Painting Count, six months gone

As June rolls into July it is time to count up the painting tally year-to-date.

Four projects are in play:

• The Russo-Japanese War

• The War of Spanish Succession

• The Crimean War

• The Wars of the Roses

I thought that I had done pretty well last year with 464 foot figures and 45 mounted figures for the year, but I have beaten that already. So the count to date:

495 foot figures

54 mounted figures

5 gun models

23 terrain pieces

In the plan for the rest of the year are included at least another 256 foot, 18 mounted and 6 guns.

 

War of Spanish Succession Game

Today we fought a War of Spanish Succession game.

The Anglo-Dutch army consisted of four Dutch battalions, two Austrian battalions, six English battlions, two regiments of Danish cuirassiers, one of Austrian cuirassiers,  one of Austrian dragoons, three of English horse, three of English dragoons, one regiment of Austrian hussars and four field guns. Each of the English and two of the Dutch battalions were accompanied by battalion guns.

The Franco-Bavarian army consisted of nine Bavarian battalions, three Spanish battalions, six French battalions, two regiments of Bavarian cuirassier, one of Bavarian Lieb cavalry, one of Bavarian dragoons, one of Spanish Cuirassiers, one of Spanish dragoons, one of French cuirassiers, three of French horse, two of dragoons and four field guns.

Both sides deployed in a fairly similar way, with cavalry on either flanks and the artillery in the centre. On the Franco-Bavarians side the Bavarians, supported by the Spanish cavalry took the left, while the French, with the Spanish infantry, too the right. The Dutch, supported by the Danish and Austrian cavalry were posted opposite the Bavarians, while the English faced off against the French and Spanish. Two Austrian battalions formed the link between the Dutch and the English.

From the start the Bavarian foot moved to strike the Dutch, while on the opposite flank the English cavalry look to dominate that part of the field by taking the high ground. The Bavarian and Danish cavalry commenced a cat and mouse game that would last all day.

On the French right flank the French cavalry initiated a fight with the English cavalry and came off the worse, being forced to retire. But the French second line struck back and drove back the first line of the English cavalry. The fight here would seesaw all day.

The Bavarian infantry advanced boldly but were struck by the Dutch musketry. The Lieb battalion was forced back while the Lieb Grenadiers staggered to a halt. A second attempt by the Bavarian foot to press the advance was similarly halted and their line looked decidedly shaky. 

The Dutch, however, also struggled to make headway, but held their ground doggedly. 

In a last ditch effort two Bavarian battalions stormed forward and drove back the first Dutch line. Here the Bavarian effort ended, with all of their battalions disrupted or shaken. 

Fortunately for them the Dutch were not in any better shape, although four Dutch battalions had held off nine Bavarians. Then in one disastrous turn four shaken Bavarian battalions decided they had had enough and quit the field. The next turn they were joined by another three battalions, leaving only two to face the Dutch.

Shortly afterward the Bavarian cavalry finally attacked the Danish troopers, but were driven from the field.

In the French front the French infantry survive the initial fire of the English and then pushed forward, driving off the first English battalion. The English infantry then counter attacked, only to be driven off, when a third English battalion was driven off, the English broke off the fight. Three of their battalions never managed to make it into the fight, trapped on the wrong side of a wood, and all but one of their cavalry regiments were destroyed.

Here the battle ended. The French were strong enough to claim the day, even though the Bavarians were effectively driven from the field. 

Free American Civil War Flags

Some seven or eight years ago, as a part of my American Civil War army expansion, I undertook to create some sets of ACW flags. I have no desire to make these commercially available so I am offering them here for free.

The flags are created from information that was available to me at the time and any errors are entirely mine. The sets include Union and Confederate National, Regimental, State and battle flags. Union Corps and divisional sets are also included.

These flags are drawn in a vector based drawing application and rendered to a high resolution (300 dpi) .png file. The originals were drawn to match 28mm figures (so that a Union National colour measures 30mm on the fly), but depending on the application you open the files in the images may need to be scaled. 

Confederate Flags

Union Flags

Union Corps and Divisional Flags

Life Goes On...

I just realised that my last post was almost a month ago. Time is flying by!

Real life has been demanding with financial year’s end approaching,  a major project coming to fruition, another project at the kick-off stage, staff annual reviews to complete and then I have been fighting off a cold that I brought back from Europe last month. But I haven’t be idle on the painting front, having painted 84 foot and 24 mounted figures since I came back from overseas.

Below are some (less than perfect) images of the latest additions.

The first unit of WSS Bavarian cuirassiers

I have been plugging away on the Bavarian WSS army and have now completed the infantry, 9 battalions in all, and have started on the cavalry, having completed a half regiment each of dragoons and cuirassiers, and the Lieb Horse Grenadiers. I hope to have another regiment of cuirassiers ready before we play a game this weekend. Then there will be only another two regiments of cuirassiers to go to complete the army.

The Lieb Grenadiers at the head of the first brigade 

The head of the second brigade

All of the infantry

The dragoons

I have also been powering through the Wars of the Roses figures that I bought in Toulouse. I have finished the archers and billmen set and have started on the foot knights. I have yet to complete the basing of these as I am waiting on basing supplied to arrive.

The billmen

One unit of archers

The first unit of foot knights

Two stands of the foot knights

I am really pleased with the Wars of the Roses figures and will look to getting some more after we return from holiday. This will add to the other projects: Crimean War, Russo-Japanese War, WWI in East Africa, Austro-Prussian War, Great Northern War…the list just goes on!