French Cavalry

One of the attractive features of this period is the large amounts of cavalry employed. It is not unreasonable to field 25-30% of an army as horse or mounted dragoons, which gives plenty of opportunity for that sight, much beloved by wargamers: the massed cavalry charge. "Corporal John and the Sun King" encourages this, with a very clean and decisive melee system, where waves of cavalry can charge, fall back and counter charge with dramatic changes in fortune. Alternatively, if both sides throw good morale dice, the action can build up into a huge swirling melee that can last for several turns.

Having shown a few pics of my growing allied cavalry force, I thought you might like to see the French cavaliers in all their glory. So far, I have seven regiments; 4 of horse and 3 of dragoons, but over the next year or two, I will be looking to double this by adding several more units of horse and some Household troops and Gensdarmes.

This shot, shows the whole force in motion; dragoons on the left, horse on the right. Below are a few shots of my favourite unit: the Royal Cravattes in action. Firstly a close up, followed by charges against the Dutch Foot Guards and Murray's Scots Regiment in Dutch Service.

Here are some shots of the larger force on the move - in imposing sight!

I have really got the bit between my teeth now with this period and hope to see the size of the collection grow considerably. Next on the list is more French infantry; I have recently completed a battalion of the regiment Le Roi, and have the figures for three more awaiting my attention. Alongside them are two further battalions of English infantry and another regiment of French horse. I was chatting to Barry Hilton at the Partizan show last Sunday and he has big plans for his Warfare Miniatures range, which is really taking off. I saw a unit of his newly painted (Jacobite) horse, which were quite superb, with lots more stuff in the pipeline icluding French Guards and a range of flags, which also looked very nice indeed. Now seems a great time to get into this period with so many nice figures on the market.

If you fancy a regiment or two for your own collection, let me know.

Bavarian Kurassiers

The most recent addition to my allied cavalry force, this 24 figure regiment should provide some extra punch. During the War of the Grand Alliance, the allied cavalry seemed to come off worst on most occasions against the better led and better trained French cavaliers. By the time of the Marlburian campaigns, the Bavarians had of course switched sides; only to come up against the rejuvinated allied horse. The figures are all Foundry, apart from the Dixon trumpeter. By using the water effect and the dismounted trooper, I only needed to paint 22, rather than 24 figures: a useful saving of time and money and looks quite good too!

Next up will be some pics of my French cavalry.

Long Time No Post

My main regret is as a wargamer is that there only seem to be 24 hours in a day. Not that this is an excuse for such a long break in posts on this blog, but I have been busy. Coaching a junior football team and transporting my son around to seemingly endless games certainly eats into your hobby time. I have also been pretty busy on the work front recently with a number of  commissions. The football is now over and the work is back to more manageable levels, so it is high time that I resumed this blog. So, what have I been up to?

Probably the main change is to my Grand Alliance collection. At Sheffield Triples last year, I was much taken by the Grimsby lads' Marlburian demo. They were handing out sets of the quick play rules that they were using and when I got home, I read them through. The game, which I spent quite a lot of time watching was both visually impressive and, apparently, fun to play - both important factors for me. The rules, whilst simple seemed very well thought out, with simple but effective mechanisms. I decided that they were for me. Up to that point I had been using Barry Hilton's Beneath the Lily Banners, and was quite happy with them. The main thing that put me off was the unit sizes - typically 18 figures in most infantry battalions and 12 in most cavalry regiments. The Grimsby rules: "Corporal John and the Sun King", seemed to use units roughly double this size. Such units, deployed in line looked great. The rules are intended for the Marlburian period and therefore make no mention of pikes. Adding a few amendments to cover this and one or two other things was simple enough and in no way alters the "feel" of the rules.

So, what to do. I decided to start with the units I already had and simply build them up to the desired strengths. This involved essentially doubling the size of my allied battalions from 18 to 36 and increasing the French from 18 to 30. For the cavalry I settled for simply adding 6 figures to each unit. After that came the difficult bit - 30/36 figure battalions from scratch!

As things stand, I now have 8 allied (6 Dutch and 2 English) battalions but only 6 French. These are fully up to strength. My French cavalry is also fully uprated and comprises 3 regiments of horse and 3 of dragoons each of 18 figures and a larger 24 man regiment of horse - the famous Royal Cravattes. The allied cavalry is still a work in progress; my Dutch cavalry are all up to 18s - 2 regiments each of horse and dragoons, with one of my two Danish regiments similarly completed. My Danish Horse Guards and 2 English regiments still remain to be done. To beef up the allied horse in the meantime, I have painted up a 24 figure Bavarian Kurassier regiment - these can be used by the French for Marlburian games.

Dutch dragoon brigade (top) comprising regiments Dopff (middle) and Garde Dragonder.

Dutch Horse Brigade (top) comprising regiments Wurtemburg (middle) and Driesbergen

One of the main developments on the figures front for this period is the release of Barry's own range: Warfare Miniatures. These are specifically designed for the Grand Alliance period with informal tricornes and are quite superb. What is better, they mix in perfectly with my existing Dixon figures and I use both ranges within the same unit.

I will post some more pics shortly, showing the rest of the collection so far.

28mm Farm

I thought a few pictures of the building featuring in the background of the previous post might be of interest. Although the choice of pre fabricated buildings (mainly resin) has never been so extensive, nothing can really beat a piece made to order. Not only can it be made to a specific size and design; it is, of course, unique.

The materials I use vary; this particular model being mainly 5mm foamboard, with extras of wood, card and other odds and ends. The most time consuming part of the whole business is, without doubt, the roof - there are something like 2,500 individual tiles! In 20mm scale you can get away with plastic sheet material, as used by railway modellers, but this just doesn't look right in the larger scales. All of this ensures that scratch building is not the cheapest option, but a well painted resin model of this size, from a company such as Grand Manner, for example, would also set you back a few bob.

Cuirassier divisionaire

After the rigours of putting together a demo game, I have been very busy - hence the lack of posts.

One of the collections that is growing, albeit sporadically, is my Napoleonics. With a dozen Russian and 7 French battalions completed, I thought it was about time for some cavalry. What better than a brigade of French cuirassiers?  To my mind these are some of the nicest figures that the Perrys have produced and a joy to paint.

My cavalry regiments are usually 16 figures strong and I have one regiment under paint at the moment. With my own club (Leeds) hosting the FIASCO show this coming weekend, I will take the opportunity to pick up the figures for a second regiment from Dave Thomas. Eventually I would like a full division of 4 regiments (and why not?) and I thought that I would start with the command base. The commander is from the Perry heavy cavalry generals pack, the wounded trooper and dead horse are Foundry. The building in the background was scratch built by me. 

More Partizan pics

A few more pics of the Partizan game last Sunday. A couple of general shots, fleeing refugees, a deployed American field artillery battalion and some advancing Germans. This was the first display game I have ever put on by myself - I usually operate with the Bramley Barn group - and it was very satisfying to do it as an integrated project. The terrain making side of the hobby is really enjoyable and the key to any good looking game.

Partizan 2011

It was a tight finish but managed to get it all done in time! The day went well with everything set up before the doors opened to the public.  It was the first time that I had seen the whole thing laid out, including the figures and vehicles and it looked pretty good. Unsurprisingly perhaps, it was the only snow game at the show and attracted a lot of comment. We didn't play the game through as such; one of  the real pleasures of Partizan for me is talking to people  I only see at this show. Had a chat with Colin Rumford about the excellent new Rapid Fire book on Monty's Desert Battles and his forthcoming and much anticipated (by me at any rate) book on Crete. As I was set up next to The League of Augsburg game, I also had a very pleasant chinwag with Barry Hilton, who had samples of his new Grand Alliance range - and very nice they were too. As usual the Newark club put on a good show, but it did seem rather quiet to me. Even so, a good day out and as my first solo effort demo game, a success.

The first picture shows a column of traffic-jammed American armour trying to force its way through crowds of fleeing refugees in Rodt. The second has elements of the FBB entering

Ober Emmels directly whilst others outflank it to the North.

I may in due course decide to sell the Partizan set up (in whole or in part), so let me know if you are interested.