Lead Gardens

Cooler Heads Prevail

2011-12-28T19:02:00.000-08:00

As I was parading the troops yesterday in preparation for making a list of "for sale" units...I was brought up short by the many messages I got expressing dismay that I was contemplating the sale of my stuff....and as Der Alte Fritz stated most eloquently, "Don't do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! "

And as the lads from both of my mighty Imaginations marched in review, there was not a dry eye on the Königliches Paradefeld...both the Grand Duchess and King Wilhelm were visibly shaken...

So for now I've decided to hold off selling the collection...call me sentimental but it's the real reason that these fictitious little armies are so fascinating...they have character and a history that gives them a life of their own! An amazing thing really that I have not experienced with any of my many figure collections over the years.

...so I just told myself to hang in there and find a way to make ends meet some other way than selling things that are dear to me...

So I'll leave you with some shots of the Grand Duchess headed back to her estate in her coach and four...

...and many thanks to those of your who contacted me with both offers for the collection and words of encouragement! I'll be in touch with some alternate plans.

"I Told You These Blasted Games Were Realistic!"

2011-12-26T16:01:00.000-08:00

I was amazed to find this ad that launched it all (for me...) was this one for Avalon Hill Games in a 1968 issue of "Boy's Life" magazine. The internet is pretty amazing sometimes...I can remember being obsessed with finding out about the games and the first title I bought was "Blitzkrieg." In a few short years it was on to miniatures via Don Featherstone, but this little ad was what started it all.

Plans and Schemes

2011-12-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

After some long soul searching, (and the grinding pressures of the economy), I have come to the realization that I do really love 40mm as a scale of choice, and since my Prince August Homecast project is coming along well, I am seriously considering offering my entire 25mm RSM/Minden Imaginations collection for sale!?

Those of you have enjoyed the exploits of the Konigreich der Bleiherzen and the Grand Duchy of Grolstein over the past years, fear not as a change in scale will not mean these two most bellicose of little nations will disappear from the Lead Gardens. But it might mean the troops gain in stature from 25/28mm to 40mm...That being said, anyone who is interested in a buying really nice, beautifully painted, collection of miniatures Imaginations/Old School style, please feel free to drop me a line at ddugas@vt.edu

The Real Deal-Classic style!

I am currently counting the lads up and am working on a complete list. I am also considering including all of the cool "classic wargaming" buildings I have scratchbuilt over the years as well...(I'm going to ignore my longstanding rule: never sell the terrain!...) so...if there is any interest let me know!

I'm having to write this under the influence of a stout martini, because it's a bit painful to contemplate the necessary end of an era...but upwards and onwards...! Huzza!

10mm Panzer Brigade 107 circa 1944

...and remember I still have a nice collection of 10mm WWII Pendrakens (Brits and Germans) up for sale as well...

...and finally I've got some 28mm civilians (unpainted Blue Moon and Eureka up for auction on ebay):
HERE

A Nice Find

2011-12-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

Today I devoted most of the day for an all day excursion with my wife to Charlottesville, Virginia to do some critical holiday errands, and though I was not expecting the day to be anything but a pleasant outing without the kids in tow, I did not expect anything in the way of my hobby to incite the bells and whistles this day...but I was mistaken! Thanks to Charlottesville's proximity to the University of Virginia, the downtown boasts a goodly number of used bookstores of truly high quality. I was just going to kill a few minutes while my wife was over in a yarn shop visiting a friend by stepping in to the wonderful "Blue Whale Books" next door.

I was not expecting to buy anything,
just a quick to look see...

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a clean new copy of Knotel's "Uniforms of the World",
and for only eight tiny dollars.

Away to the checkout I flew like a flash,
Tore open my wallet and drew out the cash.

The owner was skinny not chubby, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And ran my debit card, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, this card should work!

He sprang to his chair, to himself gave a whistle,
And away I flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere I walked out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

...for me I'll be tucked with this new treasure in my bed,

while visions of new uniforms dance in my head...

Happy Holiday Hunting Everyone!

(...my sincere apologies to Clement Clarke Moore and my readers as I am no poet, it's true!)

Lorraine Regiment in 40mm

2011-12-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

The Lorraine Regiment, Commanded by the Marquis de Villeroy- two "companies" of 16 plus an 8 man company of grenadiers following, so really the line companies are more like historical "wings"

Here are some more pics of my new 40mm French (Prince August homecasts). I'm finding that since the figures are 3/4 flats they can be based to roughly the same frontage as my 25mm RSMs and still look impressive when lined up.

Lorraine grenadier company...these are some of the older molds that PA offers. They are a bit flatter than the newer molds but I think they still look pretty cool.


The Marquis de Montrimal leads two squadrons of the Royal Roussion Cavalerie

A few weeks ago my son and I could not wait to get to the gaming space we have in the back of my wife's yarn shop so we set up a quick battle on our kitchen counter one evening. He of course clobbered me and the French drew first blood. But I claim that my lack of cavalry was the problem not my bad rolling...

Grenadier company of the 12th Foot

No Joy In Mudville...

2011-12-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

Regiment Lorraine

Though you might well think I have dropped out of sight these past few months...with nary a post...I'm still here though still struggling with life's complexities (read: money...and work). I'm going to get back on the horse this holiday season and devote some quality time to getting the Lead Gardens back into trim.

In the few months that I have been away from the blog, I've taken up 40mm home casting in a serious way by virtue of a storage room clean-out of piles of old figures that instead of trying to unload on ebay (which seems to be really flat these days...) I got the notion to buy a few Prince August molds and turn those old figures into new 40mm stuff. I've got a lot of metal that I accumulated over the years and it has really played out in the casting as I don't have to buy metal ingots.

I've managed to build a basic old school horse and musket force (both sides) for almost nothing save the start-up cost of the molds. I decided that since I had already collected a nice 25mm collection of 18th century Imaginations, that I would base this new collection on historical SYW French and English units with a few fictitious light infantry and such to spice it up a bit. In that effort the fantastic Seven Years War website was my weapon of choice as far as units, painting, as well as names of commanders and such. Much more on this throughout the month. But suffice to say, classic gaming is alive and well here at the Lead Gardens!

British 12th Regiment of Foot

I have been also toying with getting some 40mm semi-flat French and Indian War stuff from Irregular Miniatures to further spice things up.

These are some images of the Prince August castings. I have been much inspired by the blog Ilkley Old School and Battlegame of the Month in this endeavor which is really great if you've not had a chance to read these two fantastic blogs.

The mighty 12th Foot... 2 wings of 16 plus a grenadier company (8 figures) in all it's glory!

I'm going with the unit organizations found in the "Charge" rules minus one company or troop...so basically I'm using 2 company or troop units instead of three...it seems to work with 40mm better than three which would cover a lot of table space.

I'll be sure to post better pics and more comprehensive battle reports this holiday season since I have some time away from work (...the academic's life has it's perks...)

In the meantime it seems I literally can't seem to give away a collection of nice 10mm WWII Pendraken stuff!? on eBay...so I'm giving up on the ebay thing and I'm posting some pics of them here and if any of my faithful readers are interested just drop me a line at ddugas@vt.edu and make me an offer...here are some pics (just ask me for a detailed list if you are interested)...they are painted to a high level and I know you'll love these minis if you are in to this scale!

All the best for your Holiday Season!—littlejohn

Bellicose Imagi-nations!

2011-09-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Classic action!

Through this seemingly short summer I've managed to play a few games before the Fall term begins and my "day job" kicks in... Here are a few pics of my latest game using the great "Hearts of Tin" rules by Ross over at "Battlegame of the Month" .

Cavalry melee.

The rules were a nice change from my usual "The Wargame" rules and I really enjoyed the blend of contemporary and classic approaches that "Hearts of Tin" offers. I even tried two games using both an earlier version of the rules and the latest update that even runs smoother! For a guy who has little time to game these days, the rules are just the ticket for a fast-but-thoughtful game.

Grenadiers hold a hilltop.

Just time to post a few pics now, but hopefully will give a more thorough report of another game later this month.

Hey, where are you hussars off too?!...aren't you supposed to be covering the flank?

20MM Colonials Action

2011-07-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

This week some pics of another small colonial action that I managed to squeeze in between work, family and dental surgery!

Highlanders move into a small valley in column


A half company of Ghurkas

Bengal Lancers in advance of the column

Pathans draw up in ambush

A band of Pathans surge through a narrow defile

though the British column looses initially they quickly are able form up and deliver several crushing volleys


...that eventually send the small Pathan force off the field.

Still don't have enough Pathans painted up to give the Brits much resistance, so I'm going to have to step up the painting this month.

Please also see my FOR SALE link at the top of the page for some cool ships up and other minis for auction!

...and the Up Side.

2011-07-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

After a discouraging few days lamenting the demise of my paper buildings...I buckled down and repaired and rebuilt them all and on top of that, built a nice church (also available free at GHQ) that takes only about an hour to construct. I was able to get all the wrecked buildings back into shape and despite a few bent spots they don't look too bad. One of them had a hole torn in the roof which I just left and painted some fire damage and it looks pretty convincing. Adding some bits of clump foliage around the bases also makes a huge difference (especially with paper houses since it encourages your eye to perceive the flat surfaces as more three dimensional and less "papery")

So now I have experienced the full ups and downs of paper terrain...and hopefully I can keep that little monster away from my stuff till she gets a bit older!

NOoooooooooo!!!

2011-07-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

Gamer QUIZ
This picture is either:

A) ... the remains of a quaint Dutch village circa 1944 after a particularly severe bombardment
B) ... the unfortunate downside of paper buildings

I think I'll coin a new adage... Never, ever, turn your back on a two year old...!

10mm WWII Action: Attack on Uden

2011-06-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

British infantry in the foreground defend "Hell's Highway" the village of Uden in the background...American paras under assault in the far distance.

Today I had some time to set up and run a small WWII action in 10mm using some terrain boards and my new Pendragon 10mm figures. The battle was just to have a go at the rules (I've not played them before) and to see how the terrain boards look and work with the figures.

A British 17lbr rushes to aid the Paras

The boards are made of 1/4" mdf with sections of outdoor carpet adhered to the surface. The sections are 2x4' and though they are abstractions of the real terrain in Holland, I tweaked the roads to make them "geomorphic" for more variety. The mdf color makes a decent road surface that will get some further texture with paint and foliage to make the roads a bit rougher. The buildings are 6mm paper buildings from GHQ's website. They have a nice selection of Dutch buildings and since I'm modeling the Arnhem battles, they work perfectly.

Elements of Panzer Brigade 107

The hedges are homemade using sections of 3M scrubber dipped in glue/paint and then dipped into flock...simple and fast... Still working on how to make convincing forests.

A Bren carrier scout platoon in some serious peril...

So far I'm enjoying the project and the rules as the figures paint up easily and look good, and the rules are interesting. All in all a nice break from my usual larger scale stuff.

(also...I've put up a link to some 15mm WWII Desert War unpainted stuff that I'm liquidating this week, just click on the For Sale link in the header.)

Jumping On the 10mm Bandwagon

2011-06-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of guys out there who are doing some really great gaming in 10mm so I'm a bit late to the party, but this summer I'm scaling down all my WWII stuff to 10mm. I think the figure lines have really taken a leap forward in coverage and detail so it makes something I always wanted to do become something I definitely need to do now.

10mm Pendragon Germans and GHQ 6mm paper houses

What you are seeing here is an initial batch of Pendragon 10mm Germans next to some 1/285 GHQ paper houses (available free on their website). I'm finding a lot of 10mm players use 6mm buildings for less table coverage and it seems to look right with the minis...so initially, I'm doing it too. I'm going to collect armies for the Arnhem operations of WWII. There were lots of different troop types involved and that always makes for some fun army building. I'm using Blitzkrieg Commander rules for a start.

The initial German force I'm building is going to model Panzer Brigade 107...a unit that figured in the attempts to cut the main highway to Arnhem. It's an interesting unit typical of the period and is outfitted with Panthers and Jagdpanzer IVs so fun to paint. I just used the OB from the "Rapid Fire Rules" supplement, and just converted it to 1 stand = 1 platoon level.

These are just a few workbench pics of the Brigade as it is getting finished. Since I'm in the US I'm ordering these from "The War Store" online...and getting the usual great service even if Neal has to order the Pendraken stuff every 2 weeks. I was able to produce this brigade for around $120. USD...a real advantage over my usual 15mm Battlefront/Flames of War purchases which, though they are a quality product, really sting the pocketbook!

I'm pretty excited about the quality of these Pendragons and will post the British Grenadier Guards Battlegroup in a few weeks.
In the coming months, ultimately I'm hoping to rebuild my North Africa collection in 10mm as well since my 15mm desert collection has all been sold off to fund new projects...(and other more pressing financial things as well).

New Features and a New Battle!

2011-06-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

A meeting engagement generated by random card draw.

My dear wife let me in on a "Blogger" secret that has until now gone unnoticed by normally technically savvy self... she showed me how to put a line of page links just below the banner, so henceforth, there will be a header with links just under the Lead Gardens blog banner...just like a "real" webpage. Now I just have to figure out what goes there...most importantly I'll be able to post my eBay figure auctions easily with out having to make a new post each time. They will be listed as links under the "Figures" button. Also be sure to check in on the "Downloads" page...there I will be putting up links to some free stuff to download. So hopefully more interesting stuff to come soon.

The Grolstein main body enters in column

Also today I'm posting some pics of a recent meeting engagement between my ImagiNations. The battle was interesting in that I used a deck of "mission cards" from a "Risk" boardgame that have images of an infantryman, a cavalryman, or a gun. I dealt to each side three rows of cards, the first of two cards would be the advanced guard, the second of 4 cards would comprise the main body, and the final row of 3 cards would comprise the rearguard. I dealt the cards and then rolled 1D6 for the main body to determine the turn of arrival, and 2D6 to set the arrival of the rearguard. I didn't turn the cards until the turn of arrival so as a solo game it gave a bit of uncertainty as to how the forces would be played in the initial stages of the battle. Both side deployed their advance guards one move in from the table edges.


Colonel Gluklich ("luckyshot") deploys his battery in preparation for longrange bombardment.

both sides moved on from the short table edges so the battle developed a bit more slowly...and each side manuevered to control a large hill at mid table.

the light cavalry of both sides initially contested the hill, but as more cavalry moved up the hill became a major site of a large cavalry engagement.

Height of the battle with infantry and cavalry hotly engaged!

The battle rages at turn 12

I was not able to finish the fight so I'll hopefully have some time later this week to complete this AAR.

Quick Hill Terrain From Wal-Mart

2011-05-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

20mm Jacklex Guides Cavalry

I was running some errands at our local "big box" store with two kids in tow...not thinking about gaming at all, when my "inner gamer" pokes me and says," wait!...now there is something I can use!" It turned out that I found some simulated stone garden pavers made of some sort of recycled rubber material that make great hills for my colonials. Here is what they look like:

The material seems like compressed rubber "grains" and is very tough and dense. They come in different sizes and colors are irregular in shape and the surface undulates slightly so they look pretty convincing on the table. I got mine for 4 bucks each on sale, but I think they are normally 6 each. So not dirt cheap but you don't have to paint them and they are indestructable. The only drawback is that they are a bit heavier than a plywood hill might be. But that is no real problem unless you have a lot of convention traveling to do.

Here is one with a rock outcrop made of styrofoam stacked on top...and a few Jacklex 20mm Pathans. I got both a couple of grey ones and couple of brown ones for variation. They are about an inch thick.

...if I use the cork table you see in the background or the desert flip side of "the green mile"...the rubber hills would blend in just great.

Here is a small NW Frontier game running with the hills in use. The British assault a Pathan tower guarding a pass.

Ral-Partha Ghurkas in the lead followed by 20mm Jacklex Highlanders...the figure height difference is not significant to my eye so I'm happy to use both lines together.

The RHA gun shelling the heights...

A "Way" Old School Fort

2011-05-21T15:46:00.000-07:00

This summer I have resolved among other things, to empty out a storage space that I rent outside of town...my wife will be the happier for it and it will free up some money to make ends meet. So in the process, it's giving me some really nice "re-discovery" moments. This latest is a old fortress made of "particle board" that I bought from a great friend in my first year of college...a fellow named Bob Wehr...I lost track of him, but his fort lives on!

I remember I paid 100 USD for the fort and it served for many years in my basement where I lived with my parents...way back in 1975... It got a refurbish and a repaint in the mid-nineties but has been in storage since until just last week. I thought it would make a good addition to my 20mm colonials project.

It needs some repair, but my son and I set it up last week just to have a look.

20mm Jacklex Highlanders man the parapet

The fort has definitely "old school" feel and I think it will serve nicely for those "marching out of Kohat" pics that I so fondly remember from Don Featherstone's "Solo Wargaming" book. The fort is in individual sections that can be recombined in different ways and it includes a "breach" section (not shown)...I remember Bob, who had great ideas about gaming innovation...talking about terrain that could be varied for the battle at hand...and I think he actually had the idea for "hex shaped battlefield tiles" back in 1975 (he even wanted me to skip college and go into business producing gaming terrain)...way before it was done by GHQ and later Hexon... I can only hope Bob found his "pot of gold" in life...but he sure did give a young lad, such as I, much inspiration!

I'll be repairing and refurbishing it in the coming weeks so stay tuned...

My son, (the hand in the pics...) is already obsessed... But it's the good kind of obsession!

20mm Colonials Progress

2011-05-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Between games of "Portable Wargame"...and writing up final comments to my design students...and putting more figures up FOR SALE on ebay...and deciding to limit my focus this summer to one project only...that being 20mm colonials....and other smaller annoyances this week... I managed to lay out a small skirmish with the colonials I have painted so far. I'll post the AAR this weekend, but until then I caught a few pics of a British punitive column moving through a hostile Pathan village on the North West Frontier circa 1877...

the buildings are those cheap cardboard boxes available here in the states at "Michaels" (see the conversions here). I'm finding it a fun challenge to "downscale" from my former 25/28mm colonial terrain using the terrain elements I already have.

I even unearthed a few steep rocky mountains...

...and the "green mile" still does good service as a table since most of my original sources speak of green verdant agricultural valleys crisscrossed with crops and villages flanked by rocky peaks with pine forests in between as typical NW Frontier terrain...

Portable Wargame: Quatre Bras

2011-05-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

I find myself strangely compelled by "The Portable Wargame" by Bob Cordery... it really appeals to my sense of simplicity and abstraction. So I decided today to put the rules under a bit of "stress" by posing a historical scenario...one of my favorites,... the 1815 Napoleonic Battle of Quatre Bras. I used the order of battle found on Wikipedia to get a proportional set of armies...and I was off and running.

I used a larger hexboard that I pirated from another Command and Colors Game ...an "epic scale board"...in that system.

The units in the game equated to brigades in the historical battle. The order of battle breaks down in units as follows:

French

15 infantry units
3 Field Artillery units
2 Light Artillery
1 Dragoon unit
1 Cuirassier unit
1 Guard Lancer unit
2 light cavalry units
1 command unit
......total of 25 units plus 1 command

Anglo-Allied

11 infantry units
5 artillery units
2 cavalry units
1 command unit
total of 18 plus one command

as I am still getting used to the rules so I didn't differentiate for "guards," "lights," and such but I think such distinctions can be integrated into the rules later.

the French advance...


the Brunswickers occupy Gemioncourt Farm...

The battle was fought as per the rules with the addition of my "squares rule" mentioned in the last post.

The French came on in fine style and made good progress initially by turning out the Brunswickers from Gemioncourt Farm in the early stages... but not without losses.

Eventually the French assault gathered momentum and the assault on Gemioncourt became a full scale fight.

The French captured the farm after a sharp fight...and then consolidated to make an assault on the Quatre Bras ridge.

but in the process the British force held on doggedly and caused significant casualties...the French send light cavalry unit around the British left flank but it meets the firm defensive squares of the Highlanders

a view of the attacking French columns


Wellington moves to the crisis point!

the British hold firm!

...ultimately, the French make a game assault on the village of Quatre Bras but their strength is spent...and a final flurry of musketry from the British Guards seals their fate and they remain in possession of Gemioncourt Wood as well as the crossroads of Quatre Bras....

...and as the Iron Duke would say..."it was damned near run thing!"

The rules again gave a good game in 1 hour...and the rules worked for a historic scenario, which in my book is real test!....again, the rules are bloody, but as Ross noted in the last game, it demands that commander be aware of his reserves...and that was decisive in this game...as it was in history. the French exhausted all their infantry, and at the end the British had 3 brigades of infantry intact, hanging on to Quatre Bras,... so the battle went to Wellington!

One of the interesting things about this battle was that the forces were unequal...the Brits were outnumbered, but the managed to hold the French as in the original battle...a very good outcome for the rules, and one that begs to be tried again.

I am interested in developing a better use for the command unit...instead of being just a target...it seems like it runs from the enemy instead of moving to the crisis points. Perhaps it can influence combats in the vicinity or such...

I have a new interest in my 6/10mm because of these rules!!

Having a Go With Hexes

2011-05-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

It's been raining here in SW Virginia for so long I think I might apply for "Honorary Brit Status"...or maybe move to Seattle and be done with the sun for good... and to cap it off my son was sick and home from school as well so nothing to be done for it but...break out a game!

We decided to try out Bob Cordery's "Portable Wargame Rules" based on Joseph Morshauer adapted to hexes. I had just read Ross McFarlane's AAR of a game using the rules and thought they would be just the ticket for a quick game.

We used my 6mm Napoleonics and the hex board from a Command and Colors game from GMT. The terrain was some of my homemade (using Polymer clay) buildings and a few store bought buildings as well. We fabricated a few hills by tracing around some of the C&C games tiles on to 1/4" balsa and sprayed them...(amazingly building the hills took only about 20 minutes)...and then we got to it.

We each had an army of 18 stands (the rules call for 1 1/2 times the number of baseline hexes to set the size of the army).

Now Napoleonics are a notoriously difficult era to simulate what with all the "rock, paper, scissors" nuances to deal with and such, but for this game we decided to use the rules as written to see how they worked and then adjust them later for Naps.

As the game progressed, I did cook up a simple "infantry squares" rule that seemed to work well: We said infantry could elect to form squares when an enemy cav unit moves adjacent...by doing this the infantry gives up it's roll against the cavalry in the Close Combat phase. The cavalry in turn has it's combat power reduced to 2, and if it fails to destroy the infantry unit, it is retreated one hex after the combat and is pinned. The infantry unit while in square cannot fire and takes an initiative point to change formation out of square.

We managed a few turns before my son lost interest (he's five after all...), but I soldiered on. The French after a turn of cannonade, advanced a strong force on the left and pressed the Brits hard. A couple of Highland units stood fast until destroyed by overwhelming numbers. The rules are bloody, but fun in true Morschauer style, and I didn't mind the level of abstraction at all, as I found you quickly had to get into making some hard command choices as with casualties your initiative dice begin to dwindle.

those 6mm fellows are tiny but aggressive!

The rules as written have a two hex infantry fire range which seemed long using 6mm, (but would work great in mid to late century battles). I used it anyway and chalked up the long range fire to skirmishers and "tactical" (i.e, non Grand Battery) artillery fire. In a future Napoleonic rules "tweak" I might try making two hex infantry fire a "pin only" result.

The battle was winding to a close as the French assault on the left slowly began to strangle the British command rolls...but we had to wrap up the game when the wife came home from work and said, "Is this what you guys have been doing all day?"

.... ahh the lot of a married wargamer is fraught with peril...

Some Intel Needed: Part 2

2011-05-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

OK so here's a quick follow-up on the last post showing the "mystery man" as he is painted up in Grolstein regalia...

I'm still leaning towards Holgar Ericksson, but maybe it's wishful thinking...I'm off to check the Spencer Smith catalog to see if a match can be made..

He is splendid regardless!

Some Intel Needed

2011-05-09T17:22:00.000-07:00

I was doing some Spring cleaning in my storage space and I happened on these old figures...not sure of the make but the horseman this evening has already been black-primed and converted for duty as an ADC of the mighty Army of Grolstein. I was guessing he might be a Holgar Ericksson sculpt, but the base is stamped with "S. Africa" like the grenadiers shown here in grey primer. Anyone have a take on what make these guys might be? I cut the pistol off the figure and moved the arm so it is not original anymore. (the figure in the distance (a musketeer with long coatails) has a different smaller base so I'm guessing he might be a Stadden or Tradition??)...any help on ID on these figures would be much appreciated!

Battle of Weissenberg Part 2

2011-05-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Got a chance late this afternoon to play a few turns of the Battle of Weissenberg. I'm using "Black Powder" for the rules just to change things up and give a quick moving fight in between all the other things I have to do.

The battle heated up early when the Grolsteiners launched their combined grenadiers at the walls of Weissenberg stoutly defended by Colonel Gerlach's Jagers and an entrenched gun. The grenadiers were shaken by the intense fire and faltered under the walls...never getting into contact, they were soon in hasty retreat.

...almost simultaneously, a Grolstein brigade delivers a solid assault on the Bleiherzen right, and ferocious firefight erupts.

and finally the main Grolstein assault on the chateau in the center develops into a fierce melee arount it's walls...

...after three turns of melee, the Yellow grenadiers are turned out of the chateau and the battle turns in favor of Grolstein.

and just as things are looking grim for the Bleiherzener's, a squadron of Kuschen Hussars arrives on the scene and immediately charges a body of Croats who have enveloped the Bleiherzen main battleline...

...the Grolsteiners are frustrated after taking the chateau, with their infantry making little headway against the Bleiherzeners firm grip on the walled road beyond the chateau.

...and a final order from the Grolstein CinC for a charge of the Grand Duchess' cuirassiers seems too little too late...

...as the charge of the Hussars sends off both Croat light infantry units in full flight... and the infantry remaining just has no punch left to continue the fight and the win goes to the Koinigreich!

Second Summer Project

2011-04-30T06:09:00.000-07:00

Sash and Saber Yanks (in the background Old Glory yanks and rebs...and the flags are still unfinished)

The second project in the works here at the Lead Gardens is a bit of a commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. This summer's Historicon is taking on the ACW as it's theme, and since I've been sitting on a large pile of older Old Glory castings I got off ebay 8 (?!) years ago, plus a batch of new Sash and Saber 25mm to round it out, I thought it was a good time to get this collection started.

The goal is to have about a brigade on each side with supporting guns and cav painted up in a month or so.

Old Glory Rebs

I already have a start and last week I was able to complete the first unit of Sash and Saber (which match Old Glory very well both in sculpting style and height). This weekend I'm hoping to finish another unit of S&S Rebs.

Sash and Saber Rebs underway

I'm basing them in units of 20 figures so I can use them with a number of rules (primarily Fire and Fury, with the option of going 'Classic" with Featherstone Horse and Musket or some such.) I'm basing them with 4 figures in two ranks on 40mm square bases, 5 bases to a regiment. The fifth base will be further broken down into a base of 2 (40x20) and 2 singles (20x20) so I can do both stand removal as in F&F or go old school with individual casualty removal if necessary. Thus the standard 5 base regiment will count as 10 stands in F&F, or 20 figures in "classic" mode.

I watched the Ken Burns film Gettysburg, (the whole three some odd hours!) just to get into the mood...despite the film's legendary "exceptionally well-fed Reb reenactors", and martin Sheen's odd rendition of a southern accent, the film's depiction of the fight on Little Round Top and Pickett's charge is stunning and accurate. ...and who can forget Buford (played by Sam Eliot) growling to his cavalry commanders at the beginning of the battle, "Keep a clear eye!"

Battle of Weissenberg-a Video

2011-04-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

Something a little different today. I set up an 18th century battle based on the 1870 Franco Prussian War Battle of Weissenberg and have posted here a video of the initial set up. Just a little experiment for the sport of it...

...and yes, that strangely disembodied narrator you hear, (yours truly) manages to mispronounce the name of the actual historical battle (borg, instead of berg) so now it goes down in my ImagiNations history as the fictitious "Battle of Wiesenborg".

I halved the historic Order of Battle to get a scaled down force tailored to my 18th century stuff. The only other adjustments were to change a French mitrailleuse to a Bleiherzen howitzer and to change the historic rail station which was a Prussian objective on the field in 1870 to a walled chateau. I also changed the railway embankment to a wall and the castle of Schloss Geisberg which featured as a strongpoint defended by the French in the original battle became simply a windmill. The absence of this castle will affect the dynamics of the battle but it seemed like it would make a better tabletop scenario to omit it...though I might change my mind before fighting it out.

The OB:

Grolstein:
4 battalions of infantry (36 figs each)
2 battalions of light infantry (12 figs each)
1 battalion of converged grenadiers (24 figures)
4 field guns, 1 howitzer
2 squadrons of cavalry (24 figures)

Bleiherzen:
3 battalions of infantry (36 figures each)
1 1/2 battalion of grenadiers (12 figures)
1 battalion of jagers (12 figures)
2 field guns, 1 howitzer
...and on turn 5 a squadron of hussars

This is a first time posting a video on the blog so let me know if it works or not.

Waziris!

2011-04-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

Some in progress pics of a unit of Waziri Pathans. I just did a white spray undercoat and a simple wash of Citadel "Delvan Mud" to tone down the white..followed by dark red and blue turbans and dark red and pink sashes. I used the Pathan color guide found on the Yahoo Colonial Wars group. I'm going with consistent sashes to distinguish 20 man units but turbans and trousers will vary as well as shields and such. These are Jacklex 20mm with a 25mm Ral Partha Dervish standard bearer mixed in. Again I'm really happy with the Jacklex figures in that they are quick to paint, but I'm looking forward to some units of Ral Parthas as well. In all, some real Colonial excitement to kick off the summer...and then there is the second Lead Gardens summer project on the way as well...hmmmm...what could it be...stay tuned my friends!

Jacklex vs Ral Partha Comparisons

2011-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

I got a request from Brigadier Dundas for a Jacklex/Ral Partha comparison so here are some pics and comment to that end:

OK so here is the basic comparison: Left to Right: Jacklex Pathan leader, Partha Pathan standard bearer, Jacklex Pathan rifleman, Partha Pathan bugler

Here are two Jacklex Highlanders next to a Ral Partha Pathan bugler and a Jacklex limber rider and horse. You can see here in the two Highlanders that the Jacklex line has a "large" and a "small" version of the figure line. I'm guessing that Peter over at Spencer Smith is having the line added to so the smaller figures are probably from the earlier castings. Pay attention to the basing when you compare these because I've tried to put all the figres at about the same level but there is some slight difference between my rectangular bases and the round metal fender washers.

To my eye both lines seem pretty compatible despite the scale difference. The main difference is the general "heft" of the Partha's...and most telling is the distinct differences in the horses as you can see in the pic below....

...but the riders are roughly the same in scale....

Here is a (L to R) Jacklex, Partha, Partha ...and on the far right a Jacklex RHA 9 pounder.

Here is the limber with an array of Jacklex and Parthas...the standard bearer, horse and rider andbugler are Parthas and the limber, Pathan rifleman and swordsman are Jacklex

Jacklex Highlander officer, Jacklex Highland NCO, Partha bugler, Jacklex Pathan leader...Partha horse and rider in the background as well as the Brit limber riders...

Hope this helps make the distinctions between the lines clearer. To my mind both lines will mix on the table perfectly well if you are not a stickler for the odd 1 or 2mms....and I am especially happy that I can use the great Jacklex colonial limbers and wagons (and that "Oh So Cool" 4.7" oxen drawn field gun!..) with Parthas so now,... horizons expand!

...and one additional pic showing a Partha Pathan leader on a Jacklex horse and the jacklex limber horse and rider on the right... seems workable to me...

Mission Drift

2011-04-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I was basing up some 20mm Jacklex Pathans and I remembered I had some classic Ral Partha "true 25s" in a box somewhere...in my "stuff"...my wife accuses me of being a "hoarder"...but nonetheless, I dug up some Ral Partha standard bearers and put them next to my new Jacklex Pathans, and lo and behold!...not much difference in scale (just as Jeff predicted in my last post...). So now I'm thinking..."I really used to enjoy Ral Partha colonials, and a quick check over at "Great Endeavors"
and I was swallowed up in new ideas about my colonial project...Oh! the humanity! My worst fears are confirmed...I really am now thinking Ral Parthas true 25s might be the "True Way" for colonials...

...and maybe, just maybe I can use these Jacklex as well...as long as I don't get too scrupulous about scale. But after all, I have found that the Jacklex stuff varies greatly between 20mm and 24mm even within the line. But the classic Ral Parthas have really got me thinking...

20mm Colonials: The Gallant 92nd! Finished!

2011-04-18T18:48:00.000-07:00

Finished a company of the 92nd today! My rules of choice for colonials are "The Sword and the Flame", so these first 20 will be one "platoon". TSATF is a really scalable ruleset so I'm going to to treat these 20 figures as a company if need be, or, if necessary split them up into two 10 figure companies and the rules will still give good service (there is even the 8 figure unit "Fatoso Variant" which works great as well). I also completed the crew for the RHA battery....

These Jacklex castings paint up in a flash and give a nice vintage toy soldier look that I'm going for with this collection. The tartans on the Gordon's hopefully are (mostly) correct, but given the smaller 20mm scale, I'm at the limit of my patience and eyesight as to accuracy.

But these lads look like they are ready to storm the pass!

Next come the first tribe of Pathans (the dreaded Waziri's of the Khyber!)

20mm Colonials: The Gallant 92nd!

2011-04-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

I had a bit of time this afternoon to base up and prime my first unit of British colonial infantry for "The 20mm Project". This first unit will be the 92nd Highland regiment. I'm thinking this colonial collection will be painted circa 1878-1888 with some loose interpretations of history in order to bring the Russians into conflict with England over mountainous border areas inhabited by wild hillmen who may turn coats at a moments notice....and more importantly allow me the liberty to paint a few units in scarlet, to give the whole collection a bit of character as well.

The Jacklex figures are really "charming" and look right for a semi-historical game. Here is the first test Highlander in scarlet:

...as you can see, a very basic figure but nice animation...shown here before facial detail, buttons or gloss overcoat.

I have a feeling that these Jacklex will be great as the whole collection gets onto the table en masse. This stout fellow is mounted on a 5/8" diameter washer so I can mount units on sabot stands later if I want and it gives these smaller figures some heft. I wanted to have a few units in scarlet since the time period I've chosen spans the changeover from scarlet serge to khaki.

I'm now trying to figure out how to convert colonial Egyptians into Ghurkas...but the Jacklex Egyptians are cast with a "havelock" sunshield on the headgear...so I'll have to "get my creative on!" but that's half the fun!

More Summer Project Images

2011-04-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

Now that I have resolved, ie. (paid for) more picture space.....The Jacklex RHA gun and limber laid out and ready for assembly

I found my son's lego briks came in handy as jigs for gluing everything up...

...looking good...

classic!

I decided to go with a basic block painting approach over a black undercoat (appropriate for a vintage figure).

The first coats...

...and some images of the finished gun and limber...with that all important groovy shiny overcoat!

The figures seated on the gun are removable so I can use the gun deployed for action...as soon as I get the crew painted up!

I'll keep updating as the project progresses...I Love This Hobby!!!...Huzza!!!

Summer Project Begins: 20mm Colonials

2011-04-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

For this upcoming summer I have a couple of projects planned and I decided, after a lot of thinking on the idea, of doing up some "vintage style" colonial forces in 20mm for the first project. What with seeing Spencer Smith Miniatures' various listings of 20mm figures of the Jacklex range and knowing there are vintage Scrubys out there as well as 1/72 plastics in a pinch, I thought it would make a fun and challenging project particularly because the older style of casting is softer on detail, painting friendly and lend themselves more readily to conversions, which is what I want for this project...lots of conversions and scratchbuilding to occupy my summer evenings.

The basic concept for the project is to do forces for four European powers, plus natives to populate various environs of an imaginary continent. That way my urge to do forces for the Northwest Frontier and Afghan wars circa 1879-80 can be coupled with an interest in other colonial conflicts (Sudan, North Africa, East Africa etc.) ...and at least under this more expansive and fictitious idea, I'll have some excuse to scratchbuild a few new gunboats.

Though the Spencer Smith website has good images of the raw Jacklex castings, I had a hard time finding images of the painted colonials except for their new Pancho Villa range. So for this project I'm hoping to post some of the "images I hoped to find" as I contemplated the project as well as some conversion and painting tips as the project progresses. The best part of using Jacklex as a base set of figure line for 20mm colonials is that the line has a really great offering of guns, limbers and wagons to augment the figure line. To me this was a real attraction as I can see assembling a nicely composed punitive column of Europeans with infantry, cavalry, guns and a burdensome train for the natives to attack!...juicy gaming possibilities there!

So my first package of figures arrived from Spencer Smith.... (BTW, Peter at Spencer Smith has GREAT customer service and FAST shipping),... last Friday and I quickly cleaned up and assembled an RHA gun and limber to test out the initial ideas for the collection. The figures are really nice castings but as expected are less detailed than more contemporary stuff. They scale perfectly with 1/72 minis and are exactly 20mm from foot to top of head. So on first blush I'm thinking that I will be able to augment the forces with plastics as well as Scrubys.
****

...OUCH! ...JUST as I was trying to post more pics of my new minis, Google has informed me that I have to buy more picture space...so more images in the next post....

Small is Better

2011-04-06T19:41:00.000-07:00

Now I'm not sure a battle on a luxurious 8'x5' table counts as "small", but I'm finding more and more that I really enjoy setting up and fighting smaller scenarios with less units on the table and consequently more tactical choices to make. This latest battle here at the Lead Gardens is based pretty faithfully on one of C.S. Grants teasers from "Scenarios for All Ages" (and for the life of me I can't recall the name at the moment)...but it involves a dash to seize a small village by two forces that are small and differently configured. In this fight my Grolsteiners were the Lt. Cav/Lt infantry heavy force and entered from the far table edge to the village, and the men of the Konigreich were a small infantry heavy brigade that enters close to the center of the table with a shorter distance to make the village which is the winning objective for both sides.

The fun wrinkle in this scenario is a dense wood that covers the center of the battlefield and has branching narrow tracks that both only allow a 4 man frontage and at the main intersection units have to take a random roll to see if they take a wrong turn!

The Grolstein advance guard entering the table and splitting into two columns to dash for the objective. (again these pics are a bit fuzzy due to not using my usual camera).

Colonel Volger's Freikorps still smarting from the debacle of failing to capture the Grand Duchess' coach in the last encounter are ordered to head for the now sighted Grolstein column and delay their advance until their infantry can make for the village.

...while Volger's Jagers head up the track to a forbidding looking forest.

In the lower half of the picture we can see the musketeers of the Konigreich fully on table while Fuzilier Regiment von Kluge begins to thread it's way through a marshy area in column at half rate.

First encounter!...the jagers are surprised by a column of the Duchess' dreaded "Red Lancers" who have managed to take a wrong turn in the forest and run headlong into a volley of musketry...that fortunately for the lancers manages to cause little damage.

The ensuing melee sees the jagers get the worst of it and in the chaos of yet another wild Polish pursuit are forced to make a hasty retreat back down the forest track.

Meanwhile the Bleiherzen infantry columns still thread their way slowly through heavy terrain.

...and Col. Volger at the head of his dragoons makes a gallant charge on a regiment of Grolsteiners who have fallen behind their rapidly advancing cavalry and light infantry.

The deploying Grolsteiners are unable to get off an effective volley before the Dragoons are on them and they suffer heavy casualties in the melee and the pursuit effectively destroys Grolsteins infantry arm in short order.

The Polish commander recalls his orders and realizes that his squadron has taken a wrong turn...and he orders the pursuit of the jagers recalled and they succeed (a morale roll to halt the pursuit) in getting turned about and headed back down the forest track.

At the junction they take another wrong turn and head back in the direction they came...but it's a fortunate wrong turn as Volger's dragoons decide to head into the forest (lacking further orders, Volger takes a chance). Meanwhile Grolstein jagers, a half battery (1 gun) directed personally by the CinC, occupy a small farm on the outskirts of the objective and prepare to face the oncoming Bleiherzen infantry.

Another wild cavalry melee along the wooded track as the Poles charge the Freikorps Dragoons.

The battle begins to reach it's peak as the Bleiherzen infantry shakes itself into line and begins an assault to clear both side of the river. The second Grolstein squadron of cavalry (dragoons) makes the outskirts of the village but is shattered by a volley from the fuziliers and are forced to withdraw back across the river effectively handing the town over to their opponents.

The jagers posted in the farm duel with an advancing infantry regiment and with the support of the gun firing effective cannister managed to shatter their attackers.

But that does not stop the sheer weight of the Bleiherzen assault and they firmly capture the town and the win...

...and the Poles are left to their terrible pursuit...and a lucky young ADC (Manfred, King Wilhelm's nephew....in the blue coat) is caught up in the retreat as he attempts to deliver the brigadiers order for the Freikorps Dragoons to march to the sound of the guns...he barely escapes with his skin, and a tall story to tell!

Though they were able to rout a Grolstein regiment, Volger is still unsatisfied with the overall performance of his men and no doubt will be issuing strict return to "counter-uhlanen drill" as soon as they can be regrouped on the 'morrow.

WWII British and Germans For Sale

2011-03-30T04:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my 100th Follower (BigLee)!... and today some 20/25mm WWII figures for sale.
See them on ebay HERE.

NOTE: The auctions have ended on these without them being sold so they have been broken down into smaller lots and relisted- here is a link to the German infantry and you can find the rest under "see seller's other items"

It's elements of the Grenadier Guards circa Arnhem and based up for "Rapid Fire".

Believe it or not those "Armorfast" quick-build kits detail up pretty nicely (with some added detailing)...this is the Achilles TD.

And I'm also selling a German Panzer brigade (modeled after PZ BGD 107 from the Arnhem battles)

These are scratchbuilt conversions of a Flame thrower halftrack and a "Drilling" AA halftrack based on basic 251s by Hat (Armorfast kits)

Find the Germans HERE

Thanks!

A Warm Afternoon in the 1750s

2011-03-22T16:32:00.000-07:00

A small classic set piece to give me a chance to both parade the troops and to let my son play a few moves. He has been showing some interest in "daddy's real games" so it's getting to be time to introduce slightly more complex rules. We set up this battle today and managed to get in a few turns before his attention moved off to other things.

We used Grant's rules and I let him measure and make the die rolls. He enjoyed calculating the artillery "sleeve" mechanism where figuring out the difference in two D6 rolls involved a lot of finger counting and such.

I'm pretty convinced that gaming helped me resist some of the more destructive aspects of high school when I was a teen, so I'm hoping it can give my son something similar. If not, at least it will give him a reason to blow a bit of that discretionary income he hopefully will have.

But I'm just happy that I will have a regular face-to-face opponent someday, and maybe, just maybe, it will become a splendid life-long hobby for him as it did me.

We did not have my good camera with us today so all these pics were taken with my phone...but at least we recorded it for posterity. I eventually finished the game solo, and it was a victory for the Konigreich der Bleiherzen despite a furious assault and determined end game charge by the Grand Duchess' Cuirassiers....for the Bleiherzeners, some small revenge for being disappointed in their recent attempt to capture the Grand Duchess' coach!

More Trimming at the Lead Gardens

2011-03-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

I have a unit of Prussian Kurassiers (Nr2) up on the auction block as I'm continuing to convert to an "all Imaginations" 18th century collection so all Prussians and Austrians are now headed for other homes.

You can go to the ebay link here: LINK

The Grand Duchess' Coach: Finale

2011-03-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

The battle rages around the beleaguered Coach...the Grolsteiner hussars bravely charge the heavier Freikorp dragoons, and after a violent clash are forced to retreat, (...and retreat into Lead Gardens history as they were sold to another "nation" just yesterday...bon chance my good men!)

...meanwhile Volger's jagers get the worst of a firefight with the coach guard...the Croats doing much execution along with some surprisingly good pot-shooting by the frightened driver of the coach.

...off at the head of the column, the lancers pursue the scattered remains of one of the Konigswald dragoon squadrons...

...and are able to reform just in time to catch the Kuschen hussars in retreat as well. The Poles have earned their pay and their dreaded reputation for pursuit this day!

Down the road, the last squadron of dragoons prepares to hold off a strong force of the Duchess' cuirassiers galloping to the rescue.

...while one cuirassier squadron makes for the coach, the second squadron charges the dragoons formed up on a low rise. In the melee, the cuirassiers are thrown back but the dragoons are out of the fight for the coach.

...and after the jagers fall back from the ridge with heavy losses, it leaves only Volger's dragoons to make an attempt on the coach.

...and they are met by the defending dragoons in another swirling melee that ends in both sides falling back, ending the action.

Volger's men are forced to fall back and given the total losses the raiders sustained, it may be some time before such an attempt on the Duchess is tried again.

...as the coach guard reorganizes, the commander of the coach guard, is heard to say, "Where are those blasted Poles!" ...but it's no matter because the cuirassiers are in contact and pickets are sent off to fetch them back...and the occupants of the coach, (turns out it's the duchess nieces...if the grand dame herself was in the coach she would have her Liebguard present as well) ...can safely proceed.

...the audacious raiders will have to try another day!

And it occurs to me that I really do have to make up some better game markers...those big red and black beads just look too "RPGish" for my 18th century tastes!

The Grand Duchess' Coach: Part 2

2011-03-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

The coach in question...target of the Bleiherzen raiders...gets a four move head start as the die rolls for the Bleiherzen force have them all entering on turn four. The Coach escort gets 24" down the road before the enemy is sighted!

Overview of the fourth turn....the raiders appear!

...and the rear guard of the coach escort appears...

Colnel Volger's Freikorps in their first action, advance smartly to engage the column escort.

The Bleiherzen center moves to block the head of the coulumn, the Kuschen hussars on the left, and 2 squadrons fo the Konigswald Dragoons on the right.

The Grolstein column forms up to the left of the road, leaving the right flank exposed and guarded only by the small party of picked Croat sharpshooters who quickly conceal themselves in a wooded copse along the road.

The Grolstein rearguard moves quickly to cover the right flank.

Volger' Freikorps begins the affair with an exchange of musketry at long range. In this game I give the Croat sharpshooters an extra pip on the die to hit.

Croats returning fire...while the coach driver frantically hunts for a weapon...

In the center the two cavalry forces close the distance in preparation for a charge.

...as the cavalry clash begins in earnest, Volger's Freikorps tops the crest of a small ridge and peppers the column escort with well aimed fire...the jagers are under strict orders not to fire on the coach itself.

Friekorps dragoons move in on the weakly guarded flank of the column and are opposed by the hussars.

meanwhile on the Bleiherzen right, a large body of Grolstein cuirassiers thunders down the road to the rescue.

The cavalry melee is quick and ferocious, and the Grolsteiners get the best of it, sending both of the Bleiherzen squadrons to the rear pursued by the Duchess' Poles.

to be continued...

(...also continuing are some ebay sales of some SYW Austrian cavalry and a fine unit of Hungarian musketeers: LINK and LINK and LINK )

Selling a Unit of Prussians

2011-03-10T18:54:00.000-08:00

These fine fellows are for sale...they are a classic unit of 36 RSM Prussians...here is the ebay link: LINK

I'm working on some funds for a new project of "really classic" Jacklex 20mm colonials I'm planning!

The Grand Duchess' Coach: A Replay of a Classic Scenario

2011-03-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

A replay of a classic scenario is in the works here at the Lead Gardens. This is the "Wagon Train" scenario from CS Grant, using only cavalry and light infantry units for a change of pace...Klein Krieg at it's best!

First some pics of the grand Duchess' coach and four (castings from Eureka miniatures) led by her Polish Uhlanen coach guard followed by a small detachment of Hussars forming a color party. The coach itself is closely guarded by a picket of 3 picked Red Croat sharpshooters (who have a better hit chance than normal light infantry)...followed by a unit of Grolstein regular dragoons. Following on a turn later is the rest of the Hussar unit.

An overview of the Coach escort column.

In the lead, the Uhlanen mercenaries, (favorites of the Grand Duchess...)

Across the table, Grostein Curaissiers in their start positions...heading to meet the coach column... though they will not move until turn five.

The Bleiherzen ambushing force, is comprised of the newly formed Colonel Volger's Freikorps...

Plus a squadron of the the Kushchen Black Hussars...

and 2 squadrons of the Konigswald Dragoons...

and, an overview of the Bleiherzen right wing who's orders are to block the road and destroy the Grolstein head of coulumn, while Volger's men attack from the flank to capture the coach.

.....more in part 2...

Colonel Heinrich von Vogler's Freikorps

2011-03-06T13:06:00.000-08:00

A rainy Sunday and I get to finish a new unit of Freikorps, now officially listed on the Konigreich der Bleiherzen army rolls as von Vogler's Freikorps. (Gotta love those internet German name generators! This is the name that came up when I typed my name in...go figure).

a close up of the jagers...

...and the dragoons. I have another unit of cavalry waiting to be painted as heavy horse for the Grand Duchess,...lest she fall behind in the arms race.

Freikorps!

2011-03-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

After reading a number of your blogs out there, I was inspired tonight (11 PM to be exact...) to get out of bed and start finishing up a unit of Freikorps for my Konigriech der Bleiherzen army that has been waiting for my attention for a long while.

This unit is based on the historical von Kleist Freikorps that served with distinction in Fredrick's army. For my imagiNation, I just have added white cuffs and a different flag (using the famed "beer hops" device so beloved in the Konigreich)...The mounted castings are RSM (von Kleist dragoons) and I painted up some RSM foot jagers as well and hopefully in the near future I can add a light gun.

My collection has a lot of light/jager/croat units...probably much out of proportion to a historical army of the time, but I just enjoy painting these guys and they are a fun break from painting musketeers. The base color in these pics was still drying and the shine still shows...I normally coat my finished figures with Krylon Triple Thick Glaze spray for a shiny finish and then paint the bases and leave them a matte finish to match my table.

The marvelous SYW Project site (which I might mention I support with my financial contributions as well....) has Kliest's officers in tricorn, so I used that reference as an excuse to dig out some of my extra RSM command figures and press them into service.

The foot jagers are still to be finished, but I'm on a roll inspired by so many great gaming blogs out there! ...and to be frank, today was one of those days where nothing on the home front seemed to be going right, and just a moment of late night escape into the wondrous and noble world of miniatures has turned a rough day into a pretty good one....HUZZA!

Stay tuned for more pictures of these guys when they appear in my next battle which is shaping up to be a classic "raid on the Duchess' coach" scenario derived from C. Grant's "The Wagon Train" which will feature my coach-and-four from Eureka minis that I finished about a year ago and have not yet had a chance to use it in a game. I'm planning to break out all of my light troops and cavalry for that one!

(...and thanks to everyone for reading...apparently I have had 24,000+...!?... visits to my blog...all of you are much, much appreciated!)

Unpacking the "Big Rigs"!

2011-03-01T16:32:00.000-08:00

Having time to set up a big game is tough these days when work gets more intense as the Spring semester reaches mid term, but I was determined last weekend to set of my 40mm ECW stuff just for the sake of seeing them again!

I worked up a simple set piece that allowed all of my collection to be deployed on the table. My 40mm stuff has reached about the maximum my 8x5 table can hold so I've come to a sort of end point in the collecting except for some more light guns and such.

I'm still grappling with financial woes and these fine fellows are under consideration for selling...but I'm still agonizing over the prosect....

I know that if they do get sold I'll probably start a new ECW collection in 28mm at some point, as I am doing with colonials. At least I enjoy painting so selling a big collection has it's up-side.

But still, these guys have given me a lot of pleasure and they were the original reason I started the Lead Gardens blog, so I have a good bit of loyalty I'd have to overcome to part with them...and at 40mm they do command in the eye candy department! But like a shark one must always keep moving to stay alive...

That being said...If any of my readers are interested in this collection, drop me a line at: ddugas@vt.edu

A First Time For Everything

2011-02-13T08:50:00.000-08:00

Being a guy who plays Grant's "The Wargame" mostly when using my 18th century collection, I never had an occasion in all these years to try out "Charge" by Young and Lawford. Since my figures are individually based it seemed a shame that I had not given the rules a try (something I suppose no self-respecting old school guy should tolerate...it simply won't do!), so last weekend I dismounted all my figures from their usual magnetic trays to have a real experience playing a large battle in the classic manner.

The battle was a simple set piece affair with a large town on one flank (an excuse to set out all my buildings...).

"Charge" is pretty quickly paced with long movement rates and decisive combat results, (after playing the more "stately" pace of The Wargame, firefights and artillery in this game cripple units at an alarming (but fun) rate.

My larger 36 man units broke down fairly neatly into 2, 16 man companies called for in the rules...the two company structure allowed a bit more flexibility in deploying but coupled with the firing rules, the units are more brittle. (I've heard somewhere that these rules have a more Napoleonic flavor...but I'd have to play it more to be able to say...)

Attacking Bleiherzeners take heavy casualties from Grolsteiner artillery posted on the hill.

Being a solo player I usually balk at moving lots of individuals around but really it doesn't take all that much longer to get moves done.

A brigade of two regiments assaults the town.

I'll probably set this up again and gives the rules another go...and after that hopefully give Ross McFarland's "Hearts of Tin" a try since he has updated the rules since I last had a chance to play them a good while ago.

And finally, a few shots of my recently completed windmill (with Mk I blades simply drawn on to thin wood)...I'll probably upgrade these someday when I have the inclination.

Building a Windmill in Classic Style

2011-02-01T18:03:00.000-08:00

Now that the Lead Gardens building program is in full swing, I thought I would tackle a long anticipated project to build a windmill to give the table a bit more "old world" period flavor. I want the windmill to serve both my 18th century battles as well as my English Civil War games in 40mm so I first dug up some references I had stashed away a year ago...thank goodness for the search feature on my computer!

The Windmill will be one that is mounted on a heavy frame and presumably was intended to rotate to face the wind.

I decided to go with basswood for this one, and began with a precut base I had on hand that became the base for a simple frame made of basswood. The base is 60mm square and the height of the frame is about 1" high. The references show a pretty tall structure and I want something that will give a decent sized diameter to the blades of the windmill so the dimensions felt right.

The base frame goes together quickly with just a bit of trimming of the members...

Then the sides are cut from a sheet of basswood, and, as in the last tutorial, cutting the gable ends using a simple "x" cut and saving the leftover triangles for later.

the sides are glued up and set on a square of balsa that has a square hole in it cut at the size of the center post

...then all of that assembly is glued to the center post...

...So the basic windmill is formed.

I add the leftover triangle pieces from the earlier side cutting step to "beef up" the gable ends

a block of basswood is added to the structure to make a spot to attach the blades of the windmill..

next step is to tackle the windmill blades...a tough problem...especially if we are trying to keep it in a simple old school style...

...first I made a cross of two small sections of basswood...each notched to make a cross shaped piece to work as a connector for the blades...which I have yet to figure out how to make...

ideally the blades of the windmill should be very simple to make in keeping with the "Old School" flavor of the project.

So now the big problem...how to construct the blades???

...I'll have to sleep on that problem...any ideas are most welcome!

Classic Wargames Building Tutorial

2011-01-30T21:56:00.000-08:00

One of the many delights that comes from "Classic Wargaming" (or "old school" if you will...) is the feeling that there's nothing that cannot be produced easily and inexpensively for the sake of a good game. The appeal for me is not only the masses of shiny soldiers and the straightforward rules, but it is also the "look of the thing". In a classic game the abstraction of the game carries a beauty that is really a thing to behold...especially after having spent years in the "model railroad layout" style of gaming that admittedly also produces some amazing game experiences but sometimes is an expensive and time consuming direction to take in the hobby.

So for this post I thought it might be a nice break from AARs to post some basic ideas for producing "classic" wargaming buildings in short order with a minimum of headaches and a maximum of fun!

For this building project I decided to keep it simple with a basic building made of almost entirely of 3/16" thick balsa with all the details drawn on in a loose-but-convincing "old school" way. The resulting structure will work for both classic games as well as more detailed table set ups.

OK so here goes:

First, the base is cut from a 1/8" masonite (mdf) scrap that I had laying around. (my wife calls me a hoarder, but I think it's just a wargamer habit to be alert to that "hey I can use that" moment. The building I'm making here is going to be about 3"x5" so I'll cut this masonite scrap down a bit leaving a margin a bit larger than 3"x5" for some ground detail. The stuff is hard so a multi-pass cut with the knife will eventually do the trick.

The next step is to cut the four walls out of 3/16" balsa. I use a cheap metal square (available from "Micromark" online) to make the cuts precise. Essentially the two 5 inch sides are cut first with a height of 3". This will make a pretty good sized building and actually a bit larger than my usual buildings, but I'm planning on making this structure a row of town houses to represent building block in a bigger city. In determining sizes I always assume figures will fit inside a lift-off building (a la Charles Grant) so I always plan the inside space carefully.

Next the gable ends pieces are laid out on a sheet cut to a 3" width. I learned a trick long ago in architecture school to lay the gables out so that you only have two cuts to make...(an "X") and the leftover triangles will be used as well.

OK so that's simple enough, and we have all the basic elements already cut and it's only been a few minutes of construction time!

Next we glue all the sides together...(I use "Weldbond" ...the very best white PVA glue...accept no substitutes...really... life will be much easier...:)... Glue the sides together off of the base so you don't get anything stuck to the base...and I use the metal square to keep everything squared up during the first few minutes of drying. Weldbond sets up to an initial strong tack really quickly so it makes the entire process more easy but it allows repositioning for a good while.

While the walls set up, I lay them over the base and mark out the line of the inside walls so I can then glue up some "ruined walls" in the interior. I normally use HO scale cork roadbed for the ruined walls but I was out of the stuff so I just randomly cut some more of the balsa and stuck it down. I set the inside walls a bit off center so I could leave some base area for building entrances.

After that I cut two roof pieces of the same balsa (again normally I might use a thinner basswood for the roof...but for this project there was none on hand) and glued them to the angles of the gable ends. I also took the two extra triangular pieces leftover from the gable cuts and added them on the outside to beef up the gable profile on each end. Finally I took some think basswood and "edged" the roofline to get a bit more cleanness on the gable end.

Then for a bit more detail I decided to add some chimneys to the roofline to give the building a townhouse scale. These were done in the same 3/16" balsa by cutting a strip about 1" wide and cutting 1-1/4" sections for the chimneys. between each two laid out on the strip I laid out a square to be cut out so the "chimneys" would fit on the angle of the roof.

So in this pic you can see the nearly complete construction of the townhouses. Still simple and ready for paint.

Here is the raw building next to some hussars escorting a coach and four...(the hussars are still in the painting stage)

Next is a coat of white acrylic paint to set the painting in motion....

The next stage involves drawing on the details/windows of the structure. In a classic wargaming manner, the drawing is purposely kept loose and is done with a fine waterproof marker (MICRON or UNIBALL pens are a good choice for this step). The waterproof part is important because you will be adding a few washes of color so you don't want that to kill your outlines. Since I'm going for a townhouse, the building is divided into three sections to make the structure look like three townhouses.

The gable ends are drawn...at this stage some period images are helpful to get the windows and details right...I used some tourist images of Prague to help dial it in...

One the outlines of the windows and such are drawn, shadows are indicated with a heavier line (I used a Sharpie pen)...check out my tutorial HERE on how that's done. Basically the technique makes the drawn building appear more three dimensional.

Then thin washes of color define the roof, details and windows...and the building entrances on the bases are picked out with a tan color.

It's rough, but it looks right for a "Classic" wargame.

The roof shingles are done with a Micron pen by first drawing the horizontal courses with a kind of "back and forth" motion of the pen so the line is a rough and varied.

Then that is followed by the vertical lines of the shingles quickly "flicked' with the pen in alternating courses...it seems like a lot of work but it actually takes only about 20 minutes...

I like to add some age to the buildings by showing spots where the plaster has flaked off...

...and finally after only a few hours of work, another building to add to the table!

What To Do With All That Old Micro Armor

2011-01-28T15:18:00.000-08:00

OK since my son is clearly addicted to my iPad primarily because of the very popular "Plants vs Zombies" game...and much as I try to limit his time on it... I have decided to launch a counterstroke on behalf of tabletop gaming by breaking out a pile of old microarmour and 10mm scale armor and cooking up a set of rules that essentially turn "Plants vs Zombies" into a basic wargame that my 5 year old can understand. essentially the American M1s and Bradleys are the Plants and the Russians T-72s and BMPs (with a few exceptions and mixing on both sides) are the Zombies (no offense to my Russian friends!!) ...and it's no surprise that he got it immediately!
We used a gridded sheet of green foamboard that I was using to work on some 6mm Naps rules and a few buildings and we were off and running.

...the little guy decided mid-game that PT 76s had amphibious capabilities!

We didn't worry about the scales of the various vehicles (10mm and 1/285 and even a few 1/300!)...and really it was a pretty good time.

Basically the "Zombies" moved relentlessly across the table moving 2 grid squares per turn and the "Plants" shot them to pieces with a simple d6 5-6 hits rule that gave the little guy just enough suspense...and dad could push the Zombies and enjoy his martini in the process...much like the iPad game he loves so much, except dad got to be there for it...a huge difference between that and a checked-out kid wired into a video game!

And, since I don't do much in the way of small armor stuff anymore it gave the stuff I had a much needed outing before I sell it on ebay!

T72s lurk in a plowed field waiting for a target...

Advance Guard Action- Finale

2011-01-27T05:34:00.000-08:00

Crunch Time for the Konigreich! As the heavy column of von Kluge's Fusiliers crashes into Jahde's musketeers, Major Kolodziejczyk rallies the Grand Duchess' lancers to a final charge in a desperate bid to stem the Bleiherzener assault on the bridge. A deadly fusillade fired by the Croats causes great loss among the Bleiherzen officers and much confusion in the advancing muketeers.

Overview of the moments before the lancers charge...on the far right the melee of horse versus the unfortunate gunners of the Grolstein artillery...in the center the Gentlemen Pensioners advance on the Grolstein Red Grenadiers...on the left the melee at the bridge about to begin...

With the crash of a volley from the stalwart Red Grenadiers, the advancing Pensioners loose their Colonel and their steady morale...and leave the field.

The final charge of the Grand Duchess' lancers! Kolodziejczyk leads his men into the teeth of Bleiherzern musketry...

...and the charge shatters both units and they scatter to the rear leaving the infantry in melee to fend for themselves....

Though the Bleiherzen fusiliers struggle to overcome Jahde's infantry, they are the first to break and go streaming to the rear leaving the Grolsteiners with the field...The Konigreich brigadier is heard to mutter "Wo die verdammte Kavallerie ist!

The Pensioners, still looking splendid in retreat!

FIN

Advance Guard Action: Part 3

2011-01-26T16:14:00.000-08:00

Part three of the Action at Crunkenhof is marked by a charge of Bleiherzen dragoons covering the retreat of the shattered jagers of Colonel Gerlach...(amazingly, in this battle he emerges unscathed but vows revenge on those accursed Poles!). The dragoons successfully send the lancers retreating back to their lines, and the battle settles down to the main contest of infantry.

Overviews from the Bleiherzen side show the opposing battlelines forming for the attack. On the lower left a Bleiherzen howitzer lobs shells towards the bridge area causing confusion and casualties among the retreating lancers mixed among the defending Croats holding the bridge while the Grolsteiner artillery on the hill to the right begin to have an effect on the Bleiherzen right wing

Overview of Crunkenof showing the buildings occupied by De Grassin's mercenaries...(my buildings are the classic lift-off type) ...and the Yellow grenadiers forming to center of the Bleiherzen line. Retreating and reforming on the lower right are a squadron of dragoons.

The Bleiherzen right begins advancing on the Grolstein main line at approximately mid game.

...and the Bleiherzen left advances with two regiments on the distant bridge objective. The Fusiliers formed up in column look determined to capture the objective.

The first exchange of volleys staggers the Gentleman pensioners but they stand to it and deliver a crushing return volley at the Grand Duchess' Liebguard that causes heavy loss and fells the unit's Colonel.

Grolstein Croats fall back to the bridge approaches.

The grand Duchess' Poles now reformed move up to support the Croats while Conrad Jahde's Musketeers fire a volley into the oncoming Bleiherzeners.

On the far right flank a charge of Bleiherzen horse is ordered and both dragoons and hussars charge the battery of Grolsteiner guns and by sheer luck escape major casualties in the charge resulting in the complete rout of the enemy guns.

The battered Gentlemen Pensioners regiment still advance with only the Grolstein Red Grenadiers to stop their advance...the fate of the Grolstein left wing hangs in the balance...

Meanwhile Brigadier General Tipplehof manages to rally the retiring Liebguard...a turning point in the battle!

...the Bleiherzen left wing column headed by the Fusilier Regiment von Kluge crashes into Jahde's Musketeers and the final melee to decide the battle begins!

...continued in the final installment...

Advance Guard Action: Part 2

2011-01-23T07:07:00.000-08:00

To take up the action here in Part Two
Realizing that the enemy brigade is stronger (because of a lucky reinforcement roll in the early stages of the game), Grolsteiner colonels march their lads into line and prepare to defend the bridge.

Just as the Grolstein line forms up and their light infantry cross from the far side of the river, a squadron of Kuschen hussars forms up in front of Crunkenhof and is charged by a squadron of dragoons initiating the battle.

On the Bleiherzen left Col. Gerlach deploys his jagers on open ground...a precarious position in the face of oncoming lancers...

Beliherzen dragoons are ordered up through Crunkenhof to support the hussars.

The Gentlemen Pensioners regiment moves up to anchor the Bleherzen right wing.

Though overmatched by the heavier dragoons, The hussars win the first round of melee and send the dragoons back in disorder.

...and the hussars pursue their broken foes across the front of the deploying Grolstein battleline.

Supporting dragoons are to late to save Col. Gerlach jagers as they are ridden down by the Poles.

At this point in the battle, an overview shows the lancers in the top left distance charging Gerlach's jagers. In the middle ground a squadron of dragoons forms up to screen the approaches to Crunkenhof, and in the lower left the Gentlemen Pensioners formed in line. Visible in the distant top right the Kuschen hussars complete the destruction of the Grolsteiner dragoons.

...continued in Part 3

Advance Guard Action- Refight of a Refight: Part 1

2011-01-13T17:34:00.000-08:00

The Battle of Crunkenhof is joined as the Grolstein force begins to deploy...the artillery making for a prominent hill to their left flank. The dragoons and Poles move to head off the Bleiherzener thrust towards the bridge.

Meanwhile the Bleiherzen brigade catches a break in the early stages by rolling successfully for an additional infantry regiment (in the distant upper left of the pic).

The Kuschen Hussars are ordered to probe towards the distant bridge...in the pics here seen marching rapidly through Crunkenhof village.

Here an overview of the field after turn 3...the Kuschen Hussars have formed up outside Crunkenhof, while the rest of the Bleiherzeners are moving to the attack...the Brigadier has ordered that the distant bridge also be secured before nightfall...clearly he is seeking glory even with his small command!

The Bleiherzen infantry columns move briskly to follow up the cavalry. In the lower pic we see the Yellow grenadiers and von Kluge's Fuziliers moving up in column.

...a close-up of Col. Grassin's mercenary light infantry and the ever valiant Colonel Gerlach's jagers in the distance moving to secure the Bleiherzen left.

The Grand Duchess' Polish Lancers secure the bridge in the face of a strong Bleiherzen advance.

...and the Grolstein Dragoons follow on in support...

The Grand Duchess' Liebguard deploys...

to be continued!....

Advance Guard Action- Refight of a Refight: Preliminaries

2011-01-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

I just received my first installment of my subscription to Phil Olley's "Classic Wargaming Journal" and after a very pleasurable read decided to play out one of the great scenarios forthwith! This one is a refight of an old scenario from Wargamers Journal nicely re-done by Chris Stringer. I used the base map but diverged from the Chris' scenario by deploying roughly a brigade of my Imagi-Nation troops on each side. Using Grant's "The Wargame" rules I managed to get 6 turns in this afternoon in a pleasant 2 hours and hopefully will get in the rest before the week is out. So here is my AAR...enjoy!

The Action at Crunkenhof Village

Forces of the Konigreich der Bleiherzen:

Fuzilier Regiment von Kluge (the Erbprinz Regiment)
Hersoldaten der Konigreich (Gentlemen Pensioners Regiment)
The Yellow Grenadiers
Col. Gerlach's Jagers
Aquebussiers de Grassin (French mercenaries)
Konigswald Dragoons (Col. Graf)
Kuschen Hussars (1 Squadron)
1 Gun (howitzer)

Forces of the Grand Duchy of Grolstein:

Musketeer Regiment Jahde (IR 1)
The Grand Duchess' Liebguard (IR 3)
The Red Grenadiers (IR2)
Grunow Friekorps
White Croats
1 Squadron of Radogosen Uhlanen (Polish) (often serving as the Grand Duchess' carriage guard)
1 Squadron of Grolstein Dragoons
The Yellow battery of the Grolstein artillery (2 guns)

The battle begins with both sides advancing to capture their objectives: Grolstein is ordered to capture the village of Clrunkenhof, and the Blieherzeners are directed toward the river bridge. A classic symmetrical/asymmetrical scenario that both the elder C. and son C. S. Grant do so well.

First some images of the Bleiherzen brigade advancing on the first turn,

The Gentlemen Pensioners and the Yellow (von Kramp) Grenadiers advance.

The squadron of Kuschen Hussars are ordered to move through Crunkenhof and scout towards the bridge.

The Grolstein Brigade moves along the river with their light infantry moving quickly on the opposite bank to secure the bridge and the right flank.

The Grand Duchess' Polish Uhlanen (Radogosen)...a flashy outfit! (RSM 25mm Ottoman figures)

...and the Dragoons...

Overview of the Grolstein force.

Overview of the Blieherzen force.

...and the sleepy village of Crunkenhof

(if you haven't already, be sure to check out my post on making these buildings HERE!)

The opening moves... next post!

ECW Initiative Cards

2010-12-27T11:45:00.000-08:00

I have just finished a generic initiative card deck for English Civil War games. The cards were made using Sprigge's famous drawing of the battle of Naseby for the card images. There is a pdf. of 4 pages of cards that include Horse, Foot, Guns, Command and Dragoons as well as a cool "Time Passes" and "Event" cards and even a "Baggage Trayne" move card for those special baggage raiding scenarios. I was able to glean images from the original drawing by careful screen captures and it gives a pretty good period feel to the cards. The cards are purposely generic so that you can use them in a number of ways depending on the rules you are using. They are designed to work with Clarence Henderson's Victory Without Quarter rules (available from him at his "Quindia" website). Note that the cards are made using an AVERY 5371 perforated business card template so it should make the cards easier to produce.

Find the cards for FREE download here: link and just navigate to the Lead Gardens folder and inside the pdf. file is titled "Littlejohns ECW Cards".... Enjoy! and please let me know of any ideas for additions to the set.

This set will be followed by another set that's tailored to my figure collection with images of the actual units and period images of the various commanders.

Gerard's Regiment of Foote Ready For Battle!

2010-12-23T18:46:00.000-08:00

With the exception of a few final touches (eyes, and some final highlighting) these Cavaliers are ready to face off against those rebellious Parliamentarians! Every time I finish a new unit of these big fellows (40mm) I get excited about playing again....and despite the expense of the figures a few go a long way in making the units seem large.

I also followed Phil Olley's great method for painting real cloth flags and it works really well but takes just a bit of patience and practice to make it look good. I topped the pole off with a finial casting from Front Rank> I think one of the most fun aspects of ECW/30YW gaming are the colorful standards.

Also during this holiday, I'm currently redoing all my ECW turn initiative cards that I use with my preferred rules (Victory Without Quarter) and hopefully soon will post a link to the pdf file of the cards for my readers to download.

A fine Yuletide to all of you out there...now I'm ready for a pint!...Cheers!

The Combat of St. Ulrich 1755

2010-12-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

In the earliest days of planning my 18th century ImagiNations, I had imagined two tiny warring countries named Schwartzburg and Christenheim and I worked up a small scenario using the few units I had on painted at the time. After the battle I decided break out my pen and inks to draw up a map of the action in the manner of the old period maps I was enjoying at the time. My two countries went on to become the much larger and more bellicose Grand Duchy of Grolstein and the Konigsreich der Bleiherzen

To make a long story short, yesterday I dug out that old first map and set up a re-fight of that same early battle and spent a pleasant few hours fighting it out with my now veteran soldiers.

So here is that very first battle re-fought!

The opposing forces were:

The Grolstein Brigade:
IR 3 The Grand Duchess' Liebguarde (30 figures)
IR 1 Col. Jaehde's regiment (30 figures)
The Red Grenadiers (12 figures)
the Yellow Battery of the Grolstein artillery (2 guns)
1st Squadron Drossen Dragoons (12 figures)

The Bleiherzen Brigade
Erbprinz Fuzilier Regiment von Kluge (30 figures)
Musketeer Regiment von Pfuhlstein (30 figures)
1st Squadron Col. Graf and the Konigswald Dragoons (12 figures)
2 gun battery (1 howitzer, 1 field piece) Royal Konigsreich Artillery

Situation:
A Bleiherzen brigade is surprised by the advance guard of a slightly larger Grolstein force, and rather than withdrawing promptly across the river bridge at St. Ulrich, the Bleiherzen commander recklessly decides to give the Grolsteiners a bloody nose before retreating across the river to safety.


An overview of the battlefield, looking over the Grolstein positions anchored on the village of Mulheim....in the distance a critical bridge and the town of St. Ulrich.

The Grolstein brigade advances to deploy.

The Yellow battery goes into action.

Squadron of the Drossen Dragoons

Colonel Graf's Dragoons anchor the right flank of the Bleiherzen line.

The Grolsteiners advanced quickly from the heights around Mulheim and began to form line as the defendeing artillery on the Zeitberg began to fire at long and generally ineffective range.

A birds eye view of the Bleiherzen battery on the Zeitberg and the bridge at St. Ulrich

The Regiment von Pfuhlstein

The Yellow battery begins bombarding the defenders.

The Grolstein brigade forms into line...some confusion of orders causes an overlap of regiments that has to be sorted out by the blows and curses of the NCOs!

Coming into range of the howitzer on the Zeitberg gives the Liebguard's Col. some tense moments! (yes...that's a Grant shell template...accept no substitutes!)

The Grolstein line closes the range.

The Bleiherzen brigadier orders his line forward and delivers the first volley...the most damage falls on the Duchess' Liebguard and the Colonel of that regiment narrowly misses being hit!

The business end of the Bleiherzen volley...

Both sides begin to trade volleys at close range....

The Grolsteiners begin to falter...as the Red Grenadiers swing in on the exposed left flank of the Bleiherzen line.

Firefight!

The Red Grenadiers move on the flank.

The Grolstein Dragoons can no longer stand still under the enemy's shelling and their commander orders an advance...but are eventually thrown back by a counter charge of the Bleiherzener dragoons

Pressure on the Bleiherzeners increases but their steady musketry eventually forces the Duchess' Liebguard to retire with most of their officers down including their Colonel.

The flanking move by the grenadiers finally collapses the defenders left and regiment Pfhulstein streams towards the safety of the bridge...the Bleiherzener brigadier wisely orders his other regiment to fall back and with two of their four units shattered the Grolsteiners have no stomach for a pursuit and the battle ends with neither side gaining much except a stirring story to tell to their grandchildren

Gerard's Regiment Part 2

2010-12-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

Sunday brought good progress on the regiment with the base colors going on quickly and the flesh given a wash of Citadel "Flesh Wash." I also did a bit of further research on Gerard's and found the reenactment of the regiment in the Sealed Knot Society. Their blue coats are quite a dark navy shade and the unit wears yellow stockings. I'm not sure if they found the stocking color in a period reference or if is a modern choice, but it looks good so I'm going with it to give the unit an additional splash of color. Also, I'm going with a slightly brighter blue overall than a dark navy colorbecause I have always found dark blue a challenge to get right at the scale of a typical gaming figure.

these guys are about halfway to completion

Next comes highlighting and detailing and finally the flag....

Gerard's Regiment of Foote 1642

2010-12-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

Got a new regiment of 40mm ECW (Sash and Saber) underway today. This unit will represent Colonel Charles Gerard's Royalist Regiment of Foot. This was a bluecoated regiment present at Edgehill and had some very colorful blue and yellow flags so I'm planning on putting in a lot of effort to make this unit look good including a hand-painted cloth flag.

These were figures I had on hand and I was lacking an ensign so I broke out the "green stuff" and "promoted" one of the pikemen to represent an ensign by adding a sash and a crest on the helmet (to look like the ensign in Haythornewaite's excellent book on the English Civil War (p. 75)

40mm is a great scale for modifying and conversions...(check out my Scots cavalry in an earlier post here and here)
You don't have to be a genius at sculpting at this scale and the large scale rewards the eye! Just started priming the figures and the painting begins tomorrow!

I've also got an order in to Sash and Saber for a batch of Horse to make the holiday painting that much better.

F4

2010-12-09T17:34:00.000-08:00

Though my gaming has been severely limited these past months, there are still nice glimmers of hope on the horizon...starting with my little guy's first plastic model finished today...a Revell 1/100 Thunderbirds F4 Phantom (snap together)...a classic! To my faithful readers...there is good gaming to be had here at the Lead Gardens on the winter horizon! Santa must have something in the works!...and there are battles to be fought and figures to be painted!

HG Wells and a Precursor to Little Wars

2010-10-30T11:16:00.000-07:00

I have been reading some of H.G. Wells of late and came upon this interesting passage in a fictionalized "intellectual autobiography" of a character named Richard Remington entitled, "The New Machiavelli" written in 1911 which is an account that seems loosely based on his own experience in political life. In it there is a fascinating section describing his boyhood (16 year olds) friendship with a person named Britten and he describes in the following section a very interesting take on imaginary battles that would come to fruition in the "Little Wars" written in 1913 that we all know and enjoy:

"We confessed shyly to one another a common secret vice, "Phantom warfare." When we walked alone, especially in the country, we had both developed the same practice of fighting an imaginary battle about us as we walked. As we went along we were generals, and our attacks pushed along on either side, crouching and gathering behind hedges, cresting ridges, occupying copses, rushing open spaces, fighting from house to house. The hillsides about Penge were honeycombed in my imagination with the pits and trenches I had created to check a victorious invader coming out of Surrey. For him West Kensington was chiefly important as the scene of a desperate and successful last stand of insurrectionary troops (who had seized the Navy, the Bank and other advantages) against a royalist army—reinforced by Germans—advancing for reasons best known to themselves by way of Harrow and Ealing. It is a secret and solitary game, as we found when we tried to play it together. We made a success of that only once. All the way down to Margate we schemed defences and assailed and fought them as we came back against the sunset. Afterwards we recapitulated all that conflict by means of a large scale map of the Thames and little paper ironclads in plan cut out of paper.
A subsequent revival of these imaginings was brought about by Britten’s luck in getting, through a friend of his father’s, admission for us both to the spectacle of volunteer officers fighting the war game in Caxton Hall. We developed a war game of our own at Britten’s home with nearly a couple of hundred lead soldiers, some excellent spring cannons that shot hard and true at six yards, hills of books and a constantly elaborated set of rules. For some months that occupied an immense proportion of our leisure. Some of our battles lasted several days. We kept the game a profound secret from the other fellows. They would not have understood."

If this bit of the Wells story is even partially true, it would seem that the idea of wargaming with toy soldiers had occured to him at least 20 years earlier than the writing of Little Wars. I was also taken by the idea of gaming while walking... it reminded me of the late Paddy Griffith's experimental wargames staged outdoors.

Three Matched 10mm Ancients Armies for Sale

2010-10-25T15:19:00.000-07:00

Into another auction here at the Lead Gardens (my oldest daughter needs dental work...)
So I have three 10mm Armies based for Warmaster up for sale on Ebay.
(here is the link to the motley but tough Carthaginians: LINK )
(and the stolid street brawler Romans: LINK )
(and those crazy inventive Greeks from Syracuse!: LINK
These three armies would make a good set of Ancients to make a nice Punic Wars Campaign. Hate to see them go but my fatherly duties call...

A Good Game for the Beginning Gamer

2010-10-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

My 5 year old son and I have been collecting the new games from the LEGO company and playing them to see which ones are good...and we have come to the conclusion that the "Minotarus" game is the best of the lot...

The game is built around a very simple mechanic, but delivers some fairly complex tactical choices for each player. I have found it fun to play and it seems to offer each player tactical options with each die roll....great for developing the little guy's strategic mind....and not so boring that dad can't get in to it as well!

Basically each player has three warriors that they have to move through the labyrinth, avoiding the Big Black Minotaur and get all three of the warriors to the center of the board before their opponent to win. The game is based on a D6 with 1-4 being moves and 5 being the option to move a blocking (grey) piece to thwart either the opponents warriors or the Minotaur. On a 6 the player can move the Minotaur 8 spaces. If the Minotaur contacts a players man, he has to return it to the home corner and start again...the first player to get three warriors to the center square wins the game. Super clean and simple but with a degree of tactical possibilities make it a "real" game IHMO.

...and of course my son seems to get the best of me nearly every time...a true gamer in the making! We use the Minotaurus game as the break from TV cartoons and computer games which seem generally to have little tactical or strategic subtlety. ...(and lack of course the dimension of having actual figures to move!)

More Pics To Open the Ball

2010-10-15T18:27:00.000-07:00

A few more pics before the first bass notes of cannon open the Ball...

The Grand Duchess' pride and joy...the "Red Battery" prepares to fire!


The Grolsteiner CinC and staff issue last minute orders behind a chateau.


The Grand Duchess sent a personal message to her Lieb Guard..."Kommen Hauptsiegreiches oder kommen nach Hause nicht an allen"...."Come home victorious or not at all"...Hard woman that Duchess!


Grolstein Dragoons!

The Grolstein "Yellow Battery" goes into action!


Men of the Konigreich!...Now is Your Time!...Colonel Jahde's Regiment of Musketeers


Grolsteiner Freikorps hold a village church and cemetery on the left flank


Grolstein "Red Grenadiers" hold the Chateau

Hopefully the "the Dogs of War" will be loosed in the next couple of days and a battle report will soon follow. Thanks to everyone for tuning in!

The Cure: The Splendors of 18th Century Classic Wargaming!

2010-10-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

In the face of a recent lull in operations...I figured the best way to banish the malaise was to return to the essentials....classic 18th century gaming! I resolved to reconfigure my table sections in order to build the largest table I could construct with the table sections I have on hand expanding the "Green Mile" to a 4x10' table and to deploy ALL of my 18th century collection! That meant that the intrepid forces of the Konigreich der Bleiherzen and the Grand Duchess' infamous Grolsteiners were in due course arrayed across 4 feet of soon to be contested European countryside.

Just laying everything out consumed a pleasurable afternoon and I could feel the old magic seeping back into my gaming starved brain.

Blieherzen infantry

After all, these guys are what really ramped up my gaming not to mention my blogging two years ago now, and they deserve to get some table time.

The Royal Bleiherzen Howitzer Battery with the military engineer, Compte Dugas and his manservant surveying the opposing Grolsteiner lines in the distance.


The Grand Duchess' Leibguard in the position of honor to the right front of the Grolstein battleline.

Two Squadrons of the Grand Duchess' Cuirassiers


"Red Grenadiers" holding the chateau in the center of the Grolstein line supported by a howitzer...the Grolstein CinC and staff in the background.

French mecenaries (actually Eureka miniatures Aquebusiers de Grassin)


French mercenary light infantry in the service of the Konigreich lurk at the edge of a forest.


Bleiherzen General staff observes a battery of the King's artillery preparing to fire.


Prussian mercenaries and Bleiherzen fusiliers prepare to assault.


View from the town church


Grolstein lancers (the Grand Duchess' coach escort) and a squadron of Hussars

Still deciding on what rules (my usual Grant or perhaps another go with Black Powder...or maybe some others...) to use for this battle...but it's shaping up to be a big one regardless.....More pics of this upcoming battle in the next post.

(....having a bit of trouble with blogger getting pics to be clickable....so some work and some don't...)

Pinned Down!

2010-10-06T05:56:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since any posts here at the Lead Gardens and I think I'm having to admit to being "pinned down" by real life. It seems I've also hit the painting wall and have not picked up a brush in earnest for a good while now. I think we all get to this place at some point in our hobby, and it's not much fun, but hopefully the barrage will end and the troops can get moving again.

Or maybe I should just call in the big guns...

Gunboats For Sale

2010-09-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

The financial crisis continues to plague operations here at the Lead Gardens and forcing some deep cuts in force levels...
Please see my stuff for sale on ebay: click here for the link

I've got several units of 25/28mm Old Glory Colonials and some nice scratchbuilt gunboats on the auction block.

Tactical Problems

2010-09-11T04:24:00.000-07:00

A few hours between classes and the close proximity of my game table a few blocks away combines to make a good lunch-hour series of games to take the edge off of normal work...

I've been recently interested in 15mm Flames of War "600 point games" as a way to both get in a quick game between classes and to study the rules in a deeper way by playing lots of games quickly...and besides I have the troops and they need a workout!

I played thorough a series of four battles this afternoon...each one taking only 30 minutes or so to complete. Because the games went by so quickly they became something of a set of small tactical problems and, as I find the Flames of War rules particularly well suited for desert war battles the entire set of games were a real blast.

The games were based on the "Encounter" scenario in the FOW rulebook scaled down for a 600 point game on a 4x4' table. I played through the scenario four times and each time adjusting the losing side's set-up to try to get them a win. The match up was a German tank battlegroup versus a British battlegroup both entirely tanks. The Brits could afford 3 troops of 3 plus an HQ of 2 tanks (Crusaders) and the Germans were working with a platoon of PZIIIs in various combinations of 5 plus 3 PZ IIs as a recon platoon....so essentially 11 Brit tanks versus 5 German (plus 3 light tanks). The forces would not appear all at once so each game had markedly different feel. One of the things that strikes you at this "small game" scale is that "Flames of War" is a tightly balanced set of rules and interestingly at this point level, REALLY tense and unforgiving of tactical mistakes.

The first three games went to the Brits because the Germans being outnumbered and having to hold a platoon off table as delayed reinforcements made it really difficult to hold both of the victory objectives. In each the first three games the Brits were able to "charge" towards an objective and hold it for a win and the Germans could never seem to hold them off despite superior tanks. Their lesser numbers made winning the game problematic.

British Crusaders charge towards the objectives...in the distance the Germans are about to open fire.

The German force was re-deployed in each game and the British force came on in the same way so I could experiment with the German deployment in each game.

In the second and third game, the British tried to attack the left hand objective behind a low rise and despite a German flanking move still wound up winning by turn 4 by charging the objective

In the final battle I reconfigured the German force into a platoon of 3 PZIIIs and an HQ section of 2 PZIIIs and kept the light platoon of PZIIs off table as a reinforcement and it finally did the trick, giving the Germans the necessary weight of numbers to win. In the final battle of the afternoon the Germans charged forward instead of waiting for the British to advance, and with a full platoon of 5 PZ IIIs they were able to roll over the first platoon of Crusaders and move towards their objective.

The Germans got their HQ and 2inC on to the objective while the 3 tank platoon engaged a platoon of reinforcing Crusaders...

In FOW, the British have a special rule for their tanks ("Tally Ho") that gives them a slight advantage at close quarters so it tends to encourage them to charge in and mix it up with the Germans. In this final battle that resulted in a fierce contest to wrest the objective from the Germans. The game lasted 7 turns (by far a long one for a 600 point game...) Most of the last three turns were consumed by a swirling tank battle that saw both sides charging into the growing dust cloud around the objective.

Close Quarters!

overview of the final moments of the fight as the last British troop of Crusaders arrives...

The Germans finally won the day against superior numbers by taking each British tank troop on individually as it entered the fray.. The other factor that made this final battle unusual is that both sides won their Company Morale rolls even after sustaining heavy losses so both sides slugged it out to the end.

overview at the end of the battle (with the smoke and dust removed)

After this set of battles I got the bug to do a 4x4 table surface with more texture....but that's a project for another day.

August, and the Desert Bug Bites!

2010-08-31T15:52:00.000-07:00

The Western Desert Bug has bitten hard here at the Lead Gardens...and WWII things in general. I've broken out the 15mm stuff that has been sitting in boxes for way too long in what I hope to be a brisk Fall season of wargaming despite a busy teaching schedule...but as my non-academic friends often say..."That ain't working!"

Today, I also received a shipment of 20mm Raventhorpe figures (Brits and Germans) for late WWII from RLPBS that will be underway on the painting table soon. I'm doing small forces for the Arnhem operation using Rapid Fire.

In the meantime please enjoy some pics of a 15mm Italian artillery battery pounding the advancing Brits.

...while the Italian staff enjoy a nice meal and a fine red...

and the South African armored cars probe forward...

Mama Mia!...it's Hot Work indeed!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

2010-08-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

So it was my usual "Sunday-morning-the-kids-are-still-asleep-so-I-can-think-about-wargaming" time, and I was searching for uniform information for a force of colonial Sikh infantry that I'm working on...and this mouth-watering image came up on my screen. Apparently this is a collection of around 1000!? Britans hollow cast figures that was donated to a local museum by a single family up in New Brunswick, Canada. There is only this picture on the website but any of you are up in that area it might be worth a look.

I'm sure there are larger collections out there, (Malcom Forbes comes to mind) but you hardly ever get to see images of them. The Forbes collection had nearly 100,000 figures in it but it was sold off in parts to various collectors...and sadly they don't get played with.

Conquering the Syracusans: One Little Guy At a Time

2010-07-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

In progress...a 1000 point Syracusan army based for Warmaster Ancients

My 10mm ancients project is still chugging forward though it sometimes seems like I'm pushing behind the front rank of a hoplite "scrum", but still the units seem to get done eventually. With individually cast 10mm figures like Magister Militum, you spend a good bit of time cleaning and basing everything up. Regardless, they are really beautiful castings, but still require each base to be filed flat and just a few bits of flash trimmed off... so it makes the painting seem relatively easy by comparison. I was able to get the entire Syracuse army cleaned, primed and based today and I'm starting in on the first of 4 units of "peltasts" (actually more like light hoplites) and I have 4 units of heavy hoplites completed already. I did three units with shield blazons that were identical, but last night I got serious and did a unit of mercenaries with each figure carrying a different shield blazon.

More Hoplites!

I'm priming everything white and then laying on the basic colors fairly roughly, coming back with an ink wash to cover the white spots and then finishing up with belts, highhlights and touch-ups...the entire process takes about a half-day for each 3 stand unit...not too bad.

I'm hoping to have this army done by the end of the week? ...and maybe these guys can go up against my Republican Romans next weekend... by which time the "CinC Lead Gardens" will be back from a month in the Big Apple so she can take over with the little-ones (the non-metal ones...) and give me some much needed gaming time!

Syracuse Levy Hoplites

2010-07-21T17:35:00.000-07:00

The Syracusan army grows...I got another 10mm unit painted up this afternoon. It's pretty amazing how fast this scale paints up when you are used to 25/28mm. I think 10mm stuff really needs the momentum that comes from doing one and then having the next based and primed ready to go. I think in a couple of days I should have the core of 4 hoplite units done and ready to move on to the light infantry. I usually save the cavalry and generals till last.

This latest unit represents a body of levy hoplites so they are less well equipped with only a bronze helmet, greaves, and a bronze shield...no breastplate or such, so I just painted over the armor on the casting with the red color of the tunic...in the close up pics you can see the paint-over but on the table at this scale, hardly noticable... The shield blazon is derived from Syracusan coins of the period.

next up, a pair of regular hoplite units in bronze armor.

All Hail the Conquering Blackwash!

2010-07-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting back to a long dormant ancients project doing several armies for Warmaster Ancients in 10mm. Today I finished a unit of Syracusan Epilektoi hoplites. I found some nice info on hoplites that those of you paint ancients might have not yet run across. It's an extensive post on hoplites I found on a Forum called Totalwar.org the link to the post is here. This unit I've just finished represents a body of elite hoplites fielded by Syracuse. Apparently Syracuse was able to muster large numbers of hoplites but most were barely trained and armoured. Thus this unit will be the army's only strong body of spears. The other three yet to be painted will be a mix of levy and regular units. These guys are reported to have had iron gear as opposed to the older bronze. The rest of the Syracuse army will rounded out with light troops, a unit of cav, and some bolt throwers.

The whole collection of 10mm ancients (that I have stashed...all from Magister Militum) will be:

Polybian Roman (completed)
Carthaginian (completed)
Syracuse (on the way)
Aexandrian Macedonian (still in bags)
Indian (still in bags)
Acheamenid Persians (still in bags)

...and if I can still muster the patience, Spanish or Numidian.

These 10mm guys do seem to take a bit of zen-like patience, not because they are all that hard to paint (...I can't really see them anyway...), but that there are so many of the little buggers...I went with a uniform shield design based on the website's info...though probably there would have been less uniformity...but at this scale I'm just not up to the task of individual shield devices yet...perhaps when I get to my greek mercenary hoplites in the Persian army, I'll step up and get serious. But in general at this scale "blackwash" seems to really do the job of hiding the mistakes and tying it all together.

A Summer Saturday of Gaming

2010-07-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

It's too hot to really go outside, I've got two kids to take care of, and the CinC Lead Gardens is away until the end of the month....so being left in "independent command", I find I'm on my own for the next couple of weeks with two kids to entertain! So....I pulled out my copy of Richard Borg's "Battle Cry" boardgame and laid it on the dining table and decided to let "nature take it's course"....

Predictably, my 5 year old noticed the game box immediately after waking up and wanted to set it up... So we set up his first "real" wargame! We used an interesting Battle Cry variant that was designed for kids that worked great for his first rule driven game. Basically the variant dispensed with the command cards and instead used a roll of the attack dice to determine the units you could move (1 die per general).

We had a great time with the game and I'm now really excited about my new opponent. I gave him two generals and I had one, (so he had a good chance of winning his first game) --which he did in fine style by capturing the high ground with his cav who proceeded to shoot up my counterattack with effective and rapid carbine fire.... and then following up with an infantry unit to seal my fate.

Later in the day, on the Battle Cry note, I decided to haul out a large batch of old 25mm ACW figures I had acquired on ebay a long while ago. I never could quite get up the enthusiasm to paint them up...but after this morning's game I thought they might make a good miniature version of the Battle Cry system. I used some pre-cut bases I already had to make units that had 4 stands for the infantry to match the boardgame's system of 4 infantry, 3 cav, and 2 artillery organization. I had already based these guys according to Richard Borg's miniature version of the game so I painted up the first unit shown here in the pics. The unit is designed to fit well in a 4" hex on my table and still be designed to have 4 removable "steps" that correspond with the boardgame.

An infantry unit is mounted on 4 bases: one is a 60x40mm with 4 figures as the front rank, backed up by three 20x20mm bases with a single figure each, giving 4 total bases. This means that even with 3 casualties, the last base will always still look like a unit on the table even when it is nearly destroyed.

Here is a pic of the whole Confederate force: 10 units of infantry, 3 artillery, 2 cavalry plus a general. This is a bit shy of the original game (by one cav unit), but if this works I'll have to acquire the cavalry to fill things out.

And here is a painted up unit... 4 men up front with three individually based in the second rank.

Though I'm a died in the wool miniatures man, the boardgaming world (particularly the Command and Colors system) still offers some interesting gaming possibilities that are ripe for exploration.

More Summer Shelf Clearing

2010-07-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

There's more "shelf clearing" going on here at the Lead Gardens since I'm trying to both trim down to a few core periods and to drum up some funds to flesh out those collections, so please check out my new ebay listings---here is an ebay link and just follow that page to the several auctions of my Sudan colonial stuff for sale.

I'm basically selling off my 25mm Egyptians, Mahdist/Dervish, and Sudanese....and potentially I'll be posting some scratchbuilt gunboats and Naval brigade in a day or so...but I think I'll have to have a wine or two to ease the sting of parting with them! In addition there will be 15mm FOW Italians and 1/72 Brit and German WWII vehicles and armor up for auction as soon as I get the pics taken tonight.

I'm still hoping to maintain some colonials in my collection but I think it will be the NW Frontier or some fictitious colonial world to allow for more varied kinds of battles.