The Battle of Torgau 1760 : SYW

Finally feeling well enough to get a battle in so Martin came over for a run out with our SYW collection. Believe it or not we are at the end of my SYW scenario book with the Battle of Torgau. (Not Torbay as the spellchecker keeps wanted to change it to !) the battle took place on the 3 November 1760. After the battle of Liegnitz the Prussians and Austrians had manoeuvred around Silesia for a couple of months. Eventually Fredrick closed on the Austrians under the redoubtable Daun close to the Fortress city of Torgau.

The Austrian main army was on the plateau in a strong defensive position with artillery support from around the City itself. Rather than a frontal assault Fredrick once again split his army taking about half of his force through the forests to assault the Austrians from the rear. The Austrians  got wind of this and were able to adjust their position to be attacked from both sides.

Historically it was a very tough fight and although the Prussians eventually forced the Austrians to retire it cost Frederick over a third of his army and I believe he would never again assault a prepared Austrian position.

As usual a map of the battlefield from the internet, the red area roughly our battlefield

Converted to a 8x5 table. The Prussians to the right although on the table will have a random delayed arrival as they march through the woods to the battlefield. A couple of other adjustments, the Austrians have a battery of heavy artillery outside Torgau and we agreed these could fire without actually being able to see targets. The stream/river a key feature of the battle field would force a test for each regiment looking to cross as they search for less marshy areas to cross.

Lacy’s corps. advance to the sound of the guns from their positions around Torgau

Prussian Cavalry move through Siptiz (spelt several different ways) to hold the bridge 

These are countered by General Zeschwitz cavalry division

The Prussian cavalry have arrived to the north through Weslau.

The rest of the Austrian surge forward but there is still no sign of the Prussians from the north. I should mention here that the largest Division under General Buelow rolled a six first turn and immediately arrived on the battle field around Weslau. They then managed to roll 1’s three turns in a row and failed to activate. This was a major disadvantage for the Prussians.

The Prussian to the south attempt to cross the river and open fire on the main Austrian army, Prussian Hussars can be seen in the distance cross by the bridge

With the delayed piecemeal arrival of the Prussian infantry from the north, the hot headed Prussian cavalry who have charged and scattered the Austrian cavalry in the centre, find themselves caught isolated beyond the village of Weslau

They are forced to retreat, past the Prussian infantry who just stand immobile !!!!!!!!

I forgot to take many photos at the west end of the battlefield where some Prussians have now arrived these chatty the defending Austrians from both sides and start to clear that end of the plateau.

Lacy’s Corps is now starting to deploy to block the narrow gap at this end of the plateau 

A better shot of the situation to the west, although the Prussian cavalry has been forced back this end of the plateau has been nearly cleared

Finally General Buelow gets his division moving and these are supported by Grenadiers under General Markgraf and Frederick himself these are able to retake the village of Weslau

But with the Prussian cavalry blown, the Austrians have managed to reform their cavalry on the plateau and Lacy’s Corps is now in position

The Prussians have taken about half of the plateau but their attack is stalled. In the very top right of this picture you can see General Huelsen’s Division which repeatedly failed to arrive through the woods, in the end failing to roll a 2 !

And then catastrophe Buelow’s Division falls below half strength and collapses leaving the village of Weslau in Austrian hands again

At this point it was clear it was an Austrian victory, the Prussians still have forces on the table but are not in a position to force the Austrians to withdraw. The Austrians have maintained their cavalry and have a strong defensive position across the narrow part of the plateau. A really splendid battle which was very closely fought, had it not been for the delayed arrival of the Prussian infantry and ultimately the collapse of Buelow’s division it might have been a different result.

As an aside, those very eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed this is the first run out for a new base cloth. I picked up two cloths from Dunelm when they had a sale and have stitched them together prior to some spraying with acrylic cans. This gives me a single much larger cloth which can also be used to cover my 12x6 table when we play in the garden. It is also slightly lighter in colour which is better for the photos. The key thing is it makes arrangement of hills easier.

As the battlefield was set up the evening before I took the opportunity to see what the epic ECW figures looked like on what is technically 10mm terrain

Very happy with this look, so other than possibly picking up a handful of 10mm buildings appropriate to ECW I don’t need anything different, my 15mm hedges should work fine as well.

Thanks as always for checking by 🙂

Matt

Every cloud has a silver lining …….

Well the silver lining to my frustratingly slow recovery is loads more time to paint soldiers. I have also been able to do quite a bit of preparation work so several more units are now in the painting queue.

First up some Peninsular British Light Dragoons

Two shots of these, Perry Miniatures one of the benefits of these boxed sets is you get 14 figures and effectively two sets of riders and I discovered Perry sell the horses separately so I now have another unit to paint in a slightly later uniform.

The first of some additional French command bases, again Perry figures, these are the heavy cavalry divisional commanders.

Fairly randomly I also had a Confederate cannon needing finishing off.

And finally off the painting table some more epic ECW infantry. The purple colours are vaguely historical although it is clear that few if any of the regiments were ‘uniform’ in appearance 

and a blue unit. I’m really enjoying painting these which can be done quite quickly as long as you don’t worry too much about the detail.

The downside of still being stuck indoors is I have spent far too much time thinking about hobby stuff and this inevitably leads to purchasing more figures !! This in part to cheer me up after my illness. Even my wife thought this would be a good idea although I didn’t tell her how much I was spending 😀

A fairly large box of Perry figures arrived in the post, a real mix of artillery, command packs and some Portuguese.

Too much time on my hands so I have also been on eBay as well…….french drummers to fill in other units, some may get careful head swops.

Some nice warlord Grenadiers, 25 figures and only one broken bayonet. No rush for these but with the other Grenadiers I will eventually be able to field a Guards ‘reserve’ Brigade.

I also purchased a bunch of these to help with wound marking

So keeping busy and enjoying my extra hobby time

Thanks for checking by Matt

Epic Cavalry and my preferred option for spears/standards

Still spending a fair bit of time painting while the final lurgy lingers on. I have several units on the go at the moment but this Epic ECW cavalry got finished first.

I know there has been quite a bit of discussion about the quality of these figures. Firstly I thought it would be nice to paint a classic ECW ‘Roundhead’ cavalry unit. They paint up fairly quickly but the sculpts do lack something. Firstly in a number of areas they lack clear definition, something you don’t see on the infantry. Secondly the poses are a little strange although when they are mixed together I don’t think they look too bad. Most annoyingly the sculpts especially from the front have areas which are ‘blocked out’ the most obvious of these being where the reins are badly moulded.

Here they are lined up so you can make up your own minds.

Of course as 13.5 mm figures this is what they look like from a couple of feet.

Secondly for this post Norm had mentioned on his blog buying some sharp metals spears, I have had a number of these in the past and have been hurt several times. So ages ago I decided to look for another option. After checking other blogs etc brush bristles were suggested as an alternative and I have been using these ever since.

It is probably a lifetime supply and they can be used both for spears, pikes or flag poles.

If you are interested I can’t remember where I got it but here are the details

Here is a random figure to show the advantage , they are fairly rigid

But unlike other plastic spears they are not brittle and bend significantly, they do have a break point but as you can see this is hard to actually reach in normal handling.

So that’s it for now, I’m working on another ECW Infantry unit and some British dragoons are getting close to completion as well. both will likely be done by the weekend.

Thanks as always for checking in

Matt 😀

More French Napoleonics

I should probably be painting some more British but these French were already prepped. They are mainly Perry figures which came as a job unit off eBay. Although they are mixed line infantry I wanted to paint them up as Light Infantry.

As the unit came with 24 figures and I had quite a lot of spare command figures I made the unit upto 30. Sticking with the 6 per base theme I split the Voltigeurs so they can skirmish if needed. Not much else to say about them……..

Thanks for checking by

Matt 😀

Some health improvement but still not 100% : more Napoleonics

I had hoped to be fully recovered by now but this has been a tough one, I am on the mend but far from 100%. This means I have spent a lot of time (in fact all my time) in the last three weeks in the house or visiting the Doctor for some more drugs ! I am officially bored of being ill now. At least I feel well enough to paint so I have been getting on with prepping figures and painting. Not only Napoleonics but they are the things which have been finished. I have also had to much time to spend on eBay !

A third regiment of Portuguese infantry the 21st Reg. the last of my Warlord Portuguese at the moment

Also completed these two RHA guns. The one on the left is a Warlord model and very nice, the right one was a mistake off eBay I thought they were metal figures but when it arrived I was cross the find it was a 3d print. It was my fault so instead of sending it back I have painted it up, whilst the figures are fairly nice they are far too fragile and three of the figures have snapped their swords etc. I have tried to position them to avoid further damage.

Finally following the french parade I thought I should get the British out, it also helped me to organise the storage better. So here they are ….

I have managed just to keep the armies balanced as they have developed, although the British are slightly behind. Three reasonable brigades with some artillery and cavalry support. Like the french they need more command stands and artillery limbers which I am still pondering.

Just a quick update then, another french unit is on the way as are some British light dragoons.

Thanks for checking by Matt 🩷

Down but not out 🤕 : French Peninsular Army Parade

Sorry all for the recent radio silence I have been struck down with one of the worst chest infections I think I can remember, this laid me low for the last two weeks. Unable even to paint soldiers which is very unusual. However, the second set of medication seems to have calmed things down and I am starting to recover although I expect at least a couple of weeks yet.

The good news is I managed a couple of hours of painting last night which allowed me to finish the bases on my next French Napoleonic infantry unit.

A 36 man Warlord unit, with some different command figures added for variety. I went for the six man bases, splitting the command which means for larger battles the unit can be split down to two smaller battalions.

Having been poorly and very fed up I needed to cheer myself up so what better way than a French army parade. Also a chance to see what else I need to balance things out…..

So here they are at the moment, three solid infantry brigades, a light cavalry brigade and some supporting artillery. I have managed to keep pace with commanders. As mentioned above the larger infantry units can be split down bulking the force out and splitting out a small fourth brigade.

Happy with these so far and they are taking shape. Already purchased another five or so infantry Battalions to bulk out a fourth brigade and start a Guard Brigade. I also have more cavalry and artillery in the cupboard. Focus in the short term may be to get some more command stands completed and the British are falling slightly behind. I have spent a lot of time thinking about artillery limbers in the last couple of weeks ?

That’s it for now I do have a Sicily battle to blog from before my illness and I will try and catch up on other blogs during the day 🤓

Thanks Matt

A new project ? : the English Civil War

After some consistent painting on Napoleonics my thoughts have been turning to a new project the English Civil War, I had picked up a few of  the Warlord Epic ECW figures either free from magazines or at shows for £1. I wanted these to try painting them up, firstly to see what they look like with my painting techniques and secondly to see how easy/quickly I could paint them. One of the challenges is of course is these epic units are 80 man units ! which if I can’t paint them quickly would be a non starter.

Anyway I tested a couple of the infantry units and here are the results.

Both units were fairly generic 

And not based on any specific colour scheme.

My approach was to paint the infantry on the sprue which worked pretty well. One of the key factors for painting was undercoating in brown meaning I didn’t need to paint the pikes, muskets etc. time wise I estimate each unit took a bit under 4 hours. I have placed them on slightly larger bases than provided with figures in the sets which I prefer and kept them simple for ease. Generally I am very impressed with the figures, the sculpts are very clean and easy to pick out the details, but small enough to not bother with too much. Having done the two units I took the plunge and ordered a starter army which I managed to pick up off eBay for a very low price given the amount of stuff you get.

This meant I now had some flags to complete the two units which certainly improves the look. Obviously at 13.5mm and with big units the plan is for massed battles similar to our SYW approach.

Despite the cheap price and free postage the starter army arrived extremely quickly

Excitingly opening the box packed full off stuff

The box states something like 1300 figures ! I plan to spend some time seeing how much variety I can create for units from the box ? I know many people don’t rate the cavalry so we’ll see how they look painted up, I might also expand the collection with some metals as others have done. So watch this space for progress.

Somewhere I also painted up these 76mm American anti tank guns which had been undercoated but unpainted for ages.

Also played a splendid battle with Jon remotely, I will leave the full report to him. A battle that was close until my Carthaginian army collapsed !

We haven’t had many landscape shots for a while, this weekend saw us visit the nearby Shap Abbey for a picnic a very nice spot including a swim in the river

Thanks as always for checking by, another battle to post soon 

Matt 😀