A Lead Mountain

Lead mountains accumulate for various reasons, perhaps as even some kind of way of hiding our assets as the prospect of obtaining the age pension approaches (Don't, at least not in Australia, Social Security are a wise to such crafty behaviour and "collections kept for hobby purposes" are included in the age pension assets test).

Often the mountain starts from the few odd figures left over after an army is created.  Sometimes its figures that looked good, sounded good or were a bargain, only to disappoint when the wrapping comes off and they have the wrong shaped accoutrements or whatever.

I've spent the last few days sorting out a particular lead mountain.  I've produced a list which I've reproduced here.  There would be about 3,000 figures.  Before I can get too excited about possibilities, I have another lead pile to go through.

Ottomans

Old Glory SY01 Janissaries - 50 foot approx

Old Glory SY05 ? - 50 foot approx with four painted samples

Old Glory SY06 Suvataliari Guard - 20 mounted approx

Old Glory SY07 ? - 20 mounted approx

Old Glory SY011 artillery - 23 foot and 6 guns with various wheels and barrels

Old Glory SY012 Generals - 20 mounted approx

1NTC - 4 mounted

4NT - 8 foot

7NT - 8 foot

9NT - 8 foot standing shooting

10NT - 8 foot kneeling shooting

Napoleonics

Old Glory FAH2 French Horse Artillery - 20 foot and 6 guns approx

Old Glory FAH2 French Horse Artillery - 24 foot and six guns

Old Glory Horses - 33 

Old Glory French Foot Artillery - 11 foot, 1 gun, 12 spare barrels, 11 ammo chests and one table

Old Glory Russian 12# artillery barrels

Old Glory French Hussar command - 4 mounted

Old Glory French mounted eagle bearers - 3 figures

Old Glory French command 1809 uniform - 22 foot 

AB RG01 Russian Guard kiwer marching - 25 foot

AB IF20 French dead - 4 foot

AB Prussian Guards - ER09A 12 advancing, ER09 12 marching, ER10-14A 8 command

AB Ney - 1 mounted

Old Glory French Guard Chasseur (2), artillery crew (1), artillery barrels (5), Russian Infantry (1)

Old Glory dead French 12 foot and 15 horses

Old Glory Napoleon seated command - 11 foot, 3 horses and a table

Old Glory Austrian Infantry in Shako advancing - 24 foot

Old Glory wounded Austrian infantry (2), wounded French cuirassier (1) no horse and enthusiastic French grenadier (1)

Old Glory Austrian Grenzer - 2 foot

Old Glory Austrian Grenadier command - 8 foot

Old Glory Platov (1 mounted) and 6 artillery barrels and 3 wheels

Old Glory Italian Chasseurs - 6 mounted

AB R06 Russian skirmishers - 4 foot

AB R05 Russian grenadiers (?) charging - 10 foot

Old Glory Austrian sappers - 3 foot

Unknown 3 mounted lancers maybe Cossacks (nice horses standing with saddles)

Old Glory Wurtemberg Horse artillery - 12 foot, 1 barrel and 6 ammo chests

Old Glory wagon horse riders various nationalities - 15 (no horses)

Old Glory French Dragoon command - 8 mounted and 2 Chasseurs (guard?) no horse

Old Glory Austrian Landwher? - 4 foot

Old Glory Wurtemberg infantry command - 4 foot

Old Glory French Old Guard Chasseurs inc command - 12 foot

Old Glory Russian Dragoons - 18 riders inc wounded and command, 20 horses

Old Glory Russian Generals - 10 riders and 3 horses

Old Glory NCP4 horse artillery - 11 crew and 5 guns 

Old Glory NCWES1 Westphalian Line Infantry - 22 foot inc 4 sets of command and 3 painted 

Old Glory Austrian Jäger - 10 foot

Old Glory NCB3 Bavarian cavalry command - 5 riders and 4 horses

Unknown 13NVC - 3 mounted

Unknown 5dNE - 8 assorted sappers with picks, axes, shovels etc

AB R04,07,08,09 Russian - 14 foot

Old Glory French infantry 1 advancing in greatcoat, 1 wounded

Old Glory Polish infantry - 11 foot inc command

Old Glory French Old Guard cavalry - 10 riders and 8 horses

Old Glory Russian jaegers skirmishing - 31 foot

Old Glory Wurtemberg Dragoons - 5 riders

Old Glory ANE3 Austrian Grenadiers - 16 foot inc command

Old Glory fully painted 14 various cavalry riders and 1 infantry 

Old Glory RLJ1 Russian jäger(?) skirmishing with plumes - 20 foot

Same again - 12 foot

Battle Honors BFR33 French Horse artillery - 15 crew and 5 guns

Old Glory Austrian generals - 3 riders and 2 horses

Old Glory Polish Lancers (Guard?) - 14 riders (some with separate arms) and 12 horses

Old Glory NCI3 Westphalian(?) heavy cavalry - 16 mounted

Old Glory ANH2 marching infantry - 31 foot no command

Old Glory ANH1 command - 7 foot and 4 mounted

Old Glory NAE10 French Guard Ambulance - 2 wagons and 6 figures approx

Battle Honors BSX1 - 25 foot inc command

Old Glory ANM1 Austrian Landwher - 16 foot inc command approx

AB French ADC - 1 mounted

Old Glory French riders 2

Unknown French standard bearer - 1 foot

Old Glory Russian musketeers in great coats marching - 41 foot inc command

Old Glory Grenzers - 19 foot inc command

Old Glory NCI5 Italian infantry(?) - 20 foot

Old Glory NW3 Russian casualties - 20 foot approx

Old Glory FOG3 French Young Guard(?) - 56 foot approx (some nice figures)

Battle Honors BSX6 French type horse artillery - 8 crew and 2 guns

Old Glory IRI2 St Petersburg militia - 54 foot no command

Old Glory NW2 Austrian casualties - 20 foot approx

Old Glory Swedish generals - 3 mounted

Old Glory RLG2 Russian Guard - 20 foot no command approx

Old Glory Austrian generals - 4 mounted

Unknown 91NDC generals - 4 mounted

Old Glory Russian Corps generals - 6 mounted

AB R02,03,07,09A,10,11 Russian Guard Jäger - 20 foot inc command

Battle Honors BSX2 French type elite skirmishers  - 31 foot inc command 

Old Glory IRI1 Russian Moscow militia - 50 foot approx

Old Glory NCB1 Bavarian - 18 foot inc command approx

Old Glory RIC4 Russian Cossacks (bow) - 30 mounted approx

Old Glory NCP2 Polish infantry - 12 foot inc command

Old Glory Russian Musketeers command - 24 foot

Old Glory RFD2 Russian musketeers - 50 foot

Old Glory NCS3 Saxon Kuriasser (bicorne) - 16 mounted and 1 spare rider

Old Glory NCI1 Italian infantry command - 12 foot

Old Glory FOG5 French Guard Chasseurs-a-Cheval - 12 riders and 3 horses

Old Glory Bavarian cavalry - 20 approx

Old Glory RMH2 Russian Hussars - 20 mounted approx

Old Glory Austrian Grenadier Command - 4 foot

Old Glory NMG4 French Marshall #5 - 12 riders and 5 horses

Old Glory ANG9 Austrian infantry charging - 24 foot no command approx

Old Glory ANG8 Austrian infantry marching - 24 foot no command approx

Old Glory RGC1 Russian infantry great coat command - 18 foot approx

Old Glory NCI4 Italian Horse Artillery - 12 crew and 3 guns approx

Old Glory RGC2 Russians in greatcoats - 30 foot approx

Old Glory NCC2 infantry with command - 24 foot approx

Old Glory RLG1 Russian command - 24 foot and 4 mounted approx

Old Glory NAE12 Wagon with wide body - 2 models

Old Glory NAE11 Wagon with narrow body - 2 models

Old Glory FOG11 French Guard Lancers with swords - 24 mounted approx

Old Glory Polish Lancers - 24 mounted approx

Old Glory Russian Line infantry - 96 foot in command

Old Glory Austrian Hungarian Grenadiers - 24 foot approx

Old Glory Austrian infantry - 72 foot inc command approx

Old Glory Polish Foot Artillery - 8 crew

Old Glory Wurtemberg infantry - 24 foot no command approx

Old Glory Austrian Landwher - 16 foot approx

Old Glory Polish Legion - 40 foot inc command

Old Glory French Marshalls - 8 riders and 12 horses

Old Glory NCP1 Polish line infantry Czapka with elites - 43 foot

Old Glory Italian line infantry - 40 foot approx

Old Glory Moscow militia - 16 foot

Old Glory Italian Light Infantry - 24 foot approx

Old Glory Austrian jaegers - 16 foot approx

Old Glory Russian Grenadiers - 40 foot with command approx

Old Glory Saxon infantry - 16 foot with command approx

Old Glory mixed - 8 riders, 4 foot, 4 limber horses, 3 wheels and 3 gun barrels

Ancients

Old Glory

SS13 Illyrian Infantry - 24 foot approx

LA7 Late Achaemenid Slingers - 24 foot approx

LA6 Late Achaemenid Foot Archers - 24 foot approx

DA2 Dacian Warriors - 24 foot approx

IR11 Mid to Late 2nd Roman Eastern Aux Archers - 50 foot approx

IR7 Roman Eastern Aux Archers - 24 foot approx

LR10 Late Roman Regular Horse Archers - 8 mounted approx

IR10 - 8 mounted approx

IR12 Dacian Wars Roman Legionary - 40 foot approx

LR3 Late Roman Lanciarius - 40 foot approx

CR11 Pilgrims/Monks - 20 foot approx

CP2 Ancient Male Captives - 1 wagon, 6 foot and 4 mounted approx

DC3 Female Captives(?) and baggage - 1 wagon 12 foot approx

CR12 Peasants - 40 foot approx

OR12 Turcopole Light Cavalry - 20 mounted approx

OR8 Syrian Christian Archers - 20 foot approx

CR5 Dismounted Knights - 40 approx

CR2 Knights with upright lance - 20 approx

CR3 Knights with melee weapon - 20 approx

Mixed Knights - 13 mounted and 16 foot (most under coated)

GR3 German Cavalry - 20 mounted approx

GR3 German Cavalry - 12 mounted

GR3 German Cavalry - 20 mounted approx

SA1 Sarmatian Command - 12 mounted and 20 foot approx

SA2 Sarmatian Cavalry - 20 mounted approx

SA2 Sarmatian Cavalry - 20 mounted approx

SK1 Skythian Command - 20 mounted approx

SK2 Skythian Noble Cavalry - 20 mounted approx

SK4 Skythian Foot Archers and Javelinmen - 40 foot approx

SP7 Cretan Archers and Baleric Slingers - 40 foot approx

SP10 Spanish Light Cavalry - 8 mounted

GE6 Catapult - 1 model and 6 crew approx

GE6 Catapult - 1 model and 6 crew approx

ES9 Elephant - 4 models and crew approx

Other Manufacturer (and maybe some more Old Glory)

RO92 Cataphracts - 2 mounted

Parthians - 6 bow armed riders, 3 Cataphract riders, 3 Cataphract camels, 3 Cataphract horses

Gladiator Miniatures PE4 - 4 riders (Persian looking)

Dacian infantry - 17 foot

WG24 - 1 Flaming pig :-( 

Old Glory(?) - 7 horses

Old Glory - 4 horses

Spanish infantry - 3 foot and 1 mounted heavy cavalryman 

Possibly Spanish command - 10 foot

Persian immortals - 14 foot of which 4 are painted

Hillman Chalybes - 1 foot

Camel drawn supply wagon - 1 foot

Gladiators - 6 foot

AB SE05 - 2 foot

OR12 - 2 mounted

Old Glory Roman Cavalry (?) - 8 hexagonal and 11 oval shields riders and 13 horses

Roman command - 23 foot and 3 mounted

Dacian light horse - 10 mounted

DA03 (might not be the right code) - 5 horses (possibly ABs)

Roman command - 24 foot

Roman infantry (rectangular shields) - 20 foot

Roman command - 12 foot

Persian cavalry - 3 mounted

Command (Greek?) - 2 mounted and 1 foot

Various Romans - 16 foot

Persian infantry - 4 foot

Various - 3 foot and 1 horse

Persian cavalry - 5 mounted (painted)

Various - 6 foot

Persian cavalry - 2 mounted

Roman infantry (rectangular shields) - 49 foot

MPA114 Persians very large shields - 32 foot

MPA116 Persians with bow - 32 foot

Colonial

British Officer - 1 foot (25mm scale)

British infantry firing - 18 foot under coated and mounted on one cent coins

British mixed infantry - 17 foot

Zulus - 6 foot

British infantry mostly dead - 26 foot

Ice Floes in Skirmish Gaming

Paul has provided the following set of rules which we used in our recent Songs of Blades and Heroes game (see report on the game here).

The set of rules are contained in the PDF document that can be obtained by following this link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3O3fJlp-yozLWcxaGxqdDQtX1E

Quick Wings

Wednesday night's game at the club.  It had been a long day with the Impetus game earlier, so a quick game would be a good game.

I'm in B10 hanging back to let my compatriot, flown by Paul, 

take on the pair of Hun two-seaters flown by Stephen

A single long range shots sets my crate on fire and 

Paul has flown off (not his fault, his rudder jammed).

Luckily the Hum suffer some jammed guns.

I'm coming round but Paul has flown off again.

Narrow miss.

Finally I get to see some results from the machine gun bursts I've been sending the enemy's way.

At least we've broken up the Hun formation, but being two-seaters 

they can bring fire to bear from almost any angle.

At least I've now been able to put my fire out 

(and very luckily the damage was insignificant)

Revenge.  That was Paul's work, but I'm happy to see it.

I've taken a bit of damage and I'm thinking of heading for home

But I do an Immelmann turn and head back into the action.

The dog fight continues

Paul and I narrowly miss colliding.

Those flames seem to be burning brighter?

The flaming German plane is sinking lower...

And is down

But I've had enough

As I leave I see in the rear view mirror (well I would of if I had one) 

Paul collide with the remaining Jerry plane.

They survive, but only just and follow my lead to return to base.

Wings of Glory, always a fun game.

Macedonians versus Persians

Yesterday my Greeks formed themselves as a 550 point Early Macedonian Successor army and faced off against Richard's Persians.

The Persian horde.

The Early Macedonians.

I moved forward and of course one of my commands stumbled and became disordered.

A nice patch of broken ground on my right flank gave plenty of room for my Peltasts and Thracians to play.

On my left two enemy units of Cretans suddenly appeared when they had been found to be missing from the deployment.  Maybe advancing my Greek light cavalry into that rocky ground was not such a good idea...

Skirmishing commences on the right,  The Persians are yet to master the interpenetration rules for Light Foot.

Back on the left and what were skirmishers suddenly morph into enemy Light Foot.  Interesting.  (The last of the deployment snafus).

So far the chucking of javelins and throwing of stones on the right is ineffective.

It's get interesting on the left as my pike and hoplites grind forward.

The Persians have brought up additional missile troops on the right, but things are still pretty harmless.

Doh!

Ah ha, that's why it's called Macedonian Successor.  There has just been a succession of commanders.

I should say that by this stage the Persian C-in-C had been down graded to incompetent, but later one of the Persian sub-commanders was raised to expert.

In go the scythed chariots.

Fighting has commenced on the left as well where the enemy Light Foot find themselves no match for a pike block.

The shooting has hotted up.  I just need these guys to hold out while my infantry on the left and centre get to grips with the enemy.

The view from the Persian side for a change.  My Thessalian cavalry trying to cover the flank of the infantry.

The Greek right as seen from the Persian side.

My infantry on the left are triumphant and the enemy right collapses.

But they did do some damage before they fled.

On the right things got very interesting.  My peltasts suffered, but the Thracians were able to extract revenge.

The Persian guard meet my hoplites in the centre.

The enemy are almost broken and my left needs time to reorder.

The Thracians swarm forward and push the enemy to breaking point.

The final scene 

The game played a bit slower than usual.  I think I'm still hankering after a bigger value for U, the movement measure, however I now also realise that U=1 cm is perfectly in tune with base depths.

Jedko Russian Campaign - Conclusion

We recommenced with the end of 1942 which saw the Soviets break a hole in the centre.

By the end of 1943 the Axis were holding off defeat by just one city.  Odessa had become the focal point and they crushed an initial Soviet offensive only to find they had left open the way to Bucharest. 

The 1st Guards Tank Army has moved its full seven factors.  On its second impulse it can move another two hexes and capture the city.  To cap it off, the November/December turn had been clear weather.

Classic game.

Brunswickers for Blucher

After lots of angst I took the plunge and (I know it's cheating) "painted" up some 6mm Heroics and Ros figures for the three Brunswick brigades that took part in the Waterloo campaign.

The angst was not in the painting but in the basing and positioning (unit representation) of figures as well as deciding to go with a three by two inch base.  One of the reasons for that size base is that it works in well with the Napoleon's Battles rules.

The basing compound is plaster and then over painted with a few different shades of green.  I ended up going lighter and brighter as I think the 6mm figures need it.

As for representation, 12 infantry equal a battalion and 3 cavalry a squadron and one gun a battery.

I think 6mm look good from a distance.

One squadron of Uhlans and four of Hussars.

The man himself.  

It will do as the divisional commander for Napoleon's Battles as well as the Hero base for Blucher.

 (I'm not sure how heroes work in Blucher, but easily doing the stand is the beauty of 6mm).

Buttlar's Brigade incorporating Lieb Battalion, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Light and Heinemann's Horse Artillery battery

Specht's brigade incorporating the Avantgarde, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Line and Moll's Foot Artillery.

I had fun doing the flags and collars which is the only distinction at this scale.

The view from the rear.

The 6mm bases shown with the Blucher unit cards.

If these bases ever get used I will probably either make up a roster or attach a label.

Visually it should be obvious that the infantry brigades have attached artillery (and maybe I shouldn't have done so many skirmishers) and that the cavalry is under strength as per the Blucher rules.

I'm thinking of doing future French and British units on one inch square bases to provide flexibility for Napoleon's Battle rules and also to allow for different configurations for Blucher.  It is also possible I might do a bit more diorama work on the bases, but time will tell.  As it is I'm surprisingly happy with these.

Minor Update 3 April 2017

The base sizes are 3 inches by 2 inches.