Devastating Tornado in Tuscaloosa

I live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA which was hit by a devastating tornado on Wednesday. I'm a retired Army officer and it is the worst destruction I have ever seen. If you want to help, please send any donations to the American Red Cross.

Warmaster: The Battle of Five Armies

An all time favorite of mine returns with one of the most innovative gaming systems around. Yes, it's The Battle of Five Armies from the classic fantasy novel The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien. The game will be played using the Warmaster set of rules by Rick Priestly and published by Games Workshop. For a previous look at the GW's game click here. Here are a few preview pictures of the epic conflict of Good (Honorable Son # 5) and Evil (me - Bwah hah hah!).

The Goblin Guard moves through the ruins of Dale

Gandalf (with Bilbo) steadies the nerve of the Forces of Good

Goblin infantry advance on the west bank of the Running River

Dain Ironfoot and the Dwarven host

Thanduril, the King of the Elves of Mirkwood Forest, leads reinforcements over the ford at the Running River

Anhalt Battalion WIP #2

I haven't had a chance to work on the Anhalt Battalion, but I did find some more uniform references:

I found this on image on a French site called Empire Histofig. My French (actually lack of it) is not good so I have not been able to check the sources but the site looks really good with virtually all of the participants of the Napoleonic Wars.

I now have some more information on the drummers of the unit and I am going to not use the figure I started on but will substitute it for a drummer that I have that has swallow nests on the shoulders. The diagram above also has from 1809 the coat with green shoulder straps piped pink, pink cuffs with green flaps (rectangular 3 buttons) and green turn backs piped pink bearing pink eight-pointed star patch, vertical pockets simulated by a pink piping. So, it looks like my French grenadier figures will work for the Peninsula. Anyway, here are the details in English from the site:

The contingents from the three duchies were amalgamated in a single battalion of five musketeers companies. Following the Prussian system, each company is composed of :

1	Feldwebel
2	Sergeant
1	Fourier
7	Korporal
2	Tambours
140	Gemeine

In 1809 the Anhalt battalion was posted as 1st battalion in the 5th Rheinbund-Regiment and adopted the French organisation of one grenadiers, one voltigeurs and four fusiliers companies. Each company was composed of :

1	Kapitain
1	Premier-Lieutenant
1	Sekonde-Lieutenant
1	Feldwebel
2	Sergeant
1	Fourier
10	Korporal
2	Tambours
1	Zimmermann
120	Gemeine

The battalion took part to the Tyrolean campaign in 1809, the Peninsular campaign between 1809 and 1811 and to the Russian campaign in 1812. Its remnants were posted to the garrison of Danzig during the German campaign in 1813.

Fusiliers

• Dark green single breasted coat closed by a row of eight buttons. Pink collar. Green shoulder straps. Pink piping on front of coat. Green Swedish cuffs piped pink bearing two buttons. Green turnbacks. White metal buttons.
  From 1809, same coat with green shoulder straps piped pink, pink cuffs with green flaps (rectangular 3 buttons) and green turnbacks piped pink bearing pink eight-pointed star patch, vertical pockets simulated by a pink piping.
• White vest with white collar and no cuffs. Grey jersey breeches. Black short gaiters.
  In field dress, grey cloth trousers laced pink on seam.
• Black felt shako with black leather top and base band, bearing a brass crowned shield plate stamped with Anhalt arms. Tufted wool pompon in company colour (red, green, blue, yellow and white from 1st to 5th) over green cockade. In full dress, white cords and flounders. Brass chinscales and black leather peak.
  From 1809 white metal rhomboid plate stamped with the same crowned shield with Anhalt arms. Pink oval pompon. Other details as before.
• Black leatherwork. Black leather cartridge pouch bearing the brass crowned shield plate. Infantry sabre with single bar brass hilt and black leather scabbard with brass fittings.

Grenadiers
Red fringed epaulets. In full dress, red plume, cords and flounders. Red sabre strap and pink grenade patch on turnbacks.

Voltigeurs
Green fringed epaulets. In full dress, Green plume, cords and flounders. Green sabre strap and pink horn patch on turnbacks.

NCOs
Troopers dress with pink or silver on pink backing rank laces :

Korporal	2 pink stripes on both arms
Sergeant	1 silver on pink lace on arms 1 silver lace to shako top
Feldwebel	2 silver on pink lace on arms 2 silver lace to shako top

Officers
Troopers dress with silver thread rank epaulets. In full dress, white breeches and black leather Russian boots. Black felt cocked hat with black lace, green plume over green cockade with silver strap. Gilded gorget bearing the arms of Anhalt in silver. Black leather shoulder belt and sabre or sword with gilded hilt and black leather scabbard with gilded fittings, silver sabre strap.
From 1812, shako as troopers with black lace with silver oak leaves embroideries around top. Silver peak strengthening.

Drummers
Troopers dress with pink swallow nests trimmed with white lace. Drum with brass shell and pink counterhoops.

Sappers
Grenadiers dress with sappers insignia (red grenade over white crossed axes) on both arms. Black fur bearskin without plate or top patch with scarlet plume, cords and flounders. Black leather apron.

54mm - Now that's a scale for Wargaming!

The family and I spent 3 wonderful days with my parents in the mountains of North Carolina near the little town of Brevard. Whenever we visit, we always make a trip to O. P. Taylor's, the coolest Toy Store on the Planet. I usually spend most of my time checking out the trains, race sets and of course - the toy soldiers. The O. P. Taylor store in Brevard carries several ranges of 54mm scale figures, including a well stocked inventory of W. Britain figures.

American Civil War Medical Set

The figures are nicely displayed in the store with terrain accessories; I just wish that I had brought my camera. Thank goodness there is an internet so I can share these beautifully painted miniatures.

American Revolutionary War

Though fun to look at, the figures are out of my price range for collecting and gaming. That didn't prevent me from getting a catalog though!

Rorkes Drift

As I looked at the figures in the catalog and online, I started thinking about the "first" wargaming rules published - Little Wars by the famous author, H. G. Wells. The full title of the book is: Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books. Wells, a known pacifist, published these rules in 1913 and they were played with 54mm W. Britain figures. The full text is a delight to read as Wells provides his philosophy in his writing and gives a description of the game from the view of one of the Generals in the battle "relating" his memoirs. Little Wars can be found on the web at Project Gutenberg. Though I am not interested right now in purchasing and painting 54mm figures, I did find a great site that has affordable miniatures in 54mm: All The Kings Men. Their current ranges are the Napoleonic Wars 1812 - 1815, The War of 1812 in America and The American Revolution. They also have a set of rules, appropriately called, All The Kings Men (ATKM) available free for download on their site or available for $10.00 for a hard copy set with summary card. All the King's Men Toy Soldiers, LLC is owned and operated by Ken Cliffe. Ken is a regular at conventions - I have seen many photos of the great games he has put on that showcase his figures and rules.

Picture from the ATKM website of a French and Indian Game put on at Cold Wars 2011

The shirt available from the ATKM website

Anhalt Battalion WIP #1

It's that time of the year so I've been working on house projects and doing my spring gardening. As a result, the poor boys from Anhalt have been somewhat neglected.

This officer figure will be on the Volley and Bayonet brigade base to add some variety. As mentioned in a previous post, this is a Wargames Foundry mounted French officer. His uniform is very similar to what Anhalt line officers wore.

Here are two brigade bases for the French army that I have already done with mounted officers:

French Light (Legere) Infantry.

French Line (Ligne) Infantry.

Grenadier of the Anhalt battalion. All of the figures are going to be painted as belonging to the grenadier company. The French figures I am using are not an exact match in uniform detail, but they are close enough for gaming purposes.


So far I have not found too many details on drummers in the Anhalt army. His uniform may end up as one of pure conjecture. Then again, many drummers were uniformed based on the whimsy of their commander - so why not?