Animation Anker GK-NF 16 Wasserwerk

Das Abfotografieren einer Bilderserie beim Abbau von Ankergebäuden ist gar nicht so aufwändig, und wenn man dann mal raushat wie man die Bilder mit fortlaufenden Nummern im Filenamen versorgt, geht das Erstellen einer Videoanimation eigentlich auch recht schnell.

Deshalb nach dem Erstlingsversuch hier gleich eine zweite Animation, diesmal das Wasserwerk aus GK-NF 16.

Ich wäre dankbar für Feedback:

Ist es bei hochformatigen Motiven wie dem Wasserwerk statthaft, die Fotos und damit auch die Animation im Hochformat zu machen oder sollte man trotzdem das internetfreundlichere Querformat nehmen?

Bei meinen ersten Animationen habe ich immer gleichzeitig mehrere Gebäudeteile hochwachsen lassen. Das ist kurzweiliger, bewegter und animiert zum mehrfach-Anschauen, aber ich finde es auch etwas unruhig und unfokussiert. Ich überlege beim nächsten Mal immer einen Gebäudeteil auf einmal zu bearbeiten, damit man mit den Augen darauf verweilen kann.

Anker: GK-NF 16 Wasserwerk

In between tabletop games with Ankerstein terrain (e.g. here) I've picked an original design from the GK-NF 16 box which doesn't make sense on a gaming table (because it would not stand alone, does not fit the 18th century and has the wrong scale for 30mm flats, anyway), the Municipal Waterworks.

As an industrial, functional building it is a nice change from the (neo-)classical churches and villas which dominate the original Richter designs - in a similar spirit as some later Anker builders' designs like the apartment building, the government offices or the grain storage.

This building uses up nearly all of the larger wall stones, nicely segmented into white and red building pieces. It does not try to use up all of the smaller stones in useless ornamentation, or the steeper roof tiles just for the sake of using them, and I appreciate this self-limitation. The most striking feature is the high water tower.

Let's start with the foundation. The interesting design aspect here is the 1/8th difference between the lowest stone layer and the rest of the building.

Here are the two entry portals, the highest layer of the right wing before building the roof, and the white ground floor of the left wing.

The main building's roof has a very unusual bottom layer with five 1/4th cube high partial layers mixed up. 

Here is the first stone layer on top of the large wooden beams that connect the building walls, with parts of 1/4th, 1/2 and one cube height.

And this is the first smooth surface at 5/4th cube heights above the wooden beams. Most, but not all of the small stones used here are 1/4th height stones 72, 70, 64, and 69.

And here is the complete building in all its glory (and all its gory background bookshelves, sorry...).

For some reason I ran out of red stones 19 long before completing the tower, and cheated by using pairs of stone 210.

I really like the effect of having two very different, but very nice and generous entry portals leading into the two wings of the building.

Rear view, including the neat little garden fence on the side

Side view of the main building with the "garden" - now that I look at it I should at least have put some model lawn and a few trees in there...

30 mm flats: Zinna / Piquet roll call

There are still a few units on the painting table, but I want to do a quick inventory of what I have, will soon have and should order next to build the Zinna OoB.

I will also note the unit defaults for Piquet, both for games with generic values where same size armies are played, and for more historical games with unit qualities reflecting the lay historian's prejudice.

Prussians

Unit type	Piquet default	Piquet histo-rical	# painted / in process	OoB so far	Comments
Elite Infantry	12-8-8	12-8-8	2	1x Willemey  1x Burgsdorff	Grenadiers
Line infantry	10-8-6	10-8-6	4	1x Hoffmann 1x Salmuth 2x Hessen-Kassel	Fusiliers
Light infantry	10-8-6	10-8-6	1/1	2x Wunsch	Frei infantry
Light cavalry	x-6-6	x-6-6	1	Malachovsky	Hussars
Medium cavalry	x-8-6	x-8-6	1	Plettenberg	Dragoons
Heavy cavalry	x-10-6	x-10-6	0		Cuirassiers
Artillery	...	...	0

ToDo:

• Brigade / wing staff
• Artillery

Empire

Unit type	Piquet default	Piquet histo-rical	# painted / in process	OoB so far	Comments
Elite Infantry	12-8-8	10-8-8	1/1	2x converged Grenadiers	Grenadiers
1st Line infantry	10-8-6	10-8-6	1	1x Kurpfalz Guards
2nd Line infantry	10-8-6	8-8-6	5	4x Kurmainz 1x Hohenlohe
Light infantry	10-8-6	8-8-8	0/2	2x Karlstädter-Oguliner	Grenzer
Light cavalry	x-6-6	x-6-6	0
Medium cavalry	x-8-6	x-6-6	1	Ansbach	Dragoons
Heavy cavalry	x-10-6	x-8-6	1	Hohenzollern	Cuirassiers
Artillery	...	...	0

ToDo:

• Brigade / wing staff
• Artillery
• Remaining infantry (6 batallions)
• Trautmannsdorf Cuirassiers
• Szechenyi Hussars

Hessen-Kassel (earlier von Dossow) Fusiliers

Here's a full new unit for my Zinna tabletop/flats project marching off the paint desk, this time the two batallion von Dossow Fusilier regiment (later numbered as IR 45).

As always, you can click on the pictures to see a larger version.

Here they come marching on the table, 1st batallion with the white colonel flag in the foreground, 2nd batallion in the back.

Line formation by batallion (sorry, wrong formation, 1st bat. should be on the right, of course...)

And this is the setup as a single 1st batallion in something like 1:10 or 1:15 scale, with a nearly complete (four out of five) colours troup in the centre.

Stop Motion Animation Ankerstein "Stadtbefestigung"

Nach dem erfolgreichen Tabletopspiel vor Falk Gundel's Stadtbefestigung hab ich beim Abbau Fotos geschossen und eine Animation daraus zusammengebaut.

Der Hintergrund ist furchtbar, und das Gefummle in Shotcut (einschließlich Umbenennen aller Fotos in aufeinanderfolgende Zahlen als Filename, damit Shotcut die Sequenz erkennt) war ein echt nerviges Geduldsspiel, aber prinzipiell funktioniert das. In der Softwareindustrie nennt man so was "Proof of Concept" - es geht, muss im richtigen Leben aber ordentlicher gemacht werden.

Trotzdem lustig, also hier das Ergebnis:

Flats workbench update

Currently on the painting table:

• 3 companies à 4 men each for the second converged Grenadier batallion of the Empire, half painted. From left to right: Baden-Baden, Hessen-Darmstadt (with Prussian style Grenadier caps), Kurpfalz Guards
• the first Austrian Grenzer light infantry, Karlstädter-Oguliner
• the second half of the Prussian Hessen-Kassel Fusilier regiment

Top row: half painted Empire Grenadiers. Middle: the first Grenzer Austrian light infantry. Bottom: Prussian Fusiliers.

And here are the next minis waiting to be glued to the painting sticks.

Next up: Empire and Austrian general staff, and more light infantry

Ankerstein-Gebäude als Backdrop für Tabletop

Nachdem mir ein erstes Tabletopspiel mit Zinnfiguren und einer Stadtbefestigung aus Ankersteinen viel Spaß gemacht hat, hier eine Liste von weiteren gebäuden, die man in einer Ecke oder sogar in der Mitte eines Tabletop-Tisches mit 30mm Flachfiguren als Deko verwenden könnte.

Manche dieser Entwürfe sind Original Richter aus den Vorlagenbüchern der Baukästen, andere sind Eigenentwürfe.

Alle Links gehen zu ankerstein.center (Login benötigt).

GK-NF 14

• Stadtbefestigung (Eigenentwurf Falk Gundel) - passt sehr schön in eine Ecke des Tisches, kann sogar Ausgangspunkt für beteiligte Einheiten sein wie in diesem Spiel
• Wallfahrtskirche (Richter Original NF14) - gut einzeln in der Mitte des Tisches platzierbar

GK-NF 16

• Palais (Eigenentwurf Falk Gundel) - imposantes Herschaftshaus mit großzügiger Eingangstreppe, sehr repräsentativ. Kann als reines Geländestück in die Mitte des Tisches gestellt werden, und/oder mit eine Park als scher zugängliches Gelände kombiniert werden)
• Lustschlösschen (Richter Original NF16) - könnte in die Mitte des Tisches gestellt werden oder auch als eine Art Stadtmauer in eine Tischecke 
• Pferdestall eines Landguts (Richter Original NF16) - mit Außenmauer für Tischecke, die auch spiegelverkehrt an der anderen Gebäudeseite angebaut werden kann
• Burg (Eigenentwurf Crasemann) - beeindruckendes Modell mit großem Palas, kleineren Türmen und kleinem Innenhof, kann auch bespielt werden
• Burg (Eigenentwurf Falk Gundel) - kleinerer Maßstab, mehrere Tore, bespielbar
• Stadttor (Eigenentwurf Fritsche) - sehr hoch und wuchtig, bespielbar, aber vom Thema her was für den Tischrand

GK-NF 18

• Kirchenruine (CVA Hartjes) - viel umbaute Fläche und sehr länglich. Teilweise bespielbar.

Slow Mo Piquet: game details 2 continued

This post continues the blow-by-blow report from a Piquet game using a nice Ankerstein city fortification as backdrop. Part 1 of the details can be found here, a photo narrative is here. 

last Prussian pip: turn maneuver.

Empire turn melee resolution and officer check, ending the phase.

Turn 5, phase 5, roll 1: 12:7, 4:1 pips
Empire don't bother to use the Officer Check (saving their few remaining morale chips rather than rallying the disordered Grenadiers).
Turn elite reload and reload the Grenadiers. I'm not 100% sure that units in melee can reload but will allow it based on my understanding that melee was not a prolonged affair but just a charge and a test which unit would draw back and keep its distance.
Then turn Musket reload, and fire the Grenadiers (to be able to use the reload next roll, I hope that's ok...). Roll D10 up1 point blank, d2 against woods, d2 target skirmishing for D4 vs D6, 3:4 no effect.
Prussians turn the cav move that will let the Dragoons move out of town.

Roll 2: 13:14
The Dragoons move, making way for the Grenadiers behind them.

Roll 3: 14:10, 3:1 pips
Empire reload the Grenadiers, turn two duds.
Prussians turn another cav move.

Roll 4: 16:6, 7:3 pips
Empire turn Cav move, and bring up the Cuirassiers to form line. The reduced Dragoons stay put in the rear.
Turn another cav move, use it per special 7YW march-to-battle house rule to form line.
Turn Musket reload, fire the Grenadiers at the forest again D4:D6, 1:5 for no effect and reload.
Prussians send the Dragoons to the right flank, turn a useless musket reload and another cav move. Compared to their mounted comrades, the Prussian Grenadiers are still acting real sleepily...

Phase 6, roll 1: 14:1, 9:4 pips
Empire (with only two cards left...) turn move in III/IV, and cav melee to end the turn and waste 7 perfectly good pips...

Turn 6
Reset sequence decks by just reshuffling (no cards removed yet)

Phase 1, roll 1: 13:8, 4:1
Empire turn a dud and maneuvre to form line with the Kurpfalz Guard.
Then turn musket reload (but are still out of range).
Prussians turn Maneuvre.

Roll 2: 8:19, 3:6 pips
Prussian Dragoons form line, turn inf move and march out the Burgsdorf Grenadiers (sharing one pip despite all the early morning confusion as they march behind the cavalry other past the Prussion HQ). Then, at long last, the Willemey Grenadiers show up inside of the city gates. The next two cards are duds.
Empire fire the grenadiers at Wunsch in the woods. I assume Wunsch has formed line to fire, so it's now D10 d1 disordered, u1 point blank, d2 woods for D6:D6, 6:1 for one stand and one chip loss. Then reload the Grenadiers and turn a dud.

Roll 3 for 6 remaining pips: 8:20, 0:6 pips
Prussians refill one opportunity pip, turn a dud, a useless reload, maneuver and an inf move. March out Burgsdorf.

Phase 2, roll 1: 1:7, 2:4 pips.
Prussians march out Willemey and form line with Burgsdorf. Turn a cav melee and a move in III/IV.
Empire turn officer check, move up their HQ

Roll 2: 17:11, 4:2 pips
Empire turn two duds and a heroic moment for (not a dud but the next card...)
Prussians withdraw Wunsch into the woods, turn elite reload unlikely to help.

Roll 3: 10:3, 5:2 pips
Empire turn a heroic Cav move, I'll allow the Hohenzollern Cuirassiers to charge home and immediately melee for dramatic effect.
First, Hoffmann vets to fire, though, at medium range for D10 u1 1st fire, d1 range, D10:D6 for 8:3, killing two stands.
Melee is D10 d2 for 2 less stands, u1 charging, vs D8 d1 vs cuirassiers, D8:D6, 1:1 for the narrowest possible win, disordering the Fusiliers in place.
Then Empire turn a terrain move and have the Grenadiers charge Wunsch as he tries to hide in the woods.
Prussians turn inf move to form Willemey into line, completing their infantry deployment long before the bulk of the Empire troops even enters the field.

Roll 4 for the last pip: 12:14
Prussians turn terrain move, maybe allowing Wunsch to fall back to his Jagers.

At this point the Empire calls it a day. With only three morale chips left, the Prussian line fully formed and the Empire main body still marching onto the table there is no way they will be able to brush the Prussians aside and progress quickly.

The army characterization cards made a big difference here, giving the Prussians more morale chips and an extra infantry move (which they desparately needed to wake up their sleeping troups), while the Empire barely got its minimum morale chips, and much less effective extra cards (reload and cav move)