Sir John Grey’s Regiment of Foote

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 Time to put down the Napoleonics for a bit, and finish up my ECW Scots Covenanter army…

The decision for a temporary change of gears was made easier by the realization that I had all but run  out of the bases I use for my Napoleonic Infantry and Cavalry!
Never fear, though, I placed an order with Litko to take advantage of their 25% off pre-black Friday sale. 

I  used Delta CC “Roman Stucco” for the coats of this regiment.

This flag design is recorded as being one used by the regiment. Like the rest of my Scots, the figures are by Old Glory. 

The Spring 1813 Campaign-in-a-Day: Messages from the Front

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Aides de Camp from the latest Piano Wargames Kickstarter, which ends  in less than 14 hours. 

GM Mike entered all the messages that were preserved in to a spreadsheet:

Over 100 messages that I had I typed up, took quite a while.
 
I did not get all the messages.  Unfortunately, Wittgenstein had thrown out the ones he had.
I am sure others did the same… and I noticed gaps, where i have replies but do not have the original message.
 
Still, very interesting and tells the story of the battle of what the Generals knew.
Some fog of war at its best.
  
I find it interesting if you filter on a commander like Wittgenstein, you can see when he received information; that is after a 10-15 min delay that I used to relay messages.  He found out that Blucher was under attack at  the Altenburg table around 12:01 (12:15), and that came from Yorck, not Blucher.  We kicked off at 11:30 am so it was about a half hour for Ney to get to the next table.  Same for Tormosov, about 20 min to get to his 1st table, Dresden, and then another 30 some minutes to get to Altenburg with a Transit town in between.   
 
Some commanders have no messages.  That is because they had Napoleon riding with them.
 
I numbered the messages by team.  you can see the Allies sent out twice as many messages vs the French over the 1st hour of the campaign.  (24 to 12).

The Allies messages go silent after 2:30 as either Wittgenstein was killed, or he had just assumed command of the Barclay troops and did not have time to continue to write messages.  Or he realized every Corps was locked in battle at that time.
 
I need to dig into more analysis, like compare these to the transit logs.

Heroes of Might and Magic, The Board Game, Part 2

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This is the second part of the items from the original Heroes of Might and Magic  II Kickstarter.; there was too much for a single post!

The optional Battlefield expansion facilitates more tactical combat. 

Rules and effects
Battlefield terrain pieces. 
More of the same. 
Much larger battle board. 
Good and bad Morale Markers, etc. 
The Tower faction (likes snowy terrain). 
Missions/Scenarios. 
New Heroes and terrain hexes. 
and more
Ability and creature cards. 
More cards unique to the faction. 
Tower Heroes and Creatures: Gremlins, Gargoyles, Golems, Mages, Genies, Nagas, and Titans. 
Rampart faction (likes woodland terrain). My favorite faction to play in the Computer game. 
Missions/Scenarios
More terrain and Heroes, Town card. 

Creature cards, etc. 
Rampart Heroes and Creatures – Centaurs, dwarves, Elves, Pegasi, Dendroids, Unicorns, and (green/gold) Dragons. 
Fortress faction – likes swampy terrain. 
More missions/scenarios.
Rampart Faction terrain hexes, town card, creatures, and ability, etc., cards. 
Rampart Heroes and Creatures – Gnolls, Lizardmen, Dragonflies, Basilisks, Gorgons, Wyverns, and Hydras. 
Inferno faction – likes lava flow /cinder terrain.

More missions/scenarios!
Faction specific terrain hexes, town card, Heroes, and other cards.
Inferno faction creature cards, etc. 
Inferno faction miniatures – including town and Heroes. 
Inferno creatures – Imps, Magogs, Hell Hounds, Demons, Pit Lords, Efreets, Arch Devils. 
The second Kickstarter for HOMM iii closed a month or two ago, but ads the remaining 3 factions –  Stronghold (barbarian Castle), Conflux ()Elemental Castle), and Cove (pirate Castle), along with many enhancements and extras, including ships and naval battles. So of course I got almost every thing in that as well – delivery probably late 2025. Also of note, Archon studios has retained Jervis Johnson to work on a HOMM tabletop miniatures game. Interesting!
If anyone happens to be interested, the Gamefound late pledge manager is open.  Now to play the darned game!  🙂 

Austrian (etc.) Officers, and the latest Piano Wargames Kickstarter

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 A pair of Austrian Corps Commanders; Johann Freiherr von Hiller to the left of the picture, and Franz Seraph von Orsini-Rosenberg to the right. 

Hiller was probably among the best of the Austrian Corps Commanders in 1809, and the only one who had not been nobly born. Having at one tome been a protege of Erzherzog Karl, the famously prickly Hiller had fallen out with him by this time.
Rosenberg was considered a mediocre Corps commander. He distinguished himself during wars with the Turks and the French Revolution, In 1811 he was named to the Hofkreigsrat (Aulic Council). 
The accompanying figures are German and Hungarian infantry officers. The figures are of course by Piano Wargames. 
Next is a diverse group of officers. 
There are mounted Dragoon and Hussar officers, suitable for Brigade or Divisional commands. 


A mounted colonel of German Grenadiers, and an ADC or Brigade general are to the outsides of the mounted row.

In the front on foot are a Bavarian infantry officer and a leader of the revolt in the Tyrol. 

    In case anyone who is interested is not aware, the latest Piano Wargames Kickstarter has 7 days left. This one includes French Hussars and Cuirassiers, French dismounted Dragoons (including Horse holders), Old and Young Guard infantry, French infantry and Artillery in overcoats, French Personalities, officers, and ADC’s, more Austrian line in jackets and overcoats, Austrian Grenzer, Austrian Cuirassiers, Austrian officers, Austrian Artillery in Greatcoats, and some new vignettes.

That the famous French Military Surgeon, Baron Larrey, among others. 

This one is free for pledges over 150 Euros, as is a Lassalle figure.
Existing figures can be added to the Kickstarter order at an 8% discount, and will ship with the Kickstarter (circa March 2025), all at the same flat shipping rate. I took advantage of this as well!

Heroes of Might and Magic: The Board Game, part 1

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This rather large box actually arrived over 7 months ago…

It contains the spoils (“rewards”) from the HOMM3 Kickstarter I supported back in November 2022.

Those of you who don’t like unboxing posts can stop reading now. 🙂 This box has the core game components.

The whole series of Heroes of Might and Magic computer games, but especially HOMM3, are easily my favorite computer games of all times. If you like turn based strategy games with great replayability and a lot of strategy, and have never played this gem, download it from Gog.com ASAP – it’s less than $10, and regularly goes on sale for half that. 

More booklets from the core game; “missions” are scenarios, and there are quite a few of them of several different kinds. .

“Grand Hex” tiles gradually create the world to explore and fight over, starting from the unknown. 

The various types of background terrain have effects on movement, depending upon the player’s faction. 

L:eft to right, plains, swamp, and grasslands terrain. 

Some of the many heroes available to paly, each having different special traits and abilities. 

All of these characters will be familiar to players of the computer game. 

The simple version of the Battle board, used for resolving combat between Heroes and their accompanying armies, and other players or the local monsters. 

Each faction has a different town type, and raises different types of creatures; with time and development, more and better creatures become available… for a cost, of course!

Town boards for the Castle, Crypt, and Dungeon factions. 

Cubes for tracking the leveling up of heroes, dice for resource generation and combat, and so on. 

Creature cards; the color of the star indicates the relative strength of that type of creature. 

There are LOTS of different creatures, almost all with at least one unique feature. 

Weakest to strongest… bronze class, then silver, then gold, up to azure (very tough!). 

If a player’s Town is attacked, there may be defensive structures to help the defender’s forces. 
Such as the Arrow tower. 

Astrologer cards can produce special effects each week (7 player turns). 

Hero ability cards; the game uses deck building techniques. 

Some ability and Spell cards. 

Action cards

Special ability cards for heroes; the more they level up, the more special abilities they acquire, and/or the more powerful their existing abilities become. 

Some of the many artifacts/ magic items, most of which will again be very familiar to players of the computer game. 

Hero special ability cards

Spell cards

Creature cards; these list the stats for each creature type. 

Hero figures Blue is for Castle (Knight/Cleric faction).

Purple is for the Dungeon faction (Warlocks and Ovberlords)

Black is for the Crypt faction (Necromancers and Death Knights)

More cool miniatures for each of the faction towns (the other 4 are for towns we haven’t covered yet), the wide variety of neutral creatures…

and some upgraded markers for various game elements. 

Of course I went for the cool minis!  🙂

Faction creatures, level 1 (weakest) to 7 (strongest):
Castle (blue) – Peasants, Archers, Griffons, Swordsmen, Monks, Cavaliers, and Angels

Dungeon (purple) – Troglodytes, Harpies, Evil Eyes, Medusas, Minotaurs, Manticores, and (red/black) Dragons

Crypt (black) – Skeletons, Zombies, Wights, Liches, Vampires, Dark Knights, and Bone Dragons
Fortunately, my older daughter, who loves games (unlike my wife and younger daughter, who do not), is eager to play it with me, and I’m hooking my grandsons on the HOMM computer games…
There will be a second post covering the additional factions in that big box at the top of this post!