Serbskiy Hussars

Some more blue to contrast with my red Russians. The mounted version of the Serbskiy Hussars. I've still to flock the base, and decide what pennant to give them - possibly a white, blue and red streamer with St Andrew icon in the corner as they didn't carry flags.

The base is designed to represent a loose cloud formation. These guys are not very disciplined or organised at all, even compared with other nations Hussars. The figures are mounted individually too, for skirmish gaming, just like the Cossacks.

More Russians are coming

Somewhat inspired by the armies and rules we used at the recent AMG weekender I decided that my Russian army really needed to be a little bigger and more imposing. 

The original plan was for a handful of battalions of Observation Corps, supporting arty and cavalry. To be fair that would have been fine for Honours of War and have fitted in with my other armies. But after seeing the Prussians and Austrians a couple of weeks back quantity took on a whole quality of its own! 

I dug out the order of battle for Zorndorf from Kronoscarf and the excellent Obscure Battles site and did some scribbling. Going 1:1 is just plain megalomania, but I noticed that the Russians were organised in roughly 4 battalion brigades, each of two regiments. I figured that was an easy number to work with and so decided to go with a 1:4 ratio. 

Thus the army will be -

Right Wing
Horse Grenadiers, Cuirassiers, Dragoons, Hussars, Cossacks - two stands each of the first 3 and a whole unit of the Hussars (Serbsky) and Cossacks.

Center
10 infantry units - 6-8 line and 2-4 grenadiers, not quite settled on the proportions but probably 8-2. This represents the 10 brigades of Russian Musketeers and Grenadiers
4 Observation Corps Musketeers, 1 Observation Corps Grenadiers - these are the figures I already have painted up.

Left Wing
Cuirassier Rgt, Hussar Rgt and 2 stands of Dragoons. 

 - Again the DR are understrength but can be brigaded with the other 2 stands if required. 

Artillery
1x 12lb battery (2)
1x 8lb battery (2)
2x Unicorn Battery(4)
Limbers.

Plus Officers and Command, hangers on, etc, etc.

I have the 4 Observation Corps, 1 unit each of the Hussars, Dragoons, Horse Grens, Cossacks and Cuirassiers and the Unicorns (the former and the latter need painted, the rest are done). So that really leaves the Musketeers and Grenadiers and 4 other guns, plus some limbers and commanders and some little bits to brighten up the table. 

I will be going with Crusader for my remaining inf as sadly Ingo's Figuren don't make any decent non Obs Corps Russian infantry. They do have some rather nice figures reloading but the matching firing poses look a little odd. It's the butt of the gun and the elbow. Anyway Crusader seem to match the build of my existing Ingo figures without seeming underfed or over chunky, so they'll do the trick. 

Besides which, ordering stuff in Euro's isn't cost effective now - thank you Boris!!!!!!!!!!!

Quite a lot to do but with such simple summer uniforms, it will be relatively straightforward. Eventually this will pan out to be around 15 units of foot 8 guns, 7 cavalry, limbers, officers, equipment, etc. Still not huge, but the upper limit of what I have room for! It should take me to the end of the year to complete. Not a bad plan, lets see how it goes!!

I've already made a start and done a trial paint job on the Serbskiy Hussars. Nice and bright and a contrast to the Reds and greens which will follow. If used a fine nib pen for the detail on the sabretache. I like these chaps!

AMG 16 - a great weekends wargaming

I spent last weekend playing some fantastic games with some great people from the AMG forum. The games were amongst the best I've taken part in and the company really couldn't have been better. It looks like this is set to become an annual event and I've landed myself right in it as I'm organising the next one!

The first game up was a refight of the battle of Soor, from the War of Austrian succession in 1745. We used the Honours of War rules from Osprey for this. 

The Prussian right wing, facing the Austrians up the hill.

The Saxons advancing in column toward the town and Prussian center.

The Prussian left, with their camp.

Facing them the Austrian left.

Frederick's cavalry charge up the hill

The Austrians advance on the left. Cresting the hill they become exposed to the Prussian guns. 

The Saxons creep closer.

The Prussian left flank is threatened. The guns wheel to fire at the cavalry.

Battle rages in the center

The Austrians close, but has anyone in camp spotted the danger?

Doesn't look like it!

The Prussians didn't quite have the numbers or the dice to punch thru the Austrians. It was getting close though and there were only a few units difference. Great set of rules for big games - this one was  larger than the scenarios in the book, and everyone picked it up quite quickly. 

Thanks to Colin and Robbie for running and umpiring the game!

After that we retired for a while and had a few drinks and then a nice dinner followed by much more drinks til late in the night....

Day Two was more 18thC, this time Great Northern War - a fictional scenario based on a river crossing in Finland. The Russians were to cross the river and surprise the Swedes, who were forced to bring up their forces to hold them back.

The Russian right crosses the Saari

As does the left, oh and here come the Swedes!

Time to get out of there!

The line will advance!

On the right the Russians drive forward....

But it's all over on the left......except for the "Russians Who Would Not Die!"

Another cracking game, run by Paul with some home made rules which seemed to capture the spirit of the antagonists really well. He must have done a good job as I bought a load of Musketeer Russians from him!

And that was only lunchtime !

So.....time for one more game?? Oh yes I think so!

The time, The Sudan!

I'd managed to get myself cut off from by mahdist troops and had to hold out until rescued. That collumn seemed a long long way up the table!

They came on thick n fast and my Egyptians blazed away with their rifles to hold them back, but they burst through the zariba. 

Help is at hand!

However I managed to take out a fair few the Arabs and fuzzies attacking my position and destroy their captured gun. My brave fellah's advanced and escorted her ladyship to the collumn which by now had battled it's way through every clump of bush, dune and rocky outcrop full of the chosen one's tribesmen, lost and found the path, helped the war correspondents who'd wondered off and even bought some dirty postcards! 

Another great game, this time using The Sands of The Sudan rules and some very very very nice classic Hinchcliffe and new Perry figures from Dave. A special mention also goes to his hand made terrain mat - looked almost as deserty as the real thing.

Thanks very much to Graham of Crann Tara for organising the event and to everyone I gamed with. It was a real pleasure and I'm looking forward very much to doing it again next year.

The Battle of Granicus

On Sunday we had another ancients game. This time a refugee of the battle of Granicus using our modified version of Neil Thomas's Ancient & Medieval rules. 

The battle had some interesting twists and turns and generally followed history, except that Alexander and the companions were eventually surrounded and cut down and the left flank collapsed despite Parmenion's best giving their all. 

Er...so not like history at all!

Well I can explain - we gave the Persians 5 cavalry units including 2 horse arches, 2 light infantry and 4 auxiliaries. This was more than enough to undo the normal Macedonian tactics where the companions are screened and the phalanx flank protected by light cav and skirmishers. I suspect I interpretated the Macedonians as having too few hoplites in their force too. Saying that it was a close run thing and had some dice throws gong the other way Alexander would have crashed through his opponents. 

So looking ahead to Issus, we'll be using 3000 foot/2000 cav to a unit and only using the army lists as a broad basis but until then, here are some piccies.....

More Indians

I've been reviving a Vendel Miniatures Ancient Indian army I purchased second hand. That's meant I've had to use replacement figures since Vendel are no longer available here in the UK. They are now owned by Sgt Major in the US, but I'm still waiting for a reply to an email I sent a month or so ago, so I started to look elsewhere.

The Miniature Company make a range of Indians designed very much with compatibility with the Vendel sculpts in mind. I'd seen some pictures of these on the Lead Adventure Forum and decided these would be the best replacements for the cavalry I need. 

The figures arrived last week, nice clean castings. Tall and robust they certainly fit with Vendel in terms of size, but they are a little more rounded than the square built figures from that manufacturer. 

I was a little disappointed with the horses however. I know they probably should be pony sized, but the big rider looks a little too large for the beast. You can see from the pic that the rider is taller then the horse. The pose of the rider and construction of the horse possibly doesn't help - it comes as a two part casting - much like some of the plastic horses out there.  The sculpt itself isn't bad, don't get me wrong, I'm just not comfortable with it for my own picky purposes. 

I decided I would give something else a try and went for the horses available separately from Conquest games. These are not huge beasts but are a little taller and better proportioned, IMHO. 

Overall I am happier with these and will get some undercoated this weekend. I've also remounted my few Vendel cavalrymen on them as well and together they make a nicely varied unit .

I will be using The Miniature Company again, service was excellent and I think I'll probably use the original horses for my chariots which need something to draw them. 

Whist these guys are drying I shall be returning to my SYW Russians - time those Hussars got a lick of paint.