The lead pile stirs

Note to self: No more saying/writing/blogging/thinking that things are getting better. It is best not to tempt fate that way.

That said, I have come to the conclusion that painting big battalions is just not going to happen any time soon. I'll be doing good to get the ones I have based!

So, the lead pile was raided today. My Eureka Arquebusiers de Grassin and two regiments of Austrians from Minden Miniatures are packed and will head off for painting on Monday. That reduces the pile by 152 figures. Although I need to order some mounted colonels from Frank.

Sending off this order leaves a regiment each of Minden Prussian fusiliers and musketeers, and two regiments of Old School Miniatures Prussian musketeers from Fighting 15s. Oh, and the newly-arrived Eureka Saxon horse.

Once these all get done, I would love to get more of the Minden Miniatures of various flavours, and some more Crusader Miniatures too. Of course, there are always plenty of other options out there, so we'll see. Checking the relative sizes of the Homburgers and their allies compared to the Landgraf and his allies reveals that the Electoral force needs more cavalry, the Imperials need more white-coated infantry of several flavors, and both sides are fairly even in the artillery arm.

Blogging about my armies just reminded me of one of those "Doh!" moments I recently experienced.

I was reading Charles S. Grant's various new books, The War Game Companion, Battlegames Table Top Teasers Vol 1, and Raid on St Michel. I was pondering how I could use them for some games, and was wondering the best way to represent the militia units in the books. (Quick summary: the militia units are half the size of regular units.) I contemplated ordering some of the Eureka "Ragged Continentals" and painting them up in various colors; that way they could stand in for any country that needed them.

That's when I realized that I already HAVE half-strength units (other that the obvious ploy of splitting "regular" units): my collection was originally for 24-figure units, and I have combined them into BAR-sized big battalions or purchased new ones at larger size. But I have four old units that were only 24 figures strong that I never up-sized. Voila! Instant militia! One is a Prussian Freibattalion, one is the Wurzburg Red battalion, and one each generic French and Spanish units. That was a satisfying discovery.

Which reminds me of my next game purchase: more bases. I must go count how many I need to order for the Dutch.

Cheers,
Ed

Blog? What blog?

I think we have finally reached a modicum of stability in the realm of family and health issues. No boring details here, though, since this is an ImagiNation after all!

So, what has the Landgraf been up to on the gaming front? Plenty of different things with no guiding principle.

First and most enjoyable, Ray came and visited. In the weeks leading up to his visit, something got us directed at Memoir '44. This WW2 board game with miniatures is a lot of fun, but I had not played it in years and Ray not at all. Well, we took care of that!

Ray now owns everything put out for the system, and I'm not far behind. During the weekend he was here, we played at least 12 games (six scenarios, swapping sides after each game). We thoroughly enjoyed it.

M44 is one of Richard Borg's Command & Colours series. I had bought the C&C version of Battle Cry at Cold Wars 2001 after playing it under Mr. Borg's guidance all afternoon. So I pulled it out for Ray and I to try.

Somehow, eight years later, the game is still mint: figures on sprues, counters unpunched, heck even the dice stickers are still on their sheet. Ray informed me that the game is being sold on Ebay and other places for a tidy sum. So, punch out and play or save and sell?? We decided to leave it for now.

But that led to all kinds of C&C-related excursions. We went looking for Napoleonic versions, especially ones we could play using our 28mm miniatures. I almost bought myself a set of Kallistra Hexon for my birthday to make into a miniatures game. Ray and I are still discussing it.

Our interest in GW's War of the Ring faded quickly. Even though I actually sat down and painted a dozen figures or so. Really!

I have made several book and terrain purchases (the Landgraf's pontoon train arrived today from PMCGames, for example), including the reprint of the classic His Britannic Majesty's Army in Western Germany by Eighteenth Century Press. And now I'm anxiously awaiting the third and final volume of Jack Gill's history of Napoleon's 1809 campaign.

On the ImagiNation front, my preorder of Eureka Miniatures' Saxon cavalry has arrived. Beautiful figures! The Empress will no doubt be please by this accession to her strength: 8 squadrons of cavalry, two each of cuirassiers, dragoons, chevaulegers, and hussars, plus a dismounted squadron for each of the two light regiments.

I did run my Le Petit Empereur game at ChimaeraCon 2009. It looked good, but only played through once or twice. See a couple of pics here.

I am working on some plans right now for the rest of the year. My Saxon cavalry, Mittel-Nirgendwo infantry, and various Minden Miniatures are all crying out to be painted, but I am sorely tempted by my Napoleonic lead pile. Hopefully, another post will follow soon with real progress to be noted.

Thanks for stopping by.

Ed v. H-F

A Message from the Landgraf

This year has not started as one of the Landgraviate’s best. Suffice to say that due to familial health issues there has been zero gaming activity.

Which is not the same as “no gaming scheming.” I learned long ago that whenever you spend time at a doctor’s office or (especially) a hospital you must have books, magazines, rules, or some such to keep you occupied. If you don’t have them, you will be sitting for a long time. If you DO have them, either you spend less time waiting or it at least goes by quicker.

So I’ve done a fair bit of reading (Napoleonic history, the wargames magazines, all of the new C S Grant publications), and an even greater amount of thinking and planning.

In SYW units and armies and countries, I’ve made up lists using Minden, Battlescape, Fighting 15s, and Eureka figures. In fact, my Eureka Dutch were sent off to a painting service before Christmas and have returned. They look wonderful, but still are not based or terrained. That’s 3 battalions, 2 squadrons, 2 guns with crew and some generals all at BAR big battalion strength. And I’m waiting for the release of the Eureka 100 Club Saxon cavalry to make a big order there, too.

I’ve been looking at my Napoleonic collection (30:1 in 28mm) and drew up a list of units (of up to corps size!) from Calpe, Foundry, Perry, Victrix, Steve Barber, Front Rank, Eureka, and others. I have also committed to putting on an all-day demonstration (in 28mm) of the game Le Petit Empereur at a local San Antonio, Texas game convention, ChimaeraCon, on 7 March.

I picked up some Games Workshop stuff as well: the 40K Assault on Black Reach starter (to play against Ray), additional Lizardmen for my WHFB army, and I’m eagerly looking forward to the War of the Ring book as well.

As you can see when I don’t have an actual project in hard I tend to wander quite a bit! Note, however, that with the exception of reading books and opening boxes of miniatures, that I have not actually painted or gamed any of this. I hope that putting on the LPE demonstration will help, as it is reprise of a game Ray and I put on at MillenniumCon 2006. So I have all the parts and just need to put on the game.

So what are my plans for 2009? At this point I really don’t know. Hopefully ChimaeraCon will inspire me. Napoleonics and SYW are tied for most likely, with Lord of the Rings running a close third.

I’ll let you know how CCon goes!

Mustering for departure

The two columns converging on Frankfurt both have taken the opportunity of a small defile to have a quick review of the troops. They have been told off into their brigades, and various contingents have been combined to form grenadier battalions, horse grenadier squadrons, and the like:

The Imperials:

And the Fedorans and their allies:

All in all, it took 14 boxes, most of them with two infantry or one cavalry brigade in them, to prepare the armies for the march north to Millenium Con!

Sorry for the blurry pictures...someday I'll figure out how to take a clear picture.

Raising a new unit!

For those of you who haven't picked up on it yet, I really don't like painting. Sure, the figures I have actually painted don't look bad, and I am usually happy in the end. But the process is not usually pretty.

But, hold your breath now, I'm going to paint a brand new unit in time for Millennium Con in November. I've had the Fedoran Landgrafin's Fusiliers staring at me for too long, but they're moving to the back of the line. The Imperium needs help!

So, I will paint up a 66-figure regiment of Minden Austrians. By the way...FANTASTIC figures, Frank!!

Here they are in their naked, just mustered-in glory:

They will be painted as the Furstenthal Regiment of Graf Prosper von Furstenthal. Who, amazingly enough, has this interesting red-vested look going for them:

Wish me luck! I will post updates as to their progress.

OSW weekend

Over on the OSW Yahoo group, it was asked what people were up to this weekend.



In my case, I was rebasing troops. LOTS of troops:

• Four 60-figure 30:1 Prussian regiments into 4 BAR Germanian Battalions (2 musketeer, 2 fusilier with grenadier companies included)


• One 24-figure Prussian Standing Grenadier battalion into half of a BAR Germanian battalion


• 24 Prussian cuirassiers


• 30 Austrian cuirassiers


• 16 assorted mounted general officers

They look marvellous, and once I get the table cleared, the photos will follow.



I also made up ~40 movement trays for BAR out of thick card, paper steel, and green paint.



Note to Jean-Louis:



Snibor-Renraw is the ImagiNation of my friend Ray. The troops will be Eureka Dutch War of the Austrian Succession.

Soldiers of Gallia

General Chevert-Protz has ordered Louis Renault, Comte de Maison-Blanche, to take charge of a column and move into Mittel-Nirgendwo. Renault's orders are to offer his assistance to the Imperial general von Blei-Sammeln, and to sustain his soldiers from the bounty of those lands.

Although the Comte de Maison-Blanche was not himself able to attend, his units paraded before departing.

Regiment Conde























Regiment La Sarre























Regiment Royal Allemand






















Regiment Raugrave























Royal Artillery