Tin Soldier Guy

I'm preparing an army to play the Black Powder scenario, The Battle of Elixheim. This was an early battle leading up to Blenheim a few months later. The French had built a defensive barrier in the Netherlands to keep the Dutch and English from attacking them. Although not manned all the time it had fences, trenches, and earthworks dug up to prevent an attack. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, had to find a weak spot in this line to get his army around. He found it at Elixheim. Duke Maximillian Emmanuel of Bavaria was more afraid of the Austrians taking over his kingdom than of the French so he allied with Louis XIV. He gave soldiers to the French cause and a lot of them, if not most of them, were at Elixheim.  The Bavarians had 4 regiments of cuirassiers. A cuirassier is a cavalry soldier with a suit of chest armor and a helmet. They were heavy cavalry and could ride down an enemy in a fight. The first unit that I decided to make was the Comte D'Arco's Cuirassiers. Here ...

Once upon a time there was king named Louis. Louis happened to think very highly of himself. He believed he was the kingyist, king to ever king a kingdom. Louis had a very big ego. If you ever read the children's book, King Hugo's Huge Ego by Chris Van Dusen you have pretty good idea of what Louis was like. They even look and dress a lot alike. King Louis XIV of France Source: Wikipedia, labeled for reuse. Accessed 8/1/20. Link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV King Hugo Cover: King Hugo's Huge Ego by Chris Van Dusen King Hugo liked to look in the mirror and admire himself. King Louis liked to imagine himself to be as splendid as the Sun. Hence all those around him called him "The Sun King". King Hugo liked to give daily speeches that all his subjects had to listen to. King Louis made all his nobles live in his beautiful palace of Versailles where they had to wait on him and listen to him all day. However, unlike King Hugo, Louis didn't have a witch t...

Well, getting back into this I'll need a good set of rules to follow for the historical period I'm interested in. There are lots of rules out there if one looks on the online. I settled on a company that has a beautiful set of rules and makes miniatures to support their product. The rules are Black Powder. It covers conflicts between 1700-1900. Just the time when warfare had gallant soldiers in beautiful, colorful uniforms.  The rules are well written and easy to understand. I love the presentation. There are colorful illustrations throughout the manual, as well as good graphics and charts. It also gives a lot of historical stories throughout on the period and the conflict that add to the pleasure of reading. The book is available both in print and as pdf download, only $20. If interested you can find it at www.warlordgames.com There are 12 battle scenarios in the book covering different conflicts of the era. These are: Battle of Elixheim – War of the Spanish Succession, 1705 B...

Source: Flickr, labeled for reuse. Accessed 8/1/20  https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/9726037094 I love toy soldiers. Growing up in the 1960's I played with them for hours both by myself and with friends. I played with knights in castles and for King Arthur to defeat Mordred. I played with pirates that would sail the seas. I had plastic army men from WWII and the Civil War and would act out the battles I learned or the movies/shows I watched. The stories were endless. However,  by far my favorites were the painted "tin soldiers" in their vibrant, beautiful colors and uniforms. My aunt had a bunch of these. I remembered she had a set of Scottish Black Watch Highlanders that I would march around when I visited her. Painted soldiers are beautiful, masculine, and stylish. Later, I found 15mm lead miniatures in the late 1970's. I painted a whole division of French Napoleonic line infantry and an employee at the local hobby shop asked me to paint an Americ...