Austrian Infanterie Regiment #50, "Graf Stain"

The third of the 5 new regiments to join the K. und K army is I.R #50, "Graf Stain". The regiment has violet facings and pewter buttons. 

From 1773-1809 the Inhaber of the regiment was  Feldzugmeister Karl-Leopold, Graf Stain, ); Following the defeat of Austria in the 1809 campaign the regiment was disbanded. It still not yet reformed in 1815.

During the 1809 campaign, the regiment was originally part of the V Corps, commanded by Erzherzog Ludwig; however, it soon became attached to the 1st Reserve Corps under Lichtenstein, and as such saw action at Abensberg, Teugen, and Eggmuhl. The 3rd battalion fought at Ebelsberg.

At Aspern, the first 2 battalions were part of Hohenzollern's II Corps, and it suffered heavy losses in the fighting. The 3rd battalion saw action at Wagram, fighting as part of Radetsky's Division of the IV Corps. The regiment was originally recruited in Upper Austria, and then later West Galicia and Poland.

Vauban's Wars Playtest: The Siege of Badajoz, March - April 1812

The siege of Badajoz was a key event in  Peninsular War, as Wellington was at last moving from the strategic defensive to the offense. It took place from  March 16 - April 6th, 1812. Wellington was eager to get the siege over with as quickly as possible, before any of the advancing French could intervene. Badajoz lies on the river Guadiana, on the frontier between Spain and Portugal. 

French:  Under General de Brigade Armand Philippon 5,000 men
British: Under Earl of Wellington and General Picton  27,000 men


FRENCH (Defenders/Garrison)

Badajoz is rated as a "STRONG" Fortress, with a base defense grade of 6; Thus Gates and Bastions will be class 7 (take 70 hits to breach), Walls Grade 6 (60 hits), and Ravelins Grade 5 (50 hits). 

4 Bastions, 24 Siege purchase Points (6 points for each bastion).

Garrison:

4 Fortress guns in Bastions,  (one in each). (free)

1 Governor (free) (Philippon) LD 12

1 General (free)  LD 10

1 Miner (free)

4 Line Infantry 4 pts

1 Light Infantry  2 pts

1 Grenadier Infantry 2 pts (I forgot to put the Grenadier unit out!)

3 Heavy guns 9 pts

3 Sappers  6 pts

1 Spy 1 pt

Food Supply: As a "Well stocked" Fortress, Badajoz rolled 5 D6 and added 12, and wound up with 28
Supply Die:  D4 (higher is better; D4 is usual for Fortress)
Powder Supply: 10 (D6 plus 6)
Security Die: D8  (can vary from D6 [bad] to D10 [good]). Used to defend against Espionage and some other events. 
Siege Morale Points (SMP): 16 (Low; John rolled... poorly!)
Popular Support Die: D6 (the Spanish populace was indifferent at best to the French Garrison). It probably should have been a D8 (Lot of discontent), maybe even D10 (openly hostile)). 



BRITISH (Attackers/Besiegers)

With the Fortress having 4 bastions/24 points, the attackers will get  twice as many points to spend = 48):

2 Free Siege Guns (1 per 2 bastions)

1 Free Miner

1 Free Commander (Wellington) LD 12+1

1 Free General (picton)  LD 12

4 more Siege artillery 16 pts

4 Sappers  8 pts

1 Spy  1 pt

8 Line Infantry 8 pts

2 Lightt Infantry 4 pts

2 Grenadiers 2 pts (Highlanders/Fusiliers)

1 Guard Infantry 3 pts

Add 1 to Powder Supply  4 pts

2 Heavy Mortars 2 pts

Supply Die: D6 (Average for attackers)

Powder Supply: 13 (D6 +6; Barry rolled well, and had an additional one purchased!)

Security Die: D8 (average)

Siege Morale Points: 30 (average for strength of besieging force).

Early on in the game, British sappers start their saps from the 1st parallel towards the Fortress, as John/Philippon looks on confidently from behind the walls! The 1st parallel is at long range from the Fort. 

Another view early in the siege; the first TWO turns eneded in tied die rolls before any cards were played. Actually, that was a bit historical, as Wellington was delayed for a time by the slowness of the advance of his siege train over the poor Peninsular roads. 

The saps advance; one British sapper has started construction of a segment of the 2nd parallell, at medium range from the Fortress. Disease has taken a heavy toll on the participants, especially the Defenders!

A British sapper has constructed a Gun emplacement (and paid for it with his life; the British lost a LOT of sappers in this game, in part due to an oversight on my part; sappers are an additional DOWN 2 as a target! The first (ineffective) shot has been fired at the walls. Note the Siege Mortar waiting in the 1st parallel. 

 After a lot of losses, the saps have advanced and gun positions have been constructed allowing shelling of two of the Fortresses' Bastions. 

Accurate fire by John's defenders is wreaking havoc on the British gunners (too accurate; they should have been another DOWN 1 as a target!). More Disease thins the ranks and drains the Morale of both Besiegers and Garrison alike. 

The British have made modest progress at battering two of the Bastions, but are a long way from achieving a Breach!

The triangular structures are Ravelins; they must be destroyed before the walls beyond can be targeted. 

 The British guns burn up powder like crazy... as do the French defenders!

Heavy Mortars fire on the town beyond the walls, hoping to shake the Morale of the defenders. In the end, however , it is the British that run out of Siege Morale points first. The siege is lifted, and Wellington must return to Portugal to try again another time!

A short video on the Siege of Badajoz

    I made a LOT of mistakes in running this game, but we still had a blast with it. Eric Burgess's Vauban's Wars rules are nearing their final version, and have developed a lot from the earlier version we had play tested a number of years ago. We will probably do another run of this game soon (with new rolls for the setup, and possibly some minor changes in the forces. I made the fortress walls and Bastions all in the past week, and hope to pretty them up some, plus add representation for the Glacis/Covered Way beyond the ditch for that game. 

Austrian Infanterie Regiment #41 - "Freiherr von Kottulinski"

The second of the 5 new Austrian regiments, this is IR #41, sulfur yellow facings with pewter buttons.

 From 1792-1798: Infantry Regiment ‘Freiherr von Bender’ Nr. 41 ( Inhaber: Feldmarschalleutnant Johann-Blasius, Freiherr vonBender ); 1798-1805: vacant

From 1805-1808: Infantry Regiment ‘Herzog von Sachsen-Hildburghausen’ Nr. 41 (Inhaber: Feldmarschalleutnant Friedrich, Herzog von Sachsen-Hildburghausen)
From 1808-1815: Infantry Regiment ‘Freiherr von Kottulinski’ Nr. 41 (Inhaber: Feldmarschalleutnant Franz, Freiherr vonKottulinski)
1815-1815: Infantry Regiment ‘Hohenlohe-Bartenstein’ Nr. 41 (Inhaber: Feldzugmeister Ludwig, Furst zu Hohenlohe-Bartenstein)

The regiment's recruiting area was the Kolomea  district (Kolomyja in Polish) of Galicia. 

In 1809 the regiment served in the Polish campaign. 

Once again these are Old Glory 28 mm figures and Adolfo Ramos flags. The white coats, belts, and pants were stained first with w ash of Delta Ceramcoat "Wedgewood Grey", and then the finished figures were treated with heavy acrylic "Magic Wash". 

Austrian Infanterie Regiment #30, Furst de Ligne

This is the first of five Austrian German Line regiments in helmet to march off the painting desk. 

The regiment's Inhaber was  Feldmarschalleutnant Charles-Joseph Lamoral, Prince de Ligne, from 1770 - 1814.

This was a Walloon recruited regiment originally; later, with the loss of the Hapsburg territories in the low countries, it was recruited in Galicia. 

This regiment had hechtgrau (Pike Grey)  facings, a strongly blue-grey shade. The pictures make the hue look bit bluer than it actually  is. The real color is best seen on the turnbacks of the officer above. The regiment had brass buttons.

In 1809, it was part of the VII Corps and fought in the Polish campaign, including combat at Razsyn. 

Old Glory figures. with Adolfo Ramos flags. 

The 300 Austrians

Back at the last Historicon in Frederiscksburg, in 2017. I acquired the somewhat insane amount of roughly 300 Old Glory Austrian Napoleonic Infantry for $100. It's been 2 years, and I just now decided to finally sort out exactly what I had on hand!  This was prompted by the 90 Austrian Line that I am painting right now, which will exhaust my supply of same, otherwise. While the bulk of the figures were in there original bags, there were quite a few more that were loose and somewhat mixed up.

2 bags of 30 German Line in Shako, 2 bags of 30 German Line in Shako,  Attack-March, 1 bag of German Line in Shako, Road March (I especially like these!), and 1 bag of German Grenadiers, 180 figures in all.

Next, it was time to sort out the loose figures

The loose figures included 1 group of 30  more German Line in Shako, Advancing,plus another 18 of same, 17 more Germ an Line in Shako Attack-March, 8 more German Line in Shako Marching,  4 Falling wounded and 1 lying wounded, 13 German Line Command in Shako (3 standard bearers, 4 drummers, 4 Officers, and 2 NCO's, plus 3 mounted colonels sans horses), 7 German Grenadier command (4 standard bearers, 2 drummers, 1 officer) plus a spare Grenadier Marching, and 4 wounded Grenadiers., plus another 12 German Line command, but these in Helmets. That's 118 more figures, just shy of 300 altogether.

With my usual scheme (18  figures per unit), that's enough to make

2 units of Grenadiers

7 units of Line Advancing

7 units of Line Attack-March

3 units of Line Marching.

I'd need to add 3 sets of Old Glory Line command (20 each) to have the necessary cadres... assuming I ever paint anywhere near that many of them!

Still, I can paint a LOT of Austrians in a fairly short time; these 90 are nearing completion and will be appearing on the blog soon!  :-)

Part 3 of the Bill McHugh collection: The Sea Peoples

Along with the Hittites, and Assyrians in Bill's Brionze age collection were several units of the so-called Sea Peoples". These are among the best painted of Bill's troops, and really need little more than re-affixing some shields and  re-basing to my requirements to be table ready.

Sherdens, who were incorporated into the Army of Ramses II, and fought for Egypt at Kadesh.  

There are 31 figures, which will become either 2 units of 16 or three of 36, with the addition of some command figures or similar. I will probably change some of the shield colors to differentiate the units. 

Nice job on the Tunics! Like all of the Sea Peoples, there origins are uncertain, one theory tying them to Sardinia. 

The second lot are Peleset, often equated to Biblical Philistines. 

These are really well painted, with 15 figures having blue feather crests on their headgear, and  15 more having red. 

Once again, really nice painting o the tunics. 

I am pretty sure I have enough spare Peleset figures (Old Glory) to add another six or so and make three units of 12 each. I think I have a pack of Ox Carts for them, somewhere,  too!

A short video about the Sea Peoples. 

and another!