How Many Units? K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Son)

This is Jeff Hudelson’s question over in the neighboring Principality of Saxe-Bearstein right now. And one that I’ve tried to reply to there twice, but the new version of Blogger doesn’t seem to want to let me do that. Grrrrr. . . Kind of like the supercomputer “Hal” in 2001: A Space Odyssey ! So, I’ll respond to Jeff’s query here and offer my own thoughts and ideas in the process.

My philosophy is to keep an army painting project fairly simple and manageable. Since I’m amassing “BIG” battalions of between 30-64 figures each and want to get everything painted and on the table before decrepitude sets in, I suggest keeping armies fairly small: 4-6 units of infantry, 2-3 of cavalry, and a battery or two. These are forces the size and organization of those fielded by Brigadier Young and Colonel Lawford in Charge! If your units are smaller, than those described, then so much the better. You’ll get ‘em on the table even more rapidly.

Fine and dandy, but what if, as Jeff queries, you want a little variety in the size and composition of your miniature battles, so the same units don’t appear on the table time and again? Well, this is where my idea comes in. Paint a few extra, smaller mercenary/militia units that can change sides randomly and often, or that you can combine to form larger units.

My two main combatants are Stollen and Zichenau, but some of you might remember that these two territories are surrounded by smaller, even more peripheral entities. It’s my long-term plan to paint small forces for each of these principalities, using all of those extra, left over figures from the many boxes of Revell SYW Austrians and Prussians that I’ve hoarded during the last year. Here is a slightly more concrete version of what I’m talking about:

* Pillau-Zerbst – 1 large squadron of Jäger zu Pferd (13 figures). Mostly dragoons firing cavalry carbines from the saddle

* Pillau-Reuss – 1 battery of artillery (13 and two MiniFig guns).

* Tauroggen Fiebus – 2 companies of infantry (39)

* Werben-Steinau – 2 large companies of infantry (48)

* Zeller-Schwarzkatze – 2 large companies of infantry (48)

The infantry from the latter two states will wear similarly colored uniforms (dark green like the Russians of the SYW era) and could theoretically combine to forma single MASSIVE unit. It will at least allow me to use up all of those extra, much maligned Revell Prussian grenadiers in mitre caps. And I’m still left with enough extra figures to try some additional conversion work. Voila! Problem solved.

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century. And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed. The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area. Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are. Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors. Grrrr. As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered. For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text . I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well. Now, we're getting somewhere. I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas, Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that." -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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