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Friday, March 18, 2022

More SYW French and Out on the Bike

Work at the painting desk continues on my SYW French "bender."  Inspired by both a number of interesting looking WAS scenarios on the Honours of War forum and David's flags, the painting queue shows no sign of easing up yet.  Following these two battalions, I expect to see another pair of French infantry regiments and French artillery hitting the painting desk next.  After those batteries muster out then time for some French cavalry, I think. 

Out from the painting desk today are two more French battalions.  This time we see Regiments Condè and Rohan Montbazon.  Each 23-figure battalion has 22 Old Glory infantrymen led by a Eureka mounted officer. 

Regiment Condè
Regiment Rohan Montbazon
This week sees a light schedule on the gaming front.  Only one F2F game planned for Saturday.  Back by popular demand, my 6mm ancients will see action again at the Battle of Caralis using Commands & Colors Ancients in a rematch. 

I did manage to replay the Combat of Moys, solo, this week.  The results ended up much like the first battle (see Combat of Moys) with the Austrian juggernaut stomping Winterfeldt's precariously placed Corps.  Taking a page from Norm's recent manifesto, I played the game for the joy of the game, itself.  No photos and no chronicling of the events.  I lined up the troops and set-to rolling dice and not taking names.  Well, I will relay that the Jackelsberg held out a little longer for me than in Game #1 but not much longer.  The Prussians, again, could not get reinforcements up to the redoubt before it was lost for good.  

With two playings of Moys in the books and results the same, I propose that the historical outcome of battle was the most likely.  Winterfeldt simply cannot counter the overwhelming superiority of the Austrian Army.  Could the Prussians see a tactical victory?  Yes, it is possible but Prussian losses were high (again!) in Game #2.  With that question answered, time to clear the table and move on to other battles.  I hear the distant call of more SYW battles.

What is coming up on the gaming table?  Well, there are rumblings of a return to playtesting Rein-bow Warrior on the plains of the Levant.  At least one more playtest is formulating in anticipation of seeing the game return to the Tuesday UK remote group in the near future.

Also on tap is an anniversary battle of Mollwitz.  Mollwitz has seen action on my table before so this will be familiar ground.  I expect a new cast of players, though.  Mollwitz is smaller and more open than Moys so the battle may lend itself more readily to group games.

On the cycling front, finally, weather on the Palouse has warmed enough to detach the bike from the indoor trainer and return for an outside ride.  It has been a long winter and it was very good to get outside in the cool air to once again dodge potholes and cars out on the open road.  There remains plenty of grit and debris on the roadways until the spring sweeping of the streets begins.  Spring is a hazardous time brought about by road conditions and the need for motor traffic to acclimatize to seeing cyclists back out on the road.

Below is a sampling of shots from a recent outing.  Hopefully, this is just the beginning of a fine cycling season.  Besides, I have some winter weight to shed.  A 31-mile roundtrip is a good start...



 Until next time.

55 comments:

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    1. Thank you, Phil! Your latest Biblical works are amazing.

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  2. Nice work on the latest French additions Jon. The refight of Moys had a similar result...? Outnumbered 3:1. it seems a likely outcome! The pics from your bike ride look like a very crisp, clear spring day - still a bit cool I would guess?

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    1. Thanks, Keith and welcome back!

      Yes, cycling outside is crisp and clear. Temperature was 9C to 10C in your scale. Still a little cool for me especially in the shade and with wind.

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  3. Great looking troops, Jon! :-) And the flags have come out very crisply...

    Interesting that the 2nd Battle of Moys had the same result; in the first one only about a quarter of the Austrians got into action and the rest were mostly spectators, curiously enough, and the flank march by Forgach (intended to use some of the mass of reserve troops in some constructive way) did not go far at all before the end of the action. The topography of the battlefield created such a bottleneck that it was inevitable that only a fraction of the Austrian force could be in action at any time.

    Cheers,

    David.

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    1. Thanks, David!

      The battle's end result was the same but Austrian casualties were much greater in Game #2. The Austrians did a good job of cycling their greater numbers into the front line while maintaining strict pressure on the Prussians. The Prussians, to my surprise, STILL lost the cavalry battle on the Prussian left. I must not be a very good cavalry commander.

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    2. Thanks for the further details on Moys 2, Jon. I thought our first Moys cavalry battle was actually a draw - I'm sure I am a totally rubbish cavalry commander; I just don't have the Seydlitz-like coup d'oeil! Much more of a plodding infantry and artillery commander, I think... ;-) (Which will make Mollwitz an interesting proposition!)

      Cheers,

      David.

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    3. Have you forgotten the size of the Prussian cavalry Dead Pile? I lost four or five units.

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    4. Well - apart from that ;-) it was rather inconclusive as we both withdrew to our own lines and Austrian infantry came up to take over on my right flank. My cavalry were pretty knocked about and I could not see them being much use for the rest of the battle!

      Cheers,

      David.

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  4. Very nice new batallions. It's looking as you have at least a good number of infantry now.

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    1. Thanks, Andrè!

      At present I can field 15 French infantry regiments with two more on the way. Enough for a game, I think. Well, once I get artillery and cavalry in shape. After that, I plan to try some of your very interesting scenarios.

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    2. That would be great to see. I'm very excited to see you playing these scenarios.

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  5. Great addition to the French army, Jonathan! Please tell me how many centimeters is the front of the battalion?

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    1. Thank you, Valentin! An infantry battalion frontage is 12cm.

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  6. Nice figures Jonathan, and we have had our first good day in months, hopefully more to come.

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  7. Great looking french Jon. I suspect Victory conditions for Moys need to be adapted to give the Prussians a chance ? We are hopefully playing Hochkirk tomorrow but again the Prussians will win a victory if they can hold out rather than turn the Austrian tide. Good news on the cycling weather. We are basking in a beautiful early spring sunshine at the moment so have been back out in the mountains 👍

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    1. Thanks! I think the twelve turn limit made the game possible to see a Prussian victory by simply holding on and holding the Der Langer Berg. The problem the Prussians had in this game was the Prussian army broke before the end of Turn 12. Same as in Game 1.

      I look forward to seeing how you manage Hochkirch. This is another battle in which the Prussians are heavily outnumbered. Nothing beats restaging a historical battle in my book.

      Weather is still more "off" than "on" here. Cloudy with rain threatening most days.

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  8. Nice additions to the white swarm and very fine outdoors pictures.

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  9. Excellent painting on equally fine sculpts, Jonathan! It's been rather cloudy and cool here in the Sound, so not much outdoor activities for us.

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    1. Thanks, Dean! Cloudy and cool here too with rain threatening daily. We still get some breaks, though.

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  10. More lovely work Jonathan. How do you find the Eureka figure compares to Old Glory in terms of size and detail? I still don't have any Old Glory in my collection although I have seen quite a few of their Napoleonics in friends' armies, and really only did my Samurai army as an excuse to test drive the Eureka figures.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence!

      The Eureka and Old Glory infantry compare favorably with the Old Glory foot a bit thicker than the Eureka sculpts. Both look good on the table.

      Eureka cavalry are MUCH larger and do not mix well with Old Glory (or anyone else). Even in separate units, differences can be spotted on the table under close inspection. All of my SYW cavalry are Eureka for this reason. Well ,that and
      really like the look of the Eureka cavalry.

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  11. Nice to see more additions to the French white uniforms. I like how you get those natural looking curves and folds in your flags.

    The weather down here is starting to warm up a lot. Come Monday it's supposed to be in the mid-80's already and by Wednesday & Thursday up to 86 or 7! Too early in the year for this crap. LOL
    The weather

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    1. Thanks, Dai!

      Temperatures in the 80s? Wow! We are lucky to hit 50F in the PNW today. I am envious of such warm temperatures so early in the season.

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  12. Calendar aside, seeing the return of your bike ride pix confirms that we have made it through another winter and have crossed the threshold into spring.

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    1. Yeah, I think we made it through another long winter campaign.

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  13. Nice figures Jonathan. It must be nice to get out on the road again!

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    1. Thanks, Mark. Yes, very good to return to cycling outdoors.

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  14. Let me add my 'good job' to both the painting and playing reported on this post. The look and effect on the table of the French army is something I look forward to seeing. Glad you 'enjoyed' the second Moys game; I whole-heartedly agree with Norm's thought on playing in the moment.
    31 miles is certainly a respectable first ride. We just logged our first day over 70F since October. Spring is coming.

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    1. Thanks, Joe! 70F by mid-March? Fantastic! We still have quite some time before we see those temperatures.

      Replaying Moys “in the moment” was enjoyable, for sure, and less work but I felt a twinge of guilt in not documenting the action.

      Oh, I look forward to seeing the French army in action too. Now, I need to work on artillery and cavalry.

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  15. Lovely French. How are you finding the OGs? I've grown quite partial to them, in both 15 and 18mm. They seem to embody the "take paint well" description. Nice to hear you're out on the road again, but do please be cautious, as other people likely won't ;)

    Re: the scenario, I've always wanted to play a proper historical campaign for SYW, as I suspect it would counter-balance many of the inherent Prussian advantages. Your point about casualties is key here - the Prussian army was, as I understand it, the only one that got worse over the course of the war, as Freddie increasingly replaced his well-trained and disciplined troops with conscripts. It would be interesting to see games played where a Prussian general had to seriously consider force retention.

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    1. Hi Markus! The Old Glory SYW infantry are terrific and work well on the table with Eureka and Blue Moon. Not in the same unit, though, for me.

      A campaign would be a fun and interesting undertaking but would consume too much time on my table. My interests are varied and I like to see a variety of periods out on the table in regular rotation.

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  16. More lovely toys Jonathan…
    And nice to see the local scenery again…

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks, Aly! It is good to be out in the scenery once again.

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  17. Nice looking troops. I keep meaning to copy your style of having a mounted commander inside the line of troops with my ACW and I get reminded each time I see it; bc it looks the biz.

    Glad you were finally able to get outside. 😀

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    1. Thank you, Stew! Double thank you for liking the basing scheme! Hopefully more outside photos soon.

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  18. Great looking units Jonathan.
    Nice pictures of the bike ride. I'm a bit of a fair weather cyclist, and as the weather has turned fair in the UK the bike is about to come out of hibernation to take a turn to see how the apple and pear orchards are progressing.

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    1. Thanks, Richard! Another fellow cyclist, hooray! I am more of a fair weather cyclist too. I like it warm and dry.

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  19. I'm envious of your output Jonathan. Just superb!

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  20. Cycling and painting, great passions!

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  21. Lovely units there Jon and David's flags really set off your lovely painting. Nice to see you were able to re-play Moys again, but without the pressure of adding an AAR to the Blog. Good to see the weather has improved and we have some lovely Spring weather forecast here for the rest of the week. I'm hoping to get in some good rides (for me anyway) over the next few days.

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    1. Thank you, Steve! David provides a helpful service for wargamers with his flags. His work is a labor of love, no doubt.

      Weather is beginning to improve. Good to see it is improving where you are too. We will both be out cycling regularly very soon.

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  22. Lovely pair of units and nice to see you out on the bike again!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks! Yes, good to be back out on the bike when weather permits.

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