In which I blog about my miniature wargaming and whatever else takes my interest!

In which I blog about my miniature wargaming and whatever else takes my interest!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Progress on Resolution #1!

Had a good day in the Basement o' Rabbits yesterday. I got a battalion of Croatian Pandours and a battalion of German musketeers done and based! Once I get the second battalion of Pandours finished I'll flock the bases and get some pictures for you. I'm thinking I may try a bit of static grass on this army instead of my normal mix of foam flock.

I based the Pandours on 4x 1 1/4" washers. 3 figures to a base. This gives them roughly the same frontage as a musketeer battalion but looks more irregular and skirmishy. That is something I like about Black Powder, the liberation from strict basing schemes and the ability to be more creative. The way skirmishers are based in Warfare in the Age of Reason leaves me awfully cold. I intend to rebase my Prussian jaegers in the same way.

I know they're Prussians, but they just look too rigid to be skirmishing.

At the Long-Expected Party, a gaming friend who is also a Hotlead dealer was blowing out his stock of Lancashire figures. I had budgeted $20 to hopefully get the needed bits to round out my Austrian army.

Don held out a battered old cookie tin:


And told me: "One dollar a bag or for $25 you can have the lot and keep the tin too!"
So I bought the lot and have duly sorted and inventoried them. The tin contained most of the Lancashire SYW line. About 100 bags.


Sadly the troops I need the most (Dragoons and Hussars) were among the figures not in stock, but if I use figures from the other armies (in 15mm does a French or British cavalryman really look that different from an Austrian dragoon?) I can muster some 50 dragoons, 18 hussars and 30-odd Cuirassiers (like I need more of them, but the Lancashire figures look nicer than the Minifigs). There's also a nice selection of General officer types, Austrian jaegers, German and Hungarian musketeers, artillerists and 30 more grenadiers. The Lancashire range includes a pack of 'musketeers charging' which I'm thinking might be nice to make a battalion of Loudon's Freikorps.

The one thing really lacking from the range, which probably impacts sales, is there are no guns. I suppose they expect one to use their Napoleonic artillery? Fortunately I have enough artillery to keep the Austrians happy for a while.

4 comments:

  1. I like the troops and variety of colour! If you ever have the chance, go to Vienna's military museum. You will never see such an incredible collection in your life!

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  2. Vienna is one place i do want to go when I win the lottery or become a famous internet blogger.

    Folks always talk down the 'white coats' but it is a really colourful army, especially once you get the hussars and pandours in the mix!

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  3. Indeed. I at first thought I'd saddled myself with a White Elephant, but after doing a bit of figuring I'll have a nice 20-something unit army to keep Der Alte Fritz in check.

    Plus there are some figures for nifty units that I wouldn't have had like jeagers and Hungarians.

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