At its simplest and most honest this section is all about the flaunting of toy armies. The researching, collecting and occasional use of these armies has providing many MANY hours of joy to von Peter himself. Just ask the good Fraulien von Peter herself if you don't believe these words! It is hoped that you may also derive some pleasure from these same armies of toys.

To the knowledge of von Peter himself none of these armies is yet complete. Wargaming is like that really.

As units or figures are completed and added to the various collections then the aim is to update them here on these pages.

Click on the picture or text of an army to travel to more detailed information for that army.

Napoleonics - 28mm

Anecdotally Napoleonic gamers come with a strong wiff of the megalomania about them. von Peter's biggest collection of figures is his 28mm Napoleonics. Surprise!

And rather than restrict himself to one or maybe two armies von Peter himself has ... well ... more than one or two! Why restrict oneself when there are so many great looking armies available?

The 1813 liberation of Germany campaign is the favourite. Historically both sides win and both sides loose and there are plenty of national armies trudging around central Europe.

In the main the armies have been built based on actual orders of battle (oob) from the period after the summer armistice albeit from differing dates. They are not necessarily gamed as per the historic oob but it soothes the brain of von Peter himself to collect them this way.

Each army tends to be sourced from a single manufacturer and painted by a single painter so as to retain an internal consistency that von Peter himself finds pleasing. For consistency across the armies figures from Calpe Miniatures and Front Rank Figurines are favoured. They mix together well being of a similar stature, von Peter himself likes the sculpts, they are cleanly cast, and von Peter himself finds them easier to paint than some of the competing product lines.

First up the individual national armies are presented and then further down some explanation / justification / excuses for the way things are.

The good guys ... freeing the Napoleonic world from French tyranny and that Corsican chappy ... one battle at a time ...

You can't have good guys without some bad guys to make them the good guys ... the French and their minions ...

And because not all of figures on the table top necessarily need to be of a psychopathic and/or homicidal nature ...

And because some people are of a curious turn of mind when it comes to the local basing regime ...

Seven Years War - 28mm

von Peter himself commenced his wargaming journey while at secondary school. He then went to university - yes they'll let just about anyone in! - and the usual distractions in the life of a young man almost completely removed the sickness of wargaming as a pasttime. Freedom was all but obtained but once full time work had commenced, a first home purchased and life in general slowed down the old hankering came back. von Peter himself was apparently not cured after all!! A quick dalliance with 6mm Napoleonics was endured - if I was to do it again I would do it quite differently - and then two things happened. An interest in the Seven Years War sprouted and the discovery that a company in Auckland was selling SYW figures.

The company was Military Miniatures - long since mutated into Battlefront of Flames of War fame - and they were casting Front Rank Figurines under licence. Some basic research followed and the first SYW Prussians and Austrians - because really they were the two main antagonists! 😇 - were ordered. A small diversion with Hanoverian and French would follow later but in retrospect they should probably have just been more Prussians and Austrians.

Classic Piquet rules were used to adjudicate our games and for a while there was quite the group of local SYW gamers though they had the distressing habit of collecting the periphery armies - British, French and Russians. 😇  It very well may be that the SYW Prussians and Austrians are the most used of von Peter's collections

Unit sizes were small as the idea was to play out larger battles - and to expedite the creation of our armies - but perhaps some of the feeling of a linear battle was lost as a result.

von Peter himself revelled in the research into the uniforms of the regiments and their sometimes trying/tragic histories. Regiments were selected not based upon any historic order of battle but rather because they had somehow attracted the interest of von Peter himself. It could have been their uniform, their flags or perhaps a notable success or fail on the battlefield.

Finally should anyone have any interest in the Seven Years War in Europe then the various books on the subject by Christopher Duffy come most highly recommended.

Austrians

The army of the Empress-Queen Maria Theresa of Austria was the main Prussian foe in the Seven Years War. In the early years try as he might Frederick II could not knock them out of the war and later the tables turned somewhat.

Prussians

Under Frederick II - aka Frederick the Great (Friedrich der Große) or "The Old Fritz" ("Der Alte Fritz") - the Prussian Army performed prodigies during the Seven Years War. But by the end of the war fighting a vastly outnumbering coalition it was only with a little luck - the death of Elizabeth the Great of Russia - that Prussia survived and the pre war status quo was effectively the result.

WORK IN PROGRESS

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