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.
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| The Austrians prepare to 'have a go'. |
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| Emperor Francis and Archduke Charles consider the options for assault. |
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| 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.
18 comments:
Nice work and will look great in the game.
Thanks Donnie, I'm hoping so.
Beautiful! Well done both. Given my success rate with storming buildings, this might as well be a concrete machine gun bunker. I reckon those gunners have the right idea. Don't get those nice Austrian infantry into trouble.....
Thanks Nigel, I will make sure to issue the Austrians with a couple of 88's...
Very nice looking figures and set up. The elegant mansion is from Peter Dennis' very useful European buildings book
Thanks for the info Chris.
A fantastic start to the new year! Looking very forward to seeing more.
Kind Regards,
Stokes
Thanks Stokes, I'll keep everyone posted on progress.
That gate comes from the Britains garden range, so you’ve no excuse not to put in flower beds and a fountain… 😁
I look forward to seeing how that works! I opted for a collection of smaller buildings to represent a town, each on essentially functioning as an independent area, so will be interested to know how you carry on an assault on such a well defended fortress! As for the palace itself, which is lovely by the way, I have to agree with Jeffers and Mrs Stryker, it needs some flowers and fountains. 😂
That's an impressive piece - those garden gates from Goya really set it off. You could always make some separate ponds/fountains that can be lifted out when the place is full of troops - would be worth it just to keep in the good books of she who must be obeyed.
It will be interesting to see if the Austrians can do any better - IIRC it was Prussians and Russians who tried in the original battle.
A nice start to the New Year - looking forward to the progress of this little project!
Hmm, now I’m going to have to trawl eBay…
Ok, flowers, fountains I get it David!
Lift out pieces, good idea Rob.
Thanks Matt, I’m looking forward to doing some buildings next.
You really do need the statue of that old, winged, kidnapping dude in your Große Garten. As for battle worthyness, I think you might have another Verdun in prospect!
Statues, flowers, fountains...this is turning into a whole different hobby!
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