A late Christmas present

Christmas Day 2015 has come and gone but the giving kept on giving as at the first opportunity after Christmas Day New Zealand Post delivered into the mail box of Neu Schloss von Peter a package from Calpe Miniatures. Wow … as a self confessed Calpe zealot this meant two Christmas Days in one year!!  😃

Contained within the package were the latest eight packs of later Napoleonic Saxons …

• S14 – Standard bearer, sapper, NCO, drummer, 2 musketeers with covered shakos
• S15 – Standard bearer, sapper, NCO, drummer, 2 musketeers with calfskin covered shakos
• S16 – Standard bearer, sapper, NCO, drummer, 2 musketeers with uncovered shakos
• S17 – Officers in blue Interimsuniform, 3 with covered shakos and 1 with calfskin covered shakos
• S18 – Officers in white coats, 3 with covered shakos and 1 with calfskin covered shakos
• S19 – 4 officers, with uncovered shakos, 2 in blue Interimsuniform and 2 in white coats
• S20 – 4 NCOs – 2 with covered shakos, 1 with calfskin covered shako and 1 with uncovered shako
• S21 – Cherry on the icing pack (to steal a term from the French range!) – 2 enthusiastic musketeers and 2 falling casualties

The pack / code numbers above are correct as the packs came labelled but the descriptions are not official but rather as von Peter himself has interpreted the figures in the packs.

As the more astute of The dear readers will readily ascertain the arrival of these packs along with …

• packs S1 through S7 on the Calpe website Saxon shop page and
• packs S8 through S13 released but not yet on the Calpe site

.. means that a Calpe Miniatures Saxon musketeer battalion in the ‘advancing’ pose may now be almost completely built from the new Saxon figures, ie. without having to revert to the Calpe Veterans Saxons march attack range for stand ins. According to a quick count there are currently 92 unique figures available to choose from for the advancing Saxons which should allow for a little variety across battalions! The reason for the ‘almost completely built’ are the mounted officers. Until newly designed mounted officers are available three suitable mounted officers are available in the pack SM11 Three mounted officers in a variety of blue and white jackets from the Calpe Veterans Saxons march attack Saxons. Missing also are prone casualties figures of which von Peter himself needs far too many so as to mark the casualties he invariably racks up playing games!

Enough of mere puny words. Bring on some pictures. First to repeat the normal caveats regarding these photographs first …

• The figures are presented as they arrived excepting that the larger runners inherent in the casting progress have been removed with the fingers of von Peter himself. The same fingers straightened any bent muskets etc
• the figures have been cunningly rearranged between the front and back photographs so that the figures in the matching front and back photographs match left to right. Ahh … that is to say for example that the figure second on the left is the same figure in the front and back photos. If this has not been adequately explained then don’t worry about it as it probably doesn’t matter. Just be aware that von Peter himself went that extra step in the service of The dear reader
• von Peter himself has ‘washed’ the figures with ‘Shader Black’ from Coat d’arms to bring out the details little
• While marvelling at the figures please remember that they are presented in larger than life size … depending on the dear readers device!
• The english descriptor with each pack has been ‘devised’ by von Peter himself. The pack code identifier is as set by Calpe Miniatures
• ‘Click’ the photos for a larger and clearer image.

Above: S14 – standard bearer, sapper, NCO, drummer, 2 musketeers with covered shakos

Above: S15 – standard bearer, sapper, NCO, drummer, 2 musketeers with calfskin covered shakos

Above: S16 – standard bearer, sapper, NCO, drummer, 2 musketeers with uncovered shakos

Above: S17 – Officers in blue Interimsuniform, 3 with covered shakos and 1 with calfskin covered shakos

Above: S18 – Officers in white coats, 3 with covered shakos and 1 with calfskin covered shakos

Above: S19 – 4 officers, with uncovered shakos, 2 in blue Interimsuniform on the left and 2 in white coats on the right

Above: S20 – 4 NCOs – 2 with covered shakos, 1 with calfskin covered shako and 1 with uncovered shako

Above: S21 – 2 enthusiastic musketeers and 2 falling casualties. The dynamic posing was a challenge for the limited local photographic skills!

And most importantly … these packs will all appear on the Calpe Miniatures website eventually but they are all available for purchase as of right now.

 

Summer reading

As part of the Christmas & New Year holiday regime von Peter himself has read the latest historic novel from Harry Sidebottom entitled Blood & Steel …

BLOOD AND STEEL is the second book in the epic Throne of the Caesars series, set in third century Rome; a dramatic era of murder, coup, counter-rebellions and civil war. 

von Peter himself would rate this volume as being more immediately accessible than the preceding Iron & Rust probably because of the ground work laid in Iron & Rust.

There is a rumour that Mr Harry Sidebottom will be reinforcing his wargaming bonafides by partaking in a demonstration game at the first Partizan wargaming convention in 2016. Said rumour states that the scenario used will be based on a battle from one of Mr Sidebottom’s novels. Further the game will be moderated by Simon Miller’s – he of The BigRedBatCave blog fame – To the Strongest! rules and use the figures of Phil Hendry. This should provide quite the spectacle … … … and it is to be trusted that such a frolicsome outing will in no way slow the writing of the third book of the Throne of the Caesars series!!

 

Paint pot lids

A while back von Peter himself whined on just a little about hobby paints supplies in New Zealand which lead to the ordering of 31 Coat d’arms from Black Hat Miniatures. With the arrival of the credit card bill von Peter himself was happy to see that each paint pot came in well under what the competitors charge locally and for a larger quantity of paint in each pot. Hurrah … possibly a win. ‘Possibly a win’ as von Peter himself is yet to use them though The son & heir reports that the paints are fine.

Though the Coat d’arms bottles / pots seal well von Peter himself has had problems in the past with the style of pot. The clumsy – no names need be mentioned here! – will occasionally break the ‘tab’ off the pot lid which makes for a much MUCH less easily opened pot of paint. This need no longer be a problem however as von Peter himself has stumbled upon the realisation that Black Hat Miniatures sell Paint Pot Lids for £0.15. Hurrah! acclaim the clumsy and destructive.

 

Inspirational Seven Years War and some Piquet ideas

If The dear reader is a fan off war games porn and an elevated figure painting rate then they could do worse than keep an eye on James Roach’s Olicanalad’s Games blog. His latest – and all most complete – Seven Years War project provides some wonderful eye candy. James uses the Piquet ruleset and its offshoots … he has even authored some of those offshoots. The post Testing some new ideas for Piquet – SYW battle report provides both some fine pictures of his Seven Years War project and his tinkering with Piquet

Until we meet again …

Salute
von Peter himself

Aggressive Corsican chappie instigates battle

Brandenburg Dragoons glory. Having chomped their way through some cavalry and survived the canister the dragoons are about to claim a Bavarian battery … though to be fair to the gunners it did take a couple of rounds of melee.

1813 Central Europe and the struggle between the Evil Overlord Napoleon and the would be oppressed nations of freedom loving pacifists <sounds a bit twee really but we’ll go with it – “in for a penny, in for a pound” and all that> continues unabated. The Evil Overlord has decreed that yet another attempt on Berlin is to be made.

“No loss of men is too great. They are but minions to my destiny after all.

DELIVER ME BERLIN!” *

* To be spoken with an atrociously stereotyped French Evil Overlord accent.

He really can’t abide peace loving people living in peace. And so it came to pass that a portion of the Berlin bound French force was intercepted in the vicinity of Gross Badsdorf and Klein Badsdorf … and one or two windows got broken.

Can you guess which side von Peter himself played on yet?

The French force consisted of two divisions. The first was that of General de Division Terry and was stuffed full of Frenchmen stiffened with a Young Guard regiment. The second was mostly provided by German allies of France – Bavarians with a couple of battalions each of Saxons and French – commanded by Generallieutenant Craig.

Opposing the hordes of tyranny – you must surely know by now on which side von Peter himself was placed – was a Prussian force lead by Generallieutenant Simon and an allied Russian force ably lead by Feldmarschal von Peter himself.

Overall the French had more battalions, the Allies more cavalry and a little more artillery. Being 1813 both sides had a few elite units but more Trained Militia in their order of battle.

The fates of war were to be decided by the Piquet Master Rules and the second edition Les Grognards Napoleonic supplement as supplied Piquet Inc. It had been a while since any of us had played ‘classic’ Piquet but the rules soon came back to us … in the main!

The engagement was to be a classic meeting engagement with the forces discovering each other in a haphazard manner. That was the plan anyway with the various brigades arriving where desired but with indeterminate timing. On the day though most of the brigades came on fairly quickly with the exception of the French Division who seemed to be keen to watch their German allies suffer a little before risking any Frenchmen. Classic French tactics!  8O)

Prussian response to Bavarian aggression against Klein Badsdorf. They have just battled their way into the church and are contesting the rest of the town. Of course no one should ever neglect the Up2 for “Deployed in town”. That would reflect very poorly on one’s martial training!

Naturally the game was called before it had ended as people were required elsewhere. For those not in the know Piquet uses a system of Morale Chips to adjudicate the winner of a battle. Morale Chips are assigned on a variable basis dependent on the number of units and the quality of those units in an army. The number of these Morale Chips are decreased through the game in numerous ways including stands lost, melees lost, units routing, forcing morale checks on enemy units etc. Get down to zero Morale Chips and you are in danger of withdrawing from the field. Three of the four divisions were down to around 5 or 7 Morale Chips when the game was called. General de Division Terry still had 22 odd!!

Additionally the French held Gross Badsdorf while Klein Badsdorf was disputed.

The Russians had got to Gross Badsdorf first but had been tossed out in double quick time by the French who first shot them up and then evicted them at the point of Monsieur Bayonet in an extremely rude and abrupt manner. A counter attack was all set to go in with a mighty “Hurrah” and a scattering of empty vodka bottles when the brave General de Division Terry was suddenly needed elsewhere. Hmmm!! The dear reader is welcome to draw their own conclusions. 8O)

Over at Klein Badsdorf the Bavarians had taken complete possession but had been evicted from the church and the Prussians were contesting the remainder. All this easy exchange of real estate was beginning to elicit some discussion when it was realised that we’d all been ignoring a positive “Up 2” for the defender when “Deployed in towns”. That would have made a difference so it’s back to Staff College for all involved! Simultaneous to the trade in Real Estate the Bavarians had blown a hole in the Prussian lines so there was still plenty to play for.

Tactically a French minor victory. Strategically an Allied victory because as all students of history will be aware Berlin was never retaken by the French in 1813. And von Peter himself is hardly biased at all in his summation of the end game situation … not even a littlest bit!!  8O))

Above: in the distance the Russians mass in preparation for the retaking of Gross Badsdorf. The dear reader may wonder at the lack of French in this graphic but they had already left Schloss von Peter when the graphic was obtained. This also accounts for the angle at which the graphic was framed.

The battle saw the “blooding” of two brand new units, a brand new command base and the introduction of The son & heir’s Silesian Volunteer Jager IR 11 (1. Silesian) to a big battle as opposed to the Sharp Practice skirmishing they had experienced to date. Despite the anticipated poor performance expected of freshly raised units all performed well – even if some were not exactly placed under an excessive strain. The new units and command will be revealed to the dear readers soon. The Volunteer Jager was outed in von Peter himself got all forgetful!.

Murawski Miniatures announces first ever sale!!

Many of the dear readers will be familiar with the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Warsaw range of figures as produced by Murawski Miniatures. FYI Murawski Miniatures are having a sale to help fund the extension/completion of their Polish range. Details can be found on The Miniature Page at Murawski Miniatures Announces First-Ever Sale.

The Murawski Miniatures range is available from Eureka Miniatures of Melbourne, Australia for us Southern Hemisphere types. I’m not sure what this means for sales from Eureka. Probably nothing von Peter himself suspects.

And as a second FYI for the nosey curious types … the proprietor of Murawski Miniatures has a blog RTB at Large.

As always don’t forget to <click> on any image for a larger and clearer view.

Until we meet again …

Salute

von Peter himself