Beneath the Lily Banners - Bits and Pieces

 

I'm just about finished painting my League of Augsburg Armies.  A few battalions here, a squadron or two there and a couple of guns and we are done.  Above, the second battalion of the Prince of Orange's Foot Guards. Excellent troops.  Figures are my usual Essex and Irregular 15mm mix.

The French Maison du Roi.  Three squadrons, two above. Death on hooves.  All from Essex.

Gendarmes de la Garde above.

1ère Compagnie Française above and below the 1ère Compagnie Écossaise.  By the time Beneath the Lily Banners period the Company was not longer comprised of Scots-no heather for them then.

 

Scots Frame Guns below, with some gunners are in undress uniforms. QRF provided the Frames.

Hasting's Regiment of Foot is next in the painting queue.  The LOA lead pile is much dimished.  

With what is left I'd like to do a second battalion for the Garde Francaise and more Dragoons mounted and dismounted.  Also, here is a command stand for George Fitzroy, Duke of Northumberland.  I'll likely do the Duke of Berwick too, having secured his flag.

For the moment I'm considering a small campaign post Killiekrankie.  

A what if.  Dundee survived, Mackay didnt. The balance of power is precarious.  Everyone wants to make the right move but what that might be is uncertain. 

What of John Churchill?  Killed in the mysterious Magazine explosion at Chatham.  The only survivor of note Piercey Kirke.

In the south King James is battling to contain the Dutch.

Our protagonist will likely be George Fitz Roy Duke of Northumberland above.  The campaign might be recorded through his letters.  George wants to be a Palatinate Prince who ever the King turns out to be.  

In his wilder moments he has considered offering himself as King of Scots as his father was. The complexity of Scots politics discouraged him.  Yet, if England falls to the Dutch perhaps Scotland might beckon.

I'll dice for who supports whom.  Weighting scores on the basis of probability. For example many of our protagonists are related or otherwise know each other. Most of them can be bought if the price is right. 

Anyhow, we will see.  For fun I intend to make Piercey Kirke Governor of Newcastle.  He then controls the coal trade and intends getting richer. How will George deal with him?  How will the merchants of Newcastle respond to his Moorish ways?

The first action will be the Dutch march on Alnwick.

Great Northern War-Russians and Swedes

 

 

Mainly Swedes this time, above the Swedish artillery guns.  Roundway guns, crews Dixon and Roundway.   Below Regiment Kronoberg.

 

Next,  Regiment Skaraborg.  At a distance only the flags seem to differentiate these units. In fact the uniforms are all slightly different.  Blue breeches or yellow ones in this case.

Regiment Bjornberg here.  My only grey coated Swedes. The artillery above wear green-grey coats as favoured by the League of Augsburg fellows.  The grey/yellow combination is striking.

 

Another battery of Russian guns.  My second, all Roundway save a solitary Essex and a Dixon.

My last but one Russian infantry unit.  Or, so I thought.  A hidden cache has been discovered.

 

Next GNW time, the Swedish Grenadiers and another battalion of the Russian Guards. Then the Brigadiers and Generals.  After that some redoubts and it is job done for the GNW. Bar the Ottoman and Poles of course.

After Poltava there was for a brief period a force of Swedes, Poles and Ottomans.  I always wanted to try that out on the table top. Hence I'm due to paint a unit of Polish winged hussars.

 

With Talon and Claw- New Great Northern War Units

 

A while back I put my Russian and and Sweedish Armies into good order.  Enough to play a game.  This left a fair few figures to do. 

My figures are a mix of Dixon and Roundway.  The latter just about fit with Irregular, the former with Essex.

I need more Russians than Swedes so it was there I began.  In With Talon and Claw Russian battalions are either Regulation or All Musket.  One of the latter below.  Great for fire power not so good in melee.

 

Russian uniform details can be elusive. Regiments also went through an alarming range of coat and facing colour changes.  I'm not naming the units you can see here.  Suffice to say, at some stage in the GNW a Russian regiment wore the uniform colours you can see.

 

The excellent flags are mostly from Russian James.  The others, equally fine, from the better known Tacitus.  Check out https://russianjames.weebly.com/uniforms-and-colours-standards.html

All Dixon figures for the 2 units above.

 

Mainly Roundway for these fellows. I really like these musketeers. A shame they are no longer available.  I expect I'll do aother 2 Russian battalions as I have the figures.  My latest Dragoon regiment here.  Two squadrons.

 

Also in the works another two squadron regiments of Dragoons.  Mortar's, Field Guns and Battalion Guns.

And the Swedes?  To come, three battalions and a Cavalry squadron, some artillery too.  Also, the Guard Grenadiers.  I need to buy the Grenadiers, shock!  I thought I'd done buying for the GNW.

 

Rebels and Patriots- The Greek War of Independence

 

I started this Rebels and Patriots project in 2019. Smartly got the Turks done in 2020.  You can see them here. https://youdonotknowthenorth.blogspot.com/search/label/Greek%20War%20of%20Independence   

 

Above the Philhellenes- foreign volunteers. In R&P speak, Line Infantry. A unit of 12 figures.  Conversions, as are my Greeks.  Then I got distracted-until now.   What follows is pretty much a note to myself, a project outline if you like.

On to the Greeks which in 15mm means conversions.  Happily mine are all done.

You can see what I did here and throughout this page.   The base figures are Minifigs Albanian Sekhans and Derbents.

Green Stuff hair, sashes,sleeves and a bit of head gear variety.

 

Add swords too.  Swords were important and varied.  The latter was beyond my reach in 15mm.

In 2022 I spotted a bunch of Spiros Koumoussis designed Greek independence 15mm figures on ebay.  Badly painted, over priced and irresistable.  I bought them without a quibble.  The chances of them turning up were astromical nor will we see them back in production.  I will have to repaint and re-base them.  Starting with the cavalry.

The immediate task is to put together a Greek List for Rebels and Patriots.  Here, I claim no great expertise. Some of the Greeks had extensive fighting experience and some none at all. Anyone who turned out to fight was patriotic.  Some though were intensely committed to the cause and would fight against odds. Even to the last.

What follows is my first thoughts on categorising a Greek Force for Rebels and Patriots.  The actual units are not done yet. 

Sometimes Greeks fought mounted.  Raids and such like. Rebels and Patriots cavalry come in a minimum unit of 6 figures.  

I'm going to use two types, both of light cavalry. Type one is Agressive Light Cavalry, type 2, Light Cavalry Good Shots.

For City Greeks, I have opted to use Green Line Infantry.  Most of them had no previous military experience.  International trading links and the Greek Diaspora meant there were enough arms and ammunition. A unit of 12 figures.

In the mountainy countryside it was different. There, warriors could be found.  Men who lived accustomed to violence. 

Even those who were not full time Klephts (more or less bandits) didn't lack fighting experience.  Clan feuds were common and deadly.

For a general turnout I have opted for the Native Category. A unit of 12 figures.

For a unit of Klephts  I use Veteran Skirmishers who are good shots. A unit of 6 figures.

 

For the hard core of Greek resistance I'm using the Light Infantry category and Good Shots too.  Such a unit would be mainly comprised of very patriotic Klephts.

There were also some Greek Regulars.  I'll field them as Line Infantry a unit of 12 figures.

I'll produce a full stat's list shortly with pic's of the units and some pic's of my recently aquired figures.  It will probaby take a couple of posts over the Summer.

For the moment using the above a 24 point Greek Force might consist of:

1 unit of  Patriotic Klepht Light Infantry Good Shots-12 figures. @ 9 points

1 unit of Klepht Veteran Skirmishers- 6 figures.@ 6 points

1 unit of Natives-12 figures. @ 4 points

1 unit of Aggressive Light Cavalry -6 figures. @ 5 points

I'd say that is an affordable array even in the larger scales. Truly lovely 28mm Greek figures are available from Old Man Creations and Steve Barber.  For me, as ever, it is 15mm.