Happy New Year 2023

Once Again, we have reached the time when we need to buy new calendars. Happy New Year, dear reader. I am attempting to focus my time for the upcoming year that is already seeing scope creep.

Seven Years War - Skirmish

At the scale of Sharp Practice, having a multitude of poses for skirmisher figures is a thing I am looking for. Since I am looking at the April 1759 actions in Bohemia, I am struggling to find appropriate figures.

I have some painted Prussian Jagers that I purchased off of Ebay. They are all in firing poses. They have the advantage of being painted and based. They are based in blocks of 4 figures, two accross and two deep. I prefer single based figures. The figures are kneeling and stanging firing figures. The figures are likely from Old Glory 15s. While my other purchased (but not yet painted) miniatures are either Eureka (Prussians) or Blue Moon (Austrians).

The Grenzers from Blue Moon look good in variety and in poses. I had purchased the skirmishing pack and the command pack. These just arrived recently and have not been base coated yet. My Prussian musketeers are from Eureka and are all marching poses. Which is probably fine for regulars. These are base coated but no other paint has reached the miniatures.

I have been looking at the miniatures from Henry Turner. These are STL files and could be promising. In the off chance that I get a 3d printer for Christmas, I was told that he has just released some Austrian skirmishers on his patreaon that will go to other sites in January. If that is the case, that may sort out some Croat/Pandour troops out for the Austrians. Wunsch's Prussians encountered a large number of "Croats" upon crossing the border in their advance.

The other troop type that I need are Hungarian troops. Among them were the troops from the Arch Bishop of Mainz's regiment Kurmainz Infantry. I will probably go with Blue Moon for these.

One terrain item that I need is a powder magazine. At this point, I have not been able to identify where the powder magazine in Peterswalde would have been. I am attempting to make one similar to one I found that was in a fort from the period. It is across the country from Peterswalde but it should do in a pinch.

ACW Naval

The plan is to print and paint some more ships for the Dawn of Iron rules. I am waiting to received the wash solution before attempting to start printing. I did pick up some books that should prove insightful on actions along the eastern sea board but I have not read them yet.

Terrain Beautification

I watched Rich's great video on his Burma build. It got me motivated to look over some of my older terrain pieces. One that sticks out is a Game Craft Miniatures factory building that I assembled a while back. I won't claim to have painted it. It is too basic for that. I plan on going through my existing buildings and seeing what I can improve. I also have a set of Impudent Mortal 15mm buildings that they did years ago that is still unopened. I plan on modifying these to look more Middle Europe that could be in Bohemia for my SYW project. As always, I will also try to make some more trees. Just dropped some money on eBay towards this.

Reinforcements

My Blue Moon order arrived. I picked up a pack of civilians from their Pirates range and Skirmishing Grenzers and Grenzer Command from the Seven Years War line. The latter will be the start of my Austrian Army for the Seven Years War.

I believe that I have a campaign picked out that I will work on for the Seven Years War. The Battle of Peterswalde April, 1759. This is an interesting action as it featured mostly skirmish actions on both sides. The Austrians were defending and had a number of garrison troops while the Prussians had considerable amounts of light troops that raided forward deployed magazines of the Austro-Hungarian Army.

I have found near period maps of the area. These were featured in the First Military Survey Maps of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Below is teh excerpt of the map from https://maps.arcanum.com/en/map/firstsurvey-bohemia/?layers=141&bbox=1544730.2649412372%2C6581595.444347261%2C1570508.652730413%2C6591130.963625838.

I am keen to look at the forces commanded by Johan Jakob von Wunsch. His Wikipaedia entry indicated that he was a skilled leader of light infantry.

Seven Years War

I am looking to work on a scenario supplement for the Seven Years War. I am looking to model actions by small detachments instead of recreate any grand battles. In my search for sources, I found the amazing http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/ site. This gives great information on uniforms but not the tactical inforamtion I was looking for. In 2019 I found a book by De Jeney, The Partisan; or the Art of Making War in Detachment. Then yesterday, I discovered Grandmaison's book, A Treatise on the Military Service, of Light Horse, and Light Infantry, in the Field, and in the Fortified Places.

Both of the books were translated close to the time of when they were written. I am a quarter of the way into the de Jeney book. The original author claims 25 campaigns served in the period, all across Europe. He offers recommendations on force sizes and provides uses for them. His recommendation is over half the force should be mounted.

So far this is proving to be an interesting excersize.

Newest Old Distraction

Once again I have lost focus. Instead of finishing a project that is really close, I have jumped over to something completely different. I am back looking at the Seven Years War again.

Researching this particular rabbit hole has been really interesting. First, I have to give a huge thanks to the fine folks at Kronoskaf. Their site on the Seven Years War has been so much fun to go through. I have previously noted that I wanted to model a force based off of Frei-Infantrie Von Mayr. The campaign I am most interested in is the Prussian push into Bohemia. During this campaign, Von Mayr is given a larger command of close to 2000 men including 400 cavalry to destroy some Austrian magazines in Bohemia and then raid into the German Austrian Allies and prevent them from raising forces to aid the Austrian War effort.

The first item that I needed was a period map to understand the places that were listed in the sketchy reports that I could find. What I found was the Muller Map of Bohemia that predates the Seven Years War and was printed in 1723. What is attractive about this map is that it looks like it belongs in a Sharp Practice Campaign. It was one of the first systematic mapping efforts taken of the area. Thus it has potential for use of earlier wars as well. There is a nice PDF that gives information about the history of the map and other background info that might be useful. Another good source would be the 1st Military Mapping by the Austro-Hungarians that occured between 1764 to 1767. This was done after the war but still is close enough to get a good lay of the land.

With this map in hand, I set out to map out where the campaign happened. I am still attempting to gather resources and have pulled down several nice histories on line. One account has Von Mayr leading his Frie-Infantrie with another battalion of similar troops (Frei-Infanterie von Kalben) plus about 200 Hussars (2 sqns of Szekely Hussars). These were supported by five artillery pieces, four of which were light one pound weapons and the fifth was twelve pounder. They moved with a minimum of baggage. In a history of Fredrick the Great, von Mayr's force was described as "swift wild fellows, sharp of stroke."

What they largely faced were garrison troops and training groups being gathered to supply troops to the Austrian field army. They begin the campaign in late April 1757 in Charwatetz. Just days prior to this, von Mayr, had gotten some good press by seizing a castle from the Austrians. He covered himself in glory and became visible enough to be given this independent command.

Now Johann von Mayr was a bit of a character. He reads as if he was a generated character from Sharp Practice. He was an illegitimate son of Count Stella. In a biography of Baron von Steuben, it describes his early life, "His boyhood was passed amid scenes of debauchery and profligacy." By eighteen he was expelled from Vienna and was destitute. He entered the military as a band boy in Hungary and fought in a war with Turkey to climb the ranks to become a sergeant. Eventually he became an officer then moved to Bavaria as a soldier of fortune. Then on to Saxony where he ended up leaving service due to a duel fought with a brother officer. This brings him to the attention of Frederick the Great. He hires him to for a Frei-Infantry Regiment to operate as an independent unit to fight the Austrian pandoors and grenzers.

Yet, he really didn't get a chance to shine until teh capture of the Castle of Tetschen. In this operation he was under the command of General Zastrow. On April 25th, the general was shot through the head by an Austrian Pandoor and killed instantly. Within days, von Mayr was given his chance to lead and assigned to destroy one or more Austrain magazines in Bohemia including the one in Pilsen. He makes it to Pilsen by May 2nd and destroyed the magazine beforw turning west towards Nurnberg. Other sources say that Pilsen was reached on May 8th.

Map from the same place as link above.

I have the figures for my von Mayr force. I haven't figured out my Austrians yet.

New Toys Have Arrived

I just picked up some of the orders that I have recently placed. First of all, I received the three ships that I ordered from Sea Dog Studios from their Kickstarter that did not quite go through. They produced some of the ships and sold them to backers at a discount. I picked up two Bermuda Sloops and a Brigantine. I was so happy with them, I put everything else aside and promptly went to work on one of the Bermuda Sloops.

The kits are really nice. The parts are not too fiddly but you do have to cut the masts and spars from longer portions of thin dowel. Assembly was rather quick. Painting it was a bear with the hand shakes that I have from my meds. But I think I still managed something usable. The decking came out darker than I wanted but I still like it. No sails are provided and it makes sense. The Sailpower rules talk about it in that 90% of the game, your sail set that you would put on a model would be wrong anyway. The masts are designed to be taken out for storage and to show damage. My only complaint is about the cannon. Even after trimming the flash off of them, they are too large for the ship. I can't get them to fit properly. I will end up having to file them down until they do fit. Still, I am very happy with what I was able to accomplish with the first model.

It went together well. Was very happy with it. Painting it was very straight forward. I enjoyed it. Been watching amazon Prime movies while doing it.

Very happy with these ships. Now I am just waiting on the smaller ships that I have ordered from Langton Miniatures. I might have to get some Sea Dog 15mm ships as well. But that is another story.

Also, I picked up some Litko Aerosystems movement bases. I have been basing 15mm miniatures on US Pennies for a while now. These movement trays will actually fit them now. I am debating on using them for either my British and French Napoleonics or for my Seven Years War Prussian FreiKorps. I probably need to just buy more and use them for both.

Then there was a large box with my order from Miniature Building Authority. In it was a Southern Plantation, Outbuildings, a Southern Barn and a Russian Village. All very nice. And painted already.

Farming in Prussia

OK, I may have found something on Prussian farming. I found someone's geneology post about Prussian manor farms. This is fairly interesting stuff terrain wise. In his article, he is chasing down family members and where they lived. That is not so interesting. But he gives the typical layout of a Prussian manor farm which is interesting.

He claims that the manor farm layout was very similar across Western Prussia. This is obviously not Bohemia he is talking about but I need to start somewhere. The layout has the manor farm at one end of the village. A cross street that runs in front of the manor house and its associated barns. This connects to two parallel streets that house the villagers who fall into one of three groups: small farmers with hereditary tenure on the manorial land, farm servant laborers with an annual contract and day laborers. In addition to these would be inn keepers, breweres and other small industries that were created around the manor to support the local population and provide industry.

He gives a typical layout to look like this: (http://remus.shidler.hawaii.edu/genes/WPrussia/ManorialFarms/Stdvillmap.GIF)

Furthermore, he provides a specific example of such a manor based village, that of Dwor Zespole. The map provided is in Polish. Google translate and I are working our way through it. But this will give me the basis for my Prussian/Bohemian village that I will start to make - eventually. The actual example is a great find. It would cover a whole 6' x 4' table in 15mm with the various buildings. The manor house is not a huge complex. In fact it is a rather modest dwelling compared to some of the buildings in the village. I am thinking of making its base out of stone or so to set it apart from the other buildings.

The center area between the parallel roads is a common area for all the villagers to be able to use. The land behind the manor was its fields with its various crops and source of income for the estate. The worker houses had small gardens behind it and then fields further behind them for their own subsistence. The fields tended to be made out in long thin strips as the plows in use were heavy and hard to turn around. The small farmers tended to have a one to two room house with outbuildings. These are not defined but one can assume that there would be a privy of sorts, possibly a kitchen, some sort of smokehouse and a corn crib or the like. So not that different than their fellows in the AWI and ACW.

The manor house is called a "Gut". Many of those are unimpressive as they were houses the nobility built for the managers of one of many of their estates. The nobles would not live there but instead would have their hired managers living there to manage the estate and village.

Anyway, this gives me something to get started with.

Scatter Terrain and Distractions

Scatter Terrain

I placed an order with Stone Mountain miniatures a while back and they just delivered. The stuff looks great. The first pack is loose weapons, bugles, drums, backpacks, and artillery wheels. Pack 2 has barrels, crates, mealie bags, and stacked rifles. These will be very useful for several scenarios that I am working on. Pack 3 is nine campfires, two cooking fires, assorted pots and pans and two stacks of firewood. The cooking fires come with an animal on a spit. I must say, the critter looks kinda like a cat to me. The third pack is my favorite of the bunch so far. Last item that I picked up is a building. I have not taken it out of the packaging yet as there are several loose metal parts in with it as well as two hay stacks. They look good so far.

Distractions

Well, I have been motivated by others Imaginations Seven Years War projects and I decided to take the plunge. I will do two forces. The first is the Austrian aligned forces of Anhalt-Zerbst. It will consist of Grenadiers, musketeers, jagers and some Cuirassiers. These I have not ordered yet.

The next force became the Frei-Infantrie of von Mayr. I settled on Eureka and Blue Moon 15/18mm figures for. I just received my group of Hussars, infantry NCOs, Officers, standard bearers and drummer. Also have an artillery piece and crew. Also picked up a mounted officer to be the overall commander. I bought some Old Glory 15mm Prussian Jagers for this force as well. Two more packages to arrive and I will have my von Mayr infantry ready to go. Now I just have to find time to paint them.