Full-Color Uniforms of the PRUSSIAN ARMY: 72 Plates from the Year 1830

My mum and dad very kindly picked me up a copy of Full-Color Uniforms of the PRUSSIAN ARMY: 72 Plates from the Year 1830 from a garage sale recently (yard sale to our northern allies).

I've never come across it before but it's a rather nice tome, softcover and about 12" x 10". There are 72 coloured lithographic plates in total and they are lovely. I suspect it might be part of a series but haven't come across anything that might indicate other related works.

If anybody knows more about it (i.e. if it formed part of a series) I'd very much like to know.

Cheers,
Millsy

Free Fast-play Rules for Age of Reason / Baroque Period

Here's another addition to our free stuff for gamers page. Nate from NDC Wargames kindly allowed us to take his very neat and tidy Ne Plus Ultra rules and give them a re-work. We wanted something to handle larger games where Maurice doesn't work so well. Our version is called "Ne Plus Ultra +" so you can see the heritage in the name.

Download them here: Ne Plus Ultra + fast-play wargames rules (202Kb pdf).

These have not been play-tested as yet and we encourage you to give them a go and provide feedback please! We'll happily take that on board and provide a revised version where appropriate.

Cheers,
Millsy

3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge finale

The 3rd Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge over on Curt's wonderful blog has just finished up. Now that all my final entries have been published it means I can load them up here as well.

Overall I finished 13th on the points table out of 47. Not bad at all but that's not really what it was all about for me. I was just keen to be involved, share some great work and push myself to get some stuff completed. Here's the outstand miniatures that haven't appeared on the blog so far:

First up is 13 x Eureka Miniatures Prussians in 28mm from their Franco-Prussian War range. I’ve had these undercoated for so long I can’t put a date on when I bought them or why, which is both laughable and a sad indictment of the depths of my addiction.

Next up are three random 28mm miniatures from the lead pile which have been orphaned from their projects. I always seem to end up with a couple of these where painter’s block kicks in and they get put aside to await inspiration. The two clerics are Gripping Beast dark ages figs and the other chap is I think an Essex high medieval fig.

Following on we have some 10mm War of the Spanish Succession French cavalry. These are all Pendraken miniatures, painted up to represent the first and second cavalry lines of the Marquis du Bourg's Corps at Blenheim. All up there are 60 miniatures grouped into units of 12 and based in threes so they are riding nice and tight, boot to boot.

The first line consists of the regiments de Royal (4 squadrons), de La Ferronnaye (2 squadrons), de Levy (2 squadrons), de Prince Charles de Lorraine (2 squadrons) and de Choiseul (2 squadrons). The second line consists of the regiments d'Anlezy (2 squadrons), de Livry (2 squadrons), de Heudincourt (2 squadrons) and de Dauphin Etranger (2 squadrons). Every different unit has a flag even though most a just two squadrons. I figure they would all need rallying points and it looks great to what the hell.

Next there are a pile of 15mm Russian artillery from Flames of War - 79 crew and command plus 12 guns to be precise. These are all Battlefront miniatures. I was looking for something quick to bump me over the 1,000 point mark and I’ve managed to churn them out in roughly 12 hours for the lot. That works out to roughly one gun base plus one command base an hour. There is a bit of detail work to do like adding a map but that can wait til after the comp. I seem to have ended up with extra command but that’s fine – far better than being short which is what often happens with these guys.

 

And finally, this is my entry fee for the challenge, Ronin #7. I wanted to do some storytelling and also go a bit beyond my usual boundaries (it’s a challenge after all). I won't retype the whole longwinded enrty, just provde a link to the original blog post. There are plenty more pics over on Curt's blog along with the background, etc. I think it's some of the best work I've ever produced but you be the judge.

So that's it. I'm pretty burnt out but have had a total blast. Curt has worked his proverbials off posting close to 400 separate entries at 20 minutes each - do that math, that's an awesome committment by any standard and he deserves bucket loads of praise and thanks.

Cheers,
Millsy
 

Bolt Action German vs. British AAR

Played first game of BA tonight and had a really good game. Very simple to pick up and the game flowed nicely. I had got my list slightly wrong and Neil's list was very strong but I blew away his centre with an outstanding artillery bombardment (I killed his AT rifle team, blew up his 222 and killed 5 of his 6 pioneers) and some excellent mortar fire. MMGs don't seem that effective and having veteran troops is very much a good thing. Snipers are really deadly and I did not enjoy getting one of my sections behind a hedge getting cut to pieces by him. Neil had small squads of 6 but they were veterans with 3 assault guns with them and a LMG which was a good and tough combination. Very much better than my Regular class sections of 8 & 9 with one SMG and LMG.

Our centres got wasted and Neil's right flank was far too strong for me to attack with a section of infantry, mortar, sniper and Pak 40 defending it. I managed to kill Neil's left flank infantry on the right and my Churchill managed to kill his Stug only after losing 2 squads of infantry and a PIAT team on my right flank into the bargain. At the end of the bloodbath I had a winning draw. If my bombardment hadn't have killed the 222 I might have been in trouble and the PIATs 12" range leaves you wanting a bazooka or two!

Overall an excellent and very cost effective game that I highly recommend. Thought something was missing and realised it was some hills. Still looked pretty good though and I got to use all my new terrain.

Neil had:

• Lieutenant and 1 man
• 1 x StuH 42
• 1 x Pioneer Vet Platoon with 3 Assault Rifles and Flamethrower
• 2 x Vet Infantry Platoonwith 3 Assault Rifles and LMG
• 1 x Reg Sdkfz 222
• 1 x Vet Pak 40 4 crew
• 1 x Vet Sniper Team
• 1 x Vet 81mm Mortar with Observer

I had:

• Capt and 2 men
• 3 x Reg Platoon with 8 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg Platoon with 9 men SMG & LMG
• 1 x Reg MMG
• 1 x Reg 3" mortar
• 1 x Reg Churchill
• 1 x Vet Medic with extra man
• 1 x Reg PIAT Team
• 1 x Reg Artillery Observer

I should have taken a 2nd Leut as my HQ as the Capt apparently is additional. Changes I will make will be dropping HQ to 2nd Leut and 1 extra man and making my troops veterans although having fewer of them. I found the medic not that useful but it is hard to say based on one game.

Cheers,
Adam

Wars of the Spanish Succession French Infantry

This is the start of my Franco-Bavarian army for the 10mm Wars of the Spanish Succession. I’m intending to do a fair chunk of the Blenheim order of battle over time, starting with Prince d'Isenghein's Brigade in Marquis de Rosel's Corps. This formed part of the centre of the line of battle around Oberglauheim.

These are all Old Glory 10mm figures which I nabbed off eBay some time ago. Unfortunately I ran out with one battalion to paint in order to complete the brigade. Being me there will always be more orders for more tin so no real drama although it would have been nice to do the lot in one go. These come in strips of five, so I had to cut a single figure off each strip to fit in two rows of four on a 25mm square base. This gives me good sized units for Maurice at 32 figures each. When battles get really large we’ll use something simple rules-wise I think.

 

 

 

 

I painted these using the same method I use for 15mm figures and in truth there is next to nothing different in terms of effort required. Over a black undercoat I have two shades of grey for the coats and other bits, followed by another 8-10 colours depending on complexity of the uniform. I initially thought they would be quicker and was berating myself for mucking about but then another challenger on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (IanH) replied to my comment on his 6mm stuff saying the same thing – 10mm takes as much effort as 15mm for him too.

So to close a quick summary of regiments: 1st Poitou (red and blue colour), 1st Guyenne (pink and green colour) and 2 battalions of Regiment de Beauferme (red and gold colour). The second battalion doesn’t carry the white colonel’s colour I believe, hence the double up on the red and gold. Regiment d'Isenghein will be added in due course.

Next up for me is more 10mm WSS, starting with 10 squadrons on horse forming the first and second cavalry lines of Marquis du Bourg's Corps.

Cheers,
Millsy