Hussars Finished

Despite having another flare-up of my gout, I have managed to finish the last two planned units for my Saxe-Bearstein and vile Stagonian forces . . . a pair of irregular Hussar units (one for each army).

At left is a view of the irregular forces for both Saxe-Bearstein (left of photo) and those vile Stagonians (right of photo, in blues).

Each army has two irregular foot and two irregular light horse units.  Below find closer photos of the two new Hussar units:

Saxe-Bearstein Hussars

Stagonian Hussars . . . so very vile

Each army also has three 12-man foot skirmisher units, which are mounted individually.  The Saxe-Bearstein unit facing colors are Yellow (pictured), Green and Black; while those of the vile Stagonians are Blue (pictured), Lavender and cream facings:

Other Saxe-Bearstein Foot Skirmishers have Green & Black facings

Lavender & Cream are the facing colors for the other vile Skirmishers

The Skirmishers have been finished for ages but I'd never posted photos before today.  The Hussars are the only new units . . . and I had to 'play hooky' from painting my ECW units in order to paint them . . . but I needed a break from all of the pike & shot units.

-- Jeff

A look at the Regulars

It has been a while since I've posted.  This is due to a number of health problems that my wife has been going through.  They have been eating up a lot of our time but they seem to be steadying off a bit.

Saxe-Bearstein Foot, Horse & Dragoons

To the left you can see some of the "good guys".

The eight regular infantry regiments (there are also two irregular regiments) are shown above.

By the way, the unit in yellow coats are the von Pilsen Pioneers.  These veterans are not only a solid combat unit but are available for engineering duties when required.

Below them are four units of Horse (in darkened cuirass) and four units of Dragoons (in red coats).

Regular Stagonian Infantry, Horse & Dragoons

And to the left you can now see the regular line troops of the "bad guys" . . . yes they are those much despised vile Stagonians in another combined photo.

The regiment with light grey caps are the "St. Cyr Sappers" (similar to the von Pilsen Pioneers in that they are also an engineering unit).

Beneath them are the four Horse (blue coats on the left) and Dragoon regiments (on the right in variously colored coats) of Stagonia.

Not shown are the jagers of both armies.  Each has four units of 12 figures each (all individually based on pennies).  The irregular foot (two 24-man units each) and light horse (two 12-horse units each).

Also not shown are the Generals, Brigadiers, Aides de Camp and Artillery . . . but they are all painted and ready as well.

-- Jeff

ECW Royalist Army Composition

I thought that I'd share with you the intended composition of my ECW Royalist army . . . at least as intended at this point (the figures have been purchase but are not yet painted).  Read more about my ECW adventure on my "Project ECW" blog.

Photo of Murdock's Parliamentary Troops -- not mine

First my Foote:

• Pike & Shot -- 12 units (5 Green, 4 Veteran, 3 Elite)
• Commanded Shot -- 4 units (1 Green, 2 Veteran, 1 Elite)
• Dismounted Dragoons -- 2 units (1 Green, 1 Veteran)

Then my Mounted -- 12 total units -- 10 Horse, 2 Dragoons:

• 7 units of Gallopers -- ( 2 Green, 3 Veteran, 2 Elite)
• 3 units of Trotters -- (1 Green, 1 Veteran, 1 Elite)
• 2 units of mounted Dragoons -- (1 Green, 1 Veteran)

Finally the Artillery -- a variety of different sized guns with enough artillerymen to man as many as we are likely to field.

I should note that the above lists are substantially the same as Murdock's Parliamentary Army except that he will have the exact reverse number of Trotters and Gallopers.

-- Jeff

Vile Stagonian Situation

I'm undergoing another gout attack so I'm zonked on pain killers right now . . . so maybe I'm overlooking something obvious but I seem to be unable to access my Kingdom of Stagonia blog.  It was created using a different email account and Google (which absorbed Blogger) won't let me use that email address.

Therefor I will give you a thumbnail view of the current state of their army prior to "The Stagonian Wars".  Here is a glimpse into my figure cabinet at the main body of the Stagonian forces:

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that there are two fewer foot units than in the forces of the Principality of Saxe-Bearstein.

This is because those two are still in the process of being painted.  Their facing colors will be black and orange by the way.

In addition the army has two units of irregular foot and three of skirmishers . . . all of which are fully painted and based.

To the left is a glimpse of the Stagonian Horse and Dragoon regiments.

As with their opponents they will have a pair of Hussars as well (one of which is painted and one which is not).

And, of course, there are officers and artillery . . . all ready for the table top.

Again all of the figures in the Stagonian army are Blood Axe Miniatures . . . sculpted by Lance Runolfsson and available from Historifigs.

But the Stagonian figures are drawn from the Great Northern war line of figures as opposed to the Saxe-Bearstein figures which are mostly from the War of Spanish Succession line.  The primary difference being that the Stagonian figures have turnbacks whereas the "good guys" do not.

You might well notice that the grenadier hats are also quite different.

You can compare them with the WSS (non-bearskin) versions from my last post.

Actually I should clarify that the irregular units for both armies are mostly drawn from the Blood Axe GNW forces of Russia and Poland.

Again the irregular companies (i.e., stands) are based in a loose diamond shape instead of the more traditional two by two companies of the regular line troops.

Above you can see some in both line and column formations . . . and again they are based on the same size bases  as the mounted troops (around 50mm square) instead of the 40mm square basing of the regulars.

-- Jeff

Grenadiers & Irregulars

In my post on re-flagging my Saxe-Bearstein army I mentioned Grenadiers and Irregulars.  Today I'll provide a few photos to give some idea as to what they look like.

 Here is an example of what some of my "converged grenadiers" might look like (both from the front and rear).

Oh, and if you are curious about the yellow-coated figures, they are from my "Pioneer" battalion.

I should point out, by the way, that these photos were taken with a brand new (for me) digital camera (since my old one had given up the ghost, I bought it yesterday). 

It isn't fancy (under $80 Canadian at Staples), but I'm pleased with the value for money.  It is a Canon Powershot A1400.

As for the different basing of my Irregular units, here is an idea as to what they look like in both line and column:

By the way, for those who might be curious about the figures, the entire Saxe-Bearstein and Stagonian armies are all 25mm Blood Axe figures, sculpted by Lance Runolfsson and currently available from Historifigs (although I don't think they are all listed on their website yet).

-- Jeff

Re-Flagging my Saxe-Bearstein Infantry

Like many others before me I decided to "re-flag" my 18th Century Saxe-Bearstein Infantry.  Why?  Because larger-than-historical flags just look better on the table top.

What you see above is eight 24-figure single-battalion regiments.  All are based on four-figure 40mm square bases.  Generally these regiments will operate as 20-figure units since their stands of grenadiers (rear row) will be converged into separate units within their brigades.

Not pictured are also a pair of "irregulars" . . . also in six-stand 24-figure units.  However they are based differently and have no grenadiers.  The irregulars are based (as are mounted troops) on 50mm square bases . . . (okay I use 47mm square bases instead so that they'll fit in my display cabinet).

Instead of being based in the two rows of two like the regulars, the irregs are in a "diamond" pattern of 1-2-1 so that even in line they have an irregular look.

As I mentioned, mounted troops are based two to a base on the same size bases as the irregs:

 

Above you see four 12-figure units of Horse and four of Dragoons . . . I haven't yet decided whether or not to re-flag them.

Also not pictured are a couple of Hussar Regiments; and three 12-figure units of foot skirmishers which are mounted on pennies.  In addition  have a generous selection of Generals, Brigadiers and Aides-de-Camp . . . as well as Artillery, of course.

-- Jeff

Flock it

Because once my new cycle of chemotherapy kicks in I will probably not be up to any face-to-face gaming  . . . (the fatigue is really devastating) . . . I have been working on getting my 18th century troops refurbished so that I can have two opponents (Saxe-Bearstein and the vile Stagonians) available for solo play.

This has involved some reorganization, some re-painting, much new painting and a lot of re-basing.  In fact I now have over 300 troop bases to flock . . . and a tedious job it will be . . . but when I'm done I will have a nice pair of armies to use for solo gaming . . . well I will once I've re-written my "Tricorne Wars" rules for solo gaming.

And for those who are interested, no I have not given up on my ECW project.  But there are many hundreds of figures that need to be readied, painted, based and flocked yet . . . and even then I will only have one side (Royalist, of course) so it wouldn't be available for solo play . . . but it will give me something else to do during chemo recovery time.

On another note, my solo "dungeon delves" continue.  I'm finding them interesting since I never know what will happen next . . . and they don't take much time or energy to play out.

Speaking of "out" . . . we need to stay "in" for a while.  Our part of Vancouver Island (off the west coast of Canada for those who don't know) generally only sees one or two snow days a year . . . but we are currently in our third day of continuous snow.  We have about 8" (20 cm) currently on the ground and are supposed to get another 6" (15 cm) today.  Yes, I know that these are not devastating depths for many areas but we are not used to them.

I hope that things are better in your part of the world.

-- Jeff