From JohnB: 40mm 18th & 19th Century Old School Toy Soldiers (599 points)

From John:

Here is my last submission, other than the samurai, to the Painting Challenge. It is a bit of a dog's breakfast. Included are 36 1850 Russian foot and a mounted officer for my Great European War of 1850 project. 

Also from this project are a smattering of recent castings and trial paint jobs. There are some Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians and French...a total of 9 foot and 2 mounted. 

I also threw in 4 ACW figures for our host and most respectable and omnipotent judge. 

Lastly there are 34 semi-round figures from a master I sculpted for Steve Cady over at Castles of Tin (A fantastic blog...what a painter!). 

These are sort of a generic WSS in full skirted coats to provide opponents for the Holger Eriksson figures of Prince August. There not up to Eriksson standards, but they look OK painted up I guess. 

They are painted as the La Sarre Regiment (Later Royal Suedois) in French service. All these figures are in 42 mm scale and are painted in a toy soldier style with bright colors and gloss finishes. The bases are unflocked in keeping with the toy soldier esthetic. The figures are mounted on MDF bases painted green. 

Flags are homemade of paper and painted in a simplistic style. Not for everyone I know, but pleasantly, a good way to pass some time in the subartic. (It is St. Patty's day and this morning saw -26 C. The snow piles in front of my house are pushing 6 feet. AND 4 inches of snow are expected today...it is enough to make one read Dostoyevsky and drink oneself into a stupor. Welcome to Novo Sibirsk.)

This Challenge has been great fun to follow...to see the interests and talents of folks from all over the place. Many thanks to Curt for his enormous and always good-humored work. (He is such a witty devil...for a Scotsman...)

Oh, don't feel too much sympathy for John, while other Saskatchewan schmucks like myself have been buried under mountains of snow for months on end, he and his lovely wife have just returned from a vacation in the Caymans... Lucky git.

Beautiful work John! While I love all of these figures, I have to say that I'm quite partial to the La Sarre Regiment  with their smart long coats and yellow facings (and they fought the good fight on the Plains of Abraham). 

This wonderfully wide assortment of 40mm figures will give John a staggering but well-earned 599 points. This will also allow him to meet his Challenge target for this year - Bravo John!

From JohnB: 40mm Old School Toy Soldiers - 1850s 'Great European War' (234 points)

Ok, here is a treat for you this New Years Eve. Another resident of Saskatchewan, actually a shifty import from Wisconsin, gives you a dose of Old School Toy Solder goodness. John, sculpts and casts his own soldiers (I sent one to my nephew for Christmas) which sort of puts him in a class of his own.

From John:

Here is my first entry into the Painting Challenge. 36 40mm foot and 1 mounted officer. 

These are my own 40mm sculpts and casts inspired by Holger Ericsson and Aly Morrison. They are painted in toy soldier style with simple bases and glossy finish. 

They are part of my Great European War of 1850 project. Submitted are the 3rd and 4th battalions of the Hoch und Deutschmeister Regiment (#3) and their beloved Oberst. (Has there ever been a beloved Oberst...is that even allowed in the German speaking world?) There are 36 foot and 1 mounted. 

My Russian and Austrian armies are almost complete and will be campaigning against each other this winter. 

At present I am casting Danes, Prussians, French, Bavarians and Saxons...and inspired by "Lincoln" and a reread of Shelby Foote, my first ACW infantry. I really enjoy this scale and style and period of figures...if only I could recruit some of my buddies....

While a fairly good sort for a Cheesehead, John is a bit of a whiner as we game with his stuff all the time (we even let him win once in a while).

The base points for these boys are 197, but since John does the sculpting and casting I'm going to add a point each, so 234. Not a bad debut, eh?

40mm Old School Great War Toy Soldiers by John B.

My good friend John came into town this week and joined us for supper and a game. In addition to his fine company John brought along some of his newly finished 40mm Great War figures which he had sculpted and cast recently. 

1914 German infantry in their distinctive pickelhaubes and red-piped tunics and trousers.

I absolutely love these guys. John describes them as 'demi-ronde' (semi-round) figures, being a nod to the German Bleisoldaten school of late 19th century toy soldiers. They are charming, whimsical, almost naive in their presentation, yet manage to capture the essence of the uniforms along with the martial spirit of the age.

I quite like their bushy moustaches and proud pigeon-shaped chests - such great character! If you want to see some more of John's fine work you can find samples of his Napoleonics here , his 18th century figures here and his Wars of Unification figures here.

John tells me he still has a few more figure variants he wants to produce for this range. I'm really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with and I'm seriously thinking of getting a schwack of these guys for future garden wargaming. Yep, I know, I need another project like a hole in the head...

'You do show a good leg, Old Boy.'

From TimB: 28mm Russian Infantry, Officers, Partisans & Casualties (128 points)

Tim sends us a fine collection of Russian WWI figures as we enter the final hours of the Challenge.

From Tim:

'The first are ostensibly WW2 Russian Partisans from Black Tree Design - but they'll see action all over the early 20th century... The guy with the pistol, camera and book looks perfect for some Cthulhuesque Pulp Adventure Action...'

'Next, three Imperial Russian Officer from Brigade Games (I think...)'

'Then  we have fourteen Imperial Russian Soldiers - modeled and mould by John Bertolini - cast and painted by myself.'

'Finally (but not really... there will be more in a couple hours...) Five dead and dying Imperial Russians from Battle Honors.  The latter three, more or less, finishes off an Imperial Russian/Tsarist force that could see action anywhere from 1914 to the end of the Russian Civil War...'

Lovely work as usual, Tim. I especially like seeing more of John B's stuff out and about. These lads will give Tim 128 points.

Napoleonic Scenario: Vandamme's Assault on the Stare Vinohrady, Austerlitz December 2nd, 1805

Last weekend Greg and his lovely wife, Linda, came for a holiday weekend visit to which we all ate and drank to excess and caught up on our sleep. Greg and I also took the requisite time to game like men possessed. On top of a suitably bloody game of SAGA, and reacquainting ourselves with 'Conflict of Heroes' we also played a cataclysmic 'Spearhead' scenario set in the opening hours of Kursk. These were all great fun, but undoubtedly the main event was our Napoleonic scenario based on the French attack on the Allied center at Austerlitz in December 1805.

Historically, Vandame's assault on the Stare Vinohrady was virtually a non-contest. The remnants of the mauled Allied IV Column, composed of six battalions of the IR#23, five severely reduced Russian battalions and their attached artillery, tried to hold the heights, but the French had both the numbers and the quality to quickly overwhelm them. Nevertheless, in reading the numerous accounts of the engagement I thought there were a few 'what-ifs' that  if cobbled together could make a viable, if somewhat asymmetrical scenario. The following is what piqued my interest:

• Scott Bowden's 'Napoleon and Austerlitz' describes the Austrian and Russian contingents as separate actions even though they occurred very close to one another on the Pratzen Heights. I think much of this had to do with both the difficulty of communication between the Austrian and Russian partners along with the fact that the Allies wanted to cover-off as much of the heights as possible. Nonetheless, what if the Allies had drawn themselves closer together to better support one another, would it have helped?

• Bowden further describes that the two Allied contingents did not make good use of the available ground, which had several vineyards below the summit (thus the name 'Vinohrady'). These would have slowed down infantry attacks and pretty much nullified threats from cavalry. Historically the Allies deployed well back from the vineyards, surrendering their advantages to the French light infantry. So what if the Allies had positioned their forces to take better advantage of the available ground, could it have aided their defence of the heights?

• In David Chandler's 'Austerlitz, 1805' he obliquely mentions another unit of Kolowrat's command, Infantry Regiment #24, being in support of IR#23. Reportedly this was a depot battalion of around 400 conscripts, but I reasoned that every man would have helped to spread out the line on the Heights and so included them in my Order of Battle. I also added cavalry support to both sides. The French had access to Boye's Dragoon brigade (which was historically on-hand) and the Allies now have two regiments (Dragoons and Hussars) originally from Liechtenstein's V Column of cavalry and Wodiansky's Advance Guard. So, finally, what if the Allied High Command had released more cavalry assets to the defence of the Heights?

So for our scenario I incorporated the above conjectures and worked with the hypothesis that Kolowrat and Miloradovich have decided to concentrate and coordinate their efforts thereby bringing their forces together - forcing Vandamme to engage them as a combined force on the summit, on advantageous ground of their choosing. 

A map of the rough dispositions of the two armies as seen at the start of the action. 

For our game we used our home-grown rules, 'Food for Powder', which do a very good job of reflecting unbalanced engagements. This battle was actually fairly large for a battalion-level game (24 battalions, 4 regiments of cavalry and 3 batteries of guns) so we played it on a 6x10 surface to give us enough room to maneuver. Some may notice that I did not model the Heights on the tabletop - in my reading it seemed to suggest that the path Vandamme took on his assault was along a very gradual slope and therefore would not have granted much tactical superiority to the Allies so I decided to leave out modeling the Heights for sake of clarity.

The Stare Vinohrady today as seen from Vandamme's initial positions.

For our battle we had John and Dan on the French side, while Greg and Sylvain ran the Austrians and Russians respectively.

Here the French commanders, Dan and John, look on with Stacy (on the right) assisting as umpire.

Greg and Sylvain commanded the Austro-Russian force.

The first turn was fairly quiet, seeing the French move towards the heights along their entire front, including their guns. For the Allies, they stayed in place but were very lucky in their reinforcement roll and an composite brigade of cavalry (Austrian Hussars and Dragoons) arrived on their right flank. Greg formed them up in column of squadrons, with the Hussars leading and the Dragoons in support.

In the second Turn the French brought in their own cavalry in the form of Boye's bigade of Dragoons (under Dan). They deployed on the French right flank, in extended column of squadrons, diagonal to the Austrian cavalry. This choice of deployment had a critical impact in the following turns for both sides as the cavalry had free reign in each of their sectors. Eyebrows were duly raised with this heap of snorting cavalry showing up on the tabletop all at once.

Boye's Dragoon Brigade heading towards the Russian line.

Amongst our group, Sylvain is legendary for his caution so you can imagine the hoots of derision when he began to retrograde his Russians in response to the arrival of the French Dragoons. (As you will see Sylvain had the last laugh as his refusal of the left flank probably saved the Allied line.)

Shown here are three of the five understrength and exhausted Russian battalions that held the Allied left flank.

The third turn was a corker. First thing you have to understand that Dan is the antithesis of Sylvain. I like to think of Dan as the General Haig of miniature wargaming. To Dan's way of thinking 'If the first assault does not break them then the twelfth will certainly do the trick...' As such Dan's French Dragoons duly charged the Russian left flank as soon as they got the chance. Since the charge began from a long distance away (practically in Vienna) the Russian battalions had enough time to form squares. Undeterred, Dan noted that most of the Russian squares were not well-formed (our rules differentiate between 'solid' and 'hasty' squares) and so sent in the leading regiment of Dragoons to see if the Russians would loose their bottle. It was not meant to be. The Russians held their position and repulsed the Dragoons, but not without suffering some casualties and disorder in their ranks.

The nervous Austrian line, jammed full of conscripts and raw troops.

Meanwhile in the center, one French battalion decided to take the bit by the teeth and move ahead of the advance in line formation... While up the slope the two Allied artillery batteries hammered away at the approaching French columns, who inexplicably neglected to shake-out into less target-rich line formations and so consequently paid the price.

Back to the Allied left, Greg noted the impetuous advance of the solitary French battalion with an arched eyebrow, and thought it was too good of an opportunity for his Austrian Hussars to pass up. Greg knew he'd have to 'roll Vegas' to get the requisite moves in order to close, but he rolled the dice hoping they'd be kind to him. Well, the dice gods were smiling on Austria and Greg managed change formation, sound the charge and head for the French battalion.

The Austrian Hussars receive their order to charge...

Several French squares watch apprehensively as the Austrian Hussars begin to move across their front...

Again, as the charge originated from so far away the French battalion had a very good chance to form square. In 'Food for Powder' there are Impetus Dice (good mojo) and Friction Dice (bad mojo). Both Impetus and Friction are drawn from unit quality, officer rating and environmental conditions. Both are rolled simultaneously and you literally have to take the good with the bad (or vis a vis). Well, John rolled well enough with his Impetus dice, but the Friction roll was completely off the register - to the extent that the French battalion continued to trudge along, wondering why the ground was shaking, trumpets were blaring and their comrades to the rear were waving their arms and shouting...

'Ah! Zee target is in sight - Sound ze Charge!!'

A French ADC tries to warn the battalion of its imminent danger...

As John would say later, his battalion 'had the distinct misfortune of being ridden down by the 'flyboys' of the Horse & Musket era'. The only thing that saved the French battalion from complete annihilation was that the Austrian Hussars were at the end of their tether and very fatigued, so the mauled survivors were able to make their escape.

... but too late - the Hussars are upon them!

Turn four saw the French grind forward, closing with the Allied positions while the Russian and Allied guns gutted a French column. Nonetheless, the 1st of the 57th 'Le Terribles' got into action against the Russians and quickly broke a battalion that had been forced into square by the nearby French Dragoons. The French guns were dragged forward 'by bricole' and unlimbered in preparation to punish the tightly packed Russian formations. I'm sure there were many muttered prayers in those formations...

In the center Greg knew his victorious Hussars were desperately exposed and winded so he committed his remaining cavalry, the Dragoons to try to cover their retreat.  This turned out to be a little Pyrrhic as the Dragoons were shot to pieces by every French battalion's voltigeurs on their 'Death Ride' to the Hussars' support. Nonetheless, the exhausted 'flyboys' of the game managed to get extricated and began their ride back to Austrian high command to present the French colours they had captured.

Kolowrat receiving the news of the capture of a French eagle.

I'm sorry I cannot give a final account of the scenario as this is where we decided to break for the evening (we spent a lot of time laughing, eating and drinking.) Nonetheless, we looked over the field at 'halftime' and surmised that while the French had certainly been rebuffed in a few areas they were still in an excellent position on the Allied left flank to start an envelopment with combined arms. The fragile Allied line composed of reduced battalions and conscripts had not yet been truly tested and it would be touch-and-go to tell how it would turn out for them. It was really anybody's game.

Looking from the French left across the battlefield.

It was great fun, and all of it due to an excellent bunch of guys to game with. I extend my thanks to them all for making the night so entertaining. A special thank you goes to Greg and John who both travelled great distances to attend and brought many beautiful toys from their own collections in order to make the game that much more colourful - bravo! 

I had such a good time that I'm already planning for the next Napoleonic weekend...

From JohnB: 30mm Old School Napoleonics, 2nd Battalion Vistula Legion (150 points)

John sends in his follow-up to his first entry, the 2nd Battalion of the Vistula Legion. Except for the officer, which is from Scruby, these are 30mm figures sculpted and cast by John.

As you can see John is not much of a documentarian and so I only have this one solitary photo to show you. Perhaps he can send along a few more shots to help decorate this post - hint, hint. In their absence I give you a few photos of John and his figures from a game we had in the backyard a few springs back. (These are 40mm mid-19th century models he had sculpted, cast and painted as well.) You can plainly see John's Italian roots with his hand gestures... 'Mama mia, how did you roll all of those sixes...?'

Like his last battalion, these eighteen willowy lads will give John 150 points to add to his score. Very nice work, John!

From JohnB: 30mm Old School Napoleonics Polish Battalion from the Vistula Legion (150 points)

My friend John sculpts and casts his own figures in the classic 'Toy Soldier' style. (TimB is a good friend of John as well and his sculpting shares the same spirit, I think.) These are very cool and characterful miniatures, that look fabulous ranked up in their battalions. John's collection is vast as its is varied, and it is always a treat when he brings them out for a game.

These are 30mm sculpts but John also works in 40mm and larger. John has a soft spot for the smaller Napoleonic nations/contingents as their uniforms were quite interesting (sometimes bordering on the bizarre).

From John:

'I thought I'd make a showing in the Analogue Hobbies' painting contest. Here are 18 of my homemade Napoleonics in Old School 30mm. It is the first of six battalions I am going to do of the Vistula Legion, 1st and 2nd Regiments circa 1812. I know there are some uniform inaccuracies, but my figures are sort of generic as you know. I am certain that these brave Poles will be Alexander's most implacable foes. Inform Sylvain... The second battalion is already in the works.

Vive La Pologne Libree!

Jan Sobieski Bertolini'

Brilliant stuff! These eighteen lads will give John a base of 108 points but I'm going to bring it up to 150 as they are his own sculpts. After the Vistula Legion, I believe John is wanting to do a Napoleonic Swiss brigade which will be great to see. Welcome aboard John!