

 Matt got an alarming triple move for his pike whilst I was slowly trying to mount the top of the hill for some hope of defence. This is a feature that could make or break your view on HC and seeing Pike move that fast over the table was certainly a novel experience for me.

My best commander had a command value of 8 whilst my two other commanders had just 7. Matt's Macedonian's was 8 for the sub-commanders and I had paid 23 points for Alexander himself at 9. This was points well spent as Matt put him with the cavalry and they flew round the flank and went at my rather small cavalry force as the bulk of my cavalry was on my left flank away from Matts.

Matt had three units of Lance armed Cavalry against my spear armed cavalry. I had a second success when one the the three were forced to drop back a turn due to my rolling a 6 to force a morale test. My light horse were being pushed back leaving my cavalry vulnerable.

The attack went well for Matt, whilst I had a good first round I was let down when Matt saved much better than I did, I was one point off becoming shaken whilst Matt was safe from that threat. I failed the test and routed from the table.

The phalanx clash which we thought would be cut and dried ended up being a series of push and shove, the rule that a phalanx counts a loss by up to 2 as a draw saved me tests until both of us became shaken in the same turn.

My cavalry was refusing to move for most of the game, if I could have got it to move with any regularity I could have interfered with the battle in the middle as well as quite possibly smashed his flanking force. As it was it moved once in the first four or five moves, my mistake was having my best commander with the hoplites.

On my right flank I was able to withstand a charge by the single cavalry unit of Matt's not working with the other two. This was against the Kardrakes that rolled out of the box and I was able to bring a Hoplite unit and light infantry in support finally winning the battle and seeing the cavalry off shaken. Matt would later start rallying pips back off but they did not attack again during the game.

I get pushed back in the centre but then win the following Melee seeing one of Matt's blocks off. The other should have gone Matt's way but his best troops were acting in support and started to take the excess casualties without the ability to re-roll pip loss. If the units were switched he would not suffer as much and would have one the melee sooner. In the end my Hoplites were forced to give ground falling back through a fresh phalanx. Due to being shaken Matt remained in position and awaited my next move.

My cavalry finally get moving again whilst Matt repairs his line as best he can and with the hill now in his hands it would be a real push to get up the hill and defeat his blooded pike. My cavaly can't charge his formed pike and I just don't have the troops to take the hill back. All I could hope to do at that point would be to defeat his flank force and then surround his Phalanx blocks, this assumes Alexander does not send his cavalry back round the rear to engage me.

I have four units in the centre directly facing just two of Matt's but two of mine are either shaken or close to it. Before moving in again I would need to rally a pip off the supporting unit and exchange a badly mauled unit with a fresh unit. This would be at least two moves whilst four would be better. All this time Matt would be rallying pips off his pike and making the task as hard again as the first attempt.

Matt caught one of my evading light cavalry units and as such broke one division, this sealed the fate of my right flank and would have allowed Matt several options to cause me bother. This would in turn have forced me to gamble and attack in the centre and the left without fully preparing for the attack. As it was we called time with the win going to Matt and lessons learnt by both of us that will be carried in to the game we have planned for this week.

Whilst the Macedonian army has more power than the Persian it's not as great as it has been under all the rules we have tried to date. However the better command made a huge difference in this game with Matt able to command his troops most of the time, even a blunder allowed exactly what he wanted. This I think is part of the game that you need to master and works well with my idea of how the Persian army acted, large but slow. Our next game will see more units on the table and I believe another cracker, but this time we should get a result as we spent a fair amount of time catching up before a die was rolled.

The Start of Something Essex

Last figures from this years Challenge to be added to the blog and four Regiments for Lee's ECW army I am painting for him. We decided the best army to paint up would be Earl of Essex as we know a fair bit about it and as I have started Charles Oxford Army they are a natural opponent for them.

All the figures for both Lee's armies and mine are Baccus, we both have two army packs so no shortage of units between us.

I have started with some of the better known regiments, though I will work through a list that will quickly exhaust these.

I had to start with The Earl of Essex, I mean who else could I choose? I went for a reasonably solid orange for the Tawny Orange whilst the standard is not actually known from what I can make out. Baccus will be replacing the current figures in the future and expanding the range to include the Thirty Years War so we will have even more options at some point in the future. Both Lee and myself have a mix of very old castings and an army each bought about three years ago. 

Lord Saye & Sele's blue coated Regiment comes up next and again the actual colours are not known. I have gone with a blue flag as I felt it looked good. Never assume the flag would be the same colour as the coat or nick name as this was not always the case. Early research favoured such a view and using the colours of ECW re-enactment regiments can and often is misleading. 

Thomas Ballard's regiment was dressed in grey, at least during 1642. As the war went on coat colours were sometimes changed or through poor supply ended up in a mix of colours. Trousers were even worse as these tended to wear out first and often were not officially replaced so would best be depicted in a mix of colours but in this case all four Regiments have single colours for their trews, though not every Regiment has the same colour.

Lord Brooks is the last of the three and I picked this one as they wore a rather striking purple coat. This is also the only one of the four painted that I have the correct flag for. All flags by the way are from Baccus, I am making use of three flag sheets across the two armies. Oxford for me, Essex for Lee and a generic one for both of us. 

Unlike the Napoleonic's infantry are based on the same 30x60 bases as this suits the formations used during the ECW. We have yet to decide on rules and it's possible we will do our own set though I am keen to try a few other sets out as well. ECW was the first period I wargamed and I still have my 15mm which I would love to use again but 6mm will give us the opportunity to fight some of the biggest battles and possibly nip over the Channel for a bash or even make up a campaign that would allow us to field large and small armies that take into account all the possibilities of the period.