Next regiment - Imperial tercio WIP

Next group on painting table is group of Matchlock miniatures musketeers and assorted command together with Black Hats pikemen. In their light blue and greys they may serve as Tillys veterans or in By Fire and Sword as any nameless regiment of old type infantry regiment. Goal is again to get semiuniform look. Enough same colors to make these guys unit and just enough variety to avoid the too modern military look. Also I want these small guys to be light enough in color to be readily visible in normal playing table distances.

 

 

Catholig league tercio, assorted painting table disorder and roasted pig

 

Swedes vs. Muscovy

During easter holidays I had chance to actually play the game twice.
My regular opponent had finished an excellent Muscovite skirmish force he liked to test and since I had finished those dragoons and musketeers I decided to meet him with Swedish detachment maxed out.

First game - patrol. As stronger player I was hit by panic, and two delayed units. Besides my opponent got to move terrain and his commander had a good day.

My deployment was strongly weighted in catching one of the three objectives and denying it form my opponent. Unfortunately my squadron of reiters that were supposed to challenge him on the other side started game in panic - of which it never recovered.
My opponents report here, with some pics: http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=65929.0
My deployment meant my right was suffering from lack of command points and got struck by rapidly advancing Muscovites pants down. On my right my oppon ent refused contact and I did not catch him rapidly enough to get the center. Highlights of the day - disabling my enemies cannon from long range by first shot of regimental gun. (He did pay back though.) Tactical defeat to me.

Second game. Ambush. Same troops - this time I had panic and bad day for commander, reducing his command to three, my enemy had unexpected reinforcements. Some ambiguity about open order charges - those skirmishers and lighty cavalry can pull off some unbelievably weird maneuvers. First rounds of game took a very long time to play since mayhem on the table was excessive. Lack of matchlockweapon's fire during the first round really hurts when under attack. The reiters earned their pay in this game - repulsing enemy charge by defensive pistol fire and chasing two enemy units off the table. The veteran reiters- similarly 4 bases strong chased a dismounted dragoon unit around the table, but kept on being repulsed by enemy artillery fire when trying to close in for the kill. In the end they were hit in the back by unit of muscovite dragoons and broke.

Again tactical victory to the Muscovites. Although by looking at my tally of casualties killed I'd say Blankenhagens detachment was realyy badly battered in this one. Victory conditions would have required even more. Very exciting scenario, both of us were feeling being forced off-balance by events.

Imperial regiment of foot and Polish dragoons

At last something that is not WIP.

 Regiment of foot with flag of Oberst Holk, supported by a regimental gun. Musketeers and pikemen from QR miniatures 30 years war range. Gun and gunners from Wargamers range of Swedes.

 Joy to paint although the amount of details on musketeers was beginning to get on m nerves at the end.

 Dragoons - Swedish dragoons from Wargamer, with colourscheme suitable to Polish Royal dragoons - but could in a pinch serve also as Danish or Imperial dragoons.

Same regiment - box of dragoons and dragoons from the Swedish skirmish pack - dismounted.

Both troops were painted by first doing block painting, than washed with mixture of india ink and floor polish and then given nongloss varnish.

Slow going

Still pushing on with dragoons and imperial infantry.

Since last time: most of the guys have had their headgear done, the new squadron and command group of dragoons have gotten color to their horses and most of their horsetack. Also the Old squadron on white horses has gotten reins.
Still to do baldricks and apostles for some musketeers, all colorful pants, hair and beards for some of the guys, most dragoon muskets and swords.  Horseblankets, cuffs for new dragoons and all infantry and scarves for everyone. And pikemen should get pikes at some point.
The batch I am working on is slightly too large - some tasks become irritatingly repetitive, like muskets. Still I am pretty happy with the masseffect these two regiments make in their reds.

Quarterly inventory

I did some counting on amount of figures I've acquired and painted for Polish and Imperial/Danish armies. This is not progress in three months, it is total situation now.

Total amount of figures is close to 750, probably a bit over.  (I have figure 738 in the spreadsheet, but that is lacking artillery crews and probably still some blisters of infantry.) That sounds like a lot and to tell the truth it actually is quite a lot.

In context of By Fire and Sword it means I will be able to field Polish and any western skirmish forces  pretty easily. By existing lists for Polish Division I have several options on what to bring to the table. I could field tatar skirmish force on the table and possibly an ottoman raiding  force. I think I might even be able to get minimum strength Swedish division against lean Polish division. For the Commonwealth I don't really need any minis at this moment. I could use Petyhorchy for Lithuanian force and probably some more cossacks, but as is I have lots of options. And still quite a lot to paint.

Amount of painted figures is not quite so impressive. Total of figures with enough paint to look semidecent on the table is 261. A Polish division with extras basically. Figures with varnish and finished bases is 27. Figures lacking just varnish and the finishing of the base probably about the same. I sill

Before tha last game I was mainly working on getting the hussars to stage where they could be deployed. After that I have worked mainly on basing and priming infantry and dragoons. Plus pondering on which colors to give them - there is very scarce documentation for uniforms so I would be safe in just painting them in individual colors. After first going through units of landsknechts and then irregular Polish volunteers and cossacks idea of regimental semiuniformed troops sounds very appealing.

So - dragoons will get red coats and yellow cuffs - suitable for Polish Royal dragoons. Regiments of pike and shotte infantry will wear red, off-white/grey and pale blue. (Uniform red, blue or white would be plausible too, but I hope to get more flexibility for same minis by using regimental colors.)  Smaller musket detachments will either be scruffy mercenaries  in total random colors or spiffy citymilitias/lifeguards in livery.

Imperial regiment with coats and cuirasses painted QR miniatures 15 mm

 
Same regiment with some hats and socks. On background dragoons with their new boots and baldricks.  

Musketeers contramarching.