
| Home | About me | Showcase | "Broadside" | Links |
The
Pils-Holstein Campaign, 1755.

Before
you go rushng off to an atlas to find Pils-Holstein, and before you start
calling travel companies to book your holidays in such a wonderful land, don’t
worry… because you won’t find it. It is a fictional country, along with
others such as Teutonburg-Fredonia, which I have created as the sort of states
that could easily have existed in

above: stylised sketch map of The Landgraviate of Pils Holstein, 1755.
Pils-Holstein
is primarily a rural land with just a few small towns. It is a territory rich in
raw materials for the production of the finest beer in
The
capital of Pils-Holstein is the fair city of
In the
picture, delegates from The Electorate of Teutonburg-Fredonia (in black uniform
coat) and from Ost-Freisland (pale blue coat) are introduced to The Grand
Marshall of Pils-Holstein by General Waldstein.
Two of The
Rottweiss Gardes, a company of whom are always on State Duty, are in traditional
ceremonial costume attending the doors to the Landgrave's State Room.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
A
potted Political outline for those who like such background
Allied forces:
The Ost Freisland Regt |
Brigadier
Battenburg on his horse Marzipan, accompanied by his dog Jethro |

above: light troops battle on the border fringes: Arquebusiers de Grassin skirmish with Pils Holstein Jagers (Kurtz Jagerkorps) and Prussian Hussars (Malachovski's Hussars)
French forces:
Les Mousquetaires |
Cuirassiers du Roi |
Bercheny's Hussars |
French Infantry Regt Picardie |
Dillon Irish Regt in French Service |
Regiment Normandie
|
French artillery |
Arquebusiers de Grassin |
The Duc d'Orly and his entourage are shown below:
![]() |
![]() |

Picture above shows: Bercheny Hussars, Cuirassiers du Roi, and Les Mousquetaires, cantering past a rural scene somewhere in the borderlands between France and Pils Holstein

above: French infantry regiments Picardie and Dillon open fire during a recent game, with Normandie Regt moving up in support.
The
Recently, Charles Grant visited, and as well as a full day game, we had a
fruitful planning session for our various activities, games, teasers and
campaigns for 2009.
The game, Sitzenschlecht, was a scenario I devised based on a game many of you will instantly recognise, I’m sure. The second outing of the rules mentioned above, and they seemed to work well again, having had a few tweaks on morale and light infantry firing.
Below, just a few of the 30+ pictures taken. Click to enlarge.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
I took the
role of The Duke of Brunswick, in command of the forces of The Electoral League
(an alliance of Prussia,
My brief
was to evacuate stores across the bridge, save as much of the army as possible,
and then blow the bridge to prevent pursuit, whilst Charles was to capture the
bridge intact.
Sadly, for
my dark blues, the Astrovians made a staggeringly brilliant debut (their first
volleys were quite devastating), and the French cavalry were totally dominant
against the lack-lustre Electoral horse. Even the Electoral bridge commander and
his company of engineers failed miserably, and after the 18 turns it took them
to successfully lay the charges to demolish the bridge once a large wagon train
had been safely evacuated, the charges failed to ignite… twice!
The Franco-Astrovian
force commander, Marshal General Dupont spent the evening celebrating victory,
whilst the Duke of Brunswick drowned his sorrows. Next morning, it is rumoured
that the latter felt like falling on his sword, whilst Marshal General Dupont
had a hearty breakfast and took a brisk stroll round the town in the fresh
autumnal sunshine, greeting the locals, and no doubt kissing babes in arms. A
worthy victor.
Take the Hill
We also recently played a scenario I called “Take the Hill” and this provided an opportunity to lay out the whole Pils Holstein collection and judge progress. As well as enjoying the vista, Charles thought the game so good (well, he did win!) that he decided it worthy of being written up as a “teaser” for a certain wargames magazine. So you’ll get to read all about it in Battlegames sometime soon.
Meanwhile here are just a few pics to whet the appetite...
The Allies take up position on the hill |
The French arrive |
French and Astrovians prepare to attack |
The game
also allowed us another “rules test”, and my adaptation of The Wargame to
multi based 54-figure battalions proceeds. I’m happy with most of the
mechanisms, and am now working on some ideas around the use of light troops, and
some downright heretical notions with regard to morale.
Update: Feb 2009
a few new pieces added to the collection...
|
|
Note limbered up version… one of my pet hates is seeing guns turned about “to represent being limbered” on the tabletop. I like to have limbers represented properly; probably because I find it hard to remember what I had for breakfast, let alone whether a gun is currently limbered, on the move, unlimbering or whatever. Having the whole ensemble modelled, and interchangeable, like this means I can clearly see the state of play, as it were.
Of course, in the 18th century, large artillery batteries were still very much things of the future. I am using a maximum of two grouped together in a battery, but also have guns operating individually.
When guns are deployed I also include a supply base to indicate the paraphernalia associated with an artillery piece. Bearing in mind the issues regarding groundscale and depth on the wargame table, I have kept the supply base relatively simple to represent that area of ground immediately behind the guns which would be full of powder kegs, shot, and other artillery clutter. My battalions in line have a frontage of 405mm, which would be around 130 yards giving a groundscale, very approximately, of 1cm = 3 yards. The depth of the gun base, and the supply base/ limber is 100mm, which represents approximately 30 yards in groundscale, and this seems entirely reasonable.
I was holding off from including any guard units so early in the development of the project, but decided “so what, let’s go for it”, and so here they are:
click to enlarge. |
If one can go “fleur de lys-blind” I think I did when painting the regimental flag!
The Battle of Amstenoy: Falkirk show, 9 May 2009
Before you rush off to your history books (or wikipedia, or even Google!) to find out about Amstenoy, this is a purely fictional encounter.
Regular readers of Broadside will already be familiar with the forces, but here's a recap:
The Electoral League, an alliance of Germanic states, including Prussia, Hesse-Kassel, Pils-Holstein and the Electorate of Teutonburg-Fredonia (the latter two being fictitious entities), will be pitted against a Franco-Astrovian force (The Astrovian Empire also being fictitious).
The Electoral forces, commanded by the highly confident, though perhaps less than competent, Prinz Albrecht of Pils-Holstein and Hanvora, are in a defensive position around the town of Amstenoy, with the centre of their line pivoting on a farm. The French and Astrovian army, commanded by The Duc d'Orly, a flambuoyant French aristocrat ('twas ever thus), has force-marched over the previous two days to launch an attack as the early morning mist begins to clear...
Firstly, thanks to the Falkirk club who made every effort to ensure the day went smoothly. Kenny looked positively nervous on the morning of the show, and I'm sure it must be one of those moments where you just hope a few people are actually going to turn up! But turn up they did, and by the end of the day the Falkirk lads were able to relax and reflect on a job well done.
Pictures from my Amstenoy game are below. They were taken just before the show opened, after which I didn't get the chance to take any more as I was chatting with all-comers to the table for the rest of the day, drawing breath only to take the odd swig of water! What was incredible was the number of people who came up and said they were regular visitors to the site... so "hi" to all of you. What was also very impressive (if a little worrying!) was that a number of people seemed to know the regiments intimately through seeing pictures on the site, and The Battenburg Regt came in for particular attention, being the favourite of so many!
click to enlarge pics...
The windmill managed to keep turning all day (note: it looks as if it is turning very fast in the pictures, because the shots were taken wth a long exposure time to help with light/ depth of field and all that other good photo-technical stuff... so don't think the table was about to take off!)
Unable to get away from the table (though Charles was very good and did offer to stand guard if I should want a break, but actually I was loving every moment of sharing the hobby with so many interested people), I couldn't take in any of the other games on display, but the day was made all the more enjoyable by being surrounded by some great traders -Bill and Hazel of Musketeer Miniatures; Trevor and Paula of Coritani; Dave Ryan and Ann of Partizan Press; as well as being a only an artillery bounce stick from the TSS and Dave Thomas stands. One might say I was enfiladed by temptation!!
It was great to meet up with so many pals from the wargaming "scene" in Scotland. At one point in the day, there was a "Writers' Block" at my table... Angus Konstam, Charles S Grant, and Iain Gale all deep in conversation with Dave Ryan. A veritable phalanx of pen wielders!
From what I hear, there was a decent attendance, and certainly there was a steady flow of people coming to the table all day. So I am sure the show was a success for all concerned.
For my part; all in all, a terrific and exhausting day. Do it again? Yep. See you next year I hope.
| Home | About me | Showcase | "Broadside" | Links |