Bridgehead!
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Even Prince Micheal can't be everywhere at once but the skirmishes and
battles go on with or without him.
Scouts had reported that a party of Saxons had ...
The Waydreland Mermaid
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One of the things about this blog that continues to give me joy are the
people I meet through it. Recently, I was contacted by artist Alan Howcroft
as a ...
WMMS 2024
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A big fail for me as I forgot my camera and my phone, so I had no way to
take pictures. Luckily "Tales from GHQ" did take pictures of some of the
games (li...
A pair of Poirot's
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I did say that the next unit would be something not quite so French and I
would say Belgians fit the bill quite nicely. So this is where I have got
to so...
SA-10 ‘Grumble’ (s300)
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Models of big missile launchers are always good for a laugh, so it was easy
to persuade myself to get this lot painted. They are 1/285 scale models
made ...
What size grid? A few experiments might help
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Before I begin work on my new gridded terrain board, I need to decide what
size grid squares I’m going to use. I laid out the options available to me
in ...
Siege of Osaka: The Battle Among the Tombs...
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Well over a month ago, in an earlier posting on this Sengoku project, I
foreshadowed an account of a table battle using a very slightly modified *Portab...
Dioramica 2024
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In September my friend and partner with Blackwatch-Miniatures is
organizing the 4th "Dioramica".
See the details at the homepage of the club
https://ww...
Hooptedoodle #458 - Le Mot Juste
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There are words which don't quite mean what they originally meant, or what
I think they used to mean. It's complicated. What is understood depends a
lo...
Cybertron Terrain
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Its spraying day today and I've got a lot of terrain to get through.
Starting with these futuristic bases from Micro Machines. These give loads
of wonder...
“Zulus….120 of ‘em!”
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*At long last - I have only been on the lookout for these for around three
years….*
Back at the Cavalier show in February I got talking to Dave, the prop...
Speira 3D Printed Figures
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*Spear ACW surgeon and casualties*
There is a company based in Sweden called Speira Miniatures that makes 3D
printed figures for wargamers and toy sold...
As I was saying. . .
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*Two quick progress shots of the first half and a bit more of the 28mm
Eureka Saxon cuirassiers. Still lots to do, but they are beginning to look
lik...
WARRING WITH TROLLS, part 11
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*"To live is to war with trolls." -- Ibsen*
Anthropologists tell us that primitive cultures believed art had
supernatural properties. Prehistoric tribes...
Catching Up On My Reading- no 20
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Those of you who read my ramblings more or less regularly will know of my
interest in the military history of the Indian sub-continent. So it will
come ...
Battlemasters with Kinchlets
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*"Pay attention Sir Harry, the Hun is here, here and here." - LadyBaby*
Finished up a practice game of the old MB Games/Citadel miniatures game
Battlemast...
The Temple of Naga Malicinda-Five Bucks
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*Temple of Naga Malicinda*
My players are currently in a megadungeon, this is one of the levels.
It can pretty much fit into any big dungeon with leve...
Blood on the Sands Custom Dice
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A good mate has made me a few sets of prototype dice for Blood on the
Sands. I'm very keen to try them out when next demoing BotS. Each player
only requ...
Merry Christmas 2023 and Always
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This painting arrived as a Christmas card a few days ago. It is the most
beautiful depiction of love and adoration of Jesus by heavenly angels and
his...
Very Sad News
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I'm very sorry to be making this post but I've just learned that Dale past
away from a heart attack on November 5th.
Most of my relationship with Dale wa...
Happy Birthday Joseph Morschauser III
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Another year is almost in the books and today is Christmas Day… This isn’t
a Christmas story, but it is a story (article) written by a man born in New
York...
Trying Something New
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Based on what I said last time, I’m going to try out something new. Check
out my posts at Medium – one test you can ignore, one discussion of why I
chose t...
Wargaming the interwar period
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*CROSSPOSTED FROM WARGAMING MISCELLANY*
This year’s VCOW (Virtual Conference of Wargamers) took place over the
weekend, and I was able to take part in se...
The Constantinov Regiment
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Whilst I have, for the most part, 'moth-balled' my Classic Wargaming
collection over the past few years, occasionally I get the urge to dip back
into it....
Point Defence part two
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*The other Indian section are becoming more and more pinned down. *
*While the Bengal Lancers come under a withering fire from the central
ruin.*
*To make...
Alas - no more ....
-
After a lot of thought I have decided to stop my gaming project in the
Caribbean for the foreseeable future.
The bulk of the completed units will become in...
The Fritz Leiber WIKI - [Currently Reading]
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---------- The Fritz Leiber WIKI Welcome to the Scrolls of Lankhmar. It
contains information on the writings of and also the RPG Guide to Nehwon,
which is ...
A Tale of Two Battles - Part the Second
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After the battle recorded in the previous post, I felt I had unfinished
business with Paul and his Russians, so I challenged him to a game the
followin...
Problems with Jackson Gamers Web Site
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We are having problems accessing and updating the Jackson Gamers web site.
Evidently the main page has been "stolen" by a French language pharmacy
site. ...
Hot Reception
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Gun and crew by Hinchliffe (SYW range)Christmas is an anxious time if
you're Hessian - but this year we're ready for you Mr Washington!
Battlegroup Tobruk Goes Strong into the Desert
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Pavlov's dogs, famously, were conditioned to salivate when hearing a bell
which they associated with food. I have been similarly conditioned to
associate...
Happy Winter Solstice!
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I decided I might as well face the truth, that this blog and project is
pretty much over and done. It was fun while it lasted, but my gaming
interests lie ...
Sky Pirates of Venus - Teaser
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Sky Pirates have been the scourge of the Worm Empire of Venus for years,
and the Great Worm has had enough! He sends a team of four crack worm
commandos to...
Stephen King’s Threshold
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“There is probably no dedicated fantasy fan in America who doesn’t have at
least one of those distinctive black-bound volumes upon his or her shelf .
. ....
High time...
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It is high time I posted here again. The project has stalled. Last night I
decided to have a read of book 2 after many years away from it. It begins
so wel...
La Passeggiata
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Artist: ItalianTitle: La *Passeggiata*
★Thank you for Visiting!★ ~ Return to Website ~ Return to Blog
Thank you for subscribing to the Orientalist Gallery!
Deadbeat Advertiser?!?!?!?
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I just noticed that I have been listed as a deadbeat advertiser at The
Miniatures Page. I asked Mr Armintrout over 12 months ago to cease the
advertising d...
Memories, Tangents and the Power of the Pastoral
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*Charles Stadden 30mm BEF released fifty(ish) years ago*
It occurs to me that wargaming the Great War is not going to be a straight
forward thing.
L...
Second World War comparisons on "World War 20mm"
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Piers Brand has recently posted a side by side shot of several figures
painted in his inimitable style. They represent a number of different 20mm
metal ma...
Byzarbia at Ayton Game.
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Once again it's been a while, though in my defence I plead that I have been
busy painting figures for our second Ayton Weekend Game, even forgoing two
of o...
Buy my e-book and save the police (again!)
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*Wasting Police Time** is now available on Kindle.
You don't need a Kindle itself to read it - you can download an 'app' onto
your iPad/laptop/whatever.
U...
10 of the most beautiful things I've ever seen
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1. The sun setting over a still sea, woven to silk, and the swimmers,
silhouttetted wading back to the shore like merman returning to land.
2. My br...
Why the WAR OF 1812?
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I just received two of the more recent Osprey Men-at Arms books on the War
of 1812 in the mail the other day (not really that recent - 1998 and
2000...but...
I've been extemporising Horse artillery for the last while, using an ADC figure and two chaps from the foot batteries. As a stop gap, it sufficed and there was little doubt as to which were the horse batteries and which the foot. But it rankled, so I have just mustered two new gun crews into the French service. These are Newline Designs figures and are a touch small, but they do well in units on their own. I had toyed with HATs offering, but wasn't convinced by the sculpting. I also wanted each horse battery to have at least one mounted gunner so that the difference between horse and foot batteries would be clear.
Up close for a whiff of grapeshot
My readers are all no doubt familiar with horse artillery, but in case Tim Gow has had a sudden rush of blood to the head and momentarily forgotten anything that doesn't have a jet engine on it.
Horse artillery are simply put, batteries of artillery where the gun crews ride rather than walk. The idea behind them was that they would provide fast mobile firepower where it was needed. Foot batteries, which typically carried a greater weight of metal, were more powerful, but couldn't be relied upon to get to the key point quickly. Horse artillery, sometimes called "flying batteries", though I've only heard this used when referring to the American arm, were most numerous in French service. They were expensive to train and raise as they required more horses then a foot battery and men who could ride as well as shoot. The first batteries were raised in 1792 under General Mathieu Dumas.
Sadly, this is not Alexandra Dumas father, who was the rather more imposing Thomas Alexandre Dumas. But the French artillery and horse artillery especially certainly shared his aggression. Paddy Griffith covers the "artillery charge" in passing in his Osprey on French Napoleonic Infantry tactics, but essentially it boiled down to getting in close and shooting fast, delivering murderous close range fire to rupture the enemy line.
We will never see a horse artillery battery in action in earnest, but to give you some impression of the speed, precision and dash of these men, have a look at this footage from the Royal Tournament in 1985.
Stragglers
While Command & Colours Napoleonics gun crews (at least as I organise them) come with only three crewmen and a gun, that seemed a rather scanty number of gunners. The Newline Design packs came with more figures than I needed, so should I ever need more crewmen (I won't say a full crew), these fellows are waiting in the wings.
I suppose that these pictures are part of a larger project to document my collection of figures, for my own satisfaction and so that I can insure them. I posted (as I usually do) a link to my blog entry on the subject to The Miniatures Page recently and received some interesting and not so interesting responses.
The discussion spiralled out of the bounds of reason and decency shortly there after and considerable time and energy that could have been more profitably spent calculating how many angels may dance on the head of the pin or perhaps ironing the undersides of cats was expended on the subject of whether it is right or proper to murder someone who is burgling your home. For a variety of reasons, I shall not go into my position on the subject here. I can only steal another man's eloquence.
"It is a big step to take another human life. It is never to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts. I can assure you they live with the Mark of Cain upon them."
You're right:HaT's French horse guns are horrible and Italeri's are really Imperial Gurad horse artillery, so there's not much in the way of plastic 1/72nd stuff.
I've been wary of buying Newline as I've always thought it too small. I have been tempted to try SHQ's artillery, though haven't yet go around to it.
I have too little time in my life to even think of visiting the TMP site based on what others have said... on to more interesting subjects, I have seen the RHA in action at the Royal Tournament as a child, and I specifically remember the sheer speed in such a confined space - magnificent horsemanship - those guns skid as they go round the corners...... fantastic.
Rosbif - isn't it? Stirring stuff. I have a set of the Italeri Guard that'll get done eventually, but it's not exactly priority.
Steve - TMP is a curates egg and I wouldn't write it off entirely. As the the RHA, I've only seen our own mounted unit in action once and they were incredible. I can't but imagine what seeing a team would be like.
Tim - Gow, see me after class.
Ross - I couldn't agree more. If we ever meet in person, there's a funny story I must tell you about a home invasion.
Excellent footage Conrad!
ReplyDeleteYou're right:HaT's French horse guns are horrible and Italeri's are really Imperial Gurad horse artillery, so there's not much in the way of plastic 1/72nd stuff.
I've been wary of buying Newline as I've always thought it too small. I have been tempted to try SHQ's artillery, though haven't yet go around to it.
I have too little time in my life to even think of visiting the TMP site based on what others have said... on to more interesting subjects, I have seen the RHA in action at the Royal Tournament as a child, and I specifically remember the sheer speed in such a confined space - magnificent horsemanship - those guns skid as they go round the corners...... fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued by the mention of jet engines in a post about Napoleonic horse artillery. Now there's an idea...
ReplyDeleteHmm does make one wonder if rules for horse artillery should make them fast but require them to always move in circles.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite troop types though.
Possibly home invaders should be forced to sit and read TMP threads.
-Ross
Rosbif - isn't it? Stirring stuff.
ReplyDeleteI have a set of the Italeri Guard that'll get done eventually, but it's not exactly priority.
Steve - TMP is a curates egg and I wouldn't write it off entirely. As the the RHA, I've only seen our own mounted unit in action once and they were incredible. I can't but imagine what seeing a team would be like.
Tim - Gow, see me after class.
Ross - I couldn't agree more. If we ever meet in person, there's a funny story I must tell you about a home invasion.