Thursday, 6 February 2025

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.



Wednesday, 5 February 2025

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.

Friday, 31 January 2025

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.


Friday, 24 January 2025

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.