Spotted on ebay

Bob contact me about a copy of Minature Wargames which was on sale on ebay recently.

 

'Are those your Poles' he asked me.  I looked at the pictures on ebay and was surprised to see a picture of my old 15mm Minifigs Polish Army on the back cover.  To be honest I have no recollection of what happened to them back then.  I must have sold them on.

Back Cover

Bob took all the pictures back them using his 35mm camera and of course there was no 'blog' or internet to publish pictures on.   He sent some picture of various figures to the editor of Miniature Wargames and clearly the editor used this one.  It relates to nothing in the magazine and their is no credit for the picture or the figures.

The picture brought back some memories of the figures and games against Bob's 15mm Peter Laing's Lithuanian army.  The buildings were made of paper/card and Bob imported them from the old Eastern Bloc before the fall of the Berlin Wall!

1866 Austrians and Allies take on Prussians and their Allies

Finally got around to having the game with Jack and Bob that I threatened.  Way too many figures but an opportunity to show them to Jack who hadn’t seen them before, despite making a number of the moulds for me.

It started as a game using Black Powder but quickly degenerated into more of a chatting match.  After Jack had his second glass of Shiraz and a bacon sandwich and we discussed which of us was going to get to the pearly gates first this just turned into a photo shoot opportunity.  So lots of pictures not much text but we enjoyed ourselves which was all that mattered.

On the Prussian left flank is a brigade of light and heavy cavalry consisting of Hussars, Uhlans and Cuirassiers

 

The next to them a brigade of Allied troops from Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Lippe and Saxe Coburg

 The centre is made up of Prussian infantry supported by artillery

On the right is another allied brigade of troops from Brunswick, Bremen and Waldeck

On the extreme right is another Brigade of cavalry consisting of 2 regiments of Prussian Dragoons and Dragoons from Mecklenburg and Oldenburg. 

  

 The Austrians had a mixed force of Austrian. Bavarians, and Wurtemburgers supported by troops from Nassau, Saxony, Scheswig Menningan, Baden and Hesse Kessel.  On the right was a mixed brigade of cavalry with Austrain Uhlans, Bavarian Cuirassiers and Light dragoons and Hesse Kessel Hussars.

 

Supported by Wurtettemburgers and Bavarians  in the centre and the Austrians on the left flank.

 Jack and Bob plot the Prussian strategy. Which quickly goes to pot as Jack never seeing the opportunity to wait with his cavalry launches a frontal assault on the Austrian artillery and Jagers on the hills to his front.

  

The Mecklenburgh Hussars charge the Austrian artillery.  Needless to say they are driven away.

 The same is true for the first regiment of dragoons who are charging up hill into the Austrian Jagers.

A lot of head scratching about what to do next.  Withdraw the remaining cavalry or plough on!   This is of course Jack and retiring isn't part of his vocabulary so they charge on!

 In the centre the Prussian infantry brigades advance

The Prussian artillery enjoy some success routing an Austrian regiment

 Poor Austrian artillery allows the Oldenburg Hussars to charge home routing the gunners but at the same time running into the Austrian cavalry brigade who drive them back.

 The second regiment of Prussian Dragoons also enjoy success with some pitiful rifle fire failing to stop them they rout the Jagers.

Jack celebrates this brief cavalry victories.

In the centre the Bavarians close on their Prussian enemy.

 The Prussian regiments form a formidable firing line 

The second glass of Shiraz slows the thought process!

The Bavarians quickly try to counter the Prussian firing line.

The combined allied cavalry of the right finally get moving and charge the Prussian Hussars who are put to flight

 

 The Austrian allies and Prussians firing line grows in length.  Unfortunately, the actual firing ranges from feeble to pathetic and even the extra boost given to the Prussians fails to have any effect.

Another Prussian Hussar Regiment is put to flight.

 Even at close range the firing is hopeless

 The Brunswickers and Bremen infantry rush to join the fray.

 Still the deadlock goes on.   The Austrians throw the last of their allied reserves into the firing line but still both sides remain locked in a series of hopeless firing throws and good saving dice

At this point and with 2 glasses of Shiraz and a bacon sandwich having an effect we decided to call it a day.

A Good couple of weeks

It has been a really good couple of weeks from my point of view.   I have been able to find good wargaming homes for Jack’s hand built ships and some of the figures and at the same time put names to faces of some fellow wargamers who I had only spoken to by email or on their Blog sites and to raise some money for Cancer Research at the same time.  I am looking forward to seeing pictures and the figures in action.  Of course like all good wargamers I passed on tasks as well as finished products painting Jacklex ships crews for the most part and I will be interested to see what, if any, different approach is made to painting these ‘Jolly Jack Tars’.  For my part I kept them as bare metal for more years than I care to think about!

I had great pleasure in meeting a fellow blogger ‘Bob The Painter’ (Douglas Miniatures.blogspot.co.uk)  last week and looking very enviously at his marvellous collection of figures and terrain.  I had always thought Bob Black and I were a bit odd as we had never settled or specialised on a particular period.   Imagine my joy at seeing all the different and beautifully painted period that Bob the Painter (too many Bob’s) has tucked away and not feeling quite so odd. 

Many thanks for a great few hours Bob in which I felt normal and cancer was a million miles away!  That is one of the joys of our hobby it can distract you from all the daily grind for a few hours and take you to far flung places of imagination.  You know we are really very lucky.

I also had the opportunity to exchange emails and eventually talk to Mark Lodge the new owner of the Jacklex range produced by our fellow gamer Jack Alexander.  Over the years Jack has produced one off figures for games he and I, or the 3 of us, have played which never made it into commercial production.  Over time Bob and I have sorted some (a very few) of Jack’s collection of hundreds of moulds lying in boxes in his garage and so I knew where to find bits that were not parts of the range that Spenser Smith used to offer or were simply deemed missing.  I believe that when Mark launches the range hopefully in September this will be the most comprehensive Jacklex 20mm range to ever have been marketed.  This is a wonderful range and I look forward to carrying more details on both this and our sister blogsite All Things Jacklex over the coming months.

Bob's 28mm Ottoman Army

Whenever we have a game using Bob’s Ottoman and Renaissance armies, the number of hits on the blog are high and there is clearly a real interest in both the figures and the period.

On wet days I like to get my armies out of their boxes and see what I have and take pictures and post them.

When we play with Bob’s figures, invariably we only use a part of his armies so I convinced him to open all the boxes and lay out all his Ottomans, probably for the first time to see what he had and I took some pictures.  The pictures don’t do real justice to the numbers of figures and the mass effect of such a large army.  Bob has added a bit here and there over time as we all do and it was stunning to see them all out in one go.

Having done this for the first time Bob has decided that we should record all his armies so look out for some more mass effect, heraldry and unusual figures!  

I make no apologies for the number of pictures.  Bob has also added a narrative about the different makes.

'I bought an Ottoman army from Essex. The bulk of the Janissaries (pics 1+2) came from this army, along with the Spahis. Rest of the Janissaries are from Irregular, who also supplied Spahis and light cavalry (pic 3). The light cavalry includes Balkan cavalry, Turks, as well as Huns and other steppe riders. '

 'The “mob” are six large bases of white coated infantry from Lancashire Games, with assorted hand weapons (pics 7+8 + 23). '

 'The six Sultan’s guard each with a different banner are castings from a Polish souvenir that Alan brought back from Poland in 1994.'

'Guns are from Old Glory, Irregular, and a mortar with crew and accessories from Eureka Miniatures. There’s also a unit of Turkish pirates from Eureka(18)'

'There are figures from Hinchcliffe, Parkfield, Redoubt, and Pechenegs from 1^st Corps, as well some old Minifigs.