Der Alte Fritz's Birthday

The parade of the regimental flags on DAF's birthday.

Fife & Drum Continentals painted as the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, circa 1776.

Today is my birthday, the 60th year on this good Earth. My mother always says that December 18th seems the coldest day of the Winter, but fortunately, we seem to be in another period of abnormal warmth here in Hesse Seewald, what with temperatures in the mid 40s Fahrenheit. We enjoy it while it lasts and hope for a Green Christmas once again.

Der Alte Fritz (center in blue shirt) supervising the Battle of Kolin in South Bend, Indiana back in the 1990s.

I celebrated turning 60 by going to the pharmacy and getting my shingles shot. They won't give you the shot until you are at least 60. So when the pharmacist asked me, "are you 60 or older?" I said, with much emphasis and a great big grin, "oh YES I AM!" If you had chickenpox earlier in your life, then you have the shingles virus in you where it lies dormant for many years. If you are unfortunate enough to get shingles, then you know that it can be very painful. So I eagerly looked forward to finally getting the vaccination.

On to more interesting things though. I have been working on a painting commission of late, some old Ral Partha pirates and Three Musketeers figures for one of my clients. He wants to give the figures to his son for Christmas, so the pressure was on to complete the order. Fortunately, there were only 13 figures so I was able to finish the commission over the course of this past weekend. Since each figure was different, painting the collection was kind of fun.

Now that the commission is done, I am free to paint some figures for myself. Undoubtedly I will want to work on a regiment of Fife & Drum Continentals in Hunting Shirts as these are new figures recently added to the range and I am eager to see what a full battalion of 24 to 30 figures looks like. I also have a regiment of British centre company infantry for the AWI on the painting table (Fife & Drum figures of course) and some of the new Kings Mountain AWI Highlanders awaiting in the painting queue. Bill Nevins has commissioned this range of figures, Perry compatible, but small enough to fit right in with the Fife & Drum British, so I plan to paint the 42nd Black Watch Regiment and add them to my British army. It may be awhile before Fife & Drum can get around to adding Highlanders, so I am glad that these figures are available.

Over the Christmas holiday week (post Christmas through New Years) I plan to host a SYW game at my house with Bill Protz and some of our regular group of gamers. We are going to stage Charles Grant's Lobositz scenario on my 15 x 6ft table (with two parallel 2.5ft wide side tables for added depth). So I will have to take down all of the AWI terrain (for the Pitzer's Ridge game shown in Battlegames magazine) and set up the Lobositz terrain, including my custom-built Lobosch Hill (or at least a highly stylized version of the hill). The Prussians have not been doing very well during our 2012 campaign season, so here is hoping that Frederick can close out the year with a solid win over the Austrians on December 27th. There will be pictures of the victory. I promise.

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!