1st Duchy of Warsaw skirmishers

Au menu today we have five Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw skimishers, from Murawski Miniatures. The figures are from the Voltigeurs in Full dress, campaign dress set as well as the new "extra" scruffy Campaign dress figures. And boy are they scruffy! Roger has a real problem and just keeps producing more and more Poles! The sheer variety is one of my favourite thing about the range, and oh if all Napoleonic armies could get this level of completeness and love (other than the French and British, the boring and annoying favourites, of course).

The figures are fusiliers and voltigeurs skirmishers from the Duchy of Warsaw 1st infantry regiment, presumably in the middle of an exhausting campaign! I'll probably end up using them for skirmishes set in the 1809 campaign between the Poles and the Austrians (and maybe Brunswickers 'cause they look cool).

They are meant for a small Napoleonic skirmish project I'm just starting, the goal to play really small scale skirmishes and maybe eventually bigger ones like Sharpe's Practice. But mostly, it's an excuse to give extra love to my favourite Napoleonic ranges: it seems I always paint Naps in batches of 16 or 24, and I wanted to work on small batches and individuals for a change. I must say it was a very different experience from batch painting Napoleonic battalions!

The Murawski figures are as usual lovely (I'm biased), and I'm always surprised I don't see more Duchy of Warsaw in blogs and on the battlefield, as it is really a lovely army with their distinctive Czapka and colourful facings.

So, for this entry that's 5 28mm figures, 25 pts.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, Part VII

Yes, the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is back for it's 7th year (I know, time flies). Better and bigger than ever, with 100 participants! While the Fantasy and Sci-Fi side of the Challenge will occupy the vast majority of my time, I do intend on working on a few things for this place.

So what's in store for this blog? Well two small projects, really.

1. Napoleonic skirmishes. I've got the skirmish bug recently, for both Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and I've been thinking of doing something similar for Naps. Really, it's an excuse to paint some of the many great skirmishing Napoleonic figures on the market. One of the things I like about skirmishes is the ability to spend more time on each figures, and it's something I especially never do with Naps. So I got myself Songs of Drums & Shakos, because I love the engine, and would like to create small 10-20 men forces. Eventually maybe I'll be able to use them in bigger skirmish games like Sharpe's Practice, although it is not my goal per se. What do we start with? Well some Poles from Murawski Miniatures, of course! Roger sent me this summer some of the new "Retreat from Moscow" skirmishers and they are really good looking. I'll use them for the 1809 Danube campaign to create a wonderfully ragged bunch. 
2. I'm having a side-duel (well two actually, you can read about the other one on my Marauders and Citadels blog) with Sander Van Straeten, who I met on a Facebook page. The duel is for "80s Military and Sci-Fi Pulp" and consists of a single entry, between 25 and 50 pts worth of infantry, along with one mandatory vehicle piece. Now, you may ask yourself "And what exactly is 80s Military Sci-Fi Pulp?". Well you'll find out! It's not the type of thing usually seen in this blog, but it should be a fun entry. Also, my very first 28mm vehicle. Wish me luck.
3. There's a 3...kinda. I reserve the right to work on anything else I feel like! It might be historical, it might be Pulp...heck it might be Zombies! If it's not strictly Sci-Fi or Fantasy, I'll post it here! 

Of course, the above doesn't include the bonus theme rounds, and my plan is to participate in all of them but one (I don't do terrain).

My goal for this Challenge is to hit 550pts, although I hope for more.

Grand Duchy of Baden, 2nd Regiment, 1st Battalion

Last Fall Murawski Miniatures released the first part of our new range; the Army of the Grand Duchy of Baden. I had been annoying Roger for a while, lamenting the absence of a proper Baden range in 28mm. Of all the Confederation of the Rhine contingents, it was my favourite and the army saw substantial action in my favourite campaign of 1809 in Austria. 

Eventually Roger gave in and put me in charge of most of the historical research, and I did a lot of the work creating the range along with sculptor Christian Ame, as Paul Hicks was unavailable to start working on a complete and extensive new Napoleonic range. I learned a lot, I must say, in this process. It's not easy working on a Napoleonic force, especially a small one like Baden. Conflictual sources abound, and there are so many details to get right. In the end I'm quite happy with our work, if not for a very small issue with the helmet's (raupenhelm) comb. But we did include details I've never seen before in a Baden range, like the small cartridge pouch worn on the belly suspended to the waistbelt of the Schützen (voltigeurs).

I received the figure in October but to my chagrin couldn't start work on them until 2016, completely swamped with real life issues. The Badeners had a very distinctive but great look, and I think we made them justice. Christian did a very good job.

So I finally finished my first battalion just yesterday. It was supposed to be my last and most glorious entry in the Analogue painting Challenge but house visits screwed up my plan. 

I decided to start with the 2nd regiment, as I'm always a sucker for yellow facings. The 1808 facings were as follow :

1808 uniform (w/ raupenhelm) (Taken from Blunders on the Danube)

No.	Title/Inhaber	Facings	Buttons, etc
1	Leib Regt Grossherzog	Scarlet w/ white lace	White
2	Erbgrossherzog	Deep Yellow	Yellow
3	von Harrant	Deep Red	White
4	von Porbeck*	White	Yellow

So here it is, the first battalion of the 2nd regiment, obviously set in 1809, proudly waving the white Leibfahne. 

The Grenadiers had red epaulets but white plumes, while the Schützen had both green epaulets and plumes; notice their belly cartridge pounch.

The collar, lapels, and cuffs were of the regimental facing colour but turnbacks for all regiments were scarlet.

Each of the 4 regiments received two flags, a Leibfahne which was given to the 1st Battalion and a Regimenterfahne which was carried by the 2nd Battalion. The flags were of a common design and differed only by the colour for each regiment. This did not necessarily equate to the regimental facing colours as the original flags were retain by their battalions when the regiments moved in the line seniority: 1st Regiment – Scarlet; 2nd Regiment – Scarlet; 3rd Regiment – Dark Blue, and 4th Regiment - Yellow. Obviously it was originally intended that each regiment carried flags matching their facing colours. Peter, over at Blunders on the Danube, decided to go with the intended logic and gave each of his regiment the flag matching it's facings. I almost followed in his footstep, as it indeed looks better. But since my battalions are going to be used extensively on our website and advertising, I thought it better to go with historical accuracy in this case. No matter the colour, those were rather superb flags!

The officers wore a Bicorne until the shako was adopted; they never wore the helmets. Gold or silver rank epaulets depending on the regiment. The front of the coat was made so that the lapels could be unbuttoned and closed over the breast; the right lapel folding inside the left which was then fastened using the buttons on the right of the coat. This gave the appearance of a double breasted coat with two rows of buttons down the front; the expensive colour faced lapels were thus protected during everyday wear or when on campaign. The officer on the left has thus closed it's lapels.

Drummers had scarlet swallow nest trimmed by a livery lace in white with scarlet and yellow piping. On both sleeves, six chevrons of livery lace, seams covered with same lace. I didn't do the yellow piping, as it really was too much and didn't look good on such small figures.

One of the great thing about this little army is that you can build the whole thing at the tactical scale. In 1809, the army consisted of : 

1 Battalion of Leib Garde of 

1 Squadron of Guard du Corps

4 Line Infantry Regiments of 2 battalions

1 Jager Battalion Von Lingg 

1 Light Dragoon Regiment

1 Hussar Regiment 

1 6 lbr Horse Artillery Battery 

2 6 lbr Foot Artillery Batteries (one in Spain)

A Napoleonic army you can actually finish, isn't it awesome!?

I strongly recommend to anyone interested in the Duchy of Baden to have a read over at Blunders on the Danube : Peter has written the definitive blog post on the army. I thought of writing something similar on this blog but what's the point, as Peter covers everything, and writes a better english than I!

Right now Murawski Miniatures offers everything you need to build a line infantry regiment in full dress. Infantry in campaign dress, mounted officers, as well as artillery and cavalry are in the plans. Anyone who knows Roger and the way he does things knows you can expect a complete range in due time. But we do need your help to fund the rest of the range range! Buy people, buy!

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?!

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.

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.