Prussians ~ Now With an Added Pinch of Lutzow!

Back into Napoleonic's for the moment and, as usual, I'll try and get as much stuff done as I can until this jag wears itself out.

First up is a couple of squadrons of Lutzow's Friekorp Hussars. The Friekorp cavalry only had two squadrons as well as 2 or 3 squadrons of uhlans. So I figure: 4 figures per squadron will work for most Napoleonic games. It also works out as a unit of 8 for Sharp Practice. I'm waiting on the command figures for the uhlans and I'll do them when they arrive. I expect them to be an easy paint job.

The figures are Perry plastic French Hussars with heads from the their plastic Prussian Infantry boxed set. The commander and hornist have their original French heads. They look okay. Suitably "Waterloo" Prussian with all that black.

And I finished my final Lutzow Friekorp  infantry battalion and that's all I'll be doing. I'm unsure how many battalions there should be but there were at least three. All standard Prussian regiments had three battalions, so three it will be!

 

 

And I did a commander too which appeared in some previouse pics. I suppose, I should say this is Lutzow himself. But should I be so presumptive as to tempt fate? Who knows? Who cares?

I'll be adding some some skirmishers in the form of a Tyrolean Jaeger company but I also need a company of fusiliers in the litkwa and with a horsehair plumed shako. I don't know where to get these last ones. Brunswick Leib Regiment in great coats would work, but who makes them? No one. I could sculpt them but I don't want to so I might just double up on the Tyrolean's.

I also did another 6 French light infantry voltigeurs in great coats. These are again Perry figures. Not their best in my opinion. I didn't really enjoy painting them but they look okay, I suppose.

And finally, some more sabot bases. These ones are for officers/leaders for Sharp Practice in the main, but I guess they can be used for just about any other game where required. These were made for me, once again, by Mike Parker at Battlefield Accessories.

So that's what I've done. More to come soon. I'm tossing up whether to do another French leger battalion or maybe I'll do Lutzow's gun battery.

Bach-Sachenkrach's First One - Sharp Practice Game #1

Today I played my first game of Sharp Practice at our final NWA meeting for 2019 at Croydon RSL.
I played a brave Prussian contingent against a gang of pernicious Frenchmen commanded by Andrew (one of my previous General d'Armee opponents!). Another Andrew, who I've seen at the club but only got to know today, umpired the game with his experience of Sharp Practice in hand.

I set up a pretty basic table because I wanted to keep things simple and easy to negotiate for this test game. I used a basic downloaded list for 1814 Prussians with 2 commands of a pair of infantry groups and a third command with a unit of skirmishing fusiliers and a unit of schutzen (Prussian riflemen). Andrew's French had an equivalent force with 2 commands of a pair infantry groups and two units of skirmishing voltigeurs. We both had a Level 3 commander, two level 2 and two level 1 commanders.

This was a simple Encounter Scenario - We rolled and both had a starting Force Morale of 10. The French entered the table in a small orchard behind the central building and the Prussians on a road by the castle.

To The Sound of The Guns!

The fight started with lots of French chits being pulled which enabled them to deploy voltigeurs into the orchard and line infantry behind. The first Prussian schutzen appeared on the road followed by a column of musketeers lead by the newly appointed: Leutnant Bach-Sachenkrach.

Keen to impress The Major, the young leutnant halted, dressed his troops, and promptly tripped over a rabbit hole (three flags and a random event).

The skirmishers of each side took up positions and began a lively fire with the French coming off the better. Picking himself up our brave young hero, dusted himself off and eyed his men with a withering glare. He turned smartly to his front and promptly tripped in another rabbit hole (another random event) and ended up back on his arse.

Not the prestigious start to his career that Bach-Sachenkrach had envisioned.

Meanwhile The Major had arrived and lead his men into the central meadow. The skirmishing continued with the schutzen now gaining the upper hand but advancing slowly. The sergeant leading the voltigeurs had taken a light would which reduced his command capabilities.

Opposite the Prussian commander the French had advanced with great haste to a hedge and took up position behind the cover. The Major formed his men into line and advanced! A chance taken, and The Major (now with 4 flags) opened fire on the French causing considerable injury to his foes. A firefight ensued with both sides giving and taking minor casualties & shock.

Needing no further direction our young hero moved up to join his superior officer and... trod in a massive cow turd (a 3rd random event!). With dung up to his knee he waded forward into the battle line.

As young Bach-Sachenkrach finally moved into place The Major brought his own troops back to form a powerful firing line. They pummeled the French and smoke filled the meadow. Maybe it was confusion caused by the smoke but a cry rang out and Frenchmen left their cover with intent and swarmed forward (another random event) only to be met with a withering volley than sent them tumbling back over their hedge.

The skirmish fight continued with one unit of voltigeurs taking considerable casualties and shock broke and routed. A random shot rang out (yet another event!) and the French colonel who had moved to support his skirmishers was lightly wounded.

As the unequal firefight in the meadow continued the French commander decided to vacate the field and left it to the victorious Prussians whilst still in good order.

And so, Leutnant Bach-Sachenkrach, in his first action, looked sidelong at his commanding officer and thought to himself: I survived!

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Conclusion:
Being my first game of Sharp Practice this was really a leaning process. It was fun and some entertaining events happened. I feel that the generic army lists are a bit wanting and could use some tweaking. The random nature of activation makes every move uncertain which I quite like. I took a gamble with moving my troops up in the center hoping to get 4 flags and the ability to activate them again. It paid off. But there were a few times that I found my troops floundering.

As far as command and control are concerned I can see that you really need your commanders in the right place. My skirmishers were difficult to control because I couldn't form them into a single formation due to them being different types (fusiliers and schutzen). The French didn't have this problem. I ended up moving the fusiliers back and out of the fight. Andrew, on the other hand, moved his level 3 commander up to support his skirmishers which left half of his line infantry floundering and unable to maneuver into a firing position. That was a pretty major mistake.

During the long firefight, I was also able to manage the shock with my level 1 & 2 subordinate commanders. Remembering to use the Flags is important and I feel I got the hang of this fairly quickly and tried to use them any time I could, often just to use Sharp Practice and get my rifles re-loaded.

I'm hoping to play another game sometime soon to get the rules firmly embedded into my thick skull and also to see what may happen next to the brave Leutnant Bach-Sachenkrach.

Thank you to Andrew & Andrew for the game. I really enjoyed it. I also won which does make it easy to enjoy the game just that little bit more.

EDIT:
Some extra photo's stolen from NWA member Russell.

See that fine, handsome fellow in dark Prussian blue.

 And a somewhat larger Napoleonic affair on the opposite side of the room.

The Great Re-Basing Continues

Re-basing two armies takes time. Especially if those armies are Napoleonic armies.

So far I've done all of my French. This only amounts to 6 battalions of line infantry plus some skirmishers & officers. But I also decided to finally paint a leger (light) battalion. I did get someone else to paint these troops a long while back. But I wasn't really happy with the results, so I re-did them. I have a second leger battalion to do but I'll do that at a later date.

So here's the French:

 Here's a new officer.

And the leger battalion:

And the Prussians: I have more of these. The main reason for this is that when I got back to Napoleonics after a hiatus and decided to do them 28mm, my opponent was playing Polish. So I did Prussians instead. I still have three battalions of Landwehr to re-base. These landwehr are Warlord's plastic and I think they're decidedly average. I might sell them and do some metal battalions. I do have the figures so...

This is sort of a mix of the 7th & 8th Brigades - 1st Korp - 1814 with the addition of Lutzow's Friekorps. The 7th Brigade is interesting. It has the Lieb Battalion which was sort of a grenadier regiment. Not quite guard but better than average - A named regiment. The attached reserve regiment is the 12th Brandenburg Reserve formed around a cadre of Leib veterans. With the attachment of the Thuringian Battalion they form a sort of Light Brigade.

I'm currently painting the final Lutzow Battalion and I'll do the cavalry after that. I think the Friekorps will make a great formation for Sharp Practice. Lots of character, great uniforms and the French hated them because of their raiding actions.

 Lutzow's Friekorps & volunteer jagers (with rifes)

This is the Thuringian Battalion. They were a collection of Saxon light infantry from various regiments who defected and surrendered (prior to the actual Saxon defection). They were part of 7th Brigade. The figures are Calpe Saxons.

 Jagers: Volunteer jagers from the Perry plastic box and Guard Jagers to the right. I made the guard from the plastic jagers in the Perry box set and used various arms from other kits.

 12th Reserve Infantry Regiment

And a final little figure that has been sitting on my table half painted and collecting dust for several years. I've seen a few Sharp Practice game videos and in a couple I've heard mention of a "spy" that is part of the scenario. So after a brushing off the dust here's a suitable spy from Eureka Miniatures.

Hawkmoon Redux

I'm getting ready for a sales day at my wargaming club this coming weekend. Whilst sorting through the vast amount of wargames junk I've accumulated over the years I discovered a bag full of metal figures. Amongst this treasure trove of delight (most of which is destined for the sales table) I discovered a few castings of a figure that I made for Eureka Miniatures several years ago.

For those unaware, this blog started as a diary of my miniature sculpting (thus the 28mm title). I made a whole bunch of figures for Eureka for a range of figures based on author, Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon series of books (The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God's Amulet, etc.). The figure I found was an unreleased figure of the main character Dorian Hawkmoon.

So I decided to paint him up to see how he came out. I think he looks pretty nice and I'm happy that I found him. Well.. several of him!