AWI Hessian Grenadiers

 

With a couple of Hessian musketeer regiments already having taken the field, supported by a few jagers and a field gun, I thought that a battalion of grenadiers would be a useful addition. I decided to do a battalion of 8 bases (32 figures) all from the excellent Perry range. I usually rate these a little higher in terms of morale - B class rather than C for the musketeers. Hessian troops also move in a slightly more sedate fashion in action; each movement "action" that they achieve in line formation is at 3 inches rather than 4 for the British and Continental regulars, although they do manage to keep up when deployed in march column, when the movement rate is 6 inches.

I may well add a second unit of grenadiers at some pont - the Hessians did actually field an entire grenadier brigade early in the war, as well as possibly a battalion of fusiliers to bring the Hessian contingent up to 5 battalions in total. At the moment I am a bit occupied painting 7YW Austrian infantry and building up my Napoleonic Prussian army. Even though I am now retired, it feels like wading through treacle trying to catch up with the backlog. That said, I have recently completed a brigade (72 figures) of British grenadiers and around 95 American militia, so I haven't been completely idle!!

AWI British Additions

I believe this unit made its debut in the battle report I did some while back, losing quite heavily to fire from Morgan's rifles if I recall. 20 figures (5 bases) representing around 200 actual men. Whilst a fairly sombre uniform it gives a nice contrast to the red ranks of the British and loyalist regulars.

A real gap in my collection was filled by the completion of a couple of battalions of light infantry. I already have a few in skirmish order but no British army of the period can do without a contingent ready to fight in more traditional fashion. Here are 2 battalions of 24, although I may increase them to 32s at some point. These guys are pretty handy in most rules (they certainly are in mine) being both high in morale and aggressive  in action.

British grenadiers are next on the list to boost the forces of the crown. After that a couple more line battalions, another loyalist unit and maybe some British Legion cavalry. From then on it will just be the odd addition if something takes my fancy - the Perry British Guards do look very nice! I am trying to set a limit on my AWI (and ACW) forces - let's see how that goes!!

 

Napoleonic Battle Report

Regular wargaming partner Roj has just put this up on his Ga Pa Great Northern War blog. A nice account of him hammering me in a very enjoyable Napoleonic encounter a couple of months back.

 Great Northern War Gaming & Other Projects: Playtest Eastern Front Napoleonic Game

I am hoping to do more AARs myself in due course, with some notes on the rules and how they work.

Some ACW Union Regiments

As I mentioned in an earlier post on painting my first Confederate brigade, the Perry plastic ACW figures are both very nice and fairly easy to paint. Union troops if anything are even simpler, with a comforting degree of uniformity, unlike the rebs. I also give them 2 flags rather than a single battle flag, which also helps. Decided to go with right shoulder shift again, as I think it really suits the period and protects the muskets and bayonets a bit more. With 5 figures to a base, rather than the more traditional 6 in 2 ranks of 3, you can jumble up the ranks a little to give that slight sense of disorder in a regiment moving briskly to the front. You also get 6 bases for the price of 5 with 30 figures - a considerable saving. 

I am working on and playtesting a home brew set of rules with my regular wargaming mates which use a scale of 1 base to 60 men. A "typical" regiment is therefore between 4 and 6 bases, although they can be larger. Smaller regiments are a bit flimsy in action and best avoided. 

As before the rank and file are plastic, the command figures from the Perry metal range - I use a complete metal pack with each regiment in order to get the two standard bearers that I need; my Confederate regiments can get by with half a pack (3 figures) each.

The exception is the Zouave regiment, in this case the 114th Pennsylvania, which is all plastic. They really do add a splash of colour to an otherwise fairly sombre army, although I do find that long lines of blue and grey can still look very appealing on the table.

I try to have a couple of batches of ACW figures on the go in various stages of completion as often as I can; it is one of those periods that, for me, is really do-able through the "little and often" method.  When painting more "formal" units, I usually prefer to do all 24/32/40 at once to maintain uniformity. With an ACW collection a dozen figures a week, before you know where you are, you have a couple of brigades a side and a game in the offing.

Am aiming for 16-20 infantry regiments a side, so still a way to go, but Gettysburg wasn't built in a day! Add 3 or 4 batteries and a selection of command bases and you are done. Cavalry is something I am still mulling over; not very prominent on most battlefields but would add a real degree of variation in our games. Couple of brigades a side - what do you think?

A Second ACW Confederate Brigade

Here are the fruits of a few months of "little and often" painting that I find really works for this period. The units aren't really "organised" in the usual sense in that I have a number of command bases as you can see below to which are added as many infantry bases as I need to make up the unit sizes for the game. In the rules we are using this can vary from 4 to 8 bases (occasionally a little more, but rarely less). This batch is 4 regiments of 6 bases each (representing 360 real men); it could equally be made up into a regiment of 4 bases, 2 more of 5 bases and a large regiment of 10 bases. This is the advantage of ACW, where the uniforms for the vast majority of troop types are indistinguishable, all you need is a command base and take it from there - very flexible.

As usual, the rank and file are Perry plastics and the command are mainly metal figures from the same source with a few plastics from the box thrown in. Overall, they look nice, even with a fairly routine paint job. Flags are GMB.

 

A New Napoleonic Army - The Prussians

 

With a decent sized Russian army you can always give the French and their allies a good run for their money, but for 1813-14 (my favourite campaigns), you really need a healthy Prussian contingent to help with the heavy lifting. Once again I have gone for Foundry figures for the infantry and again I really like the variety and quality of these admittedly ageing sculpts. So far I have managed 5 units of line infantry (1 fusilier and 4 musketeer), plus a command base, with the intention of doing another fusilier and probably 1 or maybe 2 grenadiers. In the last Foundry Christmas offer, I stocked up on reserve infantry (6 units) and landwehr (6 units), for a grand total of 19. This should be enough!

                                       First up is the 2nd Silesian Regiment

                                             The 4th East Prussian Regiment

                                                    

                                                      The 1st Silesian Regiment

                                                            Silesian Fusiliers

                                    And finally the 2nd Pomeranian Regiment

As you can see, the units have a definite campaign feel, with a sprinkling of different colours on trousers,rolled greatcoats and shako covers, plus the odd forage cap. As all I have are regulars at the moment, they will do for the early spring campaign of Lutzen and Bautzen. If I want to go beyond that, I will need to get cracking on the reservists and Landwehr. I also have a couple of boxes of Perry plastic Prussian dragoons, a regiment of metal hussars and half a dozen artillery batteries to make a start on so slowly slowly.

Napoleonic French Cuirassiers

With a light cavalry division under my belt, I thought I had better add some heavies to counter the dragoons and cuirassiers I already have in my Russian army. As with the lights I decided to opt for Perry plastics again, getting enough to make 6 regiments (5 Cuirassier and 1 Carabinier). Here are the first 3 to take the field. As usual lovely figures from the Perrys.

The carabiniers are part done, but the Seven Years War project and more AWI keep getting in the way. Also busy working on more drop on terrain - trees and ACW fencing; just as well I am retired now!!