I have been ploughing on with the Danish Cavalry during some evenings when I have been staying away from home. I have had some good going and will present them here for the record as I get them based. As noted in Part 1 (link here) these have been based on small 30 by 30 mm bases representing a squadron.
The miniatures are from the Baccus 6mm Sun King range (link here) and an absolute joy to work with.
So in no particular order.
4. Jyske Nationale Rytteregiment – 3 squadrons (Gen. Carl von Arensdorff)
Carl von Arensdorff was the Danish Army Commander at the Battle, he had served as a Swedish General in the Second Northern War 1655-60. He was wounded at Lund, and his brother Friedrich took over command, and Carl died shortly afterwards. I will write more about the Battle of Lund in future installations.
Detleff Rantzaus Dragonregiment (Col. Georg Brochenhuus)
I recently ordered the Seven Days to the River Rhine rule set from Great Escape Games (link here) and have ordered a few Soviet and Swedish cold war tanks and infantry from Heroics and Ros to play it in 6mm.
I had a quick read-through of the rules and they seem straightforward and clear on an initial read through. There are a number of videos on how to play the game and viewing these I feel confident in running the game. There few nice mechanisms that make me eager to give them a try, like the activation / reaction / change of initiative rules. It has a simple but not simplistic feel to it. I also like the “damage” system where the units does not need to be destroyed but can be overwhelmed and can pull back to recover, etc.
The Little One and I, decided to play a game this coming weekend but as we are still waiting for the Cold War miniatures I thought we could use some 6mm Sci-Fi Forces instead. I do not aim to do any modification to the rules, I am just using the Sci-Fi stuff in lieu of the Cold War ones.
I have plenty of vehicles but a limited amount of infantry that looks ok, however I recently ordered some of the excellent 6mm Sci-Fi Polish Infantry from Brigade Models (link here).
These will form part of the infantry element for our armies and then we will use some of the many 6mm Sci-Fi vehicles I have (also from Brigade Models).
I think they work excellent as a general futuristic infantry type, not too advanced tech or combat suited (that is not what I am after for this diversion). In fact it is the best 6mm infantry of this type I have seen.
I bought four packs of infantry (the come in packs of 25) at £2.75 each, with the vehicles a total outlay of about £15. They are based on small Flames of War sized MDF bases and Commanders on smaller ones. I plan to use these for Quadrant 13 and Future War Commander.
For APC I used the Magnus APC (link here) and the Small Vehicle is a Wizard Jeep (link here).
Simple fast paint job, tried to convey the illusion of some camouflage, it works from a distance.
We will use these for both sides this weekend, unless I finish the other set of infantry I am working on from Brigade Models.
I will do a Write-up next weekend on how it went – looking forward to it. I hope they play as well as they read.
Did a little bit of painting of cavalry for the Scanian War project using Baccus 6mm new Sun King range just before our holidays, but forgot to log them here. I am really pleased with these models and there were a joy to point.
Starting with 3 of the regiments in the Right Wing – Commanded by Lt. General Frederik von Arensdorf.
The normal Polemos/Twilight of the Sun King basing I have used for my Great Northern War stuff has been 9 cavalry on a 60 by 30mm base, representing about 2 squadrons worth of riders.
For this project I decided to do one smaller bases 30 by 30mm for each squadron with 6 for Dragoons and 8 for regular cavalry – reading the accounts I want to enable the squadrons to have the ability to be an independent unit just like the battalion.
I had Friday off and had a look at my paint tray that was full of 28mm miniatures for the Mutant 1984 project as well as a lot of 6mm for the next batch for the Scanian War. I decided to try to get done as many as possible of the 28mm stuff.
Following on from my joyous time of painting the Pyri Commonwealth soldiers (Nordholmia Regiment) a few weeks ago (see here, it also includes a summary of what this Mutant 1984 nonsense is all about) I got thinking about building some bigger skirmish forces than originally intended.
These are the Pyri Commonwealth Line Infantry I did previously.
I decided to get a plastic box of some Skirmishing infantry from Perry (I bought mine at a very favourable cost from ebay). I am basically in the Business of creating two Sharp Practice forces for some Border Skirmishes, yes some of the Old Tech Weapons would require some additional thought and perhaps a Chain of Command adaptation would be better, but that is a later issue. The most common form of firearm in this period is a musket or a single shot rifle.
In addition I added some animal heads from Sally 4th and some weapons from Anvil Industries (as well as making some of them with extra limbs) to give that subtle Mutant 1984 feel. These together form part of a Wilderness force of the Jemtland Army – a very small country North of the Pyri Commonwealth.
The Republic of Jemtland is the Green Country in the middle of the map, in the Lords year of 2562.
As for the actual uniforms I have no information, so I decided to go with a Green coat (with red details), red trousers and red caps for the line infantry.
For the Flags we know that the Jemtland flag is a white Moose on a blue background. I decided that the Military flag was only showing a Moose head and that the specific flag for the Wilderness force is based on the old Skogsmulle organisation (this was the children organisation of the Swedish Outdoor association that I have some fond memories of from my childhood, and just for fun, see more here).
Adding them…
…and we also got some rangers
….and some Machine Gun crew (I bought the Gatling ifself from Ebay, unknown manufacturer).
…putting it all together
Finally I had the pleasure of being given the last issue of Wargames Illustrated by the Little One (a fantastic read I may add) that came with a sprue of Early Imperial Roman. Again having had the Mutant 1984 treatment! These are part of the Monster hunters (Monsterjägare) of the Pyri Commonwealth army – a very specialised unit. The Monstrosities that occasionally emerges from the forbidden zones needs to be taken care of.
This is a fantastic model of a dark young from Fenris Games (you can find it here)I like the intensity of this picture!
That was 47 no. 28mm miniatures in a day (well, I did do the basing on Saturday the following day) – not any pieces for the museum but effectful enough on the table from the right distance! Now I have a few more things to do to flesh out the opposition.
Colour Sergeant Bourne and Others
In addition the Little One and I went to find the Grave of Colour Sergeant Bourne on Friday. It was something we had planned to do for some time (Since we first played with our 6mm British and Zulus).
6mm stuff from Baccus!
The title of this posting [see link here to the old post] – “A prayer’s as good as a bayonet on a day like this” is said by Colour Sergeant Bourne in the movie Zulu (link here). Colour Sergeant (Frank Edward) Bourne was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (CDM) after the Battle at Rourke’s Drift and was, at the time, the youngest soldier in the British Army who had achieved the rank of Colour Sergeant. He ended his career as a Lieutenant Colonel and was awarded an OBE. As I read up about him I found out that he was buried not far from where I live. I think I will take the Little One and have a look for it after Rugby next Sunday. Although he was only 5’6″ tall he was certainly, in every sense of the word, a big man.
The Real Deal!The Movie Version – Nigel Green, although he was too tall for playing Bourne and also too old, he was bloody brilliant.
Here are two pictures from our visit to his grave at the Beckenham Cemetery and Crematorium.
In addition the Little One found a few more graves that told some interesting stories following some research on the Net, like this one.
Sergeant-Major Evans got a V.C. at Somme in 1916 volunteered to take back an important message after 5 runners had been killed in attempting to do so .. 700 yds of severe rifle and machine-gun fire …. dodging from shell-hole to shell-hole . Read more about it here.
This contains an updated file to that one presented in a previous blog post (see here), some corrections and information for both Rifle Platoon (Skyttepluton) and Ranger Platoon (Jägarpluton).
POST NOTE: The Mortar team in the support option states 3 crew, it should be a crew of 2. Also the KP-bil was not equipped with a MG during the WW2 era, so is probably more a list One or Two option.
During the hostilities of WW2 the Royal Swedish Army was undergoing a lot of changes and the most significant at the Platoon level was the change introduced in 1943 (the so called 43M organisation). This introduced more power for the Rifle Platoon by equipping the NCOs with SMGs, adding 2 No. Semi-Automatic rifles to each section. Further firepower was also provided by the introduction of a fifth specialist team with a 47mm Mortar Section and an Anti-tank rifleman to each Platoon. In addition a rifleman per section was a designated Sharpshooter and had a scoped rifle.
These changes were gradual and we suggest that the player can choose to play either the 1940 to 1943 or the 1943 to 1945 Rifle Platoon for the 1943 campaign. As an example the number of sub-machine guns and semi-automatic rifles would be aspirational in 1943.
These list allows you to field a normal Rifle Platoon (Skyttepluton) or a Ranger Platoon (Jägarpluton). The latter was more than often be used to do specific recon missions and to distress the enemy. These platoons would most often march onto to the battlefield, with a platoon cart and a horse. Some platoons may be equipped with bikes and some may even be driven to the battlefield in a truck.
Some may even have been riding in the KP-bil (see more here)
Hope they are of some use, the file can be downloaded here.
On the last full evening of the Summer Holidays in Rhodes I thought I do a quick blog post as I have done some progress on the Scanian War Project (that I wrote about here).
But before then a few shout outs on some of the fantastic podcasts and an audio book that has kept me entertained during the small hours after the beach, excursions, dinners and good family time. This time the key ones have been:
Henry Hyde’s battle talk with Peter Berry (the owner of Baccus 6mm) – it will shortly be on general release but I think you should go to his page and consider signing up and support him! I have the outmost respect of what Henry is trying to do and they which he does it – here is the link https://www.patreon.com/battlegames/posts
The discussion this time was particularly interesting as it focused on some of the pre-Baccus stuff Peter has been involved in and an exciting project in the future re-releasing the Pony Wars rules. By the way thanks for the mention(s) Henry – from the Little One and I.
Sean at God’s Own Scale had invited Peter Riley for his Episode 2 of his new and excellent podcast. It covered the fantastic Little Big Horn game that he and the associates of the Wargames Calculator are taking to the shows! It is a nice and engaging episode covering how they created a fantastic participation game from start to delivery involving friends and neighbours. Peter’s upcoming tool for building your own battle specific rules sounds really interesting.
Here is a link to Episode 2
Peter talks about the design and building of his Little Bighorn participation game that won the best participation game at Salute 2019.
Check out his website Wargame Collection Calculator
Also here is the link for the Great Wargames Survey The Great Wargaming Survey 2019
Also check out Henry Hydes patreon at Henry Hyde’s Patreon Page
Find me on Twitter @godsownscale
Email: godsownscale@gmail.com
I had the pleasure of Joining Sean for Episode 1 and talk about the stuff I am doing in 6mm – I really enjoyed our chat.
Here is a link to Episode 1
Welcome to Episode 1 of the Gods Own Scale podcast, where I chat to the Godfather of Six, Mr Per Broden. We discuss the Great Northern War, the Joy of Six, and how best to get a 6mm tree to stand on the slope of a hill.
Then the Lardy Oddcast – this is fantastic podcast and I really like the format and this one was brilliant as always – the spontaneous laughter at about 7 minutes in is worth your time alone. Reflections on Market Garden, report on lard games from Historicon, the latest from Lard TV (check it out), and a reminder to fill in the Wargames survey, some of the workshop projects they are doing. It is of course brought to you by the….
I also had fun listening to Damien Lewis boon SAS Ghost Patrol on Audible. I really enjoyed it. Damien has written a number of books on daring raids and the units that carried them out.
Danish Battalions for the Scanian War Project
Back to the Scanian War stuff, I did manage to churn out a fair few during my short evening session. They are easy to paint and very similar to the GNW stuff I normally do. In addition to these I need to paint a few Grenadiers for each battalion – these tended to have grey uniforms with varied facings. They are from the Sun King range and are a mix of the musket and pike units. You should probably be using the Matchlock code for the Scanian War and my later units will be based on these miniatures – link to the range here.
Prince George’s Regiment (2 battalions)
Queens Life Regiment (2 battalions)
Prince Fredrik’s Regiment (2 battalions)
The King’s Regiment (2 battalions)
Stuart’s and Duke of Croys Regiments (1 battalion each)
Fynske National and I can’t make sense of my Notes Regiments (1 battalion each)
3 Jydske, 4 Jydske and Luthen Regiments (1 battalion each)
/ Hope that was of some interest
Having a final sip of the best cooking lager available on these Islands – the Mythos (based on a measured competition with the 8 most common lagers available in most shops – more if you check out #gratuitousbeersport on twitter, just some stupid fun on my twitter feed @Roll_a_one – do not try it at home).
Followers of this blog may be aware I have a undying love for my first RPG I played when I was 12, it was a Swedish RPG called Mutant. In Mutant the world has risen from the ashes and new Societies has developed. The game is set in Scandinavia, but not as we know it today.
Basically following a deadly and incurable epidemic caused by samples from a mission to Mars the human civilization collapses. The survivors build enclaves and start experimentation on humans and animals, in effect creating mutants, to see how they will survive outside the enclaves. However conflicts arises between the enclaves and it leads to a nuclear war sealing the fate of the world.
Fast forward a few hundred years and the from the ashes new civilizations start to emerge with mutated humans and animals, some “pure” humans and even some mutants with mental powers. There are remnants of the old worlds scattered all around, and some androids/robots from the old days are still around. In addition there are certain areas where the effect of radiation has left some strange effects on the flora and fauna and these areas are called “Forbidden Zones”.
The game is set in Scandinavia, but not as we know it today, and the general level of new technology is equivalent to that of the 19th Century, give or take. There are steam engines, muskets and some emerging rifle like weapons, heliogram for communication, etc. Some of the old technology has survived but is rare.
There is a summary of what I have been up to with this project here (if you scroll down a bit).
During the Robot Attack in Nordholmia, discussed in Part 2 (see link here), there will be a detachment of Soldier as part of the defending force – some regulars of the Nordholmia Infantry Regiment. This regiment can trace its origins back to the early days of the Empire and was originally set up as a town militia.
I wanted to do use some miniatures from the relatively new Perry Miniatures range of Swedish Napoleonic soldiers, as I really like the sculpts. Perry does some fantastic miniatures (here is a link to the Swedish Napoleonic range). I got myself a standing Command Pack and two of the Firing line packs.
The Firing Line
They arrived promptly and to “Mutantinize” them I did a few headswaps with some Animal heads from Sally’s 4th, link here.
Next was the decision on colour scheme, from the original set of rules and expansions we know that the Pyri Commonwealth flag is basically a Yellow Eagle with a Blue background. So I went with Blue Uniforms with some yellow details as this would fit the flag and also a nod towards the Swedish 18th century uniform of the Great Northern War (and also to that 91:an cartoon character!).
Absolute joy to paint these chaps! – note I made one gentleman with pink skin and another with green skin (mutants!).
As for the standards I wanted to have a large national flag of the Pyri Commonwealth and a smaller for the Regimental one. From the ”sources” we know the flag for the Commonwealth, there are two versions.
(I) One from the Mutant 2 expansion – the world Map.
(II) Another one from the Efter Ragnarök module – on the map of Hindenburg.
Giving us these two options:
I went with the more stylised version.
For the regimental flag I used the symbol of the County of Dalarna, but replaced the Crown with the Eagle.
I have to admit it being some time ago I did any flags for anything else than 6mm – they tend to be on normal paper you add some glue and bend it a little bit – nothing very elaborate. I felt this was not appropriate for this project and I wanted to avoid the stiff and printed look you can sometimes get with flags in 28mm scale. I have seen a few of Sidney Roundwood’s amazing hand painted flags (link to some here) and set out to find a quick solution to do something similar – I found this video from Wargames, Soldier and Strategy and an intriguing type of paper was mentioned (it should run if you click on it).
Being a little bit of a materials enthusiast I got this kind of intriguing paper from Amazon (Japanese Calligraphy Paper, 100 sheets) and it worked a treat for me.
I painted the flags with undiluted Vallejo acrylics (clean you brush as you work but wipe it on some paper before you get more paint – this paper is very thin and absorbant. Work carefully!).
This is how they came out.
After this is was just a matter of “installing” them on the poles (using some random forest as a background on the Laptop Screen).
Next I think we need some skirmishers to complement these guys. I am currently working on some heavy Pyri Commonwealth assault cavalry.
Pyri Heavy Assault Cavalry (WIP) – Old GW Grail Knights
In related news….
NoMAD – A Post-apocalyptic anthropomorphic miniature range in 28mm from Sweden.
I am a backer but not associated to the team in any way – I hope the kickstarter goes well.
Its based on a small 1:56 scale (28mm) range with a post-apocalyptic touch.
In the far future our domesticated animals have developed into sentient beings just as humans did so long ago.
These anthropomorphic citizens has evolved or perhaps were created by a since long gone dying old world that was ruled by humans alone. This is only remembered by the new civilization through legends, stories and myths.
As we have seen before in ancient civilizations a ruling class often need a lesser class to stand upon to “rise” above the masses.
For the Mutants of the working class the struggle is real, and many take refuge to the wild. The dream to explore ancient ruins and the possibility for a life in luxury and ease after just one successful expedition draws man and mutants alike.
/ Hope that was of some interest, I personally love this s**t.
