More Russians??!?!?!

Finished off the last of my SYW Russian foot regiments (for now!) and since the green paint was out I decided I would have a bash at painting up some Russian Great Northern War figs, the stuff I bought from Grimsby gamer Paul Robinson last year at AMG. 

Last of....

 

I'm going to make up a company for The Pikemans Lament as there is enough bare metal to get what I need out of the Russians. The swedes don't have enough figs and anyway the company who made them seems to have unlisted them....most helpfully. So they'll have to come from another source, probablyWarfare. Russian cavalry might have to be Foundry stand ins. I don't know what it is about this period and ranges, they pop up, never get finished and die out just as folk get ready to move onto another stage! 

TPL foot units are 12 figures and as I already have 12 shot and 8 pike painted I have no excuse not to get started. I also picked up the excellent, but rather expensive, GNW Compendium last year and with the old Osprey Peter the Great and Poltava books and the Peter Englund book I've got plenty source material. Keeping this in the 18thC means no period creep too - I had thought about going rennaissance but managed to reign that in. (Er....but not until I bought some pistoliers, seen lurking in the above shot!). 

First of....

 

The Battle of Campo Santo

We continued out Italian series of games with a refight of the battle of Campo Santo on A couple of weeks back.

This was a large battle, but not a huge one so easily accommodated at the club and everyone got a decent sized command.

Both armies faced each other in two long lines and in many ways this resembled at battle from the war of Spanish succession rather than the seven years war. This wasn't a battle were refined tactical finesse was employed to win. The Austrians were forced to advance through some some farmland, which in February would only have caused disruption to their formations and not provided any cover. Facing them the Spanish decided to sit and wait for their attack - our players decided to move forward and take on the Austrians.

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The end result of the battle was the after a couple of good rounds of dice the Austrians just managed to creep ahead and started to cause the Spanish centre to collapse. Although break points were not in danger of being met it was getting late and it was clear that the end of the battle had been reached. The bourbons just didn't have the men to fight any longer and a withdrawal would have been required. Unlike the historic result the Austrians wouldn't have need to withdraw to regroup and so would have achieved victory.

Nice to do a bigger battle with HOW. The rules coped well and now most of us are familiar with them enough to get through games without too much page flipping and head scratching.

Figs were a mix of Crann Tara, Elite, Trent and some other manufacturers. Pulling together two armies of white coated troops wasn't easy, so the eagle eyed will notice a few revolutionary French and a Russian unit in there and Syw French standing in for Spanish. However the overall look was great and the sun even came out for a bit! 

I really would like to get a few more white coated units for my Neapolitans. The WAS in Italy is a very interesting theatre, a sideshow perhaps but one which has much to enjoy.