Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Wednesday 20 July 2011

Pommerania - The Army of 1808 (2) - complete

Off-line project No 514a is finished. The forces of my mythical Duchy of Stralsund-Rügen (otherwise known to history as Swedish Pommerania, just to the right of Mecklenburg on the Napoleonic map), duly signed up to the Confederation of the Rhine, are painted and ready for action. To their considerable disappointment, they are destined for counter-insurgency and LOC duty in Spain.

In the unlikely event that you wish to read a little more about the (mooted) history of the Duchy, there are some earlier posts here and here and here.


Here's a general view of the troops lined up on the big parade ground at Korkmatz, ready for inspection by old Herzog Friedrich. From left to right, the infantry units are the Grenadier battalion Zum alten Greif, fusilier battalions Putbus and Graf von Grimmen, and the Franzburg jaegers. In front you see the combined sharpshooter companies, looking suitably sharp, and the foot artillery company Stadt Stralsund.

On the right is General Graf Leberknödel (the Duke's son-in-law) at the head of the two regiments of Jaeger zu Pferd - Herzogin Katarin and Herr Friedrich.




As befits a project with an Old School feel, figures are by Scruby and Garrison, with various odd bods drafted into command roles. My particular thanks to Rob Young for providing out-of-catalogue Garrison figures in some haste (they are back in the catalogue now!) to help out when some of my intended Scruby figures failed the flash quotient test. Thanks also for the people who egged me on to do this in the first place.

I am confident that there are tales of glory ahead for these fellows. As for myself, I'm just waiting for the phone to ring - it will be Osprey wanting me to do a Men at War title on Napoleon's German Allies: Stralsund-Rügen.

3 comments:

  1. What splendid looking fellows! Are you not temoted to do a webpage on the Duchy, with no reference to the "imagi-" part, and see how long it is before references and links start cropping up in various web sites. Maybe even a wikipedia page linking to it with a quick reference to it as a fictional for protection.

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  2. Well, yes - I have thought about it a bit. I've already had a couple of contacts from people who were not sure whether this was a leg-pull, which is interesting. I've also had the rather scary experience of looking up the real history of Pommerania and the Confederation through Google, while I was doing a bit of research, and being directed back to my own blog, which is why I keep mentioning the 'imagi' bit to be on the safe side.

    One email I got was gently critical of my being so unambitious on the imagination side, which I accept. In order to make it easier for my fake history to hang together, I took real places (and events, and people) and changed a few details - the odd fake Peace Treaty makes a whale of a difference, for example. Hither Pommerania suddenly has a few years' break from being a Swedish territory and changes sides for a while - could have happened (maybe?), no harm done (maybe?). My view on the Confederation of the Rhine, in any case, is that it is difficult to invent anything more unlikely or contrived than was the reality. The idea of a bogus history website is amusing - very much so - but I couldn't sustain it, I don't think [lazy]. I'm also vaguely bothered by the sci-fi idea of unforeseen knock-on effects - accidentally changing real history - I might wake up one morning to find that Scotland is independent, but we all speak Spanish.

    Cheers

    Tony

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  3. Tony,

    now there is something to be proud of. Can't wait to see them in action, especially the battery...

    Pjotr

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