Reading quite a few blog posts retailing what bloggers have been doing over the last year, and what they have planned for the future, I was thinking I haven't much to show either way. I'm certainly not overfond of making plans - plans have a way of becoming chores, or things that will get set aside as a more pressing/ interesting/ preferable projects supervene. I'm told they don't survive 'contact with the enemy', so there you are.
But, looking back, the year has, much to my surprise, been fairly productive.
Chromatic Wars Navies:
Early in the yearRuberia:
- 9 Pre-dreadnought and Ironclad battleships (3 Battle Squadrons of 3)
- 1 Armoured Cruiser
- 1 Protected Cruiser
- 9 Torpedo boat/ Destroyers (3 Flotillas of 3)
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| Ruberian Battle Fleet |
Azuria:
- 7 Pre-dreadnought and Ironclad battleships
- 2 (small) Armoured Cruisers
- 8 Torpedo boats (2 flotillas of 4)
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| Part of Azuria's Battle Fleet |
Izumrud-Zeleniya:
- 2 Pre-dreadnought battleships
- 1 Armoured Cruiser
- 1 Destroyer leader
- 3 Torpedo boats
That's 18 capital ships, 5 cruisers, and 20 smaller craft - 43 vessels in all. Had I begun with a 'plan' to make so many, I would have found it sufficiently daunting, methinks, not to start. In fact it did take me a couple of years from sketching out some designs to get stuck in and begin. As it turned out, the two larger navies fetched up about 50% larger than planned envisaged, and I began in two minds whether GREEN would get a navy at all.
War of the Imperial Succession
I began building these armies about 50 years ago. The 'original' idea was to create those arch-enemies the Emperor and the Elector, though the latter seemed rather insistent upon crowning himself King of Altmark-Uberheim (I began with another name for the Electorate, but eventually settled upon this). |
| Battle of Blenderheim |
Although I had plenty painted up to fight battles, such as the action at Blenderheim, and the Grand Duchy's operations in Ursaminor, I still had a very considerable plastic mountain to reduce. I estimate that I painted up:
- Imperialists: 224 foot and 57 horse - total 281 figures
- Altmark-Uberheim - 19 freikorps and 57 horse - 76 figures
- Hessen-Rohr - 19 jager.
Three hundred figures done, and, apart from a few command figures, all the armies now pretty much complete. Methought it would amuse me to write up here a TO&E for the armies:
Imperialist (Trockenbeeren-Auslese)
Foot:
Imperialist (Trockenbeeren-Auslese)
Foot:
- 8th Hilberghausen Infantry - 36 figures
- 9th Los Rios Infantry - 36 figures
- 21st Arenberg Infantry - 36 figures
- 27th Baden-Durlach Infantry - 36 figures
- 56th Alt-Colloredo Infantry - 36 figures
- Grauheim Infantry - 36 figures
- Roth Wurzburg Infantry - 36 figures
- Blau Wurzburg Infantry - 36 figures
- 'Red' Grenadiers - 36 figures
- 'Blue' Grenadiers - 36 figures
- Gruen Wurzburg Grenadiers - 24 figures
- 1st Feldjagerkorps - 19 figures
- 2nd Feldjagerkorps - 19 figures
422 Figures. All except the Wurzburg units are Airfix from the 'American War of Independence' sets.
Horse:
Horse:
- 7th Battyany Dragoons - 19 figures
- 11th Nadasti Hussars - 19 figures
- 13th Khevenhuller Dragoons - 19 figures
- 17th Kalnoky Hussars - 19 figures
- 21st Trauttmannsdorf Cuirassiers - 19 figures
- 23rd Birkenfeld Cuirassiers - 19 figures
- 24th Esterhazy Hussars - 19 figures
- 25th Anhalt-Zerbst Cuirassiers - 19 figures
- 31st St-Ignon Dragoons - 15 figures
167 Figures. The dragoons are Revell, as are the Esterhazy Hussars; the cuirassiers modified Italieri (apart from a command group of Minifig 7YW metals); and the remaining hussars ESCI.
Artillery:
4 batteries each with 2 guns and 10 gunners: total 40 figures and 8 cannon (6 guns, 2 howitzers). ESCI Napoleonic cannon, Revell gun crews (a change of mind from the Airfix RHA gunners, who have been employed elsewhere).
Total army: 629 (Excluding army high command and staffs)
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| Imperial Army in the Battle of Zerbst |
Altmark-Uberheim:
Foot:
- 1st Winterfeldt Infantry - 36 figures
- 2nd von Kanitz Infantry - 36 figures
- 4th von Kalnein Infantry - 36 figures
- 10th Knoblach Infantry - 36 figures
- 15th Garde Infantry - 44 figures
- 18th Prinz von Uberheim Infantry - 36 figures
- 22nd Anhalt-Dessau Infantry - 36 figures
- 25th Ramin Infantry - 36 figures
- 49th Diericke Fusiliers - 32 figures
- Jagerkorps zu Fuss - 19 figures
- Schleist Freikorps - 19 figures
366 Figures. All Revell Prussian infantry except the Freikorps - Airfix.
Horse:
- 1st Cuirassiers Schlabrendorff - 19 figures
- 2nd Zieten Hussars (Red Hussars) - 19 figures
- 3rd Dragoons Kalkreuth - 19 figures
- 4th Puttkamer Hussars (White Hussars) - 19 figures
- 5th von Ruesch Hussars (Black Hussars) - 19 figures
- 6th Dragoons Schorlemer - 19 figures
- 10th Gens d'Armes - 19 figures
- (yet to be decided) 11th Leib-Carabinier Regiment - 19 figures
133 figures, which may increase to 152. Mix of Airfix, Revell and modified Italieri
Artillery:
4 companies, each of 2 guns and 10 crew. All ESCI cannon: 6 Napoleonic British guns, and 2 Napoleonic French howitzers. 40 figures and 8 cannon.
Total Army (less command and staffs): 539 (or possibly 558) figures and 8 cannon.
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| Army of Hessen Rohr |
Other projects:
Jono's World:
One of these was to create land forces for the 'Chubby Mini-Marine' project that I have off-and-on called 'Jono's World', probably because my imagination isn't coming up with a better name. Sideon IV is a fantasy world, one colonised by humankind nearly 67,000 years ago, and, after several times almost succumbing to the hostile alien environment, have recovered to a technology of 1940s Earth level.
One of these was to create land forces for the 'Chubby Mini-Marine' project that I have off-and-on called 'Jono's World', probably because my imagination isn't coming up with a better name. Sideon IV is a fantasy world, one colonised by humankind nearly 67,000 years ago, and, after several times almost succumbing to the hostile alien environment, have recovered to a technology of 1940s Earth level.
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| Land forces for Jono's World Combined Ops. |
As the model ships are so small, and I have an idea of a kind of 'combined operations' war involving land forces, I used some 1:300 scale WW2 kit I had flapping around doing nothing to form eight Divisions: 2 armoured and 2 Infantry for Ra'esharn; 1 armoured and 2 infantry for Kiivar, and one mechanised Division for Saabia. I don't plan on the land war in this scale to feature very much in the campaigns - I'll probably use the Army Men for that.
Mighty Armadas:
I assembled several 'Trumpeter' interwar aircraft to represent carrier aircraft for the 'Mighty Armadas' project. They are overscale for the war ships, of course, but seem to look the part. That is still a 'work in progress'.
Chromatic Wars:
Apart from the naval project the Turcowaz Army badly in want of cavalry, I finally made a cavalry Division from Streltz-R Turkish WW1 cavalry. I really wanted the 1877 Regulars, but despaired of any becoming available any time soon.
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| Turcowaz regular cavalry |
Byzantiad:
The only material addition to this project was the construction of two war wagons for my Pecheneg (Patzinak) Army. However, reading about Bob Cordery's adventures fielding a Seljuk Turkish army against a force of Byzantines on a 10x7 square-gridded board bethought me to examine my own projects using my 10x10 board.
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| Byzantine vs Pecheneg solo Portable Wargame |
I spent a bit of time on this - adding a couple of stands of skoutatoi 'protected bowmen' the while - working out a set of rules for the 10x10 board. Some half dozen or so battles rather surprisingly went well for the light horse army of the Pechenegs, but that seemed to be due to the rather hidebound manner in which I was arranging the Byzantine Army. Deploying more in the manner of Nikephorus Phocas, seemed to offer the Byzantines better chances of winning.
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| Pecheneg war wagons |
Looking back, I realise that I failed to post a properly codified rule set. That will have soon to be corrected.
