Hanoverian Command Figures

The Hanoverian Command figures are done and the whole unit is complete bar the basing which I will hopefully get around to in the next few days.

Nice to have officers with a yellow sash for a change.

The flag is another of my freehand efforts using a British Regimental flag figure as the base. I'm quite pleased with it although the lion is perhaps looking a bit more like Garfield than I would have liked.

This is the image I copied nicked from somewhere on the web - Hanover Kings Colour. There is some debate whether or not the units carried any colours at Waterloo but a unit without a flag just doesn't seem right.

When I started on this unit I prepped both a Regimental and Kings Colour figure as I had assumed the flags would be similar to British line units but apparently that's not so.

The regiment will be paraded soon then it's on with the Austrians.

The Battle of Donner-Blitzen

For the game this Thursday I decided to leave the British on the bench and give the other allied troops the chance to take on the French. What followed was the second landslide victory of the day, read on...

I setup my full 8' x 4' table and populated it with the entire French army (on the right) and the Prusso/Austro/Russo/Swedes (on the left). There were a total of 1,247 Hinton Hunt figures on the table (note to self - that's enough). The battle centred on the little known German villages of Donner (distance left) and Blitzen (foreground right) which both sides considered vital to possess.

The dice decided that Nigel would command the Prussians (allied left) and Goya the Austro/Russo/Swedes (allied right).

Tony had the French right whilst I commanded the French left.

For this game there were no general officers but instead each infantry unit had an attached 'personality' figure acting as colonel. Here we can see that the ADC assigned to command of the East Prussian Fusiliers has become an early casualty - 1VP to the French.

The French left-centre - The Guard Lancers have deployed just a bit too close to the Russian battery in their front becoming disordered as a result.

Tony and I decided to order the Young Guard to occupy the central hill (Wellington's Tree was worth 6VPs). This was a good plan except that Goya had ordered the Austrians to do the same.

On the extreme French left flank my lancers were ordered to tangle with the Pavlograd Hussars but sadly got the worst of it, they started running and kept going until they left the table.

Allied centre-right - a sight we don't often see, the field is full of Swedes (I know, but I like that joke). Goya pushes forward a mass of infantry with the Toskana Dragoons to the fore.

The view from Nigel's side of the table - the dreaded Landwehr are in reserve (more on them later).

Nigel's Uhlans clash with Tony's Chasseurs whom he neatly routs (the Uhlans were all painted by WM some years ago - nice work Matthew).

A general view about halfway through the game - there were a lot of units to command, possibly too many as it turned out. You will note that there are no skirmishers on table which I hoped might speed up play.

I get my FN5's rolling forward - 6 battalions of Fusiliers.

Hurrah! The Young Guard are on the hill  but their supporting artillery has taken a bit of a hammering.

On Goya's right flank the Moscow infantry have taken a hit from my French artillery and become disordered. Rather unusually they are commanded by Sir John Moore!

This is where things started to get a bit tricky for me - I had a rule that allowed each side to swap any front row units with their reserve Guard units. The idea was to add an element of tactical surprise but also to make sure that the Guard actually got to fight in the game. Goya threw his Guard infantry onto the hill and the Scots Grey's against my advancing infantry columns (the Grey's were there as I have no allied Guard cavalry - note to self I need some Guard cavalry).

The same scene from behind the allied line. The allies have secured the hill while their cavalry smash into my infantry.

Tony and I decided to commit our own Guard against the Prussians. The 1st and 2nd Grenadiers advance but sufffer heavy casualties from Nigel's musketeers and artillery.

The Prussian Uhlans pursue Tony's Chasseurs off table while the 9th Light infantry sensibly form square. At one stage there were 9 infantry squares across the table.

As the Old Guard advance Tony is struggling to bring up enough support. These cuirassiers were never able to get into the action.

This was a strange event - in the smoke and confusion of battle somehow La Bedoyere managed to detach himself from the Guard Marines and take command of the Prussian Guard. The Prussian Guard's actual commander The Prince of Orange can be seen lurking behind Wellington's Tree. Eventually La Bedoyere returned to his own unit unscathed.

This was not good, Goya's cavalry are making mincemeat out of my lovely FN5's. Definitley NOT in the plan.

As the Young Guard fall back our last remaining reserve are the Guard Chasseurs and the Empress' Dragoons.

Finally Nigel's rampaging Uhlans come to grief on the solid square of the 24th infantry.

The view along the allied left flank near the close of play - the village of Donner is in the foreground.

Marshal Vorwarts leads the Austrians up towards Wellington's Tree.

The Sommariva Cuirassiers ride up to support the Swedes.

As I said NOT in the plan! To add insult to injury the eagles of the 5th, 33rd and 45th regiments were captured by the Toskana's and Grey's. The French centre-left was completely broken.

The emperor leads the 1st Grenadiers in a desperate charge against the 1st Silesian Landwehr -  you guessed it, the Silesians WON the melee (note to self - I need more Old Guard)...

At the end of turn 5 we had to wrap up the game but there was no doubt who had won, final VP score was 36 to the allies and 15 to the French. It was a great game with lots of action and it was good to get so many figures out of their storage boxes and on the table. In retrospect the game was a bit too big for just four of us to handle which is the main reason we manged so few turns.

My thanks to the attending generals for coming along and making it such a fun day and to Mrs S for running such a superb field-kitchen.

Hanoverian Progress

Despite recent distractions and journeys down non-Hinton Hunt related rabbit holes I have been slowly working away at the Hanoverians. I'm actually at the point where I only have the officers and the standard bearer left to paint.

My painting source shows the musicians without reverse colours which makes for a bit of a change.

One of the 'distractions' that is Hinton Hunt related was the recent aquisition of these very nice Hungarian infantry castings. I've been looking to expand my Austrian army for a while but the lack of decent castings has been an issue so hopefully this will give me the shove I need to get on with it.

There are 12 x AN/25 Musketeer, firing and 12 x AN/27 Musketeer, marching.

I was a bit dubious about these as the photos on eBay showed the figures having very shiny new looking bases but having inspected them I'm happy they are the real deal.

Next week, if all goes well, will be the annual Muskets & Marshals game in the Hinton Hut. A full report will be posted here in due course.

ECW Madness (Off Topic #40)

It was all going so well - 89 Hinton Hunt's painted so far this year and only 5 acquired. Then I saw a couple of lots of Minifigs S-range ECW figures come up at a bargain price...

ECW1s Royalist Musketeer Firing - this is such a great figure!

ECW20s Royalist Musketeer Carrying Musket - I have quite a few of these

ECW25s Royalist Pikeman Advancing - I just love the cast-on pikes

ECW5s Royalist Officer with Sword - what's not to like about this figure?

ECW5 Royalist Officer (Sword). This is not S-range but probably from the 'intermediate' range that followed it being slightly bigger and chunkier

ECW28s Royalist Officer Attacking or Advancing - I remember this figure well as I painted 5 or 6 of them back in the early 70s

ECWC3s Cuirassier - this is a OPC that has been converted to a standard bearer with a horse that needs some TLC

This is S-range (as the saddle is attached to the rider) and the horse is marked LCH2. It could be from the Thirty Years War range or could be a remodelled ECWC3 (this is the conclusion that Clive came to on his Lone S Ranger blog).

TYW3s Thirty Years War Officer - I had one of these way back when

TYW4s Thirty Years War Standard Bearer

TYW5s Thirty Years War Drummer

Technically, as these are not Hinton Hunt castings they don't count towards the lead-pile reduction target, but in reality they are a bit of a distraction. However, this is not a major project but rather some light relief from Napoleonics and something to put in the display cabinet - honest!

Stirling Stuff (Off Topic #39)

Last Saturday Mrs S indulged me by agreeing to a trip to Stirling Castle. Despite living in Scotland for over seven years and having made many trips to Stirling in that time, I had never visited the castle before.There was one thing in particular that I wanted to see in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Museum that I first read about in the January 1969 edition of Miniature Warfare. It was a set of small blocks used to train infantry officers that dated from 1797.

Fast forward 55 years and the blocks are still there! What I wasn't expecting is just how bright the colours are - I want these...

For some reason this really stuck in my mind and when I recently went through my old copies of the magazine (to make an index of interesting stuff) I was reminded of it and clocked the fact that they were housed just up the road. Here is the original article by John Tunstill, reproduced without permission but hopefully he won't mind.

Apart from the Regimental Museum (which is one of the best I've seen) the castle itself is well worth a visit. I had no idea before going that it was such a big site. If you want to make a day of it you could combine it with a visit to Bannockburn (nice visitor's centre and you can walk the dog over the battlefield) and the Wallace Monument (if you like Gothic and lots of stairs).

We will be going back but probably in the winter when it's not quite so busy.

Wellington and his chums

Having painted the Cavalry Staff Trooper a few weeks ago I can now hold a full review of the Duke's staff. They may not be quite as glittering as those of the enemy but I hope you like them all the same.

BN/250 The Duke of Wellington in blue frock coat (on horse BNH/10)

BN/107 British General (mounted) pointing

BN/251 Lieut-Gen. Lord Hill in general's uniform holding his cock hat (on horse BNH/11)

BN/252 Lieut-Gen. The Earl of Uxbridge in Hussar uniform and shako (on horse BNH/12) - painted by Matt G

BN/253 Lieut-Gen. Sir Thomas Picton in top hat and tail coat (on horse BNH/11) - yes, I know he should't have a red coat but this is what it says on the painting instruction sheet!

BN/254 Lieut-Gen. Charles, Count von Alten in General's full dress uniform (on horse BNH/11) - painted by WM 

BN/255 Lieut-Gen. Sir Stapleton Cotton in Hussar uniform and busby (on horse BNH/13)

BNH/256 Maj.Gen. G. Cooke, commanded 1st (Guards) Div. at Waterloo in general's uniform (on horse BNH/11)

BN/257 Maj.Gen. Sir William Ponsonby, wearing a long riding coat over uniform (on horse BNH/11)

BN/261 A.D.C in cocked hat, holding letter (on horse BNH/11)

BN/264 Cavalry Staff CorpsTrooper carrying letter (on horse BNH/4) 

BRN/30 The Duke of Brunswick, in Death's Head shako and braided coat (on horse BNH/11) 

DN/30 H.R.H The Prince of Orange, in hussar jacket, full trouser and waving his cocked hat (on horse DNH/1)

I say 'full review' however I am still missing one figure DN31 Dutch-Belgian General. If I ever turn one up I'll edit him in to the post.