The 2nd Battalion Grenadier Regiment von Block

This is the second combined Grenadier Regiment formed from the companies from the Infantry Regiments Prinz Karl, von Donop, von Trumbach and Wutingau. To make the differentiations a bit more clearer and enjoyable, than lapels and different coloured pom-poms, I played again with the colur and the "hue" of the small clothes. The miniatures, again, are Perry.
I never thought I could get bogged down by this Hessian Grenadier painting marathon that heavily, but it took a while.
Well, two down, one to go (the 3rd Battalion Grenadier Regiment von Minnigerode*).

*the 4th Gren. Batt. von Koehler will be cancelled, because of a) it served mostly just as garrison and b) I might be mad, but not that mad (i.e. Hessian).

1918 More Fritzes!

Anton, Eckert, Rolf, Götz, Emil, Adolf, Jörn, Wolf and Gerdt are ready. They are smiling, but you can't see them behind their funny masks, as they are really looking forward to the Michael Offensive. More cannon fodder for the Kaiser. He is always hungry for more, which is understandable as food is really scarce these days.

Figures are from "Great War Miniatures" and "Renegade Miniatures", Terrain is the Facsimile of the "Atlas of Human Anatomy and Surgery".

28 June of 1519 before Langeloh exit Soltau

So, wait a minute, the Prince-Bishop wanted to have some abbeys back, he had pawned some lesser German principalities years ago, which where unfortunately related to the old house of the Welfs, which in return found the opportunity too irresistible to get into a feud, just like in the good old days. Yeah, but the relations and tribulations circled wider and wider and the Brunswickers were supporting Karl the V for the Emperor title and so, the others, the Lüneburger-Hildesheimer went for cheering for Francis I. And all clashed at that swamp in the middle of nowhere in northern Germany in Heidschnucken-land - got it?
Easy, a real pre-reformation, Italian War battle, but just on German land, the "Hildesheimer Diocesan Feud", who could resist.

Angus wanted to have Cavalry, so he could get the Lüneburger-Hildesheimer, as "Henry the Middle", who got some extra horses from his bad uncle in Flanders, and I went for Eric I, from Calenberg, who got mighty cash support from the Habsburgers, to buy what? Yeass - guns.
As nobody knows the exact historic deployment, so we aimed for maximum dynamic enthropy.
Between two swamps and two hills and two villages, we skipped the buildings and the hills, we deployed more or less simultaneously, Angus' Swiss pikes at his left (with the Gendarmes d'Ordonnance) and the French Men-at-arms (4 units) at the right. Opposing my enormous battery of heavy guns, mixed in all sorts of Landsknechte, Swordsmen and Arquebusiers.

First Angus tried the old all out attack, but didn't progressed far, then I forgot to shoot (duh), advanced as well and suddenly, the blocks and horses and units were standing on each others toes. Angus Stradioti blocked the french heavy horse for the entire battle, I had a couple of potentially good swings at some units, but the shitty dice ... To quote Boris Vian, an "orgy-like tohuwabohu of straw dim thrown up".

And did I mentioned it, I really, really rolled badly, honest to Fortuna!

But after all I enjoyed myself, the Calenbergs lost OK, just like in real life, but hey-ho, Karl will be Emperor soon and then its payback-time for those Heidschnucken!

Meeeh!

Miniatures Perry (Foundry and plastics) as well as som' old GW gun, flags by Flags of War.

more pics and a rap at Angus' page:
http://www.edinburghwargames.com/Journal%20106.htm

The silence before the storm

The indecisive Stradioti

The mean men-at-arms, middle class at its worst!

The infamous Gendarme d'Ordonnance

Landsknechte and their guns, loads of them!

Attack of the francophiles 

Bad war, push of the pikes!

The Germans nobility tries to late without luck

With gods blessing (in catholic painting often a hand pointing somewhere)
the Arquebusiers sent the Spanish Swordsmen to Hell

Campbell is visibly shocked at the success of the French

The Guns in peril 

Last attack of the Landsknechte 

The Swiss even break the last Spanish Swordsmen 

Still the Stradioti are perplex

The French nobility in for the kill -  the day was lost

No mercy for the Swiss (Pike & Shotte)

Grützi all mitternand! We are the Swiss, we advance, we attack, we – autsch!

Bart was playing the French and Swiss, while me and Paul (the Greek) played the German-Spanish imperialists (as we were testing my tuned Pike& Shotte rules). The deployment was straight and comfortable, some heavy guns, four pike blocks each and six horse units and some small units – with all I could possible carry, miniature wise. 

Test Question: How is it, with more blocks on the table?

Guns were placed behind some gabbions in the centre on each side, Cavalry on the flanks, the rest march on! First Bart didn't get to move a lot, both sides came closer, Paul was following his cunning plan with his Gendarmes on the German right flank to get famous. 

My Arquebusiers were getting punished and had to retreat, Bart started picking up my guns with his heavy guns, we had to act swiftly!

Then I rolled 4 or 5 successful orders and had my left flank re-grouped and advanced right in front of the Swiss in one turn, haha, that's tactical superior manoeuvrability for you philistines!

But then Bart's Swiss attacked – my Spanish swordsmen, which were trained in the pit fights of the streets of Granada, only for this purpose! I rolled good enough to sent them home, back to Bern!

And then just like in some eastern nuclear reactor, the two critical masses (Swiss and Landsknechte) were to close for comfort and clashed. What a Bad War! And no quarters were given! I have to apologize, it was getting that thrilling, that I forgot to take pictures. The Spanish swords were worth they weight in gold and also IF the Swiss and the Landsknechte do clash, the Swiss do have not automatically the upperhand. I can‘t blame my dice rolls, but we managed to clash back with both sides shaken. 

If we would have had more time, all our mercenary troops would need to be rallied and possibly faced the danger of going home. Even I killed one unit of French Gendarmes and a Swiss pike block against against one destroyed German Gendarme unit, so we called it a draw.

To answer the initial test question: Awsome! Truly Awsome!

The more units, the more complicated it gets to prevent to the battle sliding into a chain-reaction of clashes. And we also had a glimpse into the typical Renaissance, papers, scissors rock tactics.

Awsome! ...

The Landsknechte are gathering

The Stradioti before the Gendarme d'Ordonnance

The imperial left flank

The French Gendarme d'Ordonnance on the other flank

The French nobility advances

The Swiss centre

The German advance into the centre

The inevitable clash of the gendarmes

followed by an Swiss pike attack on the Spanish Swordsmen hmm..

... and loosing the fight

The shaken and disorientated French gendarmes get blasted by the Spanish small gun

in the centre bad war errupts between six blocks

Next Papers, Scissores, Rock!

As my holiday in Germany was not so effective regarding the finishing/ painting (AWI) Hessians (one in total, really), and the Western front seemed all so quite again, the only reasonable thing to do is to invade the Renaissance Italian states again. This time with the Pike & Shotte rulebook under my arm and some minor tweaks to the rules (of course).

While I actually got only miniatures for one decent sized army, I will regroup them in mini battalias, just to test for once the effects and issues of a bigger deployment, even if my pike blocks will be 16 men big, (apologise in advance to the true connoisseur, but my Landsknecht reinforcements just have to wait, and of course at 28mm its a transport issue as well).

To enhance the Papers-Scissors-Rock-effect, I will have all the arquebusiers, swordsmen and halbert units etc. as skirmishers, enhance the hedgehog rule, make pike blocks more vulnerable towards artillery and introduce an attempt to capture caracole a bit more diverse. 

Deployment wise it should be checkered otherwise just flat green grass.

The available Imperials

The  available French

The Tots (The 17th Dragoons)

After finishing my first platoon last Sunday, I thought I could fit in six riders of the Tots (Perry miniatures) which I need for the „White Plains“ and thereafter. In my adolescent naivety years ago,  I painted six in the SYW outfit with black cuffs, purely out of aesthetically reasons. Now, I added another six, this time in their 1768 warrant costumes. The horses I painted as Appaloosa mix, which could possibly the stock of the 17th at that time.

„...The 17th Light Dragoons can trace their formation back to General Wolfe‘s victory at Quebec in 1759. ...

The Light Dragoons main distinction from their heavier cousins was in the type of horse employed. Rather than use the big and burly heavy cart cobs the Light Dragoons preferred the use of smaller, leaner hunter horses. 

Originally, the Light Dragoons were not equipped with swords of any sort rather their main armament was a carbine that could have a bayonet fitted, pistols and an axe. They were trained to be able to fire from the saddle. Speed and agility (of rider and horse) were prized over strength and sturdiness. These attributes would prove to be valuable ones in the small scale actions common to colonial campaigns for a long time to come.

The evocative Death‘s Head emblem has been used time and again by desperadoes and tribes from time immemorial. Its first use as a regimental emblem seems to have been by a German unit of Hussars known as the ‚Totenkopf‘ Hussars. As many British units and soldiers had served in Germany at around this time as part of the Seven Years War (1756 - 1763). It is probable that they saw this emblem and revelled in its associations of piracy and plunder - perfect values to a Light Cavalry unit. Indeed, down to the present time the regiment is still commonly referred to as ‚The Tots‘. ...“

Other names would have been, „Death or Glory Boys“ or „The Horse Marines“.

Some of the old boys