Austrian General Staff

I've just finished another two of the lovely Hinton Compatriots Austrian commander sculpts recently sent to me by Don. These have been such fun to paint.

ANC08 General holding telescope on Horse H01. This one will represent General Colloredo who commanded the 1st Division at Dresden.

ANC05 German Grenadier Colonel on Horse H01. This one will represent General Chasteler who commanded the Grenadier Division. I know he wouldn't have actually worn a Colonel's uniform! 

And finally Hinton Hunt RN.85 Russian General (in plumed cocked hat - mounted) looking through spyglass (horse attached). He will be Schwarzenberg's Chief of Staff General Radetzky.

This brings the staff for my Austrian army to a total of 10 figures.

Group photo of the whole gang. Back row L-R, Klenau, Gyulay, Mack, Chasteler, Crennville. Front Row L-R, Colloredo, Schwarzenberg, Radetzky, Emperor Francis, Archduke Charles.

In our last game back in the summer we reverted to my original idea of having a command figure to represent the colonel of each infantry regiment (we used counters for the cavalry as I don't have enough figures for that). This adds a little bit of extra fun as nobody wants to be the person that loses Marshal Ney in a melee (or do they Nigel?). This recent boost to the Austrian General Staff means I will have plenty of 'Colonels' for the Dresden game.

If you missed the recent post with photos of Roy's Hinton Hunts in action over on the Cirencester Wargames blog click here.

I beg your pardon I never promised you a Grosser-Garten

I've had this idea in the back of my mind to try a small refight of the Battle of Dresden 1813. This has niggled away because of fond memories of a multi-player game I took part in back in the 90s, I think I played the French Marshal Saint-Cyr. I can't remember which side won but I was always impressed by the model of the Grosser-Garten that my friend M made for the game.

This is how it looks now but the palace is not the original structure of 1813 and at the time of the battle the place was surrounded by high walls.

So, with a fair bit of help from Goya (who made the palace building) I have knocked up this interpretation of the Garden suitable for play with Muskets & Marshals. Mrs S was less than impressed that I had missed off the fountains and lake but my modelling skills are not quite up to that and anyway, I needed to leave enough space to fit in some figures.

My version is built on an MDF base 18" x 9". The walls are foamboard covered with model railway brick paper. The palace is constructed in reinforced card from a cut-out book in Goya's possession. There's enough room to deploy at least 4 battalions for defence. 

The rather nice garden gate also came from Goya. In the actual battle all the entrances to the garden had been barricaded on Napoleon's orders.

The Austrians prepare to 'have a go'.

Emperor Francis and Archduke Charles consider the options for assault.

Meanwhile, the French make ready to repel them...

I'm pretty pleased with the result which should make a nice centre-piece for the game. Next I need to work on some Dresden type buildings.

Never Fight Uphill me Boys - Part 2

I was very fortunate recently to receive from Don W in the US, some Hinton Compatriots Austrian generals. This range of figures was commissioned a few years ago by Ron Marshall and sculpted by Andrew Stadden. The idea was to produce figures that would be compatable with Hinton Hunt that filled in some of the gaps in the original range such as Austrian infantry in helmets.

ANC07 - General on Horse - H02

There are several generals in the range and this is the first one I've completed. The castings are lovely and the horses are superb works of art, very unlike the Hinton Hunt horses in style but a joy to paint. The horses are perhaps a bit on the large side but the over all height of the mounted figure is exactly the same as a Hinton Hunt one. Thanks to Don for supplying them!

Last week, Goya invited me over to have another go at his Lundy's Lane scenario for the War of 1812. He has been beavering away expanding his American forces and has even introduced some cavalry and Native Americans into the mix, there are enough figures now to potentially refight the entire war! This time we tried out a variant of Mr Madisons War rules which were fun if not a bit bloody, I was the British again.

Initial set-up. The idea is that both sides want to occupy the hill on the left that is currently in British hands.

These beautifully painted Native Americans are by Strelets from a set that, according to Goya, is very hard to track down (but then that's probably as it should be).

My Belgians finally got the memo and turned out with a US flag supplied by Goya. They did some fine work against the Canadian Militia.

My lads had the high ground and a very impressive cannon.

A very unsporting cavalry charge by the US resulted in a rapid retreat from the table for this poor unit. Would never have happened if the Duke had been there!

The British are coming!

The battle in full swing. I was hard pressed on the left but my guns were holding off the US forces in the centre.

Winfield Scott tries to rally his boys for another attack. This is the same chap who years later found himself in charge of the Union army at the start of the Civil War.

We played 9 turns which was pretty good going for a ruleset we'd never used before. At the end of play my forces still controlled the hill but both sides were receiving considerable reinforcements so I think it could have gone either way.

At the start of the year I said I aimed to paint 150 Hinton Hunt figures over the course of 2024 and I'm pleased to announce that I've actually managed to paint 154. However, I also said I would buy absolutely nothing...er, ahem...

Austrian 26th Schroeder Regiment

This is my latest Austrian infantry unit finally cleared from the painting desk. They will represent the 26th Schroeder Regiment for no reason other than I fancied parrot green facings.

As previoulsy stated, the majority of the figures used are Der Kreigspieler ones with a few Clayton's mixed in. The standard bearer is another of my free-hand attempts and the drummer is once more a DK Grenadier one with a head swap.

The figures used are:

1 x AN/6 Officer, marching

20 x AN/4-DK88/1 Musketeer, charging

1 x AN/21 Officer, charging

1 x DK Grenadier drummer (with head-swap conversion)

1 x AN/29 Standard bearer

You may have noticed that the troops are on a movement tray. Those of you who have made it through the doors of the Hinton Hut will know that my troops are mounted in threes and they can be a right faff to keep in order when manoeuvering across the table. I'm hoping that these movement trays (custom cut by the helpful and efficient people at Warbases) will speed up play whilst preserving a soldierly-like appearence.

More rule tinkering

The temperature turned out to be lower than predicted as it was minus 4C when we got in the car to take the grandkids to school this morning so it was definitely a good call to bring the paints indoors from the Hinton Hut on Sunday!

However, this has not stopped me on my rule-tinkering journey and having put a lot of thought into it, and finally drawing up a useful spreadsheet (I know, I know, Goya was right, don't say it!) I've determined that too much tinkering is a bad thing.

I tried adopting a D6 rather than an average die for morale but strangely this didn't really make any difference. Then I tried amending various melee/morale factors but again it didn't seem to change the outcomes. I also fiddled around with the 'morale results' table but quickly abandoned that too.

Nice to see the Brunswickers on the table (they don't get out much). The Duke of Brunswick is old school and doesn't approve of tinkering with the rules or war.

I have made some changes though, the main one being to reduce the morale modifier for winning/losing a melee from 2 to 1 (I felt the +2 to winner and -2 to loser is just too much of a variable). I have also made the 'passage of lines' test easier to pass mainly so that supporting cavalry can more readily replace a unit already engaged to their front.

The French Guard Lancers have just lost the first round of melee (that's what you get for tangling with the Scots Greys) so they are going to attempt a 'passage of lines' with the supporting Cuirassiers. It went well but then the Cuirassiers lost too.

Apart from that there are some minor changes mostly sorting out anomalies and adding a bit more clarification to some of the not-so-well written stuff. In the end it has been enough to announce a Version 8 of the rules. If you would like a PDF copy then drop me a line (there is a contact email on my profile).

Tinkering with rules

It's generally not a great idea to tinker with rules but there have been a couple of things bugging me about my Muskets & Marshals rule set that I felt needed looking at. This is mainly the morale and melee factors for 'disordered' units and 'melee losers'.

I set-up a small game to try out my amendments. Goya would say that such things should be trialled on a spreadsheet and he's probably right but I do like to see the figures on the table.

If you have played the rules then you will know that it is very difficult for a unit that loses the first round of melee to win the second round because of the cumulative effect of these two factors. So I have been experimenting with toning things down a bit to give a less predictable result.

I'm also taking a look at fighting in buildings because I have an idea to try a small Dresden type game next year and there will have to be buildings in that.

I am concious though, that in the context of an eight-turn game where infantry melees only tend to happen in the last couple of moves, a dramatic result may not be a bad idea. At this stage the jury is still out.

I was taking a look at the weather for next week and thinking it may be wise to move my acrylic paints (and the PVA tube!) out of the cabin and into the house so I don't have a repeat of last year's calamity.

Austrian Commanders

With the sudden spurt of growth to the Austrian infantry it occured to me that they probably needed a few more commanders to lead them in the field. Now, as you know, Hinton Hunt only produced one Austrian General so I've had a bit of fun with some conversions.

This is the Emperor Francis converted from FN/224 French general in cocked hat. I've repositioned the hat and removed his epaulettes. I think he looks suitably regal. I read that Francis only styled himself 'emperor' in response to Napoleon taking that title.

Archduke Charles, the most able of the Austrian generals according to Bruce Quarrie. He is converted from BN/107 British general pointing again with hat turned and epaulettes removed. 

Finally, this is a straight casting of AN/102 Austrian general in cocked hat reading map to represent Schwarzenberg. The casting was generously donated by none other than the Archduke himself. He will be able to join Mack in the map reading classes at the Austrian Staff College. Goya (perhaps unkindly) suggested that the mid-region of this figure should be a bit more portly for historical accuracy!

"Over there your highness."
"Hmm, not sure, what does it say on the map Schwarzenberg?"

This has been a bit of fun and a useful distraction from finishing off painting the 26th Schroeder Regiment but I'm already back working on them now.