The Deluge Anyone?

Is that a groan I hear? Not another project? Not really a new project as such and probably one some of you have heard me mention before. 

Steve is planning Thirty Years War at some point anyway but I also have lots of Poles and Cossacks for the Great Northern War I had considered using for the earlier period. The Deluge refers to a period  at the end of the Thirty Years War when the Swedes invaded and over ran the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth whilst a Civil War raged between the Cossacks and the rest of the Commonwealth. So not only did the Poles fight the Swedes during this period, but both other Poles and the Ukraniane Cossacks and both Brandenburg and Transylvania invaded as well, the Poles were later supported by the Crimean Tatars and Imperialist forces. Both sides had a fair number of European Mercenaries fighting for them, all of which sit really well with having some Thirty Years Troops, particularly Dragoons.

The tipping point came for me when reading the latest Helion title on Ukraniane Cossacks who at different points had thousands of "German" mercenaries fighting for them. particularly during the rebellions in the mid century. This at the same time as reading Griff Hosker's Horse and Pistol novel set in the Thirty Years War has got me back interested.

So I decided to try a game with the Irregular Wars, aimed at this time frame, we have used them successfully for Elizabethan Ireland, before trying any new rules I wanted to see if they gave a feel. 

Worth mentioning that at the same time I am having a look at By Fire and Sword and whether these are a game I might try with amends to make them suitable for 28mm.

I decided to run a medium sized game with Ukranian Cossacks vs Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth troops, for the latter I added some mercenary Pike and Shot along with a light gun.

The Cossacks have 7 companies of foot, each of which is a single base. They had one unit of Hetmans bodyguard foot with 2 pike and 4 shot units supported by 4 light Cossack horse, another 2 light Cossack horse waited in ambush behind the Poles.

The Poles have two forces, the First has one unit of Winged Hussars with 2 Pancerni, one Cossack and one Dragoons supported by 2 mercenary shot and one mercenary pike. 

The second has again one winged Hussars, one Cossack, One Dragoon but 3 Pancerni supported by a   light gun.

On paper the Poles have the advantage but they are attacking and the Cossacks have a bottle neck to force the Poles through.

The most disciplined troops are the mercenary foot, these are unfortunately at the rear of the Polish force and moving the most slowly.

As soon as Chris moves his registered Cossacks into range the Ukranian Cossacks charge them.

As it is alternate unit movement Chris charges his Dragoons into the flank of the Cossacks who are in turn charged by more Cossacks in their flank. Each unit charged in the flank immediately takes a deduction to its resolve 

The Dragoons and another unit of Registered Cossacks drop to one resolve which is wavering and are forced to retreat. The registered Cossacks then break as the Dragoons touch them and the Dragoons lose their remaining resolve for being within 5 of a unit that breaks.

The Poles are suddenly not doing so well.

The Pancerni push forward into long range and fire their various weapons at the Cossacks, receiving a volley of musketry in reply.

The Cossack ambush fails dismally but it does hold up a unit of Polish Cossacks and all three Mercenary foot, allowing the Cossack defenders to concentrate on the advanced units of Polish horse.

Steve's plus 1 in initiative has meant that when it mattered he was able to make the first move and gain the advantage in melee's, as he could also decided which Melee went first, which could then impact other units when a unit was defeated he had a significant advantage over Chris.

The Winged Hussars with the Hetman are the last unit to go down fighting suitably enough against the Cossack Hetman and his biodyguard.

Despite initial outlook the Poles have been soundly beaten and the untouched European Mercenaries beat a steady retreat.

A fun game, I do like the rules for Ireland but not so much for Poland.

Hopefully By Sword and Flame will give me something with a more period feel.

Butterfly Workbench Poles, Russians and others

So things have not been great in my world of late so I decided the Butterfly should be released to cheer me up a bit. So lots of different stuff painted this time. I should say right off that I have had to change my phone and the camera on this one is not as good so still working on that. Sorry folks!

So before going off on one I finished this highlander, hurrah! Another of the lovely Bicorne ECW range,

Next for the butterfly were Polish light horse, a real mish mash of figures, the two outside ones are Gripping Beast plastic Saracen light horse with Polish heads, they work well I think. next in from the left a TAG drummer with his drum stick replaced by a war hammer, then a Foundry officer and a Redoubt officer on a Foundry Sikh Wars  horse. They all mix reasonably well I think.

A couple more to add to these and we will have the 11th unit of Poles finished to use either for the Great Northern War or the Deluge.

A wee close up of one of the Gripping Beast conversions. You would never think the figure was designed for the crusades.

I then decided, no idea why, that as it was no longer snowing Russians for the retreat from Moscow project should get an airing, Well I have stack of these to paint so why not. Chum Steve base coated these to give me a head start when he was doing his own, cheers Steve.

Despite being a fairly old range now these are still lovely sculpts and fit really well with the larger Perrys.

Sticking with the Retreat from Moscow, I also made a start on the first French Cavalry in the shape of these Chasseurs. Again lovely figures, they are one piece castings which I am not a fan off typically, all with multiple seperate heads and sword arms.

These guys look suitably untidy, I have enough figures to do 3 groups of 8 for the cavalry, not sure yet if they will all be chasseurs, lets see.

Thats it for the moment, I might put the butterfly back in its box and focus on some more Sikh Wars stuff next.

Stay Safe!

Another Regiment of Foot Cossacks for The Deluge and Great Northern War

 Also back from the basing department this my fourth unit of foot Cossacks.Like previous units an eclectic mix of manufacturers with a mix of muskets, swords and Pike.

Built for use with my lockdown project "The Deluge" they are also ideal for my existing Great Northern War collection so very handy indeed.

Most of the musket armed troops are Old Glory figures donated by chum Jerry Miller. Not the prettiest of figures they do fit well and there are some hidden gems amonst them. On the first base here we see an Old glory musketeer with an Essex pikeman behind and a Redoubt pikeman to his left

A shot form above allows us to see the semi-irregular layout of this unit.

A good shot of the rear of the unit gives a view of the subdued colour palette. I like how the colour mix works.

Again the other end base is mainly Old Glory musketeers with an Essex pikeman and a Perry retreat from Moscow peasent turned pikeman.

This rear ranker was initially digging a hole with a spade, his tool has been replaced with a pike and he fits in quite well. 

At the front of this left hand base is a Foundry cossack with pistol. Particularly nice these Foundry Cossacks.

The central command base is even more diverse with two Old Glory igures, a Foundry officer, a Perry retreat from Moscow standard bearer and an Assault Group shirtless swordsman. I think they go together remarkably well.

There you go, nice addition to my collection and steady increase for the project. As mentioned these will also be ideal for the Great Northern War collection with these guys fighting for both sides at different times. Hope to see them on the table at some point.

Foot Cossacks For the Deluge

 Back from the basing department, been waiting a while for these Cossacks to come back. An eclectic mix of manufacturers they work quite well together.

Still trialling the lights and so photos from both the tablet and mobile phone are presented here.

I like bunching these guys up so they are in a fairly solid mass but not quite as regularly spaced and formal as a regular unit.

The range of figures used includes Wargames Foundry, Old Glory, The Assault Group, Redoubt and even the odd Perry Russian peasant from their retreat from Moscow range. They actually all mix quite well I feel.

The banner is from a sheet of Polish Flags and Cossack Religious banners sold on ebay, nice flags although the m,aterial is magazine paper which is not really ideal.

So thats the tablet and below are the phone pictures which are slightly sharper with a bit more colour generally.

I particularly like the Officer who is Old Glory and the standard bearer who is a Perry Russian Peasant.

This chap with the pipe and sword over his shoulder is by TAG and lovely, the picture doesn't really do him justice.

And lastly a site most of their enemies probably were pleased to see, the backs of the Cossacks heading away.

Really happy with these despite some of the weird poses coming out of some of the Old Glory figures. More to come of these guys as the basing department catches up with the backlog.

Last of the Polish Pancerni and some Afghan skirmishers

The basing department popped home for a barbeque today and brought a few bits of based figures including the last unit of Pancerni.

Dave and I still havent met to discuss how we will aproach this project but the good news is these are spot on for the Great Northern War project anyway so all good either way.

As usual these are a mix of manufacturers both riders and horses, these guys being either Redoubt or The Assault Group, both horses and riders mix in well with each other. The trooper in the middle of the right hand base had a sword snapped off so I replaced the whole hand with one gripping a pistol which I really quite like.

I have used nail art water slide decals to drop some design on the saddle blankets for about half of them, simple geometric designs for most but a fancy one for the standard bearer.

You can see the trumpeters saddle blanket here quite well.

A view from above gives and idea of the irregular style of basing I prefer for the Poles and the Cossack's.

Some of the nail art is more visible here including the floral design on the standard bearer.

And again from above here. Really pleased with how this came out.

She also brought me a few skirmishers for my Muslim tribesmen, I fancy a skirmish screen for each brigade so this is the first of many and a mix of metals and plastics.

Size wise they fit quite well but the Perry and Foundry metals are much better sculpts, interesting to see if the plastics will be inter-changeable in any way with the Perry plastic Afghans due out next month. The kneeling figures are all metal in case you hadn't figured out which were which.

Thats it for now, see you all again soon, hopefully some more from the basing department in the near future.