Merry Christmas From Hesse Seewald

I want to wish all of my blog followers a Merry Christmas full of family, wonderful presents and a joyous day of celebration. I have posted a picture of our Christmas tree prior to the ransacking of the presents. :)

There is not much to report on the wargaming front, other than to report that we had to cancel our game on December 14th due to the snow storm that hit the Midwest. The silver lining in that cloud though was that the prospect of a game had me painting more Minden Austrians and Prussians for the game. In other words, I made a nice dent in the To Do list.

In a few more days I will start pondering on my plans for the new year and look back on the events of 2013, but for now, I will enjoy some holiday family time.

A Recent ACW Game

The Players: Earl ( back to the camera), and moving clockwise  -- Randy, Keith and Bill ( on the right).

Last month four of our regular group assembled at Earl K's house for an enjoyable day of gaming the American Civil War.  The game featured armies of 20mm Airfix plastic figures on some beautifully rendered terrain in Earl's basement Wargame room. You can see from the pictures what a cozy and delightful Man Cave Earl has put together with the game table surrounded by scores of books on military history. It is really designed to get you in the mood to game.

Earl umpired the game and paired us off into two two-man teams. Bill P. and I drew the Confederate forces out of a hat, while Randy F. and Keith L. drew the Union forces. Each of us commanded a division of two brigades, with each brigade having approximately 4 regiments and a battery of artillery. This seemed to be just the right amount of figures for everyone to handle without getting overwhelmed by having too many figures to maneuver. 

I apologize for not remembering the name of the rules; they are a set developed by one of Earl's friends. I should have taken some notes or posted the report last month when things were still fresh in my brain. I know that Earl is one of my regular viewers so perhaps he will post a comment or two about the game on this page's comments section to provide some of the missing details.

Suffice it to say that the four old codgers shown in the pictures were able to grasp the game mechanics fairly quickly: that is the hallmark of a good set of rules. Earl had the game terrain set up head of time, covering about half of his table. The other half contained some extra regiments that were set up in various formations or tactical position and Earl used these to explain the rules and mechanics prior to the start of the game. It helped to have this visual aid to help u understand the rules.

The scenario did not particularly matter as we were there for the bonhomie and compatibility more than anything else. The scenario was sort of a mini Stones River, what with each side attacking the other side' left flank. None of really knew what we were doing so we just started moving plastic forward as fast as we could. 

A creek bisected the battlefield and I think that thenConfederate objective was to control the road leading off of the Union back table edge ( or roughly where you see Keith L. sitting in the picture). You can see Bill P. sitting at the Confederate starting position on the right hand side of the table. By luck of the draw, I had the Confederate division that were the toughest veterans on the table, which allowed me to move faster than the other troops. So our plan was for me to pitch into the Union brigade opposite me and Bill would cover my left flank from the second Union brigade.

Things seemed to be working to plan and soon Randy and I were engaged in a death grip firefight on my side of the creek. It actually appeared that Randy was gaining the upper hand when one of his regiments fell into a state of disorder. At about the same time, Bill moved one of his brigades up to my left, while his second brigade held the other Union division at bay to his left. This move gave us  considerable firepower advantage all of a sudden and as a result, the tide began to turn in the Confederate's favor.

Eventually we were able to rout off Randy's whole division, but our forces were too depleted to try to carry on across the creek. A standstill was the result.

All in all, it was a good day of gaming, eating and socializing. I don't get many chances to play in somebody else's game, so it was a nice change of pace to be a player participant. I want to thank Earl for being a wonderful host and for providing us with such a fun game.

Troiani's Battle of Trenton

This is a wonderful picture from the talented artist, Don Troiani, depicting the death of Colonel von Rall at the Battle of Trenton on Christmas of 1776.

This picture really has me thinking about our future releases of AWI Hessians in 2014.

1st Continental Light Dragoons from Fife & Drum

1st Continental Light Dragoons: loading (L) and Firing (R). Click all pictures to enlarge the view.

Here are some pictures of the eight poses that Richard Ansell created for the Fife & Drum range of AWI figures. As with the British dragoons in the range, this set is primarily in skirmish or vedette poses, although you can create a formal looking regiment of troopers all with shouldered swords, along with the appropriate command figures. The Continental dragoons are at Griffin Moulds right now and I expect that we will have them in production in January 2014.

Continentals firing pistol (L) and resting carbine (R)

Continetal Command: trumpeter (L) and officer (R)

Continental standard bearer (L) and trooper with rested sword (R)

I could envision two squadrons of the 1st Continental Light Dragoons on the table top. The first squadron would be posted out front in open skirmish order and might include a mix of the Officer pointing, the carbine at rest, a pair of firing carbine and loading carbine, and shooting pistol and carbine at rest. Then you would have the second squadron deployed further back, with the officer, standard bearer and the trumpeter, plus 9 of the troopers with shouldered swords, ready to support the skirmish line.

The next batch of AWI cavalry will include the British Legion cavalry (8 poses) and the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons. These two sets of figures will be in a more energetic series of charging and hacking poses. This way, one regiment can be used for skirmishing and the second regiment could be used for charging and melee.

16th Light Dragoon - Fife & Drum AWI Figures

16th Light Dragoons

16th Light Dragoon: rested carbine (left); firing pistol (right). Click all pix to enlarge the view

I finally had a chance to download all of the pictures that Richard Ansell sent to me that depict the eight different poses that he has sculpted for the 16th Light Dragoons. I will post views of the figures from the left and from the right side of the figures. In a couple of instances, a front view of the figures will also be shown.

The general idea is that the first pair of American and British AWI cavalry regiments will feature skirmishing and scouting poses, as well as some "shouldered sword" poses to create either a skirmish line or a squadron deployed in line and ready to advance.

An active looking squadron or regiment can be created using the four "skirmishing" poses of the 16th Light Dragoons: loading carbine, firing carbine, firing pistol,  resting carbine on thigh and then adding the officer and musician to complete the set.

16th LD loading his carbine (L) and firing his carbine (R)

Left hand side view of the loading and firing figures.

The more formal look of the cavalry regiment in line and ready for action can be achieved by using the two 16th LD troopers with shouldered swords: one is wearing the traditional uniform coat while the other is wearing a hunting shirt out on the campaign. You can pair these figures up with the two command figures (musician and officer pointing) to create a squadron or regiment in line, possibly serving in a second line behind the cavalry picket line.

16th LD shouldered sword: uniform coat (L) and hunting shirt (R)

Right hand side view of the shouldered sword set of 16th LD.

16th LD command figures: trumpeter (L) and Officer (R)

Reverse view of the command figures.

The greens are on their way to Griffin Moulds, where Stewart will have the master and production moulds made, and after that, they can start spining metal and getting them into production. I anticipate that the 16th LD and the 1st Continental Light Dragoons will be ready to sell in January 2014.

NEXT: 1st Continental Light Dragoons.

A Cold Winter's Night & A Warm Fire

Der Alte Fritz's Fireside Perch

It is 5F degrees outside this evening here in Wintry Hesse Seewald. Mrs Fritz is in her kerchief and I'm in my cap and we have settled down in front of a warm fire to watch the Chicago Bears defeat the Dallas Cowboys. This is the best place to be on a cold evening like this.

You can see my favorite chair right next to the fireplace. This is where I spend some of my evenings plotting the next Prussian invasion of Saxony or Bohemia or planning future additions to the Minden or Fife & Drum figure ranges.

That leads me to comment on the upcoming SYW game next Saturday at Chez Protz. The game will feature all of my painted Minden and RSM figures in one game, so it should be quite a thing to behold. I have been painting Mindens almost non-stop since Labor Day back in September  in anticipation of this game. I had hoped to add 8 more Bayreuth Dragoons and 2 more Black Hussars, but even I have 

Painting limits and the reality was that I couldn't add these last few figures without spending a ridiculous amount of time on them and getting all stresses out. So I bowed to reality and said "this is enough".

The rest of the week now looks a lot more relaxed.

Bloody Ban Tarleton Is Painted

The Banastre Tarleton Personality Figure from Fife & Drum Miniatures (click all pix to enlarge)

I was able to paint and base the new Banastre Tarleton figure that we have added to the Fife & Drum range of AWI miniatures. The figure shown in these pictures is seated on one of the six new medium sized horses that we added specifically for the AWI range, with the assumption that the heavy cavalry horses of the Minden range would be more suitable for the heavy cuirassiers and dragoons of the SYW era. Over here in America, the horses tended to be a lot smaller because the armies did not use their dragoons for heavy shock action tactics.

Front view of Tarleton

I think that Tarleton cuts a dashing figure and Richard Ansell did a wonderful job of conveying the spirit and elan of the cavalryman. He was really a lot of fun to paint and rather an easy job at that too, because the figure is not loaded down with a lot of equipment. The new (one of six new horses) is another walking pose - very life-like and natural in appearance.

When I look at this figure, my mind wanders into the future when we add the British Legion cavalry and I can just imagine Bloody Ban leading a frenzied charge against a line of shaky American militia. I imagine that the full regiment will look rather spectacular.

Left rear view of Tarleton

Banastre Tarleton - Fife & Drum Personality Figure. (click to enlarge)

And finally, here is a Work In Progress picture of the Knyhausen personality figure that I am working on. He has a ways to go before I can finish him off and base him, but I thought that you might enjoy the preview nevertheless.

Baron von Knyphausen, commander of the Hessian corps in North America. Work in Progress photo.