Ebor GNW Swedes

In an earlier post I promised to review the Ebor Swedes once I had some painted, well I am quite a way into my next battalion of foot using mainly Ebor so thought I would share my thoughts with you.

First thing to say is I am a big fan of Paul Hicks work so no surprise that I like these figures. They are smaller than expected which means they fit perfectly with the Wargames Foundry figures I already have. A pleasant surprise, they do fit less well with Warfare however which is a shame.

In the picture below the two outer figures are foundry and the drummer is Warfare.

The shots below are of the two grenadiers. I love these figures. Particularly useful here is the separate head system which allows you to use tricorn, tall mitre, floppy mitre, brass plate, Korpus or even bandaged heads.

 

There are 4 different pike figures I believe, below pictured are two of them, two of the figures are the same but again the separate head system allows them to still look different.

 

 

 The below picture illustrates the difference between Ebor and Warfare. The seargent is Warfare and is a very elegant, tall slim figure. The officer is Ebor and for me has much more character.

 Two standard bearers below, again the first is Ebor and the second Warfare, both very nice figures, I am not too concerned with mixing these on bases I think the height wont cause too many issues.

 Finally a Swedish mounted officer, a very simple figure and easy to paint.

 I just have 3 figures left to paint for this unit so hopefully I will have the finished unit based and photographed in a couple of weeks. I will then probably have a look at a Swedish gun and crew.

Thanks for reading.

Cossacks

The basing department made a brief visit home this weekend so we based this unit up together. Used a few new tufts I picked up from Ebay which I think look quite nice too.

Irregular Cossacks are a particularly useful unit. In terms of Great Northern war they can be Russian, Ukrainian or Polish (Apart from the Orthodox priest of course) as Poles fought for the Swedes and the Saxons and Ukrainians fought for Swedes and Russians this becomes very versatile. When you then think that these can be used from Renaissance to Napoleonic too you start to feel that you have your monies worth from this unit.

 

These are all Foundry figures I think sculpted by Mark Copplestone.

 I have tried to make them quite irregular in terms of how they are based as well as painted so hopefully have that look of Piratical splendour I associate with the Cossacks.

 This shot gives you an idea of how they sit on the bases.


I will have another unit of these at some point but back on with the Swedes for now.

Russian Civil War Game

As a bit of a diversion from The Great Northern War I thought I would share an after action report of our Russian Civil War game this weekend.

We Use Too Fast Lardies Triumph of the Will and I do like these rules. 28mm figures almost all Copplestone.

There was lot going on in this game. A small force of Czechs (Western Capitalist stooges) were holding a rail head near a port. The reds decided to dislodge them with a three pronged attack, some quality troops being landed by sea in a tramp steamer looking remarkably like it should have a very large gorilla in its hold supported by a gun boat. A force of red militia attacking frontally and a further large force of regular red cavalry approaching from inland.

Meanwhile the Whites (Counter revolutionary gangsters) were advancing from the remaining side with some good quality Horse and foot accompanied by a tired looking Tchanka and a rather ineffective tank. Below are their super troopers, Polish Guard Lancers. More of them later.

 

The game started well for the Reds who through a 6 for a plane to come on and straif the White Cavalry, and their militia took minimal damage from the Czechs whilst naval gun fire began to soften up the railhead.

 

Meanwhile the white cavalry on the right flank charged forward heroically into the steel storm of artillery and machine guns with predictably bloody effects, three turns was enough to see the first brigade of white cavalry annihilated whilst the militia forced the Czechs back and began to break into the rail head. 

On the other flank the white cavalry made better progress as the cavalry forces of the two sides manouvered towards a massive cavalry clash. The White attachment of a Tchanka and a light tank was to prove decisive.

 

 

Whilst this was happening the sneaky whites brought a torpedoe boat on to reduce the red superiority in guns by sinking the gun boat, its first shot was hit, hurrah!!! But caused no damage at all other than to scratch the paint work Booo!

 

 In the centre the whites were no attacking in earnest and their foot were beginning to close in on the rail head from the other side.

 

 

 

 

 

 The cavalry melee resolved itself into a very bloody stalemate, the machine guns and tank preventing the slightly superior red forces from gaining an advantage.

Bit luck began to run out for the heroes (and heroines) of the revolution as some poor shooting from the artillery gave the whites the chance they needed  to start to push the militia in the rail head village back.

In the end it was a very c lose run thing, with a little more luck the reds would have defeated the forces of counter revolution but it was not to be and the Whites were able to claim a narrow victory.

As I said a bit od something different, hope you enjoyed it, was a great game played in the right spirit by some great friends. Thanks to John Smith and Chris Charlton for the photos and Chris Flowers for hosting the game.

Swedish Regiment Vastmanland

So with the basing department home again for a couple of days we were able to get another unit of Swedes completed.

These are the Vastmanland Regiment. 

For this unit I have mainly used Wargames Foundry figures, these may be old and slightly small but I love these figures in their cold weather gear. I added in a small number of Warfare Swedes for command and to add a little variety, as they are a lot taller I put a little plasticard under the foundry figures to heighten them a little. I quite like the end result. 



In the above picture you can see the Warfare Seargent in cold weather gear waving his men on.

And here the officer stands out  little from the Foundry pike.

The Warfare drummer is a lovely characterful figure and I like adding the Gabion to this base. Thank you to the basing department for the addition of a small headline which looks quite pretty!

Vastmanland is another unit that fought at nearly all the major engagements from Narva, through Poland and into the Ukraine, being destroyed amongst the Russian redoubts at the battle of Poltava.

Not quite sure the lighting does them justice in these pictures, I blame the photographer.

Workbench update

I managed to finish a few things that has been on the workbench for a while today and spray up the varnish as the sun was shining. All need basing so waiting on the basing department to come home for a weekend.

 First lot are Russian Civila War Cavalry to finish off some units for my forthcoming game/

Secondly is my finished Saxon foot, these are the Saxon Guard and mainly Plastics with the Commander from Ebor. More on this when they are based up.

Next are Polish Light Cavalry, I will be using these as Charles of Sweden's Valaks. Again more on these once they are based.

 

 

 The two pictures of both units together to get a feel for the how they look form a distance, not too shabby if I say so myself.