More shiny toys.

As ever these things take longer than you'd like but I now have a second release in the "Glorious Victorian Toy Soldiers" range. These new figures cover the Rifle and Fusilier regiemts of the British Army . Now I've always had a soft spot for the Green jacket- especially when it carries the red distinctions of the KRRC( my Dad was a rifleman in the early 60s in the 2nd Green Jackets - The KRRC ) or the 60th Rifles - depending upon date. Now thanks to Sean Bean and Sharpe the 95th get the glory but the 5th Bn 60th had rifles first- not by a long time its true- about 3 years or so but first nevertheless and definitely senior in the line - 60th against 95th until both regiments were taken out of the line to become the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade respectivly. Despite the perfectly normal interegiemental rivalry both regiments and thier modern successoors- The Rifles speak for themselves and in the case of the 60th starts in the French and Indain War in the mid- 18th century and continues in Afghanistan today seeing on the way such diverse fields as Talvera , Albuhera, Delhi Ridge , Spion Kop the Somme Calais etc etc etc By Gum you may say the lads have been about a bit and just like the rst of our Armed services so they have.
So here are the rifles available in both helmet and busby - paintable as either KRRC or Rifle Brigade- and doubtless as RIR and possibly Canadians too .
In addition you can now also get the Fusilier regiements or at least the non-scottish ones- I plan Scots in the future. so the British Army marches on in toy form as by God we hope it continues to do despite the actions of its enemies- mostly those in Parliament .
Andy

High Standards from John "The Flag"

Now it has to be said I can be a tad picky.Whenever I'm building a unit or an army I do the best job I can.Not for me the "i just painted 'em quicly to get them on the table " excuse Nahh do it right or don't bother. Now this can get you into trouble in soooooo many ways - it means you spendd a small fortune on booksand your painting speed drops to something less than the speed of a government department giving out tax refunds.
But what it does mean is you look out for the best your wallet can bear. Now when I build a unit I want them to have proper and accurate flags banners ,colours and standard- which ever is appropriate to type. In the past I've painted by own - which I still do but less often, used various paper printed flags - ranging from not bad at all to bloody awful- ALL of these need a greater or lesser amount of touching up even if its just to paoint the edges - which many chaps miss- it look awful if you don't- you get a white edge round the flag yeauch!!
However I now have a fine , almost perfect solution - get 'em from John the Flag - this needs explanation. Johns lovely flags are printed on cloth and come fitted to the pole. He does lots of different ones in addition to those I have I have seen ACW AWI and more ECW as well as WSS and Napoleonic. Most of mine are fro my 40mm collection but he does them for 25/ 28/30 mm too. I've found nothing better.
The pics show - first
25mm Royal Eccossais.
40mm Napoleonic British-3rd foot
40mm ECW Sir John Gells regt(stars) and John Lampughs .
40mm Spanish Napoleonics. Leals de FernadoVII(blue coats) and a unit whose name I forget.
Contact john on jondhut@ntlworld.com .
Getting these is a bit slow- John works for a living- but the wait is well worth it.

40mm ACW Game at Derby.

My thanks to James Douglas for supplying the photos as I'd forgotten my dammed camera !!
The figures are all Sash and Saber 40mm ACW mostly from the collection of Phil Freeman an avid 40mm gamer and Collector. about 20% of the figures were mine but almost all those in the pics are Phils For the actual gaming we use a somewhat modified version of Featherstones Horse and Musket rules- a bit more period detail was piles in- Rifles Muskets - 2 types Breechloaders and rifled artillery. Since I was working most of the time(you can't get thestaff ......) the gaming was done by Phil and Peter Sleigh . One of these days I'll get to play with my own toys.
Most of scenery was mine buildings either scratchbuilt or from the Sash and Saber range of scenics- which in the UK you get from yours Truly or in the US from Chris at Sash and Saber the Walls and some of the fences too. - Though some of the latter were Phils own. Table size was 10 feet by six and was a tad crowded- with 1000 plus figures on at once the game was a bloodbath - especially for the luckless Rebs who despite an artillery superiority were shot to bits in their assaults. It just wasn't Phils day. Nevertheless the game looked fantastic and was fun to watch- not a phrase I'll use often as I've never seen our hobby as a spectator sport.
As ever Derby was a great show- often overlooked I feel its been a favorite of mine for years. Roll on next Derby.
Andy

Commieswald- technical stuff and Umpires comment.

As an exercise it was quite hard work..Jim the painters comment that we needed 2 umpires was apposite - he took over the last few moves as my head was throbbing .
Actual troop numbers were fairly substantial. On the Allied side their battalions avaeraged 28 figs each though Von Donop was 48 and the Lieb Grenadiers a mere 14. Cavalry squadrons were most often 8 figures with the British having 2 3 squdron regiment and a single squardron with the Hessians/Dutch haveing a single Squadron plus a troop of Hussars.
On the French side Most of their squdrons were again 8 figures but there were some 6figure s and a 10 - fitzjames and a12 - Royal Dragoons. Infantry avaerages 28 figures but the Grenadiers de France were 52 .
In terms of make of figures most were of course old Glory but Stadden Willie Front Rank and Eagle were also represented as were Jacdaw- I just don't have many Jacdaw painted yet.
So in rough figure numbers the Allies disposed of 320 infantry- including Jaegers 58 cavalry and 6 guns- including 2 battalion guns which had to be asigned to specific infantry units.
The French had 308 infantry including lights 104 cavalry and 5 guns- including 1 heavy piece.
In analysis the question remians why did the French footle about ??? They singularly failed to "get tore in" while an Allied defnsive was an obvious move for a somewhat outnumbered and certainly out horsed army . The French Cavalry was not used well- niether were thre brits . There was no major cavalry vs cavlry figt in the whole battle-on the French right their horse did achive a victory of sorts against the British but were too few to exploit it .
Niether commander showed at his best that day.....
Perhaps a veil should be tactfully drawn over the affair and we should await the next campaingning season to begin...
Andy

The Battle of the Commieswald Sept 1746

A bright crisp day saw the arrival of generals troops and terrain at the Commercial Inn- Tantobie Co Durham known as the "COMMIE" Locally but strictly speaking is now actually
"The ..... RI... as all the other letters have fallen off.
Nevertheless 5 members of the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society and 3 Border Reivers Wargamers converge upon this hostelry for our almost regular monthly game. This time I was in the chair again and so elected to dig out the 18th century troops for a largish encounter battle.
Now read on.......
The French army disposed of 10 infantry Battalions 15 cavalry squadrons and 5 guns plus some light troops while the Allies consisting of British Dutch and Hessian troops deployed 12 infantry battalions 9 cavalry squadrons and 4 field guns plus 2 battalion guns attached to the 2 British Infantry brigades.
Rules were a somewhat modified version of Warfare in the Age of Reason plus the experience of your steely eyed and granite jawed Umpire.....
Both sides were hesitant at first and movement was kept to a minimum. The Hessian
commander- actually a Dutchman - Hertz Van Rentaalls by nom de plume watched anxiously as a mass of French horse bore down upon him on the Allied right. There was little he could do but grit his teeth.and order Hessian regiment Von Donop to stand fast on their ridge. The Dutch Garde Te Voet moved up in support along with the Hessian Lieb Grenadiers. Dutch Gunners worked like trojans to get their guns into position before the grip came.... The first wave of French Cavalry came on- FitzJames Horse and a squadron of the Royal Dragoons . Fire leapt from von Donops muskets and when the smoke cleared the Royals were gone loose reined the sorry remnants galloped from the field. Fitzjames however were of stronger mettle despite many an empty saddle they closed with the Hessians and a fight ensued- alas they simply were not strong enough to do more than disorder the Hessians and the remains of the regiment drew off to make room for the second wave- 2 squadrons of Cuirassiers du Roi and another of Dragoons . Again the French charged in Gallantly but this time to even less avail a fearful volley from VonDonop smashed the Curassiers flat ably seconded by the Dutch gunners - A troop of Dragoons got amongst the gunners and a shout of "Nails! Nails !" went up but there were none ,  the dragoons however were enough to finish the gunners. The  supporting LiebGrenadiers enough to finish the Dragoons ... The French Horse had shot their bolt.
What .I hear you ask, had been happening in other parts of the field while these momentous events unfolded on the Allied Right- well not much to be honest... The French maintained they had a plan but no amount of enquiry by your gentle Author could uncover what it actually was.
On the Allied left fear of the French artillery was causing the British cavalry some concern- Your author could hear the Marquis of Granby spinning in his Grave at such craven behaviour. When the British Dragoons finally launched their attacks the French barely broke sweat seeing them off despite some French gunners standing not upon the order of their going and legging it for the rear. The French right was never in any real danger.
In the centre peace reigned- a little bickering between the Schomberg light infantry and the British line resulted in heavy casualties for Schoomberg . The French plan seemed to involve neutralising the British Guns before commencing an advance. This last is however a mere guess as finally the French centre began to move. Fire rippled along both lines but the additional firepower of the British Battalion guns sent 1st battalion La Reine reeling back. However the British having suffered from French guns and indeed light troops were not prepared to move and stayed nailed to their positions.
After shattering the French Horse Van Rentaals had been given furiously to think- a not common event after calling for the Bols he decided to advance his command from the ridge to menace the remains of the French horse and threaten the centre but as dusk approached little more could be achieved and his thrust petered out.
On the other flank despite defeating the British Dragoons the French cavalry no more than 3 squadrons- were not strong enough to do more than support their own foot. so the action petered out into a muttering of skirmishers as night closed in.
In truth it was an interesting fight- the more so because some of the players exhibited a pusillanimity I didn't expect. The main body of the French horse was handled with courage but was in the event thrown away to little avail.. The foot of both sides- excepting the Germans and dutch lacked resolution- though the British could claim with some justice that they were merely acting on the defensive.
Both sides exhibited fear of artillery to a -to me- ridiculous degree and allowed their plans to be influenced by it.
Nevertheless as the saying goes a good time was had by all- and a few beers drunk too..
Andy

More shinyness

Just a quickie as the Bishop said to the actress! Here are a couple of pics of my slowly (very slowly ) growing collection of 40mm"Glorious Victorians"
Now normally I use matt varnish but these lads just have to be shiny. The 3 pics are 2 in Home service Dress and 1 in foreign Service white helmet. Painted in a more toy style than is my normal wont. I do like the look. The various chaps who persueded me across to the shiny side have a point.

One down 9 zillion to go....

You know how it is in this game finishing stuff can take a lot longer than you'd think well I finally finished my ox drawn Spanoshj Napoleonic limber. The model was finished last October but the driver wasn't. We finally he is so that can now be put away with the rest of the Spamish- all I have to do now is complete the 2 infantry battalions (I have half a battalion done,,,) a small cavalry unit and the Guerillas well at least its a start.
I have almost enough 40mm Penisular stuff for a game . Plenty if I could get around to finishing the 100 or so Infantry I have blocked in and just needing the details and finishing .
The limber of course is all C.S. Foresters fault- with perhaps a little help from Sophia Loren's chest !!
The Oxen are from the Sash and Saber waggon and the assorted crew all Sash and Saber conversions .
The British and French are all standard Sash and Saber figures except the British General who is an Austrian officer with a British head.