Toy Soldiers in Art No. 31

 

Another seasonal postcard with Toy Soldiers . I admire the hats worn by the participants , perhaps I need to start wearing a hat whilst gaming ? . The serried ranks are about to be mown down by grapeshot , if I was the other chap I'd be getting out of the way to avoid getting shot !, again a sailor suit is in evidence .  

A little bit of enlightenment on the previous post .

 

In the previous post there were musings on the uniforms and accoutrements of the Bavarian soldiers with a table full of toy soldier castings . I have been and done a bit of 'googling' and found these couple of photos of Landwehr whose bayonets and caps match the original photo  .

Toy Soldiers in Art No.30

 

Another photo from my folder of possibilities , I not sure where I got this one from, but it shows a group of soldiers casting (?) toy soldiers . I was initially going to say they were French  but I did a 'picture search' and came up with the following,   -  Infanterist Reinhard Bosch and colleagues from Bayer. Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 8 pose around a table bedecked with tin soldiers. According to his service record, Bosch would receive the Iron Cross second-class in August 1917.. I'm not sure which is Reinhard and why they are casting toy soldiers, but they seem to be wearing some sort of fatigue uniform (?) , I think the original was a postcard as the picture search mentions divided back (of photo as in a postcard)

Toy Soldiers in Art No.29

 

Had this in my folder of possibilities for a while and finally it's that time of year .He isn't going to miss at that range is he ! . The number of children playing with Toy Soldiers whilst wearing Sailor suits is remarkable - not sure I could carry it off myself - especially nowadays . 

Lord Bygones Triumph ! (being Part 2 of the battle report)

 

The unit of DagTufekcileri come under fire from the Helenyka irregulars hiding in the village.

The Sublime Porte Lancers charge is met by a counter charge from the Green Hussars !

Which ends in total disaster for the Lancers ! , Oh dear ! 

The Sublime Porte Regulars have to deploy as as the Heroine Tringe Smajli and her warband threaten the column .

Flushed with success the Green Hussars capture one of the mule trains of ammunition and the corespondent of the New Tribune (this later caused a diplomatic incident with the American Government)

Meanwhile Lord Bygone and the Regulars charge the redoubt and kill and scatter the garrison ! (Lord Bygone poses heroically on the parapet )

The Green Hussar escort the mule train and War Correspondent Mustafa Drage  to safety .

With things going badly for them the leading unit of the column has to fight it's way back to the bridge .

The Border Guards (in white uniforms) move up (very slowly) to help cover the retreat . It must be said that the Regulars fought well taking heavy casualties but their morale held (the red heart donates that a unit has past it's morale check) .

To add insult to injury the Border Guard are ambushed by Tringe Smalji and promptly flee ! At this point I decided to draw a veil over the sad proceedings and the remnants of the Sublime Porte retreated over the bridge to safety having lost half of the ammunition and suffered heavy casualties . A stunning victory for Lord Bygone  which I am sure his publicity department will make the most of !

 

 

The Action in the Hizli Nehir Valley ( Lord Bygone strikes once more against the Sublime Porte!)

 

When I am in a quandary on what to play next I tend to come back to my old favourite set of rules - A Gentleman's War . Here we see a column of The Sublime Porte escorting some mule loads of ammunition . unfortunately a spy has informed the Helenyka government and the have dispatched a scratch force of local troops under the British patriot Lord Bygone to capture it .

I gave both sides a Special Cameo Character card , The Helenykan's got a 'Sergeant Major' a British mercenary employed to train the Republican Army .

The Sublime Porte got a 'War Correspondent' The New Tribune correspondent Mustapha Dragge .

The Helenyka forces are helped by the famed Heroine Tringe Smajli and her force of freedom fighters !

The village has a small detachment of Dag Tufekcileri to guard the route for the Sublime Porte .

The Sublime Porte under Kemul Attaturk Pasha have drawn a good hand of cards which should assist in their motivation ! 

The tail end of the column moves slowly up the road and over the River Hizli Nehir blissfully unawares of the oncoming ambush , Too be continued ..........

Wargaming Humour No. 42

 

Found on the Interweb , doubt it would sell , they would have to be rather more rotund and a lot greyer , however the rules dispute that seems to be brewing is probably accurate.  

The Battle of Blasthof Bridge (or a 'Blast' from the past}

    I set out the troops as close as possible to the book and tried to follow their manoeuvres as near as I could .

The rules are very simple and it was nice not to have to keep consulting them constantly , unlike some modern rules.

The Artillery proved quite effective and it was important to get it into action as soon as possible.

The Electoral Foot cross the River Blast upstream from the bridge . 

The Imperial Foot start taking casualties from the enemy guns 

The game after about 4 moves , both sides have deployed their Artillery which are starting to cause casualties.

The Imperial Artillery take casualties - so bad that the Office has to help to man the gun.

There where several Cavalry clashes and the action swung back and forth with the Imperial Cuirassiers getting the worst of it .

The remnants of the Imperial Cavalry retire across the bridge . I had decided to play the game for 12 moves and by then the Imperial Forces had  lost most of their Cavalry and about a quarter of their Infantry and although the Electoral Force had not captured both ends of the bridge they had the least casualties so I gave the victory to them ! .An interesting game, I would perhaps increase the move distances and the musket ranges because of my larger table , but a very enjoyable game and a real 'blast from the past' 

 

 

 

Blasthof Bridge a Homage Battle.

 

Having just obtained my hardbacked copy of 'Charge' I thought it would be a good idea to reproduce the iconic battle of Blasthof Heath from the book . Here we have the battlefield , the objective is to seize and hold the Blasthof Bridge.

The troops are deployed as in the book (or near enough) The Imperial Army nearest the Camera and the Electoral Army at the top of the photo.

The Count De Fru-Fru is taking the part of Count von Kornberg .

General 'Jung Fritz' Swartenberg commands the Electoral Army instead of Soubise .

The Electoral Army deployed.

The Imperial Army , the figures are home casts from my 40mm SYWish collection and I will be using the Elementry rules as in the book. To be continued ....

Mrs K comes up trumps again.

 

My dear wife found these at her stint at the charity shop this morning wooden nutcracker toy soldiers only 50p each ! , a bargain!