More 1799 Russians

It struck me while continuing to plan my Battle of Zurich game that I still had Russian figures that perhaps (?) needed completing for the game. Also, I've not actually posted pics of any new figures for a while, so here we go.

This and the following three are of my second battalion of Russian jager. Some debate about whether they operated effectively in open order but based on what I've read and with discussion with like-minded chaps on FB I reckon they did....'wish. Used more as specialist infantry holding key points, guarding flanks or whatever perhaps, but they were at least partly rifle armed (according to Duffy). These are Eureka figures I've had since about 2015 so long overdue for completion.

Next up we have three batteries (half batteries really) of Russian artillery. The figures are a mixture of Eureka and Warlord, the latter with bicornes and green stuff pigtails added. Warlord's cannon are on the small side imho but they will have to do as nine decent-sized models would be pricey.

I've been using movement trays for my 1670s stuff for  while so thought I'd use up what I had left on the FRW project. Examples can be seen behind the jager as well as the artillery units. Certainly makes setting up and putting away much easier!

I'm currently working on a regiment each of Russian and French hussars, plus some more Russian infantry and French skirmishers that need their basing completed, for Zurich. Then I will have to knuckle down to the city and outlying villages. Urgh!

Century of the Soldier Conference, Royal Armouries, Leeds

Yesterday John the Red and I made the short drive (just over an hour)  down to Leeds to attend this conference organised by Helion and Co Publishing. The venue was the excellent Royal Armouries museum, although sadly there wasn’t much time to view the sumptuous array of exhibits.

The focus of the conference and the various speakers’ presentations was on the impact of, and to a great extent the almost seamless link between, the Thirty Years War on Britain, hence the subtitle, “Britain turned Germany”. We all know that many officers and leaders who rose to fame or ignamony  (delete as applicable) during our civil wars cut their teeth fighting in Europe. If I learnt just one thing from these (with one exception) excellent presentations it was that Europe during the Thirty Years War was literally awash with English and Scots, with something like 120000 serving throughout the conflict. Most of the rank and file were to die of disease and never return home which is a sobering thought. James I/VI actively recruited fairly hefty contingents of properly organised regiments to support his son in law Frederick ( a naturalised Englishmen), Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, and Scottish daughter Elizabeth, in their fight to regain the throne of Bohemia. He also ‘borrowed back’ the Anglo-Dutch and Scots Brigades off the United Provinces to further this aim. Indeed there was a sizeable British army en route when the Imperial army defeated the Bohemians at White Mountain in 1620. A great wargaming what if....?  English/Scots/British-flagged regiments and armies served alongside or as part of the major Protestant players in the war, even while the English Civil War was raging. Some, including a number of senior commanders, preferred to remain in Europe rather than fight their countrymen at home. Regiments were recruited (often by emptying the jails) for service not just in Western Europe but further afield, such as Poland, Russia and for Venice against the Turk. But I am rambling. When the papers for this event are published by Helion buy them.

Briefly then, the speakers presented the following:

Prof Steve Murdoch - Britain and the Thirty Years War***
Dr Adam Marks - England and the Thirty Years War
David Flintham - "They have sent to Holland for engineers". Continental influence on military engineering in the ECW.
Martin Paradowski - Aston, Butler and Murray. British officers in the service of the Polish Vasa kings 1621-34 ***
Keith Down - Garret Barry - Soldier, Military Theorist and the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Simon Marsh -A case of Drakes. James Wemyss and light artillery development during the Civil wars
Dr Arran Johnson - General Leslie and the building of the Scottish Army ***
Prof Martyn Bennett - Creating the high commands in 1642

The sessions marked thus *** were in my humble opinion the best and for me the most enlightening, but that does not detract from the content of the other speakers' presentations.

So, and excellent day out. Lots of interesting stuff listened to and learnt. The world put to rights. Wargaming ideas thrashed out in the car.  Thanks to Helion and Charles Singleton (a fellow Old Lidunian).

2nd Battle of Zurich, 25/26 September 1799

I've been working on a game I plan to put on in November at the Battleground show at Stockton (barely 5 mins from The Burrow). One of my ideas is the 2nd Battle of Zurich in 1799, a pivotal battle in the War of the Second Coalition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Zurich

The terrain for the game, as indeed the idea for game itself, is still a work in progress, so I mocked up the battlefield as best I could and invited John the Red around to see if the game is playable. We used General d'Armee.

The French under General Andre Massena brushed aside wholly inadequate Russian defenders and crossed the River Limmat in force to the west of Zurich, while more French demonstrated against the Russians outside Zurich on the southern side of the river. Much of the Russian army was strung out along the Limat towards Baden in the west, including most of their cavalry. I used 'wargamers' licence' to include a Russian cavalry brigade in order to balance  the sides a little more.

Map showing the French attack across the river in order to assault the Russians outside Zurich from  both banks of the River Limat.

The fighting outside Zurich showing the undulating nature of what was largely Alpine Pasture interspersed with thick woods, rocky outcrops and streams. 

Russian defenders on the north bank; a brigade of infantry supported by a battery of 6 pdrs and three regiments of cavalry. Oh, and some Cossacks.

Some work to do here, but these are some very cheap Faller buildings I picked up off eBay ready made.  I have a few more to add as the interior of the city.

Two regiments of Russian dragoons and a regiment of cuirassiers, supported by a flock of  those ever present sheep.

I couldn't resist......

The main Russian body south of the river; ten battalions of infantry (including four of grenadiers), supported by cossacks, artillery, a battalion of Jager and yet more Cossacks.

The French had to deploy half of their army on either side of the river, so John  put his cavalry  brigade (three regiments) and his advance guard brigade (one more cavalry regiment, a demi-brigade legere and a battery of horse artillery).

My cuirassiers took a pasting from the French cannon but the dragoons advanced bravely on the enemy.

My Moscow Dragoons regiment crashed into the French 23rd Cavalry. Mauve facings versus pink facings. Very colourful.

In the centre massed French columns advanced rapidly towards the Russians.

My dragoons about to retreat after loosing the melee.

On the left I threw caution to the wind and charged one of John's advancing columns, riding it down . My hussars tried  to repeat their success on another column but were beaten off and forced to retreat. 

With the Moscow dragoons gone it was left to the Pskov regiment to try and slow down the  French cavalry.

I had managed to occupy the village with a fusilier battalion of the Moscow Grenadiers while  four  musketeer battalions advanced on the French.

General-Leutnant Alexander Mikhailovitch Rimsky Korsakov (seated) surrounded by his buffuddled staff.

John had placed his reserve artillery in the centre, able to fire on targets across the river to the south. After giving one battalions of Russians a hammering and knocking bits off another a lucky 'destiny' roll resulted in the rather sudden and explosive demise of my Russian brigadier when he was hit by a howitzer shell. This brigade immediately went 'Faltering' and when I tested next turn were forced to retreat. 

A consignment of Toblerone from the Toblerone factory awaiting shipment. There were rather more bars at the start of the game than are shown here. Pilfering no doubt!

The Swiss navy! Honest! A Mr Williams, an English resident of Zurich organised a flotilla of nineteen gunboats to cover the Russian's left flank from the lake. In reality they were pretty ineffective but as I had this model available I had no choice really, did I?

The gunboat delivered a couple of handy broadsides, forcing the French to think twice about  pressing their attack on the Russian left.

The Russian counter attack in the centre.

The Russian grenadiers spent the first four game turns as hesitant, even when I gave them an ADC to give them a re-roll.  The jaguars to their front were holding the French at bay.

The Russian reserve emerges from Zurich to join the grenadiers in their counter attack.

I failed to rally the faltering Russian infantry brigade on the south side of the river and it disappeared off the table and/or into Zurich. This left the Russian cavalry rather isolated and very battle scarred. The entire south side of the river was now in the hands of the French.

John moved his artillery forward in the centre to counter my attack. 

The flotilla on the lake continued to bombard the French and managed to cause enough damage on  one battalion to  merit another charge by my hussars, if I could get them to move and dared to risk it.

The Russian counter attack in the centre from another angle. Very pretty, quite impressive but altogether futile.

In almost the last throw of the dice I ordered my hussars to charge an unformed French column (the one that had been hit by the gunboats). Sadly on this occasion their charge petered out and they were forced to retire.

By now it was clear that the Russians had lost quite convincingly, or is that the French has won quite convincingly? I need to think about the practicalities of using General d'Armee in a multi player game. I know its possible, but I reckon I will need to revisit the orders of battle for both sides, neither of which were actually at full strength for this game (e.g. the Russians were short four battalions and two batteries of cannon at the very least, while the French will field 20 battalions in the full game rather than the 14 or so they did in this encounter. With the exception of the grenadiers and the jager I don't rate the Russians very highly from a shooting point of view but they were, as always, pretty tough in the face of the enemy. By now the French were by no means a mob of conscripts but were becoming a seasoned and battle hardened army. Recruits diluted this somewhat but I believe that by 1799 the infantry were pretty sound. Even the cavalry were an improvement over the earlier years of the Revolutionary Wars.

One thing that John pointed out was that the 'footprint' of a battery of cannon (3 or 4 models) was quite large in comparison to the frontage of a battalion of infantry. My models are based on a 60mm frontage and 120mm depth so a battery representing eight guns would be/is 240mm wide. Compared to a French column it is much bigger but an average battalion in line would be six bases each 40mm frontage, making the unit frontage 240mm as well, so I am going to stick with what I've got for now.

I have quite a lot of work to do if I decide to go ahead with Zurich. The troops are pretty much in hand as is much of the terrain,  but I need to do something about representing Zurich on the table and painting up some suitably Swiss looking buildings for the villages as I don't want to just plonk my Conflix houses on the table and make do.

Despite my drubbing I enjoyed the game. It has potential, especially as its essentially two battle running side-by-side separated by the impassable river. The only way across is by going through the city. I will certainly give the game at least one other run through with GdA, and maybe see what happens with Black Powder II.

No plans for a game in the immediate future but off to the Royal Armouries next Saturday.

German Auxiliaries with the British Army 1793-95

The very nice people at Helion sent me this book earlier this week to review. Its full title is "We are accustomed to do our duty" by Paul Demet and very nice it is too.

The book covers the significant contribution played by German auxiliaries to supplement Britain's army in the Low Countries. The first part of the book covers the campaigns in the Low Countries from 1793-95, including the highs and lows of the campaign culminating in the retreat back into Germany.

Part two is going to be very useful to anyone (like me?)who fancies including some of these units in their Allied army for fighting the French in Flanders. Troops were recruited from Hanover, Hesse Cassel, Baden, Hesse Darmstadt and Brunswick, and the composition of the various contingents is covered in detail, including for each unit its organisation, uniforms and where appropriate its flags. I've always been aware that, rather obviously, Hanover provided troops to the British, given that George III was the Elector of Hanover, but it is interesting to read about the terms upon which this arrangement was made. The same applies to the other armies, and the Subsidy Treaties  between Britain and Hesse Cassel and Brunswick are included.

The book contains many lovely contemporary colour uniform plates as well as black and white illustrations and a number of useful maps and diagrams. It has been extensively and exhaustively researched from both English and German language sources including previously unpublished materiel and contains a helpful bibliography for any more serious scholars out there.

In short, an excellent book and well worth the money, especially for those of us who wargame the War of the First Coalition. For me this is the best (by which I mean most useful from a collecting and gaming point of view) book so far in Helion's From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 series.

Border Reiver, Gateshead

Yesterday I made a short visit to this year’s Border Reiver Wargames show at the Gateshead International Athletics Stadium (the irony of this when one sees the vast numbers of, er, vast wargamers in attendance shovelling bacon and sausage butties and burger and chips into their mouths  is never lost on me, in a smiley sort of way).

I have a few photos of some/most of the games, most of which were ok but not outstanding. The exception in my eyes were the Westerhope Napoleonic game which was the sort of game I like, I.e. a Big game. The star of the show was Captain Jacks Ghost Archipelago/pirate game. It was big, 18’ x 6’ I think and the figures were great and terrain and ships were simply superb. I didn’t take pictures of all the games, either because I missed them or they weren’t my thing but here are the ones I did:

Westerhope's 1813 Napoleonic

Whitley Bay's Greek trireme game. Beautiful ships but the bases are a bit urgh!

A WW2 caper involving the Guards Armoured Division if I overheard  one of the players correctly.

Captain Jack's Locker and a massive Ghost Archipelago game. This IS Stuart's shed in his back garden. There's Stuart on the floor. Ghost Archipelago/Frostgrave doesn't really float my boat (sorry) but the table was gorgeous.

I want one of these. A bit lower, with a ditch and glacis though.

Warhammer 40k stuff. 

Samurai game about to kick off.

The trade was well represented and I managed to buy everything on my shopping list, e.g. some more poplar trees from Last Valley, a few MDF bits and bobs off Warbases (limbers) and two units of 1670’s foot off  Northumbrian Painting ex Reiver. The latter are sold as Brandenburgers for the Scanian War but I just fancied a couple more generic units with exchangeable flags so they represent troops from The Bishopric of Munster, Savoy, Venice or the Empire. Or anyone else for that matter, although I plan to do them in brownish coats which kingdom of restricts them the Munster and the Empire. We shall see.  They're nicer figures than some the earlier Reiver castings in this range. I passed on a unit of horse for the time being though as I wasn't sure of exactly what I wanted. Apart from some paints that was it. As always, the best part of the day was bumping into lots of friends and acquaintances from all over the NE and Scotland. I was glad to see my old mate Joe was still with us, and more glad to hear that my mate Jim has been given the all clear.

Big thanks to John the Red for giving me a lift. The next show I am planning to be at is Battleground in Stockton on 24 November, where I shall be putting on a large French Revolutionary Wars game.