Joyeux Noël!!

I wish you all health, lots of gaming and tons of new figures in the new year. 

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, Part VI

A few weeks back Curt sent me the now customary email "Hey, want to join the next Challenge?". Now, that's a ridiculous idea to even contemplate. Half my stuff is in boxes, including some paints and a lot of miniatures, I spend my evening dealing with notary and bank stuff, my week-ends will be spent working on my new house. I have absolutely no time to give to that crazy Challenge.

So I said yes.

When Curt sends me an invitation to the challenge...

I just can't...say no. The Challenge has become such a winter tradition, it would be like skipping on Christmas or something. I even went for the 500 pts target. Honestly, there's no way I'm reaching that, and there's a good chance I'll not even get close to that, but damn it, I'll give it my best shot! After all, this year's Challenge is about risk takers, right?

And this year, I'm going rogue! No planning, no list of what I want to do, no specific projet to start or finish. I'll just pick stuff that is available (i.e. not in boxes) and stuff I can paint with the material available to me (i.e. not in boxes). So expect the unexpected! Expect a weird bunch of unrelated stuff. I embrace...Chaos!!

Just paint baby! 

What happened to Iannick?!

Yes, indeed, why have I gone AWOL for so many months?

Well, mostly because of this...

This is a picture of my garage, and the water you see is dripping from my main floor. Yes, I've had a massive flooding due to a ruptured toilet pipe (speedway) which ruined pretty much my entire first floor (because obviously it had to break while I was away). Rotten bad luck, apparently. Wooden floors, ceramic floors, kitchen modules, bathroom, bottom of walls, everything was ruined!

And the worst part?

Our house was put up for sale a week before that! How unlucky is that?

So Laurie and I spent more than 2 months living in a hotel, with 2 cats, while our first floor was being redone pretty much completely (thank God for insurances). We came home a few weeks ago.

In those months, we managed to find a beautiful house (with a basement!! all mine. GAMING ROOM!) and we made an offer on it, which was accepted. Between last year's health problems and this year two water problems we figured Karma owed us.

Now we just have to sell our current home. Anyone looking for a lovely (and completely renovated) townhouse in Montreal?

So as you can guess the hobby took a back seat to real life crap. In fact, I even avoided most of the blogs and forums I follow, because it was too difficult to not being able to participate in all of it (so if you noticed my absence it wasn't personal). I also cut all hobby spending (this whole process is kind of freakin' expensive!). Basically, I completely moved away from my hobby out of necessity.

Now I'm back home, half my stuff is in boxes, my main painting area is no more (replaced by a nice living room table...you know home staging) but I feel like painting again. And out of sheer foolhardiness I joined the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge for this year...so I guess this blog should be slightly more active, well that is until I move. Yeah, probably a few more hectic months in front of me. 

So really, this post is just my polite way to tell you all that I'm still alive!

Duchy of Warsaw Hussars

The very first pictures of Murawski's Duchy of Warsaw Hussars, sculpted by Mr Hicks.
To be released this fall

Dashing, are they not?!

Murawski Miniatures now on Facebook!

So if you are of that young and hip generation (like me ;-) ) who uses that tool, come follow us!

Napoleonics in all it's (live) glory

I'm sure you've all by now seen hundreds of pictures of the Waterloo reenactment, but I wanted to share this picture, which is really awesome. It's a trip back time, and you can almost smell the gunpowder!

OK, and just one more, some of my favourites; Austrian Grenadiers. Less is often more, as evidenced by this superb uniform.

Revisiting my TYW collection II (The GenFZM Breuner regiment)

Some pics of another foot regiment painted a few years back for my Imperialist army : The GenFZM Breuner regiment.

The GenFZM Breuner regiment was one of three regiment raised by the Breuner family, and one of the oldest of Wallenstein's army, being raised in 1618. 

We actually know of at least one example of a flag at Lutzen that belonged to a Breuner regiment, problem being of course we don't know which one! As such, I went for conjuctural flags for this regiment, and figured I would give the other Breuner regiment the historical flag. I went with a orange and yellow theme, keeping with a concept of choosing warm colours for the Imperialists. Most of the flags for this project were custom made by Maverick Flags, based on Wilkes plates (i believe the majority of the TYW Imperial flags from Maverick range were commissioned by yours truly!). The flags are made of cloth, a material I quite enjoyed working with. It's a lot more durable than paper, is easier to "damage" and it takes longer to dry, allowing more time to shape it into how you want it to look.

The battle damaged flags; the joys of working with cloth

The figures are from Emil Horky excellent range of TYW (except for the officer base, made up of a Foundry officer and a Warlord musician). At the time I painted this unit, Emil had just a few poses available, but the range has grown since then with many more wonderful sculpts. They are some of the most accurate TYW figures available. 

The officer is one of my favourite TYW figure, so full of caracter

Another foot unit next week, or possibly a cavalry unit...now if you'll excuse me I have to go digest that Game of Thrones finale I just watched...

Oberst Hans Philipp v. Breuner

Revisiting my TYW collection

Les grands embrasements naissent de petites étincelles. (Infernos always starts from a small spark)

Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Cardinal de Richelieu, Testaments politiques

The astute reader might have notice a lack of new painting recently on this blog; I've been plagued by a provincial healthcare reorganisation (work) and a water leak (home) which have drained most of my time. The water leak in turn became a complete bathroom renovation, with all the lovely activities it entails (who in their right mind doesn't love to go ceramic shopping?!). The living room, where my painting desk is located, also has suffered and will soon have a new ceiling and new painted walls. The desk has disappeared for the moment and all paints and brushes put in boxes. And all of this knowing we will probably move in a matter of months. Good times...

Anyways, this create lack of painting time, as well as lack of painting space. And I know you wargamer lot are a fickle bunch who will quickly forget about my blog if I don't regularly feed your insatiable appetite for miniature porn. Y'all make me sick! ;-)

So yeah, a good moment as any to revisit my Thirty Years' War Imperialists army, painted 5 years ago (man time flies by!). It was build not really as a gaming project, but rather as a display project, based on the Lützen battle. I just really love the era and the look of the regiments. And those flags! I have the figures needed for their Swedish adversaries. One day...

Anyways I recently photographed the army for a project, and I figured this might be of interest to some of you. First because the pictures are much better than my old ones and second because I'm sure many of you never visited my old site. And third, that porn addiction I talked about earlier...

So let's start today with the first Thirty Year War regiments I painted, possibly still today my favourite, the Comargo Regiment.

The Comargo regiment was a Catholic League veteran regiments. Raised in 1619, it performed admirably well at Lützen, largely responsible for the destruction of the crack Old Blue brigade of the Swedish army.

As far as uniforms are concerned, I had no information on this regiment, other than the fact it seems it was once issued blue coats, long before Lützen. Since they are my only Catholic league infantry unit, I went with a pale blue coat; pale blue being the colour of Bavaria, main patron of the Catholic League. I of course mixed other colours in there to get a semi-uniformed look. However, I restricted my palette to a few shades of browns (often the same brown tone but lighter or darker) and greys in order to get a imho better look. The socks and sashes are mostly red, a favourite of the Bavarians and Imperialists it seems. And I used my love of bright colours on the bows, a joy to paint. Yes, I'm aware many gamers picture the period more dark and less bright, but I stayed true to myself and my style of painting.

The unit is made-up entirely of figures from the TYW and ECW Foundry range, except from one injured figure from Warlord games. Purists will probably tell me there are some historical innacuracies (later ECW dress being slightly different from continental fashions of the 1630s), but it's well within the acceptable for me. 

Oberst Theodor Comargo and his drummer Hans Boehm 

The flags are from a unknown catholic league regiment, as far as I could tell there is no info on Comargo's colours at Lützen, so I just went with flags I liked. 

Hope you liked the trip down memory lane, another foot regiment coming next week!

Foundry Biblical range resurrected!

We continue on with the Easter thematic this week ;-)

I just saw that Foundry Biblical range has been completely rearranged and put "au goût du jour" on their Website. It is in my humble opinion one if not THE best Foundry range, and certainly one of my all-time favourite (just don't buy the chariots, royal pain in the a** to assemble they are!). 

Foundry also gets a free sales pitch from yours truly; biblical is one of the most underappreciated period outhere, and even in the Ancients wargaming scene is usually seen as a "parent pauvre" to the Greeks and other favourites. Give it a try folks; unless you despise painting flesh, they are a joy to paint, the history is fantastic and it makes for a nice change from the usual but so often seen Roman legions (yawn). Yes, chariots are a pain to paint, but they. look. so. nice. 

Now, go ahead and click on that nice image and enjoy the fantastic period of warrior-kings, Pharaohs and chariots. You can thank me later. Or invite me over for a game.

New command figures from Murawski

Retreat from Moscow Command

Some new figures this month from Murawski Miniatures; a command pack.

There are 6 figures in the set, 3 of which are cast open handed, allowing them to be equipped with a musket, halberd, or eagle.  

There are also 2 drummers: 

Roger is also going to throw in the middle figure (pic above) for “free” whilst stocks last as the sword didn’t come out properly!  We don’t really know why but you can use him as is or trim the sword off.

Pack price will be: £9.50 for the seven figures

Also the officer casualty figure is now available.

He can be acquired 3 ways :

• £2 plus shipping
• FOC with orders over £50
• As part of the GDW casualty pack for £5

As usual, you can order through Murawski Miniatures website 

Maryanna of the King

Biblicals for Easter! Can't be more thematic than that!

My last submission of the painting challenge was a unit of Canaanite Royal Guards, "the Maryanna of the King". I just found time to put them on my blog today, as I've been swamped with real life issues recently (like a water leak in my ceiling!)

Each Canaanite city-state had its cast of maryannu, professionnal warrior whose wealth derived from his holding of a fief. Among the general warrior caste of maryanna was an inner elite of "picked men" (na'arun). These elite units comprised infantry as well as chariotry. From these picked men, a small battle guard called the Maryanna of the King served as Royal Guards.

We know very little about the appearance of these soldiers, so I had the choice to use pretty much any colours I wanted. My royal guard chariotry is dressed in  purple so I had to include the colour, and then I used turquoise for the shield and on the command group to differentiate them from my other elite soldiers. It looks like the kind of expensive colours a truly elite unit of the time would wear. While it is probably doubtful they had a common uniform, kings from the Pharaoh to Murat always enjoyed dressing up their elite soldiers so I figure why not? I will gladly accept pictures to prove me wrong. 

I find the bronze of the armour, helmets and weapons gives them a shiny look which works wonder as an elite and spoiled bunch. I normally am not a fan of single pose infantry, but it works well for troops which would be highly disciplined and it will make them stand out in my Canaanite army.

With this unit, I am but a few chariots away and one small unit from finishing my Canaanite army, and actually respecting to the letter the plan I drew up around 2 years ago. That, is not something I manage often!

This unit helped me reached my goal and, even surpassed it! Yeah me! First time I manage that. I'll post a quick post-mortem of the challenge in a few days.

Engagement at Kalisz AAR

A few weeks ago we played a Napoleonic game, using Lasalle. It had been quite a while since we played the period, and I was keen on trying my Duchy of Warsaw troops. As such the game was not very historical, as we used it to put on the table my newly painted Poles as well as other recently painted stuff. We also used this situation as an excuse to use the rarely seen Brunswickers from John.

The game was a very close affair, but in the end the Franco-Polish forces emerged victorious.

The protagonists 

French Empire, under the leadership of Rusti

Duchy of Warsaw, yours truly. For lack of painted artillery, we had to use Bavarian artillery...

Austrian Empire, controlled by Nicolas

The forces of the Duke of Brunswick, under John

The initial set-up

The Hungarian grenadier garison

The fight starts on the East flank

The Black Brunswickers begin crossing the bridge

The French, as per their DNA, move aggressively towards the Austrians

The Austrians adopt a defensive position

The Poles advance in order to protect the West flank from the incoming Black troops

The Austrians and French trade fire as the French keep moving forward

The Brunswick cavalry (top) go around the forest to threat the Poles flanks

2nd battalion of the 8th regiment is sent to answer the cavalry threat

2nd battalion of the 8th regiment in position

The Polish artillery deploy and unleash murderous fire into the advancing Brunswickers

The elite Hungarian Grenadiers, courageous to a fault, leave the city of Kalisz to charge the french

Both French and Polish artillery keep pounding at the enemy

The Hungarian Grenadiers charge but suffer casualties from a very well placed volley from the defending French battalion

The Brunswickers approach the defending Polish forces

The Grenadiers are pushed back, and can feel the Warsaw forces approaching on their flanks

The Brunswick deploy their battalions

Gen von Geck, the Austrian commander, sees his line pushed back by the relentless French assaults

The Landwher bravely faces the veteran legions of the French

The Austrian battery hammers round after round the French linesto little success

The 1st Battalion of the 8th regiment of the Duchy of Warsaw stands its ground in front of Brunswick's fire

The Hungarian Grenadiers, who just moved backwards, faced with mounting casualties, are charged by fresh Polish forces

The Hungarian grenadiers break from the Polish charge, and the remnants of the battalion hides in the city

The French battalions charge the Landwher

The Upper Austrian Landwher, after valiantly taking a french battalion in hell with them, breaks, leaving the unreliable Salzburg Landwher all alone

On the other flank the Brunswickers and Poles exchange fire, to little results

The Brunswick cavalry manages to go behind the Polish lines, who move to face the menace. Alas it comes too late for the allies.

Carnage on the Austrian line; the Salzburg Landwher are destroyed, the Austrian eastern flank collapses!

Conclusion

The destruction of the Landwher, combined with the quasi-destruction of the elite Grenadiers were a huge blow for the Austrians. On the other flank, while taking little damage the Brunswickers were simply incapable of breaking the steadfast Poles. Left with little chances of victory, the allies  leave the battlefield as night sets in. The French, exhausted, choose not to follow. Marginal victory for the Franco-Polish force.

Post mortem

• It was a fun and beautiful game which felt like a real Napoleonic battle.We all loved seeing the lines of battle move like a real battle would.
• Rusty and his French were the hero of the day, relentlessly attacking the poor Austrians, who's defensive lines simply could not hold up.
• The plan of the Franco-Polish force worked well; the Poles were to hold the western flank while the French were to aggressively go after the Austrians, and then move to the Brunswick's back (it didn't get to this for lack of time).
• The lack of space on the western flank really hampered the movement of my Duchy of Warsaw forces. While I successfully fended off John's attacks, my initial deployment was too crowded. In hindsight I should've put a battalion or two West of the forest. I was afraid they would get shredded by the Brunswick artillery from the other side of the river. That almost cost us as the Brunswick cavalry managed, but too late, to go behind our lines. 
• Lasalle is a good game, but we are now ready to apply some house rules. In particular, the artillery is way underpowered. All 4 batteries on the table had many clear view and opportunities to do damages, but the rules simply did not allow us to take advantage of this.
• The game was a close affair, and might've been very different with better marksmanship from the Brunswickers. As it was, the Poles holding their line and taking little damage allowed the French to all-out attack and concentrate all but one battalion against the Austrians.
• Props to Nicolas, who sacrificed the Landwher but managed to keep almost all of his regulars intact (well apart from the Grenadiers). That will make the Austrian high command happy! 
• It was the first time Rusti and I got to play as ally, and I think we were a good pair and complement each other well. Next Napoleonic game, it might be time to pair John and I together, which I believe never happened.
• It takes forever to write an AAR! I wanted to write this one earlier but all my free time was spent painting for the Analogue painting challenge.