BLB - Vienna 1683 - Saxon Cuirassiers, Leibgarde-Tebanten zu Ross

 

I wonder when and if this post will appear on anyone's blog list? I'm posting this on Monday 14th  at 0840 in the morning. Let me know what time you see it appear, if it does?

I thought I'd give you, dear reader a break from my 25mm wagons, so its back to my 15mm 1683 Siege of Vienna project.

Here we have 3 Squadrons of the Saxon Leibgarde-Trabanten zu Ross Cuirassiers.

There are 3 units of Cuirassiers to paint up for this project, 1 Bavarian, 1 Imperialist/Austrian and this Saxon. The first 2 have the blackened helmets that you'd usually associate with Cuirassiers but the Saxon's wore floppy hats. Much like the later Nine Years Wars figures, I previously painted.

I've no idea what the flags of any Saxon Cuirassiers looked like for this period, so I've used a later looking flag, but don't tell anyone?

And here's Barry Hilton's army list for the Battle. There's not many units to go!

Ottoman Army under Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha

1st Line (Independent Commands)

Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs

Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs

Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs

Irregular Tribal Raw 12 figs

2nd Line indie command

Timariot Sipahis Blade, Lance Drilled 6 figs 

Timariot Sipahis Tribal, bow/carb drilled 6figs

Timariot Sipahis Blade, Lance Drilled 6 figs 

Timariot Sipahis Tribal, bow/carb drilled 6figs

(Already painted before the Challenge)

3rd Line indie commands 

Sekban musket, loose Raw 12 figs 

Tufeckci musket, loose Drilled 12 figs 

Sekban musket, loose Raw 12 figs 

Tufeckci musket, loose Drilled 12 figs 

Janissary Brigade & Brigadier

Janissary Orta All Musket Drilled/Elite 12
Janissary Orta All Musket/Flintlock Drilled/Elite 12

Janissary Orta All Musket/Flintlock Drilled/Elite 12

Janissary Orta All Musket Drilled/Elite 12

Reserve & Brigadier

Sipahis of the Porte Blade, Lance Veteran-Elite 6 figs

Sipahis of the Porte Blade, Lance Veteran-Elite 6 figs

Vizier's Guard All Musket, Flintlock Guard 6 

Great Gun Drilled 1 model 

Great Gun Drilled 1 model 

Holy League under King Jan III Sobieski

Polish Cavalry Brigade

Lipka Tartars Tribal Cav now Raw 6figs

Pancerni Bullet, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX

Pancerni Bullet, Lance, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX

Hussar Banner Blade, Lance, armour Veteran-Elite 6 figs

Polish Cavalry Brigade

Lipka Tartars Tribal Cav now Raw 6figs

Pancerni Bullet, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX

Pancerni Bullet, Lance, armour Drilled 6 figs XXXX

Hussar Banner Blade, Lance, armour Veteran-Elite 6 figs

Imperial Cavalry Brigade 

Dragoons Regt Dragoons, Flintlock, Drilled 12 figs

Cuirassier Regt Bullet, Armour Veteran-Elite 12 figs

Bavarian Cav Brig

Dragoons Regt Dragoons, Flintlock, Drilled 12 figs

Cuirassier Regt Bullet, Armour Drilled-Elite 12 figs

Saxons Cav Brigade 

Dragoons Regt Dragoons, Flintlock, Drilled 6 figs

Cuirassier Regt Bullet, Armour Drilled-Elite 18 figs

Field gun 1 model

Retreat from Moscow - Yet more French Wagons!!

 

Yep......its another 2 wagons

Another from those fab peeps at Warbases and again with their hay load.

I think this one's from Iron Gate Scenary.

With some barrels full of looted Russian Vodka!

The Horse is from Iron Gate and the drover once again is from Redoubt Enterprises.

The driver of the Barrel wagon, is another from Depot Battalion now sold by Warbases. She......yes she is from a pair of drivers in their 18th century range. But with a bit of green stuff for a blanket, you'd never know, would you?

WWII Batrep - The 129th Brigades Attack on Hill 112 - Operation Jupiter 10th July 1944

Five Rejects got together in Posties Shed for a game of Rapid Fire, Reject Dan was the Ref and we were using all his great looking 15mm figures.

Both Postie and Steve had already played this scenario at last years Replay Show, they were the brits on that day, so for this game they swapped sides, giving me and Colin the British for todays game.

Our orders were take and hold the 3 objectives, the Crossroads and the 2 wooded areas

Dan had been a very silly boy, he'd forgotten to bring along all the Turrets of our Churchill tanks!!

So they all look a little bit bald!!!

My Command of the left, with my bald Churchill's!

Our centre, split between myself and Colin.

More blad Churchill's!

Colin's command on the right.

Our plan was pretty simple, there were no German's on the table at the start, but the loads on blinds, so we didn't know where they actually were?

My 4th Battalion Wiltshire regt - Commanded by Lt Col Edward Luce advance through the fields.

What to do with my anti tank gun, when there's no enemy tanks to shoot at?

My artillery observers.

Lets kill me some cows!!!
As we got within 12 inches of a blank, they had to be revealed, out came an Infantry Platoon.

Up the hill the tanks go in the centre.

While without much cover to be had, Colin crosses the open ground.

Our first casualties, we lose the Carrier for our anti tank gun, in the centre.

Our Spotter plane spots........nothin!

But as we've moved up within 12 inches, more Germans are revealed. On the hill on our left a 105mm Howitzer is revealed as well as more infantry in the woods, just left of the crossroads.

Also more German infantry the other side of the crossroads.

Now i have to admit, I'm a tactical numpty, when it comes to WWII, I was struggling with what the weapons were, what I could fire at with which weapon and such. I think I need to do a bit of reading before our next game!!!

I moved up my infantry to shoot at the German's behind the hedge, Dan asked if I wanted to assault them, why they hell not I thought, then Dan laid done the defensive position behind the hedge.....Doh!

We're moving as fast as we can with our infantry.

But its slow going.

Back to my assalt....

Ooo, its a big victory for the Brits, what was left of the German defenders run to there closet cover which is the woods in the centre.

Our dice were as per usual pretty crap, we couldn't hit a thing, luckily nor could the Germans!

Keep going boys!

I finally set up my machine gun on the right, gotta get rid of the Panzerschreck behind the hedge.

Now I missed the opportunity to take a few pic until this moment, after beating the infantry on our left, I swung the flank heading towards the woods, when....

Two bloody Tiger tanks appeared on the tabletop behind my tanks!!!

Oh what joy!!!!

We do doing so well, up to this point????

But its ok, we've got another chance to do something with our Typhoon.....but missed again!

I've never seen Postie with such a big grin. But he missed every shot, except his machine guns, knocking off some of my infantry.

Now your really taking the piss!
Another 2 Tigers enter the table on our rear!!
Now Postie unbelievably missed again with the guns but shot my infantry to pieces, forcing a morale check. I went and threw a 1, which meant my troops surrendered, which c=basically was the end of the game!!

When will my dice improve? Soon I hope?

Conclusion

Ignoring the Tigers turning up where and when they did, this was a brilliant game. I do love the rules, even If I don't fully understand them yet. Steve and Postie told us what they thought we'd do, which was charge up the road with the carriers and scout the area more quickly and maybe do some damage quicker, which kinda makes sense. I'll have to remember that tactic for our next game.

Well done to Dan for producing a quite brilliant game, and well done to Postie and Steve to the win, even though they both couldn't hit a barn door! Much like me and Colin!

Oh well, onwards and upwards!

Later that day, Dan sent me a pic, he'd found the missing turrets!!

I think we'd have won the game hands down if we had them! 

LOL!