Wittenberg - Horse Regiment Von Dehne

The first of the Wittenberg horse regiments is now completed. The riders have had their coats done with a grey theme, a general touch in, plus yellow sashes.

Wittenberg - Dragoon Regiment Von Taube

The second of the dragoon regiments for Wittenberg, on horse and dismounted

These chaps took a while to repaint - I found lots of painting gaffs from when they were first done as an ECW unit [before I got my latest set of glasses :) ]. I've decided to use the regimental names of the Saxon units listed in Belaubre's little booklet. 

Wittenberg - The Kings Dragoons

Have completed the Kings dragoons, these took some while - basically repaint of coats, equipment and hats.  Here they are mounted up..

 and dismounted

The mounted figures are representative and I've got a couple more dismounted than mounted; otherwise the unit is a bit small. I still thinking on what to do about horse holders - I may have the mounted officer and standard bearer mounted base plus a small vignette of a dragoon holding a horse.

Wittenberg - Life Guard of Horse

The first of the units for Wittenberg, the Life Guard of Horse. Some cuirassiers modified with lobster style helmets and with added sashes.

I'll be continuing with the Wittenberg units while I do some more research on uniforms and flags for the Monrovians. Next couple of units will probably be dragoons.

Uniforms and Flags - for Wittenberg

I've started looking at flags and uniforms for both sides. Initially I decided to focus on Wittenberg, being based on Saxony, the excellent little booklet by Jean Belaubre is very useful - shot of front cover below

 

this has enough info and flags for me to set out a rough list of units. I'm aiming for 6 foot, 6 horse and 1 dragoon regiment, plus the kings lifeguard.

17C Coach completed....

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished coach...

17C Coach, Work in progress - 2

Stages in making the coach body. First a simple cardboard shell..

 Adding the basic roof...

 Detailing, with some strips and pieces of cardboard; plus some round pin-heads. All done ready for painting, shown below with some horses from Irregular Miniatures 42mm marlburian range.

17C Coach, Work in progress - 1

Not having an appropriate coach for the period I decided to make one. As a basis for my model I chose the a Dinky 'Slipper and the Rose' coach. These are quite nice and with a paint job would be quite appropriate for an 40mm 18C coach.

 I bought a cheap one on Ebay and took it to bits; leaving me with the parts I wanted - the chassis and wheels

 Before starting on building the new coach body I made up a driver using a 18C 40mm self-cast Creartec cuirassier as a dolly. A new head from Sash & Sabre and lots of green stuff .....

Commanders in Chief (main personality figures)

Have completed the main personality figures for each side, now ready to lead their armies

The King of Monrovia - Klemens I (in black with white stripe sleeves)

The King of Wittenberg - Leopold I (in the blue)

I hope to base the armies on historical counterparts if possible (providing I can find suitable reference material - uniform details and flags). At the moment provisionally

• Wittenberg - based on Saxony
• Monrovia - based on the Palatinate

Main Personality Figures (command) - WIP

Have started work on the the main personality figures. I bought the Sash&Sabre ECW two command figure pack to use for the Kings, using a different horse for one of them; and tweaked a couple of other figures for the captain generals and standard bearers

 While sorting through figures I found I had four officers with swords that could maybe be suitable for 'the musketeers'.

Will need to have four equivalent mounted figures as well though - will have to check what spare riders and horses I have left.

In terms of units I have decided to tweak the sizes slightly
- horse: down to 8 figures, mainly to get more units on the table
- foot: 12 musket (down from 16), pike block of 12 comprising 8 pikemen, 2 ensigns, drummer,  officer with partizan and colonel of foot.

Command Stands

For 'big' battles will be using specific command stands for each side, one for each flank of horse and a central foot command. Using existing figures these are now done, requiring suitable flags to be added to the foot command.

Currently on the workbench are main personality figures for each side - each will comprise: King, Captain-General and Kings Standard bearer.

Somewhere in Europe just after the Thirty Years War

Waldemar IV the Elector of Baumberg,  had managed to keep his country intact during the thirty years war that raged across Europe.

Waldemar IV

On his death late in 1648,  the country was split into two, between his sons Leopold and Klemens, as stated in his will.  The Elector's chair was inherited by the eldest son Leopold. To avoid a damaging civil war a meeting of the Landsraad was called to ratify the will and create a treaty to define the new kingdoms. 

The country was split along the line of the river Oudear which ran through the province of Belgravia.  Each Kingdom was given control of an even number of cities which controlled the crossings of the river. The new Kingdoms were:

• Wittenberg -- in the east ruled by Leopold I
• Monrovia -- in the west ruled by Klemens I

After a couple of years the new kingdoms had settled down and established themselves. However both kingdoms asserted claims to the whole region of Belgravia, each stating that it belonged to their kingdom; control of the trade route of the river Oudear was behind these claims.  Even after the depredations of the thirty years war these two small Kingdoms were prepared to go to war to settle the matter. Both sides commenced organizing their armies, although neither side wanted at the moment to make the first agressive move .....

[ for my post-TYW Imagin-Nations I've wound back the history of Wittenberg to the partition of the original Electorship - quite handy as I can re-use all the maps and place names from  18C blog]

An End ... and a Beginning

An End

The fictional Wiltshire/Hampshire ECW campaign now comes to a close. The battle of Tufton in effect was a deciding engagement.

After 8 years of this blog focusing on the ECW I've decided it is time for a change. I've found the campaign to be most enjoyable and have re-fought two historical battles and associated actions,

• 1643 - Roundway
• 1644 - Cheriton

plus all the local back and forwards between to the two sides. The final phase of the fictional campaign events dovetail into the historical timeline for October 1644 rather nicely - historical events in italics:

October 14th: Battle of Tufton
October 15th: The Kings Army arrive at Salisbury (aka Sarisbury), returning from the campaign in the west country.
October 16th: Sir Warwick Hunt having withdrawn to Stockbridge to reform after Tufton, hears of the approach of the Kings Army - he sends his brother Herrick Hunt with a regiment of horse to join Waller's army and takes what is left of his command south-west to Romsey.
October 17th: Hurstbourne Manor capitulates to the royalists after the gatehouse is mostly destroyed by artillerie fire. The manor house is slighted - the curtain walls being blown up.
October 18th: The King's Army reaches Andover,  where a skirmish occurs with Waller's rearguard.
October 19th: The King's Army reaches Whitchurch
October 20th: Sir William de Willoughby and his troops join the Kings Army
October 21st: The King's Army reaches Kingsclere
October 27th: The Battle of Newbury

So goodbye to the ECW for now .....

A Beginning

The Battle of the White Mountain - 1620

The blog will continue with Pike & Shotte but in a different setting.  The ECW collection will be re-used and re-purposed for a contest between two Imagi-Nations set somewhere in central Europe just after the thirty years war - sometime about 1650.

An opportunity for some swashbuckling - somewhat like the four musketeers. Maybe something a little different as well - a Polish army with winged hussars ?

So I'll be tinkering with the blog layout/look slightly and will post a starter for the post-TYW in due course.

The Battle of Tufton ....

continued from the previous post...

Both armies started their advance,

(move the 1st) 
the royalist cavalry impetuous as ever charged and caught the parliamentarian right flank horse at the halt ...

the foot in the centre closed to musket range

while on the other flank both side's horse started forward ....

(move the 2nd) 
On the parliamentarian right flank the other royalist horse regiment hits home

after the initial vollies, the royalist blue foot and parliamentarian green foot fall back ...

the horse on the other flank are now engaged ...

(move the 3rd)
On the parliamentarian right one of their horse regiments breaks and routs

the blue royalist foot advance back into musket range and the grey royalist foot move forward, fire a stiff volley at the centre parliamentarian foot who break and rout ...

the horse melee on the other flank continues with parliament having the edge...

(move the 4th)
the royalist horse and parliamentarian horse break off to rally and reform,

the other royalist horse regiment didn't follow their routing opponents and turned on the flank of the parliamentarian foot, the red parliamentarian regiment looses their nerve and rout ....

the horse melee on the parliamentarian left flank is a draw, both sides get set to pursue their routed opponents ....

with the parliamentarian foot in total disarray and running from the field the battle is over

A VICTORY FOR YE KINGE

Tufton - the armies deployed

By the late morning both armies had disposed themselves ready for battle,

 the right flank

 the centre

the left flank

The royalist commander Sir William de Willoughby makes one last check of his dispositions...

The parliamentarian commander Sir Warwick Hunt issues the order for the artillerie to open fire ...

Tufton - the Royalist army deploys

After spending a rough night encamped around Tufton the Royalist army starts to deploy in front of a low ridge...

Just in time as the vanguard of the Parliamentarian army has arrived......

Parliamentarian army sighted ...

As Sir William de Willoughby returns to the town of Whitchurch after checking the progress of the siege of Hurstbourne manor a dragoon rides up .....

He reports that a parliamentarian army has been seen in the vicinity of Sutton Scotney about 10 miles to the south. Sir William orders all available troops to muster at Tufton a couple of miles south of Whitchurch.

the parliamentarian army marches ...

the campaign continues ....

Sir Warwick Hunt is at Stockbridge, while checking the state of supplies he is informed of the eastward movement of the royalists...

He sends orders for the army to muster near Stockbridge; the muster was completed the next day as most of the army was quartered in nearby villages.. The following day the parliamentarian army set off across the downland along the London road ....

 

they planned to turn north at Sutton Scotney and intercept the royalists.