The Savants

When he went to Egypt in 1798 Napoleon developed a fascination with Egyptology. That fascination was sparked and then nurtured by the inclusion in his expedition of a contingent of more than 160 savants or scholars.

Their original purpose was to investigate the practicality of creating a canal to Suez, but during their time in Cairo the savants established the Instiut d'Égypt to spread the Republic's  principle of Enlightenment, improving its agricultural processes and architecture and they studied in depth the fauna, flora and history of Egypt. 

This group of six Savants are joining my French in Egypt army and in the not too distant future will feature in an adventure with a character who has featured on these pages in the past.

A Return to the Bavarians

With the completion of the last batch of buildings I have returned to working on the Franco-Prussian War Bavarians. This next batch of six battalions will represent Major General Joseph Maximilian Maillinger's 8th Infantry Brigade.

Born in Passau in October 1820 Maillinger entered Bavarian service in 1841 and served variously in the quartermaster service, the general staff and in the War Ministry.  He transferred to the 7th Infantry Regiment in 1865 as lieutenant colonel, and led the regiment as colonel a year later in the war against Austria. In the restructure of 1868 was given the 8th Infantry Brigade which he led through the early stages of the war in 1870. In the later stages of the war he commanded 4th Bavarian Division. He served with the Army of Occupation, returning to Bavaria in 1873 to take over the command of II Bavarian Corps upon the death of General Hartmann. He was Minister of War in the mid-1870s and took the inhabership the 9th Infantry (Wrede) Regiment. He served in the Reichsrat in 1888, retired from the army in 1893 and died at Bad Aibling in October 1901.

8th Bavarian Infantry Brigade consisted of:

• 3rd Battalion, 1st (King's) Infantry Regiment
• 3rd Battalion, 5th (Grand Duke of Hesse) Infantry Regiment
• 1st Battalion, 7th (Hohenhausen)  Infantry Regiment
• 3rd Battalion, 11th (von der Tann) Infantry Regiment
• 3rd Battalion, 14th (Hartmann) Infantry Regiment
• 5th Jäger Battalion

Presented here is III/1st Regiment.

You would think that with a  name like "King's Own" this regiment would have a long and distinguished history, after all the Royal Bavarian army has history that extends back to the 1680s, yet its establishment only dates back to 1814, when the army was restructured at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The grenadier companies were stripped from the line regiments to form the Lieb Regiment. The tallest men were retained for that regiment and the remainder formed the King's Own Regiment. 

The regiment went to France in 1815 as part of the Army of Occupation. When Ludwig I came to the throne in 1825 he slashed military spending and the third battalion was disbanded, but reinstated in 1835. During the disturbances of 1848 the regiment was assigned to protect the royal residences. It was engaged in the 1866 war in the west German campaign. In 1870 it fought at Wissembourg, Worth, Beaumont, Sedan, the Siege of Paris and in the Loire Valley. It was engaged in the Great War and was disbanded in 1918.

Given their "King's Own" title I have assumed that they would be more likely to have a bit more pride in their dress, so I have done them all wearing the Raupenhelm whereas the rest of this brigade will be wearing a mix of headgear.

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More Buildings

I have added the buildings previewed last week on my BUILDINGS FOR  SALE page.

Please note that NZ Post have suspended all parcel services to the USA until issues around the collection of newly imposed tariffs are resolved.  

This is a more diverse selection than the last batch with a mix of 28mm and 15mm scales. They have taken much longer to complete than I thought thanks to some garden cleaning up (not ours), our short trip to the south and a back issue that made sitting in one position for a length difficult.

When I begin work on a building project I usually start from a photograph of drawing of some structure that has caught my attention. Once I start to put together the underlying form I can see the model as though it is a finished product. Sometimes I make changes midway through the sculpting process, but almost always, when about half way through the build, I develop a thought that the design is not working. However, I persist and it always comes out as I expected at the start. The 15mm Mediterranean style villa included here is a prime example of the process.

The inspiration came from a contemporary photograph of houses near the Italian town of Magenta after the battle fought there in 1859. The model was then made incorporating features from some other drawings and some photos I had taken in Italy in the mid 1980s. I made it in 1999 for inclusion in the Military Miniatures range that I had sculpted over the previous 13 years and was to be the 139th model in the 15mm range. But I left Military Miniatures (or Battlefront as it had just been renamed) in October of that year and the master was never delivered. It has sat in a shelf in my study ever since. On numerous occasions I have thought "I really should paint it up..." and now I have, and it looks exactly as it appeared in my mind's eye when I started the sculpt 26 years ago.

For those interested the Yarkshire Gamer podcast that featured my gaming experience has been released here:

 https://kenrtai.podbean.com/e/episode-78-mark-strachan-new-zealand-1866/

An End of Winter Break

As we ready ourselves to launch into spring south of the equator, we headed away on Tuesday into the wintery south for a few days with a stay in Wanaka and another epicurean adventure.

Our arrival was a little gloomy as approached Queenstown airport through the Kawerau Gorge.

The gloominess turned to rain by the time we reached our lunch destination at Cromwell, but when we arrived at our Wanaka hotel an hour or two later and 50 kilometres to the north west it was fine and sunny. We sat briefly on the patio in front of our room enjoying the brilliant sunshine and the view across the parklike grounds down to the lake.

Dinner in town that evening was enjoyed with a stunning backdrop of the sun setting across the lake and beyond the mountains.

Wednesday dawned cold (just a fraction above freezing), but gloriously sunny and still. 

After a morning walk along the shoreline (the lake level is lower than I have seen it before) to the accompaniment of the Bellbird' song, we headed across the Crown Range to Queenstown before making for Arrowtown for lunch.

Returning to the hotel in the early afternoon, we walked into town for drinks and dinner. The day was still sunny, but the wind had swung to the north east and had really picked up and whipped up the white caps on the lake. It was cold! 

By the time we finished dinner and walked back the wind was howling through the poplars that line the lake shore. We were glad to be back in the warmth of our room.

Thursday dawned fine, but that vicious north westerly wind persisted. Rain was falling at the head of the lake, but only a few drops fell as we walked into town for coffee.

After lunch we went looking at real estate in the area. An early dinner in a gathering evening gloom followed.

On Friday, our departure day, the wind was gone, but rain had settled in and there was thunder rumbling through the mountains. It was a good day to be leaving. I expected some snow flurries at the top of the Crown Range, but the temperature didn't drop low enough.

In no time we were in the lounge at the airport awaiting our flight. By the early afternoon we will be home again.

Russo-Japanese War Game

On Sunday we played a Russo-Japanese War game. Set in 1904 in northern Korea, near the Yalu River, a Japanese force of three infantry divisions (two line and one guard) were attacking a Russian Siberian Infantry Division defending a crossroad town that was vital to the communications of the region. A second, larger Eastern Russian Infantry Division, was marching to their aid, but needed to pass through a gap and cross a river to get to them.

The Russians could deploy 600mm of trenches anywhere on the table up to the halfway mark. They chose to place it directly in front of the town and occupied it with two machine guns and two jager battalions. The remainder of the force, nine Siberian battalions and four field batteries were deployed either side of the trench.

The game I anticipated was that the Japanese would attack the the main Russian position with two divisions while the third would be compelled to hold off the Russian reinforcements. But id didn't quite work out that way. The reinforcing force was slow to arrive, due in part to some poor dice rolling and never really threatened the Japanese right flank.

The Siberians put up a mighty defence, but in the end were overwhelmed by the Japanese, who had more battalions, more machine gun and more artillery. But it is not to say that the Japanese had it all their own way, half the Guard Division was badly knocked about and the first of the line divisions suffered badly at the hands of Russian machine guns and artillery.

Still it was nice to get these figures out of their boxes...the last time they saw daylight was in August 2019.

The thin Siberian line at the commencement of the battle

The Guards division at the kick off

The Guards engaged with the Siberian right

The Eastern Division making its way through the gap

The Japanese 1st line division advancing

The Japanese 2nd line Division advances, turning some troops to face the Russian reinforcements.

A view of the whole Japanese advance, the guards can be seen in the distance ascending the hill opposite the Siberian right

The Japanese line divisions surging forward

Attacking the trenches...

...defended by the Siberian battalions

More Siberians facing a Japanese assault

The Guards advancing

The trenches fall

And now a whole bunch of pictures provided by John, our Foreign Correspondent.