And the first scenario is. . .

Here's the first shot of the battlefield taken from the southeast. You can just about make out the two gentle ridges (books) and shallow valley between them in the middle of the table. As C.S. Grant mentions in the instruction for this particular scenario, these terrain features have no appreciable effect on troop movements.

Another shot taken facing to the southwest this time. You can just make out the torso of the Jolly Green Giant at the top of the picture.

A final view of the battlefield, including my helper The Young Master, who is not only color coordinated with the miniature landscape here, but he also decided that we needed a windmill and an L-shaped section of wall. From left to right, the settlements are Doltz, Schtügesdorf, and Bumpfkinzort. That's Hasenpfefferwald near the other end of the table. And the Woodland Scenics Ready Grass mats don't look half bad. I'll probably purchase some 28mm fields from Hotz at some point to disguise where the three mats overlap each other and help break up the broad expanse of golf course just a bit. Overall though, I like where this is headed and should have upped my terrain game much sooner.

And the first scenario is. . . The 'Flank Attack' found on pages 34-35 of Scenarios or Wargamers! I'll reduce the orders of battle slightly to better fit the forces available to me and set them out in the next day or so. The Stollenians (commanded by Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II and General von Bauchscherzen) will defend in the roll of the Blue Army on the northern ridge (at let in the bottom photograph) while the invading Zichenauers (commanded by that dastardly ne'er-do-well General Phillipe de Latte) will attack in the role of the Red Army from the southern ridge near where the Young Master stands. I am considering seeking assistance from a couple of wargaming pals along the lines of what we did via e-mail last December and January. Stay tuned!

-- Stokes

Comments

Gallia said…

Best wishes for a satisfying game Stokes!,
Cheers,
Bill P.

6:18 PM

Steve Gill said…

Looking very promising. As a big fan of your home-made buildings, may I put in a polite request for closer-in shots of the villages, if the opportunity arises, ta.

1:14 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you, men!

Stokes

11:23 AM

warpaintjj said…

Oh good news! Finally a battle!
I am on holiday so have time to be uber attentive.
best wishes,
Jeremy

4:58 PM

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

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 ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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