SYW Swiss Wittmer Regiment Battalion 1

No new units for the 18mm SYW project have crossed the painting desk since April so time to nudge that project forward.  The unit chosen is a Swiss regiment that saw service under French command at the Battle of Rossbach.  While the two main protagonists in this project remain Austrian and Prussia, I do occasionally field an ally to one of those two primary adversaries.

One, two battalion Swiss regiment has already entered service as Regiment Diesbach whom stood solidly at Rossbach.  Since Diesbach was already mustered, a logical choice was to field its sister regiment in the brigade, Wittmer.

As all musketeer battalions in this project, field strength is about 600 men which works out to roughly a man-to-figure ratio of 25:1.  The 23 Figures are all Blue Moon French (painted as Swiss) from the FIW range.

While working on Wittmer Battalion #1, I needed to check the detail of webbing.  Pulling Diesbach from the box, I immediately noticed that the two battalions had yet to receive their colors.  The flags had been created some time ago so it was a simple step to add colors to these two battalions.  Below is Regiment Diesbach carrying its newly distributed colors.

No flag yet for Wittmer.  Those colors will be created once the second battalion is fielded and there are enough other flags to justify printing out one flag sheet.  Placing the newly raised battalion into the holding box reminded me that I really ought to pull the collection from boxes and make a group photo shoot.  As the project has grown, I have yet to deploy them all on the gaming table.  Even for 18s, the weight of lead may cause the table to groan a bit.   

Wargames Foundry Order Arrives!

Having recently convinced myself of the relative value of Wargames Foundry figures (see: Wargames Foundry Bargains), I plunged in with an order to take advantage of the offer.  Checking my records, it had been about 15 years from my last Foundry order.  Yes!  My last Foundry order really was in the last millennium.

For this order, I chose a selection of figures from the Caananite, Syrian, and Mitanni range.  Also included were a handful of Renaissance packs for Jake.  With the order placed on 15 OCT, I waited.  I did not have long to wait, however.  When I returned after a vigorous workout on the bike yesterday afternoon, in the mailbox were two packages from Wargames Foundry.  That is a two week turn-around from order placement to receipt.  Well done!  

Packages arrived with monogrammed reinforcing straps

After unpacking, the loot was spread out on a side desk.  Notice that a sizable bunch of NorthStar spears was also included.  A welcome addition and represents even better value.

The Loot

With quick turn-around and prompt responses to queries , Wargames Foundry again has me considering their vast line of figures.  The only disappointment is that the give-away cuirassier figure was not included in either package.

No Bonus Cuirassier

Update: Contacted Wargames Foundry and they will either ship cuirassier separately or add it in to my next order.

Loki's Blog Milestone Give Away

Fresh off crossing the 200 follower threshold, Andrew is offering a tempting give away to celebrate this accomplishment.

The offer?  A limited edition Scottish Warlord painted by Andrew, himself.  

Since Andrew was a recent victor in my contest, it seems only fitting that he reciprocate.  Great looking figure and, if I am the lucky winner, I have someone in mind who would thoroughly enjoy this figure.

Stop by Loki's Great Hall Blog and enter the contest!

Punic Wars - Spanish Cavalry

Although two data points does not a trend make, I feel a bit of a calling from the 28mm Punic Wars project having produced three stands this week.  I pushed out the heavy veteran infantry stand a couple of days ago and now release two stands of Spanish heavy cavalry.  The Spanish heavies are Renegade Miniatures and were picked up in Renegade's 5-4-4 deal back in May (as were the veteran foot).  Renegade's cavalry are big and stand over most other 28mm manufacturers cavalry but I like them and they do look menacing on the table.  Hopefully, Renegade will offer another sale to give me another chance to pick up a few more.

Currently on the workbench are two stands of Numidian skirmishers of four figures each.  Besides, skirmishers, what the project really needs is to fill the ranks of the Carthaginians with several Scutarii stands.  I need to prep and get into the painting queue enough Spanish for at least two such units.  Oh, I could use more cavalry too!  

Back to Carthage in 28mm

Throwing more variety into the painting mix, today a unit for the Punic War project departs from the painting desk.  Based in the Impetvs tradition with 120mm frontage, these 13 figures comprise a heavy Libyan foot unit.  Twelve of the infantry are Renegade Libyan Veterans led by one Aventine commander. 

The bronze on black shield color scheme caught my eye on another's blog.  I was planning to credit the source blog for my inspiration but unfortunately I cannot recall it.  Regardless, the color combination, to my eye, is striking and provides a simple elegance.  I thank whomever it was for the inspiration.

I have several more Carthaginian stand-equivalents on the painting desk.  Next off the production line will be two stands of Spanish heavy cavalry.

28mm Reconquista Camelry

When I saw the Arab camelry on the Black Tree Design website, my first thought was that those camel cavalry would make an interesting unit.  My second thought was whether or not camels made it into service on the Iberian Peninsula during the Reconquista.  Looking at the Army lists in Impetvs, most of the Muslim listings include camel troops. Therefore, camel cavalry must have been present, right?    Great news for me since they look so dang cool!  As a reward for fielding camelry, camels negate the Impetvs Bonus against other cavalry.  That will be useful against the hordes of Christian mounted heavy cavalry that the Moors are apt to face. 

While the riders are the same models as other cavalry troopers and serviceable, the camel models are really exquisite.  Nice detailing that surfaces with an application of the dip.

Mounted Samurai in 15mm

With my return from a work week at the home office, a six hundred mile commute, and weekend chores behind me, focus returns to the figures scattered about the painting desk.

First off the desk after the week long hiatus, is an eight figure stand of mounted samurai warriors. figures are Peter Pig.   Like other units in the Samurai Battles project, these are mounted on a double hex base for use with either my two inch hex mat or Jake's four inch hex mat.

While my Samurai Battles project is being fielded specifically for Commands & Colors, Extra Impetvs 5 contains Army lists for the Mongol Empire and the Far East including listings for the Early, Middle, and Later Samurai.  Since my Samurai project is geared towards the later period, a study of the lists is in order.  With what I have completed thus far, I can probably field two Basic Impetvs (BI) sized armies for a quick trial game.  A small BI game might make an entertaining and quick diversion.

Contest Results

Thanks to all that participated in the contest and welcome to the new group of followers. 

I have an increasing tendency to buy duplicate copies of the same book so you may see an occasional book give away.  This round of books are all in like new and unread condition. No dog-eared corners here!  The drawing is complete and the results are:

• 1805: Austerlitz - Ian
• Battlegrounds - Fireymonkeyboy
• Eagles Over the Alps - Gonsalvo
• Edgehill - Kevaatthecabin
• Naseby - Andrew Saunders
• No Better Place to Die - Monty

Congratulations to the winners!  Please send your shipping address to jfreitag3803 (at) gmail (dot) com.

Fran, can you send me an email as well?  I may have something of interest to you.

Blog Give Away Update

Being out of town all week for work has caused my painting to go to ground.  I'll return to the painting desk this weekend where I left several units in various stages of completion.

Going to ground

What did I leave unfinished on the painting desk?  Let's see, mounted samurai in 15mm, 28mm Carthaginian veteran infantry, and 28mm Muslim camelry.  

In the meantime, the blog contest draws to a close.  Participants have until Saturday 0600 PDT to get their name into the draw and make preferences noted.  With sample selection probability being weighted by commenting, following, pimping, and book ranking, your chance of winning can be increased greatly by declaring your top three books.  With the sampling selection code written, interim sampling trials show explicit book selection makes a big difference.

If contestants wish to make (or revise) book declarations, please do so before Saturday morning.

Thanks to all that have participated thus far.  While I have not checked out all of the new followers' blogs, many of these blogs are really outstanding.  Many of these blogs are new to me and I might never have stumbled upon them without your participation in the contest.

I thank you and good luck in the book drawing.

Wargames Foundry Bargains?

Yes!

I once bought many Wargames Foundry figures but have not done so in a number of years.  Why? Interests change and Wargames Foundry figures became too expensive for my tastes given the appearance of acceptable substitutes.

However, after receiving a recent advertisement from Foundry, I undertook an exercise in financial computation.

The advert announced a 20% discount for newsletter subscribers and a cool free figure.

That is a nifty dismounted cuirassier for either the ECW or TYW.  It might make the beginnings of an interesting command stand to be fielded in my ECW collection.

Back to the advert, Foundry states,

*********************************************************************
SPECIAL 4 DAY DISCOUNT FOR NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS!
This will be the first time we've tried having one of these! This 20% discount is only available to people who are subscribed to our newsletter. The 20% is taken off your cart before postage is added, and all other offers and discounts STILL APPLY.  This discount expires midnight on Tuesday 15th October GMT
*********************************************************************

That results in a 20% discount on top of the existing Army Discounts.  What does that mean?  Well, after a few calculations, I found buying 16 packs to get the 6 free packs plus the 20% discount reduced the price per figure from about USD2.25 to about USD1.33.  That's about a 41% discount and FREE SHIPPING!  How can I pass up such a bargain?   

With the 28mm Reconquista project having reached critical mass and first games under my belt, perhaps, beginning a new Impetvs project might be considered?  I have been interested in extending my ancient armies back in time to the Biblical period where chariots acted as shock troops.  Peter's recent parade of his ancient Egyptians, (see: Blunders on the Danube especially Egyptian Armies), got me daydreaming about fielding my own Biblical era force.

Foundry offers many interesting Biblical era ranges:

• Assyrian - great variety but what happened to the chariots???
• Canaan, Syrian & Mitanni 
• Egyptian
• Hittite
• Sea People
• Trojans, Myceneans & Minoans

What should I choose?

One Year Blog Anniversary and Give Away

While I have maintained a wargaming log of my activities for several years, I finally took the plunge and migrated over to a blogging format in September 2012.  I found the old website format cumbersome to update and change.  Blogger is easy to update.  The result of that ease has been more frequent postings.  As proof of that ease, I managed about 140 posts in the last year.

Over the last year, at least two new projects went from notions to game.  Along the way, a few battle reports and other painting projects were highlighted.

To mark this occasion, I offer a drawing for a handful of prizes as a small token of thanks to those whom occasionally stop by to view and comment.

The prizes: All books are in near mint condition

Eagles Over the Alps - Duffy. Hardcover
-- Excellent study of the 1799 Campaign in Italy and Switzerland

No Better Place to Die - Cozzens. Paper.

-- Outstanding treatment of the Battle of Stones River during the ACW 

Edgehill, 1642 - Young. Paper.

-- Classic account of the Battle of Edgehill during the ECW

1805 Austerlitz- Goetz. Hardback

-- My favorite account of the Battle of Austerlitz

Geography and the History of Warfare: Battlegrounds - National Geographic Society

-- Study of the terrain impacts upon battles

Naseby: English Civil War June 1645. Paper.

-- Neat little battlefield guide and history

The Rules: 

Each of the following accrues entries into the drawing:

• Comment on this post - one entry
• Follow this blog publicly - two entries
• If you have a blog, post a blog entry referencing this Give Away post including link to your blog posting - two entries

In your post comment above, rank your top three items of interest.  Ranked entries will be weighted more heavily in the drawing.  Otherwise, equal weighting.

Winners selected Oct 19 and notified via either email or a follow-up blog entry here.

Not interested in any of the books?  Well, if you win, perhaps, something can be found in my lead pile.

Good luck!

UK Figures Without Shipping Charge!

Ordering figures from U.K. manufacturers can be expensive for those of us in the U.S.A. or "Rest of the World."  Some charge as much as 40% shipping but rates have come down to an average of about 25-30% per order value.  Not outrageous but still a fair amount of overhead to swallow when purchasing from the U.K.  I should note that many U.S. manufacturers and distributors charge around 15% for shipping within the CONUS.

By examining the overseas package when it arrives, the 25-30% shipping charged is usually quite close to the actual shipping expense incurred.  No overcharging for postage from the vendors with whom I trade.

Probably not new to many but I recently discovered a means to bypass these shipping charges on select U.K. figures.  

How?  Order your figures from Caliver Books! 

On select ranges, Caliver ships for free.  Yes, free!  As a test, I placed a small order for Artizan, Crusader, and NorthStar figures and accessories.  Indeed, the order was post free! The order arrived within one week too.  As a bonus, Caliver's prices are up to 12.5% less than the Artizan web price for their figures. 

Nice!

Now, gone are the heady days when Crusader figures could be had at 40% discount through Old Glory but every little bit helps, right?

Ashigaru Spearmen - Samurai Battles

The second stand of Ashigaru spearmen made it off the painting desk.  Like its predecessor, these Peter Pig figures sport red lacquered armor.

  

With Jake in Spokane for a day of Impetvs gaming on Sunday, talk, more than once,  turned towards Samurai Battles games. We both enjoy Command & Colors and the added depth of Samurai Battles makes for often tense and wild swinging games.  Great fun that we agreed must be scheduled soon.

Also, we discussed using our Samurai Battles figures for Impetvs.  Since our Samurai Battles' collections use single element basing,  porting to Impetvs should be straightforward with no difficulty.  Army lists are available both for Basic Impetvs (BI) and Impetvs.  With BI list only having eight elements, I could field both sides for a few test games.  I should give that a try.

On the painting desk are the following works in progress:

• 8 15mm Peter Pig mounted Samurai that are nearly finished
• 13 28mm Renegade Carthaginian veteran heavy infantry
• 4 28mm Black Tree Design Arab camel cavalry

28mm Reconquista Muslim Group Photos

When churning out individual units on a regular basis, it can be easy to lose sight of the forest for the trees.  With the first Impetvs game later this morning, I pulled all of the stands from their boxes and set them out on the gaming table.

The group photos illustrate what has been accomplished on this project since mid-July. With skirmishers out front, light cavalry on the wings, and heavier cavalry in reserve, the lines of troops are about four linear feet in length and several stands in depth.

    

28mm Reconquista - BTD Archers

One final Andalusian archer unit makes it off the painting desk before the inaugural Basic Impetvs (BI) game today.  Even though I switched focus on painting to non-Reconquista figures, I did slip in one last unit of "T" archers in case we decide to try armies having large units with supporting archers.  We may not get that option in BI but we may decide to move up to Imptevs quickly.   

Jake is driving up from Moscow with his collection of Spanish Christians to do battle against my collection of Muslims.  Since this is our first game, mistakes are likely to occur.  Therefore, game play will tend towards the "how does this work" rather than attempting to crush your opponent.  Jake is concerned with the lack of evasion for skirmishers in BI so we may add that option.

Game table has been cleared, labels made, and game aids laid out.  I think I'm ready to rumble.

16th British Light Dragoons

To convince myself that the 28mm Peninsular War project had not been completely abandoned in 2013 and to maintain some semblance of sticking to commitments (Project Plans 2013), I pulled out eight British light dragoons from the lead pile.  These troopers are Front Rank and will be fielded as two squadrons of the 16th Light Dragoons.

One curiosity of British light dragoons is the color of the turban wrapping the helmet.  Some sources suggest the facing color.  Other sources suggest black.  Still others, show blue.  Not knowing which was correct, I gave the 16th a blue turban to remain consistent with the 14th that I have already fielded.  Turban in the facing color is probably a more interesting choice.  If I find blue is unhistorical then it would not take much work to repaint the turban.  Oh, the standard will be added later.

Lesson:  Research first then paint.  Don't rely on memory. 

Ashigaru Spearmen for Samurai Battles

Continuing the recent, non-Reconquista theme is one stand of 21 Ashigaru spear men for Samurai Battles.  These spear men are attired in the livery of the Red Devils.  This unit represents the start of a third brigade.  My plan is to field this brigade composed of two Ashigaru spear, one Ashigaru bow, and one Ashigaru teppo all suited in the red lacquered armor.  Rounding out the brigade will be one stand of Samurai foot and one stand of Samurai horse.  Figures are from Peter Pig.

Switching projects again, next off the painting desk will be 28mm Napoleonics.  This time, British cavalry will get a little attention in the form of eight light dragoons.

15mm Risorgimento 1859 - Sardinian Line

These 48 figures were primed and in the painting queue before the Reconquista bug struck.  Given a two month wait, I finally pulled these figures from the lead pile and began my task.  Now, I have mentioned before that a 48 figure painting batch is not my favorite task to tackle.  I much prefer smaller painting activities such as 12 or 24 figures at a time.  Never the less, I had 48 figures primed; enough to field one, four battalion Sardinian regiment.  The decision was made to paint all 48 in one go.

I enjoy seeing the end result of such a large group finished as a singular task but getting through that many figures can sometimes be quite tedious.  Without all of the accoutrements present in either Napoleonics or SYW uniforms, the plain uniforms of the Sardinian infantry aided a quick completion.

Fielding this batch of figures was not without incident, however.  After finishing the painting and dullcoating, the figures were grouped in 12 figure battalions for basing.  Unfortunately, I was one figure short.  Did I miscount or did one figure go AWOL during its lounging in the primed box?  Maybe it will turn up someday?  One additional infantryman had to be primed and painted before I could continue.  Luckily, it only took a few minutes to complete that single figure.  Has this ever happened to anyone else?  I bet I am not alone.