Toy Soldiers for my son

For years I have been intrigued with miniatures painted in the old toy soldier style.  Irregular Miniatures has a line of 42mm miniatures that are aimed at exactly that itch.  A while back (13 years ago), I started collecting some and put together two Waterloo armies, and a smattering of figures from other time periods, including Zulu, American Civil War, and The Franco-Prussian dust up.

A few weeks ago my younger son (Ethan) turned 8 and it seemed like it was time to get him his own set of toy soldiers so that we can start to play on the tabletop together. So, I decided to order two small armies from Irregular as a starter set to give to Ethan for Christmas. If he enjoys them, we can add to the set.

I chose the Franco Prussian war for the armies.  It seems like a great period for classic toy soldiers and I've been reading the history lately.

I had a few figures already from my foray 13 years ago, so I dug them out and gave them some new paint and a fresh coat of gloss. I then ordered the rest of the Germanic and French minis painted from Irregular.  They have a nice painting service available so their customers can order the figures already painted.  I think that this is a great service.

I received the figures yesterday and based them up and gave them an extra coat of gloss (I like my toy soldiers REALLY GLOSSY).

Here they are:

 Each Army gets 5 Artillery, 2 Cavalry, and 12 Infantry stands, which I think represents a pretty average force ratio on the battlefield in 1870.

 Prussian Uhlans

 Prussian Infantry

 Bavarian Infantry

 Prussian Artillery

 Prussian Infantry. These were originally painted as WWI 13 years ago, but I re-touched them to make them fit in 1870.

 French Dragoons.

 French Chasseur a' Cheval

 French Imperial Guard wearing their bearskins.

 French Infantry

 French African Infantry

 French Artillery

 Prussians

 More Prussians.

 Frenchies.

 More Frenchies.

 Prussians Artillery

One more look at the Uhlans.

I hope Ethan loves them, and that this is the start of years of playing together. :)

Napoleon in Europe Project

For a while I have had a vision of being able to play Napoleon in Europe with a larger board and painted 15mm figures.  When battles occur on the strategic board, I want to be able to fight them out with 28mm armies on the tabletop.  Phase One is now complete:  I have all the figures for every major and minor power in the Napoleonic Wars based individually in 15mm and the large board.

 The board is approximately 5 feet x 4 feet, and sits on a table in my office.

The figures are all AB Miniatures, which are incredible.  All paint and basing work by Ron Redworth...also incredible.  Vive L' Emperor!

 French troops invade Northern Italy.

 Spanish Troops.

Austrians.

 Prussians.

British.

British.

 Russian.

Russian.

 Russian.

 Ottoman Command.

 Grand Duchy of Warsaw (Poland).

 Bavarian.

 Saxony.

I also have troops for Baden, Westphalia, Italy, Portugal.

The next step is to complete the 28mm armies.  So far I have complete armies for France, French Allies, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia.  The Austrians are being painted now.  Once I get the Austrians, I'm going to start playtesting the rules.  Hopefully in December.  This will allow me to re-fight the entire Napoleonic Wars Campaign at a strategic level and also fight the resulting battles at the tactical level (with each unit representing a division or so).
Can't wait!  :)
 

Gen Con 2013 - 1775: Rebellion

I had the opportunity to put on my giant version of 1775: Rebellion (see the July post for details of the game) at Gen Con this year.  I ran it at noon on Saturday in the Miniatures area.  Here are some pictures:

 My buddy Jacoby helped me set up.  Thanks Coby!

The game is ready!

 Close-up of the Connecticut Militia and Regulars.

 Team America prepares to play their turn.

 They opted for an early Southern strategy.

 ...and took Georgia and South Carolina.

Team Britain countered with a robust attack from Canada and New Jersey.

After escalating battles around New England and the central colonies, the Americans won a couple of climactic battles to secure New England, and then used this as a base to drive north and win the game by a narrow margin.

The game took three hours as both sides were very deliberate in making their moves, but the quality of the strategies that resulted were very strong.  The momentum swung back and forth a couple of times.  All-in-all a fun day.  I really like this game and am glad to have a premium version of it.

Prussian Casualties

I just finished basing these Prussian Casualty Markers.

Excellent figures by Calpe. I really like their chunky figures with lots of authentic poses.

Painting done by Artmaster Studio.

15mm Napoleonic Figures used on the New version of Napoleon from Columbia Games

While this wasn't the reason I acquired my new 15mm Napoleonic armies (I'll be posting about that in the next blog post), it seemed like a great opportunity to break in the new version of Napoleon from Columbia Games that just showed up last week. My friend Uwe Walentin was visiting from Germany and when we weren't hiking in the Cascades, we were war gaming (1775 and this).

The idea was to use the 15mm figs instead of the blocks.  Less secrecy for sure, but a really cool way to use the miniatures.  And then, when a battle occurred, we would fight it out on the tabletop with my 28mm armies and my homebrew Command & Colors rules.

The Napoleon setup looked like this:

Figures painted by 15mm Napoleonic specialist Ron Redworth out of the UK.

Uwe was the French and he maneuvered aggressively toward Liege, threatening the Prussian Supply Line.  He took it with a lone Cavalry Division after some hard force-marching. I drove them out with three Cavalry Divisions, and was then driven out in turn by a medium sized mixed force.
During all this, I was able to unite my British and Prussian forces and push Napoleon out of Charleroi.  The Prussian army would eventually disintegrate from lack of supply, but the time that would take would ensure that the French would lose the campaign.  Therefore, Uwe marshaled his forces and attacked Cherleroi with a small force of Imperial Guard troops as a vanguard, supported by a much larger force entering the battle slowly as reinforcements.

I gave up the advantage of the riverline defense and deployed forward to batter the vanguard before the rest of the French army could come up.

28mm units fight it out on the battlefield at Charleroi.

It was a bloody affair for both sides, especially for our cavalry forces, which charged repeatedly to keep the enemies infantry in square. The losses were very high.

Here a British force stands in square in an orchard as French Cavalry run free in this part of the battlefield (they had entered behind the main action as reinforcements).

Here waits my remaining cavalry reserve on the other side of the field.

The battle ended in a bloody draw, which meant disaster for the French campaign. Time ran out and the French were forced to retreat back to France to defend their borders from the converging allied armies.

Gettysburg Video

The short video of Pickett's Charge:

Gettysburg 150th Anniversary

With the 150th anniversary of the great battle coming up, I started to plan our trip about a year ago.  I was able to find the website for the big re-enactment and book tickets, including seats in the grandstand.

We drove from Chicago to Gettysburg on Friday, July 5 and spent the next day walking the battlefield.  I wanted the kids to have the authentic experience before the re-enactment, which was held on a farm northeast of town instead of on the actual battlefield.

The town itself was still very crowded for the festivities on Saturday, and the battlefield roads were pretty full of cars as well.  I was able to find a parking spot somewhat out of the way, just north and a little east of Little Round Top.  We walked to Devil's Den and climbed the back side.

                                         (My kids melt as I try to tel them what happened here)

We then went from there up Big Round Top and then over to the south side of Little Round Top (where the 20th Maine fought.

And finally to the front (west) face of Little Round Top for views of the battlefield.

It was a crazy hot day, and my poor transparent children were pretty flushed when we reached the car again.


The next day was equally hot, but worth it.
The morning included a cavalry action that featured approximately 100 horsemen.

The afternoon's event was a recreation of Pickett's Charge. Almost 100 cannon banged away at each other for almost 30 minutes before a few thousand Confederate re-enactors formed up and advanced on the Union line.  The firing intensified and the Confederate losses piled up.  I actually got a bit choked up as the tide ebbed and they fell back.  It was a pretty incredible insight into the event itself.