John Talbot's Regiment of Foote

This is the third (and last, at least for now) of my new ECW units of Foote. 

Talbot supported the King with his Yellow coat regiment.

Like the others of this group, this regiment wears Montero caps. 

Of course I couldn't resist a flag with dogs on it; in this case, Talbot hounds!

This unit has their "Twelve Apostles" and some other highlights in dark green, well, just because!

I used Delta Ceramcoat "Straw" for the jackets - I think it is just right without being too garrish!

Flag for the unit., once again modified from some internet images. 

Snappy Nappy 1814 Campaign in a Day - Sunday April 28, 2019

 Napoleon and his staff are returning from Soissons after the battle of Laon,

 by Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier  (Image from Wikimedia commons)

La Patrie en Danger!

An 1814 Snappy Nappy Campaign-in-a-Day
by Russ Lockwood

In January of 1814, the 300,000 troops of the Armies of Silesia and Bohemia flowed over the frontiers and into France, chasing the battered remnants of Napoleon's army. Outnumbered and outgunned, Napoleon yet believed his fortunes could change.

Behind the scenes, diplomats negotiated the fate of the Emperor and his Empire. Spain teetered on accepting a peace that would secure France's southwestern border and end the British offensive over the Pyrenees. Meanwhile, the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians squabbled even as Schwartzenberg, Blucher, and Alexander pursued their not yet vanquished foe.

A New Grand Armee

Napoleon issued new orders to call up troops -- 936,000 conscripts to fill out decimated units, 150,000 National Guardsmen, and recalling old veterans to the colors. He counted on an upswell of French patriotism to help toss the foreign troops out of France. With a battlefield victory or two, Napoleon would once again be in a position of strength when it came to negotiate another peace.

History, however, would find only an estimated 120,000 conscripts who answered the call. Despite flashes of maneuvering brilliance and a half-dozen rapid victories against various parts of the Armies of Silesia and Bohemia, the odds proved too great for Napoleon. Paris ultimately fell, the marshals ended their support, and Napoleon was sent off to Elba.

Napoleon's maneuvers during the 1814 campaign in France

1814 Snappy Nappy Campaign-in-a-Day

For SnapCon VII, we present the 1814 Campaign-in-a-Day using the Snappy Nappy rules. A dozen tabletops represent the area roughly from Paris to Verdun, with up to 22 players and 3 army C-in-Cs as commanders of the campaign. Unlike most miniatures games, the table edge is not the end of the world -- Players move their troops across the terrain, often from table to table, praising (or cursing) the fog of war about what lies on the next table over.

Map of the Theater of War (for illustrative purposes only, almost certainly NOT the map that Russ will be using!)

WHEN: Sunday, April 28, 2019. Briefing starts at 10:30am, campaign starts at 11:00, and wraps up by 5pm.

WHERE: The Portal, 60 Hilliard Rd, Manchester, CT (next to Hartford, CT)-- a full-service game store with a back room and 20 tables, more tables in the main area, and a three-story hobby store across the street.

COST: None. No fees. Free parking.

RULES: Snappy Nappy. Beginners welcome. Rules taught. Each player is a Corp commander. Each unit is roughly a brigade.

WHAT TO BRING: Yourself and other gamers. We provide all troops, terrain, charts, and so on.

SIGN UPS: We ask that you sign up in advance so we know how many to expect. Walk-ins are welcome, but first signed up, first served. :)

If you wish a particular command (French, Prussian, Austrian, or Russian) or even a particular C-in-C (Napoleon, Blucher, or Schwartzenberg), or no preference, e-mail me direct: 
Russ Lockwood 
lockwood161@comcast.net

PREPARE?

I recommend Peter's blog BlundersontheDanube (Google it) for recaps of all previous Snappy Nappy campaigns in a day.

I also recommend heading to Alan's Snappy Nappy Yahoo Group for 10 years worth of SN discussions, errata, and so on. You'll find the SN Quick Reference Sheet with all the charts.

And, I recommend heading to Little Wars TV for their review of Snappy Nappy -- they used a multi-table campaign game for their evaluation.

WRINKLES: We always put in a wrinkle or two for greater fog of war. For example, game commanders and units are often swapped so you can make your own plans.

Here's another one: For this SN Campaign, Napoleon's call to arms was more successful than it historically was… Another? Sorry, that will be revealed at game time…

HISTORICAL COMMANDS adapted for the game:

French

* Napoleon C-in-C: ?
* Mortier (Imperial Guard): ?
* Ney (Young Guard): ?
* Victor (II Corp): ?
* Marmont (VI Corp): ?
* MacDonald (IX Corp): ?
* Gerard (XI Corp): ?
* Oudinot (VII Corp): ?
* Pully (XVI Corp): ?
* Pacthod (XIV Corp): ?
* Rusca

Prussian
* Blucher C-in-C: ?
* Olssuliev (9th Russian Corp): ?
* Scherbatov (6th Russian Corp): ?
* Lieven (11th Russian Corp): ?
* Tuchkov (10th Russian Corp): ?
* Yorck (1st Prussian Corp): ?
* Kleist (2nd Prussian Corp): ?

Austrian
* Schwarztenberg C-in-C: ?
* Wrede (5th Bavarian Corp): ?
* Gyulai (3rd Austrian Corp): ?
* Frederich (4th Wurttemburg Corp): ?
* Colleredo (1st Austrian Corp): ?
* Wittgenstein (6th Mixed Corp): ?
* Rajewsky (Grenadier Corps): ?

QUESTIONS AND SIGN UPs?

lockwood161@comcast.net
(Put '1814 SN Campaign' in the subject line)

Thomas Ballard's Regiment of Foote

My next new unit of Foote is Parliamentarian; Thomas Ballard's regiment of graycoats. 

I hadn't yet decided which exact regiment to call them as I was painting them, but I saw Simon's unit with the light blue flag and the star as the "differencer" on the regiment's flags, and the decision was made!  :-)

The coats are  (Michael's) Craftsmart dark grey, and the Montero caps were done in Payne's grey with a bit of Craftsmart Navy added to it, and then dry brushed with a lightened version of the same color.

The Black and white printed out flag was then painted with Delta CC Caribbean blue for the field color. 

I used the ink pen again to outline the white star.  As a Roundhead unit, I did the sashes and "twelve apostles" in orange. 

I painted the pants Delta CC Wedgewood blue, a decidedly bluish grey. That turned out to work well with the eventual flag color!

Image for the flag of Ballard's regiment.

The Duke of York's Regiment of Foote

This is the first of many new units to be added to my English Civil War  armies - the Duke of York's own Regiment of Foote. 

 I wanted to add another unit of Royalist Foote wearing red coats (the existing unit of Redcoats is the King's Lifeguard of Foote).

I had planned to do a different regiment, but as I was completing the unit, I found this flag on line. It is the flag for the 4th captain, and I thought the red and black "gyronny" pattern was very striking. 

I painted the coats with a faded red (Delta CC Madras Red), and used a medium blue (Delta CC Bluejay) for the "12 apostles" and other highlights.  

My color inkjet printer was on the fritz, so I had to print the flags out in greyscale, and then paint over the pattern. At least the resulting colors are very vivid!

These Old Glory 25's are mostly wearing "Montero" caps. I plan to use them mostly for representing raw/recently raised units.

Image I creased for the flag above; a fairly simple manipulation of an existing on line image.

February made me shiver, with each parcel UPS delivered...

(with apologies to Don McClean...)

First up was the fulfillment of a  Kickstarter from the Fall of 2018 - a dozen scenarios from the early years of the Peninsular War, by "JJ" - Jonathan Jones.

The book is very handsomely produced., and the spiral binding means it will lay flat on the tabletop. 

I was a bit surprised that the scenarios in fact only covered a few battles (Talavera being the basis of 5 scenarios all by itself), but they all seem well thought out and presented. To help push the Kickstarter over the top, an additional 4 scenarios in pdf form were pledged to backers, which have yet to be delivered, but the books themselves were just printed in January, so I have every confidence they will be forthcoming in due time. 

 Part of one of the scenarios. The introduction section sets out the troop and ground scale; for example,  the basic infantry unit is a battalion of roughly 600 men, and 1" = 33 yards. .A little additional background on the "Oe'r the Hills" rules, which I neither own nor plan to purchase, as they relate to converting the scenarios for use with other rules would have been helpful. For example, the commanders each have ratings (three numbers), but no where is it explained what they mean, although some reasonable assumptions can be made. Considering this is not an extensively played set of rules, I would have provided such (and indeed, having written my own scenario book  for another set of not widely played rules, I did [cough!] ). Ultimately, the proof is in the playing, and the scenarios look enjoyable. I look forward to trying them out over time.

Second, I took advantage of the waning days of the Lancashire Games winter sale to pick a bunch of packs  of Limbers and teams.

Unfortunately, Lancashire doesn't label their packs so until I take the figures out it is a bit hard to know what's what! In total, there are figures for 2 Bavarian Limber teams (the second will become a Badner limber team for when I buy the Murawski Baden artillery battery), 5 British Limber teams, plus a British Caisson and team thrown in for variety. 

Plans to add a respectable number of limbers to my Napoleonic armies was indeed the rationale behind the fifty  60 x 150 mm Litko bases I purchased in December as part of their winter sale. 

Back a year ago, I purchased a bunch of Old Glory English Civil WEar figures to add to my venerable collection of Minifigs. As I organized the figures for the first of a number of planned new units of Foote, it became apparent that my inventory of wire for fabricating pikes would not suffice for even those... and I still have a host of Macedonian pikes to do as well. So, a Michael's discount offer in hand. I ordered some bulk floral wire. Hmm, 1 pack of each gauge probably won't be enough ( I get 5 pikes from one length of floral wire); better get two packs of 12 of each. What I failed to realize was that, being *bulk* floral wire, each "pack", contained 12 packs of 12 wires, or 144 in all. A slight bit of math with reveal that I now possess sufficient wire to make  over 2,800 pikes! So, if you need some wire, just ask me to bring you as pack (or three) to Histioricon in July, LOL!

 "The usual suspects".. our girl, Maddie (left) and Kristie's girl, Brook (right). 

Early Imperial French Line Infantry - The Voltigeurs

A company of  light infantry Voltigeurs (literally, "vaulters") was added to each battalion of French Line Infantry by Napoleon's decree of September 20, 1804, replacing one of the 8 Fusilier companies, with the 1st company being the Grenadiers, for a total of 9 companies per battalion. The classic French infantry battalion organization of  4 Fusilier companies and one each of Grenadiers and Voltigeurs was not established until February 1808.

These early Imperial era Voltigeurs wear the bicorne. The plumes and epaulets (the later of which were official only for the Grenadiers) were in yellow, with or without red or green. 

The collars for the Voltigeurs were yellow or buff (chamois), variously trimmed in red, white or dark blue. The colored ink pens once again came in handy for doing the "stripey" trousers of the one company wearing them.

As with the recently posted Grenadiers, these troops will be added to the Fusilier companies painted 2+ years ago to complete their respective units.

These troops in Campaign Dress carry all sorts of interesting water bottles, flasks, and the like..The pack of  Old Glory "Early Grenadiers in Campaign Dress"contained a mix of figures in bearskins, bicornes, and a few in forage caps.  I used the  figures  wearing bicornes (and forage caps) to make these Voltigeur companies.

Early Imperial French Line Infantry - The Grenadiers

In the Fall of 2016, I painted up 4 units of Old Glory French infantry in Bicorne, Campaign Dress. I did not have the figures for the compangnies d' elite at the time. I finally ordered them from Old Glory about a year ago, but it is only now that they are parading off the painting table. 

I have a particular fondness for this version of the Grenadier companies of the line infantry; my original French Napoleonic army, using 25 mm Scruby figures, had all of the line Grenadiers in bearskins with red cords like those above.  

 Evidently, to have your regiment's Grenadiers equipped with bearskins, all the Colonel had to do was request them from the 1st Consul (later Emperor ) Napoleon. Some Grenadier bearskins seem to have persisted through about 1809.

The back of the bearskin has  a fabric patch on it, which the French jokingly called the cul de singe (Monkey's butt). These Old Glory figures have the grenade sculpted on, but a white cross on red, or even quartered blue and red with a white cross overlying, are known variants as well. 

The varied pants are to match those of the Regiments that they will be joining.  I have used orange highlighting on the epaulets, cords and plumes to bring out some of the details.