From MartijnN: 6mm Austrians in The Pit and under the Pendulum...

Of course, it had to turn 2021 before I managed to get another entry in. At this rate I probably won’t be able to get to the Snow Lord’s Altar, but we’ll see…  For the Pit of the Pendulum I am going to try to pull a Scrivvy.

I present you two Austrian brigades for my 1866 campaign in 6mm!

 

First heresy: yes, I know that the Austrians wore their grey overcoats in 1866 and that the brigade sporting their comfy and fashionable Kittel is more properly dressed for 1859. However, in this case I am not going to let these seven years bother me too much. After all, 6mm paints up rather fast but not by me and I really am going to use these Austrians for 1859 as well (where they will be fighting my -cough- 1870 French…).

Secondly, the Pit of the Pendulum. In 1815 Austria stood triumphant. The Austrian Chancellor Metternich dominated the Congress of Vienna and Austria was arguably the senior partner of the Seventh Coalition. The Holy Alliance seemed a guarantee for keeping the revolutionary tendencies in Europe at bay and Austria was confirmed as the foremost German nation.

Austria, however, proved the proverbial giant with feet of clay. Swoosh! In 1848-1849 it was rocked by the Honved, the Hungarian insurrection, which in the end could only be put down with the help of Russian troops. Austria repaid Nicholas I by remaining aloof  during the Crimean War, which did little to endear her to the Russians. Obviously, in 1866 the next Tsar (Alexander II) felt little inclination to come to the rescue. In the Seven Weeks War – swoosh! – the Austrians were humiliated by those upstart Prussians.

Of course, the pendulum would continue swinging swoosh, swoosh, until the demise of the Empire in the Great War, in which Austria definitely had become the junior partner…

Should Curt or his esteemed minions be unpersuaded by my plea, consider this. Another possibility for the Pit is something terrifying. Now the Austrians in 1866 were armed with the muzzle-loading Lorenz rifle. The Prussians had the Dreyse needle gun, which allowed them to unleash a veritable storm of bullets upon their enemies (the famous Schnellfeuer). To counter this, the Austrians relied on the so-called Stosstechnik, which in essence was the old-fashioned Napoleonic battalion column. I have tried to represent this on the bases, with two columns and only a few skirmishers; my Prussians are all in line with a solid skirmisher screen in front.

Now I am hard put to think of a more terrifying idea than that of trying to storm lines of Prussian infantrymen armed with modern breechloading weapons in dense columns. Needless to say, this Austrian tactic also led to a terrifying number of casualties.

So there you have it. I rest my case, Your Honour. 104 Baccus 6mm figures for a total of 52 points and hopefully another 20 for the Pit. Onward and downward!

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Cap'n Wednesday likes your 6mm vignette basing, he likes it a lot. It really brings the units to life to make them look like Regiments in action. Accordingly while he thinks the Pit claim is rather far fetched and unsubstantiated, he will award an extra 1 point per unit for the excellent dioramic look.