Hessian Converged Grenadiers

Here are two stands of Hessian converged grenadiers that I painted up about a year ago. Each stand is comprised of figures uniformed in two different facing colors, representing the mixed units that would comprise a battalion. I've kept these units fairly generic, hoping that they could serve as either Grenadier Battalion von Linsing, von Block/Lengerke, von Minnegerode or Koehler. Each stand has it's own officer so that each stand may be used independently at lower scales in V&B.

The figure mix is Foundry and Front rank, with the rank-and-file being Front rank and the officers being Foundry. I'm particularly happy with the drummer figure which was a pleasure to paint with it's well-cast swallow's nests and sleve chevrons. In many of my units I'm guilty of being lazy and not taking the time to properly color my musicians, but with this figure's superb casting I took the extra time to do a nice job on this drummer. The flag for this unit is another of my home-made ink-jet printer flags. As you can see from the side-bar graphic to the right, this is one of my favorite units.

Hesse-Cassel Musketeer Regiment v. Donop

Hesse-Cassel Musketeer Regiment v. Donop was raised in 1687. It fought at Brooklyn, White Plains, Fort Washington and during the Pennsylvania campaign of 1778-1780, after which it was stationed in New York. It was a member of Major-General v. Stirn's Brigade.

These are a mix of Foundry and Front Rank figures. I was unsure of the figure mix considering I painted them over 2 years ago, but Giles Allison from the Tarlton's Quarter AWI Blog helped me out with the identification (see the comments he posted below). Thanks Giles! The flag is another of my own creations done on my ink-jet printer. I've painted officers for each stand so that both stands can be used as different regiments/battalions in large-scale games while still being able to represent a two-stand unit in lower level games.

Hesse-Cassel Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz

In order to give equal time to the forces of the crown, I thought I'd post some of my Hessian and other German troops as a compliment to the recently posted Poore's brigade American troops. This is the Hesse-Cassel fusilier regiment Erbprinz. The two stands represent the entire regiment in two different scales and are not meant to be used at the same time. The sparsely-figured stand is for higher-level games where the small regiment is represented by only a skirmish stand. The fully-populated stand is used on lower-level games where the regiment warrants a full formed infantry stand.

I've chosen to paint the unit in its pre-1780 uniform consisting of fusilier caps and rose facings as this is the uniform it fought the Brooklyn, White Plains and Fort Washington engagements in and used while stationed in New York from 1777-1780. In the southern campaign of 1781 the unit wore regular cocked hats and uniforms with crimson facings. The flag is one of my more recent efforts, using my ink-jet printer on photo quality paper, edged with gold paint and shows what can be done with a scanner, a modern printer, photoshop and a little bit of work.

3rd New York Continental Regiment

This is the 3^rd New York Continental regiment, another member of Enoch Poore's brigade. The 3^rd New York, being raised at the same time as and mostly deployed with the 2^nd New York has a similar history. The 3^rd was commanded by Colonel James Clinton and is reported to have been uniformed in Grey coats faced with green.

This unit is comprised primarilly of Old Glory's 'Continentals Advancing' figures. The flag is another of the ones created by me using a now-antique wax-jet printer. At the time this $10,000 printer, which I accessed at work, was state of the art. Now a $99 printer from Wal-Mart runs circles around it. Still the flag remains. All of my Poore's brigade figures were painted before I started using Volley & Bayonet for AWI and therefore each unit's figures were painted without V&B basing in mind. For this unit I experimented with packing additional figures on the stands instead of making a skirmish stand with the extra figures. While it gives the unit a nice massed look, I've since decided I like fewer figures on the stands to give a more open-order look to the troops. It is nice having a couple heavily-populated stands to represent particularly large regiments, so this unit sees duty as units other than the 3^rd New York from time to time. Such is the life of a wargaming unit.

2nd New York Continental Regiment

The 2^nd New York regiment, another of the members of Enoch Poore's brigade, was one of four Continental brigades raised by the State of New work in 1775. Their uniforms consisted of "brown coats, faced with blue". According to John Mollo's Uniforms of the American Revolution, by August 1775 witnesses report the unit having acquired "the air of regulars". I have retained the units appearance as freshly uniformed under the assumption that such a unit would maintain it's equipment while on campaign.

These figures are Old Glory's 'Continental Firing Line' which I consider some of the better poses in their AWI figure range. The flag is a hand-painted flag of Washington's command flag. Local historians and wargaming friends who's oppinions I respect highly, have told me that this flag was used commonly in regiments, and not only with Washington's staff. It has the added benefit of being easily hand-painted. A regular practice of mine is to replace lead swords on officer figures with hammer-flattened and file-shaped brass or mild steel wire. This prevents them from being mishapen and broken during wargaming use. The officer's sword shown below uses this technique.

2nd New Hampshire Continental Regiment

The 2^nd New Hampshire regiment was formed in 1776 and served until all of the New Hampshire line regiments were reorganized in 1782. For a good part of its service this regiment fought as part of Enoch Poore's brigade along side the 1st New Hampshire and the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd New York regiments. Various sources report the 2nd to be uniformed in light blue coats with red facings. Some sources report the regiment creating replacement breeches from bed ticking. Since I think this was likely scorned by those not requiring it, I've painted the unit only partially equipped in replacement pants, but I have additionally taken liberty to add a couple of figures in undress showing improvised equipment.

Being from New Hampshire myself, this was one of the very first AWI units I painted. The two formed stands can represent separate battalions of the 2^nd NH at lower scales in V&B and can also represent the 1^st and 2^nd NH at higher scales. The detached skirmisher stand utilizes shooting figures and can be used as skirmishers or as a detachment to hold a viliage or other battlefield strongpoint. The flag is printed on paper by me, but since the unit is over 10 years old, the printer technology available at that time was a bit crude compared to today's printers. This remains one of my favorite and most-used units.

Big Napoleonic Campaign Game...Part 2

Here's an update on our big Napoleonic game. We've completed another session of gaming and are now 5 hours into the first day (game time) after two gaming sessions (real time). Usually our V&B games run quite quickly and we're able to complete a whole battle in around 3 hours with each player pushing between a division and a corps. This game is so large the scale is 1:2 the other way. Each turn, which represents a half hour of battlefield action, is taking about an hour. This is the price you pay when some of the players are responsible for over 75 stands of troops, one player commanding an entire army of several corps. Next session we hope to recruit an additional Aide-de-camp or two to speed things along.

This session saw the Austrians on their extreme left flank capture a critical town (one of the battlefield's two victory condition points) and press through it to create a solid bridgehead. The Austrian left-center is a more tenuous bridgehead at a less significant town. The Russian center saw re-deployment of the Ruso-Austrian grand battery, while the Russian right was a mixed affair with the Prussian grand battery taking its toll, but the Russian cavalry giving a little bit of the grand battery damage back in a slugfest with the Prussian flank infantry division. The Prussians were however, able to maintain a formed flank with only a few units falling back in rout, and have additional units coming to secure that flank including a fresh division of cavalry.

Sorry for the Ruso-centric battlefield commentary, but since I'm on that side it's the view of the battle that I get. There's still plenty of battle left to fight here. Hopefully one more session will bring us to a conclusion. There's a whole bunch more photos of this game in the Turn 7 Battle of East Germany Page on the Northern Conspiracy Website.