Uniforms

1677.....The Ottoman Empire, allied with Crimean Tatars is pushing north on the west bank of the great Dnieper river into the Ukranian territories. The first line of defence is offered by Cossacks on both sides of the river.A strong Turkish force composed mainly of infantry has been given the objective of capturing a small Cossack settlement near an ancient Patzinak burial site known locally as Skull Mound. The Cossacks have fortified the village and built temporary defensive works atop the skull hill. A large combined force of infantry and cavalry is rushing to block the advance of the Turks and their Tatar allies........The Ottoman force prepares to attack Skull Mound Ottoman ForceCommander: Skilful. 2 squadrons of Timariot Sipahis. Drilled with lance.1 squadron of Tatars. Raw with bow3 field guns - 1 with Master gunner.1 unit of 12 Archers - Drilled3 units of Sekban infantry. Drilled with matchlock muskets.4 units of Janissaries. Veteran with flintlock muskets.2 units of Guard Janissaries (8 &

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Mass charge by Polish cavalry 1683My snorkel has just broken the surface as I come up for air before submerging again into SALUTE 19 on Friday and Saturday.Brunswick-Celle infantry 1690sI have not been blogging with regularity over the last three weeks simply because I have snatched every waking hour to finish off the last photos for the new GNW supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners.The shot pool now stands at 307 pictures considered and about a further 200+ rejected for various reasons.The defence of Vlasivka 1709 - from the Battle report in the bookOf the 190 shots which appear in the book, 183 are finalized and in place. I have 7 little troublemakers to complete three of which should be done by the time this post appears. Taking wargaming pictures is great fun but very intensive. I remember watching Duncan Macfarlane do it about twenty years ago without the benefit of a digital camera and Photoshop. You really had to get it right then.Janissary columnNow at least, my process involves:1.Set up.2.Test shot

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Onwards to Vlasivka 1709Trailing the Building your Force section of the new GNW Supplement to Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd Edition, here is the Swedish Force which fights in the example game Vlasivka 1709. The battle is a dramatic walk through the rule amendments for the Swedish army and the game was an extremely close run affair. Shots from the action are included in this post.The Swedes are expensive using the points system and this is the force which arrives in dribs and drabs on the table to overcome a Russian force almost twice its size on the road to Poltava.25 points of Swedish table top powerSwedish Force circa 17091 Veteran-Elite ‘Pike & Shot ’battalion with flintlock muskets, Swedish @ 3.5 points   3.5 points2 Drilled ‘Pike & Shot’ battalions with flintlock muskets, Swedish each @ 2 points       2 points3 Veteran squadrons of ‘Blade’ Horse, Swedish, each @ 3 points               &nbs

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An Osprey style compilation of Kuruc forces on the march mixing phases of its existenceThe by ways of the late 17th century and early 18th provide magnificently juicy brain food for wargamers. Although I had in passing, read about the Kuruc Rebellion in Hungary during the first decade of the 18th century I had gone no further than a quick skim of what it was all about.During the compilation of material for the new GNW Supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners, I did a little more digging and was delighted with the gaming possibilities. This post focuses on the Kuruc forces and how gamers may be tempted as a side project, to construct a Kuruc table top army.This compilation shot shows Tatars, Poles, Bulgarians, Ottomans, French and Swedes on the Kuruc march...Rákóczi Ferenc was a Hungarian noble who fought to free his country from Habsburg rule during the first decade of the 18th century. France, at war with the Grand Alliance in the War of the Spanish Succession, recognized the weakness of the Austrian position

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Another generous offer from the Helion Company for members of the League of Augsburg Blog...William III's Italian Ally: Piedmont and the War of the League of Augsburg 1683-1697 by CIRO PAOLETTI, illustrations by Bruno Mugnaihttps://www.helion.co.uk/war-and-soldiers-in-the-early-reig…from now till the end of March £25 post free within the UK, at cost shipping for the rest of the world.To order the book please send me an email to charlesjsingleton@yahoo.co.uk with WLLIAM III's ITALIAN ALLY in the header bar.In the main text section please add your address and add the email you use for PayPal transactions, this speeds up thing. Note- you do not need to have a PayPal account to pay by PayPal. If you don't like the shipping costs, simply cancel the invoice.I'll be reviewing the book on the blog soon

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For members of the League of Augsburg blog here in another attractive offer from Helion:WARS AND SOLDIERS IN THE EARLY REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. VOLUME 1 - THE ARMY OF THE UNITED PROVINCES OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1660-1687 by Bruno Mugnaihttps://www.helion.co.uk/war-and-soldiers-in-the-early-reig…from now till the end of March £25 post free within the UK, at cost shipping for the rest of the world.To order the book please send me an email to charlesjsingleton@yahoo.co.uk with THE ARMY OF THE UNITED PROVINCES SPECIAL OFFER in the header bar.In the main text section please add your address and add the email you use for PayPal transactions, this speeds up thing. Note- you do not need to have a PayPal account to pay by PayPal. If you don't like the shipping costs, simply cancel the invoice.I'll be reviewing the book on the blog soon

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Charge! The Swedish Liv Dragoon Regiment thunders down upon its quaking enemiesIt's a legitimate question. Why has it taken you so long to produce a unit of your own cavalry, based in your own 'chevron' style?Time and conflicting priorities is the answer. I don't have enough of the former and an abundance of the latter.Squadron 1 full charge in chevronI did paint about eighteen riders but only three or four horses. That enabled me to get the web shop stocked but a long way off a 'game ready' unit.Squadron 1 - the chevron is more obvious from this angleSince these chaps emerge about a year ago we've released about another 140 models many of which required painting. We done several show, travelled hundreds of gaming miles and I have been working on several publications and articles. Not excuses, just facts.Squadron 1 rear viewNevertheless, the rapid progress on the new GNW supplement inspired me to get some of these chaps table ready and photographed. I painted around seventeen horses and an additional three ri

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Cossack infantry advancingInvigorated by the excellent progress being made on the GNW Supplement for BLB, I treated myself to some painting which was not actually on the very backlogged schedule.In addition to the painting I did some more reading on Cossacks and found that over the years I had fallen into swallowing a few cliches about them. Perhaps it was too much exposure to the Battleground hex based Napoleon in Russia  computer game or, believing all the Taras Bulba hype.Cossack infantry Command - The Hetman is particularly fine as is the hat waving Ivan!For some reason, I had missed the fact that much perhaps the majority, of a Cossack army was composed of infantry which preferred to fight from the protection of defences.All together now!  You can just hear them singing 'Stenka Razin!' I learned that at Primary school!The Sword & Flame army guide appears to suggest that the mounted component of a force was a relatively small minority compared with the musket armed or levy element. Wagons al

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Danish infantry brigade takes position 1693-1700Forgive the paraphrasing of Carlsberg's strap-line of the last decades but....Danish infantry attack the FrenchIf you know any Danes you'll also know they are quite distinct from other Scandinavians. I always find the Danish approach engaging. Direct, curious, straight and no nonsense. They usually like to have some fun too. You know where you are in the company of Dane!The sample force for Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd edition - see key belowDanish Force 17002 Veteran ‘All musket’ battalions with flintlock muskets                                             5 points3 Drilled ‘All musket’ battalions with flintlock muskets each @ 1.5 points                4.5 points3 Drilled-Elite squadrons of ‘Bullet’ Horse, armour each @ 1.5 points                   &

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Russian Force #1 details below in the textWhere have I been then? Up to my armpits in getting the GNW/Eastern Wars supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd edition moved forward.Russian field gun in a log redoubtThe book is being laid out right now and the early views are very encouraging. Despite a pretty extensive archive of shots, I knew I didn't have enough of the right kind. I have thus forsaken the paint brush since January 1 and focused on focusing the lens on the toys.Russian Moscow Dragoons move up to the front.As I have mentioned in previous posts. You need to take a lot of pictures to get the shots you want. So far, the new book has spaces for over 150 shots so that means hundreds of clicks in order to produce this required (and growing) number. The book is already at circa 140 pages and rising (largely due to the lay out format we have been using).RUSSIAN FORCE #1 (Photo at top of post)Drilled battalion REGULATION with flintlock @ 1.5 point x 4 = 6 pointsRaw battalion REGULATION with flintlock

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Helion is offering to followers of the League of Augsburg Blog: Armies and Enemies of Louis XIV Volume 1 by Mark Allen which is a super, illustrated compilation of his work on the period 1660-1720 first run in Wargames lllustrated LAST CENTURY!  The offer price is £20 ex shipping. The RRP is £26.96 making this an attractive offer. If you want to order: email charlesjsingleton@yahoo.co.uk. It is essential to include MARK ALLEN BOOK OFFER in the subject line and a delivery address and paypal email address in the text body for invoicing.OFFER CLOSES JANUARY 31 2019As a taster, here is the preface in full, written by some bloke....When Duncan Macfarlane, the perspicacious proprietor of Wargames Illustrated commissioned Mark Allen to write a series of articles beginning with a four parter on The War of the Grand Alliance followed by another twenty odd feature pieces, it was as if the rains had finally come after almost perpetual drought. Since that issue of th

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These chaps have been languishing on my painting table for some time. Finished but un-photographed. They are the first completed squadron of a large Horse Grenadier Regiment for a Petrine Russian Army.The Horse Grenadiers were grenadier companies drawn from dragoon regiments and consolidated into discrete regiments. New Grenadier companies were recruited as back fill in the existing dragoon regiments.It is thought that Peter the Great created three or perhaps four such regiments. These may not have carried distinctive colours but my intention is to use a little licence and provide a flag as focus for the unit.How should they be treated in a wargame? My view is to have them fight in the same way as other Russian dragoons but to provide them with the Elite suffix allowed under Beneath the Lily Banners.This means the squadron would fight as dragoons, have the mounted fire capability permissible in the new GNW supplement and have slightly improved morale when checking.I enjoyed painting these and the colour combi

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Three 48 man companies of musketeers from the garrison of Derry. A company of Mountjoy's Regt at the centre.I was very pleased that the first post on this subject was popular and that visitors were stimulated to consider the implications of frontages, deployment, fire methodologies and movement around the battlefield and its table top imitation.A battalion of Jacobite Foot based for Beneath the Lily Banners and representing between 500- 800 menTo continue, I thought it might be useful to reflect on what we are currently using as tabletop representations and the suspension of disbelief necessary to imagine it can be in any way realistic.It calls to mind innumerable conversations over the years revolving around what I call 'nippy battalion syndrome'. That is, where gamers attempt to squeeze formations of 28mm models through gaps in their lines barely 25mm wide in order to replace worn battalions with fresh ones.Or, those tedious discussions around.. "why does it take a full turn or even two turns to deploy out

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Company six deepI have been planning this particular post for about three years. Why has it taken so long? I needed to get a run at it. I am fascinated by the compromises necessary in wargaming particularly in relation to scales. Vertical scale distortion, ground scale distortion and finally the challenges in representing the depth of formations relative to their width. This last one has always bothered me, especially when battalions were capable of expanding and contracting their frontage and, when the norm seemed to alter from six deep to three deep lines.Company six deepIn order to experiment I needed to paint a full company one to one so that I could model the different formations without compromise. I chose a typical British company of the 1680-1698 period. This could be English, Scots, Irish or Welsh. I also chose to model it with a ratio of four muskets to one pike. In between other demanding projects I painted, in a very basic format:1 Captain1 Lieutenant1 Ensign2 Sergeants3 Corporals1 Drummer48 match

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Rather than focusing on a history of the Royal Army I have chosen to feature several of the wargaming units built up and in some cases, let go over the years. All were based for Beneath the Lily Banners and several have been in involved in over 100 wargames over the years.The Royal Army fielded at Sedgemoor in 1685 was modest in size but when compared to its opponents, infinitely more professional and experienced. It contained two regiments of Horse and one of dragoons and six battalions of infantry supported by artillery.Several of the regiments were fresh from foreign service in Tangier where they saw continuous action in a hostile environment. Others had served at sea as detachments of marines with the navy. Many of the officers had foreign service experience with the Dutch, French or Imperial armies and will have seen action in many pitch battles and sieges.This unit was cobbled together specifically for Historicon several years ago and now lives in the USA.This unit has always served as Le Roi du Anglete

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