Fischer's Chasseurs

Another iconic unit from the Kleine Krieg, this time for the French Army.  Fischer's Chasseurs were formed for the War of Austrian Succession by Johann Fischer, a German officer who distinguished himself at the Siege of Prague.  By the Seven Years War it included mounted and dismounted chasseurs.  They were one of the best light units in the SYW and served in an awful lot of Kleine Krieg actions.  Late in the SYW , the unit was given to the Duke of Conflates with Fischer continuing as second in command until his death in 1762.

This unit represents 6 dismounted chasers plus an officer.  There were supposed to be 2 groups of 6 plus officers, but it turns out that I can't add.  I ended up with 2 officers and 6 other ranks instead of 12.  Oh well, that will be rectified eventually.   To avoid postal gouging I ordered these to be delivered to my dad when I was visiting the Uk in May.  They were painted up on my return in June and took part in our first SP2 action (albeit with plain bases).  Since then I have added texture and fluff to the bases.

The figures are from From Rank, and these are the first Front Rankers that I've painted.  I have to say that I was impressed with the figures and I will likely get more.  I expect to remain a mainly Perry man for a variety of reasons, but it's nice to have a variety.  In this case I went with Front Rank as there aren't many options for a light infantry figure in a mirliton.

Pike and Shotte Inspiration

Gaze on ye mortals and be humbled....

You have likely seen photos of the game on the Perry's site and FB page.  These two bloggers did the armies involved.

Army Royal

Je Lay Emprins.

Seven Years War Inspiration

I caught this in Monday's online edition of the Guardian.

On a slightly different note I also found this trailer, with similar stunning visuals and equally impressive sound track.

Luckner's Hussars

This unit for my Sharp Practice Seven Years War project was in action a month or back in our first game, but I've never posted pictures of the unit itself.

Luckner's Hussars were a Hanoverian unit and one of the iconic regiments of the campaign in Western Germany.  They were everywhere and heavily involved in the Kleine Krieg.  The figures are from the Perry Plastic box set of Napoleonic British Hussars.  So yes let's hear it from the button counters and war-games fashion police.  I had the box on hand, and except for the leg wear and shabraques the uniforms are pretty damn close to one another.  So yes officially, the shabraques should have the long swallow tailed corners seen on the officer figure instead of thew smaller saddle blankets seen on the other ranks.  And they should have the tight Hussar breeches with leggings and high boots instead of overalls.  I rationalize both of these by saying a hard run unit would have stripped down to more practical wear.  However, the fur hats, dolman and pelisse look spot on and the poses one gets from these perry figures are marvellous.

I've painted these figures (6 plus officer and trumpeter) in the later uniform, white dolman with red pelisse and fur hat, adopted in 1760.  The earlier uniform had a green dolman and pelisse and a  mirliton or flugelmutze, to use the lovely German term.  It was changed as it was nearly identical to that worn by the mounted members of Fischer's Chasseurs in the opposing French army.

The regiment's colonel Nikolas Luckner is pretty much the poster child for Lace Wars Soldeirs of Future.  A full bio can be found at the excellent Kronoskaf site, but the basics are as follows.

• Born in the Palatinate, he joined the Bavarian Army and transferred to a Friekorps unit.
• During the War of Austrian Succession (WAS), the Bavarians rented their army out to the Dutch Republic and Luckner served in the Dutch Army as a member of the Frangipani Hussars
• At the end of the WAS he resigned from the Bavarian Army, by which time he had acquired a rich Dutch Wife
• At the start of the Seven Years Was, he raised his regiment of hussars for the Hanoverian army. He served with distinction throughout the SYW but retired in 1763 at the war's end.
• Late he was approached by the French and Russian armies, and joined the former as a Lieutenant General in 1767.  In 1784 he became a Danish Count and in 1790 a French citizen.
• Still serving the French at the out break of the Revolution he became a Marshall and lead the Armies of the Rhine and North with success.  His successes were memorialized in a popular tune which later became the Marseillaise.
• As the revolution got more radical, he was removed from command along with other nobles.  He retired to his estate but came back to Paris asking about his pension and was guillotined during a purge.

You can't make this sh*t up!

Sharp Practice 2 Thoughts

Curt and I were both planning SP games for this weekend coming, but he got his note out first so mine will wait a week or two.  But the thought process (my brain hurts) made me realize that I had not posted my thought son the rule system following my AAR a few weeks ago.  So here goes.

·         Overall things ran smoothly, and gave a fun game with lots of action.  The system is intuitive and we got into the swing of the play very quickly.  All good stuff.

·         I liked the unit/leader activation system which gave suspense and randomness without being too wacky.  We used cards, but long term I will use poker chips.  I found it hard to adequately shuffle a small hand of cards, much to Stacy’s disgust as he had to take several random event rolls following the appearance of the 3^rd command card in a row.  If I don't get my poker chips painted in time (they are fiddly), I'll resort to fanning the cards and letting players choose one at random.

·         Getting the feel of when to use Command Cards will take a bit.  Stacy and Sylvain tended to hold on to them to make sure that units activated on the tiffin card, but I think that both made use of Cards for “Step Out” actions adding movement or prompted activations out of sequence

·         Movement is based on a number of d6s making it random, but that was just fine by me and it worked in practice.  Cavalry take some thought as they need to take a turn to slow down or speed up. 

·         Small arms fire was a snap to get – lots of d6s with simple to remember scores to hit.  We rarely need to resort to a table.  If three men in their 50s don’t need reminders, the system is pretty idiot proof!  Units need to test to stop uncontrolled fire once they start, which is something that we forgot to do.  

·         Artillery fire is also simple and can be deadly (or not).  Stacy cunningly placed his gun on a hill and Sylvain obligingly deployed on a hill in the line of fire.   In retrospect he could have avoided some of the fire by coming down off the hill but that didn’t seem obvious at the time.

·         I liked the differentiation between musket and rifle armed troops, and formed troops vs skirmishers.  Both sides’ skirmishers were effective, but Sylvain unfortunately turned his Jaegers rifles from a plus to minus by moving into close range.

·          Cavalry is brittle and tricky to use, as it should be.  Both players got their hussars into tricky spots where they were shot apart by musketry.  A learning opportunity hopefully!

·         We used a big table that allowed a lot of flexibility on deployment.  It also had the plus of letting both players get familiar with movement and activations before running into the enemy.  A few units on a big table gave a very nice feel.

·         We never got to fisticuffs so I have no idea how well that works!

·         As commented on the SP forum over at the lardies home, there are some unit points costs issues that need to be sorted out.  I went by the points in the book and may have given Stacy an advantage as the Brits seem overpriced.   We can work this out over time. 

Ad in conclusion I can't wait til we go tho the Penninsula with Curt's lads this week and hiope to go to Hesse soon with my SYW lads.

Shoes to Go With My Army, or an Army to Go With My Shoes

It is not often that one can claim that one has the army to go with one's shoes, but I have succeeded.  I present Exhibit A, a pair of Dr Martens emblazoned with Renaissance Italian Condotierri.  The art work is D'Antonio's Triumph of Camillus (original in the National Gallery)

These were acquired during our sojourn in the UK last month.  I originally saw these during our four day stay in London on arrival, but balked at that time.  However with encouragement from my wife and sister in law I went back during our London segment of the return journey from Bedford to Southampton and voila.  They became my father's day present from my wife, and a damn fine one they are at that.

And for the record I have worn them in public twice so far.  Once to supper at a Thai restaurant in Marylebone immediately after purchase and then again at the local theatre in Regina.  Londoners of course paid no attention to them, but I did get catch some odd glances from fellow theatre goers - I figure that it's good for them to stretch their horizons a little.

Sharp Practice Game AAR

Sylvain hits the claret as the French light troops explore the river line.  Small green dice mark the areas scouted so far.  Big red dice were used by Stacy to keep his leaders straight.  la maison Rheault on the far bank was built by Sylvain's pere and is a representation of his childhood home.

This week our local group had a first game with SP2 and using my SYW force.  The scenario was a recon action based on Scenario 13 Finding the Ford from CS Grant "Scenarios for All Ages".  Two forces of equal strength arrive at opposite corners of the table.  A river crosses the table from left to right, which is unfordable except for a rumoured ford that the players must find.  Victory goes to the side that holds both banks of the ford at end of play.

The French line of march.  Hussars at the river followed by Grenadiers, regulars and artillery deployed on the hill.

Sylvain took the Anglo-Allied forces with 4 groups of British infantry, a group of Hessian Jaegers and a group of Luckner's Hanoverian Hussars.  Stacy took the French with 4 groups of infantry, a group of Fischer's Chasseurs and a groups of the Bercheny Hussards.  The red coats and especially the jaegers had a higher point value than the French equivalents.  Therefore I upgraded two French infantry groups to Grenadiers and gave Stacy a light gun.  Adding a musician (Jaeger hornist) to the allies gave an even point total.

The Anglo-Allied advance.  Luckier's Hussars beyond the chalet, jaegers this side of it and regulars in the foreground.

We used Sylvain's terrain boards which are 4'x2' in dimension.  To get the river mid table we ended up with a roomy 8'x6' table, well over the minimum 4x6 that the rules recommend.  In retrospect the extra table was a great thing as it allowed for a lot more maneuver.  The initial turns gave us all a chance to get used to the turn sequence and movement rules and make the inevitable rules screw up when it didn't matter so much.

The Royal Scots bring up the rear.

As umpire I noted 6 possible ford locations and rolled a d6 to pick the actual ford, without revealing any of these to the players.  Units that were next to the river and allocated 1 of their 2 actions/turn to searching would reveal a 12" stretch of riverside.  The searching gave rise to some humourous moments particularly on the French side.  The Hussards were leading the way but always rolled down for movement while the Chasseurs always rolled high and were close to lapping the Hussards before the later finally located the ford directly to their front.

Luckier's Hussars search the riverline.

Stacy got the Chasseurs, Jaegers and a formation of regulars (two groups) across the river before Sylvain arrived in force, while the French gun set up on a hill and worried the Redcoats.  Both sides threw their cavalry away to get shot up by infantry and then it settled down to an infantry shoot out.  Aided by their gun and with fortunate and judicious use of command actions and cards to rally shock, Stacy's frenchmen won the shoot out and Sylvain's redcoat retired voluntarily.

Bercheny's finally get a move on and cross the ford.  Green gems mark shock as a result of highly effective rifle fire from the jaegers on the hill next to the chalet.  Fischer's Chasseurs approach the ford.  The French gun has caused a shock effect on the jaegers.

Thoughts on SP2 to follow in the next few days.

Luckier's quit skulking by the chalet and try skulking by the maison Rheault.  Unfortunately for them, Fischer's got there first and got off an effective volley into their flank.  On the other side of the maison, Bercheny's have rallied their shock.  The Jaegers have run up to the woods but find that they lost their advantage at longer range.  French regular approach the ford.

Having forced the Redcoats into squares, Bercheny's make a bold strike for the Allied deployment point.  The swamp to their front will slow then down in the field of fire and they would suffer the same fate as the french Hussars (both units retreated off board)  However, going into square meant that the Redcoats lost the race to the French regulars and suffered artillery fire.