More Brazilian Infantry

Fresh off the conveyor belt is this  Brazilian unit. I decided to do these in white tropical kit.

I must admit that less than third of the way into them I was asking myself  why I chose white...it was a struggle for me, especially painting in the evenings when is still hot and I was a little tired. But I got through them and basing them in a unit like this conceals a multitude of sins.

Next it is back to the Paraguayans.

A Short Break

Today, Monday 1 February, is a provincial holiday for Auckland, our Anniversary Day. While many Aucklanders flee the city to popular beachside holiday centres on these long weekends we generally stay at home because the accommodation usually fills up too quickly, prices inflate and the traffic flows back to the city at the end of the weekend are abysmal. But this is no ordinary year and last Wednesday her indoors phoned me to say that the Sofitel in Queenstown - a luxury hotel that usually charges between $700-1000 per night - had a bed a two night bed and breakfast deal for just $500 and should we go? Since any airfares were already paid for, thanks to a significant airline credit resulting from last year’s cancelled Canadian trip, and considering that all we would need to worry about would be the cost of the hotel, a rental car and some food, the answer was yes. Next day we made our bookings and bright and early on Saturday we boarded our flight to Queenstown, in the deep south of New Zealand.

Arriving just before 10:00am we picked up the rental car and drove out to Arrowtown, a gold mining settlement in the 1860s. It is a charming place filled with old colonial buildings, eateries and trinket shops...and several very expensive wine shops too I might add. After a walk about and lunch we headed back to Queenstown and our beautiful hotel room with a view over the top of the town and down to the lake. After a brief freshen up we went into the town to scout out places for dinner. The usually bustling town is suffering badly from the loss of overseas tourism and was far quieter than we have known it on previous visits. We walked without the crowds around the lake front on a gloriously sunny and warm day.

Having decided on where we would dine we popped into the supermarket an bought a couple of bottles of Otago Pinot Noir (at a significantly lower price than the Arrowtown stores I hasten to add) and returned for an afternoon drink in our luxury room while we read our books (and I wrote up the blog post on the previous day’s wargame). After a pleasant Thai dinner we went down to the waterfront and sat on the wall in the hot evening sun to watch the SS Earnslaw steam back to the dock from her dinner cruise.

Then we watched the sun set behind Ben Lomond at 9:20 - I had forgotten that this far south sunset is much later than Auckland...a good hour later in fact.

Going..

...going...

...GONE!

Sunday brought forth a welcome lie in followed by a leisurely breakfast before we headed south on a day out, pausing first at the Shotover River Bridge. The bridge itself no longer carries the highway, having been replaced by a wider one decades ago, and is now only only used by mountain bikers and pedestrians.

Then we drove down through the Kawerau Gorge through which the azure water of river of the same name flows. Here it is rushing through the rapids known as Roaring Meg.

Still further south we stopped at the Alexandra Bridge (the supports of the old in front of the new) across the Clutha River, the Clutha Dam, and paused for a great view over the confluence of the Kawerau and Clutha Rivers in front of Cromwell town.

On the outskirts of Cromwell we stopped for an excellent lunch at a carvery called the Stoker House with very generous servings at very reasonable prices...ours was a middle sized plate so goodness know what a large plate would have been like!

Then on the way back to Queenstown we stopped at a spa in Arthur’s Point and sat in a hot tub for an hour soaking up the heat and the fabulous view over the Shotover River, where we watched the tourist jet boat shoot the rapids. It was a wonderfully relaxing thing to do with just the rustling of the trees and the songs of the birds to be heard.

After dinner in an Indian Restaurant we were ready to sit on the wall again and watch the sun dip below the edge of the mountains, but a sharp wind was blowing up the lake, making it a little less than pleasant. So we returned to the hotel for an nightcap...or two.

All too soon Monday morning came around and although we had a leisurely wakeup and breakfast, we were soon on our way to the airport for our flight home, with these superb views on the climb out.

The valley between Cecil and Bayonet Peaks on the southern arm of Lake Wakatipu

Cecil Peak

Bayonet and Cecil Peaks in the foreground and Queenstown in the distance, upper right.

By 3:30 we were home, the weekly food shop done, everything put away and sitting down for a coffee, acutely aware in these COVID times just how privileged we are in this country to be able to move around with such ease.

Under the Lily Banners Game

On Friday two of us played a game using the Under the Lily Banners rules sort of set in the 1690s. Eight battalions and French infantry, fourteen squadrons of horse, two squadrons of dragoons and two field guns took on eleven Bavarian infantry battalions ten squadrons of cavalry, two squadrons of dragoons and two field guns. I commanded the Bavarians and Nick the French.

The terrain featured a village on the French edge of the table that was the objective for the Bavarian attack. To the left (from the French perspective) of that was a river that was only able to be crossed at a ford. To the right and forward of the village was a large walled church on the edge of a large dense wood.

We both planned our deployment. I had to deploy one of my brigdaes on the banks of the river and then dice to see which bank they arrived on. Just my luck they arrived on the far bank, so figuring that the best they could do was hold up some of the French, I chose to place the brigade with three raw battalions and one drilled (plus a gun). If they were lost, they probably would not cause me too much grief.

I then chose to deploy a brigade of cavalry on the extreme left, then the guard infantry brigade, then the dragoons. Next was a gun, then the second cavalry brigade and then closing out the line near the river was the other infantry brigade.

Opposite me Nick placed a cavalry brigade facing my cavalry on my left (his right). Then to their left was an infantry brigade then a cavalry brigade. In front of them were the dragoons. In the village and the fields beside it was the second infantry brigade. Finally he posted a cavalry brigade across the river facing my infantry.

The initial deployment, from the French side

Initial deployment from the Bavarian side

Action  started  on the flanks. First, on the Bavarian left, the Maison du Roi charged the Bavarian cuirassiers, who countercharged. 

 But the French got the better of the action and the Cuirassiers routed.

The Maison du Roi squadron then pursued and scattered the cuirassiers. Squadron after squadron of cuirassiers then became victims of this attack until the second Maison squadron drove off the last of all four Bavarian squadrons.

The infantry on the left also engaged, opening a heavy musketry.

On the Bavarian right a squadron of French cavalry advanced threateningly, but a burst of roundshot quickly changed their minds.

A second squadron attempted to charge the only drilled battalion on this flank, but a close range volley held them at bay.

Things on the Bavarian left got progressively worse as the Maison du Roi piled into the flank of the Bavarian guard infantry. Luckily for me the Guard battalions fought back well and were able to fall back while the Maison squadrons exhausted themselves and eventually dissolved. But that didn’t stop a second French regiment from pitching in.

But help was at hand for the Bavarians as five squadrons from the center of the line approached. Soon the area was a mass of swirling horse flesh, but the left began to stabilise.

The French cavalry attack had been repulsed, but the Bavarian left was in tatters.

Here the game ended. A draw, with a French favour, since the Bavarians were not going to achieve their objective.

To finish out the post, here are a bunch of additional images, in no particular order, from the day.

They just keep coming...

 ...Paraguayans that is.

A second battalion in this batch rolls off the production line.

Again these are in the newer marching/advancing poses, with a higher proportion of the boys wearing the chiripa.

On the painting table  now is a battalion of some Brazilian infantry in white tropical kit.

Fresh Paraguayan Recruits

I just realised that I hadn’t posted for a few days…well a couple of weeks actually. 

It’s not that I haven’t been working on anything, its just that I have been fluttering about on a number of projects and there hasn’t been much to show because everything is in various stages of completion.

What I have completed though is this unit of Paraguayan infantry. These are from the new codes in the marching and advancing poses that the Perrys released towards the end of 2020, and very nice sets they are too, with even more character and variety than the firing posed sets.

In order to get a truly random mix in the units I put all of the rank and file figures in a box and pulled out 15 figures. Then adding a similarly randomised selection of command figures I created the battalions.

This is number one of four battalions in this batch and number seven of the collection. 

Next up, some more Paraguayans then back to the boys from Brazil.