2mm Napoleonic Troops in Review: The Austrians

 

Moving on to the Austrian side of the forces for Wagram 1809, a round-up of how they look arrayed on the tabletop- well, at least a table top, in that my terrain mats remain buried somewhere in the garage !  

On the upper left in the photo above, we see the mixed forces of the Advance Guard under Nordmann, an interesting unit that was perhaps ahead of its time in pairing cavalry, conventional infantry and light troops in each Brigade, alongside integral artillery - to be honest, they didn’t fare that well in 1809, being mauled by the French in more conventional array - I guess being a proto- ‘All Arms’ sort of Panzer Division meant you had troops of every type but never enough of each type all at once - I think in the Napoleonic era, concentration of force was key - that said, they’re colourful and pleasing units to depict.

Beside them in the centre, we have the main part of Rosenburg’s IV Korps, with three large infantry Brigades, paired with a final mixed one, on loan from Nordmann’s command - these are reinforced by Nostitz’s Cavalry Division, with a Brigade of Dragoons and one of Hussars/Cheveaux Legers.

Finally, alongside the Army Commander of Erzerzog Karl, or Archduke Charles, I did a Grenadier Brigade in storming columns, as well as a Cuirassier unit as back-up - I know that Charles rushed across to his left flank to try and blunt Davout’s inroads late in the day, so figured we might as well have some heavy duty types to fit the bill !

Let’s look at things a little more closely, starting with Nordmann - he at least was backed up by a couple of conventional Infantry Brigades in his defence of Markgrafsneusiedel….. I like the sight of the massed cavalry and light troops, including Grenzers, out front:

Rosenberg lends his support with his Austrian ‘Masses’ deep columns of Infantry that were an innovation of Charles, a counterpoint to the French tactics of advancing ‘en colonne’ that could also fend off cavalry by their compact nature - not so sure how well they’ll cope against French artillery however !

The Advance Guard unit of Provoncheres contains the small remnants of the Carneville Freikorps of both horse and foot - reminiscent of something you’d find in the Seven Years War - they had been steamrollered by the French on the first morning of the battle when they crossed the Danube in strength - dispersed along the bank in watching pose, they couldn’t do much to stem the tide - was it a fatal mistake for Charles to allow Napoleon to cross almost unmolested once again, after Aspern-Essling ?

I wonder if just like Rommel’s ideas for D-Day, you should be prepared to throw them back into the water, rather than allowing the enemy to deploy and then debouch from the beach head…..

The Cavalry wing of Wartensleben and Rothkirch similarly did their best out on the left flank, but got rather trounced by their French counterparts on the day - tough to face French cavalry when they have got their tails up and swoop forward, sabres swishing ! 

Plenty of nice cavalry blocks to look at though - although I wasn’t saying that when I had to paint them all up !

Finally, a look along the lines, as it were, with a sweep in close to some of the Brigades:

Plenty of colour and interest on show, I think, so hopefully living up to the ethos of the project, ‘limited’ in scope though it was, as my test of the Napoleonic waters - I’m off to rest my poor weeping permanently crossed eyes now, and leave the 2mm terrors resting in their box for the time being:

 

Next Post, something a bit different, and thankfully, a darn sight larger !

2mm Napoleonic Troops in Review : The French

 

I’ve finally got to a semi-successful state with my test bases for the French right wing at Wagram in 1809, namely a representation of the main part of Davout’s III Corps in 2mm, so thought I’d show them all laid out together.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how things turned out, the 90x60mm ‘Brigade’ basing giving me the effect I wanted - a sense of Mass with multiple representative formations depicted.

The simplified painting system has been a little uninspiring to do, but I’ve snuck in a few bits of detailing where possible, principally on the cavalry blocks, although bearing in mind the large numbers of blocks required meant a factory-like production line that kept things moving along…..

The only snarling SNAFU was the temporary basing labels - the space at the rear of the base is 10mm deep - oh, how I laughed when I realised the printer tape I had only comes in 12mm depth, and what fun I had shaving off 2mm from each label after it was cut to size, after trying to get the text roughly central whilst allowing for a bit of space to add the flags…..etc, etc…. Aaargh ! - the fiddly waste of time I was trying to avoid came back with a vengeance - and on close inspection (be kind…), they are, well, a bit crap…. In future, I’ll definitely go to straight to a magnetic strip with corresponding metal paper label that is hand lettered, I think…..  !

Anyway, on to the troops themselves…. I  wasn’t able to depict every unit of Davout’s Corps in the end, but think I ticked off the majority, as well as some supports that were instrumental in his assaults across the MarchFeld - plus of course, the indulgence of a couple of ‘La Garde’ bases….

First up, from Morand’s Division, the Brigades of Lacour and L’Huillier, with Davout’s command stand sitting alongside:

Lacour’s Brigade featured 3 battalions of the 13th Legere, so I’ve used some skirmishers out front to represent the ‘light’ troops, and there is a single cannon to show integral artillery, whether regimental or attached divisional pieces. As to the thorny subject of representative figure/block ratios, I’ve dodged the issue by placing what looked good to my eye - Lacour featured six battalions, but my base looks like it might have only four or so - the two columns to the right, and the two in line to the left, but I’m happy enough with the abstraction…..or at least I’m not going to worry over it…..

Not to set up a precedent of course, L’Huillier’s Brigade also boasted six battalions, and I’ve managed to squeeze on six columns to look the part, and even though none of them were Legere, there are also a couple of skirmishing blocks…..so I guess I’m in the realms of no rhyme or reason as such, just a close enough representation that looks right to the eye. Given that the eventual magnetic basing labelling will allow the unit to change identity at will, it will give me plenty of options in the future, mostly generic and therefore more flexible.

Moving on, we see the three brigades of Friant’s Division with a separate Foot Artillery Battery:

 Again, more free-form use of blocks rather than being strict with the orders of battle, but some suitably ‘Napoleonic’ looking formations marching to victory, I think.

The Artillery base features four guns with limbers and a single caisson at rear - I could have squeezed six guns to the front, wheel to wheel, but I’d like to keep that option in the future for depicting Grand Batteries to make them more obvious on the tabletop.

The one thing that is so far lacking is separate command bases for the Divisional Commander - having used a small number of blocks for the Corps commander, I am still to decide what to put with the lower level leader - fewer blocks would be visually a bit underwhelming on what will probably be a smaller base, and again we come up against my labelling nightmare once again - manageable if the name is short, but horrendous if we come across something longer - maybe for each, just a suitably coloured base with ‘DIV” and a flag would do the job, but would be rather take away from the period flavour - something to ponder. 

( who said a project is ever truly finished…..?)   :-)

Rudely ignoring General de Division Gudin then, we go on to look at his brigades en masse with accompanying artillery:

Integral guns are depicted by either a single deployed cannon or a limbered piece - not being precious about it - just whichever will fit on the base without it looking too crowded !

That said, the bases can get pretty full-looking…. With the relatively small numbers employed in 1809 not too much of a problem, but maybe 1812 would be better served by 120mm wide ones…… 

Moving on to the cavalry, we have Montbrun’s Division of Pajol and Jacquinot’s Brigades, backed up by Grouchy’s with its singular Brigade:

As much as is practicable in 2mm, I’ve followed the uniform colours that should be apparent for each unit, and there is a rough count of one block/strip per historical squadron from the order of battle - where space permits, some limbered horse artillery accompanies.

I think that although the process for the mounted troops is a bit more involved/laborious, it pays dividends in being able to suggest the sweep of their movement across the base - again, pretty pleased with these as to my eye, they look the part.

Next up, Arrighi’s Heavy Cavalry, that at Wagram backed up the attack at Markgrafsneusiedl:

Lots of lovely Cuirassiers, watched by the circular base of the army commander - I think the image should be clickable for a close up view, to show the white horse out front bearing a certain Corsican in grey coat and black chapeau….. the ever-characterful RBG24 command base from Irregular proving its worth once more…

These heavies are accompanied by the Guard units that I couldn’t resist but try in my ‘test’ batch - as seen in previous postings, Old Guard Grenadiers and the Chasseurs a Cheval and Polish Cheveau-Leger - before they picked up abandoned Austrian lances and became the Lanciers !

I think that it is a wargaming rule that you have to have the Imperial Guard on the table, irrespective of whether they fought on the flank commanded by Davout, right ?……

To conclude, some closer-up shots of various bases:

And finally, the whole force tucked into its Really Useful Box - I didn’t manage to cover all the units from the right flank of the French at Wagram- there are some cavalry missing - Pully/Poincot’s Dragoons, as well as the Puthod’s Infantry Division of two Brigades made up of newly conscripted fourth Battalions, but I had to call a halt somewhere as my poor old eyes were just about giving out….as I suspected, covering the Napoleonic period in any scale can turn into quite the labour of love - to think that I would need to do four times the amount of blocks on show here to cover the whole Grand Armee - supposedly an easy option in such a small scale - sure has given me some pause for thought…..

Anyway, onwards and upwards - Next Post: The Austrians !

Review: New 2mm - Siege Equipment from Irregular

 

Absolutely and unapologetically excited about the latest release of 2mm siege equipment and sundries sculpted by the redoubtable Geoff Addison for Irregular Miniatures - so I took a quick run through of the majority of the items as soon as they landed at SteelonSand towers !

Trojan Horses, Siege Towers, Penthouses, Battering Rams, Trebuchets, Ballistae, Onagers, Bolt Throwers and on and on flow the latest additions - all incisively and charmingly rendered in the tiniest of scales - what’s not to like ?

In addition, we have some long-needed baggage animals, alongside pavises, mantlets, additional figures as siege engineers - even mine entrances if the mood takes you - scroll down for the ABG26 through 38 listings:

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/2mmRanges/2mmAncients.htm

Now as with the previous creations for these recent releases, Mr Addison’s sculpting is more on the ‘organic’ side of things rather than being architecturally exact, but as before, he does a great job of adding character to the pieces, and where it is present, the detail is very good given their size - visible men pushing the fallen tree battering ram - lovely planking on the siege towers, shields and hides on the penthouses….. let’s take a look at some of the items in more detail, the only caveat being it ain’t easy to photograph stuff this small, and that everything is fresh from their ziploc baggies - no removal yet of venting remnants, flash, etc…..

 

The giant Assyrian-style siege tower, no doubt clad in rows of burnished copper shields, is an absolute monster - in a good way - only marred by a honking great mould line right down the front - but I think this will file down easily enough if one is careful….. the various rams and penthouses have plenty of incised detail with wheels and structure plainly moulded, and the Trojan Horse is an absolute joy - I will be happy to accept any Greeks bearing such a gift….!

 (See below with a couple of Antonine Miniatures’ troop blocks):

I think with these new additions, Irregular have filled out the kit list for any self-respecting besieger, running the gamut through from the Biblical to Ancient and on to the Medieval - the variety of bolt throwers, ballistae and trebuchets are a welcome re-inforcement for the venerable ABG25 ‘siege engine’ sculpt:

Talking of re-inforcements, we also now benefit from the new set of baggage animals, which contains pack mules and horses as well as camels - so useful in most historical periods:

Given the background squares on my cutting mat in all the photos are 1cm - these are some tiny treasures !

Talking of scale, I couldn’t resist seeing how the various items of equipment might scale against actual castle walls, so pulled out my Strength and Honour Roman town:

First up, some onagers, bolt throwers, the mantlets, engineers and a line of pavises - with the siege towers moving in - all nicely to scale, I think:

Then a look at the rams, penthouses and towers moving in for the kill:

And next, the lovely escalating steps, with one even having a lowered bridge to crash onto the battlements:

These definitely fill the mind with possibilities for all sorts of siege actions, and would grace any tabletop - I’m keen to see how they all paint up, so watch this space for more…..

I just need to find 2mm sized miniature Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas…….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4njT3pK9OC4

A Diversion: 15mm Terminator !

 

A bit of a curve-ball here, in as much as I was looking at something different from the hordes of 2mm that I have been concentrating on lately…… I wanted a small diversion that would be self contained, and relatively straightforward in terms of painting, so took advantage of Alternative Armies’ recent sale and took the plunge in obtaining some of their characterful Automata.

 https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/15mm-hof-science-fiction-range/automaton

These are of course, wonderful stand-ins for the cinematic Skynet-produced cyborgs, and I for one, given the recent media buzz about the advance of AI, hope these small renditions will go some way in pleasing our new Robotic Overlords……

The range has a lot of very useful types, with heavy weapons, a variety of small arms, and some interesting command figures alongside metal-shape-shifting polymorphs - as you can purchase them individually as well as in value packs, I picked the ones I liked the look of, giving me a mix of things to work on.

First up, from left to right, a T-1000-esque Polymorph, the Command pack figure ‘C’ and the mini-gun bearing Heavy Weapons ‘bot - all great sculpts, and as with all of the automatons, came with no flash or clearing up required from Alternative Armies in the UK, with their usual fast service and turnaround on orders, as well of course as their renowned ‘free’ gifts with every order ! - result !

Painting-wise, I went for a quick drybrush of silver over a black undercoat - not very inspired I know, and the detail on these figures would definitely reward a more considered approach - but the sculpted depth of each was quite forgiving to my paintbrush thrashings - quick and easy…. The heads in particular have great recessed eye orbits that are just crying out for a red glow !

For the bases, I went with the plastic tiddly-winks that I used on my 15mm dungeon denizens, and built them up with some basing sand and Mod-Podge white glue, along with a mix of rubble - this was made up of tiny cuts (with nail clippers) of defunct store and loyalty cards, snapped-off shards of MDF sprue, and some offcuts of blue foam and metal sprue left-overs, with some small metal staples added to the mix - the credit card snippings in particular are effective at this scale, as they offer different colours and patterns/discernible lettering etc that look like a good modern urban junk.

 The T-1000 got a splodge of silver ‘puddle-ing’ to his base to give the idea of him re-forming, but I think I was a bit conservative with the size of the puddle, so it looks a bit underwhelming - ripe for a re-do, methinks…

Rather than making them silver as well, I decided to paint the hand weapons mostly in an ‘army’ green to give a bit of contrast - just a block colour for the moment, they would benefit from a highlight - the packs from AA offer you SMGs, Assault Rifles and heavier MGs, as well as a pair of menacing-looking flamers:

I fear for the Human Resistance when they meet these !

It was perhaps inevitable that my quick and easy project would encounter a bit of mission creep, in that I realised I didn’t really have any suitable skirmish terrain that might go alongside the Terminators -  I needed something to scale that would be suitably post-apocalyptic and ravaged - so went looking on the inter webs as you do…..

I was pleased to find how more and more small-sized 3D designed and printed stuff is becoming available,  and bought some great walls and rubble piles from an EBay seller who does smaller-scale stuff alongside the usual 28mm offerings:

The pack of 15mm walls and detritus from HeadBunny Games was exactly what I was after:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/headbun59

I thoroughly enjoyed painting these up, and the detailing on the walls in particular is amazing, with all sorts of cobbled together materials, tyre stacks, brick piles, oil drums etc in evidence - so will really look the part.

Now, having had so much fun with these destroyers of Humanity, I of course have hankerings to look at doing some Resistance fighters as their adversaries - so to coin a phrase, if you are wondering what will happen next - 

“I’ll be back”……

Latest 2mm Antonine Ancients - Review

 

Thought I’d take a look at some of the latest releases in the 2mm Antonine Miniatures Ancients range - I’m a little late to the party in that they have been available since before last Christmas, but I’ve only recently taken the plunge and bought some.

Antonine have added to the range available at Warbases in the UK, including six packs of Roman buildings with a useful variety of types, and a whole Republican Roman Legion unit alongside a pack of Phalanx Pike Blocks:

https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/games-specific/strength-and-honour/?orderby=date

The buildings look really nice, 3D designed and printed, if it were not for already having a whole plethora of similar types as seen elsewhere on the Blog, I would definitely have taken the plunge, but couldn’t really justify the expense - so I limited myself to purchasing just the new troop types.

The Phalanxes in particular caught my eye, and I wanted to see how the Republican Romans would stack up against the bases I had already created as early Legions using the individual blocks from Irregular Miniatures.

Above you can see how the phalanxes compare with a few other miniature types, in the centre a cavalry block, a skirmisher one and a single elephant from Antonine, and to the centre right a Pike block from Irregular and a strip of Hoplites from the same manufacturer.

To use the vernacular, these new blocks are some big beautiful beasties ! - definitely more in proportion to some of the existing Legionary bases from Antonine, and very much in the Macedonian Phalanx category of things - they make the ABG16 40 man pike block from Irregular look pretty diminutive !

The view from above presents a veritable forest of pikes, with the attendant figures to the side faces, and some extra ranks at the rear - in line with all of Antonine’s output, the pikemen themselves are plain shapes rather than having any particular detail, but this does not take away from the overall impact.

All of the blocks I received were cleanly cast, with no flash present or mould lines in the areas that matter - I think in similar terms to the minis I painted before from Antonine, they should go well with a simple dots and lines paint job - although that’s still going to mean a lot of dotting in the individual pike heads !

Three of the blocks sit comfortably on the basic Strength and Honour 120x60mm bases, with two of the same matching up on my ‘get more bang for your buck’ 90x60mm basing standard:

Above you can see a work-in-progress base of some Epirote phalanxes made up of the blocks from Irregular alongside their somewhat larger Alexandrian cousins !

I think it comes down to a personal choice as to which you might find fits the image better - and in armies of differing eras, the larger Antonine might be the better choice - certainly simpler to paint and to base up, being a gargantuan single unit…..

Turning now to Antonine’s Republican Romans, I think that the new pack is an excellent representation of the same, and also superlative value - you get all the necessary blocks for Velites, Hastati etc, with of course the option to use the different types on separate skirmisher bases. Again, if I wasn’t so invested in those that I already produced using Irregular, I would definitely have gone large in using them to make as many Legions as possible, with tactical formations easily depicted with their individual, smaller blocks.

Some of the castings I received had a small amount of flash in place at the edges, but nothing major, and will be easily removed with a sharp blade or metal file.

The whole pack populates a 120x60mm base size, and anything smaller would give you plenty spare to play with - I find the small Legionary ‘century’ or maniple blocks better proportioned than some of Antonine’s earlier Roman cohort blocks, which I felt were a bit on the large size - giving, if you counted individual ‘figures’ too deep a picture of Roman ranks - these blocks could easily be combined side by side to give a flexibility in what you can depict.

Up against one of my existing Irregular bases - you can see how they might compare all together on a 90x60mm:

I think overall, these are a great addition to the existing range, and give you a whole host of options now, combining with parts from existing packs - as well as some suitably ‘heavy metal’ phalanxes should the mood take you !