The Journal of Horace St Paul

 

I have just received a copy of the Journal of Horace St Paul covering the War in Bohemia 1756.  Horace served with the Austrian army during the seven years war and his journals provide contemporary detail on the campaigns and battles.

The book is translated and edited by Neil Cogswell.  I have flicked through the pages and it looks very good.

I got my copy from Graham at Cranntara Miniatures.

Lobositz had always been one of my favourite SYW battles and this book is a valuable addition to my library. That's the third book this year I have bought that includes the battle of lobositz as earlier this year I got Charles Grants Wargaming on History vol 9 and Christopher Duffys The Wild Goose and the Eagle on the life of Marshal Von Browne. Perhaps it's time  for another refight.

Reinforcements Arrive

I got a copy of John Rays excellent book - A Military Gentlemen - for my birthday in March. The book is glorious and the members only web forum is very friendly place. The membership included many notable Wargamers and the quality of the content is very high ondeed. If you want more details them see here:-

http://www.amilitarygentlemanofthe18thcentury.co.uk/

Anyway is was via the group that I was able to purchase a lot of Minden Miniatures at a very good price. In addition as they were from the UK it meant that I did not have to pay customs duty and post office handling fees to import them from Jim at Minden/Fife and Drum In the US.

In all I got over 140 French infantry and command and 16 gunners as well as some Austrian cuirassier, gunners and command.

Culps Hill

A rather delayed report on the Ilkley Old School demo game at Triples in May. 

The weekend is a regular event in the IOS calendar with 5 of is making the trip down on Friday. We stay in the Travel Lodge at Meadow Hall which is very convenient as is close to the venue and if you book early very economical.

This year our game was based on the Scott Mingus Culps Hill scenario from the excellent Enduring Value.  The rules used were Sam Mustafas Longstreet and we had 4 players each having their own action deck.

We played the game twice to conclusion over the weekend with Tim and Mark H playing the Confederates against Ken and Ewan Federals on Saturday with the sides switching on Sunday. 

Both games were touch and go right to the end with the Rebels capturing Culps Hill on both days. Saturdays game was the closest fought and I suspect would have been won by the Union had their reinforcements arrived.  However they got lost as a Local, who supported the Confederacy, twice sent them down the wrong road meaning they never reached the battlefield.

Here are a few shots of the action

  

Plattville Project - review

I have been making slow but steady progress with my classic ACW project using Spencer Smith plastic and metal figures.

Having just finished some artillery I thought a quick parade of the forces was in order.  

So here we go a few snaps of the lads.

And how they would have looked in 1962.

Dettingen - part 2

After a couple of weeks delay we managed to complete our Dettingen game.  The Franco Austrians are forced into desperate defence and use their cavalry to slow the allied army.

The two sides fire volley after volley at point blank range. The Prussian unit fails morale and stands unable to fire. They are forced back next turn.

 

The Franco Austrian feed more and more troops into the fight.

The pressure mounts as Allied cavalry moves up.

The Franco Austrian line collapses under the pressure. But as they fall back a squadron of Cuirassier reinforces the line

Backed by more infantry

In the final action of the day the allied drive the remaining Franco Austrians across the river.  However with night drawing in and with only 2 regiments of infantry remaining at full strength and the light fading both sides draw back to recover. 

This game used my  War Game amendments and they worked well. 

New Prince August Blog

Hi

Fellow Prince August enthusiast Steve  Metheringham has started a new blog.

http://lacewarsintin.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

It was Steve photos of his PA collection posted on the Piquet Yahoo group that got me into casting my own figures. He also helped me get going with a giving me a few figures.

Steve has been active with the new SYW moulds and he will be posting more details of this exciting new range on this blog.

Dettingen

We started our refight of the battle of Dettingen on Friday night.  The set up and orders of battle were based on Charles S Grant Wargaming in History Volume 2. The rules used are my modified version of the War Game.

This battle pitched Tim and Ewan in the the role of the French/Austrians whilst the Allied forces were lead by my 8 year old son, Maximillian, until his mother pointed out it was time for bed.

The French pushed forward through Dettingen with some infantry and cavalry as they take the fight to the Anglo Prussian.

Rank upon rank of French heavy cavalry follow up.

Grim faced Prussian infantry take up the French challenge. In the opening volley the French cause 2 casualties where as some good dice rolling sees 9 French infantry hit the deck. My units are 32 figure strong. Each 4 men roll a dice using the standard rules. For each hit a saving dice of 4,5 or 6 saves our intrepid soldiers. When a unit loses a 4 figure base a d6 is rolled an officer loss is also marked on the unit.

Forward you cowards shouted Maximillian as he spurred his horse forward.

With flags fluttering in the gentle morning breeze more Prussian infantry move forward with a spring in their step.

Firstly an Austrian unit crumbles under the pressure but only after it has stemmed the first onslaught.

The Burgundy regiment steps into line but takes a stand loss. The resulting officer roll is a 6.  So that's 2 morale points down.  Anything but a 1 would see the Burgundy pass the morale test.  Tim tentatively rolls the dice which spins out of his hand and settles on the 1.

To be continued.....