The Battle of The Elbaubach

…  homage to The Battle of the River Elbow by David Barnes which was published in The Wargamer’s Newsletter in the 1970s.
This is the game Steve and I are playing at The Cotswold Wargames Day in Northleach on Sunday.


The Emperor of Astrovia and The Elector of Vaubaria are at odds, as the famous saying goes, so little introduction is needed. A balanced Vaubarian force of horse, foot and guns, under The Markgraf Karl von Orff, has been despatched into the disputed territory of Mundania which nestles between the competing states. 

Below: Markgraf Karl von Orff, commander of Vaubarian forces.

Here is the map of the disputed territory of Mundania, which is squeezed between the Electorate of Vaubaria (to its west), and the Astrovian Empire (to its east).

Only major features are shown on the map, including the capital of Mundania, Krisdeburg. The rest of this region is a patchwork of small hills, farms, hamlets, villages, woods, copses, rivers and  streams - perfect wargaming territory in fact!
Approaching The Elbaubach from the north, having made a wide sweeping move northward on entering Mundania, the Markgraf finds himself facing a similarly sized Astrovian force under the command of Reichsgrafen von Schwarzenatter arriving south of the river.
Whoever can command the crossing, will win the day.

The Markgraf Karl von Orff has with him the following Vaubarian force:
IR1 - The Leibgarde
IR2 - Regiment Dremel
IR3 - Regiment Breitner

Dismounted Dragoon regiment Muller
Vogts Cuirassiers
Podolski Hussars

2 Field Guns

For the Astrovians, Reichsgrafen von Schwarzenatter is in command of the following force:

IR1 - Frankl

IR2 - Schrodinger

IR3 - Grenadiers Mahler

Light Infantry: Karavani Croats

Klammer Kuirassiers

Czardas Hussars

2 Field Guns

Steve and I are very much looking forward to the showdown, and to meeting a few blog readers who may have made the journey to the Cotswolds. 

A report on the action will be forthcoming sometime next week.
Full details of The Cotswold Wargames Day can be found here:

https://keefsblog.blogspot.com/2019/02/cotswold-wargaming-day.html

The Battle of The River Elbow

A while ago, Steve and I discussed a scenario which would suit our needs for the Cotswold wargames Day being organised by Keith Flint for this coming weekend.
We needed something that was appropriate for just a few units per side, and that looked sufficiently interesting in terms of terrain to give the armies a good 'run out'.

We settled upon an old favourite... The River Elbow, originally published as an article in The Wargamer's Newsletter c 1979, by David Barnes. The lovely sketches accompanying the original article are just so very special too.
Our game will be loosely based on this one, and I'll come to that in a future blog post.
For now, here is the original article.

More Hussars

For the upcoming Cotswolds Wargaming Day, I needed a unit of Astrovian light cavalry to even up the sides, and so set about doing a speedy paint job on these chaps... The Astrovian Czardas Hussars.

The motto on the flag actually comes from a 16th century Landsknecht motto, "semper in excretum, sed sole profundum variat." Translates as, "Always in the sh*t, it's just the depth that varies." This seems particularly appropriate for this unit of vagabonds, rascals, and ne'er-do-wells.
A spokesman for the regiment has refuted claims that the motto in some way refers to their brown uniforms.
Talking of which, whereas with the VaubarianPodolski Hussars featured a while ago, I left the pelisses off, for this unit, I decided to include the standard flamboyant hussar dress. Students of Astrovian military history will, of course, be familiar with the fact that this unit was the first to wear the fur lined attire, which led to the creation of the regimental march, "Fur Pelisse" composed by one Peter Von Hoven (aka Pete Hoven)... Are you groaning yet?!

Coming soon, the build up to next weekend's game...

Grenadiers

Just to show that it's not all about Journals, sketch maps and coloured crayons around here (see previous post), here is the latest unit off the Astrovian production line:
Astrovian Grenadiers von Mahler.

They are numbered IR3 in the regimental numbering system, but being Grenadiers have a certain business-like and elitist swagger about them.
Figures are Front Rank.
Painted, as are all the infantry in the Astrovian army, using the Army Painter dip, and highlighted. Fairly quick to do.
Flags are hand painted on metal foil.

In addition, I've painted a little vignette piece for the Vaubarian side...
The Vaubarian army marches to war with this cross carried at its head, reputedly made from the tree against which St Sebastian was martyred (Sebastian being the patron saint of the country).


The figure is from Trent Miniatures. I picked it up at Partizan in May whilst chatting to proprietor Duncan MacFarlane at his stand. He allowed me to break up one of his packs, and pay a small price for a single figure, as long as I painted the figure and showed him! So, if you're reading this Mr Mac, here he is...
Lovely figure actually, and I knew exactly what I had in mind as soon as I saw it...
He is accompanied by a Front Rank figure in the uniform of The Leibgarde.

More to come soon...