First Things First: But What Comes First?

What First?

As I sit at home, watching our nation's Capitol assaulted by insurrectionists and unable to do anything materially about it, I need some sort of distraction. So, I'm thinking about what wargame projects to start the year off with from my list of possibilities. Two spring to mind.

Et Sans Resultat

One member of the ESR Facebook group has invited the rest of us to a painting challenge. Set one goal for January 2020, whatever you like, and carry it through.

Seeing as I've had a pile of 6mm figures for the 1815 campaign waiting for my attention for some time, I decided to make a start on them with one discrete unit, the Brunswick Corps. This roughly divisional-sized unit consisted of troops from the Duchy Of Brunswick, a close ally of Great Britain. The corps was originally raised in 1809 as a frei-korps, a mixed-arms force, and served with the Austrian army against Napoleon until Austria was defeated. The corps marches across Germany to the coast and was evacuated by the British Royal Navy. Reorganized into two battalions of light troops, the Brunswickers then served in the Spanish Peninsula under Wellington and acquitted themselves well. In 1815, a much larger force was raised to serve with the British in the Low Countries. The horse, foot, and artillerymen of the corps were attired all in black, as they had been in 1809, in mourning for the duke's father, killed at the battle of Jena in 1806. Here's a nice selection of their infantry uniforms, borrowed from the Waterloo in 20mm blog.

The corps consisted of an advanced guard battalion of skirmishers and riflemen (who wore Austrian-jaeger-style uniforms of pike grey with "Corsican" hats instead of the other infantry's black uniforms and shakos), an infantry lifeguard battalion, three light infantry battalions, three line infantry battalions, two batteries of artillery, and units of hussars and uhlans. Here's a nice illustration of parts of the corps in action at Quatre Bras, also borrowed from Waterloo in 20mm.

Each of the battalions and batteries will get a unit in my ESR Brunswick formation. The cavalry will be represented by 3 stands of hussars and one of uhlans. And the duke will be there as formation commander. They get rounded out with a caisson to act as formation reserve area marker. Here's a shot of all the troops with their bases, with a white basecoat on.

Project Egypt: Naval Landing Forces

The new edition of the Black Powder rulebook has a pile of new scenarios in it, one of them the 1814 battle of North Point, on the outskirts of Baltimore, not far from where I live.

I know that one of my friends got a box of British Waterloo troops for Christmas, and I know that another has been finishing up some Maryland militia from just this very campaign. So, I'm hoping we can all pool our forces for a game, either via Zoom or, someday, in person. To that end, I looked at what else is needed for that scenario, and there's two battalions and several companies of Royal Marines and a Royal Navy landing party needed. I have Royal Marine and Royal Navy figures that I got for Project Egypt, so those will be my first contributions to the battle of North Point. Here's a sergeant of the Royal Marines, illustrated by master military artist Don Troani, image borrowed from the W Britain website, where Troiani's prints are sold.

In addition, the battle of North Point involves a company or more of the 2nd Corps of Colonial Marines. This interesting corps, like Dunmore's Ethiopians during the American Revolution, was raised in America by recruiting enslaved African people. They served along the Atlantic coast during the War of 1812; after the war, they were disbanded. The wise and/or fortunate members resettled in Bermuda; the less fortunate tried to set up a small town of free Black farmers in Spanish Florida but were later attacked and either killed or driven out by Americans. Here's a handsome Don Troiani illustration of a Colonial Marine, also from the W Britain website.

2017: A Year for Goals

And I'm not talking about football. :-)

While I'm not a big fan of New Year's resolutions, I do have a list of things that I want to do in gaming this year, and I'd like to compare that list at the end of the year with what I've been able to accomplish.

Cliveden under siege during the battle of Germantown.

To start with, of course, this is the year that my Project 1777 should really start producing. As the 240th year since the campaign, 2017 will be the best time to carry out this project until 2027, and I don't want to wait that long! I have five more blog posts sketched out to cover the Continental Army of 1777, and then we have the Crown Forces to look to. They might take as many as nine posts (one for each brigade, one for the elite battalions, and one for the army assets), but we'll see how much I find to say.

Then we'll have the replays of the starting battles (Bound Brook, Short Hills, Staten Island, Couch's Bridge), the incidentals and hypotheticals (Paoli, Whitehorse Tavern, Matson's Ford, Whitemarsh, maybe even a storming of Redbank game), and the main combats of the campaign (Brandywine and Germantown). The latter probably deserve several posts, maybe even several replays each, as we look at the different sections of the battles.

And I'll have a lot to do to bring the miniature armies into readiness, so we'll definitely have some WIP posts there.

Napoleon in the snows of early 1814.

The new 1814 project will also be seeing some work, though that will be less historical blogging (at least as far as my current plans go) and more painting. My counterpart has a good start on Prussian landwehr infantry, and he has youthful enthusiasm on his side. I have age, guile, and a deep backstock of unpainted figures on mine, so we may be even.

Of course, the wicked thing about 1814 is that it tempts a French player to build the Garde units that are normally left in reserve in most other engagements, as they often fought on the front line during this campaign. If we can tempt Mr Sherwood into the larger scale, perhaps we can even replay the incident at Brienne where Napoleon's duty squadron had to defend him from a Cossack patrol!

My poor, neglected Great War blog deserves a similar set of resolutions. There, I may have as many goals for reading as for playing, but we'll see what turns up!

Montmiral: One more in before the year ends

Well, I've done a good bit of gaming over the last few weeks, but not much wargaming. I did enjoy a rare visit with Mr Invisible, in which we played the first couple of turns of GMT's Caucasus Campaign, another from the stable of the accomplished Mark Simonitch. We enjoyed it, as we generally do his games, but after all the catching up we had to do (and solving all the world's problems), we weren't able to finish the game.

Apart from that, my limited effort has gone to preparing for the Montmiral game next month. But I've done sadly little actual preparing. I did pull out my Perry French, and I've gotten some of the infantry and a few officers ready for painting. But I've stalled out there. I've also (of course) picked up a few new books on the campaign, and I've been dipping into those, but only dipping.

Neverthless, I'll add a few snaps of the unpainted chaps, who have now advanced (almost all of them) to base-coated/primered status as I unleashed the wave of black gesso.

There are a couple of mounted officers, whose painting I will intersperse among that of the infantrymen as a reward for getting another batch done. Though probably company or battalion officers, these chaps on the left and right will be acting (for now) as brigade commanders. I don't think les vieux will really deserve a general officer (centre) until I have a fair number of infantry painted, plus some supporting arms.

Infantry officers (left and right) and general officer (centre)

Then there are the tête de colonne, another treat to paint as a reward, consisting of eagle-bearer, dismounted officer, drummer, and sapper.

Tête de colonne in front

There are a series of NCOs (both elite company and centre company) who I will intersperse on the group stands somewhat sparingly, so as to make their presence a little more special. Ideally, I'd like to use 28mm figures for skirmish/small-unit actions, but I've yet to find a set of rules that I think do a good job of depicting horse & musket action at that level (where the units a player commands are, say, platoon-sized groups), but maybe one day I'll find them. If those rules come along, I might pull these NCO figures out and base them as individuals; we'll see.

NCOs: elite companies (front) and centre companies (rear)

Then there are the skirmishing figures. These will get based as pairs, for the moment, as that provides a proper, historical visual cue as to how they fought and allows for dispersing them over a broader front. The simpler marching poses, of both elite and centre company figures, will get based in fours or sixes.

Skirmishers, loading and firing

Project 1777: WIP: Troops for Bound Brook

I have almost enough ragbag Americans to supply both Lincoln's garrison at Bound Brook (including the NJ militia who had gone home before the historical British attack) *and* Greene's division that could have supported Uncle Ben if the British OPSEC had been less watertight.

But the British brought their classic elite strike force: scads of light infantry, Guards, British grenadiers, Hessian grenadiers, and Hessian jaegers. I have some 15mm jaegers (though I'd like to replace them in time) but of the rest I have only a paltry number of lights and grenadiers, and those are old Frontier figures that nothing else can rank up with and that are long since out of production.

So here are a ton of Old Glory light bobs and grenadiers and a slew of Blue Moon Brits in cut-down coats and hats who will be representing the Guards battalion (complete with grenadiers and lights in cap-hats). A lot of white metal that will need red coats and white ducking trowsers before we can sneak along the Raritan's shadowed banks.

There are a few multicoloured Doodles in view as well, waiting to become a battalion of Virginia line and a light infantry battalion for later 1777.

Baueda painting project

So, after over two weeks, I finally got my Baueda package away from the Post Office. Here it is, along with another notice they left today, after I had collected it, warning that they would send it back to origin if I didn't come collect it.

I opened it up

And here were the contents:

The new Baueda Norse-Irish DBA army, along with a Lombard "Kingdom of Italy" army, a Carolingian army, and a pack of Charlemagne figures (mounted, dismounted, and mounted and dismounted guards). Claudio and the nice people at Baueda even threw in a packet of extras, spares, and some nice bits for a camp (boxes and baskets &c.)

So I'm going to try and chronicle the assembly of these three armies (clean up, painting, basing, camps, and their first battles). A wee project for my blog.

Many thanks, again, to Baueda. These figures look great, and I'm looking forward to getting them ready for combat.

An Opening Salvo

I've shared a wargaming blog with my friend Frank for a good many years, but our gaming connection has attenuated as we have played less and less together and our hobby interests have gone in different directions. So I've turned over the helm of our old blog to him (you can find it here), and I am starting up a new ledger of my gaming activities.

I have a backlog of events to post about, but I'll start off with that staple of wargamers' fantasy life, the project list.

Recently Completed (Almost)

My Sassanid Persian DBA army: I built this a few years ago for the first running of the Two Davids "Falls a Titan" Campaign. I had never quite gotten around to finishing the basing (all the figures were *on* bases, but the bases weren't landscaped). With the theme being offered again at Historicon this summer, I thought I should finish the lads up, so I did; they are now fully based, as is the little frontier fortress tower that serves as their camp. Problem is, there are three optional Cavalry elements for the army that I need to finish painting...and then base...

On the Front Burner

Having reminded myself how much of a doddle basing is, I have several other DBA armies that are "finished" but still require proper landscaping: my Sea Peoples, Dog People, Trapezuntine Byzantines, and Early Bedouin. The Sea Peoples also need their chariot completed.

My friends Phil and Eric and I have also been talking about reviving our 1870 project, so I have many small Frenchmen who shall be getting new coats &c. painted on them soon(ish).

And I have a slew of new figures from the Perry brothers that are itching to get ready for battle. Having grown up in the Virginia Tidewater, I had to acquire some of their handsome new Ethiopian Regiment figures and will be trying to knock together a scenario to play out the early Revolutionary War battle of Great Bridge, one of only two engagements that the regiment fought in (or, rather, might have fought in--details are unclear) before it was disbanded and its men dispersed to other units.

I also owe Mr Eric a World War One Battle of the Baltic between his Imperial German and my Imperial Russian squadrons, which will require some final touches.

And I haven't forgotten my fine Doughboys, waiting patiently on the painting table for me to get back to the land actions of the Great War (which are generally covered in my blog The Hissing Fuse).

On the Back Burner

Many projects are languishing here, including 15mm and 28mm Napoleonics, 15mm Rev War, 15mm Great War (Austrian, Russian, Turkish, and ANZAC forces), enough DBA armies to sink a small rowing boat, 15mm World War Two (my Nomonhan experiment has been sadly slighted lately; my Late War NWE collection is gathering dust instead of paint; and there a re still some KNIL v. IJA battles to chronicle), 15mm Irish War of Independence, 15mm Indian Rebellion of 185728mm War of the Roses, 1/2400 Age of Sail, 28mm Irish rebellion of 1798, 28mm Scottish border reivers, 15mm War of 1812, 15mm Seven Years War... the list is almost endless.