Painting Challenge Submission 14 - Austrian IR 38 in 28mm

The troops of Austrian Regiment IR 38 practice drill on the marchfeld in my kitchen...figures are 28mm.

The end of the current edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is nearing - fortunately my points target is in sight too! I figured I would march straight across that goal line in style, with a big unit of 28mm Austrian Napoleonic infantry. These figures are all from Sash & Saber with the exception of the mounted officer, which is a Wargames Foundry casting.  The flags are from "Flag Dude".

A view down the line...

The Napoleonic setting is a gaming era which has not seen any attention from my paint brushes for a number of years now.  I last painted a few individually-based 28mm Austrian infantry officers for an incredible game of "Sharpe Practice" hosted by Curt back in 2016.  I can't remember the last time I added an actual unit to my Austrian forces. But when I found those SYW Grenzers that I had painted a couple weeks ago, I also spotted these fellows sitting in my unpainted-pile-of-shame.  They were all racked up, just waiting for a base coat before I got going on them...they have been sitting in that state since around 2012, I think.

All foot castings are from Sash & Saber, while the mounted officer is from Wargames Foundry.

A variety of different things motivated me to dig these guys out and get them painted. The theme of this edition of the Painting Challenge, "Fellowship" had me reflecting on friendships and connections I have made over years. In fact, my Austrian Napoleonic collection is closely tied my friendship with Curt - when we first met (about 20 years ago) I was curious about Napoleonics, and he encouraged me to paint Austrians in the first place. I have fallen in love with gaming Austrians ever since.  My collection started out in 15mm back in 1999. Since then I have painted some in 6mm, and some more in 3mm. Of course I ultimately tipped into 28mm. Nine years ago, Curt inspired me to do up these 28mm units in a sort of "Grand Manner" style, and I started painting them in the summer of 2010 - the same summer I got married! In fact, Curt's wedding gift was magnificent command base featuring Archduke Charles himself :)

Love the different NCOs you get with Sash & Saber.

While it has been many years since Curt moved from Winnipeg, anytime I walk past my figure collection, I always see the 28mm Austrians, and I always think of Curt and Sarah, and wonder how they are doing.  And while of course anyone who has even casually followed either of our painting tracks will see that Curt and I wander all over the bloody place in terms of scales, periods, settings and projects, there is always something extra fun for us a Napoleonics game is taking place...and there have been a number of magnificent games over the years, too many to recount here.

These sculpts have great character - and good variations to break up the marching poses.

Anyway, when I spotted the Austrian figures in the pile, and I knew that Curt was coming to visit too - I thought it was all a sign from the hobby gods.  There was no way I could let an edition of the Painting Challenge based on "Fellowship" pass by an not add another unit to my 28mm Austrian collection, particularly one which had been waiting years for attention!  So here is IR 39 Herzog Ferdinand von Wuttermberg.

Another shot of the command figures...you can also spot the sapper, marching along with his comrades.

Of course, the Austrian units have to be larger, because they had bigger battalions, right? Hence the 40-figure size for the main Austrian battalions, to take on the 32-figure units in Curt's French collection (and Byron's, as he has started adding a unit here and there for the French as well). The models have 15mm of frontage, and so are packed in quite close.  The bases are 50mm deep, to allow for a little extra protection, and some depth for mounted officers to mix in with the foot-sloggers.

One more group photo...

I painted IR 38 for two reasons - first of all, they have pink facings, which is neat. There are few units in the horse & musket era which had pink facings, and I had always wanted to paint one up.  Second, the soldiers of this unit were raised from Wallonia, which is in modern-day Belgium (I think).  Back in the early 19th century this region was still a Hapsburg dominion, and so provided soldiers to the Holy Roman Emperor.  I believe the Austrians lost this territory following their defeat in 1809...but it is still a kind of interesting acknowledgement of the great diversity of soldiers that made up the Austrian army in the era.

My Austrian brigades wait for a call to action to resit the Corsican upstart...

In terms of points, this submission allowed me to decisively stomp across my points target for this edition of the Challenge! It was great to paint some Napoleonics again.  In particular, it was fun to paint quite a few of these fellows while Curt was visiting! Staying up until all hours painting and chatting was great fun. 

I look forward to seeing them in action on the table some day soon - hopefully in another great Napoleonic game with Curt.  Cheers! 

Austrian 3rd Cuirassiers - 28mm Napoleonic Heavy Cavalry

Thunder on the Danube! Austrian 3rd Cuirassiers ready for the charge.

I finished my latest 28mm Napoleonic unit during the hockey game last night - a regiment of Austrian Cuirassiers in 28mm.  These lads will represent Cuirassier Regiment #3, Herzog Albert zu Sachen-Teschen (got that?), from Moravia.  The regiment is 24 models strong.  The figures are from Wargames Foundry, and are based in pairs on 40mm x 60mm bases. The flag is from Conscript Brian H's Vaubanner Graphics.

Figures painted and ready for basing

A snug fit on the 40mm x 60mm metal bases

This will the be first unit I have added to my 28mm Austrian collection in about a year! Typical Austrian neglect. They had to wait forever, but at least the Austrian generals are getting some stylish reinforcements in the form of heavy cavalry.  This will be particularly welcome given that the French received some Cuirassiers of their own recently.

Austrian troopers in reserve pose - figures are 28mm from Wargames Foundry

These lads will ride to glory (or crushing defeat - whatever) in games of Black Powder, of Curt's unique Napoleonic rules known as Food For Powder, and perhaps even games of Maurice!  A head-on clash with the French heavies would be wonderful fun, and they can always pray to find a touch of the glory my Austrian Hussars found in action in Regina last year!

The monopose is not ideal, but looks a little ominous - suitable for heavy cavalry

Actually if the Austrians are true to form they will break this intimidating regiment down into smaller groups that will spend time providing cover and suitable escorts to various to-ing and fro-ing of indecisive column commanders on the battlefield ("Kindly advise the Feldmarschall I've forgotten my harpsichord solo in Vienna and require a suitable escort to return to the capital and retrieve it. Sigh.").  But I hope to avoid doing that for the first game, at least...

No backplate armour for the Austrian Cuirassiers

I dislike painting horses, but I love having cavalry units on the table (makes sense, right?)  I had hoped to finish both these fellows and the French Cuirassiers in May.  I didn't make it, but I came close...in all, it was 48 mounted figures primed, painted and based in about 45 days...pretty good rate of production.  It's one reason I love the NHL playoffs.  That, and watching the Princess Pittsburgh Penguins getting HAMMERED.  If only I could have painted at this rate during Curt's painting challenge.

Ready to charge home against Napoleon's lackies!

Up next for this summer I have a few options, and I haven't made up my mind.  I need to do some French for these fellows to charge/shoot at.  I also need to reinforce them.  And I have a couple of other new projects nipping at my interest, including an interesting potential one from Mike F....stay tuned for details!  

28mm Austrian Reinforcements

28mm Austrian figures from Wargames Foundry

Hello again folks - my apologies for the slow posting activity recently.  I wish I could say it was because of nice weather, but winter continues to cling to the prairies like the clenched fist of an ancient swamp hag.  I'm pretty much at the point where I think we need to build a ziggurat and sacrifice a local weather forecaster in an attempt to appease the gods - after all, I hear the Aztecs enjoyed some good weather in their time.

Early stages of the painting process

Finished and waiting for basing

In fact I have been diverted because of a fun reason - the bonkers NHL half-season has given the Winnipeg Jets (our local NHL ice-hockey team) a truckload of home games recently, so I've been at the rink cheering night after night.  It's been lots of fun, particularly as the Jets have scraped together a nice little winning streak and still cling to a remote possibility of making the playoffs. 

The bases are 30mm wide and 50mm deep (I think - I might need to double check that)

But I've still been painting a bit in between games, working on my 6mm War of Spanish Succession project.  I've also added a few more 28mm Napoleonic Austrians. Curt and I play "grand manner" style 28mm Napoleonics with larger units.  In the case of the Austrians, noted for their very large battalions in the field, that means really, really big units - 40 infantry castings for a large foot battalion. 

I like the look of a "firing" unit - good break from all of the marching ones

"March attack" poses make up the second rank

Back in Curt's 2011/2012 Painting Challenge I had finished off a 32-casting Austrian battalion in firing poses - smaller than usual.  There is nothing wrong with this (and in fact I doubt that every Austrian battalion in the field was as large as gamers tend to think) but seeing this one unit on the shelf 8-figures short from the others kind of annoyed me (yes - I'm nuts). When I found a few more of the Foundry figures in a firing pose I decided to round off the unit.

Here the new recruits have joined their parent formation

Ready for a battlefield stroll with the Hapsburgs

I had hoped to paint a number of 28mm Austrians as part of Curt's most recent painting challenge, but in the end I mostly concentrated on figures for the Sudan.  The upshot is that I have a bunch of other 28mm Austrian castings ready to go for painting, so I hope I can add a couple more units over the summer.  If summer every actually shows up...

Seven Years War 28mm Austrians from Front Rank

For Maria Theresa!

So this is kind of a "WTF?" project - 28mm Austrians from the Seven Years War.  The Seven Years War? Yes - the Seven Years War. Why the Seven Years War? Why not? Is that an answer? No. But that's really all I have for an explanation.

Austrian SYW battalion in 28mm

My main horse & musket gaming interest is the Napoleonic period.  I have a collection of Napoleonics in 15mm and another group in 28mm.  I love the period, I love the various rules and I love the games.  Rolling out for the 28mm games in particular is a lot of fun. That huge battle in Regina is probably one of the coolest games I have ever been part of.

The frontage for each figure is 15mm

But the Seven Years War is really neat.  Linear fighting (none of those savage, peasant fuelled revolutionary columns), elite officers, polluted and incompetent officers, tricorne hats, crazy gloves, pimped up cuffs and collars, neck scarves, fancy hair, halberds...and poltroons.  Poltroons! And the Hungarians - bonkers! And lots of grenadiers with mitres. Mitres!  The period has a lot to offer. The Space Marine-like shooting abilities most rule sets attribute to the Prussians are pretty annoying but the whole spectacle looks amazing on the table.  Conscript Brian H. has a 15mm scale collection of Seven Years War figures that are, quite simply, jaw dropping to see, and when he brings them out for a game its an event for sure.  Although the damn Prussians will win...

BEFORE - painted originally as an 18-casting unit, just one flag

I cannot match Brian's skill with the brush, but I have dabbled with the Seven Years War before. Back in 2009 I painted up a few 6mm Adler castings.  For Christmas that year I received a pack of Front Rank Austrians from this period.  At the time I was reading up the "Might & Reason" rules by Sam Mustafa, so I started to paint them up for fun  in line with the basing for that game.

Another BEFORE photo - note the fade on the flag

But I didn't like how it looked.  "Might & Reason" calls for very small units in 28mm scale, about 12 castings per unit.  I didn't care for the look, and I didn't like the way the units were split into two halves - was hard to figure out where the standard bearers should be. A little thing, but it is the kind of thing that really irritates me.  "Might & Reason" is not rigid on its basing, however.  You can use any basing you like as long as it is consistent, so I painted these up originally as an 18-man unit, based on three six-casting bases with a 15mm-per-figure frontage.  This little orphan project sat on the shelf after that, and there are a couple of pictures in this post that show how it looked.  The flag was from GMB, and it was very fiddly - it reacted poorly to the glue and then faded under the dullcote varnish.

AFTER - increased to 22 castings, with a second standard bearer and mounted officer

Fast forward to 2011, and Curt gets me going on these bonkers grand-manner-style Napoleonic units with 40 castings.  As I finished more and more large Austrian units, I would look at my lone SYW unit from time to time, and it looked pretty small.  Fast forward again to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting challenge which started last December.  I dug out a lot of old stuff to paint - mostly Sudan, some WW2, but I also came across some extra musketeers that came with the 2009 gift.  I thought I would paint up the balance of the musketeers, the mounted officer, and re-base them using the system Curt had developed for the Napoleonics - still 15mm frontage per casting, but a deeper base to protect the figures.  It seemed like a nice way to get some extra points! I didn't get to them in time for the challenge, but I still got to them over the weekend...

Poltroon - awesome! Keep that line straight!

I did not wish to make this into a massive 40-casting unit, but I hiked it up to 22 castings with a mounted officer. I added a second standard bearer, and replaced the flags.  The unit was re-based. All in all it came together pretty well.

Mounted officer dressed to the nines.

Front Rank castings are certainly "well fed", but have lots of nice detail

The Front Rank castings are interesting.  They are beefy, beefy lads, hulking 28mm figures, and they barely fit into the 15mm frontage on the bases.  It's not that they are taller, they are thicker. They have nice detail, but some of the poses, particularly for the officers, are a little awkward. The fellow with the halberd on the command base is a good example - a neat pose, but he looks very awkward...the turn of his back just isn't quite right.  On the other hand I've seen a lot worse.  The Front Rank range is very, very comprehensive and there is a lot of lovely detail on the figures.  If 28mm SYW is your thing, I suggest Front Rank for sure.

A solitary unit...for now...

Overall I was happy with this little project and how it turned out. So will this herald a new "New Insane Project?"  You never know, but it is pretty unlikely.  Why? Well, for fun I took a "Might & Reason" scenario that Brian H. designed, the Battle of Lobositz.  Doing the Austrian infantry component alone would require another seven of these units...and then there is the cavalry, the guns...and then the Prussians!  All in it was something like 350 castings between both sides. Front Rank doesn't hose you, but it isn't cheap either - and there is other stuff I want to paint.  Even if I lowered my sights - say to just try a Black Powder game - it would still be a pile of lead, and time that I should probably invest in other projects (Napoleonic Austrians, or Sudan, or who know what else) instead.

So these lads will sit on the shelf and look nice for now.  We'll see if/when I come back to the Seven Years War, and in what scale...

Battle Report: Vandamme's Assault on the Stare Vinohrady - Austerlitz, 1805

Note: My apologies for cross posting from my blog but I wanted to get maximum press coverage for Greg's gorgeous Napoleonic Austrian collection and celebrate the inauguration of my new gaming room here in Regina.


Last weekend Greg and his lovely wife, Linda, came to Regina for a holiday weekend visit to which we all ate and drank to excess and caught up on our sleep. Greg and I also took the requisite time to game like men possessed. On top of a suitably bloody game of SAGA, and reacquainting ourselves with 'Conflict of Heroes' we also played a cataclysmic 'Spearhead' scenario set in the opening hours of Kursk (see Greg's excellent batrep below). These were all great fun, but undoubtedly the main event was our Napoleonic scenario based on the French attack on the Allied center at Austerlitz in December 1805.

Historically, Vandame's assault on the Stare Vinohrady was virtually a non-contest. The remnants of the mauled Allied IV Column, composed of six battalions of the IR#23, five severely reduced Russian battalions and their attached artillery, tried to hold the heights, but the French had both the numbers and the quality to quickly overwhelm them. Nevertheless, in reading the numerous accounts of the engagement I thought there were a few 'what-ifs' that  if cobbled together could make a viable, if somewhat asymmetrical scenario. The following is what piqued my interest:

• Scott Bowden's 'Napoleon and Austerlitz' describes the Austrian and Russian contingents as separate actions even though they occurred very close to one another on the Pratzen Heights. I think much of this had to do with both the difficulty of communication between the Austrian and Russian partners along with the fact that the Allies wanted to cover-off as much of the heights as possible. Nonetheless, what if the Allies had drawn themselves closer together to better support one another, would it have helped?

• Bowden further describes that the two Allied contingents did not make good use of the available ground, which had several vineyards below the summit (thus the name 'Vinohrady'). These would have slowed down infantry attacks and pretty much nullified threats from cavalry. Historically the Allies deployed well back from the vineyards, surrendering their advantages to the French light infantry. So what if the Allies had positioned their forces to take better advantage of the available ground, could it have aided their defence of the heights?

• In David Chandler's 'Austerlitz, 1805' he obliquely mentions another unit of Kolowrat's command, Infantry Regiment #24, being in support of IR#23. Reportedly this was a depot battalion of around 400 conscripts, but I reasoned that every man would have helped to spread out the line on the Heights and so included them in my Order of Battle. I also added cavalry support to both sides. The French had access to Boye's Dragoon brigade (which was historically on-hand) and the Allies now have two regiments (Dragoons and Hussars) originally from Liechtenstein's V Column of cavalry and Wodiansky's Advance Guard. So, finally, what if the Allied High Command had released more cavalry assets to the defence of the Heights?

So for our scenario I incorporated the above conjectures and worked with the hypothesis that Kolowrat and Miloradovich have decided to concentrate and coordinate their efforts thereby bringing their forces together - forcing Vandamme to engage them as a combined force on the summit, on advantageous ground of their choosing. 

A map of the rough dispositions of the two armies as seen at the start of the action. 

For our game we used our home-grown rules, 'Food for Powder', which do a very good job of reflecting unbalanced engagements. This battle was actually fairly large for a battalion-level game (24 battalions, 4 regiments of cavalry and 3 batteries of guns) so we played it on a 6x10 surface to give us enough room to maneuver. Some may notice that I did not model the Heights on the tabletop - in my reading it seemed to suggest that the path Vandamme took on his assault was along a very gradual slope and therefore would not have granted much tactical superiority to the Allies so I decided to leave out modeling the Heights for sake of clarity.

The Stare Vinohrady today as seen from Vandamme's initial positions.

For our battle we had John and Dan on the French side, while Greg and Sylvain ran the Austrians and Russians respectively.

Here the French commanders, Dan and John, look on with Stacy (on the right) assisting as umpire.

Greg and Sylvain commanded the Austro-Russian force.

The first turn was fairly quiet, seeing the French move towards the heights along their entire front, including their guns. For the Allies, they stayed in place but were very lucky in their reinforcement roll and an composite brigade of cavalry (Austrian Hussars and Dragoons) arrived on their right flank. Greg formed them up in column of squadrons, with the Hussars leading and the Dragoons in support.

In the second Turn the French brought in their own cavalry in the form of Boye's bigade of Dragoons (under Dan). They deployed on the French right flank, in extended column of squadrons, diagonal to the Austrian cavalry. This choice of deployment had a critical impact in the following turns for both sides as the cavalry had free reign in each of their sectors. Eyebrows were duly raised with this heap of snorting cavalry showing up on the tabletop all at once.

Boye's Dragoon Brigade heading towards the Russian line.

Amongst our group, Sylvain is legendary for his caution so you can imagine the hoots of derision when he began to retrograde his Russians in response to the arrival of the French Dragoons. (As you will see Sylvain had the last laugh as his refusal of the left flank probably saved the Allied line.)

Shown here are three of the five understrength and exhausted Russian battalions that held the Allied left flank.

The third turn was a corker. First thing you have to understand that Dan is the antithesis of Sylvain. I like to think of Dan as the General Haig of miniature wargaming. To Dan's way of thinking 'If the first assault does not break them then the twelfth will certainly do the trick...' As such Dan's French Dragoons duly charged the Russian left flank as soon as they got the chance. Since the charge began from a long distance away (practically in Vienna) the Russian battalions had enough time to form squares. Undeterred, Dan noted that most of the Russian squares were not well-formed (our rules differentiate between 'solid' and 'hasty' squares) and so sent in the leading regiment of Dragoons to see if the Russians would loose their bottle. It was not meant to be. The Russians held their position and repulsed the Dragoons, but not without suffering some casualties and disorder in their ranks.

The nervous Austrian line, jammed full of conscripts and raw troops.

Meanwhile in the center, one French battalion decided to take the bit by the teeth and move ahead of the advance in line formation... While up the slope the two Allied artillery batteries hammered away at the approaching French columns, who inexplicably neglected to shake-out into less target-rich line formations and so consequently paid the price.

Back to the Allied left, Greg noted the impetuous advance of the solitary French battalion with an arched eyebrow, and thought it was too good of an opportunity for his Austrian Hussars to pass up. Greg knew he'd have to 'roll Vegas' to get the requisite moves in order to close, but he rolled the dice hoping they'd be kind to him. Well, the dice gods were smiling on Austria and Greg managed change formation, sound the charge and head for the French battalion.

The Austrian Hussars receive their order to charge...

Several French squares watch apprehensively as the Austrian Hussars begin to move across their front...

Again, as the charge originated from so far away the French battalion had a very good chance to form square. In 'Food for Powder' there are Impetus Dice (good mojo) and Friction Dice (bad mojo). Both Impetus and Friction are drawn from unit quality, officer rating and environmental conditions. Both are rolled simultaneously and you literally have to take the good with the bad (or vis a vis). Well, John rolled well enough with his Impetus dice, but the Friction roll was completely off the register - to the extent that the French battalion continued to trudge along, wondering why the ground was shaking, trumpets were blaring and their comrades to the rear were waving their arms and shouting...

'Ah! Zee target is in sight - Sound ze Charge!!'

A French ADC tries to warn the battalion of its imminent danger...

As John would say later, his battalion 'had the distinct misfortune of being ridden down by the 'flyboys' of the Horse & Musket era'. The only thing that saved the French battalion from complete annihilation was that the Austrian Hussars were at the end of their tether and very fatigued, so the mauled survivors were able to make their escape.

... but too late - the Hussars are upon them!

Turn four saw the French grind forward, closing with the Allied positions while the Russian and Allied guns gutted a French column. Nonetheless, the 1st of the 57th 'Le Terribles' got into action against the Russians and quickly broke a battalion that had been forced into square by the nearby French Dragoons. The French guns were dragged forward 'by bricole' and unlimbered in preparation to punish the tightly packed Russian formations. I'm sure there were many muttered prayers in those formations...

The unlimbered French artillery ranging in on the Russian squares. 

In the center Greg knew his victorious Hussars were desperately exposed and winded so he committed his remaining cavalry, the Dragoons to try to cover their retreat.  This turned out to be a little Pyrrhic as the Dragoons were shot to pieces by every French battalion's voltigeurs on their 'Death Ride' to the Hussars' support. Nonetheless, the exhausted 'flyboys' of the game managed to get extricated and began their ride back to Austrian high command to present the French colours they had captured.

Kolowrat receiving the news of the capture of a French eagle.

I'm sorry I cannot give a final account of the scenario as this is where we decided to break for the evening (we spent a lot of time laughing, eating and drinking.) Nonetheless, we looked over the field at 'halftime' and surmised that while the French had certainly been rebuffed in a few areas they were still in an excellent position on the Allied left flank to start an envelopment with combined arms. The fragile Allied line composed of reduced battalions and conscripts had not yet been truly tested and it would be touch-and-go to tell how it would turn out for them. It was really anybody's game.

Looking from the French left across the battlefield.

It was great fun, and all of it due to an excellent bunch of guys to game with. I extend my thanks to them all for making the night so entertaining. A special thank you goes to Greg and John who both travelled great distances to attend and brought many beautiful toys from their own collections in order to make the game that much more colourful - bravo! 

I had such a good time that I'm already planning for the next Napoleonic weekend...