I’m going to play catch-up with some of my other armies that are completed as well as focus on new projects and battle reports in this blog. The first such post is this one, looking at some of my units for our Imagi-Nation campaign using the Maurice rules. For those interested, our campaign has just re-started after a hiatus for the holidays, and battle reports for each of the battles as well as notes on each of the nations participating and their armies can be found at the Poodles and Power blog.
My Imagi-Nation, plucky little Marlenedietrichstein are an Austrian client-state, based on the real-life Dietrichstein. Since they are poor and have few resources, their troops have been kindly lent to them by their much larger cousin, Austria. Some might say they are there to keep an eye on the in-bred black sheep Marlenedietrichsteiners, but we like to think that they have selflessly volunteered to defend our borders through their own good-will, courage and of course a fanatical hatred of the nearby French.
In this episode in a small but ongoing series, I shall focus on the mighty elites of our forces, the grenadiers. Here they are, all together:
Behold and Quake! The Grenadiers are here to save the day!
I have four regiments of grenadiers, two of which are German, and two of which are Hungarian. In this picture, the Hungarians are to the fore, the Germans aft. We base our 6mm Maurice figures on 60×30 bases, two bases to a unit, so in effect we have 4 30mm square bases per unit, with two bases stuck together, allowing us to play with a 30mm base width. We also use the same basing for Sam Mustafa’s Might and Reason rules, which is another great game, if one that takes longer to play, and thus not ideal for a wednesday night’s gaming. All the figures are from Baccus, and highly recommended.
The first of my German units is the First Converged German Grenadiers, made up of the elites of two regiments, IR 4 and IR 55. These are actual Austrian units, IR 4 Deutschmeister and IR 55 D’Arberg (who are actually Netherlanders, but they count as German).
The First Converged German Grenadiers
The ones on the left are IR 4 – you can tell because of the blue lapels and brass frontplate on their bearskins. The ones on the right are IR 55, with red lapels and no brass frontplate. Both carry the yellow Regimentsfahne. Here you can see a shot from the rear showing off their bearskin bags, white for IR 4 and red for IR 55. You can also see the handy labels I’ve affixed to all my stands so I can tell which is which on the battlefield.
First Converged German Grenadiers from the rear – never seen at this angle by the French, that’s for sure.
My second unit, the Second Converged German Grenadiers, is made up of the elites of two more German regiments, IR 13 and IR 23. Again, both are based on actual Austrian units, IR 13 Moltke and IR 23 Baden-Baden.
Second Converged German Grenadiers
This one’s a bit darker, but on the left are IR 13 and on the right are IR 23. IR 13 has violet lapels and a brass frontplate on their bearskins, and IR 23 has dark blue lapels. Again, both carry the yellow regimental flag. From the rear, you can see the different coloured bearskin bags they wear, voilet again for IR 13 and dark blue for IR 23.
Second Converged German Grenadiers from the rear
And so onto the Hungarians, My first Hungarian Grenadier unit come from IR 19, Leopold Palffy. They can be distinguished from the Germans by their blue trousers, and they have sky blue dolman waistcoats.
Hungarian Grenadiers of IR 19
The mighty Hungarians have larger regiments, and so can field whole units of grenadiers without having to converge them as the Germans do. From the rear, you can see the sky blue bags of their bearskins. The Baccus figures for Hungarian grenadiers are subtly different to the German grenadiers, having no lapels and with other minor differences to their uniforms. These carry the older green Ordinair-fahnen of the 1743 pattern rather than the more modern white and yellow flags that the German units carried.
Hungarian Grenadiers of IR 19 from the rear
And last, but by no means least, come the second Hungarian grenadier unit, that of IR 39, Johann Palffy. They wear red trousers in the Hungarian style, and this unit sports the red dolman with yellow trim.
Hungarian Grenadiers of IR 39
They again carry the same flag as the other Hungarian grenadiers. From the rear, you can see the red bags of their bearskins.
Hungarian Grenadiers of IR 39 from the rear
The different coloured bags make it easy to distinguish them on the table, but the labels make it really easy. For those, I just printed off the title of the regiment and cut them into thin strips, gluing them in place after the bases were completed. The bases are all 3mm plywood (I think from Litko), with steel paper stuck to them. For transport, I have a load of old VHS video boxes (the ones without spools inside them) with magnet paper stuck to the bottom. These are just the right size – even cavalry with standards fit inside them nicely, and I can fit 4 units to each box easily. I’ve never had them move at all (the magnet paper is really strong), and the VHS cases are small and light enough that I can fit them all into my backpack or shoulder bag without any problems.
