Some Napoleonic game shots

Late November we began our Möckern game. Due to vast amounts of chatting and calling an end early that day we only played one round and decided to pick it up last night. Well… while we played longer (real-time) we only got half a round done, due to rules discussions and discussing what would be historically correct. In the process we found that we had made a mistake during the resolution of close combat, moved the minis back, began the close combat anew, discussed what could be done differently as a house rule, tried that out and so on. Bottom line… we botched the evening up for good! So in the end we decided to reboot and start the game from the beginning either between Christmas and New Years or in early 2014. No matter what… I managed to take a couple of nice photos, that I want to share!

Möckern (Prussian side)

Möckern (French side)

Jäger approaching Möckern

Prussian and French lines closing in

Prussian artillery firing

Prussian left

So what is next? Well tomorrow Curt´s Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge starts. I already have a good amount of British Tanks and Infantry (all WWII), SS end a few Napoleonics cleaned up and primed ready to go. More will follow when we are off to visit my better halfs relatives over Christmas, so there should be plenty of stock to work from (plus I am expecting my Warzone minis any day now).

As I said in a previous post, the first fortnight theme (non-combatants) was giving me some headaches, but I think I shall have that sorted out with a nice Napoleonic entry. So stay tuned!

 

Brandenburger Hussaren

So as announced last month, here is the first in the series of posts meant to catch up with what I painted in November (precious few actually). This time it is the Brandenburg Hussars, or as one could say, the most illustrious unit in a row of illustrious units that fought at Möckern.

Brandenburger Hussar 1813

The  Nr. 3 Hussaren Regiment, Brandenburger Hussaren (also known as Zieten Hussaren) was founded in 1730 and named after its first Colonel, Hans Joachim von Zieten. During the 1806 campaign, the regiment was known as von Rudorff Hussar regiment, soon renamed Nr.2 Leib-Husaren von Rudorff).

The regiment was disbanded after it capitulated at Ratekau following the defeat of 1806. In 1807 it formed a squadron in its former depot as Freikorps Marwitz and amalgamated with Blücher’s Corps to create the 1st Brandenburg Hussar Regiment on 7 September 1808 (Husaren Regiment Nr.3). The regiment’s 2nd squadron served during the Russian Campaign of 1812 on the French side. But with the beginning of the Befreiungskriege just like the rest of the Prussian Army it fought the French once more, taking part in all of the 1813, 1814 and 1815 campaigns. But as most will agree their finest hour was at Möckern. When von Yorck saw that in spite their best efforts, the infantry was failing to take Möckern and the surrounding fields, he unleashed the cavalry. Now the French infantry was in no good state at that point of the battle and there are many accounts of some of their officers leaving (some would say deserting) their units to attend important business at higher commands. When the cavalry, lead by the Brandenburger Hussaren, hit them, their squares were not properly formed and broke under the cavalry attacks. So with their charge, the battle for Möckern was won. Many say that this loss forced Napoleon to reposition his units and eventually led to his his defeat at Leipzig.

In 1860, the regiment became part of the federal army of Germany and continued to serve into the first World War.

But now on to the minis. These are Calpe Miniatures, but I guess this comes as no surprise, since you will all have realized my preferences by now! Unfortunately these were a bit of a rushed job, so I could not do them as much justice as they deserve, but I hope you will like them anyway:

Brandenburger Hussaren (unit shot)

Brandenburger Hussaren (command stand)

Brandenburger Hussaren

Brandenburger Hussaren

Brandenburger Hussaren

Brandenburger Hussaren

Brandenburger Hussaren (details)

So up next are the two missing command bases for the Prussians at Möckern. You can expect those either tomorrow or on Friday.

 

Generic French Ligne Regiment

So as promised in my last post here are two more units of French Napoleonic Infantry. As with the last unit shown, these will serve as stand-ins for the Marine Artillery at Leipzig and otherwise will see service as a generic French infantry unit for a number of battles. A purpose made so much easier by their covered flags and fannions.
As before these two unit are pretty small with 20 minis (which equates to roughly 400 men under the R2E rules). When all that Leipzig rush for Crisis in Antwerp is over these two and the previous one will all receive another company, which will bring them to strength for use as an average French unit of the time I want to depict.

After I painted the last battalion up von Peter pointed out to me that according to regulation it was not the first company of a battalion that was carry the eagle/flag or fannion (as I had arranged them with that unit) but the second company. That way it would always be in the centre of the unit, no matter the formation. Now I did not go back and change that with the previously depicted unit (simply too many men with sabres on the bases in question where the tassels could not be corrected once multibased), so that was one unit that did not follow regulations. But with these two, I heeded to vP’s advise and their command bases feature the colours of the second company.

What else? Well I am usually a big fan of Calpe, but I had a hard time getting around these minis when I returned from my holidays. Even though the first unit was about 1/3 finished when I got back, it took me ages to finish it. Now Peter from Calpe has done some extremely detailed minis here! Which is fine unless you are a stickler for details (like me) and working on a tight schedule. This got me somewhat frustrated and as a result working slow. But if ones worst complaint about a mini is that it is extremely detailed… well there could be worse. On the other hand it was good to paint the second unit right afterwards since I managed to finish it in one weekend plus about a week with roughly two to three hours painting time a night. When I did the work on the bases yesterday though, I was extremely happy I chose Calpe for these battalions. They just look so immensely beautiful in my humble opinion.

I am not going to do photos of individual stands this time, to make sure I do not bore you with tons of detailed photos of marching men in greatcoats. If you want to see more detail, just click on the photos, since they are linked to larger versions:

Generic French regiment
[1st battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[1st battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[1st battalion, marching]

Generic French regiment
[2nd battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[2nd battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[2nd battalion, marching]

And I could not resist, but also take a photo of all three battalions in formation:

Generic French regiment
[three battalion shot]

I have to admit, that this progress was badly needed. I still have two Prussian commander bases (which will be next), the Brandenburg Hussars, two batteries of Prussian artillery and one battery of French artillery, and the village of Möckern itself to do. All in just one month. If push comes to shove, the Prussians could do without the two additional batteries, since they could be simulated with off-board fire and I could use a 12pdr. stand-in for the French, but after 2 1/2 years of preparing for this, I would hate it if I stumbled on the finish line. I shall keep you posted on the further progress!

 

Generic French Ligne battalion

Well, so I finally managed to finish these after all.

What can I say about these. Well first of all I plan to use these as a stand in for a marine artillery battalion at Möckern. As I said before, there is very little use for these men (marine artillery that is) outside this battle. So the three battalions already painted will be the maximum for me and the other six battalions will be served by stand ins.
Which is just as well. With the standardisation of the French uniforms during the later parts of the Napoleonic wars, the only difference between one unit and he other are the inscriptions on their flags. So having a generic battalion of Frenchmen comes in handy.
These Calpe minis here are just perfect for a generic unit. First of all their greatcoats swollow up what little difference there might be in uniform. The other thing is, that they come with flags and fannions covered up in oilskin. This easily masks the last destinguishing mark of the unit. Usually I would have removed these and replaced them with proper GMB flags (after all Napoleonics are about splendor, right!), but in this case I was just fine with that and kept them this way.
What else is there to say about these? Well as usual I loved to paint these. The detail of the Calpe minis is just great, as is the quality which makes the a joy to paint. While I keep repeating myself in this regard, I really mean it and I have to say with the Calpe French range expanding, I already regret having so many I unpainted Perrys lying around. (Face it… The animation on the Perrys is great and they are almost as detailed, but the casting quality is abysmal.)

Anyway, on to the paintjob itself. As usual I went for a muddied “on campaign” look, with greatcoats and trousers of different colours to represent men that had been everywhere for Napoleon and had to take what they could get, to replace lost items.
I painted stands for the Voltigeurs, Grenadiers and first to third companies. Right now I only need small 400 men battalions as stand ins, so this is enough. When done with the Möckern preparations, I shall return to these and paint them another stand for the 4th company to bring them to the average strength for the period I am playing, but this is the existence they will need to lead right now. So on to the minis themselves:

Generic French Battalion (frontal view)

Voltigeurs

Command – 1st Company

2nd Company

3rd Company

Before anyone mentions it. Yes, I know the Pom Pom colour for 3rd Companies should be rather a pinkish red. Not sure why I went for yellow here. I will change that soon.

Grenadiers

Generic French Battalion (march collumn)

Now those remembering my last post will ask “what will we see next and when?”.
Well in recent days I felt like I have gotten over my painters block. But you will not see anything new from me till late August at the earliest. We will be off to a three week hiking and festival trip to Scotland and Wales soon. After all the stress of recent months, I really feel I can use it! So if you see someone who looks like a Wargamers happy to unwind on a Ben or Munro in Scotland, up on Mount Snowdon or at the 40th anniversary concert of one of my favourite bands (Runrig)… say hi! 😉 When I return, there will hopefully be pictures of the next French unit, those riverboards I have bee working on or even better… another game report!

Take care!

 

No plan survives first contact with the enemy…

… or does it?

Well earlier this year I had serious doubts, if I could paint all the minis for my Möckern game at Leipzig. I did not make as good progress as I would have wanted last year and when the new year came there was the daunting prospect of painting all the big Prussian units for the game as well as three small French ones. So I did a mental calculation, where I would need to be at what time to have a chance for things to work out. So I decided that by the end of May I would have to be done with all the Prussian infantry, so the only units left to do would be three Prussian batteries, one French battery, said three French infantry units (which should paint up faster than usual since they will be wearing greatcoats) and a unit of Prussian Hussars. If the same goal would be achieved by the end of June, I assumed that there would still be a snowballs chance in hell for me to pull it through.

So where am I now. Well as of last night slightly more than half the minis for the last Prussian infantry unit (the Leibgrenadiere) are done. The other Prussian infantry units are done. I finished one of the Prussian batteries ahead of schedule. In addition I finished 35 minis for my 40K Tau army and the new river boards (which will also see use at Crisis) are about 70% done as well.

To me this is looking quiet well, especially when I look at the fact that I hardly did anything in April.

Leibgrenadiere WIP

For those wondering why their shakos are still in their light grey primer state: I always make sure that there are no duplicate minis on a base. But I also make sure that no two minis on the same base do have the same hair colour. Obviously I can only make the decision, which minis go on the same base, once every mini in the unit is done, so they are still awaiting their hair. And it is a bit easier to paint the shakos after the hair, so therefore they are not done yet. Those looking more closely will see that the skin is only in its base color so far. This is just a matter of taste. I want to make sure that the mini inside the unit have the same skin tone. I found that painting skin can be a bit temperamental in this regard, so I want to do all minis in one go here. The freiwilliger Jäger is completely done, since I painted him when I was doing the Jäger for the Brandenburger. Not much danger of a bad mix on a two mini base (especially when you already know which mini is going to be based together with him).