A few games of 30 Years War using Baroque

We have played two Thirty Years War games over the past two weeks.  Firstly it was a general bash with reasonably evenly matched forces with the Swedes up against the Catholics.  It was mainly a way of getting a group of us together to play the rules (re-aquaint ourselves).  It was a good game even if it came to a quick conclusion for one Swedish flank when they broke after losing heavily in their first contacts of the game.  We note now that we did not follow the rules correctly in determining when a 'wing' of an army breaks.  

The Tercios in the middle about to come to grips with the enemy

Close up of the Bavarian tercio

And the remiander of the photos are a few close up of various units on the field

Catholic dragoons

Swedish P&M unit

Swedish P&M unit

Swedish P&M unit

The second game was on Friday evening with a smaller group.  Again Ralph brought his 15mm TYW troops - this time foir a historic refight between the Poles and the Swedes.  Just a few photos.

 

 

First buildings for Kleinstadt

The first four buildings for Kleinstadt are finished.  All are N scale railway buildings that I have painted (with the excpetion of that wonderful frescoes and the patterned tiled roof on the tower).  I have also weathered t hem using a combination of techniques.  I've learnt a lot and really enjoyed doing these.

No basing yet as this will be done once all buildings are done for the town and I can work out what bases are needed where.

 

A bit of spraying for Kleinstadt

Nothing too exciting but I am trying to get back into the habit of posting more regularly.  

It was a beautiful day - if a little cold once the sun went behind the trees, so I took the oportunity to locate outside and use the bigger compressor and Iwata spray gun.  I was also using Tamiya colours with the lacquer thinner so it is much better to do it outside with a lot of air movement.

I basecoated in a dark brown to give some shadows, then put a first coat on the roof, a dark red base to the hald timbering and a mustard to the plasterwork.

    

I am basing this building on this and plan to have it just inside the gates on my town.

Also put first coat on the stucco part of the tower and the small church.

And a few pieces for another two models that I have started before I finished the ones already started .... and I wonder why i get very little finished.  

The making of Kleinstadt

I'm starting the building of a walled town set somewhere in south-eastern Germany / Bohemia.  It will be used with a small but growing collection of Thirty Years War in 10mm as well as WSS (which is a much longer term project).  They are both being built with the excellent figures from Pendraken.  

I know I will stretch some of the architecture in terms of period - but it is the look I am going for.

I have been getting great inspiration and learning from panzerfaust200 over on the Wargamers' Forum as he builds his 1/72nd scale town of Neustadt. 

On a family holiday to Europe (when we Australians were allowed to leave our country) 4 years ago, we spent some time in the stunning town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber where I was blown away by the town walls and the architecture (it helped that it was winter and they had a lot of places selling Gluwhein).  

So this will be a walled town with various half timbered buildings as well some later more Baroque looking ones.  I have kits from Faller, Vollmer and Kibri.

When I saw the pictures of the town hall in Lindau I knew it had to be a centrepiece for the town given the painted roofs and the frescoes on the frontage.  I built this over the past few weeks and still need to place the finer pieces of decoration on it and do some weathering. 

Next up was a half timbered market building from Kibri.  It was only after ordering a number of the Kibri buildings that I realised that their half timbering consists of a sticker that I am meant to cut windows out of and stick to the outside of the building.  I contemplated that for a little while as I think it looks cheap and nasty.  

So I have embarked on creating my own version of the timbering that I hope will give it some relief and allow me to paint and weather in a way I could not with the sticker.  I photocopied the sticker onto ordinary paper, glued that onto 0.20 plastic card and then began the laborious and fine process of cutting my own. 

All done and now the process of sticking it on before I can undercoat.

Hopefully more as I progress.

TYW Tercio

I have picked up a quantity of the wonderful 10mm figures from Pendraken.  First forces I am having a go at are for the Thirty Years War.

This is a Spanish Tercio from the early period - a central pike block that was supported on the four corners by shot.  It was intended to be able to defend itself from any direction.

Thirty Years War at Annandale

We met at Annandale yesterday for a great game of Baroque with some lovely Thirty Years War figures painted by Maurice, Bob and Grant.

Maurice and I were opposing a nasty looking bunch of Swedes.  Managed to play to a conclusion in about 4 hours of game time.

Most of the villages / hamlets are from Total Battle Miniatures 10mm range.

My pike and musket regiments in line before the battle.

Part of the Swedish line opposing me.  Unfortunately out of shot to the right of the Swedish infantry was a large number (five regiments) of Swedish horse.  Against them I only had three regiments.  Pretty obvious that this flank was going to be the result of the battle.

It didn't take long for the horse to come to grips with each other.  My first unit of Cuirassiers below didn't earn their horse feed on the day.  These guys lasted one round and with the followup they routed. 

Action pretty quickly turned to my massed Reiters taking on another unit of Swedish horse.  These Reiters has inserted themselves into a gap between villages and were protecting the flank of my infantry as they slowly advanced towards the Swedes.  On the day, they fought as gallantly as anyone could hope.  This melee lasted in the vicinity of five or six turns.  In the end they broke but only once they were contacted on the flank by another fresh unit of Swedish horse.  

While the horse battle was going on the infantry ground their way towards each other.  As we advanced, my artillery slowly took chips off two of the Swedish units to the extent that when we finally met both Swedish units did not last long at all.  

Unfortunately my two units of infantry in the foreground of the photos took a few rounds of fire from the more powerful Swedish units before we could get into melee with thee.  This resulted in both being thrown back and then quickly overwhelmed by the Swedes.  

The end results was that both our armies broke on the same turn - a very enjoyable draw on the day.

TYW Battle of Brettenfield

We had a wonderful days' gaming yesterday at Ralph's house.  He had put on a refight of the Battle of Brettenfield in the Thirty Years War.

We were using his wonderful 15mm collection of miniatures on purpose built terrain for the battle. Special mention must also go to Rosie for keeping us well provisioned during the long struggle all day.

On one side we had me with Gustavus and his Swedes with Ralph taking the Saxons.  Facing us was Richard and Alan with Tilly's Catholic - Imperial army.

Pappeneheim's cavalry that I was facing

Tilly's tercios arranged for battle

My victorious cavalry - see last photo below :)

More glory for Gustavus' cavalry

On come Tilly's mighty tercios - some a bit softened up from fire on the way in

Hard fighting in the centre with the Tercios up against Swedish foot

The Swedes have broken through Tilly's powerful tercios

I know I should not gloat - but here are Pappenheim's casualties