Napoleonic Lithuanian Uhlan Conversion

A long (long) term project is to put together an 15mm Napoleonic French army representing Davout's XIII Corps in northern Germany around Hamburg in 1813-14. This will also include the Danish Auxiliary Corps.

I have almost a full FoGN army (unpainted) with all the relevant 18mm AB Figures (available from Eureka Miniatures). Painting wise I think I'll start with the cavalry, in particular the 17th Lithuanian Chevau-léger (Uhlan) Lancers.

Their uniform looks like this:

And years ago I bought the relevant Grand Duchy of Warsaw line lancer troopers:

But I only bought eight (I think as the original rule set I had in mind was either Lasalle or Shako II), so a few weeks ago I bought the other four needed for a unit... except I bought these Vistula Legion lancer troopers:

Notice the different saddle cloth? Yeah. Bless the internet though, as I quickly found these images with sheepskin throws:

In under 15 minutes I transformed the Vistula Legion lancers to look like this:

They have been undercoated and basecoated with raw umber and a white/raw umber dry brush (what I usually do with all my miniatures). Next, painting.

Ancient Hebrew Rocking Horse Chariots and The Judean People's Front

A few years ago (back in November 2015) the League of Ancients' Field of Glory competition was Biblical-themed. Army lists could be anything fielded from 'Swifter than Eagles' and the four biblical army lists from 'Lost Scrolls'.

While I had a few Numidian light foot, I really didn't have anything suitable. Sure, I could've painted a new army, or borrowed one. Instead I quickly assembled 16 Ancient Hebrew rocking horse chariots and four Judean People's Front command stands. As you do. They would be added to some Ancient Spanish and the Numidians miniatures I had to make up a Philistine army (because I was being a Philistine).

The wooden pieces for the conversions were bought cheaply on eBay and cost less than AU$5 from memory. The rest of the wooden body for the chariots was made from balsa wood offcuts and matchsticks. The tops were painted thick card with Battlefront WWII Soviet cupolas and tank crewmen.

The command stands were assembled from spare miniatures I had in the lead pile - mainly Eureka Miniatures samurai painted to look like Judean People's Front (or the People's Front of Judea) from 'Monty Python's Life of Brian'. If you haven't seen the film then I suggest you do. The flags were sourced from online and resized/recoloured in Photoshop. They're a little pixilated, and if I did them again I would spend more time designing / cleaning up the flags in Photoshop than I did.

The point of the exercise? Wargaming doesn't always have to be serious, and you can easily theme an army if you have to. Being a mishmash of troop types it didn't go too well (I finished deep in the bottom half of the draw). I did have fun though.

Edit: Here's some photos of the camp I built for the army. It's made to look like a film set and represents the walls of Jerusalem covered in "Romani ite domum" ("Romans go home") as per 'The Life of Brian'.

Cruel Seas and Tibetans for ADLG

Mark R was keen to try out his night fighting rules for Cruel Seas and I was keen to actually use the PT boats I had painted earlier in the year for the first time in a game. So we played one of the convoy scenarios (scenario 5 from memory) from the rule book.

Mark had two armed trawlers accompanied by an M-class minesweeper. I was lying in ambush with one Elco and three Higgins PT boats (starting the game as blinds, with an additional two blinds to confuse Mark). I therefore started the game with a clear tactical advantage over Mark's slow fleet and my aim was to ensure I kept it by swamping him with torpedoes and machine gun fire. It worked (okay I only had a few successful torpedo contacts).

The night time rules worked well, with the unpredictable visibility distance (potentially shifting up or down in 10cm bands) meant I couldn't hide just inside a magic cloak of darkness, but had to be adaptable. I think they reflected the historical situation well.

And after sinking his fleet (though I came 4 hull points close from losing one of my own boats), I am sure Mark is keen to fight the next scenario with me having to shepherd some cargo ships across the table while he has fun zipping around.

In the afternoon I faced Ian S and his Feudal English in a game of ADLG with nearly painted Tibetans. I was massacred.

I deployed poorly, with my cataphracts not lined up to face Ian’s heavy foot. They were also one combat factor down against his knights, so it wasn’t surprising I only killed two elements to Ian getting 28 (my army break point was 21!). This also included him killing two of my generals.

The surviving general’s report states it was a resounding victory, with the rest of the army taking a well deserved holiday (England is always sunny to a Tibetan).