Tuesday 8 December 2009

New recruits

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Back in summer the Battle of Viehdorf was fought between the armies of Hetzenberg and Dunkeldorf-Pfühl. It was a sanguinary affair that saw much bravery on both sides, not least of which was displayed by the Rumtopft Dragoons in a sterling performance when they stemmed the advance of the Margraf's cavalry.

Will fought the battle by proxy for me as I was in the middle of immigration matters at the time. My thanks again to him. Now Xmas is drawing near, my lady wife has offered to buy me a unit for the Hetzenberg army. I have asked for some dragoon figures from Dayton Painting Consortium's RSM95 range so I can create the bold Rumtopft regiment for myself.

I show their planned uniform above, although I may add a little yellow trim around cuffs and facings. Of course, the battle honor of Viehdorf will be appended to their flag! The colors and heraldic insignia are satisfactory but I'm not sure about the shape. It strikes me as being more of a cavalry design than dragoon. Any thoughts?
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Work is still underway in completing the Chronicles. We've both been slowed up by post-Thanksgiving bugs these last two weeks but we should get the .pdf version out in time for Xmas - possibly the paperback version too.
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One of the websites I follow is that of the Edinburgh wargames club. A nice after action report of a SYW game fought by them can be found in their journal.

2 comments:

abdul666 said...

The 'bilobated' shape indeed marks the flag as a dragoons' guidon (a pointed, 'swallowtail' ending would be more fitting for hussars).
Historically the 'lobes' were more pronounced (and the upper & lower edges not strictly parallel): shape taken from David's NBA templates.

Now the Rumtopft DR may be a specially proud unit, fancying themselves as practically equal to 'true' cavalry / 'Horses' -perhaps they captured kettledrums in a famous incident?- and thus display a flag subtly reminiscent of a cavalry standard?

A J said...

Thanks for the template, Jean-Louis, I will use it to modify DR Rumtopft's guidon.

The regiment has a long history. They have the reputation of being good, stolid troops, lacking the dash of "true" cavalry but nevertheless they're reliable fellows who get the job done.

For many years they followed the regular dragoon doctrine, acting in the mounted infantry role. It's only recently that they have begun the transition to the true cavalry role. They certainly battered the Margraf's cavalry to a standstill at Viehdorf, and for that they can be justifiably proud. The presentation of a guidon of new design will reflect the accolades they won for their action.