Prussia Forever by Lady Butler?

 

Prussia Forever !  (painted by Der Alte Fritz)
The charge of the Zieten Hussars
Minden Miniatures figures

Today I was scrolling through some of the pictures in my iPhotos library (there are nearly 28,000 pictures in all) and I found this one in my album of "Favorites". It is my recreation of the famous painting by Lady Butler called "Scotland Forever!" which features the epic charge of the Scots Greys at the battle of Waterloo in June 1815.

Instead of British Napoleonic figures I used Prussian Seven Years War hussars from Minden Miniatures.

Inspiration: the original painting of the charge of the Scots Greys at the 
Battle of Waterloo by Lady Butler

Here is an overhead view of the figures that I set up for the photo shoot a few years ago. The figure leading the charge is Hans von Zeiten, Himself, and he is one of the special personality figures that are available in the Minden Miniatures range of Seven Years War figures. The H2 von Zieten Hussar Regiment leads the charge. I added some H5 Black Hussars in the background to pad out volume of cavalrymen to make a better picture.

Here is a close up view of the "Heroic Zieten" figure from the Minden range.

Heroic Zieten Personality Figure   (PER-011 stock number)

PER-011 "Heroic Zeiten" personality figure from Minden Miniatures

This exceptionally animated figure was sculpted by the late Richard Ansell as part of a Kickstarter campaign that we did a long time ago. An individual donor's award at a high level was the ability to have several figures of his choice sculpted for him. He chose this highly animated hussar officer leaping into a charge as his figure of choice. In my mind, this is probably the best figure in the entire Minden Miniatures figure range.

So that is the story behind this exceptional figure and he looks quite spectacular when painted and leading the charge of Prussian light cavalry into a tabletop battle.

SYW All-Cavalry Battle Part II - the Heavies

 

Prussian cuirassiers (backs to camera) and Russian cuirassiers (facing the camera)
chop, hack and thrust one another in a grand melee. Minden Miniatures exclusively.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO ENLARGE

I finally got around to finishing my SYW battle that featured only cavalry and no infantry. In Part I of this report, the Prussian and Russian light cavalry forces came to blows in a meeting engagement. The Prussians were able to drive back the Russians and take possession of the key land feature called the Kammin Heide.

The Cavalry Rules

One of the benefits of staging an all-cavalry battle is that it gives your cavalry melee rules a good work out. I haven't used my Der Alte Fritz rules in quite awhile so it took me awhile to remember what to do mechanically and discover why I made the rules the way they are in the first place.

I did not like the way that my cavalry melee rules with respect to (1) the sequence of charging and counter-charging; (2) some of the morale elements; and (3) the rallying and pursuit mechanics in the rules. As a result, I developed a number of tweaks to the rules that I feel should make for a better game, going forward. After I make all of the rules changes, I will post a new version on the Fife and Drum Miniatures web site so that readers can download copies for free.

Notable and likely changes will include charge declarations without the need to roll for morale to see if the squadron will actually charge. Both sides should just automatically go into melee when one side or the other declares a charge. The only exception will be if the defending cavalry unit has been "caught at the halt" position.

My original rules only allowed for one round of melee in order to speed up this part of the game. However, for an all-cavalry game, melee is all that the squadrons can do so I increased the number of melee rounds in a melee to two rounds of combat. After that the possible outcomes are (1) tie, both units retire a full move back to their own lines and are disordered for a full turn, (2) loser routs and winner rolls a D6 to see if it will pursue, or (3) winner halts in place and becomes disordered for a full turn, unless it is rallied by a leader.

In order to rally, I now allow a squadron of cavalry to remain in place, neither moving or charging, for one turn after which it returns to a good order state. Units can also attempt to rally by moving a leader into contact with the unit and attempting a rally dice roll (it's about a 50-50 chance of success) so most players will likely opt to rest their cavalry for a full turn and not risk the possibility of a rout if it attempts to use the dice rally mechanism in the rules.

The Heavy Cavalry Battle Report

Part II of the cavalry battle featured the arrival of the heavy cavalry brigades for both armies, so we are talking dragoons, horse grenadiers and cuirassiers in this battle. The Prussians started the battle with the terrain advantage since they held the high ground and were well positioned to bottle up the arrival of the Russian heavy cavalry. The map believe depicts the terrain features and locations of key locations on the tabletop terrain. This is the light cavalry map and I apologize for not having a similar map for the heavy cavalry action.

The Prussians begin the game with their dragoons deployed on the high ground called the Kammin Heide. They are supported by a second line of cuirassiers hidden behind the ridge. There are a few remnants of light cavalry hussars milling around the flanks of the Prussian position. The Prussian cavalry commander, yes Him, is Lt. General von Seydlitz. His plan is to lure the Russian cavalry onto the Kammin Heide and then surprise them with a counter attack from the hidden Prussian cuirassiers.

The Russian heavy cavalry is entering the table on the hill where the remnants of their hussars and Cossacks are shown on Map 1.

I place a couple of light infantry units on the table for both sides, but these were 
really placed there "for looks only" and did not contribute to the battle.
Here we have some Prussian Frei Korps troops, using a mix of Mindens, 
Fife and Drum Hessians and some AWI Continentals, converted by paint.

The initial deployment of the Prussian heavy cavalry regiments. Hussars in the first line
 (right hand side of the picture), dragoons in the second line and a third line of Cuirassiers

Some left over light cavalry from the previous game: Prussian Black Hussars (L)
and Russian Yellow Hussars (R)

Russian Horse Grenadiers and Cuirassiers charge

Russian cuirassiers provide support to the Horse Grenadiers

But wait! Prussian CR8 Seydlitz Cuirassiers seemingly come out of nowhere
and charge into the flank of the Russian Horse Grenadiers. This demonstrates
the advantage of winning the initiative die roll at the beginning of each turn.

Closer view of the Prussian flank charge.

We get even closer.

It's a bad day for these particular Russians as they get cut down by
the Seydlitz CR8 cuirassiers.

Prussian dragoons advance at the trot looking for someone to melee with.

Many individual squadron melees erupt all over the Kammin Heide.
Such action is typical of cavalry melees in my rules. The Black Hussars in the 
right foreground have Lt. General von Zeiten attached to the squadron to give
them a morale boost (one extra D10 in a morale dice throw).

Russian Cuirassiers finally seem to have an advantage over their foe: cuirasses vs no cuirasses.

Alas, the worst possible melee morale throw. All that the Russian cuirassiers
needed was anything but a "ten' (or double zero) on just two of the three dice.

Post melee, some of the Prussian squadrons have to fall back towards their own
lines, in disordered status, where they will recover in two turns.

Some of the non-viable Prussian squadrons have been removed from the table. Now there is 
a more open look to the battlefield. When a cavalry unit is down to only two stands
 (out of six to start with in a squadron) then it is removed from the game.

Russian heavy cavalry squadrons fall back to reform, hoping to deter the 
Prussian cavalry from making any further attacks.

After ten game turns I decided that the cavalry of both sides was knackered and ready to call it a day. The butcher's bill saw the Prussians losing 34 of 60 figures from their squadrons engaged, and they also had 24 more cuirassiers that were held back in a third line and were unengaged in the battle. The Russians registered 36 casualties out of a starting total of 84 figures and all of their forces were engaged.

At the end of the day it looked like neither side was in good enough condition to carry on the cavalry battle, although the Prussians had a substantial reserve of 24 cuirassiers that they could have committed to a renewal of the battle. Doing a little bit of free kriegspeiling in my head, it seemed reasonable that even as bold a cavalry general as von Seydlitz would have decided that further charges would not result in any significant gain. Thus von Seydlitz, who held the initiative in the battle, decided that his cavalry had done enough for the day. The Russians were likely grateful to see an end to the cavalry battle, but they were confident that they still had enough viable squadrons to stop the Prussians. So they too broke off the fight and reformed on top of their hill.

Perhaps some Russian and Prussian infantry will come up and renew the battle on the 'morrow. Who knows?

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Picture of the Day : Prussian Hussars

Here are some pictures of Minden Prussian Hussars painted as HR1, the Green Hussars. These were painted by Michael S. in Germany for one of my Minden Mini customers. Lucky fellow.   I hope that my readers will draw so inspiration from these awesome painted figures.

New Pix: Prussian Red Hussars

 

Minden Miniatures Prussian "Red Hussars".

Click On All Pictures To Enlarge

I finished and based eight Prussian Red Hussars last week. This is but a fraction of the number of figures that the regiment will have in my wargaming army, but I wanted to see how the figures would look. The regiment will eventually have 24 horsemen organized into two "squadrons" of 12 figures.

Prussian Red Hussars in mirliton hats (left) and the Green Hussars in busbies (right).
A squadron of Bosniaken lancers hovers in the background.
The three units make a nice light cavalry brigade in a wargame army.

My inspiration for painting the Red Hussars comes from John Ray's blog. As many of you know, John sculpts his own exquisite SYW figures and Dave Jarvis brings them to life with his well honed painting skills. I liked John's Red Hussars so much that I just had to add them to my Prussian army.

You can find the history of the regiment by clicking on the link to Kronoskaf;

Kronoskaf - Red Hussars

The regiment's inhaber was Alexander Gottlieb von Seydlitz from 1747 through 1759. Thereafter, a gentleman named von Gersdorff assumed command of the regiment. The regiment was numbered 8th in the Prussian cavalry establishment so it was also known as HR8 (hussar regiment 8). They had the misfortune of being captured at Maxen in 1759 and thus assumed the bad distinction of being "one of those Maxen regiments" that King Frederick did not like. The regiment was not re-raised, but if I recall correctly, HR9 moved up to the HR8 designation.

One notable distinction of my painted regiment is that the hussars in an at rest pose with their swords resting on their shoulder. One could mount them on walking horses or depict them as being in a regiment that is held back as a reserve cavalry unit. While I like the energetic charging pose that Richard Ansell first sculpted, I had him make some Prussian hussars wearing mirlitons and busbies in the shouldered sword pose. This pose is my favorite cavalry pose.

Here is a link to the Fife and Drum Miniatures web store. The link takes you directly to the Minden Miniatures Prussian section of the web store:

Minden Web Store - Prussians

Here are the product codes for the new hussars at rest and the Bosniaken cavalry:

MPC-010  Bosniaken Command

MPC-011  Bosniaken Lancers

MPC-012  Prussian Hussars in Mirliton Command

MPC-013  Prussian Hussars in Mirlitons

MPC-014  Prussian Hussars in Busbies Command

MPC-015  Prussian Hussars in Busbies

On a side note, I want to thank everyone who participated in the Fife and Drum Miniatures July Fourth sale. Your business is much appreciated and the funds generated from the sale will be used to add new Minden sculpts to the product range. Russian Cuirassiers will be the next new figures.

Another side note, I will be attending Historicon in Lancaster, Pennsylvania this year. I will be running my "Bread and Croats" SYW skirmish game on Friday and Saturday. If you are at Historicon, drop on by and say hello. Better yet, sign up for one of the games.

Final note: the US Postal Service is resuming shipments to Australia and New Zealand so our customers down under can now order figures and expect to receive them in a timely manner. The several orders on hold are also on their way to Oz.

 

Prussian Dragoons Wearing White Coats

 

I have always wanted to get around to painting some of my Minden Miniatures Prussian dragoons wearing the white coats of the pre-1745 dragoon uniform. I would imagine that King Frederick ordered the uniform change because the white coats looked too much like Austrian uniforms

So I chose the famous Bayreuth Dragoons (DR5) who achieved their fame at the Battle of Hohenfriedburg in 1745. They were a ten squadron dragoon regiment (yes, you read that correctly, ten squadrons!) which made them the size of a normal brigade of cavalry. Prior to the battle DR5 was not assigned to any other Prussian cavalry brigade and the various Prussian generals forgot that the Bayreuth Dragoons were even a part of the army. 

The regimental colonel spied an opportunity to charge into the faltering Austrian musketeer regiments and so he ordered the regiment to advance forward and initiate the charge. The Austrian infantry was caught off guard by the charge and many of them broke and ran. The Bayreuth Dragoons virtually took out a large part of the Austrian army in one charge, sealing the victory for the Prussians.

This is another example of "converting with paint" as all I had to do was paint the figures with white coats, rather than cornflower blue. The uniform was of the same cut before and after the switch from white coat to blue coat, thus no other conversions are required.

Here are some more pictures of my new Bayreuth Dragoon regiment in situ.

The regiment has 36 figures compared to my standard cavalry size of 24 figures.

Bayreuth Dragoons in White Coats

 

Prussian Bayreuth Dragoons wearing white coats.
Minden Miniatures Prussian Dragoons.

For a long time I have been toying with the idea of painting a wargame cavalry regiment of the Prussian Bayreuth Dragoons (IR5) dressed in white coats. Yes, Prussian dragoons wore white coats at the start of the 1st Silesian War. I already have the Bayreuth Dragoons in my Prussian army, but now that I have embarked on a War of the Austrian Succession ("WAS") I thought that now is the time to paint them wearing white coats rather than light blue coats.

I painted a couple of test figures to see how they will look. I also used some of the galloping/cantering horses from the Fife and Drum AWI figure range so as to give the unit a more active pose.

Here are some pictures of the test figures:

I like the look of these figures with white coats and so I think that I will paint a 36-figure regiment of them with Prussian Dragoons from the Minden Miniatures (what else?) figure range.

I cleaned up and assembled 36 figures this afternoon and the first 12 have been primed, so that I can start painting tomorrow. My cavalry figures all get a few swipes of a rat-tail file between the legs and then I rough up the surface on the horse where horse and casting will be glued together. Before applying glue, I roll out some Green Stuff epoxy putty and place a little piece on the underside of the rider casting. Then glue is applied between the legs of the cavalry figure and the two halves are smooshed together. The putty fills in any gaps between the figures while also making for a better bond.

I should have the first 12 figures painted and based later this week and I will post pictures on this blog.

A Wagon Train Vignette

Prussian supply convey is escorted by Hussars. Bosniaken lancers
in the background form the rear guard.

I set up a small photo shoot on my game table that features the Fife and Drum munitions wagon being escorted by the new Minden Prussian Hussars with shouldered sword poses. Some of the Minden pioneers and laborers are included to set the backdrop to the scene.

Close up view of the munitions wagon, a very lovely model.

I’m also really jones-ing on those Bosniaken lancers and can’t wait to add another 12-figure squadron to brigade with my Black Hussars.

Showdown With Some Cossacks

Russian Cossacks catch some Prussian Jagers out in the open.

 

The is a story about the demise of the ill-fated Prussian Jager regiment at the hands of some Russian Cossacks near Spandau. The following excerpt comes from Kronoskaf's history of the Prussian Jager zu Fuss;

Prussian Jäger History

In 1756, the unit took part in the invasion of Saxony and was present at the blockade of Pirna between September 11 and October 16. On December 1, the unit received a reinforcement of 46 men.

On February 5 1757, the unit was organised into two companies. On March 1, it received a further reinforcement of 3 officers and 100 jägers; bringing its total strength to 300 men. On November 22, the unit took part in the Battle of Breslau where it was deployed en potence to protect the right flank. On December 5, at the Battle of Leuthen, the unit was deployed on the left in the first line of the infantry centre. 

In the Spring of 1758, the unit took part in the invasion of Moravia and, from May to July, in the Siege of Olmütz where it was deployed in General Mayr's Brigade, on the opposite bank of the Morava to cover the road to Silesia. During the retreat from Moravia towards Silesia, the unit was attached to the rearguard and took part in several actions. On October 10, the unit took part in the Battle of Hochkirch where it was initially deployed in Manteuffel's Corps, in the village of Lauske, on the extreme left flank of the Prussian positions. 

On October 10 1760, the unit was decimated by the Russians at Charlotteburg. 

In 1761, a new unit of 4 companies was raised in Berlin and Wittenberg.

On July 21 1762, the unit took part in the Battle of Burkersdorf where it was posted on the right wing in the woods to the south-east of Hochgiersdorf.

I set up a vignette of this action on my game table, but the outcome was substantially different. As Bugs Bunny would say, "aren't I a little stinker?" The Russian Cossacks are RSM figures that I have mounted on Minden light hussar horses. This demonstrates the complete compatibility of RSM and Minden figures. The Jagers are Minden figures, of course. In this instance, the Jagers have managed to retreat into the somewhat questionable light cover, but will it be enough to stop being skewered by the Cossack's lances?

Russian Cossacks catch the Prussian Jagers, who have retreated into the woods.

In this instance, the cavalry rides to the rescue in the nick of time. The Prussian Ziethen Hussars (H2) have emerged from behind the woods and have caught the Cossacks in the flank. It's a trap!

The Prussian Ziethen Hussars hit the Cossacks in the flank!

But wait, there's more! The Bosniaken lancers also come out of hiding and hit the other flank of the Cossacks , who are likely doomed (he, he, he, he).

The Bosniaken arrive and charge into the left flank of the Cossacks .

The Bosniaken were often brigaded with the Black Hussars during the Seven Years War. Click the link below to view the Kronoskaf history of the Bosniaken.

Bosniaken

A good day for the Prussians.

Fritz's Painting Table

I plan on moving more Bosniaken up near the top of my painting queue because I only have one squadron of 12 figures and normally have two 12-figure squadrons in my cavalry regiment. My Ziethen Hussars are in the same position so they need 12 more figures in their regiment.

The painting mojo ebbed away at the conclusion of the Sudan Project battle a couple of weeks ago. It is not easy painting 28mm figures after painting the larger 54mm plastic toy soldier figures nonstop since March 2020. I am forcing myself to work on some Prussian infantry and power my way through the painting wall. I figure that the more 28mm figures I paint, the sooner the painting mojo will return.

So here is what is in the painting queue at the moment. These are units that are either primed or partially painted:

1. IR1 Winterfeld Prussian musketeers (42 figures)
2. H7 Yellow Hussars (12 figures)
3. Saratoga British regiment (36 figures)
4. Bosniaken lancers (12 figures)

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Prussian Hussars Pictures

Prussian Hussars in Busby Hats.

I thought it would be nice to post pictures of some outstanding brush work by two professional painters. Customers sent me these pictures, so unfortunately they are not in my collection. The Green Hussars, in busbies, were painted in Germany. The Black Hussars were painted in The U.K. 

Another view of the Prussian Hussar Regiment H1

Prussian Black Hussars (H5) von Reusch wearing mirliton hats.

The von Reusch Hussars are probably my favorite SYW hussar regiment. Their unique black uniforms, the iconic mirliton with the skull and cross bones, and their performance in battle, on both the Russian front and in western Germany.

Russian artillerists on the receiving end of a violent charge by the von Reusch Hussars
at the battle of Gross Jagersdorf in 1757

Whilst the pictures show the Hussars in dynamic charging poses, the Minden figure range recently added Prussian Hussars in a more casual shouldered sword pose. Both busby and mirliton hats are available.

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