The Hungarians are up to something.....

A message from our spy in Vienna....he has intercepted this intelligence about Hungarian troops massing on the Trans Syldavian border.

Gruss Gott!

The Hungarian Government is sending 2 battalions of Szekely Grenz infantry from Transylvania to the Serbian border. Each battalion has six company of 140 light infantrymen (16 marksmen with rifles) against the Serbian Rebels (The fools cannot tell the difference between Trans Syldavians and Serbians). These are trained light infantry, the same veteran troops, as our own Serb Grenz infantry. They will also send a battalion of line infantry from the Don Miguel regiment, veteran troops, all Hungarians, loyal to the new goverment. And a battery of 6pdr guns, with newly recruit volunteer students crew. The Home Guard (nemzetor) organisation is very slow, and they are short of muskets and uniforms, we do not expect this force earlier than March.

From the Capital (Buda) they send a battalion of Red caps volunteer infantry as well, highly motivated but green troops. The Hungarians are calling them Honved (National Guard), be careful with the battalion commander, he is an ex Austrian captain, called Janos Damjanich (Jovan Damjanić his real serb name). He is a Serb, but he is a more Patriotic Hungarian than the real Hungarians, he wants to kill all the Serbs, to that end he will kill himself as well, just to be sure the whole nation is destroyed. This traitor rebel dog is very skillful, and the Red caps are ready to die for him. He had served in Italy as a Grenadier Captain, against the Italian rebels.

The Hungarians are starting to mobilise the Transylvanian Szekely Hussars, and this traitor Damjanich has a company of Hungarian Betyar (Brigand and Highwayman), they are irregular murders, fighting for the New Government. They have amnesty to be a volunteer, they are very good to plunder and raid against villages, hang them all Sahib!

Good bless You Sir, when I have more information, I will let You know.

Regards

Jusuf

Ps: The Ulans are not too keen to fight for the Hungarian Goverment, so just let them leave, don`t attack them!

The Chauchat Redemption

For some time I have had a Problem...my Greek WW1/1920's Byzantia Evzones need Chauchat gunners, and no-one makes the figure. However, I then found out that Gripping Beast's New moon range does headless Chauchat gunners, so all that remained was to find Evzone heads (I had none spare to hack off existing troops).

Enter the Perry's American Civil War Zouave Officer  set, which I picked up second hand for my 1848 project. It has lots of heads, and it seemed one Zouave tasselled cap looked a lot like the Greek Pharaon cap - well, near enough - so, on they went (picture above). Bit of filing to talke away the puttees and presto - believable Evzone chauchat gunners.

Next are rifle grenadiers....

Interestingly, although the Chauchat had a poor reliability reputation in the mud of the Western front, it was found to be pretty useful in the dryer regions the Greeks operated in.

(The Perry officer set truly is the Gift That Keeps on Giving - it has provided officers, standard bearers and drummers for my balkan/turkic style 1848 army units (as well as the other "straight" bodies being converted to artillerymen with tassled caps - will put some up at Xmas when I finish them)

Imagi-Notions

I have just finished painting this Reaper Miniatures figure as the 2,000 year old Egyptian Priestess Ayesha (aka She Who Must Be Obeyed) from the Rider Haggard novels, to head up my Darkest Africa/Lost World army for Victorian Sci/Fi and Fantasy gaming. It also explains my tardiness in completing my 1848* and 7YW projects, but She appears in my first game of Kings of War next week, and a game in the hand.....

Nothing to do with the Imagi-Nations I know, but she leaves other things open to the imagination :)

* First game in a mini campaign in January, watch this space for revolutionary activity!