Remember These? Parchment Maps & Documents

Parchment map of the AWI battlefields and a brass trivet that I purchased at Colonial Williamsburg
(it is the coat of arms of King George III)

A view of the parchment map without the photo staging.

I was sorting through the accumulated junk in my Man Cave this morning, when I found some of those old parchment maps in a box. You probably remember these: they were prints of copies of the US Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Colonial Currency, and battlefield maps. These first appeared in the early 1960s as part of the American Civil War Centennial celebration (1961 - 1965).

The company that produced the maps did something that appeared to age the parchment paper, giving it a brownish hue that made the document look like an old find.

These were fun to collect and I had a large collection of parchement documents when I was a young lad. I bought this map and some reproduction Colonial currency when I visited the Saratoga National Military Park circa 2000 (or it might have been purchased at nearby Fort Ticonderoga). 

I want to post it on the wall in my Man Cave, but the wall space is fairly well used up and I don't want to make things look cluttered with too many pictures and posters.

I hope that these images bring back some fond memories for you too. They make me want to break out my AWI figures again 

Battle of Gross Jagersdorf Game Report

Der Alte Fritz and Princess Lelia roll dice around the wargame table during the Battle of Gross Jagersdorf.

Yesterday we held the inaugural wargame for my newly renovated game room and played the Battle of Gross Jagersdorf (August 30, 1757) for the kick-off event. We had six players and one celebrity guest dice roller in attendence. The home team Prussians included Kieth L., Earl K., and John B. while the visiting team from Russia manned by Bill P., Chuck L. and myself, Der Alte Fritz. My daughter Lelia provided assistance in dice rolling to the Russian side.

The battle featured SYW Russians and Prussians and represented the first time in the SYW that the two countries fought one another. Historically, the Russians had a significant advantage in numbers, some 55,000 troops compared to only 25,000 for the Prussians. The Russians won the historical battle in a convincing manner, but then, rather than consolidate their gains in East Prussia, the army retired back into Russia, leaving the Prussians in control of Konigsburg and East Prussia.

In our kick-off wargame, Marshal Lehwaldt's Prussians managed to change history by defeating General Apraxin's Russian army at Gross Jagersdorf. Undoubtedly this would change the course of history, but that is a story for another day.

If you click (and double click) on the annotated picture below, you should have a clearer view of the table top terrain and troop set up. The Prussian team was attacking from the left and the Russian team was defending the wooded area on the right half of the table.

Annotated view of the wargame table. Prussians in blue and Russians in red.
Click the image to enlarge the view.

The Prussians had three brigades (two of infantry and one of cavalry): starting from the bottom of the picture we had General von Kanitz deployed with four battalions of infantry and two 12-figure squadrons of the dreaded Black Hussars. Next in line, in the center, was the infantry brigade of General Graf von Dohna; and finally, at the top of the picture, was the wide open plain where cavalry general von Schorlemer played badminton with his Russian cavalry counterpart.

The Dreaded Prussian Black Hussars, always the bane of Bill P.'s life on the wargame pitch.

Graf von Dohna's Prussian infantry brigade.

General von Kanitz's Prussian infantry brigade.

The Russians were defending the Norkitten-wald (woods) with General Lupukhin's infantry brigade at the bottom of the picture, General von Browne's Observation Corps infantry towards the top of the picture, and finally, Count Demiku's brigade of light Russian cavalry hussars and Cossacks. A fourth brigade of Russian infantry, commanded by General Willem Fermor, got lost trying to find its way through the Norkitten-wald, where it would eventually see the light of day and the Emerald City, seashells and balloons, and a unicorn or two.

Our Cast: in the front row, left to right, is Kieth L. (P), Der Alte Fritz (R), and Earl K. (P).
In the second row, left to right, is Bill P. (R), Chuck the Lucky (R) and John B. (R)

A view of the wargame table terrain.

Bill P. kicked off the battle with a surprise attack by his Russian brigade, which boldly (and a bit rashly)
advanced out of the Norkitten-wald to discombobulate the Prussian attack. His pesky Cossacks nearly got the best of the surprised Prussian hussars.

Having driven off the Prussian Black Hussars, Bill launched his elite squadron of Horse Grenadiers at the Prussian cavalry.

Russian reinforcements managed to get lost during their march through the Norkitten-wald. They finally arrived on Turn 8, much to the relief of Lopukhin (Bill P.)

Der Alte Fritz was busy on his end of the table playing with the horsies when he happened to take a gander down the length of the table and wondered "why are the Russian infantry attacking out of the woods where things are nice and safe?" By the way, isn't that fox behind me just a little bit creepy?

Lopuchin's Russians surge out of the woods and seemingly carve their way through the middle of  the Prussian brigade von Kanitz. Their success was short-lived though, due largely to nearly all of the turn initiative dice rolls bouncing in the Prussians' favor. This meant that the Prussians had the first fire on nearly every turn of the game.

On the north end of the playing pitch, the Prussian and Russian cavalry forces were caught in the ebb and flow, back and forth style of Old School cavalry battles, with neither side able to gain any advantage. 

A veritable hoard of hussars and Cossacks under my command.

...and some very reliable Russian horse grenadiers.

You just have to like the look of a well dressed Cossack.

However, the Prussian dragoons and hussars of von Schorlermer's cavalry brigade
were stronger than the Russian light cavalry.

With the cavalry nearly played out, the Russian Observation Corps of von Browne also advanced out of the woods (do these Russians have some sort of aversion to trees or something?) to confront the Prussian brigade of Graf von Dohna. Their impetuosity was rewarded with a squadron of Prussian White Hussars (known affectionately as "The Lambs" for their white pelisses/coats) charging into the flank of a Russian grenadier regiment. This is generally called "not a good thing", and indeed, the Russian grenadiers went fleeing for their lives. 

The Russian Observation Corps with a supporting Shuvulov Howitzer, commanded very adeptly by  Chuck the Lucky (you don't want to have to roll dice against him during a game, hence the "Lucky" moniker).

The Lambs pulled up short of the supporting line of red coated Russian infantry and wondered what they could do for an encore. Not much, as it turned out, for the Russian musketeers blasted the Lambs out of their saddles on the next turn.

The White Hussars ("the Lambs") charge into the flank of the Observation Corps Grenadiers.

By Turn 10 it was fairly obvious that the blue-coated Prussians were going to prevail and win the Battle of Gross Jagersdorf in handy fashion. The Russians handled their troops with great skill, but they could not overcome the decision of The Dice Gods to hand nearly EVERY initiative die roll to the Prussians. In my game rules, the team that wins the Initiative Die Roll at the beginning of each turn gets to choose either firing first/moving second or moving first/firing second. As a result, the Prussians were usually getting to fire at the Russians before the Russians could return fire. 

The results can be seen in the Butcher's Bill of figure casualties for each side:

Russians - 231 casualties out of a total of 488 figures.

Prussians - 152 casualties out of a total of 388 figures.

At the end of the day, it often does not really matter which team wins, because war gaming is as much a social activity as it is a game. Our group of gamers convenes a half dozen times or so each year and we have lots of fun just talking, jabbering and kibitzing with one another. It always makes for a fun day and that's why we keep doing it again and again.

Our next game is in September, when we will journey north to Brown Deer, WI to participate in Bill P.'s 19th Century British Colonial era games. I am really looking forward to this game as it is one of my favorite historical periods to research and read about.

My Wargame Room Gets an Update

View as you walk into the game room.

Click on all pictures to enlarge.

Earlier this year I reported on the massive changes that I made to my wargaming room, which entailed repainting the walls and trim, reducing the size of my game table and enhancing my reading area.

Over the past couple of weeks I have added a number of artifacts and display items throughout the room and it is starting to take on a museum quality to it. Now I have the space to display my re-enacting unforms and a few other military trinkets, scattered around the room.

I think that Edward Woodward ("Callan") would feel right at home in my game room. I'm always on the lookout for more military artifacts to display in the wargame room, perhaps changing out reproductions with the real thing (mostly in the ACW era).

Edward Woodward (Callan) wargamed in style.

Virtual Tour of the Wargame Room

So let me take you on a virtual tour of my wargame room. As you walk into the room and look to your left (South Wall), you can see some of the storage drawers for my terrain and building pieces. Hanging from the ceiling are the hot air balloons of the Hesse Seewaldt Air Force. A uniform of the French regiment Bearn from the SYW can be seen hanging on the back wall. To the right of the Bearn uniform are more shelves, which hold most of my Minden Miniatures armies.

South view to your left as you walk into the room

After you have entered the room, if you look behind you towards the East Wall and the entry way, you will see a Confederate officer's uniform from my reenacting days. Both the French and the Confederate uniforms had been stored away for over ten years, so I thought that it would be nice to put them on display in the newly refurbished wargame room.

The wood shelves on the left hold some books and trinkets that I've collected over the years, including a bakelite 1945 RCA radio. I also found an old 1930s Detroit radio that is displayed on the shelves in the reading area. The wicker fishing creel seen below belonged to my late father, who was an avid fly fisherman (for trout and salmon). I never developed much of an interest in fishing though.

One of my favorite items in the room is a two-piece copy of a map of Prussia circa the Seven Years War that Bill Protz kindly printed off for me. The map conveniently includes roads so this makes for a perfect campaign map, should I do one for the SYW.

Looking at the east wall behind you

A view of the game table, looking east.

Next let's look at the South Wall

Close up view of the French Bearn Regiment uniform of the SYW.
You can also see elements of the Hesse Seewald airforce hanging from the ceiling.

A close up view of the French Bearn uniform hangs on the South Wall. The Napoleon poster is one of my favorite pictures, as it was actually a Starbucks coffee advertisement that my wife found for me. The poster has an inspiring quote  (wink) from Napoleon:

Strong coffee, and plenty, awakens me.

It gives me a warmth, an unusual force.

A pain that is not without pleasure.

I have placed two cafeteria style tables (2.5ft by 6ft) together as a place to put my campaign map of South Carolina circa 1779. At the end is the area where I base my figures after they are painted. The television set is meant to show only DVDs, but I have not hooked it up yet.

More tables, folded and leaning against the wall, can be seen. I have 5 or 6 spare tables that I no longer use, having shortened my game table from 15ft to 12ft in length and by getting rid of the 2.5ft by 15ft. of tables that ran parallel to my main table.

Let us now turn our attention to the North wall.

After you have walked over to the South Wall to examine the French uniform more closely, you turn around and take in the view of the North Wall of the room. This is where my reading area is located. Along the walls are some reproduction ACW forage caps and helmet for the British 24th Warwickshire Regiment. We all know the fate of the Warwickshire lads at Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift. How could I pass up buying this helmet?

A view of the reading area and fireplace (fake) along the north wall.

The fireplace mantel is a piece of furniture that I purchased some 30-40 years ago and I have hauled it around with me for the various house moves that I have made over the years. It could be used as an actual fireplace surround, but there is no fireplace behind it. It does, however, make for a good focal point in the room. 

To the left of the fireplace you can just barely make out a 19th Century antique umbrella stand that now holds yard sticks that I use in my wargames. The book shelves largely hold various sets of wargame rules that I have collected over the years as well as a small part of my 54mm toy soldier collection. The majority of the toy soldiers are stored away for now because they take up too much space.

I keep a lot of my 18th Century uniform books on the shelf that is closest to the comfy chair and ottoman. I imagine that I will spend a lot of time there, listening to music and drawing up plans for the next batch of new figures in the Minden and Fife & Drum miniatures ranges.

Napoleon Statue Collection

Today's mail brought a little present that I bought myself on E-Bay: a nice statue of Napoleon Bonaparte (see picture above) standing in his famous pose with hand buried in his waistcoat. The white bust shown in the picture was a Christmas gift from Mrs. Fritz in 2013. 

Over the past few years I have started collecting statues of Napoleon. They come in all shapes and sizes and I have ten of them so far. Whenever I see a statue or bust, I buy it, provided that it is not some expensive antique running thousands of dollars. We try to keep things real here in Hesse Seewald. My one parameter is that the collection will not include war game figures and must be at least 54mm toy soldier size or larger.

Part of my Napoleon collection can be seen on the bookshelves in my library, in the picture below.

The Napoleon collection started with a Royal Daulton Toby Jug, or Character Jug, of the Duke of Wellington (gasp!). The handle on the Wellington jug had a miniature Napoleon. I then found an actual Napoleon jug in an antique store and that really got the collection going. Next, I found a pair of 12-inch tall porcelains from Germany and added a couple of small busts here and there. 

I have also added some framed pictures of Napoleon in my library. A trip to Paris ten years ago produced  a deck of playing cards in which all of the face cards have pictures of either Napoleon as King and Josephine as Queen, and various French marshals as the Jacks. So I removed all of the face cards from the deck and took them to a picture frame shop and had the cards framed. It turned out rather nice (see below).

I also found a set of six cheese plates, one of which included Napoleon, so I bought the whole set just to get the one plate, shown below. Another antique store find was a pair of wax silhouette rounds of the Emperor and Empress and these were posted on the wall to fill a narrow space next to a window. I later cut out a picture of a younger Napoleon and had the frame store put him in a round frame that augments the silhouettes. See below.

I'm always on the lookout for more Napoleonic items. If you have any that you want to part with, contact me and we can work out a transaction. My Holy Grail item is the limited edition Royal Daulton Napoleon Toby Jug that was produced in the early 1990s. I've been looking for one of these for a very long time.

Der Alte Fritz's Man Cave

The Library Room at Schloss Fritz (right hand side)

I am sitting at home today waiting for the plumber to arrive to make some minor repairs, so while I am killing some time, I thought that I would post some pictures of my Library or Den, A.K.A. where plans for world domination of the miniatures world are made. LOL!

I keep most of my better reference books in this room, but I have ten times more military history books on hand that I store in other rooms of the house. When I need to quickly find some SYW era uniform information from Bleckwenn or Menzel, this is my "go to" place. A couple of nice reading chairs and a CD to play some Mozart or Handel, and I'm ready to lock myself away for the afternoon in good spirits. The entry has a pair of sliding pocket doors, one of which you might be able to make out in the picture below, on the left - lower corner, so that I can close off the noise of the world and read or work on some of my writing projects.

The Library Room (left hand side)

The roll top desk is a mid 18th Century piece that my father bought while visiting London back in the 1970s. In fact, it is one of a pair of such desks that I inherited from him, so they have some sentimental value to me, plus they look nice and are highly functional. The television set is rarely used, but when the mood stikes me, I can lounge of the small couch and catch up on my programs.

Here is a view of one of the book shelves in the room. Early in my life, I started collecting Royal Daulton Toby Jugs, a few of which are displayed here. More recently, I have started collecting statues of Napoleon - I probably have close to a dozen in this room on various shelves. One of the Napoleons is well camouflaged - he is part of the handle on the Duke of Wellington jug on the top shelf. Further down, you can see Lord Kitchener, Winston Churchill and more Napoleon's that were cast in Germany.

Finally, a British grenadier mitre from the Seven Years War - a reproduction that I purchased from The Discriminating General store in Canada and a Ron Tunison brass sculpture of General Lee from the ACW. (I'm a Union man myself, but I couldn't pass on this sculpture so I bought it anyway).

Shelves full of Napoleonic, AWI and ACW books.

While I have SYW books scattered all over the house, most of my Christopher Duffy books and a number of German language publications are stored on these shelves, which seem to be groaning a bit from the weight of the books. I bought the John Bull statue years ago with the idea of turning him into a  table lamp, but never got around to doing it. The third shelf down contains my growing collection of Frederick the Great statues. As you might guess, I like to collect statues. Mrs. Fritz gave me the Admiral Lord Nelson Toby jug for Christmas the year we moved into this house.

Shelves for the SYW and Ancients wing of the Library

 There are also a few Ancients books on these shelves. Just to do something completely different, I developed an interest in the Late Roman Empire era (300AD rto 470AD), so I managed to collect a few of those books along the way.

That is all for now, I might come back later and embellish this post, but I have got to run off and do some errands for the family. Happy New Year everyone!

Spring Cleaning, Fritz Style

My cleaning, prepping and terraining desk. Before clean up.

When you are in a painting funk, such as the likes that I have not seen in a long while, what can one do to further the hobby and be productive in some fashion? The answer is to look for alternative things to do such as terraining the bases of figures that you have ignored for too long, or cleaning and priming some figures to have on hand for the inevitable day when you break out of your painting funk, work on some terrain pieces, or....

Clean up your work area! The dreaded "before" picture is shown at the top of the page, while the "after" picture is shown below.

The "after" picture. It looks much better.

Actually, the above "after" picture still requires a little more work on the left hand side of the work area, but for all practicle purposes, the table is cleared of the clutter and is ready for some serious work. Note, I paint at a different table, but more on that at another time.

Now I finally feel like actually doing some work, now that my work area is picked up. It is kind of depressing to work in a 12-square inches space, surrounded by mangled castings with arms and heads chopped off, or half assembled cannon and limbers. When Burnham Wood is closing in on you, you don't feel like working, but rather, you feel like running away to hide.


I doubt that I will have much more time over the remainder of this Memorial Day weekend, but the painting area, reading area and game table area will be next on my list of things to clean up.

The painting table, as shown a year or two ago. Things are back to this state again.

It seems like the game table looks nice about 30% of the time and then it looks more like a repository for junk the other 70% of the time. I half expect the crew from the American Pickers television show to show up at my door asking if they can "pick" through all of my junk. When that happens, well... you know that it is a sad day in your wargaming life.

There must be some irrefutible law of physics that says that junk and clutter will always seek to fill the vacuum of an empty game table. You KNOW that this is true.

The gaming area and table are a disaster. Again, an older picture, but this gives you an idea of how things look today. Not a good thing.

This is how it should look, when I am on top of my game.

My reading area, in better times.

Now having looked at the last two pictures above, I feel a little bit of inspiration coming on to clean up the rest of the basement game room. The painting can wait for another day. I suspect that part of my painting funk is due to all of the clutter, so once I clean up the rest of the room, just watch battalion after battalion of figures come flying off of my brushes.

I hope that you are all having a happy Memorial Day weekend. Do pause for a moment and give thanks to all of those who served in any country so that the rest of us can lead peaceful, normal and happy lives.

The Clean Up Nears Completion

The "after" view of the game room, post clean up.

I had a good head start last evening on the New Year's Great Clean Up Project and nearly finished it off today, after three hours of work. As you can see from the picture, there has been a great improvement in the overall appearance of the Man Cave de Guerre. The main accomplishment was moving all of the Minden inventory into the Closet O' Lead as well as moving my packing and shipping table and supplies into the COD.

The "Before" view of the game room. The table on the left was where I was packing all of my figure orders.

Now all of my Minden and Fife & Drum business is out of sight and the war game room can return to its intended purpose.  With the game table spruced up, it is easier for me to set up some spur of the moment games or set out the troops for the annual grand review on Frederick the Great's birthday on January 24th.

The Closet O' Lead now includes my shipping table and packing supplies. All of the Minden inventory is on the shelves on the left.

I think that it is important to start 2014 with a clean slate and a game room in tip top Bristol shape. I want to do more gaming and less painting in 2014. The painting that I do will be narrowly focused on the SYW and the AWI periods as I fill in some of the missing pieces to these armies and also build up the support team of wagons, pontoon trains and field bakeries, etc. 

Let us  think about all of the exciting new possibilities that the year holds:

AWI dragoons will hopefully start production this month or in early February . The second batch of 16 dragoons should be ready within a couple more months.

AWI Hessians will start knocking on my door by mid-year.

Some new additions will grace the Minden range.

I will continue adding to my Austrian and Prussian forces so that I can start my personal project of gaming all of Frederick's battles in both the WAS  and the SYW.

And much, much more.

Happy New Year everyone.

New Years Eve Clean Up

As you can see from the picture, I have allowed the Clutter to take over my game room like kudzu. So in the waning days of 2013 I have decided that I should commence a major clean up and de cluttering of both the game room and the Closet O' Lead.

I am clearing out shelf space in the Closet O' Lead so that I can store all of the Minden inventory there, rather than on the floor underneath the game tables. This means that a lot of boxes full of junk and stuff need to find a new home, so be on the lookout for some lead sales over the next couple of weeks. These will be priced at clearance prices for unpainted lead and I will post some lots on this blog.

One of the items to be sold are a lot of 15mm SYW painted and unpainted Essex and Old Glory British and French infantry. If you have an interest in several hundred figures in 15mm, then send me an email and I can give you the details.

The Mess Is Addressed

Fritz's Man Cave is looking a little bit better today.

The state of Potsdam parade ground was really starting to annoy me, so last night I was faced with the choice of painting more figures or picking up the basement. I chose the latter and you can see a general improvement in the room in the accompanying pictures when compared to the pix post yesterday.

The next step is to tidy things up a bit beneath the table ( akin to the warehouse archives building in the first Indiana Jones movie) where what goes in is never to be found again. However, that is a job for another day. I still need to hook up the old Compaq PC in the back corner -- I still use this to print out name tags on my figure bases or print orders of battle. The laser printer is still much better than the inkjet printer on our main iMac computer and while the PC is probably 12 years old, the word processing function works just fine, so I keep the old beast for Wargame purposes.

My painting table is still a wreck, but I can't do much about that. An artist needs his work space, don't you know.

The painting table in its usual state of appearance.

I have been working on the 45th Regiment for my British Peninsula army and now have it up to 60 figures of the eventual 84 figure regiment. I use 12- figure companies but only field 7 of the 10 companies as I don't want to have a hundred figure regiment. I could do it, but I'd rather not.

I will post some pictures of the 45th later this evening.

A Royal Mess

Fritz's Man Cave in a considerable state of disorder.

A law of physics states that nature abhors a vacuum and will fill it ASAP. There is a corollary to this law called Fritz's Law of Wargaming Tables which states that if there is an empty surface on your war game table, stuff will find a way of accumulating on the table.

The above picture is proof of Fritz's Law of Wargaming Tables (do not attempt to do this at home).

I am somewhat embarassed that my Man Cave has become such a mess (somewhat, but not totally embarassed), but one can not fight the law of empty table space. All of the mess on the left is Fife & Drum related stuff as it has become my order packing area. The area on the near right is my painting table and that will always be messy. The main table, well, that one is my fault. The back table -- for some reason I can't seem to put away the French cuirassiers from a Napoleonic game fought last January, darn those guys -- they just won't put themselves away.

Obviously I have a project to work on this weekend.