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.

26th Schroeder Regiment - Test Figures

I've mentioned before that I have struggled to find decent Austrian infantry castings for this project so for the next unit I'm resorting to something a bit different. The unit will be made up primarily of Der Kreigspieler figures with a smattering of Hinton Hunts by David Clayton.

Clayton on the left, DK on the right.

The DK's are 88/1 Austrian Fusilier Charging and were a kind donation made by Aly. The pose is identical to the Hinton Hunt version (AN/4) and they are decent castings. The Clayton figures are rather weedy in comparison and I have had to carry out some remedial work to get rid of their waspish waists and pitted bases.

You can clearly see here that the Clayton figure has been on half-rations.

The unit will represent the 26th Schroeder Regiment because who can't resist parrot green facings?

15th Szeckler Grenzers

The Grenzers are done and now paraded here for your inspection. I've enjoyed painting these as the castings are really superb first generation Hinton Hunt ones first glimpsed here on the blog. Brown uniforms were an interesting change too after lots of recent red and blue ones.

The figures used are:

1 x AN/21 Hungarian Officer, charging (DK figure converted to standard bearer)

9 x AN/25 Hungarian Musketeer, firing

1 x AN/26 Hungarian Officer, marching

12 x AN/27 Hungarian Musketeer, marching

1 x DK Austrian Grenadier drummer (with head-swop conversion)

I'm staying with the Austrian theme for the next unit but with a return to standard white uniform so I will need to break out the snow goggles for my painting sessions.

Another trip to Nigel's

Last Wednesday Tony and I were fortunate enough to be invited to another wargame hosted by Nigel in his fabulous wargame room nestling in the Cumbrian hills. The scenario involved an alternate history of the Waterloo campaign where Napoleon was trying to pass Wellington's flank to the west forcing a battle at Mons.

I was given the Allied force comprising The Prince Of Orange and 'Daddy' Hill's commands, Dutch-Belgians, Nassauers and an awful lot of Highlanders. Tony had the French including an intimidating number of old Guard infantry and cavalry. Nigel umpired and carried out numerous mental arithmetic calculations to keep the game flowing using his house rules.

What follows is not a detailed account of the fighting but hopefully enough to give you a taster of an excellent game.

A general view of the table at the end of turn 1. Tony and I both elected to move everything forward. The barn in the foreground and the house on the hill in the distance were both victory locations.

Tony and I immediately did our usual cavalry thing of drawing sabres and rushing into action. Here you can see the Guard cavalry advance. The Horse Grenadiers to the front eventually went on to win the man of the match award.

Some classic looking ordre mixte here by the French. Most of the units in Nigel's forces are an impressive 30 figures strong.

Lord Hill advances his (mostly) Highlander division. These are a mixture of Qualiticast and Hinton Hunt figures.

The view from the French right-rear. My Nassauer's are defending the woods from the advancing French columns.

The French troops come on in the same old style!

But my lads are coming on too - not in the same old style!

General Perponcher rides forward to encourage the Dutch-Belgians - hurrah!

The cavalry fight in the centre of the field was to last for the whole game but eventually the French got the upper hand.

My Highlanders prepare to counter-attack the Old Guard. Meanwhile the Sailors-of-the-Guard have occupied the house and are very unsportingly firing down on us from the windows.

My centre holds firm...

...but things don't go quite so well on my right. We called the game after 7 turns and it was a victory on points for the French.

It was a visually spectacular game as well as being great fun to play and it was nice to get to use Nigel's lovely British and allied troops. Hopefully one day we'll get to see the Archduke's Austrian forces!

Thanks to Nigel and Tony and also to the Archduchess for her hospitality. 

Flagging Again

I've finished my 'coke can' (actually Pepsi-Max) flag for the Grenzers and am quite chuffed with the result. I cut the aluminium for the flag with my craft knife and then superglued it to the flagstaff, bent it into position and amazingly it lined up first time.

I paint the flag after assembly.

The figure is a converted AN/21. Hungarian Officer, charging although I think this is actually a DK version. The flag itself is painted freehand using some pencilled guidelines. The design is a mash up of images from the internet and my own photo (below) taken this year at the Naval Museum in Venice.

I'm not sure what an Austrian flag was doing on display at an Italian naval museum because strangely the signage wasn't in english. The museum was however a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of the city being a bit out of the way by the old naval dockyard.

The rather stylish entrance to the dockyard just around the corner from the museum.

There is a quite a lot of stuff in the museum relating to WW2 and how Italian frogmen managed to blow up British battleships using manned torpedoes. Not one mention of Taranto though!

Grenzer Progress and Fun in the Desert

I've made a bit of  progress with the Grenzer figures and am pretty well halfway through the unit. I'm liking the look of these with their brown coats and blue trousers. Hopefully I'll complete the whole lot soon.

The drummer is a head-swop conversion from a DK grenadier. The flag (half finished at the back) is my first attempt at a 'coke can' flag in the style of Wellington Man.

In other news, Goya came over last week and we had a go at a 20mm WW2 Western Desert game. I've had a bit of a thing about the early period of this campaign for many years and had been gradually (very gradually) building some forces using Airfix stuff. However the advent of 3D printed vehicles has given the project a shot in the arm as it cuts out the rather tedious business of assembling kits.

Goya's Matildas defend a ridge. The closest is a resin model, the next is a 3D version from Butler's Printed Models and the last two are Airfix from Goya's collection.

The British soft-skin vehicles hunker down behind the ridge. The 2pdr Portee model is a 'ready to roll' one from Rapid Fire expertly assembled and painted by Goya.

My German infantry briefly capture Showaddy-Wadi before being forced to retreat by massed machine gun fire from Goya's tanks.

The situation at the end of play - a sort of draw.

Goya and I both like the organisation charts in the various Rapid Fire books but we've struggled to get to grips with the RF rules. We're currently rehashing a set of my own rules written 30 years ago in the hope of getting something playable and fun.

Grenzer Test Figure

This is the test paint job for my next Austrian infantry unit using the recently acquired Austrian figures. I thought I'd go for a Grenzer unit as a break from all those white uniforms and they will represent the 15th Szeckler regiment because of their rather natty pink facings that I think contrast well with the brown coats.

The figure is AN/25 Hungarian Musketeer, firing.

According to my painting source there is some controversy over when/if the Grenzer units received their 'tobacco brown' coats but the 15th are listed as one that probably did. Equally undecided is whether the Grenzers had white or black straps but I have gone with black. Production is now underway on the first six figures.

Wellington's Allies on Parade

Having recently paraded Wellington's British infantry I thought that, for the sake of completeness, I should also parade his Allies.

There are 96 Hinton Hunt figures arranged in four units.

The figures have all been painted by me except for the Nassauers (Matt G).

Hanoverians in the front followed by Belgians, Brunswickers and the Nassau Grenadiers.

The first of these units (the Nassauers) was painted in 2010 and the last (Hanoverians) this year.

I guess this effectively completes Wellington's infantry giving him a total of 12 units to call upon. This doesn't mean I won't paint more in the future (no wargamer ever completes an army) but for now I intend to shift my focus to the Austrians.