Le Grenadiers de la Liberté are called into action.

Horrors of the Day

The unspeakable horror unfolds in this astounding tale of the last stand of the Grenadiers of the Guard de la Libertié.

1783 -During the time of The Reconciliation during the latter half of the 18th Century, trouble brews in the streets of Paris. The crops have been failing, and the farmers resort to superstition to explain their plight.

Amongst their blasphemous utterances, some claim that diseased plants have been growing in the darkest forests .... and spreading out towards the farmlands .. leaching poisonous filth and corruption into the very soil of France. Bespoiling the crops, and providing nesting havens for unwholesome blackbirds.

In the darkest shadows of the night, some townsfolk can be heard to utter the unmentionable name of the infamous Marquis de Chenoncoix ......

A Portrait of the infamous Marquis de Chenoncoix ... a man who is best forgotten for the sake of all that is decent.

It has been over 60 years now since his ghastly demise, and his name has been struck from memory.  All those who fell under his power all those years ago were burnt at the stake during The Change.

Why then does his name emerge once more, like bloated carrion that floats to the surface of an unhealthy pond ?

Simulating Metal - does it scale ?

Tip of the Day

This is an interesting one. My girlfriend is currently working on a project that .. amongst other things ... involves building a big metal cog to ... do something with.

So we thought we would have a look outside of the normal schools of thought in fine art, and see what the world of miniature armour and aircraft modelling could offer.

What works really well on 1/35th tanks - would it work on a full scale thing ?

She tried it, and here is what happened :

Advanced Guard Division - Blucher, Jena Auerstadt 1806

Corps of the Day

Today we have the Advanced Guard Division, of the Northern (Prussian) Army at Jena Auerstadt.

A Large Division with a lot of hitting power, effectively a small Corps in this case.

Brigade Von Irwing - Jena Auerstadt, 1806

Regiment of the Day

Today we have a unit of Prussian Dragoons (Medium Cavalry), from the Prussian Army of the 1806 Campaign.

Brigade Von Blucher - Jena Auerstadt, 1806

Regiment of the Day

Today we have a powerful unit of Prussian cavalry from the 1806 campaign.

As part of Blucher's Advanced Guard Division, 2 whole regiments of excellent Hussars brigaded together under the personal command of Blucher himself.

Brigade Von Oswald, Jena Auerstadt 1806

Regiment of the Day

Today we have the Brigade Von Oswald, part of the advanced guard of the Northern (Prussian) army under Blucher.

Prussian Light Horse Battery 1806

Regiment of the Day

Today we have a light horse battery for the Prussian army at Jena/Auerstadt, 1806.

DBA / HoTT board tiles

Scenery of the Day

Quick and simple modular game board using tiles, suitable for 15mm DBx / HoTT.

Starting my Semi-Historical 18th Century Project, I am going to need some DBx style terrain boards for the smaller battles.

Sodom and Gomorrah

DBA of the Day

Another cupboard find ... an unfinished project.

A 'strictly historical' DBA army, the perfect enemy for the early Hebrew army.

Whats in the Box ?

Philistines

DBA of the Day

Another cupboard find ... a half finished Philistine Army for DBA.

Whats in the box ?

Aztec / Mexican Army

DBA of the Day

Another cupboard find. Today we have an Aztec / Ancient Mexican army rescued from obscurity in the cupboard.

Whats in the box ?

Hittite Army

DBA of the Day

Another cupboard find ... a Hittite Army for DBA.

Whats in the Box ? Lets find out :

Canaanite Army

DBA of the Day

Today we have another cupboard discovery .. an early Canaanite army in 15mm from my long lost collection.

New Kingdom Egyptian Army

DBA of the Day

Today we have an NKE 15mm army that I have rescued from the storage cupboard.  I have a small number of these in storage, and thought its a good time to get some sunlight on them once again.

Its a very fun and educational period to model, as I hope these photos demonstrate.

This is the New Kingdom Egyptian Army, which by the looks of it is an unfinished project. Will have to finish this one off before too long.

Portraits

Tip of the Day

Quick tip of the day ...

Tired of having yet more little scraps of paper on the battlefield to mark the names and locations of Corps commanders ? Tired of having them blow around in the wind ?

Well, try this idea :

Get some small cheap picture frames, preferably in some ostentatious period style, and print out mini portraits of actual commanders.

The whole exersize of hunting for photos online yields a wealth of useful information on the actual people who led the troops on the battlefield. Not only a visually effective gaming trick, but also very educational. Highly recommended.

Barsoom Board Complete

Scenery of the Day

Quick and dirty update on this one. Added some small touches to the Barsoom board and pretty well finished it now.

Main points:

• Sprayed the whole of the exposed wood in red.
• Added some appropriate graphics.
• Lightened the tone with a bit more dry brushing.
• Added detail on various parts.

There is always more to add .. but for now I reckon I will call 'complete' on this project.

The Abandoned Cemetery

Scenery of the Day

Starting my period drift, I am being drawn already into 18thC imagi-nation territory.

I don't want to be strictly historical with this next project though, as from what I can read, there is ample evidence that most of the Duchies, Principalities and various states of the imagi-nary 18th Century were often plagued by the occasional outbreaks of Vampyres, Werewolves, Witches, unspeakable cults .... and other weird goings on's.

So my 18C world will have a distinct Gothic Horror thread running through there somewhere.

An abandoned cemetery with crumbling stone walls ... aglow beneath the mists in the light of a full moon.

The Great Deboubt

Scenery of the Day

I was sitting in the painting shed the other day, enjoying a coffee and a chat with my significant other, when I spied something useful sitting on the shelf.

Noting my devilish grin, Kat followed my gaze with a grin of her own and asked 'What is it this time ?'

Some spare little cardboard planter boxes for our gardening adventures had caught my eye, and transformed themselves into a new vision.

If I was cut them up and invert them, they would make brilliant towers for the corners of a Great Dedoubt, no doubt.

Vienna Woods Landwehr

Regiment of the Day

This one was inspired by my good friend Peter from Connecticut in the USA, (aka. Gonsalvo), who I have never actually met, but who operates a brilliant blog here :

Blunders on the Danube
Miniature Wargaming with an emphasis on the 1809 Campaign.

He has a very excellent collection of Austrian Landwehr in 15mm scale ... and to be honest, if I hadnt have stumbled across his extensive articles on Austrian Landwehr, then I probably would have skipped these units altogether
..... much to my loss !


So I just had to get some Austrian Landwehr, mainly for the flags ... which in turn created the need to put together some other Austrian regiments .. which in turn created the need to do the entire Wagram campaign.

But thats how this 'hobby / obsession' works I suppose.

30e Ligne at Wagram 1809

Regiment of the Day

30e Ligne

Division Morand, III Corps (Davout)

Fighting alongside the Regiment 17e Ligne, we have yet another French regiment.

The glorious 30e Ligne marches into battle !

7th Silesian Landwehr - Dresden 1813

Regiment of the Day

In his report of the battle of Gross Beeren to Frederick William, Bülow said among other things, “I must congratulate the entire corps, including the Landwehr. ...

I suppose thats an honourable thing to say about those who put their lives on the line for the state, but then again its a bit of a back-handed compliment if ever there was one. 

Burn Baby Burn

Scenery of the Day

There is nothing quite like a raging fire to add a sense of drama and urgency to a scene.

Tufts of cotton wool work well, so why not take it to the next step, and build a raging inferno complete with columns of black soot and smoke ?

Have a close look at some pictures of real fires with thick columns of smoke for reference before you begin carving. Note here that the smoke starts off thin and gets thicker, so there is a distinct ridge or groove between the flames and the smoke.  Google images is a good source for fire pics - and provides hours of entertaining photos for even amateur pyromaniacs. Enjoy.

Simple Battlefield Signposts

Scenery of the Day

Sometimes its the real simple things that make all the difference.

A couple of simple scenery tricks today that are quick and easy to do, and cost virtually nothing. I think they add a nice little touch of life to the gaming board.

Period signposts :

Woot ! you can make hundreds of these period signposts for around $2, and a small investment of your time.

Brigade Minucci - Bavarian army IR 3, IR 13

Regiment of the Day

Today we return to Wagram, 1809, and look at modelling a brigade of Bavarians, attached to the (French) Army of Italy.

This is certainly one of the more interesting units of the period. The Army of Italy will be huge fun to model - as this is a French army made up of a number small Corps from a variety of different nationalities. That includes Italian Guard units, Saxons, Bavarians, etc.  All of these units fought for the French at Wagram, but also fought against the French .. both before 1809 and also after 1809.

The interesting story today concerns the Bavarian detachment that found itself mired in combat at Wagram along with the Army of Italy.

Yeletz Musketeers / St Petersburg Grenadiers

Regiment of the Day

Today we look at the Russian army prior to Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia.

After the devastating French campaign against Prussia in 1806, the Russian army went on the offensive driving west through East Prussia. Napoleon reacted, and soon the 2 armies were to clash at Eylau.

Russian regiments were relatively small throughout this whole period, so on the field they are usually brigaded together with other regiments to form larger  units of command. Here we have the Yeletz Musketeer regiment and the St Petersburg Grenadier regiment.

13eme Legere

Regiment of the Day

13eme Legere

Battle of Wagram, 1809

III Corps - Davout
Division Morand

---

One of the more innovative features of the French army of this period is the extensive use of Light Infantry drilled in skirmisher tactics.

Each Division of the line in the Grande Armee usually includes at least 1 complete regiment of Light Infantry, capable of providing a Division wide skirmisher screen for the main attack columns.



Today we look at the 13eme Legere regiment - a full compliment of 4 bases (battalions) of highly skilled veteran marksmen capable of fighting in open order.

British in Portugal 1810 - Stewart's Infantry Brigade

Regiment of the Day

Not a regiment in this case, but a Brigade. Today we time-travel to Bussaco in Portugal .. and the year is 1810.

We will now have a look at modelling Stewart's Brigade, which forms part of Hill's 2nd Division.

The British deployment here included several battalions from a number of different regiments. Other battalions from the same regiments were doled out to be brigaded in other divisions.

A little confusing perhaps ....  but then again, the battalion is the combat unit, and the regiment is merely an administrative unit. Sadly, for the wargamer, this means that modelling a real life combat brigade of the period means that the facing colours and flags are all over the place.

Russian Jaegers

Regiment of the Day

Russian Jaegers, 1805-1811.

Since there are so many small Jaeger regiments spread around throughout the Russian OOB's of this period, I am only going to post a generic unit here.

Uniform details and figure variety dont really change much from one battle to the other or one regiment to the other.

Here then, for your viewing pleasure, is my interpretation of a 15mm Russian Jaeger regiment, plus skirmisher stands ... for use with Republique.

Austrian Infantrie Regt 46

Regiment of the Day

IR 46 - brigaded with IR 44 under Gen Reise, part of Archduke Charles' advanced guard division / corps.

Warrior miniatures 15mm again - pretty standard fare. Blue facings and standard Austrian flag.

Prussian 6th Reserve Infantry Regiment

Regiment of the Day


Prussian 6th Reserve Infantry Regiment

Battle of Dresden, 1813. Attached to the Russian-Prussian Army of Barclay de Tolly, we have Kleist's Prussian Corps, made up of :

Prussian Corps - von Kleist
9th Brigade - Klux

• 1st W.Prussian line regiment - 4 bases Green
• 6th reserve regiment - 4 bases Green
• 7th Silesian landwehr - 4 bases Militia
• Silesian Schutzen - 1 base
• Neumark Dragoons - 1 base Green
• 1 medium foot artillery

Prussian Reserve uniforms - a true can of worms if ever there was one. Excellent article HERE from the napoleon-series.org website that explains this can of worms in great detail.

I reckon I have come up with a reasonable compromise uniform here for this unit, but comments are always welcome.

Reserve Infantrie Regiment nr. 6

Napoleonic Rulesets - Republique

A quick yack about Republique v5.0, Grand Tactical Rules for the Napoleonic and Revolutionary Wars period.

These rules are available for free download from the War Times Journal, here :
Republique v5.0

They cover the Napoleonic period at Grand Tactical scale, which allows for the re-fighting of major battles in a single gaming session, on a single large board (afternoon, weekend, etc)

With the current popularity of 'battalion level' rules for this period, you may ask 'Why Grand Tactical' ?  Well, thats a good question.