RE. Pontoons, again

 I forgot to include a little explanation of my choice of size for the pontoon models.

I ended with card models 10cm long. These looked ok on the waggons and two filled my 'rivers' nicely. 

To further justify this choice I should also show this photo also.

No paddle, nor a creek, luckily.

I made a model in the same scale as the figures - 40mm, or about 1/36.

Then  made a model at the ground scale of 1mm to the metre/pace/yard.

The 'true scale model was obviously to tiny and the figure-scale boat would be ok for a diorama but a bridge or waggon train using them would have blotted out my wargame table.

Hence the 'practical' choice of a 10cm pontoon. Big enough to look realistic, small enough to be used on the table.

The waggon started with a pair of horses but also got 'rationalised' down to a single one. 

Workshop : pontoon waggon and pontoon.

WAR WAGGONS

The sinews of war in the age of musket, pike and sword ran on wheels. The wheels of supply waggons which had to roll or everything else would have stopped. Powder, shot, charcoal, flour mills, provisions, fodder, shoes etc. all trundled behind the army to keep it fighting.
waggon and supplies.

                                              Just a few of the waggons accompanying an army

                                                                    (after Goransson)

In the Swedish army the commissariat waggons were known as 'rust waggons' - rust derived from the German for 'equipment/tools' - the Danish army knew such support waggons as 'corpse waggons'.

                                                       Not a jolly load (Russia, Great War)

The greatest of Marlborough's victories, Blenheim, relied on his army marching up the Rhine and over to the Danube in order to knock Bavaria out of the war and save Vienna. This distance was 250 miles or so and had to be covered speedily. Therefore Marlborough made supply depots in advance of his campaign and kept a veil of secrecy over the whole operation so that the French were caught off guard and could not stop him before he arrived at the Danube.

                                                          The March to the Danube

                                                     from WARhistoryONLINE.com

The march could not have been accomplished with the usual enormous supply train and commissariat following on the heels of the army so minimal supplies were taken along and troops were resupplied en route.


"As we marched through the country of our Allies, commissars were appointed to furnish us with all manner of necessaries for man and horse ... the soldiers had nothing to do but pitch their tents, boil kettles and lie down to rest. Surely never was such a march carried on with more order or regularity , or with less fatigue to man and horse"
wrote Captain Parker of the Royal Irish Regiment.

                                                  Idyllic army camp life ..when all is well

All the 'necessaries' had to be emplaced by waggons and achieving this on the horrendous roads of the time was an enormous achievement. Roads were really only 'ways' or commonly used routes, with no paving and little formal maintenance.

                                  The Great North 'Road' circa 1700 - more like a ploughed field

     

                       'I really don't know how we would manage without the four wheel drive, dear.'


An army used its pioneers, engineers, labourers and contract workmen to better any seriously problematic stretches.

                                          Join the army they said, see the world they said,,,

Daniel Defoe recounts a trip from Rochdale to Halifax in 1725..


..the mark or face of a road on the side of the hill ... but it was so narrow, and so deep a hollow place on the right, whence the water descending from the hills made a channel at the bottom, and looked as the beginning of a river, that the depth of the precipice and the narrowness of the way look'd horrible to us..


..We thought now we were come into a Christian country again, and that our difficulties were over; but we soon found ourselves mistaken in the matter; for we had not gone fifty yards beyond the brook and houses adjacent, but we found the way began to ascend again, and soon after to go up very steep, till in about half a mile we found we had another mountain to ascend, in our apprehension as bad as the first, and before we came to the top of it, we found it began to snow too, as it had done before.


(The horror..the horror..definitely work for pioneers and engineers !)


Another key factor was to use gigs and tumbrils - two-wheeled carts

                                            Britain's selection of carts - not much different in 1700

Tumbrils / tumbrels have had a bad press due to the Frog Revulsion. They were typically also used for cartage of 'fertiliser' at muck-spreading time, making their use for carting aristo's even more piquante for the mad knitters.

                                       'Honestly, my dear I am not scared,' tis the tumbril that reeks.'
                                         (Mr Dickens has not sued, yet, and Mr Carton cannot. Ed.)


Rather than large four-wheeled waggons like pantechnicons, wains, dreys etc.

                                                   Eightenth century, Long AND wide load.

In addition, horses were hitched in tandem to make a slimmer vehicle- Waggons with several pairs of heavy horse could be of monstrous size and weight,

Not one for the narrow ways..

easily stuck in mud or bad going,

Whilst a large-wheeled cart with two horses in tandem could get by obstacles and traffic in bad weather much more easily.

                                               'Daisy and Daisy, give me your answer, do..'


I had to make some supply waggons, so sought the simplest variety. The footprint should be small because the scale is 40mm. Therefore a one-horse, two-wheel waggon is the solution. As per the Blenheim tapestry of the Battle of Wynendæl.

 

Less one horse, just right.

The carts on the Wyndendæl tapestry at Blenheim are 'just right' for their purpose. Large wheels conquer the ruts and stones more easily than small. The waggon is as light as possible whilst stil keeping the load secure. The load is preserved fom sun and rain by a tarpaulin The carter walks or rides on a horse side-saddle if he needs. The horses are in tandem so the whole vehicle is not filling the way.


Here was my prototype.


The wheels were a problem - had to find them on ebay - 40-50mm was ok. Laser cut ornamenetal thingies did the job.


Carters could be converted from Seven Years War figures.


Why does everyone want to get me? :(

The waggon bodies are made from scrap wood and coffee stirrers. Base size is 45mm by 100mm.



So fill them with' unspecified supplies' hiding under tarpaulins and off we go !






Army waggons may have been painted in regulation colours and have tarpaulins with specific patterns or markings.





My waggons should do for any army so I have made a random group, probably of civilian contractors' vehicles. Wonder how they will do if they get close to the firing line?



The sinews of war.

SCALES AND ORGANISATION - THE HYDRA : HEAD ONE

How to organise figures into units on the table that represent their real counterparts in a believable and -more or less - accurate manner? This is a nutty problem.

How to represent a representation of a hypthetical model?

Up to now I had used bases 60mm wide with 4 foot or 3 horse, a fairly common representation used for 25 or 28mm scales. 

photo - wargameinnovations.co.uk

There has also been a tendency to mount figures in 'groups' or 'blocks' to form arbitrary elements which avoid committment to specific scales. 

photo from wargamemiscellany@blogspot

I wanted to use some accurate representation but ended with an arbitrary grouping of 4 foot or 3 horse to stand for a 'company'. Two companies of musketeers and one of pikemen plus a command element gave me a battalion. Three companies of horse with a command element also gave me a squadron.

In this way a battalion can stand in line or column or square. A squadron in line or column.

..or line..

There were several causes of dissatisfaction with this scheme.

1) The battalion appears as a pike block with sleeves of shot rather than a pike-reinforced musket line. 

2) The pike base has no shot and the musketeer bases have no pikes.

3) The horse are rather dense, with a relatively short frontage.

4) If I wanted to incorporate shallow formations of shot there was little scope.

So, with nails bitten back, eyes red with poring over books and my remaining hair writhed out by frustrated fingers, I resolved to do something, anything to solve and remove  this unbudging  persistant irk.

..only, with clothes on.

The Toons of Pont (Part II)

 The pontoon train began to take shape. The basic waggons are to carry two boats. 

Each is accompanied by a supporting waggon with rails and decking and some workmen.

We dig dig dig dig, dig dig dig .. and more bloody digging...

This gives a suitable train which does not take too much table space but is cumbersone enough make a general think twice before sending it into a crowded front line.

The bases ended up being 45mm by 100mm, the pontoon waggons are still 120mm here. 

RULES

The pontoon bridge can be deployed onto a river but not onto a rivulet. Rivulets require fascines or trestle bridges.

1. No 'suitable place' is necessary but pontoon bridges cannot be used at 'rocky clefts' or near rapids or waterfalls. They may be put over a ford.

2. The following actions each require a full un-interrupted turn and must be accomplished in series.

a.  Boat waggon drives to river bank where bridge will be erected.

b. The boats are placed in the river - 4 workmen must be adjacent to the waggon at this point.

c. The boat waggon is replaced by the timber waggon.

d. The main span of the bridge is placed. 4 workmen need to be adjacent.

e. The ramps are placed. 4 workmen need to be adjacent.

f. Waggon and workmen retire. 

Models and figures can now use the bridge.

The bridge span has an artillery resistance of  6. Each boat 3. Boats can be repaired by two workmen-turns of effort. The bridge is wooden and so can be fired, burning irreparably after 3 turns of fire.

Six turns seems along time in a game, but often the bridges will be in place already as a game starts. 

My version of Goransson's pontoon column.

Next - the waggons of war.

Everybody's Digging It

 I was just last evening painting (not yet finished) some 'workmen'. They are simple conversions from Prince August artillerymen.

Who has the best job?

Today I get a circular from Helion that the Sardinian/Piedmontese book by David Wilson is out.

I look over there and, surprise! The illustrations have the same style as Prince August use and lo and behold there is a labourer illustrated - somewhat similar methinks..

If you live long enough coincidences start popping up everywhere..

Anyway, the book is ordered..more inspiration, hopefully.

p.s. Digging is culture..

https://youtu.be/dIzJgbNANzk

PONTOON, WITH A TWIST

Pontoons were developed from a voluminous undergarment which could be filled with air and used to support a wooden bridge. Most people reject this controversial theory. 

(Wookydisambiguation alert: pantaloons? Ed.)

"Come on boys! Who will be first across?"

In fact, pontoons are light barges floated on water,  to support a wooden bridge or other structure.

The name derives from the Latin 'ponto', a ferryboat, which derives from pons, or bridge.

OMG, Not THAT ferryboat!

The boats used are typically canoes, an ad hoc assemblage of light craft or blunt-ended, shallow- draught punts/barges.

Altogether  too lackadaisical approach to pontoon bridge building at Cambridge..

The oldest European reference to a pontoon bridge is Xerxes' bridge of boats used to cross the Hellespont in  480BC as described by Herodotos (7.36 ff).

Xerxes was altogether more serious about pontoon bridges

By 1700 military pontoon bridges had evolved to an efficient system which remained basically unchanged until the late 19th century.

American Civil War pontoon bridge 

The pontoons/boats were flat-bottomed, blunt-ended barges. They were of light construction and whilst of shallow draught they had great bouyancy in order to help support the bridge and the oil casks and ham hocks driven over them by rampaging armies.

ACW pontoon boat

The pontoons were anchored side-by-side across the river. Anchors being set up-stream and cables fore and aft  kept the barges on station. 

Pontoon bridge cross-section (after Chandler )

Long beams were set across the pontoons' thwarts, extending to the adjacent vessels. Then plankwork was set on at right angles along the bridge's length. A side-rail could be added to taste. At each end a ramp was secured to the river bank.

Pontoon bridge plan (after Chandler)

The barges were lightened and made more durable by covering the hulls with tinned metal sheeting, leading to them being referred to as 'tin boats'. This way the woodwork could be made thinner and lighter, and reduced any tendency for a barge to get waterlogged or leak. One or two leaking barges would disrupt the bridge structure and make it difficult to cross.

The point of the military pontoon bridge circa 1700 was that the bridge was set up at speed in an unexpected location or to replace demolished permanent bridges.

Hastily made bridges at siege of Bouchain 1711

The engineers or workmen - usually civilian contractors - were up at the front the evening before battle and set the required bridges in place - including access. It was often the case that work continued as the battle started. The contractors were well-motivated, by money and patriotism, or maybe, gin.

Suitably fortified with akvavit, Arborian engineers construct a pontoon bridge.
(After Göransson)

Now, the nations of the Cold Sea required pontoon bridges. This gave several problems.

1) 40mm scale means space on the wargame table is at a premium.

2) A lot of models gathering dust whilst they wait to be called upon is undesireable.

3) A lot of models to buy or make, which will rarely be used, is undesireable.

REALITY VERSUS PRACTICALITY

One thing I am not a fan of is the idea that a working wargame set-up should be constructed like a model railway or doll's house, with every detail rendered accurately. This is a diversion and excessive.

A pontoon train is a vast and complex thing. In 40mm it would take up a quarter of the table - say, 10 pontoons and the associated waggons and men to deploy them.

A small Arborian pontoon bridging column
which is something like 150m long (Goransson)

The question is,  how to scale it down?

My wargame terrain is made closer to the figure scale rather than the ground scale.

The ground scale would produce pontoons 10 mm or so long which would obviously look silly with my 40mm stuff. A 40mm pontoon, on the other hand, is 20cm or so long and far too large. 

My river sections are 60mm wide - meaning 60 meters or so for a sizeable river. This means I have 60 mm in which to set more than one barge-width in order to produce a convincing pontoon bridge. One boat does not a pontoon bridge make. On the other hand 5 or ten boats would mean I have to use rivers 30cm or more wide which ruins the table.

"Sacre Bleu, Mon Empereur! Let's admit this is too big and too complicated for the table."

My solution is to use a pontoon boat about 10 cm long so that in 40mm scale it still looks like a boat!

If this has the usual proportions the beam becomes about 2cm which means two hulls can sit side-by side on my river sections. This gives a a reasonable suggestion of the presence of a pontoon bridge. 

The pontoons get constructed from card, glue and paint at negligible cost. 

Then the bridge sections can be made from a sliver cut off some waste wood, along with access ramps. Again, at negligible cost.

Note that I used simple construction and did not add any cables, wooden supports or even side-rails for the bridge. Painted, it still looks fine even without the rivets and wood-grain.

The last detail is consider how the bridge gets into place. It needs a waggon of some sort. A four-wheel waggon requires four 40mm scale wheels etc. It also looks a bit unbalanced with four horses. Ergo I choose a two-wheel cart or 'timber bob' style carriage for the pontoons, which could also be stacked onto the carriage. Rather like Göransson's illustration.

Swedish pontoon waggon c. 1700 after Göransson

(pictures from   http://www.scalemodelhorsedrawnvehicle.co.uk/(David%20Wray).htm)

See also photo above for ACW carriage.

Two horses, a driver, and a group of workmen completes the pontoon bridge unit.

I home-cast a few men, wheels and two horses (maybe only 1 is needed, I will have to see how it looks) and built the rest from rubbish.

Another rubbish bridge

Result : the pontoon 'bridging column' which becomes standard for the nations of  The Cold Sea. 

The element is about 15cm long which equates to 150 metres ground scale - similar to Goransson's illustration. It does not fill the table but can still get in the way if not carefully managed!

The scaling problem is solved by accepting a compromise scale and then, by making sure the model has essential recogniseable characteristics of what it represents, we arrive at a wargame table solution. A bigger and more detailed model is not necessary while the model fits into my wargame table milieu, which is a 40mm figure scale and 1/1000 ground scale.