Kindness

Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe wrote this little piece of prose about Kindness and I liked it so much that I thought that I would post it on my blog. Given the tragic news from Connecticut yesterday, a little more focus on Kindness seems to be what we need more of right now.

Kindness

by Lelia Jane Purky

Kindness is the act of helping, not being mean, not bullying.

Kindness is a gift that comes when you feel ready for it, to open your heart, to open your soul, your mind and your spirit.

Kindness is what you need for life, and what can you do without it?

Kindness is keeping peace, kindness is helping those who need it, and being nice to anyone you meet, even those who are mean to you.

It's December, almost Christmas, the season of perpetual hope, giving, love and change. And it's not about getting, it's about giving.

Will you make the change?

AWI Amusette - Painted Pix

British Amusette with crew (AE-6)

And now for something completely different...

the Fife & Drum British amusette set which consists of two Royal Artillery crew and one wooden wheeled mantle. The weapon is a 1-pound wall gun with a large ball that was capable of penetrating a barn or house.

British Amusette

Photo showing the "parts" that comprise the set.

While these were part of the Royal Artillery, there are records of Hessian Jagers using these wall guns in their "small wars" against the Continentals. If you are building a British AWI army, then you have to have one of these amusettes if for no other reason than to amuse your opponent in the wargame.

Painted Continentals in Hunting Shirts Samples

New Continentals in hunting shirt - firing line poses. Click pix to enlarge.

Here are some pictures of the new Fife & Drum Continentals in hunting shirt that I have been working on over the weekend. I still have the standard bearer and drummer to do for the Continentals, plus the British amusette and crew to paint.

The picture above gives you a good idea of how the firing line will look when all of the figures are put together. I find that the mounted offier and the foot officer (both looking off into the horizon) make for a nice command stand vignette.

The marching figures, shown below, can be mixed in with a regiment of Continentals wearing uniform coats for greater variety, or they look nifty in a discrete regiment of all hunting shirts.

Mounted command and foot officer plus three marching poses.

Two firing variants and one "knock em dead" casualty.

I really like the animation that Richard Ansell put into the casualty figure. And if you look at the picture below, zero in on the fellow in the blue hunting shirt and look at his shin on the left side, his sock is falling down. That's a nice little touch.

The second rank of the firing line, plus on front rank.

37th Foot at the Battle of Minden in 1759

The 18th Century is back on my mind as we move away from the Napoleonic wars for awhile and get back to more SYW gaming in our group. Our next battle will likely be the battle of Lobositz, fought between the Austrians and Prussians in 1756. The game will be fought over the Christmas holiday. So soon I shall be clearing off the wargame table of AWI terrain and troops and start the "terra-forming" of the Lobositz terrain and the setting out of the Austrian and Prussian troops (hint, hint, pictures to come over the next couple of weeks).

Obviously the picture of the 37th Foot repulsing what look to be the French Carabiniers, and doing it in fine style I might add, has nothing to do with Lobositz, it does fit in nicely with my posting of the words to the song "Over the Hills and Far Away". This has been a popular song for the British soldier of all ages and eras and it would appear to have its origins in the Marlbourian wars, given its references to Queen Anne and Marlbourough himself.

It has always been one of my favorite songs, so here are the words. Sing it the next time you encounter the French -- it is guaranteed to drive them crazy.

Over the Hills and Far Away

Hark! Now the drums beat up again,
For all true soldier gentlemen,
Then let us 'list and march I say,
Over the hills and far away.

Chorus 

Over the hills and o'er the main.
To Flanders, Portugal, and Spain,
Queen Anne commands and we'll obey.
Over the hills and far away.

All gentlemen that have a mind,
To serve the Queen that's good and kind,
Come 'list and enter into pay,
Then over the hills and far away.

Chorus

Here's forty shillings on the drum,
For those that volunteers do come,
With shirts, and clothes, and present pay,
Then o'er the hills and far away.

Chorus

No more from sound of drums retreat,
While Marlborough and Galway beat,
The French and Spaniards every day,
When o'er the hills and far away.

Chorus

The 'prentice Tom he may refuse,
To wipe his angry master's shoes,
For then he's free to sing and play,
Over the hills and far away.

Chorus

Come on then boys, and you shall see,
We every one shall captains be!
To whore and rant as well as they,
When over the hills and far away.

Chorus

We then shall lead more happy lives,
By getting rid of brats and wives,
That scold on both the night and day,
When over the hills and far away.

Chorus

Boney Was A Warrior

The next time you are playing the British side in a Napoleonic battle, here is a little ditty that your troops can sing before those French start "coming on in the same old way".

Napoleon Guide

Boney was a Warrior

Boney was a warrior
Away, a-yah!
A warrior and a terrier
Jean Francois!

Boney fought the Russians
Away, a-yah!
The Russians and the Prussians.
Jean Francois!

Moscow was a-blazing
Away, a-yah!
And Boney was a-raging.
Jean Francois!

Boney went to Elba
Away, a-yah!
Boney he came back again.
Jean Francois!

Boney went to Waterloo
Away, a-yah!
There he got his overthrow.
Jean Francois!

Then they took him off again
Away, a-yah!
Aboard the Billy Ruffian.
Jean Francois!

He went to Saint Helena,
Away, a-yah!
There he was a prisoner,
Jean Francois!

Boney broke his heart and died
Away, a-yah!
Away in Saint Helena
Jean Francois!

Leuthen Day Anniversary

Wargaming the Battle of Leuthen - March 2010 at the SYWA Convention.

Attack of the Prussian Guard Regiment on Leuthen Church - by Karl Rochling.

Good grief! I almost missed the anniversary of the battle of Leuthen on December 5, 1757. You know the know the battle, the one where Frederick the Great became great by defeating an Austrian army that was at least twice as large as his Prussian army. Combined with his victory over the French and Reichs Armee at Rossbach on November 7, 1757, Frederick wrested the initiative back from his foes and secured his possession of Silesia for at least another campaign season in the year ahead.

Here are a couple links that provide a summaries of the battle and the campaign.

Battle of Leuthen Summary

Leuthen

I have wargamed Leuthen maybe half a dozen times over large 24 feet long tables plus back tables to provide the necessary depth for the forces. It is a long hard slog for the Prussians and they usually get bogged down in the attack on the Austrian clump of troops huddling inside of the town of Leuthen. To game the battle properly, you really need a full 6 to 8 hours of wargaming to reach a conclusion, from my experience.

In fact, I've been so smitten by the battle of Leuthen that I actually had winter terrain built for the battle (by Herb Gundt) and commissioned The Terrain Guy to make special purpose-built winter terrain mats for the game. I have drawn the line though at basing the figures for Winter warfare, i.e. with snowy white bases. I suppose that if someone made 30mm figures of Prussians and Austrians in winter dress, with their lapels buttoned closed, then I would have to strongly consider building duplicate Winter and Summer Austrian and Prussian armies. Hmm, maybe I could talk Frank Hammond into adding winter gear SYW figures to his Minden Miniatures range. LOL!

Big SYW Game Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning I must get up bright and early and drive north to Brown Deer, Wisconsin, where our group will assemble at Chez Protz for the annual  Winter Warfare game. Usually we play a grand skirmish game with nothing but light infantry, but this year we will play a set piece Russians vs. Prussians bash in Silesia. Since it is unseasonably warm in the Midwest US right now, we are forgoing the winter terrain and playing on the regular light green game mat.

"Russians! Oooh, I really hate those guys," as Indiana Jones might say.

I really do not enjoy our encounters with the Russians in our SYW games. They tend to be slug fests with lots of artillery and minimal cavalry. Thus there is not a lot of back and forth, to and fro in these games. And their artillery! They have a lot of heavy ordnance. I like fighting the French and the Austrians, but something about the Russians leaves me cold (no pun intended).

We have 11 or 12 gamers descending on Brown Deer on Saturday, one coming as far away as Minneapolis, Minnesota, so the social part of the gathering will be lots of fun. Three of the Russian players have collectively assembled 21 battalions of green coats -- yikes! I had not realized that we had so many Russians. My own Prussian team can only amass 12 to 15 battalions and fortunately we are not going to put every single figure on the table, so the Russians will have to cull down their forces a little bit to maybe something more managable like, say, a dozen battalions.

I stopped in at the local gourmet bakery and picked up three boxes of delicious cookies to help feed the mob tomorrow. A little bit of sugar always helps, although I am back on the wagon again, cutting out sweets from my diet. I had been off sugar from early September up through Halloween. The Trick or Treat candy did me in, I'm sorry to report. Thanksgiving and pumpkin pie did not help my no-sugar cause either, but with tomorrow being a new month, I'm giving it up again.

I will post a bunch of pictures tomorrow evening after the game. I have no doubt that it will be fun, despite my whining about the gobs of green coated warriors.