Friday, 24 July 2026

6th Jagers and fighting Churchill

The Russian 6th Jagers are finished. The figures are about one third vintage castings and the rest are modern reproductions, all nice castings though. The standard bearer and drummer are conversions.

The firing figures are RN.15 Infantryman, firing.
The standard bearer is a conversion of RN.11 Officer, charging and the drummer is a conversion of RN.14 Infantryman, charging.

Here they are doing Jagery type manouevres.

Yesterday I braved the Edinburgh bypass for a War of the Spanish Succession game at Tony's with his excellent 20mm Les Higgins collection. I was in command of the Franco-Bavarians while Tony took on the persona of Lt. Gen Charles Churchill.

The sneaky Brits had built a lot of earthworks to hide in. I twice managed to get troops into this redoubt but each time was ejected at the point of a bayonet.
More earthworks on the British left flank this time occupied by Hessians.

A double 6 is not a throw you want to see if you're a general but it seems very unfair on the dog too. This is Tony's General Pickering in charge of the right-flank British Horse.

My troops are on the left of the table. I had lots of them but that led to some traffic jams that made manoeuvre (and retreats) difficult.

Tony didn't just have earthworks but also this huge Fortress. The mortars within fired to little effect thankfully.

The British and French lines clash in the centre. The battle here swayed to and fro but eventually went a bit too much fro for my liking as my VP lead slipped from 7:3 to 8:9. 

The final act was the Hessians unsportingly charging out of their earthworks to deliver the coup de grace to my right flank .
 
It was a really enjoyable game even if I did have defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.

It was a close run thing but a lot of fun.

Thursday, 16 July 2026

A flag for the Jagers and Elchingen

I finally finished those Russian Jagers I started back in May and to celebrate have issued them with their colours. I have a couple of sheets of old REVO flags No24 Russian Inf 1813 bought way back when (see I told you Mrs S they'd come in handy some day). I'm not sure if the Jagers would actually carry colours but what the heck mine will.

Colour bearer converted from a line officer. The flag needs a bit of a touch up around the edges. I was amazed to find that the self-adhesive was still working after 20 years!

Goya came over this week to christen my new Command & Colors hex cloth. I chose the battle of Elchingen simply because the map doesn't have much terrain and niether do I. I've wanted a CCN mat for years after Tony lured me into me into the game system with his magnificent hex table and terrain. Here are a few pics from the game, I won't bore you with a game narrative but suffice to say I was trounced 7 to 3 by Goya's Austrians.

The hexes on the cloth are 120mm across the flats and neatly accommodate my movement trays. I only picked up the hill hexes from Warbases the day before the game and didn't have time to paint them.
We both thought that my large French force was going to steamroller the Austrians but how wrong we were.

My first move was to occupy the town. This was the first and last part of my plan that went well.

In go the Noddy's (they always make me think of Noddy but nobody else seems to agree).

You can never have too many Cuirassiers, certainly not in this game anyway.

The Austrians remained calmly 'nailed' to their ridge - the Duke would have been proud.

My Carabiniers squashed between two Austrian cavalry units towards the end of play.

I will be working on adding further terrain for the hex cloth and finding a scenario that the French can't lose.