Spencer Smith units part two

more pictures of Spencer Smith miniatures are here in the Chronicles.

Pjotr

(OT) Tutorial on Adding a Background Photo

After reading Stokes' comments on how easy it was to add a backgound photo to a blog, I did so for mine.  I have since added a tutorial on how to do it (and it is very easy).

If interested, go to Saxe-Bearstein and learn how.

-- Jeff

It's War.....again. The age old temper tantrum continues. See the posts for the Battle of Latoilette and some thoughts on the game at http://kingdomofstmaurice.blogspot.com/

Spencer Smith pictures

Gentlemen,

I've started parading the Spencer Smith regiments for your (p)leasure.

Pjotr
The Nyudrev Chronicles

Itzenplitz Pix

IR13 Itzenplitz regiment - first battalion, with two Minden 3-pound artillery in support. The gun models are from RSM95. Flags are from GMB Designs.

I was going to post some of these pictures last night, but my camera battery died and needed to be recharged. This is the first battalion of the Itzenplitz Regiment, numbered IR13 in the Prussian establishment. This was a Brandenbourg regiment and Frederick the Great rated it as one of the best regiments in the army. During the Seven Years War, the regiment was usually a part of "the King's Army" and thus fought at Lobositz, Prague (it missed Kolin), Rossbach, Leuthen (where it distinguished itself as part of the spear-point of the attack as part of Wedell's advance guard), Hochirch , Kunersdorf, Liegnitz, Torgau and Burkersdorf.


Minden's new casualty figures are shown in front of IR13. Please leave a comment in the Comment section at the end of this entry and let me know which wooden stand looks best for the casualty figures: (1) large rectangle, (2) small circle, or (3) narrow rectangle. I am trying to decide which size stand to use with this collection. Each time a stand is removed from the game, due to casualties, I will place a casualty stand on the table.

Christopher Duffy states that it was a tightly run regiment, known as the "Donner und Blitzen" regiment under the regime of Major General August Friedrich von Itzenplitz, who was mortally wounded at Kunersdorf. In 1768 it was given the unique privilege of being rated immediately below the Garde and number one among the senior regiments of the army, regardless of the seniority of its chef.

Tsar Peter III was briefly made the regiment's honorary inhaber in 1762, until his demise in a palace coup orchestrated by his wife, the future Catherine the Great of Russia. The regiment's station was in Berlin. It wore a blue uniform with white facings (cuffs and lapels and collar). Duffy gives the regiment straw colored waistcoat and breeches, but Bleckwenn and Dorn & Englemann depict the regiment wearing white breeches and waistcoat. I have chosen to use all white in my version of the regiment. In my mind, Hans Bleckwenn trumps all other sources.

3-Pound Battalion Guns


3-pound battalion guns and crew

I plan to have one battalion gun with each regiment of two battalions in my Minden army. The artillery crew men are Minden Prussians and the 3-pounder is from RSM. RSM sells them as 3-pounders, but in fact they are really 20mm French Napoleonic 12-pounders. You can tell by the extra notch in the trail, which was used to reposition the gun tube when the cannon was travelling attached to the limber. The stand is the same size as my infantry battalions: 40mm wide by 60mm deep. The infantry stands are turned with the long 60mm edge facing front and thus having a 40mm depth when used for infantry. I also have a stand that is 40mm wide by 80mm deep that I will probably use for limber teams. There seems to be a certain consistency using the 40mm measurement that sort of ties everything together quite nicely.

Casualty Stands
One of the pictures above features three of the new Minden generic casualty figures on three different stands: rectangle- large, circle, or small and thin rectangle. I cannot set up a poll in this blog, so please kindly click on the comments box below and cast your vote or opinion as to which size stand you think looks best for the casualty figures. I will eventually terrain and grass these bases, but for now I wanted viewers to see the choices before I made a decision.

OOPS! I inadvertantly posted this on EvE blog instead of my own blog. I will leave this version up for a couple of days and then edit it down to one or two pictures and leave the comments attached. You can also find a version of this posting on my Der Alte Fritz blog.

Spencer Smith

Gentlemen,

I've got some pictures up of Spencer Smith miniatures, which some of you have already seen. And more are forthcoming.

Happy gaming
Pjotr
http://nyudrevchronicles.blogspot.com/

Age of Unreason

It has been suggested I repost these on EvE, although I was kinda hoping maybe viewers would take a little diversion onto Archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com... :)
The label is: Wholly Romantic Empire - Age of Unreason.
But here are the first 3 strips, in order:




This is, of course, intended to be an occasional strip, as ideas occur to me...

Age of Unreason

A strip off the old blog...

Having begun an occasional strip based in my 18th Century Wholly Romantic Empire, I thought (at Bluebear's suggestion) that I might post some now and then where they might find a wider readership...

Greetings...

Happy Easter from The Duchy of Tradgardland!

General von Radstadt's Victory!

News of a victory for the Konigreich der Bleiherzen and its newest hero General Eric von Radstadt! See the battle report at Lead Gardens.

Welle falls

At the emergency meeting of the Stadtrat in Pappenheim, Baron Wilhelm was speaking

"Gentlemen I have sad news to relate. Welle has just fallen to the French despite the best endeavours of Colonel Von Barner and the limited forces at his disposal. The colonel has fallen back to the heights above Welle, but it is now only a matter of time before the French arrive at the gates of Pappenheim or Sonnenbad or both.

We still have no news of the Austrians, and I am certain our couriers will have delivered request for assistance and they should have been spurred into action by the fall of Bruckewasser."

On a positive note we have received an offer of support from Reich Duke Wilhelm who has offered the assistance of the Beerstein Foreign Legion commanded by Brigadier Sir David Linienblatt."

"I have taken up this gracious offer, but given the distances involved they may not arrive in time. You should also be aware that the Second Battalion of Stummel's Regiment was raised by the Frei Stadt for service in the Legion."

"Finally, Colonel Von Barner will continue to try and delay the advance of the French"

(link)

Note Welle is the third city of Frundsberg and lies to the south of the Pidnem hills whereas both Pappenheim (the capital) and Sonnenbad lie to the north.

[OT] Emperor vs Elector's little brother(s)?

Brother-Members of our 'League of Lace Wars Imagi-Nations', may Monte-Cristo draw your attention to Interbellum? This new collective blog aims to be 'EvE's equivalent for 'Imagi-nations and imaginary wars set in the 1920s, 1930s & 1940s'.


Historical 'zones' (areas x periods) specially favourable to imaginary countries and conflicts combine a patchwork of numerous countries -many of them small, hardly known by the general public, either old but ignored or 'new' (resurrected from oblivion), often with bewilderingly similar names (all those Hesse- and Saxe-...; more recently Moldavia / Moravia, Slovakia / Slovenia...)- with a state of turnmoil, political instability and / or rampant hostilities. Typically, broken up or crumbled down empires: such indeed is post-WW1 Eurasia with the post-Czarist ('Back of Beyond') East, Baltic area (not far from Indur and Tradgarland), post-Czarist and post-Austrian (after being post-Ottoman) ark from the Balkans to the Caucasus (from Cavenderia and Syldavia to Oobleckistan?).
And of course during the Interwars South America was as propitious to imaginary countries and conflicts as it had been since the wars of liberation -re the famous Gran Chapo war between Nuevo Rico and San Theodoros. While during the 1920-1950 period the 'Yellow Peril' was a real concern, at least in fiction...
As for imaginary conflicts, the British Civil War is already well known.



Two other recent periods are potential cradles of Imagi-nations and imaginary wars, and would deserve each a collective 'EvE'-like blog of its own:
- the 1860-1914, Victorian to Belle Epoque one, of Ruritania fame and already well represented 'oversea' (Afriboria, Morvalistan... but also the republics of Sonora and Texas, the Fenian state -several incarnations- and 'progressive Hawaii'). Several novels of the time described a 'Yellow' (or 'Black') invasion of Europe and 'the end of civilization as we know it'. As for imaginary conflicts, they are currently fought by an increasing number of 'Color' armies in their 'Funny little wars' of Wells' tradition; the 'Things to come' movie could equally be set in 1905, and most of French public opinion was ready to revive the 8 centuries old tradition of 'Guerre aux Anglais!' after the Fachoda incident.

- Our very time, with 'decolonized' Africa (AK47 Republic) and post-USSR Eurasia, from the Baltic to all those 'new' countries in the Caucasus: Blechistan, Pukistan... And South America as always, of course: since Argentina started a war in 'The Real World™', an open conflict between Palombia and Uroguy is more than likely.


Sadly, despite (or because of?) literary precedents such as The Land Leviathan and the Draka series, South Africa is seemingly ignored by 'Imaginative' wargamers. While the French Huguenots who settled there in the late 17th C. *could* have built a country of their own. And, had Christian Ethiopia extended as envisaged in the Belisarius sequence, it would be ruling -perhaps under the name of Afrodizia?- from 'our' Somalia to 'our' South Africa since the Renaissance at the very least...


Hopefully, with time, Imagi-Nations first known from a given period will see their historical coverage extended, and most of their creators contributing to more than one (4 or 5 by then: what about one for the 'Confederation of the Rhine' / Congres of Vienna' Europe) of the 'period specific' League of Imagi-Nations collective blogs.
If you are already the proud creator of an imaginary country in a given period, and now feel tempted to play in another 'time', better to extend the history of your brainchild -forward or back in time- than to create a new one or invest in some historical army. With the history and geography common to both your projects, any progress in one benefits the other. Risks of resenting dispersion, of wilting are minimized and the character / 'personality' of your Imagi-Nation -and of its regiments- get all the richer.

(Cross-posted on TMP in order to reach and intrigue a wider audience, mostly unfamilar with Imagi-Nations, and get more feed-back.)