Reinforcements

Four Teutonic Halbebruder Sergeant-at-arms have been completed and eight additional Teutonic crossbowmen. These figures, along with fifteen cavalry were ordered to bolster my existing, meager Teutonic force, which was sorely lacking in man power. The cavalry are underway but may take some time as they are not an immediate priority. Also finished is the first of my baggage elements.

The 600th anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg/Grunewald

Some images from the anniversary reenactment of the battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald. According to the BBC, 200,000 spectators gathered in the sweltering summer sun to watch hundreds of reenactors.
Here is a related news article and here is the official web page.

168 days

And the last of the BTD figures finally showed up.

160 days and counting...

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your emails.

Please excuse the last part of your order, there should have been a note included. I had asked Mail Order to send the horses as soon as they could.

I have asked Mail Order to send the rest of your backorder together with the promised freebie.

Sorry again for the delay.

Cheers

John

BTD order

138 days and counting...

15 horses and four swordsmen arrived in battered condition and with a large amount of flash today, which means I'm only missing 8 HYW crossbowmen, a Faldskarmsjager motorbike and sidecar unit and 4 panzershrek troops (and the free figures offered as a consolation). There was no information pertaining to the rest of the order enclosed with the figures.

The good news is, I now have 16 cavalry figures, plus some knights and additional command cavalry elements, all ready for painting. Hopefully once I've finished preparing for RM6, I'll be able to find the time to catch up all my half finished projects.

Blog updated

I have just updated this blog by adding extra pages for such things as characters, glossary and maps. The new menu in the title bar makes it easier to find these things than trawling through the post labels and the addition of extra pages makes it easier for me to build up the blog.

130 days...

...since I placed my order with Black Tree Design and half the order has yet to arrive. Suffice to say I shall not be placing any more orders with BTD!

My original idea was for die Schwartzekreutz Brüderschafft to start with a big six player game meant to introduce all the potential players to the campaign. This game would take place on the same day as the Battle of Tannenberg. I scrapped this idea as the BTD figures have not turned up and I've grown frustrated waiting for them.

DSB is designed to be played at the drop of a hat anyway, so I modifed the concept slightly and off we went. The first game went well and we will almost certainly play a second game next week (11Feb) as our entire game schedule has had to shuffle to make way for real life considerations.

edited (9Feb) to add;

I've finally had a response from BTD;

Thank you for your emails, sorry for the delay in replying.

My sincere apologies for the delay with your backorder. I have asked Mail Order to sort it out for you right away. Unfortunately we have been plagued with inventory problems.

I would like to offer a couple of free packages of infantry figures for all the troubles. Please let me know what you would like (please include a few alternatives) and I will make sure they are added.

Thats about as good as its going to get I think, and I have to admit that free figures mollifies me greatly (I chose more from the early Hundred Years War range). Now we just have to wait and see if they turn up!

The State of the Order

The figures required to build my Teutonic contingent up to its desired size were ordered from Black Tree Design on 30' Sept.

These included;
15 cavalry in padded leather armour and kettle helmets.
8 crossbowmen in padded leather armour and kettle helmets.
4 swordsmen in padded leather armour and kettle helmets.

On Wednesday (25'Nov) 16 cavalry riders arrived, without horses. This is some what disapointing, but is (apparently) due to BTD having fallen behind in their stocks and new casts are pending. When these will arrive is any ones guess.

In the mean time, I have acquired wagon drivers for my baggage units, which will feature in some games, and I'm considering these hand gunners, plus some period artillery from Front Rank.

Apart from figures, I have also ordered two books for research. The first book I ordered (11Oct) was 'The Teutonic Knights: A Military History' by William Urban. It has yet to arrive as "there is a delay obtaining stock".

The second book I ordered was Osprey's Teutonic Knight, which has arrived and seems very good (as yet unread). I will almost certainly be buying more Osprey books in the new year.

The other Osprey titles I have my eye on are;

MAA 155 Knights of Christ
MAA 160 German Medieval Armies 1300–1500
MAA 310 German Medieval Armies 1000–1300
MAA 333 Armies of Medieval Russia 750–1250
MAA 367 Medieval Russian Armies 1250–1500
MAA 396 Medieval Scandinavian Armies I 1100–1300
MAA 399 Medieval Scandinavian Armies II 1300–1500
MAA409 the Hussite Wars 1419 -36
MAA436 The Scandinavian Baltic Crusades 1100–1500
MAA445 Medieval Polish Armies 966–1500
FOR11 Crusader castles of the Teutonic Knights I - The red-brick castles of Prussia 1230–1466
FOR19 Crusader castles of the Teutonic Knights II - The stone castles of Latvia and Estonia 1185–1560
CAM122 Tannenberg 1410 - Disaster for the Teutonic Knights

Naturally there are other Osprey books I'd like from the same period, but they don't have any direct connection to this campaign.

Yet another moif blog

No big surprises or secrets here, this blog will be about my plans for a skirmish campaign featuring the adventures of Lothar von Schöenberg, his brother Maximillian von Schöenberg and their friend and brother-in-arms Albrecht Mansfeld.


My plan is to build up a respectable sized force around the afore mentioned characters. With time, this should number around one hundred infantry (including archers), fifteen heavy cavalry (already order from BTD), the three knights and their immediate retainers (already acquired but as yet unpainted), plus baggage, camp followers and artillery (all acquired and in various stages of completion).

There is no dead line for this project, but nor do I expect it ready any time in the immediate future.