Hobby Update - 10 Nov 25

Work and home are still very busy, and I haven't always been feeling great recently, but I have, in fits and starts, managed to get paint on at least a few figures.

 

First up, some more Baccus 6mm WSS figures. I just really love painting up these little gentlemen! 

Firstly we have six bases of Bavarian Infantry. Very pretty, nice colours (although since I tend to use natural rathern than exaggerated colours, they tend to blend rather than pop in photos). The only thing somewhat disappointing about the Bavarian Army of the WSS is that it seems to have mainly consisted of actual Bavarians! This compares unfavourably to the rest of my Franco-Spanish, whose words of command could be just as well in English, Italian or German as French or Spanish...

 

Although having said that, this base of Horse consists of actual Spaniards - Queen's Regiment.

I have been doing rather more painting for the bairn than myself - a big batch of Romans.

First contingent is a bunch of Caesar's Legionaries - from Warlord.

 

Followed by a contingent of Early Imperials, accompanied by a Scorpion (right)

Happily, that finishes the backlog of 28mm Romans for the bairn!

 

So, still in the backlog for him are some English infantry for Agincourt (Perry), some Gallic Warriors (Warlord) and some WW2 US Marines (Warlord). I have made a start on the Gauls already, they are coming along really nicely. I have never even attempted plaid patterns in 28mm before, so that at least is a new challenge! Luckily the remainder of the models are quite simple, so I don't mind spending a little extra time on the trews...

 

For myself, my backlog has continued its inexorable growth, following the pattern of the last couple of years 😔.  Anyhow, the plan is to try and get the bairn's stuff cracked by the end of the month, and then have three months really concentrating on my own collection. One thing I aim to do is to try and focus on the little outstanding batches to round out existing armies, rather than tackle whole unpainted armies - not that I have many of them, but they can go to the back of the queue at present.

 

On the plus side, I have managed to get back into actually playing a few games, so hopefully a few more battle reports coming soon. 

 

 

Planning Armies: 6mm War of the Spanish Succession

Quite a niche post follows, even by my own low standards! It is about miniature army planning and scope - including scope creep...it might be of some mild interest to that tiny subset of gamers who are currently pondering the War of the Spanish Succession in 6mm; or perhaps, slightly more widely, gamers thinking about new horse-and-musket armies more generally

 

Model manufacturers are probably well aware of this, but it is definitely true that nice figures and models will help to persuade us to buy more than we might have planned. My 6mm War of the Spanish Succession collection is a case in point. The original scope of the project was quite tight: it was to be a 'tabletop teaser'-type force, with two armies, each just large enough to refight all the sources of 'Tabletop Teaser' type scenarios I possess. That amounts to, more-or-less, the Tabletop Teaser series in Battlegames magazine; Grant and Asquith's 'Scenarios for All Ages'; Grant's 'Programmed Wargames Scenarios'; and Neil Thomas' scenarios in One-Hour Wargames. And, in terms of playing, this is more-or-less exactly what has happened. Roughly speaking, the following forces will cover you for all of this:

 

BLUE FORCES:

4 units of Artillery

1 unit of Light Artillery  

1 unit of Engineers

3 units of Heavy Cavalry

3 units of Medium Cavalry 

3 units of Light Cavalry 

2 units of Elite Infantry 

3 units of Light Infantry

10 units of Line Infantry

 

RED FORCES:

3 units of Artillery

1 unit of Light Artillery  

1 unit of Engineers

3 units of Heavy Cavalry

3 units of Medium Cavalry 

2 units of Light Cavalry 

1 units of Elite Infantry 

3 units of Light Infantry

9 units of Line Infantry

 

1 Pontoon Train 

4 Supply wagons 

 

So this was my target. And it was achieved quite easily. I themed the 'Blue Force' as French, but with a very high proportion of foreign units, especially Irish. The 'Red Force' was themed as British, with as high a proportion of Scottish units as could make sense. The rationale for the above was using them as the regular troops involved in the various Jacobite rebellions, as well as for the generic Horse and Musket scenarios.

 

But, it turned out that efficiency be damned, I really, really liked painting WSS figures!  So The Red forces also got a brigade of Dutch Foot (which were Scottish), and another brigade of Dutch Foot (which were French), the French got a couple of Spanish units too (mainly Irish regiments). The Manchester Regiment, The Royal Ecossais and various Jacobite units were also done as if they had been raised for the '15 rather than the '45. You get the idea. As the armies expanded, I looked to the couple of sets of rules I had for the WSS which included army lists to give an indication of what a reasonable-sized complete army might look like.

 

Firstly, the army lists in Horse, Foot and Guns:

 

The Imperialist Army: 1 x Headquarters, 1 x Command Post, 5 x Cuirassiers, 2 x Dragoons, 1 x Hussars, 28 x Infantry, 1 x Field Artillery, 1 x Heavy Artillery 

 

The Anglo-Dutch Army: 2 x Command Posts, 11 x Horse (3 x Dutch, 2 x British, 2 x Danish, 4 x German), 9 x Dragoons, 2 x Guard Infantry (1 x Dutch, 1 x British), 3 x Grenadiers, 49 x Infantry (15 x Dutch, 12 x British, 2 x Danish, 4 x Prussian, 16 x German), 7 x Field Artillery, 2 x Heavy Artillery. (n.b. The British Horse become Cuirassiers in the middle of the war).

 

The Franco-Bavarian Army: 1 x Headquarters, 1 x Command Post, 2 x Elite Horse (1 x French, 1 x Bavarian Cuirassiers), 6 x Horse, 8 x Dragoons, 4 x Guard Infantry (3 x French, 1 x Bavarian), 2 x Grenadiers (1 x French, 1 x Bavarian), 39 x Infantry (34 x French, 5 x Bavarian), 7 x Field Artillery, 1 x Heavy Artillery (n.b. I don't think there can be strong objections to replacing some French units with Spanish, to taste)

 

There were a few surprising things in there to me: the lack of Imperialist artillery, and the preponderance of Foot over Horse were perhaps the most obvious. Grenadiers don't seem to have played quite as big a part in the WSS as these figures imply. In any case, these armies did represent a significant expansion over my originals! However, I am nearly there for the Anglo-Dutch and Franco-Bavarians, I think I am only missing some of the German Foot for the former, and some of the French Foot for the latter.  

 

The other set of army lists I have for the WSS are those in the 1e of the Polemos WSS rules.  They imply much bigger forces, big armies by anyone's standards, even in 6mm:

 

Ansbach (1 Foot, 2 Dragoons)

Austria (36 Foot, 28 Horse/Cuirassiers, 11 Dragoons, 4 Field Guns, 8 Light Guns) 

Bavarian (12 Foot, 13 Horse/Cuirassiers 1 Field Gun, 2 Light Guns) + 2 Guard Horse 

Cologne (3 Foot, 3 Horse, 2 Dragoons)

Denmark (13 Foot, 8 Horse, 3 Dragoons)

France (67 Foot, 45 Horse, 11 Dragoons, 2 Hussars, 8 Field Guns, 10 Light Guns, 4 Siege Guns) 

Franconia (3 Cuirassiers, 2 Dragoons)

Hanover (13 Foot, 6 Horse, 6 Dragoons, 2 Field Guns, 4 Light Guns)

Hesse (7 Foot, 5 Horse, 3 Dragoons)

Holland (21 Foot, 22 Horse, 6 Dragoons, 1 Field Gun, 4 Light Guns)

Holstein (2 Foot, 1 Cuirassier, 4 Dragoons)

Ireland (4 Foot, 2 Horse)

Italy (1 Horse)

Mainz (2 Dragoons)

Mecklenburg (1 Cuirassier, 1 Dragoon)

Munster (3 Foot, 1 Horse)

Upper Reich (Oberreich) (8 Foot, 2 Horse)

Palatinate (10 Foot, 6 Horse)

Portugal (9 Foot, 12 Horse, 1 Field Gun, 2 Light Guns)

Prussia (14 Foot, 5 Horse, 4 Dragoons)

Savoy (10 Foot, 4 Horse, 3 Dragoons, 1 Field Gun, 3 Light Guns)

Saxe-Gotha (1 Cuirassier, 3 Dragoons)

Scotland (4 Foot), 

Spain (11 Foot, 16 Horse, 5 Dragoons, 2 Field Guns, 3 Light Guns),  

Swabia (2 Cuirassiers, 2 Horse, 1 Dragoon), 

Switzerland (4 Foot), 

Britain (18 Foot, 6 Horse, 3 Dragoons, 2 Field Guns, 3 Light Guns),  

Walloon (4 Foot), 

Westphalia (2 Horse), 

Wurttemberg (3 Foot, 1 Horse, 1 Dragoons), 

Wurzburg (2 Dragoons), 

[Allied artillery totals (12 Field guns, 18 light guns)]

 

(the bold is just to indicate the larger contingents involved)

  

So I have enough units to paint for a very long time, if I want my games to be accurate to the individual facing colour level. This is not however what Heretical Gaming is all about! So my actual target has evolved into having sufficient forces for the HFG lists, plus functional extras as they come up (so a few units of Spanish Horse for Almanza say). 

 

The other way to approach this would be to look at the overall forces one would need for the battles listed in the ruleset, viz.:

 

Chiari 1701: 

Imperials: 27 bases Cuirassiers, 36 bases Foot, 9 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Field Artillery, 8 bases Light Artillery 

French: 34 bases Horse, 66 bases Foot, 5 bases Dragoons, 5 bases Field Artillery, 10 bases Light Artillery  

Luzzara 1702: 

Imperials: 28 bases Horse, 35 bases Foot, 12 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Field Artillery, 5 bases Light Artillery 

French: 31 bases Horse, 39 bases Foot, 14 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Field Artillery, 6 bases Light Artillery  

Speyerbach 1703: 

Allies:13 bases Horse, 30 bases Foot, 6 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 4 bases Light Artillery French:17 bases Horse, 27 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 4 bases Light Artillery  

 

Blenheim 1704: 

Allies: 26 bases Horse, 43 bases Foot, 16 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 7 bases Light Artillery Imperials: 20 bases Cuirassiers, 10 bases Horse, 21 bases Foot, 19 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Field Artillery, 3 bases Light Artillery 

French: 11 bases Cuirassiers, 50 bases Horse, 88 bases Foot, 8 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Siege Artillery, 6 bases Field Artillery, 10 bases Light Artillery  

 

Ramillies 1706: 

Allies: 43 bases Horse, 74 bases Foot, 19 bases Dragoons, 12 bases Field Artillery, 18 bases Light Artillery 

French: 48 bases Horse, 2 bases Hussars, 70 bases Foot, 17 bases Dragoons, 8 bases Field Artillery, 10 bases Light Artillery  

 

Almanza 1707: 

Allies:14 bases Horse, 23 bases Foot, 4 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Field Artillery, 5 bases Light Artillery French:20 bases Horse, 26 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 4 bases Field Artillery, 6 bases Light Artillery

 

One could then create a 'Blue' Army of the maximum number of bases to fight as the French, and a 'Red' Army of the maximum number of bases to fight as the Allies or Imperials. In practice, that just means sufficient bases to refight Blenheim and Ramillies, everything else fits inside. 

Helpfully, this family of Polemos rules also includes options for Smalland Medium-sized games based on the above. Broadly speaking, they imply forces of a third to a half of the above figures for Small, and around two-thirds for Medium. Even for 'Small' battles, it is noteworthy how much proportionally more cavalry and artillery there will be on a Polemos battlefield than on an HFG battlefield. The 'average' small armies work out as follows:

Chiari:

Imperials: 14 bases Foot, 9 bases Cuirassiers, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery

French: 22 bases Foot, 10 bases Horse, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery 

 

Luzzara:

Imperials: 9 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery

French: 9 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 6 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 base Foot Artillery

 

Speyerbach:

Allies:   6-7 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery

French: 12 bases Horse, 13 bases Foot, 3 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Foot Artillery

 

Blenheim:

Allies: 27 bases Foot, 17 bases Horse, 12 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery

French: 26 bases Foot, 22 bases Horse, 3 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 2 bases Foot Artillery  

 Ramilles:

Allies: 23 bases Foot, 15 bases Horse, 6 bases Dragoons, 6 bases Light Artillery, 4 bases Field Artillery

French: 24 bases Foot, 15 bases Horse, 7 bases Dragoons, 3 bases Light Artillery, 3 bases Field Artillery 

 

Almanza:

Allies: 10 bases Foot, 6 bases Horse, 2 bases Dragoons, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Field Artillery

French: 10 bases Foot, 6 bases Horse, 2 bases Light Artillery, 1 base Field Artillery  

 

Roughly speaking, these armies are about a Baccus Army pack plus a couple of extra individual packs in size, with the exception of Blenheim and Ramilles, which are more like an Army pack and a couple of reinforcement packs.  That might be a good target for the average gamer. The Polemos 'Small Armies for Big Battles' lists are similar-ish in size to an HFG army - which makes sense, when a base is Polemos WSS 1e is ~ a battalion, and a base in HFG is ~ a brigade.

 

An Allied Army would come out as  27 bases Foot, 17 bases Horse, 12 bases Dragoons, 6 bases Light Artillery, 4 bases Foot Artillery, which would be:

1 x Generals Pack (£4.32)

2 x Foot Booster Packs (£47.52)

1 x Foot Pack (£8.72)

1 x Horse Booster Pack (£23.76)

1 x Horse Pack (£10.08)

1 x Dragoon Booster Pack (£23.76)

2 x Dismounted Dragoon Packs (£8.64) 

2 x Light Artillery Pack (£8.64) 

1 x Foot Artillery Pack (£4.32)

Or about £130-140 all-in. 

Hobby Update 22 Sep 25

A very short follow-on from my last hobby post: a few pictures of other stuff I have finished working on recently. First up, Warlord Roman Auxilia (for my youngest son):

 

 

And then some extra Baccus 6mm WSS troops:

Prussian infantry in the foreground (Markgraf Christian, Alt Dohna, Holstein-Beck, Markgraf Albrecht)

Hanoverian Horse (Gardes du Corps, Croix de Frechappel, von Goden, Noyelles) and Foot (De Charles, Bernstorff, Leib Infantry)

And a base each of British (35th), Dutch (de Waes) and Spanish (Toledo)

 

I have also been given some painted 6mm Ancient, GNW and WSS armies. They will require a separate post to do them justice, but they are a very useful set which really expands the number of battles, particularly, ancient battles, I can refight with something close to the correct troops. Next on the painting tray for me are some more WSS: Bavarian Foot and some Spanish Horse are closest to completion.

Narrative OHW Campaign Battle 3: Battle of Mogmoor

This was the third battle in this narrative campaign experiment. To recap, Spanish-Jacobite forces have invaded the territory of New Dalrydia and are opposed by a Dutch-Scots' force. The invasion has not gone to plan and the Spanish-Jacobites are hunkering down near the small town of Mogmoor. The pursuing Dutch Army has seized high ground overlooking the town amd the Spanish-Jacobites must push them off, or otherwise defeat them - or be forced to evacuate New Dalrydia or worse, surrender...

 The Forces:

The Dutch Army consists of:

1 brigade of Horse (2 bases, both Irish units)

1 brigade of Foot (3 bases, all Scottish units) 

1 brigade of Foot (2 bases, one Scotch, one Swiss unit)

2 bases of Field Artillery

 

The Spanish Army consisted of:

1 brigade of Horse (2 bases of Jacobites)

1 brigade of Dragoons (2 bases, both Irish)

1 brigade of Foot (4 bases, all Spanish)

1 base of Field Artillery

 

The Set-Up:

The Dutch are on the high ground, the Spanish are defending the village.

Spanish Dragoons on the left, Infantry in the centre.

The Dutch have their Horse on their Right (left), whilst the infantry take the Centre and Left (right); note the refused flank

The Dutch Right

The Dutch Centre

The Dutch Left

One last overview shot

The Battle:

You just know it is going to be a bad day when the first artillery bombardment breaks one of the Spanish infantry regiments in the centre!

The Spanish can't afford to not be bold: the Franco-Jacobite Horse advances on the Right

However, the Dutch (ok, ,Scotch-Irish) Horse mirrors the movement on the other flank, threating the Spanish (ok, Irish) Dragoons

The battle develops with the Spanish attacking in echelon by the right...

Another view

Not quite as devastating, but the Spanish artillery is causing some casualties in the Dutch centre

The action starts to break up somewhat: the Dutch Horse has been slow to actually engage, allowing one of the Spanish infantry regiments to begin enfilading musketry...only to be enfiladed by an advancing Scottish regiment in its turn. Meanwhile, the attack on the hill proper is about to start

Seizing the tempo at the right moment, the Dutch Horse charges in - as does the flanking Scottish regiment (centre)

At practically the same moment, the main Spanish infantry asault goes in on the hill

It could have been worse for the Spanish Dragoons, but they manage to hold their own against the Dutch Horse; however, another Spanish infantry unit has been broken (centre)

One of the Spanish regiments manages to close up and capture some Dutch guns; the other is held back by the fierce musketry

The Dutch Horse re-engages, for another bout of melee

Fierce fighting continues on the hill - the Scots' infantry launches a counter-attack on the right-hand Spanish battalion

This time the Spanish Dragoons have come off worse against the Dutch Horse

But more importantly, the Spanish infantry attack in the centre has collapsed, with the musketeers running back towards the town

Position at the end of the battle. The only somewhat bright spot is that the Jacobite cavalry is still intact on the right.

Game Notes:

A good game, although the Spanish-Jacobite force never really seemed to get the rub of the green. The terrain and deployment of the Dutch didn't make it easy for the Spanish though, it was difficult to know how to create at least one decent match-up on one wing. The actual fighting was fairly even, but the Spanish needed to do better than that, and it never looked that likely...

 

There were no particular points in regards to the rules or anything: I am relatively happy with how this type of small battle works with Polemos: Ruse de Guerre, so they typically rattle on at a fair pace. They might be a little quick and nippy for the full early C18 experience mind, but they do give a generally good horse-and-musket game, which is pretty easy to tweak. Not sure if I will try Polemos WSS proper again next time out, or perhaps incorporate some of its concepts into RdG, particularly around artillery and  movement.

 

So the campaign leads to the restoration of New Dalrydia, as the Spanish general sues for terms!

 

Well done for anyone who spotted this, but this was a re-casting of the Battle of Mohacs into One-Hour Wargame scenario form, and then translated into early C18. I did it previously as a more straight-up re-fight, although that was over a decade ago now (eek!). In any case, I was using this as part of my play-testing of my new mini-campaign concept. It has seemed to work pretty well, although it hasn't been quite stress-tested enough yet, on account of one side winning three battles in a row! Still, a promising start.

 

Figures by Baccus 6mm, buildings mainly be Leven I think.

 

 

 

 

Narrative OHW Campaign Battle 2: Battle of Lochmire

Campaign Briefing, Battle 02:

Following the success of the Dutch Army at Fernbrae, its leader, General de Ruyter ordered a somewhat leisurely pursuit of the Spanish force towards its Lochmire, where it was besieging that important town, its castle and its Scottish garrison. The Spanish commander, General Sarsfield, covering his retreat with his powerful cavalry arm, moved his main body back towards Lochmire to focus on the siege. However, De Ruyter, screening the Franco-Spanish cavalry with his own, conducted a surprise march to attack a portion of the Spanish lines outside Lochmire.  Sarsfield scribbled an order to an aide, telling him to present it to the commander of his brigade of Dragoons and to return to Lochmire post-haste. Meanwhile, his troops prepared to resist the Dutch attack.

Forces:

The Dutch Army:

C-in-C: General de Ruyter

1st Brigade (C. Murray): Colyear's, Lauder's, Murray's Foot Regts

2nd Brigade (D. Saxe-Weimar): Portmore's Foot Regt, Saxe-Weimar Dragoons, de Vries' Foot Battery,

Garrison: 42nd Foot

Murray's and Colyear's regiments are Veteran, Portmore's is Raw.

The Spanish Army:

C-in-C: General Sarsfield

HQ: Siege Battery, Clermont's Battery

1st Brigade (Reding): Limerick, Ultonia, Royal Eccosais, Light Artillery Battery

2nd Brigade (Meagher): Leon, Toledo

3rd Brigade (Cortes): Mahony's Dragoons, Crofton's Dragoons, Ferrari's Dragoons

The Toledo regiment is Veteran, everyone else is Trained

 

The Set-up:

The garrisoned town with castle to the SW; the advancing Dutch Forces to the West (left); the defending Franco-Spanish Forces to the East (right, centre, top)

A view of the garrison

Saxe-Weimar's Brigade

Murray's Brigade

The Limerick and Ultonia Regiments of Reding's Brigade

Two batteries and the Royal Eccossais garrison the entrenched camp.

Meagher's Brigade

Another view.

The Battle:

As de Ruyter has decided to attack with his Left (top-left), Reding's Brigade tries to redeploy under some irritating artillery fire

Murray's Brigade forms up for the assault

Numbers and skill tell - a couple of devastating volleys and the Spanish brigade is routed!

Reding's troops are making some heavy weather of the redeployment, partly due to the artillery fire but partly sheer incapacity and confusion. However, the French artillery is playing effectively on Saxe-Weimar's Dragoons (centre-left)

Cortes' Brigade of Spanish Dragoons (okay, Italo-Irish!) arrives, hopefully to stem the tide!

Another view. Two regiments are mounted, one on foot.

Reding has at least got his units deployed to protect against any river crossing

Things go from bad to worse for the Spanish: one of Reding's battalions guarding the bridge breaks under artillery fire

Desperate to restore the situation, Cortes' leads his dragoons in a desperate charge

Whilst Dutch (i.e. Scottish) infantry attempt to splash through the river, Reding reforms his troops

The musketry of Murray's brigade beats back the attacking Dragoons

Some success at last! Colyear's regiment breaks under the heavy French artillery fire; however the dismounted Spanish (okay, Italian) Dragoons are about to succumb to the effects of the Scots' musketry (top-right)

Cortes orders his surviving troopers into one more charge...

Which is no more successful than the last! Crofton's Dragoons are destroyed...

And Mahony's Dragoons ride for the rear!

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Spanish Army has had enough and its broken units flee, its unbroken units retreat

View at the end of the battle.

Game Notes:

 The Spanish Army will have to retreat and re-group after two defeats at the hands of the Dutch. The invasion of New Dalrydia is misfiring badly! Hopefully I will get to part 3 soon...

 

A fun game and a reasonably comprehensive victory for the Dutch: most things they tried worked, most things the Spanish tried did not! Ruse de Guerre gave a good, swift game although it is very generically 'horse & musket' - in particular the artillery is probably a little too powerful, although it isn't the biggest issue in the world. You wouldn't think it perhaps from the game but I did slightly change the firepower calibration to requiring a 7+ to shake an opponent (although I kept at 10+ to break, still wondering if I need to move that to 11). More specifically, the Spanish kept on getting awful tempo point allocations on key turns, mimicking quite well the 'shock' that armies can experience when attacked in surprising and impactful ways. So it worked quite well as part of this mini-campaign.

 

 

Very well done to anyone who twigged the scenario this was taken from: it as an NT-esque adaptation of the Castillon scenario from back in Miniature Wargames 02 - it seemed to take the treatment quite well and the broad scenario fitted quite easily into the campaign narrative.

Figures by Baccus 6mm, mostly the buildings are from Leven, and the fortifications are from Irregular.