The Battle of Madling 1753: Part One - Introduction and making the battlefield

Background

In the previous post I outlined three weekend games we have planned here at my humble Cotswold retreat. The first one was to be Wiltshire's Ken Marshall organising the next episode of his Imagi-nations campaign between the mid-German forces of "The Electorate" (a bit like Prussians and Hessians) against the equally formidable "Ducal" armies (white coated Austrian types with Hanoverian style allies), and we had now advanced to October 1753.  I decided we would use the standard 8 foot x 6 foot table and my contribution would be custom sculpting whatever terrain Ken wanted.  The date for the game was set for 23-24th April and we ended up with 3 other players and me, with Ken as umpire, on the Saturday to play out a fight for territory between the two substantial Advance Guards. The Sunday brought two new players and the main armies to try to decide the issue. 

I was amazed how Ken's collection of Minden/Crann Tara/Fife and Drum 28mm figures had grown - to about 1600-1800 figures I think. In addition we called on a few hundred of mine and about 400 - 500 from Paul B of Cheltenham.  I was worried this would be too many for the table but Ken felt confident a lot would be overcome by attrition on the first day, nevertheless he had to ensure some substantial forces for the newcomers to command on Day Two. As those two were "Honours of War" creator Keith Flint and his play tester Steve Johnson, we wanted to put on a good display.  So you will have to forgive the toy soldier megalomania which made manoeuvring room at a premium but wargames eye candy at the maximum. I hope you agree - here is a glimpse of what is to come:

Paul and Keith are having a serious advance with the Ducal army while Steve J tries to distract us all with his good natured banter

Yes it got a bit crowded but "Honours of War" can stand that. Retreating or fleeing through masses like this can take its toll.

No shortage of cavalry action in the centre and far flank

Anyway, much more of that later, this post is mainly about making the battlefield and a basic intro to the game.

Dismantling the previous sculptured table top

For those who have lamented the demise of my previous "art installation" terrains, don't worry, not much goes to the local tip, most of it is recovered and reused in different guises. I will start off with some photos of dismantling the previous Langensalza terrain in January.

Releasing the cardboard base from its bed on top of the
old Brampton board

Recovering hills and useful textured surfaces for storage and
future re-use or adaptation

Creating the battlefield for the Battle of Madling

Here is a look at Ken's sketch map which he sent me as a starting point, together with a description of the kind of terrain he envisaged

And this is the version I made of it in Adobe Photoshop to use as my scale guide for the build. (I don't have the full pro version but I find Photoshop Elements 2020 is adequate for my needs and affordable to buy). 

It looks like I must have decided unilaterally that the corner high ground in A-B8 was to be steep!

I will describe the stages in making the table from start to finish by photo captions. Most of the methods will be familiar to my regular readers and apologies if I bore you. However, towards  the final stages I did things a bit  differently. 

I used large surplus cardboard packaging to give a fairly flat surface.
Joins were sealed with masking tape covered with PVA

Reclaimed hills were used where they were the right size.
 Elsewhere flat pieces of textured surface  were stacked to make a
 roughly stepped hill or two which will be smoothed out a bit later.

Smoothing out first stage with papier mâché and PVA

Weighted down to prevent warping while it dries out

More hills cobbled together from pre-loved pieces and masking tape
before the papier mâché coating (below)

Here is the high double contour corner piece in process

Checking my construction map I realised i had made the Rosenkranzhohe
too big!! I had to get the saw and make a drastic change.

Now the hills were in place I sketched in the roads and rivers with marker pen and thin acrylic wash

If it is thick enough (about 3-4 sheets of paper) the papier mâché and PVA dries to a satisfying hard surface

Time to use a heavy, sharp knife to cut out the streams and river
 to make use of the natural recess depth of the cardboard packaging

Then blend in the stream banks with more papier mâché

Treatments begin to get more optional now. This time I have used a thin mixture of builders plaster to coat the stream and river beds as an undercoat for colour

While that is drying I can get on with a big job...

.....coating everything except roads, rivers and BUA areas with various green textured gunge.
This time I just used builders plaster, sand, acrylic or commercial matt emulsion paint, and water.
No sawdust, small stones or PVA glue. Omitting the latter was a mistake.

It looks quite nice though, and does help to blend in those stepped slopes

Not really deliberate but the greens turned out differently due to different mixtures and running out of some shades part way through. As an artist I tend to play it by ear and use what I have, adapting as I go along.....let's see how it dries out

Applying a dark mixture of paint and PVA to the stream beds

Brown plaster and sand mix helps define a cliff line and paths on the very steep hill.
A similar mix is used for a base coat for all the roads

River beds and roads all blocked in now with base coat mixture - textured for the roads, smooth for the water. A simple brown and/or sand/PVA coating for the built up areas (BUAs)

When it was all dry and hard I went over the entire surface
with my surform tool and ground away at the little nibs of hard sand or plaster.
The idea is to keep texture but not so much that it is ugly or difficult to put troops on.

The residue can be swept up and stored to be used for something else

A thin wash of dark brown acrylic paint fills the ruts made in the plaster roads

I used a dull brown runny mixture of paint and PVA
on top of the dark river beds. There are no right or wrong ways here BUT,
rivers are only blue when you are so low down on the bank as to see the reflection of sky.
If you are flying low in a plane, helicopter or air balloon have a good look down on the rivers

While it was still wet I introduced more dark paint nearer
 the centre to represent a deeper depth of water  

I like to work across the whole area with different effects to keep it in all in mind like a landscape painting. So now I have done some lighter dry brushing to bring out the high ground better

But then I extended that treatment to the low areas too, and to the casual eye it all looks similar. Some might be happy to leave it there.

Keeping at the dry brushing with slightly different combinations of colours. Over the days I noticed that these greens take on quite a different hue if photographed in daylight or under the strip lights we  normally use during a game.

I used a nice warm cream as a dry brush for the road network.
You can also discern the slightly varied dirty water colours

No PVA in the gunge....the plaster drying out had caused
some cracks where my cardboard joins were.
I used sawdust and artificial grass mixtures to try to disguise it

That led me on to something I've not done before - the wholesale spreading of static grass and sawdust combinations over all the low ground areas. My idea was to make it look like well watered productive pasture land, and leaving the high ground bare to look a bit more like moorland heath. 

Quite pleased with this result. These two views of the same with different lighting

I used dried or burnt grass flock for the very highest contours in each corner. Lots of areas of the world have brown grass where the soil is thin and well drained such as rocky moorland or plateaux.

The roads have yet another lighter drybrush and I'm putting some terrain features on now.
The redoubt has to be very old (Thirty Years War) falling apart and overgrown by weeds.

I pre-made the bulk from air hardening clay and stuck some coffee stirrer bits in it.
I stuck that in place on the hill then more wooden stakes and a mix of sand and flock effects.

Looking round the finished battlefield

The above sequence is effectively the end of the "how-to" part as I seem to have got carried away with finishing the detail and adding the woods and buildings and have not taken any specific build photos. So what follows is a look at certain parts that might be of interest and then the overall effect.

First the finished redoubt. All the loose stuff was brushed off then dry brushed with cream acrylic. Adding tufts for weeds completes the tumble down look

Two views of the Village of Madling. All the card buildings are reinforced with balsa wood and are removable for putting troops in the BUA, but hopefully have a lived-in sort of look. I did not get round to weathering the card models before our game but I have since!

Close up of the Stronbach river and Lunzenbach stream. The previous paint was finished off with light dry brush of white and when dry was coated with up to 5 layers of acrylic gloss varnish. 

View showing the transitions of surface textures from the basic painted terrain through static grass/sawdust finishes, and all the streams were judiciously edged with my general mixture of green foam scatter and commercially bought tufts. They help offset the stark look of the cut-out cardboard river banks

Kaindorf in the foreground

The hamlet of Mauthaus

Looking down on Lunzen from the high corner moorland with cliff edge and paths. Covered with dry grass in two or three colour combinations and "winter tufts" to mark the paths.

Finished effect before the soldiers arrive

Battlefield as parade ground

I wanted to give the players an idea of how big the units are before the day to help their planning. So the following is a further look round in the company of my small, but growing, Hanoverian army.

The overall look with an "Honours of War" brigade of infantry and one of cavalry, and an independent battalion of Jägers garrisons a forward hamlet. By now I have refurbished the grey cloud/smoke backdrop which sets off the terrain nicely and is multi-use. The how-to on Making trees I did a year ago.

I will finish off by giving you a taste of Ken's Imagi-nation campaign. We pick up after the battle of Stadl an der Mur

The Mur Valley Campaign – Madling, October 1753. Electoral Outline

"1753 – The Elector has tired of the long period of peace between the electorate and the Grand Duchy. Whilst it has been useful in allowing him time to rebuild and train his army, the time has come to further his territorial ambitions by seizing the Mur valley from the Duke.

The annexation wasn’t as easy as the Elector expected. The Ducal army reacted swiftly to the invasion and successfully halted the electoral advance before Tamsweg. The campaign has degenerated into a war of outposts as the two armies struggle to gain an advantage and the fear of failure overcomes any martial ambition or initiative by the two commanding generals.

An attempt last month to outflank the Ducal forces at Stadl failed and the appearance of unidentified foreign regiments at that battle confirmed intelligence that the Duke was being supported by a coalition of neighbouring states who have also suffered from the Elector’s military ambitions. Although coalition forces have not been committed to the fight anywhere else, it can only be a matter of time and the army is likely to find itself heavily outnumbered.

The Elector’s generals now await the arrival of winter and an end to the campaigning season that will allow them to consolidate on their gains in preparation for a resumption of the campaign next year.

The message from the Elector is clear. There can be no more failure after the Stadl debacle. The army will not give ground and lose the territorial gains made. Several of the generals whose performance particularly displeased him at Stadl are now residing in the Electoral prison at Oldenburg and he has made it known that there is plenty of room for more to join them. "

In outline  - The Electoral Commander, von Stuttenheim is defending everything to the East of the Stronbach. He only has two brigades of mixed light troops at the start and the Ducal Advance Guard is expected to arrive from the Northern baseline...............

Steve and Kevin conceal most of their defending troops ......not much to see

......until Paul's Ducal Hussars and Grenzers hit Lunzen farm like lightning and the defenders are revealed.

A lot more next time.......

(PS Please feel free to comment but my replies might be delayed due to a pressing commitment away from the computer)

Weekend games planned for 2022

A lot of the inertia in posting on this blog in January and February was due to being involved with several wargaming buddies on what we could do at my den in Oakridge,  Gloucestershire this year as special events. It required a lot of emails, ideas, trials with game scales on paper, sketch maps , discussion of orbats /game balance etc and me doing formal maps from which to make customised table tops.  And we were supposed to be getting free of COVID weren't we?  So we tried to make games that will maximise the numbers we can invite. As we found in our 2015 Waterloo games -  in the space available that is  about 4 aside per day plus a couple of umpires.

Then the Ukraine crisis hit the World and we went into a temporary limbo; some of our friends are working long hours in the defence/security fields and we have to wonder still if we can go ahead as planned. But we can't let Mr Putin's desires stop us (yet!) so we are just carrying on planning and hoping for the best. So what are we doing?

The first weekend game is in late April and Ken Marshall is getting out his  Red/White/Blue Imagi-nation armies for our delight. Here are a few photos from what he laid on about 9 months ago - the battle of Stadl an der Mur. All the figures seen here are from Ken's super collection of 28mm Minden, Crann Tara and Fife and Drum miniatures.   

This year, as I have given him a clean slate Ken has come up with a sketch map and description which I have turned into this Photoshop map for a sculpted 8 feet x 6 feet terrain for his Battle of Madling

Ken says 

"The game is best described as a 1750s imagi-nation game. Saturday will involve light troops in an encounter type battle leading to a general engagement by the main armies. Depending on how the light troops get on, elements of the main armies may be involved late on Saturday but we'll know that on the day."  

The main battle is expected to take place on the Sunday. So we can accommodate a few players on the first day and more on the next. Rules, as usual, will be "Honours of War" and Ken may be supplementing his own collection from mine and those of Paul B so it should be a pretty sight. I'm hoping my Hanoverians will make an appearance as something!

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After that I'm giving myself a bit of a holiday and then I shall have an informal 18th Century game with Willz Harley who is coming to visit Oakridge for the first time in June. Willz is kindly giving me a lift on to the Wild Geese weekend at Kenilworth where he is putting on one of his fun games with, I believe, his superb collection of Spencer Smith 30mm 18th century figures.  One other treat talked about for that weekend was many of us sharing parts of our armies to refight the "iconic" classic Charles Grant wargame of Mollwitz.  We shall see......

Not long after that I shall have to get into making up the 12 feet x 6 feet table for the major game of the year.......

WATERLOO - D'Erlon's Assault on Mont Saint Jean

As I intimated late last year on this blog "JP" of Youtube fame is staging his own variation on the General d'Armee scenario of what some may consider the core activity of the Battle of Waterloo. In early afternoon on 18th June 1815, preceded by a bombardment of the grand battery of 80 guns, General D'Erlon, advanced with his I Corps up the long slope to Mont St Jean, only to be swept away by the Union Brigade of Heavy Cavalry and Picton's British infantry.

Obviously I am horribly over simplifying and we have come up with an extended scenario taking the section of the battlefield from just beyond La Haye Sainte across to the farms of Papelotte and La Haye so we can include the KGL Rifle battalions,  Life Guard cavalry, Cuirassiers, Hanoverians and Nassauers and the right flank French Cavalry Division. JP reckons there will be around 3000 Perry 28mm miniatures available over the three days we have to do the game in mid August. The vast majority will come from JP's own collection and Kevin East will add some of his too; JP bought a lot of Kevin's figures which followers of this blog will recall from our own Waterloos at 1:3 scale and Quatre Bras (see side bar links for a reminder). It will be fun to see them in such numbers on my table again.

Here is the table map I have come up with to help me make the terrain and for JP and Kevin to work out the scenario.

Apart from sculpting all the terrain, I have promised to make a scratch-built La Haye Sainte as we could not find something suitable ready-made as a compromise for the footprint in this scale. Should be fun and hopefully I can give some "how-to" tips on this blog in the Summer.

Here are a couple of the photos JP sent me while he was setting out his French infantry to test the frontage of most of D'Erlon's Divisions

If you want to get much more on this and hear from the man himself JP has put a very nice video on YouTube of his set up trial Preparing for this Summer's big game.

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Last year we had a very good outing with Guy's Jacobites at his "what-if" Battle of Brampton in November 1745.  Some reminders of that game:

Guy has since been painting more Highlanders and has uncrossed his eyes from tartan painting long  enough to give me his ideas on a scenario. To be fair he was limited in choice as I will have the 12 x 6 Waterloo terrain made and won't have enough time to do anything other than adapt it by the time of our mid-September two-day Jacobite game.

He has put it in the context of the next stage of his fictitious Jacobite rebellion. It is about the very end of 1745 and the Jacobite Army has reached Northamptonshire. Guy reckoned we could adapt Waterloo to the Althorp Estate just North of Northampton city.  I did some research on Google Earth and ground level photos for inspiration and he researched the history of the house and gardens.

This is what it is like nowadays

All very inspiring except that it turns out this lot was built around 1780. The 1746 buildings would have been the preceding dwelling and stables based on brick and half timbered construction. So I've got to do a bit of scratch building/card download conversion. The gardens were still formal but in a different place.  So I scratched my head a bit, took some ideas from Guy's brief and came up with this:

I'm really looking forward to seeing this one come together - only trouble is I'll have somehow to convert mid June Belgium into mid-Winter in Northamptonshire! Browner rather than green........and maybe a dusting of white stuff?

Guy has already put a lot of effort into the background thinking, he has about 2000 figures for us to use and has provided this foretaste for you, my beloved readers:

Synopsis of the run up to the Battle of Althorp

 

"This is the next battle in my fictitious Jacobite campaign. The Jacobite’s have successfully managed to evade the Duke of Cumberland and his forces which were mustered at Stone in Staffordshire. The Jacobite’s reached Derby and were having a council of war on 5^th December 1745. Just before a decision was made to withdraw to Scotland a mud splattered messenger arrived with the startling news that a French expeditionary force had successfully managed to evade the Royal Navy and had landed at Boston in Lincolnshire.  Now much as the Jacobite’s were much taken with the local Bakewell tarts (the cakes….stop tittering at the back Gregg minor), the Prince ordered the army to move with haste towards Grantham with the intention of uniting with the French.

 

Unfortunately for the Prince there was a government spy in the Jacobite camp and the news was swiftly sent to both the Duke and the King in London. Upon receipt of the news, their forces set off from different directions along Watling Street and met at Northampton on Christmas Eve. The government forces from London had force marched the 75 miles and the Duke felt they needed somewhere to rest for a day or so. The Duke was informed that the Hon John Spencer, MP for Woodstock, was at home at Althorp House. He was a well-known gourmet and kept a good table so this was justification for the Duke to order the army to move to the spacious grounds and park land of Althorp which is about 6 miles northwest of the county town.

Boxing Day beckons. Regretfully the Duke’s cavalry pickets were having another off day (primarily caused by consuming too much ale and plum pudding) and failed in their duty as they were mainly posted to the north. The Jacobite army , which was now considerably strengthened by French units including an Irish brigade, cavalry and guns, had advanced southwards by Ermine Street to Huntingdon. There they were advised of the concentration of the government forces at Northampton. The Prince, under the guidance of the French officers, decided to try and outwit the government troops by approaching from the south and to cut their lines of communications with London. The Jacobites were in good order, if a little foot sore, but confident now they had the French in support and intended to bring the government forces to battle.  If they can destroy the government army then the road to London was open and……… "

I can hardly bear the excitement!! See you there, at least vicariously!

CG

UPDATE TO JP'S WATERLOO

I've just noticed that JP has done an update on his French Army as at mid June .  Although it includes Guards it is likely that about two thirds of these shown will be in his D'Erlon's attack weekend here in mid August . Well worth a look at this YouTube video JP French update 

Standing with Ukraine - a new Hussar painting

 My blog has been quiet  for quite some time and I've been very busy, among other things, in organising several wargaming weekends for 2022, more on that in the next blog hopefully. More significantly I've been stunned by Mr Putin's action against Ukraine and it makes a mere hobby pale into insignificance compared to the plight of the many thousands he has put to flight and deprived of their homes.

Apart from making mere donations like so many others, last Sunday, realising that things for the women and children of Mariupol was going from bad to worse, I resolved to use what little skill I have to try to raise more money than I can afford myself.

Since then I've been trying to do the best job I can to pay tribute to the fighting spirit of the Ukrainian people in a painting of the Mariupol Hussars in 1812.  Admittedly then, their homeland was part of Russia and fighting to protect it from the French. How times and politics change!

So I present you with the finished result and invite you please to read on - find out more about the painting and how to bid.

"Determination - The Mariupol Hussars 1812".
Acrylic on canvas 16" x 12" by Chris Gregg 2022

This is an acrylic painting on canvas and is 16 inches x 12 inches (40cm x 30 cm), unframed, but with painted sides and is ready to hang or frame. 

I had thought to just dash it out quickly and cash in, so to speak on the zeitgeist. But dashing off paintings is not my style and it soon became evident to me that as my clients like detail and accuracy I had to do my best within an artistic spirit, and it's taken about 15 hours work over 5 days. As every day has passed the plight of the besieged in Mariupol  has got worse and my sadness deepened. I'm privileged to know a few people, Ukrainian and Russian, in the UK and with relatives in those two blighted countries. They are all on the same side.........Just as the Ukrainians and Russians were in 1812 and in 1941. It's not my fight (yet!) but I'm hoping this painting can raise some money by an online auction.

Many of my readers will be familiar with some obvious artistic influences from the Napoleonic era and in my humble way I hope I'm paying tribute to them too. Funny though, these were all painted in homage to an autocratic ruler who also had disregard for how may lives were lost in pursuit of his goal of a Europe united under his leadership!

Théodore Géricault - Charging Chasseur

Edouard Détaille - "Vers La Gloire"

"Towards Glory" - detail

Edouard Détaille "Le Trophee 1806" 4th Regiment of Dragoons

Capturing enemy standards seems to be a theme of these glorifications of war from the 19th Century. For mine I have gone for the Ukrainian flag as a background to show solidarity, not captured, but preserved. The same colours are echoed in the Mariupol Hussars uniform and purists might say it should be "dark blue"; but I looked up all the sources I could and artistic representations varied from sky blue to dark blue and everything in between so I used my own instinct of what works best.

I've called it "Determination" and I've tried to reflect that in the expression of the Hussar and the defiance in the horse's eye (as in Gericault's too). The sun flashing on his blade is another "Don't mess with me" message which I get from the vox pop TV interviews with 2022 Ukrainian fighters.

So, maybe you have thought you might like one of my original paintings but never had the excuse. I'm auctioning this to the highest bidder via email or DM on social media by 11pm London time on Tuesday 15th March.  I will donate all the proceeds (minus insured postage to your location) to a suitable Ukrainian aid charity. I have in mind the UK Disasters Emergency Committee, which is reliable 

https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal

I normally sell this size picture for between £125 - £175 so I'm starting the bidding at £100 please. If there is only one bidder you'll get a bargain! But I hope it will raise considerably more!

Feel free to email me with questions , and especially bids! If there is anything to report I will post an update on here each day.

Thank you for whatever you are doing to help.

Chris

UPDATE

2100 Friday. Very pleased to say the bidding has started at £125 

UPDATE

Sunday 12 Noon - Bidding now at £151 - very many thanks 

UPDATE

Sunday 1900 - Now up to £200 looking good, thank you

UPDATE

Monday 1500 - Going really well - Bidding now up to £250. Still a day and a bit to go so you still have plenty of time to cash in your Premium Bonds and bid! 

CONCLUSION

Wednesday 1100

Well I didn't get any further bids last night but really pleased to say that we have raised £250 on my work on this painting. Better yet, one of the thwarted bidders has donated another £100 for the DEC Ukraine appeal on the strength of me doing  a commission specially for him later this Summer - possibly of the Saxon Zastrow Cuirassiers fighting the Russians in 2012; look out for that in due course.

It's been an interesting but demanding exercise as I spent a lot of time promoting it round the web. Successful bids came via a personal email shot to over 60 addressees - many past or current art clients or wargamers.  I did a small a paid boost of my Instagram post which evidently reached over 5000 people and solicited about 100 "likes" but no direct bids. Useful knowledge for the future and for anyone with an Instagram account it seems a fair and cost effective way to promote yourself if you have something special to offer (Yeah, I know I'm normally irresistible anyway!!!!).

I only had one "adverse" comment via Instagram Direct Message. That was from a person called  "Elina" who complained that a Russian "imperialist" Hussar was an insult to Ukraine. I get the point but tried to address it in my blog. "She" said I should have done a Cossack, so I agreed and tried to engage her in helping me by advising of the right sort of Cossack so as not to cause offence again. Sadly by that time she had gone "User not found". So if you are out there "ellina" please get back in touch.

I find it ironic that in 1812 the Cossacks too were fighting the French in the "imperialist" Russian army. But more significantly, we wargamers and military art enthusiasts associate Hussars with hard living, bold, smartly dressed and daring soldiers but look on cossacks as pillaging near savages in tatty uniforms and who only fight from ambush. Hence my choice of a Hussar.....but I'm really pleased to see that with the help of UK-supplied anti-tank missiles the current Ukrainian soldiers are fighting successfully from ambush and knocking out hundreds, if not thousands, of Russian vehicles.........So the real choice for me is what art subject is likely to gain the best price for the cause! I think I made the right decision, I'm pleased with the painting and excited to think of where my buyer will put it in his home.

Thank you to everyone who helped, bid and supported in whatever way. They are fighting for us and it goes on.

CG 16th March 2022