Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Crackle of Muskets!


Men of Konggrattz face off with the Grand Duchess' finest...with some French mercenaries fielded by some fellow named Du Grassin in the right foreground skirmishing with Col. Gelach's valiant jagers...



My interest in my 18th century ImagiNations continues with another battle using "Black Powder" rules. I'm still really enjoying the rules and learning the nuances of the system..(there is some real subtlety beneath the simple mechanics)...and it has really fired up my painting. I was able to "repurpose and repaint" several battalions of Prussians and Austrians to now be in the permanent service of The Grand Duchy of Grolstein and the Koniggratz der Bleiherzen. I'm hoping to parade both armies in their glory next week and post some pics of each.

And to make the game even sweeter...I just got my first battalion of Minden Miniatures in the mail!!! Beautiful castings and perfectly compatible with the bulk of my forces which are RSM castings. They are Hanoverian castings that will be painted to serve in the Grand Duchess' army as a premier unit of solid musketeers hailing from the Grand Duchess' home town. Here are a couple of pics of the raw castings. Service from Frank at Minden was nothing short of fantastic, and he was kind enough to toss in a drummer figure since I had forgotten to order one for the unit. Now that's a true wargamer!

I'm a little late to the Minden party, but I was able to get some funds together and take the plunge. Since I'm across the pond the exchange rate hits me a bit hard but the 30 man (plus officers) unit cost 60 some-odd USD...not too bad for the level of detail and the overall quality which is a really nice balance between traditional proportionally correct sculpting and more more contemporary "chunky style" detailing. When I opened the box, my wife heard me exclaim, "oh...the creme de la creme!!" I can already tell these guys are going to paint up super well and I'm going to make a conscious effort to take my time to get them done right. I'll still be a die hard RSM guy for the bulk of my armies (since they cost about half and after all ...when it comes to the 18th century, I'm going to keep it classic "old school"..., but maybe for the "cool" units...its going to be Minden all the way.

4 comments:

Martin said...

Awesome looking troopies all around! The Mindens are indeed splendid figures!

Bluebear Jeff said...

Minden and RSM do look good together. One suggestion that I might make . . . I personally find my RSM standard-bearers to be smaller than I like. If you're like me, you might consider ordering a few to replace some RSM standard-bearers.

By the way, those game photographs are very impressive . . . this looks like a wonderful battle.

I just got the "Black Powder" rulebook (I was lucky enough to order it when Amazon Canada had it for only $20.07 Candian -- now they're selling for about $32 CND) . . . but because I'm getting things ready for a convention game next weekend, I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

Might you post about what has inspired you about the BP rules?


-- Jeff

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said...

I enjoyed the game pictures (Like the crosses!!). Would love a report on the battle and the rules but the pictures and enthousiasm will do. I'm expecting my copy any day now.

-Ross

tidders2 said...

Super looking battle.

Thos mindens look super

-- Allan