an 1813 'meeting engagement'

This time round the French will need to use their craft, skill and have some luck!

Here are the planned forces:

FRANCE Napoleon I ~ Emperor of France CIC 2 Aides de Camp 4 Battalions of Imperial Guard Infantry (Guard Class 6) 2 Battalions of Line Infantry 4 Squadrons of Chasseurs a Cheval (Elite Class 5) 2 Batteries of Horse Artillery Cavalry Reserve: Marshal Murat 6 Squadrons of Dragoons One Battery of Horse Artillery III Corps: Marshal Davout 2 Aides de Camp One Foot Battery 2 Batteries of Horse Artillery Second Division: General Friant 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry Third Division: General Gudin 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry VI Corps: Marshal Ney One Battery of Horse Artillery First Division: General Marchand 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry Second Division: General Gardanne 3 Battalions of Line Infantry Independant Cavalry formations: Beauharnais ~ Viceroy of Italy 4 Squadrons of Chasseurs a Cheval General Grouchy 4 Squadrons of Dragoons

RUSSIA Baron Levin Bennigsen ~ CIC 2 Aides de Camp 3 Batteries of Horse Artillery 4 Squadrons of Cuirassier (Elite Class 5) Artillery Reserve: Baron Lowenstern 4 Foot Batteries The Left Wing: Count Tolstoi One Aide de Camp 3 Battalions of Pavlov Grenadiers (Elite Class 5) 2 Battalions of Line Infantry 3 Foot Batteries Left Wing Cavalry: Count Pahlen III 6 Squadrons of Dragoons 6 Squadrons of Cossacks 6 Squadrons of Cossacks 4 Squadrons of Dragoons 2 Squadrons of Hussars 2 Squadrons of Hussars 2 Squadrons of Uhulans The Center: Baron Sacken One Aide de Camp 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry Count Essen Division: 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry General Zapolski Division: 3 Battalions of Line Infantry The Center Cavalry Brigade: General Galitzen 4 Squadrons of Cuirassier 6 Squadrons of Dragoons 3 Batteries of Horse Artillery The Right Wing: Count Tutchkov One Battery of Horse Artillery 4 Battalions of Jager Infantry 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry General Kamenskoi Division: 3 Battalions of Line Infantry 3 Battalions of Line Infantry Detachment General Bagvout: 4 Squadrons of Hussars One Battery of Horse Artillery 2 Battalions of Line Infantry 2 Battalions of Line Infantry

I am looking forward to seeing these forces in action!

Discussion of scales:

One of the other blogging sites was chatting about the various scales that thier minis were in (as the writer appeared to have different manufacturers).

The Miniatures Page has a very good discussion about all of this:

All About Scales

For my own part I like the more traditional 25mm scale for painting, I had gotten into much 15mm stuff, but found that the bigger 25mm's were easier to paint (even in quantity), they stand-up better to rougher handling (as the crashed box of minis, just enroute to a convention, did not have any damage to any minis!), and have moulds available so that I can produce what I want in the Napoleonic range.

What are your views?

Learning all the time...

I had seen images of Russian infantry, supposedly from the 1701 period, about 14 years ago in a art gallery in Santa Maria, on the Azores part of Portugal.

I did not recall the artist or the exact depiction but did recall the year (due mostly to my 'trek' fascination most likely).

The Russian troops were fighting against Swedish cavalry, the Swedes were in tans, browns and blue (light blue). The Russians were wearing primarily red, including long jackets or overcoats that had no lapels at all...I had thought them similar to the Cossack coats of the Napoleonic period.

The red uniforms for regular Russian infantry was a point of discussion between myself and one or two other gamers, both of whom insist that the Russians only ever wore GREEN as thier primary infantry coat colors, from the 1650's onwards according to one.

I have found the written account that I have been looking for:

Russian Regiments 1700

In this document, a translation from a Russian text, the writer says:

These new regiments received coats of the so-called Hungarian pattern, which was introduced in Preobrazenski and Semenovski regiments in 1699. The Ordinance of January 20, 1700 made this pattern obligatory for the whole army. Today, only two such coats exists and both are now in Stockholm Military Museum. One coat is red and evidently belonged to officer or NCO, the second is a blue soldier's coat. The coat was about 1 meter long with Polish-styled cuffs and small stand-up collar. The officer's coat was decorated with horizontal tab made of metal cord or lace.

and

Regiments raised in Moscow received coats of five colors: red, blue, brown, green and dark green. We know regimental coats of seven regiments: Gordon - dark green, Gulitc/Mevs - blue, N Balk - red, Ungorn and I v Verden - green, Fliverk - dark green, Polman - brown. Coat colors of the other regiments are unknown. Both dragoon regiments received green coats.

The red coat was mentioned twice, as an 'officer coat' (something that carried on into the Napoleonic period as guards officers had red overcoats - usually blurred to a dull brick or even pink like color by the time the troops reached Paris) and as the first color of the infantry regiments.

Red is an easier color to make in quantity, since the Russians would have had little time to get the uniforms ready to face Charles XII it seems very plausible that RED was the color of choice, at least until 1704, when more 'western' european style uniforms would have become available in quantity.

Because of this find I am sticking with my plans to do the 'russian flavored' opponents to the Duchy of Mieczyslaw in RED.

Some fantasy fun.

One thing about Hordes of the Things that I like is how fast the games play.

It allows for a tournament to actually be played out in one day, with everyone getting in some action.

It can also allow for a campaign to have some forward progress in only a single day.

Today we played out three years of a campaign of four players, with most of the players having painted minis!

It was a bit of fun to see the machiavelli in everyone come out...

I was able to sack one players capitol, with a lucky seige in a fall turn after beating off one of the other players whom had come to break the seige!

Then, in retaliation for seeing my forces in the lead, the other two players declared wars on me and in one year I was reduced to only 2 cities and lost a major field battle at my own capitol. So now I am another players underling...sigh.

Some tense moments and I was able to participate in a few battles.

Instead of the usual "center" city being a freebee, we decided to make it belong to a dragon, that must be driven off each season or finally defeated to capture the space. I liked this idea as it made the combat actions more focussed and allowed for quick games.

Here are a couple of shots:

The Dragon facing the game's current leader (in the one year he went to go and try is luck against the beast).


My Kelmyn host against a cobble-together army of David D's 'from the woodlands'.

I look forward to another few years of the game and then some real Napoleonic action at the Candle Dragon Inn later on the 13th of May.

More linkages!

It seems that the MarauderS and Mieczyslaw is getting around in Grimsby.

While setting up my new computer system (using it now to enter this information), I came across an entry in MiniatureWars.Com for not only MarauderS and Mieczyslaw, but also many other of the 18th Century circle.

I was poking around the MiniatureWars.Com entries and came across this link:

Commanders

For generating fictional army commanders.

Not only is it entertaining and humerous, I can see a way that it could be put to good use in a tabletop setting ... now if only I could get Bluebear on side.

I will also be adding a link to the MiniatureWars.Com location.

Lonely vigil ~ or opportunity to 'catch-up'?

My last game sunday, which I had planned for about a month, was to be a SHAKO meeting engagement and discuss plans for a 'north poland' 1807 campaign plan.


sigh


no players came.


I busied myself with final cleanup of the 'snow' from Eylau (while a real snowsquall kicked up outside the window!) and then I decided to get the force mix prepared for an 'on the road' game I have planned in May. Once that was done I re-designed the tricorne blue coated Prussians I have as the forces of Mieczyslaw (see the Duchy of Mieczyslaw page for details).

It was a useful exercise and prepared the way for a faster start to future games.

I am still doing the repairs to the damaged units (pinning needs drill work time and focus, not going to do that when tired as I will only end up hurting myself).

Later I got a note from one of the possible players saying that he did not come to the game as setup takes so long and the 'rules' are complicated and that game play is slow and since the rules are not well known he thinks that he is being 'hosed' (tricked for those readers not familiar with Great White North slang). Nuts I say, I have fully painted minis and all the fixins for the same experience as one can get at the best of most game conventions. I admit that it is Napoleonics and that 25mm scale takes some time to get the minis on the table...this allows for players to make their own decisions, otherwise the complaints would be all about not having any choices!

I dunno, I feel that I shall have to bend with the prevailing winds for a while and play some 'fantasy' games...sigh.

I was hoping to find at least one other player that wanted the tabletop events to be more than just 'filling time'.

Any thoughts from others out there?