It is off to Rock Con tomorrow for an afternoon Big Battalion BAR convention game for 10 to 12 people. Bill and I have come up with a smaller BAR game scenario that looks to be a lot of fun. The premise is that the town of Dithersdorf is chock full of food and other supplies and both the Gallian advance guard and the Hesse Seewald rear guard would like to be the first to get to Dithersdorf and said supplies.
Oh, and to complicate things a little bit, a certain black coach with an armed escort of black hussars has arrived in the town ahead of everyone else. It seems that Milady de Winter's gang of cut throats has reason to believe that a certain Gallian spy, Lady Pettygree, and her party are also converging on Dithersdorf. Will Milady finally capture Lady Pettygree and turn her over to the mysterious Patron and secure the release of certain hostages? Only time and some lucky die rolls will tell the story.
The game table will resemble a giant "X" in terms of the layout of the road network. Each quadrant of the X will have a covered approach of forests so that the armies, who will arrive on each of the four road entries to the table, will not be able to see one another at first. Dithersdorf is located in the center where the roads converge. It is sort of variant of the old Sawmill Village game scenario, only this time there are four entry roads instead of two.
The respective armies will feature a larger proportion of light cavalry and infantry than we normally use in our games. This is a sort of kleine krieg, if you will. I think that I have around 10 to 12 battalions of infantry and maybe 150 cavalry, of which half are hussars. There are a minimal number of cannons in the scenario, so it should come down to a firefight. The brigades will also be smaller than usual, with three battalions making up the average infantry brigade. So this should speed up the game considerably. Also, brigade commanders will have different objectives in the game, and sometimes their objectives may clash with those of the army commander.
It has been a bit slow on the painting front this week. I painted one Suren mounted figure to represent Milady de Winter dressed in 18th Century riding habit. I also started a squadron of 12 Stadden Prussian hussars in busbies. These will become HR2, the Zeiten Hussar regiment. The first couple of figures have turned out rather nicely, which gives me a lot of incentive to get the rest of them done after Rock Con.
Have a good weekend everybody. I will post an update on the game probably Sunday.
The game table will resemble a giant "X" in terms of the layout of the road network. Each quadrant of the X will have a covered approach of forests so that the armies, who will arrive on each of the four road entries to the table, will not be able to see one another at first. Dithersdorf is located in the center where the roads converge. It is sort of variant of the old Sawmill Village game scenario, only this time there are four entry roads instead of two.
The respective armies will feature a larger proportion of light cavalry and infantry than we normally use in our games. This is a sort of kleine krieg, if you will. I think that I have around 10 to 12 battalions of infantry and maybe 150 cavalry, of which half are hussars. There are a minimal number of cannons in the scenario, so it should come down to a firefight. The brigades will also be smaller than usual, with three battalions making up the average infantry brigade. So this should speed up the game considerably. Also, brigade commanders will have different objectives in the game, and sometimes their objectives may clash with those of the army commander.
It has been a bit slow on the painting front this week. I painted one Suren mounted figure to represent Milady de Winter dressed in 18th Century riding habit. I also started a squadron of 12 Stadden Prussian hussars in busbies. These will become HR2, the Zeiten Hussar regiment. The first couple of figures have turned out rather nicely, which gives me a lot of incentive to get the rest of them done after Rock Con.
Have a good weekend everybody. I will post an update on the game probably Sunday.
I look forward to reading about the game . . . and seeing pictures of course.
ReplyDelete-- Jeff
«Oh, and to complicate things a little bit, a certain black coach with an armed escort of black hussars has arrived in the town ahead of everyone else.»
ReplyDeleteWhat about –sometime in a less hectic future– 2 – 3 minis (if not a vignette)?
Hopefully these Hesse-Seewalder (?) ‘black hussars’ would not be, for once, in historico-heroically accurate Prussian uniforms (one of these few possible exceptions you endvisaged earlier)?
As for Milady de Winter, while I *know * your painting would do her full justice, to find an adequate mini could perhaps be problematic. Of course you can evacuate the whole question with the argument that Milady de Winter cares so much about her secrecy that nobody can do a painting of her and survive!
Now, I’m somewhat surprised / worried that a troop of hussars *in uniform* can freely roam across the whole Empire, trespassing all borders and superbly ignoring all sovereignties, without interference or sparkling a slavo of diplomatic protests?
Then, any Gentleman would understand that a Lady of High Status would travel with a group of retainers wearing ‘her’ livery. Ladies are not expected to be as adventurous and reckless as Men of Noble Birth, so it would be fully understandable that, for her safety, she armed a part of her escort –roads and many towns are so…– ; being as wise as a Woman can be, or more likely following a male advice, she chose to be armed experimented ex-army types. Of course, in the end, she *looks* as if escorted by a troop of dragoons (yet with civilian saddle & saddlecloth), but the livery they are wearing is conspiciously NOT a known military uniform. Yes, the colors pattern of ‘her’ livery exactly mimics that of the uniform of a well-known (and dread) hussar regiment of Hesse-Seewald, but such similarities occur by mere chance…
Cheers,
Jean-Louis
Jean-Louis: you are on the right track with the idea that Milady's escort bears a resemblance to the Prussian (Germanian) Black Hussar regiment, but not quite. Actually, nobody really knows who is riding around in that black coach - it is assumed to be a man of great importance. All that they know is that whereever the coach appears, bad things happen -- people die, ships burn and sink, country hunting lodges get blown up, etc.
ReplyDeleteI've kind of had my eye on Favrat's Frei Korps (black coats, red facings and straw-yellow breeches and waistccoat) as a model for Milady's personal warband or retired soldiers and other soldiers of fortune.
Great! With Favrat's Frei Korps as a *model* only, maybe Milady's personal warband will be the very first fictitious unit painted by Der Alte Fritz? No one would use the uniform of an existing military unit -even a 'mere'Frei Korps- to dress his / her own private troop of retainers!
ReplyDeleteMay be next time Milady de Winter will try air travel by (armed) ballonn?
Cheers,
Jean-Louis
I was at Rock Con, and I payed in the game. The figure of Milady de Winter looked lovely! Although the Gallians tried to capture she was way to quick and escaped. Her servants packed her bags and couch very quickly, with no wasted movements. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe game was fun and I think everybody had a good time.
Best, Randy
I meant coach not couch, duhhh :-(
ReplyDeleteRandy
Thank you Der Alte,
ReplyDeletefor a very good wargame at Rock Con. Enormous fun and good times as always.
Sincere regards,
Bill